Chapter 138
Chapter 138
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 138
Chapter Title: Ghost Island
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"Ah, I'm waiting for the next event."
Events ran until 9 p.m. If second place took first in the next event, they could steal the top spot.
Not that I cared if they did.
"Is that right? Well, good luck anyway."
That was when I tried to pass Choi Seo-yoon and head into the dorm.
"Sunbae!"
Choi Seo-yoon called out to me again. When I turned around, her tense face came into view under the soft lighting.
"Do you have time tomorrow by any chance?"
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah. I was wondering if you'd team up with me for the group event."
The only group event tomorrow was the "hunt" that Yoo Ara and I had already planned to do. A small question popped into my head.
Choi Seo-yoon wasn't supposed to be participating in this hunt event.
"Th-that monster 'hunt' one is just about catching monsters, like the name says. Oh, and after it ends, there's fireworks too..."
"I've already got a team for that."
"Huh?"
"I've got someone to go with."
Choi Seo-yoon stared blankly at my words for a moment.
"Uh... who with?"
"Yoo Ara."
"Oh... I see."
Choi Seo-yoon muttered that, then whispered to herself.
"I didn't know."
She looked so downcast that I felt unnecessarily guilty.
"Uh... anyway, I'm set, so find someone else."
Choi Seo-yoon nodded. Then she gave me an awkward smile.
It wasn't the kind of smile you'd expect from someone famed as a master of fake laughs.
"You've been hanging out with Yoo Ara-sunbae a lot lately. You two must be really close now."
"...We don't hang out that much."
"Come on, even the other night, you two were sneaking around meeting up. Seems like you share a lot of secrets."
"Hey. That was..."
"Oh! It's getting late. I gotta go. Need to find a partner for the group event!"
Choi Seo-yoon said in a bright, forceful voice. Her tone was unnecessarily high-pitched.
"Uh, yeah. Sure."
"Take care!"
Choi Seo-yoon dashed off somewhere. Her steps were quick, like she'd used mana.
The next day, 9:50 a.m.
The group event considered the most important of the day—monster hunting—began.
Nearly 150 students arrived via portal at the Wizards' Association-owned monster field, "Ghost Island."
This island had long been prepared as a historic site for the Magic Academy's monster field exams.
Like Fog Island before it, this place had its own special natural mana disaster.
The nature of the mana disaster on this island was "Echoes of the Dead."
[This island has its own unique mana disaster. It's called a mana mirage, illusion, ghost, and more. You might even have a special experience here.]
The announcer—no, the teacher in charge of this monster hunt event—said.
Yoo Ara, standing beside me, finally nodded as if she understood.
"So this is Ghost Island. Amazing."
I teased Yoo Ara playfully.
"It's famous for ghosts, you know. Watch out so you don't get possessed."
"...Possessed? It's probably just a type of illusion magic."
Yoo Ara's reaction was cool.
She wasn't pretending not to be scared—she genuinely wasn't.
Then again, she probably wouldn't be scared even if ghosts were real.
If one showed up, she'd probably blast it with fire magic.
[The rules are simple. You get points for killing monsters. Rankings are determined by points at the end of the time limit. Points vary based on the monster cores you collect.]
This "Ghost Island" episode might seem like just a minor school festival event, but it was fairly important.
It was set to provide a clue about a key figure in the main story.
[Additionally, stealing cores from other teams or harming them is strictly prohibited. You'll be disqualified immediately if caught.]
I glanced over at Lee Seo-jun.
Oblivious to what might happen, Lee Seo-jun was chatting happily with his teammate, Lee Hyun-joo.
I checked the other key players.
Won-hyuk and one extra.
Me and Yoo Ara.
Choi Seo-yoon and Song Soo-ah.
I still couldn't figure out why Choi Seo-yoon and Song Soo-ah were teamed up, no matter how I thought about it.
It must be some butterfly effect from my interference.
That's when my eyes met Choi Seo-yoon's. She seemed startled for a second, then subtly looked away.
...What was that?
Then the voice rang out again.
[The exam lasts a total of 8 hours!]
[The team that kills the most monsters gets the most coins!]
[Let's begin!]
The event started.
Two hours into the event.
Yoo Ara and I were walking through the forest inside Ghost Island.
Nothing particularly dangerous had happened.
We easily took down every monster we encountered, collecting a whopping 55 cores already.
Considering it had only been two hours, it was an insanely fast pace.
The reason we could gather cores this quickly was, of course, my pre-regression knowledge of where monsters clustered.
At this rate, we'd probably take first by a landslide.
"Kim Sun-woo."
"Yeah?"
"...Have you been here before?"
Yoo Ara shot me a suspicious glare.
"Would I have?"
"Then how do you know the way so well?"
"Monster fields are all pretty much the same."
Yoo Ara glared at my half-hearted answer with suspicion, then let out a deep sigh.
"Fine. This isn't the first time something like this has happened."
Yoo Ara muttered quietly.
"Anyway, it's starting to feel creepy."
Yoo Ara looked around.
As we delved deeper into the forest heart, the atmosphere lived up to the island's name—eerie, like ghosts might appear any second.
Affected by the mana disaster, the sky had darkened, and the surrounding trees looked withered and bare.
The plants were dead as could be, making the island feel devoid of life.
"Feels like ghosts could pop out, right?"
