7. Sacred tigers of the Gaecheon Myth (2)

"Student Council? You have a lot of people. Why drag Jo Uisin into it?"

"What are you talking about? Uisin doesn't seem to be interested in basketball. Isn't it better to join the Student Council which will be helpful in the future?"

"What. How do you know Jo Uisin has no interest in basketball?"

It was difficult to cut in.

"Ah, it's Healing Frenzy, senior Yu Sang-hui!"

"Wasn't she on TV a few times? They said she received the blessing of the higher being, Aceso."

"She is prettier in real life."

"She is Yu Sang-hun's older sister?… I should ask for an introduction…"

"Healing Light, the Wind of Healing Light. It suits her very well."

No.

Yu Sang-hui's player's alias was Healing Frenzy.

There is no light there, it's madness[1], you immature 1st year snots.

Yu Sang-hui seemed to hear 1st years' immature shouts.

She let her long, well tied hair loose and then slightly looked back with an elegant smile on her lips.

"Wow…!"

"Oooo."

"Pretty…"

Explosive reaction.

At this sight, Yu Sang-hun made a face as if he saw a nightmarish vision of the supergiant type Enemy launching an attack at him.

"Ah, please. Just go."

Yu Sang-hun rubbed his arms as if he had goosebumps.

Yu Sang-hui didn't show any reaction and only smiled sweetly, but when they go home, Yu Sang-hun's back will be blown by the level 3 Vital points strike skill.

The class bell ended this matter.

[Amazing grace how sweet the sound—]

I guess todays' class bells are vocals.

The morning one was Amazing Grace.

Music selection sense was subtle.

The solo cello with a sweet soprano changed the atmosphere in the class.

"Then think about it. Contact me anytime, Uisin."

"See you next time, Jo Uisin."

"Yes, please go. Goodbye senior Yu Sanghui-nim. Bye, Yu Sang-hun."

After I sent the two people off, and when the ordinance ended…

Ham Geun-hyeong called me.

"Did you think about joining the Leadership club?"

Since this morning, I received several invitations.

The Leadership club was the third invitation after the invitation to the Student Council, for which you needed to pass screening after recommendation or applying to it yourself, and the Basketball Club, which was recommended by Yu Sang-hun.

'To join Leadership Club a teacher's recommendation is needed.'

It was just a week, but Ham Geun-hyeong seemed to have a good impression of me.

'Because I survived the entrance exam? Saved Lee Rena? If not, because of Bang Yunseop's case?'

Or is it all three?

Currently, among the 1st year students, only me, Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain would have received both an invitation from Student Council and Leadership club.

"Thank you for the offer. May I think about it a little?"

It was best to save it for unexpected situations.

"Okay. Think about it."

The club selection ended at the end of this week.

It was possible to choose after this week, but the procedure was complicated.

I had to decide within this week.

***

Today, as usual, I ran around the Heavenly Wings' trail after the lessons ended.

I couldn't find Cotton Ball, but I met an unexpected person.

That person was this world title heroine, An Dain.

'An Dain…!'

As I was sprinting through the trail, our eyes met. She lightly jumped down from the top of the pine tree.

An Dain brushed off the pain needles stuck to her clothes as she greeted me first.

"Hi… Jo Uisin from the 1st year class 0, right?"

I expected we would run into each other if my search for Cotton Ball prolonged, but I didn't think we would meet before March even ended.

The reason why An Dain, who didn't have contact with me at all, talked to me must have been Kim Yuri.

"I heard a lot of stories about you from Kim Yuri. You two are childhood friends, right?"

"Yeah!"

An Dain's smile was bright enough to put blooming Korean rosebays[2] behind her to shame.

If Ju Su-hyeok saw An Dain now, he would make a big flip again.

"I also heard a lot about you from Kim Yuri. You're Unknown Supernova from class 0. Yuri is the class president and you're the vice class president, right?"

An Dain really seemed to think dearly about Kim Yuri.

She was the case of a so-called 'dragon born in a brook[3]'.

The family was below average, and there was not a single Player around.

Instead, there were two types of people.

People who ran amok because of their jealousy towards An Dain's looks and abilities.

People who didn't see her as human and worshiped her like a goddess.

Those two groups made An Dain lonely.

'It wasn't until she met Kim Yuri that she had a person whom she could call a friend.'

Then she met Kim Yuri who transferred to her middle school before graduation and her world changed.

The two soon became best friends. They continued their friendship through middle school and finally went to the same highschool together.

"Did you hear anything from Kim Yuri, perhaps?"

