Chapter 7: The Nameless Supernova |
3. Unknown supernova (2)
Yesterday’s incident made the world’s most ungrateful bastard a star hero, but life continued as before.
The workers had to go to work and students had to go to school.
‘I’m a middle school student now, should I go to school?’
The exam entrance screening for special purpose highschools like Eungwang Player Maister Highschool, started in November or December at earliest and ended in February at latest.
The second semester’s exams of the middle school ended during December, so 3 year school records were reflected only until the first semester.
‘There is no need to go to school.’
In my case, papers and writing exams were handled by me of this world before I came.
According to what Jegal Jaegeol said, the practical exam was also expected to be passed.
‘In the past I would grit my teeth and go to school, even when my high school pass was confirmed.’
If you don’t attend school after passing an exam, you could receive penalty points for intentional absence or get 0 points on the performance evaluation regardless of your attendance as a retaliation.
Still, it didn’t matter whether you attended the school after the final exam.
If you fulfill all needed attendance days, you won’t be expelled from school, and admission to highschool won’t be canceled as long as you already passed an exam.
The companies almost never check middle school records during the employment, and even if it occasionally happened, they usually ended at the highschool, so there was no loss.
‘There is a lot to do, but let’s go just once.’
After a lot of thoughts, I decided to go to school to investigate myself.
I left behind a single room with only one person-sized heating mat at the hillside slums and headed towards the school.
‘My character data in the menu and my own past are similar.’
Lost parents and younger siblings some time ago.
Attending Jinsu Middle School.
Everything was like my real past.
‘But this world and my previous Korea are different.’
From the Clash of different worlds and players to Eungwang School, it was all game-story content, but in this world it was a natural existence.
Korean history became different little by little.
The address I was currently staying at and the address of my middle school were different from what I used to know.
‘It’s not only that some addresses are slightly different.’
This Seoul and the Seoul I had known have differences.
Looking at the Seoul city map, some borders dividing the districts were different and there were places with unknown names.
For starters, the Eungwang Highschool was located in the ‘Eungwang District of Seoul’. The place with this name didn’t exist in Seoul’s reality before.
‘Even so, the flow of history of my and this Korea are similar.’
Checking the history of the last 100 years, if you exclude the Clash of different worlds, the flow is largely similar.
The art works, movies, dramas and music which were published.
They were almost the same, although there were very small differences.
‘But there is no one among people I actually knew and spent time with in this world.’
None of my relatives and friends from the old world existed here.
To put it into words, this world was like my world, but with the Clash of different worlds added and almost all ordinary people replaced. It was kind of like a parallel universe.
‘I can’t see the ground.’
While I walked and contemplated, I arrived before the middle school I was attending without my knowledge.
The front of the school swarmed with reporters.
PlayerSAT-K’s subjugation’s announcement revealed only the word ‘Jo’, but my personal information seemed to spread among all the reporters.
Perhaps if I had not asked to hide my name and made a different request when I was sending a message to Hong Gyubin with my account number yesterday, the reporters would have decorated articles with my name today.
‘Even in the world where the Clash of different worlds happened, the vultures are the same.’
Rather, because such a big candy like ‘Clash of different words’ was handed to them, it might be more exciting to stab here and there.
The vultures were seizing students wearing school uniforms and forcibly conducting interviews.
They even thrust a microphone and camera at the student who walked while studying with his nose buried deep into a vocabulary book.
‘It’ll be annoying if I get caught, so let’s get out.’
I felt sorry for the students who got involved, but if I appear here, the mess will grow bigger.
After walking around for a while, searching for an opening to enter, I discovered a doghole.
I hesitated seeing the size of the doghole, but I was a middle school student now.
If it was a grown-up man, his waist would probably get stuck in the small wall crack, but I could narrowly get out.
***
In front of the classroom of the 3rd grade class 8 in Jinsu Middle School.
In the time it took to get here, I looked around, but the school was different from what I remembered.
The building design and arrangement didn’t match my memory.
I also peeked inside the teacher’s room, but I didn’t know anyone.
‘Only the school’s uniform design is the same.’
I tried to check the character’s data of some people in the hallway.
⟨This character isn’t registered in the database. Unable to read character data.⟩
I couldn’t read it.
Is it because this middle school didn’t appear in the game?
I tried to test in on more people, but it was the same.
No information could be gained through the menu.
It seemed I had no choice but to work on my own.
Rattle.
I opened an old-fashioned sliding door to the classroom and entered.
The boys wearing out of fashion uniforms chatted here and there.
The topics were all about yesterday’s failed raid at the Eungwang School.
“Saw the news? It was awesome!”
“I was trembling all over during the interview. By the way, is it true that the biggest contributor was a guy from our school?”
That’s right, our school guy.
Because it was me.
