Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
38. Youth training camp (1) [1]
In the darkness, a drowsy voice rang out.
“The preparations?”
“Uh, done! Demons said they confirmed Kim Sinrok embarked on the ship with their ‘eyes’!”
“That dragon?”
“We had checked thoroughly, but it seems that he still remains inside the Eungwang School! There is no trace of him coming out.”
“Demons, who had checked with their ‘eyes’, had the same opinion.”
“Are You not going to kill the dragon?”
Two twin youths spoke with bright tones.
Someone, who was looking at them through the screen, replied with boredom.
“The space dragon will have to be killed one day, but not right now.”
“Uh? Does part with Yong Jegeon’s name also came up on the hit list[2]?”
“Yeah. It’s not a True Name, but a fake one, but it should be coming up.”
“If You stepped forward personally, wouldn’t You be able to kill him immediately? Even if it’s not the time, it would be better to kill him beforehand, You know!”
“I have something to do. Something I have to personally find, eliminate, and make.”
Beyond the dark screen, long fingers were seen flipping the pages.
The twins couldn’t suppress their overflowing curiosity and stood on the tiptoes and stared at the screen.
“That’s strange, eh?”
“What is it?”
“What is strange?”
“The names of the Players I’m observing carefully, all appear on the hit list. There have never been discrepancies between the list of names coming up on the hit list and my intuition.”
“Those new and outstanding that the Eungwang School is boasting about, those two geniuses’ names were also there, correct?”
“Yeah.”
The long finger skimmed through the page a few times.
The voice so drowsy, you could hear exhaustion in it, rang in the darkness.
“Just like before, there is no name of the Unknown Supernova, eh?”
[3]
***
The day before embarking on the youth training camp, a message from Hong Gyubin arrived.
[Hong Gyubin] To tribe’s side contacted us.
[Hong Gyubin] They said that they predicted the otherworld outbreak without warning phenomena, huh?
I guess the cooperation between the To tribe and Association was going well under Ok Toyun’s command.
‘It’s possible to predict specific ‘Otherworld Calling’ this much ahead of time with the Moon Palace Guide, huh?’
But it would be difficult to accurately confirm the time, as there was no way for Ok Toyeon to stare at the Moon Palace for 24 hours.
[Hong Gyubin] Coincidentally, the location is the place where you, Uisin, are going to the youth training camp… hahahaha.
[Hong Gyubin] I contacted the Satellite Management team. What should we do? But even if we don’t know what is happening, we’ll end up overworking… ^^!
Hong Gyubin now volunteered and was prepared to work overtime early.
I concisely covered the part, I needed the Association’s cooperation.
[Hong Gyubin] … That’s all? You don’t need the Association’s manpower support?
[Me] If it’s revealed that we can read the outbreak of the Otherworlds without warning phenomena, the next target will be the Association and To tribe.
[Hong Gyubin] I know that, but…
I knew well what Hong Gyubin was worried about.
The Seongmo Island had a population of over 2,000 people.
Because the otherworlds almost don’t appear there, neither the government nor the Association had manpower stationed there.
‘Are you thinking that it’s better that the Association gets targeted, rather than creating a possibility for students and citizens to get hurt?’
I couldn’t perfectly reassure Hong Gyubin.
However, as if Hong Gyubin was pressured by his superiors and the Ho tribe’s side, he later gave up persuading me and just repeatedly asked to be careful.
Yesterday I received an implicit promise, that the Association’s combat power won’t interfere until the satellite itself detects the otherworld, or they get a request for support.
Currently, I was standing on the boat’s deck.
“This Eungwang School’s cruiser I only heard about…! The deck is so enormous!” [4]
“It looks like a warship if compared to the passenger ship I boarded before. Why are we sailing it to get to the training camp?”
“Isn’t it naturally closer to a warship if compared to a passenger ship? This ship is coated with an otherwordly metal, which was pretty rare during the Dark Age, you know? Because of that, during that age, it was enlisted by the Association and Player Army to execute Enemy military swept operations. So this ship is nicknamed ‘battleship’ or ‘cruiser’, and not ‘cruise’. And currently, Eungwang School is just using it as a warship exclusively for student’s practice. The 1st year students still can’t use it during the practice lessons, so we will use it only as transport to the training camp.”
Song Daeseok spat out the entire explanation almost without taking a breath.
The eyes of Sawol Seeum, who examined and circled the ship in the air with Flight skill, turned round.
“Wow, is it true? Daeseok, You know all of this?”
“Doesn’t you naturally have to know it if you’re Eungwang School’s student?”
“This fucker is acting all high and mighty for knowing something.”
“Daeseok knows a lot of things besides the satellites!” [5]
3 nights and 4 days youth training camp.
It started with embarking on and then flashily depart on the enormous ship, popularly called cruiser, named ‘Son of Heaven[6]’.
The weather was clear, and the waves were calm, but something bothered me.
‘Is the ship really named Son of Heaven…?’
There were several common beliefs and superstitions about the ship’s naming conventions.
The names of boats were taken from various flowers, jewels, names of celestial bodies, mountains, rivers, etc, but there were taboo names for shipowners through all ages.
