Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
41. Outside the borders (12)
Mok Uram was skinny, but worthy of a craftsman, his hand was completely covered in calluses.
Mok Uram, who tightly grabbed my wrist, slowly blinked his eyes as he looked at me.
‘He was sleeping, but reacted with such speed?’
I didn’t know about myself, but he wouldn’t be able to deceive the eyes of Hwang Jiho and Seodol.
Hwang Jiho had a bit surprised face, as if he didn’t expect Mok Uram to open his eyes like this.
Mok Uram scrutinized me closely, and then released his hand with a dropped face.
“… Strange. I thought that my muse was here. But height and silhouette don’t match.”
The moment Mok Uram woke up, he was singing about his muse.
‘Hyeonmu said that Mok Uram found his muse, right…?’
Was he even dreaming about the muse he discovered after abandoning his studies and wandering the whole world?
“Hi.”
Mok Uram looked around, and then urgently stood up with a face full of belated wariness.
Perhaps he felt muscle pain, because when he suddenly moved his body, Mok Uram frowned.
“If it’s difficult, lay down, so we can talk.”
“… Where am I? Who are You? Are You Korean?” [1]
Mok Uram asked in a manner that could come out from Korean textbooks for foreigners.
It may be that his Korean came out as awkward because he lived abroad for a long time, in addition to being nervous.
“We’re in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu City. I’m Eungwang School’s 1st year class 0’s Jo Uisin, and this kid is from the same class, Hwang Jiho. Over here…”
“Is a bastard you don’t have to know.”
“It’s too mean to interrupt! I was looking forward to seeing how Jo Uisin would introduce me!”
In fact, I also planned to omit Seodol’s introduction and say ‘Someone you don’t have to know’.
Mok Uram ignored the whining Seodol and looked at me and Hwang Jiho in turns, as he spoke:
“You’re from the same class and same school as me, eh…!”
Mok Uram’s voice was suddenly overflowing with energy.
“Yeah. Is your body okay?”
“Yes! My body is okay.”
Was he relived to meet his classmates?
The bastard, who didn’t attend school even once, seemed to be happy about the sudden appearance of class friends.
I was thankful for Mok Uram ready replies, but I had a feeling of incongruity.
“Do you remember what happened? If possible, can you explain in detail how did you get hurt?”
“I want to ask You two something before that.”
Mok Uram’s attitude was respectful.
He adjusted his voice, so it didn’t seem like he was going to ask about something ordinary.
‘What are you planning on asking? Is it related to Hyeonmu? If not, is it related to the reason why we’re in China?’
When I organized predicted questions and replies to them, Hwang Jiho spoke as he nodded his head:
“Speak.”
“… You’re Eungwang School’s students. Is that correct?”
“Yeah. This one and Jo Uisin belong to Eungwang School as we said and you can see. We’re in the same class as you, the 1st year class 0.”
Hwang Jiho opened a hologram and showed his Eungwang School student ID.
When I also operated my device and showed my student ID, Mok Uram’s face became even happier.
“Then do You two know violinist Kwon Jane-ssi.”
“Yeah. Kwon Jane is employed at Eungwang School.”
“If so, if so… Then the two of You should know my muse!”
I had a feeling like those words didn’t match somewhere.
Did he mean that Kwon Jane was his muse?
No, if that was the case, Mok Uram would end up in England with the Eternal Lake’s team.
And as the two of them knew each other, it was possible to contact each other if they put their minds to it.
As if he had the same doubts as me, Hwang Jiho asked:
“Muse? Are you talking about Kwon Jane?”
“No. Kwon Jane-ssi, who was my master-nim’s muse, is an outstanding violinist, but She isn’t my muse.”
“Then who are you talking about?”
Mok Uram caught his breath and said:
“My muse is the Person who in the darkness preformed alongside of Blue Violinist facing the enormous sea wall!”
The muse he was talking about was Kwon Lena…!?
It seemed almost certain, but I showed him the video of the two people’s performance published by Mun Saeron on the hologram to check.
“Are you perhaps talking about this child that appeared here?”
“Yes! That Person! Is my muse at Eungwang School?”
Mok Uram pressed his face to the hologram.
It really was Kwon Lena?
But it wasn’t strange that my Playable Character became someone’s source of inspiration.
“Yeah.”
