“What are you doing right now?! Entering someone else’s house without permission!”
The man walked forward in large strides. A ferocious aura was given off from his small body.
Yu Jitae looked into the pair of long eyes beneath his bald head, that were full of vitality. Lyun’s eyes, however, were on Yu Jitae’s nose, and this tended to be the case when the frightened ones instinctively avoided eye contact.
“I wasn’t going to intrude on someone’s party either.”
“What kind of nonsense…!”
“That’s why, you should’ve picked up your phone.”
His dry voice had a condescending tone. All the superhumans present that were listening through the voice interpretation artifact felt it.
“Why on earth should I pick up your call? I don’t know what this is about, but it is very unpleasant. Step outside right now, thanks!”
Lyun glared daggers at him with a growl. Meanwhile, the cadets on the side of Erfan Guild were stealing glances left and right.
“Let me ask one thing. How did you do it.”
“What?”
“How did you snipe her. Did you tail her? Or did someone tell you the time?”
“I have no idea what nonsense this is about. Here I was wondering what made you barge into our house. Was it for some meaningless talk like this?”
He took out a cigarette and placed it on his mouth. It seemed that it was a habit of his, as there was a bunch of cigarette buds on the ashtray.
Lyun increased his volume with a gush of smoke.
“Look here, Mister Yu Jitae. I know your household’s great and all. Let’s talk outside then.”
“There’s no need to go outside. So, what’s your answer?”
“You mean sniping? I don’t know anything about that.”
False.
“Tail her? I have four kids to look after. You have three cadets yourself, so you should know better right? Who would be free enough to do things like that?”
True.
“It’s a shame that your kid got her points sucked dry by one of our kids. But didn’t Cadet Yu Yeorum lay a hand on our Zhou Luxun instead for no reason? And instead of saying sorry about that, you’re making us into snipers as if we were in the wrong. Am I wrong?”
“You didn’t tail, but you did snipe, it seems.”
“I have no idea. And what if we did snipe? Does that go against the rules? Or is it illegal perhaps?”
He seemingly became more prideful after stating his justification, and laughed like a hyena. For a split second, Yu Jitae imagined ripping the lips of this proud one all the way to his ears, but scattered the thought.
“Right. Got it.”
At the start of every iteration, he would choose a ‘principle’ for himself. It was a device to ensure a coherent and systematic approach to the entire iteration, and although it might not be followed at all times, he tried to adhere to it as much as possible.
In the 3rd iteration, his principle was to ‘spend at least 10 months every year inside a dungeon’.
In the 4th iteration, ‘physically protecting the Gold Dragon from all sources of danger’ had been his principle.
And now;
In the 7th iteration, he had set ‘following daily lives and not deviating from it’ as his principle.
This principle was made especially evident whenever the Regressor was dealing with other people. Interpersonal relationships were an essential element of daily lives. Relationships extended forth all the way to the society, and society regulated a line of rules and the norms to individuals.
Due to that, he had to protect daily lives in order to melt into one. Killing nameless scoundrels in the back streets had a different meaning to killing ones that were related to Yeorum’s daily life.
Simply put, he wanted to kill them but held it in.
Yu Jitae precisely remembered each of their faces and the characteristics of their mana. To do so, he glanced across the cadets for a while and they, who had all been gathered in the room, had to avoid his eyes in silence.
Before long, he left the house without making a fuss.
After the storm passed,
“他妈的… (Damn it)”
Lyun clicked his tongue with the cigarette still in his mouth.
“What a pathetic guardian…”
As a guardian, being pushed around in front of the cadets would hurt his pride as a soldier. So he had acted tough on purpose but looking back now, it seemed that he had needlessly blabbered just as the opponent had wished.
That in fact hurt his pride even more.
As if to hide that, Lyun raised his voice.
“Who f*cking goes to someone else’s house without saying anything? He’s just relying on his backing! Should I just reveal everything and make it public?”
The cadets dissuaded him in surprise.
“Let’s just bear with it, sir. We can just avoid what’s dirty.”
“Yes, yes… nothing really happened, right.”
Zhou Luxun and Zhang Xueyan held him back as Lyun clicked his tongue. He openly showed how he was forcing his anger down.
That would make him appear like an open guardian who listened to the opinions of the cadets. He screamed with another mouthful of smoke.
“Zhou Luxun!”
Surprised, Zhou Luxun made his body into a rigid, straight line.
