If you’re thinking of sharing my content, please give credit where credit is due! It takes a lot of time and effort to create something, so it’s always appreciated when people respect that and acknowledge the source. Thanks for being a responsible and considerate sharer!
Bibell[What to Believe]
The sky was dark, and the sea was turbulent.
There was no moment of calm in the water. The violent waves engulfed the blood, spitting it out anew.
They did not anticipate the scent of blood.
People continued to die incessantly.
Their bodies, their blood, stained the sea with a somber hue.
Nevertheless, people did not cease their journey toward the heart of the maelstrom.
Even if a monster, fiercer than any other, awaited within.
A creature covered in jet-black scales, capable of absorbing all light, a monster befitting the name «The Demon of the Sea.»
The Leviathan, an overranked monster of the Second Hierarchy.
«…It’s resilient, truly.»
The battle had continued for days on end.
The players still trembled at the sight of the Leviathan, unsure if it would ever fall.
Despite the fear that gripped them, they could not escape.
Everyone gathered here knew.
The moment they revealed their backs, they would be the first to fall.
Therefore, they had to fight.
There was no way out.
Even if it meant fighting for those who had already perished.
No, it was to survive.
They had no choice but to subdue the demon of the sea.
«Step aside.»
No one stepped forward.
As the players hesitated, an elderly man walked toward the Leviathan, emerging from the depths of the sea.
The man was of Asian descent, his snow-white hair neatly tied up. With a single swing, he struck the Leviathan with his spear.
One strike.
With that strike, the water parted.
«I will clear the path.»
The old man spoke in Korean.
However, no player failed to comprehend what the old man intended to do.
Renewed vitality filled the players’ eyes as they gathered their mana, ready to give their all.
The old man, too, gathered his mana.
His muscles bulged beneath his seawater-soaked robes, and a fearsome mana surged from his back.
The Leviathan focused its attention on the old man.
The sea demon rushed forward, its hundreds, thousands of teeth bared wide.
The crashing waves concealed the old man’s sight.
And then, a roar that swallowed all sound.
Undeterred, the pitch-black darkness approached, almost within reach, but the old man remained unfazed.
«─I’ll give you one arm.»
Cold Plum Blossom’s Extreme Will
Hanmaeryu (寒梅流) – the essence of extremity.
The icy wind and snowstorm raged in the world.
☆
November.
The second year of school was coming to an end.
Meanwhile, the South European Union embarked on the subjugation of the Second Hierarchy Over Rank Leviathan.
The result: successful defeat of the Leviathan.
It was the first recorded incident in human history of a successful subjugation of a Second Hierarchy Over Rank monster.
The world turned its attention to the players who participated in the Leviathan’s subjugation, including those from the South European Union, players from the United States, and lastly, the Korean player, Shin Chang, Nam Gung-seong.
The exploits of Nam Gung-seong were beyond reproach. He played the most significant role in cutting off Leviathan’s lifeline, leaving no one to belittle his achievements.
In South Korea, there was no shortage of excitement. People were singing the praises of Nam Gung-seong name at the top of their lungs.
However, he lost his left arm during the fight against Leviathan.
The media called him the first player in South Korea to defeat a second-tier overranked monster, but they didn’t forget to mention that it was a national loss.
It wasn’t much different from the future that Eunha knew.
Of course, the future where Shin Myeong-hwan’s mana circuitry failed and Bang Yeon-ji disappeared during the Leviathan slaughter was gone, but Nam Gung-seong ended up losing his left arm.
If the future as he knows it plays out, Nam Gung-seong will probably step down from the Twelve within a few years.
«Euna, don’t be so nervous. Okay?»
«Don’t get down on yourself if you make a mistake. Just enjoy it. You have to enjoy the test. Okay?»
Mom and Dad said what they had been saying since the car ride.
Euna didn’t think anything of it, but they were worried that she might be nervous.
«Mom, Dad. I can do it. I’m not nervous at all.»
At first, Euna listened to her parents’ advice, but she got tired of hearing the same thing over and over again.
His parents burst out laughing as they realized they had been saying the same thing.
«Eunha, you should say something to Euna.»
Dad said to me.
On the way to the Player Academy, Eunha was replaying the news he’d heard on the radio when he snapped out of it.
Euna was waiting for him with a twinkle in her eye.
«I know.»
Eunha was lost in thought again.
Today was the day Euna would take the entrance exam for the Secondary Academy.
Since the entrance exam fell on a holiday, her family had been driving since dawn to cheer her on at Player Secondary Academy in Jongno-gu.
