Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
44. After bad weather (7)
In the PMH game, the Ma tribe has very little appearance importance.
Even in the game it was well-known that after the Clash of Different Worlds the Ma tribe kept fighting with Demons.
‘I assumed that was why there wasn’t a scenario deeply related to the Ma tribe.’
Based on the language used on the Korean Peninsula, which was full of Energy of Earth, because both Jin tribes were called the homophones of ‘Ma tribe[1]’, the two tribes were in conflict.
Though, more than in conflict, the Ma tribe seemed to respond to one-sided harassment.
‘They were harassed until the end of the game. As Demons didn’t form a group and acted on their own, the attacks should be sporadic.’
After the Ma tribe’s head, who self-named herself Heukma, finished the introduction, she examined us one after one.
Tak Geosan, who was standing the closest to Heukma, me, who was standing just behind him, Ju Su-hyeok, who seemed to be glancing more at the three white horses rather than Heukma, Bang Yunseop, who was laying flat like before and even Maeng Hyodon, who was running towards us in the distance.
‘Is she judging the standard of opponents? No, it doesn’t feel like it. She seems to be searching for something…’
Heukma withdrew her gaze and looked at the three white horses.
The white horses let out a ‘purrr’ similar to a sigh, and stomped their hooves on the ground.
“Strange. We clearly sensed that one of those children’s ‘Five Heroes’ came. But you’re saying there isn’t one?”
Five Heroes of the Oeum Mountain Sammachi’s white horses.
Hearing those words, I recalled the legend of five generals, who couldn’t be born because of the cut-off ley lines.
As the ground didn’t die completely and the ley liens would slowly recover, wouldn’t those five generals be born again?
I recalled the conversation I had with Song Daeseok and Min Geurin when we ran into the white horses before.
‘There are four outstanding Players who were born in Hongcheon.’
Great Hero Iron Arm Song Manseok.
Min Geurin’s master, painter Hong Gyeongbok.
Eungwang School’s principal well known as book collector.
And Seong Gukeon and Seong Siwan’s grandfather, the Dark Age’s Korean Branch’s head.
Those four were confirmed to be born in Hongcheon, but there was still one remaining.
‘At first I thought that Seong Gukeon and Seong Siwan, who have a connection to Hongcheon and are outstanding Players may be the remaining person, but that wasn’t it.’
After I visited Hongcheon and asked about his birthplace, Seong Siwan said this:
— No, my parents-nim moved before I was born. Because superpower waves were detected during the pregnancy, they moved to the place with Player facilities. So I was born and raised in Seoul. After I entered Eungwang School, my family moved back to Hongcheon.
— Yeah, Gukeon hyung too! The superpower center where I was, was also the place where Gukeon hyung was. By the way, when hyung was there…
‘Seong Gukeon and Seong Siwan were born outside Hongcheon. So it’s not the two of them.’
And from what Heukma said, it seemed that hero wasn’t among the five of us at least.
After Heukma, who was mumbling, shut her mouth, Tak Geosan asked.
“What matter the Ma tribe’s head would be thanking for?” [2]
“Last night a certain Player here rescued our kin from a trap.”
If it was last night, it would be when the typhoon was still raging in Hongcheon.
I had no idea what the three were doing, but it seemed that they were outside and wandering around the mountains.
Tak Geosan didn’t seem to exactly pick up what it was about.
As Bang Yunseop suddenly made a depressed face, it also didn’t seem to be that bastard.
Maeng Hyodon, who arrived the last and couldn’t figure out the situation, was standing blankly for a while and then let out an ‘ah’.
“Yesterday, when I was searching for people who went to pick up mushrooms here, I saw a trapped wild horse and freed it, is it about that?”
“Is it this disciple who rescued our kin?”
It seemed that the wild horse that Maeng Hyodon rescued was an animal tamed by Ma tribe.
In addition, from his words it seemed that Maeng Hyodon was participating in the rescue missions during the typhoon last night.
As expected, my heart was warmed by the action worthy of my Playable Character.
“As that kin is still young and weak, if it was left like this, it would be a great trouble. Thank you. I want to return the courtesy.”
Heukma lightly moved closer to Maeng Hyodon as she spoke.
Maeng Hyodon took a step back with an awkward face.
“Uh… It isn’t worthy of returning courtesy.”
“Yeah?”
Heukma thought about it for a second and shook her head.
“I don’t think so.”
“… Yes?”
“I think it’s something worthy of returning a courtesy.”
“Uh… Yes.”
Heukma seemed to have a tenacious personality.
Even the white horses behind her stomped their hooves against the ground as reaction of support to returning a courtesy towards Maeng Hyodon, who had no idea what to do.
