Episode 205. The Beginning of the Festival (2)
The moment the bell rang to start the banquet, cheers erupted from the audience and silence fell among the participants.
The task for participants who are randomly summoned throughout Purgatory Mountain is simple.
Finding and defeating a contestant who is just like you. However, finding an opponent won’t be easy either.
Finding an opponent in the middle of a huge mountain is not an easy task.
It is a game where you have to be very careful about your stamina because you can encounter all kinds of monsters, not to mention opponents.
The blue sword instantly cut down the rushing monsters.
Many lava giants slowly froze and scattered into piles of rubble.
“Where is the opponent?”
Jenny looked around with a troubled expression.
I kept walking, but I felt lost, as if I was going around in circles.
Eventually, I ended up in a place that looked like a temple of some unknown place.
“There was a place like this on the Purgatory Volcano.”
As befitting its geography as a volcano, Mount Purgatory never has a day that isn’t hot except in winter.
Lava boils as if it were an active volcano, but never in history has an arrow exploded like an apocalypse.
In particular, the higher you go, the more intense the heat becomes, making it uninhabitable for humans.
In such a volcano, this temple was the only one that looked cold.
“Why a place like this….”
The cemetery. The identity of the temple was exactly the place Jenny hated.
Even though the ground under my feet was hot, it was here that I felt a chill down my spine.
The tombs seemed quite old and had decayed considerably.
It looked strange and creepy, as if it had been created by the indigenous people, a dark culture.
And there was a separate peak of goosebumps.
“I feel like I’m in a nightmare.”
The entrance to the temple came into view, with a giant skull with its mouth wide open.
The temple was larger than the town’s horror spot, the Alighieri Tower, and its fear was proportionately greater.
Jenny, whose body froze in an instant, immediately turned her back.
“Surely… he wouldn’t be hiding in a place like this.”
If you yourself are this scared, who would be waiting in a place like this?
This is impossible unless the liver is sticking out of the stomach.
Jenny walked stiffly, repeating that to herself.
Kookung Kookugung-
There was a sound of clouds crashing in the sky, and then water droplets fell.
Soon, it started to rain and wet Jenny’s head.
“Why is it raining?”
It was evening and the sky was starting to get dark.
The gloomy atmosphere was further enhanced by the rain and dark clouds that gathered there.
When I looked back again, the temple looked even more sinister.
“Hehe!”
Jenny pretended not to know and ran away from the place.
“uh?”
It was when I was trying to run away.
Jenny suddenly stopped walking and trembled. Her body didn’t move as if someone had grabbed her ankle.
Even though the temple was scary, it wasn’t so scary that my body would freeze like this.
Someone had intentionally sent strange waves to stimulate him.
‘There’s someone.’
Jenny turned her head back toward the temple and began walking inside.
Jenny, whose mood had changed, was not filled with fear.
Unlike before, he entered the skull’s mouth on his own.
The interior was even more eerie than the exterior. The corridors stretched out as if there were gates to the afterlife beyond.
And as she went a little further inside, a columbarium appeared, and Jenny’s eyes met those of a skeleton.
“Hhhhhhh!”
I thought my liver was going to fall off.
Still, Jenny slowly climbed up the temple, following the energy led by someone.
And when I reached the rooftop, I could see an old chair. There was silence as one person sat there quietly.
He stood motionless in the rain, his arms hanging limp as if he were a corpse, holding a cane at his side.
`Surely, he was a wizard belonging to the Bloodmir School?`
Jenny could tell who he was.
No matter how I looked at his appearance and clothes, I knew he was one of the four contestants who were similar to me.
A situation where she unexpectedly encountered an enemy. However, Jenny approached slowly because she didn’t know what kind of trap there might be.
Otherwise, he would not have sent out waves calling him.
But as she approached, Jenny felt uneasy.
`What is this boiling energy?`
The closer I got to this person, the more certain hormones seemed to be secreted in excess.
A clash as much as I lost my sense of reason. It was the feeling I had when I trembled whenever I held a sword recently.
How it feels to encounter someone who is identical to you.
I’ve heard this called ‘resonance’.
Gulp-
Jenny swallowed dry saliva and slowly took his hand.
That was when.
“omg!”
Something seeped out from the hand that made contact.
It wasn’t exactly a trap like poison or a curse. It was just genetic information contained within the opponent.
But just feeling that made Jenny’s face turn pale.
And─
Snap!-
The wizard who had been sitting like a corpse grabbed Jenny’s hand. Jenny, who was already on edge, swung her sword instead of being surprised.
But the wizard caught the blue sword with one hand.
“uh?”
Jenny was speechless at the amazing sight. This was a feat that was impossible for a normal wizard.
“Who are you?”
And the alien energy she had felt from him until now. Jenny was not sure of the details, but she could be sure.
“You’re not a participant in the tactical demonstration.”
At Jenny’s question, the hand holding the knife emitted a red wave.
As Jenny stepped back in shock, he slowly stood up, holding his cane.
At the same time, the old staff transformed into a sword with a red blade.
“I don’t know who I am. Maybe I will never know who I am.”
Although it was an unintelligible word, Jenny’s mouth fell open when she heard the voice.
The voice that was once male suddenly changed to female.
“I really wonder what I would have done in my life. What kind of life would I have lived. And what kind of people would I have been around? I just wonder.”
