RE: Player again

346

[Chapter 105] [Catch Your Player (3)]

A drone flew over the academy, revealing the landscape viewed from above.

The first thing to appear on screen was the artificial lake known as an academy landmark, the X-shaped bridge crossing the lake, and the bungee jumping platform attached at the end.

After passing that, the drone headed towards the high school academy dormitory building.

Ba bam babam bababababa babam♬

Then the wake-up bugle sound rang out.

Soon, the screen split into five parts showing students hurriedly getting up as soon as they woke up.

"The morning of rookie players..."

However, unlike the caption, the BGM starting a new day was creating urgency with a very fast tempo.

Because students' mornings were absolutely not leisurely or exciting.

[Wake up─! Wake up!! From this moment, rookie players will assemble at the morning roll call area within 3 minutes!]

Hearing the broadcast of the instructor in charge of this morning's roll call, they quickly rushed outside.

There was no time to wash up.

Regardless of gender, those who ran out wearing hats and disheveled appearances formed 5 rows at the roll call area.

The students were avoiding the gaze of cameras closely covering them with their heads lowered.

"Is it like this every morning?"

"Not on weekends. And originally males and females have separate roll calls. It seems to be like this because of the broadcast this time."

"But why do you keep lowering your heads? So you don't appear on screen."

"Ugh... Isn't this too much? I haven't even washed my face now. There might be eye boogers..."

"Shouldn't you show your face to the citizens watching though?"

"Next time! I'll show you after washing up later! Okay?"

A female student with her hood pulled up.

The student who introduced herself as Noh Euna waved her hands at the camera.

Nevertheless, her face slightly revealed from under the hood was captivating.

"Now starting morning roll call! Seated number start! Ak!"

"One..."

"Voice is too quiet! Louder! Ak!"

"......"

"Start with a loud voice! Ak!"

"...Ak! One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

""""......!!!!""""

Shortly after, an instructor wearing sunglasses appeared and shouted in a powerful voice.

However, in contrast to the instructor's commands, the students were looking with sullen faces.

Nevertheless, the instructor didn't back down, and eventually the students with faces like they ate something bad started roll call shouting "ak" which they hadn't done since first year.

"From now on, I will give a mission to the rookie players. Currently, flags with the academy's symbol are hidden within the grounds. Only 25 people who find flags will have the opportunity to eat breakfast, and 25 people who don't find flags will remain and do morning jogging!"

""""...."""

The mission is revealed on the day.

But students who didn't expect the mission to be executed right after waking up had surprised expressions.

Regardless, the mission started.

As soon as the start sound rang, students scattered busily.

Cameras installed in various places captured the moving students while also showing the academy grounds.

"Oh!? Isn't that it!?"

"Why is that there!?"

Meanwhile, several students discovered flags in the forest.

The flags were stuck on trees.

At quite high positions too.

Students who accidentally discovered flags and those passing by nearby looked up at the flags in bewilderment.

Then their eyes met.

They hurriedly started competing and─

""""─Ah!!""""

"Thanks kids! I'll eat breakfast deliciously!"

Taking advantage of that gap, Euna who wall-walked up the tree at high speed snatched the flag.

Noh Euna who detached from the tree trunk jumped to a tree in a similar position, then fled elsewhere so those below couldn't chase her.

The VJ's breathing could be heard on screen, and although he tried to hurriedly chase after her, she eventually disappeared far away on screen.

"Euna, you should take me too ㅠㅠ"

The last scene the VJ captured was the back view of Noh Euna with her long hair flowing as her hood came off.

☆

"...It's unexpectedly interesting? At first I woke up when the wake-up bugle sound came out, but I want to do the flag finding mission too."

"No. I don't want to eat breakfast like that. I'd rather do jogging, I don't want to use energy from the morning."

"I agree with Minji's words too. Eunhyeok, does that look fun to you?"

"""Me too."""

The first broadcast of Catch Your Player.

Eunha and his friends were eating chicken gathered in the 1st floor lounge of the girls' dormitory.

The nine of them crowded together in a small space eating chicken looked quite pitiful.

They were even in pajamas since it was late at night.