Those included the names of the very gods that represented the sky, earth and sea.
After the ship which borrowed the name of the deity[7] born between the goddess of earth Gaia and god of sky Uranus, ‘Titan’, and the ‘Sea Empress’ and ‘Sea Prince’ capsized, that silent rule was even firmer adhered to.
Strictly speaking, Cymopoleia also borrowed the name of a deity, but she, who was a daughter of Poseidon, didn’t reach the divinity equal to the sky, earth and sea, as a nymph of waves and tides.
‘’Son of Heaven’ or in other words, son of sky. It’s a word that stands for an emperor or god…’
People even nicknamed it a cruiser or battleship, because this ship might sink if it incurred the wrath of god.
‘Who the hell did something so madly arrogant?’
Even without thinking long, the answer came out.
The tiger lying under a parasol on the sunbed installed on the deck, holding a passion flower[8] fruit iced tea.
I couldn’t come up with anyone else as the culprit candidate than Hwang Jiho.
“Hey.”
“Why are you calling? Ah, should I order you a different drink?”
“No, that’s fine. I have something to ask you, was it you who named it ‘Son of Heaven’?”
“Uhu.”
The answer came as expected.
Why would that bastard do that?
“Why?”
“Because of terrible boredom? I don’t remember well, eh? Because the events of those tedious days are hazy.”
It was well-known that this ship was built around the time of Dark Age and bought by the Hwang Myeong Group.
You gave it a name at that time, but that stormy Dark Age was extremely boring and tedious?
“Well, it was in fact extremely boring and tedious, but I roughly remember the reason. It was because it was related to Cheong-ho.”
“Cheong-ho?”
“Yeah. Because the plan was that this ship’s name would be in all kinds of media and spread throughout the world, I thought she would see it at least once. When talking about Son of Heaven on Korean Peninsula, you’re calling on the son of Heavenly God, or in other words, Sinin, right? I thought that if they saw such scrap piece of metal being called Sinin, Cheong-ho or Sinin would come running to me.”
His face, shaded by the parasol, sunk.
“Sinin would probably say that if I don’t change the name immediately, I’ll be struck down with divine retribution, and Cheong-ho would try to crush my head against this ship without a word. Hahahaha!”
Hwang Jiho laughed.
Looking at how he was speaking while smiling, I guess he was very close with Sinin and Cheong-ho.
‘But did they truly not come…?’
Why didn’t Cheong-ho and Sinin appear yet?
Was it a situation where they couldn’t see it, or they could see it, but couldn’t come?
“Ah, teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim came to the deck!”
“Let’s take pictures. Teacher-nim asked me to send Him pictures.”
“Teacher-nim? Hyodon, is that your middle school math teacher-nim?” [9]
“… Uh.”
“I also should take pictures to send to Geurin.”
The class children, who wandered around the deck, came closer to the sunbed located closer to the cabin entrance.
We stood in the place which was recommended for taking group pictures.
“Teacher-nim, what about Yuri and Lena?”
“It seems that Kim Yuri is suffering from sea sickness, huh? The two said they will stay in the cabin until we arrive.”
“Ah… Is that so, huh.”
Could she not come out, because she was scared of the sea?
As it was the first time Kim Yuri had seen the sea in person since she was born, it was possible.
And Kwon Lena was probably staying with Kim Yuri in the cabin because she was worried about her.
When, as a result of this, only the male students took pictures.
“Why that dragon didn’t come?”
“And thinking about this… It seems that all other class vice homeroom teachers-nim boarded the ship. Perhaps He is staying in the cabin?”
“Teacher Yong Jegeon-nim contacted me and said that he thinks he won’t be able to board.”
Sawol Seeum’s who heard words, was suspicious about it.
“That Jin teacher was said to be fickle, so did he change his mind?”
“Yes? It may be like this, but He was extremely excited about this training camp… Previously, I saw Him keep looking at the cruiser’s guide map, and He said he would teach me about ways to control my Flight skill to match the speed of the moving ship.” [10]
Was Yong Jegeon looking forward to this short trip so much?!
It seemed that he was ready to enjoy it as much as he could, worthy of the Game category dragon, so I felt sorry for Yong Jegeon.
“Let’s take a lot of pictures.”
“Yes!”
I should at least take pictures to satisfy him.
After we took group pictures with such a mindset, the conversation topic changed to the training camp.
“Teacher-nim, do we have to prepare a talent show? What did the other seniors do?”
“If you prepared a dance, song or performance, you can make a declaration during the admission on the first day. It’s not compulsory.”
“Wasn’t each class forced to do something in the past?”
“… It was like this until a year ago, but there were safety problems.”
Safety problems?
Did the safety problems come up on the high school students’ youth training camp’s talent show?
When all the children thought it was strange, Ham Geun-hyeong started to reveal the behind-the-scenes story.
When the current 3rd year class 0 was in 1st year, 2 years ago.
The 3rd year class 0, 1st year at the time, hated dancing, singing and contes[11].
They refused to perform a talent show, but after over an hour long disciplinary punishment to discipline them, they were forced to perform a talent show.
“Those punks made superstrength show as a talent show.”