An Dain couldn't understand why Kim Yuri joined class 0 on her own accord.

Because Kim Yuri feared her Gwangrim and for that reason she hid it until she died.

Especially from An Dain.

"I don't think class 0 is bad, but I don't know why Kim Yuri went there…"

I knew the reason from the gamer's standpoint, but I decided to change the subject.

"It's good because the classroom is big."

"Yes?"

"Our class doesn't even have 20 people and most of the kids don't even come to school."

An Dain's expression darkened.

She would have realized I won't give her the answer she wants.

"It doesn't matter if it's class 1. You and Kim Yuri are still friends."

At my words, An Dain's dark expression brightened a little.

As An Dain calmed down, I decided to ask about something I was curious about all along.

"Did you see the puppy around here?"

"Puppy?"

"The puppy with white fur…"

"Ah, I saw someone walk out with such a puppy before. Its leg looked a bit uncomfortable, but it was so cute, like a cotton ball."

What did you say?

My mind turned hazy at An Dain's words.

No, there may be one more cotton ball with a broken leg around.

I spun a happy circuit.

"It seems to be a puppy I know. Do you know the owner?"

"I skimmed past them during training, so I don't remember well… Only that it was a man."

The operation of a happy circuit ended.

I was sure when I saw this smile.

The white puppies with a broken leg, which can steal An Dain's soul, aren't that common.

I guess Cotton Ball had already become someone's pet.

Rather, why? Why is it different from the game?

'A male owner… I can't guess.'

It would be difficult to dig any information about the owner, because An Dain wasn't even a little interested in him.

But it's okay even if I don't know, because if An Dain doesn't raise Cotton Ball, there won't be any danger.

My search for Cotton Ball ended in vain.

I thought that climbing Heavenly Wings Mountain was fun, so I may come to run around here sometimes.

***

Residential area, the 1st years' dormitory building.

When I was passing through the 17th floor's public lounge towards my room.

One of the people, who were watching a reality show on the enormous screens filling the lounge and chatting friendly, suddenly shouted.

"Jo Uisin!"

It was president of the Wings Club, Seong Siwan.

"Are you busy? Can I drop by your room for a moment?"

I didn't know what happened, but there was nothing urgent enough to chase away the dormitory president.

"Yes, please come."

Seong Siwan picked the most gorgeously wrapped and the biggest box among the boxes piled up on the table and stood up from the sofa.

"I'll be going. You guys, don't stay up too late."

"Yep. We won't do that!"

"Goodbye, Siwan hyung."

"Let's go, teacher-nim."

What, teacher-nim?

Then I noticed the homeroom teacher of the 1st year class 1, Kim Sinrok, in the corner of the lounge .

He was fixing paper prints with thumbtacks on the old-fashioned cork bulletin board.

There were still some people who preferred paper over holograms, so I guess it was in consideration of them.

Kim Sinrok put away the remaining thumbtacks and followed me with Seong Siwan to my room.

'I guess Kim Sinrok also has business with me.'

The moment we entered my room, Seong Siwan handed me the box.

"The Wings club's hyungs and noonas who graduated sent us too many snacks, so we decided to redistribute them among 1st years. I left this one to specifically give it to you, Uisin."

The beautifully wrapped box had 'Moon Rabbit Rice cakes' brand printed in brush-like font with hanja.

It was a gift set of various rice cakes from the high-grade rice cake store managed by one of the Jin tribes, the To tribe[4].

'The reservation would take a month and one box would cost a few millions of won!'

When I opened, I saw all kinds of rice cakes, small, big, every one of them wrapped.

Baekseolgi, Sirutteok, Injeolmi, Mujigaetteok, Gaepitteok, Read Beam Gyeongdan, Five colored Songpyeon… there were even a few rice cakes whose names I didn't know.

"It's the Wings club's tradition to eat rice cakes during a dormitory orientation, but you couldn't come that day. And it kept bothering me that you're treated like a clown, because of that incident on the first day."

Seong Siwan helped to prevent rumors about Lee Rena's failed suicide attempt from spreading and quietly settle things, but I guess he was still bothered by it.

But why did Kim Sinrok also come?

"Ah, we accidentally met when I was handing out the snacks, and when I brought up the story, he said he would come. Teacher Kim Sinrok-nim is the Wings Club's advisor."

"I'm an advisor just in name. All I do is stamp approval on documents."

'The Wings Club also has an advisor?'

In fact, I didn't know much about the Wings Club.

Hundreds of characters appeared in the game, but just the enrolled students and employed staff at the Eungwang School amounted to around 2 thousands people.

