The cheering squad and the other staff members had a short break while the Playlist show was filming.
The other athletes also moved to their assigned audience seats, while the soccer team started to warm up on the artificial grass for their upcoming match.
Many people left their seats to see the Playlist cast up close or to greet their acquaintances from the other school.
Jang Namwook, the flag bearer and head of the military academy’s cheering squad, did the same.
He changed out of his cheering squad clothes and sat in the waiting room assigned by Jo Euishin.
The situation in the stadium was being broadcasted on the screen inside the waiting room, and no problem occurred during the disassembling of the stage.
‘What happened to the collapsed staff members? What about Sihoo?’
The stage that was set up for the opening remarks and the performance was quickly disassembled by the staff of the Hwangmyeong Foundation.
There were staff members who looked spaced out below the stage, but they seemed to be treated with recovery items already.
None of them were seriously injured.
The most noticeable thing though was that some equipment, like sound devices and video transmission devices in the temporary staff room, were smashed.
All the broken equipment had one thing in common – they were manufactured by Namgung Electronics.
‘They said everything will be alright since they prepared for anything. Is everything really okay?’
Jang Namwook couldn’t help but ponder if the broken equipment will be blamed on Namgung Electronics for having defective products.
Namgung Electronics’ products have been featured in a lot of articles for being defective.
This one small accident would just be another one added to the list.
‘If it’s Namgung Group… It’s related to Gyuyeon.’
Jang Namwook recalled his colleague at the military academy, Namgung Gyuyeon.
He felt a little conflicted about having to be a part of something that would tarnish a colleague’s family company’s reputation, but he didn’t really have any choice.
Jang Namwook decided that it would be shameless of him to object to the people who generously helped him and his friend Do Sihoo.
Open.
The waiting room door opened and closed without warning.
A chill went down Jang Namwook’s spine even though he knew that there was no need to be wary.
‘I didn’t sense anything until the door opened…! Even right now, I can’t feel his presence!’
A red fog rose and scattered silently in front of Jang Namwook.
A man appeared with a neat impression through the red mist.
The man, Red Tiger, was carrying Do Sihoo who was still bound by a chain.
“Hello.”
“Ah, hello.”
Jang Namwook reflexively gave a polite greeting, but his mind was focused on whether Do Sihoo was alright or not.
“Is Sihoo alright?”
“He is not injured. But since he’s been under the Demon Race’s manipulation for a long time, it’s best that he receives a thorough examination from a proper medical staff.”
Jang Namwook’s expression looked complicated at the mention of a “proper medical staff”.
Do Sihoo has mentioned several times his father’s past colleagues at the Military Academy Hospital.
The message sent by Jo Euishin covered the bright image of Do Sihoo talking about his father’s colleagues.
Jo Euishin said that the nursing officer who was in charge of Do Sihoo has manipulated his energy wave test results, and he had been cooperating with the people that tried to hurt Do Sihoo.
Jang Namwook spoke with a brooding face.
“…Will Sihoo remember everything that happened?”
“His mind has been messed with by the Demon Race for a long time, so there’s a possibility that some aftereffects would remain and affect his memory. There’s a suggestion that we erase his memories, but…”
The Red Tiger cut off his own words when he looked at the nervous Jang Namwook.
He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to think.
“Jo Euishin affirmed that the cadet will not investigate things. Please be careful not to let our story be revealed to the other players.”
“Thank you…!”
“I did not do anything particular to be thanked by you.”
The Red Tiger gave a few more precautions and reminders to Jang Namwook.
‘I think I’ve become more at ease since Euishin’s name was mentioned…’
Jang Namwook thought so, but he decided to let it be a passing thought.
The most important thing for Jang Namwook right now was the well-being of the other participants in the sports exchange exhibition, especially Do Sihoo.
After removing the chain that bound Do Sihoo, the Red Tiger disappeared once again through the red fog.
“Sihoo, get a hold of yourself.”
After the Red Tiger disappeared, Jang Namwook tried waking up Do Sihoo right away.
However, it wasn’t as easy as waking up someone who was simply asleep.
Through the screen, the performance of Dokgo Miro and the Saint of Naejang Mountain ended, while the stage and ground maintenance was already completed for the upcoming soccer game.
Even as the referee whistled to mark the start of the monumental first sports exchange match, Do Sihoo still remained asleep.
