Kim Hajin grabs a microphone from nowhere. He makes it look like magic, or maybe a sleight of hand, as the thing appears in his hand, when in truth it is created through his Stigma. “I challenge Chae Nayun. After defeating her, I will then challenge Kim Suho.” He mic-drops the arena as he walks off without a care in the world.
Everyone watching is awed by his preposterousness and unbridled arrogance.
All of Cube, maybe all of Korea, is excited to see the rise of the challenger. News in various media outlets explode worldwide making the best out of this news scoop.
“The return of the Great Sage!”
“The Rising Hero, Gunner and Tech Genius, Kim Hajin.”
“Enemy to Djinns, the Golden Boy.”
And here I think that I am actually the most preposterous one. I am in a movie theater in [Surface Cube] eating popcorn. I like the noise of the movie. It helps me concentrate. I can do this in [Under Cube] too, but I’d rather not.
What is up with Hajin? He is not doing anything wrong, but his stunt recently is extreme. He must be earning a ton-fuck amount of SP right now.
His actions, and winning the fight against Shin Jonghak feed the rumor that he is the Great Sage’s inheritor, when in fact, it is me.
Kim Hajin being the Great Sage’s inheritor is not groundless as people suspect he might have done something to his training gun, which momentarily increases its effects, or maybe the reason why he is such an excellent Gunner is because he is the Great Sage’s inheritor.
Of course, the Cube staff has done inspections on his training gun after the duel with Jonghak, and they are not able to find anything as the training gun after all is not modified in any way.
Good for Kim Hajin. But bad for Shin Jonghak.
~
Yeonha: Hey, is it you?
Hyung: What? I did not do anything wrong! Ask Rachel, she has been with me all along!
Yeonha: Spill it. Is it you who suggested to Hajin to have a duel with Jonghak? If it is to attract the attention of the leader of the Chameleon Troupe, isn’t this too much?
Hyung: You are the one in contact with Hajin! I have no hand in it! I promise! I mean, how bad can it be? At least, it is a proper fight. Come on, Hajin did not do anything underhanded, and it seems that Jonghak and Hajin had a prior agreement too. It is not for us to meddle in their affairs.
Yeonha: But Jonghak’s mentality… It might… Can you talk to Jonghak?
Hyung: I will try. But why don’t you just talk to him yourself?
Yeonha: I can't. He doesn’t want to talk to me.
Hyung: I will try to talk to him, but I cannot promise you anything…
~
I turn off my smartwatch. I use my [AI System] to check on Shin Jonghak, and he seems to be in [Under Cube]. The guy has become accustomed to resting on [Under Cube]’s accommodations after training, but from how he acts, he seems to prefer the penthouse [Surface Cube] is giving its top Cadets as incentives.
“Oh, man…”
I pitifully look at Jonghak who seems to be sulking.
My smartwatch buzzes again. I open my smartwatch hoping it is not Yeonha. Oh, come on! It is worse. It is Nayun. Please, don’t wrongly accuse me.
~
Nayun: I am sorry.
~
What? I am befuddled. Why is she saying sorry? Is there something for her to be sorry about? To tell the truth, in fact, it is me feeling sorry. I feel that my very existence is something to be guilty of.
~
Hyung: Why are you saying sorry?
Nayun: I think it is me who is the cause of Hajin walking on this warpath! He is crazy! Challenging me in a duel like that right out of the bat, and then Suho! He just beat up Shin Jonghak, the rank 3 cadet, and now he is gunning for rank 2 and 1!
Hyung: Oh, please! Don’t be delusional. He is acting like this because of you… You? Sigh… You are not the center of the world, you mentally ill immature brat!
Nayun: Shut up. You are the mentally ill immature brat. Fine… Fuuuck…
Hyung: What is it? You are getting annoying.
Nayun: You are always like this as if you have some vendetta against me. What did I do to you? Fuck, forget that…
Hyung: Forget what? I just want to remind you, that you almost killed me twice! In the dorm, and then on the rooftop!
Nayun: I am sorry! Okay? Happy?
Hyung: So what is it?
~
This is getting very annoying. I cannot believe I am scared of her. I mumble short curses under my breath hoping to relieve my pent-up stress.
