“The plan itself is absurd, but there is no evidence of manipulation. The self-proclaimed phantom thief obtained the clues left by Assemblyman Seong Guk-eon and the plan of the Demon Tribe and passed them on to me.”

Cheon Dong-ha also agreed with Joo Soo-hyeok.

Even in Cheon Dong-ha’s eyes, the evidence sent by the monster was all real.

In addition, the monster was so elusive that he could evade the police and the association’s pursuit, and he had a rare ability to send a warning to a desired location.

If he utilized the monster’s ability, it would not be a problem to send the clue to Joo Soo-hyeok.

“Jeolheukpungrim would know the most about the Demon Tribe, so I checked. The seal of the Demon God left in the clues sent by the self-proclaimed phantom thief was all real, and the contract was engraved with the blood of a high-ranking priest among the Demon Tribe who followed the Demon God.”

“I can see it too. Each and every clue is imbued with ominous and intense power. But is this really the clue that the self-proclaimed phantom thief sent?”

“Yes, the short letter had the seal used for the notice engraved on it.”

The letter contained the phrase ‘Bonne chance!’ that seemed to have been hastily scribbled down, and the aurora-colored swan pattern, a seal favored by phantoms.

Self-proclaimed phantom thief, Ong Gil-dong left a message in French wishing good luck to the person he was entrusted with a dangerous clue, even in a desperate situation.

Whether he likes swans or not, when he appears, he plays Swan Lake composed by Russian Tchaikovsky as background music, and he usually wears a fancy remodeled costume of a traditional Spanish bullfighting suit, and his words, which seem to be inspired by Celtic mythology, include metaphors related to the slang, making Ong Gil-dong’s concept a mess.

However, the phantom thief’s motif seems to have been taken from the French work Arsene Lupin, a gentleman thief by Maurice Leblanc, and his will was in French.

“The Players Association and the government are untrustworthy right now. Let’s find a way to respond centered around the Black Forest. We can also join forces with the Red Lion through Junyeol. But before that, it would be better to contact this monster.”

“I think so too. Since you trusted me and sent me the clue, he might show up soon.”

“If you don’t come, let’s hide in the place indicated by the next notice.”

Joo Soo-hyeok and Cheon Dong-ha tried to contact the monster, but it didn’t work out.

At this point, Ong Gil-dong had already died without anyone knowing.

Ong Gil-dong met his end in the same place as Seong Guk-eon.

The black curtain transported the annoying and dangerous thief who had managed to steal the clue to the garden managed by Poong Baek and Woo Sa to completely eliminate him, and Ong Gil-dong failed to escape and died.

However, the difference from the time of Seong Guk-eon was that Ong Gil-dong had a special light called the ‘Magician’s Silk Hat’.

Before Seong Guk-eon died, Ong Gil-dong found the data chip that was sealed and hidden in layers to ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ react to human supernatural powers, and sent it to Ju Soo-hyeok, who had been keeping an eye on it, along with the clues he had stolen.

However, it was impossible to find the location of the phantom thief or Seong Guk-eon with those clues.

“I haven’t seen that phantom lately. Instead, there has been a lot of bad news.”

Guseulbi, who secretly enjoyed the flashy actions of the self-proclaimed phantom thief, was very disappointed.

In addition, ominous events followed as soon as the phantom’s warnings stopped.

Since those ominous events were often related to the places where the phantom had sent warnings, conspiracy theories became popular for a while, but that trend didn’t last long.

Another issue was already a major issue in the player community.

The Silver Advertisement General Bulletin Board has been in an uproar recently over the nationalization of player satellites.

[If player satellites continue like this, they will really be nationalized. According to the promotional materials, they say they will disclose player information while talking about transparent satellite information. Are they crazy?]

[All community satellite-related bulletin boards are in an uproar right now. One satellite nerd went crazy and uploaded information every day, and got blocked for spamming.]

[They are going to privatize water, electricity, and medical services because they don't have money, but they are going to nationalize player satellites that have enormous management fees? LOL They don't have money or manpower. LOL]

[Ugh, they only hire a few player civil servants, but they are so greedy.]

[They are using nationalization as an excuse to waste tax money? They are making a fuss about a tax loophole, but they are making an excuse to spend money right away. LOL]

[Information: Lee Gye-bu has a history of selling enemy weapons donated by the association for cheap.]

[↑How much did they sell them for? Even if you search, only articles about selling come up]

[↑They probably didn't even give 100 million won. It's widely known that the civil servant in charge received bribes from the company that sold it. They sold it in a hurry and later, there was chaos during the state audit, but the civil servant died and they couldn't investigate.]

[↑Not even 10 billion won, but 100 million won? The civil servant died?]

[The Player Special Act is crazy, so what if they sell the satellite too? An immigration agency is showing up on this page right now, so is this a hint from a higher being telling them to run away? LOL]

[They're selling the satellite after nationalizing it because they're going to break the management fee? What are we going to do now that Seong Guk-eon is gone?]

[↑Yeah, Seong Guk-eon ran away, abandoning the people]

[↑What's the bulletin board administrator doing instead of blocking this guy? He's the guy who writes malicious comments whenever Seong Guk-eon is mentioned]

Cheon Dong-ha is also one of the players, and he feels seriously about the nationalization of the association's satellite, but it's been pushed down in his priorities.

It wasn’t because the issue wasn’t important, but because it was difficult to handle the immediate task at hand.

‘Nationalization isn’t something that can be done quickly. No matter how quickly it’s done, it’ll take years for ownership to completely transfer to the government. However, as the work progresses, we’ll gain access to the satellite.’

