They walked for a long time.
After walking for a while, Zhou Luxun was unable to deal with the silence any longer and opened his mouth.
“Sorry… sir.”
Lyun didn’t reply.
The sunlight scorching his eyes from the front irritated him as they walked back to the dormitory. It was because the sun rose and set late at Lair compared to the ground due to being high in altitude.
Since his guardian didn’t open his mouth a single time, Zhou Luxun had to repeatedly steal glances at his face.
It was the same after arriving at the dormitory. Lyun was smoking a cigarette after another in the living room but remained completely silent. His gaze resembled the eyes of a crocodile and appeared vicious.
“Sir…”
He didn’t reply to the hesitant voice,
“Sir.”
And didn’t reply to the clear voice either.
What the fuc* is wrong with him. Thinking that, Zhou Luxun waved the smoke away with his hand.
Lyun seriously pondered and rubbed the cigarette bud off at the ashtray before finally opening his mouth.
“Luxun.”
“Yes.”
“Losing’s fine, but how can you lose in 15 seconds, huh?”
“Sorry sir…”
“The moment you saw the weapon, you should’ve realised fighting evenly wasn’t an option and should’ve tried finding a way out. Two-handed weapons are slow, which means you should’ve been easily able to deal with it without getting stuck in her tempo.”
“…”
“Did you forget your role after becoming a cadet just because everyone’s being nice to you and giggling around?”
It sounded like his bottled-up anger was finally exploding. Lyun was about to place the cigarette back into his mouth, but suddenly yelled out loud.
“You’re a hunting dog! You must remain firm even if you’re bit by a wolf!”
“…”
“A video of this is going to be uploaded tomorrow for others to see. What are the elders gonna think if they see you crawling around and getting smacked on your head?!”
He started preaching in anger as Zhou Luxun sealed his mouth shut and lowered his head. Was it because he was feeling embarrassed or regretful?
It wasn’t.
‘Fuck. You’re the one that told me to take the shield. Damn idiot…’
Zhou Luxun said back then, that he wanted to fight head-on without taking two shields.
But Lyun, who had been in the 2000’s worldwide in terms of ranks before, was an acknowledged superhuman and had a clear idea of how strong Yu Yeorum was. “It’s not all about winning,” was his response but that had hurt Zhou Luxun’s pride a little.
He had still taken the shields because that was the suggestion of his guardian, but Yeorum showed up holding a weapon that completely countered his shields. His mentality had been shaken from the start already and he cursed Lyun in his head multiple times.
The 15-second-defeat was due to those factors adding up.
“Damn it. You should’ve endured it somehow! Take the rhythm back! If you’re going to crawl, at least bite that bitch’s legs off or something! You should’ve shown diligence even if you were behind in strength! Am I wrong? Huh–?”
“…”
After a bunch of yells, smoke filled the living room again. By the time the second cigarette had become shorter, Lyun calmed himself down and heaved a sigh.
“Well, what can we do. It’s all in the past.”
“…!”
His voice suddenly turned gentler and caused Zhou Luxun’s eyes to widen.
“I shouldn’t have brought you first if I knew this would happen.”
“N, no sir… it was my turn to start anyway. It would be unfair if I suddenly decided not to go first.”
“Tch. I fucking hated the word ‘unfair’ for a long time. Who cares about fairness?”
He then whispered, ‘The CPC members lost their edge…’ and grumbled.
“Anyway, don’t worry too much and set your mind straight.”
“Yes sir…”
“You’re the future of Erfan.”
Zhou Luxun bit his lips and lowered his head.
The future of Erfan – but hearing those words did not make his shoulders suffer from immense responsibility.
‘Eat shit. Fucking idiot…’
He didn’t feel moved at all. He already knew how Lyun always talked one-sidedly and used a carrot after a stick.
‘I already had my points sucked dry because of him. What’s he gonna do about it. Ha, fuck… other guys are going to realise it soon…’
The problem was that the other cadets had started thinking on their own to solve the current issue. Their own points were more important to them than the team. After all, Erfan Guild was just an education institution and they could choose to leave or stay post-graduation.
What Zhou Luxun feared the most soon became reality after a few days.
“Today’s your turn O Wong. Aren’t you going?” said Zhang Xueyan with an uncomfortable look on her face.
Rank 23 O Wong; he was the good-looking mascot of Erfan Guild and was one of the top 4 juniors. At the same time, he was the one who was scheduled to be the first one to go to the spar today.
“…”
O Wong irritatedly stared back at her face.
“I’m not gonna go.”
“What?’
“I’m having a day off today.”
