CH 10

Bugatti, McLaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and so on.

A sense of reality suddenly came while looking at the scenery full of super cars which were usually extremely rare to see.

‘I’m finally entering the big league.’

Mother, she did it!

A participant of the 40th tutorial run, Na Jo-yeon looked at the sky as she wiped her nose.

Of course, her mother was healthy at home, but she thought it was finally time for her to do this.

「Jo-Yeon-ah, have you ever heard of the name ‘the honorable crown prince Yeong Yu Jong-Ho’ .」

(an idiom that basically means all men are equal under the law, I will put a more detailed explanation at the end)

「Yes mother. How can there be no seed of crown prince! I also keep this old proverb deeply in my heart and won’t give up on my Hunter’s dream…」

「No, my dear. Why would your name be Jo-yeon?」

「huh? 」

「Don’t be deceived by plausible bullshit. The seed of a crown prince is very different.」

「oh… yes.」

「But you also need to remember this. Happiness is ultimately up to the supporting role.」

(Her name, Jo-yeon can also mean supporting role)

「The protagonist the world chooses is either the first or last. If you look at their lives it’s always bloody and noisy. But the middle of the pyramid? Its peaceful and comfortable, nobody cares.」

「So the supporting role is the winner.」

「Always keep that in mind my dear daughter!」

A name given to her by her mother, who was a terrible realist.

But she wouldn’t have known that her daughter would be living as an extra 1 instead of a supporting role.

‘But Mother!  Today your daughter is finally one step closer to the true value of her name! Right next to the main character! Please watch me as I walk the path of the supporting role with strength and dignity!’

With eager eyes, Na Jo-yeon looked up at the outer walls of the Babel Tower.

A giant tower with no end in sight.

On the black wall that was as smooth as a well processed jewel, the ranking of the 1st channels rankers, aka the top rankers in Korea was floating in magic letters.

She had heard that the ranking which updates in real time could be seen within the tower.

In particular, ‘the top ten’ which listed the top ten in the heavenly world was separately marked larger.

[Rankings] Local – Korea

《 1 》 Eun Seok-won ▲1

《 2 》 Jo • Anonymous ▼1

《 3 》 Alpha • Jeong Gil Gaon –

| 4 | White Bird • Ha yan-sae  –

| 5 | Bambi • Gyeon Ji-rok –

| 6 | Late Night Snack King • Hwang Hon –

| 7 | Tiger  –

| 8 | David • Choi David –

| 9 | Guyuni Guyuni • Kim Si-kyun – (Their nickname uses 2 different Ni’s when saying Guyu ni)

| 10 | Hong Goya –

‘Huh, the king…’

Na Jo-yeon grabbed her aching chest. Her heart was aching like it was being ripped to pieces.

Aside from Bambi and Late Night Snack King who would always switch between 5th and 6th place, it was really rare to see arrows appear in the heavenly world.

Because of this, the arrow that appeared this morning literally turned the whole community upside down.

The members of the private ‘Jo’s fanclub, which Na Jo-yeon was a part of, was no exception.

They were already accepting applications for 〈Prayer for the retirement of silver lion meeting〉 which she had submitted the application for.

‘I have to become a supporting role. I will definitely become a supporting role and beat all the people who bully the king.’

As she was making her firm resolution there was a buzz from the side.

“This is why you have to be careful when creating nicknames. Who would have thought it would be impossible to change it once you had decided on it. Babel’s too mean.”

The woman with a cool smile looked back at Na Jo-yeon.

“When you become a ranker your name is shown to the public eye everyday.how can you go around with names like ‘Late night snack King’ or ‘Renewing my public certificate’. Don’t you agree? Have you decided on a name yet?”

“Ah, I am the supporting actress, ah no. It’s supporting role.”

“Cute. I am Romi.” 

Romi, the president of the university’s student body, was your typical super insider. (insider referring to someone popular)

Besides Na Jo-yeon, he was already talking to a lot of people on his way here.

The two had a brief conversation before going into the entrance of Babel tower’s ground floor, the tutorial area.

‘Everyone looks the same. Do they know how to play?’

Na Jo-yeon was nervous as she looked around.

There were many people that it felt crowded, but not to the point where it felt stuffy or cramped.

Soon after, Na Jo-yeon relaxed.

The main characters were not here. They were probably watching from the rumored monitor room.

To find a supporting role to support them.

‘You can do it!’

Suddenly, her motivation went up on flames.

She was born to be a supporting actor!

It wasn’t a competition to be the main character. It was a dog fight to be a supporting role. There was no reason why she couldn’t win!

It was then.

“Unni! Jo-yeon Unni! Greetings. This is a person I met on the subway while coming here, he is a really nice person. Since he says he is re-entering I am sure he will win first place! We have to get to know each other!”

“Oh, Romi-ssi. That’s not what I was saying.”

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed. Come on, come on, let’s say hello.”

The young man who was being pushed by his back seemed embarrassed, but he reached out with a confident smile.

“I am Baek Do-hyun.”

Na Jo-yeon suddenly had a hunch.

She instinctively had a sense of crisis. What were these visuals? What was this presence?

‘Maybe he is not a supporting character.’

She could put her 26 year life as an aspiring supporting actor on the fact that he wasn’t.

***

Once in the first half.

Once in the second half.

The tutorial run, which was held only twice a year, took an average of four or five days.

Of course, that was just a statistical average, and the gap could be quite wide depending on the level of difficulty and the level of the riders.

The shortest time was one day, and the longest was a week.

Anyways, whether it was short or long, it was going to take some time.

