EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school-Chapter 815: Trace (6)

At the late hour, at the top floor of Hwangmyeong Tower.

As time passed, Kim Shin-rok became more attentive to his disciples.

Jeok-ho, anxious to feed and hydrate him, kept pestering him, but Kim Shin-rok hadn't drunk even a sip of water since sunset.

Still, only a few hours had passed, so the other tigers were concerned, but not as intensely as Jeok-ho.

In the midst of this, a message arrived from someone who seemed to know what was going on, a member of the Jinjok.

[Dragon King] - "Yishin, what are you doing?"

[Dragon King] - "It's rare for the Hojo, Shin-rok, Guk-eon, Mu-young, and you to all gather in one place. I'm curious."

I shouldn’t have read it, but without thinking, as soon as I saw my playable character's name, I read it.

As soon as it was marked as read, another flood of messages came in.

Had they been watching me to see if I would read the message?

I had heard that after the Dragon Palace incident, the dragon clan had been busy with the arrival of a new priestess, but it seemed like Dragon King was alone and not busy.

'Yun Yeorang is working on a project with the dragon clan, right?'

I hadn’t heard the details, but it seemed like there was something important going on besides the welcoming of the new priestess.

Because of that, Yun Yeorang hadn't been actively participating in the duel with King Chanchan on April Fools' Day.

Seeing how busy Yun Yeorang seemed, I tried to find out if there was any way I could help, but Yun Yeorang declined my assistance, saying they wanted to surprise me.

Anyway, it seemed that the dragons, including the new priestesses, had deliberately left Dragon King to just relax in the Silverlight District while they carried out their work.

[Dragon King] - "I can see that Guk-eon and Mu-young haven’t left yet, so I guess they haven’t disbanded yet. But since they’ve had time to check their devices, I guess they must be doing something."

[Dragon King] - "Seems like it’ll take longer than me. It's been a while, I want to greet them. How much longer do I need to wait?"

It seemed like Dragon King had caught on that I called them to use replay.

Dragon King was an experienced player, so it was no surprise that they quickly figured it out.

If I didn’t answer, they might come barging in, concerned about why there was no reply after reading the message.

Not wanting to give them any reason to worry, I decided to respond calmly.

[Me] - "It might take a while. It’s probably better to meet them next time."

[Dragon King] - "So you're really doing a replay. Both of you. ^^"

After seeing my reply, Dragon King commented like they had figured it out, but they were already sure of it.

Even though I knew it was just an unnecessary comment meant to irritate me, I still couldn’t help but feel a little stirred up.

[Dragon King] - "I’m here, so call me if you get bored."

[Dragon King] - (photo)

[Dragon King] - ^^

The photo Dragon King attached showed a part of the 24-hour café located in Hwangmyeong Tower.

The photo had a mint café mocha that seemed almost untouched, and through the glass window, Dragon King's face was faintly visible, smiling happily like the emoji in the message.

They didn’t even like sweets, so why order that drink and smile alone?

Was it really that good that Seong Guk-eon and Jeon Moo-young had gotten close to the Hojo, or specifically Kim Shin-rok?

"Joi-shin, did Dragon King send this photo?"

"Yeah."

"I knew they were nearby, but I didn’t expect them to be holed up in a café in Hwangmyeong Tower."

"Why that dragon..."

Seeing the photo projected as a hologram, Hwang Ji-ho sighed and Kim Shin-rok looked puzzled.

Jeok-ho, perhaps thinking, "Wouldn’t Dragon King feed my son something?" seemed to want to call Dragon King.

Then, suddenly, Jeon Moo-young's complexion noticeably worsened.

"Jeon Moo-young's energy is unstable."

Even without using the insight skill, I could feel the surrounding energy being disrupted.

Kim Shin-rok became uneasy, worried about what was happening to his disciple.

Hwang Ji-ho, who had activated his clairvoyance to check on Jeon Moo-young, responded calmly.

"Calm down. It's a sign just before waking up."

