Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
48. First practice (1)
All Player specialized highschools included otherworld conquest practice in their curriculums.
Though the otherworld conquest was the flower[1], or in other words, the core subject of the Player specialized highschools education, it wasn’t easy for the students to experience actual battles.
It was because, while it was possible to always make a virtual otherworld using the otherworld simulator, it was impossible to adjust the real otherworld outbreak time on the school side.
‘Maybe if they had an ability like the ‘Otherworld Summoning’ Dark Mastermind possesses. It would be difficult to adjust the time of appearance of otherworlds of fixed difficulty to appear for a lesson, right?’
It was difficult to include the otherworld conquest practice in the academic calendar, but the Association and school side knew well the necessity of the otherworld practice.
Even though the otherworld reenacted by the simulator was overflowing with realism, running the simulator hundreds of times couldn’t compare to experiencing a real thing once.
So the Association decided to cooperate with the Player specialized highschools to provide information about the otherworld occurrence of specific difficulty on the specific time.
In the case of Eungwang School’s 1st year students, they were allocated the otherworlds of around R rank conquest difficulty, which the Association Player Satellite SAT-K detected to appear in September in Seoul.
And the weekend between the beginning and mid September.
Our 1st year class 0 went on the first practice.
“Number of dropouts from the Player special highschools rapidly increases after practice.”
“I hope no one drops out from our class…”
Sawol Seeum and Kwon Lena made worried faces.
The dormitory members decided to move together in the air taxi, but as if even Maeng Hyodon who had actual combat experience was nervous, he was sprinkling cheddar cheese sauce on an onion pretzel and eating it without a word.
Perhaps because it wasn’t particularly sweet, Han Yi, sitting on the opposite side, gritted her teeth on the honey mustard pretzel and sprinkled it with syrup heavier than the pretzel mass, and then ate it.
She didn’t show it in any major way, but it seemed that Han Yi was also shaken before the practice.
‘It’s true that the drop rate rises after the practice if you look at the Player special highschools’ statistics, but if you only look at the Eungwang School’s statistics, it’s fine.’
Rather, many students at Eungwang School took a leave of absence or dropped out from the shock of final rankings revealed after the final exams.
Even so, as our class children were so nervous, I should support them well to help them finish the first practice.
As we shared conversations related to the practice, at some point the air taxi arrived at our destination, in front of the Olympics park, World Peace’s door.
When we decided to divide the taxi fare for each person and I was to pay as a representative, Mok Uram spoke up.
“My apologies, vice president. My current bank balance is insufficient. May I pay the fare later? I’ll do my best during today’s practice to pay back with the reward money.”
Mok Uram checked the bank deposit on the hologram, and made an ashamed face.
You don’t have to blow up money to buy superpower violin materials now, so where did you spend all the money?
“It’s fine. I’ll pay the fare. But I thought you were diligently working in part-time scholarship work, were you still not paid?”
“Uh? I was paid yesterday.”
“Me too.”
Kwon Lena and Maeng Hyodon, who were scholarship part-time workers, had confused expressions.
“I’m no different, but recently I became short of funds, because of an advantageous purchase. I apologize, I couldn’t think of the fare beforehand. But I received a recommendation for books which seemed like they would be a serious help in Eungwang School academic life. I thought I had to buy them.”
“What?”
I had an ominous premonition.
Mok Uram made an innocent face.
“I purchased a set of encyclopedia and culture books. I heard they are a must-read for Eungwang School’s students!”
“Um…. Was there something like this?”
“There isn’t.”
“As expected, it appears I bought them a little too fast. I even received supplements for the first special edition.”
Mok Uram opened a hologram with the purchase details and showed it to us as if boasting.
Instead of book usable supplements like special edition book holder, quill, ink bottle, paperweight, etc, I saw the payment details for hardcover books three times their price.
“Moreover, to the kind Person’s recommendation I decided to subscribe to a newspaper and magazine. As I paid for 3 years in one go, I got a 10% discount. In fact, if I paid for 5 years subscription, I could get 5% more of a discount, but my funds were insufficient, so I couldn’t buy it.”
As expected, that bastard was a hogu!
While I didn’t see him, Mok Uram became a hogu again.
There were sometimes cases of selling a bargain on books, magazines and newspapers targeted at students.
