Chapter 146
‘Is there a problem between you two?’
Yeom Jun-yeoul and Sawol Saeum, who had no contact in the game. I looked back and analyzed the actions of the two.
‘Is it that?’
I remembered a conversation I had overheard in the traditional culture study room, guided by the force of fate.
—If the Red Cliff Doom says it’s okay… When senior Yeom Jun-yeoul finds out who the Red Clown thief is…
-Yes. I’ll be sure to ask.
The day that made me shrivel by using the ‘word’ as a courtesy. Sawol Saeum wanted to thank me and asked me to convey his words.
‘Come to think of it, he didn’t say anything about Sawol Saeum.’
If it were the Yeom Jun-yeoul I knew, he would have said this the day he met me.
‘Master! Do you remember Saeum? The child wants to thank Master…’
Even if he didn’t tell Sawol Seeum that he found me, shouldn’t he just ask me?
Yeom Jun-yeoul’s hardened face looked shady.
“Well, then, I will judge.”
Then, suddenly, Yong appeared behind me. Yeom Jun-yeoul, who had been standing between me and Kwak Kyung-gu, who sat opposite me on the chessboard, was belatedly realizing his appearance and was bewildered.
It was strange that he could not immediately detect the presence of Yong Je-geon, who looked at Yeom Jun-yeoul for about two seconds as if he had thought so, and said, “Junyeol-ah, Lee Neungpa is a little messed up. Stop by the infirmary and check your vital signs for abnormalities. Or, because Sanghee is on campus right now, call Akea…”
“Thank you for your concern. The vital signs were not disturbed enough to feel abnormal. Then I will sit down and watch the game.” Yong Je-geon raised one eyebrow and made a displeased expression.
Kwak Kyung-gu then spoke with a look that seemed to say, ‘It’s a start again for that dragon,’ whether he had seen that overprotection once or twice.
“Master Yong Je-geon, please take good care of the referee.”
When Kwak Kyung-gu indirectly urged him, Yong Je-geon reluctantly nodded. “…Yes. Shall I throw a coin?”
Between tossing a coin to determine the player and the second, Yeom Jun-yeoul took out a folding chair in the game room and sat down.
It was like he had chosen this particular location in order to keep an eye on Sawol Saeum.
“Please start playing the game.”
At the same time as Yong Je-geon’s signal to start the match, the junior Kwak Kyung-gu pressed the chess clock. The order of the previous matches was then reversed.
‘…His head hurts.’
With each one or two, the headache got worse and his fingertips got colder. It would have been difficult to bear without my playable characters sitting in the game room and watching me.
‘It’s still hard to keep it like it was when I was in active duty.’
Even if I were to go back a long way, I had been evaluated as playing tenacious and tenacious chess, where I set the number of moves I wanted to play, and dug into and destroyed the opponent’s weaknesses.
However, now that the mind and body had a time limit, I had come to think of the best and fastest number before the best number.
‘There is still a lot to overcome…’
While looking at the chessboard, Kwak Kyung-gu was waiting for the next move.
“I abstain.”
At last, Kwak Kyung-gu withdrew. We were in the end game, but I hadn’t even called the check yet. It lasted longer than last time though.
“Eushin won! Congratulations!”
“Congratulations.”
“Then, let’s review it together.”
After shaking hands with Kwak Kyung-gu, people sitting in the audience flocked to him. A review of the large country followed soon after.
“Kyung-gu withdrew because he thought that if Rook attacked with King Eushin’s misposition, it would be checked soon, didn’t he?”
“Ah, was there a special rule that there should be a certain distance between the king and the king?”
“Yeah, it is the rule for a misplaced king to give way.”
After Yong Je-geon gave his explanation to chess beginners Sawol Saeum and Han-yi, he then showed a few numbers that Kwak Kyeong-gu could have placed, and then concluded with a regretful expression, “You gave up too quickly, Gu.”
Kwak Kyung-gu made a more regretful expression at this. This was much better than taking it apart.
As I left the game room with Sawol Saeum and Han-yi, I caught a glimpse of Yeom Jun-yeoul with a shy expression. He greeted the first-year students with a smile, but he couldn’t fool me.
‘Yum Jun-yeoul didn’t comment at all.’
I knew I would have to meet my student soon and talk about it.
