RE: Player again

365

[Chapter 108]

[You Never Know What Will Happen]

If it was going to end up like this, I shouldn't have accepted it.

Yoo Jina, who was a 1st grade homeroom teacher at Doan Elementary School a few years ago, regretted it countless times until now.

If only I hadn't accepted it then...

It was just once.

And it wasn't even much money.

However, at that time Yoo Jina was tempted by the insignificant amount of money.

To be precise, she was tempted by KK Pharmaceutical's power.

Living an ordinary life, luckily getting employed, going to Doan Elementary School in Seongbuk-gu where mostly well-off children attended, KK Pharmaceutical's hand seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime path to social advancement.

At the same time, she knew that if she refused that hand, an existence like herself would disappear like a mere insect.

That's why she accepted KK Pharmaceutical's money.

But what was the result?

"Is this all you received?"

"Really, that's all there is."

"It doesn't seem like it? Isn't this too cheap even for motel cleaning?"

"Really, there's nothing else!"

"This is really...! Damn it! You should at least give the proper commission!"

"How much do you think we're letting you off easy without making you do hard work...!"

It was the worst.

Who would have known that what she thought was a golden rope would turn out to be a rotten rope?

She ended up being recommended to resign from Doan Elementary School after being caught in circumstances of receiving bribes.

That was fortunate enough.

It was fortunate, but her unfortunate life began right from then.

"...Ugh...! My, my head... my head...!"

"Look, Ms. Yoo Jina. Didn't I tell you before? If you dare to skim money without gratitude for saving you, we won't let it slide."

"...Kuk...! Urgh..."

"Hey, search her."

"Damn, the smell is no joke."

"Hey, it's snowing. Let's finish quickly and go smoke."

Yoo Jina somehow managed to become an elementary school teacher elsewhere.

But she was fired there too after receiving bribes.

She received more money there. As people become insensitive once they break ethics.

She no longer felt resistance to receiving illegal money.

But if the tail is long, it gets stepped on.

No, perhaps.

She who had a weak personality but desired success may have been destined to end up like this.

If only I hadn't done that then...!

Such assumptions were meaningless.

She knew well too.

That she might have ended up like this no matter where she worked.

She shouldn't have become a teacher.

When she had such thoughts, she was already unable to maintain her teaching career and was in a mountain of debt.

"Oh? Found it. She hid three bills?"

"...Keu...ke...heuk...!"

"Didn't she say she was a teacher before? Hey, how can a teacher secretly steal money like this, is that okay?"

"...I'm sorry..."

She couldn't repay her debts.

So she was sold without anyone knowing.

She experienced countless malice in the underground market.

By the time she became a free person after enduring the malice of vile people, her existence had already disappeared.

In the end, she wandered the back alleys dragging her broken body.

No one wanted to accept her who was old and frail.

She had no choice but to entrust her body to the most violent ones in the back alleys.

Being treated like a slave.

"...I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"I really hate people like you. You're so cowardly yet strangely always trying to backstab inside."

"Smart kids are always like that, they say. Weak bastards..."

"But Ms. Yoo Jina. If you act like that here, you'll die when you go out. Huh? Are you crazy wanting to die on a snowy day like this?"

"...I'm...sorry..."

With her hair grabbed.

Yoo Jina begged like a dog over and over.

She knew. If she showed such a submissive attitude, those guys would stop after hitting her a few times.

But on this day, they were unusually violent towards her.

It felt like she would die.

"─Damn! Kang Hyeok is here!"

"What? Until just now the war was...kuheo...urk...!"

At that moment when her consciousness was fading from pain.

She saw the man grabbing her hair fall after being hit in the head with a stone.

She fell to the ground with a thud along with him.

"Why did they come this way instead of going over to Wolgye!"

"Kuk...! Some girly-looking bastard is making a mess!"

"Kang Hyeok appeared over there!"

"...Keheuk...!"

"L-Let's retreat for now!"

It seemed a territory dispute had occurred.

In her hazy consciousness, Yoo Jina racked her brain.

I have to... live...

I don't want to die.

She with her weak personality couldn't give up on life in this world.

She just resigned herself.

That life is this arduous, yet there's nothing better than rolling in a dog poop field.

Yoo Jina thought.

Even if she lived like a dog.

