n

n

nUnder the moonlight stood the head of the Tiger clan, dressed in a school uniform.

nThe color of his hair and eyes was dark brown.

n‘He didn’t even unleash his powers!’

nThe SSR class stealth armor and the plans for breaking in he had prepared all night didn’t fool Golden Tiger, much less make him unleash his powers.

nShin-lok Kim was frustrated but also impressed by the overwhelming difference in power.

n“White Tiger couldn’t have told you…… It must be Ui-shin Cho.”

n

n

nGolden Tiger seemed to know all about how and why Shin-lok came here.

nStill, Shin-lok pretended not to notice that and faked composure.

n“Golden Tiger, your skills of playing ‘it’ have increased.”

n“I just let you go in the old days. When you scribbled on the wall of Blue Tiger’s training room, when you sneaked in the holy being’s treasure room and looked at the treasures by yourself, and when you did White Tiger’s…… hm, since White Tiger might be listening to us now, I won’t say any further. Anyway, I knew everything.”

nGolden Tiger laughed as he mentioned things from thousands of years ago.

nThinking that Golden Tiger might have been watching all the pranks that had considered successful so far, Shin-lok felt his head spinning.

nShin-lok tried to hide his face flushed with shame.

n“I’ll be going, since hide and seek is over.”

n“Why?”

nHis feelings intensified as Golden Tiger smiled, pretending not to know.

nIt was the first time since Shin-lok Kim became a teacher that he wanted to punch someone wearing a school uniform.

n“You came to see Red Tiger, right?”

n“No.”

n“What do you mean, ‘no?’ Then why did you break into my mansion?”

n“Just out of competition.”

n“Hahaha! Competition! That’s an immature excuse. That’s why even if you’re over 5,000 years old, you’re treated as a child by White Tiger.”

nShim-lok felt a lot worse than he already was when he saw Golden Tiger laugh out loud.

n“From the moment this mansion was built, I gave you permission to come and go here freely. Why did you do such a dangerous thing?”

nShin-lok kept his mouth shut without making any brazen excuses.

n“Don’t do this next time. Come through the front door. Luck will fall out if you don’t.”

n“…… Are you not going to punish me?”

nShin-lok Kim expected to be punished, big or small, like the disciples of Blue Tiger, who were sometimes punished for crossing the line.

nBut Golden Tiger only laughed and seemed unwilling to punish Shin-lok.

n“Come along.”

nShin-lok Kim was not going to follow him, but the magic shackles on his ankles began to move.

nShin-lok, who was initially forced and dragged along, soon gave up and walked on his own to follow Golden Tiger.

n“······.”

nRooftop of Myung-ho Hwang’s Mansion.

nWhite Tiger, with shinsu in his arms, was looking down at Golden Tiger and Shin-lok.

n* * *

nThe dorm area of Eun-kwang High.

nThe walking path between the first year’s and second year’s building.

nThe path leading to Cheonik mountain in between.

nUnder artificial light, Chan-sol Geum and Chan-sol Wang were waiting for me.

n“Hello! Ui-shin junior, sir!”

nThe Geumchan-Wangchan combo bowed to me politely with a 90-degree angle(The most formal angle of bowing in Korean culture).

n“First of all, have a seat, junior Cho. The day is still cold, so I placed a blanket on the bench for you!”

n“Thank you for coming all this way. We prepared snacks in case you were hungry, junior Cho!”

n“We didn’t know what you’ll like, so we prepared coffee, green tea, black tea, and juice. These four beverages!”

n“Junior Cho, do you want anything more? I’ll order it right away!”

n“If you need anything, tell us, junior Cho!”

nThe duo escorted me to the bench like proper gentlemen.

nThere was a table set up next to the bench.

n‘When did they prepare all this?’

nThe table was completely made, with tablecloth and napkins, and on it were refreshments.

nRoll cake and dacquoise gift set with the air hotel, Icarus’ logo stamped on it.

nThree thermoses and a juice bottle.

nI felt their desperation.

n“Thank you. Sit with me, seniors.”

n“You care for your humble seniors, too! Junior Ui-shin Cho is so considerate!”

n“I am so happy to have class 0 junior with such manners!”

nChan-sol Geum and Wang consistently buttered me up.

nThey did more than simply change attitudes, they became complete suck-ups.

nAs soon as I sat down, the two suck-ups poured tea and tried to feed me.

nRefusing their overly active hospitality, I clutched the bottle of juice.

n“I want to hear about the domination of the Other-world. And about your psychic wave links.”

nAt the sound of that, the suck-ups snapped out of it a little.

n“How did you know that, junior?”

n“Junior Ui-shin Cho seems to have his own route of information. Like the time he knew about Mr. Jegal.”

n“……Hm. What to do, Geumchan?”

n“I don’t know, Wangchan.”

nThe two began to whisper their opinions face to face with each other.