A woman’s voice that I’ve heard many times. Suddenly, I feel an ominous sense of foreboding.
Just listening to it made me feel like my lungs were clogged.
“And, I don’t know how I died while I was alive. If I found out the reason… I might end up resenting him.”
Blood dripped from the red sword.
The dark space is bathed in red light due to the bright red light coming from the sword.
The sight was like seeing a dead person walking out of the afterlife.
“Will you be able to stop my rampage of resentment?”
Finally, the surface of the wizard’s face began to peel away.
I don’t know what happened to the real wizard, but I could tell that this tactical demonstration was seriously messed up.
And then she revealed her true face and said:
“Jenny Chain Silver.”
Her long silver hair had no halo of any kind, and her red eyes, which would have been like rubies in real life, were unfocused.
Even though her skin was pale like a zombie, her facial features were beautiful and scarless.
At that sight, Jenny’s breathing became ragged as if she was out of breath.
Because she looks exactly like her mother, who must have died when she was young.
“Hesitation is death.”
She kicked the ground and advanced, swinging her sword lightly.
Jenny, who was suddenly in a panic, was more than ready to fall prey to the murderous sword.
visor!-
But Jenny, who thought she had lost her mind, raised her sword and blocked it.
She said that he had a surprisingly stern expression on his face.
“Do you know who I am?”
Although Jenny was flustered, she was able to quickly regain her resolve.
She was curious, because it seemed as if he had known she would show up.
“Even if I tell you… it’s not like you’ll come back to life.”
But Jenny was shedding tears along with her cold answer.
“Uh…uh.”
The rain poured down.
Lightning struck.
As the rough waves of the island surge through me, my shoulders sink heavily.
Frost covered the blue blade, and blood flowed from the red blade and formed pools on the floor.
The mother and daughter met again, both drenched in blood.
* * * * *
“What’s going on! Why isn’t the screen showing up?”
Discontent poured in from inside the tactical training arena.
The screen that was broadcasting the game that was just starting suddenly turned off.
There was a huge commotion because he hadn’t come out for 10 minutes already.
If I had waited this long, it would have been more than enough time to fix it.
“What are you doing now instead of fixing it?”
“Are the organizers just sitting there?”
“What should I do about this? Even His Majesty the Emperor is watching.”
“Isn’t it cancelled because of the rain?”
“Are you kidding me? This isn’t some kids’ sports meet or anything.”
The situation was even worse because it was already raining.
It wasn’t just the audience who had such complaints.
The same was true for the high-ranking officials watching the competition.
“What the heck is this sudden bolt from the blue? You were doing fine just now.”
“Principal, why are you doing this?”
Those who were watching from the stands began to question Principal Cayden one by one.
As the event was held in Alighieri, the director was Kayden, the principal.
Even if a minor trouble occurred, he could not avoid taking responsibility.
“I’m sorry. I just sent a staff member away using telepathic magic.”
“This is why we can’t supervise. But that doesn’t mean we can stop the game.”
The Bloodmir Schoolmaster, Terrace Endless, stood up and spoke.
He immediately caught Kayden’s attention and opened his mouth to look at him with contempt.
“If a participant cheats, we can’t do anything about it. This responsibility is huge, Principal Caden.
“….”
Caden had nothing to say about that part.
This is because participants are alert to the fact that their gaze is being directed at them.
Even the royal family is watching this event.
If those gazes disappear, there’s no telling what kind of impulsive behavior might emerge.
“Maybe so.”
Grisha Highend, the owner of the tower, intervened there.
“Could it be that the principal intentionally turned off the screen to make it easier for the Alighieri participants to cheat?”
“Your Majesty…? Your words are too harsh.”
“Well, that’s what I mean.”
Kayden felt something strange about Grisha.
Until this morning, he had been greeting me warmly, but now he seemed to be showing hostility.
However, I had to worry about that later and calm down the situation for now.
“Principal Gayden, is that true?”
“That’s not it, so just wait for now…”
“Don’t act like a fool! Otherwise, the screen won’t turn on for 10 minutes!”
But even calming him down wasn’t easy.
The head of the Bloodmir School, Terrace Endless. He was known for his very dogmatic personality.
He is a person who has a basic tendency to be a so-called old fart, and once he starts to suspect something, he doesn’t stop until he digs into it.
Besides, he had great doubts about Alighieri.
“Well, you were the ones who revealed that our elder was a follower of evil.”
His Bloodmir School was originally founded by Elder Enviel.
Terrace is also suspicious of Alighieri, as he is an ardent follower of Enviel.
It won’t be easy to calm him down, but it will be resolved once the screen is restored.
Caden decided to guard the terrace while waiting for the faculty member who had ordered him to do the job.
They blinked for a moment… without even knowing that there was a surprise attack.
Swish!-
A shadow appeared on the floor and attacked several people with a giant fist.
The fist aimed for Hwangtapju’s head faster than the speed of sound.
Those who noticed it late were shocked.
“I never thought that would happen.”
The Fist of Shadow stopped in front of the Hwangtapju.
If he had continued forward, his head would have been crushed. That was if Gerard Chainsilver hadn’t stopped him.
“Radon, everything that guy said was true.”
Starting with the screen turning off, politics, and then a surprise attack.
Gerard was the most calm because he knew it in advance.
If there had been casualties, the political fervor of the school faction would have intensified.
Surviving as an Academy Fraudster
