Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
46. Under stage (7)
There exist some subtle evil acts that leave no records.
It’s such an insides-churning situation, where there was only damage, and no perpetrator or evidence.
If Choe Pyeondeuk wasn’t caught by Jeok-ho, he would be out on bail by now and through a law battle, free himself from probation.
Similarly, Kwon Lena’s adoptive parents would hide their true faces from the Players of the Eternal Lake.
Without knowing beforehand or assuming they committed evil acts and having the people, who possessed the information network of Jin people, deciding to investigate, those people’s evil deeds would stay buried.
It wasn’t a simple prediction.
Because in the game those people’s evil deeds weren’t revealed, and they didn’t receive judgment even after the ending was reached.
I was guessing that an evil person of that class planted Dokgo Miro with camera and school phobia.
‘After a big incident exploded in the elementary school that Dokgo Miro and Han Yi were attending, a few teachers were removed from their positions. But there is nothing related to cameras in that incident.’
Embezzlement of school development funds, gift money or in other words, bribes, corruption of the selection process of after-classes school companies, grades manipulation, theft, etc.
Thanks to combining all kinds of unsavory incidents that could happen in the classroom of an elementary school, as if creating a set, the end of the incident after Seong Gukeon stepped out to investigate and report, wasn’t very clean.
Because they were first-time offenders and had good social reputation, they received very lenient treatment the moment the incident was forgotten.
But it seemed that Hwang Jiho applied ‘private disciplinary actions’ against the teachers, who received soft punishments in that incident.
— Don’t worry. They won’t be able to eat well or live well. And no longer they will stretch out their feet to sleep.
When that incident came up in the conversation in the Newspaper Club, Hwang Jiho made such a comment.
Even so, there was something that bothered me.
‘That incident isn’t related to cameras.’
How did Dokgo Miro get camera phobia?
Looking at how Dokgo Miro stiffened even more after crossing the school’s main gates, I guessed it was related to school.
If so, the trauma was planted by a teacher or a student, but it didn’t seem like the student was leading it.
‘As an elementary student, Dokgo Miro hid her face and reigned as a king. It’s difficult to think that it was a student.’
I couldn’t come up with no one but a teacher as an opponent an elementary school student’s back alley overlord couldn’t deal with.
So I put teachers on the first line of suspects.
‘There is a possibility that someone wasn’t caught and let go during that incident. Wouldn’t there be someone among the school staff that didn’t receive even a soft punishment?’
It was also a problem that they were eating and living perfectly well, but the bigger problem was what they may do to Dokgo Miro and Han Yi again.
‘But there is no evidence that any of the homeroom teachers in charge of Dokgo Miro and Han Yi committed evil deeds. There is a possibility that if they’re thoughtlessly beaten up, innocent teachers will also be involved. So I chose the way of entering that group and directly checking with one’s two eyes.’
I requested Hwang Jiho to directly investigate them.
As there was also an elementary school student Playable Character, I had a way to personally go there.
But if I borrowed Playable Character’s face and infiltrated the elementary school, there was a big chance it would turn into a problem later, and I didn’t have enough time to make a new fake identity.
In contrast, with Ho tribe’s good relationship with government and Association, it was easy to create a new identity.
In addition, as the Jin people and descendants could adjust their outwardly visible age, it was nothing to infiltrate the elementary school as a student.
‘… he didn’t send a subordinate, but went in person, huh?’
I said that I wanted Hwang Jiho to confirm it directly, but I thought it with a meaning of personally confirming a subordinate’s report.
‘Is it really Hwang Jiho? Evidently it’s Hwang Jiho.’
I felt stupefied in a different sense from the times when Snare was placed in front of me.
Over five thousand years old elementary school student, the child Hwang Jiho?!
If it was usual, a ‘ruined geezer’ sound would come out by itself in my head, but I couldn’t roast elementary school student Hwang Jiho, who looked younger than my younger siblings in my memory.
With his highschool student’s appearance I had to look up because he was taller than me, but with elementary school student Hwang Jiho I had to bow my head to met eyes with him.
Rather than hateful sounds, I wanted to give words of a blessing to the elementary school student that had to live in this harsh world.
Woof!
The one to bring me back to my senses was Snare.
Yeah, no matter how much Hwang Jiho looked like an elementary school student, he couldn’t match my angel.
“Hahaha! You seem surprised, eh? There is also no flaw with this one’s elementary school form, right?”
As if satisfied after receiving my gaze filled with admiration, the elementary school student Hwang Jiho erased his tired expression, and instead his pretty eyes sparkled.
It was elementary school student’s form, but when he opened his mouth and laughed with such sparkling eyes, it was like Hwang Jiho.
“Hwangho-nim, welcome back!”