There were naturally some which weren't dealt with well.

'Seong Siwan was a person like that. He was a character whose name didn't even appear.'

'PMH's Concrete Collapse Incident'

It was a trigger which murdered a large number of characters. The Wings Club came to the end in the desperate scenario, without dreams or hopes.

The Wings Club's end wasn't directly described, but there were such a mention in the conversation:

[What about the Wings Club's kids?]

[…They were annihilated.]

I couldn't accurately tell what happened to them, because no one ever mentioned the Wings Club again after this.

Kim Sinrok looked at me with a warm expression as he spoke:

"I owe you my life. I'm late to thank you, sorry."

"Teacher Kim Sinrok-nim…?"

"During the entrance exam, you led the demonic beast as far away from me as possible."

That day I assumed the supervisor was dead and made a strategy.

Even if he was dead, I led the demonic beast away, because I wanted to at least preserve the shape of his corpse.

I didn't know if I deserve to hear those thanks.

"Even if it wasn't me, anyone would do that."

"You know very well it's not like that."

He had to be talking about Son Mingi's affair.

It seemed it was because that bastard was an unusual son of a bitch.

As I fell into embarrassment, Kim Sinrok thanked me again with a good-natured smile.

"Uisin, thank you very much."

After that we chatted a little.

Seong Siwan threw a helpful word from the side for me who was embarrassed and Kim Sinrok kept giving me compliments and best-wishes with a kind face.

The capsule coffee was sweet and the moon rabbit rice cakes seemed to warm my tongue.

It was comfortable to sit with the teacher and senior, except my face felt itchy because of the thanks.

"We'll be going. Rest well."

"Yes, good night."

It was a deep night when we decided to disband.

Kim Sinrok said to contact him whenever I'll need him and told me his wearable device code.

Before bidding farewell, Seong Siwan said one more thing:

"Did you perhaps think about joining the Wings Club?"

"I'll think about it."

I repeated the words I said a few times today as I sent Seong Siwan off.

When I cleaned up empty paper cups and the rice cakes box, and brought the cleaner robot from the bedroom and was about to turn it on…

The living room was chilly.

I looked towards the balcony, both the window and insect net were open.

Someone was standing on the balcony railing of my room on the 17th floor.

'What…!'

I was about to activate the Gwangrim, but stopped.

I'm a Player now.

Even if I don't possess a detection skill, my senses are quite sensitive.

Additionally, my Exclusive Menu skill would send a system notification when an Enemy approaches.

'Perhaps this one here…'

If I wasn't facing an Enemy, I was facing someone I completely couldn't detect without using the Gwangrim.

And the being, who wasn't affected by the Eungwang School's defense barrier and came to look for me at this hour.

At that moment I could tell who it was.

"Good evening, student Jo Uisin."

What I heard were polite words, so it seemed my guess wasn't wrong.

⟨Reading 'Jeok-ho' character data.⟩

[Name] Jeok-ho

[Title] Legendary member of the Ho tribe

[Blessing] None

[Gwangrim] (inactive)

[Status] Heavenly God Wrath — skills and Gwangrim partly sealed, all statistics and skill levels drastically decreased, Foreseen Hell[5] — (some loading failed.)

[Overall statistics] Lv. 45

[Skills]

Red Thunder Lv. 8

Red Smoke Lv. 8

Leap Lv. 8

Brilliant Gaze Lv. 8

Roar Lv. 8

….

….

….

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Jeok-ho."

He was the sacred tiger whose name was erased from Gaecheon Myth, the legendary category Ho, Jeok-ho.

*~*~*

[1] There is no light there, it's madness — That might be complicated, but let's lay down some basics. Korean words are very often based on Chinese. But because Korean has fewer syllables than Chinese, sometimes one word in Korean has two different meanings, because it represents two different Chinese symbols. In this case, Yu Sang-hui alias is '치유광풍'. 광 can have two meanings '광(光)' meaning light and '광(狂)' meaning to be mad or passionate about something. In Korean both will sound the same in spoken language, so you will only see the difference if it's written in Chinese. So that student probably didn't see hanja and assumed it's light.

[2] Korean rosebays – Rhododendron mucronulatum.

[3] Dragon born in a brook — Idiom which means that an outstanding child was born in a poor family (poor in financial, physical, intellectual or status meaning).

[4] To tribe – 'To' from hanja meaning 'rabbit'.

[5] Foreseen Hell – Hell could also mean 'despair' or 'nightmare' in a figurative sense…

Translator's note: Foreseen Hell… Foreseen nightmare… and the 'loading failed' bug… interesting.