Although the plague was spreading within the Three Knights’ Oath and the Knight of Water Shadows had lost his power, this was not widely known outside.

When Lee Yeoreum saw it, the Knight of Water Shadows could be compared to figures like the blue violinist Kwon Jein or the Flame Emperor Yeom Bangyeol in terms of status.

If there were any reason for the Knight of Water Shadows to summon Lee Yeoreum, it would likely be related to Jared Lee.

However, it was clear that it wasn’t simply for a pleasant reunion.

If that were the case, just like Kwon Jein did, he would have proudly introduced himself and arranged a meeting in a public place.

“I see the resemblance. Your whole family are players, but you’re not, huh?”

“I lost my ability as I grew up...”

“Oh, you went to the center, huh? How unfortunate. What a waste.”

Lee Yeoreum’s biological parents weren’t powerful enough to harbor ill feelings toward Jared Lee, but they were players, nonetheless.

When Lee Yeoreum was young, she was a player as well, but during her time at the Youth Pre-Player Support Center, she lost her ability.

Later, she heard about the center incident, but she was already struggling to carry the weight of her own life, so she stopped thinking deeply about it.

In fact, she even convinced herself that being an ordinary person was better than ruining her life like her parents, who had ambiguous powers.

The Knight of Water Shadows continued observing Lee Yeoreum while muttering to himself.

“If the Eternal Lake hadn’t conducted an information operation, we would have found you sooner. No, that person must have known from the start. It would be nice if they told us.”

Could it be that Lee Yeoreum wasn’t involved with Jared Lee because the Eternal Lake had been moving behind the scenes?

If the Eternal Lake had decided to manipulate things, revealing their blood ties would not have been easy.

However, according to the Knight of Water Shadows, someone referred to as “that person” knew about it but was not sharing the information.

The Knight of Water Shadows continued muttering incomprehensible things.

“If someone is connected to Jared Lee by blood, it would be worth experimenting with them using my powers, but he didn’t do that. Perhaps you have more value to him than just an experiment.”

No one present understood what the Knight of Water Shadows was saying, and it was the same for him.

The shadowy figure had planned to use Lee Yeoreum as an experiment with the Knight of Water Shadows’ powers, but instead, he was holding onto Kwon Jein as a potential means to bring him down.

In other words, it was due to the shadowy figure’s cruel intentions to use Lee Yeoreum in a more terrible way that she had not yet fallen into the hands of the Knight of Water Shadows.

Although the surveillance on Lee Yeoreum from the lower ranks and Jared Lee’s contact with her yesterday had shaken this arrangement.

And strictly speaking, the Knight of Water Shadows and this laboratory were not under the shadowy figure’s command but were business partners, so once information leaked, it couldn’t be controlled.

“What kind of experiment are you conducting? If it’s an experiment, I can help.”

At the mention of an experiment, Nam Gung-gyuyeon casually spoke up.

The researcher frowned at the sudden interruption, but Nam Gung-gyuyeon didn’t mind.

Perhaps because he liked how boldly and cooperatively Nam Gung-gyuyeon acted, even knowing his identity, the Knight of Water Shadows responded.

“Alright, this experiment requires intelligence, so it would be easier with a collaborator. You, leave.”

The Knight of Water Shadows raised his finger, covered with otherworldly metal, and pointed at the researcher.

Wanting to appear good in front of the Knight and needing to keep an eye on Nam Gung-gyuyeon, the researcher objected.

“Sir, I can help too. And I can’t leave this child alone...”

“I heard the only researcher who can handle intelligence properly is that one. Was the report wrong? And alone? Have you forgotten how to count?”

The voice of the Knight of Water Shadows grew colder and heavier as he spoke.

It was a question and rebuke: Could the researcher do better than Nam Gung-gyuyeon in this role as an observer? There was no way to argue.

When the researcher exited, Nam Gung-gyuyeon waved and smiled, “See you in a bit!” but his insides were a different story.

‘I prevented that weird knight from being alone with Yeoreum Unni, but things are getting messy. That researcher would have been easy to handle and kept around.’

If things went badly, there were many ways to use the researcher, like calling higher-ups to intervene and shift the responsibility, but now that was lost.

Lee Yeoreum, a powerless ordinary person in front of abilities, had made Nam Gung-gyuyeon’s vigilance grow even more.

He still had no idea what the Knight of Water Shadows’ objective was.

“First, I’ll show the results ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) of my experiment to the two of you.”

The Knight of Water Shadows raised his finger and pointed to a corner.

In the corner that had been ignored due to the dark lighting and the armor covering his gaze, there was a container with a metal top sealed with otherworldly metal.

Then, with a ‘creak,’ the lid of the container slowly began to open in response to the energy released by the Knight of Water Shadows, revealing what was inside.

When Lee Yeoreum saw what was inside, she couldn’t hold herself back and collapsed to the ground.

Inside the container was a blonde young man, with beautiful doll-like features, lying with his eyes closed.

He looked exactly like Jared Lee’s past self, which Lee Yeoreum had discovered while searching for information after learning about the existence of her blood relatives the day before.

But it wasn’t Jared Lee—something identical to him but not quite.

Nam Gung-gyuyeon began to realize what the experiment was about.

Trying to keep his composure, he said as lightly as possible.

“Isn’t this the icon of reverse transformation, like the Eternal Lake team’s sub-master?”

“You know well. This was made during Jared Lee’s most beautiful time. It’s not as beautiful now, but his power has grown much stronger, so this one’s better... but I failed to secure it.”

Nam Gung-gyuyeon felt like he had swallowed the frozen swamp water.

The Knight of Water Shadows casually mentioned a big secret—how he had failed to kidnap the Eternal Lake’s large team sub-master—without a care, which was essentially saying he might kill to silence the information.

