Chapter 178 - Youth Retreat (8
A sweet melody stretched out over the coastline.
Fwaaa!
Two energy waves collided and revealed themselves over the dark sea.
A shockwave exploded along with a flash.
“Euuk…!”
Hyodon, who had his arms wrapped around Lena and Yuri, held back his groan as the energy wave reflected back on them.
Hyodon received damage even though he was far away from the coast. Meanwhile, Jein, who was closest to the sea, continued to play her violin without budging from where she stood.
Yuri’s energy wave that calls for the madness of God, and the sea…
Jein’s energy wave, ‘Lullaby’s Hum’, which can order the water that it touches to sing.
The two energy waves collided and tightly intertwined.
The wall of waves produced by the huge sea was blocked by the violin’s melody and halted its motion.
“…Ah, oh no!”
At that moment, Kwon Lena raised her body behind Hyodon as she screamed.
The army of enemies which survived and were not swallowed by the sea, started to move again.
Kwon Jein was unprotected and exposed to the enemies because she was still using her light skill.
The shadows of the enemies were twice, or even three times, as large as Jein.
Hit!
With a refreshing hitting sound, the enemies that approached the area surrounding Jein were all wiped out.
In a single hit, the high-ranked enemies approaching the coast were eliminated.
“…Saint old man?”
Hyodon muttered as he doubted what he saw.
Tak Geosan can be seen north from where Jein stood.
The man stood with his hands behind his back as if he barely did any motion to launch the attack he did a while ago.
It was a composed posture, but the spirit of Ilgidangcheon Stream was flowing around him. He was able to eliminate hundreds of enemies that had just landed.
Woooosh!
At that moment, dozens of huge streams of water spewed out at Jein, perhaps to remove her from the way as she was interfering with the advance.
The water stream, holding a powerful energy wave, converged into one and moved to swallow Kwon Jein.
Jein tried to prevent the strong attack by changing the tune of her song, but it seemed impossible to control the movement of water about the size of a needle compared to the wall of an entire sea.
The wind and the sea rushed towards Kwon Jein.
Swooosh!
Tak Geosan, who removed the enemies that approached Jein, stood his ground.
As he moved loosely, yet too quickly to be visible to the eye, he released his power by pulling one foot back and grabbing his fist.
“W-what is that…? What is he trying to do? Shouldn’t the violinist be running away now?!”
Tak Geosan was skilled, but he was not as special as Jein.
Hyodon knows well about Tak Geosan’s personal information, as the latter frequently brags about himself and his abilities.
‘That pseudo-saint has the same abilities as me. The skills, and even the light skill. How is he gonna block that?!”
However, since Tak Geosan the War Veteran was not moving at all, Hyodon shut his mouth. He realized that the man might have something up his sleeve.
The storm that eliminated the enemies now approached the two honorary professors.
Kwaaa!
Tornado burst out from the end of Tak Geosan’s fist as he made a strike.
The wind and the waves caught in the tornado were crushed and turned into fog.
Tak Geosan retreated again along with the sprays of water that scattered into the air.
Hyodon had to literally swallow his breath as the fierce blow tore through the winds and cut through the seas.
“There are enemies that passed the coastline!”
Lena’s words caused Hyodon to finally take his eyes off of Tak Geosan.
Around the 1 km coastline…
The three had to look for a gap and take advantage of the wide sea wall and the ongoing defense by Kwon Jein and Tak Geosan.
“What should we do… if we miss this gap, it’d be difficult to evacuate…!”
Lena was completely right.
The area of Seokmo Island is about 42.48 km2
It would be difficult for Lena and Hyodon, who were not familiar with the geography of the island, to chase around and fight enemies in the dark. At some point, enemies could launch a surprise attack on them.
The two of them tried to run, but some person stopped them in their tracks.
“Wait, you there! You students over there, wait!”
A middle-aged man with sad facial features shouted at them.
He seemed to be holding an old item, but it looked like he was a player armed with a multi-function weapon.
“You guys seem to be injured. Where are you trying to go?!”
“Yes we are, but we can’t leave things like this. The enemies are heading towards the civilian houses!”
“That old man… no, those teachers seem to be busy right now!”
“You don’t have to worry about them!”
Swooooosh!
With the words of the middle-aged player, a swarm of energy wave started to pour into the lands.
Screeeech!
Keuuoooo!
Enemies collapsed and slowly disappeared above the sandy beach.
All of the enemies’ necks were perforated, and not even one survived. All of them dissolved into particles and gradually disappeared.
“That’s…!”
The enemies’ vital points were penetrated by the energy wave in the form of lumps of light shaped like an arrow.
Hyodon was able to immediately recognize who the owner of those arrows was.
“Ham Geunhyung professor!”
They were the same arrows of light that protected Hyodon as he escaped from hell and took shelter at Eungwang High.
“I, the famous ‘Legendary Archer’, am protecting this place so you students have nothing to worry about!”
That middle-aged player laughed as he said those words.
* * *
In the Class Two female students’ dorms.
Song Daesok repeatedly opened and closed his mouth as he couldn’t find any words.
And then, he finally uttered something.
“I-I’m okay… but the teacher and the other students are not in a good condition…!”
The Yellow Tiger squinted as he tried to take a look inside.
He had predicted the situation even before he reached the building, but as he saw the situation up close, it was worse than he thought.
‘And I had the gull to be confident… I’m ashamed of myself.’
The Class Two students all collapsed because of the poison energy.
Noh Youngmi collapsed and was heavily injured.
Daesok, who’s surprisingly still standing, suffered some damage.
None of these people were safe.
