Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
42. Price of achieving a wish (1) [1]
Two days ago, Korea.
Eungwang School’s residential zone’s 1st year building.
Ziiing…!
Han Yi abruptly opened her eyes at the feeling of vibration she felt on her wrist.
As a 2nd grade hearing impaired[2] with complete hearing loss, Han Yi used the band type device and matching alarm.
Han Yi, who checked the time she woke up, sighed and came out of the bed.
‘… That dream again.’
After being admitted to Eungwang School, or to be precise, just after the first year semester started, and she met Ham Geun-hyeong, Jo Uisin, Hwang Jiho and Kim Yuri[3].
Han Yi was suffering from an unidentifiable dream.
In the dream, someone had his eyes covered and was quietly staring at her.
‘Even though the eyes are covered, I know that. That I’m looked at.’
Someone with covered eyes was saying something to Han Yi.
But because his form was trembling, she couldn’t read his lips.
‘Even if it’s worrisome, it’s useless to be hung up on the unknown situation, right?’
Han Yi, who took a deep breath, began stretching, while getting rid of useless thoughts.
As today was the day when the class children decided to come to do their volunteer activities at the Eungwang Brilliant Light Children’s House[4], she couldn’t show her lifeless appearance.
It was a story that came out by coincidence.
Yesterday, when she was eating with Kwon Lena at the dormitory cafeteria, that topic was suddenly brought up.
“I want to deal with everything that may interfere with my lessons during this summer break!”
Kwon Lena, who was lost in the hell of violin lessons and exam cramming during the final exam period, shuddered as she spoke.
She opened a hologram with the plan of school curriculum with violin stickers plastered everywhere and was worrying seriously.
While recalling the suggestion Gong Cheonghwon gave her before she was admitted to Eungwang School, Han Yi helped to fill up Kwon Lena’s graphic.
Kwon Lena looked at a certain item at the curriculum table and her hand stopped.
‘Recommended voluntary activities guide’.
It was expressed as recommended, but for the highschool students of Korean Republic, they were forced to fill up a fixed time of volunteering, because the volunteering activities were graded on the academic records.
“20 hours of volunteering work a year… that’s a bit much. Even if you do five hours a day, it will take four days. Um, I should also do that beforehand! Han Yi, where did you do that?”
“I worked at the children’s home.”
Han Yi already filled up all recommended voluntary work time this year, while helping at the children’s home every day.
Still, she was helping with the children’s home’s work when she had time during the school break.
Recently the number of volunteers decreased, and there wasn’t enough manpower, because of service groups employed by the neighborhood’s tenant representative council blabbing about the house prices, so Han Yi increased the time she worked at the children’s home.
“Ah, Han Yi, you were visiting the children’s house to help with work, right?… Can I go too?”
Han Yi hesitated for a moment.
It was good if there was even one more volunteer, but she was worried about that service group.
‘… I can’t draw the class children into it.’
Han Yi, who thought that Kwon Lena may be harmed, decided to reveal the facts to her.
She openly explained the events that were occurring at the Eungwang Brilliant Light Children’s Home.
“That’s too much. Then because of those people, no volunteers visit the children’s home right now?”
“…yeah.”
“It really is, huh? Then I have to go!”
But on the contrary, after hearing Han Yi’s words, Kwon Lena seemed to make up her mind that she has to go.
“I’ll be okay! We’re Players, remember? And ‘Player’s protection’ is included in the Association’s founding goals. If something happens to me or Han Yi, we can report it to the Player’s Association!”
“But if an incident happens before we report it…”
“Then let’s call our classmates. In any case, they also have to fill their volunteer work hours!”
Perhaps under the influence of Kim Yuri, with whom she became friendly during the 1st semester, Kwon Lena’s action power wasn’t inferior to hers.
Kwon Lena checked the schedules of the 1st year class 0’s students straight away.
Jo Uisin and Hwang Jiho were on the news-gathering trip in China.
Kim Yuri was still hospitalized in the Hwang Myeong Eungwang Hospital’s special ward.