“Was there a guy in our school with grades to go to the Eungwang School?”
“School’s first place hides his strength.”
“The school’s first place doesn’t seem to have player abilities.”
No one here knew who I was.
There were also no classmates who I knew.
After listening to the conversation near the door, I caught the student who was the closest and spoke.
“Hey.”
“…Uh? Other classes are prohibited from entry. If you look for someone, I’ll call them for you.”
“I’m class 8.”
I showed him my student ID.
[Jinsu Middle School, grade 3, class 8, Jo Uisin.]
He looked at the student ID and blinked in surprise, then nodded his head.
“What? Ah… Right. It seems you were also here. Sorry.”
His eyes were blank, as if he was hypnotized.
“No problem. I have a question.”
“What?”
“Were our school’s uniforms always so out of fashion?”
“No, it suddenly changed during our time. Seniors were wearing plain clothes when they attended, remember?”
I was starting to guess what kind of situation I was in.
Later, I also visited the teacher’s room and tried to talk.
All the teachers had puzzled faces.
‘There was someone in our school with a talent to go to the Eungwang School?’ seemed to be a usual response.
‘The homeroom teacher is also a person I don’t know.’
I didn’t know the homeroom teacher who hurriedly returned from his business trip, and the homeroom teacher also didn’t seem to know me.
He pretended to know me and to be close, but it was very awkward.
As a result of looking around the classroom and teachers’ room, I confirmed my school’s activity records were perfectly preserved.
But everyone’s reaction was ‘I guess you were there?’
I checked everything I wanted to check.
“I don’t feel very well. It seems I should rest at home. May I leave early?”
The homeroom readily agreed while adding to call him anytime if I happen to need a guardian.
While I was leaving the teacher’s room, the teachers threw congratulations and compliments for me.
Even so, I was someone who they only had a vague memory of and who was making them fall into confusion.
My guess turned into a conviction.
***
I left the school and returned to my room at the hillside slums.
Was I really inside the game?
If not…
I knew someone who had the answer for this worry.
⟨Reading ‘Jo Uisin’ character data.⟩
[Name] Jo Uisin
[Titles] Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification, One of the little heroes
[Blessing] (Some loading failed)
[Gwangrim] (Sealed)
[Status] Normal
[Overall statistics] Lv. 10
[Skills]
Use of everything Lv. 1
Exclusive menu of the Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification Lv. 1
Communication with Transcendent Universe Lv. 1
Power of Fate Lv. 3
(Some loading failed.)
The instant I saw the titles, I almost cursed out loud.
Because of Son Mingi, who did a quick interview yesterday, became the ‘little hero’, I, who was the highest contributor, received a second fiddle treatment.
‘Be patient now, be patient.’
Who knows? It may turn out more difficult for him, if it’s so noticeable now.
I selected ‘Communication with Transcendent Universe’ skill from the menu.
⟨Reading skill’s explanation details.⟩
[Skill name] Communication with Transcendent Universe
[Rank] UR
[Skill level] 1
[Effect] Communicate with Transcendent Universe
[Description]
Communication with existence incorporating all-dimensions, all-times and all-cosmos[1], causes enormous load on the skill’s user’s mind and body.
In case of the communication’s results exceeding a skill’s user’s possible quantity of data acceptance, the skill will be automatically canceled.
Communication with something which transcended dimensions and time, space and cosmos.
If I talk to the entity who called me to this world, the answer will come out.
I was concerned about the ‘enormous load’, but I wanted to confirm something before I entered the Eungwang School.
⟨Activate skill ‘Communication with Transcendent Universe’⟩
Uung.
I had a feeling of my brain rising towards the sky.
Amidst the sensation of my brain floating, the pieces of me scattered through different spaces, different times, different dimensions.
In my brain, even my own self, was turning into powder.
I slapped my cheek with all my might.
Slap!
My palm and cheek throbbed.
Thanks to that I returned to my right mind.
“I didn’t transmigrate into the game.”
Uuuung.
No change.
However, my mind was colored green, and it became a bit easier to breathe.
The answer is yes.
“That hype-wreck game was a process to select people who will come here, right?”
Ridiculous marketing investment costs.
The support which continued for 10 years despite the sales leaning close to zero.
The game that didn’t reflect the user’s opinion even a bit.
Now when I think over it, all of it was too strange.
‘If the Transcendent Universe was all-powerful, I wouldn’t be called here.’
Because it would directly change this world’s future.
Every time I used the menu, excluding myself and the important characters who appeared in the game, the ordinary people’s data couldn’t be read.
I became sure that the Transcendent Universe wasn’t all-mighty.
‘I understand why you call me ‘Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification’’.
⟨Warning, the extended communication between Transcendent Universe and the Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification causes load on the Suitable one.⟩
The taste of iron suddenly soared in my throat.
