Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
49. Sport exchange (5)
They looked pretty different when wearing Military Academy’s uniforms and peaked caps, but because the first meeting was so intense, I was able to recognize them straight away.
‘Those are the bastards, who came with Jang Namuk to catch Tao Sihu.’
Hongcheon Gari Mountain, where painter Hong Gyeongbok’s cabin was.
They were the buzz-cuts who flew a large tiltrotor and appeared in that place to line up to beat up Tao Sihu.
It seemed they were all Military School’s cadets, who appeared at Gari Mountain, excluding Jang Namuk and Tao Sihu.
‘Should I greet them?’
Because the situation wasn’t right, we weren’t able to talk a lot, but we exchanged introductions that day.
When I made up my mind to greet them, our eyes met.
“…!”
The sound of the heavy military boots hitting the floor rang out as the Military School’s cadets discovered us.
They rushed towards and lined up in front of us.
Standing in line military cadets raised their right hands and gave salutes.
The target of the salute was painter Hong Gyeongbok.
“Fight! Foes!”
The military cadets shouted the salute rallying cry used by the Player army ‘Fight foes![1]’, which meant ‘Break and defeat foes’.
The Korean Republic national army usually used ‘Loyalty’ and ‘Victory’ salute rallying cry, but at commander’s discretion or based on the tradition, the armies used numerous salutes like ‘Solidarity’, ‘Skeleton[2]’, ‘Charge’, ‘Self-discipline’.
The first priority goal of the Players belonging to the army was repelling ‘foes’ or Enemies to protect the country, so they used such a rallying cry.
‘If so, the moment when the salute rallying cry solidified as Fight foes was at the time when the term ‘Enemy’ popularized?’
When beings attacking humans appeared from an otherworld’s crack, it took a long time until the term for them standardized.
Enemy, monster, other, deformed[3], etc, numerous respective terms were given to Enemies.
At first there were many people who used monster, but finally the word ‘ENEMY[4]’ was selected around the world.
Among Enemies there were beings who closely resembled humans or were prettier than works of art.
The government and experts’ opinion was that if the word ‘monster’ which means ‘bizarre and strange creature’, was used for those otherworld’s beings, it would create a bias and lead to people lowering their guards when faced against a foe with a beautiful or human form.
‘It was said that one time the National Language Institute tried to purify the foreign word ‘Enemy’ with ‘foreign enemy[5]’ as part of a language purification movement, but failed.’
Just like they failed in purifying ‘re-make’ into ‘원작재구성(wonjakjaeguseong remake)’, and ‘happy ending’ into ‘행복결말(haengbokgyeolmal happy ending)’, they failed in purifying the word ‘Enemy’.
In Gaecheon Myth, the word used for the beings that were neither humans nor beast, and attacked Korean Peninsula, fighting with the sacred Tigers, were quote ‘foreign enemies’, and it was a situation where more people were already using the word Enemy.
And strictly speaking, the foreign enemies appearing in the Gaecheon Myth and the Enemies appearing from the otherworld’s crack were separate beings, so it might have been somehow lucky that the purification failed.
“Fight foes.”
Painter Hong Gyeongbok and Im Yeonhwa responded with a salute more nimble than the military cadets.
Painter Hong Gyeongbok experienced voluntary military service at the army and Im Yeonhwa was their senior, who graduated from the Military School’s highschool department, so it seemed that their experience in that didn’t go away.
Following painter Hong Gyeongbok lowering his hand, the military cadets stood at attention.
As if he remembered the cadets, who beat up Tao Sihu in the Gari Mountain, painter Hong Gyeongbok looked at the cadets’ faces one after one, and then asked.
“Yeah, you’re the children from that time, huh? But where is Sihu and Namuk?”
“Namuk was appointed as the leader of our cheering squad and will enter with the military band. Sihu belongs to the athletes team. We heard he will enter with the athletes.”
At the military cadets’ answer, painter Hong Gyeongbok gave a good-natured smile and gave them words of blessings.
After giving words of blessings, the military cadets diligently thanked him.
“We’re indebted for that time. Thank You!”
It didn’t seem like they only received tea from painter Hong Gyeongbok at that time.
Because it wasn’t only the cadets, who drunk tea in the Gari Mountains, who thanked.
‘It was around the time when Jang Namuk was dragged to the disciplinary room because of Tao Sihu’s incident, huh?’
It seemed that it was for that time when painter Hong Gyeongbok summoned three stars to rescue Jang Namuk.
Im Yeonhwa didn’t know what happened, but she didn’t dig deeper and pretended she didn’t hear it.
