Chapter 171: Youth Retreat

A sluggish voice resonated in the dark.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, I’m all done! The Demon Race confirmed Kim Shinrok’s boarding pass with ‘Eyes’ skill!”

“What about that dragon?”

“I confirmed it thoroughly and it seems like he’s still stuck in Eungwang High. There’s no sign of it coming soon.”

“The Devil Race which confirmed it through the ‘Eyes’ skill also thinks so.”

“Aren’t you going to kill the dragon?”

The twin boys spoke in a bright tone.

Someone, who was watching over the two, answered them in a bored voice.

“That dragon will inevitably meet its demise, but right now is not that time.”

“Oh? Does his name also appear in the hit list?”

“That’s right. Not his real name but his fake name, but his name is included.”

“If you step up and do it yourself, wouldn’t you be able to kill him immediately? Even if now is not the right time, it’d be an advantage to kill him in advance!”

“There is something I must do. Something I have to personally find and eliminate by myself.”

Beyond the dark monitor, slender fingers can be seen turning the page.

The twins, who were overflowing with energy and couldn’t contain their interest, moved closer to the screen and aimed at it.

“That’s strange.”

“What is?”

“Is there something wrong?”

“All the players that caught my attention are included in this hit list.”

“My thoughts and this hit list have no difference.”

“That two rookies that Eungwang High boasted about… the names of the two geniuses were included in the list as well right?

“That’s right.”

The slender fingers went through the several sheets of paper.

The sluggish voice, intended to induce tiredness, emerged from the dark.

“The Nameless Supernova is still not on the list.”

* * *

A message arrived from Hong Gyubin the day before the youth retreat.

[Hong Gyubin] The rabbit tribe has contacted us.

[Hong Gyubin] The omen points to the occurrence of a phenomenon-free transition.

Under Ok Toyeon’s leadership, the relationship between the rabbit tribe and the players association must have been going well.

‘It seems that it’s predictable in this period of time that the Moon Palace specializes in ‘world summoning’

Although it’s difficult to tell for sure because Ok Toyeon doesn’t keep 24-hour contact with the Moon Palace.

[Hong Gyubin] The location just happened to be the place where you’ll go for the youth retreat… hahahaha

[Hong Gyubin] I already contacted the satellite management team. What else can I do to help? I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I’ll work overnight to help… ^^!

Now Hong Gyubin is at the point where he voluntarily agrees to work overtime.

I briefed the association with the cooperation from them that I need.

[Hong Gyubin] …That’s all? You don’t need personnel support from the association?

[Me] If the Moon Palace can find something to predict what’s going to happen without any precursor, the next target is going to be either the association or the rabbit tribe.

[Hong Gyubin] I know that, but…

I knew what Hong Gyubin was worried about.

Seokmo Island has about 2000 inhabitants.

The success there was almost non-existent, and neither the government nor the association has deployed manpower to the area.

‘Don’t you think it’s better if they were to target the association so we can avoid having students or the general public getting hurt?”

I couldn’t fully reassure Gyubin.

But whether it was Gyubin’s boss or his family who was pressuring him, he eventually gave up trying to persuade me and just repeatedly told me to be careful.

Yesterday, the association was ordered not to intervene by force until the satellite directly captures the transfer, or if a request for backup came.

But now, I’m here standing on the deck of a ship.

“This is Eungwang High’s cruiser ship that I’ve only heard of before… The deck is very spacious!”

“It looks more like a warship compared to the passenger ship that we boarded last time. Why did you join this retreat?”

“Of course it’s more similar to a warship rather than a passenger ship. This ship was built with imported metals, which was quite rare during the Dark Ages. Thanks to this, the ship was used during that time by the player’s association to carry out military operations to eradicate enemies. Because of that, this ship is not just a “cruiser”, but was branded as a ‘cruel cruiser.’ Now it’s just used as Eungwang High’s private battleship. First-year students don’t have to use the ship in practical classes yet, so they let us borrow it to use as transportation for the retreat.

Song Daeseok turned breathless after giving the long explanation.

Saeum of April, who returned from screening the area from above with his flight skill, widely opened his eyes.

