NOVPUBPlayer Association, Korean Branch.
About a month had passed since the Teacher's Day incident that had shaken the Korean Peninsula, and the staff at the association could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The overtime hours had gradually decreased, and they had now reached a point where normal departure times were possible.
However, Hong Gyu-bin's overtime still showed no signs of ending.
“Team Leader, here is the updated victim status report as of today. I've also整理ed the proposed solutions you mentioned before, so please review them.”
“I assigned the整理ing of the victim status report to Employee Jeong.”
“Deputy Yoon wrote it instead. Deputy Yoon is out looking for Employee Jeong.”
Hong Gyu-bin felt a headache coming on, but he didn't show it, calmly replying with, "Thank you for your hard work."
The staff member, having submitted the report, walked away with a noticeably lighter step.
It seemed like they were anticipating a regular departure time and hoping Employee Jeong would get scolded.
The reason for the face-to-face report was probably to inform about Employee Jeong's idleness.
Hong Gyu-bin, slightly squinting due to his headache, opened the hologram and began reading the report. A sigh escaped his lips.
‘So many players have lost their strength in vain...’
The Player Association had conducted an investigation into the victims who had lost their abilities after visiting the Youth Pre-Player Support Center.
As feared, most of the victims who had lost their strength had come from the center.
Not only had they lost all their abilities, but those who had significantly weaker abilities compared to when they had initially manifested were almost impossible to count.
The reactions of those who realized they hadn’t naturally lost their powers but had been deliberately stripped of them varied greatly.
[It's a bit disappointing, but I like what I'm doing now. I do wonder how it would have been if I kept living as a player.]
[It's better than risking my life in a fight.]
[↑Do you know how much a star player makes every year? LOL It's like throwing away an unclaimed lottery ticket.]
[↑Do you think just anyone can become a star player? Even the office workers in pro teams or the association are players with weak abilities, haha.]
[Some people even hid being a player and got caught working part-time. Being a player doesn't automatically mean success, and if you're mediocre, it actually makes it harder to find a job...]
[If you're a struggling player, don't consider extreme options. Apply for support from the association. (Link)]
Some were relieved that they hadn't become players, but others were not.
Among them were some famous individuals.
Though they had lost their abilities while growing up, one had used their experience in player training to start streaming about abilities.
The content of their broadcasts included topics like strategies for other worlds, unboxing player-related merchandise, and visiting restaurants run by retired players. Although the topics varied, everything was related to players.
Currently, this streamer wasn't a player anymore, so there was little backlash compared to others, even though they had been criticized as “not doing strategies and just broadcasting.”
After Teacher's Day, this streamer’s video, broadcast on a rest day, created a huge stir.
―Since I was little, I liked players and wanted to become one. So when my ability manifested in middle school, I went to the Youth Pre-Player Support Center. Unfortunately, that’s the same center in the news now.
―Ah, don't misunderstand. There were also normal centers. Those who came from there became regular players... sigh...
―I really wanted to be a player...
As the streamer paused their words, donations with TTS (text-to-speech) began flooding in.
Since the streamer was famous, the system read out the messages sent by viewers, recreating human voices without stopping.
In terms of volume, the messages comforting the streamer in tears made up 8.
There was 1 message jokingly teasing, and 1 message that got immediately blocked by the manager for being irrelevant.
Hong Gyu-bin, watching the edited video, felt his head spin.
―I apologize to those who were expecting the first playthrough of the Fljet game. I don’t think I can enjoy it. I’m sorry. I personally plan to try Fljet later.
―The scheduled joint broadcast will also be canceled. I’ve already apologized and explained it before the broadcast. I had a really hard time arranging the meeting with Dokgo Miro, so I’m sorry for that. I’m also sorry to the fans who were looking forward to it.
The player spoke through tears.
The cancellation of the Fljet playthrough and the joint broadcast with Dokgo Miro set the chat and donation sections ablaze, almost exploding.
The overwhelmingly frequent messages urging the streamer not to cry were mixed with sharp words like “Stop the sob story and log into Fljet” and “You made a fuss about a joint broadcast with Miro, now what is this? I’m unsubscribing.”
Then, viewers started fighting with each other, and the manager, unable to handle it, blocked donations and changed the chat settings so only viewers who had subscribed for a month could use emojis.
―I think it will be difficult to broadcast for a while. I’ll take some time to sort things out.
The streamer, surrounded by player-related merchandise in a soundproof room, turned off the broadcast.
After the broadcast ended, the remaining viewers flooded the chat with crying or frustrated emojis.
Afterward, the streamer continued to take a break from broadcasting, but the image of them crying surrounded by player goods was quoted in countless articles.
Hong Gyu-bin felt a complicated emotion as he saw the name of the streamer who had appeared on the victim list.
When Hong Gyu-bin was a teenager, his own dream had also been to become a player, so he understood the streamer's feelings.
‘Thanks to Eui-shin, many aspiring players were saved, but there are also those who have already lost their dream of becoming a player. I wish there was a way to help them.’
Hong Gyu-bin had almost lost his own dream in the face of great evil.
That dream had been preserved through the sacrifice of his master, Je-gal Jae-gul.
In this incident as well, a teacher from Tan Lae-jung had acted to protect their student's future, allowing faster action regarding the center.
