Chapter 93
After completing training session with the Phantom of the Red Wall.
Jun-yeoul, who came out of the off-limits area without being caught by the recording device, was joyous inside because his mentor had praised him.
‘Today was better than last time. Image training worked.’
It was a very brief moment, but the flame generated by the Phantom of the Red wall almost moved according to his own psychic wave.
The Phantom of the Red Wall sensed that and complimented him, which made him feel very proud.
‘It’ll take more stamina and mental strength, but I could’ve succeeded if I had more time.’
Jun-yeoul asked his mentor for more lessons, but his mentor, the Phantom of the Red Wall, did not approve.
Chess was strategy fights, but as his mentor said it, if you don’t have enough stamina, you’ll lose concentration and make mistakes.
‘My mentor may be familiar with chess.’
Even if it is a closed area, the off-limits zone is still in Eun-kwang school grounds.
So, it was likely that the Phantom of the Red Wall was someone registered in the defense barrier of the school.
Someone who belongs to Eun-kwang High, and knows well about chess.
More clues about the mentor’s identity.
‘Staff and students of Eun-kwang High are allowed to participate in the chess tournament hosted by Stalemate. Maybe mentor is participating, too. Even if he doesn’t, he seemed interested in chess, so he might come as an audience.’
If so, the Phantom of the Red Wall may appear in the tournament hall on the day of the chess tournament.
‘More reason to play with all my might!’
Jun-yeoul laughed at the thought.
“Jun-yeoul, you’re late.”
Jun-yeoul’s thoughts were interrupted by Je-gun Yong’s voice.
“Mr. Je-gun Yong, did you wait for me?”
“I heard that Jin-Seung picked on you today. And also that he picked on your Achilles’ heel, or ‘Dragons’ weakest scale’, that fool.”
*The dragon’s weakest scale, or Yunglin, is a bit different from Achilles’ heel. They both mean ‘weakness’, but when someone messes with a dragon’s weakest scale, it will anger the dragon and it will try to kill you. So Achilles’ heel is just a weakness, but Yunglin is dangerous for both sides- the dragon and the intruder.
Jun-yeoul Yeom’s weakest scale was his other name, ‘Little Red Dragon.’
There were some kids who called him by his other name just to trigger the usually well-behaved Jun-yeoul.
Jin-seung Ma was the most recent person to pull that string.
“Jin-seung is a cute disciple, but he is annoying. He shouldn’t use words his friends don’t like. If he picks on you again, don’t show him mercy.”
“Hahaha, I never showed him mercy. He kept following me around today, so I made a prison with my flame thrower technique and locked him in.”
“Jun-yeoul is too nice. That’s why Blue Dragon and Bang-yeoul Yeom worry about you. When you have to battle him again next time, shred his mouth to pieces to teach him a lesson. If he follows you, rip his Cruciate Ligament apart.”
“If he brings up my weakest scale again, I’ll think about that!”
They were injuries that could be easily cured with an item card, but still, the Dragon clan and the descendant talked about violent things.
The two of them headed out Eun-kwang High’s gates.
As they walked out of the school grounds, Je-gun, who seemed to be in a good mood, asked Jun-yeoul something.
“So who did you meet after parting ways with Jin-seung? I can only sense your traces, Jun-yeoul, but somehow it feels like you were with someone.”
Je-gun Yong had high trace-sensory abilities, but he had good gut instincts as well.
Jun-yeoul thought Je-gun might have noticed something with that super instincts, but he decided to play dumb.
“I was just training.”
“With whom?”
Even if he didn’t tell all of the truth, Jun-yeoul didn’t want to lie to Je-gun, who always cared for him.
Je-gun laughed quietly, looking at Jun-yeoul who couldn’t answer.
“Did you train with someone you can’t tell me who it is?”
Je-gun Yong had that distinctive ecstatic expression that even being of his own clan stayed away from.
“Let’s go back and play chess. Let’s go, Jun-yeoul.”
* * *
‘That really is something Saeron, who covered 2nd-grade class 0’s story, and Jae-gul Jegal, who is the advisor of the newspaper club and homeroom teacher of 2nd-grade class 0, to be called into by the association.’