“What is the name and age of that Person? If I attend school, will I be able to attend school with Them? Ah, do You think They will preform on the superpower violin made by me for Them?”
Mok Uram was so overflowing with energy, it felt like a lie that he appeared limp in Hyeonmu’s arms.
But if you looked at the question’s content, he wasn’t in his right mind.
“Answer our questions first.”
“Yes, yes…! Understood! Please ask me anything!”
Because Mok Uram shouted with all his might just when he woke up after fainting, his throat was all hoarse.
I took out mineral water from the fridge and handed it out to Mok Uram, while asking.
While Mok Uram drank water after shouting ‘Thank You!’, I saw Hwang Jiho gesture at me with his chin.
It seemed to mean that I should ask first.
“What happened before you lost your consciousness?”
“Yes! At the beginning of this year, when I left the Korean Peninsula to search for my muse…”
Though I said before he lost consciousness, it was too far back.
I raised my hand to stop him from speaking and decreased the range.
“Please tell us what happened about a month before you lost your consciousness.”
Mok Uram obediently nodded his head and then told us about the events he experienced.
Mok Uram, who wandered around the whole world, searching for a source of inspiration.
When he used almost all of the money he had at hand as travel, food and gratitude expression expanses, he discovered the video of Kwon Jane and Kwon Lena’s performance, and decided to head to Korean Peninsula.
But as he had no money, he traveled on foot, while conquering the otherworlds that appeared on his way to earn for travel expanses.
“You can take an emergency loan from the Player’s Association, you know? And if you asked the school for help, it would help you get home.”
“… That’s possible?”
Mok Uram made a shocked face.
It seemed that this violin craftsman lacked a lot of common sense.
There was one more part I was bothered about in Mok Uram’s story.
“As a Player admitted to Eungwang School you stepped out to subjugate Enemies, but you’re saying you didn’t earn enough to pay for a plane ticket?”
“I was limited to the low rarity Enemies I could capture with my bare hands.”
Something was strange.
As it wasn’t a wanted Enemy and the rarity was low, the reward for the Enemy wasn’t that big.
But you couldn’t say it wasn’t enough to pay for a plane ticket.
After I conveyed that point, Mok Uram asked back:
“Yes? But it was difficult to settle one meal with a lonely R rank Enemy subjugation….”
I guess Mok Uram, who didn’t know about the world, was living as hogu[2].
I had no idea about the precise price, but it seemed that he didn’t receive even one 1% of estimated share he earned.
“Please check and give me all your travel routes later. So we can report to the Player’s Association headquarters.”
“Ah, yes!”
I had no idea how the Association in the Middle East was doing, but I decided to do what I could do.
The tearful travel story of hogu Mok Uram continued.
“When I left the Middle East and got close to China’s border, I got a scouting offer.”
“Scouting? From whom?”
“I have no idea. They said to follow them if I wanted to hear a detailed explanation. I immediately refused.”
The next day after he refused the offer.
Mok Uram started to be chased by someone.
Somehow he managed to escape, but the number of chasers gradually increased, and he couldn’t handle them until he reached the border.
And in the moment of crises.
“The last thing I remember is a black sleeve.”
Hearing the story, it seemed that Mok Uram was conscious only until the moment Hyeonmu intervened in the situation.
Hwang Jiho asked:
“In the first attack, they were carefully aiming to destroy the device you were wearing, so they aren’t ordinary bastards, eh? Do you have any guess who was behind that attack?”
“There is something on my mind.”
“Speak.”
“The chasers were extremely similar to each other. To the point I thought they may be triplets or quadruplets…”
“Did you see their faces?”
“All of them were using a hiding item, and under the hiding item they were wearing a mask.”
I was bothered by the description that the chasers resembled each other, but right now I was most bothered about the last comment.
As if I wasn’t the only one who felt a sense of déjà vu about that description, Hwang Jiho looked at Seodol, and Seodol held out a palm of his hand and emitted a superpower wave above it.
Paaa…!
The rat-colored smoke changed its shape into the mask, with the only uncovered space being the diamond-shaped openings for the eyes.
As if his chief designer’s skills were showing even here, the shape of the mask embodied with the superpower wave was extremely refined.
Mok Uram was amazed, while Seodol completed shaping the superpower wave smoke.
