‘Otherworld Gap Control’ means preventing otherworld occurrences from happening frequently, eliminating the chance of enemies infiltrating a specific area.
When the public hears of this expression, they usually think of players “attacking otherworlds”, meaning going into the world itself to hunt down the boss enemy.
In reality, that was one of the most common ways to clear an otherworld, and it is what we had done in our first practice.
But there are other methods.
‘So there’s an otherworld controlled by the Tiger Clan.’
Another method of ‘Otherworld Gap Control’ is to “take over that world”.
This meant that a specific individual would interfere with the otherworld with his own energy wave to dominate the enemies and the boss enemy in that world.
Once he does that, he becomes the new subject and core, the new boss of the otherworld.
Simply put, conquering an otherworld requires a more powerful and overwhelming energy wave than simply killing a boss enemy.
In addition, there’s a possibility that the otherworld’s stability would collapse, and the individual trying to conquer the otherworld would transform himself into a simple enemy.
For that reason, only those of royal lineage are thought to generally have the necessary power to conquer an otherworld.
Yet there was a case of success for humans to conquer one, through something called “energy wave link”.
‘The Year Two Class Zero successfully conquered an otherworld. I heard that they’re still maintaining that garden.’
Anyway, as a result of the individual going through risks to conquer an otherworld, the world that they conquer is called their own ‘garden’.
“There are currently seven Bear people secured by the Tiger Clan. One is caught by the White Tiger, five were caught during the April Fools incident, and the other is the Shapeshifter.”
The Red Tiger explained briefly.
He floated a hologram with pictures of the seven bears.
The photos were taken right after each bear was caught, and they looked relatively normal.
“Six of these seven bears were being managed by my son. We gave one to Hyangrok today, so the number is reduced to five.”
The Red Tiger manipulated the screen and grouped six photos together, including the Shapeshifter.
The photo of the Shapeshifter was black and white, indicating that he had been turned over to Hyangrok.
“These bears move under the orders of the Clan Head of the Bear Clan. However, it seems that they had been taking orders from someone else.”
“Someone other than the head? You’re not talking about the Shapeshifter, are you?”
“No. The person seems to be on the same rank, or even higher, as the head of the Bear Clan. My son’s interrogation revealed that some of the bears have direct contact with that person.”
The Shapeshifter is the right-hand man of the head, and so he’s the one directly below in rank from the head.
So that means the person giving orders to the bear people is…
‘Could they be getting direct orders from the Black Screen?!’
Appearance, habit, speech, abilities….
Looking at those factors, the Black Screen doesn’t seem to be related to them at first.
I know what the Black Screen did in the game, and I know the extent of their powers.
I know what their ultimate purpose is.
However, I still don’t know much about their existence and their identity.
It’s necessary for me to interrogate anyone who has direct contact with the Black Screen in order for me to find out who they are.
“It’s in our interest to find the person that’s been giving them orders.”
The Red Tiger spoke as he pointed to the single photo that wasn’t in the pile — the only bear that Kim Shinrok wasn’t interrogating.
‘Why was that bear sent to the Tiger Clan’s garden without being interrogated by Kim Shinrok?’
The bear was one of the five who attacked the firstborn of the descendants, Eun Seoho.
I tried to think about anything unusual that happened, but I can’t seem to think of anything.
On the other hand, Hwang Jiho’s face looked subtly flexed as he listened to the report.
I could feel that Red Tiger and Kim Shinrok are both being careful about talking about the bear though.
“The man was on the verge of losing his mind before he gave this clue. Is there any chance that anyone from the outside can access the garden?”
“It’s almost certain that the nightmare dust can make anyone more submissive. We haven’t done cross-examination yet, but we checked through some photos and videos.”
“I accompanied my son during the interrogation. We are certain of this.”
“…”
I could see Kim Shinrok biting his lips.
It’s been a while since they reconciled, but the father and son still looked awkward with each other.
“Alright. Leave this to me. I will try to make it possible to interrogate who we can interrogate in person… but I cannot guarantee it.”
Hwang Jiho was choosing his words carefully.
It’s unclear why Jiho wants to do this personally when he had been entrusting Red Tiger and Kim Shinrok with the bear people up to now.
Hwang Jiho doesn’t allow anyone to easily interrogate the bear people, and it looks like Red Tiger and Kim Shinrok had taken his permission for granted.
Considering the position of the two in the Tiger Clan, I could guess what was happening.
“You know that the Tiger Clan and the Bear Clan are in conflict.”
As if he read my mind, Hwang Jiho looked at me and said those words.
“Shortly after the Bear Clan’s betrayal and the grace of the Heavenly God left the Korean Peninsula, a young descendant died at their hands.”
The time when the Heavenly God left Korea…
That was the time when the war between the Bear Clan and the Tiger Clan began, and the Bear Goddess and the Red Tiger committed the sin.
It would be difficult for Red Tiger and Kim Shinrok to get involved too deeply in this operation.
“The couple who lost their descendant came before me and knelt down. They asked for a chance to get revenge. I gave them permission to do what they want, as long as it is within the territory of the Tiger Clan.”