Saeron Moon failed to cover the whole story due to class 0’s interference, but she must’ve witnessed something important to have been called upon.
Jiho continued to speak with a twinkle in his eye.
“The difficulty of the Other-world they managed to dominate was classified as N-. It’s not a great deal of difficulty, and it doesn’t mean anything to clear or dominate an Other-world of that class, but they’re humans. It’s amazing.”
It was a low-level Other-world, but yes, it was extremely surprising and cool.
This turn of events weren’t in the game.
Jae-gul Jegal not leaving the school caused those genius rascals to break the stereotype of this world.
“Who succeeded in 2nd-grade class 0?”
“That’s difficult to answer.”
Difficult?
Jiho’s explanations followed.
“They all succeeded. They linked all their psychic waves to the class president, Chan-sol Geum, and succeeded in dominating the Other-world.”
Link Psychic waves.
It was hard to imagine.
I recalled the moment when Jiho suppressed the psychic waves of Je-in Kwon or Red Tiger.
He suppressed the two psychic waves at his fingertips and later released them.
Thus, the waves never mixed with his own waves and were just scrunched there.
I didn’t think that such waves could be woven together and mixed.
“Player SAT-K determined that Chan-sol Geum dominated the world after three or four re-calculations and a post-battle relationship analysis of the process, but there was a bit of confusion. The association, which suspected the satellite’s operational error, started an investigation, intervened, and asked for Eun-kwang High’s cooperation. That’s how we knew.”
So much happened over the weekend.
I could picture Gyubin Hong and Ji-hwa Lim working non-stop.
“It’s interesting that they have linked together a variety of different psychic waves that are like fingerprints. If second-grade class 0 does more of this psychic wave research, I’m going to fund them.”
Jiho looked amused.
‘Psychic wave link, humans dominating Other-worlds……’
This was one more thing to investigate.
* * *
My dorm room after evening training.
I sat on the sofa and looked into the first edition of my share of Mr. Jegal’s special magazine, which I received from Jiho Hwang.
‘It looks just like a magazine that’s sold in stores.’
The cover of the magazine was a photo of Mr. Jegal, which was taken some time ago to create promotional materials for the school.
Typography was beautifully decorated over his photo.
I could see that the letters and design of the typography were done in hommage to his skill, ‘Eonryung(meaning “command by word”).’
But the most striking thing was the appendix in the vinyl-wrapped magazine.
‘I can’t tell if this was made for Mr. Jegal or for his fans.’
Photobook with the best cuts of the year since the debut of Jae-gul Jegal.
Hologram chip with key interviews of him.
Photo sticker sets, posters, and hardcover magazine storage boxes were included.
It was like merch for a famous idol, or star players’ seasons greeting package.
‘The newspaper club members are fangirling over Mr. Jegal as much as second-grade class 0!’
It was Jae-gul Jegal’s merch made for Teacher’s Day by hardcore fans.
I suddenly understood why second-grade class 0 wanted this magazine to the extent of trading air hotel suite rooms and begging.
Ding Dong.
While lost in thought, looking at the magazine that was still wrapped, a message arrived.
It was the group chat room with Suhyuk and Hyodon.
[Suhyuk Joo] Ui-shin, Hyo-don! Do you guys have time tomorrow after school?
[Hyo-don Maeng] Why
[Suhyuk Joo] Remember we decided to go tuxedo shopping let’s go tomorrow!
[Hyo-don Maeng] oh. I’m in.
On Teacher’s Day, on our way back from Tanrae middle school, we talked about getting our outfits to wear to the party on board.
Since the chess tournament was the day after tomorrow, it was wise to refuse.
But.
[Me] I’m in too.
I pretended not to see the brand-new, never-used chess board and chess pieces.
[Suhyuk Joo] Then meet you guys after club activities in front of the main gate! Let’s eat something really tasty
[Hyo-don Maeng] yup
I checked my other messages as well.
First up was the group chat with Nam-wook and Sang-hoon.
‘Nam-wook seems to be doing better.’
Nam-wook had a meltdown after seeing so many stars on the badges of rank, and he finally seemed to snap out of it.