As Hwang Ji-ho had said, Jeon Moo-young soon regained stability.

Before waking up from a replay, everyone’s condition usually worsens and then improves.

Seeing how quickly Jeon Moo-young’s state improved compared to Dragon King’s, it seemed that Jeon Moo-young’s time of death had been shorter.

When observing playable characters in the game, it was impossible to tell how long someone endured pain before passing away, since any fatal injury would immediately make the character unplayable.

‘At least the painful moments were short.’

Even though I didn’t mean to push him into a nightmare.

Soon, Jeon Moo-young opened his eyes.

As soon as Jeon Moo-young opened his eyes, he quickly tried to sit up.

"Guk-eon-hyung!"

Jeon Moo-young didn’t even notice the tigers or me and immediately started looking for Seong Guk-eon.

Jeon Moo-young soon found Seong Guk-eon still asleep and approached him.

After confirming that Seong Guk-eon’s energy, breathing, and pulse were all normal, Jeon Moo-young seemed to lose all strength and stumbled.

Before he collapsed, Kim Shin-rok supported Jeon Moo-young, who had lost his balance.

"Kim Shin-rok-seonsaeng...?"

When their eyes met, Jeon Moo-young had a dazed expression.

Looking at Kim Shin-rok like he was seeing something unbelievable, Jeon Moo-young turned his head.

It seemed like he finally had a chance to assess the situation.

After seeing me, Jeon Moo-young mumbled as if everything had come back to him.

"...I see. It was a dream using replay."

Jeon Moo-young’s eyes reddened, then gradually returned to normal.

However, even after Jeon Moo-young had regained enough composure to stand on his own, he didn’t push Kim Shin-rok’s hand away.

It seemed that he was glad to have the teacher who had passed away during the replay by his side.

It took quite a while for Jeon Moo-young to calm down, and during that time, Seong Guk-eon still hadn’t woken up.

‘It seems like the two of them died with a bigger time gap than expected.’

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The replay ends when the death in the nightmare occurs.

Comparing the time in the nightmare and the current flow of time, it seemed that Seong Guk-eon had lived at least a few more days.

Maybe not just days, but possibly weeks.

Seong Guk-eon wandered through the darkness for a long time.

The only place not filled with darkness was hell.

Seong Guk-eon realized that his internal sense of time had become warped.

‘The time I felt shouldn’t have passed. My physical abilities haven’t declined as much as I thought they should have.’

Something was playing with Seong Guk-eon’s senses.

Seong Guk-eon realized that he had been swallowed by a mental ability.

‘Was I caught in another world? Did someone’s ability affect me? Either way, someone must have expended a great amount of energy to kidnap me and Mu-young and isolate us. Using this much power to dispose of two people couldn’t have been an efficient choice.’

If the goal was simply to kill a politician, there were easier and simpler targets.

Though not many, there were certainly other politicians who shared Guk-eon’s ideals, so if it were a political move, they would have gone after another member of the opposition.

It didn’t seem like it was merely for political purposes.

There must have been another, more personal reason for targeting Seong Guk-eon.

Screeeech...

The darkness faded, and hell came into view once more.

The ones Seong Guk-eon couldn’t protect were screaming.

The moments Seong Guk-eon had regretted repeated, and the times he had felt guilty and burdened returned again and again.

Had Seong Guk-eon not had immunity to skills that attacked the mind, had he not been blessed with the eyes of a higher existence, had his will been even slightly weaker, he would have been swallowed by hell.

‘This is a mental attack ability.’

There were limits to dealing with a mental attack using total energy or strong skills.

Once swallowed, it was impossible to resist with physical strength, so a different method was needed compared to normal ability battles.

The first step was to clearly understand the nature of the attack and find a way to counter it.

‘This is the same pattern as the previous attack. I’ve already countered it, so why am I falling for the same trick again?’

The way out of this hell was simple.

To regain oneself in the blurred memories, to not change the choices made in the past that led to regret, and to choose them again.

It sounded simple, but after finding oneself in the hellish regret, not changing one’s heart was not easy.

