Chapter 153: Darkness: Eyes Gazing Down (2) (1/2)
“What? A group chat?”
The shock caused her to yell aloud. After realising that her voice was too loud, Kim Ji-in hurriedly covered her mouth.
“…What do you mean a group chat?”
Sophia glanced at Kim Ji-in as if she wasn’t comfortable talking about the topic, and appeared to be finding it disgraceful. She bit her lips slightly, and messily scratched her hair in irritation.
“This is a secret, sir. And you guys as well.”
“Ah, un.”
“G, got it…!”
When Yu Jitae also nodded back, Sophia opened her mouth with a sigh.
“There’s a group chat of 10 people who are in the very top of the ranks, where they share their individual sparring times. As you’ve mentioned sir, it’s to avoid each other.”
“Who’s in it.”
Sophia made a frown from his question.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Why.”
“Because I actually don’t know who’s in it either.”
“What do you mean.”
“I only know it exists because someone offered me to join it before.”
“And who was that.”
Yu Jitae’s question was like that of a criminal investigation. Feeling slightly pressured, Sophia glanced to the side before answering him.
“It’s a bit hard for me to say that. I didn’t go in because it felt dirty. And I just hate things like that.”
“Hmm…”
He raised his head and stared at the distance: towards the academy district, at the epicentre of Lair where the education department resided. Seemingly in thought, he stayed silent for a long time.
“I think people are starting to see what’s happening. And there’s probably a few that are in doubt already, because the top students haven’t been fighting each other for months.”
“N, no wonder…!”
“So avoiding each other can also be used to snipe…”
“That’s the problem, for fuc*’s sake. And plus he shamefully set all his monuments to anti-melee. Did you see this, sir?”
In a huff, Sophia turned on the recording of the fight between Yeorum and Zhou Luxun.
He had obviously seen it, but still quietly watched it again.
As soon as the fight began, four monuments floated on all sides of Zhou Luxun. The most important one of the four was the one located behind his back. That particular monument was slightly bigger than the other 3, and it could only be ignited after being supplied with mana for around 30 seconds.
“Uhh, that revolver monument. I hate that thing.”
Once ignited, the [Revolver Monument] would shoot magic bullets that could hit anything that was within the shooting distance of around 100 metres. The other monuments were just supportive devices that protected Zhou Luxun and the revolver monument.
Yeorum was planning to defeat Zhou Luxun before the revolver monument operated in full. However, the remaining three monuments each gave off chilling, psychokinetic and hallucinating spells.
While moving his body, Zhou Luxun used four different spells to hold her back. Put it another way, it was like playing soccer with his lower body, while doing table tennis, playing games and singing with his upper body.
“…Feels dogshit but I do give him that.”
That was the reason he was being called the greatest genius of Erfan Guild.
Even then, Yeorum remained calm. She forced through the cold current trying to freeze her fingers and deftly dealt with the telekinesis that either tried to control her body or threw objects at her.
But when she was right before him, he suddenly reappeared at a different place. Like an illusion, his body vanished.
It was due to his hallucinating spells.
“Kuah, that was close!”
“…Huu. What a dirty way to fight.”
Even if she did manage to shorten the gap, Zhou Luxun was carrying 2 shields. It was different from how he usually used a sword, but it was effective against Yeorum who usually swung her weapons.
When the same thing continued several times and he slipped by right between her fingers every single time, Soujiro and Kim Ji-in also frowned. Their frowns were also because of Zhou Luxun’s attitude as he giggled and stuck his tongue out during the fight.
“He’s playing mind games. She has to be calm to get to him, and it would be impossible if she becomes angry.”
Yeorum suppressed him by relying on her footwork and strength but still failed to defeat Zhou Luxun. When the revolver monument was finally activated, she had no chance of defeating him.
That was why Zhou Luxun was called the Territory Master. Something to note here was that Zhou Luxun couldn’t defeat Yeorum either.
“Do you get it? What that son of a bit*h is trying to do?”
Yu Jitae nodded in response to Sophia’s words.
He didn’t use the finished monument to attack Yeorum. It was solely to stop her from coming closer, and during the 5 minutes of the spar, Zhou Luxun solely focused on stopping her approach.
The equipment and blessings that Zhou Luxun had prepared were all targeted at coming to a draw against Yeorum. This was why he was thought to be ‘sniping’.
Five minutes passed and the spar came to an end, as the points were allocated.
– Oi you damned piece of ■■■■■! What the ■■■■ is this ■■■■!
Perhaps upset after losing her precious points, she threw the sword down and stepped on it several times which marked the end of the video.
This was what happened during their first spar. She had exploded because that had been repeated on the second day.
“…Right. Thanks for letting me know.”
***
For the next 3 days, Yeorum did not leave her room. She skipped her lessons and stayed holed up inside her room, without replying even when Bom and Kaeul occasionally knocked on her door.
Meanwhile, Yu Jitae gave several calls and met people to look into the matchmaking system, and rules on individual spars. After the fake name of the Yu household was spread all over Lair, he was able to contact directors of any department with one call. The fact that he could do that despite having no real power, was probably because of Principal Ha Sukmoo telling them to be mindful.
– Yes. So the way around the system itself isn’t something we can get ourselves involved in anymore, as per the regulations.
That was the standpoint of one of the related personnel of the competition.
“I see.”
The Regressor was ignorant when it came to regulations, the sparring system and the likes. However, he was knowledgeable about how human greed tended to work and he had the ability to analyse the cause.
Zhou Luxun’s snipe was effectively done in a clever manner. The one on the receiving end might be disgusted but there weren’t any ways to overturn the matter. Besides, understanding the system well and manipulating it was a clever thing to do.
– Erfan. These cunning trash bastards. They timed it disgustingly well.
Mihailov clicked his tongue while Yu Jitae didn’t say anything in response. Just like what Mihailov said, the results of the third quarter will be shared after 3 days so Yeorum coming 4th in rank was almost certain.
Yeorum had completely fallen into their trap.
“…”
Sitting in the living room, the Regressor stared at Yeorum’s room and pondered.
Let’s say they were sniping. But in that case, there was something that didn’t make sense. The top ranking cadets sharing their sparring times alone wasn’t enough to know Yeorum’s sparring time.
And for Zhou Luxun to perfectly snipe Yeorum, he needed a different way to know her sparring time. How did he know the exact time that Yeorum would press the button after entering the underground sparring room of Colosseo Lair?
Did someone tail Yeorum?
Tail, tailing huh…
That rather unlikeable word remained in a corner of his head. Even if someone were to tail her, it was impossible for a cadet to do so. Yeorum was a dragon and her ability to sense mana exceeded the normal cadet level by several margins.
In that case, the person in question was quite obvious.
1. They were inside Lair,
2. They have the ability to tail Yeorum,
3. At the same time, they should be related to Zhou Luxun and have matching interests.
After finishing his line of thought, Yu Jitae called Lyun, Zhou Luxun’s guardian, who at the same time was the highest guardian associated with Erfan Guild.
– Ring…
The call went through.
-…The person you have called is unavailable. Please call back later.
Lyun didn’t pick it up.
The Regressor asked Mihailov if he could give Lyun a call, but he didn’t pick that up either. That wasn’t the end. They couldn’t connect the call with any of the Erfan Guild guardians.