At a glance, the Ma tribe didn’t seem to be antagonistic towards humans.
‘Even so, Ma tribe are also long tails. It doesn’t matter if they fight with Demons[3], there is still a possibility they’re under Dark Mastermind.’
There were Demons who cooperated with the Dark Mastermind and there were Demons who didn’t.
If all Demons held the Dark Mastermind’s hand, I wouldn’t do such a crazy thing like wandering around while wearing the mask symbolizing the crow demon king.
So it was difficult to decide if they were traitors based on the fact that they fought with Demons.
“Why was Heukma’s kin wandering around the mountains in that fierce weather?”
Tak Geosan asked like this, while stopping Heukma from what could be either harassing Maeng Hyodon or trying to express her thanks.
“I was busy because taking advantage of the typhoon yesterday, the Demons invaded.”
“The invading Demons You’re speaking of… You mean the beings opposite of the Cheon tribe, correct?” [4]
“Yeah.”
They made such a fuss even in the midst of a typhoon that turned everything into a dog shit mess?
‘I’m still busy because it wasn’t settled yet. Please tell me your address to send a gift.”
“Uh, there is no need for such a thing…”
“I said tell me the address.”
Finally, under Heukma’s persistence, Maeng Hyodon told her Eungwang School’s dormitory address.
“You’re Eungwang School’s student?”
“… Yes.”
Heukma fell into a deep thought and then spat out.
“Got it.”
I had no idea what it meant, but Heukma turned around leading the three white horses.
And the sound of unknowable meaning.
“See you again.”
No way, was she thinking of coming to Eungwang School in person?
As if I wasn’t the only one who had such ominous thoughts, Maeng Hyodon’s face hardened a bit.
After Heukma disappeared.
The first to open his mouth was Maeng Hyodon.
“… Hey, why are you guys here?”
It seemed it would be better for Ju Su-hyeok to reply to this question instead of me.
“Before the vacation ends, we planned to go out to play together. Because we couldn’t contact Hyodon and Yunseop, we came to pick you up.”
“Go out to play?”’
“We couldn’t complete the entire program because of the incident that exploded during the Youth Training Camp. We wanted to call all people who were in the Youth Training Camp that day.”
Ju Su-hyeok floated up a hologram.
In the hologram he opened an introduction to Ju-Oh Island.
“We plan to invite the 1st year class 0, class 1 and class 2’s kids to the Ju-Oh island.”
* * *
Player’s Association Satellite Management team’s research institute.
On paper, the unnamed Player Satellite’s research institute was treated as a department of Satellite Management team.
And because this department security level was pretty high, it took quite a long time for a new researcher to enter.
That rare requirement procedure for a new researcher was for a freaking grandson of Great Hero Iron Arm Song Manseok and still 17 years old highschooler.
Although the appointment was worthy of suspicion of unlawful recruitment, no one among the HR personnel in charge or the researchers of the research institute expressed any dissatisfaction.
It was because that highschooler was only lacking in work experience and academic achievements compared to other researchers, but both his abilities and security were perfect.
In addition, that student, Song Daeseok, was on paper still only a middle school graduate and was getting outstanding grades in Eungwang School.
The Players from the Association judged that Song Daeseok’s work experience and academic achievements problems would resolve on their own with time.
‘He can pile up work experience! At this research institute!’
‘What does it matter that he is a middle school graduate? Frankly speaking, I hope that he drops out of the highschool and becomes a full-time researcher.’
The researchers’ honest feelings were that if Song Daeseok wasn’t backed by Song Manseok and Hong Gyeongbok, they would want him to be permanently employed at the institute.
When Song Daeseok didn’t go to work for a few days because of Min Geurin’s problem, they made a fuss.
Because of that, multiple projects were delayed, but today, thanks to adjusting the push-back schedules, Song Daeseok would at least meet with the being in the center of the projects.
“I didn’t expect Jin people to be involved in the Association’s Satellite project.”
“It wasn’t long since that Jin started to cooperate with us. And it’s top secret. You can’t tell it even to senior Iron Arm-nim!”
The Satellite Management team’s leader Im Jihwa kept speaking:
“Because the technological partnership wasn’t going smoothly, everyone had a hard time in the meantime. Because though the Satellite technology stands on the border between the supernatural and science, but the majority of researchers using the satellite are scientific techniques. Probably because of it, the part utilizing superpower is somewhat weak.”
Song Daeseok nodded.
He could easily understand it as according to the statistics he saw, the majority of the Satellite’s researchers were Players who graduated with the PhD about the Satellite engineering as thesis.
“But the technique that Jin showed is something completely based in supernatural… no, something out of the domain of fiction or fantasy. Among researchers there was no one who could understand the mechanism of operation behind that Jin’s technique.”
