EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school - Chapter 16
Translator: Hong | Editor: Darling, Aira
In the first half of the game, there was a supporting character that had briefly made an appearance before disappearing shortly after being beaten up by Soohyuk.
The supporting character was someone rarely seen in Eungwang High.
He had been a nerd throughout middle school but pretended to be a hooligan and someone stronger than he actually was during high school.
But due to his lax ways, he was neither this nor that.
He tried to smoke when he didn’t have a good respiratory system and threw away his cigarettes even before he finished them, and started fights on the street but was beaten up and had to seek Soohyuk’s help.
The supporting character’s short life in the game was the life of a loser.
And then, around the end of his freshman year, the supporting character is influenced by the morally upright Soohyuk.
He seemed to repent of his past misdeeds and he became friends with Joo Soohyuk and was expected to have a more relevant role in the storyline.
However, someone from the Demon Race that had been targeting Joo Soohyuk converted the supporting character into an enemy.
The demon targeted the supporting character’s weak feelings and lingering feelings of jealousy.
As a result, the devil of one of the seven deadly sins, Indivious of Jealousy, possessed that supporting character.
And when the supporting character was halfway into being converted as an enemy, he killed tens of professors and students during the battle with the evil spirit.
Joo Soohyuk was the only one left who could still move.
If Joo Soohyuk didn’t kill the supporting character, those still alive were about to be killed as well.
However, Joo Soohyuk is unable to kill the supporting character who had become his friend.
As Joo Soohyuk hesitates and puts down his sword, the supporting character uses his remaining strength to regain control of his consciousness.
[Joo Soohyuk you idiot, if you don’t kill me now I will kill you first! So please….]
Those words were the final will of the supporting character.
Joo Soohyuk yields his double swords for his friend’s display of bravery in his final moments.
After he kills his friend, Joo Soohyuk’s reputation and mind break down completely.
The Players’ Association and his family defended him continuously, but due to the interference of the Demon Race, there were no remaining records of the supporting character’s final words.
Joo Soohyuk was labeled as a heartless killer that murdered his classmate right when he had regained consciousness.
Thankfully, because the survivors served as witnesses in favor of Joo Soohyuk, he was not punished. But the Hwangmyeong Foundation still categorized him as a dangerous person.
When Joo Soohyuk reached his sophomore year, it is decided that he should be put in Class Zero.
Chairman Hwang Myeongho finds Joo Soohyuk fascinating and sends his alter ego to observe him.
That alter ego was Hwang Jiho, the one that was in Year One Class Zero just now.
“Eushin, how did you recognize me?’”
“Student Eushin, how did you recognize me?”
We arrived at the Chairman’s office in the Silver Hall after taking an air shuttle from the freshman building.
They…no he seemed to have no intention to hide his true identity the moment we arrived.
<Viewing Hwang Jiho’s character information.>
[Name] Hwang Jiho
[Alias] Freshman at Eungwang High, Mythical Tiger, Gaecheon Myth’s Hwangho (Yellow Tiger), Guardian of the Sacred Land
[Order] Heavenly God(Cheonshin) willingly fulfilled my wish
[Light Skill] (Inactive status)
[Condition] Normal
[Overall Ability] Lv.??
[Skill]
Leap Lv.??
Glare Lv.??
Roar Lv.??
(Failed to load information)
[Explanation]
Hwangho that appears in the Myth of Gaecheon.
Blessed by the Heavenly God with the power to ‘exist anywhere’
As long as it is the land of the Heavenly God, he shall exist wherever he wishes.
Mobilized by the Heavenly God to voluntarily imprison Baekho (White Tiger) in the Sacred Land as the Guardian
(Failed to load information)
(T/N: The Myth of Gaecheon (Gaecheonjeol, or Gaecheon Myth) is the founding myth of Korea. Gaecheon translates to “Opening of Heaven” as it is when the Son of God is said to have descended on Korea.)
Except for his name and title, all the other information is identical to the Chairman.
In the Myth of Gaecheon, Hwangho’s wish granted by the Heavenly God (Cheonshin) is the ability to ‘exist anywhere’
The Heavenly God granted his wish, and just as he desired, he obtained the ability to exist anywhere.
To put it simply, he has the ability to create alter egos.
Since anyone from the royal lineage had the ability to change their age and appearance, Hwangho was capable of creating as many alter egos as he pleased.
“….Will only one of you speak, please?”
Seeing Hwangho speak in both his sixties and teens form gave me a headache.