* * *
The road to Kim Yuri’s house.
Although it was a form of spectating, I stopped by the bakery in front of the west gate, ‘MITRON,’ for the two people who came to support my game this time.
I declined when I said that I was going to live, but as I persisted, the two regular customers of MITRON finally passed. “This month, I tried to hold on to it because I was a bit fussy…”
“I don’t know what to eat between the plum-flavored gelato or the black chokeberry triple…”
“Let’s choose both and share.”
“Yes? That’s okay! The apricot custard tart that I couldn’t eat last time is not out of stock yet, so choose that first.”
In front of the display stand, Han-yi and Sawol Saeum chose the menu in a friendly way. For the sake of the two troubled people, they decided to erase everything they looked into.
When I said that the other children would also choose their share, they began to bring various desserts to the tray with enthusiasm.
Seeing her excited, she seemed to be full even though she hadn’t eaten any dinner yet.
‘You should spend your money like this, too.’
Buying snacks for my classmates proved to be a wise spending strategy. Just last weekend, thanks to my active part in the SSR-level alien attack party, I had received a lot of bounty, so it had indeed gone very well.
‘Last time I was standing in the morning. Do you sometimes take charge of the checkout even in the evening?’
Today, perhaps by coincidence, a patisserie at MITRON was standing directly at the checkout counter. At the patissier, Sawol Se-eum and Han-yi, who were regulars, were also chatting lightly to make sure they were pretty close.
“I got candy as a bonus! There are more than 10, so we will share later.”
“I want to taste some strawberry cream.”
“Then, I want to taste some lime!” When we arrived at Kim Yuri’s house after having such a peaceful conversation, Kim Yuri opened the door later than usual and spoke to her jokingly.
“Hahaha, come on! The timing was a little off.”
When I looked inside the living room, the first thing I noticed was Hwang Jiho, who had the momentum to greet me right away.
When I saw that, I felt something ominous spread through me. Was it bad timing?
“Oh really!” It was Song Dae-seok who raised his voice.
He glared at us, who had just arrived, expressing his dirty feelings with his whole body. “You didn’t even come to the study meeting, and where the hell did you go? If you’re coming this late, you’d better not come. This doesn’t help at all…”
“Dae-seok!”
“Ha ha ha ha ha!” When Min Green stopped him, Song Dae-seok immediately shut his mouth, but Hwang Jiho started to laugh.
This made us all feel a little perplexed, but we sat down, understanding that Song Dae-seok was being fussy and Hwang Jiho was being a do-it-yourselfer.
“What’s going on?”
“Why are you there?”
When Sawol Saeum and Han-yi asked this, Kwon Lena smiled awkwardly. “Actually, Green was going to practice taking off the AR glasses. I’ve been to Yuri’s house often, so I’m sure I’ve gotten used to it, and except for Dae-seok, there are four people you haven’t met yet, right? I thought it would be okay with four people, so I tried it out.”
Was it the effect of Hong Kyung-bok coming to school? Why was Min Green taking such an active role?
‘I can understand why Song Dae-seok was angry.’
Min Green’s chance to overcome the trauma and take off the AR glasses given to her by a stranger. I didn’t like that it had gone away.
“If that was the case, I would have stayed away!”
“I’m already out, anyway, and I’ll come.”
“No, no, it’s fine! I was just thinking of going home for dinner now…” As Min Green said that, Song Dae-seok immediately started packing. I could guess he really wanted to go home as quickly as possible.
“Let’s go have dinner… The ingredients are plentiful.”
“I can’t wait at home. We go.”
Kim Yuri stopped her, but her family waited and couldn’t catch them, so she had to send them off.
“…Can I help prepare dinner tomorrow?”
When Min Green expressed his intention to eat dinner from tomorrow, Song Dae-Seok made an outright dislike expression from behind.
Kim Yuri did not give in to that expression and replied with a smile. “Of course. Tomorrow, let’s make Min Green and Dae-seok’s favorite menu.”
“Huh…! T-Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Let’s go.” As Min Green finished greeting her, Song Dae-seok almost dragged her on the back and went out the door.
She looked at the silent porch and asked, “Where did Jin-do go?”
At these words, the remaining children smiled with subtle expressions.
“What happened? The one you decided to study today was the common subject, Player Battle Theory 1, right?”