«Well, I’m sure she’ll do well.»
«Tsk, what is that?»
Euna pouted her lips.
But Eunha was serious.
There was no way Euna would fail the Secondary Academy exam.
Even he had gotten into the High Academy, so the entrance exam for the Secondary Academy wouldn’t be as difficult as the High Academy.
What more could the Secondary Academy expect from a kid who could barely handle mana?
The students entering the Secondary Academy were nothing more than powerless children with the goal of becoming players.
With competitors like that, there was no way the sky was going to fall on Euna, who had learned to manipulate mana from a young age.
The world had already ended once.
Moreover, she was being trained under the tutelage of Shin Seoyoung of Divine Wind
There was no way she was going to fall short of becoming The Seed.
Still, if she wanted advice─.
«─Don’t trust anyone.»
«No one?»
Eunha nodded. Having never taken the Secondary Academy entrance exam, he had no idea what to expect.
So he thought he’d better tell her what she needed to hear most.
«I’ve told you before, if you’re a player, you can’t trust anyone.»
No one.
Even trusted colleagues among the top players had to be given room for the possibility of betrayal.
In this world, the only thing one could trust was oneself.
«Yeah, I got it. I’ll remember.»
Euna had heard similar words from Seo-young as well.
She brushed off her thoughts and headed towards the lecture hall where the entrance exam would take place, stretching her body lightly.
«Sister, fighting!»
Eunae, who had been playing in the grass, shouted towards Euna as she moved away.
Euna turned around and waved her hand before entering the lecture hall.
«Well then, should we go to a cafe and have some coffee while we wait for Euna to finish the exam?»
«Sounds good. The exam seems like it will take a long time. There’s a cafe nearby… hmm, it should be on the first floor of that building over there.»
Eunha pointed to a building with a circular dome.
His parents stared at him in disbelief.
Finally, they realized.
«…Your older brother told us that the cafe is in that building.»
«I see. I wondered how you knew.»
His father accepted his excuse as a given.
Eunha inwardly sighed. He had been behaving and speaking as if he were back at the academy, forgetting that he was living his second life.
That aside, I’m starting to recognize quite a few faces.
Even though it was a holiday, there were many academy students practicing since the morning, as well as several children who had come to take the exam like Euna.
As Eunha wandered around the academy, he saw familiar faces.
The faces he recognized were all people he used to know by name before the regression.
Well, they didn’t call them the Golden Generation for nothing.
It was a time when Eunha saw a qualitative rise in the quality of players graduating from the Player Academy.
When Eunha graduated from the Player Academy, it was a time when the level of players was qualitatively improving. People gathered together to call this generation the Golden Generation, and among them, those who produced the most Named were called the Golden Class.
Euna was a player belonging to the Golden Class.
Of course, he belonged to the Golden Class in terms of skill, but he had no background, and his personality was considered insane, so most clans didn’t want to take him on.
He didn’t like to be tied down, so he was either a solo player or bouncing from one party to the next.
He was tired of that, so he founded the Mistflower Party, where he could play freely and without judgment.
It’s interesting. To see them all as children.
Eunha sat by the window and watched the faces of the children as they went to take their exams.
It was a strange feeling to see people he knew as children.
As his family drank coffee, he sipped coffee milk from his bag and looked out the window.
Some of the people visiting the academy covered their faces with shawls or sunglasses.
They were scouts from their respective clans.
Perhaps they were trying to covertly reach out to candidates with promising qualities.
«They work hard in the morning, too.»
Even though the scouts were acting like normal people, the aura of a player could not be completely erased.
What’s more, knowing their true colors, Eunha didn’t miss the way they casually looked around to judge the candidates.
«Big brother. Play with me. I’m bored.»
«Is that so? I was bored too. Shall we go outside and play?»
«Yes!»
«Mom, Dad. I’ll go play outside with Eunae.»
Eunae was bored of sitting still in the cafe.
After finishing his coffee milk, Eunha decided to take her for a walk around the academy.
The academy didn’t look much different than when he went there.
Eunha took her to the place where he had spent time alone at the Academy before his regression.
Eunae liked the off-the-beaten-path forest.
As they sat under a tree, Eunha watched her run and play with delight.
«…It must be getting late.»
He didn’t have a watch, but he could guess from the sun and shadows that it was lunchtime.
Eunha walked back to the cafe with Eunae.
It was slightly past the usual lunch hour.
They went to the Secondary Academy lecture hall once again to pick up Euna, who had finished her exam.