The royal lineage who had minimal interference with humans had an extra identity or two provided by the government.
Hwangho must have requested an identity of a student so that he could enroll himself in Eungwang High whenever he pleased.
The teen form of Hwangho, Hwang Jiho, spoke.
“Then I’ll speak since I’m easier to talk to.”
“Both of you are not easy to talk to.”
“Hahaha, I like this side of you better than the polite and tensed-up version of you from before. So are you not going to tell me how you found out?”
His tone sounded more like a threat.
However, Hwang Jiho’s expression didn’t seem to contain any intention of killing me anytime soon.
My nervousness decreased a bit.
Hwang Myeongho.
Hwang Jiho.
Hwangho.
Taking Hwangho’s personality into consideration, I don’t have to think much.
My head lit up as I immediately came up with an excuse.
“It’s no fun if I tell you myself.”
To keep a secret from Hwangho, this was the best possible reply.
As expected Hwangho’s eyes lit up brightly and he nodded.
“Then I will find out on my own.”
Hwangho was a simpler man than I expected.
“But when I’m in this form, talk to me informally. If I am found out because of you… I don’t want to kill you so I wonder what I should do instead.”
Hwangho is a simple man, but he’s scary.
“Alright. Got it.”
I immediately spoke casually.
Hwangho smiled as if he was making a joke but I knew too well that he wasn’t.
‘This could be a good thing.’
If I had easy access to Hwangho, it could make things easier to execute from now.
It was a hassle to only visit the Silver Hall when I get in trouble.
It would also seem weird to onlookers for a freshman and the Chairman to meet so regularly.
“How timely. I had a favor to ask you.”
“You want to strike another deal?”
As expected, he thought of our previous conversation as an official deal.
I affirmed since he wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah. There is a professor from Eungwang high involved in both the ‘incident of the evil monster trespassing the entrance exam” and the ‘disappearance of Saeum of April’ both incidents being related to the Bear Clan.”
I had hoped that he would have been unveiled from the Hwanmong Auction but perhaps by luck, he had remained unscathed as I saw his name in the class timetables.
That professor’s name was also not found on the Hwanmong List as well.
In the game, his luck was almost as good as his tricks, and the same must be true here as well.
“So what?”
The Chairman is not doing his job.
Hwangho seemed to not care how things were being operated in the school.
‘I don’t understand why he would want to stay in the role of the chairman if he can’t be bothered.’
One of his titles is the Guardian of the Sacred Territory.
That territory was the Eungwang District in Seoul.
The sacred territory mentioned in the Myth of Gaecheon, where the sky opened and the Heavenly God came down and fulfilled the wishes of the sacred people was the Eungwang district.
‘So why is he not doing his job.’
To say ‘so what?’ when someone from the Bear Clan was making a ruckus in Eungwang high.
If he was going to be so unbothered why had he named himself the Guardian of the Sacred Territory?
It seemed it would be too much to expect the Chairman to do his job.
So I decided to speak up on my end of the deal first.
“I need the financial records of the professor and the list of Eungwang High’s students admitted under special conditions.”
“Fine. Then how will you repay me…”
I shook my head.
“You’re not the one I want to make a deal with.”
“Hmm?”
“The one I want to make a deal with is Jeokho (Red Tiger). In exchange for the information that I want, I’ll tell Jeokho the name of that professor.”
Hwangho did not reply immediately.
In the pleasant-looking Hwang Jiho, there was a faint hint of playfulness in his eyes.
Even though he was the same age and wearing the same uniform as me, it was hard to tell his age.
“You know ‘us’ well.”
Of course, I had observed them through the screen for ten years.
I knew them well.
‘Although I still found them hard to understand.’
Hwangho was momentarily deep in thought before looking at me.
He must be anticipating something fun to happen.
He seemed like he would inform Jeokho without asking for anything in return.
“Fine. I will inform Jeokho. Jeokho is currently somewhere unreachable due to personal reasons. So it may take some time.”
He took the bait.
I had been initially worried that he would try to strike a deal to pass this information to Jeokho as well.
My mistake in the classroom today had in turn worked in my favor.
***
After my consultation with Hwangho, before returning to the dormitory.
I stopped by somewhere else.
The school campus had a 156m tall mountain, Mt. Cheonik.
It was named like so because the mountain looked like it was reaching for the sky with wings spread out from the top.
The dormitories were located at the bottom of the mountain, so there were occasional appearances of wild animals at the dormitory gates.