“Wow, it’s small Hwangho-nim!”
“You’re back.”
As Eun-ho’s descendants greeted even the elementary school student Hwang Jiho like this, I felt subtle.
The elementary school student Hwang Jiho exchanged the greetings with the children, and then came to me and lowered his voice.
To hear his whispers, I had to lower myself to my knees.
“Let’s move. The conversation we will be having from now on doesn’t seem like it will be good for the children’s development, eh?”
Hearing such words from the elementary school student Hwang Jiho was very, extremely subtle.
* * *
Hwang Myeong-ho’s main mansion’s drawing room.
After we sat down, the automatic maid brought refreshments.
‘No tea, but parfait?’
Today instead of tea, a parfait with fig, plum, thinly sliced banana and cereal was served.
Were the taste buds of the elementary school student’s version different?
If not, was Hwang Jiho doing it to stay faithful to the elementary school student concept?
If not even that, was it simply an order mistake?
I couldn’t figure out which one it was, but as if it wasn’t a mistake, the elementary school student Hwang Jiho, who sat on the sofa, started eating parfait.
“Did you hear about the end of the people, who dared to step foot into the divine realm outside of the approved time without any fear?”
“Are you talking about those staff members?”
“Yeah. A few hours ago, something went wrong with the broadcasting equipment, and because of the coincidental water pipe explosion, they suffered a group electrocution incident. They’re not dead, but they’re hospitalized.”
A few hours ago, something like that happened?
I didn’t have inside knowledge about the incident, but I was certain it didn’t happen by ‘ coincidence’.
The elementary school student Hwang Jiho opened his mouth as if talking about someone else’s story.
“The broadcasting equipment which discharged was Namkung[1] Electrics’ product. Some time ago Namkung Group made a mess in Gwangli neighborhood, they truly have no dignity, eh?”
Hwang Jiho seemed to be aiming for two birds with one stone.
“I didn’t like how the Namkung Local Products’ side changed their words when we tried to actively buy the theme park. The accepted proposal was thrown out four times when writing a contract, because they changed their words three times. Because of that, the take-over was late.”
It was natural that a purchase of the theme park in the center of Seoul wasn’t achieved in a day or two, but I guess there was a reason why it took longer than expected.
As the service company employed by director Choe of the Namkung Group’s Strategy Planning Office, the relationship between Namkung Group and Hwang Myeong Group was becoming twisted little by little.
“It seems that even in the future there will be many problems with the Namkung Electrics’ products, so use it as cover-ups. And don’t ride NK Automobiles’ models.”
I guess Hwang Jiho planned to take revenge even in the future.
Won’t there soon be incidents because the NK Automobiles’ airbags don’t activate or the brakes don’t work properly?
The passengers would be one of the people who run wild in the Ho tribe’s territory already.
“… How was the elementary school life?”
“Hahahaha! More enjoyable than I expected, eh? We were making an elementary school anthology, but eight from twenty works were plagiarized! Though the copied works were pretty minor. If it’s not someone with a reading record on the level of this one, they probably wouldn’t discover it.”
It seemed that the elementary school student Hwang Jiho was very active for the past week.
Hwang Jiho laughed lively as he spoke.
“Because I pointed it out, they said my name would be erased from the anthology, eh? I also had to eat lunch alone. But I didn’t eat any from the beginning because it was disgusting. I made the house register in a very cheap place, and they found out about it and called me a beggar, eh?”
It seemed Hwang Jiho, who just joined, was ostracized.
But how did the kids know the house register of the child that transferred not a long time ago?
Did the teacher secretly spill it out?
“Moreover, Cheong-ho’s disciple, who was set up to have no parents, was fixed on the trash duty…”
It seemed that similar incidents exploded in the places Cheong-ho’s disciples infiltrated.
Even so, as if the elementary school experience was novel for him, Hwang Jiho talked about it with energy and enjoyment.
But I didn’t hear enjoyment from the part he added.
“It’s disgusting if my close friend experienced it at such a young age, eh?”
Hwang Jiho opened several things on the hologram.
In the hologram were pictures of the elementary school group activities taken during the outings or practical classes.
There was a picture of young Dokgo Miro and Han Yi sticking close in a corner.
The two, who stood side by side with smiling expressions at first, gradually distanced themselves from each other and their expressions grew darker as the pictures were taken.
In the senior years, there were no pictures of Dokgo Miro at all.
“Excluding the teacher in charge of the two when they first met during the 2nd grade of the elementary school, everyone was trash.”
Hwang Jiho’s explanation continued.
When the two first met and became friends, the teacher in charge of them was ordinary.
They didn’t step out to embody the spirit of justice, but they also didn’t participate in any wrongdoings.
