EX-rank’s Replay (226)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 
43. Things which don’t change (7)

Even though it was muddled, Hong Gyubin felt his thinking gradually become clear.

Because looking at the 1st print edition, the fatigue that was fading upon meeting with Jegal Jaegeol disappeared entirely like melting snow.

Drowned with emotions, Hong Gyubin was at a loss for words and stared at the magazine and magazine’s draft version in his hands.
 

‘Am I dreaming?’
 

Even after Hong Gyubin joined the Player’s Association and began his pathetically clingy behavior, Jegal Jaegeol pretended not to know Hong Gyubin.

It was surprising that Jegal Jaegeol came to Hong Gyubin, but because the gift was too precious, he couldn’t get the words out.

On the other hand, Jegal Jaegeol couldn’t get the words out because of the embarrassment.

He was stealing the time of his busy first disciple with the magazine full of his pictures and interviews, so the situation was subtle.

In addition, as that talkative first disciple opened his mouth wide and didn’t say a word, it was even worse.
 

“If You don’t like it, I’ll give You some other gift…”

“No. It’s because I received such a precious gift that I don’t know how to express my thanks. It’s something I wanted the most among the things I was looking for recently.”
 

When Jegal Jaegeol stretched his hand out to take back the paper bag, Hong Gyubin smiled widely and tightly grasped the paper bag.
 

“I know it was made by the Newspaper Club’s students, but isn’t the 1st print edition precious?”

“… Those children gave me three copies. They said that one is for reading, one for collection and one as a spare. I thought it would be okay to use the spare one as a gift.”
 

As expected, worthy of teacher Jegal Jaegeol-nim’s disciples, they had bright minds, huh!

Hong Gyubin was amazed.

The thought that he also can’t lose to them rose in him.
 

“I wish to return courtesy somehow. Teacher-nim, do You need cha[1]?”

“Do You mean tea? It’s fine, I obtained some good tea leaves in the places we visited on this news-gathering trip.”

“No, I mean a car. The NK-Automobiles will be releasing a new Player Car this fall and opportunely, there is a car of the same color as the burgundy suit teacher Jegal-nim was wearing before…”

“No, thanks.”
 

Before Hong Gyubin could really pull out a Player Car, Jegal Jageol built an iron wall.

Hong Gyubin tenaciously and earnestly pitched him the design, performance and the ride impressions, but Jegal Jaegeol didn’t show even a bit of interest.
 

“I’ll be going now… In fact, that gift wasn’t my idea. Uisin recommended giving it.”
 

At those words, Hong Gyubin was once again amazed by Jegal Jaegeol’s personality.

When Jegal Jaegeol misunderstood that Hong Gyubin didn’t like the 1st print edition, Jegal Jaegeol didn’t mention Jo Uisin.

But when he kept showing he liked it, he troubled himself to mention, to pass the merits to Jo Uisin!?
 

“I’m truly thankful, teacher Jegal-nim. Please pass the thanks to Uisin for me. I’ll also thank him in person.”
 

After those words, Jegal Jaegeol smiled faintly.

When seeing that smile, Hong Gyubin grabbed Jegal Jaegeol and clung to him.
 

“… But do You really not need a car?”

“I said no, thanks.”
 

* * *
 
The Eungwang School’s dormitory was built with the size sufficient to be used by all school students, but just about a half of all of the students were dormitory students.

So unless someone applied to the Earthly Wings Council to use the dormitory room with someone else beforehand, the dormitory students were using double-rooms alone.

Even so, there were still empty rooms remaining.

Thanks to that, Mok Uram was allocated to an empty dormitory room alone.
 

‘It’s the first time I came to play in the dormitory room of another kid.’
 

Before Seong Siwan, Kim Sinrok and Yu Sang-hun came to play in my room, but I never came to play in another kid’s room.

Because when meeting class children or Bak Seung-hyeon, I usually used the public space or open lounge which were on every floor of the dormitory, or the Earthly Wings Council’s convenience facilities.
 

“Sit down quickly!”
 

Mok Uram welcomed me with an excited face.