After Song Daeseok was drawn into the Association, even Min Geurin couldn’t see his face.
Maeng Hyodon cut off contact after ending with a suspicious message ‘I’m going to mountains with the ascetic and Bread Shuttle’.
“Um, it seems everyone is really busy!”
“… Shouldn’t we report it to the Association, if we continue being unable to contact Hyodon?”
“Ascetic grandpa is also a teacher, remember? Hyodon will be fine. And it seems he went together with Yunseop. Ah, Geurin is going with us.”
In Min Geurin’s case, at the words that the number of people would be small and the class children were going together, she replied that she for sure wanted to go.
Recently, Min Geurin succeeded in taking off her AR glasses and talking with the Art Club’s members, so it seemed she gained more confidence about dealing with people.
‘Is it really okay for the class children to come?’
Midst Han Yi’s worries, the people participating in the volunteer work at the children’s home were decided.
Han Yi, Kwon Lena, Sawol Seeum, Min Geurin.
Han Yi checked the time she promised to meet with her three class friends, and left her dormitory room.
‘Will the volunteer activities end safely…’
In front of the Eungwang Brilliant Light Children’s Home, she decided to meet with the children.
It was still over 30 minutes until the promised time, but Sawol Seeum arrived first.
“Hello!”
“Hi. You came early.”
“Yes! Because I was bored at home. Moreover, it’s better for me to be out, so uncle and aunt-nim can be alone together.”
Uncle and aunt?
She didn’t know what he was talking about, but Han Yi, who thought it was impolite to ask about family matters, didn’t dig deeper and nodded her head.
“Okay. Thank you for coming.”
“I have to fill up the volunteer activities hours for my academic records in any case! It’s better if I can do it together with class friends. Ah, I visited ‘MITRON’ for a moment on the way here, have You tried the new ice cream puffs that came out?”
“No. Let’s go eat them when we finish.”
“Yes! I want to go with Lena and Geurin too!”
As the two people talked about desserts, the time passed in an instant.
When 10 minutes after the time promised with the class children passed.
The two people, who were revising the rules they learned during the beginner chess course, tilted their heads.
“Lena and Geurin are late. But they would contact us if they were going to be late…”
It was also bothering that the two sincere people were late, but it was strange that they didn’t contact them to inform that they would be late.
They tried to send a device message, but it wasn’t marked as read, and they didn’t pick up calls.
They thought that the club activities might have gotten prolonged and tried to contact the school, but they received a confirmation that the two left early.
Finally, Han Yi and Sawol Seeum decided to look for the two personally.
“The road to here is a bit complex, so they might have wandered off when coming here for the first time. Let’s look for them.”
“Yes! Ah, actually, I came here using a Flight skill.”
Eungwang Brilliant Light Children’s Home was located in the area of Eungwang District whose residential complex was more or less rundown and underdeveloped.
As the roads itself were complex, and the alleys were many, Sawol Seeum used the Flight skill and Han Yi marked a location with the device, and they began the search.
Soon Sawol Seeum landed with a face white like a sheet and shouted:
“Ah! There…! Lena and Geurin are there!”
“What’s going on?”
“They are surrounded by strange people!”
Sawol Seeum started to run with a flustered face.
Following after Sawol Seeum, Han Yi also started running and soon discovered two people, Kwon Lena and Min Geurin.
The two were surrounded by more than 10 adult men.
It wasn’t to the degree of Ham Geun-hyeong, but each one of the people who ganged up had a scary face.
Han Yi knew who they were.
‘The people who wandered around the children’s home!’
They were people from the service company who chased away people that came to the children’s home for the volunteer work.
They were said to be people from the service company, but in fact they were a bunch of nobodies, who could be called organized gangsters or a mob in alliance with high ranking People in this area.
As if their methods were somewhat proficient, reporting them to the police was useless.
Because the tricks they used to threaten were difficult to punish according to the law, and the actions which crossed the line were preformed while avoiding the recording devices, leaving no evidence.
“Don’t come any closer!”