Did he do something wrong?
“Well done.”
Lyun chortled and after understanding what he was saying, Zhou Luxun also giggled. The smile spread like an infection and reached all the guardians and cadets of Erfan Guild inside the room. They became less nervous, and especially Zhang Xueyan and Ling Ling, who had both been bashed up by Yeorum giggled out loud.
“In any case, what I’ve realised after raising kids here for a few years, is that it’s true that cadets take after their guardians.”
“Is that really the case?”
“Look. Who do you think that red-headed idiot learned from?”
“Kuhahaha!”
“Well done. You did a great job. Zhou Luxun. If you come second here, can you even imagine how much the headquarters will support us! Huh?”
Thinking about the rewards brought excitement back to the table.
***
Conclusion: They sniped but didn’t tail.
In other words, there was a way to snipe without tailing her.
Yu Jitae headed to Colosseo Lair in search of that method. The large cylindrical building had 8 entrances all around the building, with a revolving door on each of them. Cadets, guardians and staff members were all carrying their busy steps across.
There were eyes here that could tell what’s happening in real time, that surpassed tailing in terms of efficiency. Almost 50 security cameras were installed on each floor.
After checking that, Yu Jitae headed to the eighth floor of the building where the control room that managed all the sparring rooms was located. He walked in large strides towards the control room, but security guards wearing suits ran up and stopped him.
“Ah, you there! Outsiders are prohibited from entering this…”
One of the guards seemed surprised after realising that he was talking to Yu Jitae.
“Umm… are you Guardian Yu Jitae?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Aha. Nice to meet you. C, can I ask what brings you here…”
“I was wondering if I could have a look inside.”
“Sorry? Ah… so, if you could tell us the reason…”
“I’m a bit curious about how the control room is being operated.”
“Ahh… I see. Uhh, can I just see if I can receive permission from my superiors?”
There wouldn’t be an issue because Yu Jitae had already contacted the sentries regarding it. Despite that, the security guard who didn’t want to take the responsibility, called someone and received permission despite some limitations.
“Yes. So, as long as we can go with you, it is fine for you to enter.”
Yu Jitae took the guards around and entered the control room. The complex room had hundreds of security cameras that were being constantly monitored and a dozen or so of staff members were busily taking care of their own task.
“Hello sir. I’m Director Li An of the control room’s Integrated Control Team.”
A middle-aged female staff member approached him and asked with a cautious tone.
“What brings you here?”
He looked around the control room. If someone sent information gathered from the security cameras, it was possible to snipe.
“Who’s in charge of monitoring.”
“He’s… a Chinese man called Wang Gyu.”
A Chinese?
“Can I talk to him for a bit.”
Soon, a seemingly upright man came to Yu Jitae and he asked him, if he had a relationship with the Erfan Guild by any chance. The man appeared like he was being falsely accused and claimed that there was no such thing.
And his words were true.
In other words, it wasn’t this place either.
“I see.”
*
Over the next three days, Yu Jitae went around Colosseo as well as the control room. Of course, he did everything in secret as he watched how the staff acted and checked the cadets that were entering and leaving the building.
Even then, he didn’t find anyone that were observing all the sparring rooms and that was definitely strange.
As a being who could identify an ant that had hidden itself on the other side of the globe as long as he had time, not being able to find an observer in a small building like this made no sense.
And that instead acted as a hint for Yu Jitae.
“Ah. You’re here already. We were expecting you…”
The director, who had become a lot more careful than the first day, vigilantly asked him.
“What can I help you with today…?”
Yu Jitae glanced at the ceiling above the cabinet that was on the other side of the monitors. On that dark part of the ceiling which was far from any light source was another camera that was overlooking the entire control room, as well as the monitors.
“Please have a look at the circuits for that thing.”
“Can I ask what the…”
“Just do it without asking, please.”
“Ahh, yes… Of course.”
Despite being rather dumbfounded, she listened to his command and called a handyman to check the circuits for that specific security camera.
“Huh? What’s this?”
And Yu Jitae’s prediction had been on the mark.
“Uhh… I found a trace of this connecting to the outside. There’s a radio signal device as well. It must’ve been here for quite a long time…”
The handyman stated that the video could’ve leaked outside but he had no way of knowing the destination.
“Oh my. Does that mean someone could’ve been watching it all along?”
“I’m not sure but… I think it’s definitely possible.”
During the chat with the handyman, the director glanced at Yu Jitae with a confused look on her face.
