Support Ex-Rank
“I can’t believe it…!”
Jared Lee collapsed when he understood what I was saying.
He withdrew from the Oath of the Three Knights and soon afterward joined the Lake of Eternity team.
Not long after that, Great Manchester Otherworld occurred.
Being one of the few team members who survived that feat, Jared Lee gradually gained the team's trust and took on the position of subteam master.
Still, the fact remained that he was from the OTK and that the enemies modeled after him that aimed for Mok Wooram were created from plundered earth power.
‘His reaction tells me he had no idea.’
Mok Wooram helped the collapsed Jared Lee to sit on the sofa.
Jared could hardly keep himself together as Mok Wooram lightly raised him.
He looked out of it for a while but thanked Mok Wooram.
He asked a question.
“…Do they know about that?”
His question wasn’t directed to Mok Wooram but to the two clan heads.
Hwang Jiho answered.
“Warnings would constantly appear from the land. I’m sure even superior beings didn’t stay still.”
“Warning from the land…?”
“It’s not easy to break down cause and effect. Seeing that your limbs and mental health are intact, it’s clear that you didn’t cooperate with them directly in using earth power.”
Hwang Jiho didn’t elaborate, but the implications of his words were heavy.
Seodol, who faced the Knight of the Water Shadow today, added a word.
“I didn’t see anything wrong with the Knight of the Water Shadow earlier. I couldn’t confirm though since I saw him from a distance and he was heavily armed.”
“The Knight of the Water Shadow covers his whole body. He always wears armor. I saw his face once when I joined the team but after that…”
Jared Lee’s words trailed off.
Something seemed to come to his mind.
Players who opt to hide their faces and bodies weren’t rare.
However, for Jared Lee who was on the same team, there must’ve been a moment or two that he found strange.
Jared Lee became silent.
“I guess there’s something broken enough in his face that he doesn’t want to show it. That’s from before I left, a long time ago.”
Hwang Jiho, who was watching Jared Lee, concluded.
The old man can read other people’s faces, of course.
While everyone was lost in thought, Mok Wooram raised his hand.
It’s a student-like gesture and he didn’t really have to do it here.
“Then the Manchester Great Otherworld was caused by the Grand Cross Knight of the Water Shadow of the Oath of the Three Knights team?”
His train of thought was logical.
‘I probably would’ve thought so too if it weren’t for that piece of information.’
There’s a hidden story behind the Great Manchester Otherworld.
The case has grown so big because of multiple otherworlds occurring coupled with the dysfunction of the English Players’ Association.
Professional player teams had to travel around England to settle each otherworld while the Players’ Association was being attacked by a royal lineage.
‘It’s a situation where it isn’t strange for a royal lineage to attack the association.’
The association was at odds with the royal lineage at that time.
Their relationship reached its worst, not considering yet the anti-royal lineage policies being proposed by the association.
And a day before the Great Manchester Otherworld, the association was attacked by a royal lineage and was on the verge of destruction.
I answered Mok Wooram.
“He’s one of the causes.”
“One of the causes…? Are there other ones?”
I looked back at Jared Lee who was still in pain.
Seodol seemed to have his thoughts, while Hwang Jiho watched me and Mok Wooram talk.
Those three knew what I was trying to say.
They all knew the secret behind the Great Manchester Otherworld.
The night Kwon Jein performed at the concert hall, I heard from Hwang Jiho something about her.
Kwon Jein and Jared Lee visited Hwang Jiho and said this;
— Our team captured the royal lineage who attacked at that time. Luckily, I got a clue after more than ten years of mental manipulation. I got help from a royal lineage who call themselves mystical creatures.
— The captured royal lineage was Bear Clan from Korea. He said he attacked the association upon the order of that person.
The attackers were the Bear Clan of the Korean Peninsula, upon the order of that person.
It was the Black Screen who moved behind the scenes.
‘Can I tell Mok Wooram about the Black Screen?’
I think the Black Screen is reaching out to the OTK in some way.
I don’t know if they already joined hands, or if the Black Screen is just unilaterally supporting them.
I decided to withhold some information to keep Mok Wooram from danger.
“There’s someone who ordered the attack on the association. They can spawn an otherworld without warning.”