“By whose permission?”
“My permission.”
“…Are you okay in the head?”
“Who are you calling a retard? You can go yourself if you’re so desperate.”
“Oi. O Wong.”
“Shut up. Stop telling me to go when you don’t even wanna go yourself.”
“I went last week!”
“Go again then.”
“This fucking…”
Zhang Xueyan clenched her jaws. She, who was ranked 19th, would go to the 20’s after another loss to Yeorum.
That day, the lower-ranked cadets of the dormitory threw glances at O Wong’s face and even guardians tried to persuade him.
“I don’t want to, sirs. Why should I go? I’m 23rd right now. 23rd from 3000 participating cadets. Isn’t it a loss to the entire Erfan for me to lose points here?”
“O Wong. Are you asking to get bashed right now?”
“Sure, I’ll get bashed. If you hit me, I’ll do so, sir. But, I don’t wanna lose points. To be honest…”
O Wong turned his handsome eyes and stared at the other cadets, as a smirk appeared in his lips.
“Don’t we have guys that won’t mind losing a few points?”
Points were precious to everyone. They cut their sleep over the last three months and endured the pain to fight for those precious points.
But the lower-ranked cadets who had no right to speak in a situation like this, had to wait for the decision of the guardians despite feeling disgusted from the turn of events. From the mix, Rank 181 Wang Yusong who was ranked lowest out of the entire first division of Erfan, could almost feel her teeth trembling.
“…”
After deep contemplation, Lyun vomited his words out.
“I’m sorry Wang Yusong.”
“…But sir!”
“We need you to go.”
“N, no. Please. If I lose more points from here, I’ll be ineligible for the support funds. I, I might drop to the second division as well…!”
Tch tch. Lyun clicked his tongue.
“You should’ve done better then.”
Wang Yusong felt the world crumbling before her eyes. The feeble cadet was made to become their shield and went off to be the first one to spar.
And, unexpectedly, she met an opponent who was around her rank and won.
She was happy but couldn’t show it on the outside, and the cadets congratulated her but felt uncomfortable on the inside.
Lyun had to open another box of cigarettes.
Things must have turned out great for them. Rank 181 wasn’t easy to snipe and there were a few cadets that were always in the queue. Maybe that’s why she failed to snipe them.
That’s how Erfan analysed the situation that deviated from the norm.
And they decided to be at ease.
But… even after a while, the campus competition application did not update Yu Yeorum’s match history.
It meant that the sniping schedule had changed.
*
Erfan Guild became a mess after that.
“I’m not going. I don’t want to go until someone uses up Yu Yeorum’s participation chance.”
“Zhang Xueyan!”
“I don’t want to go eitherr…”
“Ling Ling. You’re doing this as well?”
“Sir. Are you telling us to go into a tiger’s mouth?”
“Then what are you going to do! You have to earn points! Your ranks are dropping already!”
“Why are you getting angry at us! Do you think I like seeing my rank drop? Huk…”
Zhang Xueyan cried and the guardian shouted. Lyun, the head guardian, vacantly watched them from the side and felt anxiety crawling up his stomach.
This had most definitely been shared outside, but the call that should be coming was still yet to come.
His anxiety doubled in size, but ironically, that was when his phone rang.
– Ring ring.
[Peng Zhongtian, Elder of Heavenly Gods]
Seeing the name of the caller, Lyun clenched his fist and carefully picked it up.
“Hello…”
– What a disgrace.
The voice on the other side of the call sounded calm.
– How disappointing. There is no-one usable since the 6th year. Every one of them are half-useless. One-armed and one-eyed. A crowd that always lacks something.
But the words weren’t peaceful at all. The relaxed lecture continued for a long time and Lyun had to swallow his tears and listen to him speak but after a while, he couldn’t endure it anymore and asked.
“T, then, the story about scouting Zhou Luxun is…”
– Oi, young man.
“…!”
– Do you hear yourself? What scout?
The humiliation and despair caused his hands to tremble.
Right when he was about to accept what sounded like a death sentence, a different voice was heard from the other side of the phone. Lyun immediately knew who it was because it was a famous voice – it was the voice of ‘Ling’, the boss of Heavenly Gods.
Soon, he received an unbelievable message.
– You got lucky.
Lyun thought his heart was about to explode.
– Our boss is willing to give you another opportunity. 3rd in the final ranks. Can you do it?
“Sorry? Ah, yes! Of course, sir!”
– It’s your last chance. Try your best.
“T, thank you!”
Zhou Luxun, who was listening from the side, couldn’t control his racing heart even after the end of the call. The boss of Heavenly Gods had given him the final chance! Is this the saving grace from the pitfall?
