NOVPUBThe True Wishes and Responsibilities of the Newcomer.
The personalities and actions of the newcomer and Cheongho.
The dark figure who took control of Cheongho's body.
Gong Cheonghyeon and Han Yi, who appeared as humans at Eun-gwang High School.
Various hypotheses arose around this, but none could be said to be definitive.
"It seems like you have some thoughts," he said.
There were thoughts, but nothing concrete had come to mind yet.
I decided to keep quiet to avoid causing any unnecessary confusion.
Instead of probing further, Hwang Ji-ho said the following:
"I hope you don’t do anything reckless just to act on your own thoughts. Don’t forget in what state your eyes are still in."
Aside from seeing things a bit blurry, I felt like Hwang Ji-ho was over-worrying.
And the connection between the newcomer and Cheongho—wouldn't it be hard to finish everything without any cost?
I thought this, but since I had no idea how things would actually unfold, I decided to act as if I didn’t know anything.
"You're pretending not to know again. Fine. It looks like I’ll have to take care of it myself. Let’s head to the classroom."
Since he said that, I decided not to add any more words.
Hwang Ji-ho removed the barrier and headed toward the classroom.
In the classroom, Han Yi, who had finished his morning training with the Taehogwon club, was already there.
Hwang Ji-ho greeted him as usual.
"Good morning, my friend."
Han Yi made a face of distaste, but Hwang Ji-ho smiled and spoke to him.
It was a bright demeanor, far removed from the shadowed expression I had seen in the classroom where the barrier had been set.
Today was the last day of the Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange selection, and it was my turn to compete.
So, after school, I headed not to the newspaper club room but to the gymnasium.
"Eui-shin hyung, let’s go together."
While I was on my way to the gymnasium, I ran into Eunho.
Despite his likely complicated feelings due to a conversation with Unsa, he greeted me as kindly and warmly as usual.
Eunho was assigned to write the article for the match I was participating in, and I worried that he was being overloaded with tasks when he was already so busy.
"By chance, I’m writing the article about you, Eui-shin hyung. I’m happy to have been assigned this. Shall we do the interview while we walk to save time?"
"Let’s do that."
If we didn’t use airboards, travel time would be longer, but it would be better than taking more time for an interview later.
To save Eunho’s time, I agreed to the impromptu interview and we walked together.
Eunho, as the school's ambassador, asked me questions about what kind of match I would show and my thoughts on the Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange.
We were headed toward the gymnasium, where we had been informed the finals would take place, but Eunho stopped me.
"We should be going to the field, not the gymnasium. I’m not sure which specific field, but it will probably be in the central area."
"Has the location changed?"
"Not yet, but they’ll definitely change it. All the kids from our class are coming to cheer for you, Eui-shin hyung, and many others are probably coming too. The gym is too small to accommodate all of them."
They're coming to cheer for me?
The first-year Class 0 students seem to be such kind juniors.
Even if all of them are coming to cheer, it’s probably only a few dozen, so why would they move the venue to the field?
For star players like Yeom Jun-yeol, it was expected that a crowd would gather, so the finals had been held at the field from the start. But for the others, they had been held at the gym.
There was another match that had been held at the field.
"I heard that when Dokgo Miro competed, the seniors from Class 0 strongly insisted on moving it to the field beforehand... The last match was with Anda-in, so it was good they moved it to the field."
Though Dokgo Miro had been undefeated, he lost his final match, but still secured his spot as a representative.
The only person who defeated Dokgo Miro was Anda-in, the title heroine.
They had a good match, but unlike the battles with Ju Su-hyeok and Yeom Jun-yeol, they didn’t push the barrier outputs to the maximum, and the match wasn’t long either.
Considering the combat abilities of Dokgo Miro and Anda-in, they should have maxed out the barrier output, but since they had already secured their spots, they made strategic moves.
"Since we’ve already exposed our full power with Ju Su-hyeok and Yeom Jun-yeol, there was no need for them to get into an exhausting battle just to reveal more moves. Plus, there were eyes watching."
Apparently, a coach from a player of noble birth representing Japan, who had already secured a spot, had been present at the scene.
That player was said to be as popular as or even more popular than Yeom Jun-yeol in Japan.
The reason the coach was sent specifically to observe that match, rather than just a monitor, was because of Anda-in.
"Since Yeom Jun-yeol is an older player and Ju Su-hyeok is of a different gender, if that Japanese player considers anyone as a rival, it would be Anda-in."
While it’s pointless to think about players' gender when considering rivals, in sports, athletes are often divided by gender, and typically, the top players are selected based on that.
In that sense, for the Japanese player to use the title of "world’s greatest genius," they would have to defeat Anda-in.
Thus, they sent a dedicated coach to observe Anda-in closely.
Though it wasn’t just to conserve energy for that coach, Dokgo Miro and Anda-in had intentionally limited their match.
They fought without Gwangrim and used only their skills, opting for the basic items provided by the school rather than their main weapons.
Though they had held back somewhat, their skills were exceptional, and the reaction from the audience was explosive.
"As the time for the two seniors' match approached, there was no room left in the bleachers. Some people even had to watch from the trees or fly. I think it will be like that again, so the student council will be preparing."
Some students who arrived late took airboards or used skills and Gwangrim to watch the match.
