Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
41. Outside the borders (2)
Player’s Association’s Korean Branch, Media and PR team 1’s office.
For the past few days, the atmosphere in the office continued to be tense.
Even today the subordinate employees, who saw their boss working with a straight posture, as he sat at the highest seat, were anxious.
“Team leader Hong-nim, still didn’t go home?”
“For the world…. He had been overworking for several days in a row.”
“Team leader Im-nim is also dying, so isn’t their side very busy these days?”
The employees who were simultaneously in the PR team 1 and Regulation Enforcement Department had sorry faces.
Besides an extremely small number of employees, it was not a very well known fact, but not a long time ago, the Great Hero’s grandson and satellite engineering genius, Song Daeseok was discharged from the hospital and joined the research institute under the Satellite Management team.
What’s worse, erasing the algorithm and its source, which Song Daeseok openly published on the web, and manipulating the information was added to the work of the already busy PR team 1.
Because the erasing work took much more time and workload than digging out information, the Media and PR employees were almost dying.
And among the dying employees, the person, who was dealing with the largest amount of work was Hong Gyubin.
Bang!
At that moment, they heard a loud sound of a head being smacked from the corner of the office.
“Ack! What was that for?!”
“Work.”
They heard the voices of employee Jeong and manager Yun.
Employee Jeong, hit by manager Yun’s finger flick, protested.
“Ah, I am having break time right now? In the first place, don’t You have to rest a bit, to raise the productivity of work?”
“You rested 10 minutes ago.”
“And I diligently worked for 10 minutes. Besides, shouldn’t watching Kwon Jane-nim’s videos be classified as a kind of greeting, a sacred ritual, a happiness of life and finding tranquillity, rather than resting?”
Manager Yun, who decided not to respond, closed the video that employee Jeong was watching.
After the sight of the Blue Violinist facing the sea wall and performing a miracle disappeared, employee Jeong was very dissatisfied.
“Ah, are You still angry about getting dumped by Your girlfriend? But manager Yun-nim, You can’t relieve it on Your university’s junior employee! Hugh!”
Employee Jeong was too late to realize that what he said asked for a whipping.
He defended his forehead while raising his spirits to block the finger flick, but the attack didn’t come from that side.
Instead, manager Yun grabbed employee Jeong by the back of the neck.
“Let’s go outside.”
“Ack, I hate that! You’re trying to shove me into an otherworld somewhere again, I know all about it! I can’t run around outside, during our busiest time!”
“There is also work to do outside.”
Employee Jeong rebelled, acting all upright, but in the end, he was dragged out by manager Yun.
“Manager Yun-nim looks very on edge these days. But employee Jeong is also asking for a beating too much.”
“It’s not confirmed, but manager Yun’s ex-girlfriend seems to be dating team leader Bak-nim from PR team 2.”
“Crazy. Dump manager Yun for team leader Bak-nim? Manager Yun is a bit stiff, but he is much more good-looking and has better prospects than team leader Bak-nim…”
“He may not know how to date people. Team leader Bak may have some kind of merit. Though I also have no idea about it.”
When at some point the topic changed to a happy roasting of the PR team 2.
Creaack.
The sound of a chair being slowly dragged on the floor rang out.
It seemed that power was put especially into it, with an intention of making a sound through dragging.
“Does no one have any work to do?”
After Hong Gyubin’s polite voice rang out through the floor, the team members all shut their mouths.
As usual, Hong Gyubin maintained an immaculate appearance.
The dress shirt and suit pants didn’t even have a wrinkle, but the eyes with dark circles under them were sunken.
The PR team employees, who saw that wretched appearance, hid their heads and started working.
After the surroundings turned quiet, Hong Gyubin sat down in his seat again.
‘Vacation, schedule… I may not be able to match it… teacher-nim…’
Hong Gyubin looked at the clock opened on the hologram screen with an anxious face.
The date of Eungwang School’s Newspaper Club’s departure was approaching, but with additional work and the times of the PR team 2’s team leader Bak getting in the way increasing, the work progress was slow.
But Hong Gyubin didn’t give up.
‘It’s not too late yet!’
With the determination to go on the vacation, Hong Gyubin confronted work again.