At a gesture from the Knight, something resembling Jared Lee staggered out of the container. Lee Yeoreum stifled a scream, covering her mouth.

“So far, I’ve failed with everyone except Jared and some mythical beings. That’s why I wanted to try it with Jared’s bloodline.”

“Are you planning to clone him?”

“Yeah, I need intelligence, so could you prepare it? As you know, this is the deepest part of the underground, so it will be easy to draw out intelligence here.”

Amidst the confusion, Lee Yeoreum finally realized why she had been summoned here the day after meeting Jared Lee.

The author needed an experiment subject, and the experimental equipment was ready here.

And the person called ‘that one’ had hurriedly summoned Lee Yeoreum before interfering.

“By the way, I heard you have a younger sibling? And that they go to Eungwang High and are a promising player, enough to become a disciple of the Eternal Lake team master.”

With her powerlessness and near-experimentation, Lee Yeoreum sharply raised her head.

Beyond shock and fear, a determination and wariness to protect her younger sibling were evident on her face.

Seeing her face, the Knight of Water Shadows seemed satisfied.

Although Lee Yeoreum had no ability now and didn’t resemble Jared Lee, the look in her eyes as she thought was eerily similar.

“I’d like to see your sibling too, would you call them?”

At this point, he didn’t yet know that Kwon Rena was an adopted child.

The Eternal Lake seemed to be hiding the secret tied to the bloodline thoroughly.

Lee Yeoreum considered revealing it here to protect Kwon Rena, but without any concrete evidence, she felt it wouldn’t be believed.

Her instincts screamed at her not to give too much information to the Knight of Water Shadows.

She briefly made eye contact with Nam Gung-gyuyeon, who gave a slight shake of his head.

Lee Yeoreum had no idea what intelligence meant, or what she would face next, but one thing was clear: something terrible was about to happen.

“Why don’t I just experiment with myself today, and we can call your sibling next time? They’re currently in a group activity.”

Lee Yeoreum’s body trembled slightly, but her voice, squeezed out like this, held no shakiness.

However, the Knight of Water Shadows did not change his mind.

When Lee Yeoreum resisted and grabbed a device that could be attached to her wrist, it was impossible for her to stop the Knight’s speed or strength.

Just as she felt her hand freezing cold, the device disappeared.

“You’re trembling a lot. I’ll call your sibling for you instead.”

The device in the Knight’s hand had been unlocked.

When he took the device, it seemed he had also completed the fingerprint recognition.

The Knight of Water Shadows looked at the conversation history saved under “My sibling ♡” and said.

“Don’t worry. I’m good at imitating.”

There was no answer from Lee Yeoreum until the time the match with Jo Yi-shin ended.

When the notification that a message had arrived from Lee Yeoreum came, Kwon Rena felt greatly relieved, but her relief didn’t last long. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

[Unni] Sorry for the late reply.

[Unni] I wanted to talk to you in person, so I finished up my work early.

[Unni] Can we meet now?

Ideally, Kwon Rena would also have liked to meet with Lee Yeoreum and talk about family matters.

But it felt odd that she was asking to meet now.

‘You must know that the class kids and Yi-shin are cheering for me... And Unni is...’

Currently, there was no match going on at Hwangmyeong Arena.

After Jo Yi-shin’s match ended, they were having commentary time and introducing the next athletes.

Kwon Rena stepped outside to try to call Lee Yeoreum for a conversation.

But when she couldn’t connect, she was wondering what to do when the message came in.

“Yap.”

“Saeron?”

Moon Saeron tapped Kwon Rena’s shoulder and approached her.

Moon Saeron was friendly with everyone in the class and had been close to Jo Yi-shin and Hwang Ho since the first year.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Something to ask?”

Moon Saeron’s voice lowered, as it usually did when they were carrying out secret operations to advance the relationship between Ju Suhyeok and Andaine.

“Gyuyeon just boasted that she saw your unni.”

“...She just saw unni?”

Just before things happened, Nam Gung-gyuyeon had sent a message to Moon Saeron while the researcher turned his eyes away.

If anything went wrong, Nam Gung-gyuyeon had chosen Moon Saeron as someone to notify.

Moon Saeron knew Nam Gung-gyuyeon’s recent activities the best, had a wide network, was an information gatherer, and had sharp intuition, so Nam Gung-gyuyeon believed she could spread the word if something went wrong.

Of course, sending it to Hong Gyubin would have been the most certain, but since getting caught would be hard to explain, he chose a backup option.

“Yeah, but Gyuyeon said she got suddenly called to the Ministry of Defense research institute, so she couldn’t come to the match.”

“Research institute...”

At that moment, Lee Yeoreum’s message arrived.

[Unni] Sorry, I can’t talk right now. I’m still at the company.

Moon Saeron, who was close enough to read the message, blinked.

The company Lee Yeoreum mentioned was typically Nam Gung-sam.

If she were at the Ministry of Defense research institute on the cadet academy grounds, the message content seemed off.

[Unni] Can you come? Someone’s giving me a ride, so I’ll send a car.

[Unni] I want to talk face-to-face, it’s hard to talk on the phone.

The unease Kwon Rena felt reached its peak.

The Knight of Water Shadows had perfectly mimicked Lee Yeoreum’s tone, typing speed, and punctuation habits, but there was something unexpected.

Already, due to Jo Yi-shin, Kwon Rena knew Lee Yeoreum was being monitored and eavesdropped on.

She and Lee Yeoreum both knew that meeting to talk was the most dangerous thing.

‘What do I do, the one writing this message is not Unni...!’

But not going was not an easy choice.

If someone was trying to summon Kwon Rena in Lee Yeoreum’s name, it meant they were in an extremely dangerous situation.