That ability of the Black Screen has already caused great catastrophes — Jamsil Baseball Stadium, and the Youth Retreat.
On both days, an otherworld spawned without any warning.
It wasn’t as big as the Great Manchester Otherworld, and it was settled relatively quickly.
‘But those two occurred in Korea where earth power is overflowing. What if they call an otherworld where balance is collapsed?’
Balance collapses when earth power is depleted.
Then it’s not strange to have accidents that can’t be solved quickly.
At the time of the Great Manchester Otherworld, the player's satellite couldn’t catch any signs of an otherworld spawning.
“Spawning an otherworld? A power like that…!”
“There wouldn’t have been much force in the ability itself. Their land ran out of earth power and caused the collapse. That’s what intensified the effect.”
The same was true for, for example, fires.
If a fire starts in an oil-sprayed building, even a small ember could be disastrous.
The Black Screen essentially blocked all fire exits and threw embers at the vulnerable land.
‘This solved a riddle.’
The day before the Great Manchester Otherworld, the Black Screen worked with the Bear Clan to attack the association.
But I didn’t think that the Black Screen used its otherworld summoning power because the otherworlds that appeared then were too great.
‘I didn’t know the story behind it before.’
They broke the balance before summoning othwerorlds.
I thought I knew about the source of enormous power that the Black Screen can use.
I thought it was just features of a failed game that is PMH.
However, the Black Screen broke the balance without being seen at all.
‘They must’ve built up everything piece by piece.’
A chill went down my spine.
Someone elaborately planning and executing something like this was more horrifying than thinking that it occurred by accident.
It felt like I was playing chess against someone who was up by a dozen points.
‘But I’m starting to see their thoughts.’
After I finished speaking, Mok Wooram also fell silent.
Perhaps he felt the power of the Black Screen as well.
Hwang Jiho broke the heavy silence.
“I think we’ve heard enough about earth power. Now let’s hear what you have to say.”
Hwang Jiho addressed Jared Lee.
He seemed relatively calmer now.
For the first time in our conversation, Jared Lee talked like a member of a top professional player team.
“These things happened just after I became a player.”
Jared Lee explained what he had been through.
He lost his family at a young age.
Although he had distant relatives in Korea, they expressed economic difficulties whenever they’d meet, so Jared didn’t lean on them.
‘I doubt they had financial problems though.’
I think they said those things to Jared, thinking he’d be a burden if he relied on them.
Just like Kwon Lena’s adoptive parents who had kind faces but rotten personalities.
Anyway, Jared had no one to rely on, and so he immediately accepted when he was scouted by the Oath of the Three Knights.
When he had just become a player, Jared Lee entered the world’s top ten player team.
“When I first became I member, I was focused on attacking otherworlds and eradicating enemies. And then, a year after I joined, they told me…”
A year after he joined the team.
His performance was good, and he’s gotten along well with the knights, even having several encounters with the Grand Cross.
And then, one day, the Grand Cross called him.
“I was so excited when I was invited to the place that only the Grand Cross could access that I didn’t really recognize the situation. I felt something odd in my guts though.”
Jared Lee’s words became faster.
His Korean began to get twisted a little, but not to the point where we couldn’t understand him.
He could’ve spoken in English, but he was adamant to speak in Korean.
“The Knight of the Water Shadow said he wanted to use his light skill. He said I needed it.”
On that day, Jared Lee agreed to a proposal made by the Knight of the Water Shadow.
And that’s how Jared Lee became the model of the enemies that the team creates.
In the center of their hideout, the OTK drew Manchester’s earth power and created an enemy that looked just like Jared Lee.
Having a well-balanced ability, he was seen as the perfect model.
“No matter how much they cloned me, the clones couldn’t use my light skill and there was a limit to their skills too. Their communication wasn’t good either. And I… I started to go crazy.”
Jared Lee became unstable.
He watched as the team drew earth power to make enemies who wore his face.
Some of the enemies spawned grew out of control.
Enemies with Jared’s face killed each other and tried to kill him.
At some point, Jared Lee couldn’t tell whether he was looking at himself or an enemy.
And then one day, Jared Lee heard Kwon Jein play.
Support Ex-Rank