Sang-hoon couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal.
I closed the screen after reading their disengaging conversation.
The next message was sent by Seung-hyun Park, who left a short, how-do-you-do message.
The next was Green’s message that she had turned the virtual visual information on the AR glasses to the kids’ portraits.
She sent me the portraits of our classmates, too.
[Green Min] The item you gave me, I used it for the first time.
[Green Min] (Photo)
If you use ‘water droplet of mermaid’s breath’ as a paint ingredient, the color does not fade.
I appreciated the portraits of our classmates and saved the pictures on the device.
The next message came from Siwan Sung and Guk-eun Sung about a meal appointment.
‘They want to see me again?’
What does Guk-eun want to do with a first-year?
I said okay and checked my other messages.
[Jae-ho Eun] (picture)
[Yiho Eun] It doesn’t look very good this time either, does it? T.T
[Seo-ho Eun] we tried hard, but it didn’t work out······
In the photo, there was a meal made by the three siblings.
I assumed it was a meal because there was something- an unidentified object- in a bowl.
‘Jiho Hwang and Ho-gun Baek are going to have to eat this!’
Original beings’ stomachs are stronger than human stomachs, so they’ll be okay. I think.
[Jae-ho Eun] Shinsu hid, she doesn’t want to eat this.
The youngest, Jae-ho, sent me another photo.
The only thing in it was a white tail.
It was Olmu, covered in something.
‘Wait, that’s the mat I bought her!’
Olmu was crawling under the mat on the floor.
I was shocked to see that.
‘I should’ve bought something for her to hide in, like a blanket, quilt, or some hideaway!’
I was such an idiot, unlike my smart little Olmu.
I carefully chose the gift I was going to give her the next time we meet.
I finally checked all my unread messages.
‘Now it’s time to send a message to THEM.’
I entered the chat room, which had no recent chats since several weeks ago.
[Me] Hello, seniors. Are you busy now?
Their answer came faster than I thought.
[Chan-sol Geum] Talk to the hand, newspaper club
[Chan-sol Wang] busy, eff off
Why are they taking all the anger out on me?
From their profile pictures and status message, the two seemed to have decided to co-own the first edition magazine Jiho Hwang gave them.
In the battle royal between second-grade class 0, they must’ve made an alliance and won the battle.
[Me] I want to talk to you guys about something, can we meet?
[Chan-sol Wang] We’re expensive
[Chan-sol Geum] We’re expensive2
No matter how much they played hard to get, I had something that would make them easy to get.
[Me] (photo)
[Me] So you don’t need this, then?
I posted a photo of the first edition of my share of Mr. Jegal’s special magazine, which was still wrapped in mint condition.
I didn’t want to give out my playable character’s rare item, but for the sake of the world, I made a sacrifice.
After them reading my texts, they replied by the seconds.
[Chan-sol Wang] Thank you for contacting us, junior!
[Chan-sol Geum] We love you, junior!
[Chan-sol Wang] How can we help you!
[Chan-sol Geum] We are not busy at all. Meet us ASAP, junior!
[Chan-sol Wang] We want to see you now, like right now, we miss you, junior!
Some extreme change of attitude.
* * *
Myung-ho Hwang’s mansion in Eun-kwang-gu, midnight.
A golden fence composed of magic that was handcrafted, knitted carefully by Golden Tiger one strand after another.
A maze garden that deceives those who set foot without permission and makes them lost in another dimension.
Someone was now passing through all the barriers that the head of the Tiger clan has made and was heading this way past the golden fence and the maze.
Swish-!
The intruder passed all the obstacles with the sound of the wind howling deeply.
He finally arrived in front of the mansion.
The intruder chose a window and proceeded to break the barrier on it, when,
“It’s been a long time since I played hide-and-seek with you.”
The head of the clan in his teenage avatar was right behind him.
The intruder tried to run away, but his ankle was already locked in a magic shackle.
‘Damn it!’
Seeing the intruder unable to move, Golden Tiger laughed, eyes gleaming.
“You haven’t caused this much mischief in a long time, Shin-lok Kim.”