“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.
– The person you have called is unavailable. Please call back later.
They weren’t picking it up.
As a guardian, one had to be always available whenever they were inside Lair at least. All of them forgetting to bring their phone along or losing them was as unlikely as Yeorum wearing a wedding dress.
In other words,
Lyun not picking up his call meant this.
‘These guys.’
The Erfan Guild was avoiding Yu Jitae.
Creak…
That was when a door creaked open. Since he had been staring at Yeorum’s room the whole time, his eyes met with the red pair of eyes gazing from the small gap behind the door as soon as it was opened.
“Hi.”
“…”
Yeorum slowly gave a nod, with a seemingly discontent expression. It was unknown when the door would open back up once it was closed, so Yu Jitae walked to her room while it was open.
“…”
Her eyes looking up at him were still full of irritation but nonetheless, she didn’t stop him. She pulled her body in slightly, so Yu Jitae was able to enter the room.
Sitting down on the bed, she gazed up at him.
“What were you doing?”
“Just looking into some stuff. Are you fine now?”
“Would you be fine if you were in my shoes?”
Her words that abruptly escaped her lips were thorny. After saying that, she slightly looked away.
“Who knows.”
“…”
“Do you need more time alone?”
“…”
“Then rest a bit more.”
“Where are you going?”
“There’s someone I have to see.”
Yu Jitae stood up and was about to leave the room when her voice pulled his feet back.
“But, I do feel slightly better now.”
Hearing that, he turned around. Yeorum stared at his feet and continued with an energyless voice.
“…I feel better after a fap.”
It seemed that she was forcing herself to make a joke, judging from the dark look on her face.
The Regressor didn’t know what her words, and her gaze that were on his feet meant. However, guessing that her stopping him from leaving the room meant that there was something she wanted to say, he walked back to her side and sat down.
“It’s nothing that big. You don’t have to feel down.”
“No. I’m not feeling down.”
“Then?”
“It’s just…”
“Just say what’s on your mind.”
Yeorum heaved a deep sigh with her nose.
“You know, like… I look a bit retarded don’t I?”
It was an unexpected question.
“Why.”
“Well, me getting smashed by Zhou Luxun is one thing, but the 20-point deduction and 3 days of spar restriction is because I did something retarded. Right?”
The Regressor replied.
“Not wrong.”
Yeorum threw him a glare before giving another deep sigh.
“Right… I actually knew it was a very stupid thing to do.”
“Yeah.”
“That b*tch was shaking his ass after the fight and that freakin’ made me angry. But I still tried to hold it in this time. It’s true that I lost so being temperamental after that is unsightly, right. Besides, I also insult people daily after beating them.”
“And.”
“But, but… I just couldn’t hold it in…”
He reflected on the reason Yeorum was saying this.
“It’s a bit retarded, right. To rush in every time and being unable to hold your anger in.”
“…”
Since she had always been like that in the past iterations and because he had spent dozens of years watching that, the Regressor needed time to process and understand what laid behind her worry.
“This time, it finished with me just bashing up someone I don’t even know, but sometimes when I get in a quarrel with Bom-unni, I almost swear without even realising it.”
“…”
“It’s also common for me to almost mess everything up in a dungeon raid because of my temper…”
He merely listened to the child talk.
“I just, want to hold my temper in as well…”
And the answer came to him automatically.
“…”
After saying that much, Yeorum hugged her own knees. Like always, she appeared embarrassed after speaking her mind.
He returned a casual nod and stood up.
If it was about her having trouble controlling her temper, he knew the way to fix it.
But… breaking and reforming the disposition of a higher-ranked spirit beast like a dragon, was by no means an easy or a simple task, so he had to delay this topic till later.
“Got it. Rest for now.”
“Nn.”
***
Leaving the house, he contacted the education department and asked for the address of Erfan Guild’s dormitory. He was planning to meet Lyun in person but the education department remained firm, saying that they couldn’t do that at all cost.
Having no other choice, Yu Jitae sharpened his senses and looked for a familiar presence. Since he had seen the guardian, Lyun, more than 3 times already, he could somewhat remember the quality and texture of his mana.
He closed his eyes and focused.
The tall walls and buildings of the large academy city dissipated in his head, as he started to feel the characteristics and textures of mana that resided in every organism.
Looking for a specific person from a crowd of people that went over 100,000 was an impossible task. Due to the sheer number of people, he had to eliminate several places and go one by one.
Even that took a few hours and the Regressor opened his eyes only after confirming the target.
On the other side of the academy district, in the 5th residential area.
Yu Jitae knocked on the door of a unit.
“Who is it? Ah…!”
The male cadet that opened the door was Zhou Luxun.
Startled, he left the door open and took a few steps back while Yu Jitae immediately entered the dormitory. Inside were cadets and guardians of the Erfan Guild having a house party with a bunch of fried chicken and beer.
Their eyes reflected their confusion regarding the sudden uninvited guest. While they were all holding their breath and staring at him in this incomprehensible situation, Yu Jitae glanced across their faces one by one in silence.
His gaze stopped once it reached Lyun.