# Chapter 12
Woo Sihyun was an alpha male who had established himself as an idol among his peers with his handsome appearance and overwhelming abilities.
A powerful elemental Esper, handsome looks, and cold personality made him stand out even more. And beside him was always Lee Seungwoo, who was constantly smiling but still gave the impression of looking down on people despite that expression.
Lee Seungwoo was also a powerful elemental Esper, raised in a good family that carried on the family business for generations. In Korea, there were quite a few companies created by early manifested ability users, who became new chaebol families enjoying power and wealth. Lee Seungwoo was a child from one of those families that produced powerful Espers.
There had been no problems for them until Ko Eungyo put both Woo Sihyun, who was trying to slip away like a loach using his backing, and Lee Seungwoo, who had been trying to divert Woo Sihyun away from Ko Eungyo, into “my.”
Some said it was a power struggle between Lee Seungwoo’s family and Ko Eungyo’s family, while others expressed that Ko Eungyo had exploited a loophole in Guide matching to grasp Lee Seungwoo in his hands as well.
No one knew the truth. But one thing was certain. They would never have wanted Ko Eungyo.
Perhaps Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo weren’t as close before they were tied together with Ko Eungyo. However, since Ko Eungyo had become their common enemy, they had consistently shown off their friendship.
Generally, Lee Seungwoo would create the occasion, and Woo Sihyun would generate the rumors.
None of their classmates had missed the free drinking gatherings that had started last week. The ability users from Korea University’s special department invited to these drinking parties were seniors in their final semester, those who had left required liberal arts courses for their last term. Some of the most promising students were already affiliated with Centers and active.
Naturally, among them, Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo were rookie stars who had appeared like comets. To thrive as a field ability user, connections could never be ignored. Having established themselves as S-class Espers since their manifestation, they were literally walking corporations.
Boycotting the first day’s orientation class was an idea from students who didn’t want to upset Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo. As expected, Professor Ko Eungyo couldn’t say anything and kept glancing sideways at Woo Sihyun while pretending to check the time. All the students could see that.
‘This is seriously disgusting.’
Someone said while drinking beer on Wednesday evening. Everyone nodded unconsciously. To be fair, Professor Ko Eungyo looked quite unattractive. Not only was he extremely thin, but his face wasn’t particularly pretty or handsome like a good-looking man. He had a plain appearance and even looked depressed.
So it was rather obvious why he kept following Woo Sihyun around and bothering him. Next to him, Woo Sihyun looked absolutely perfect, like a god from mythology.
“Shall we stop here? Yes, 5 minutes and 36 seconds.”
But why was there a slight tension building as this unremarkable man continued speaking?
The leader of Team 1 glanced at his team members several times, acting like a fool. What are you trying to say? Are you suggesting we apologize now? The team members who made eye contact with him each frowned.
“Team 1 leader, Kim Seonyeol.”
“Yes.”
“It seems the equipment check is complete, but there’s a problem. What do you think it is?”
Kim Seonyeol, who was called on, quickly racked his brain, but naturally, there was no way a proper answer would come out. If he had known there was a problem, he would have fixed it already. He rolled his eyes, trying to escape the black eyes of Professor Ko Eungyo staring at him. There was no point in telling his team members how strict this professor was; they wouldn’t listen to him anyway.
“Is it that we brought a revolver?”
After a moment of silence, Kim Seonyeol mumbled hesitantly. Of course, Ko Eungyo hadn’t asked to point out and scold him. He didn’t expect the Team 1 leader to know that. He was merely pretending to be a kind educator.
“No, it’s not. I never prohibited bringing firearms. But well, I do wonder why you brought firearms. This is a swamp gate, and fire is completely useless against mud golems, isn’t it? ‘Gate compatibility’ doesn’t just account for Espers and monsters. Obviously, the compatibility between your prepared weapons and monsters is also very important. This was pointed out in the preparation report, but it wasn’t corrected at all. And the biggest problem is that you’re not carrying backpacks. For a gate of this size, you would need to stay inside for at least two days, so how could you do that without tents and sleeping bags?”
