LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 8
“Writing numbers is so hard… Na-me, help me!”
Ah-rin storms into the room, looking like she’s about to cry.
Without even changing her clothes, she immediately pulls out her textbook.
“I was supposed to submit this homework today, but I forgot yesterday! The teacher said I have to turn it in by today, so I need to go back to school later.”
Na-me takes the math workbook she handed over and opens it.
It was hard to understand why she came all the way back for a request for homework help. Couldn’t she just ask her classmates?
“I need to count to 30, but how do I write from 17?”
The education system in this world was remarkably fast.
In Na-me’s past life, runes were something only real nobles could learn.
But here, even a 1st grader learned basic common sense!
Numbers, Hangul, and runes. For kids having to pair three different scripts, it must just be a headache.
“Wow… Na-me is really smart.”
Regardless, Na-me’s impressive speed in filling in the blanks with her elegant handwriting was something that Ah-rin truly admired.
The smartest kid in her class couldn’t write that quickly. Could Na-me be smarter than that?
For the past month, Na-me had been an excellent tutor for Ah-rin.
Although it was unfortunate that she couldn’t go to school for some reason, she conveyed the nun’s message that she could attend from the second semester. Just hearing that made Ah-rin feel empowered.
Ah-rin was simply happy that Na-me didn’t treat her differently like the other kids did.
At school, she avoided social interactions because she was from an orphanage where poorer quality kids gathered, and at the orphanage, it was hard to fit in as well.
Especially in the past few months, Bo-young’s bullying had gotten worse, and Ah-rin was really thankful to be able to distance herself from her at just the right time.
“Hey, Na-me, did you hear? Minwoo Oppa got adopted by a rich family last week. The rich uncle gave us two capsules as gifts!”
She had thought the kids were unusually loud today.
Usually, kids wouldn’t even come in at this hour, let alone arrive late for the curfew set by the nun. They must have raced from school to be the first to use the two capsules.
“Minwoo Oppa is so lucky. Rich people can live in virtual reality every day without working. It sounds so happy to just play in virtual reality all day and even sleep.”
“Not really.”
“Is it because you don’t want to be adopted? Or is it the game?”
“Both.”
Na-me was quite satisfied with life at the orphanage.
Even the one and only internet PC at the orphanage was monopolized by middle and high school students, making a civilized life hard to enjoy, but the books Ah-rin borrowed from the library were enough.
When Ah-rin had asked her to borrow the hardest, most advanced-looking book, Na-me couldn’t help but feel a bit amused when she brought an entire encyclopedia.
‘Encyclopedias aren’t too bad.’
At least it was a great opportunity to learn words she didn’t know the meaning of from the internet.
Why memorize words?
There was no reason for that.
She was tired of running while only looking one way and burning out in life.
She did it simply because she wanted to.
That was Na-me’s belief.
In her past life, and even the one before that…
“Thanks, Na-me! Let’s use the capsules together when they’re free next time! Gotta go!”
Somehow, she didn’t mind playing with the cute, innocent kid.
Was that how Seol-ah felt when we played games together? It wasn’t easy to guess.
‘Ah… I should have asked her to get the mana potion when she was here.’
Na-me was still having a staring contest with the mana potion, which was difficult to obtain alone. Without it, food just wouldn’t go down. Even forcing herself to eat only resulted in vomiting.
Eventually, she decided to skip lunch and came out to the Central Living Room where the kids were all huddled together.
These kids weren’t thinking about lunch at all; they were solely excited about using the capsules.
High school students reluctantly left for school again due to their studies, but the middle schoolers were different.
They didn’t have a lot of money like the high schoolers, making it hard for them to go to a PC Bang. In that situation, the capsules felt like a much-needed rain in a drought.
“This is the completely new capsule that came out this year, right?”
“The specs are so good that when playing Resonance, the ping is guaranteed to be in single digits.”
“Crazy.”
The two capsules ended up being owned by one 1st-year high school student who decided to skip school completely and the biggest-looking middle schooler.
They seemed familiar with using capsules and quickly logged in to access the game.
“Jae-hwan, come play League with me right now.”
“Huh? Yong-jun, aren’t you playing Resonance?”
“I can’t play that; it’s too hard for me. You know how to play League, right?”
Under Yong-jun’s veiled threat, Jae-hwan had no choice but to log into League. It was only then he remembered that this guy was a league pain.
Jae-hwan checked his list of champions. Even though half of the champions were deleted in a massive update two years ago, seeing the remaining 150 or so champions made him dizzy.
