Chapter 155: Darkness: Eyes Gazing Down (4) (1/2)
Yu Jitae grabbed Yeorum by the nape and stopped her from inappropriately teasing the camera with her tongue out.
“Stop there. Let’s go home now.”
During the announcement ceremony of the 3rd quarter ranks, the academy district and Colosseo Lair were jam packed with people. 20% of them were reporters while the rest of them were cadets who had come to see the celebrities of their grade.
He could see overly excited guardians on the other side, including Yong Chuljun from Yong household and Lyun from Erfan Guild.
When they found Yu Jitae, Yong Chuljun furtively avoided eye contact while Lyun gave a sneer.
“What’s for dinner tod…”
Yeorum followed his gaze and stared at where he was looking. After seeing Lyun and the cadets of Erfan Guild who were chatting in front of reporters, she frowned.
“Did they get shot on their faces or something. Look at those freakin’ annoying smiles…”
She put her hand into her pocket and touched the pack of cigarettes that were inside.
Before seeing them, she wasn’t in that bad of a mood, but it was just that she had forced herself to feel better by thinking of the things that would happen henceforth. There was no way she was actually happy after being pushed below them in ranks and getting insulted face-to-face.
“Look at that. Look, look at them. They look like they’re about to die from overexcitement. They think they’re the king of the world or something after coming second~. Maybe they’ll tap dance naked if they do come first ey? Retards.”
That was when Yeorum’s eyes met with Zhou Luxun’s.
“Hoh? Look. There’s Yu Yeorum.”
Zhou Luxun giggled after saying that and turned around. Soon, the eyes of the Erfan Guild cadets were seen glancing across her face.
Before long, all their lips curled up into smirks. It wasn’t hard to assume that Zhou Luxun had said something to them, whatever it was.
And that seemed to have irritated Yeorum.
“Huh? Those retards are doing some shi*.”
“Don’t get angry every single time they do something.”
“…I’m not angry though? Tch. If I had a hammer, I’d nail their heads together into a chain. Who the fuc* do they think they are to laugh, huh?”
It looked like she was obediently following Yu Jitae back to the house, but when she heard someone laugh from behind, she suddenly turned her body around and shouted.
“Oi–! Funny?”
Her yell was loud and gathered the eyes of the crowd.
“You fuckin* dog retards! Am I funny?”
Yu Jitae held her shoulders and pulled.
“Calm down.”
“No. No. Let go. Fu*k. Those bitc*es just laughed at me! Did you see that? You saw that, right?”
“Yu Yeorum.”
His rather stern voice caused Yeorum to widen her eyes by a bit and he clenched his hands that were on her arms, so she bit her lips.
“Huu…”
Throughout their trip back home, she panted heavily. Her heart raced like crazy and Yu Jitae could feel her shoulder trembling from his hand.
“You know. Our plan. It’s really going to work out, right?”
She asked on the way home.
“Of course.”
“If it doesn’t,”
After her anger dissipated, it seemed that sorrow had replaced it in her heart.
“I’m actually going to cry…”
But such a thing won’t happen.
***
The guardian, Lyun of Erfan Guild, received an unbelievable call from someone.
“Hello, sir! Sorry? Ah, yes yes! I’m Lyun…!”
His voice was so respectful that even the cadets around became surprised. Despite it being a normal voice call, he still bowed several times.
It was a call from China’s strongest combat force, [Heavenly Gods], which was a small troop of the best elites, the dream of every superhuman of China. Wearing an excited look on his face, Lyun gestured ‘Heavenly Gods, Heavenly Gods’ with his mouth and the cadets covered their mouths in shock.
“Yes, yes. Ah, of course, yes… that’s right. Sorry? Ah…! Is that true sir?”
Lyun’s reaction caused the cadets to watch him in silence.
– Yeah. It looked marvelous how you dealt with Yu Yeorum.
Crazy.
