5. 1st year class 0 (2)

In the early parts of the game, there was an extra character who messed up with Ju Su-hyeok and got a good beating before leaving the stage.

It was rare to see such an extra in a prestigious highschool.

He was a guy who only studied when he was in middle school, but when he became a highschooler, he pretended to be a thug, bluffing about his strength.

However, because this guy's accomplishments were too shabby, he couldn't be neither this nor that.

On the subject of bad upbringing, he was smoking cigarettes even though he was choking until finally he couldn't burn even one more cigarette, he picked up fights on the streets, but in reverse he ended up receiving help from Ju Su-hyeok, etc…

The extra's few appearances in the game were very pathetic.

At the end of the 1st year, the extra was influenced by Ju Su-hyeok righteous ideas.

After reflecting on his trivial misdeeds, he and Ju Su-hyeok became friends. It seemed he was elevated to the supporting character[1].

However, a demon, who was aiming for Ju Su-hyeok, turned that extra into an Enemy.

That demon exquisitely dug into the extra's weak heart and faint remains of jealousy.

In the end, the family member of a higher being and one of the 7 deadly sins, Invidius of Envy, possessed the extra through a medium.

When the extra became a half-Enemy through the possessing devil[2]…

In the place of the fierce battle with the demon, the teachers were already completely annihilated and dozens of students died after them.

The only one who could still move was Ju Su-hyeok.

It was a situation where if Ju Su-hyeok didn't kill the extra, even the injured people who were still alive would die.

Ju Su-hyeok couldn't bring himself to kill the extra he became friends with.

While Ju Su-hyeok hesitated to strike down with his sword, the extra regained his mind for a moment through the desperate effort to resist.

[Ju Su-hyeok, you dog-like bastard! If you don't kill me now, it'll be you who will end up dying! Please…]

That line became the extra's will.

Ju Su-hyeok swung his twin swords, with a feeling of cutting his own flesh, for the extra who gathered the last of his courage.

After killing his friend, Ju Su-hyeok's mentality and reputation shattered.

The Player Association and Ju Su-hyeok's family diligently defended him.

However, because of the chaos created by the demons' interference, no voice recording remained.

Ju Su-hyeok became a cold-hearted guy who didn't hesitate to kill his classmate who resisted possession and came back to his senses.

Luckily, thanks to survivors' testimonies, Ju Su-hyeok wasn't punished, but Hwang Myeong Foundation regarded him as dangerous.

After Ju Su-hyeok became a second year, he was assigned to class 0.

He picked the curiosity of the chairman, Hwang Myeong-ho, who sent his alter-ego to the 2nd year class 0, to observe him.

That alter-ego, Hwang Jiho, was now in the 1st year class 0.

"Uisin, how did you recognize me?"

"Student Uisin, how did you recognize me?"

We rode the air shuttle waiting before the 1st year building's door and arrived in Silver Manor's chairman's office.

Immediately after arriving they… no, he spoke without a thought of hiding it with his eyes sparkling.

⟨Reading 'Hwang Jiho' character data.⟩

[Name] Hwang Jiho

[Titles] Eungwang School's first year, Member of mythical Ho tribe, Gaecheon myth's Hwang-ho (Yellow tiger), Guardian of Divine Realm

[Blessing] 'The Heavenly God gladly granted my wish'

[Gwangrim] (Inactive)

[Status] Normal

[Overall statistics] Lv. ??

[Skills]

Leap Lv. ??

Brilliant gaze Lv. ??

Roar Lv. ??

(Some loading failed)

[Description]

Hwang-ho appearing in Gaecheon Myth.

Received a power to 'exist everywhere' from Heavenly God.

His self can exist anywhere he wishes as long as it's a ground with Heavenly God's blessing.

He volunteered to guard the divine realm, which imprisoned Baekho, and Heavenly God agreed to it.

(Some loading failed)

Taking out the name and title, the status window was the same as the chairman's.