«Where else would such an exam exist?»
«I didn’t use much mana, so it should be fine, right?»
«I hope she passes.»
Coincidentally, children who had finished the exam were coming out of the lecture hall, some walking around excitedly, informing their parents of what happened during the test, while others ignored the noisy crowd and walked back alone.
Eunha spotted Lee Kang-hyuk walking out with his shoulders slumped.
«What’s up, did you come to take the test too?»
«Huh? Eunha.»
Kang-hyuk’s eyes widened.
He had been looking at the floor, and he didn’t expect Eunha to be here.
«How did you do on your exams?»
Eunha wanted to ask Kang-hyuk how the entrance exam for the secondary academy went.
He didn’t care if he had passed or not, because Lee Kang-hyuk was transferring to the third grade of the Higher Academy after bouncing around the back streets of Seongbuk-gu.
«Ugh…!»
As he had expected, he had failed. Eunha was certain when he saw Kang-hyuk’s tearful face.
Now, let’s see how the exam was…
«Just you wait! I’ll take the exam again next year and pass!»
Without revealing the content of the exam, Kang-hyuk shouted loudly and ran away.
Left behind, Eunha and his family could only watch the sight of the large-bodied child running with tears streaming down his face in a daze.
«What was that about?»
«I wonder.»
His parents exchanged puzzled glances.
But he won’t be able to take the entrance exam next year.
The time for admission was only for the secondary academy and the high-level academy, and the time for transferring was only for the third year of the high-level academy. There was no other opportunity to apply to the academy.
Unless Kang-hyuk didn’t attend middle school, but usually, one had to take the high-level academy entrance exam or transfer to the third year of the high-level academy.
Of course, he would surely fail the high-level academy entrance exam as well.
Eunha, who knew the future, wanted to tell Kang-hyuk to give up early.
Well, what do I know?
«By the way, isn’t Euna out yet?»
Eunha looked up at the lecture hall where Euna hadn’t come out yet.
According to the people leaving the lecture hall, the exam had been extended due to the large number of test takers.
Nevertheless, Euna was late in coming out.
My sister, you didn’t get lost in the academy, did you?
She must have passed the exam.
Eunha waited for her to come out, preparing his congratulatory words.
If you’re thinking of sharing my content, please give credit where credit is due! It takes a lot of time and effort to create something, so it’s always appreciated when people respect that and acknowledge the source. Thanks for being a responsible and considerate sharer!
Bibell[What to Believe]
The sky was dark, and the sea was turbulent.
There was no moment of calm in the water. The violent waves engulfed the blood, spitting it out anew.
They did not anticipate the scent of blood.
People continued to die incessantly.
Their bodies, their blood, stained the sea with a somber hue.
Nevertheless, people did not cease their journey toward the heart of the maelstrom.
Even if a monster, fiercer than any other, awaited within.
A creature covered in jet-black scales, capable of absorbing all light, a monster befitting the name «The Demon of the Sea.»
The Leviathan, an overranked monster of the Second Hierarchy.
«…It’s resilient, truly.»
The battle had continued for days on end.
The players still trembled at the sight of the Leviathan, unsure if it would ever fall.
Despite the fear that gripped them, they could not escape.
Everyone gathered here knew.
The moment they revealed their backs, they would be the first to fall.
Therefore, they had to fight.
There was no way out.
Even if it meant fighting for those who had already perished.
No, it was to survive.
They had no choice but to subdue the demon of the sea.
«Step aside.»
No one stepped forward.
As the players hesitated, an elderly man walked toward the Leviathan, emerging from the depths of the sea.
The man was of Asian descent, his snow-white hair neatly tied up. With a single swing, he struck the Leviathan with his spear.
One strike.
With that strike, the water parted.
«I will clear the path.»
The old man spoke in Korean.
However, no player failed to comprehend what the old man intended to do.
Renewed vitality filled the players’ eyes as they gathered their mana, ready to give their all.
The old man, too, gathered his mana.
His muscles bulged beneath his seawater-soaked robes, and a fearsome mana surged from his back.
The Leviathan focused its attention on the old man.
The sea demon rushed forward, its hundreds, thousands of teeth bared wide.
The crashing waves concealed the old man’s sight.
And then, a roar that swallowed all sound.
Undeterred, the pitch-black darkness approached, almost within reach, but the old man remained unfazed.
«─I’ll give you one arm.»
Cold Plum Blossom’s Extreme Will
Hanmaeryu (寒梅流) – the essence of extremity.
