Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
49. Sport Exchange (8)
On the podium for the Player Military Academy’s cheering squad.
After climbing the podium, Jang Namuk, the current 1st year flag bearer and the corresponding flag cheering squad leader, sincerely observed the audience and guided their cheers.
But Jang Namuk’s nerves were directed at the stage installed in the center of the main sport ground all along.
After all members[1] spread throughout the stadium, Jang Namuk turned his back straight away and used ‘Eyes of the Star Maiden’ to look inside the stage of the main sport ground.
As if someone made a barrier or equivalent to that defense plan against the Hundred Li Eyes or Thousand Li Eyes skills beforehand, the inside seemed blurry.
He couldn’t confirm what was inside of the stage, Jang Namuk was certain.
‘… The fact that I ‘can’t see well’ with those eyes is no different from a proof that something is in fact happening inside of it!’
Jang Namuk took of his glasses, and raised the output of the Eyes of the Star Maiden limiting them to seeing one target, Tao Sihu.
With the sensation of the superpower wave pouring in, he blurrily started to see the insides of the stage.
Tao Sihu seen through the starlight just made all staff members faint.
Jang Namuk gripped the cheering flag he was holding so tightly he was about to break it.
‘Sihu is really there…!’
It wasn’t a well-known fact, but the center of the exchange between Eungwang School and Military Highschool was Tao Sihu.
The trigger of this exchange, the basketball match, started with the suggestion Tao Sihu made to Yu Sang-hun.
Moreover, Tao Sihu belongs to the Military Highschool, but he was also a younger cousin of the Eungwang School’s Student Council’s president Tao Wonu.
Tao Sihu assisted in making the communication between the Military School’s cadet council and Eungwang School’s Student Council, which didn’t have exchanges or points of contact before, possible.
It was obvious what would happen if Tao Sihu, who played the role of a bridge maker, murdered each school’s Cadet Council’s head and Student Council’s president on the Sport Exchange.
At least the two schools would certainly not have another exchange.
‘It’ll be like Uisin said. If something happens, everything will become Sihu’s responsibility…!’
Capturing the evidence of the priest of Demon God Avaritia’s doings, which was difficult to see through even with Jang Namuk’s eyes, would be very difficult.
In addition, if it was revealed that TC Group’s child and Military Academy’s first place Tao Sihu was manipulated by a Demon, there would be many people, like bodyguards in charge of him and the Military School’s teachers, who would have to take responsibility for this matter.
In contrast, all kinds of actions Tao Sihu committed because of his obsession with the navy curriculum, which were no different from suicide attempts, they were overflowing with witnesses and proofs.
Jo Uisin predicted that the culprit behind this matter would use Tao Sihu’s actions to cover up this case.
— After Tao Sihu murdered his outstanding older second cousin and Cadet Council’s head in the public venue out of inferiority complex and stress, the other party would complete the scenario with his suicide.
— I think that the being who planned this assassination, and the being who wasn’t involved in this assassination, would finish the scenario like this.
Seeing the situations Tao Sihu faced, or the mysterious events that occurred until now, and the situation right now, it seemed that Jo Uisin’s prediction was right.
‘Sihu-ah…!’
When in his mind Jang Namuk called out the name of the friend facing a horrible situation.
Tao Sihu, who moved mechanically before, stopped as if he felt Jang Namuk’s gaze.
As if he regained his senses, Tao Sihu looked around.
Jang Namuk was overwhelmed with the impulse to go take out Tao Sihu from under that stage right now.
‘… I have to trust Sihu and Uisin. If I step out here right now, the plan Uisin made may be disrupted!’
It was just a moment when Tao Sihu regained his senses.
As a still inexperienced Player and with his mind shaken, it was a difficult matter for Jang Namuk to maintain that output of ‘Eyes of the Star Maiden’.
On the other side, a moment when it was impossible to observe Tao Sihu through Jang Namuk’s eyes.
As if he lost control over his body, and as if he was tied and manipulated by strings, Tao Sihu started to move awkwardly.
Tao Sihu staggered towards the location directly under the place where the two students representatives stood on the stage.
Peuk!
At that moment, a lump of warm superpower wave slapped Tao Sihu in the face.
“Ack!”
Tao Sihu felt pain from the side of his face that the cadets from under the same flag always offered for Jang Namuk to hit.
Tao Sihu, who let out a short scream and touched his burning cheek, sensed restrictions on him momentarily loosening.
The lump of superpower wave that hit Tao Sihu’s cheek immediately disappeared.
He didn’t see it probably, but it seemed that the lump of superpower wave, as big as a fist, was shaped like a bird.
He was annoyed by the unidentified thing, but it wasn’t a problem right now.
‘My body is moving…!’
