Living up to its name as a player-specialized high school, Eungwang High supported a lot of the students’ extracurricular activities during the long summer vacation.
Unlike ordinary high schools where the second semester begins as early as the first week of August and at the latest in mid-August, Eungwang High was still on vacation.
Today marks the last days of August, and although the summer heat has almost dissipated, there are still remnants of it as it was still cheoso.
As soon as I woke up, I looked out the window.
Outside the dormitory window, I saw clear skies and the beautiful Cheonik Mountain.
‘It’s sunny. It didn’t rain at all.’
Unlike in the game, it didn’t rain at all this year’s cheoso.
Perhaps it’s because almost no one had their lives taken and so the superior beings didn’t feel much stress, which resulted in a pleasant climate.
Even the weather forecaster said that a good harvest is expected thanks to it.
Dingdong.
As I was ravishing the good weather, I received a message.
It was from my good student who always informs me about the weather every morning.
[Yeom Junyeol] Good morning, teacher. Today is cheoso. It’s going to be sunny all day with no dark clouds at all. Although the heat wave is over, there are going to be some rapid changes in the temperature.
[Yeom Junyeol] Hongryong is in top condition! If you don’t mind, I’d like to meet you and have a lesson.
Yeom Junyeol recently succeeded in “Stifling the Presence.
I could feel my ambitious student’s excitement even through the messages that he sent.
Still, he can’t perfectly hide his presence yet, and the success rate of the dragon clan in finding him still seems to be very high.
Yeom Junyeol, who was busy with filming the show and completing his vacation assignment, was still considerate as ever as he asked if it was fine with me to meet him.
He sent a stamp of the Hongryong with its drooping beard in flames.
I told him that I’d prepare a lesson for him after the next semester starts.
After that, I read the next message.
‘Looks like the next one’s from Yeom Junyeol again.’
This time, the tone that he used in the message wasn’t of a kind student, but as the Hongryong Yeom Junyeol sunbaenim.
[Yeom Junyeol] Hello, Euishin. How’s your vacation going?
[Yeom Junyeol] I have a favor to ask of you as a Class Zero student. Please contact me when you can.
He didn’t send a Hongryong stamp this time.
He really sounded like a sunbaenim.
As expected, my playable character is perfect both as a student and as a senior.
‘If it’s about Class Zero, could he be contacting me because of Dokgo Miro?’
Dokgo Miro made it to the next stage of Playlist, and she’s set to have filming of her daily life as a student.
Hwang Jiho showed great interest in Dokgo Miro who helped in the nursery incident and also, as we recently learned, a middle-school friend of Hani.
Because of that, Jiho gladly permitted the show to film inside Eungwang High.
‘Dokgo Miro showed up that day and saved my classmates.’
She has some odd nicknames like ‘The District’s Mad Woman’, or ‘King’, but it doesn’t matter.
My playable characters were indebted to her, and I can’t really refuse my student’s request.
I expressed my intention to actively help Yeom Junyeol.
[Yeom Junyeol] Alright, thank you. When can you guys meet?
[Yeom Junyeol] I think it’s best to meet each other before the second semester starts.
Yeom Junyeol expressed his gratitude and actively made some plans as if it were his job.
He apologized because he was a bit slow in sending the messages as he was wary if the others from the Dragon Clan broke in and wanted to bother him again.
Anyway, the plan has been set to meet Dokgo Miro.
‘…The ‘Dragon King’s Shaman’ scenario should be resolved soon. Would everything be okay?’
I’ve been contemplating a lot on how I should intervene in the Dragon King’s Shaman scenario, but Yong Jegun’s beautiful suggestion made me worry less.
When we returned to the dormitory from the trip to Joo-Oh Island, Yong Jegun expressed his intention to invite me to the palace.
— Do you wanna come with me to the Dragon Palace, Euishin?
Yong Jegun said it easily, but one doesn’t simply enter the Dragon Palace.
Only the people from Dragon Clan, their descendants, family, and the Dragon King’s Shaman can enter the palace.
‘There are some exceptions, but it’s quite tricky. Joo Soohyuk and Ahn Dain had a lot of difficulties in entering the palace too.’
Only in two exceptional cases were outsiders allowed to enter.
The first one is if they obtain express permission from the Dragon Bird (Yongsae) of the Cheongryong (Blue Dragon) and Hwangryong (Yellow Dragon).
The head of the Dragon Clan was the Cheongryong.
The Hwangryong guards the Dragon Palace and the Shaman.
There was a saying that those who can hold the Dragon Bird in their palms are allowed to enter the palace.
‘In the game, the Hwangryong came to Yong Jegun’s funeral. After that, the dragon established a connection with Joo Soohyuk and Ahn Dain…’
It would be quite difficult to get permission to enter the palace from Hwangryong, who seldom comes out of the palace.
Yong Jegun also thought the same thing, and he seemed to intend to use a different method.
— Next time I get to encounter the Dragon King, I will mention you.
— I’ll tell him there’s a human I want to invite to the palace.
The second exception was getting permission from the Dragon King himself.
The students of the Dragon King’s Shaman were technically unable to enter the palace because they were candidates.
However, if the Dragon King gives a revelation and grants permission to enter the palace, the candidates were able to go in.
‘Could it really be that easy to get permission from the Dragon King?’
I thought so, but Yong Jegun showed a fairly optimistic response.
— I think he will.
— What I find amusing is that the Dragon King himself is an interesting being.
I don’t know if the Dragon King would really permit me to enter the palace, but I decided to leave it up to Yong Jegun.
“Hello! I’ll be leaving first!”
When I opened the door of my dormitory room, Mok Wooram greeted me as he ran into the elevator first.
Recently, Mok Wooram was living in a handicraft workshop given by the Hwangmyeong Foundation.
