Chapter 79: Late-Summer Sea, Training, and... (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: Late-Summer Sea, Training, and... (4)
Before I knew it, the situation had evolved into a showdown: Team Hunter Killer versus the Spacetro Executives. And somehow, I had ended up as the referee for this confrontation.
To put it simply, one could argue that they should just ignore each other, make some concessions, and go about their own business. That would certainly resolve the situation easily and keep everyone’s mind at ease. However, these were two factions that clashed and traded blows every single week; such a peaceful resolution was out of the question.
To give an analogy, it was like the heads of two warring nations bumping into each other at a foreign tourist resort.
"So, what are we doing?"
"I have a plan."
Each side had to pick two events, and from those, one would be chosen by the other side. Naturally, it was advantageous to pick something where your side had a higher probability of winning. Personally, I didn't have much intention of playing anyway, and as the referee, it didn't really matter to me what the events were.
"Beach volleyball."
"Do you even know how to play that?"
Even on Earth, outside of Korea, it was a famous sport enjoyed at the beach. I wasn't sure about Spacetro's history with it, but the members of Hunter Killer hadn't had many opportunities to travel, nor did they have an environment where they could enjoy sports.
While the Hunter Killer members possessed physical abilities equal to or greater than the executive class, being good at combat and having athletic coordination for sports were two different things. On the other hand, our executives had traveled to various planets and enjoyed themselves in their own way. Even on Earth, they visited the beach every year for what they called "training," which was essentially a semi-vacation. The difference in their experience with leisure was stark.
"What do you think they'll bring to the table?"
"Who knows? Probably some common sport?"
"I was thinking the same thing."
Luche and Seira began to speculate on what Hunter Killer would propose. In truth, there was no issue with both sides bringing events that favored them. However, since they had no information on each other outside of combat, they couldn't rule out the possibility that the opponent might actually be better at the very thing they thought was their own advantage.
Eventually, both teams selected two events and gathered on the sandy beach, facing each other.
Five members from Hunter Killer and four Spacetro Executives. I stood between them to act as the referee, while a few colleagues who had been playing nearby came over to watch the spectacle. Those who had no interest in the duel and only cared about their own fun stayed in their spots, continuing to play.
I wasn't sure how I’d ended up as the referee, but being caught between these two forces was incredibly uncomfortable. I could feel the members of Hunter Killer glaring at me with strange intensity. Even though they didn't know my true identity, it made my chest sting with a peculiar sensation.
"Why is the referee only from your side?"
"Don't worry about biased officiating. We've put someone... suitable in the position."
I wasn't sure if I should take that as a sign of trust. The look Luche gave me seemed to demand that I make calls in Spacetro's favor no matter what. Even if my identity remained hidden, it was honestly impossible to show blatant favoritism in this situation.
"Fine. We'll see how the match goes."
Soon, the events for both teams were announced.
The Spacetro Executives proposed beach volleyball and the long jump. Among them, beach volleyball was selected to be played immediately without a draw.
Hunter Killer’s choices were swimming and Ssireum. Swimming was the designated event to be played first, meaning we now had to draw between the long jump and Ssireum for the final match.
"How should we do the draw?"
"A coin toss. No need to make the process complicated."
"Fine. Does anyone have a coin? Give me a coin."
When I called out to the watching subordinates, one of them ran over and handed me a coin. I suppose the referee really does have to do everything.
Since I couldn't speak, I used gestures to signal that 'heads' would mean Spacetro's long jump, while 'tails' would mean Hunter Killer's Ssireum. Without hesitation, I flicked the coin off my thumb into the air.
The coin spun rapidly before landing on the back of my hand, which I immediately covered with my other palm. With both teams watching intently, I slowly lifted my hand, not even knowing the result myself. The coin revealed its numbered side—tails. Realizing that their choice, Ssireum, had been selected, the Hunter Killer members clenched their fists in joy.
"Yes!"
"If it's Ssireum, we've got a chance."
Ssireum. It was one of Korea's representative sports, and despite having lived in Korea for ten years, it was something I still didn't know much about. But as they say, you learn by doing. Both teams, feeling that even wasting time to check the rules was a luxury, decided to start the matches.
The first match was Spacetro’s beach volleyball. The participants were Hunter Killer’s Red (Yubin) and Yellow (Su-ah) against Spacetro’s Esmeralda and Seira. Since the tallest members from both teams had stepped up, the sight of them facing off on the sand was quite a visual.
Are they models?
