Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
44. After bad weather (9)
Player Military School, training grounds.
For the current highschool Players of the Military School the summer break corresponded to the self-training period.
Even so, almost all cadets gathered on the drill grounds exclusive for the 1st year cadets.
It was because after the self-training started, the flag bearer Jang Namuk suggested a group training and the majority of the cadets agreed.
At the beginning the attitude of many cadets was skeptical as they thought: ‘We’re not even in the army yet, do we have to do the training from the 1st year of highschool?’.
But the cadets from the same class as Jang Namuk all participated out of the loyalty and then the number cadets, who participated out of fun, gradually increased.
Piing!
After the alarm notifying about the break time rang out, some cadets sank down or flopped onto the drill ground.
Tao Sihu was the first among the 1st year cadets to lay down on the ground.
Unlike the cadets who stretched out because it was really difficult, Tao Sihu feigned pain and grumbled.
“… Ah, so hard. Su-hyeok should be having a real fun on the Ju-Oh Island right now. We could also go there.”
It was as Tao Sihu said.
Ju Su-hyeok invited the Eungwang School 1st year students and teachers, who were swept up in the Youth Training Camp incident, to the Ju-Oh Island, but originally the Military School cadets were also among the invited.
When the otherworld clash and natural superpower wave emission incident exploded on the Cymopoleia, Tao Sihu and Jang Namuk were also there and Ju Su-hyeok promised to invite them.
Ju Su-hyeok didn’t forget his promise to the Military School’s cadets.
— I plan to rent out Ju-Oh Island. Do you want to go together before the vacation ends?
— Because we also bring our class kids, you guys can also bring the Military School cadets! I decided to borrow the Son of Heaven from Eungwang School as a transportation, and Ju-Oh brand’s amenities are provided at the resort as daily necessities. You can just bring your body.
But after contemplating, Jang Namuk rejected Ju Su-hyeok’s offer.
Jang Namuk declined without even asking for the schedule of the Ju-Oh Island trip under the excuse of the training with the Military School cadets.
Luckily, Ju Su-hyeok wasn’t offended in the slightest and replied that they should go together next time, but Jang Namuk’s heart was heavy because he felt he was lying.
It wasn’t because of the training that Jang Namuk unilaterally rejected the offer without even consulting with other children.
‘… ‘Seed of Curse’ was planted on Sihu. If an incident happens at sea, Sihu, who suffers from sea sickness and is a poor swimmer, may not be able to endure.’
Nothing major happened to Tao Sihu yet, but every time he sometimes saw the omens left by the ‘Seed of Curse’, his insides felt stuffy.
Tao Sihu had no idea about Jang Namuk’s thoughts and grumbled that he wanted to go to the Ju-Oh Island.
But it might have been better if he had stopped at the grumbling.
“Please juoh me to the Ju-Oh Island![1] Hahaha!”
The immature Tao Sihu made an absurd pun calling for rage.
It felt like too much[2].
When Jang Namuk was about to ignore the pun and instead say the apologies that he already did a few times ‘I’m sorry for rejecting Ju Su-hyeok’s offer on my own accord’ that raised in his mouth, buzz-cut cadets appeared and surrounded Tao Sihu.
“That crazy bastard keeps talking about the island even though he can’t board a boat.”
“I saw this fucker asking for the class materials from the kid who signed up for the navy curriculum.~”
“That crazy fucker still didn’t come to his senses.”
“Take out the confirmation of the 2nd semester classes application. You didn’t secretly change it to the navy curriculum, right?”
“The period of the class application passed a while ago, but that fucker might have done something, so let’s check again.”
“Let’s do that.”
The cadets surrounding Tao Sihu stretched out their hands towards him.
If it was as usual, Jang Namuk would stop them, but Jang Namuk turned his eyes away from Tao Sihu.
Instead, to take care of the hydration of the cadets, who worked hard during the training, Jang Namuk took out the ion drinks and cold cups and started to hand them out to cadets.
“Uh? Uh… There is no way I would have a class application form with me during the training. Wait a moment, ack!”
The cadets caught Tao Sihu who tried to flee.
And soon they found ‘Notice about the subject class changes outside the application period’ inside of Tao Sihu’s battle uniform vest’s pocket.
He couldn’t even make an excuse that he had it by a coincidence as on the back of the notice, among the subject codes that appeared there, the subject codes for the navy curriculum were marked with highlighter.
The faces of the cadets, who just searched his pockets with the thought of harassing Tao Sihu, and the cadets, who were giggling while watching it, hardened.
Even the face of Jang Namuk, who was distributing drinks among the cadets and figured out the situation late, turned bloodless.
When Tao Sihu saw the faces of the cadets and Jang Namuk, who suffered hardships because of his leaving without permission incident, he didn’t choose the navy curriculum, but it seemed that he couldn’t let go of his lingering attachments as before.
“This fucker really is a crazy bastard.”