“Shhh…” My seatmate looks at me with a reproachful look. He must be getting annoyed by my fiddling of my smartwatch, and my noisy mumbling.
I feel my smartwatch buzz.
~
Nayun: Get this. Last Sunday, I and Hajin kind of talked. You and he did not come to the Veritas Class to help finalize the ‘who-should-participate-in-which-competition’, and I kind of volunteered him to do a lot of stuff.
Hyung: Wow… I didn’t even know the class was meeting last Sunday. I feel left out.
Nayun: Seriously? It must be Suho. He covered for you and told the class you could not come. Ah~ you had a neck injury… I almost forgot. Anyways, to continue the story. After Hajin heard from me that I volunteered him to a lot of extracurricular, he must have been very upset, so he decided to screw me over. Agh~! That fucker is really crazy sometimes.
Hyung: Crazy how?
Nayun: He said that if he wins every competition he is going to participate in, I will become his girlfriend!
Hyung: WTF!?
Nayun: Yeah! WTF!
~
That is very enlightening. I facepalm at the thought of Hajin being childish even at times. On second thoughts though, him doing something crazy like that is actually to his advantage, and his every advantage will be to our advantage.
For Hajin to earn SP, he must increase his significance in the story. And what better method is there than being the male lead of the heroine, Chae Nayun? Fuck. This is dark.
In fact, if Hajin defeats Suho, he might as well try stealing the label of protagonist! That must be worth a lot of SP! If not, he can also serve as somewhat an antagonistic character which will also increase his net income of SP and, at the same time, give more motivation to the main cast.
I recall in TNE when Hajin becomes the Black Lotus and embraces his more antagonistic role in the story, he starts earning a lot of SP back then which propels his strength faster.
I hope I am only overreacting to the situation.
Should I tell Nayun? But what if my words cause misunderstandings? I am very keen on how dangerous misunderstandings are in TNE. They are an invisible driving force of fate that makes the story more interesting. But to my eyes, we aren’t simply in a story, as we are living the story.
Any misunderstanding that may arise will be deadly to us. It might break us!
Ugh…
Why is life so complicated?
~
Hyung: Can you tell me how you miraculously pissed off Hajin? Tell me his every gesture, his body language, etcetera. Tell me everything that happened last Sunday.
Nayun: Well, he said he is jealous of the other Kim Hajin from my memories. I was having a cig at that time and was throwing it in the trash can.
Hyung: Wait. Are you still smoking?
Nayun: Now? No, why?
Hyung: I mean. Did you smoke?
Nayun: Yeah, what is wrong?
~
This girl is immensely emotionally stupid. I bet she doesn’t even realize it, but she is an idiot when it comes to relationships. If not for her charisma, I bet a lot of people would grow to dislike her. Ugh…
People know when they are sad, and admit to it when they cry, but Nayun? She is the type to cry and insist she isn’t sad.
~
Hyung: You are an idiot. You have a very sensitive palate, and Hajin knows that. What reason could there be for you to be still smoking?
~
My message to her is self-explanatory. I am there when Nayun confesses her regressor origin to Hajin. She is saying something about being able to ‘move on’ at that time. But the truth is, Chae Nayun has not moved on yet.
The Kim Hajin of her past. Nayun is still clinging to that Hajin. The proof of this is her smoking habit. Chae Nayun has a sensitive palate and is very picky about food. The only way she can smoke is for her to lose her sense of taste. Her lack of sense of taste can only mean that the effects of her trauma are still there!
Hajin quickly catches to this and becomes annoyed, maybe pissed even.
~
Nayun: What do I do?
Hyung: Give up. Hajin will win all competitions. You can struggle as you like, but Hajin will even do better and will give his very best. So, be a good girl, and wait for Hajin to become your boyfriend. After that, go make babies.
Nayun: You know what? That doesn’t sound so bad, but fuck you.
Hyung: Fuck you very much.
~
Sigh… Teenagers, right?
Then I realize I am one too. I hope I don’t get into similar accidents like Hajin and Nayun. That will suck.
And then I realize... that Nayun and Hajin are not really teenagers now considering their mental age.
Shit... Adults, right?