In Gaecheon Myth, Hwang-ho made a wish to Heavenly God to 'let him exist everywhere'.

Heavenly God granted this wish and Hwang-ho could exist everywhere as he asked.

Simply speaking, he could create an alter-ego.

As every Jin could manipulate their outer age appearance, Hwang-ho could create as many alter-egos of any age as he wanted.

"…Can you speak with just one, please?"

Seeing Hwang-ho in his teens and 60s speak at the same time made my brain hurt.

The majority of Jin people, who weren't hostile to mankind, made deals with the government and have several reserved family registers.

It seemed Hwang-ho left an empty spot for when he wanted to enter Eungwang School as a student.

Hwang-ho in his teens, Hwang Jiho answered:

"Then talking with me should be more comfortable?"

"Both of you are uncomfortable."

"Haha, that's much better than the last time when you were pretending to be polite. But why won't you tell me how you knew?"

The tone openly mixed with threat.

However, it didn't seem like I was gonna die right now, because he was approaching me with Hwang Jiho's appearance.

I was relieved a bit.

Hwang Myeong-ho.

Hwang Jiho.

Hwang-ho.

Thinking about Hwang-ho's personality, I didn't have to use my head much.

I immediately came up with an excuse.

"It wouldn't be interesting if I said it with my own lips, would it?"

Hiding a secret before Hwang-ho, that was the best attitude.

As expected, Hwang Jiho's eyes sparkled, and then he nodded.

"Then I'll find it out myself."

From such thoughts, Hwang-ho was a simple guy.

"By the way, just speak casually when I'm in this form. If I look suspicious because of you… I don't want to kill you, what should I do?" [3]

Hwang-ho was a simple guy, but he was also a scary guy.

"Okay, got it."

I immediately spoke casually.

Hwang Jiho smiled as if he was telling a joke, but I knew very well that he said the truth.

'Maybe it's a good thing.'

If I could easily contact Hwang-ho it would rather make things easier in the future.

It would also be annoying if I had to visit Silver Manor every time I had business.

And it would look strange if a freshman often contacted the chairman.

"That's great, because I just have a request."

"You want to make another deal?"

As expected, I guess he was thinking about our previous conversation as a 'deal'.

His words weren't wrong, so I affirmed.

"Yes. The 'Entrance exam's demonic beast intrusion case' and 'Sawol Seeum disappearance case'. The Ung tribe is involved directly and indirectly in both of them, but at the same time one of the Eungwang School's teachers is related to all of it."

I thought he would also be swept up in the Fantasy Controversy, but he seemed to be lucky and slipped the investigation as his name was still on the class schedule.

That teacher wasn't even put on the Fantasy List.

The luck and ability to stay afloat was fantastic in the game, but it seemed he displayed it also this time.

"So what?"

The chairman did nothing.

Hwang-ho's attitude said 'I don't care, even if the school faces disaster'.

'I don't know why you are sitting in the chairman's seat if you're like that.'

His title was the 'Guardian of Divine Realm'.

The new name of it was Seoul Eungwang District.

Because the Eungwang District was the Divine Realm mentioned in the Gaecheon Myth, where Heavenly God descended from the open sky and granted wishes of the sacred tigers.

'Yet, why aren't you doing anything?'

Even when the Ung tribe made a mess at the Eungwang School, his reaction was 'So what?'.

If he acts like that, there is a question of why Hwang-ho volunteered to be the Guardian of Divine Realm.

It seemed to be difficult to expect Hwang-ho to carry out his duty as a chairman.

I had to say what I wanted first.

"I need that teacher's list of assets and the list of students he was in charge of during the Eungwang School's special character screening interview."

"Got it. Then what you will pay…"

I shook my head.

"It's not you who I want to make a deal with."

"Yes?"

"The one I want to make a deal with is Jeok-ho. I want to receive the assets' details and the list from Jeok-ho on the condition that I'll tell him the name of that teacher."

Hwang Jiho didn't answer immediately.