“Superstrength show?”
“Yeah, without even using superpowers, they crushed the stage in the training camp site with their fingers.”
They stood in line and performed a rain of destruction on everything prepared on the stage with finger flicks, coolly paid for the damages, and left the stage.
Thanks to the stage being completely destroyed, the talent show was canceled, and the training camp’s instructors, frightened by their physical strength, couldn’t think of giving them any more disciplinary punishment.
And the next year, the days when the current 2nd year class 0 was 1st year class 0.
The training camp instructors, who couldn’t give up the fun of rolling the students of Korea’s most prestigious highschool, like before, forced them to hold a talent show.
‘It may be fun to watch a talent show, but did they really have to order the class 0 bastards to do that…?’
The 2nd year class 0 bastards, who were in a seriously nasty mood at the time, because Jegal Jageol couldn’t come with them due to an urgent matter.
At first, they strongly insisted they won’t do it.
But after receiving a few rounds of disciplinary punishment, they said they would do a talent show on a condition, as if making an adequate compromise.
— We will need the help of audience-nim to help to prepare the talent show.
— Ah, it won’t be anything painful. We are not doing superstrength show. Please don’t compare us with those ignorant senior class 0 bastards!
— Because our class hometeach-nim didn’t come, You have to help us!
The training camp instructors naively trusted those words and were delighted at the thoughts they could roll the prestigious high school Players.
Led by the hands of the 2nd year class 0’s bastards, they sat on the chairs on the talent show stage.
— Our class prepared a hypnosis show!
— With the help of our kind guests-nim!
And they took out 10 boxes of garlic they bought in the town.
— Without superpowers, we will present You with taste change through desensitizing nerves with hypnosis using a folk treatment!
Geun Chansol and Wang Chansol, who spit plausible dog sounds, moves a coin suspended on a thread as they spoke.
— Here, now this garlic tastes like ganache macaron!
However, it still tasted like garlic.
Yeon Garam, who acted as an assistant host, spoke with a kind and friendly smile:
— It’s because in the first place, the hypnosis effects appear gradually, there are some who are more resilient to hypnosis. Let’s try one more time. You will help us, correct?
Overwhelmed by GeunChan&WangChan duo’s lip service and Yeon Garam’s acting, the instructors had to do a garlic-eating show until they lied they tasted the flavor chosen by GeunChan&WangChan.
“… So it was decided to hold a talent show only under voluntary participation.”
“Ah, that’s what happened, huh… It’s a pity. Superstrength show and hypnosis show both sound fun!
“I should have known that this school class 0 are crazy.”
“You fucker, you’re also class 0.”
As we shared a warmhearted conversation, we arrived at our destination, Seongmo Island.
When we were about to move by boat because there was no port worthy for Son of Heaven to anchor at, Kim Yuri at last faced the sea.
She appeared with the support of Kwon Lena, and I held an arm on her opposite side, standing closely.
Looking at her pale-white face, I said in a quiet voice:
“I said it’s fine. Don’t forget.”
*~*~*
[1] Youth training camp — this title seems pretty straightforward, but there is still some little space for interpretation. 수련회 (su-ryeon-hwi) translated here as ‘Training camp’, can be divided into 수련 (su-ryeon) and 회 (hwi). 회 (hwi) means meeting, grouping, organization etc (there are many other meanings, but they don’t seem to make much sense here). 수련 (su-ryeon) means training, but it could also refer to the training acolytes of the Catholic Church undergoes, before becoming priests. Or to ‘taking care of someone, because you took pity on them’, or to water lilies (Nymphaea tetragona), or to two first verses of Chinese poetry.
[2] hit list — literally ‘killing record/list’. I’m also not quite certain if it’s the ‘part with Yong Jegeon’s name’ or ‘Yong Jegeon’s name comes up first’.
[3] Tones of ‘drowsy voice in the darkness’ and twins — The drowsy voice uses casual tone, while twins use polite tone.
[4] “This Eungwang School’s cruiser I only heard about…! The deck is so enormous!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[5] “Daeseok knows a lot of things besides the satellites!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[6] Son of Heaven — Korean: 천자 (Cheon-ja) Chinese: 天子 (Tiānzǐ )
[7] deity — the word in raws literally means ‘kin of a god’, ‘family of a god’.
[8] passion flower — the name of passiflora (passionflower) in Korean can be literally understood as ‘clock flower’. Also, when referring to the edible fruits of passifloras, the much more popular name in Korean would be ‘백향과 (baek-hyang-gwa)’ meaning ‘fruit of hundreds fragrances’. I’ll now proceed not to go crazy because of the ‘five wounds’ etymology it has in Latin.
[9] “Teacher-nim? Hyodon, is that your middle school math teacher-nim?” — This and one above above is Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
[10] “Yes? It may be like this, but He was extremely excited about this training camp…” — That’s, you guessed it, Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
[11] contes — here it should refer to the art of telling stories, but conte is a shortish story about usually some kind of adventure with a dose of humor.
Translator’s note: Hwang-ho… ㅠㅠ I need you to get a therapist. I beg you. You don’t even know the vocabulary to describe your own feelings properly ㅠㅠ
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
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