If the students with little of such experiences were thrown a bait like studying and education, they were easily hooked.
“Uram-ah… That is…”
“… You meant that even though your funds were close to 0, that ‘kind Person’ was recommending it so strongly?”
Kwon Lena and Han Yi seemed to recognize that Mok Uram was fooled.
“Heuk, those books will make you smarter even if you just buy them?!…. Should I buy them?”
“They’re are a bit expensive, but the book supplements designs are nice! It’s a limited edition? Until when They’re selling it? Where can I buy it?”
Maeng Hyodon and Sawol Seeum made half-hooked faces.
There were another hogu candidates here!
It seemed there would be other victims even among my Playable Characters, so I decided to stop it.
“Let’s get a refund.”
“Yes? However…”
“How many books do you usually read?”
“That…”
Mok Uram hesitated and then shut his mouth.
Because he was busy with artisan work as a superpower violin artisan, it seemed he didn’t particularly have any time to read books.
I don’t know why he wasted all his property to buy paper decorative items.
“Thinking about it, there are many books at the school library and at my home.”
“It seems I would buy it and not read it.”
While I persuaded Mok Uram, it seemed that Sawol Seeum and Maeng Hyodon came back to their senses.
Kwon Lena and Han Yi also indirectly suggested to Mok Uram to ask for a refund, and luckily Mok Uram set his mind in the direction of getting a refund.
As we persuaded the zero funds hogu, the class 0 children, who went home from school, arrived one after one.
“Guys-ah, did you see Miro’s picture?”
Kim Yuri spoke with a bright face.
There were so many articles and pictures of Dokgo Miro, who was in the middle of shooting a broadcast and recently became a hot topic through the death match, they couldn’t be counted on one hand.
‘Which picture are you talking about?’
Kim Yuri opened a few pictures on the hologram.
It was a picture of Dokgo Miro smiling and waving her hand with an awkward face, but looking at the background, it seemed to be around the broadcasting station.
Because Dokgo Miro tried to disappear when pictures were taken with a camera, she never looked good in the pictures, but this picture was very well taken.
Her expression was awkward as before, but the light adjustment and the picture’s color harmonized well with Dokgo Miro.
“Wow, I think this is the prettiest picture of Miro I saw up till now!”
“It’s closer to real her.”
“Was it taken by a pro-photographer? It looks much better than the pictures from articles and in portfolio from the broadcast!” [2]
“I want to draw it…”
Kim Yuri pointed at a small translucent stamp in the corner of the picture.
The stamp had a shape of a geometric maze, so it seemed to come from ‘Miro (maze)’ of Dokgo Miro.
“Miro got a homma! This is that homemaster’s stamp.”
“Homma? Homemaster?”
“To explain it simply, it’s a fan who takes pictures of entertainers and shares them.”
Homma was a title of a fan, who walks around with a high definition camera, personally takes the pictures of entertainers and shares those commonly called ‘fans photos’.
It was a common case for a homma to stick around before the debut.
However, it was a very happy occasion that a Dokgo Miro, who kept facing a harsh criticism, got a big fan.
‘Homma….’
There was a narrow line between a vicious personal fan and a virtuous fan.
I looked at Hwang Jiho, but he had no particular change in expression.
It probably meant there were no particular problems with that homma.
“If you go to that Person’s homepage, there are more pictures! They publish pictures before and after a correction, and even the pictures before the correction look better than the pictures taken up till now.”
Kim Yuri showed Dokgo Miro’s pictures and added a brief explanation.
According to Kim Yuri’s explanation, it seemed that the homma became Dokgo Miro’s fan because they were hit by the death match video, commonly called ‘fan entrance video’.
‘If it’s Dokgo Miro’s fan, even more so a fan with a lot of experience of professionally using a camera, shouldn’t I be able to use them?’
As my thoughts got to this point, Hwang Jiho lowered his voice and asked.
“You’re making a suspicious expression again, eh? You have some thoughts?”
As I nodded, Hwang Jiho seemed to roughly guess my meaning.
As expected, that geezer, who lived for a long time, was fast to notice.
I was about to talk more, but I felt a presence and paused the conversation.
Just behind us was Song Daeseok.
“Why?”
Recently the times when Song Daeseok carefully observed class children increased.