Kwon Lena was holding Min Geurin in her arms, and holding a whip with superpower wave in one hand.
The two were Players, but they were 1st year highschool students with almost no real-life experience.
Min Geurin fell into a state of panic when the unknown people revealed malice, while Kwon Lena faced them calmly, but it was impossible to fight back against more than 10 adult men while protecting Min Geurin.
In addition, both of them were merely over 150 cm tall and had tiny builds, so the men from the service company looked much more formidable.
“Please get away from those two!”
“Seeum-ah…!”
Sawol Seeum used the Flight skill and flew in front of the two people.
Because he activated the Wind Art, a faintly shining wind circled around Sawol Seeum.
“Tsk, a Player friend came.”
“A Nature type power. In addition, the one with the bob haircut also doesn’t seem ordinary.”
A sound of giggles mixed in.
‘They are Players, huh…!’
When Han Yi judged like this, they left Han Yi, who was separated from the party and took Taehokwon idle pose, alone and started whispering.
Because Sawol Seeum, Kwon Lena and Min Geurin were far away, they couldn’t hear, and Han Yi couldn’t confirm the shape of their lips when they were whispering into each other’s ears.
And then an incident occurred.
One of the men made an ambush attack on Han Yi and Han Yi instinctively counter-attacked.
The moment Han Yi avoided the attack and punched the hand of the man, who held a bar.
Click.
Wwiii!
The sound of shutter and alarm for starting the video recording were intentionally heard together.
Someone recorded that situation with the recording device.
According to the timing, they only captured the moment when Han Yi launched the attack.
“Bobby hair-ssi, you lived at the children’s home, but do you know what kind of punishment a Player faces if they attack an ordinary person?”
The four 1st year students had yet to take a class on the Player Special law, but hearing the man’s words, their complexions changed.
In case the Player’s attack target is an ordinary person, be it according to the Association’s rules or modern law, they would face a heavy punishment.
The frauds and threats using this rule were rampant, so Players always wore recording devices.
However, right now there was no one who had an operating recording device among the four of them, and there was nothing like CCTV in this alley.
‘I should have turned on the recording device straight away, the moment I got swept up in it…!’
No one, including inexperienced Han Yi, was able to think about the recording devices.
Even though the four of them were enraged, they didn’t catch such an obvious and absurd move, but they were very flustered because they couldn’t come up with a way to respond to it.
Compared to the four, who had zero real life experiences, the employees of the service company were extremely proficient in their nasty actions.
“Because you attacked first…!”
“There are many witnesses and evidence to confirm it, right?”
Before Kwon Lena could finish her words, the man cut her off.
The man, who was the leader, showed the video that only clearly captured Han Yi punching with her fist and the man being blown away.
Color completely disappeared from Han Yi’s face.
In the fights of a Player vs ordinary person, public opinion and law usually takes the side of the ordinary person.
Korea was a democratic country, and as the 85% of citizens were ordinary people, they had a great power of absolute majority.
“Bobby hair-ssi… You’re ‘Han Yi’ who belongs to the children’s home, right? You should follow us for a moment.”
“What are you planning to do to Han Yi?! Han Yi, you can’t go!” [5]
“We reported them to police over 30 minutes ago, why are they not coming…!”
The flustered voices of Sawol Seeum and Kwon Lena were heard.
When frozen Han Yi couldn’t make a decision what she should do.
“What kind of fuckers are asking to die and making a fuss in my territory?”
On the wall surrounding the small area.
A girl holding a baseball bat full of nails appeared.
Thanks to the mask she was wearing under the hood, her face couldn’t be seen.
As if the girl with the perfectly covered face was wearing a voice changer under her clothes, she spoke with a thick robotic voice that didn’t match her build.
“Ah, it’s those bitch bastards again. You couldn’t come back to your senses even after being wrecked?”
The service company men, who saw the girl, who was emitting a threatening energy, freaked out.
“It’s the alley maniac[6]!”
“… Withdraw!”
The people, who were full of confidence a moment ago, started to run away in fright.
