Kwon Rena made a firm resolution after the recent incident, and Mok U-ram grew closer to her, though many parts of each other’s hearts still remained unknowable.

You could tell just by watching them study for exams together.

But now, they no longer stopped at what they didn’t understand.

“Rena, this question doesn’t require much memorization. If you read the passage carefully and understand it, it’s easy to solve. Do you remember the table in the textbook that quantifies the ability wave’s response values according to changes in sound waves? If you match that table with the sentences here, you can solve it easily.”

“U-ram, doesn’t needing to memorize that table mean this is more about memorization than understanding?”

“Huh? I see. Rena, please memorize the parts I marked. I’ll reread the question.”

Just as Mok U-ram couldn’t understand how Rena created such a tone that moved his soul, Rena couldn’t comprehend how Mok U-ram’s superior intellect operated.

Nevertheless, they were narrowing that difference little by little.

Mok U-ram reanalyzed the question and explained it with all his effort, while Rena desperately memorized the pages he pointed out—they both worked hard.

Moreover, starting with this midterm, Rena planned to use the ability violin for her practical exam, so their morale was high.

“Rena, I’ll help with your practical practice too. In our class, the only ones who understand music and instruments well enough to help you are... ah, Vice-Captain. No offense meant!”

“That’s fine. Everyone knows Jo Yi-shin’s skill at playing. Baekho! I’m laughing, but you don’t.”

“No way.”

“Kids are studying, be quiet.”

Bap bap bap!

The old tiger and the white tiger were laughing about how nice it was until Cheong-ho hit them.

Looking closely, Hwang Ji-ho took a direct hit well, but unfortunately the white tiger barely dodged.

Jin Jeong-muk, who watched the lightning-fast slap to the back of the head and the white tiger’s evasive movement, was so impressed that his brush pen broke, leaving his hands covered in ink.

The spilled ink running down Jin Jeong-muk’s hands caused a brief mess as Kim Yuri quickly handed him tissue.

‘When it comes to handling instruments, I’m hopeless too.’

Those influenced by nightmares tend to be bad with instruments.

But since I could play the triangle with effort, it probably wasn’t a big problem.

No, considering the nightmare still dwells within me, doing this well is impressive.

“Jo Yi-shin thinks he’s good at playing.”

“Ah, no way. Yi-shin is good at self-reflection.”

The white tiger summarized my thoughts on his own.

Sawol Seyum smiled and passed by, but classmates who knew the white tiger had blessed me glanced in shock.

Though the white tiger skipped over some assumptions, is my thought really problematic enough to make that face?

I thought not, so I pretended not to notice.

“It’s noisy. What were you talking about?”

“Seon-oh, don’t worry. Even if you or she are terrible at playing instruments, you’re still our partners!”

Just then, In Seon-oh, who had stepped out, returned.

Since In Seon-oh, a candidate for the nightmare incarnation, and my instrument skills were similar, the topic quickly shifted.

So it wasn’t the right atmosphere for focus, and everyone decided to take a break, chatting and snacking.

In Seon-oh spoke quietly to me so others wouldn’t hear.

“You took a nap during the day on the holiday, right?”

Did he know I had napped?

Since the tigers hadn’t bragged about it anywhere, In Seon-oh must have found out on his own.

The white tiger stayed close while I napped, so the nightmare probably didn’t leak outside the mansion.

I just asked.

“How did you know?” 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

“I passed you my spider. I can’t do much, but I can track when the nightmare moves.”

Even when awake, traces of the nightmare flowed subtly nearby.

Those with sleeping or spirit sensing abilities could detect me immediately.

During seniors’ field trip, experiments against spirit sensing confirmed a few ways to hide it.

Jeon Moo-young’s Gwanglim, ‘Time Without Shadows’.

Jeok-ho’s Jeok-yeon.

And In Seon-oh’s barrier, interpreted and implemented in his own style based on the two-legged barrier.

The last two means were hard to use in daily life, so currently I borrow In Seon-oh’s power to hide the nightmare’s presence.

In Seon-oh was providing improved consumable barrier items via the Ho clan.

‘So that barrier item is called a spider.’

Since # Nоvеlight # anyone with spirit sensing or similar detection abilities might appear in my daily life, I always carried the barrier item and stayed alert.

Same on Chuseok, so maybe that’s how he knew I had napped.

Because my sleep pattern changed from usual, In Seon-oh might have worried about a possible nightmare rampage.

Still, I told him not to worry next time and just rest if a similar situation happened while I was at the tiger mansion.

“You knew where I was on Chuseok. No need to stay on guard.”

“You’re a reliable classmate, but also a target for the nightmare incarnation. So it will hunt you more persistently.”

In Seon-oh seemed unwilling to lower his guard.

I felt the same—couldn’t trust the nightmare either.

Just recalling how a spirit sensing follower of the mastermind had gone mad spouting nonsense under the nightmare’s influence made me understand In Seon-oh well.