The icy wind and snowstorm raged in the world.
☆
November.
The second year of school was coming to an end.
Meanwhile, the South European Union embarked on the subjugation of the Second Hierarchy Over Rank Leviathan.
The result: successful defeat of the Leviathan.
It was the first recorded incident in human history of a successful subjugation of a Second Hierarchy Over Rank monster.
The world turned its attention to the players who participated in the Leviathan’s subjugation, including those from the South European Union, players from the United States, and lastly, the Korean player, Shin Chang, Nam Gung-seong.
The exploits of Nam Gung-seong were beyond reproach. He played the most significant role in cutting off Leviathan’s lifeline, leaving no one to belittle his achievements.
In South Korea, there was no shortage of excitement. People were singing the praises of Nam Gung-seong name at the top of their lungs.
However, he lost his left arm during the fight against Leviathan.
The media called him the first player in South Korea to defeat a second-tier overranked monster, but they didn’t forget to mention that it was a national loss.
It wasn’t much different from the future that Eunha knew.
Of course, the future where Shin Myeong-hwan’s mana circuitry failed and Bang Yeon-ji disappeared during the Leviathan slaughter was gone, but Nam Gung-seong ended up losing his left arm.
If the future as he knows it plays out, Nam Gung-seong will probably step down from the Twelve within a few years.
«Euna, don’t be so nervous. Okay?»
«Don’t get down on yourself if you make a mistake. Just enjoy it. You have to enjoy the test. Okay?»
Mom and Dad said what they had been saying since the car ride.
Euna didn’t think anything of it, but they were worried that she might be nervous.
«Mom, Dad. I can do it. I’m not nervous at all.»
At first, Euna listened to her parents’ advice, but she got tired of hearing the same thing over and over again.
His parents burst out laughing as they realized they had been saying the same thing.
«Eunha, you should say something to Euna.»
Dad said to me.
On the way to the Player Academy, Eunha was replaying the news he’d heard on the radio when he snapped out of it.
Euna was waiting for him with a twinkle in her eye.
«I know.»
Eunha was lost in thought again.
Today was the day Euna would take the entrance exam for the Secondary Academy.
Since the entrance exam fell on a holiday, her family had been driving since dawn to cheer her on at Player Secondary Academy in Jongno-gu.
«Well, I’m sure she’ll do well.»
«Tsk, what is that?»
Euna pouted her lips.
But Eunha was serious.
There was no way Euna would fail the Secondary Academy exam.
Even he had gotten into the High Academy, so the entrance exam for the Secondary Academy wouldn’t be as difficult as the High Academy.
What more could the Secondary Academy expect from a kid who could barely handle mana?
The students entering the Secondary Academy were nothing more than powerless children with the goal of becoming players.
With competitors like that, there was no way the sky was going to fall on Euna, who had learned to manipulate mana from a young age.
The world had already ended once.
Moreover, she was being trained under the tutelage of Shin Seoyoung of Divine Wind
There was no way she was going to fall short of becoming The Seed.
Still, if she wanted advice─.
«─Don’t trust anyone.»
«No one?»
Eunha nodded. Having never taken the Secondary Academy entrance exam, he had no idea what to expect.
So he thought he’d better tell her what she needed to hear most.
«I’ve told you before, if you’re a player, you can’t trust anyone.»
No one.
Even trusted colleagues among the top players had to be given room for the possibility of betrayal.
In this world, the only thing one could trust was oneself.
«Yeah, I got it. I’ll remember.»
Euna had heard similar words from Seo-young as well.
She brushed off her thoughts and headed towards the lecture hall where the entrance exam would take place, stretching her body lightly.
«Sister, fighting!»
Eunae, who had been playing in the grass, shouted towards Euna as she moved away.
Euna turned around and waved her hand before entering the lecture hall.
«Well then, should we go to a cafe and have some coffee while we wait for Euna to finish the exam?»
«Sounds good. The exam seems like it will take a long time. There’s a cafe nearby… hmm, it should be on the first floor of that building over there.»
Eunha pointed to a building with a circular dome.
His parents stared at him in disbelief.
Finally, they realized.
«…Your older brother told us that the cafe is in that building.»
«I see. I wondered how you knew.»
His father accepted his excuse as a given.
Eunha inwardly sighed. He had been behaving and speaking as if he were back at the academy, forgetting that he was living his second life.
That aside, I’m starting to recognize quite a few faces.
Even though it was a holiday, there were many academy students practicing since the morning, as well as several children who had come to take the exam like Euna.
