NOVPUBApril 1st, right after April Fools' Day, at midnight.
Kim Shin-rok had announced that he wanted to talk to Seong Guk-eon for the retrieval and transportation of the attractions, and he planned to do so with the tigers gathered at the designated place.
‘Seong Guk-eon will likely agree. Even if he's busy, he will make time for this.’
Seong Guk-eon had a deep respect for his teacher, so I was sure he would make time, even if it was inconvenient.
Perhaps this weekend, Seong Guk-eon and Jeon Moo-young would end up writing a replay.
Thinking about it made my heart heavy.
‘It's not right for me to be thinking like this, considering I'm the one pushing them to act.’
I forced myself to shake off the feeling and stayed up late checking the features of the replay.
As morning arrived, the students of Eungwang High had to face the reality they had briefly ignored due to April Fools’ Day.
The midterm exams were fast approaching, and the students of Eungwang High were half-dead while watching the cherry blossoms bloom.
"Wouldn't it be nice if the midterms were a lie too?"
Meng Hyo-don muttered as he looked at the spot where the attractions had been placed in the second-year area.
Meng Hyo-don’s face, which had looked exhausted after studying alone last night, was now even more haggard than when he had trained with Takgeosan's Taoist.
Unfortunately, midterms weren’t a lie; they were a harsh reality.
"Just hang in there a little longer. After the exams, let's all go on a picnic together!"
"Y-yeah..."
With Kim Yuri’s encouragement, Meng Hyo-don seemed to muster some energy, but it didn’t look like the encouragement was helping him focus more on his math problems. In fact, it seemed to just make him more dizzy.
With his current state, it was doubtful whether he would be able to solve any of the math problems correctly.
While Meng Hyo-don struggled, the students who had a bit more freedom in their preparations for the midterms talked about the picnic.
"I heard about last year's spring picnic from Grandpa Song. I heard it was really fun and that everyone got along so well. I really want to go this time...! It’d be even more fun if 14 people come, right?"
"...Do you think the two who aren’t coming to school will come to the picnic?"
"I hope they do. Daseok has to come for sure."
"Of course, I will!"
From the way Song Daseok said it, it seemed like he was about to call Guseulbi and Ong Gildong "attention seekers," but this year, having grown a lot, he didn’t use any harsh words, which made Min Green happy.
Considering how Daseok used to speak so recklessly when he first entered school, this was quite the improvement.
Meanwhile, some students had no time to think about the spring picnic.
Jin Jeong-mook, who hadn’t even memorized basic Chinese characters, had chosen advanced Chinese courses, and now he was struggling.
"Rather than just memorizing the characters, it’s easier to understand the principles of how they’re formed first."
"Please, teach me."
Han Yi, who was confident in Chinese, had taken on the responsibility of tutoring Jin Jeong-mook.
Jin Jeong-mook expressed his gratitude and said he’d do something in return, but Han Yi, after thinking for a moment, asked him for a sparring session after the exam.
Jin Jeong-mook was skilled enough to almost overpower Gwok Gyeong-gu, so Han Yi had little chance of winning, but he thought it would be helpful to improve his fighting ability.
‘Jin Jeong-mook only challenges top sword masters at Eungwang High, but he would probably still do well against a hand-to-hand fighter.’
Jin Jeong-mook had challenged many sword masters to duels, and among them was last year’s homeroom teacher, No Yeong-mi, who was skilled in hand-to-hand combat as well. Even when she fought using both sword and fist, Jin Jeong-mook had handled it superbly.
It had been a short duel during their break time, and though it ended in a draw, it was still an impressive display.
‘Since Eun-ho's plan recruited many new students into the Taehogwon group, Han Yi probably hasn't had many opportunities to spar with someone of equal or greater skill. A duel with Jin Jeong-mook after the midterms will be helpful for him.’
Just as I was thinking I should watch if I could, Han Yi's friends barged in to disrupt the two of them.
"Han Yi, I’ve just memorized everything."
"Hahahaha! I didn’t memorize, I naturally learned it."
I had no idea what they were trying to get at.
They were throwing advice back and forth between Han Yi and Jin Jeong-mook, and while some of it was helpful, most of their comments were meaningless.
Also, there was one more student in our class who was struggling academically, but unlike Meng Hyo-don, this student seemed to be doing fine in a peaceful way.
"This time, since Jeong-mook is coming too, that makes 14 people going. It's really gotten crowded."
"With the homeroom teacher included, there will be even more. I’m excited."
"Yeah! I think it’ll be fun if we all go together. I’ll study hard so I don’t end up with extra exams."
Kwon Lena, feeling guilty for relying so much on Mok U-ram, still accepted his help, thinking it was better than having to take extra exams.
Later, she planned to thank Mok U-ram by playing Kwon Je-in’s new song on her violin.
She said it would be a surprise performance for him, but if she did that, I figured Mok U-ram would faint before even hearing half of the song.
However, considering he'd probably be happy even if he fainted, I decided to pretend I didn’t know about it.
‘Everyone is helping each other so well that I don’t need to interfere. Except for Meng Hyo-don with his math.’
As I looked around the classroom, I noticed Meng Hyo-don was still stuck on the same problem sheet.
Even after a long time, he hadn’t moved past it.
I approached him, seeing his head and hands frozen stiff as if they were made of stone.
