Chapter 227

So many messages were in my inbox early in the morning.

The first one that I checked was from my student, Yeom Junyeol.

[Yeom Junyeol] Hello, teacher.

[Yeom Junyeol] The entire peninsula has been affected by the typhoon since this morning, and it would continue to rain all day. A typhoon warning has already been issued.

[Yeom Junyeol] The rain and the wind were getting stronger so I was advised to not go out.

Yeom Junyeol attached a stamp of Hongryong looking out the window with a gloomy face.

Seeing the design for the first time, it seemed to belong to the new batch of stamps that were made as Hongryong keeps growing.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

[Yeom Junyeol] This is the teaser video for the player’s open audition, “Playlist,” which was released last night!

[Yeom Junyeol] (Link)

[Yeom Junyeol] Please watch it!

The thumbnail of the video was a picture of Yeom Junyeol holding a microphone, his jacket rolled up, and his hair all slicked back.

I heard that he’s an assistant MC, but it seems like his role is bigger than I thought.

When I played the three-minute teaser video, there were more people in it than I thought.

After 30 seconds of summarizing the collision of the two worlds and the rich history of players over a meaningful BGM, interviews with several people whose names were blurred were shown.

— A dream? Of course, I had one. I wasn’t a “professional player” after all.

— If we don’t fight, my friends and family would all get hurt…

— If I don’t step up now, the ‘Dark Age’ might come once again. That’s all I think about.

Following the interview, dozens of life records passed by.

In the “future hope” segment were articles printed in various fonts of life records of singers, idols, entertainers, and musical actors.

Following the “future hope” segment, the Bigo segment came next.

The screen zoomed in and showed the word “Player” written in bold.

It was the word that determined their career path.

— The world’s first and largest audition for players begins.

The narration was done by the main Mc, the Star Player “Double-sided mirror Choi Jina”.

After that, low-quality audition videos, which seems to have been filmed by the participants themselves, were shown briefly.

A monk in the mountains smiling as he was rapping a song.

A pink-haired girl in an old practice room dancing along to an intense beat

A middle-aged man singing a trot song in a karaoke room.

A foreigner who was singing in front of a mirror with a nervous but clear voice.

After the videos went by quickly, Yeom Junyeol appeared next.

— Check your “Playlist” now.

After Yeom Junyeol’s part, a link to the audition’s preliminary schedule and recruitment announcement appeared.

The view count of the video wasn’t that high, but the number of upvotes and comments were quite decent.

It’s only natural given that the famous Choi Jina, who works as a commentator for players in various current affairs and entertainment programs, is the main MC.

It’s also because my good student Yeom Junyeol appears for the first time as an MC.

And…

Looking back at the audition videos, I think I saw a familiar face.

‘That pink-haired girl looks like Dokgo Miro. And… That rapping monk is definitely my playable character!’

A few years ago in this world, the Naejang Temple Incident occurred in the Naejang Mountain National Park.

Before a pro-player team was completely annihilated as they fought in the other-world attack in Naejang Mountain, there was a monk who saved dozens of hikers and believers by creating a boundary on his own at the Naejang Temple.

The player Sami, who had just become a monk, soon gained the nickname “The Saint of Naejang Mountain.”

‘B-but he’s rapping!’

Although there was a band formed by monks in my world, the purpose of their band was to communicate with the public, missionary work, and volunteer work.

It’s completely different from this one.

‘Is he going to leave priesthood and quit living as a monk?’

I was flustered because this was a development that was not in the game.

‘This audition show wasn’t in the game, so I guess a lot of things would change.’

I don’t know exactly how this would turn out, but I decided to cheer for my playable character.

I pressed the upvote button in the video before checking the next message.

The next one was also lengthy.

[Hong Gyubin] Euishin, thanks to you, I had a good conversation with Professor Jegal! Thank you so much!

More messages circling around ‘thank you’, and ‘Professor Jegal is the best!’ were sent by Hong Gyubin.

I scrolled past them and saw a photo.

[Hong Gyubin] (Photo).

The photo showed a safe containing some items.

Inside it was the first edition of Jegal’s magazine printed by the newspaper department.

Uhm, are all the items in that safe related to Jegal?

[Hong Gyubin] If anything happens in the future or you need any help, make sure to call me okay? And if anything happens to Professor Jegal, call me. If I don’t answer, you can reach out to Deputy Yoon or Employee Jung!

He gave me a list of his subordinates that I could call.

After entering the device codes, I checked the next message.

This message was the longest so far.

[Jang Namwook] …Hey guys, are you asleep?

What’s up with Namwook all of a sudden?

He sent the message early at dawn.

It seems like he’s upset?

There were a series of messages that were much longer than usual.

[Jang Namwook] Ah, I talked too much.

Jang Namwook felt awkward but still sent some more messages.

[Jang Namwook] It’s very early, I know, but I sent these messages because I was thinking of you guys.

[Jang Namwook] What we experienced on that day of the entrance examination is scary and difficult to think about. I couldn’t do anything. Euishin was able to knock the enemy unconscious, and Sanghoon blew his body… And I feel so pathetic.

[Jang Namwook] I’m glad I met you guys that day. I hope we can continue to be good friends. I’ll also try to be a friend that you guys can rely on.

[Jang Namwook] Thank you, Euishin and Sanghoon!

At Jang Namwook’s sudden long message, even Sanghoon sent a long reply

[Yoo Sanghoon] ?;

Instead of the usual ‘?’, Yoo Sanghoon added an extra ‘;’ in his message.

Looks like he’s flustered too.

