My newly appointed title was….
The Mysterious Red Wall Thief.
Must be due to the wall of fire at the dream auction and for using it to gather people while wiping out the stolen items at the auction.
A reporter who had appreciated the wall of fire must have given me the title.
Fortunately, the public were focused on the endless misdeeds of Byeon Soonhui and his people that they forgot about the mysterious red wall thief.The problem was what came after.
It occurred when I anonymously returned the national heritage items to its rightful places.
The items that were only found in the records of the dream auction.
As the items were returned to the national heritage cultural centers, the administration must have made it known to the press as my actions were published in an article.
Along with the title The Mysterious Red Wall Thief.
[The Mysterious Red Wall Thief that broke the dream gate, return national heritage items]
[The kind deeds of the Mysterious Red Wall Thief that exposed the dream auction, national heritage culture center ‘sends their appreciation.’]After this, my title was fixated as The Mysterious Red Wall Thief.
I was embarrassed.
What do you mean red wall?
And to be called a thief…
[TITLE] Second dimension’s future change initiator, Nameless supernova, The Mysterious Red Wall Thief.
I checked the status window and saw that The Mysterious Red Wall Thief had been added to my title section.
Of course, only I was aware of the fact that Jo Eushin was The Mysterious Red Wall Thief.
But it was impossible to stop myself from cringing in embarrassment.
Days passed as I struggled to live with my own embarrassment.
Byeon Soonhui had finally tackled someone he should not have.
It was all over as the main headline of the news portal sites.
[Dream auction participant, ‘Small red dragon, was present at the scene’, is Yeom Junyeol the Mysterious Red Wall Thief?]
[The swindler has the audacity to cry victim to fraud as Byeon Soonhui cries victim to arson, kidnapping, human trafficking, and violence. ‘Investigate the Mysterious Red Wall Thief, small red dragon Yeom Junyeol’.]
Yeom Junyeol was the sole son of the ‘king of red flame, Yeom Bang yeol.
He was also a star player loved by many fans.
To attack a subject of love and adoration was the equivalent of insulting their love directly.
‘Of course, it was beyond Byeon Soonhui to figure this out.’
I opened the comments section of the article.
Already thousands of fans had commented after seeing the association with Yeom Junyeol.
[Suddenly moody Yeom Junyeol]
[I am XX an acquaintance of the red lion team. I know that Byeon Soonhui had been asking for the attention of the red lions but was ignored. And since The Mysterious Red Wall Thief is associated with fire, he seems to be trying to pull anyone down along with him.]
[On that day Junyeol was doing a live dragon show on his SNS from the air hotel. It was a live show with more than 10 million views lol]
[Our red dragon really must have become famous, for some criminal to leech on to him]
[Soonhui don’t suffer in pain…and just die]
Byeon Soonhui’s statement proved to be invalid as numerous witnesses stood as an alibi for Yeom Junyeol.
Yeom Bangyeol and the red lion team, finding this incident to be very unpleasant, called for a press conference to make a statement.
Yeom Bangyeol was clearly furious as he emphasized twice in his statement that he wanted Byeon Soonhui to receive a strong punishment.
Even though the red lion managed the situation and the police ignored Byeon Soonhui’s statement, the rage of the fans were not so quick to dissipate.
“Byeon Sonhui must be going crazy.’
From Byeon Sonhui and his accomplice’s point of view, they had clearly seen me who had adopted the appearance of Yeom Junyeol so it must have driven him nuts.
It seems my words had provoked him greatly that day, as Byeon Sonhui didn’t give up on associating the red dragon Yeom Junyeol till the end.
It was impossible for anyone to have the same esteemed ability and it was impossible to copy anyone’s esteemed ability so he insisted that Yeom Junyeol was there.
‘In that convention center, there was no record of any form to prove his statement as there were no surveillances.’
I was able to keep my identity from being exposed as Byeong had used a large scale, device controlling equipment
The only photo of the Mysterious Red Wall Thief was a picture taken from afar, of the red flames rising to the sky.
As a result Byeon Soonhui’s statement only seemed like an attempted defamation of Yeom Junyeol to drag him down along with himself.
Byeon Soonhui didn’t seem to repent on any of his crimes and continuously mentioned Yeom Junyeol.
There were several thick-skinned participants from the dream auction who claimed to have seen Yeom Junyeol as well and were a victim to his attacks.
Eventually, the furious fandom of Yeom Junyeol called for action.
Resulting in the creation of the ‘Dream list’.
The fans utilized all their sources of information, editing skills to gather the list of participants from the dream auction.
They uploaded and shared this list publicly, mainly to Yeom Junyeol’s overseas fans. And were headstrong and brazen not caring about the possibility of being sued.
There were high-quality photos of individuals.
The past misdeeds, evidence, and personal information of the auction participants.
It also contained a detailed summary of the current dream auction investigation process.
After the dream list was publicized.
Those that had been luckily sidelined due to the vast number of investigation suspects, were exposed via the dream list.
Those with their names exposed on the name list raised an outcry of defamation.
‘No matter it is impossible to eradicate anything that has been published on the web.’
Later on, the dream list was prohibited on search engine portals.
But it was easy to find the dream list by searching it up with an alphabet modified in the word or searching it as a jargon.
The dream list had been quickly archived and there were also mentions of Yeom Bangyeol and his red lion team’s involvement in this.
Eventually, the dream list was a public record for everyone to view.
As I read the article, I swore to myself that I would take this secret of having used Yeom Junyeol’s esteemed ability, to my grave.
***
With the upcoming start of school, we decided to meet up for a meal Sanghoon was treating.