He was like this since the day we went to the Ju-Oh Island, but at first I thought he was like this to figure out how an ordinary person acts, but it seemed my thoughts were wrong.
‘He observes the three of us, me, Han Yi and Hwang Jiho. To speak precisely, he is like this when Hwang Jiho talks to me or Han Yi.’
Was he like this because during the Youth Training Camp Hwang Jiho showed a non-human power?
However, there were many mysterious and eccentric people at Eungwang School, and even among humans there were many who showed an ability to whip Jin people.
And Song Daeseok’s grandfather[3], Great Hero Iron Arm Song Manseok, was a representative example of such talent.
It didn’t seem that Song Daeseok thought Hwang Jiho was strange just because of it.
‘Is he like this just because Hwang Jiho seems like a lunatic? Then why Han Yi and me…’
My doubts deepened.
“Daeseok-ah?”
Min Geurin looked at him with uneasy eyes.
It seemed that she was worried if Song Daeseok, who was recently getting along with the children, wasn’t going to pick a quarrel again.
As Min Geurin was at his side, Song Daeseok stepped back first.
“… It’s nothing.”
It wouldn’t be nothing.
Before we could speak to Song Daeseok again, someone appeared.
“Class children have a good relationship, huh?”
Since when were you observing?
Yong Jegeon appeared with an ecstatic expression.
Beside him was Kim Sinrok managing his expression, but as he looked more stiff than usual, it was obvious that Yong Jegeon was scratching his insides again.
“Teach Yong-nim, teacher Kim Sinrok-nim! Hello! Will class 1 also practice around here?”
“Yeah, the conquest difficulty is low, but the predictions say that several otherworlds will appear at the same time.”
Kim Sinrok friendlily greeted the children, but Yong Jegeon who saw it made a face as if he was dying from laughter.
It seemed that every time Kim Sinrok hid his nature and talked with children was fresh.
“I’m only passing by. Please be careful, so there aren’t any incidents.”
“I’ll be careful. You also be careful, teacher Kim Sinrok-nim.”
He put strength onto the unnatural addition ‘teacher Kim Sinrok-nim’.
Kim Sinrok swiftly turned his head and moved without looking back.
Sawol Seeum, who was the closest with Yong Jegeon among our class kids, asked:
“… Did You perhaps have a fight with teacher Kim Sinrok-nim?”
“Hahahaha!”
Suddenly Hwang Jiho started laughing, and the atmosphere became a mess.
I guess Kim Sinrok, who was like his nephew, not acting friendly with his friend and fighting with him looked good in that geezer’s eyes.
The messy atmosphere was barely settled after teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim appeared.
* * *
30 minutes before the otherworld outbreak.
Teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim opened a hologram and did a briefing.
The place he pointed at the hologram was around the Mongchon trench music fountain in the Olympic Park.
It was the place we were currently gathered at.
“This time the attack team practice will be accompanied by teacher Yong Jegeon-nim. Kim Yuri will stay behind as a defense team.”
Kim Yuri made a regretful face, but soon agreed.
The sea wasn’t very visible from this place in the center of Seoul, but 88 Lakes, Seokchon Lake and Han River were very close.
Kim Yuri’s Gwangrim called the madness of the sea.
If it targeted a lake or a river, its power would decrease, but even so, the caution was necessary.
As Kim Yuri still couldn’t perfectly control her Gwangrim, this choice couldn’t be helped.
‘It’s outside of school, so Yong Jegeon isn’t influenced by the teacher contract. If Yong Jegeon is just fully ready, it wouldn’t be difficult to deal with it, but if Kim Yuri goes into a runaway, the practice will become a disaster.’
1st year class 0’s first practice.
The guide, Yong Jegeon.
The participants, I, Hwang Jiho, Han Yi, Kwon Lena, Maeng Hyodon, Sawol Seeum, Min Geurin, Song Daeseok and Mok Uram.
The group of 10 people participated as an attack team.
*~*~*
[1] flower — yes, it’s something that only makes sense in Korean, but flowers are important, so I’m leaving it here.
[2] “Was it taken by a pro-photographer? It looks much better than the pictures from articles and in portfolio from the broadcast!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
[3] grandfather — grandfather on the father’s side.
Translator’s note:
Me: *Spending the last of my money on this novel* Don’t worry Mok Uram, I understand you. Books… Books are very important.
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