‘My Eye of the Star Maiden tells me he’s fine, but…”
Jang Namwook gave notice in advance to the cheering squad that he would be away, but it wouldn’t really be good for the captain to be absent for a long time.
Although he can see the broadcast through the screen in the waiting room, the communication signal inside was somehow blocked, so Jang Namwook couldn’t receive or send any messages.
Even so, Jang Namwook was sure that a lot of people are already looking for him.
However, he couldn’t just leave Do Sihoo alone.
Jang Namwook faithfully stayed next to him and opted to watch the game on the screen.
Before he knew it, more than a quarter of the first half has passed, and an opportunity for a corner kick came for Eungwang High’s team.
“Oh… This isn’t good.”
The Eungwang High’s soccer team moved in perfect harmony as the team captain was about to kick the ball to the goal.
As the etymology of the football term “Set Piece” goes, the players moved in a neat movement as if they were chess pieces set to a perfect mating position by invincible hands.
The ball went off of the captain’s shoes and went accurately into the head of the no-mark player.
The first-year striker of the Eungwang High team didn’t miss, and the ball was pushed into the back of the net.
Jang Namwook jumped up and shouted.
“Oh, no!”
Explosive shouts erupted from the audience and reached the waiting room as the soccer ball crossed the goal line and shook the net.
The soccer team captain and the first-year striker celebrated the first goal of the game.
“…Oh?”
With the loud cheers outside, Do Sihoo suddenly opened his eyes.
“Sihoo, are you okay?”
Jang Namwook, who was staring at the screen with bitter eyes, ran towards Do Sihoo.
Do Sihoo, who was lying on a bench in the waiting room, got up and blinked his eyes a few times.
Do Sihoo, whose face was still pale, looked around and leaned on the chair, relieved to see Jang Namwook with him.
“Yeah, I’m alright but… Is anyone hurt?”
“No.”
Do Sihoo looked at his surroundings.
He still doesn’t have a full grasp of the situation, but based on Jang Namwook’s words and expression and the fact that they were in a waiting room, Do Sihoo guessed that the scheduled soccer game was going smoothly inside Eungwang Stadium.
Do Sihoo knew that he owes it Jang Namwook.
He wanted to thank him, but somehow the words couldn’t leave his mouth.
Do Sihoo finally spoke.
“Alright, but… I think I’m in trouble. What should I do?”
“What’s wrong? Do you still hear a strange voice in your head? Is your body being controlled again?”
(T/N: The word trouble is “keun-il” (큰일) in Korean. The word “keun” can also mean big & “il” can mean “number one”.)
Jang Namwook asked carefully, recalling the emergency contact number given by Red Tiger.
Do Sihoo didn’t answer right away, but once he did, he faced Jang Namwook with a smile.
“No, the score right now is 0 to 1. Looking at the scoreboard, the number 1 is written quite largely. It’s a ‘Big 1’ a ‘keun-il’, so we’re in trouble right now. Hahaha! …Ouch!”
Hit!
Jang Namwook suddenly felt emotional after hearing Do Sihoo spout his usual nonsense, so he threw his fist without him realizing it.
He didn’t exert much force, but it was enough to knock down Do Sihoo.
Instead of apologizing, Jang Namwook helped Do Sihoo stand up.
“You seem fine now, so let’s go. The other kids would be worried.”
Do Sihoo nodded with a sullen face but politely followed Jang Namwook.
Somehow, Jang Namwook’s fist reminded him of the energy wave that woke him up earlier when he was being controlled by something.
* * *
The shooting of the Playlist show and the first match between Eungwang High and Player Military Academy ended smoothly.
The opening ceremony, the performances from Playlis’s contestants, and the first game that ended with Eungwang High’s victory were all wonderful.
It wasn’t as cool as the first few events, but there was one more thing that we saw after the soccer match.
It was the sight of a group of Year Three Class Zero students walking around like ducks in the Eungwang Stadium.
“They’ve been addicted to bread lately. They all smell like bread so it was a piece of cake finding them all!”
Im Yeonhwa said so like it was nothing, but it was superhuman behavior for her to find them just by sniffing them out.
Even so, Maeng Hyodon agreed with what she said.
“Right. Come to think of it, they do smell like potato bread.”
