Chapter 222

I looked at the newspaper department’s chat room.

There was a turbulent Eurasian travel diary written by the newspaper department and the Second Year Class Zero students.

Various stories about heading to Europe via China and Russia were there.

The chat room was filled with photos and article drafts posted by Moon Saeron and the head of the newspaper department.

‘Is this all real? What the heck happened?’

A sudden confrontation with Chinese players.

The sighting of a rare animal, a turtle, that was known to be extinct.

A mysterious incident in which all the members disappeared on a trans-Siberian train, and an encounter with an unidentified royal family.

An expedition to a Golden City where royal treasures were buried.

In the basement of that city, lots of enemies welcomed them.

In the fog that swallowed the sky, land, and sea, they had a chase with one of the world’s Top 10 Most Wanted men.

What the heck…

The newspaper department and the Class Zero seniors experienced all these in a span of a few days?

‘Huh. Jegal’s return would surely be delayed.’

We may even have to worry about whether or not they can even return safely.

Although Jegal, as the head of the teacher’s department, is surely concerned about Wooram, I think it would be better to leave his case to Ham Geunhyung.

After leaving a message to the newspaper department, I checked the next message.

It was from the guy who’s unhappy that he couldn’t stay on the trip for long.

[Hong Gyubin] (Link)

Hong Gyubin sent me a link to an article.

It contained revelations about the various irregularities committed at the Gwangil Police Station.

The reason why this incident came to the surface was because of the recent attack by none other than Dokgo Miro.

After Dokgo Miro left the police station, the only police officer who escaped from harm called an ambulance.

Paramedics arrived at the police station and asked the Seoul Metropolitan Police Station for support.

The Seoul Police Station failed to systematically cover up the raid on Gwangil Police Station.

That’s thanks to the intervention of the Players Association and the Satellite Management Team.

‘It’s strange that the Satellite Management Team intervened even before Hong Gyubin could.’

Since the seriously injured Gwangil Police Station Chief was an official player, the Association had an excuse to intervene.

However, it’s still odd that the Satellite Team intervened quickly too.

Recalling the incident, I was able to figure it out.

‘Min Geurin was in the picture. If something happens to Geurin, Song Daesok would absolutely not be able to stay still… So the Satellite Management Team had no choice but to intervene.’

The Satellite Management team said that it was suspicious that the patrol car of the police station had been completely destroyed, yet the CCTVs have no record of how that happened.

They actually pointed out the abnormalities in the real-time recording of the CCTVs in the police station.

With that, they restored all satellite records that observed the vicinity of the police station.

As a result, the illegal activities of the Gwangil Police Station were all publicly revealed.

Personnel corruption, false reports, bribery, illegal solicitation, and illegal business with service companies were just some of the activities revealed to the public.

The Association said that they decided to disclose the information to the media first to prevent anyone from trying to cover up the truth.

They revealed everything, except for a very recent record.

‘Unfortunately, they said that they couldn’t restore the recording of the most recent attack… but they probably did it on purpose.’

As soon as the history of this vast corruption was recorded, the data were organized into highly readable tables.

It was the Eungwang High Art Department that made it.

They used their brilliance and artistic talent to create the summary table in such a short amount of time.

Prior to media outlets, the Eungwang Art Department distributed organized materials on the website of Eungwang High and various community boards.

The tables with HD photos and mind maps also showed such a high level of completeness that it was difficult for anyone to imagine that students made it.

Even media companies that reported the case cited the table.

It wasn’t just the art department that actively participated.

Even alumni condemned the incident.

Among the related articles, names of celebrities who graduated from Eungwang High could be seen.

‘Looks like Seong Gukeon and Kwon Jein had interviews.’

The alumni expressed regret over the unsavory incident in Eungwang District where their alma mater was located.

They demanded severe punishment from those involved.

The Gwangil Police Station seemed to have tried to use connections out of old habits, but there was no way they could get themselves out of this situation at this point.

The last page of the file sent by Hong Gyubin included a picture of the police chief lowering his head.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Police Station which tried to cover up the case was subject to an intensive audit.

More than double-digits of policemen seemed to be dismissed from service.

In contrast, it was unclear whether the tenant representative meeting, which put pressure on the service company and the nursery, would be handled internally instead of being punished by law.

Other than that, some organizations and names remained unmentioned.

‘Hani and the nursery aren’t mentioned in the articles. The Association and the Tiger Clan must’ve covered it up. But… even Namgung Group wasn’t mentioned anywhere.’

I looked up additional articles, but none of them had the word ‘Namgung Group’

Even the police station was completely dragged out, and the tenant representative meeting and the service company were sometimes mentioned.

Why is Namgung Group completely unmentioned?

I checked Hong Gyubin’s other messages and found the answer.

[Hong Gyubin] The Namgung Group seemed to have completely gotten their hands off.

[Hong Gyubin] But the chief of the police station had a meeting with a ‘Department Head Choi’. He’s the head of the strategic planning department under Namgung Group.

The Strategic Planning Office, a staff organization under the chairperson of the Namgung Group, is actually in charge of the group’s affiliates.

The head of the department is actually the Vice-Chairperson.

[Hong Gyubin] However, according to the investigation, the person he thought was Choi was actually not an affiliate of the Namgung group, but an executive of a subcontractor.

[Hong Gyubin] The incident could never have reached Namgung. They planned everything well from the start.

[Hong Gyubin] Namgung Group would actually be painted as the victim. There are so many fraud cases where people were impersonating executives of large companies, so it wouldn’t be that difficult for them to twist the story.

