[A terrorist has been neutralized.]
[Remaining number of terrorists: 7]
Lee Seo-jun and Luke were dealing with the terrorists who had broken into the exhibition hall.
At that moment, the will of the system echoed in their ears.
It was the announcement that one of the terrorists had been taken down.
“What the?”
Considering the skill level of the terrorist he was facing, it was an incredibly fast development.
Lee Seo-jun instinctively sensed who might have done it.
It was probably Kim Sunwoo.
Everyone except Kim Sunwoo had gathered inside the exhibition hall, and it was always Kim Sunwoo who surprised him in situations like this.
“……What? Already taken care of? Could it be Kim Sunwoo?”
Luke, too, was making a surprised expression.
Lee Seo-jun looked at Luke and nodded.
“It’s probably Kim Sunwoo.”
“……”
Luke, still looking surprised at Lee Seo-jun’s answer, fell into brief thought.
“Wait. Now that I think about it, something’s strange.”
“What is?”
Lee Seo-jun asked.
“They said there are 7 terrorists remaining.”
“So what?”
Lee Seo-jun replied.
“There are 6 terrorists here right now.”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“And Kim Sunwoo just took one down, but there’s still one terrorist we haven’t seen yet.”
At those words, Lee Seo-jun also realized something felt off.
“You’re right. Could it be there’s still one more left near Kim Sunwoo…… Uwah!”
Suddenly, a spear thrust toward him.
Lee Seo-jun hurriedly leaned his body back to dodge the spear.
The terrorist right in front of him had launched a surprise attack.
“Forget the deductions for now, focus on the fight!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Stepping back from the terrorist, Lee Seo-jun stared intently at him.
A strange sense of déjà vu struck him.
The physique, and the long spear.
It felt oddly similar to someone from Jaun that he had seen during the Night of the Pioneer over summer break.
Was it just his imagination?
Although it bothered him quite a bit, he emptied his mind and decided to focus on the current situation.
“Haaah!”
Lee Seo-jun dashed forward quickly, closing the distance in an instant, and swung his sword.
Clang!
However, Lee Seo-jun’s sword was easily blocked by the shaft of the spear.
The terrorist then deflected the sword with the spear and immediately thrust forward.
In that instant, light magic flickered over Lee Seo-jun’s body, and he dodged the spear with a movement as fast as light.
“……!”
The moment the opponent was caught off guard by Lee Seo-jun’s sudden movement—
Pew─!
A projectile imbued with electric power shot from behind, leaving a trail of light like a laser.
The projectile struck the terrorist’s shoulder precisely, and with a crackling sound, a strong electric shock erupted.
“……!”
The terrorist rolled on the ground and began twitching uncontrollably in pain.
Lee Seo-jun didn’t miss the opportunity.
He dashed forward again and swiftly slashed the terrorist’s neck.
Slice!
[A terrorist has been neutralized.]
[Remaining number of terrorists: 6]
Hearing the system’s will once again, Lee Seo-jun let out a sigh of relief.
The opponent had been much stronger than he expected.
Even teaming up with Luke had only gotten them this far.
……Now only 6 were left.
Lee Seo-jun turned around and looked at his teammates who were still battling the terrorists.
Although they had the advantage in numbers, they were struggling against the enemy’s strength.
Lee Seo-jun shifted his gaze to Luke and said,
“Let’s go help.”
Time passed.
They had reached the final stage of the training.
[Remaining number of terrorists: 1]
Before they knew it, only one terrorist remained.
But no matter how hard they looked, there was no sign of where they were hiding.
They had scoured the entire area, but found no one suspicious.
Everyone just looked like ordinary NPCs.
In the end, I gave up searching and regrouped with my teammates.
“Hey, Kim Sunwoo’s coming.”
“Did you find any clues?”
As I approached, Shin Young-joon and Choi Seo-yoon spoke to me as if they had been waiting.
“Nothing. I searched the entire area, but there’s absolutely nothing.”
“Hmm. Why isn’t the last one showing up? Do we need to gather some clues to move on to the next stage or something?”
Luke muttered quietly.
“Stage?”
Lee Seo-jun asked back at Luke’s words.
“If that’s not it, why hasn’t the training ended yet?”
“Hm. That makes sense.”
Lee Seo-jun nodded.
As we were wondering why the training wasn’t ending—
A chill swept over me, and I felt a creeping sense of dread.
It was the activation of the ‘Killing Intent Detection’ trait.
I turned my gaze toward the direction the feeling came from.
There was a building in that direction.
And from the rooftop, someone was looking down at us.
It was a familiar face.
But it was someone I hadn’t expected, and I was slightly surprised.
“See something?”
Following my gaze, Lee Seo-jun also turned his head.