As long as he came 3rd and finished 3rd at the end of the competition, there would be a chance to come back.
It was clear what they needed to do.
They had to stop Yeorum from sniping no matter the method.
…But how?
It was when he was lost as to what to do. A relatively new guardian who had received the news from Lyun, bit his lips and hurriedly logged into the Lair application to search through the guardian profiles. He then found the name he was looking for.
“Oi. Oi!”
“…”
“Kan. What are you doing, dude!”
“I’m going to call their guardian Yu Jitae!”
The junior guardian lifted his head with a teary expression and Lyun immediately shouted back.
“Why are you calling that bastard!”
“We have to beg, and apologise!”
“Beg for what, you fucking idiot! Do you even have any sense of pride?”
“Does pride give us food?”
“It’s not gonna work even if you throw your pride. If you were that bastard, do you think you’d stop at a time like this? That ‘BM’ is backing their family up so why would they!”
“Then what are you going to do sir? What can you do! How do we stop them from sniping when we don’t even know how they’re doing it?”
“You little. Close that mouth of yours–!”
Lyun chucked the ashtray. It flew past his junior guardian and shattered after colliding with the cupboard behind him. Glass fragments scattered everywhere.
“Please wake up, sir! Is now the time for this?!”
But the junior who already had enough shouted back. He wrote the number down on the watch before suddenly taking it off and giving it over to Lyun.
“Put this away right now!”
“It’s you who had a quarrel with him, sir, so you have to get rid of it for us as the senior! Put everything down and think about it. Is it time for us to think about pride and stuff?”
“…”
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…
The dormitory had become devastated for the last 2 weeks due to the snipes and the cadets who understood the situation were glaring daggers at Lyun.
Right. Now wasn’t the time for this.
Swallowing a myriad of emotions, Lyun received the watch.
He then gave a call.
*
Bom and Kaeul were at their lectures.
Yeorum was lying down on the sofa while Yu Jitae was sitting around where her feet were.
Meanwhile, Gyeoul was sitting down on his lap, reading a book. It was a novel bought by Bom after a complaint that the fairy tales were boring. The book was filled with words and it was doubtful whether she could read it but Gyeoul was unexpectedly quite focused.
However, she started dozing off after going past three pages.
“Hnng~”
Yeorum gave a big yawn and smiled brightly. Thanks to sniping others over the last 2 weeks, Yeorum was coming second place again and the score difference between herself and the first place, Yong Taeha, were near negligible.
Zhou Luxun dropped to the fifth place after being sniped three times by Yeorum and the third and fourth places had been replaced by students from Noblesse School.
Unlike the expectations of others, Tyr Brzenk, the son of the official Rank 1 Oscar Brzenk, had a low rank. That young boy seemed uninterested in the competition itself.
In any case, it was about time to go now.
“Go to your room and get ready. Let’s go.”
“Okayy~”
These days, Yeorum looked like she was in a good mood. In fact, it was more correct to say that she was about to fly from the joy.
When Gyeoul woke up from the noise and gazed up, Yeorum said, “Aigoo, aigoo, my sister, were you thleeepyy…?” and kissed on her forehead. Gyeoul was shocked with a ‘o.O’ look on her face and immediately started wiping her forehead with a frown.
That was when Yu Jitae’s phone started to ring.
“Uh? Who’s calling?”
“…”
It was an unknown number.
“Go on your application and look for this number.”
“Okay. Let’s see.. Kan Wu. He’s half-Chinese and half-American. He’s under… huh?”
“Why.”
A smile bloomed on her face. The smile gradually increased in size as she soon started laughing out loud like a witch.
“What’s up.”
“He’s a guardian from Erfan apparently.”
“Is he?”
The phone was still ringing.
“Ahhh! That’s so funny. I’m freakin’ curious. Why do you think he called? Is he going to say sorry? Maybe he’s gonna beg in tears?”
Yeorum giggled and added.
“What are you doing? Hurry and pick up the phone. I wanna show them who’s the boss! Or is it better to insult them? Have their guardians dance naked in the school field?”
She excitedly continued with her fun imaginations. However, Yu Jitae didn’t say anything in response and was wearing the same old indifferent look on his face.
Yeorum stopped laughing. She meekly observed his face for a bit and finally realised what the ‘god move’ that transcended both insulting and bossing around were.
“Dear.”
“…”
“Don’t tell me, you’re going to ignore them?”
Yu Jitae gave a nod.
“Kyahahahaha–!” and Yeorum laughed till she choked on her breath.