“You can interfere in a very limited way, so you called me from the other dimension. And you left one empty spot in this world for an ‘supporting character’. And you reconfigured data to fit together me and my past, and you gave me the game-like ability. To change the future.”
Linking words together became more difficult, and it was hard to continue the sentence.
My vision was dyed green.
I felt my whole body drill through the sky and soared into the cosmos, and then it sank down again.
It wasn’t even some language, but the other confirmed all my words, so I became sure.
My mind and body were close to their limits as corners of my mouth burned and the blood flowed out quickly.
⟨Warning. The body of the Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification reached its limits.⟩
⟨Limiting the connection with the Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification.⟩
I heard the system’s notification and an unknown sensation pressing on me disappeared.
⟨The dimension understanding of the Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification has risen. Skill’s level of the ‘Exclusive menu of the Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification’ raised from 1 to 2.⟩
All my guesses should be correct.
I found out why I came to this world.
Don’t you know this game very well?
Because you cleared the last chapter?
‘It could also be true, but…’
The reason why I came here.
That’s because I most earnestly hoped for this game’s happy ending.
It was because I was a gamer who would gladly replay this game and this world for that happy ending.
‘…Ah, the skill level has risen, so I should check what has changed.’
However, that thought ended with my vision turning pitch black.
In the end, I didn’t even check the menu before I collapsed.
***
It was 3 days later when I opened my eyes.
Since I didn’t drink any water in the meantime, my lips were extremely dry and my head was spinning.
The world seemed black and white, perhaps it was a symptom of dehydration.
With difficulty, I crawled into the kitchen and drank a tap of water mixed with a bit of salt and sugar to come back to my senses.
‘I really didn’t think I would drop dead for 3 days with at best a few seconds of conversation.’
If I knew I would be in that state, I would at least put a blanket and then use the skill.
I threw away the school uniform I was still wearing.
My entire body was stiff, and it took a moment to take off the clothes.
When I changed into comfortable clothes, I noticed a discharged smartphone.
After connecting it to the charger and turning it on, I was flooded with many missed calls and unread messages.
Hong Gyubin, Jang Namuk.
It was mainly those two who committed a message terrorism.
Hong Gyubin asked to confirm the money deposit, to come to the Player’s Association because he wanted to ‘buy you a meal and see your face’ and ‘Don’t you need anything perhaps?’, it was annoying.
Jang Namuk nagged with ‘You don’t answer the phone, did something happen?’ and continuously asked ‘Did you eat?’.
I didn’t have anything to say exactly, so I decided to postpone the reply.
I was searching through the cupboard if I had any ramen, when the phone rang.
On the smartphone’s screen appeared the name of someone who never contacted me after saying goodbye at the hospital. It was Yu Sang-hun.
…I had an idea why he called.
I should receive Yu Sang-hun’s call.
“Hello?”
[It’s me. Jang Namuk said you don’t answer the calls.]
“I was a bit busy. Why are you calling?”
[Ah…It’s about him.]
Yu Sang-hun’s words were ambiguous.
“Is it because of Son Mingi?”
Yu Sang-hun didn’t deny.
***
Son Mingi was even more of a bastard than I thought.
What Son Mingi did was considered an assault and a murder attempt on Yu Sang-hun.
If you dig into it, the question of whether me and Jang Namuk were victims was complicated, but Yu Sang-hun was a victim for sure.
‘I thought he would at least pretend to apologize to Yu Sang-hun.’
Not an apology, but ‘We’ll give you money if you come to a consensus with the crime case, so take it and drop it’ I couldn’t even imagine coming out.
Yu Sang-hun’s family was furious, but with Son Mingi taking the lead with interviews, they were in a disadvantageous situation.
“Wouldn’t it help if me and Uisin gave testimony?”
Jang Namuk also couldn’t hide his anger and spit out.
Inside the room of the Hanjeongsik[2] Restaurant Yu Sang-hun called us to come.
Apart from a greeting, Yu Sang-hun didn’t say even one word.
Even Yu Sang-hun’s parents held back their words with complicated expressions.
Currently, the one leading the conversation in this place was Yu Sang-hun’s older sister, Yu Sang-hui.
“Yeah. We will give you whatever you ask for. I have a rare Gwangrim, so if I become a professional player I should be able to earn quite a bit. Of course, as an Eungwang School’s senior, I can also help you in various ways.”
Her innocent smile while combing her hair was quite contrasting with her appearance at the hospital when she was crying out loud.
I knew one more face of Yu Sang-hui.