Those who hadn’t seen the match between Ju Su-hyeok and Yeom Jun-yeol didn’t want to miss this one, so the crowd had gotten much larger.
The latecomer, Sa Wol-seum, used flying skills to watch the match, while Yong Je-geon had come early but watched from the sky to stir jealousy among the students on the ground.
Was it because of the commotion? As Eunho had predicted, the location had changed.
[Kim Yuli] Eui-shin, have you arrived at the gym?
[Kim Yuli] Please go to the field, not the gym. Too many spectators showed up early, so they decided to change the location. Sorry for the sudden notice >▽<;;
[Kim Yuli] The field we secured is right next to the student council hall in the central area!
The message from Kim Yuli confirmed what Eunho had predicted.
As I headed to the field with Eunho, the stands were already more than half full, even though the match hadn’t started yet.
If things continued like this, there might not be enough seats when those who had finished their club activities arrived.
It seemed that the number of people wanting to watch had increased, likely because of the many great matches held recently.
‘Our school really does love watching fights.’
Looking at the crowd, I saw many familiar faces.
The most prominent among them was our class.
"I think I saw it here. Let’s wave the banner."
"It’s Eui-shin! Over here!"
"You came earlier than I thought."
It was obvious the attention-grabbing duo had made the aurora-colored decorations.
They hadn’t come to school, but had they made cheering tools to send?
I appreciated my playable characters cheering for me, but I wasn’t sure if I should be pleased with the strange camaraderie they seemed to have.
‘The Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange is an event that draws a lot of attention, so why didn’t they come out, knowing this?’
Could there be something more important going on that they were skipping it?
It couldn’t be easy to mingle with school refusers who were chasing after the nightmare Insomnia.
In our class, besides me and Dokgo Miro, there were many other talented students who could be selected as representatives, but they didn’t really apply.
‘Kim Yuli said Gwangrim had stabilized, but she didn’t want to use it in front of people. She also said she wanted to contribute as staff this time.’
This time, many of the student council members were chosen as representatives, so there were quite a few empty spots.
Kim Yuli planned to fill that gap.
Others, like Mok U-ram, had been dissuaded from participating because they might become international pawns, and Jin Jeong-muk planned to do a short retreat to counter the demonic sect during the vacation.
‘Han Yi had said he’d be busy with the increasing number of junior members in the Taehogwon club during the break.’
The elderly Hwang Ji-ho was a special case and didn’t come.
The match proceeded smoothly.
Since the dealer category’s finals were seeded based on school and external matches, enemy subjugation, and interdimensional achievements, there weren’t any standout opponents to face.
Most competitors just had to use general items, combining magic and close combat weapons, and they would win easily.
But the last match was not that easy.
As always, the final match was between seeded players.
"We’ve waited a long time, and now we’re at the final match! The survivor of the famous Eun-gwang High incident, the rookie star Jo Eui-shin, will face off against the student council president, the man with the same iron blooded fighting spirit, Hundred Second Kwang Gyeong-gu! Let the match begin!"
Waaaaaah!
The broadcasting club member acting as the MC drew cheers from all sides.
It seemed everyone was losing their mind, considering finals were starting soon, and this was their last chance to go crazy before the exams.
The face of the teacher in charge of monitoring Class 0 before the match looked extremely tired.
Apparently, the entire Class 0 from the first, second, and third years had come to the match, which made things even more tense.
The good juniors and classmates from the first and second years were expected, but I couldn’t understand what the seniors were doing here.
‘Do your best, suspicious vice president!’ ‘You’re going with Miro to represent, right?’ They seemed to be cheering for me, but it felt like they were more interested in watching the fight.
In any case, many teachers, including Mr. Ham Geun-hyung, were present, so I didn’t have to worry about any accidents.
Before the match started, Kwang Gyeong-gu spoke to me.
"Did you see the match between Dokgo Miro and Anda-in?"
Kwang Gyeong-gu glanced at the audience as he spoke.
I immediately understood his intent.
Like them, the two of us were already secured as representatives, so we didn’t need to reveal all our cards.
"Yes."
"We’re on the same page then. Jun-yeol said you don’t need to worry about me."
Like Ju Su-hyeok and Yeom Jun-yeol, Kwang Gyeong-gu must have been worried about facing me seriously.
Since Yeom Jun-yeol knew I was using Kwang Gyeong-gu’s Gwangrim, he probably knew I wouldn’t fight with my full strength.
But I didn’t want Kwang Gyeong-gu to use Gwangrim either.
His ‘100 seconds of grace’ had a clear time limit, and I didn’t want him to waste it recklessly.
Right now, a high-difficulty interdimensional rift was occurring on the way Kwang Gyeong-gu was leaving school, and it would be a disaster if his Gwangrim time ran out.
"I heard Jin Jeong-muk learned swordsmanship from Kwang Gyeong-gu sunbaenim. I’d like to learn it too."
I hinted that I would use only general items, specifically swords.
Kwang Gyeong-gu understood and nodded.
"Alright. Let’s start with one sword then."
Like Ju Su-hyeok, Kwang Gyeong-gu used dual swords, but he declared he would only use one.
Some of the audience showed disappointment at the restrictions, but the sudden uproar from Class 0 students from all grades failed to turn that into jeering.
The teacher monitoring Class 0 looked even more exhausted and declared.
"...Start!"