Kim Hajin grabs a microphone from nowhere. He makes it look like magic, or maybe a sleight of hand, as the thing appears in his hand, when in truth it is created through his Stigma. “I challenge Chae Nayun. After defeating her, I will then challenge Kim Suho.” He mic-drops the arena as he walks off without a care in the world.
Everyone watching is awed by his preposterousness and unbridled arrogance.
All of Cube, maybe all of Korea, is excited to see the rise of the challenger. News in various media outlets explode worldwide making the best out of this news scoop.
“The return of the Great Sage!”
“The Rising Hero, Gunner and Tech Genius, Kim Hajin.”
“Enemy to Djinns, the Golden Boy.”
And here I think that I am actually the most preposterous one. I am in a movie theater in [Surface Cube] eating popcorn. I like the noise of the movie. It helps me concentrate. I can do this in [Under Cube] too, but I’d rather not.
What is up with Hajin? He is not doing anything wrong, but his stunt recently is extreme. He must be earning a ton-fuck amount of SP right now.
His actions, and winning the fight against Shin Jonghak feed the rumor that he is the Great Sage’s inheritor, when in fact, it is me.
Kim Hajin being the Great Sage’s inheritor is not groundless as people suspect he might have done something to his training gun, which momentarily increases its effects, or maybe the reason why he is such an excellent Gunner is because he is the Great Sage’s inheritor.
Of course, the Cube staff has done inspections on his training gun after the duel with Jonghak, and they are not able to find anything as the training gun after all is not modified in any way.
Good for Kim Hajin. But bad for Shin Jonghak.
~
Yeonha: Hey, is it you?
Hyung: What? I did not do anything wrong! Ask Rachel, she has been with me all along!
Yeonha: Spill it. Is it you who suggested to Hajin to have a duel with Jonghak? If it is to attract the attention of the leader of the Chameleon Troupe, isn’t this too much?
Hyung: You are the one in contact with Hajin! I have no hand in it! I promise! I mean, how bad can it be? At least, it is a proper fight. Come on, Hajin did not do anything underhanded, and it seems that Jonghak and Hajin had a prior agreement too. It is not for us to meddle in their affairs.
Yeonha: But Jonghak’s mentality… It might… Can you talk to Jonghak?
Hyung: I will try. But why don’t you just talk to him yourself?
Yeonha: I can't. He doesn’t want to talk to me.
Hyung: I will try to talk to him, but I cannot promise you anything…
~
I turn off my smartwatch. I use my [AI System] to check on Shin Jonghak, and he seems to be in [Under Cube]. The guy has become accustomed to resting on [Under Cube]’s accommodations after training, but from how he acts, he seems to prefer the penthouse [Surface Cube] is giving its top Cadets as incentives.
“Oh, man…”
I pitifully look at Jonghak who seems to be sulking.
My smartwatch buzzes again. I open my smartwatch hoping it is not Yeonha. Oh, come on! It is worse. It is Nayun. Please, don’t wrongly accuse me.
~
Nayun: I am sorry.
~
What? I am befuddled. Why is she saying sorry? Is there something for her to be sorry about? To tell the truth, in fact, it is me feeling sorry. I feel that my very existence is something to be guilty of.
~
Hyung: Why are you saying sorry?
Nayun: I think it is me who is the cause of Hajin walking on this warpath! He is crazy! Challenging me in a duel like that right out of the bat, and then Suho! He just beat up Shin Jonghak, the rank 3 cadet, and now he is gunning for rank 2 and 1!
Hyung: Oh, please! Don’t be delusional. He is acting like this because of you… You? Sigh… You are not the center of the world, you mentally ill immature brat!
Nayun: Shut up. You are the mentally ill immature brat. Fine… Fuuuck…
Hyung: What is it? You are getting annoying.
Nayun: You are always like this as if you have some vendetta against me. What did I do to you? Fuck, forget that…
Hyung: Forget what? I just want to remind you, that you almost killed me twice! In the dorm, and then on the rooftop!
Nayun: I am sorry! Okay? Happy?
Hyung: So what is it?
~
This is getting very annoying. I cannot believe I am scared of her. I mumble short curses under my breath hoping to relieve my pent-up stress.