The question was whether to go for the air hotel’s snow and air winer special buffet.
Or the famous french patisserie player’s limited edition dinner course commemorating his visit to Korea.
The three of us debated over quantity and quality.
If we wanted to go for quantity, the buffet was the right choice.
But Namwook suggested that we familiarise ourselves with table manners for the upcoming official players’ event.
This shallow debate was easily resolved.
Sanghee who had been listening to us told us to ‘go to both’ while looking at us pathetically.
It was to the extent that Sanghoon’s parents offered to buy Namwook and I a meal on whatever we desired once every week.
As Namwook had entered the dormitory in his military school, we agreed to meet on the weekends when everyone was free. We decided to have the course meal on Saturday and the buffet on Sunday.
On Saturday.
It had been some time since I had met Namwook.
The military school required short haircuts so Namook had a buzz cut.
“What’s with the hair man?”
“….it’s the school rules.”
Namwook answered Sanghoon’s pleasant greeting while averting his eyes.
“A soldier haircut..’
A few years back I had also shared the same hairstyle.
Even though Namwook was not an adult enrolled in military service, it seemed like the rules of military services applied to military high.
The three of us purchased a suit to match the dress code for the french restaurant and to prepare us for the official player events.
After having the ready-made suit recommended by the departmental store staff to be altered, it was nearing the time of our reservation so we headed straight to the restaurant in our suits.
That’s how we had arrived at the restaurant.
After being escorted and seated at our table.
“Namwook, congratulations on your entering players military high as the second-best in class.”
I finally offered my congratulations after having waited for the right timing.
Namwook looked surprised by the sudden congratulations.
“How did you know? Thanks, Eushin.”
Sanghoon who had been opening up his napkin looked surprised.
“You were the second-best in class?”
Namwook remained silent.
‘Sanghoon would never have known if I hadn’t mentioned it.’
I displayed the article I had scrapped on my wearable device.
In the article, there was a picture attached of Namwook and another person.
“I happened to come across the interview of player military high’s first and second-best in class. Namwook you aren’t very photogenic.”
“He looks the same as always. Looks bad as always.”
Sanghoon giggled while comparing the picture of Namwook and Namwook in person.
In the photo, Namwook looked extremely tense and rigid as compared to the relaxed and confident first in class.
“Anyways, congrats. So how’s the first in class like?”
Sanghoon stopped teasing him and offered his belated congratulations then saved the article to his own wearable device.
Namwook watched Sanghoon saving his article with a look of embarrassment.
“Thanks anyway. I’m sharing a room together with the first in class and it’s…unique.”
Namwook made a confused face at the mention of his first in class.
Unique?
I was slightly curious.
But it seemed rude to ask in detail about a person who wasn’t present, so I changed the subject of the conversation.
Our first course had just arrived so it wasn’t difficult to change the subject.
“Have you started training in your dormitories yet?”
“Yes, I have. The schedule at the military high is a little faster as compared to normal high schools. It’s quite tough but it gives you a sense of meaning at the end of the day.”
Sanghoon also seemed more interested in dormitory life than the first in class.
“How are the dorms like?”
“….I need to clean and ventilate it. It has a staleness to it.”
I was well aware.
I was sure it was slightly different in military high, but I was familiar with the stale air of routine life.
Even if you cleaned the place to the last speck of dust, the staleness still lingered in the air.
The only thing you could do was get used to it.
“If you dislike it, come back to Eunkwang high anytime.”
Sanghoon still seems to have lingering hope.
“….no. I chose this path. Even if I were to walk a different path later on in life I am going to be responsible for my decision until I graduate.”
Sanghoon seemed grumpy at Sanghoon’s reply and stabbed at his Amuse bouche.
Namwook nagged at him to keep his table manners.
Whenever I was engaged in a conversation with these two it felt like what had happened on the 1st of January was a dream…
Although I don’t dream.
We discussed our future high school life and discussed our expectations for the future.
Then the hot topic in the interest of players, the dream auction came up as a topic of discussion.
The Mysterious Red Wall Thief was of course mentioned and I had to try my best to restrain myself from cringing.
‘Why did that writer have to add a name like the Mysterious Red Wall Thief.’
It would be more acceptable had it been some nameless persona or something along those lines.
Just as the entrees were benign served, Sanghoon asked.
“Jo Eushin which class are you in? I’m in class 1.”
We had already received the notification of our class allocation…
I was in a class close to Sanghoon.
“I’m in class 0.”
When I had checked the allocation notification via the wearable device, as a result of my deal with the Chairman, I was allocated to class 0.
Clang
Drop
The sound of utensils dropping could be heard.
Both Sanghoon and Namwook who had nagged at Sanghoon to keep his table manners had dropped their forks and knives.
What was up with them.
I tilted my head but Namwook and Sanghoon looked appalled.
“Do you have a criminal record?”
‘Confess, Eushin”
What were they talking about
I guess the notoriousness of class zero was more than I had anticipated.
I brushed their comments aside and enjoyed the rest of the course meal.
The two were worried about my enrollment in class zero even as we parted ways.
There are around 2 months remaining until the start of Eunkwang high.
I ignored all remaining secondary classes, graduation, and similar events.
The form teacher had called several times but I made an excuse saying that I was still traumatized by the recent Minki incident.
There wasn’t much time until the start of Eunkwang high.
I had no time to invest in the likes of secondary school curriculum.
I had to continuously research on this world, purchase necessary items, build my stamina, and prepare for my entrance to Eunkwang high.
Then came March.
It was the day of the entrance ceremony.
