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On a dark night, in front of Cotton Wool’s tomb at Cheokin Mountain.
Ahn Dain was sitting with a bouquet of as many as the number of people she lost.
From Cotton Wool, Jegal, Kim Yuri, and Jeokho, to those who died in the First Christmas scenario.
There were so many that died so she brought fog flowers.
The tiger couple watched Ahn Dain in the dark.
‘From the weather, clothes, and the number of flowers, this seems to be the second semester of the second grade. Is that when the tiger couple encountered Ahn Dain?’
Ahn Dain talked to the air, addressing Cotton Wool, telling him what happened at school, and asking him to say hello if he meets any of her friends in heaven.
At that point, Ahn Dain had little presence to talk properly.
Her family couldn’t help her either.
Born into a family of civilians, Ahn Dain was floating on her own.
Her parents even checked her paternity because they suspected that their child was mistakenly taken by someone else and replaced by Ahn Dain because of her unbelievable beauty and skill.
Among her family, Ahn Dain was an object of awe rather than a daughter, so it was difficult for her to speak her mind.
‘That’s until Kim Yuri showed up.’
Kim Yuri was the first person to treat Ahn Dain as a friend instead of an object of awe, worship, or jealousy.
However, with the First Christmas scenario, Kim Yuri left Ahn Dain forever.
Since then, Ahn Dain has kept her mind closed for a long time, and even if she maintained superficial friendships with other people, she would never open up.
The only time Ahn Dain showed weakness was in front of Cotton Wool’s tomb.
— I don’t think Soohyuk was in a good condition today so I got first place. I’m worried about him, but I couldn’t talk to him…
Ahn Dain was the first place on her own at this time?
I wasn’t sure because there were times in the game where rankings weren’t revealed.
Is it a condition to open this hidden quest that Ahn Dain be the top student?
On the other hand, when the masked couple was shown up close, Gye Idam would spam the next button instead of reading the text.
Because of that, I could only see subtle changes on the screen.
—…It’s snow.
Like the failed game that PMH is, unnecessary details were given extra work.
The scene of snow falling on Cheonik Mountain in the middle of the night was fantastic.
Ahn Dain looked up at the sky and the snowflakes shining white in the moonlight, and she was as beautiful as the scene.
After a long time of looking up, she murmured.
Because it was a failed game that didn’t have a voice-over, only the text of what she said was shown, but somehow I felt like I heard Ahn Dain’s voice.
— I wonder if they’ll still be alive if I fought with Jeokho-ssi that day.
Ahn Dain was the first to find Jeokho’s body.
After she went to the nearest gate, Jeokho was already dead.
Jeokho wasn’t able to fight properly and he fell by surprise, and there were few signs of energy waves around him.
The strange thing was that someone covered Jeokho’s body with a red cloth to shield him from the snow.
As Ahn Dain was thinking of Jeokho, someone approached her.
Feeling the presence, Ahn Dain looked in their direction.
—…Hi?
The masked tiger couple talked to Ahn Dain.
The couple who wore a plain mask with only the eyes and mouth visible looked more chilling than I remember.
The tiger couple was thinner and less powerful than when I saw them in the bamboo forest.
‘Did they approach because they heard her talk about Jeokho other than Shinsoo’s tomb?’
I couldn’t figure out the couple’s intention yet.
Ahn Dain remained alert even as she judged that the couple wasn’t there to hurt her.
— Hello.
— What are you doing here?
— I came here to see someone I used to take care of for a while.
— Are they here?
— …Yes.
The tiger couple moved their heads and looked at the tomb where Cotton Wool rested.
— So you were the one who put the flowers here.
— Do you know Cotton Wool?
— Cotton Wool?
— A white puppy. He’s this big, and he limps since his legs are…
— Ah, I see. We know. We’ve been alive for a long time.
On a snowy night, the tiger couple who stumbled upon the mountain and looked at the tomb gave an eerie impression.
It would’ve been scary if I didn’t know the situation.
Gye Idam said something at that time.
“No, what are these freaking ghosts saying! They’re not going to possess Ahn Dain are they?”
Gye Idam, who was lying on his bed, covered himself with a blanket and resumed the game.
Watching him shiver under a blanket, Sung Siwan spoke after being silent for a long time.
“…I thought Idam liked ghost stories?”
[I don’t think so.]
The former head of the association denied.
[But this seems to be the right information that he tried to find. Something that Jo Euishin doesn’t know but he knew yet can’t remember. He wanted to find this.]
The former head of the association looked at Sung Siwan and then at me.
[He’ll be prepared to reveal this to the person he cherishes and fear the most.]
I can’t be the one he cherishes, so that should be Sung Siwan.
Well, I don’t know how many times Sung Siwan’s name came up while talking about the battle that happened last night.
‘I wonder what Sung Siwan is thinking.’