“No, I just… I had no thoughts of changing the subjects even later, I just happened to have it. Really…”
“Shut up.”
Peuk!
Starting with the cadet who blew a fist at Tao Sihu’s abdomen, the cadets lined up in line to punch Tao Sihu.
The guys who punched Tao Sihu even received an ice cup from Jang Namuk like some kind of compensation.
When Tao Sihu stretched out on the drill grounds in a groggy state, the buzz-cut cadet, who punched Tao Sihu first, spoke.
“Flag bearer! We left a face for you to punch!”
“Yeah, we stopped Gye-yeon from trying to blow that guy’s gab chin.”
“Let’s give him the finisher and start the training again.”
It seemed that at some point it became a silent rule that every time Tao Sihu caused an incident, Jang Namuk would punch his face.
Jang Namuk didn’t refuse.
As he stood up from his seat, Jang Namuk looked at Tao Sihu, who was blinking his eyes and acting pitiful, and spoke.
“Sihu, which side do you want? Left or right side of your face?”
“Flag bearer should punch two times for special.”
“Let’s do this!”
In the end, Tao Sihu was slapped on both cheeks.
* * *
As the Ju-Oh Island was a more distant place from the Incheon port compared to the Seongmo Island and in consideration of the students, who couldn’t enjoy sailing on the Son of Heaven, the movement speed was pretty fast.
We arrived quite late after I comfortably enjoyed the trip, and about the time when we were disembarking, the evening was stealthily approaching.
“Looking at the reviews about Ju-Oh Island on SNS, all food looks delicious…! I can’t wait what we’ll have for dinner!”
“It should be something more delicious than the food at the training camp, right?”
Ju-Oh Island was often tagged with hashtag ‘Celebrity class meter’, but it was also tagged with ‘food porn terror’.
Among the posts tagged with relevant tag which weren’t advertisements, there were often pictures of food that looked delicious even when only looking at the screen.
Between the children who disembarked with the faces full of anticipation, there was a bastard that couldn’t come to his senses just like before.
The very Mok Uram.
“… Lena-nim’s voice and personality are both beautiful, eh? It’s not only simply the music of my muse that is beautiful.”
With the excuse that he wasn’t feeling very well and would disembark slowly, Mok Uram finally moved.
That bastard said that he couldn’t move together with the rest, because traveling with Kwon Lena was too much of an honor.
Kim Yuri was the class president, but we couldn’t leave that dangerous bastard to Kim Yuri who just left the hospital room, so I, the vice class president, and teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim were in charge of Mok Uram.
“… Lena-nim? Muse?”
Teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim had a complicated face.
It seemed that he realized that the class 0’s student who just joined was a lunatic.
“I have a habit of talking to myself…. Won’t it be uncomfortable for Lena-nim to stay in the hotel with me for 3 nights and 4 days?”
Talking to himself wasn’t the only one of Mok Uram’s problems.
As if Mok Uram realized it late, he gasped with ‘heuk!’.
“Come to think of it, from the beginning I was staying in the same dormitory building as Lena-nim! I caused harm to Lena-nim in the meantime…”
It seemed that Mok Uram didn’t know what was the problem just like before.
First, as his words prolonged, I decided to reassure Mok Uram first.
“Eungwang School dormitory buildings were built to be completely soundproofed and with countermeasures against the superpower waves. Unless you open a window or break a wall, nothing will be heard. The same at the resort here.”
“Ah, is that so! I’m glad, eh? During my travels up till now I had troubles with it a few times.”
As Mok Uram was completely robbed like a complete hogu[3] during his travels, he would be staying in shabby accommodations.
Rundown facilities weren’t good for growing Players to stay in.
Because Eungwang School and Ju-Oh Group immaculately adhered to the architecture law related to the facilities used by Players, it wouldn’t a problem.
In the teenage years there were people who unknowingly would emit superpower waves when they sleep, so the soundproofing and superpower countermeasures were a necessity in the Player special highschool dormitories.
On the first day of school, even though it was noisy because of Kwon Lena’s incident, if the student didn’t have an open window, they would know nothing and pass it by.
When I was about to disembark while having a conversation with Mok Uram, I heard Ju Su-hyeok’s voice from the distance.
“Ah, Uisin-ah! I have an accommodation allocation problem to talk about, but…”
“Leave Mok Uram to me and go.”
“Yes, I’ll go. Then see you later.”
The goal of this trip was to make the class children and my Playable Characters fully enjoy the summer break.
Finishing a short conversation, I promised not to worry to teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim and headed towards Ju Su-hyeok.
Around Ju Su-hyeok each class’ presidents and vice presidents gathered.
As if Kim Yuri and An Dain met for the first time since the Training Camp incident, they bloomed with the conversations they were putting off until now.
‘As it was difficult to visit Kim Yuri and An Dain was also busy, they didn’t see each other for a long time, right?’
Worthy of the title heroine, An Dain was no less busy than Ju Su-hyeok.