But hundreds of threads were crawling on Tao Sihu, trying to envelop him again.
Tao Sihu, who figured out the situation, had a hunch that if at this speed he wouldn’t be able to deal with and his body was tied up by the threads again, he would be controlled again.
And when he is controlled, something will happen.
‘… I can leave it alone!’
Tao Sihu activated his Gwangrim.
Shining chains whirled around Tao Sihu.
[You’re going to resist with that chain? Don’t bother. I know that your Gwangrim is useless without a target in front of your eyes.]
He immediately heard again the voice he heard before from the distance.
It was like someone said, right now in the range of Tao Sihu’s Gwangrim was only the fainted staff and Tao Wonu and Cadet Council’s head on the stage.
Right now it was impossible to use Gwangrim on someone pulling a trick.
However, instead of answering to those words, Tao Sihu brought up the superpower wave to maximum to use the Gwangrim.
Because of the Gwangrim’s chains containing the superpower wave, the Demon’s threads couldn’t touch Tao Sihu.
[Defending yourself with superpower wave has its limits. It’s a matter of time.]
Pat!
The completely materialized through Gwangrim chain separated itself from Tao Sihu’s body.
And once the chain detached itself from Tao Sihu’s body, it moved towards Tao Sihu again.
Someone’s shocked voice rang in Tao Sihu’s eardrums.
[No way…!]
The chain of restrain, into which Tao Sihu poured superpower wave with all his might, quickly circled around him.
What the chain tied was Tao Sihu.
The chain, which absorbed Tao Sihu’s superpower wave, of which was not a lot of left, simply stopped moving after restraining him.
Because of the chain tightening around his body, his whole body took damage, but Tao Sihu endured the pain and shouted:
“Hey! Now because my superpower wave is sealed I can’t set off the bomb or use Gwangrim! So what are you going to do!?”
* * *
All Playable Characters had a thing in common.
They never gave up.
To the last moment, there was no one, who held hands with Dark Mastermind or became desperate and pessimistic about their fate.
Even when things were beyond their powers or when they trusted people left behind and sacrificed themselves, there was no one who gave up.
Baek Ho-gun, who was the very last among the Playable Characters to collapse, was like this.
Baek Ho-gun carried all the will[2] left by other Playable Characters and faced the bad ending.
As my last Playable Character was in front of my eyes, it was natural for admiration to shoot up.
If they were Baek Ho-gun’s words, I had no doubts and believed that Sawol Seeum’s Gwangrim ‘The King Said’ would safely activate.
‘Even so, the Playable Trajectory’s available time greatly decreased. Was it because I was fighting head on against the mind domination of the high priest of a Demon God?’
I only activated the Gwangrim with Tao Sihu as a target, but the limited time written on the card greatly decreased.
However, I could spare Gwangrim right now.
I pulled out ‘Unknown Fate’ from the holster and held it in my hand so I could use it at any time.
“Then lets move to the next location.”
At my words, Baek Ho-gun nodded without a word.
* * *
The superpower specialized highschools’ exchanges were pretty complicated to hold.
The biggest problem was obtaining a venue.
If they were to use the facilities inside of both schools, over the four digits of students of the other school and the audience would have to enter the school, so it was concluded it would take too much time considering the security procedures.
In the end it was decided that the facility that can accommodate thousands of Players would be rented for the exchange.
Eungwang Stadium designated as the opening ceremony venue, as a sport ground built by Hwang Myeong Constructions had a perfect superpower wave countermeasures against Players’ runaways and Enemies.
Such equipped Eungwang Stadium could easily cut off superpower waves and communication.
But priest of Avaritia was somewhat bothered.
‘… It bothers me that the dome roof closing was suddenly added to the stage. Who the hell cut off the communication? It became impossible to use ‘Eyes’.’ [3]
Demons were able to observe from a long distance through ‘Eyes’.
The activation condition and sealing condition differed from Demon to Demon, the group of Demons to which priest of Avaritia belonged to used ‘Eyes’ related to communication.
Those ‘Eyes’, which mixed superpower waves into the electromagnetic waves used by the wireless communication were extraordinary, and if excluding beings with the quick senses like the Yong tribe’s Yong Jegeon or Seo tribe’s Seodol, they couldn’t detect that gaze, less block it.
But there was a weakness.
The methods blocking the communication could also block the ‘Eyes’.
In the era of edge-cutting technology, there was almost no place not touched by the wireless technology, but if one made up their mind, even a human could easily block it.
‘As I can’t use even the Military School’s cadet, who had seeds planted in him, I’ll take care of things from here…’
Because of the sudden surge of terrifying energy, the priest of Avaritia emitted a superpower wave.
Kwang! Kwakwawang!