“Who would do such a…”
Who else would it be.
If it was there for a long time, it probably had been done by Erfan a few years ago.
But in the end, Yu Jitae did not publicise the matter.
***
“Ahjussi…”
Once he returned to Unit 301, Kaeul talked to him with a worried voice.
“Unni isn’t eating anything…”
“Yeah. I know.”
“No, but, it’s already been 3 days. I almost never saw unni skip a meal before…!”
That was true because having a meal was a part of growth for Yeorum. Although she didn’t crave food, she never starved herself for no reason.
“Do you think Yeorum is okay?”
Bom also asked worriedly.
“Yeah. Should be fine now.”
Yu Jitae knocked on the door of Yeorum’s room and heard her reply. Entering the room, he sat face-to-face with the red-haired girl, who was still sitting dejectedly in the corner of her bed.
“How you feeling.”
“So-so…”
“Do you want me to tell you something interesting.”
Since it was the first time Yu Jitae had said something in that manner, she stared at him.
“What is it.”
He told her everything that had happened during the last three days. Yeorum pouted at the start, as if she was irritated and soon bursted in anger after hearing what he found inside the control room.
“Aren’t they crazy? Does that mean they’ve been doing that all along?”
“It seems like it. Why. Do you think it’s unfair?”
“Of course it is. F*ck. Even I was competing fairly. That’s driving me nuts for real.”
Perhaps because she was feeling depressed, she was quieter than usual even though she was angry. With an irritated voice, she spoke.
“Why didn’t you publicise it? Just reveal everything for those disgusting bastards.”
“I was going to do that at the start.”
“Why didn’t you do it then?”
But after thinking for a few days, Yu Jitae discovered a method that was even better than publicising the issue. It was a method that Yeorum would enjoy, more than anything.
“We need to have our revenge.”
“You and me?”
“Yeah. Let’s make them eat shi*.”
“How do we make them eat sh*t? I’ve eaten it all already. I messed up my third quarter results…”
“That doesn’t really matter, does it. Since the fourth quarter decides the final ranks for the competition.”
“Hmm, that’s true, but…”
Yu Jitae simply stated the result first. In any case, the results for the third quarter right now didn’t even really matter. And now,
“Erfan can’t see you anymore.”
He had ripped their eyes out.
“But I can see them.”
It was time for him to gaze down at them. After realising what the revenge was going to be about, she widened her eyes into circles.
“You want us to snipe them?”
“Yeah.”
“…How?”
There was a simple yet very effective method.
It was time for a strategy meeting. Hearing his story made her eyes turn slightly brighter.
The fundamental reason for her anger was the mistake that had been caused by her failure to control her own temper. She still did appear bitter because of that, but the sweet sound behind the word ‘revenge’ seemed to have brightened up her mood a little.
“So, do you like it?”
“Do I like it?”
Her eyes as well as her lips curled up. Lowering her head, she gave a faint smile.
“…Is there something to eat outside?”
***
On the last day of the 3-day restriction on individual spars, the third quarter ranks were decided and were announced.
Yong Taeha was first and Zhou Luxun was second. Bera Blueday from Noblesse School came third, and Yeorum came fourth.
That day, reporters gathered at the academy district at the end of the day and asked the top ranking cadets for their feelings.
The ranks that had been fixed till now had finally moved, so many reporters asked how Yong Taeha, Zhou Luxun and Bera Blueday were feeling.
But there was someone who gathered more reporters than them.
“Cadet Yu Yeorum…!”
“A word please if there’s any discontentment with your rank…!”
Yeorum appeared irritated and gave a frown, but the reporters were unable to close in on her. After receiving a call from Yu Jitae, the sentries had sent people to surround Yeorum in a circle.
“Cadet Yu Yeorum! This is from KSB! Unfortunately, you have lost to Cadet Yong Taeha and Zhou Luxun! Please share with us how you’re feeling right now!”
When she found a Korean broadcasting reporter, Yeorum sneakily went to his side. It was the same reporter who had been shouting out loud that it was ‘Korea’s victory’ whenever Yeorum won.
Wearing a rare stiff look on her face, Yeorum opened her mouth.
“This is not the defeat of me, Yu Yeorum.”
“Sorry?”
“This is Korea’s defeat.”
She then smiled at the camera.
*
The internet was in an uproar.
But that day, Petrovic’s SNS was quiet for some reason.