Turns Out To Be a Genius Duelist
chapter-179

Chapter 179 Grape Jam (2)

—Goodbye, Yoon-seok.

The woman in the memory said farewell to him.

‘This is me…?’

He wondered if it was just the same name, but he instinctively felt that wasn’t the case. This man who was stabbed through the heart was Choi Yoon-seok. It was him. Also, at the same time, it wasn’t.

How could this be? He didn’t know, but one thing was for sure. Memories of his forgotten lives didn’t simply mean past lives.

‘Then what is it?’

Yoon-seok wracked his brain. Looking back, there was a lot of room for interpretation. Forgotten, pre-life memories. Wasn’t it too comprehensive?

‘Plus, she said grape jam, right….’

Leaving behind questions that lacked definite answers, Yoon-seok turned his attention to new things. Grape Jam was a nickname quite familiar to Yoon-seok. It had been in the chat room since the start, and now there were only the two of them left as Earth’s rankers.

‘Then, is this woman Grape Jam?’

Thinking that it might be a clue, Yoon-seok memorized the woman’s face until the last minute, until her face became blurred. One wave and it was over.

“…Hey, are you okay?”

Returning to reality, the woman who bumped into his shoulder earlier asked Yoon-seok. Her voice contained worry, but her eyes were wary. Of course, it would have looked suspicious because he was suddenly standing in front of her without saying anything.

“Yes, I’m okay.”

“Then, can I go now…?”

“Oh, wait a minute.”

When he stepped aside and opened the way, the woman walked past. Yoon-seok asked Taro Kitamura.

“Do you know her name?”

“Wait. The clothes she was wearing looked like she was from the support team… oh, here it is. Lee Su-yeon, 17 years old. It says she’s a sub-system support challenger.”

Kitamura, rummaging through the chart, opened his eyes blearily.

“But, isn’t she too young…?”

He must have misunderstood after Yoon-seok asked for her name. Yoon-seok replied with a smile at his cheeky tone.

“She just looked like someone I know.”

It wasn’t enough to say that they looked alike. It was just that he noticed it belatedly because of the age and atmosphere. Just looking at the overall features, it was safe to say that they were the same person.

“Lee Su-yeon. You said support team, right?”

Yoon-seok smiled as he looked down after where she had vanished around the corner. He received a clue from an unexpected place.

Lee Su-yeon, 17 years old. Born and raised in Daegu, she became a challenger half a year ago. Originally a member of the Korean branch, she was scouted by the Global Challenger Federation a few days ago to recognize her ability to provide support. This was the external information available about her.

‘Exploration challenger and the floor number is 10th…’

Certainly, that was quite a talent to achieve that in half a year. In addition, the support system was quite rare, so the organization must have caught her quickly. Well, although almost everything was a lie.

‘Interesting.’

First of all, Yoon-seok started with one basic premise. Honestly, he didn’t even know if that was her real name, but Lee Su-yeon was Grape Jam. Of course, when he checked her magic capacity, she wasn’t a 21st-floor ranker who received a Rank SS rating from the Tower, but…

‘She must have that kind of skill.’

Yoon-seok would have sent her off without much doubt if it wasn’t for the wave. She was fooling everyone.

‘Why? What’s the purpose of hiding herself so discreetly?’

At first, he thought she was hiding to avoid attention, but that didn’t make sense either. Then why did she accept the scouting offer from the Global Challenger Federation?

‘When I bumped into her earlier, was it a coincidence?’

The first reason he doubted her was because of the bump. But assuming that she was Grape Jam, it felt a little different. They were both 21st-floor duel rankers, so that couldn’t be pure coincidence.

‘Then she bumped into me on purpose…’

This solved that question.

‘The reason why she came all the way here is that she thought she could meet me?’

Her purpose from the start was to bump into him. Of course, he didn’t know what benefits she could gain from that action. So he had to figure it out. If he did, he thought he would be able to know what the memories of his past life (?) he saw earlier were.

‘But should I say the only advantage is that my opponent doesn’t know?’

If he had registered her on the list earlier, it would have been simple. Since her name, age, and nickname information would appear. However, Yoon-seok was already convinced that she was Grape Jam. Therefore, instead of registering her on the list, he decided to take advantage of that.

SS+ and SS-. The ratings given to them by the Tower weren’t that different. He had to be more careful of a woman who planned carefully and secretly like this.

“The lecture will begin soon, so please sit down.”

Yoon-seok attended a lecture within the federation that called for all challengers. There was only one reason: she was here.

“…?”

The woman tried to sit next to him in an empty seat, but she suddenly froze. She looked a little surprised when she saw him. Yoon-seok stood up and apologized to her.

“Oh, it’s you, right? What a coincidence. I’m sorry about earlier. You look so much like someone I know… oh, I’m Choi Yoon-seok.”

“I’m Lee Su-yeon…”

“Yes. It’s starting soon, so let’s sit down.”

There were fixed seats for this lecture. Therefore, it was impossible to change seats. But did she think it would look suspicious if she suddenly left? Lee Su-yeon, after a moment’s hesitation, sat down.

Before long, the instructor took the podium, and the lecture began. The instructor spoke in his respective language, but there was no problem in understanding as everyone here was a challenger.

‘The content doesn’t seem to be of any help.’