Keeping that thought to myself, I performed another coin toss to determine the service right. The first serve went to Hunter Killer.
The match began shortly after. I had expected a standard game of beach volleyball, but I was left dazed by the sight of the ball flying at speeds the human eye could barely track.
Seira received the serve Yubin sent over, and Esmeralda set it up. The moment Esmeralda spiked it down, Su-ah dug the ball out, and Yubin followed up by leaping into the air and slamming it down with a kick.
I had seen volleyball—the progenitor of beach volleyball—on TV many times. Physically, we from outer space were naturally superior, but I had often marveled at how the athletic coordination of humans, honed through years of training, was on a different level than our raw physical power. Even as someone who had watched a fair share of sports, I had never seen someone attack a ball in mid-air with a kick in beach volleyball.
Tweet!
I blew the whistle and signaled a point for Team Hunter Killer. Most of the subsequent points went to them as well. Although our executives had experience with beach volleyball, they were too bound by formal techniques. They were utterly helpless against the Hunter Killer team, who used their raw athleticism to cover for any lack of form and pushed forward with nothing but sheer, aggressive power.
"Take this!"
Su-ah sent a high toss for a serve that had crossed the net. Yubin jumped to incredible heights and spiked the ball into the sand with a downward strike. Watching the match unfold with such terrifying physical prowess, I made a mental note never to make the women of Hunter Killer angry.
What if I made a girlfriend with that kind of physical power angry and got slapped? Honestly, I didn't have the confidence to survive it. It was a moment where I felt grateful once again that we wore suits during our actual battles.
Hunter Killer won the match 2-0 out of three sets. As a cheering Yubin clung to Su-ah in celebration, Luche approached me.
"Hey. Just use some biased judging and wrap this up."
To be blunt, we weren't playing this match to enjoy the sport. We had simply chosen a somewhat peaceful method to drive away a bothersome enemy and play comfortably at the beach. Therefore, no one on our side would complain if I showed favoritism. However, my position made it impossible to do so.
The Hunter Killer members were finally harmonizing and getting closer to one another, and they had even come on a trip together; I didn't want to ruin that. More than anything, seeing them work as a team and look so happy made me unable to suppress a smile behind my mask.
However, I couldn't exactly tell Luche, "I can't ruin this wonderful atmosphere for Team Hunter Killer," even if my life depended on it. Instead, I used gestures to convey that as the referee, biased judging was difficult and that I had to remain fair and impartial.
"...Fine."
I didn't think she would understand, but Luche seemed to grasp what I was trying to say and conceded more easily than expected. Luche wasn't a dishonorable person, so she probably hadn't been seriously demanding that I cheat.
As someone who usually looked out for her subordinates, she had likely said it to protect the environment where they could play, but my gestures about the impossibility of bias seemed to make her reflect on her words and accept my stance.
Besides, it was understandable that she was feeling anxious after losing the first match—an event her own side had proposed.
"Hey, referee. You're pretty good at making calls."
Yubin said, giving me a thumbs-up. Since I couldn't reveal who I was, I gave her a deep bow. Yubin flashed a smile at me before running back to the members who were cheering for the match.
"Let's do the next one! The next one!"
Seira, who had no outlet for the bitterness of defeat, shouted loudly. The next event was swimming. Three members from each team would compete in a relay, swimming to a turnaround point and back. The team whose final swimmer arrived first would be the winner.
For Hunter Killer, Blue (Hayoung), Red (Yubin), and Green (Eunha) stepped up. For Spacetro, it was Luche, Seira, and Angelica. On one hand, it was a shame I wouldn't get to see the women moving as intensely as they did in beach volleyball. It was my first time seeing the Hunter Killer members doing something all together outside of a fight, so I wanted to see them move as a group rather than individually.
"We're turning around at that buoy over there and coming back."
Luche pointed to a buoy floating in the sea about 100 meters away, and Yubin nodded. The two of them were the first swimmers for their respective sides. I felt a bit conflicted about which side to cheer for: my direct superior, who was clumsy but took good care of her subordinates, or my girlfriend, whom I loved and who loved me back.
Normally, I would obviously cheer for my girlfriend, but too much had happened to describe Luche as just a direct superior. Having seen her from the closest possible vantage point, I couldn't simply turn my back on her either. Even if I could only cheer in my head, it was a genuine dilemma.
The two of them stood on a wide platform, ready to start. I raised my hand and blew the whistle, dropping my hand to signal the start.