n“I don’t think junior Cho will use this for bad things. It’ll be fine.”

n“Yeah. It won’t do any harm, especially for Mr. Jegal. Even then, he saved him.”

n“Absolutely, absolutely. It’s fine. We’re not giving in to this without thinking through because of Mr. Jegal’s first edition magazine.”

n“That’s right! We’re just giving our talented, kind junior some helpful information! Not blinded by the ultra-rare merch-like magazine!”

nThe influence of the first edition of the magazine was enormous.

n“Yeah. We’ll tell you, junior!”

n“If you don’t give us the magazine after we told you, we seniors are going to be angry.”

n“Really, very, totally angry, junior.”

nThe suck-ups, blinded by the ‘merch’, explained the process of the Other-world domination.

n“In psychic waves, there are unique wave motions. Because of that unique wave, two different waves don’t mix. But a paper was published that the wave motion of psychic waves changes depending on the player’s feelings and thoughts.”

nBeep.

nThis was a paper published by the Namgung Research Institute, a non-independent private research corporation specifying in psychic powers under the Namgung Group.

n’A study of the wave fluctuations of psychic waves according to players’ thoughts and emotions’.

nChan-sol Geum put up the latest released paper on the hologram and continued to speak.

n“So it was our hypothesis that if you match each persons’ thoughts and emotions, we might be able to match wave motion and mix psychic waves.”

n“Geumchan and I succeeded easily, but it was difficult to match all the kids in the class.”

n“But with the idea of giving a special gift to Mr. Jegal, we linked everyone’s psychic waves, and combined twenty waves to succeed in dominating the Other-world.”

nAs I read the paper and heard Geumchan Wangchan’s description, I could grasp the notion.

nThe wave motions of the psychic waves.

nChanges in waves according to beliefs, feelings, thoughts, emotions.

nThe link in waves according to that.

nDomination of the Other-world with that combined psychic wave.

n‘So that was the principle!’

nThe moment my thoughts are sorted out.

nI heard a system notification sound, and a pop-up window came up.

n

n

nIs it because I discovered and understood concepts and phenomena that I couldn’t gain in the game?

nThe level of my exclusive menu rose.

n“Thank you, senior.”

nI got an unexpected bonus.

nWhen I held out the mint-condition magazine, Geumchan Wangchan jumped with glee.

n“Thank you for choosing us, junior!”

n“We look forward to your continued cooperation, junior!”

n“If you’re going to print more of Mr. Jegal’s magazines, please print ours, too. Okay?”

n“Yeah! Our class was so in synch after the domination of the Other-world, but after battle royal, we **ed up!”

nIt wasn’t something that the co-winners of that battle royal should say.

nThen I got curious about something.

n“Why did you want to gift the ‘Garden’ to Mr. Jegal?”

nAt my question, Geumchan Wangchan suddenly showed intense emotion.

n“It’s because of Mr. Jegal’s obnoxious ‘first student!’”

n“Yeah! He received all kinds of gifts from that obsessed ‘first student’ already. That’s why we thought of a gift he would never have given Mr. Jegal.”

n“Last year, he gave Mr. Jegal a carnation before we had a chance to! This year, too!”

n“Anyway, we gave him a ‘Garden’ gift, so we won. We won, anyhow!”

nThat obnoxious and obsessed student of Je-gul Jegal.

nI had a feeling I knew him well.

n* * *

nMy dorm room after the meeting with Geumchan Wangchan.

nI put a shopping bag full of gifts given by Geumchan Wangchan combo under the sofa.

n‘I wonder what gifts they gave me, but let’s check my exclusive menu first.’

nThe newly opened menu in my menu tab was “Open map of the area around me”.

nIt was a function in the game when you enter an area that has been navigated more than once, you can see your surroundings with a minimap.

n‘It’s hard to keep it on.’

nIf I keep the exclusive menu tab open for a long time, I lose my concentration and get a headache.

nMy head started to hurt as I observed the minimap.

nAs soon as I was done with my minimap observation,

nDing Dong.

nA message arrived from Je-gul Jegal’s obnoxious and obsessed student, Gyubin Hong.

nGyubin Hong Ui-shin, is there anything happening at school lately?

nGyubin Hong If anything happens, contact me immediately!

nWhy did Gyubin Hong, busy on a night shift, suddenly send this message?

n‘Did he foresee something with his future-seeing skills?’

nConsidering this weekend’s schedule, he might be able to see something.

nMe Yes, I’ll call you if I need to. Good luck with your night shift.

nBefore I could check Gyubin’s reply, I went to bed and had a dreamless sleep, as usual.

n* * *

nThe next morning.

n1st-grade class 0’s classroom after my morning training.

nI came in the latest today.

nAs I sat down after greeting the other kids, Jiho Hwang spoke to me.

n“Ui-shin Cho, don’t you have anything to say to me?”

n“No.”

nJiho lowered his voice a little.