At that moment, the person on the rooftop stepped back and disappeared from view.
Lee Seo-jun looked at the rooftop, then turned his gaze back to me.
“What were you looking at?”
I shook my head.
“……Nothing.”
At my words, Lee Seo-jun nodded without suspicion.
I fell into brief thought.
The man I had just seen was Jin, a member of Jaun.
He wasn’t one of the fake terrorists created by Mystery.
If he were a fake, his features would have been blurry, and that kind of intimidating aura couldn’t possibly come from a fake.
Which meant that Jaun was aboard this ship……
At the same time, I realized why Han Se-jin’s Jaun Subjugation Squad had appeared on Atlantis yesterday.
It was because Jaun had boarded this ship.
Just as I had feared, the timeline for the ‘Poseidon’ hijacking incident had moved up.
And I finally understood the hidden secret behind this training.
The method was different from the original, so it had taken me a while to notice, but the concept was still similar.
This virtual world had hidden ‘key fragments needed to unlock Poseidon’s barrier.
Fragments were likely hidden in other places as well.
Jin must have come here targeting those key fragments.
“No, seriously, where’s the last terrorist?”
“Isn’t this some kind of glitch?”
Growing tired of waiting, frustrated voices began to rise around us.
And then—
[All terrorists have been neutralized.]
[Ending training session.]
[The Blessing of Mana will be bestowed as a reward.]
At the sudden announcement, everyone’s eyes widened in shock.
“Huh? All of a sudden?”
Flash!
Light burst out, and Jin returned to reality.
The place where he was standing now was behind the 16th floor training ground.
He had used the artifact owned by Jaun, the “Illusion Intervention Device,” to intervene in the “virtual world” where the students were training.
This was to obtain the key to break the “Poseidon’s” barrier hidden within the virtual world.
And in Jin’s hand was a gemstone.
“…Hmm. By the way, that’s impressive.”
Jin stroked the gemstone, recalling what had just happened.
Even though he had hidden all traces and magic power, there was someone who had detected his presence.
It was Kim Sunwoo.
If someone deliberately concealed their presence, only people with senses as sharp as Kim Jin-cheol or ‘that person’ would notice.
This meant that Kim Sunwoo had that level of sharp perception.
“No wonder Bert is interested.”
Jin grinned and started walking.
He soon arrived at the place where his companions were gathered.
“You’re here? Did you find the key fragment?”
At Baek Eun-seong’s call, Jin nodded.
“Yeah. Here.”
He shook the gemstone in his hand, and Baek Eun-seong smiled.
“Oh. Mission completed properly, huh?”
“I’m not you, you know?”
At Jin’s words, Baek Eun-seong frowned.
“Ah, seriously. How long are you going to keep bringing that up?”
What Jin and Baek Eun-seong were referring to was the past incident where Baek Eun-seong lost the “Cup of Life” in Incheon.
Ever since that incident, Baek Eun-seong had become the butt of jokes among his companions.
“Yep. I’m going to bring it up forever~”
“Just you wait. I’ll find that bearded guy and take him down. Including Theresa’s revenge.”
Baek Eun-seong clenched both his fists tightly as he spoke.
“Revenge, huh. And how are you going to find him? You don’t even know his face.”
“But we have one big clue, don’t we?”
“Big clue? What is it?”
“He’s a member of the Rune Clan.”
“Ah… that’s actually a pretty big clue.”
Jin nodded.
At that moment, Bert, who had been quietly observing, joined the conversation.
“Right. Jin, how was your experience in the virtual world?”
“The virtual world? It was whatever. Finding the key fragment was a bit annoying though. Oh, and I saw you guys there too.”
“Us?”
At Jin’s words, Bert’s expression filled with curiosity.
“Yeah. The faces were a bit different, but the abilities were pretty similar.”
“Really? That’s funny. It’s supposed to be a terror simulation, but shouldn’t they at least get our permission before using our likeness?”
“It wasn’t set up by the Association. Probably illusions that Poseidon created on his own.”
“Hmm. That could be. So, who killed me?”
At Bert’s question, Jin smirked and said,
“Kim Sunwoo.”
After all the training ended, we returned to reality.
Thanks to the blessing of Mystery, our magic power had slightly increased, but rather than being happy about the blessing, everyone still seemed puzzled by the abrupt end of the training.
The students began asking the teachers about why the training had ended so suddenly.
However, the teachers also didn’t understand the situation and could only repeat that there seemed to have been a glitch with Mystery.
From the start, these training facilities weren’t operated by the Mage Academy, so the teachers had no way of knowing the real cause.
The teacher said they would discuss the issue with Atlantis training facility staff.
But I had a faint idea of the reason.