Hong Gyu-bin also wanted to protect someone's dream.
‘If there's a way to strip away their power, surely there must be a way to return it, right? Wouldn’t the one who orchestrated this have set up some kind of safeguard?’
Although Hong Gyu-bin thought this, no answers came even after poring over the reports.
Since he was conducting investigations related to the centers whenever he had time, Hong Gyu-bin's working hours showed no signs of decreasing.
Half of it was self-imposed overtime, but the exhaustion was inevitable.
Normally, he would have complained to Jo Eui-shin and subtly asked for updates on Je-gal Jae-gul, but he couldn’t.
‘I wonder how Eui-shin’s eye is? If Seong Guk-eon is wearing an eye patch, it must still be under treatment...’
He thought about Jo Eui-shin, who had been pretending to be Seong Guk-eon with one eye lost.
If others didn’t know the details, no one would notice the disguise—Jo Eui-shin had perfectly acted as Seong Guk-eon, fooling everyone around him.
It couldn't have been easy to endure the pain using such powerful abilities while acting as someone else, yet Jo Eui-shin had done it steadfastly.
Remembering that, Hong Gyu-bin couldn’t bring himself to complain.
Moreover, since Seong Guk-eon’s grand achievements had drastically reduced the association’s workload, it made it harder for Hong Gyu-bin to grumble.
Seong Guk-eon had been investigating all the centers, starting with Tan Lae-jung’s staff and the parents' association, after discovering that they had embezzled the funds allocated to the center.
In response, those accused had quickly formed groups and raised their voices.
Boldly, they contacted the media, accusing Seong Guk-eon of using his power as a politician to harass the weak, but this didn't gain much traction.
If they truly wanted to pretend to be the weak, they shouldn’t have hired a lawyer from one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, a former senior attorney.
‘In contrast, the law firm Seong Guk-eon consulted was a small, unknown firm—Byunwol, run by player-turned-lawyer Byun Jae-ik.’
As a result, memes mocking those trying to act like the weak while hiring high-powered lawyers were created, and Byunwol began to be frequently mentioned in various places, inadvertently promoting the firm.
Anyway, this incident brought Hong Gyu-bin and Seong Guk-eon much closer.
They shared difficult-to-reveal secrets, but thanks to Jo Eui-shin in between, information sharing went smoothly.
Hong Gyu-bin had even learned about Seong Guk-eon’s dealings with the Pomor Demon Tribe.
Just as he was about to check on the movements of the Pomor Demon Tribe, his device’s message alert went off.
The sender was Jo Eui-shin. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝙗.𝒄𝒐𝒎
‘Eui-shin...!’
It must be the end of the semester at Yeonggwang High, yet why was he reaching out?
A chilling thought crossed his mind—something more important than exams had happened.
Knowing Jo Eui-shin’s physical condition, Hong Gyu-bin hurriedly checked the device, fearing that he might be pushing himself too hard.
Jo Eui-shin greeted him politely and briefly addressed his concerns, brushing aside Hong Gyu-bin’s worries about his health.
[Jo Eui-shin] I'll see you when I have some time. For now, I need to study.
[Jo Eui-shin] Watch this video when you get the chance.
[Jo Eui-shin] (Video)
Jo Eui-shin attached a video as he ended the message.
The video might hold a clue about what Hong Gyu-bin needed to do.
After a brief hesitation, Hong Gyu-bin firmly decided to play the video.
As he watched it, Hong Gyu-bin’s face collapsed in disbelief.
‘Oh my god, there was such a precious video...!’
In the video, a youthful Je-gal Jae-gul was reading a poem he had written himself.
Watching his master’s former self, unable to write poetry anymore, Hong Gyu-bin lost himself in the video.
He replayed the short video multiple times, feeling a surge of emotions.
Afterward, Hong Gyu-bin reflected on his previous doubts, hesitation, and regret over the messages Jo Eui-shin had sent him.
For some reason, after this time of reflection, he felt the accumulated fatigue slowly melting away.
Just then, Deputy Yoon returned, having caught Employee Jeong, and stopped a few steps away, observing Hong Gyu-bin’s behavior before turning away.
“...I’ll report later.”
“Ah, then leave me alone!”
“Sit down.”
Deputy Yoon dragged the struggling Employee Jeong away.
Employee Jeong grumbled about standard working hours as he was dragged along, but Deputy Yoon didn’t even acknowledge it.
Just as they reached their desks, Employee Jeong spoke.
“Are you taking out your frustration because of your ex-girlfriend?”
“...”
“It seems like you broke up with her, with Park Team Leader... no, with someone named Park, right?”
Employee Jeong was an outstanding player technically, despite how he looked.
He was skilled at tracking, fighting multiple enemies, and had excellent intuition.
Employee Jeong had used that ability to catch on to sensitive details about his ex-girlfriend, skillfully provoking Deputy Yoon with the subject.
It was clear that Deputy Yoon had noticed he was reconnecting with his ex-girlfriend.
Deputy Yoon let go of Employee Jeong as if tossing him aside and said:
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Deputy Yoon recalled the image of his ex-girlfriend asking about Park’s safety with a sad face.
The more he thought about it, the more it felt like a swarm of butterflies fluttering in his head and heart.
