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Gye Idam finished the battle after pathetic gameplay.
He didn’t find a way to attack properly, of course, but he forcibly won with Ahn Dain’s high level and skills as he spammed the buttons.
“It’s done! Finally! Hah, that wasn’t so hard!”
His personality and game skills were at the same level.
It’s never going to happen, but if Ahn Dain goes through Replay in Gye Idam’s version, she’ll be in great despair.
His judgment and combat sense are at rock bottom.
— You can’t be helped by your people alone.
At that time, Ahn Dain pointed her gun toward the side where she heard someone speak.
Gye Idam jumped up, thinking that there would be another battle mode.
Contrary to his prediction, the masked couple seemed to have no intention of attacking.
At least right now.
— Were you trying to hurt me?
— Yes.
— Were you lying about your child and wanting me to pay tribute?
— It’s not a lie. We tried to take your life to pay tribute to our child.
The screen was briefly illuminated by the fallen summons of the tiger couple.
All of them who attacked Ahn Dain were wearing masks.
Being referred to as summons, they seem to be the tigers in the paintings that Hwang Jiho has in his mansion.
‘I knew the Tiger Clan had a high level of skill since they existed since the mythical age. But I didn’t know they can handle this many at one time.’
The tiger couple on the screen looked thinner and less energetic than the one I’d seen in the bamboo forest, but they were still very powerful.
Though they seem to have lost to Ahn Dain.
I don’t know what would’ve happened if the couple participated or cooperated in the war.
Thinking that far elicited a question in my mind.
‘Why didn’t they fight?’
It would’ve been easier to launch a surprise attack while the ones they summoned were distracting Ahn Dain.
It was only after all the summons fell that they showed up.
Looking closely at the couple, something felt wrong.
— …
The tiger couple usually talk to each other alternately, but only one person has been talking since earlier.
Judging from the silhouette, the wife wasn’t saying a word.
She was just observing Ahn Dain behind her mask.
Perhaps the two had conflicting opinions about Ahn Dain?
— If you didn’t come forward, I could’ve done it on my own…!
Then, the husband pulled something out.
It was a tightly sealed box containing unusual power that made Ahn Dain step back.
When the husband tried to unseal the box…
— Stop right there!
Hearing a voice out of nowhere, the masked couple stopped.
What appeared on the screen was Eungwang High’s chairman, Hwang Myeongho.
— Chairman Hwang Myeongho?
— I apologize I’m late. I was watching because I had something to check.
Hwang Myeongho was watching while Ahn Dain was being attacked.
I felt ridiculous the moment I saw the line.
“Crazy bastard! Why didn’t he fight with her!?”
Gye Idam didn’t really fight with her either.
On the contrary, he was a disturbance to Ahn Dain.
— Do you know what’s in your hand?
— H-hwangho nim…
— I’ve been told that I haven’t seen the treasure for 2,000 years, but it looks like it’s here.
‘A treasure? The Tiger Clan holds a treasure?!’
Somewhere in the Tiger Clan’s territory, there was a spring that gives birth to a treasure every thousand years.
The item was only mentioned in PMH’s set-up book but has never appeared directly in the game.
I learned the reason why the treasure didn’t appear in this world.
Baekho-gun and Kim Shinrok were talking about the incident in the past.
— Kim Shinrok used the Tiger Clan’s treasure on Jeokho.
— Isn’t that a UR-rank item that’s made only once in a thousand years?
— Yes. It hasn’t come out in the last 2,000 years.
The treasure that Kim Shinrok touched once and hasn’t appeared again seemed to have fallen in the hands of the tiger couple.
I don’t know if they stole it on their own or if it got into their hands through someone.
— Were you going to use our treasure to harm this child in our territory?
Hwang Myeongho’s eyes were glowing a golden shine.
No tiger could stop Hwang Myeongho now.
Baekho-gun was in Eungwang District, but he rarely shows up.
Jeokho, Kim Shinrok, and Shinsoo are dead.
The whereabouts of Cheonho and Shinin were unknown.
Eunho is fast asleep and his descendants don’t even know who they are.
In that state, he witnessed the betrayal of his kin.
It wasn’t strange that his eyes turned.
Kugugugu…
Hwang Myeongho’s anger and murderous aura turned into energy waves and soared to cover Cheonik Mountain.
The tiger couple faltered and stepped back, but it was impossible to run away from Hwang Myeongho.
— Chairman, I would like to hear from the two.
At that moment, Ahn Dain stood in front of Hwang Myeongho.
Although Ahn Dain is a great genius, there was no way that she can deal with the thousand-year-old head of the Tiger Clan alone.
Still, knowing the disparity of their abilities, Ahn Dain tried to stop Hwang Myeongho.
— I don’t think they really wanted to kill me from the beginning. It wouldn’t be too late to decide on what to do with them if we hear their situation first.
Even after being subjected to Hwang Myeongho’s powerful energy waves, Ahn Dain did not get confused.
If her hair hadn’t been mixed with the golden energy waves, I would’ve thought that she wasn’t influenced by Hwang Myeongho’s power.
Staring at Ahn Dain, Hwang Myeongho blinked once.
— You better appreciate student Ahn Dain’s mercy.
Hwang Myeongho reeled back his energy waves and returned to his chairman facade.
Ahn Dain decided to leave the rest to Hwang Myeongho and descend from the mountain first.
She looked at the tiger couple with lonely eyes and greeted them goodbye.
— I can’t give my life, but I will pay tribute to that child. I hope your sadness will subside even a little bit.
Ahn Dain climbed Cheonik Mountain again at dawn the next day.
There was no sign of a fight occurring this time.