Until then, Ko Eungyo hadn’t thought much about it. There were dozens of problems, but he had no intention of pointing them all out.
However, the more he watched the video, the more serious problems appeared that he simply couldn’t ignore. These issues became even more apparent the more he reviewed the footage.
He abandoned his relatively calm and mature educator attitude before even ten minutes had passed. Looking down at Team 1, who were half stunned, Ko Eungyo personally held the remote and skipped through the recorded scenes.
“22 minutes, 23 seconds. You should at least identify what kind of mud golem you’re facing when you first encounter it. 22 minutes, 25 seconds. Even if you have martial arts ability, hitting a monster first isn’t a very good habit. What would you do if it was a monster that spits poison? You should especially remember that most monsters living in mud have poisonous stingers. 22 minutes, 26 seconds. Do you see the team’s only Guide alone? 22 minutes, 29 seconds. Oh dear, it even looks like they want to pull aggro (drawing the monster’s attention). Having the Guide act as bait doesn’t seem like a good choice. Remember that golems respond to high frequencies, so you should never scream under any circumstances. 23 minutes, 02 seconds. Naturally, Espers shouldn’t ignore when the Guide is being chased. 23 minutes, 11 seconds. Are you still watching the Guide being chased? The response speed is too slow. 24 minutes, 22 seconds. Well, now the Guide has been caught. 28 minutes, 10 seconds. Swamp gate mock battle failure. If this had been a real gate, it would have been a more terrible situation.”
You would all be dead. Complete annihilation. Or pray and hope for divine protection.
When he finally put down the remote after spouting the same words he’d said every day as a team leader, there were exactly 3 minutes left in the lecture.
Ko Eungyo, who briefly checked the clock, quickly looked at Team 1.
Everyone was staring at him with their mouths hanging open. These kinds of expressions were actually more familiar to him. Ko Eungyo looked at Kim Seonyeol with a calm expression.
“I asked you to submit a mock gate simulation, not an ability user vlog, Kim Seonyeol.”
“……”
“I remember saying I couldn’t give points for a presentation like this. You must have forgotten to relay that to your team members.”
With a click, the presentation ended cleanly. Simultaneously, Kim Seonyeol’s face turned burning red.
“Due to time constraints, we can’t do the presentation again, so please rewrite the preparation report from the beginning, and based on that, film a mock gate simulation and upload it to the lecture bulletin board.”
“…Yes.”
In short, he was telling them to redo the assignment from scratch. The faces of Team 1 members, excluding Kim Seonyeol, contorted. One of them openly showed a face full of complaints but seemed to be holding back. After all, they were students, and Ko Eungyo was a professor. This course was a required liberal arts class, so they had to earn points to complete it.
Ko Eungyo also felt like sighing, but he, too, held back his sigh like an adult. He didn’t want to say anything more to the students either. His principle was to give grades according to their level. However, since they were students, he would also give them a fair chance to make up for it.
After all, it was the first presentation review. Ko Eungyo was quite nervous, to the extent that he didn’t even notice someone was giving him a strange look.
The second presentation was a bit better.
The following Monday, having relieved his stress with beer the previous evening, he watched with a more relaxed expression as Nam Seonjae gave his presentation clearly and precisely.
To be honest, Team 2’s presentation was so excellent that there was almost nothing to review. Nam Seonjae was undoubtedly one of the Espers who had experienced clearing gates in the field. All the students watching the presentation could tell.
“Good.”
His single word gently settled over the quiet atmosphere. He looked at Nam Seonjae with a smiling face.
“Everything is good, and Nam Seonjae is a C-class Esper, right?”
“Yes.”
“You brought firearms to substitute for a high-rank Esper. Is that correct?”
“Yes, Professor.”
A strange tension appeared on his puppy-like cute face in response to Ko Eungyo’s question. This was because of Team 1’s experience of being trapped in a crazy feedback hell during the previous presentation.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