“…Thanks for saving me. Ah, hey you… Weren’t you supposed to head towards the retreat instructors’ dorms? I’m not sure whether it’s poison or curse that was released here! We have to move now! Where are those instructors now?”
Daesok’s face turned from a frown to being relieved, and then hectic again.
The Yellow Tiger glanced at Daesok and spoke to him.
“They’re gone now.”
“What?”
“It was difficult to find them.”
The Yellow Tiger still looked calm as he recalled what had just happened.
‘I didn’t realize that they were that rotten.’
The instructors’ dorms were very near the Central Shelter.
When the Yellow Tiger arrived, the instructors were already headed towards the evacuation center.
As if they already knew what was going on.
After they finished evacuating, they seemed to have installed something.
That something was an energy bomb item that can be triggered by an energy wave.
‘There were more people who weren’t involved in this ridiculous act than those who were, but this… This is preposterous. What did they believe in that made them want to go against Eungwang High?’
Because of that, the Yellow Tiger had to spend a lot of time removing the bombs and apprehending the instructors who participated in this act.
In order to save some time, he made a restricted area with boundaries where he can put all the bombs and let them explode there. Some of his internal organs were damaged because of the effect of the antidote given by the Nok Clan. That is why some of his energy wave was dedicated to recover his injured body.
Due to his large consumption of power, his movement speed decreased.
‘Why is this guy so nervous… And why is he speaking like this? Is this the same guy that I watched a historical drama with last night?’
On the other hand, Daesok showed a disgusted face when he heard about the retreat instructors.
‘…Hmm, come to think of it, this guy can’t speak well originally anyway. He’s a funny guy so his lack of speaking skills wasn’t that obvious!’
Daesok thanked his classmate who just saved his life. At the same time, he couldn’t help but admire what Jiho went through.
Pak!
The Yellow Tiger, who wasn’t aware of Daesok’s thoughts, turned his energy wave into a spell and began to move.
As he beckoned his hand, all the injured students started to get wrapped in a golden spell one by one.
Daesok was shocked by the amount of control that Jiho has over his spell.
“You..! How did you do that…?!”
“I turned my energy wave into a spell. You twig. We gotta hurry and head to the Central Shelter.”
Daesok unknowingly nodded his head and started to run alongside the Yellow Tiger.
Even though the Yellow Tiger carried dozens of students with his spell, he was still faster than Daesok.
‘What a phenomenal display of concentration! Even if this weirdo is full of power, it shouldn’t be this easy to run at full speed and control his energy stably!’
Daesok asked Yellow Tiger who was running in front of him.
“How are you moving like that?”
“Didn’t I tell you earlier already? I said it’s because of my spell. I naturally honed it as I got older.”
‘This jerk is the same age as me… What nonsense is he talking about?’
Daesok tried to say those words, but he couldn’t utter anything harsh because he remembered that that idiot saved his life.
“Uhm, is your birthday quicker?”
(T/N: As you may know, Koreans count their age differently. They automatically add one year to their age every New Year. So, people who were born in the first quarter of the year are called bbareun or literally translates to quicker because they’re older than those who are born in the latter months of the year, even though they’re born in the same year. i.e A bbareun ’02 liner is older than a normal ’02 liner.)
The Yellow Tiger responded to Daesok’s words.
“Birthday? My birthday is October 3rd tho.”
This weirdo’s birthday wasn’t even quicker.
“…Really? Then why are you speaking as if you’re way too old?”
“You mean the way that I speak? Hahaha! Well, I wanted to disguise the way that I speak at first… But I decided it wasn’t worth the effort because a jerk from our class knew my real age.”
…Daesok’s sarcasm didn’t work on Jiho who answered seriously.
“You seem tougher now even though you just survived the crisis of life and death. You were even poisoned and greatly injured. You remind me of my youth in the Cast Iron Arm.
Daesok heard the Yellow Tiger mutter to himself.
‘…Well, he can’t be similar to my days as a young hero. Maybe the only thing similar is his face.’
Hwang Jiho was talking as if he was a grandfather who was reminiscing about his youth. Daesok passed it off as ‘the crazy guy being crazy again’.
Right then, the Central Shelter came into view.
Because of the relief that he felt, Daesok’s strength was sapped out and his eyes began to darken rapidly.
“If you were affected by the poison wave, then the poison would’ve taken effect a long time ago. You have quite the spirit as you managed to survive all through this despite being injured.”
Daesok barely heard what the weirdo said.
He tried to ask the Yellow Tiger to repeat what he just said, but Daesok already lost consciousness.
* * *
I knew that there were several uncontrollable variables from the moment that we crafted this plan.
My previous decisions changed a lot of the game’s story.
Kim Shinrok survived, while Choi Pyeondeuk disappeared.
The dark secrets of the Player’s Association were revealed.
Yuri did not hold the Butterfly’s hand on the day of the Light Skill Ceremony.
There was one person who wasn’t supposed to be in Class Zero.
Butterfly effect resulted in numerous unpredictable scenarios.
‘I didn’t want to face the results like this…’
The young energy wave was tying me up.
I don’t have a skill that can distinguish a human from a person from the royal lineage, but maybe because I’ve faced a lot of them, I can somehow discern one from the other.
I was sure of this one.
The owner of this young energy wave was someone from the royal lineage.
Their sharp voice rang inside my ears.
“Put down ‘that item’ and leave.”
I was carrying Saeum of April on my back.
‘In addition to the Bear Clan people that aimed for Shinrok, I predicted that someone from the royal lineage would appear as well. I thought I’d run into him but…’
Instead, I ran into the leader who launched this attack.
Contrary to the plan, I failed to evacuate Saeum of April. I couldn’t join Jeokho, Sinrok, Yong Jegun, and Hwang Jiho.