“Wow, is that so? How does Daeseok know all of that?”

“Wouldn’t all Eungwang High students obviously know about it?”

“This jerk is showing off just because he knows something.”

“Daeseok knows a lot of things other than stuff about the satellite!”

Youth retreat for 3 nights and 4 days.

The spectacular travel began with the boarding of the huge ship named Cheonja, a ship commonly referred to as a cruiser.

The weather was nice and the waves were calm, but there was something bugging my heart.

‘The boat is named ‘Cheonja’ …

The name of the ship comes with various myths and superstitions.

Names can be derived from flowers, jewels, celestial terms, mountains, and rivers, which were common, but as with all historic periods, there were taboo names that exist.

The sky, the land, and the sea that symbolize the god itself can be derived as a ship’s name.

This was more firmly observed through the boat name ‘Titan’ which was derived from Gaea Goddess of Earth and Uranus God of Underworld, as well as the names ‘Sea Empress’ and ‘Sea Prince’

Kimopoleia is also a name that is technically borrowed, but Poseidon’s daughter who was the Fairy of Waves fell short of the level of heaven, earth, and sea.

‘Cheonja literally means ‘Son of the Heaven.’ It means ‘emperor’ or ‘god’.

People usually call the boat a “cruiser” as to not anger the god and prompt him to sink the ship.

‘Who on earth did this kind of madness?’

I didn’t have a lot of time to think of an answer.

The Tiger was lying on a sunbed installed on the deck and was drinking ice tea from under the parasol.

There were no other suspects coming to mind other than Hwang Jiho

“Hey.”

“What’s up? Ah, should I give you a different drink?”

“No, it’s fine. I wanted to ask if you were the one who came up with the name ‘Cheonja’.

“Yeah.”

That was the answer that I expected.

Why did this jerk do such a thing?

“Why?”

“Because I was bored? I don’t really remember. I can’t remember those boring days.”

It is widely known that this ship was built in the Dark Ages, and then purchased by the Hwangmyeong Group.

If I could, I would’ve named the boat instead.

“Well, it is true that that period was dark and boring, but I also remember the true reason. It was so I could catch Cheongho.

“Cheongho?”

“That’s right. This boat’s name was going to spread all over the world through various sorts of media, so I thought I have to test something once. “Cheonja” means Son of Heaven. I thought that if I named the boat as such, Cheongho, or even god himself, would come running towards me.

His face sunk under the shadow of the parasol.

The god would threaten to punish the land if the name of the boat was not changed right away, and Cheongho would’ve tried to immediately destroy the boat and behead me without saying a word. Hahaha!”

Hwang Jiho laughed.

Seeing him laugh like that, it seems like he and the god had a close relationship.

“But Cheongho didn’t come…”

I wonder why Cheongho and god still haven’t appeared.

Did they not see it? Or did they see it but didn’t couldn’t appear anyway because of some reason?

“Ah, Professor Ham Geunhyung showed up on the deck!”

“Let’s take a picture. They told me to send a picture of the professor.”

“Professor? Hyodon’s middle school math teacher?”

“….Yeah.”

“I should also take a picture and send it to them~”

The students who were walking around the deck came to the sunbed placed near the entrance of the cabin.

I stood up from my seat when they suggested taking a group photo.

“Professor, what about Yuri and Lena?”

“It seems like Yuri has severe seasickness. The two told me they’ll stay in the cabin until we arrive.”

“Ah… is that so.”

Is the reason why they couldn’t come out was because they were afraid of the sea?

It’s possible since this is the first time that Kim Yuri has seen the seas ever since she was born.

Maybe Kwon Lena might be worried about Yuri so she stayed with her in the cabin.

In the end, only the male students would be able to take the group photo.

“Why is Yong Jegun not coming out?”

“Come to think of it, it seems like so… All the teachers from the other class are on board as well. Maybe they’re inside the cabin?”

As I heard their conversation, I saw Saeum of April wondering.

“I heard that that royal lineage professor was fickle-hearted, but did they already change their mind?”