“Shhh…” My seatmate looks at me with a reproachful look. He must be getting annoyed by my fiddling of my smartwatch, and my noisy mumbling.
I feel my smartwatch buzz.
~
Nayun: Get this. Last Sunday, I and Hajin kind of talked. You and he did not come to the Veritas Class to help finalize the ‘who-should-participate-in-which-competition’, and I kind of volunteered him to do a lot of stuff.
Hyung: Wow… I didn’t even know the class was meeting last Sunday. I feel left out.
Nayun: Seriously? It must be Suho. He covered for you and told the class you could not come. Ah~ you had a neck injury… I almost forgot. Anyways, to continue the story. After Hajin heard from me that I volunteered him to a lot of extracurricular, he must have been very upset, so he decided to screw me over. Agh~! That fucker is really crazy sometimes.
Hyung: Crazy how?
Nayun: He said that if he wins every competition he is going to participate in, I will become his girlfriend!
Hyung: WTF!?
Nayun: Yeah! WTF!
~
That is very enlightening. I facepalm at the thought of Hajin being childish even at times. On second thoughts though, him doing something crazy like that is actually to his advantage, and his every advantage will be to our advantage.
For Hajin to earn SP, he must increase his significance in the story. And what better method is there than being the male lead of the heroine, Chae Nayun? Fuck. This is dark.
In fact, if Hajin defeats Suho, he might as well try stealing the label of protagonist! That must be worth a lot of SP! If not, he can also serve as somewhat an antagonistic character which will also increase his net income of SP and, at the same time, give more motivation to the main cast.
I recall in TNE when Hajin becomes the Black Lotus and embraces his more antagonistic role in the story, he starts earning a lot of SP back then which propels his strength faster.
I hope I am only overreacting to the situation.
Should I tell Nayun? But what if my words cause misunderstandings? I am very keen on how dangerous misunderstandings are in TNE. They are an invisible driving force of fate that makes the story more interesting. But to my eyes, we aren’t simply in a story, as we are living the story.
Any misunderstanding that may arise will be deadly to us. It might break us!
Ugh…
Why is life so complicated?
~
Hyung: Can you tell me how you miraculously pissed off Hajin? Tell me his every gesture, his body language, etcetera. Tell me everything that happened last Sunday.
Nayun: Well, he said he is jealous of the other Kim Hajin from my memories. I was having a cig at that time and was throwing it in the trash can.
Hyung: Wait. Are you still smoking?
Nayun: Now? No, why?
Hyung: I mean. Did you smoke?
Nayun: Yeah, what is wrong?
~
This girl is immensely emotionally stupid. I bet she doesn’t even realize it, but she is an idiot when it comes to relationships. If not for her charisma, I bet a lot of people would grow to dislike her. Ugh…
People know when they are sad, and admit to it when they cry, but Nayun? She is the type to cry and insist she isn’t sad.
~
Hyung: You are an idiot. You have a very sensitive palate, and Hajin knows that. What reason could there be for you to be still smoking?
~
My message to her is self-explanatory. I am there when Nayun confesses her regressor origin to Hajin. She is saying something about being able to ‘move on’ at that time. But the truth is, Chae Nayun has not moved on yet.
The Kim Hajin of her past. Nayun is still clinging to that Hajin. The proof of this is her smoking habit. Chae Nayun has a sensitive palate and is very picky about food. The only way she can smoke is for her to lose her sense of taste. Her lack of sense of taste can only mean that the effects of her trauma are still there!
Hajin quickly catches to this and becomes annoyed, maybe pissed even.
~
Nayun: What do I do?
Hyung: Give up. Hajin will win all competitions. You can struggle as you like, but Hajin will even do better and will give his very best. So, be a good girl, and wait for Hajin to become your boyfriend. After that, go make babies.
Nayun: You know what? That doesn’t sound so bad, but fuck you.
Hyung: Fuck you very much.
~
Sigh… Teenagers, right?
Then I realize I am one too. I hope I don’t get into similar accidents like Hajin and Nayun. That will suck.
And then I realize... that Nayun and Hajin are not really teenagers now considering their mental age.
Shit... Adults, right?
