Unlike when I selected Hwang Jiho’s name, a system notification appeared saying I successfully used the function on Son Minki.
Just like that, Son Minki is set to have a good night’s dream today.
Based on what Namwook and Sanghoon explained, Son Minki will see the entrance exam scenario up until the moment he dies.
After the notification, Hwang Jiho began to speak.
“It’s faint, but I can feel an energy wave.”
Hwang Jiho’s words reminded me of what Jang Namwook said before.
— And when I looked at us with my “eye”, I saw a black fog.
Jang Namwook found remnants of my energy wave around him and Yoo Sanghoon.
I decided to inform Hwang Jiho in advance to prevent troublesome situations in the future.
“Jang Namwook saw with his Eye of the Star Maiden something like a black fog on the subjects that I chose. Remnants of my energy wave might remain with Son Minki.”
“There’s no one around that jerk who has the Eye of the Star Maiden, but I will take care of it just in case. Tell me more about this method that you are using.”
I explained the Replay function to Hwang Jiho.
Of course, I omitted things like the other dimension or the game dimension.
Still, I explained in detail what happened when I used it twice on Yoo Sanghoon, and once on Jang Namwook and Son Minki.
“So to sum up, the person that you will choose will see what would happen in this world if you didn’t exist.”
I don’t think it’s appropriate to use the word “future”.
The replay function would make a person dream what’s likely to not happen in this world anymore.
Although I think Hwang Jiho doesn’t understand it fully yet, I decided to just nod.
“Did you say that you can only use it on one person at a time? And you said it takes time to initialize.”
“Yeah. It took two days for Yoo Sanghoon. It might take up to four days for Son Minki.”
“You said the initialization reduced from two days to one day on the second time you used it on Yoo Sanghoon. Then there’s a possibility that the same could happen to Son Minki.”
From there, we built plans on how to safely use the Replay function and how to monitor Son Minki.
Hwang Jiho and his alter egos continued checking the records as he kept speaking with me.
Nevertheless, even though he was speaking slower than usual, I can sense that Hwang Jiho was thinking clearly.
It made me feel quite strange.
By the time our conversation was over, the other alter egos stopped moving, probably because they were done checking what they need to check.
‘They didn’t find any traces of Pungbaek, Unsa, and Usa.’
Hwang Jiho sighed briefly as he pressed his temples.
At the same time, the other alter egos buried themselves deep in armchairs or leaned their heads on bookshelves and closed their eyes.
Hwang Jiho did say that they didn’t notice time passing, so they must’ve stayed up all night reviewing all these documents.
“An ability that could interfere with other people’s dreams. Skills related to dreams are quite difficult to handle. Even more so if it’s a player’s dream you’re interfering with.”
Hwang Jiho began to speak to himself, perhaps because he had some time to relax after the alter egos took a rest.
“Furthermore, the dream that you will show is quite unique. You can use it on someone you only met once, and you can trigger it from a long distance. There’s no risk for you in using this ability?”
Hwang Jiho cast a golden spell in his eyes and looked at me with his glare skill.
Honestly, it doesn’t bother me anymore.
There’s something else that bothers me.
‘Why is he letting him sleep over there? Shouldn’t he cover him with a blanket at least?’
My gaze was on a child sleeping on a reclining chair.
No, it’s not just a child, it’s actually Hwang Jiho’s alter ego, but…
Woof?
As I was getting more and more conflicted, I was awakened by the sound of the cute angel in my arms.
In the end, I decided that the child is also Hwang Jiho, so I got rid of the useless thought in my head.
As expected, Olmu’s the best.
“I shouldn’t let my guard down at all.”
Hwang Jiho was dumbfounded as I stroked Olmu’s head and give him praises.
After everything, I decided that I should go back to my dorm.
I was told that I could stay in the mansion, but the tigers already have a lot on their plate.
I don’t want to be an additional burden to them.
In particular, Red Tiger, who has been completely silent after the mention of Pungbaek, Usa, and Unsa, excused himself first and went back to his own room.
When White Tiger said he and Olmu will accompany me back to the dorm, Hwang Jiho said something to me.
“Thank you for the gift. I’ll drink and enjoy the rest of it.”
I didn’t know he’d be so happy with the little gift that I gave him.
Somehow, it reminded me of my college junior who felt happy with being gifted a simple canned coffee.
Their looks and personalities were not alike at all, but perhaps it’s because they’re both parts of chaebol families and enjoy drinking tea that I see a link between them.
***
An honor student who was once expected to enter Eungwang High, and the only son of a solid-listed company president.
The “Small Hero” and once considered a prospective star player, Son Minki.
He’s a middle-school graduate and has been sent to a relative’s house in the countryside.
The company of Son Minki’s parents has gone bankrupt, and his mother filed for divorce to try to escape debt, but she was found to have cheated while she was speaking with investors, making it impossible to avoid the lawsuit.
The so-called ‘hand-bait incident’ caused a lot of trouble in his family, but Son Minki thought that his parents deserve to suffer anyway.
‘Great. They tried to run away and they screwed up.’
As more and more banks refused to lend money to Son Minki’s family business, Son Minki’s parents tried to abandon him one night.
They were stopped by a group of creditors who received an anonymous tip.