As Eunha wandered around the academy, he saw familiar faces.
The faces he recognized were all people he used to know by name before the regression.
Well, they didn’t call them the Golden Generation for nothing.
It was a time when Eunha saw a qualitative rise in the quality of players graduating from the Player Academy.
When Eunha graduated from the Player Academy, it was a time when the level of players was qualitatively improving. People gathered together to call this generation the Golden Generation, and among them, those who produced the most Named were called the Golden Class.
Euna was a player belonging to the Golden Class.
Of course, he belonged to the Golden Class in terms of skill, but he had no background, and his personality was considered insane, so most clans didn’t want to take him on.
He didn’t like to be tied down, so he was either a solo player or bouncing from one party to the next.
He was tired of that, so he founded the Mistflower Party, where he could play freely and without judgment.
It’s interesting. To see them all as children.
Eunha sat by the window and watched the faces of the children as they went to take their exams.
It was a strange feeling to see people he knew as children.
As his family drank coffee, he sipped coffee milk from his bag and looked out the window.
Some of the people visiting the academy covered their faces with shawls or sunglasses.
They were scouts from their respective clans.
Perhaps they were trying to covertly reach out to candidates with promising qualities.
«They work hard in the morning, too.»
Even though the scouts were acting like normal people, the aura of a player could not be completely erased.
What’s more, knowing their true colors, Eunha didn’t miss the way they casually looked around to judge the candidates.
«Big brother. Play with me. I’m bored.»
«Is that so? I was bored too. Shall we go outside and play?»
«Yes!»
«Mom, Dad. I’ll go play outside with Eunae.»
Eunae was bored of sitting still in the cafe.
After finishing his coffee milk, Eunha decided to take her for a walk around the academy.
The academy didn’t look much different than when he went there.
Eunha took her to the place where he had spent time alone at the Academy before his regression.
Eunae liked the off-the-beaten-path forest.
As they sat under a tree, Eunha watched her run and play with delight.
«…It must be getting late.»
He didn’t have a watch, but he could guess from the sun and shadows that it was lunchtime.
Eunha walked back to the cafe with Eunae.
It was slightly past the usual lunch hour.
They went to the Secondary Academy lecture hall once again to pick up Euna, who had finished her exam.
«Where else would such an exam exist?»
«I didn’t use much mana, so it should be fine, right?»
«I hope she passes.»
Coincidentally, children who had finished the exam were coming out of the lecture hall, some walking around excitedly, informing their parents of what happened during the test, while others ignored the noisy crowd and walked back alone.
Eunha spotted Lee Kang-hyuk walking out with his shoulders slumped.
«What’s up, did you come to take the test too?»
«Huh? Eunha.»
Kang-hyuk’s eyes widened.
He had been looking at the floor, and he didn’t expect Eunha to be here.
«How did you do on your exams?»
Eunha wanted to ask Kang-hyuk how the entrance exam for the secondary academy went.
He didn’t care if he had passed or not, because Lee Kang-hyuk was transferring to the third grade of the Higher Academy after bouncing around the back streets of Seongbuk-gu.
«Ugh…!»
As he had expected, he had failed. Eunha was certain when he saw Kang-hyuk’s tearful face.
Now, let’s see how the exam was…
«Just you wait! I’ll take the exam again next year and pass!»
Without revealing the content of the exam, Kang-hyuk shouted loudly and ran away.
Left behind, Eunha and his family could only watch the sight of the large-bodied child running with tears streaming down his face in a daze.
«What was that about?»
«I wonder.»
His parents exchanged puzzled glances.
But he won’t be able to take the entrance exam next year.
The time for admission was only for the secondary academy and the high-level academy, and the time for transferring was only for the third year of the high-level academy. There was no other opportunity to apply to the academy.
Unless Kang-hyuk didn’t attend middle school, but usually, one had to take the high-level academy entrance exam or transfer to the third year of the high-level academy.
Of course, he would surely fail the high-level academy entrance exam as well.
Eunha, who knew the future, wanted to tell Kang-hyuk to give up early.
Well, what do I know?
«By the way, isn’t Euna out yet?»
Eunha looked up at the lecture hall where Euna hadn’t come out yet.
According to the people leaving the lecture hall, the exam had been extended due to the large number of test takers.
Nevertheless, Euna was late in coming out.
My sister, you didn’t get lost in the academy, did you?
She must have passed the exam.
Eunha waited for her to come out, preparing his congratulatory words.