Of course, they weren't the only ones gathered in the lounge.

Other students were also watching the Catch Your Player broadcast with people they got along with.

"Wow, it's #1 in real-time searches now!"

"1st to 10th place are all about CYP?"

"Wow, what's this. I wanted to appear too, if only I wasn't this age..."

The pilot variety program that was creating buzz even before airing.

Eunha quietly chewed chicken while watching the broadcast fully supported by the Mana Management Organization.

Grumbling inwardly.

Our noona said not to film, so why did they film her face just waking up?

These guys, are they crazy?

When Catch Your Player's morning roll call started, Eunha was already dissatisfied with the broadcast from then.

Because Euna came out without properly dressing up.

Because the camera tried to somehow film her who didn't want to show her face.

From then on, he was watching the broadcast with a skewed gaze unlike other students.

"Oh! Is that person really 19? He looks just like a toad."

"Parang oppa. Please don't talk with something in your mouth. It all sprayed out."

At that moment, the screen showing Euna eating a delicious breakfast changed.

It was Lee Kanghyuk searching for a flag while panting heavily.

Parang shouted wagging his wolf tail as soon as Kanghyuk appeared on screen. As a result, chicken he hadn't swallowed yet sprayed onto Bae Subin sitting opposite.

She naturally frowned.

Regardless, Parang pointed at Lee Kanghyuk while cackling.

If he's really going to be like that, he shouldn't have appeared.

Eunha also burst out laughing.

The reason Lee Kanghyuk transferred to 3rd year high school academy was to obtain player qualifications.

As a result, he was clumsy at using his body unlike his appearance.

It was inevitable that he kept losing flags to others.

In the end, the conclusion Lee Kanghyuk reached was─

[─Tsk, is this all there is to eat?]

Lee Kanghyuk didn't even have lingering attachment to the breakfast provided in the student cafeteria, and searched the grass for insects.

Then he found a caterpillar.

One as thick as a thumb.

[This guy is quite plump.]

"This is our excellent protein source."

Lee Kanghyuk put the caterpillar in his mouth without hesitation.

Even savoring the taste carefully.

The scene of him putting the caterpillar in his mouth was mosaiced, but nevertheless it gave viewers the feeling of chewing a caterpillar.

Parang cackled, and Eunhyeok said it was amazing while checking Seona's reaction.

Seona just frowned, and other girls and Mok Minho immediately made retching gestures.

"I'd rather not eat breakfast than do that."

"Me too... I don't want to eat bugs."

Eunwoo spoke first.

Hayang who was carefully eating chicken saying you gain weight at night put down her fork as if her appetite dropped.

The reactions of those at other tables were generally similar.

"Is it delicious?"

[You're asking if it's delicious? I ate it because I was hungry, not to taste it.]

"It looked like you were eating very naturally earlier, do you usually eat things like this?"

[Hey, why would I eat things like this?]

"You seemed to eat it really well so..."

[I had no choice. Last time I had to live self-sufficiently on an unnamed island for the final evaluation. I lost resistance to eating things then. Other people would probably eat without minding like me too?]

Lee Kanghyuk's question as if it was natural.

At that moment, silence fell.

Students looked at each other's faces asking if that was really true.

"...Is it real?"

"It's not impossible."

Unusually, Mok Minho opened his mouth.

Naturally, his friends' gazes also turned to Eunha.

And he answered without lying.

What's with him?

Speaking to me first.

Does he hate eating insects that much?

Eunha looked at Mok Minho and smiled.

Mok Minho's face was stiff.

He seemed to be showing aversion, perhaps because he had never eaten insects.

However, Eunha knew well that even people making such faces don't hesitate to eat bugs when trapped on a deserted island for a few days.

He also had to eat bugs unavoidably when he couldn't get food during the high school academy final evaluation before regression.

"It's unexpectedly edible. It's not bad to eat in advance. There may come a day when you have to eat even if you don't want to as a player."

""""No. We hope that day doesn't come for us.""""

This time, the girls including Seona retorted as if they had matched their words.

Eunha shrugged as if saying do as you please.

Anyway, the choice was up to his friends.