Lyun thought to himself. This is crazy.
Just then, Heavenly Gods had mentioned scouting Zhou Luxun. As long as he entered the group, Zhou Luxun would receive an explosive amount of support from the government itself and rise to be a 2-digit superhuman worldwide within 10 years.
And as a guardian of a ranker like that, Lyun himself would have an opportunity that might not come back ever again.
– In fact, if you could take down Yong Taeha as well, our elders would love it, but he’s a different kind, isn’t he?
This sounded bitter to his ears but it was true. The world was considering Yong Taeha as the greatest genius of history alongside Tyr Brzenk.
– What else can we do. Just look far ahead. Besides, the best rankers are created aren’t they?
“Yes yes. Of course, sir.”
– But we’ll have to see his talents. Second place… shouldn’t be hard to keep.
“Of course! Erfan won’t betray your expectations ever, sir!”
– I’m expecting a lot from you in the 4th quarter.
After the call disconnected, Lyun hugged Zhou Luxun and yelled.
Other cadets appeared regretful after realising that there hadn’t been any talks about themselves, but nonetheless congratulated their comrade for his great success – expecting some benefits to come to them if Zhou Luxun succeeded.
Thus, Erfan Guild was in a festival mood for a few days after the start of the 4th quarter.
The guardians encouraged their cadets and the cadets trusted Zhou Luxun and worked even harder for their own points. There was always the sound of laughter in their dormitory.
“…Hukk.”
So on the day the individual spars were reopened, when Rank 51 Wei Jin Mei returned to the dormitory in tears, they were curious.
“What’s wrong. Mei? What happened?”
“I lost the duel…”
“Oh…”
Cadets ranked in the 50’s tended to lose sometimes. Even if they avoided others in matchmaking, there wasn’t anything they could do if they met cadets that weren’t inside the group chat like Tyr Brzenk and Sophia Vorkova.
“It’s fine. So who were you against?”
“…It was Yu Yeorum.”
It was clear how the spar would’ve gone. She was probably insulted after getting smashed but Wei Jin Mei’s guardian consoled the cadet.
“It’s alright. You didn’t lose that many points thanks to the underdog system, right?”
“Yes…”
The next day, Yang Wei who had been ranked 27th in the third quarter, returned after being defeated by Yu Yeorum.
“I wasn’t able to do anything… Sorry.”
“Dude. There’s nothing to be sorry about. Everyone knows how Yu Yeorum is strong.”
“My rank’s gonna drop…”
Until then, the Erfan guardians were thinking that it was just a coincidence. But on the third day of the 4th quarter, when Rank 33 Gai Yu lost to Yu Yeorum, followed by Rank 15 Zhang Xueyan losing to Yu Yeorum on the fourth day, Erfan’s atmosphere took a hit.
“…Damn it. What in the world is happening?”
Zhang Xueyan lowered her head and bit her lips.
The nurturing organisations of Communist China weren’t harmonious by nature. Everyone had been feeling happy thanks to Zhou Luxun these days but after having someone lose for four days straight, the guardians raised their voices.
“Oi. You guys. How are you all getting smashed by Yu Yeorum?”
“Sorry.”
“Didn’t you check her entry time?”
“A, actually, the thing is…”
Lyun had been too busy at the start of the 4th quarter, so he had been clueless.
“What? The helper ran away?”
The helper was from Erfan’s headquarters, who assisted in setting the spar schedule for the cadets.
Lyun called the helper straight after that, but they didn’t pick up. In doubt, he tried calling the guild headquarters but received a reply saying that all the helpers had vanished along with their tent.
“What kind of nonsense is that? Why would the helpers vanish!”
8 years ago, before Lair finished settling down and perfected their system, Erfan Guild had installed various devices all around the academy that would allow them to have access to grades and information.
As time passed, several of those links had been discovered and blocked by the education department but the individual spar control room had been intact. And yet it had suddenly been blocked.