You mean to integrate something beyond the supernatural, something out of the domain of fiction or fantasy into the satellite technology?
Seeing Song Daeseok, who had an excited face at that thought, Im Jihwa smiled brightly.
‘All researchers made depressed faces when they heard that story…’
When Im Jihwa brought up this story for the first time, researchers cried when they couldn’t imagine how to harmonize the two existences together.
But Song Daeseok after hearing that absurd story had a face happy like a child.
“Daeseok, you’re analyzing the Player’s Satellite from a comprehensive perspective, right? You can personally talk with that Jin and share your insights.”
“I’m not good at talking.”
“That’s okay. That Jin is a bit unique, well… As she doesn’t seem to be hostile to humans and talks a lot, you don’t have to talk and can just listen.”
After Im Jihwa and Song Daeseok finished several security procedures.
They stopped at the end of the corridor which seemed to be blocked by the wall.
Song Daeseok predicted that the Jin was behind that wall.
According to Song Daeseok’s prediction, after Im Jihwa raised her palm to a spot on the wall, the wall gradually turned transparent and the other side became visible.
And.
“Haeuk, waaaaa!”
They heard a sad wailing.
On the other side of the wall that disappeared, someone was sunken on the floor and crying, and someone else was soothing the crying person.
“Calm down. Those children are all fine.”
“Heeuk, keuhuh, how could they do this?! Hicck!”
No matter how much the other one tried to calm her down, the woman with red eyes was kneeling on the floor and sobbing.
‘… Is it the Jin team leader Im Jihwa-nim was talking about?’
Looking closely, the crying woman, and the woman, who tried to calm her down, both had red eyes.
The red-eyed Jin, who cried her eyes out, sniffled as she spoke:
“However I really thought they were dead! The kind children went to the crazy tiger mansion and learned such an awful and bad thing! Playing dead? Isn’t that crazy? Toyun unnie, can’t we just take them back? Yes? Unnie..!”
“… Toyeon-ah, those children are Ho tribe’s descendants.”
The two Jin people, who called themselves Toyeon and Toyun respectively, ground their teeth.
He had no idea what it was about, but it seemed that those two Jin suffered a mortifying and frustrating incident at the crazy tiger mansion.
The Jin called Toyeon grumbled for a while and then noticed the presence of Im Jihwa and Song Daeseok.
“… Ah, isn’t it a kid from the same class as benefactor? Wow, he looks exactly like Song Manseok when he was younger!”
Song Daeseok reacted more to the word ‘benefactor’ then the words about how he resembled his grandfather.
Ok Toyun slammed Ok Toyeon’s back to shut her mouth, but Song Daeseok’s mind was already full of the word ‘benefactor’.
‘Same class as benefactor? She is talking about the class 0, right? Who is benefactor… It seems I heard it somewhere recently.’
As the memory wasn’t clear, it seemed to be during the Youth Training camp.
Song Daeseok’s memories were vague after he was poisoned by the Superpower Poison.
While he tried to dig up his dim memories, he abruptly recalled some words.
— Are you okay? I’m a bit late because I was dealing with the matter my benefactor requested.
The lunatic from the same class, Hwang Jiho.
That bastard, who suddenly appeared, said something like that.
*~*~*
[1] Ma tribe homophones — as I mentioned in the previous chapter, 馬 (horse) and 魔 (demons) are both Ma in Korean. As I don’t wish to inflict Chinese on unsuspecting readers, I’m calling Ma(魔) Demons. But in raws those two are indeed both called Ma tribe. Also, I’m using ‘tribe’ here for the simplicity, but as Demons didn’t form a united group, I don’t usually refer to them as a ‘tribe’.
[2] Tak Geosan’s tone — I didn’t mention it the previous chapter when I should. Tak Geosan is using an old-fashioned, polite tone… I’m still thinking how to represent it. In BBS 1st volume 3rd story I represented this tone by using Thou/Thee and similar, but… Tak Geosan doesn’t use that old fashion way of speaking when using a casual tone, so it feels strange… Please stay patient as I’m figuring it out.
[3] Demons — there is no hanja here, so I’m assuming we’re talking about demons.
[4] “The invading Demons You’re speaking off… You mean the beings opposite of the Cheon tribe, correct?” — Tak Geosan is specifying here that they’re talking about demons because it may sound like Ma tribe (horses) attacked Ma tribe (horses). Also, Cheon tribe would be angels. I’ll be using Cheon tribe, it’s at least confirmed that they refer only to abrahamic angles, and not for example any eastern heavenly officials (Cheon means heaven and the word Cheon tribe(/people) could also refer to them)
Translator’s note: Find the fifth hero quest accepted!
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