n“Last night, there was a man who broke into my mansion.”

nWhat kind of bold idiot breaks into the house of the Tiger clan’s leader?

nWas it the traitor of the 12 zodiacs?

n“Red Tiger’s mischievous descendant.”

n……Shin-lok Kim!

nHe didn’t respond to my message that Red Tiger was seriously injured, but he was worried enough to go see him secretly.

n“Hahaha! Hide and seek with the child was fun. I haven’t done that in years. Although I played so seriously that he got all sulky.”

n“You didn’t kick him out for breaking in, did you?”

n“Nah. He watched Red Tiger sleeping for a few hours and quietly went back.”

nJust like Ho-gun Baek, Jiho Hwang treats Shin-lok like a child, too.

nJiho did not elaborate on hide-and-seek or Shin-lok Kim’s sulkiness, but I roughly guessed what might have happened.

n“Ui-shin, since you didn’t give me a word in advance, I won’t talk about ‘the thing’, either.”

nJiho said something incomprehensible with a twinkle in his eye.

nHis eyes kept twinkling, it seemed like he was expecting me to respond.

nI decided to ignore it.

nI opened my electronic textbook with a hologram, and Jiho gave in first.

n“…… You aren’t curious?”

n“No, I’m not.”

nJiho Hwang made a very dissatisfied face, but I continued to ignore it.

nI couldn’t help it, I really was not interested.

n* * *

nAfter school.

nAfter I finished club activities, which included watching a video of Jiho roasting second-grade class 0 in a tag match showdown.

nI went shopping for outfits for the party on board with Suhyuk Joo and Hyo-don Meang.

n“I heard that reservations were full here, but thanks to Ui-shin, we made it here. When did you get a reservation?”

nWe were at the VIP store of a Korean high-end luxury fashion brand “Neuroo”.

n“Neuroo” is one of the top five luxury brands in the world, under the company operated by Chan-sol Wang’s family.

nIt was so famous that reporters frequently asked foreign celebrities that visited Korea, “Do you know Neuroo?”

nAmong the gifts given by Chan-sol Wang included priority booking for the VIP store here in Neuroo.

n*When Koreans meet a foreigner in their country, they often ask questions like “do you know Gangnam style?” “do you know BTS?” and such. Koreans only ask about really famous things from Korea, so if reporters ask about Neuroo, that means it is extremely famous.

n“Yesterday, I was gifted with a priority reservation ticket by Senior Chan-sol Wang. I called the contact on the ticket, and was introduced to this store.”

n“Oh, this is probably a place they always leave empty for VIPs to visit without a reservation.”

n“That’s some weird fancy people stuff.”

nThe VIP store in Neuroo was stocked with shirts, tie pins, shoes, and perfumes to match the outfits.

nThe store staff politely guided us, although we were just high school students.

nProbably because of Suhyuk, who had rich kid vibes, and my priority reservation ticket.

n“Everything looks the same. Let’s just pick something and head out.”

n“Yeah, no.”

n“There’s a time limit here, so we can’t take long anyway. Let’s look around.”

nWe were the only ones to use this store for that certain amount of time.

nThe time was limited, but we could explore the store as much as we wanted.

nWe explained briefly about the party on board, and the staff showed us the tuxedo catalog and some real tuxedos.

nSuhyuk asked the store staff a number of questions and carefully selected his tuxedo, and Hyo-don chose the first one of the tuxedos they recommended without thinking.

nI chose a tuxedo with a design that does not overlap with the two, after watching them for a while.

n“Uh, he looks like Neuroo’s chief designer. Why is he here?”

nNeuroo’s chief designer?

nAt Suhyuk’s words, I looked at the glass-walled staff area and saw someone watching us, then turning their head away.

n‘Looks familiar. Was it a character from the game?’

nI thought so, and I opened my menu.

n

nIt may be an extra, or it may have been my mistake.

n“Hey, didn’t you say you bought a suit before you entered high school?”

nAsked Hyo-don, being the first to pay for his outfit.

nYes, but for the party on board, I needed one more tux.

n“I need to buy one just in case.”

n“Why do you need two when it’s so **ing expensive?”

n

n

nHyo-don grumbled, but we came to this expensive place partly because Hyo-don didn’t spend any money other than eating, and had a lot of money.

nI didn’t want Hyo-don to be in a cheap suit and get degraded.

n“Let’s go to the Skylounge! I made a restaurant reservation. The ricotta cheese salad and rib-eye steak are so good here.”

nHe nodded at Suhyuk’s suggestion.

nAfter hearing that the clothes we ordered were to be repaired and delivered at the time we wanted, we headed to the top floor of the mall.

nThe night was deep when I returned to the dormitory after eating at a restaurant with a view of the Han River.

nThe late hour being the excuse, I turned away from the chessboard and fell asleep today, again.

nIn the end, the day of the chess tournament came without me even touching a single chess piece.

n