## Chapter 1743 – 1743. Savior Of The Academy
“Delicious.”
Young-ha Lee said while eating toast.
The virtual reality Terra simulator was surprisingly crude yet surprisingly well-made.
‘There’s a satiety system.’
Just like in reality, if you didn’t eat, you would get hungry. If you kept starving, your vitality would decrease, and you could die, so you had to eat food regularly.
Objectively speaking, the quality of the taste implemented in the virtual reality was not bad. However, subjectively, it was a different story.
‘The taste feels somewhat indirect.’
It felt like eating food with a thin condom over your tongue.
Sung-ha Lee and Young-ha Lee were eating the toast deliciously, so it seemed like I was the only one who felt that way.
Munch, munch.
I chewed and swallowed the toast. Even if it didn’t taste good, I had to eat to avoid starving to death.
‘Everything is good, but mealtime is a chore.’
After a simple breakfast, we re-entered the Forest of Bewilderment.
The Forest of Bewilderment was not a simple place. Putting aside the monsters, the environment itself was hostile. That’s why we had quite a hard time yesterday. But not today.
It was difficult to see beyond 10 meters, but now we could see beyond 100 meters. There was no longer any worry about getting lost.
「Arinna’s flower is exerting its power.」
「The bewilderment of the Forest of Bewilderment dissipates.」
There were no status ailments from the Forest of Bewilderment either.
‘Very good.’
Unlike when I came here yesterday, I felt refreshed.
“Here…”
Sung-ha Lee’s reaction was a bit strange. She climbed up a tree and looked around the entire forest. Then, she came down, tried to hide her bewilderment, and said to me.
“Yujin, let’s go that way.”
Sung-ha Lee pointed to the right. I was taken aback by the sudden suggestion.
“Suddenly? Did you see something?”
“It’s not clear yet. You’ll know if we go. I hope it’s not….”
Sung-ha Lee trailed off and glanced at Young-ha Lee. Young-ha Lee frowned as if she didn’t like that.
We moved following Sung-ha Lee. I didn’t know what Sung-ha Lee was worried about, but she was very serious. The place we arrived at was a place with a large rock. A rock this big in the forest? It was a bit out of place.
“Hey. Move that rock.”
Sung-ha Lee called out to Young-ha Lee.
“That’s rude…. Did you think I’d say ‘Yes!’ just because an old lady told me to?”
“I’m asking you because you’re the strongest here. Hurry up and do it. You’re not going to say it’s difficult, are you?”
“You can do that much, can’t you?”
“…I don’t have that much strength right now.”
Sung-ha Lee clicked her tongue at Young-ha Lee openly. Young-ha Lee glared at Sung-ha Lee with a dissatisfied look, then placed both hands on the huge rock.
The rock was pushed away. What was underneath was a cave. Looking closely at the rock, there was something like a strange pattern written on the bottom. It seemed that the rock wasn’t originally meant to be moved by force.
“Wow. Mom. How did you know there was a cave here?”
“……”
Sung-ha Lee glared at the inside of the cave as if she wanted to kill it.
“Mom?”
“Ah. Sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment.”
A look of worry appeared on Sung-ha Lee’s face. Normally, I might have just let it go. But the situation was different now. This virtual reality felt like it was flowing around Sung-ha Lee. She might have something important.
“Mom. What is it? You know something, don’t you?”
“…How should I put it? I know this forest. I’ve been here before. Yesterday, I couldn’t see far, so I didn’t know, but now I’m sure.”
“Where is this?”
“It’s one of the mountains in southern China. I’ve forgotten the name of the mountain, but I’m sure of it.”
“This isn’t a mountain, it’s a forest?”
“That’s why I didn’t recognize it right away at first. But now it feels like they’ve spread out the mountain to make it a forest. This is the proof.”
Sung-ha Lee pointed to the cave. She knew, so she found this hidden cave.
“A long time ago. Well, before you were born, Yujin, I worked with people in China.”
“Is it related to the Ghost Fall Valley?”
“You could say it’s similar. But how do you know about that, Yujin?”
“A Jiangshi sorcerer appeared yesterday. Then, it’s most likely related to the Ghost Fall Valley.”
If it was the Ghost Fall Valley, which could be called China’s biggest villain group, it was understandable why Sung-ha Lee would get involved. Moreover, it seemed like those guys were testing with spirits from behind.
“To be more precise, it’s the Corpse Spirit Sect. It’s a place that was absorbed into the Ghost Fall Valley and disappeared, but… it wasn’t when I was active. My job back then was to eradicate the Corpse Spirit Sect. One of their hideouts was here.”
Young-ha Lee interjected.
“Wait. If it’s the Corpse Spirit Sect, that’s the force Wang Zixin was with. We crushed them all without leaving a single one behind? There was no place like this back then.”
“I killed Wang Zixin myself. But I didn’t bother with the Corpse Spirit Sect. I didn’t have the justification for it. But you….”
“Ah. That’s right. You betrayed the Spirit King, didn’t you? I can’t understand it. Why did you give up on revenge?”
“Too many people were involved. Some of them were involved without even knowing it.”
“That’s ridiculous. Whether they knew it or not… they have to pay the price for what they did.”
The atmosphere became tense.
This topic was sensitive. It was because their beliefs clashed. Sung-ha Lee, who remained a hero from beginning to end, and Young-ha Lee, who became a villain because of my involvement. That incident that divided them was a topic to be avoided.