[Jang Namwook] Oh, you’re up? Are you sick? Are you eating well? Since there’s a typhoon today, why don’t you stick to home training for now? I’ll send you a video link if you need one.

[Yoo Sanghoon] Ok

After that, Jang Namwook was no different from usual, but it still bothered me.

‘Why was he like that out of nowhere?’

And it looks like I wasn’t the only one bothered.

In the past, we made a new chat room with Do Sihoo when Jang Namwook was taken to the disciplinary room for an unauthorized exit.

[Yoo Sanghoon] What’s up with Jang Namwook?

Sanghoon sent a message to the chat room.

Since Sihoo was Namwook’s roommate, he might know something.

‘Yoo Sanghoon reached out first…’

That was out of character of Sanghoon too, but I decided to focus on Namwook for now.

[Jo Euishin] Did something happen yesterday? Namwook sent messages early at dawn. It’s a bit strange.

Do Sihoo replied soon enough.

[Do Sihoo] I guess it’s about his dream last night, hahaha.

[Do Sihoo] He said he had a nightmare.

Just what sort of dream did he have?

I wanted to ask, but I opted not to since it looks like Do Sihoo doesn’t know it either.

* * *

Around Eungwang High, Cheongrang Lake.

Because of the typhoon, it was impossible to ride an airboard all the way here.

I wore my raincoat and ran all the way here.

With the rain and wind blowing along with thunder heard from a distance, the area around the Cheongrang Lake was foggy.

“You’re here.”

As if he’s set up a boundary so the rain doesn’t hit him, the White Tiger stood with his face and body completely dry.

I can’t believe he waited in the typhoon even though I could’ve done the job of warding off the evil spirits on my own!

As expected, my playable character is so considerate.

The world calmed down as we entered the boundary.

“There’s something I want to test while we spar.”

I was thinking of using the Fate of the Unknown today, but the White Tiger shook his head.

“We’re not going to spar today.”

Then what are we going to do today?

While I was expressing my doubts, we reached the central dome.

The door opened and I saw what was inside.

‘This is…’

Under the artificial night sky made of energy, there was a table and two chairs.

Above the table was a chessboard.

“Do you remember the conditions that I said?”

When I asked the White Tiger for help to hear the voice of the Sangbosimgeumpa…

He gave me one condition.

— Let’s have a game of chess.

At that time, I immediately agreed to the condition, but the White Tiger shook his head.

— There’s no point in playing against you right now.

The burning feeling from that day came back to me.

“I remember.”

I sat on one of the chairs first.

“Let’s play.”

* * *

Amid the raging typhoon, Jang Namwook visited Yoo Sanghoon’s house.

Yoo Sanghoon personally called Namwook late in the morning to ask if he had free time.

It was a sudden invitation, but the anxious Jang Namwook agreed to meet right away.

“Hey, long time no see. Is Euishin here too? What about Sanghee noona?”

“No, they’re both not here. I don’t know when Sanghee will arrive, but Euishin’s not coming.”

“Oh?”

Yoo Sanghoon hit the basketball in one corner of his room to make room to sit down.

“I heard you had a strange dream?”

“Yea… Did Sihoo tell you? It’s just a bad dream.”

“I had a bad dream too.”

‘Did he call me here to talk about our dreams?’

Namwook doubted it for a second.

Still, he waited for Sanghoon’s next words.

Although Namwook has no clue about what’s going on inside Sanghoon’s mind, he’s sure that Sanghoon is not one who acts without thinking.

“I had the same dream twice. You and Euishin were there. That bastard Son Minki was there too, and so was the teacher. It was the same enemy too.”

Yoo Sanghoon spoke calmly, but he was sweating despite the room being air-conditioned.

‘Don’t tell me…’

Jang Namwook hesitated before taking off his glasses and using his energy wave.

Yoo Sanghoon, who closed his mouth with a hesitant expression, looked surprised.

Namwook’s sudden use of energy wave was one thing, but Sanghoon was even more surprised to see Namwook’s eyes shining like stars.

Astra’s ‘Eye of the Star Maiden.’

Jang Namwook stared at Yoo Sanghoon with his intense eyes.

“There’s almost nothing left but a few traces, but it looks like you had it too.”

“Had what?”

“Something like a black fog. I think its remains or ruins of energy wave…”

Jang Namwook spoke in a nervous voice.

Right after Namwook woke up from the nightmare, he stared at himself in the mirror with his bare eyes and saw the black fog surrounding him.

That black fog itself didn’t feel scary, but he guessed that it was the cause of his nightmare.

“The nightmare I had was…”

“Wait.”

Yoo Sanghoon interrupted Namwook and turned on his device.

“Open the notepad and write down exactly what you dreamt. Don’t show it to me.”

“E-eh? Oh, alright. That seems logical.”

The two were completely silent as they both wrote about what they have dreamt.

Once they were done, they exchanged devices.

Yoo Sanghoon summarized the dream in a few lines.

Jang Namwook described it in detail on several pages.

The format and length in which the two wrote about their dreams were completely different.

However…

“…”

“H-how is this…”

Like an overseer in a moribund state.

Son Minki pushed Jang Namwook and Yoo Sanghoon toward the enemy as he ran to the door.

Maybe it’s because he made a loud noise, but the enemy went for Son Minki first.

Yoo Sanghoon, who couldn’t move to run away, thanked Jang Namwook.

However, the two people died after being pierced by the enemy’s horn.

And…

Both their dreams didn’t have Jo Euishin in them.

Up to the smallest details, the nightmares that the two people had were completely identical.