My hands were full of the snacks and drinks picked from the vending machines in the lounge, but Mok Uram didn’t give the food even a glance.

Besides the food, the other things were like that too.

When I first entered the dormitory room I was amazed at how good the facilities were, but Mok Uram had an attitude saying it was as good as any.

Mok Uram was just fidgeting because he wanted to hear Kwon Lena’s story quickly.
 

“I don’t think I can say much without the Person in question being here…. So what do you want to hear?”
 

Considering my Playable Character, or in other words, Kwon Lena’s privacy, I planned to only talk as if introducing a class friend that wasn’t here.

I wouldn’t speak about things like Kwon Lena’s participation in the Fantasy Auction, the events on the first day of school, the secret of her birth or real name.
 

“Please tell me everything.”
 

So serious, huh?

I thought where I should start, and then organized my speech.
 

“She joined the String Club this year to start learning violin…”
 

At the words that not even a few months passed since Kwon Lena started to learn violin, Mok Uram made a dumbstruck face.

It was because though Kwon Lena’s violin performance was still clumsy, when considering the time she learned violin, she was quite a fast learner.
 

“When the news about senior Kwon Jane-nim’s domestic concert plan were released, she went ticketing with the class children. But because the concert location was our school’s Hoyeon Building, which doesn’t have that many seats, it was difficult to obtain a ticket for senior Kwon Jane-nim’s domestic performance that was held after a long time.”
 

At the words that the class children lost their minds as a group during ticketing for Kwon Jane’s domestic performance, Mok Uram couldn’t hide his pity.

Deeply immersed, Mok Uram seemed to imagine himself as a Person who failed in the ticketing for Kwon Lena’s concert in his head.

My story continued to the time when senior Kwon Jane-nim and Kwon Lena met.
 

“Senior Kwon Jane-nim found us, who were working as staff. She gave gifts to class children, but…”
 

Here, the story of the superpower violin gifted by Kwon Jane naturally came out.
 

Tak.
 

At the words that Kwon Lena had a superpower violin, Mok Uram made a face as if he lost the entire world and slumped to the floor.
 

“I saw in that video that Lena-nim was performing on a superpower violin. However, I didn’t expect that it was a superpower violin personally gifted to Lena-nim by Her most revered musician….”
 

Mok Uram was very broken.

Kwon Jane personally gifting a violin to Kwon Lena had an extremely great meaning.

Should I have hidden that part?
 

“… Then I can’t do anything, but to make a superpower violin superior even to the master-nim’s.”
 

The recovery of the broken Mok Uram was fast.

From the fighting spirit boiling in Mok Uram’s eyes, I could feel how powerful the power of a muse was.

At that moment, Mok Uram was about to remember something that he didn’t need to recall.
 

“I remember that Kwon Jane-ssi requested master-nim to make one violin as a gift before. But it seems She clearly said ‘I plan to gift it if my family shows interest in playing violin.’ …”
 

I immediately changed the topic.

Mok Uram may figure out the secret of Kwon Lena’s origin someday.

But it was a bit too much to let the bastard, who made eye-contact with Kwon Lena for 3 seconds and fainted, to know that secret right now.
 

“You will make a superpower violin tailored for her. You surely can make a better superpower violin than the gift made by your master-nim.”

“Yes! I surely will.”
 

After giving Mok Uram a sincere compliment, I threw the key point.
 

“At that time, I got to read the superpower violin item card’s description… Did your master-nim write that description?”

“Yes, that’s correct!”
 

The superpower violin’s description was as follows:
 

[Description]

Instrument, which rarity and quality of performance changes depending on the performer’s experiences, expectations, thoughts, goals and beliefs.

Changes to maximum UR rank.
 

On the other hand, the ‘Unknown Fate’ description was like this:
 

[Description]

Weapon, which name, rarity and effect changes depending on the user’s experiences, expectations, thoughts, goals and beliefs.

Can only be used by the possessors[2] of Power of Fate.
 

Even when I recalled them again, the two items’ descriptions were pretty similar.
 