Nevertheless, she wanted to live without dying.

"Why is this collapsed here?"

"It seems she was beaten by those guys? But how will you handle those guys?"

"Why are you asking me? You should ask your boss."

"Our hyungnim told us to prioritize following nim's words."

"Yeah, tell them to get lost. No one can give me orders except the master."

"This doesn't seem like an order though..."

If she regained consciousness again, the ruler of the area would probably have changed.

Therefore, she tried to regain consciousness to somehow see his face before losing consciousness.

"Ah, hyungnim."

"For someone who even entered the academy, you're not good at fighting?"

"...My specialty isn't fighting, you know?"

Another voice was heard.

Yoo Jina exerted strength on her eyelids to see his face with difficulty.

The other person was looking at her too.

"─Huh? A familiar face?"

A toad was speaking.

She thought she was dreaming.

"─Huh? Aren't you the teacher from Doan Elementary School?"

A school name she hadn't heard in a long time.

It seemed she was dreaming after all.

☆

The 2nd year 2nd semester ended.

In the end, the end-of-semester party wasn't held this year.

Just a prayer meeting for students who died in Hoengseong-gun was held in the main auditorium on the last day of the semester.

Students who looked back on the year ended up shedding tears they had been holding back again.

Above all, 2nd year students who became less than 150 couldn't raise their heads until the prayer ended.

Next year it'll be 300 again.

It would be nice if many good people enter...

93 who died in Hoengseong-gun, 24 who were judged unable to restart as players due to injuries, 46 who declared dropping out while complaining of post-traumatic stress disorder due to the incident.

Currently, 163 out of 300 total 2nd year middle school academy students were not attending.

However, that many students would transfer in when the new school year starts.

Eunha thought coldly amidst sounds of people holding back tears.

Maybe the golden class entering high school academy could come in.

Eunha left the main auditorium.

Although he would only know next year, he hoped promising rookies called from the 31st class would enter the 031 class entering next year.

Especially On Taeyang among them.

Therefore, he was already looking forward to next year as soon as the semester ended.

"Ah, snow."

"Huh, strange? There was no mention of snow in today's weather forecast..."

"When has the weather forecast ever been right? I hope it doesn't pile up too much..."

While Eunha was lost in thought.

Friends returning to the dorm soon stopped walking as they were hit by snow falling from the sky.

Minji who wore winter clothes saying it was winter looked at snow falling on her palm.

The snow crystal quickly melted.

"Hmm..."

"What's wrong?"

The snowfall was heavy.

It seemed like it would be piled up a lot on the road by the time they left the academy.

Eunha who was blankly watching Jin Parang running around here and there seeing the snow gave his gaze to Hayang.

Hayang who said it was completely different from the weather forecast was looking up at the cloudy sky with a blank expression.

"I feel... mana from the snow. This... isn't naturally falling snow."

Hayang had an excellent sense of reading information through mana.

Therefore, she read the flow of mana dissolved in the atmosphere.

And concluded.

That it wasn't naturally falling snow. That it was artificially falling snow.

...As expected, this time was right.

While surprised once at Jung Hayang's ability to detect air currents.

Eunha smiled looking up at the cloudy sky.

How hard it was to find the memory that snow from the Snow Flower Fairy fell around this time by tracing memories before regression.

"Your words are right, Hayang. This snow is being created by the Snow Flower Fairy now."

"Snow Flower Fairy?"

Hayang asked with round eyes as if hearing the name for the first time.

Eunha nodded and added.

The Snow Flower Fairy, a 9th tier monster belonging to rare species, is a monster that moves nature's providence to make it snow.

"What, there are even monsters like that?"

"I thought monsters were just bad guys, but there are such romantic monsters too..."

"This is clearly a monster too. It's just not eating people because it's weak, in a way they're worse."

Jin Parang who was being hit by snow was curious, and Eunhyeok opened his eyes wide.

Eunha expressed denial to their questions with a shrugging action.

The snow the Snow Flower Fairy sprinkles has an effect of causing disasters.

9th tier monsters with the risk of polluting the environment are generally so weak they feed on mana unconsciously leaked by humans.

And humans leak dense mana when they become emotional.

Therefore, 9th tier monsters try to somehow make humans express emotions to consume the leaked mana.

