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Chapter 71: It's Not Only Riders Who Transform (8)
As the students roamed around to search for treasure, their activities were being monitored inside the Situation Room of the March 2022 Psychic Outdoor Training ‘Treasure Hunt’ event.
[Busan Area One, the treasure has been found.]
[Busan Area One, the first treasure, has arrived at its destination.]
“Yes!!”
The professors, clad in suits, burst into cheers in the situation room. They were overjoyed looking at a girl with pigtails on the big screen, sitting on top of the treasure she carried in a box to the destination.
“Ha ha! As expected, ‘Yeong-ae’ is the first again this year, right? Hahaha!”
“That’s right. We’re really fortunate. Phew, there was almost a disaster at ‘Dongbaek Island’. Hehe.”
As the professors were checking the live updates of the treasure hunt results on their Taeguk Watches, Baek Seol-hee, who was with them, looked at a part of the chart with a heavy expression.
Injured: 43.
In need of an emergency response: 7.
There were more than she thought. Training would be halted in the military if anyone got hurt due to accidents. Even though as many as seven critically injured people who would be rushed to the emergency room in normal circumstances had appeared, the outdoor training did not stop.
“Oh, teacher Baek Seol-hee. What are you looking at?”
“… The injury report of the students. Professor.”
“Hehehe, you don’t need to worry about that. They grow up getting hurt, and it’s the same for the ability users. You might not know, Teacher Baek, but the ability users growing up here have been looking forward to the treasure hunt since the beginning of the year. Hehe.”
The professors just laughed with each other without any tension.
“Are you saying it’s normal to get hurt like this?”
“Of course. It’s a competition among the ability users. They could get hurt. Fortunately, thanks to their powers, as long as they’re not heavily wounded or beheaded, they could easily recover from minor injuries in a day. With the power of abilities.”
“Do you mean ability users in the medical field?”
“Yes. Oh, right. Teacher Baek might not know because you’ve never been hurt.”
“… I’ve been injured a few times.”
She had been hurt occasionally, but it was never serious enough to go to the hospital or seek a healer’s help.
“But even so, is it okay to have this many injured…?”
“Oh, teacher Baek. At first, everyone said that. But the ones who wanted this were the students. We’re just creating an environment for them to fulfill their wishes. Later on, they all fight each other thinking they’re invincible, ‘legally.’”
“…So, they’re allowed to fight each other as long as it’s not lethal?”
“It appears so. Of course, we do prevent A-grade or B-grade superhumans from fighting to the brink of death through their Taeguk Watch…”
The professors shared a low chuckle, looking at each other.
It was as if everyone, except for Baek Seol-hee, had implicitly agreed to something.
“More importantly, Professor Baek, let’s have lunch. Don’t wear such a serious expression. The food has just arrived.”
“Yes, Professor Jeon.”
The situation room’s door opened, and hot steamy rice soup, served in earthen pots, was delivered to each seat.
It wasn’t wrapped in plastic; the food was delivered as if they were actually at a restaurant. Baek Seol-hee gave a hollow laugh, looking at the neatly set meal in front of her, but soon, a reaching hand from the side made her feel like her body was contorting.
“Indeed, the soup of kimchi radish has to be poured for it to be delicious. Professor Baek, you were going to pour it anyway, right?”
“Wow, Professor Jeon! Your initiative is truly impressive, even in front of an S-grade hero!”
“What? Haha, of course!”
“……”
Baek Seol-hee clenched her fist under the table, watching the white rice soup turn red.
“…Please have your meal at your seat, Professor.”
“Well, alright. Haha. You show kindness to people…. ugh.”
“……”
Baek Seol-hee quietly closed her eyes.
But…
Unable to ignore the red soup that swirled in front of her eyes and the rising number of injured students on the screen, she could not fully shut her eyes.
Gradually, it was nearing lunchtime for the students.
The funny thing about this lunchtime was that eating lunch was up to the students.
Groups confident in their treasure hunt could go to a restaurant for a meal. At the same time, desperate students were allowed to fill their bellies with water and devote all their time to the treasure hunt.
-In my time, ugh! We filled our bellies with water from the tap, stuffed cream buns in our pockets, and fed our kids when we got home!
It was an old story indeed, but those people from the past were now occupying key positions in the academy.
So, even now, the students solved light tasks in each area based on the materials sent to their Taeguk Watch. After solving the task, they proceeded to find treasures using the clues from the task.
Without even time to eat,
-Sejong 2nd district, a treasure has been found.
-Busan 5th district, a treasure has been found.
-Seoul 9th district, a treasure has been found. The third treasure has arrived at the target location.
News of the discovered treasures echoes through the Taeguk Watches of many people.
Thankfully, the current location, ‘Gangwon 10th district,’ where Yumir was with Ermina, had no discovered treasures.
How did I know this? Because I found the treasure.
‘This is just like the original work.’
I was near the coastal cliffs of the Gangwon district in the treasure hunt contest inside Sejong Island. This place was quite deserted. In terms of actual geography, it was like the sea in front of Sokcho.
‘The box left by the staff is still there.’
Indeed, inside the sheer cliff was a treasure box, the likes of which you often see in fantasy games.
I didn’t actually touch the treasure.
