Right after the pre-recording, before the start of the live broadcast.
Energy waves were detected outside the boundary.
It made people wary at first, but soon, they realized that it was the return of the players who had been dealing with the otherworlds downstairs.
The nervous people at the studio soon began to cheer at the players’ return.
When Yeo Raehun raised a bronze stone, a gap in the boundary appeared in the form of a makeshift passage and the players were able to enter the studio.
“Professor, thank you for your hard work! Guys, are any of you hurt?”
Kim Yuri greeted Ham Geunhyung, Jegal, and the other kids from Class Zero with a bright smile as soon as they entered.
“Oh, right. Where’s Euishin? And Yong-ssaem?”
“He’s with Yong-ssaem.”
“Huh? Yeom Junyeol sunbaenim will be on stage but he’s not going to watch?”
“I know right…”
Kim Yuri has a lot of questions, but there was no one in there who could answer them.
Meanwhile, the Year Two Class Zero students swarmed Jegal, examining him for any hidden injuries.
“Jegal-ssaem! Come here! You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? Are you in pain? What about your energy wave? Did you use up to much?
“I am alright.”
“Jegal-ssaem, your standard of being okay is a bit…”
“Jegal-ssaem, we know you don’t lie but you sometimes hide things from us!”
“No, something is wrong with Jegal-ssaem’s face. It’s the face of someone who has been through something.”
Geum Chansol and Wang Chansol found something strange and persistently asked Jegal, but the latter refused to give away anything.
Although it’s true that he wasn’t injured, the students still looked at their homeroom teacher with suspicious eyes.
While receiving their intense gazes, Jegal comforted them and said everything he had to say.
“I stopped by here since I knew you guys would be worried. I think I have to help the Red Lion Team finish up cleaning everything.”
“Eh? You’re leaving right now?”
“No! You just arrived but you’re leaving already?!”
“Students participated in the attack too, shouldn’t you watch over them as a teacher?”
“If you leave it to someone else…”
“Professor Yong Jegun left with Euishin. Professor Ham Geunhyung will be here to watch the performances with his class, so I should get going.”
At Jegal’s words, the mouths of the Year Two class Zero students pouted like ducks.
They expressed their dissatisfaction with all their might, but Jegal didn’t budge.
“I’ll try to come back as soon as I can. Listen well to Professor Ham Geunhyung. Chansol-ie, you’re the class representative so take good care of Garam and Haeon.”
“Yes…”
“Okay…”
Geum Chansol and Wang Chansol showed their talent for answering well with their pouting mouths.
After hearing their response, Jegal wasted no time and moved right away.
Before leaving the studio, he approached Maeng Hyodon.
“Thank you for earlier, Hyodon-ah.”
“O-oh… Yes…”
The depressed Year Two Class Zero students avoided Jegal’s gaze when he began to leave the studio.
When Jegal completely disappeared, Geum Chansol and Wang Chansol immediately rushed toward Maeng Hyodon.
The not-so-tall Maeng Hyodon was soon surrounded by his seniors, and the scene looked like he was being bullied.
“Hold it right there! Why did he thank you?”
“Year One Class Zero Maeng Hyodon hoobaenim. Tell me why in the world Jegal-ssaem was thanking you.”
“O-oh… You see… How should I say this…”
“So something did happen! Hurry and say it!”
“Hurryyyyy!”
“Sunbaenim! Professor Ham Geunhyung is watching you.”
Kim Yuri intervened quickly.
Ham Geunhyung, guided by the staff, went to where Dokgo Miro was waiting for a while, and he was staring at the seniors surrounding his students.
In the end, Maeng Hyodon had to make a temporary boundary around them using an item so that no one would hear what he would say.
He briefly explained what happened in the underground parking lot.
After hearing the explanation, the Class Zero seniors trembled with anger.
As they promised with Kim Yrui, they had to suppress their anger with all their might to avoid raging in front of their juniors.
“Wasn’t he the one who caused an incident in our school’s main gate before? I heard what happened.”
“Me too. Wasn’t that guy hospitalized?”
“I thought he transferred to a different broadcasting station after being fired from Playlist.”
“That person isn’t a PD anymore.”
Dokgo Miro’s fansite, Jung Haeon, said so.
She spent more time in the broadcasting station than in school, so she knows more about the people and events related to Playlist than any news reporter.
“When he was hospitalized, that person claimed that the electrocution incident was caused by someone else’s instructions. So the police investigated people who might have a motive.”
“Oh, I think I know what happens next.”
“His old crimes must’ve been discovered!”
“That’s right. There were a few incidents that PD had in the past, and I guess he buried them all. Advertisers don’t like that kind of noise, so they usually choose to interrogate him themselves but pretend that things didn’t happen instead of getting rid of that PD.”
Jung Haeon explained the crimes of the PD that were uncovered by the investigative agency.
He extorted money from naive people and student trainees who had no experience with the entertainment agency, telling them that he can put them on TV.
His M.O. was that he would extort money from those poor people and then have all kinds of excuses because, in the first place, he had no ability to have them appear on TV.
Once he can no longer extort money from them, he cuts off contact right away.
Now, it is said that his victims are preparing to file a class action suit against him.
“I guess the broadcasting station didn’t cover it up this time.”
“It’s the Hwangmyeong Foundation who went after that PD. If the foundation caught them trying to bury things again, the foundation would’ve surely stepped up. Aside from that, it’s also discovered that he embezzled production money, so the station had to let go of him.”