Yubin and Luche dove into the water simultaneously and swam rapidly. As I watched with bated breath to see who would win, I felt a gaze from the side and turned my head.
Yura was directing a sharp gaze toward me—a look she had never once shown the unmasked version of myself.
I looked around, wondering if she was perhaps looking at the other executives, but no matter how much I tried to ignore it, Yura’s eyes were fixed firmly on me.
Even though we were facing each other as Spacetro and Hunter Killer, I didn't want to ignore the precious Yura. I made a gesture asking what was wrong, but she simply turned her head away, maintaining her sharp glare.
Had I inadvertently provided a clue that might reveal my identity in that split second? Or had she seen something that made her suspicious? Realizing I was walking a very thin tightrope, everything began to feel precarious. I should have refused the referee position from the start.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Pink glaring at the Spacetro referee, Yellow asked what was going on. Yura shook her head.
"Nothing. I was just wondering if he was up to something suspicious."
At that, Yellow also scanned the Spacetro referee.
"Based on how he handled the last match, I don't think he'll be biased. Besides, in swimming, it's obvious who arrives first."
"I guess."
Yura withdrew her suspicion for now and turned her attention to Red, who was already rounding the buoy.
"It's a tight race. We already won one, so it's fine if we lose this one, right?"
At the comment from a spectating Spacetro soldier, Blue, who was waiting for Red to return, turned her head and smiled. The soldier was a bit surprised that she had heard him from such a distance.
"There's no such thing as a match that's okay to lose."
I had always seen Hayoung’s comfortable smile that made everyone feel good, so seeing a smile filled with competitive fire felt different. Leaving those words behind, she dove into the water the moment Red arrived. However, Angelica had already started because Luche had arrived first.
Hayoung swam rapidly, desperately chasing after her, but it wasn't easy to catch up to Angelica, who possessed incredible athletic ability.
"Good job. I guess the Ace's skills haven't rusted?"
"That's a story from when we were in space."
Esmeralda approached Luche as she climbed out of the water. Back when we were in space, Esmeralda was my direct superior, and Luche was in a completely different unit, so they wouldn't have crossed paths. Was she just speaking based on rumors from back then?
While I was lost in idle thoughts, Angelica rounded the buoy in an instant. Hayoung was still heading toward it. While I felt relieved seeing Angelica return, I was also rooting for Hayoung in my heart as she pushed toward the turnaround.
I no longer knew whose side I was on; I just decided to cheer fervently in my mind based on the emotions of the moment. Perhaps it was because I was in the impossible position of wanting both sides to win, but my palms were sweating throughout the race.
After Angelica arrived, Seira took off. The moment she started, I felt certain of the outcome. And just as I thought, the second match went to Spacetro as Seira arrived first.
There was no other reason for my certainty the moment Seira started. I simply knew very well that swimming was her specialty.
After the final Hunter Killer swimmer, Green, arrived, I blew the whistle to announce Spacetro's victory. Since the win was clear to everyone, Hunter Killer accepted the defeat, clapping without a word.
And then, the final match: Ssireum. Moving to a designated area on the sand, we prepared for the wrestling.
The rule was that three players from each team would compete, and the team that won two matches would be the victor. With the total score tied at 1-1, the result of the Ssireum match would determine who got to occupy the beach.
The problem was...
"How are we supposed to do this?"
Ssireum requires wearing something called a satba, but none of our executives knew anything about it.
Living in Korea for a long time was one thing, but while we knew about the culture of Ssireum, we’d never had the chance or the desire to actually do it. To us, it was just an unfamiliar sport.
We were told to make satba using long towels, but we could do nothing but stand there blankly.
Meanwhile, the Hunter Killer members, who had roughly figured out the shape of the satba, were looking our way. Even though I was masked, I avoided their eyes in case we made contact. That was when Yubin approached.
"Don't you know how to put on a satba?"
"...Of course we don't."
"We don't know perfectly either, but we'll show you."
Despite Luche’s blunt reply, Yubin fashioned a satba and helped Luche try it on for the sake of a fair fight. Seeing these two factions—who usually fought to the death—come together like this for a competition made me feel quite good.
On one hand, I thought that if they weren't enemies, they might have actually gotten along quite well. But knowing better than anyone that such a thing could only exist in my imagination, I immediately brushed the thought aside.
Soon, a makeshift ring was created. For the first match, Yura and Seira stepped forward. They knelt facing each other and gripped each other's satba. Once I confirmed they were ready, I stepped back and blew a loud whistle to signal the start of the match.