But this pattern kept repeating.

‘Once a mental attack is countered, the initiative should come to me. But I keep being trapped in darkness, my memories blur, and I fall into hell over and over again.’

A chill ran down Seong Guk-eon’s back.

If everything was meaningless, then all that remained was despair.

But Seong Guk-eon wasn’t going to give up.

He kept thinking, fighting, resisting.

After overcoming a few hells, Seong Guk-eon realized.

"I see. My attacks weren’t meaningless."

As Seong Guk-eon broke through the hells repeatedly, he began to see the larger darkness behind them.

The repeating hell was in the middle of a massive darkness.

Due to the mental attacks, his senses had been distorted, and it had taken him a long time to recognize it.

“They’re using a dual mental attack to deceive my senses. They must have significant energy reserves to be using such methods. But this is meaningless.”

Screeeech!

As Seong Guk-eon pierced through the darkness, a crack formed.

‘That’s odd. I don’t feel like I’ve countered the mental attack.’

Seong Guk-eon had tried to counterattack, but strangely, it was impossible.

Even though Seong Guk-eon hadn’t attacked, the opponent’s mental state had shattered.

It felt like he was fighting a ghost with no substance.

Screeeech...

Eventually, the crack widened and the darkness disappeared.

He finally emerged from the darkness, but Seong Guk-eon was still trapped.

The place where Seong Guk-eon was now was not the real world.

‘Is this another world? No, it’s not an ordinary otherworld. This is ‘The Garden.’’

Seong Guk-eon was physically nearing his limit.

He had tried to use the moment when his opponent had weakened to request rescue, but communication through devices was impossible.

And in front of Seong Guk-eon stood beings with immense power.

“We were thinking of just sending the broken congressman out, but I guess it was faster to just dispose of him. Even with the power of the reaper, it wasn’t enough.”

“Trying to deal with that guy made the gardens held by the reaper’s power collapse. What are we going to do!”

“Outwardly, everything went according to plan, so it’s fine. We can make excuses.”

Before being swallowed by the void, Seong Guk-eon had seen the twins.

The twins were chatting innocently with their backs to a massive furnace.

From the burning furnace and the twins, an unusual power could be felt.

Seong Guk-eon looked at his opponents with his blessed eyes.

‘These are Jinjok. The thing burning in the furnace is also from Jinjok.’

He didn’t understand why something that looked like Jinjok was burning in the fire.

But it was certain that if the twins collided with each other using their powers, Seong Guk-eon would not stand a chance.

Instead of fighting, Seong Guk-eon decided to take another path.

‘...I need to leave it to someone else.’

Someone would realize he was missing and come to look for him.

According to the twins, even though there were attempts to deceive him, players who didn’t fall for the trick would eventually track him down.

He needed to leave as many traces as possible.

Seong Guk-eon subtly manipulated his devices to leave behind a record and activated other devices he was carrying, aside from his main one.

“If I can’t kill their mind, I’ll have to kill their body.”

The power of the twins overwhelmed Seong Guk-eon.

Seong Guk-eon resisted, determined to record the situation and the twins’ conversation for just a second longer.

“Stop wasting time and just kill him!”

“Wait, this guy keeps avoiding...!”

In a state where his energy and physical strength were nearly exhausted and his unique traits didn’t allow him to fight alone, Seong Guk-eon couldn’t hold out much longer.

However, Seong Guk-eon fought incredibly hard in the final battle.

Thinking back to when he overcame the darkness and hell, he had always been making the most efficient moves, surviving, and buying more time.

Until his strength gave out, Seong Guk-eon kept making the best moves.

‘I promised I wouldn’t overdo it alone...’

Just before Seong Guk-eon closed his eyes, his political ambitions, life’s goals, and the things left undone flashed before him.

After the thoughts he had always held in his mind passed by, the thought he had pushed aside came to the forefront.

Seong Guk-eon quickly remembered those who had passed before him and, in the end, thought of his teacher, who had passed before his disciples, before closing his eyes.