Hwang Jiho’s voice gradually turned lower.
Knowing how much people of royal lineage care for their descendants, I could imagine the anger that they felt.
“After they received my permission, they have yet to see the filthy bear. I’m sure they’re still hunting him inside the garden.”
“They never came out of the garden? Their perception of time must’ve been distorted from staying in the garden too long…”
Red Tiger’s mention of time distortion surprised me.
It means that the garden conquered by the Tiger Clan is at least SSR-rank.
Enemies become strong the higher the difficulty level of the otherworld was.
There are also some phenomena such as time distortion and spatial compression that violate the natural laws of physics and reality.
“I’ll tell the chief sorcerer who manages the garden myself. Leave this matter to me.”
“…Understood.”
Red Tiger and Kim Shinrok agreed with no question at Hwang Jiho’s stern words.
The atmosphere became quite heavy when an automated maid appeared.
The automated maid held a tray containing a new school uniform that was still wrapped in plastic.
There’s also ginger and a jujube soup served.
“Let’s end the discussion here. Jo Euishin, change your clothes before you go see the descendants. I’ll give you more soup as a prize when you get back.”
Ugh.
This damned old man is treating me like a kid.
Still, I really should change my clothes before the descendants, or Jang Namwook, sense that I had been bloodied today.
* * *
At the Player’s Association, in Hong Gyubin’s exclusive office in the regulatory department.
As Deputy Manager Yoon was giving his report, Hong Gyubin’s jaw clenched.
“…You say you were attacked? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“There’s no problem because Employee Jung took care of everything.”
“Report in more detail about the attack or the weapon used by the attacker.”
“Yes. I will explain it alongside the video recorded on the device.”
Hong Gyubin ordered Yoon and Jung to investigate the suicide of Inspector Kim, the head of the Gwangil Police Station.
Their investigations always reach a dead end, but their doubts continued to deepen.
Deputy Manager Yoon’s report turned those suspicions into certainty.
‘It’s common for regulatory enforcement employees to get attacked from time to time. Still, I’m worried about the timing and the means that they did it. The Namgung Group’s strategic planning office would’ve been the ones behind this.’
The members of the regulation enforcement department have the ability to seal a player’s ability, light skill, and even the ability to actualize item cards to punish a player for violating the association’s policies.
Deputy Manager Yoon cannot exercise his duty without an order from Hong Gyubin, but it wasn’t strange for some players to think that he would because they know him to have done it in several operations.
However, Hong Gyubin’s guts tell him that this attack was carried out by Namgung Group’s strategic planning office.
“Thank you for your hard work. Please continue your operations with Employee Jung.”
“…Understood.”
Yoon looked pained for a moment from the fact that he’d have to continue working with Jung.
“If you’re having a difficult time, you can take care of the PR Team matters instead of me.”
The conflict between PR Team 1 and 2 has been growing lately.
The main culprit was Team Leader Park from Team 2, and although their performance wasn’t better than PR Team 1’s, they’re slowly gaining thanks to Park’s excellent network management and political skills.
Park’s main target is Yoon, his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.
Although they were on different teams, Team Leader Park picked on Deputy Manager Yoon.
Of course, Team Leader Park also made a fuss against Hong Gyubin.
Hong Gyubin faced Park directly as his team’s leader.
After deliberating between two bad choices, Deputy Leader Yoon made a decision.
“…It’s alright. Thank you for your offer.”
Hong Gyubin sighed when Yoon bowed and went outside.
The issues with the association’s satellite problem had subsided, but there was no time to rest at all.
Not when there are internal politics going on inside the association.
It wasn’t really big enough yet to be noticeable from the outside, but it is there.
This was the case with the Gwangil Police Station’s chief’s death being framed as a suicide.
‘I thought that prankster would go quiet for a while since he’s gone overseas.’
In addition to the things he’s worried about, Seodol sent an ominous message to Hong Gyubin.
Seodol has been asking him to investigate this and that.
Among them were personal profiles of a Year One Class Zero student, and trends in activities of the Oath of the Three Knights.
Hong Gyubin decided to do the investigations for him because he’d thought that was better than Seodol coming back to Korea to investigate things himself.
‘Should I ask Euishin about the kid from Class Zero?’
Jo Euishin was given a huge spotlight in the first print of Jegal’s magazine.
Considering that Jo Euishin will be in Jegal’s newspaper department for a long time, it may be better to inform him that Seodol is investigating a student in his class.
Hong Gyubin turned on his device after some thought.
Dingdong.
The device rang as soon as he opened it.
Hong Gyubin looked surprised when he saw who was calling.
The name of the caller was a family member he hasn’t seen in a long time.
Hong Gyubin immediately took the call.
“Hello?”
[Gyubin oppa. It’s me.]
The caller went straight to the point as soon as Hong Gyubin picked up the phone.
Hong Gyubin smiled at her younger sister’s unwavering appearance.
“What’s the matter?”
[Are you busy with executive work these days? I need you to check something.]
“I am quite busy, but tell me what it is.”
The younger sister’s explanation was a little long.
As the explanation got longer, Hong Gyubin’s face got more and more serious.