His subordinate employees, who watched Hong Gyubin glare at a hologram, held their breaths before his terrifying devotion.
***
What the hell made my disciple worry?
[Me] Speak.
[Yeom Junyeol] Thank You, master-nim!
I just told him to speak, but Yeom Junyeol was happy as he sent a message.
[Yeom Junyeol] I received a suggestion to join as an assistant MC in the entertainment show.
As Yeom Junyeol was a star Player, it wasn’t strange for him to even appear as an assistant MC.
But up till now, Yeom Junyeol refused regular appearances that could steal a large amount of his time.
His face often appeared on TV, but they were only single appearances in the CF and interviews, or in other words as a special guest.
[Yeom Junyeol] Usually I would refuse straight away, but the intention behind the plan is good, so I’m hesitating.
Yeom Junyeol briefly explained the outline of the program he was offered a seat in.
The overall outline of the show was that was a survival program with a common public audition, where ordinary people without experience prospects to debut as singers gathered and competed, and the winner was decided by the viewers’ voting.
But, the audition candidates were limited to those ‘possessing Player’s abilities’.
It was directly the opposite of standard audition programs, which had a tendency to eliminate Player’s applications beforehand.
[Yeom Juneyol] Players who kept their superpowers until adulthood make up about 15% of the whole population, but it’s difficult for them to hold hopes for the future unrelated to Players.
[Yeom Juneyol] If senior Kwon Jane-nim’s violin talent wasn’t so outstanding, it would be difficult for Her to take even a step into the music industry, correct? She would only play the violin as a hobby.
It was as Yeom Junyeol said.
For Players, who were fighting against otherworlds, it was difficult to achieve their other dreams.
If they hoped to become a teacher, they could become a teacher at the Player Training center, or if they dreamed of becoming a soldier or police officer, they were welcome to join the Player army or related departments.
However, the entertainment industry was a different story.
Players couldn’t legally become professional sports athletes, and if they sang or acted, they faced curses.
When a Player becomes an entertainer, they would be treated as traitors, who abandon their precious ability that enables them to fight back against Enemies, to push their face into the entertainment industry, and would be ostracized by the public.
If Kwon Jane didn’t made a name for herself as a violinist prodigy since a very young age, and hadn’t have others around her to support her in achieving her dream, the current Kwon Jane wouldn’t exist.
‘Even in my previous world, if the sports athlete, who possessed a talent to represent a country, said they would sing or act, they would face curses. It would be much more in this world because it involves an issue of national defense. Moreover, as it’s easy for Players to earn money and fame, if they say something about future career hopes, they would be told they’re already fed too well, right…?’
There was a way to entertain the future career hope and dream as a hobby, but there were many Players, who wouldn’t be satisfied with it.
And now we reached an era when the perception of Players was changing little by little.
A Player, Seong Gukeon, who pledged to participate in the conquest of otherworlds, was elected as an assemblyman, and Players like Kwon Jane or Mister Grieg, who made their names as musicians over the whole world, appeared.
After the return of peace to mankind, the Players also had the opportunity to follow their dreams.
‘In the game that plan was shattered.’
In the game, in the world of PMH, as numerous people died in the incidents caused by Dark Mastermind, such opportunity couldn’t be created.
To compare, it would be like creating an audition program for firefighters after a large-scale forest fire, if they did something like that at the time, they would be roasted to bones and turned into powder.
‘Wait. Among the NPCs appearing in the 1st year class 0, starting from the 2nd semester, wasn’t there a kid, who mentioned the audition program…?’
While I recalled the kid from the 1st year class 0, who hasn’t yet appeared, Yeom Juneyol sent another message.
[Yeom Junyeol] I think that the goal of this audition is truly excellent. Because there are People, who don’t have a dream to become a Player, who joins a professional team, like me.
[Yeom Juneyol] It’s regretful that the People, who have a greater talent in singing, dancing and acting, have to give up Their dreams. I want to support those People’s dreams. I can work harder when conquering the otherworlds.
As expected, my disciple had admirable thoughts.
‘Among the star Players, who also takes part in entertainment activities, Yeom Junyeol has the highest favorability in the public. They reached out to him because of that, huh?’