After finishing conversation with the painter, some of the cadets personally greeted Im Yeonhwa, and talked with her, so I overheard a word ‘strong cadet’.
It seemed that the legend of the now strong homeroom teacher, developing from the strong cadet Im Yeonhwa, was still being passed down to the military cadets.
‘But if Im Yeonhwa was such a talent, she wouldn’t be able to leave the army when she tried. Was there an ‘incident’?’
The cadets of the Player Military Academy’s highschool department were treated as quasi-soldiers and when they became adults, they were appointed straight away.
It was different from other armies where people usually entered the Military Academy after becoming adults and were appointed in their early mid-20s.
There was a lot of talk about the extreme actions taken by the government, which suffered from the danger of otherworlds and Enemies.
But when considering the countless deaths of Players enlisted after becoming adults and the performance of surviving Players, it was difficult to find fault with it.
In particular, there were even dramas made about actions of the first flag bearers and from the 1st to 9th generation graduates of the Military Academy.
Though the school days were tough and missions were said to be dangerous, the students, who graduated from the Military Academy’s highschool department with the highest rankings, had a path to success opened for them.
But Im Yeonhwa, who was admitted as a first place and graduated as the first place, after abandoning that path to success, filled up only an obligatory service and became an Eungwang School’s teacher, becoming a dead letter.
“Then I’ll be going first.”
After listening to the conversation and exchanging greetings, I left the place first.
I was bothered by Im Yeonhwa’s secret story, but currently I had to solve an approaching incident.
Naturally moving through the Eungwang Stadium, of which just the sport ground had 20,000 square meters, without using superpowers was more difficult than I thought.
Pretending to choose to walk in shadow, I used less noticeable routes and passed through the convenience facilities and information center, to at last arrive at my destination.
‘The central control room is here, huh?’
The central control room, which was located at the highest spot among the Eungwang Stadium’s facilities.
This place managed the main and assistant electronic signboards of the stadium and was in charge of the video transmission and guidance broadcast.
Behind the glass, I saw the holograms illuminating all places in the stadium, Broadcasting Club members from our school, and one person, who seemed to be a solider from the Player Military Academy’s Public Information Troops.
When I approached the door, it opened.
The door opened, and the staff from stadium management, who appeared, spoke up.
“Ordinary students are prohibited from entering here.”
The other party spoke kindly, but the instant I checked their face, a chill ran down my spine.
‘They aren’t part of the staff…!’
Last weekend I got the list of all staff members, who would be managing this event and memorized their names and faces.
Field management personnel, security team, broadcast staff, members of the cleaning service company, everyone, even the workers contracted to work for just one day.
And the person in front of my eyes wasn’t recorded among them.
Even so, they were wearing a name tag of the staff from the central control room and shamelessly working.
‘I thought there was a bigger possibility that they would infiltrate the audience, but… They’re bolder than I thought. Do they have confidence in their information manipulation ability?’
No matter how much we pay attention to the security, it was the first event hosted by students independently, and with how big it was, it would be difficult to block Demon’s infiltration.
There was still no proof, but there was a high chance this person was a priest of Avaritia, who was going to control Tao Sihu during this event to cause an incident.
I calmly showed the staff necklace to the being assumed to be a Demon, while speaking.
“Hello, I’m Eungwang School’s Newspaper Club’s Jo Uisin. Can I request a picture and an interview?”
“It would be difficult if You didn’t inform about it beforehand. I’ll pass Your message. There is not much time left until the opening ceremony, so can You come again later?”
No matter how I looked, they seemed like nothing but a polite and ordinary staff member doing their job well.
Even in the game I cursed because ‘how do Demons imitate humans better than humans?’.
In PMH, there were tribes that were human, but there were many stories about how they were more human than bastards, who openly didn’t seem human.
‘Because of the seeds this Demon planted, my Playable Character…!’
As I thought about the trigger for Jegal Jaegeol’s death, I gritted my teeth, but I couldn’t reveal it right now.
Just like that Demon was imitating an ordinary human, I also decided to pretend to be a nice student.
“Yes, I’d ask for it.”
I didn’t speak any further and stepped back.
Before the opening ceremony started, I have to look around all key facilities.
‘I was lucky to quickly find out where Avaritia’s priest is. The possibility that two or more Demons interfered is low, but I should look around everywhere first. Before that, contact Hwang Jiho and move to the next location…’
I turned around and headed to the athlete entrance and the waiting room.
In the secluded corridor, I messaged Hwang Jiho with a device, and when I was about to check the messages I received again.
“Uisin-ah, hi. Are you gathering news?”
The other party was my Playable Character.
“Hello, I’m going around taking pictures right now.”