“He must’ve been in need of money since he was fired. …Did he go after Jegal-ssaem for money?”
The Year Two Class Zero students began to brainstorm.
They seemed to want to privately investigate the case and avenge their beloved teacher.
Kim Yuri quickly sensed the danger and pulled Maeng Hyodon out of it, along with their other classmates.
“Jiho has been quiet for a while. Is something wrong?”
“…I’m contacting someone so I’m a little busy.”
“Eh? But Jiho, you’re not using your device right now.”
Hwangho was contacting people through his alter egos, but he didn’t intend to explain that.
He smiled meaningfully and didn’t respond to Saeum of April’s question.
Hani looked at his face and looked infinitely sick of it.
And then, someone came in through the entrance.
They were staff of the Players’ Association and donned suits.
“They’re wearing a pass with the association’s logo.”
“Is it because an otherworld appeared without warning?”
“Then they should be in the underground parking lot. What are they doing here?”
“Are they going to ask us something?”
The Year One Class Zero students who participated in dealing with the otherworlds prepared answers in their heads with nervous faces.
However, the association’s staff didn’t approach them and are apparently not interested at all in the Eungwang High students.
One of the employees saw a Eungwang High student and took out a pen and paper, seemingly wanting an autograph, but he was quickly hit in the head by a person that looked like his boss.
“…I think they’re headed to where Lena’s sister is.”
“Did something happen with the people from Namgung Group?”
The employees from the association were headed to the audience section where the Namgung C&T Otherworld Industrial Division One was seated.
The Namgung C&T employees didn’t seem to notice that they were being watched by the association’s employees.
They were sitting rigidly, watching the stage.
Kwon Lena looked at Lee Yeoreum with an anxious face.
Mok Wooram, who was looking at Kwon Lena from the side, also became anxious.
‘Lena-ni… No, Lena seemed like something was bothering her since a while ago.’
Kwon Lena was very distressed as she looked at her violin item card in her card holster.
The instrument is also a weapon for players like Kwon Jein and Kwon Lena.
However, energy instruments such as energy violins were classified as instruments, not weapons.
Therefore, it wasn’t marked at the security checkpoint earlier, which means that she can materialize it anytime.
Nevertheless, Kwon Lena couldn’t go out to fight.
‘…My muse still doesn’t have enough power to fight with her energy violin. Still, it must’ve bothered her to see her friends heading to the battlefield without weapons.’
From Mok Wooram’s perspective, who also knows Kwon Lena’s secret, the existence of this “Lee Yeoreum” was also worrisome.
But it was Kwon Lena who Mok Wooram is worried about the most at the moment.
While hesitating about how to offer her some comfort, Min Geurin broke the silence.
“Oh, I got a message from Daesok.”
“From Daesok? Can Daesok-ie come?”
“No, I don’t think he can come today. I guess there are more things to do at the lab. …He’s asking us if everything’s okay. Should I tell him what happened?”
“I think it would be in the news anyway, so it’s better to tell him honestly.”
“Oh, Miro’s going up to the stage! The other contestants are coming up too. The first performance must be starting already!”
Mok Wooram lost his chance to console Kwon Lena.
In the room with anxious people here and there, the first performance ended safely.
* * *
This old man is telling me to “just wait”
I only saw the message banner that pops up on top of the screen, but I decided not to check all the messages he’s been sending.
I think I’d see no end to his nagging if I leave him on read.
I decided to ask Yong Jegun first to confirm.
“…Professor Jegun, is there someone from the Tiger Clan who can enter here?”
“Yep, there is.”
Seeing that Yong Jegun answered right away, there really must be someone.
It’s going to be a little difficult if someone from the Tiger Clan picks me up right now though…
“Oh, did they tell you they’re coming to pick you up?”
Yong Jegun figured it out.
The sharpness of my playable character impressed me, but at this point, I needed to come up with a countermeasure.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that Tiger.”
…My playable character is perfect!
Just as I was admiring Yong Jegun, Cheongryong and Yeom Bangyeol talked to me.
“I couldn’t greet our guest properly earlier. As you may already know, I am the head of the Dragon Clan and Yeom Junyeol’s uncle, Cheongryong.”
“I am Yeom Bangyeol, father of Yeom Junyeol and Team Master of Red Lion.”
They had solemn voices, but the bright cheering sticks they were holding were quite the contradiction.
Even in their self-introductions, they didn’t fail to mention Yeom Junyeol.
‘Yeom Bangyeol and Cheongryong were sworn brothers. That’s why Cheongryong and Yeom Junyeol are uncle and nephew.’
The two seemed very close in PMH, and it looks like they’re actually in sync.
“We owe you, and we want to give you something.”
“We are trying to prepare a gift for our guest, but we don’t know what would be good to give.”
The head of the Dragon Clan and the Team Master of Red Lion giving me a gift.
As a reward.
It’s only natural for me to do these things for my playable characters, so I didn’t need any reward.
Still, there were a few things that I wanted to ask from the Dragon Clan.
‘One is related to those light sticks…’
I looked at the cheering sticks shining brightly in the hands of Cheongryong and Yeom Bangyeol with envy.
I wanted that light stick, but there was something more important.
‘If I go back to the Tiger Clan’s mansion, there’s a high possibility that my schedule would be messed up.’
It’s Halloween soon, and I had to leave Korea.
But there’s a threat of that old man holding me by my ankle.
After much thought, I finally spoke.