The mischievous eyes of teenage Hwang Jiho with a pretty appearance sunk low for an extremely brief moment.

Surely, it was the appearance of the same age as me, up to wearing even a school uniform, but Hwang Jiho made an expression which made it hard to estimate his age.

"You know 'us' well, huh."

Of course I did. Because I observed you for 10 years from behind the screen.

I knew you well.

'But I still cannot understand you.'

The eyes of Hwang Jiho, who was lost in thought for a moment, twinkled again as if he had never said anything.

I guess he expected something fun to happen.

He probably will pass Jeok-ho my words as they were.

"Got it. I'll inform Jeok-ho. He is currently in a place without signal on a personal matter. It may take a while."

It was more than enough.

I was a bit worried about a chance to talk to Jeok-ho about the deal.

A mistake I made in the classroom seemed to be a blessing in disguise.

***

After finishing my talk with Hwang Jiho, and before I returned to the dormitory.

I went off the road for a moment.

The Eungwang School's campus included a gentle low mountain 156m above sea level.

The mountain's name was Heavenly Wings[4].

If looked from above, the mountain range looked like wings flapping towards the sky, therefore the name.

The residential area was located straight at the bottom of the Heavenly Wings. For that reason, the wild animals sometimes came down to the dormitory's entrance.

The Eungwang School's barrier defended against Enemies, Jin people and humans who weren't registered in the school's database, but couldn't stop wild animal invasions.

'There was an event, among free quests, to eradicate the wild boars invading the dormitory…'

But because the wild boars weren't otherworldly Enemies, the rewards were poor, so no one did that free quest.

'Let's search.'

I ran around the Heavenly Wings Mountain, residential area's boundary and the walking trail while searching my surroundings.

I was searching for the title heroine An Dain's pet, 'Cotton Ball'.

"Where are you, Cotton Ball?"

Early in the PMH's story.

An Dain raised an abandoned crippled puppy.

An Dain named this extremely cute, with cotton-like fur puppy 'Cotton Ball' and raised it in Heavenly Wings Mountain with the permission of the residential area's management staff.

'Because bringing pets to the dormitory is forbidden, she could only raise it in the mountains.'

But during the 1st year's mid 1st semester…

The guys, who were jealous of An Dain, fed Cotton Ball bread mixed with pesticides and killed it.

An Dain buried Cotton Ball while crying loudly, covered in dirt.

'The process of searching for the preparators was a part of the game. It was Ju Su-hyeok's individual quest. The scene when he threw the caught criminals before An Dain was really good.'

At first, the criminals jumped in anger while denying it.

But when they were confronted with evidence, they said it was a joke. They talked a lot of nonsense like that they fed it pesticides, but they had no idea it would die.

In addition, they claimed it was An Dain who harassed them over one dead puppy, which was a joke at best. They said they were the victims.

'They couldn't touch a top-ranking student like Ju Su-hyeok, who was the son of chaebol house[5], so the cowardly guys aimed for An Dain.'

This case was taken over by a teacher who rebuked An Dain with 'Don't harass your friends for a little prank.' and wanted to punish her.

The punishment didn't happen because Ju Su-hyeok actively interfered, but the criminals also received no punishment whatsoever.

Angry Ju Su-hyeok wanted to mobilize his house's power and crush the criminals, but he was stopped by An Dain who was worried he would get involved in a cumbersome affair.

'It was a typical narrative with case resolution which clearly expressed the hell of social inequality at school.'

It was gutter like reality. Since the school's reality was a gutter, when an incident blew up, it would usually end up being resolved like that.

'An Dain has no luck.'

The Eungwang School had many good teachers and students.

Those criminals and that teacher were the worst trash at the Eungwang School.

The criminals were illegally enrolled at Eungwang School, and the teacher received bribes from those guys' parents.

Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain's weakness was that they believed every teacher at Eungwang School would be fair to students.

It couldn't be helped since, though the two were geniuses, they were still innocent highschoolers who couldn't taste the bitterness of the world yet.