Woo Kihwan began to walk around the Eungwang Stadium as he held back his humiliation.
The group of the Year Three Class Zero seniors began to run with all their might as Im Yeonhwa began to chase them from behind.
As expected, all of them were caught by the strong homeroom teacher.
Woo Kihwan, by some miraculous feat, took the lead and somehow ran one lap faster than Im Yeonhwa.
To make things interesting, some kids from the newspaper department rushed to draw a finish line.
As expected, it was Im Yeonhwa who crossed the finish line first.
“Kids, you’ve gotten much faster than I thought. If we do additional training today, you’ll improve more!”
The Class Zero seniors held back their tears.
Im Yeonhwa took a photo and posted it on social media with a fun caption.
[First match of today’s exchange match ended in Eungwang High’s victory! ^0^ I won too! LOL!]
With that, the seniors burst into the tears they had been holding back.
That interesting sight has been our topic until our class had dinner together.
The other kids also talked about other things.
“Did you see the person holding a really big camera while Miro was singing?”
“Ah, I saw that. The size of the camera isn’t really that big, but the size of the lens was scary.”
“Isn’t that the fansite that Yuri mentioned last time? Come to think of it, the person didn’t watch the game and just photographed Miro all throughout.”
The topic of the conversation shifted to the unidentified person who appeared with a cannon-sized professional camera right when Dokgo Miro was performing.
The person was wearing a mask and their face wasn’t seen properly, but that someone was wearing a Eungwang High spring-autumn school uniform.
“Is Miro’s fansite a student at Eungwang High?”
“Looking at the color of the nametag, I think the person’s a sophomore.”
“The person also takes pictures of Miro during the weekday. Perhaps this person also doesn’t go to school?”
“Oh, some new pictures are posted.”
Min Geurin, who stayed calm in her seat even though a lot of strangers were in the area, floated a hologram and showed us the photo.
The photo showed Dokgo Miro from today, wearing the old white school uniform.
Her expression was still somewhat awkward, but her appearance was eye-catching.
Her bright hair color combined with the plain school uniform makes it seem like she’s posing for a school uniform .
“That sunbae must really be Miro’s fansite!”
Kim Yuri exclaimed as she looked at the pictures.
The attendance for our class still isn’t great, but I guess seniors also have a similar problem.
It seems like Dokgo Miro’s fansite is a sophomore out-of-school kid.
We went around one family restaurant and two cafes in Hwangmyeong Tower to eat and chat before parting ways.
Right before leaving, Hwang Jiho asked me something.
“I have something to ask.”
“What?”
“Why didn’t you ask for help from our classmates? If Saeum of April helped today, things would have been much easier.”
Hwang Jiho was right.
It’s not that I haven’t thought about asking Saeum of April to stay in the waiting room with me and activate his King’s Word light skill instead.
“Saeum already knows who you are anyway. You could’ve asked Maeng Hyodon or Mok Wooram too. Although Yuri still can’t control her energy wave well, we could’ve used her connections in the student council to stall some things.”
Hwang Jiho was asking me why I didn’t utilize my other pieces even though they were available.
The risks on this mission were low as long as we blocked the Demon Race’s Eye.
But I still don’t want to borrow my classmates’ power.
“They couldn’t play around during the youth retreat. I wanted to let them enjoy themselves this time.”
Hwang Jiho had a golden glint in his eyes for a moment.
I felt like he looked at me with his glare skill.
“Do you know how much energy wave you consumed? The other kids would’ve wanted to fight alongside you.”
Before Hwang Jiho could say more, the other kids came to us and our conversation was immediately cut.
I pretended not to hear what he said and I just went back to my spacious and quiet dormitory room.
* * *
Inside a space, the priest of Avaritia of Greed – one of the seven Demon Gods — was being held.
The inside of the space was hard to see due to the poisonous fog, but the figure of the priest slowly emerged.
It was a greenhouse, and the innermost part held the Avaritia’s priest.
The trees rooted in the distorted space began to wither at a frightening speed.
Fwaaa…!
Fruits and leaves of various colors rotted on the spot as if they were poisoned.
And then…
A purple fruit sprouted from a tree that had completely rotted and turned black.
The fruit looked more like an eyeball than edible fruit.
The eyeball-like fruit that sprouted from the tree was purplish, just like the priest’s eye.