“Hm? That’s true but he said that he was really looking forward to this retreat… When I saw him earlier, he was looking at the cruiser’s guide map and he said he would teach me how to control my flight skill to match the movement of the ship.”

So Yong Jegun was looking forward to this trip!

It seems like he tried with all his might to enjoy this trip, so I feel sorry for Yong Jegun.

“Let’s take lots of pictures!”

“Yes!”

We should at least take as many pictures as we can until we’re satisfied.

With that in mind, after we took the group photo, the topic of the conversation changed to the youth retreat.

“Professor, we should prepare for the talent show, right? What did our seniors use to do in their time?”

“If you prepared something like dancing, singing, or anything, you can present it on the first day. It’s not mandatory.”

“Don’t you have to make each class do this?”

“…It was like that up to last year, but the rules were changed because of safety issues”

Safety issues?

There’s going to be safety issues in a youth retreat for high school students?

All the students showed visible confusion, and then Ham Geunhyung started to tell the story.

It started two years ago when the current 3rd Year Class Zero were in their 1st year.

They all didn’t want to sing, dance, or do a skit.

Those kids didn’t want to participate in the talent show, but still, they were forced to do so after being scolded for more than an hour.

“What was supposed to be a talent show became a super power showcase because of those kids.”

“Super power showcase?”

“That’s right. Without using any of their skills, they managed to literally destroy the stage at the retreat center with their fingers.”

It was said that the class of Woo Kihwan stood side by side and managed to break all of the stage equipment with the flick of a finger, then they went down the stage and coolly paid for the repair fees.

The stage was completely destroyed so the talent show was stopped. The retreat instructors, frightened by the students’ power, said they could no longer think of cheering.

And the following year, when the current 2nd year Class Zero were in their first year.

The retreat instructors, who couldn’t help not giving up the fun of trolling students from Korea’s most prestigious high school, still forced the students to participate in the talent show.

“It’s fun to show off talents, but they had to ask of it to the Class Zero students as well…”

Those dirty 2nd Year Class Zero students excused themselves by saying they have to attend to an urgent matter with Jegal.

At first, they were determined to stand their ground and not participate in the talent show.

However, after being scolded many times, they decided to make a compromise and instead of showing their talents, they offered a different condition.

— We’ll participate if the instructors help us in preparing for the talent show.

— Oh don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you. We’re not gonna do that super power show. Don’t compare us to those jerks in the Class Zero seniors!”

— Our homeroom teacher isn’t here, so you’d have to help us!

The training instructors naively believed those words and were excited to troll on these prestigious high school players.

They were played at the hands of those students in the 2nd Year Class Zero and naively sat on their chairs on the talent show stage.

— The talent that our class prepared is a Hypnosis Show!

— We are going to be joined by our very kind teachers who agreed to help us!

And those students brought out 10 boxes of garlic that they bought from the village.

— Instead of using skills, we would like to show you how to use hypnosis to change the taste of food through nerve relaxation!

Geum Chansol and Wang Chansol said those bullshits while swinging a coin hung on a thread.

— Now, this garlic will taste like a ganache macaroon!

But as expected, it still tasted like garlic.

Assistant Host Yeom Garam, who was one of the participants, said so with a friendly and gentle smile on his face.

— Usually, hypnosis actually works gradually, but sometimes it does not work very well. Let’s try it one more time. Will you help me?

The Geum and Wang duo tricked the instructors into continuously eating garlic until they had to pretend like it tasted like what the duo hypnotized them to taste.

“…That’s why it was decided that the talent show should be on a voluntary basis.”

“Ah, so such a thing happened… What a waste, the super power show, and the hypnosis show seemed like fun!”

“They know well now that these Class Zero jerks are crazy.”

“You jerk, you’re also from Class Zero!”

After the warm conversation, we arrived at our destination — Seokmo Island.

Kim Yuri finally had a proper look at the sea when we had to transfer to a boat since the Cheonja didn’t have a port to place its anchor.

She stood close to Kwon Lena who was supporting her by holding her opposite arm.

As I looked at her pale face, she began to speak in a small voice.

“Don’t forget that I said it’s all okay.”