He was the only disciple of the energy-violin craftsman, but he was poor and he had almost nothing.
‘He didn’t even receive the bounty for the enemy that he hunted…’
It wasn’t that he didn’t get it back at all, but less than 10% of the bounty went to him.
In addition, Mok Wooram lost money when he purchased equipment from a suspicious foreign distribution site.
As soon as he made the deposit, Mok Wooram stared at the site that suddenly closed down.
I remember when Mok Wooram showed a hologram on the central lounge on the 17th floor and spoke brightly.
— It seems like the signal is bad here at Eungwang High! It’s been three days since I placed my order, but nothing appears on the screen still.
Just like that, Mok Wooram became completely broke.
At best, he gains a lot of inspiration from Kwon Lena, but he had no materials or tools to make her an energy violin.
Mok Wooram, who belatedly accepted the fact that he had been swindled, went around Cheonik Mountain to pick up some branches that fell on the ground.
He tried to woodwork with a cutter knife provided by the Jiikhoe, but the quality was too poor.
‘If this guy makes a decent violin, Kwon Lena and the other violinists around the world would be very happy.’
When I said that to Hwang Jiho, he immediately gave Mok Wooram his own workshop.
The workshop was equipped with various materials needed to make violins, ranging from spruce and maple to chromium steel and iron wires.
It seemed like Hwang Jiho prepared it long before I gave him the idea.
— There are many from the Tiger Clan who are crazy about sounds. I intended to make this amount of investment at least.
I wish I had as much money as that old guy.
After the trip to Joo-Oh Island, Hwang Jiho did some more kind things.
When it was revealed that the newly released song was supposed to be a duet, rumors began to circulate that Kwon Jein has an apprentice.
Hwang Jiho used the influence of Hwangmyeong Foundation to suppress such rumors.
‘Kwon Lena’s name wasn’t released to the public.’
Kwon Jein played both parts in the studio-released music, but at some point, the rumor circulated that Kwon Jein had an apprentice studying at Eungwang High.
The Blue Violinist had a lot of malicious fans, so many people were worried that Kwon Lena would be harmed.
Although her identity was still hidden, there have already been a few malicious comments about Kwon Lena.
Malicious fans argued that Kwon Jein’s musicality is best expressed when she’s alone.
‘I’ll do my best to not let anything happen to Kwon Lena.’
With that in mind, I finally went out of the dormitory.
I also have problems to resolve before the vacation ends.
* * *
At a private study café in front of Eungwang High’s main gate.
It was a place I visited once before, so I was able to find my reserved room right away.
“Hello.”
Cheon Dongha came before me and was reviewing the game from before.
The last match was reproduced on a wooden chessboard that seemed to be Cheon Dongha’s favorite.
Just as last time, I could see some wrappers, and empty paper cups that perhaps contained mixed coffee.
“Sorry to call you when you’re busy.”
“I don’t mind. I can’t just keep working every day too. I wanted to play chess as well.”
“You work even during vacation?”
“Yep. Lab work.”
Cheon Dongha took out a paper card and held it out to me.
He was a guest researcher at a research institute that bore Hwangmyeong Group’s logo.
My playable character and Eungwang High’s genius wore his signature specs.
‘I knew that he was a researcher, but I didn’t know that he worked at a Hwangmyeong research institute.’
I didn’t know that detail because it wasn’t mentioned in the game.
Cheon Dongha was known to not gossip and so everyone saw him as a trustworthy person, but that’s all that people knew about him.
“There must’ve been a lot of people who wanted to play against you. Is there a reason why I’ve been chosen?”
The reason was simple.
In this world, only the White Tiger and Cheon Dongha were able to win against me in chess.
I was still angry at the thought of my match with White Tiger where I was overwhelmingly defeated.
I need a partner to develop my skills so I could beat the White Tiger.
“I want to learn a lot from you.”
I was quite refined with the way that I spoke, but it seems that Cheon Dongha was able to read through me.
“So it seems I’m the only one who’s worthy enough to play against you.”
I didn’t answer, but I guess Cheon Dongha phrased it as a hypothetical question anyway.
We played some matches, and we reached a point where we won twice each.
The last game would settle the score.
“Let’s stop.”
As we shook hands, Cheon Dongha’s gaze was fixed on my hand.
I think he felt that my hands were cold.
I was able to practice energy wave control until the fourth game, but it seems that my technique is not perfect yet.
“I mentioned that my dongsaeng is your fan. He’ll get mad if he finds out that you tried to play more matches even though you know the limits of your physical condition.”
Cheon Dongha’s brother was mentioned again.
Maybe it’s because I was caught up in a big incident right at the beginning of the school year and so I appeared in some articles.
Still, it’s odd to think that I have a fan.
I felt ticklish inside.
“How old is your dongsaeng?”
“He’s one year younger than you.”
Then he’s in the third grade of middle school.
“Well, then he’ll be a high school student next year. Is he a player?”
“Yep.”
“I hope he studied in Eungwang High then.”
“…Yeah, I wish he could take the entrance exam.”
Cheon Dongha’s voice grew quieter at the end of his sentence.
Perhaps his dongsaeng is not like him, the genius of Eungwang High?
Does his dongsaeng not have good grades?
I feel like Cheon Dongha made a slip of the tongue.
He changed the topic right away in an attempt to patch things up.
“Shall we have lunch?”
“Sure.”
With that, we looked at the menu provided by the study café through a hologram.
Cheon Dongha paid for the study room, so I’ll be buying our meals.
After having lunch, I parted ways with Cheon Dongha and headed to Eungwang High.
There was a conspicuous presence in front of the main gate.
‘…It’s the pink-haired woman!’
King Dokgo Miro stood in front of Eungwang High’s main gate.