'Keeping Cotton Ball alive won't particularly influence the story's ending, but…'

I hated seeing Cotton Ball die.

And seeing the title heroine An Dain cry.

***

After wandering around Heavenly Wings Mountain, when I looked at the time it was already 6 pm.

The sunset in March is around 6:30 pm.

When it turns dark, even Cotton Ball won't move.

I uttered to myself the last words while ending the search.

"Cotton Ball, come out a little tomorrow."

After I return to the residential area, I'll have to eat dinner in the Earthly Wings[6] dormitory cafeteria, organize the baggage, clean, skip the dormitory orientation…

As I climbed down the mountain while thinking about future plans…

'What.'

I suddenly felt a gaze from the sky and raised my head.

At the end of the gaze, a pure-white tiger was staring down at me.

'Baek Ho-gun…!'

At the top of one of the worn-out and outdated vending machines, which were placed everywhere around Heavenly Wings Mountain…

Baek Ho-gun was standing.

The light of the setting sun dyed his white hair red.

I stared fixedly at Baek Ho-gun's hair in the backlight.

When Baek Ho-gun appeared before people, he usually disguised himself as an ordinary Korean, so I almost never saw his white hair in the game.

Crack.

My eyes met with Baek Ho-gun's, who jumped down from the vending machine.

The landing felt completely weightless as if a feather fell to the ground.

When he stood up, Baek Ho-gun's hair was dyed black.

It was the appearance of Baek Ho-gun which I often used as a playable character.

'Why?'

Baek Ho-gun was staring at me.

Like the time we met after I cleared 'Tutorial of unnamed supporting character'[7].

'Why are you behaving differently?'

Even in my previous world, there was a saying that the eyes of the tiger have the power to freeze a person.

Even more, a gaze of Baek-ho of the Ho tribe.

It was difficult to breathe or move.

I needed a solution.

I tried to speak.

"What are you looking at?"

Ah, not that.

Ruined.

Why do such things keep coming out at random today?

And before the tigers.

I had to stop acting like that, but what about repenting after it came out?

It seemed too late already.

I don't think I can do that.

I tried to stop my mind from going crazy and say as politely as possible, 'Can you please stop looking at me'.

But…

'Are you smiling…?'

Baek Ho-gun's lips were slightly curled up.

Are you smiling? No, are you angry at me?

In the moment I was confused, Baek Ho-gun erased that smile-something from his lips.

Swish.

And in an instant, Baek Ho-gun vanished with the sound of the wind.

I guess he used the Leap skill to fly somewhere.

'I feel as if the storm shook my brain.'

The Baek Ho-gun of this world was somewhat different.

Like he appeared in the 'Tutorial of the unnamed supporting character'.

And like now he appeared before me, the 1st year of the Eungwang School, Jo Uisin.

'It bothers me.'

He was a playable character I used the longest and the one who stayed with me until the last battle.

I was naturally worried.

'Anyway, there is no need to think about it right now.'

Baek Ho-gun wasn't a character who harmed others.

There were also no events which would cause him to die besides the last chapter.

I decided to leave considering worries about Baek Ho-gun to future me.

Future me, please do your best.

***

There were five big buildings in the residential area.

The three dormitory buildings of 3 current years, had 20 floors and every floor could be used by up to 30 people.

Fourth was a school staff's private residence building.

Intuitively, the fifth building, the dormitory's main building was nicknamed the Wings Hall.

The dormitory Wings Hall contained the Wings[8] meeting room, cafeteria for students living in the dormitory, snack bar, self-study room, seminar room, study room, simulator room, gym and etc…

The dormitory was designed to be used by the entire school, so because the Eungwang ratio of day students was 50%, it was quite comfortable.

Therefore, the usable living space per person had doubled.

The dormitory had double rooms, but unless you applied in advance, one person was assigned per room.

In conclusion, I was using a double room on the 17th floor of the 1st year dormitory building alone.