Both Cheon Dong-ha and Joo Soo-hyuk were becoming increasingly certain about the existence of a mastermind targeting this land.

They also vaguely felt that the mastermind was encroaching on the government and the association.

And one of those moves was nationalizing the player satellite, but Cheon Dong-ha suspected that the mastermind was trying to gain something from the process rather than the nationalization itself.

‘There are too many issues to think about. Someone has already made numerous moves to attack us a long time ago, but we can’t even properly defend ourselves, let alone counterattack.’

As Cheon Dong-ha’s worries deepened, an unexpected presence offered a helping hand.

It was none other than the luxury of the irregular luncheon meeting.

As the children attending the irregular luncheon meeting decreased significantly due to the Christmas incident, Hosaga, who had never interfered with the affairs of the world, began to move quietly.

“I should have come to see you when there were more children. I regret it.”

Hosaga, who had always kept a low profile and listened to the children’s conversations, showed up at the luncheon meeting one day.

Hosaga had his eyes covered, but everyone could tell who he was thanks to his sculpted, straight features and golden long ears.

‘It’s Jecheon Daeseong Son Ohgong. I had an idea that he was a great being, but he was bigger than I thought.’

As dangerous incidents continued to occur, the number of children visiting the luncheon meeting greatly decreased, allowing Jecheon Daeseong to have a fair conversation with everyone.

Thanks to that, Cheon Dongha also had a chance to talk to Jecheon Daeseong.

Jecheon Daeseong asked in a small talk.

“There was a monster who is currently inactive who left a notice at the TC Research Institute. Didn’t he steal something?”

Jecheon Daeseong asked in a friendly manner as he did to other children, but Cheon Dongha, who had a keen sense of humor, was momentarily nervous.

Cheon Dongha felt like he was being interrogated for a moment.

In fact, Jecheon Daeseong at this point was not Hwangho, but rather borrowing the power of another Jinjok to find his younger brother.

As a result, he found out that his younger brother’s whereabouts were connected to the TC Research Institute, although it was much later than Hwangho.

The monster had a feeling that the Demon was related to the TC Research Institute, and had sent a bluffing notice saying that he would steal what the Demon had hidden in the TC Research Institute without even knowing it.

Thanks to that, the Demon tried to move its base in a hurry, but he ended up giving the monster a clue.

“There were no reports of anything being stolen. After the notice came, I called in mercenary players and put them on guard.”

“Yeah, it’s fortunate that nothing was lost.”

Jecheon Daeseong didn’t ask any more questions, but he continued to show interest in the TC Research Institute after that.

And after summer vacation ended and a new semester began, I was busy preparing for a big event.

The day the third-year students left for their school trip was approaching.

* * *

The more I watched the replay, the more I saw things I hadn't seen.

While playing Plumago, I thought the developer was intentionally showing serious things to make the users suffer, but a lot was omitted.

There were people who had experienced terrible things, even though there were no descriptions in the game.

In addition, there were many who noticed the number of people who were behind the scenes and tried to respond, even though they didn't appear properly.

'It was good that we watched the replay together. It must have been difficult for the seniors to tell me such details. I almost missed a lot.'

My heart ached especially when I thought of the kids in my class.

In the story, Kwon-rena became a playable character after Joo-soo-hyuk and his group persuaded her to break free from her role as a villain.

Since then, there has never been a single description of Kwon-rena failing.

At one time, Kwon-rena failed the exam while worrying about the April Se-eum case, but before she became friends with Joo-soo-hyeok and his group, she had so many hardships that she must have failed the exam often.

‘And it’s surprising that Je-cheon Dae-seong seemed to be trying to intervene.’

There is no trace of Je-cheon Dae-seong’s activities in Plumago.

It seems that Je-cheon Dae-seong eventually realized that there was a tactician in the TC Lab, although it took much longer than in this world.

However, I have never heard of the TC Lab being destroyed by Je-cheon Dae-seong.

‘Je-cheon Dae-seong probably fell to the mastermind.’

The TC Lab, which entered after Do-won-woo’s attack, had Je-cheon Dae-seong’s countermeasures prepared.

In this world, they would have had to deal with the priests of Avaritia, who were easily dealt with by the word, and there would have been mercenary players who had trained to use the seal technique, and most importantly, there was the poison of the ability.

There must have been children related to TC, so Jecheon Daeseong must have gone to the research center alone to save his younger brother after investigating and asking around.

It is questionable what happened to Jecheon Daeseong after that, but given the circumstances, it is possible that he suffered a similar fate to Mujigi.

The surname is big.

The younger brother, Jeo Gang-ryeop, might have tried to save Jecheon Daeseong, but there was no way the dark curtain would listen to him.

“Jo Eui-shin, is this body still there?”

At that time, Hwang Ji-ho asked me.

I answered obediently.

“Oh, I’m going to school.”

Hwang Ji-ho went missing after Andain’s hidden quest.

It snowed during that hidden quest, so there was still time.

‘That means that Hwang Ji-ho went on a school trip while he was going to school, and that’s when the incident happened. The incident happened even though the chairman was at school.’

I gave Hwang Ji-ho a conclusion that he might be curious about.

“Even after the seniors wake up, you’ll still go to school.”

After hearing my answer, Hwang Ji-ho nodded once and became lost in thought.

The Jin clan present stared at Hwang Ji-ho, understanding the meaning of my words.

Hwang Ji-ho didn't ask any more questions or make any excuses.

After seeing that, I closed my eyes again and focused on the replay.