The truth is, it was the Tiger Clan who sent the anonymous tip, but the creditors and Son Minki don’t know that.
Since then, an arrest warrant has been issued on the grounds that the damage done by Son Minki’s parents was too big and there’s a high risk of them trying to run away.
Son Minki’s parents have been held pending in the detention center.
With that, Son Minki lived in a relative’s house in the countryside where his name isn’t recognized by everyone.
It was humiliating and he felt infuriated as he operate his device in a small room that smells like mold and watched the performance of the Eungwang High Students that he was supposed to be in the same year in.
Still, Son Minki hasn’t given up all hope.
His only hope now was Yoo Sanghee.
‘Yoo Sanghee can heal me. Well, the price of regenerating all my limbs could cost her life. Or maybe she could refer me to a good hospital…’
At first glance, it would seem that Yoo Sangheewas gentle and sympathetic toward Son Minki.
He sent around ten messages to her, and she replied around once or twice.
She apologizes for replying to his messages late, and it seems like she’s arranging a meeting so he could reconcile with Yoo Sanghoon and the others.
Son Minki intended to take advantage of Yoo Sanghee’s soft heart and regain his limbs.
Of course, this positive outlook was nothing more than a delusion.
Yoo Sanghee’s torturous way of keeping Son Minki’s hope high was her way of messing with his mind.
Yoo Sanghee has no intention of forgiving Son Minki, the man who tried to kill her brother and even manipulated public opinion to his own advantage.
Her small revenge was sending the occasional ambiguous message to Son Minki.
Recently, however, she hasn’t sent a message to him.
‘There’s no message from her again?! Maybe the third years are busy. She’ll be free after the exams, so I’ll have to talk about the regenerative procedure right away.’
Son Minki, who was busily rolling his eyes to control his special device, shut his eyes.
His eyes have recently been dry, but since he has no arms or legs, he couldn’t put eye drops on his own.
After some time of imagining successfully using Yoo Sanghee, Son Minki fell asleep.
He was transported to the gym of Eungwang High.
Without realizing that he was dreaming, Son Minki was already being dragged around.
The dream went on for a while before the last scene, him being attacked by the enemy, woke him up.
“Ahhk!”
Son Minki shook as he silently spat out curses.
The walls in the house were thin so he couldn’t shout with all his might.
While Son Minki tossed and turned in bed as he found it difficult to fall asleep again, someone watched him over the window.
***
The next morning.
As soon as I received the weather forecast from my good student Yeom Junyeol and left the dormitory, I encountered an unexpected person.
It was Mok Wooram.
‘I haven’t seen him around here in the morning ever since the foundation gave him his workshop.’
I went out of my room early to go meet with Hwang Jiho and hear about the result with Son Minki, but I didn’t expect to meet Mok Wooram.
“Hello.”
“Hey.”
“Vice President, there’s something I want to consult with you…”
When I nodded, Mok Wooram weakly told me what had happened yesterday.
It seems like Mok Wooram and Kwon Lena encountered our other classmates on their way home yesterday.
The dormitory students naturally went out to go eat together, but he said that Kwon Lena had gradually become less talkative.
“I talked to Lena-nim more than usual because I was worried about her, but I’m afraid I made a mistake since she wasn’t responding properly.”
Mok Wooram told me every word he had said to Kwon Lena last night and asked me to determine if he had said anything out of line.
He seems to be worried that he said something wrong since his Korean still isn’t very good, but there wasn’t really wrong with anything he said.
Except that he really sounds and feels like a pushover.
‘I guess she thought she wouldn’t encounter Saeum, but she became flustered when they met him later in the afternoon.’
I soothed Mok Wooram before heading to school.
Kwon Lena will only feel guilty if Mok Wooram apologizes to her, and she’d just suffer more.
I told him to leave Kwon Lena alone for the time being before we separated.
As I continued to walk to school, I encountered another unexpected person.
Moon Saeron greeted me brightly and approached me.
“Hey! Suspicious VP, have you had the additional interview with Yeom Junyeol?”
“Not yet. If possible, I want to get his sentiments after all the games reach the second round.”
After the interview with Yeom Junyeol, I was set to begin a special interview with the other school celebrities at the closing ceremony.
Moon Saeron echoed my remarks.
“Alright! Then I’d like to instruct you to ask some more questions if possible.”
“What questions? Questions related to Playlist aren’t allowed.”
“Yep, that’s fine. I bet Yeom Junyeol will approve this right away.”
Moon Saeron floated a hologram.
The hologram showed a notice of registration of candidates for the upcoming general elections of student representatives.
There’s a total of four representatives in Eungwang High; the head of the student council, the head of Jiikhoe, the general club president, and the student association’s representative.
The head of the student council is determined within the council, but the other three were determined by open elections.
The head of the Jiikhoe will be elected by the dormitory students, and the general club president will be voted by the heads of each club.
The president of the student association is determined through the voting of all students.
‘The day of the general elections is coming soon.’
The deadline for candidates’ registration is the end of the week, and the campaign period starts next Monday.
Moon Saeron spoke again.
“It’s hard to schedule two separate interviews with him, so it’s better to ask it all at once. After all, the leading candidate for the student representative is Yeom Junyeol.”
