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I stood in the middle of the cloud bridge and looked at the Cow Clan.
I ran so fast that it was difficult for the cow to catch up before suddenly stopping, so the cow was on guard from a distance.
He seemed to be looking if there was another trap set up or if another gloomy fog rose.
‘Sex of his men are already caught, so he has no choice but to be wary.’
I watched the cow be on full alert.
He wasn’t using an umbrella, unlike the other royal lineage who invaded Eungwang High.
It’s probably planned that he’d attack unseen from the beginning.
Instead, he was wearing a raincoat with a hood long enough to cover his face.
They must’ve intended to cover themselves with the coat to protect them from the snow and hide their faces.
‘They were really thorough with hiding.’
The weapon held by the cow was also a low-rarity mass-produced item.
It wouldn’t have been easy to find its owner since it was commonly available.
After observing the cow, I saw what the end of Jiikhoe in PMH was like.
‘I think I know how Jiikhoe was annihilated now. The reason why their death didn’t appear in PMH.’
Jiikhoe must’ve encountered the unidentified chill while defending Jiikhoe Hall during the snow.
Sung Siwan thought that if he didn’t do something about the cause of the cold, the school and the students would freeze to death.
So, he selected combat-ready students from Jiikhoe and headed to Mt. Cheonik.
‘A player as big as Sung Siwan would’ve succeeded in finding the source of the chill even if it snowed in Mt. Cheonik.’
Sung Siwan must’ve reached the boundary of the forest where the cold gathers.
Coming that far, they would’ve encountered the Cow Clan in raincoats.
Mt. Cheonik in PMH would’ve been dried up and no mountain spirit would’ve appeared.
No Class 3-0 students would be there either.
Sung Siwan would’ve faced the Cow Clan in a defenseless state.
It’s unlikely that the traitors who saw the source of the chill and the truth of the bamboo forest would keep the student witnesses alive.
‘It’s possible that Sung Siwan ordered those waiting at the Jiikhoe Hall to evacuate before he died.’
Sung Siwan is likely to entrust a person with a messenger item back at the Hall.
The Cow Clan likely found the carrier pigeon item that Sung Siwan sent.
If all this had happened in PMH, the cause of Jiikhoe’s annihilation wouldn’t have been found even after the First Christmas scenario.
Jiikhoe is wiped out, and that’s it.
The man in front of me must be the one who led the Cow Clan in wiping out Jiikhoe.
‘He’s not an ordinary royal lineage. He orders his fellow clan members in the absence of the clan head.’
I could tell it even if he was hiding in a raincoat.
The second-in-command moved quickly and coolly in checking for traps.
He should be angry at my provocation and at his subordinates who didn’t follow him well, but I didn’t feel any agitation from him.
The second-in-command of the Cow Clan confirmed that there was no danger around and walked toward me.
Still, remaining vigilant, he stopped without crossing the cloud bridge.
It’s like he was weighing what the hell I was thinking.
I decided to provoke him so as to not give him time to think.
“You must be the second-in-line of the Cow Clan. Your Clan head must be busy. Seeing that your subordinates aren’t showing up even though they’re against teenagers.”
Those facts should’ve done damage, but the cow didn’t respond.
Instead, he began to raise his energy waves.
Kugugugu…
The Cow circulated energy waves throughout his body.
Until just now, he couldn’t properly use his energy waves because of Gye Idam’s light skill.
The Mist of Night Silence wasn’t so great, so the second-in-command was able to raise his energy waves as much as he wanted.
There’s only one reason for it.
‘He’s gonna fight me.’
I’m sure that he’s a cow, and his subordinates are caught in the hands of students.
It’s obvious that those people would be handed over to the Tiger Clan.
Since their identity is already revealed, there’s only one option that interest can now take.
After removing me, the Class 3-0 students, the people of Jiikhoe who interfered with his mission…
Or they’d fail the mission and return home with their subordinates.
There’s a huge difference between being able to do nothing and yet being identified, and completing a mission but being found out.
The man is trying to make the next choice.
“Do you know where you are? You will use that power?”
“You can quit the provocations now. I will fight you the way you want me to.”
Kwaaaa!
Energy waves swirled around the cow.
The raincoat’s hood flew away from the strength of the energy waves.
His face was immediately revealed.
His skin was black, and his forehead was engraved with a pure white inverted triangle.