“Did it look like this?”
“Yes! Excluding the color, it’s the same.”
At Mok Uram’s reply, Hwang Jiho and Seodol’s eyes shined sharply.
“What was inside the mask, did You see it?”
“No. I was lucky to manage to make them take off their hiding items, but I only confirmed the masks.”
It was regretful that he couldn’t confirm what was inside, but one thing was certain.
The Pledge of Three Knights was doing something.
The team was both related to the attack on Mok Uram and Chengdu Player Training Center’s runaway incident.
At that moment, Hwang Jiho, who checked the device, clicked his tongue.
“One of our plans went awry, eh?”
“What?”
“Do you remember when I mentioned a Player, who completely learned a way to control a Gwangrim during a runway?”
“Yeah.”
“That Player said that there are plans to thoroughly examine the Players, who caused the runaway today. We won’t be able to meet for a moment.”
I guess that it wasn’t just one person who went into a runaway today.
When I organized the information in my head, Mok Uram spoke:
“Is that the end of questions? Please tell me about the muse as You promised!”
Mok Uram, whose mouth was parched from speaking, crushed an empty water bottle when he spoke.
I took out one more bottle of mineral water from the fridge in the room to give him, while I said:
“The kid, who appeared in that video, is our classmate.”
“Our class….! Then, the muse and I are in the same class? If I go to school, can I meet them?”
“Yeah. But you may not be able to do that even if you go to school, because it’s vacation.”
“Really? What is That Person’s name?”
Perhaps because of his extreme excitement, Mok Uram gradually spoke with an even more formal Korean.
He was glancing with tearful eyes at the screen of the device in the suite room, which replayed the video of the performance, while continuing to throw questions.
I thought, while I was sincerely replying to Mok Uram’s questions.
‘It seems that Mok Uram will reply honestly, no matter what kind of question I throw.’
There was an important matter I had to ask Mok Uram about.
The similarity between the item description of ‘Unknown Fate’ and superpower violin.
But I couldn’t ask about it with Hwang Jiho and Seodol at my side.
After exchanging goodbyes and promising to see each other again when returning home, we left that place.
***
Sichuan Province, the border between Chengdu City and Ya’an City.
Standing firm between the dozens of stiff and twisted corpses was Hyeonmu in black clothes.
Creak, creak…
With the sound of the cracking thin ice, Li Wei walked behind Hyeonmu.
Hyeonmu’s eyes were covered by the black silk, but he turned his body to face Li Wei as if he could see him clearly.
“Li Wei, are you hurt anywhere?”
“No. Thanks to Hyeonmu-nim’s great consideration.”
Paat!
After Hyeonmu lightly shook his long silk sleeve, the heads of the largely injured corpses were wrapped in paper[3].
“I didn’t plan on interfering this much. But because I liked that Star of Dawn more than I expected…”
Hyeonmu wrapped the masks that the corpses were commonly wearing in the black silk.
The masks all looked the same, with the eye openings looking like diamonds.
“I wasn’t able to say goodbye, but I wanted to at least send him on a comfortable remaining part of a journey, huh?”
***
After we arrived at the hotel, where the Newspaper Club was staying.
When I was about to lock myself up in the room alone under the excuse of changing clothes to organize my thoughts.
Ding.
A message arrived.
The sender was Sawol Seeum.
[Sawol Seeum] Uisin-ah! Where are You currently? In China? When are You coming back?
Our class children knew that I and Hwang Jiho went on the Newspaper Club news-gathering trip, so what happened all of a sudden?
Before I could ask what happened, Sawol Seeum sent another message.
[Sawol Seeum] Please help Han Yi!
*~*~*
[1] “… Where am I? Who are You? Are You Korean?” — He is using a formal tone.
[2] hogu — a pushover, someone easily falling for others schemes or having no sense of reality.
[3] paper — Chinese paper? The word used here would usually refer to Korean traditional paper, but it could also be used for the Chinese paper, so I’m unsure.
Translator’s note:
Hyeonmu after casually murdering a bunch of people: I hope you will have a comfortable journey.
(Well, in Hyeonmu’s defense, those people are…###) (Also. Let’s ignore the title he just used. I’m sure it’s not important. (What the hell, Hyeonmu is really the first to call him that out-loud??))
Patron thank you note
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