Chapter 14: To The Academy (1)
So I became SNS friends with Snow White, Baek Seol-hee. This was what happened after.
[Ji-hwan, this is a new movie that just came out. Have you seen it?]
[I wish I could go watch it with you if I have time, but I have some work and I think I can’t go??]
[Please be sure to tell me your thoughts after watching it!]
We often shared our thoughts about all sorts of things, such as the latest novels we read, the latest movies we watched, and the latest comics we read.
It was not inconvenient.
It was a good thing to have a friend to share hobbies with in this world where I had no friends.
I was just worried that if this woman later found out about my identity, she might try to kill me after feeling betrayed.
‘I should keep up the good rapport, so in case everything goes south, she might take me in.’
That was just in case, but what if everything suddenly collapsed?
Yi Mangmaengyang was not a benevolent organization.
It was an evil organization, not inferior in its pragmatism to the many evil organizations in the real world.
If I built up enough rapport to recruit a one-man army-like officer of such an organization, I could at least maintain my life even if I wasn’t able to leave my house and was confined indoors.
Rather than being a government dog, I would become one of Snow White’s dwarves.
It was a pitiful thought, but it was not so bad.
If it was for survival, I could do anything.
It was the same now.
“There will be a brief inspection.”
As soon as I crossed the bridge on a bike, the soldiers in front stopped me.
“What is your purpose for entering the island?”
“I passed the civil service exam this time, and I’m going to work. Here’s the certificate.”
“Have you received permission for the bike?”
“Yes. Here is the vehicle registration and permit.”
I presented the soldier with the ID and certificate I had prepared in advance.
“Hmm… Lieutenant. Everything seems to be in order.”
“Cross-verification. …No issues.”
A Lieutenant and a Major.
These ranks would never be intimidated by anything. They were fully armed and conducted the inspection properly.
Ordinary soldiers would be on watch at other posts or on perimeter duty, and high-ranking individuals like Lieutenants or Majors were conducting the face-to-face inspections?
This was proof of the challenging process of entering Sejong Island.
“We’ll need to inspect your bike’s storage compartment for a moment. We appreciate your cooperation.”
“Of course.”
I stood away from my bike.
“We apologize for the inconvenience. Even if you are an Academy staff, this is the standard procedure and law for first-time entrants to go through this kind of search.”
“Of course.”
The items that could be brought onto the island are extremely limited by law.
I also planned to buy basic necessities on the island; the only thing I was bringing was a suit.
In the first place, there wasn’t much you could carry on the back of a bike, and I was only bringing a single living box into the island.
“Lieutenant. There are seven of the same suits… Huh?!”
“What is it?”
“Lieutenant, this is…”
The soldiers were quietly conversing among themselves.
I thought there might be a problem with the suits, but there was nothing problematic.
[We couldn’t cheap out on our Chief Do’s suit. Haha, where is it from? As expected, are the suits Italian?]
It was just that the suits were ridiculously expensive.
And that there were seven identical suits from that maker.
In other words, the total price of the suits in the ordinary-looking living box reached almost 200 million won.
“Ho, by any chance, are you a superhuman?”
“No, I’m powerless. Um… my girlfriend bought them for me.”
“…….”
The expressions of the two men warped instantly.
Normally, I would have said that the Chairwoman bought them, but when the leader bought those clothes, she had set a condition.
[Always say that your girlfriend bought them. Understood?]
It was a bit funny for me, who was ‘no girlfriend forever’, to be mentioning a girlfriend, but I was just following the Chairwoman’s instructions.
“…Pass.”
Under the intense gaze of the two men, I got back on my bike.
And then.
“Halt. We need to verify…”
“Tsk.”
“Pass. We’ll conduct a verification.”
“Ugh. Ah, life…”
I had to endure piercing glares each time I went through the inspections.
Just like that.
I entered Sejong Island, known as a man who had a girlfriend who generously bought him expensive clothes.
“This is your accommodation, Mr. Do Ji-Hwan.”
“Thank you for guiding me. Wow… this is like an apartment.”
“Most staff accommodations are built to the standard of apartments.”
My private house was about 13 pyeong.
“The small room there can be used as a bedroom or a wardrobe. It’s up to you. You’re free to decorate as you please, but when you move out, you’ll have to restore everything to its original state for the next person.”
The employee managing the private houses guided me around rigidly as if reciting a manual.