I think I knew the reason why the wanted to put Yeom Junyeol as assistant MC.
And the reason for Yeom Junyeol’s worries.
[Me] What do you want to do?
[Yeom Junyeol] I…
If I thought about Yeom Junyeol, he would want to participate in this plan, even if it meant losing sleep.
But even so, he was worried and sent me a message, so it must be because of the words that he sent during the poster photoshoot not a long time ago.
— Because the poster shooting is now all finished, I’ll train more diligently!
He said something like this, but if he goes on to be an assistant MC in the entertainment show, it wouldn’t match up, right?
Because of that, I guess my kind disciple’s mind was dark.
[Me] You can work on the assignment slowly. When I have time, I’ll meet you in person to give you tutoring.
[Yeom Junyeol] Master-nim….! Thank You for Your consideration!
[Me] Okay. I’ll cheer you on.
[Yeom Junyeol] I’ll do my best as an assistant MC!
[Yeom Juneyol] (stamp)
He sent an emoticon with Yeom Juneyol holding a mic and happy-looking Hongryong.
Wishing for my disciple’s new challenge to go well, I closed the device window.
Soon, the alarm set on the breakfast time rang out and the Newspaper Club’s members woke up, and the heroes who stayed up all night, stretched, and then we moved to the restaurant.
***
After the Clash of Different Worlds, Korean Peninsula became known as the most powerful Power of Earth.
Majority of Jin people moved to Korean Peninsula, but there were Jin People who remained, keeping the traditions of various regions like before.
There were four representative Jins remaining in China.
They were sacred animals, which since ancient times were called Four Holy Beasts or Four Auspicious Beasts[1].
First, Hongryong[2] representing emperor.
The majority of the Yong tribe moved to the Korean Peninsula, but Hongryong remained on the continent to protect the Dragon Palace with some godly maidens.
‘Though Hongryong often comes to the Korean Peninsula to meet with Yeom Junyeol and his mother. Anyhow, Hongryong remaining remains, right?’
Second, Rén Shòu, which meant peaceful rule.
Rén shòu were widely known under the name of Qilin, and had the body of a deer, snout of a cow, hooves and mane of a horse.
The third was Fènghuáng, displaying the power of the king.
As every text described them differently, their appearance was constantly changing, and they were described as a mix between chicken, swallow, deer, crane, fish, duck, etc, with five colors[3].
‘There is only one pair of female and male of Qilin and Fènghuáng.’
Their population was extremely small, but Qilin and Fènghuáng were involved in a later story.
However, there was still a lot of time left until they appear, so I couldn’t judge how they were doing right now.
‘And, the fourth Jin…’
The last one was a turtle[4], who represented longevity and could predict the future.
The turtle almost didn’t appear in the game.
He didn’t seem to be largely related to the story, but as we’re going to China, it would be good to get to know him.
While I organized the information, as I read the pamphlet distributed by the club president, the flight arrived at its destination.
“Check again if you didn’t leave any baggage.”
“Yep!”
“Yes!”
When the Newspaper Club’s members moved, while carefully listening to the words of Jegal Jaegeol, who joined us this morning at the airport.
In front of the Sichuan’s Chengdu’s Shuangliu District’s international airport.
We saw a group of Koreans, whom we knew very well.
“Teach Jegal-nim!”
“Wh-at-a-co-in-ci-den-ce.”
“We wanted to see You!”
Geun Chansol and Wang Chansol shouted energetically.
All 2nd year class 0’s members were gathered and waiting for us.
*~*~*
[1] Four Holy Beasts or Four Auspicious Beasts — 四靈and 四瑞
[2] Hongryong — only for Hongryong I’ll be using Korean name to keep it consistent with other dragons, while for others I’ll be using romanization based on Chinese.
[3] five colors — or five lights. The word used here is interchangeable for either light or color.
[4] turtle — if you’re wondering why I’m not using any Chinese name here… well, that’s because just ‘turtle’ is used. Also, a note, in Korean Qilin is Kirin and Fènghuáng is Bong-hwang.
Translator’s note: Of course, it’s a coincidence! Like everything in this novel!
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