“You are the incarnation of Apis.”
There was a time when bulls were worshiped in Memphis, Egypt.
They didn’t worship all bulls but the cows with black skins and certain patterns on their bodies.
A white inverted triangle on the forehead.
A beetle pattern on the tongue.
Eagle on the shoulder and hawk on the butt.
They enshrined a bull born with this pattern as the incarnation of Apis.
When the bull died, they’d find a calf with the same pattern and continue worship as the incarnation of the resurrected Apis.
“You know very well. But now that you know it, you’re not getting out of here alive. I don’t die, and I can use a god’s power.”
He was right.
He’s treated as a living incarnation of Ptah, the god of Memphis, and his soul is connected to Osiris, overcoming death and life.
But I expected Apis’ reincarnation to be among the cows.
I assumed that the second-in-line would be hear.
‘Since Hwang Jiho said that the clan head isn’t Apis’ incarnation, I thought it was highly likely that he’s second-in-command.’
And if the second-in-command was really Apis’ reincarnation, there was something I really wanted to check.
I went on provokingly.
“You speak as if you’re making a prophecy. Apis’ priests read the future through you from a long time ago, didn’t they?”
I was curious about a prophecy.
Eunho’s daughter, the Silver Hero, was born with a prophecy.
Eunho and the shaman were at odds over that prophecy and made many sacrifices.
In order to prevent such a tragedy again, I wanted to get even a little more information about that prophecy.
“You couldn’t predict this kind of situation even though you’re of Apis’ incarnation?”
“…”
Apis didn’t immediately reply.
I looked at him persistently as if looking at another chess player.
Chess is a silent sport, but not having a conversation during a game doesn’t mean there’s no way to provoke an opponent and read their minds.
Having observed Apis, I read from him a very faint sign of agitation.
“Even without prophecy, I can at least kill you.”
There’s no prophecy.
The words of the agitated Apis bothered me.
As soon as he finished speaking, energy waves began to coalesce at Apis’ fingertips.
As he took his fingertip to his head, a blinding light was drawn out, revealing a horn through his hair.
I had to cover my eyes as soon as I saw the light.
‘That light is as bright as the sun! I’d be blinded if I look!’
Once upon a time, pharaohs received wealth and power from Apis.
And the incarnation of Apis put a solar disk on its horn because he was said to have led pharaohs to the sun god.
While my vision was disrupted, Apis’ incarnation rushed at me.
As if he still wanted to hide his traces, he held an ordinary weapon in his hand.
As soon as he jumped into the cloud bridge and ran to me, the sound of haegeum rang through the canyon.
Wooong!
The mournful sound of haegeum left a long echo between the canyons.
Apis’ incarnation paused for a moment.
“…What other tricks do you have now?”
“Welcoming Apis’ incarnation without music isn’t the way to go.”
Woooong!
The sound of haegeum rang out again, the vice president of Class 3-0 playing.
It was the vice president’s light skill.
Instead of Gye Idam’s fog, the prepared trap of Class 3-0 was their vice president’s light skill.
That light skill has a strong debuff effect, slowing down an immediate opponent.
Unlike Gye Idam’s pathetic light skill that can’t distinguish foes from friends, the VP’s light skill can target a person.
The movement of Apis’ incarnation slowed down to the tempo, but he was still much faster than an average player.
I stepped back one at a time to his movements.
When I reached the end of the cloud bridge, I said something.
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That there’s no prophecy.”
Class 3-0’s intervention wasn’t part of the plan, but everything else was.
If he had the power to see the future, Apis’ incarnation would never have come to the cloud bridge.
While Apis’ incarnation distorted his face, the Class 3-0 vice president talked to me.
“Hoobae! You said the strong homeroom teacher is here, right?”
“Yes.”
“But isn’t the homeroom teacher on a business trip abroad?”
“Yes, she is.”
The senior looked blank when I confirmed that Im Yeonhwa was on a business trip.
Despite the shock, it was a testament to the player’s excellence that she maintained the performance.
I added a word.
“But my homeroom teacher is here.”
“What?”
I’ve never said that the homeroom teacher present is Class 3-0’s.
Shwwwwik!
Ripping the cold air, arrows began to pour from the sky.
It was a rain of arrows shot by Professor Ham Geunhyung, Class 1-0’s homeroom teacher.
They were arrows that killed the Yayu, the beast with the body of a bull.
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