Among them, Snow Flower Fairies─

─Those guys mainly eat the emotion of fear.

Joy, sadness, pleasure, boredom, etc.

Human emotions are countless, but Snow Flower Fairies mainly ate the emotion of fear.

That's why they sprinkled snow causing disasters and consumed people's emotions arising from that.

The Mana Management Agency that surely learned of the Snow Flower Fairy's appearance would mobilize players for snow removal.

"...I like it. It's thrilling."

"What?"

It was then.

Eunha was taken aback by the sound Bae Subin blurted out while listening to his story.

She was trying to find the tiny Snow Flower Fairy existing somewhere in the sky with brighter eyes than Jin Parang.

"It's no fun if it just sprinkles snow. What's romantic about that?"

""""...."""

Friends were at a loss for words at the Solo Village Chief's claim.

Eunha was dumbfounded.

Because the probability of disasters occurring due to Snow Flower Fairies would increase for the next few days.

Well, I have no right to say anything since I'm trying to take advantage of this opportunity too.

The timing coincided perfectly.

It wouldn't be difficult to make time since the semester ended.

He had to somehow finish the work while Snow Flower Fairies appeared in Seoul.

"─Everyone attention!!"

Right at that moment.

In front of the fork towards the dorm, Minji ran over with big strides then quickly turned her body.

She cupped her hands around her mouth and said.

"The mood is gloomy so let's drop by karaoke on the way home! Since there's no end-of-semester party, we should do something simple among ourselves!"

"That's right! Kim Minji said it well!"

"Yeah! I agree too!"

Eunha sighed.

It seemed unlikely he would return home properly.

Since Parang and Eunhyeok were so excited, they would be dragged to karaoke.

"I can contact Minho and Eunwoo later... Should we invite Hoshimiya too?"

"She probably won't come even if we invite her, but we have to invite her. She doesn't have friends."

Minji and Hoshimiya Kaede were aiming for the same ranger division.

As a result, the two had been maintaining an awkward relationship from before.

Mainly because she was conscious of Kaede.

It seemed somewhat better now though.

Meanwhile, Korea's Solo Village Chief who also had no friends tried to take care of her instead.

It was self-hatred and birds of a feather.

"...Um, sorry. I don't think I can make it."

Anyway, as the conversation was wrapping up, Hayang quietly spoke up.

Friends' gazes turned to her.

"Well... Today is a training day."

""""Ah...."""

Jung Hayang apologizing with a sorry look.

Friends made faces of understanding when she said those words.

Eunha looked at her awkwardly scratching her cheek.

I hope she doesn't overdo it.

After this year's cultural festival ended.

Hayang suddenly decided to receive teachings as of Yoon Seongjin for some reason.

Jung Hayang said she made up her mind to become an outstanding navigator to gloss over friends' raised questions but.

"Since it's a day my master received vacation, I don't think I can postpone the schedule... I'm really sorry."

"Don't overdo it."

"...Okay."

Eunha was suspicious at first when he heard she decided to become .

Because he thought Jung Hayang was trying to escape his hand and enter the Mana Management Agency.

'─It's not like that. I want to... be of help to you, Eunha.'

But she added as if reading his thoughts before he could speak.

That she somehow persuaded and agreed to purely receive his teachings.

So he decided to trust her. Come to think of it, he knew her personality well.

Therefore, after suspicion faded, worry came first.

Because Hayang looked very tired after starting to receive 's lessons.

"If that guy suggests you work at the library, tell him not to say nonsense."

"He said that won't happen... Geez. But thanks for worrying."

Eunha advised Hayang who was heading to the girls' dorm first.

Hayang who made a sour expression soon smiled bitterly and moved her steps.

Soon the girls turned their bodies following her too.

"Then see you in front of the main gate later."

"Make sure to bring cash! If you just bring a sponsor card like stupid oppa did last time, I'll kick your butt hard so know that!"

Minji shouted loudly.

Parang groaned.

Meanwhile, Eunha─

─Can't be helped.

I guess I'll go loosen my throat a bit.

He already felt tired at the thought of loosening his throat after a long time.

Then, Seona who was walking while humming suddenly turned her body and transmitted telepathy to friends.

[Eunha just needs to loosen his wallet.]

Noh Eunha was tone-deaf.

Friends called him Noh Eunchi (tone-deaf).