After briefly discussing improvements to In Seon-oh’s barrier item, I returned to battle the pain of studying with the other kids.

As midterms approached, more students, regardless of grade, started going crazy.

“Yi-shin hyung, I’ll handle the pit problem, so don’t worry.”

In the first-year zone, pits increased explosively.

The number was too large for Cha Seok-won to have done alone, causing genuine concern.

It turned out the first-year kids, claiming they couldn’t study, wasted time digging with Cha Seok-won.

Normally, even if someone paid them to dig, they’d refuse to waste time instead playing, but now everyone volunteered to dig pits.

‘I don’t think only Class 0 juniors dug the pits...’

Cha Seok-won had wide connections and was friendly with many classes.

So Classes 0 and 1, and even other normal classes, dug pits.

I heard the Class 0 scanner teacher once said if this keeps up, it’d be better to split Class 0 into two or more classes, which made sense.

Juniors seemed to find everything except studying enjoyable during exam season.

Thanks to that, Cha Seok-won was happy he had enough samples of places and times.

The tendency for everything except studying to become enjoyable spread to other areas too.

“Recently, the top 10 pro player teams in the world have been acting strangely. The number of players dispatched to Korea from each team has increased, the I-Gaebu announced today.”

“The I-Gaebu? I just read an article saying it’s clashing with the Association headquarters over satellite nationalization, but even though the article sided with I-Gaebu, it showed the Association is better at management and manpower.”

“If it’s about the world’s top 10 pro player teams or the Association headquarters, it’s connected to international affairs. Hey, did you hear about the event by Jeolheuk Poongnim?”

Even kids who usually didn’t care about current affairs became actively and intensely interested during exams.

Strangely, right before exams, serious and provocative incidents often happened, forcing their attention.

Still, since I couldn’t tell them not to care about current affairs, I just watched.

Jin Jeong-muk, related to Jeolheuk Poongnim who made the event a hot topic, was increasingly asked questions.

“Minister Min, I was under gag orders and couldn’t speak, but Lord Jang will soon officially announce it. Jeolheuk Poongnim is inviting strong martial artists by sending out hero invitations. They plan to gather those of like mind to hold a martial arts contest and discuss martial ways.”

“......?”

Min Geurin, who asked, couldn’t understand the martial artist’s language.

Song Dae-seok was dumbfounded, thinking ‘What nonsense is that martial artist spouting?’ Many kids didn’t understand Jin Jeong-muk’s words.

But our class’s skilled class president could grasp some meaning thanks to reading several martial arts novels.

“Hmm... seems like the Jeolheuk Poongnim team master is inviting players to a sparring event!”

“Minister Kim is right. Even martial artists who didn’t receive the hero invitation can participate in the contest if they meet the conditions.”

“Players who didn’t get invited can still join the event. They’re recruiting publicly.”

“Jin Jeong-muk needs translation even when speaking Korean!”

Thanks to Kim Yuri’s desperate interpreting, the class understood what was going on at Jeolheuk Poongnim.

Anyway, rumors that martial artists would gather around Jeolheuk Poongnim for a grand meeting seemed true.

But since midterms were coming, no matter how big Jeolheuk Poongnim’s event was, it was someone else’s problem.

Yet some crazies were volunteering to create and dive into the event.

[Active Eungwang High student discovers ancient underwater ruins]

A short article included a photo of our school’s famous troublemakers.

The Geum Chan-wang-chan gang had recently been trying all sorts of things to win an award, but with graduation near, the third-years were skipping exams to do nonsense.

After the newspaper club won an award for their coverage of the school trip and mentioned Jegal Jae-geol in their speech, Geum Chan-wang-chan sharpened their knives—and this was the result.

Soon, we might see crazy seniors inserting Jegal Jae-geol’s four characters into every sentence in interviews.

Seeing Geum Chan-wang-chan clash with the newspaper club reminded me of Mun Sae-ron.

‘Mun Sae-ron wants to report on the Ministry of Defense lab, but that will be difficult.’

Mun Sae-ron risked her safety for an exclusive scoop, but the amount was too large.

They were negotiating with the Association over the level of information to disclose, so probably the article wouldn’t be published easily.

Meanwhile, a figure appeared, being interviewed as an Eungwang High student though not even enrolled yet.

[I’m going to be admitted to Eungwang High anyway, so I’m an Eungwang High student.]

A middle school dropout aiming to build records by attacking the Otherworld appeared recently.

She was from the Oh family, who took the GED because she wanted to enter Eungwang High quickly.

The Class 0 scanner teacher watching the news in the faculty office was rumored to already be preparing to send her to Class 0.

“Jo Yi-shin, there are recent experimental results. Would you like to check them?”

Alongside the many news pieces visible, much was moving unseen.

Hwang Ji-ho’s eyes gleamed as he spoke of two experiments.

One was by Hyangrok, and the other was an experiment against the rebel Wo clan.