The Eungwang High boundary protection worked against enemies and the royal lineage, it protected against those that were not recorded in the school database so it was unable to stop wild animals.
‘There was a pre-quest to eliminate the wild animals that trespassed into the dormitories…”
A wild boar was not an enemy in this world and the rewards were insignificant so it was a quest no one bothered to do.
‘Now let’s go look for them.’
I ran and looked around the parameters between the mountain and the dormitory areas and along the hiking trails of the mountain.
What I am looking for is the title heroine’s, Ahn Dain’s, ‘Cotton Wool’.
“Where are you, Cotton Wool.”
In the first half of the PMH storyline.
Ahn Dain raised a limping stray puppy.
Ahn Dain named the dog Cotton Wool as it was fluffy and lovely, then raised the dog around Cheonik Mountain after seeking the approval of the residential area security administration team.
‘Pets were prohibited in the dormitories so she had to raise the dog in the mountain area.’
However, during the first semester of the first year.
Cotton Wool dies after those jealous of Ahn Dain feeds it bread mixed with pesticide.
Ahn Dain cries out loud as she buries Cotton Wool in the ground.
Seeing this, Joo Soohyuk investigates the incident and finds the culprit on his own.
‘The process of finding the culprits was a part of the game. It was Soohyuk’s personal quest. It went well until the scene where he caught the culprits and handed them to Ahn Dain.”
At first, the culprits denied and refused to admit what they’d done.
But once they were shown the evidence, they made up excuses saying they did feed it pesticides but did not know it would kill the dog.
To make things worse, they played the victim and said that Ahn Dain was the harasser for bullying them over one dead dog.
‘They were shallow trash that aimed at Ahn Dain instead of Soohyuk even though they were both first in class. Because he was the son of a conglomerate while she was not.’
The professor that investigated this case punished Ahn Dain for bullying her friends over a ‘simple prank’
Joo Soohyuk involves himself actively but the culprits still weren’t penalized.
The angry Soohyuk tried to punish the culprits by using his family’s power but Ahn Dain stops him, worried that it might cause him trouble.
‘That was the first insight into a typical hellish school system method of dealing with internal incidents.’
Reality seemed like a gutter because whenever there was an incident in school, it was resolved in such a rotten manner.
‘Ahn Dain was unlucky.’
There were many good students and professors at Eungwang High.
But that professor and the culprits she had encountered were the worst garbage of them all.
The culprits were those that had entered Eungwang High by having their parents bribe that professor.
Joo Soohyuk and Ahn Dain were naive to believe that every student and professor was fair and just.
The two were both geniuses, but they were naive and innocent of the real workings of the world.
‘In the storyline, I’m sure it wouldn’t make much of a difference whether Cotton Wool died or not…’
I did not want to see Cotton Wool die.
Nor the main heroine crying.
* * *
The sun was about set while I was searching for Cotton Wool in Cheonik Mountain.
I checked the time and saw that it was already 6 PM.
The sun usually sets at around 6:30 PM every March.
I’m sure Cotton Wool wouldn’t move around in the dark.
I muttered to myself to call off the search for today.
“Cotton Wool, I hope I see you tomorrow.”
I needed to return to the dormitory area and head to the Jiik Hall cafeteria to eat my dinner, unpack, and tidy up, but I think I will have to miss the freshman orientation…
I was planning ahead for the days to come when….
‘What is this.’
I felt a flying presence above and looked up.
At the end of my gaze, a white figure was looking at me.
‘Baeokho-gun…!’
There were several old vending machines along the path.
On top of one stood Baekho-gun
The setting sun made the illusion of Baekho-gun’s white hair having highlights of red.
I stared at Baekho-gun’s hair reflecting the sunset.
In the game, whenever Baekho-gun appears in front of people, he disguises himself as a regular Korean so his pale white hair was almost never seen.
Rustle.
Baekho-gun jumped down from the vending machine once our eyes met.
He landed as light as a feather.
Once his feet touched the ground, Baekho-gun’s hair had turned black.
He now looked similar to the appearance of the playable character that I was used to.
‘Why.’
Baekho-gun was staring at me.
Like that time when we crossed paths after the ‘Nameless Supporting Role’s Tutorial’ was cleared.
‘Why the heck is he acting like that?’
Even in my world, there were people whose gaze just makes a person stop.
Of all the tigers, it was Baekho-gun’s gaze.
I found it hard to breathe or move.
I needed a conversation starter.
Let’s try to talk to him.
