Chapter 255 – Competition Chapter (3)

Editor: Tide, Rektstan,

With her face so close, I felt scared to the point where I couldn’t even think of anything else. Her icy but intense gaze made me believe that somehow, she was angry with me. I tried to avoid looking at her, but she was too close, so it wasn’t easy.

I opened my mouth with the thought of getting out of this situation somehow. “Well, there’s… You know…”

Although she had stopped talking, Park Jung-ah’s presence was still overwhelming. Her eyes, quietly staring into mine, began to inch closer. Confused, I raised my hand to cover my mouth.

Park Jung-ah’s soft lips touched the back of my hand, as I had swiftly blocked my lips. Her warm breath brushed over my skin, and she glared at me as if trying to convince me to remove my hand. The sight forced me to stay still, unable to breathe.

I wanted to run back, but unfortunately, a wall blocked my retreat. Attempting to push the wall, I leant back against it with all my strength, but the wall didn’t budge. Shit, what the hell was this wall made of? Even if I tried to run away from the side, Park Jung-ah’s hands were caging me. In the end, I couldn’t run away and had to block her lips with my hands, and my eyes shut tight.

After an excruciatingly long moment, Park Jung-ah took her mouth off my hand and stepped back.

Hah. Finally. Perhaps due to the excessive tension and stress, my legs felt weak, and I collapsed, leaning against the wall.

Park Jung-ah murmured, standing a few steps away from me, “You aren’t him.”

“Yes.”

Obviously! Why did you rush to conclusions without listening to people?

I wanted to scream out about my injustice, but I couldn’t. Park Jung-ah, who had stopped attacking me with her lips, began to express her anger, kicking and smashing all the things around her; the chairs, desks, vases, and the lights in this small room shattered.

A variety of objects broke as Park Jung-ah viciously kicked and knocked over furniture. It felt more frightening to see her silently and calmly kicking, rather than shouting and rioting wildly.

I’m scared.

[I’m scared, too.] Ho-jae replied in the same way as I did.

That f*cking asshole.

“Isn’t this all your fault? Whatever it is, you did wrong, so isn’t it normal for her to be angry?” I raged.

Ho-jae, who would usually answer, “Why is it my fault?”, was unexpectedly silent. Dude, this guy definitely had something to do with Park Jung-ah’s tantrum.

“Hey, what I need to talk to you about is this ring. You said I’m the one who’s a conduit, right?”

[Yes, I did.]

I listened to Ho-jae and organized my thoughts. His words meant that anyone could communicate with Ho-jae through this ring as long as I was nearby.

[Yes, so you can just give her the ring later.]

“No wonder you made this device into a ring. By the way, isn’t this ring too monotonous to present to a woman?”

[It can change its exterior design a little bit.] Ho-jae explained.

“So it could do that, too. By the way, what did you do to make her so angry? I don’t recall much,” I questioned him.

[Well… well, there’s a lot of things.]

Judging from Ho-jae’s soft voice, it was unlikely that he would elaborate. I didn’t know any details, but it was clear that he had done something wrong. Firstly, I waited for Park Jung-ah to calm down.

Park Jung-ah, who had been angry for a long time, lethargically approached me and sat down.

“Is it true?” she said with a sigh.

“Yes, I’m his clone. Oh, but I’m not entirely the same as him. Different personalities, different thoughts. It’s better to call me his younger brother.” To start off, I introduced myself.

“I should apologize to you. I’m so sorry. I got a little excited,” Park Jung-ah said frankly. “I feel better after kicking something.”

“No, no. It’s okay. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s his fault.”

“Yes, it is.” Park Jung-ah pushed the blame to Ho-jae, not specifying any more details. What the Hell did he do wrong?

We struck up a conversation about the bald man who had guided us since we entered the tournament, Baek Sung-woong, and the things that happened on the way. I heard the explanation of what would be done throughout the tournament. I was impressed by her kind and caring attitude that starkly contrasted the way she had just been beating up the surrounding objects. It felt like talking to a customer centre employee. Oh, of course, I had never met or spoken to a customer centre employee. It was just a feeling.

Upon hearing that she needed to take special care of Yong-yong and that my friend Seok-cheon could not be reached, Park Jung-ah replied that she would do everything possible to help me. In particular, I gave some examples of measures to use when taking care of Yong-yong, and asked again if it was okay to proceed in this way.

Park Jung-ah’s explanation ended by saying, “If you have any other questions or needs, you can ask Baek Sung-woong.” And she asked me to have a drink with her if I had time in the evening.

“Yong-yong and I don’t drink.”

“Because you’re a minor?”

“N- No, that’s not,” I stammered.

Park Jung-ah said, “I don’t plan on giving alcohol to Yong-yong, who looks like a young child, so I’ll prepare a non-alcoholic drink for him.”

Before leaving the room, I gave the ring to Park Jung-ah.

“Take this ring. You can talk to Ho-jae with this.”

Park Jung-ah murmured as she fidgeted with the ring, a sullen look on her face, “We can have a conversation through messages…”

“You’ll be able to hear his voice, unlike in a message,” I explained.