Even if they struggle later unable to find food during the final evaluation, it would be their own fault.

Rather than forcibly eating bugs then, it wouldn't be bad to try eating bugs in advance.

Bugs are nothing.

How horrible is monster meat.

Although it was just once.

Eunha had eaten monsters when supplies were cut off at the time because there was absolutely nothing to eat.

Monsters left alive without destroying their mana stones regularly provided meat to the Fog Flower Party.

However, monsters with appearances like pigs tasted so bad it made you vomit.

The reason people handle all meats but don't handle monster meat is because it's hard to obtain monster meat, and it has no taste at all no matter how it's cooked.

Eunha clearly experienced with his body what he knew as common sense.

Well, but what does that matter.

People who've eaten Minji's cooking once...

Eunha looked at Kim Minji.

She who was looking at her smartphone intently raised her head noticing his gaze.

"You just badmouthed me, didn't you?"

"I was just staying still though?"

"Hmm, suspicious... Well, let's say that's true. More importantly, take a look at this."

Kim Minji covering her mouth with her hand while suspecting.

Soon she handed her smartphone to Eunha.

"...What's this?"

"Euna unni and Yeonhwa unni took the center positions in the intro part when the broadcast started, right? It seems like there's a huge fuss on the internet because of that?"

I knew this would happen.

Eunha frowned.

Although not even a few minutes had passed since it aired.

Several of Euna's daily photos were revealed in internet news.

Although SNS was deactivated in advance, reporters seemed to have dug up her photos by searching through academy students' SNS.

- Wow is this human?

└ She's a goddess. Goddess Noh Euna!

- Why are there no pretty girls like that around me?

└ Mingi, did you write this?

└ It's weird if there are ㅋㅋㅋ

- I've established the Noh Euna religion!!

Now it's time to leave the Pul-juk-shin religion and worship a new goddess!

And comments below the article.

Eunha didn't like their comments evaluating his sister.

He only liked the comment saying to create a Noh Euna religion and got up from his seat.

"What? Boss, where are you going?"

"To make a phone call for a moment."

By now, the screen was showing Euna and Yeonhwa enjoying mukbang in the student cafeteria.

Eunha wanted to see more of Euna eating breakfast with shining eyes, but he suppressed that desire and stepped out to the balcony.

He needed to make phone calls.

One to Han Seoyeon.

[─Hello? Eunha, why are you calling me? Are you watching CYP now too? Euna appears and she's so pretty...]

"There seem to be quite a lot of articles about noona on the internet, can't you do something about that with noona's power?"

Currently, Catch Your Player was running #1 in ratings among programs airing at the same time.

As a result, talk about Euna would only increase as time passed.

Keeping this in mind, Eunha called Han Seoyeon to prevent her daily life from being invaded.

[Hmm... The media is an area that's not easily controlled even with our power. If we touch it carelessly, we could suddenly collapse, that's what the media is.]

She answered after a beat.

The Seonnyeo government was wary of collusion between media and groups.

The same was true for other groups.

However, groups and media were cooperating very secretly.

To be precise, the media was receiving sponsorship.

A group like Sirius would maintain connections with the top 10 major domestic newspapers.

"Who said to control it? I'm just asking you to guide public opinion to not think negatively about our noona."

[Is there really a need for that? Looking at it, Euna's charm is exploding, so it doesn't seem necessary to artificially change the flow.]

"Still, you never know."

If even one negative article comes out, the public opinion flowing positively about her will quickly change direction.

So even the slightest possibility.

Eunha couldn't forgive his sister getting hurt.

[Sigh... Okay, I got it. Eunha, you're really picky about your family. How nice would it be if you did this for me or Seohyun too?]

"Yes, thank you. I'll hang up."

[See? This kid is so prickly... Okay, sleep well!]

Talking with Han Seoyeon didn't take as long as expected.

Eunha made another call.

This time to Yoo Dojun.

[Oh, why? I'm watching CYP in my dorm room now, do you want to come here and watch together...]

"Give me a card."

[...What about your personality.]

Winter was coming soon.

It would snow before long.

Eunha looked up at the night sky thinking of that time.