The girl was at best one person, but she was a madman to whom suited the title of ‘alley maniac’.
Every time she appeared, she would say ‘I’ll crush the one fucker’s nose.’, ‘I’ll break all the finger tips of one fucker’, etc, and then realize every word.
If they used their numbers, they might have been able to overpower her, but the men had no thoughts of taking the risk and accepting a commission about capturing one madman.
Everyone used the complex alleys and started to run to split, but the girl accurately aimed at the person, who played the leader, and started to chase him.
“Fuckers-ah, where are you going!? I’m going to break one bastard’s head no matter what today!”
The men and the girl disappeared in the instant.
In the distance, a sound of ‘Crack!’ like that of a watermelon breaking was heard, but it wasn’t audible for the four people of the 1st year class 0, who almost lost their souls.
They escaped the crisis, but everyone’s face turned pale.
Because they knew that the video capturing Han Yi was still in their hands.
***
[Sawol Seeum] When Lena and Geurin were asking for directions to the children’s home, suddenly some people were called, and they surrounded them and threatened them!
[Sawol Seeum] I and Han Yi discovered them late, Han Yi was attacked and…
[Sawol Seeum] They captured the video of Han Yi, but Han Yi didn’t do anything wrong!
It seemed that Sawol Seeum was still scared and flustered, but he explained intelligently.
Unlike usual, his words were incoherent, but because I devoted myself to chatting with my Playable Character, I comprehended it.
‘Even though they reported it, the police came late, the underdeveloped area with no recording devices, the service company who aimed at the children’s home and Han Yi, and the gangsters whose group included at least two high-rank Players…’
I could roughly guess what happened.
The alley maniac, who suddenly appeared and chased the mobsters with the bat in her hands, also bothered me, but I decided to think about it later.
I immediately left the room and raided Hwang Jiho’s room.
I didn’t knock, but Hwang Jiho, who sensed the presence, replied ‘come in’, so I didn’t refuse and entered straight away.
“Hey.”
“What happened? You organized your thoughts so soon?”
I guess he noticed that I locked myself in the room to get some time to think.
I got to the point straight away.
“I’m going back to Korea right away.”
*~*~*
[1] Price of achieving a wish — ‘Wish’ understood as desire, hope, dream for something to be done or happened. It could also mean: An estranged and distant relationship that feels awkward, a petition made to government after being treated unfairly or illegally by lower administration offices, to look for and reveal the origin of an object or event, to go up stream to find the source of water, a small circle, a small garden, a person who works at an institute/center (like research institute, training center, etc). Achieving can also be understood as something developing, growing or causing a certain event/thing. Finally, the price can also be: a specialist in certain field recognized as an authority in it, a family who enjoyed wealth and power for generations, a large house, a carriage the nobles and kings were using, an event where the person to be promoted, has their child, in-law, younger sibling, or nephew/niece promoted on their behalf.
Also, the ‘achieving a wish’ is a descriptor of the price, so a more correct translation would be: Price, which achieves the wish.
[2] 2nd grade hearing impaired — two ears impaired, 90dB or higher for both. It would be 5th grade hearing impairment according to WHO’s grades (Stevens et al. (2013)).
(I’m mostly following Korean grading here, because I’m afraid I’ll forget at some point (I already did before) that WHO and Korea have different grading…)
[3] Ham Geun-hyeong, Jo Uisin, Hwang Jiho and Kim Yuri — Don’t know if it’s important, but in raws it was ‘Ham Geun-hyeong and Jo Uisin, Hwang Jiho, Kim Yuri’.
[4] Children’s Home — I finally remembered that term! I was looking for it for months! Nursery House will be replaced with the Children’s Home.
[5] “What are you planning to do to Han Yi?! Han Yi, you can’t go!” — That’s Sawol Seeum’s sentence, but there is no way that Seeum would elevate them, so I’m not capitalizing ‘you’, even though he is still using a polite tone.
[6] alley maniac — they literally call her ‘this area maniac’.
Translator’s note: Let’s go!! Watermelon Beater!
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