'It's a few times bigger than the room at the hillside slums.'

The dormitory rooms were like small apartments.

It had two bedrooms and a shared living room, kitchen, bathroom and balcony.

After looking around the dormitory room, I unpacked the baggage and activated a 3-dimensional cleaning robot and air purifier, and ended cleaning.

'Should I wash early and go to sleep?'

There was nothing to do.

Just when I thought so, I recalled that Jang Namuk and Yu Sang-hun were interested in Eungwang School's dormitory interior.

I took a few pictures of the dormitory with a wearable device and sent them on the group chat.

[Jang Namuk] The dormitory is nice. Two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. Is that over there a bathroom? Do you use a double room alone?

[Yu Sang-hun] Can I come play?

[Me] Right, that's the bathroom. I use it alone. Visits are possible before 8 pm.

[Jang Namuk] Can students from outside also come? I could visit on weekends.

[Me] no. Violates dormitory rules

[Jang Namuk] Pity ㅠㅠ

[Yu Sang-hun] Go transfer

Right now, I couldn't tell if Yu Sang-hun 'bringing Jang Namuk to Eungwang School' was out of remaining regrets or was he just messing with him.

And Jang Namuk it doesn't look cute if a guy bigger than me is using 'ㅠㅠ'.

Just when I was thinking about how to tease Jang Namuk…

⟨Skill 'Fate' activated.⟩

I sprang to my feet when the system notification rang without a warning.

I turned off all the wearable device's deployed holograms and immediately used the Gwangrim.

⟨Using the Gwangrim 'Player's Trajectory'.⟩

Thousands of character cards spined around me, emitting light.

With Player's Trajectory active, it was possible to deal with the majority of any events that may happen.

'Fate skill is extremely abstract. I can't predict the situation at all.'

The most useful for short battles would be the '100 seconds of Grace' of 'Hundred Seconds Gwak Gyeong-gu'.

If we talk about the movement speed, the best was 'In the Moonlight of Skanda' of 'Flash in the darkness Oh Hyeji'.

Then I looked into the sky and changed my mind.

'No, the moon isn't very well visible today because of clouds. Then the best alternative is Meadow Prince Ma Jinseung's Gwangrim…'

In my head I was preparing the character and moves I could use for the events from the game which happened in the dormitory or cases that could happen in the current situation, when…

One of the character cards circling around me got out of my control.

Against my will, the card escaped outside the closed window.

I immediately opened the balcony's window and stretched my hand out to catch that card.

'The playable character on this card is…'

However, before I looked at the card, all my senses told me to look up.

A person was falling from the rooftop of the dormitory building.

*~*~*

[1] Supporting character – okay, so here, raws used the word '조연' which is the same word which is used in the title (that's why the title is usually translated as 'Replay of the EX-rank supporting actor in prestigious highschool). 조연 refers to supporting actors whose role is more important than a minor role, but less important than the main one.

If you know that, that's good, because this translator apparently doesn't see the difference between a supporting character and an extra.

[2] Possessing devil – category: possession, species: devil.

[3] By the way, just speak casually when I'm in this form – Uisin up to now was using a polite tone.

[4] Heavenly Wings – The Wings refer to the stars of the 27th mansion in Chinese Constellations.

[5] Chaebol house – chaebol are the families who own a conglomerate under their name and hold enormous political power in Korea.

[6] Earthly Wings – this translator still has no idea about Chinese, but they believe that this name could be also interpreted as 'located in Wings' in reference to the dormitory being located in Heavenly Wings Mountain.

[7] Tutorial of unnamed supporting character – Ah… After explaining '조연' in footnote nr. 1, I realized that this name also should be Tutorial of unnamed supporting actor… I seem to really hate 'supporting actor/character'…. I'll change it after publishing this chapter, probably…

[8] Wings meeting room – Those reading mtl may know them as Jiik club or any alteration of that that mtl likes to create.

Translator's note: Baek-ho is having fun in this chapter behaving like a cat.