"You've been stuck on the same problem. Where did you get stuck?"
"...The part in the explanation about rotating the exponential function graph. I keep rotating it, but it’s coming out wrong."
"This graph needs to be rotated symmetrically around the origin, not 180 degrees."
Meng Hyo-don sighed, and then began solving the problem.
It seemed like he was feeling a bit foolish for struggling so long over such a simple issue.
It’s not unusual to get stuck on something seemingly trivial while solving math problems.
‘But seeing him understand my explanation means he must have been paying attention in class.’
He still needed to work harder to avoid failing, but it didn’t seem like he was in hopeless territory.
I felt confident our class would manage to get through the midterms just fine, but there was one student in another class that I was worried about.
[장남욱] "Hey, Sang-hoon, remember the game I told you about last time? One of our school's cadets got selected as a beta tester. We used to play basketball together, so you might remember him."
[장남욱] "He said he met a user who looks just like you."
Yu Sang-hoon didn’t respond to Jang Nam-wook’s message after reading it.
Before Yu Sang-hoon could reply, Jang Nam-wook sent another long message.
[장남욱] "I had the chance to hear a top-ranked player in the test server talking in voice chat, and it sounded just like your voice."
[장남욱] "I checked the playing time of the server ranker who looks like you. The results were pretty shocking."
[장남욱] "If you subtract your school time and basketball training, it seems like you’re only sleeping three to four hours a day and playing the game."
Had Yu Sang-hoon really become that engrossed in the game?
Although there was no certainty that the server ranker Jang Nam-wook mentioned was Yu Sang-hoon, it seemed highly likely.
It wasn’t just a regular game; the game was one where money couldn’t simply push players ahead, and time and skill were key.
I knew Yu Sang-hoon had always been good at games, but I never thought he would dedicate so much time to it.
[장남욱] "The beta test is almost over, but right now, with midterms coming up at Eungwang High, it’d be better if you cut down on gaming and focus on studying."
[유상훈] "ㅇ"
Yu Sang-hoon responded nonchalantly.
If the ranker wasn’t him, he would have just replied with ‘ㄴ,’ so it seemed like the ranker really was Yu Sang-hoon.
‘To dedicate so much time to a beta test. If the game is released, will he really get addicted?’
The game was going to become extremely popular, eventually forming professional leagues and even breaking audience records in e-sports.
Unlike other games, this one didn’t prevent players from entering the professional scene, so it seemed likely that one of the players who went professional could very well be Yu Sang-hoon.
‘He loves basketball, but he can’t become a professional basketball player. But in this game, he could become a pro gamer.’
I had many thoughts on it, but regardless, I just hoped Yu Sang-hoon would graduate from Eungwang High and not fail his midterms.
While I was worried about these things, I also kept my mind on events outside of school.
‘I still haven’t heard from Ju Su-gyeom. I guess it’s taking him a while.’
Last month’s law firm raid incident was starting to fade from public memory.
It had been a huge deal when a large law firm was raided, but in today’s world, where accidents happened every day, it quickly faded from the public’s attention.
However, that law firm had not fully recovered, and many of the lawyers there had resigned, possibly fearing another raid.
As a result, the cases they had taken on were transferred to other firms.
‘Unexpectedly, my playable character benefited from this.’
To my surprise, most of the cases had been transferred to the law firm run by my playable character.
I still wasn’t sure what had caused the raid on that law firm.
Other law firms were reluctant to take on the cases because they didn’t want to be associated with a firm that had been attacked.
This led to most of the cases being taken by the lawyer-player who could handle the case without hesitation, someone who could deal with the attacks if they came.
Clients might have judged it better to hire a lawyer who was less likely to get hurt than to start over and hire a new one after an incident.
‘They've had little business for a while, so this worked out well for them.’
There was some worry about a potential threat from someone who had been trying to cover up a contract for the O family, but I was confident that my playable character wouldn’t be defeated by such small attacks.
I trusted that they would handle it well with the other lawyer-players. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝑏.𝘤𝘰𝑚
‘But I need to make sure my playable character doesn’t have to waste their efforts fighting to abolish any unjust laws.’
Preventing Seong Guk-eon’s death would be the first step toward that.
April’s first weekend
The top floor of Hwangmyung Tower, the only skyscraper in Eungwang District.
I came here instead of studying for midterms with the students in the dorm.
I was a bit worried about Meng Hyo-don, who was self-studying, but I decided to prioritize this matter.
"You’ve arrived."
As soon as the appointed time arrived, Hwang Ji-ho said this, looking at the door.
The door opened silently, and Seong Guk-eon and Jeon Moo-young appeared.
They both looked a bit surprised to see me standing there among the tigers, but soon gave a look of understanding.
It seemed they were surprised to find me here since Hwang Ji-ho, as the head of the Hojok, had invited them, but they quickly accepted the situation.
"Yi-shin, you came too."
Seong Guk-eon immediately addressed me.
"I trusted you, Yi-shin, thinking you had no connections to the True Family, but I suppose you’ve changed your mind about me now."
"Have you lost trust in me?"
I expected Seong Guk-eon to either change the subject or just bluntly say ‘Yes’.
But instead, Seong Guk-eon shook his head.
"No."
Seong Guk-eon looked up, scanning the tigers watching from the sides.
His gaze eventually landed on Kim Shin-rok.
"Thoughts change with time and experience."