Why? Because to open the treasure, it needed to be linked with the Taeguk Watch, and I didn’t have a Taeguk Watch.
Even if I had one, I wouldn’t think about opening it.
Because there was a non-treasure treasure over there.
A little distance away from where the treasure was hidden, there was a dark hole that was not easily visible from the outside.
‘There it is.’
Bending my head to enter the hole, there was a cave on the right that I could barely crawl into.
[Found it.]
I released my spirit form and took on the shape of the Goblin, then cautiously approached the inside of the sea cave.
Then, I found it.
[Is this the trace of ‘weeding out’?]
In a place where the waves didn’t come and no one would notice unless they came close and carefully checked…
There was a single skeleton here.
The skeleton, neatly leaning against the wall as if it were a piece of decoration, unfortunately, was the bones of a real person.
Why beat around the bush?
These were the bones of an ability user who was ‘murdered’ here.
What’s more, parts of the bones were missing, with only the torso left, giving a rough estimate of the physique.
An adult male?
No.
That was the size of a high school boy.
I couldn’t use psychometry to understand exactly what happened here, but just looking at the condition of the bones, I could guess what took place.
‘He was killed in an ambush. By another ability user.’
There were no traces of a battle.
That meant he was attacked unilaterally or died instantly. At the same time, someone waited until he decayed into a skeleton and then took the bones that were there.
‘Probably an E-rank superhuman who was listed as missing in the treasure hunt of last year or the year before.’
On Sejong Island, there were people who killed others without blinking an eye.
They might call themselves ‘aspiring heroes’ or ‘heroes,’ but in reality, they were people who killed and acted as if nothing happened.
[If I find the one who killed you, I will surely kill him with my bat.]
The moment I reached out to the skeleton, it turned to dust as if it had heard my words.
And the skeleton crumbled into white powder in the exact position it was in.
Perhaps it had maintained its shape until now because of lingering resentment after death or a wish that someone would recognize its death.
[Anyway, this world is hell.]
There must be more than one or two ability users who died unfairly on Sejong Island, just like this skeleton.
Cases of people being declared missing after death could only be quietly buried with the silent consent of the high-ranking officials of the academy.
And I presumed there were two main reasons why they died.
One was to secure the mana powder that came out after they died.
And the other was…
“I found it!”
A voice came from outside.
It was Ermina’s voice.
“Ha, really. Trying to carry around a useless burden… Huh?”
Ermina sniffed the air.
“Could this be….”
I quickly hid myself in a shadowy place.
With the thought of blending into the darkness, I held my breath and hid in the crevices of the cave rocks.
“The smell, the smell….”
Ermina finally entered.
Shining the Taeguk Watch’s flashlight inside, Ermina eventually discovered the mana powder scattered on the floor.
“Uh, uh, ugh…!!”
She rolled around on the spot, throwing a fit.
I thought I should film this and tease her later, but Ermina did something even more outrageous.
“Ah, natural state mana powder… it wouldn’t have decayed, right? Euh, ah, I shouldn’t… ju, just a little…?”
She buried her head towards the mana powder, disregarding treasures or anything else, lying down like a dog.
“Thwip.”
Right before committing an unimaginable act, while taking a deep breath, Ermina-
“What are you doing in there?”
“…..Huh?”
“…..What are you doing?”
She locked eyes with Yumir, who just followed her inside.
“What on earth is this white powder…?”
Chuckles.
“Did you see it?”
Oh.
Was this messed up because of me…?
Come to think of it.
Around this time, wasn’t this when the protagonist noticed Ermina’s use of mana powder?
And pretending not to know about it, he was almost made a mana powder user by Ermina’s surprise attack?
Wait a minute.
I raised a question in my mind.
Q. Choose the appropriate cause for the deviation from the original flow of the story. (3 points)
Because the Goblin turned the skeleton into mana powder
Because Yumir is not a man but a woman
Because Ermina’s teammate is not a man
Because Ermina is not the heroine for the Goblin
Because of the sloppy original author who didn’t properly unfold the breadcrumbs
In conclusion…
Considering the reasons why the original work became twisted and various other things.
Was she simply an unfortunate extra who got paired with Ermina due to the absence of the protagonist? Or was she the ‘protagonist’ where the story proceeded as per the original but with one element changed?
-Heh…! You thought I’d spare you because you’re handsome, an E-grade! I’m keeping you around because your face is S-grade, so take it as an honor. Got it?
-Yes, yes. I will protect you wherever you go, miss.
-Heh…!
Did this scene disappear because of Yumir’s gender? Was it now twisted like this because the protagonist, Yumir, was a ‘female’? Was it because the actual protagonist had that massive magic power as Solar Platina?
‘It can’t be.’
If she was the protagonist, then it couldn’t be.
‘I came to kill the protagonist and found out the protagonist is a woman?’
Because…
‘Isn’t that too easy for me?’
If she was a woman.
‘That’s pretty sweet, isn’t it?’
Because it was too easy.
‘Shouldn’t I just keep her in check to prevent her from running wild?’
If Yumir was persuaded with pure love, it was possible to prevent the meteor destruction.
In other words.
If the approach to Yumir was not by killing her but pure love…
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