EX rank supporting role's replay in a prestigious school

Chapter 978

After checking the quote written by Hirano Seiji, I nodded and casually spoke.

"I prefer casual speech over formal, too. This works out well."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Hirano Seiji nodded after seeing my gesture and folded his napkin.

He was hastily folding the napkin, which looked a bit awkward, and his fingers were stiff, as if he were quite nervous.

If this was an act, he might seriously want to consider a career as an actor or spy.

I pointed to the holographic menu and asked,

"Is this your first time at this café? People from our school don't usually order the mint café mocha."

I pretended to browse the menu, moving my fingers to write something so that it would be visible to Hirano Seiji.

[The camera?]

Seeing Hirano Seiji's eyes follow my finger, it seemed he understood my intent.

It could be answered with a simple yes or no, so there was no need to write an answer.

Hirano Seiji shook his head and said,

"No, it's not my first time at this café. I've been looking around the area near Eungwang High during my break."

Hirano Seiji answered in a way that would raise no suspicion if he were being eavesdropped.

Before I could probe further, I heard Huang Jiho's voice through the hidden receiver, which might not have been visible due to the hair covering it.

[It's true, Jo Yi-shin. It seems they couldn't bypass the security of Hwangmyung Tower, so they couldn't plant anything in the café, but since there's no thorough inspection, they must have planted eavesdropping equipment in someone.]

This café is currently under the influence of the Hojo family.

Though there are some regular customers, they are a minority.

Those sitting near me where sound can reach are all sent by Huang Jiho.

Huang Jiho is currently monitoring the area using devices and abilities, and to communicate discreetly, they have used a miniature voice receiver developed by the Hwangmyung Group.

It felt a bit extreme to go through all this just for a casual meeting between high school students, but considering everything that had happened so far, caution was necessary.

'At least it's lucky there are no cameras.'

Eavesdropping equipment is easy to hide since there's no need to carry it openly, but hiding a camera is not as easy.

After all, even the smallest camera needs to have a lens exposed, making it difficult to deceive the eyes of players who are on high alert.

To hide it effectively, I'd have to use the invisibility ability, just like when I filmed the busking video for Dukgo Mi-ro. However, using invisibility is inefficient because the effort required to hide it diminishes the effectiveness of the ability.

'There is a chance that they might figure out I'm aware of the eavesdropping. But if they've sent it, it means they trust me.'

Alternatively, they could have deliberately hinted at the existence of the eavesdropping device to make me think they were trying to establish trust.

Either way, it was clear that the Japanese representative team trusted Hirano Seiji.

Huang Jiho's voice continued.

[Jeokho has roughly analyzed the eavesdropping device Hirano Seiji is wearing.]

Jeokho is also here, probably in a spot not far from me.

He was furious about the incident with Andain and wanted to track down the culprit and wipe them out with explosives.

To calm him down, I asked for his help and brought him along.

'Is it really okay to use the Hojo family's top information expert for something like this...'

Though I couldn't see him because he was using invisibility, Jeokho was discretely conducting a body search on Hirano Seiji.

Since he was so close, I could faintly feel Jeokho's presence.

It seemed that Hirano Seiji hadn't noticed Jeokho's presence.

But perhaps because Hirano Seiji had been searched for eavesdropping equipment, a highly skilled player like him seemed to sense something.

"The nameless rising star isn't weaker than the likes of the master archers Narae or Shintan’s master. Our team’s performance analyst always wonders about that. And you..."

Hirano Seiji trailed off.

He seemed to want me to ask, but it looked like he genuinely didn’t know how to proceed.

Hirano Seiji’s fingers wrote on the napkin.

[Trap!]

The exclamation mark showed it was a very significant warning.

If I picked up on his trailing words, it seemed like someone behind the scenes had set a trap for me.

Since this had likely been planned from the beginning, I couldn’t just let it go.

"Me? Do you have something you want to say?"

Hirano Seiji’s face darkened.

It seemed like he wanted to ask why I didn’t let it pass, but there was something in his demeanor that made him hold back.

Hirano Seiji hesitated, so I urged him.

[Understood.]

Seeing the words on the napkin, I quickly lifted my head.

When I turned my gaze back to the napkin, Hirano Seiji's eyes followed.

[It’s okay.]

Hirano Seiji stared at the three words "It's okay" for a long time.

After some hesitation, Hirano Seiji spoke.

"...You could definitely be the top scorer, but I thought you might be deliberately avoiding it. They say you're just one subject away from a perfect score."

I didn't even know how my grades had spread.

Although Jo Su-hyeok and Andain were famous for their perfect scores, I didn't expect anyone to be interested in me.

But those trying to use me would certainly be watching.

"How did you know?"

"I saw a post online. They say the nameless rising star missed out on the top spot because of one subject. Sorry if it upset you."

It seemed someone from Eungwang High wrote the post.

But I hadn’t seen such a post on the Eungwang High bulletin board, so it must have been posted somewhere else. I wondered where such posts could have been made.

Could it have been on the 'Player Network,' a shared platform for players?

Since even Eungwang High has its fans, it was possible.

"I also know about the subject you couldn't get a perfect score in."

"Really?"

"Yeah, in your first year, you had Professor Choi Pyeon-deuk, but it switched to Professor Gong Cheong-hwon midway. That’s the subject where you missed a perfect score after that."

Hirano Seiji said very slowly.

Both Choi Pyeon-deuk and Gong Cheong-hwon were names difficult for even Koreans to pronounce, so I couldn’t blame him.

Though Hirano Seiji didn’t directly mention it, I understood why these names came up.

Gong Cheong-hwon became a regular professor after Choi Pyeon-deuk fell from grace, and around that time, the Hwangmyung Group had more frequent exchanges.

I had been taking Gong Cheong-hwon’s classes every semester, and each time, I couldn’t get a perfect score in that subject, preventing me from being the top scorer.

Those who knew this, especially those trying to fuel the suspicions about Andain's favoritism, would find this suspicious.

Hirano Seiji asked with a shadow over his face.

"Is there a reason you have to choose the subject where you can't get a perfect score?"