In the meantime, high rankers, who mostly belonged to the pure faction, fell into a position where they could only suck on their fingers.

Others could just go on dungeons after a long time when the towers get closed, but that was impossible for high rankers.

It would be as if Messi comes to the local football club early and steals the ball.

If you hide your identity because you were bored and get caught, it was easy to be disliked asking whether you are playing a little bit as a bastard anchor.

So naturally, they would all head to the ‘monitor room’.

The top of Babel.

The ‘monitor room’ which allowed visitors from the top 100 to enter could be seen as a senior citizen’s center where those who had no work would go.

“No, there is a class in the heavenly world, why would it be a senior citizens resident?”

“Don’t use strange words, David.”

“Why do we come here when we are so busy without scouts!”

“…? Have you been busy? Never heard of it.”

The 4th place in Korea. White bird who was the leader of the martial arts guild 〈Haetae〉 snorted with a unique expressionless face. (Haetae is a mythological goat-lion beast from a  korean folklore)

David Choi clenched his heart in response to the witty reaction.

The spacious monitoring room.

Rankers sitting at scattered sofas would look at what’s going on and then turn around pretending they didn’t see anything.

They wouldn’t avoid it because it was scary, they would avoid it because it was dirty.

The two famous woman of the 〈Haetae〉 guild.

Among them, David Choi, a mixed race bastard who was ranked 8th, had an S-rank that was dirty and even a little scary. So it was best not to look at it.

“Hey you white bird head! Isn’t this an official vacation period by Babel? You have to have fun and play dynamically! There is so much to do!”

“Don’t make a fuss. Others will feel uncomfortable.”

“Wow what do I do with this Korean woman? What a scholar…”

“David, I don’t know what you do acting irresponsibly but this is something I’ve been doing every year. These riders are special, so I’m just bringing you along.”

Special?

Special, unique…

David Choi, who was very vulnerable to these words, sat down.

“What’s so special about it?”

“The 19th floor, 29th floor, and now the 39th floor has opened up. It’s likely to be the third golden generation.”

“The 29th floor is about Bambi and Late night snack king. But the 19th floor? Who was the  leader that year?

“You.”

“…”

“You seem to forget this, but you are a precious S-ranker, David.”

C-cough. David Choi, who was vulnerable to being publicly complimented, coughed. And changed the subject because she was shy.

“So when are all the guys from our channel coming? It’s been a while since I have seen some expensive faces.”

“It won’t be everyone. What rookies need are guilds after all, so the related people will come. I also heard that the head officials of other guilds will come. So Eun Seok won is definitely coming.”

“…and Lion said he would come if I told you.”

David Choi twisted her lips.

The white bird who was trying to point out Tiger turned around and followed.

A heavy presence. As if it was waiting, Babel announced.

[Monitor Room] Rank 1 Eun Seok-won enters.]

[Monitor Room] 16th place An chisan enters.]

‘What, not Tiger?’

The old man entered the room with his left arm, where he had left his cherished right arm.

He calmly walked and sat at the front row with the best view at the tutorial square.

However, there was no time given for David Choi to satisfy her curiosity.

As if announcing the imminent opening, the top rankers and heads of the other 5 guilds appeared one after another.

“Our adorable young boss. Are you still upset?”

“No, don’t touch me! Why is this insect still talking? Do you really want to try?”

[Monitor Room] 5th place Gyeon Ji-rok enters.]

Bambi, the leader of the pure faction guild 〈Babylon〉.

“So I will sort it out… alright. We’ll talk about it later. Everyone! How are you all doing?”

[Monitor Room] 3rd place Jeong Gil Gaon enters.]

Jeong Gil Gaon the president of the guild 〈D.I〉 also known as Alpha.

“Oh, mom, stop it! I’ll take care of my own health. What kind of a medicine is herbal medicine, what a horrible thing to say. If I can’t eat my flour for a day, I’ll die. If you miss the youngest, Dizzy, let him go!”

“Hoo, brother. The door is open.”

“…Uh, yeah. Mr Kim, I’m a little busy right now, so let’s talk about our business next time.”

[Monitor Room] 6th place Hwang Hon enters.]

Hwang hon, the leader of the 〈Dawn〉 Guild, also known as ‘late night snack king’.

And…

When you think it’s almost done.

At the time where the people no longer cared about the announcements for the entry notices because they were too busy looking at the celebrities that are normally hard to see.

[Monitor room] 7th place Tiger enters.]

[Monitor room] anonymous enters.]

Most of the top 100 had gathered here.

Seeing anonymous wasn’t too unusual.

Also, since each ranker could bring in someone to accompany them, it was not rare to picture a scout, acquaintance or a companion that weren’t rankers.

But, there were also people who weren’t easily fooled by it.

While most people looked at 〈Silver Lion〉’s second in command Tiger.

There were also a few people who turned their heads to the person who was wearing a black hoodie down to their nose.

‘Prize. What?”

‘What… that monster?’

S-rankers were born with more sensitive senses than beats, David Choi and Hwang Hon doubted their eyes.

And Jeong Gil Gaon, who was a resourceful person with a sense of humor and experience, was convinced.

Jeong Gil Gaon couldn’t hide his leaking laughter, it was a line he always wanted to try saying someday.

“Lucifer has appeared in the satanic monitor room…”

The first king to lose their crown.

It was a visit by a rare and precious person.

***

As she checked her hoodie that was fixed in place by magic, she thought to herself while sighing.

These lights, temperature, humidity… looks.

It was clear.

‘These fuckers…’

They were so quick.