“The concept of changing instrument is quite novel. Do all superpower violins have such a description from the beginning?”
 

“No. Not every master-nim’s superpower violin was like this. The first crafts weren’t like this.”
 

Then what was the trigger for the similarity between the superpower violin and ‘Unknown Fate’.

I threw a reason I came up with.
 

“I heard that your master-nim was cherished by higher beings. Was that change related to some higher being?”

“Higher beings influenced master-nim’s crafts, but it’s not that.”
 

Mok Uram stared into the distance with a face lost in memories.
 

“Master-nim, who was originally a violin craftsman, after the Clash of Different Worlds, awakened as a Player. And He resolved to produce superpower violins for the Players, who utilized the sound to use the superpowers like Kwon Jane-ssi.”
 

Mok Uram shortly told the life story of the great violin craftsman, who was the only one in the world before.

He was a famous figure, but there was almost no information because he was someone who avoided people.

Everything that came out of Mok Uram’s mouth was a story I heard for the first time.
 

“Before master-nim took me in, he didn’t hesitate about reckless work. To gather the materials for the superpower violin production, he often conquered high rarity otherworlds.”
 

“That day, the otherworld that master-nim conquered was SSR+++ rank. But… perhaps something went wrong, it changed to the EX rank when they entered.”
 

After the Clash of Different Worlds, the ‘things which couldn’t exist’ and ‘things which were difficult to perceive’[3] started to clearly exist in reality.

But the number of examples of observed in world out of standard, impossible to measure or EX rank otherworlds, was so small it could be counted on one hand.

The reason was that the rarity was extremely high, but it was also because the EX rank otherworlds’ power was so extreme that they couldn’t maintain the physical form, and they immediately disappeared through self-destruction, so it was difficult to observe them.
 

“It’s impossible to use the emergency escape items in the EX rank otherworlds. The attack party members, which accompanied master-nim, were annihilated. When master-nim also accepted his death, a ‘Pure white shadow’ appeared.”
 

Pure white shadow.

If we talk about the pure white shadow, close in form to a human, there was something I recalled immediately.

The unidentified being, who handed me the ‘Unknown Fate’.
 

“That pure white shadow took out a card, materialized it as a weapon, and began to fight.”
 

The pure white shadow guided Mok Uram’s master to the exit.

While that person moved, the item card freely changed into all kinds of weapons to face Enemies and to deal with the gimmicks.
 

“Master-nim, who safely got out of the otherworld, offered His earnest gratitude and asked for that Person’s name, but… That Person left the words ‘I just came under the guidance of the Power of Fate’ and then disappeared.”
 

Even the Power of Fate was mentioned?!
 

“Under the influence of the description written on that item card, master-nim began to make changing and improving violins.”
 

Mok Uram finished his entire explanation with clumsy Korean.

After that, we had a conversation about Kwon Lena’s favorite foods, superpower violins and Mok Uram’s master, but I couldn’t obtain any further clues about ‘Power of Fate’.

Before parting, I asked Mok Uram about one more thing.
 

“Do you know anything more about that item card? For example, if you could know its rarity by looking at the card border color.”

“Ah, yes!”
 

The item card, which freely changed its type, wasn’t a transparent card?

However, it was outside of expectations.
 

“The item card was pure white, just like that shadow. It’s strange, correct? Because there is no white among rarity ranks, no?”
 

* * *
 
After parting with Mok Uram, my dormitory room.

I took out the transparent item card from the item window and examined it.

No matter how I looked, it wasn’t white.
 

‘The item card that the pure white shadow, who mentioned Power of Fate, was using was surely ‘Unknown Fate’.’
 

It was like this when thinking about the item description that the artisan saw.

Why was the color different?

But I couldn’t come up with a place to obtain more information.

Would I get it by activating the Power of Fate?
 

‘If I was to get that information through the Power of Fate, I would get it a long time ago. There is no other way than to try to use it, huh?’
 

Up till now I was restraining from directly using it because I was worried about the after-effects like with the Communication.