"Yeah. I get why it's called Ghost Island."
I chuckled at that.
"It's not just the vibe—actual ghosts come out, that's why it's Ghost Island."
"...I told you, it's illusion magic. Ghosts aren't real."
Yoo Ara glared at me like I was joking.
"Well, you're not wrong, but it's different from regular illusion magic."
"You talk like you know all about it. You have been here, haven't you? Last year?"
"What are you on about? It only opens every three years."
"Oh, right?"
Instead of answering, I shrugged and stood up.
It was about time.
To handle what was coming, we needed to link up with Lee Seo-jun's team.
In the original, Lee Seo-jun handled it fine on his own, but I couldn't shake the unease—just in case.
I opened my smart student handbook and checked the Ghost Island map.
My position was roughly here. Head north more?
"Let's go deeper in. Stronger monsters should be that way."
It was to insert ourselves with Lee Seo-jun, but Yoo Ara nodded without a second thought.
And so we pressed on, hunting monsters as we went.
Our teamwork was better than expected.
I handled close range while Yoo Ara supported from behind.
I'd adjusted to her style, but even so, we made a solid duo.
...Another hour passed like that.
We reached the forest center.
This was where the "Ghost Island" episode kicked off.
A chilling wind rustled the leaves around us. A shiver ran down my spine from the cold.
—Whoa. This is scary.
—Hey, be careful.
Then voices came from somewhere.
A man's and a woman's.
Clear as day in my ears.
Yoo Ara and I froze, quickly scanning the surroundings.
"...Did you hear that voice just now?"
Yoo Ara asked me with a suddenly serious expression.
"Yeah. I heard it."
"Is someone there? I don't sense anyone."
...Whoosh!
At that moment, something zipped past a tree about 100 meters away.
We whipped our heads toward the sound.
Something had darted between the trees.
It was too fast to make out clearly. But it was definitely human-shaped.
Tension crept onto Yoo Ara's face.
"There's someone here."
Then the voices came again.
—What? Something's really there?
—Hey, I'm scared.
The voices' owners seemed just as puzzled by the situation as we were.
Yoo Ara, her face tense, summoned a small fireball above her hand.
She'd instinctively realized the voice owners weren't normal humans.
I grabbed Yoo Ara's wrist. She looked at me in surprise.
"Relax. It's nothing big."
"...What was that voice? Something's off."
As I opened my mouth to explain, two people appeared before us.
Two translucent figures.
A handsome man and a woman, walking amiably side by side.
They looked around frantically, faces full of fear.
The odd thing was they wore Magic Academy uniforms, just like us.
—What do we do?
—Let's get out of here. This feels bad.
—The others? Aren't they here too? Yoon-kyung's coming, right? We said we'd meet here.
The two conversed right in front of us as if we were invisible, then walked on.
And about three seconds later.
They vanished like dust, as if they'd never been there.
I glanced at Yoo Ara. As expected, her eyes were wide with shock.
She finally spoke.
"...Dad?"
Meanwhile, Lee Seo-jun and Lee Hyun-joo were going through the exact same thing in the island's center.
"That was a ghost, right?"
"...Yeah. Ghosts."
"Wow. Ghost Island lives up to the name—we actually saw ghosts."
"It's probably a type of illusion magic. Most likely."
Lee Seo-jun said, recalling the "Nightmare Island" incident from summer break.
"Eek. Goosebumps."
Lee Hyun-joo rubbed her arms.
"But those ghosts were wearing our school uniforms, right?"
"Yeah. I saw that too."
"But theirs were a tiny bit different from ours. Kinda more outdated, I guess?"
"Yeah, they had an old-fashioned vibe."
As they walked, rustling came from the distant bushes and leaves again.
Ssssh...
Lee Seo-jun and Lee Hyun-joo stopped.
Were more ghosts coming? They swallowed hard, faces tense, gathering mana in case of a monster attack.
But the one who emerged from the bushes was unexpected.
"Seo-jun sunbae?"
Choi Seo-yoon strode forward confidently, with Song Soo-ah glued to her side, looking scared.
Lee Seo-jun relaxed his guard with relief.
"It's you, Seo-yoon."
"Wow, running into you right here."
Choi Seo-yoon greeted him happily. Song Soo-ah's face brightened with relief at seeing a familiar face.
Then Choi Seo-yoon asked cautiously.
"Did you see it too, sunbae?"
"The ghost? Yeah, I saw it."
"Figures. We saw it too. I didn't think there'd actually be ghosts."
"Yeah. Were the ones you saw wearing uniforms?"
"Huh? Yeah, they had uniforms on. You too?"
"Yeah. All the ghosts I saw were in uniforms."
"Uniforms, huh. What gives? They were all unfamiliar faces."
Lee Seo-jun nodded in agreement. The ghosts he'd seen wore the same uniforms but were mostly strangers.
"Oh, have you guys taken down any monsters?"
"Nope. We've only got 12 cores so far. You?"
"We've got 22."
"Wow! You've got so many? That's double ours. Jealous."
Lee Seo-jun shrugged with a laugh.
"It's not that much. We haven't run into tons of monsters either."
"Come on, that's gotta put you in the top three at least."
"You think?"
"Of course~"
Choi Seo-yoon continued.
"Oh! Well, we should get going then.