“Hahaha, that’s why we studied the satellite part a lot.”
“That bastard did talk a lot.”
Kwon Lena pointed to the textbook spread out on the table and spoke to us a lot, who were all feeling bewildered. “There is a ‘party strategy using satellite information’ part in the scope of this test. Hyo-don and I were a little lost in that part, but Dae-seok suddenly vomited and explained.”
Well, my playable character really would do such a weird thing.
‘Song Dae-seok in the game had a satellite fanatic temperament.’
Song Dae-seok’s hope for the future was to become a researcher in the satellite management team or satellite development team that lead to the 3D department within the association.
He was the grandson of the great hero Iron Arm, and he was born with great abilities, so he rarely expressed it out of his mouth because of the pressure given by the thought, ‘You too should become a top-ranked player in the other world.’
‘I want my dream to come true this time…’
In the game, it was one of the settings that appeared briefly only in recollections before Song Dae-seok died.
‘I’ll have to find out if there are any internships in the association.’
Since Song Dae-seok didn’t have the courage to go out on his own, he would need to throw a change ball to help. I immediately remembered what number I had to put in to make my playable character’s dream come true.
* * *
When I returned to the dormitory, a message from the device that had been pushed back caught my eye. Most of them were about sending a congratulatory message after belatedly discovering my exploits in the other world.
[Ok To-yeon] Eushin-ah! You said you attacked another world in Hongcheon? You’re still 17, and you’re talking about attacking the SSR-class other world? Are you crazy? Do you want to die? But, it was a good fight. good job. Fight well next time… Well… If possible, I hope not to fight!
[Ok To-yeon] By the way, Eushin-ah, if you have time to go to otherworldly things on the weekend, would you like to go to the baseball field with me? Because of the satellite job, Ti-yoon unnie…
Ok To-yeon’s message was cut off here.
It looked like he had been beaten by Ok To-yeon while writing the message.
The point was difficult to understand, but anyway, he was worried about me, the benefactor, and wanted to go to the baseball field.
‘I also came to Hong Gyubin, the team leader.’
Hong Gyubin sent a message encouraging them to see if there is no overtime work yet, if I wanted to have dinner, call for dinner, reserve the first edition of the next Zugaljaegul magazine, and say that I had worked hard to attack the SSR-level world.
‘Oh, there’s something more on the last line.’
As I pulled the scroll, I saw one more line of messages left by Hong Gyubin.
[Hong Gyubin] Beware of swindlers… … It’s unusual to laugh these days.
The idiot also made contact with Hwang Jiho, so he must be doing something behind the scenes. I sent a brief message of thanks to Hong Gyubin and wrote a new message.
[Me] Hello, senior Kwon Jae-in.
[Me] There is something I want to tell you about the honorary teacher position at Eungwang High, which I rejected last time.
… ….
… ….
… ….
When I briefly explained what happened today, Kwon Jae-in sent me a very positive reply.
[Kwon Jae-in] Yes.
[Kwon Jae-in] I’ll consult with Jared.
Kwon Jae-in in the position of Team Master of Eternal Lake.
It was difficult for a team master to make a decision on her own as a teacher, so she seemed to be thinking of consulting with Jared Lee.
‘I’m not going to stop Jared. If the team master suddenly takes over the teaching position, there will be a lot of work to do, so it will be difficult.’
The last thing I checked was a group message room with Jang Namwook and Yoo Sanghoon. When I entered the message room, there was a small notification that Jang Namwook was typing a message.
* * *
In the dark.
Hundreds of butterflies flew around the butterfly spirit, scattering light-filled scales.
“Well… Not this either…”
Crisp!
As she clutched her white palms, her butterfly-shaped mass of oysters shattered. She kept popping her butterflies.
Pot! Crisp!
Dozens of butterflies then disappeared. After reading the information condensed in the scattered powder of scales, she finally stopped moving.
As if she had obtained the information she wanted, she pulled the corner of her lips and smiled.
“Fufufu, I got good information with a lot of effort, but it’s hard to convey because there are so many ‘eyes’ to see.”
As she watched the scales fade away and lose their light, she began to mutter with a smiley voice. “Since the silver mines are difficult to get to, let’s go to the lakeside.”
With this, she smiled again and thought of the blue-eyed violinist.