Because even without putting my hand to it, there existed stories and scenarios which were on the move.
Blocking an assassination attempt on the secluded politician, rescuing Players, who lost their way in the maze type otherworld, etc., An Dain also accomplished numerous quests during the summer break.
‘An Dain also pulled them off much easier than in the game. Is it because Kim Yuri is safe, Cotton Ball wasn’t killed and Choe Pyeondeuk, who was the homeroom teacher and the illegally admitted guys, who harassed An Dain, are gone?’
An Dain, who was compared to an ice flower, was smiling today like a sunflower in the sunlight.
And Ju Su-hyeok looked at An Dain with a blessed face, and I saw Mun Saeron fidget with her hands as if she wanted to take a picture of Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain.
“You came?”
“… Ye.”
I faced Yu Sang-hun only after a long time because of the assassination incident following the typhoon.
As I thought that Yu Sang-hun also knew the content of the conversation between me and Jang Namuk, I wasn’t sure how I should talk with him.
‘I have to state clearly that they had that nightmare because of me. [4]’
As I abruptly said that they wouldn’t have that nightmare from now on, and I’m sorry, they would have already noticed.
But there was a big difference between me personally stating a fact and them just guessing it.
It was difficult to predict how Jang Namuk and Yu Sang-hun, who knew the origin of that nightmare, would react.
When considering the two people’s personalities, they wouldn’t be angry or request an apology.
Even so, my mouth strangely didn’t open.
‘Would we be able to be friends like now even after I tell them about the origin of the nightmare?’
Even when I received the room allocation plan and returned to the class 0’s children again, my mouth wasn’t able to open.
* * *
After leaving the baggage in the allocated to us rooms, the first item on the schedule for us, who came out on the beach, was a barbecue party.
On the Son of Heaven we ate our fill of the snacks provided by the Eungwang School, but when we arrived at our trip’s destination, we immediately became hungry somehow.
The children, who came back after they played in the sea for a short moment and consumed their energy, demanded to quickly take out food.
It was six pm, but because the sun was still up, everyone gathered and placed braziers and grills on the bright beach, and then started to grill meat.
Among the provided ingredients there was beef, pork, lamb, king crab, shrimps, mushrooms[5], corn, asparagus, etc., so almost nothing was lacking.
“Hahahaha! Seems like it’s time for this one to step out, eh?”
Though unwillingly, the 1st year class 0’s chef was fixed to be Hwang Jiho, but with cooking worthy of his age, he made seasoning that made one dumbfounded and sprinkled it on the meat and vegetables.
When the barbecue party reached its peak.
Hwang Jiho, the teachers and some students sensitive to the superpower waves looked towards the sea and shouted:
“… Something is coming!”
“Get out of the water!”
A few students, who were playing in the sea, hastily jumped out, and the teachers ran to the beach.
Something was approaching at high speed from the sea.
“What is that?!”
“… Ju-Oh Island has superpower traps set up around it. It’s impossible to ride a tide and come all this way!”
In the instant students took out their weapons and took battle poses.
The situation was tense, but it seemed that the children, who experienced the Youth Training Camp incident, familiarized themselves a bit with such situations.
“Hm, it doesn’t seem like we should attack.”
Hwang Jiho, who observed the sea with the Brilliant Gaze, withdrew his superpower wave and was leisurely mixing seasoning alone, spoke.
The something which was just about to land on the beach right now might have been someone Hwang Jiho knew.
Soon, some miserable looking guy stepped onto the beach.
“Wha-what? A local?”
“Don’t they look like a primitive man, who crawled out of an otherworld crack?”
They looked like that, but looking closely it was also a person I knew.
It wasn’t only me who knew him, it was a person already famous among the entire student body.
“Food… meat…. Save me…”
The person who wobbly walked on the sandy beach was wearing Eungwang School summer gym uniform.
The identity of the person who was walking towards us like a zombie was the 3rd year class 0’s president, Woo Gihwan, who was known to leave for the bootcamp on the uninhabited island.
*~*~*
[1] Please juoh me to the Ju-Oh Island — this a note left by this translator before they died. The raws literally say Please take me to the Ju-Oh Island. Because Tao Sihu used an old-fashioned polite tone, the ‘please take me’ is ‘주오 (ju-o(h))’.
[2] It felt like too much — … Am I going insane? ‘Too much is ‘오죽하다 (ojukhada)’, the beginning is turned around ‘주오 (juoh)’, but with ㄱ (k/g) added.
[3] hogu — a pushover.
[4] ‘I have to state clearly that they had that nightmare because of me.’ — So Korean is a language with a pretty loose sentence structure and this is the moment when author-nim uses it to drive some people crazy. This is the sentence translated literally word by word as in the raws: ‘That nightmare me because dreamed clearly state have to.’ :’>
[5] mushrooms — Agaricus bisporus
Translator’s note: As a rule, the barbecue always kicks off the zombie apocalypse. There is no zombie apocalypse without a barbecue.
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