Ahn Dain looked around the place where she had promised to meet the masked couple and headed to Cotton Wool’s tomb.
The bouquet she held had one more flower than the one she brought last time.
[Hidden quest cleared!]
That was the whole hidden quest.
“What the, what’s the reward! A flower and a little EXP… I think they’re the chairman’s subordinates though! Give me something!”
Gye Idam huffed, saying that the reward was bad.
He immediately manipulated the game and attacked the Silver Hall.
However, Hwang Myeongho wasn’t there.
“That Class Zero bastard is the chairman too!”
He went to the Class 2-0 room next.
However, Hwang Jiho wasn’t there either.
“Did he run away because he didn’t want to give the item? Should I have done something in the quest?”
However, perhaps because he didn’t want to go through a battle again, Gye Idam didn’t try replaying the hidden quest.
He wandered around the map to find the chairman but to no avail.
The impatient Gye Bastard gave up quickly.
After he gave up, the space began to collapse.
[That’s it.]
With the words of the former head of the association, the space completely collapsed.
When the things seen in the background began to scatter, we were back in the boos room of the otherworld simulation.
Before his face changed, the high school student Gye Idam was still held by the former head.
“Uh…”
Unable to support himself, Gye Idam stumbled.
Sung Siwan was about to run to him out of reflex, but he paused for a moment.
Flop.
In the meantime, Gye Idam fell to the floor.
Considering Sung Siwan’s abilities, he could’ve caught him if he didn’t hesitate.
“…”
But despite what he saw, Sung Siwan still ran to Gye Idam and helped him, unable to just watch his junior on the ground.
[According to his memory, the last scene where ‘Hwangho’ appeared in the game was what you just saw.]
That was the last time Hwang Jiho appeared.
Hwang Jiho moved and disappeared after that.
A hidden quest seen through Gye Idam’s memory.
The favor asked by the silver hero.
Considering those two, what I have to do has become clearer.
‘So that’s why the silver hero asked me such a favor.’
The silver hero asked me to go to Cheonik Mountain at Christmas.
It’s just an assumption, but I think it’s going to be perilous.
But I have to do it for Hwang Jiho and the masked tiger couple.
‘I think it’s going to be harder to let the Tiger Clan know.’
Because of the increased work and high risk, it’s become more difficult to tell the Tiger Clan.
I need to plan better on my own to reduce the risk.
[Looking at your expression, it seems like his memory helped.]
Unlike Sung Siwan who was still confused, the former head of the association looked calm.
Come to think of it, he’s accepted all too quickly the existence of a world different from this one.
“Why aren’t you asking me anything? I think you’ll have a lot of questions if you’ve seen the entirety of his memories.”
[You are from another world where energy waves and skills do not exist. The condition is to play a game that tells the story of this world. I wonder who made the game. He’s a pretty capable prophet, isn’t he?’]
The former head of the association understood almost perfectly PMH and my world.
I don’t think he knows about the transcendent universe, but he had enough information from Gye Idam’s life to understand it right away.
[I examined all possibilities to eradicate all enemies and otherworlds from this world. The possibilities included ‘throwing it somewhere else.’]
Before the advent of the great hero Iron Arm Song Manseok, it was considered impossible to manage otherworlds and enemies solely with a player’s abilities.
That’s why the former head of the association looked for ways other than fighting.
However, ‘somewhere else’ seems to refer to something other than simply another country.
Just as there’s an idea of throwing all of earth’s garbage to another place, might the former head of the association have made a similar attempt?
[I tried to spread them to worlds where there were no living things. Though I failed because of poor energy efficiency.]
What kind of fight did the players in the Dark Ages fight?
The former head seems to have been aware of the possibility of the existence of another world.
[The part that I couldn’t read in your memory was before you came to this world. Let’s learn more about that world one day.]
After the former head of the association’s last words, we returned to the basement.
In the meantime, Sung Siwan was carrying Gye Idam who seemed to be losing his mind.
“Good work today, Euishin-ah. I’ll take him to the infirmary.”
“Do you need help?”
“No, you can go ahead.”
Sung Siwan spoke in a rather stiff tone.
I was sorry that I felt like I was passing over the garbage to him, but I didn’t want to make things more difficult for Sung Siwan.
Eventually, I decided to go back to my dormitory alone.
Perhaps because it was late at night, the wind felt colder than when we arrived at the Student Council Hall.
***
It was uglier, more pathetic, disgusting, and regrettable than he could ever remember.
The expectation that perhaps his memory may have been distorted in a bad direction because of his mental health quickly collapsed.
The previous world was worse than what Gye Idam remembered.
The former head of the association revealed those to Sung Siwan and Jo Euishim.
Someone like Gye Idam being involved with Sung Siwan, even an AI, he thought, would be worried.
‘…Things won’t be the same now.’
He remembered how Sung Siwan hesitated to help him.
Last time when he and Jo Euishin had a battle, Sung Siwan waited in the infirmary until Gye Idam woke up.
But he doesn’t know what it’ll be like this time.
Even though he took his fallen junior to the infirmary, what would happen after couldn’t be guaranteed.
Gye Idam couldn’t open his eyes even when he came to his senses.
“Idam-ah, are you awake?”
“…!”
Gye Idam opened his eyes to Sung Siwan’s voice.
It was late at night and the surroundings weren’t well-illuminated because lights were turned off, but he could tell that he was in the Nurse’s Office 1 in the central district, and it was Sung Siwan in front of him
“Ah, should I call you Sangjung hyung instead?”
Sung Siwan’s voice, calling Gye Idam’s old name, sounded awkward.
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