I couldn’t grasp it that well, but it seemed difficult, even for Hong Gyubin.

‘Namgung Group seems to be moving very bravely.’

At the time of the four major companies’ storyline, the Strategic Planning Department of Namgung Group moved quite closely.

Considering their meticulous track record, it seemed difficult to take them down with this incident.

[Hong Gyubin] I’m going to look into it more before moving on.

[Hong Gyubin] Be careful. If you want to investigate personally about Namgung Group… make sure you go with the other kids from your class.

Is he talking about Hwang Jiho?

Hong Gyubin was always the one to worry about my safety, but this is the first time he advised me to bring along another person.

I thanked the hardworking Hong Gyubin and read the next message.

The next one was from Joo Soohyuk.

[Joo Soohyuk] Euishin.

[Joo Soohyuk] Do you remember the last time we planned to go to Zhuo Island?

[Joo Soohyuk] I think we can finally go if the timing is right.

Of course, I remember.

During the Kimopoleia shipboard party incident, Joo Soohyuk and Do Shihoo said this before parting ways.

— Let’s go to Zhuo Island next time. I’ll invite you.

— Let’s go together this summer vacation! With this guy as the plus-one!

Joo Soohyuk received great attention as he was the largest contributor to the handling of the youth retreat incident, along with Ahn Dain.

I thought it would be difficult to go to Zhuo Island because of Soohyuk’s circumstances.

As expected of the title hero.

He must be planning to keep his promise despite his busy schedule.

I briefly told Soohyuk about my schedule.

[Joo Soohyuk] Thanks for that! I’ll check the other guys’ schedules and get back to you.

[Joo Soohyuk] Hyodon and Yoonseob are training with Grandpa Tak, right? I can’t seem to contact them.

[Joo Sooyuk] I heard from the Double-Sword Master that once they start training, they often forget about the time and everything else…

Soohyuk and his master also spent a lot of time training, but Tak Geosan seems to be on a different level.

If we really can’t get in touch with Hyodon…

[Me] If you plan on going to find Hyodon, let’s go together.

I made one more suggestion.

Soohyuk seemed to be planning to rent the whole island and resort, so I guess it will be too wide for only the four of us.

Since we’re planning on going there to relax anyway, wouldn’t it be more fun if there were more people?

[Me] If you’re planning on renting the whole island, I have a suggestion…

Soohyuk readily agreed to my proposal.

I closed my eyes thinking of a list of guests that Soohyuk would be happy about.

Just before I got too lost in my thoughts, I felt Olmu snuggling into my arms.

I petted him a bit as we both comfortably fell asleep.

* * *

The next day.

The fatigue completely disappeared from my body.

Hwangmyeong’s mansion gave me all the healthy foods and teas.

Above everything, I think Olmu gave me the therapy that I needed.

‘I’m all better but I’m still getting liquid foods for breakfast again…’

The taste of the pine nut porridge served for breakfast was great, but I felt a little sad because I think everyone’s forced to eat porridge because of me.

After having our breakfast, I asked Jiho something.

“I want to go meet Mok Wooram. How’s he doing?”

“Mok Wooram is scheduled to be discharged from the hospital today. Since he has no place to stay, I was going to call Ham Geunhyung and Kim Shinrok to prepare a dormitory room for him. If he wants, I can arrange a part-time job or a scholarship for him.”

Mok Wooram had no possessions and not even a device.

Hong Gyubin took care of Wooram’s identification card, but Wooram still has a lot to prepare on his own.

“I want to meet Yuri above anyone else. Let’s make an appointment today and visit together.”

It’s still difficult to meet Yuri without the aid of Jiho’s boundary skill.

Jiho contacted our classmates and most of them replied immediately.

Before noon, the kids who replied gathered in front of the back gate of the Hwangmyeong-Eungwang Hospital.

The kids who gathered today were me, Jiho, Hani, Lena, and Saeum.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Jiho guided us to the special ward just like last time.

Surprisingly, he’s able to act like normal around Hani.

At the elevator…

Lena was holding an ice cream cake box from MITRON.

She gave a meek suggestion.

“Uhm, hey… After we visit Yuri, why don’t we go see Min Geurin too?”

From what I heard, Geurin hasn’t come out of her room ever since the incident.

She sent countless apology messages to Hani.

“I’ll go with you. I want to see her in person and tell her that she did nothing wrong.”

Hearing those words from Hani, Jiho’s calm façade broke for a moment.

He looked at Hani with a slightly surprised face.

Maybe the Blue Tiger had said something similar to that before.

“I’ll go with you guys too! Euishin, you’ll come with us right?”

“Of course.”

After we got off the elevator.

As we were walking along the hallway of the special ward and planning the visit to Geurin…

We felt a strong gaze across the hall.

“…!”

It was from none other than Mok Wooram.

Wooram looked at Kwon Lena with his mouth wide open.

“…?”

Feeling that she was being stared at, Lena blinked quickly a few times.

Having a stranger in a patient’s uniform staring at her inevitably made her feel nervous.

‘I’ll have to stop him if he suddenly comes at us.’

As someone who knows just how obsessed Wooram is about his muse, I had to stay alert.

I was thinking about whether I should use my skill.

…

Thud.

After the 3-second eye contact with Lena, Mok Wooram collapsed on the spot.

“E-eh?”

“H-hey, excuse me sir…!”

The kids turned flustered and rushed towards Wooram.

Wooram had his eyes closed, with his face looking so peaceful as if it means that he was ready to pass away.

Jiho immediately called the medical staff and I heard him murmur something

“…It’s going to be difficult to get out of the hospital today.”