Park Jung-ah nodded her head slowly. “Yes, I can hear your voice. I mean, how does this work? Can I just talk with the ring on? Oh, really?” She spoke aloud, touching the ring.

It seemed that Ho-jae was answering through the ring.

“Then I’ll be going,” I said to her.

I left Park Jung-ah, who was obsessed with the ring and slipped out of the room. Before I left the room, I saw Park Jung-ah bowing her head slightly. It seemed to me that there was a sense of regret and gratitude for me. She bid me farewell with a warm expression and closed the door.

“Hey, Lee Ho-jae.” Park Jung-ah spoke out, her voice cut off as the door closed.

Just before the door closed with a thud, I somehow felt that she was about to start swearing, but I ignored it.

“Uncle!”

As soon as I saw Yong-yong, who was on Baek Sung-woong’s back, I hugged him. I had wondered if he’d even come after me, but it was good that he didn’t. If Yong-yong had come in, it would have been a complicated situation.

“Uncle, who was that?” Yong-yong asked, pointing to the door.

I couldn’t tell if he asked because I was taken there or because of the conversation that had taken place there. If it were for Yong-yong, he would have heard the discussion even with the room’s soundproofing, which added to his question.

I felt embarrassed to answer Yong-yong’s question. At times like this, I would usually have to ask Ho-jae, but there was no way to because he was talking to Park Jung-ah.

“That’s- Well- I’ll tell you later.”

I was not yet ready to explain to Yong-yong about the complicated family history even more so because it was a story that I didn’t know well either.

* * * * * *

[Lee Yeon-hee]

“It’s not worth it,” I said, looking at the four men standing on the narrow slope. To be honest, it was annoying.

“Ignore whatever the girl says, we just have to do our job,” one of them said.

“What do you want?”

Of course, it was apparent what this group’s goal was after they blocked the middle of the road to the tournament area and started a quarrel, but I asked them out of courtesy.

“Hell’s difficulty challenger, Lee Yeon-hee, the second in history to have information about the level of competence that the challenger on the 60th floor possesses. We want information on him.”

“Who exactly wants to know about him?” I wondered what kind of person would tempt fate to take a closer look at the power of a Hell’s difficulty challenger.

“I can’t tell you that. To be honest, you wouldn’t be able to memorize all the names even if I listed it for you.”

“There must be a lot of people interested in him,” I commented.

“Of course. It’s said that the 61st floor can only be cleared with two people. That means if both of you are on the 61st floor, you could clear it quickly.”

His words made me feel worse. The man was spouting random things.

“There are many people who support this, but there are also many who are anxious. And there are more who want to know what changes this will bring and how to cope with them,” he continued.

Somehow, his words made me feel sick with every passing minute. They weren’t strange, but they still felt so disgusting and insignificant.

“Is it worth your life?” I questioned.

At my words, the man covered his mouth and laughed, but this was not a laughing matter. What was he laughing for?

“I’m confident I’ll live somehow. These friends here have been promised enough rewards even if they die,” he replied, laughing.

“Really?”

“Right. Now, shall we get started?” The man asked cheerfully.

I decided to act.

“Kill.”

With my move, the spirits that had settled in the brains of the four men began to move. The spirits that had entered the enemies’ nose with fine dust accumulated in the brain, melted it, neutralized the enemy, and finished their work.

There was nothing strange about the four men falling down on the floor like puppets with broken strings. I tapped their bodies with my feet, making sure they were unconscious.

“Incinerate them so that no one knows what happened.”

Leaving behind the bodies of four men, which began to burn quietly, I continued to walk down the mountainous path.

* * *

The tournament was divided into sections for each dimension and server within the dimension.

The tournament itself was integrated at all levels, but it was quite a troublesome process to meet people on different levels.

The Korean server was connected to a global integration server, and other levels of integrated servers were linked to global integration servers.

Therefore, if you wanted to move to a different server, you would have to move from a Korean server to a globally integrated server, from that globally integrated server to a third-level integrated server, from that third-level integrated server to an individual server at another level.

A total of three server portals must be passed.

There were even individual restrictions and rules to pass through the portal. In some dimensions, rules were already established within the tournament, while some newer dimensions chose to follow the existing rules. The Earth’s, especially our Korean server, was on that side.

That’s why I had to enter the tournament’s integrated zone with the permission of the Order of Vigilance, the organization that managed Korea’s allocated zone. It was not too difficult, so far. If you had a criminal record within the Tutorial or were subjected to investigation, the Order of Vigilance gave you the right to enter the globally integrated area after a brief review.

Compared to the many gates to pass, the gates to Earth’s integrated server were among the simplest unless you had a prickly relationship with the member of the Order of Vigilance in charge of the gate.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you,” a voice called out, and I turned around.

I was annoyed to see Park Jung-ah standing in front of me, greeting me. “Hello.”

It seemed to me that she was deliberately provoking me. As soon as I saw her, I saw that she had hidden her hands behind her back hurriedly. There was a ring on her finger that was clearly emanating Ho-jae’s power.

“You want to move to an integrated server?”

“Yes,” I answered shortly.

“May I ask why?”

< Competition Chapter (3) > End

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