Yoon-seok quickly lost interest. It was natural because this lecture was for challengers other than duelers. Synergy, collaboration, and countermeasures for each class were the main contents of the discussion.

“What did you choose?”

The moment the instructor stopped speaking, Yoon-seok turned to regard her.

“…Exploration.”

“Oh? I guess we’re probably connected in a past life. I’m exploration, too.”

“…I see.”

He tried asking while emphasizing past life, but there was no response. When he wanted to push her further, a warning came from behind him.

“Why don’t you stop making silly comments to a young kid? It looks like she doesn’t want to talk.”

Another challenger cut in. Based on their magical power, he was about the fourth floor in the duel. He just seemed to be nosy, however, and not related to Grape Jam.

‘That’s true. It might look weird.’

Yoon-seok admitted his mistake and shut his mouth. Then he heard a snort from the back. He seemed to think he stepped down after being frightened by his presence.

“Pathetic.”

“…”

Despite the sarcastic remark, Yoon-seok saved his words. There was no reason for him to make a fuss, so Yoon-seok focused his attention on the lady sitting next to him throughout the lecture. And as he was-

“Can the challenger on Seat 34 please stand up for a moment?”

At the lecturer’s words, people’s eyes gathered on Yoon-seok. When he checked, the seat he sat on was none other than 34. Yoon-seok stood silently.

“It says you’re a summoner. If you don’t mind, can you show it to people as an example?”

Number 34 was not Yoon-seok’s seat. Originally, another challenger would have sat, but Taro Kitamura lent him his seat at Yoon-seok’s request. And no one, including the lecturer, knew it. However, it seemed that the seat’s owner was a summoner, which was the current topic of the lecture.

“…”

Yoon-seok decided to take out Asura, who was busy purring and napping from his front pocket. How deeply asleep was he that even while being seen by this many people on his palm, Asura was sleeping coolly.

“…This is my summoned pet.”

Everyone, including the lecturer, went speechless for a while. Some couldn’t hold back their laughter, and giggling came from the back rows. As if the lecturer was flustered and never expected this scenario, he added unnecessary speculation.

“Ah, your summoned pet is very small. Is it sleeping now?”

Somehow embarrassed, Yoon-seok poked Asura to wake him up. Then Asura, who woke up in surprise, drew his miniaturized swords and went on guard.

“Growl? G, growl! Grrrrrr…?“

At this point, the lecturer couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter. Perhaps he knew it was rude, as he tried to suppress laughter by fanning his face.

“Pfft! Oh, I’m sorry. I’m being rude because it’s so cute.”

Laughter filled the lecture room. In the meantime, Asura was the only one who didn’t understand the situation. Eventually, Yoon-seok gave up. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, and people had fun for a while, so wasn’t that enough? Plus, there was a bonus.

“…!”

While everyone was laughing, Lee Su-yeon alone looked slightly surprised, as if she’d seen something that shouldn’t exist.

“Then can I sit down?”

“Oh, no. If you don’t mind, can you explain what ability your summoned pet has?”

Yoon-seok forced a smile. This lecturer said he was being rude but wasn’t he saying whatever he wanted? Anyway, considering his persistence, he thought he would keep hanging on even if he rejected him.

“Is it an assisting type based on the size?”

Yoon-seok shook his head firmly. Honestly, he didn’t know which part of Asura looked like he helped, but he wasn’t an assistant.

“No, it’s combat.”

“Combat?”

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

The lecturer tilted his head. Thinking it might be a translation problem, he asked a new question.

“Combat, this is unexpected. Keep in mind, other challengers, what you see in the Tower isn’t everything. Then, how does the summoned pet fight?”

Was this what lectures were like? He heard that it was manners for the challengers not to ask these details, but had the custom changed?

“It fights with a sword.”

Asura always wanted a sword, but he had never seen him fighting properly with one. Well, he was sure that was the case. But did this answer sound strange?

“What? Fight with a sword? With such a small body? Ah! Is it an assassin type?”

“No, it’s not like that…”

“Interesting! Very interesting! Can you show us how it fights?”

At this rate, it would be more of a shortcut to show them everything. When he nodded, the lecturer looked for a volunteer, and one hand shot up.

“I’ll do it.”

He was the challenger behind Yoon-seok. At the lecturer’s request, Yoon-seok and the challenger went up the podium. Yoon-seok placed Asura on the floor facing the challenger.

“Hey, grow bigger.”

“Grr!“

Asura regained his original size, bulky and well over three meters tall. It was okay because he looked like a figure when he was small, but that vicious and bizarre appearance shone at this size.

“…!”

“Wow, awesome!”

The people in the audience looked surprised by the unexpected twist. The volunteer, however, without realizing it, took a step back and trembled with despair. However, after hearing the lecturer and Yoon-seok’s conversation, he returned to his original color.

“Wow, you said it’s a combat-specialized summoned pet. Is this its original size?”

“Yes. Because it stands out, I carry it around while it’s small.”

“You’re on the exploration 5th floor, right? Do you usually fight only with this summoned pet?”

“…Yeah. Well, that’s right.”

How strong would an exploration 5th floor summon pet be? The volunteer was convinced and found confidence again. However, what he didn’t know was…

“I’m an 8th-floor mission challenger. Originally, I use dual swords like him, but for balance, I’ll only use one sword this time.”

Asura’s owner was a 21st-floor duel challenger.