“Okay?… Are you very busy?”
After I closed the device screen and greeted him, the other party hesitated, as he asked.
It seemed that Yeom Junyeol meant that there was something he wanted to talk about.
“Senior Yeom Junyeol-nim….?”
As if Yeom Juneyol was shooting, his hair was all swept back, and he was wearing semiformal suit, and not a school uniform.
A simple body movement to check if anyone was around seemed like a warm-up exercise of a model preparing for the promotion shooting.
‘… And looking around, Yeom Juneyeol came alone to such a secluded place! Isn’t he using ‘Hiding Presence’ very well?’
As a master I felt a bit of an overwhelming pride.
Yeom Junyeol, who confirmed there were no listening ears around, cautiously opened his mouth.
“There is something I wanted to ask for a while.”
“Yes, please speak.”
When I was filled with joy at my disciple’s growth, I suffered no less damage than when a Demon appeared.
“Do you know Red Wall Phantom Thief?”
Why ‘that word’ came out right now?
* * *
The Player army had training centers all over the country to ensure smooth execution of missions.
They were placed like that because they were to defend against otherworlds and Enemies, which one didn’t know where they would appear, and not to defend a fixed thing like a border.
Opportunely, Eungwang District also had a training center, so the Military School’s representative athletes were staying in the Eungwang District’s training center for the weekend to prepare for the exchange.
A few hours before the opening ceremony, Tao Sihu suddenly snapped back to his senses in the training center.
‘Where am I? Ah, the training center…’
Tao Sihu recently frequently lost memories.
The check-up results were always normal, but Tao Sihu doubted if there wasn’t something broken with him.
Those doubts were instigated by the increasing amount of times when he suddenly didn’t control his superpower wave, or he was completely empty as if he used up all his superpowers.
‘If I ask dad, I’ll get a separate check-up.’
Currently, it was difficult for Tao Sihu to receive a check-up at the public hospital without a permission of someone higher in status.
Wasn’t it a case where they couldn’t do anything, because it was an ominous illness outside of Military School’s domain?
Tao Sihu made up his mind to contact his home straight away when the sport exchange ends.
“… Sihu-ah, are you okay?”
Jang Namuk, who stayed with him at the training center as a flag bearer and representative of the cheering squad, spoke up.
After his strange sleeping habits activated and he almost jumped from the rooftop, Jang Namuk was often worried about Tao Sihu.
Besides that, it would be because the accidents were a bit frequent.
Tao Sihu bluffed to lessen Jang Namuk’s worries.
“Isn’t it natural? I’m fine!”
He put on a face and managed his voice to look well, but Jang Namuk’s expression darkened even more.
Behind Jang Namuk’s glasses, it seemed that something like starlight flashed and then disappeared.
*~*~*
[1] Fight foes — 파적 (pajeok 破敵).
[2] Skeleton — it means ‘to live loyal to the country, to die for the country and become skeletons, which protect the country’, used by the 3rd Infantry Division.
[3] Enemy, monster, other, deformed — curiously, all those terms here besides ‘deformed’ are borrowed words from English. In the following sentence both Korean word for a monster and borrowed word for a monster is used.
[4] ENEMY — author-nim is giving an English word here and capitalizing it like this. Which could mean I should have been scream-writing ENEMIES this entire time.
[5] foreign enemy — foreign foe would be better used here, but while I don’t know if it isn’t the first time we hear a term for them in the novel, this translator always used ‘foreign enemy’ in the discord chat, so I’m afraid I kinda drove myself into a corner here. The word is ‘외적 (we-jeog)’, 적 is the same word as in Player’s Army’s salute. But 적 also can mean thief (it is also in Jo Uisin’s Red Wall Thief title), so it could also mean external/outside thief.
[*] Sport — this chapter made me realize that perhaps I should check meanings for the words for ‘sport’ in Korean. So as a reminder, the word ‘sport’ in the chapter title is a borrowed English word. But Korean words could be 운동 (undong) which besides sport could mean: exercise, striving towards a goal, movement and all kinds of changes in the material plane based on the progression of time. It also means an edge/roof of a very high place.
Another possible word for sports is 경기 (gyeong-gi game/competition), which has a lot of meaning, but a few interesting ones are: booms and recession in trade, an old name for epilepsy I believe? An illness where a child would suddenly lose consciousness due to some image and convulse, qi/ability defending body against illness, a powerful cavalry, to suddenly wake up in surprise, to plow the land for planting crops.
Translator’s note:
Ridi’s best comment: Im Yeonhwa Evolution Tree: Strong Baby → Strong Pre-Player → Strong cadet → Strong homeroom teacher → Strong???
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