Golden barrier and purple miasma intertwined in the air and exploded.
The priest of Avaritia, who was almost tied by the barrier, clicked his tongue.
Because he was watching the whole Eungwang Stadium relaying on the Eyes until a moment ago, he became careless.
He wasn’t able to detect even one suspicious movement, but it seemed that the opponent was determined to solve the situation and moved.
“When communication was blocked on the Seongmo Island, Yong Jegeon said that he couldn’t feel those ‘Eyes’. It became certain that the communication and those annoying eyes are connected, huh?”
In front of him was the guardian of Divine Realm, Myth category Ho tribe member.
It was Hwang-ho, appearing to be in his thirties.
“I guess You’re aware of everything, eh?”
“Yeah. Where did you get an idea to act arrogant in the divine realm I’m a guardian of? I looked around the entire audience. You even came alone without fear, eh?”
He feigned composure, but priest of Avaritia gulped for air.
‘Checking whether there are other Demons in the audience or not?! Since when did you know…?!’
He confirmed that some of the annoying beings among the beings of Eungwang School like Yong Jegeon weren’t visible, but he couldn’t figure out where the hell Hwang-ho mixed in and moved.
A Jin recognized another Jin, but he couldn’t confirm if the being seen through the ‘Eyes’ was a Jin or not.
So he couldn’t figure out there was Hwang-ho mixed among the audience.
‘It is a stupid plan to go against Hwang-ho in the divine realm!’
Instead of accepting the battle invitation, the priest of Avaritia immediately started a blackmail.
“If You don’t let me go safely, the audience will die.”
“…”
Hwang-ho’s golden eyes narrowed.
Until a moment ago, the priest of Avaritia disguised himself as a staff member and moved around the Eungwang Stadium planting seeds.
He was certain that those seeds wouldn’t be a problem, even planted, and wouldn’t be detected even now when they sprout their roots.
The sport ground was full of excellent Players, but there were also Players with weaker mental power.
If they were manipulated to move through the planted seeds, he was confident in causing enough injures that they wouldn’t think of holding another exchange again.
“Even though You confirmed that I came, it seems you weren’t able to find all of my seeds, eh?”
Hwang-ho didn’t respond to Avaritia’s words.
He couldn’t know if he was trying to figure out if those words were a bluff or whether there was some other meaning behind it.
At last Hwang-ho opened his mouth.
“I guess you can’t see it even with those eyes, eh? But it doesn’t matter, they already thought you won’t see it with those eyes.”
Those words held a somewhat relaxed tone.
It seemed that Hwang-ho tried to sound something out, and it seemed that the priest of Avaritia fell for it.
“You still don’t know? The Ship King’s son has a friend, who sees the truth, and among humans there is a person who discovered all your shallow tricks and prepared moves to deal with all cases.”
* * *
The audience’s restlessness gradually settled down.
In front of the entrance leading to the stage.
It was because someone enveloped in a pure-white superpower wave and wearing a school uniform appeared.
The people, who saw the mask he was wearing, nodded and their wariness went away.
“Ah, I guess the event schedule changed a bit.”
“It seems better to do this just before the opening speeches.”
“Right… Considering the meaning, it’s right.”
The 1st year class 0’s children recalled the event plan while speaking.
The children, who didn’t see the schedule beforehand and the ones who saw the schedule before the update, had no idea like before.
“What? What changed? After the opening speeches end, the stage isn’t cleared straight away to hold a soccer match?”
After Song Daeseok, who only saw the old version of the schedule asked, Sawol Seeum replied.
“There was something in the description… It said that Byeoksa ceremony show imitating the scene from Gaecheon Myth was planned.”
Someone in the student attire was wearing a white tiger mask and holding a pure white sword.
*~*~*
[1] all members — because of sentence construction, it sounds like ‘all my members’.
[2] will — okay, so the dictionary meaning of this word ‘thoughts the dead had when living’. But the word 유지 (yuji) has so many fun meanings, let me tell you. ‘The wishes left behind by the dead, which couldn’t be achieved when alive’, ‘to maintain something’, ‘a person of prestige and fame in the town’, ‘a person who has interest in something (?)’, ‘paper with small wrinkles’, ‘king’s orders delivered through the royal secretary’, ‘the king’s orders to a vassal’, ‘the king orders to pardon a criminal’, ‘ruins of some historical building’.
[3] Priest of Avaritia’s tone — He uses a polite tone in this particular thought and when speaking, he doesn’t use a polite tone in his thoughts later. No such tone was used by the voice talking to Tao Sihu.
Translator’s note: Jo Uisin… You’re emphasizing a lot that Gwangrim’s time greatly decreased… Of course, I’m sure it means nothing. Your feelings and mind is just such a complicated thing, you know?
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