Chapter 48

Survivor IVissit novelbin(.)c.om for updates

Excuse me, but what do you feel when you hear words like 'Student Council' or 'Student Council President' in creative works?

You might wonder why I’m asking such an abrupt question.

It’s because it's relevant to this story.

As mentioned at the end of the last story, the martial world is full of eccentrics.

The person I will introduce today is also an eccentric, proudly placing his name among the 'Great Figures Who Illuminated the Korean Peninsula.'

In the distant past, South Korea used to boast about having certain football players and idols.

However, even if civilization collapses, history tends to progress. Now, nations compare their pride based on how spectacular their Awakeners are, and the Korean Peninsula has never been left behind.

From the 'Grand Witch who forces her subordinates to wear conical hats 365 days a year on a train' to the 'Marquess who turns Mount Hua into a mountain of flowers,' and so on.

It was a lineup that could not help but make one's heart swell with pride. Is this really the state of the Korean Peninsula?

This land, which could even be described as a haven for lunatics, or rather, great figures, has not ceased to be blessed. There was yet another figure I had not had a chance to introduce.

Name, Cheon Yo-hwa.

Occupation, reflecting the trend that it’s tough to get by on just one job these days, a multi-Awakener juggling multiple jobs.

First job, high school student.

As the nation collapsed, so did public education, reducing children who register on internet communities to unemployed, unable to select 'elementary/middle/high school student' as their occupation.

In that sense, Cheon Yo-hwa was one of the last high school students left in the Korean Peninsula. Roughly equivalent to a high school 6th grader.

This alone would be considered a rare occupation of SSR-grade in games, but their other job was a bit more unique.

Second job, Necromancer.

Cheon Yo-hwa was the only necromancer on the Korean Peninsula.

Since we're on the topic of high school, the Korean Peninsula no longer had 'school ties.'

It was inevitable. What good does a fancy university degree do if monsters don't care about your education when they eat you?

However, human systems don't change easily. If there's no bread, eat cake; if there are no football players, suck up to Awakeners instead of athletes; and in place of school ties, a new form of connection was quickly installed.

“Hmm?”

One day, as I was making my rounds in the guild, I witnessed a shocking scene.

“Wow, really?”

“Yes, really. Ahaha.”

It was Seo Gyu and Sim Ah-ryeon (the villain OldManGoryeo) laughing together while having lunch in a restaurant.

As everyone knows, Seo Gyu had anger management issues and Sim Ah-ryeon was a serious social media addict.

Both of them had a bit of a flaw in their DNA that made establishing close relationships with other homo sapiens a bit of a challenge.

It was a scene reminiscent of a hippo and a crocodile amiably sipping from the same oasis waterhole, and, as any reasonable person who witnesses a miracle, I too was overwhelmed with curiosity.

“When did you two become friends?”

Blink, blink.

The question from their guild leader, who was as eminent as the sky, made them look at each other.

“Us?”

“Yeah, we’ve just been friends...”

Are they dating?

In my mind, two spirits clashed: the old-school desire to frown upon workplace romances and the old-school joy of watching young love.

“No, hyung, whatever you’re thinking, it’s definitely not that...”

“So how did you become friends?”

“How we became friends?”

Seo Gyu spoke as if it were obvious.

“Well, we're both from 'Busan Station.'”

“What.”

Indeed.

Nowadays, instead of school ties, Awakeners sized each other up by which 'Void' they were in when they awakened.

If we had to give it a name, maybe Void Connection? It was a connection related to place, so it was still a form of connection.

Seo Gyu, Sim Ah-ryeon, and I, we all awakened at Busan Station. Even the man who shall not be named, the Master of Hypnosis 'G,' was from Busan Station. Later on, by the 555th cycle, Oh Dok-seo also joined the Busan Station Awakener family.

“You don’t mean... the Awakeners are treating Busan Station like some kind of prestigious university, do you?”

“Why not? Of course, we receive that kind of treatment. Hyung, we’re number one in the Void.”

“......”

-Huh? Why won't the gate open?

-The security guard isn't here either. Let's ask a teacher.

The Void arrived.

-Huh?

-Wait. Where are the teachers?

-What’s going on...?

The school gates closed.

It was a typical closed-type Void.

However, the duration of closure was not typical. The gates of Baekwha Girls' High did not open for 11 months.

That year, Baekwha Girls' High did not produce a single university entrance exam passer.

In the nearly year-long closed environment, I don't know what tragedies the students of Baekwha Girls' High might have suffered.

I was an outsider, after all.

All I could gather were the 'numbers' observed from the outside.

About 750 students enrolled.

After 11 months, 19 survivors.

After 12 months, 17 survivors. Two had committed suicide.

"Ah, it was actually a bit longer than 11 months!"

I had the chance to talk to a survivor much later, and this is what they testified.

"It was longer?"

"Yep-Yep. You know, sometimes the flow of time changes, right? Space shifts wildly too. Ahaha. I guess our school was one of those cases!"

The survivor's face seemed uncreased. I once heard that when people accept unhappiness, they do so either with their faces or with their hearts.

"So, how long did you feel you were trapped in the school?"

"Ah, four years!"

Some might call this a tragedy.

Out of over 750 trapped, only 19 survived, and of those, two more took their own lives.

But I dare say it was an 'achievement.'

In my first regression at Busan Station, I was the only survivor. There were plenty of cases where everyone trapped in a Void perished.

That ordinary high school students, completely isolated from the outside in a jar of solitude, enduring what felt like four years but was 11 months, and surviving in double digits—it was almost a miracle, wasn't it?

"Hey, a miracle? Undertaker sunbae, you’re exaggerating—"

And in the center of all miracles, there’s always a hero.

Thank you for the clarification. Let's correct that part about Cheon Yo-hwa:

In this case, the unique and foremost necromancer of the Korean Peninsula, the Awakener we will focus on today, Cheon Yo-hwa, was that heroine.

"Go, go Baekwha Girls’ High! Fighting!"

"Fighting—!"

The 17 survivors rallied around Cheon Yo-hwa.

...No, to speak more objectively, more precisely, the description above needs to be revised.

Cheon Yo-hwa made the 17 survivors rally around her.

I may mention it in another episode, but Cheon Yo-hwa had such a talent.

Interpersonal skills. Organizational formation skills. The skill to read and manipulate human psychology. The skill to break down the walls around a person's heart. The skill to choose the appropriate space and time. Mediation skills. The skill to resolve conflicts within the organization and project unresolved conflicts outward.

Cheon Yo-hwa wielded all these abilities as if she had been bestowed with them from a divine moment.

As a result.

"President."

"Student Council President."

"President Cheon Yo-hwa."

To the survivors of Baekwha Girls’ High, 'Baekwha' was no longer just the name of their alma mater.

It was a school connection, a place connection. According to modern trends, it was a Void Connection, and perhaps even stronger than a blood relation.

Over four years, Cheon Yo-hwa secured 17 Awakeners who would throw their lives away for her on the street.

And with them, she stepped back into the world.

Footnotes:

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