I don’t have much feelings for Gye Idam since I know what kind of garbage he was.
Though I learned anew that he lost his family to the same vehicle manufacturer that killed mine, that Cheon Sungheon and Sergeant Choi intervened for me, and that Gye Bastard lived a more trashy life than I expected.
But the experience for Sung Siwan must be different.
I knew how upright Sung Siwan was from the first time I met him.
He’s family with great people like Sung Gukeon, has excellent friends in Eungwang High, and respectable seniors, and juniors.
He must have developed much faith in humanity.
‘He’s seen blatant villains like Choi Pyeondeuk, but he’s never seen someone like Gye Bastard before.’
He never would’ve imagined that the junior he trusted enough to lead the Jiikhoe was this kind of person.
I couldn’t imagine how painful it would be for Sung Siwan to witness this.
‘But there’s a lot of hidden malice in this world.’
And the former head of the association was someone who fought against huge malice by all means available.
I wonder what an upright and young grandchild like Sung Siwan thinks.
The former head of the association, who looked into Sung Siwan’s mind before, must be well aware of it.
What Sung Siwan doesn’t know and what he lacks.
“I…”
Sung Siwan was speechless.
I guess he’s still just confused.
In the meantime, the screen that Gye Idam was looking at changed scenes.
My expression subconsciously got more serious the moment I saw the screen.
— Did you go to Cheonik Mountain yesterday, Dain-ah?
It was the old man pretending to be a high school student!
He looked like a friendly classmate, talking like that with his big eyes and his school uniform.
Hwang Jiho in PMH must’ve known that Ahn Dain came in contact with the tiger couple.
After Ahn Dain admitted that she met the tiger couple, Hwang Jiho asked her.
— Did they ask you for a weird favor?
— They asked for a favor, but it wasn’t weird.
Ahn Dain said so, but getting a request from the Tiger Clan was strange in itself.
The Tiger Couple revealed to her that they lost their child, drawing sympathy from Ahn Dain.
— Why don’t you visit our child?
— It would be nice if you took the time to come with us.
The Tiger Couple said so and opened their eyes wide behind their masks.
Quite a few people probably went to Cheonik Mountain that day because of the snow.
As if their eyes only looked sad, Ahn Dain asked with a mournful face.
— Where should I go? It’s hard to go far from school because I have student council work during the semester.
— You don’t have to go far. Because it’s in Cheonik Mountain.
— The grave is in the mountain?
— Huhuhu, you can pay tribute at Cheonik Mountain.
Beyond the block of text, I didn’t know if the couple was laughing or crying.
Hwang Jiho looked blank for a moment when Ahn Dain said that she’d go with them.
— Jiho-yah, do you know those two?
— Yeah.
— Well, they must be school officials because they were at Cheonik Mountain.
Hwang Jiho’s lines moved very quickly.
Gye Idam didn’t like Hwang Jiho so he glossed over everything.
He spammed the next button every time Hwang Jiho had lines.
I couldn’t see Hwang Jiho’s expression properly.
— They said they buried their children in their hearts.
Hwang Jiho said to himself after Ahn Dain left.
Some of the lines weren’t seen because Gye Idam opened a web browser to check if I uploaded any playthrough of Ahn Dain’s hidden quest.
I interpreted the lines that were hard to see.
— The child died before they were born, so there’s nobody. By the way, they said to pay tribute at Cheonik Mountain?
Hwang Jiho’s words were said to himself only.
Ahn Dain went up the mountain as she promised to the Tiger Couple.
However, even though she waited for a long time, the couple didn’t appear.
Instead, a battle began.
The enemy’s name and ability weren’t shown, but the game screen switched from story mode to battle mode after Ahn Dain sensed an attack and dodged.
“Gah, there’s no playthrough!”
Gye Idam started to tap the screen in a hurry.
At the same time as the notification of the start of the battle, Ahn Dain looked wary.
Her ability was quite high, but she almost got hurt several times because Gye Idam wasn’t playing well.
‘He should materialize an item card or summon her gun right away! Or use her skills to shoot at places where she can’t see. What is he doing!’
Gye Idam almost killed Ahn Dain three times in a short time.
The battle itself wasn’t difficult, but he seemed to have no sense of how to hold and aim a gun.
‘He raised Ahn Dain’s level that much and he’s still bad at it?’
Gye Idam can’t shoot in real life or games.
PMH is difficult, yes, but this guy sucked so badly at it.
That must have been the reason why he was looking for my playthrough while messing with me.
“This damned failed game! Why did they make it like this? Give me an auto mode!”
Bang!
A loud noise was heard next door and Gye Idam hit the wall.
He stopped the game for a moment and started retaliating with his rubber hammer.
His flimsy swing of the hammer was comparable to his struggle of keeping Ahn Dain alive.
[He’d better give up on using a gun if he wants to survive.]
The former head of the association said with pity.
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