“You can control the lights with this, and there’s a ceiling air conditioner in this room and one in the other room. There isn’t one in the kitchen…”
This was literally just a regular apartment.
“The most important thing is this. The card key.”
However, there was a very special item in this apartment and in this room.
“This card key must not be lost under any circumstances. After registering your blood information on the card key tomorrow, it becomes your identification on this island, credit card, employee ID, and key to access secure areas.”
“I’ve heard about it, but it’s really amazing. It controls everything with just this.”
“Because Sejong Island is the most important place in the world. It’s a card key for now, but soon, you’ll be issued the ‘Taegeuk Watch’.”
“Taegeuk… what?”
“Taegeuk Watch.”
I knew about it.
I had heard about it in the world settings.
But hearing the name directly sent shivers down my spine.
National pride was everywhere.
It was the first sentence I was going to write in my review, a bit sarcastically, seriously.
In this world, Sejong Island was a place where no one could survive without national pride.
The national flag fluttered in the wind on every telegraph pole, and even the songs flowing from the park fountains were mostly remixes of Korean traditional music and Arirang.
I wanted to say that this level of national pride was toxic, but for the people of this world, this national pride had become a part of their daily lives.
The Taegeuk Watch was the same.
“Is that what you’re wearing on your right wrist?”
“Yes.”
The employee pointed to the Taegeuk Watch on his right wrist, in other words, the smartwatch with glass that glowed with a red and blue Taegeuk pattern.
“You’ll be seeing a lot more of this.”
Then, suddenly.
The employee stood at attention and raised his right hand to his left shoulder.
“I don’t know how it is outside, but here on Sejong Island, it’s natural.”
Like saluting the national flag, or making the flag flutter over their burning hearts, it seemed that there was a sense of pride in his posture.
“Welcome to Sejong Island, the most precious island of our great country.”
“… Yes. Please take care on your way back.”
The employee left the room, and I immediately headed for the balcony, just in case.
“Wow.”
The flagpole on the balcony was adorned with the national flag, the Taegeukgi.
It was firmly fixed with iron, so it couldn’t be removed.
Even more surprisingly.
Whirring.
When I pressed a button that looked like a remote control, the flagpole started to fold.
“Wow, seriously. This is amazing.”
There was a limit to national pride, right?
Although that was what I would say, my tinnitus was yammering at me like a goblin.
“…For now.”
I checked the status of the balcony.
When I left the window open and only closed the insect screen, could someone come inside from outside?
It was enough.
There was a fence installed on every balcony to prevent falls, but there was enough space for a person to move above it.
If I could fly back here while invisible, without being detected by others, at least being the Goblin wouldn’t be revealed.
The best thing was not to let anyone discover that I was Goblin.
Also, to avoid transforming into Goblin at all.
‘It’s most important to first scatter emergency equipment in various places.’
After transforming into Goblin and after reverting, the priority was to plant emergency clothing around Sejong Island so that there would be no problem coming back here.
“…Do I need to buy dozens of barber coats and scatter them around? Shoot. What if the patrol officers find them?”
Far away, if I just lowered my head to look below the balcony, I could see patrol officers moving around in pairs.
They were not just ordinary police. They’re unmistakably ‘superpowered’ patrol officers.
Regrettably, even though their magical powers were just E-grade, F-grade level, they possessed combat abilities far superior to ordinary police.
Just having magical powers and awakened abilities meant they could easily suppress gangsters or delinquents.
And thanks to their patrolling, villains couldn’t freely roam around Sejong Island…
“…Huh?”
At a point further away.
On the opposite side of the apartment, in the corridor of the building, a woman was staring intently at me.
She was drinking canned coffee while looking at me, and I wondered why she was looking at me.
‘What’s this.’
She seemed like a foreigner.
You couldn’t make a judgment just based on her hair, but that ginger-red hair, often seen overseas, usually belonged to foreigners.
The reason I could only think of her as a foreigner was because of that huge mana pouch placed on the railing of the corridor that was clearly on the level of-
She chuckled.
She looked at me and laughed.
I don’t know why, but suddenly, she twisted the corners of her mouth as if she knew everything while looking at me.
Then she made a phone shape with her hand and crossed it.
What?
Don’t answer the phone?
“Ah.”
Anti-eavesdropping measures.
The phone rang.
“I see.”
That woman.
She was a dedicated officer.
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnovel(.)com