Probably, among the terrorists generated in the training ground, there was a “fake Jin” included.
However, since the “real Jin” had infiltrated the virtual world, the mystery must have malfunctioned.
Well, it was just a small incident caused by the overlap of virtual and real.
“What time is it now?”
“5 p.m.”
“Wow. It’s that late already? What are you going to do now?”
“Don’t know. I heard there’s a relic instrument concert at 8 p.m. Want to go? They say if you listen to it, you’ll get a blessing effect for a few hours.”
“A blessing effect? That’s cool.”
Lee Seo-jun and Shin Young-joon chatted beside me.
“Then shall we all go together?”
“I’m in!”
Choi Seo-yoon chimed in.
Song Seung-ah also nodded in agreement.
Then everyone’s gaze turned to me.
“Kim Sunwoo. You’re coming too, right?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Eh? Why?”
“I’m tired. I’m going to rest.”
Now that I knew Jaun was on this ship, I couldn’t just hang around idly.
At that moment, Choi Seo-yoon approached.
“Then let’s go somewhere we can rest together. Like a spa.”
“A spa? I’m not really into that kind of thing.”
“Then where are you going to rest? I want to come too.”
Choi Seo-yoon said with a much more serious expression.
There were plenty of people around, but she didn’t seem to care about others gazes anymore.
Thanks to that, Lee Seo-jun and Shin Young-joon were giving me very strange looks.
“I’m going to rest at the dormitory.”
“The dormitory?”
Choi Seo-yoon blinked.
Then she opened her mouth as if realizing something.
“…It would be a bit much to follow you there, right?”
What a dangerous thing to say.
“Are you seriously asking that?”
“Tch. We’ve come all the way here, might as well hang out together.”
Choi Seo-yoon muttered regretfully while looking down at the floor.
“Yeah, she’s right. Let’s just hang out together.”
Lee Seo-jun added a comment.
But even if I really wanted to hang out, my anxiety wouldn’t let me.
Of course, considering Jaun was seriously targeting Poseidon right now, there probably wasn’t much I could do.
Still, if I start thinking hard and moving from now, something might come out of it.
“No. I’m tired. I’m leaving.”
At my firm words, Lee Seo-jun nodded.
“…Well, fine then.”
At that moment, the teacher spoke.
“All right, the training is officially over. The remaining time is your free time. Please rest well.”
7 p.m.
Elin was walking through the underground levels with five companions.
This was the second basement floor.
It was known as the engine room of Atlantis, but in truth, the sacred relic “Poseidon” was hidden here.
“I thought the security was lax… but of course, they had a hidden backup.”
Elin murmured, staring at the translucent barrier blocking their path.
“Besides that, there are also illusion spells. It’s extremely complicated.”
“Hmm. Really? If you’re saying that, it must be serious.”
Everyone listened carefully to Elin’s words.
They all knew from previous tests that she was a rather skilled support-type mage.
“Can you break through it?”
A brown-haired man, Alex, asked.
“This is a barrier imbued with Mystery. Not just any Mystery, but Poseidon’s. No matter what we do, it can’t be broken.”
“Tch. As expected of a sacred relic, the security is tight.”
“Probably, to open this, we’ll need a key. That’s usually how Mystery-based barriers work.”
“You seem to know a lot about this?”
“I’ve seen a similar type of barrier before.”
Elin muttered, recalling the barrier that had once protected her clan’s village.
Of course, Jaun had managed to break through that barrier somehow and steal the clan’s Mystery.
“But we don’t necessarily have to break through. If we just wait around here, the others will show up eventually, right?”
“That’s true, but this place is huge. If we get separated, we might miss them. Oh, right. Why are they even after Poseidon anyway?”
Alex muttered to himself in a curious voice, then continued speaking.
“I heard that Jaun doesn’t just target any Mystery blindly. They only go after the ones they actually need.”
Elin nodded at Alex’s words.
It was well-known that Jaun only pursued Mystery they required.
However, “Poseidon” was famous for being a Mystery with very limited applications.
Naturally, because Poseidon could only be used “above the sea.”
“Then maybe they have something they need to do at sea.”
“Something to do at sea? Hmm. What could that be?”
Alex stroked his chin and fell deep into thought.
“Anyway, let’s head back up. No point in just sitting here waiting.”
“Yeah. Plus, this isn’t the only way to get to the engine room.”
Thus, they climbed the stairs back to the first floor.
Crowds of people came into view.
At that moment, Elin’s eyes caught a glimpse of a man.
“Huh?”
“What’s wrong?”
The man disappeared instantly.
Elin stood still, dazed.
“That guy just now…”
He looked very similar to the bearded man she had met at the social event.
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