Though they didn’t take the lead to try to protect the two, only the 2nd year homeroom teacher was a teacher who didn’t harass them.
“However, that teacher doesn’t have a good reputation. Among the teachers, they’re treated as socially inapt, and among parents they’re considered inattentive to the children, eh?”
In contrast, the reputation of other teachers seemed pretty good.
“In contrast, the trashes’ reputation is very good. Among teachers and parents they’re good people. Because even though they harass one student, they treat twenty students well. They act clever and cunning, eh?”
If they behave like this, even when their actions were to be dug out later, the victims might have been driven into a corner even more with the questions like ‘What have you done to make such kind teacher do something so extreme?’.
And Hwang Jiho and Cheong-ho’s disciple, though for a short moment, vividly experienced the victims’ position, thanks to faking weakness.
“Cheong-ho’s disciples are considering if they should shove those guys into Silver Shadow (Eunyeong) Building or under the floor of Taehokwon dojo.”
Besides, Hwang Jiho began to mention other punishments that the Ho tribe and Hwang Myeong Group could use.
It seemed they planned to crash all the teachers based on their importance.
I liked all the methods Hwang Jiho presented, but I wanted to suggest something.
“I’ll leave the action to you. Instead, I hope you will consider my suggestion…”
The eyes of the elementary school student Hwang Jiho, who heard my suggestion, sparkled and then he nodded.
* * *
A few days after meeting with the elementary school student Hwang Jiho.
The school started to become noisy.
It was because the 1st year’s first otherworld conquest attack practice lesson was just ahead, and the team training of the representative athletes in the sport exchange with the Military Academy started.
The Eungwang School athletes teams, whose members were selected either from each club or individually, even wore matching sport uniforms and made an athlete village on the Eungwang School’s grounds.
[Yu Sang-hun] (photo)
[Yu Sang-hun] Gonna win.
The group chat with Jang Namuk and Yu Sang-hun.
Yu Sang-hun uploaded a picture of the Eungwang School representative athletes’ village entrance ceremony together with a long message.
[Jang Namuk] Wow, Eungwang School’s sport uniforms are cool!
[Jang Namuk] Should we also match? I’ll put out a proposal.
[Yu Sang-hun] n copying
[Jang Namuk] Even if the cadets representative athletes match their sport uniforms, we won’t copy them!
[Jang Namuk] Anyhow, we won’t lose. Didn’t you have to make an athlete village because of the Eungwang School’s daily students? In Military Academy everyone is staying together as dormitory students from the beginning. You will never match our unity or training time.
[Yu Sang-hun] ㅋ [2]
It seemed that Jang Namuk and Yu Sang-hun’s battle of nerves would continue until the end of the sport exchange.
As Eungwang School’s student, I sided with Yu Sang-hun, but although it was 2 against 1, the amount of text the two of us wrote, didn’t beat one ten minutes message of Jang Namuk, so there was no feeling of superiority.
On the way to school, I sent a few constants in the group chat, but it was insufficient to bury Jang Namuk’s long messages.
“Did you see Playlist yesterday? What to do…. Miro is in a death match!”
“Yes… the response to the previous stage wasn’t very good, so in the end it seems she went to the death match.” [3]
As I arrived in the 1st year class 0’s classroom later than usual, all children had already arrived.
The children were talking about ‘Playlist’ with sad faces.
“Did you see the mission? Be it a mission or an opponent, they aren’t particularly good.”
Kwon Lena’s voice trembled.
Han Yi, who listened without saying a word, had a dark face.
Dokgo Miro was given a death match mission and had to compete against a randomly assigned by the mission opponent.
As Kwon Lena said, the mission was the worst.
“Was there no cheating? The opponent’s terrible.”
“As senior Yeom Junyeol picked it, there wouldn’t be cheating.”
“That match… that’s too harsh. Compete on the video views against the internet famous streamer Player!” [4]
Dokgo Miro’s death match was against a Player famous as a otherworld broadcast streamer.
There was no way that Dokgo Miro, who had a camera phobia, could compete on the number of video views with that Player.
It was the worst type of situation.
Even so, it was not the end.
‘Rather, it may be a good opportunity.’
An opportunity to help Dokgo Miro with my abilities came.
*~*~*
[1] Namkung — romanized as ‘Namgung’ before.
[2] ㅋ — ‘ke’ a laugh.
[3] “Yes… the response to the previous stage wasn’t very good, so in the end it seems she went to the death match.” — it should be Sawol Seeum.
[4] “That match… that’s too harsh. Compete on the video views against the internet famous streamer Player!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
Translator’s note: Elementary school student Hwang Jiho eating parfait is perfect elementary school student Hwang Jiho, everyone praise elementary school student Hwang Jiho.
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