“Should I show my ranked score? I, Cha Yong-jun, am ranked 3rd among Warwok masters.”
Of course, it was a simple match count among certain tiers, not a tier ranking, but no one dared to criticize.
“When did you play 700 matches? Did you skip school every time?”
Moreover, just being Diamond 1 made him the envy of the average person.
While everyone was buzzing, Na-me’s eyes, peeking from the back, were drawn to the bottom right of the screen.
[Hall of Fame]
[Rank 1 – Anaconda (1394 points)]
…
[Match Count Rank 1 – NoName (4032 matches)]
Na-me couldn’t help but chuckle.
Did I really play that much?
That number probably wouldn’t go up for some time. Perhaps someone else would finally seize the unshakable 1st place spot this year. Let them take it.
As long as she didn’t go crazy, she wouldn’t be playing this game again.
*
[NoName <- Did this guy get permanently banned?] There's been no mention of him lately. - Since he's been recorded on the broadcast, if he doesn't get banned, what kind of game is this? LOL [Official Death of NoName.rip] 2043. 03. 05. ~ 2050. 06. 11. Rest in Peace -peace you idiot You don't even know how to make jokes, do you? LOL Breaking into pieces, NoName. -In the meantime, seeing him still racking up points at the end, it looks like he was drafted. - If they consider public service as military duty, I'd be really grateful, right? - Shut up. [Wasn't NoName dead?] Then who is this? LOL Is he a ghost? (Screenshot) -Marked for a miserable rebirth in Season 1 -How did he break unbanned! -21/0/2, what's that? LOL I know it's just a normal game, but... Our team’s Yasuo is always 2/10/2, lol. ... It feels unreal. He ended up coming back. To my hometown. The whole incident started because of Ah-rin's stubbornness. "I heard there's a school trip." "I just decided not to go." Early in the morning, though the bus was set to leave at ten, Ah-rin got ready for school like any other day. In early July, around this time, elementary, middle, and high school students of all grades would go on school trips one after another. The destination changes every year, but it typically goes something like this: 4 nights and 5 days for elementary school, 3 nights and 4 days for middle school, and 2 nights and 3 days for high school. As you can see from the name, all those schools were run by the same foundation. Although it's a private school, the cost of the trips seemed quite high, yet surprisingly, we from a low-income background could participate for almost free. Ah-rin had been jabbering about the event for about a month, excitedly looking forward to it. When I asked why she wouldn't attend, she dodged the question, claiming she just didn’t want to go. "So, can you play a game with me tomorrow? None of the older kids will be there, right? Okay?" "I’m not really into capsules..." "Tch... Na-me, you're mean." Even when she sulked, what could be done? She rushed to the bed on the 1st floor and buried her face in the pillow. Her glances at me were pretty cute too. "Um... why doesn't Na-me like games?" "I'm just tired of them." "Did you play a lot before?" "Yeah." "How much?" "All day." "All day how much?" Caught in her endless barrage of questions, I eventually stopped responding. Instead, I pinched her chubby cheeks like a baby and stretched them. "Ueeeeeek." "I'll play just one game with you." "Really? Really really really?" Ah-rin's eyes suddenly widened. Is she really that happy? It’s just one game. It'll be over in less than an hour! Sadly, her interest was solely in League. Even though she might have enjoyed games like Fall Guys or BlockCraft, it seemed the kids at the orphanage were all crazy about League and she was influenced by that. "But I’ve never played League before, what should I do?" "It’s okay." "I really don’t know anything?" "I'll let you win." "Wooah, Na-me, that was so cool!" She dashed over and hugged me. I lost my balance and fell to the ground. I kept forgetting that I saw her as a little baby, but that my own size was smaller than hers. I wish a mana potion to promote growth would be developed soon. I gently pushed her away and helped her up. "I'm going to sleep now. You should go to school." "You just woke up! You can’t sleep again! If you sleep too much, you won’t grow!" "Then I’ll just stay small." I can't give up my precious sleep. Ah-rin, energetic as ever, probably wouldn’t understand. "Even if I go to school, I’ll just be alone... I'm a bit scared of getting scolded by the gym teacher..." "Do you not like school, Ah-rin?" "I like playing with Na-me more." "I didn't mean that." Ah-rin bit her lip. Did she understand what I meant? I wasn't sure, but that didn’t change her situation. I just hoped she wouldn’t get used to loneliness.