“Calm down. We didn’t come here to fight each other. Mom, so what’s down in this cave?”
“I don’t remember the name… but there should be a cadre of the Corpse Spirit Sect. He’s a crazy guy who became a Jiangshi by putting all sorts of drugs and corpse spirit techniques on his body.”
“So this is the boss room. Is there a weakness for the Jiangshi?”
“It was hard to deal with because of some kind of death energy. The best thing to do was to drag him outside… but the Jiangshi wouldn’t come out no matter what. His back was the weakest. I guess less of the drugs seeped in there?”
Sung-ha Lee, in her prime, said it was hard to deal with. That alone made the Jiangshi an unexpected monster-level threat. But now, we had Young-ha Lee.
“Let’s go down.”
We went down into the cave. There was a smell of corpses.
‘They’ve implemented this well.’
As we went deeper, a large space appeared. In the center was a small pond, and the Jiangshi was inside it. The Jiangshi looked at us from the pond and slowly rose. The Jiangshi stared at Sung-ha Lee and opened his mouth.
“Sung, Ha, Lee.”
The rough voice repeated Sung-ha Lee’s name intermittently.
The two Sung-ha Lees frowned at the same time.
“What’s with calling someone else’s name so carelessly?”
“For a dead guy to call my name as he pleases… that’s unpleasant.”
“You, are, our, dis, tur, ber. I, will, kill, you!”
The Jiangshi jumped. At the same time, Young-ha Lee rushed at the Jiangshi first and swung her spear. The Jiangshi’s unbelievably hard skin was not cut by the spear blade. Instead, he was sent flying backward as if hit by a club and crashed into the wall.
“Oppa! Use that thing!”
“Holy Power! Holy Blessing!”
I used buff skills on both Young-ha Lee and Sung-ha Lee. They were pushing the Jiangshi. Young-ha Lee with strength, and Sung-ha Lee with technique. Apart from their bad relationship, their teamwork was close to perfect.
‘But they’ve been enduring the twin-Ha’s teamwork for over 5 minutes?’
The Jiangshi.
He was stronger than I thought. The death energy around him was giving the Jiangshi power. I aimed for the Jiangshi’s weak point, his back, but it didn’t do critical damage.
‘Did he get an extra buff in virtual reality?’
The Young-ha Lee I trusted was unable to use her strength in this space. It was because of the death energy that filled this space.
Kwaaang!
With a loud noise, Sung-ha Lee flew away. She rolled on the floor and shook off the impact.
“Heal!”
I restored Sung-ha Lee’s vitality. Sung-ha Lee, who was breathing heavily, smiled.
“Thank you.”
Then, she rushed towards the Jiangshi again. Somehow, she seemed to be enjoying facing a strong enemy. Young-ha Lee was the same.
‘But I can’t just stand still like this.’
Even in virtual reality, you get tired. On the other hand, the Jiangshi didn’t get tired. As time passed, the chances of winning decreased.
‘The Jiangshi has a brain. A clumsy lure won’t work.’
I couldn’t rashly interfere in Sung-ha Lee’s battle. The level was too high. If I interfered, I would only hold them back. There was a limit to supporting them with buff skills from behind.
‘If I could use an instant, I would interfere and give him a blow.’
Something flashed through my mind. I couldn’t use an instant, and I couldn’t use full recovery either. But I could use hacking.
‘Hacking to eliminate monsters was treated as an error and immediately restored. But what if I used it in a different way?’
It was worth experimenting.
I quietly waited for an opportunity.
“Death, Life, Connection, Head!”
The Jiangshi shouted. His power exploded, and the Sung-ha Lees were sent flying backward. The death energy fluctuated. I, who was also far away, took damage from the aftermath.
The Jiangshi jumped straight at me. It seemed he decided to kill the weakest one first.
‘It’s the perfect timing.’
[Hacking successful.]
[Hacking the Terra simulator for 1.1 seconds.]
I drew my sword and swung it at the Jiangshi.
What I changed with hacking was the attack power of the sword. I changed the attack power of the sword to the maximum number possible.
「Hunter’s Sword
A sword used by a hunter.
Attack Power +99999
Attack Speed +5%
Status Ailment Bleeding Rate +3%」
The tip of the sword touched the Jiangshi’s chest. That was enough.
Virtual reality.
The world of games.
Unlike reality, there were absolute laws, and no one could escape those laws.
The Jiangshi died simply because the tip of the sword touched his body.
As soon as the hacking duration ended, a notification window popped up.
「An unknown error has occurred.」
「Restoring the error.」
「Hunter’s Sword
A sword used by a hunter.
Attack Power +30
Attack Speed +5%
Status Ailment Bleeding Rate +3%」
The Hunter’s Sword returned to its original state. Fortunately, the dead Jiangshi did not regenerate.
‘This hack was 1.1 seconds. Wasn’t it 1.3 seconds when I used it last time?’
What did this mean?
‘…Did the Terra simulator grow? No. In this case, it would be more accurate to say it was upgraded.’
Anyway, it was a good thing that I had a way to use hacking. The problem was the hacking cooldown. The cooldown was based on real time, so I could only use it once every 90 hours in virtual reality time.
‘First, let’s check the items dropped by the Jiangshi.’