“What’re you looking at.”
Oh…
Oh no, this wasn’t right.
I’m doomed.
Why is my tongue all loose today?
Why was I speaking so out of control today?
To tigers at that!
I shouldn’t have done such a thing, but what was the point of regretting when the cat was out of the bag?
It felt like it was too late.
I’m doomed for sure.
I was holding on tightly to my sanity and tried to mutter the words “Please stop looking at me,” when I noticed….
‘Is he actually smiling…?’
A hint of a smile was hanging from Baeokho-gun’s face.
Is he smiling?
No, is he angry?
While I was confused, the smile was already gone from Baekho-gun’s face.
Whoosh.
With the sound of the wind, Baekho-gun was gone instantly.
He must have used his Leap skill to fly somewhere.
I definitely did not intend to chase after him.
‘I feel like a storm just went by in my head.’
The Baekho-gun of this world was weird.
The fact that he appeared at the ‘Nameless Supporting Role’s Tutorial’ too.
And the fact that he had shown up in front of me, Jo Eushin, a first-year student at Eungwang high.
‘It bothers me.’
He was my longest-used playable character and my final character in the final battle.
It was natural for it to bother me.
‘But it’s not any of my business for now.’
Baekho-gun was not a character that caused harm to others.
Excluding the final round, there were no other events that could cause him to die.
I decided to save observing Baekho-gun for another day.
All the best, future me.
***
There were five large buildings near the residential areas.
There were three 20-floored dormitories that accommodate 30 students per floor.
Including the staff dormitories, which adds it up to four.
Then there was the main central dormitory facility building called Jiik hall, which adds it up to five.
In Jiik Hall, the main central dormitory facility building, there was a cafeteria, mini-store, study room, seminar room, self-study room, simulation room, and a gym.
The residential area was built to accommodate the entire school population but the percentage of day boarders was only about 50% so it was fairly empty.
Since the space for each user had been doubled.
Even though the dormitories can accommodate two students, everyone was allocated to one room unless requested otherwise.
As a result, I used the two-person room on the 17th floor of the freshman dormitories all alone.
‘It was a few times bigger than where I had been living until lately.’
The interior was similar to that of a small apartment.
There were two bedrooms, a shared living room, a kitchen, a shower, and even a balcony.
I unpacked my stuff and cleaned the apartment with an AI robot cleaner and an air purifier.
‘I’ll wash up and go to sleep early.’
I didn’t have anything to do.
Then I suddenly recalled Namwook being curious about Eungwang High’s dormitories.
I took a few photos of the dorm with my wearable device and sent them to the group chat.
[jANG Namwook] Wow your dorm is nice. Two rooms, a living room, and a kitchen attached. Is that a shower room, are you using a two-person room alone?
[Yoo Sanghoon] Can I come over sometime?
[Me] Yeah, it’s a shower room. I’m using it alone. You can visit before 8 pm.
[Jang Namwook] Can outsiders come and visit? I can come over on weekends
[Me] Nope it’s against dorm regulations.
[Jang Namook] What a shame ㅠㅠ
[Yoo Sanghoon] Transfer then lol
At this point, I couldn’t tell if Sanghoon still wanted Namwook to join Eungwang high or if he was just teasing him.
And Namwook… it’s not cute for a guy bigger than me to use ㅠㅠ.
I was contemplating how to tease Namwook when…
<Skill Destiny has been activated.>
I stood up from my seat at the system notification that sounded with no warning.
I closed all other apps the hologram was showing from the wearable device and used my light skill.
<Light skill Player Identity activated.>
Thousands of cards started to spin around me.
With the Player Identity skill activated, I would be able to handle most situations.
‘The Destiny skill is beyond imagination so I can’t anticipate what was going to happen.’
If it was a short battle, Hundred Second Kwak Gyungu’s 100-Second Silver Bullet is the most useful.
If I had to move fast I could use Light in the Dark Oh Hyeji’s Moon Guardian.
However, looking at the sky changed my mind.
‘No, clouds are covering the moon tonight. Then I can use Grassland Gentleman Ma Jinseung’s light skill and…’
I was going through the events from the game’s main storyline and trying to decide which character is best to use in this situation.
One of the cards that had been spinning around me suddenly disappeared out through the window and was beyond my control.
I opened my balcony window and stretched out my arm to reach for the card.
‘The playable character shown on the card is….’
Before I could see the character on the card, my focus was redirected to what was above me.
It was a person falling from the roof of the dormitory building.
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