⟨Reading ‘Yu Sang-hui’ character data.⟩
[Name] Yu Sang-hui
[Titles] Eungwang Highschool’s second year, Member of the Student Council, Acea’s Priest Apprentice[3], Healing Frenzy [4]
[Blessing] Acea ’s favor ‘I’ll share my strength with you’
[Gwangrim] Inactive
[Status] Normal
[Overall statistics] Lv. 38
[Skills]
Healing magic Lv. 5
Defense Barrier Lv. 3
Vital points strike Lv. 3
[Description]
She possesses an extremely rare healing-type ability.
She received a blessing from the goddess of healing Acea , and she uses part of Acea ’s power when using the Gwangrim.
The excellent talent who never left the top 10 of academic rankings during enrollment at the Eungwang Highschool.
She treasures her family.
‘The Yu Sang-hui in the game was completely different.’
In this world, besides Enemies and Jin people, there are also so called ‘Higher Beings’.
The higher beings could be simply described as ‘gods’.
The higher beings do not always exist physically like Jin people, but they interfere with this world with blessings, miracles, possessions, gwangrims, divine revelations, etc…
From amongst those higher beings, Yu Sang-hui received a blessing from the goddess of healing, Acea .
‘The title of Yu Sang-hui I remember was ‘Nemesis’ Contractor’’
Yu Sang-hui made a contract with the goddess of revenge with her lifespan as a price to boost the attack power of Gwangrim 3 times when she faced a demonic beast.
So in-game Yu Sang-hui was my final contra-demon weapon. She was a character recommended for demonic beasts quests.
‘No… Come to think about it, the reason to become an avenger was also included in the setting book. What I needed were settings for the game rewards, which were later, so I skimmed through it and moved on.’
Yu Sang-hui threw away the valuable blessing of Acea and grabbed the hand of the Revenge Goddess Nemesis, because of the younger brother who was slaughtered by the demonic beast.
‘And that younger brother was Yu Sang-hun.’
With disheveled hair fluttering in the wind, while she hunted a demonic beast, she was worn out by it and died to a beast before she even graduated.
“I don’t need compensation. However long the trial will take, I’ll testify to the end.”
Jang Namuk said with great power.
Then he looked at me with expectation saying ‘You will also naturally do it, right?’
I turned off the Yu Sang-hui’s status window and thought.
Son Mingi.
Media.
Public opinion.
Hwang Myeong Foundation.
A move, a move… I organized my thoughts into the move and put it into action.
The answer was decided.
“I won’t.”
Jang Namuk made a plainly disappointed expression, but Yu Sang-hui replied in a soft tone.
“Okay… Ah, thank you for saving this idiot. If Uisin wasn’t there, he would have died.”
“Ah, what are you talking about? Jo Uisin, let’s eat.”
As if he really didn’t care about my refusal, Yu Sang-hun opened his mouth for the first time.
Yu Sang-hun’s parents, who expressed their thanks a few times at the hospital, thanked me again, while giving warm smiles.
But my words didn’t end here.
“Please agree as quickly as possible. It would be best if you do that today or tomorrow.”
“…Yes?”
The atmosphere turned cold.
“It’s also about the condition of not disclosing any information about it to the outside world.”
I took a sip of Green Plum tea and continued.
“It would be good to increase the settlement money on the condition of keeping also my and Jang Namuk’s mouths shut.”
“What! I’ll testify!”
Jang Namuk shriked.
“In case of breaking the silence ban agreement the penalty should be two times… No, about three times the settlement money would be good.”
If Yu Sang-hui’s gaze could kill, I would probably die three times.
The dim killing intent filled Yu Sang-hui’s eyes.
“Are you saying now to take the money and shut up?”
“Yes.”
Yu Sang-hui’s gentle mask slipped and curses escaped her lips.
I withstood Baek Ho-gun’s gaze.
I even communicated with the Transcendent Universe.
This degree of killing intent couldn’t shake me.
“If you can take the money with the opportunity to take revenge, you must take it.”
Receiving settlement money was one more move which will tear Son Mingi down.
*~*~*
[1] all-dimensions, all-time etc. – To be exact, it’s “all dimensions, all space-time, all cosmos/universe/space”.
[2] Hanjeongsik – Korean Table d’hote – a meal-set of traditional Korean side dishes served with soup and rice.
[3] Acea – Changes happen here. Before I believed that her name is Aceso (as there is a goddess like this and she matched the criteria I remembered). But then a chapter explaining her name came up and this translator’s memory was refreshed. So yes, it’s Acea, it still refers to a real goddess and it will be explained in… chapter 88.
[4] Healing Frenzy – or Healing Wild Wind, both would be correct with frenzy being figurative and wild wind literally.
Translator’s note:
First symptom of self-sacrificial bastard: “I coughed blood.” *moves on*
Second symptom: *didn’t eat or drink anything for three days and almost froze to death* “Damn, if I knew it would happen I would put a blanket on the floor.”