I wanted to try using it after I gathered all the information, but it seemed I would be able to only get this far.
 

‘Let’s use it when sparring with Baek Ho-gun.’
 

Wouldn’t Baek Ho-gun, who was knowledgeable about martial arts, give me a hint during the sparring.

I made such a plan, and then before I fell asleep, I opened the Exclusive Menu.

Recently, everyday I checked the ‘Replay’ function which was added not so long ago.
 

‘The color returned again. That means I can use it, huh?’
 

What I figured out about Replay was as follows:

First, on the Replay’s list, the names of people, who I met in this world and recognized as appeared in the game, come up.

Second, phases existed in the Replay, and when particular people were selected, the message ‘Cannot be selected in the current phase’ would pop up.

Third, if the people, who didn’t correspond to the second condition, were selected, with the message ‘Selection complete’ the list would turn gray.

After the list turned gray, even if I selected something, there would be no reaction.

Fourth, after a certain amount of time passed, the list, which changed to gray, would return to its original state again.
 

‘Is it a concept similar to a skill cooldown? Even so, I can’t figure out the rules of the cooldown ending.’
 

After the ‘Replay’ function was unlocked, I tried to play with it according to the list order.

Yu Sang-hun’s account was chosen twice.

On the first try it took two days to return to its original state again, on the second try it took one day.

Following that I selected Son Mingi.

In Son Mingi’s case, it returned after four days.
 

‘It bothers me that nothing at all happened. It’s strange’.
 

Every time I finished selection, a system message would pop out.

But nothing at all happened.

At least for me.
 

‘Is it really simply that I can’t dream, so nothing happens?’
 

Something was bothering me.

It was ominous.

Even so, I could do nothing but keep testing.

I wanted to figure out this replay’s identity during the vacation if possible.

Before falling asleep, I selected Jang Namuk, who was recorded on the Replay’s list following Son Mingi.
 

⟨Selection complete.⟩
 

Following Yu Sang-hun and Son Mingi, Jang Namuk’s selection was also possible.

I thought about the commonalities between the three and the differences between them and the people, who were impossible to select, and then, even today, I fell into a sleep without dreams.
 

* * *
 
Player Military Academy, life-quarters, male dormitory.

Jang Namuk tossed around a few times while gasping for breath, and then abruptly opened his eyes.

He urgently stood up and looked around.

Jang Namuk had a face as if the fact that he is in the dormitory right now didn’t feel real.
 

“… Namuk-ah?”
 

Tao Sihu sensed the movement and woke up.

Jang Namuk usually kept a time to a minute and slept and woke up on time, showing a model of the flag bearer.

Because of that, if Jang Namuk woke up, his roommate, Tao Sihu also had a habit of waking up with him.

So when Jang Namuk woke up, Tao Sihu also reflexively woke up, but when he checked the time with a device, it was still late at night, so he was confused.
 

“What’s wrong?”
 

Tao Sihu, who was on the upper bunk bed, swiftly jumped down.

Illuminated with the device’s flash function, Jang Namuk’s complexion was very pale.

Jang Namuk slept with his glasses on, because he couldn’t sleep without them, but now the glasses dropped on the bed.
 

‘Uh, it seems that the eyes are shining a little strangely…’
 

Tao Sihu vaguely noticed ‘Eyes of Star Maiden’, which were hidden by glasses, but Jang Namuk couldn’t think of hiding his eyes.

At last, when he saw Tao Sihu, Jang Namuk opened his mouth with a bit of a relieved face.
 

“… I had a nightmare.”
 

*~*~*
 
[1] Cha — it’s an untranslatable joke. 차 (cha) can mean both tea and a car.

[2] possessors — I don’t think I noticed or made a note about it before… so because of ‘only’ affix added to the word ‘person’, a word ‘자만 (jaman)’ is created, which means ‘pride’.

[3] ‘things which couldn’t exist’ and ‘things which were difficult to perceive’ — because of the comma here, it’s hard for me to tell if it should be ‘and’ or ‘or/otherwise known’.
 

Translator’s note: Haa….
 

 

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