Chapter 39: Collect eleven individuals (3)

"B-but why?!"

"That's for you to think about."

Chun Yeowun turned his back to him. His eyes were cold when he turned.

'Nano, deactivate facial expression analysis.'

[Deactivating.]

It was one of Nano's abilities that allowed him to see if the person was lying or not.

'...He's suspicious.'

When he talked with Yumpa, he felt the shadow of Chun Yuchan from within and activated the skill. There was no change to the facial muscles while talking about the third test, but when he was asked why he didn't go to the other princes, Nano found the change in expression.

"They were already full. They already have skilled warriors serving them. No spots left for me."

[Sensing slight change in facial expression. Chance of the entity lying is at 45%.]

"Yeah... but I thought all the princes from the six clans would be the same."

[Detected continuous muscle shift in facial expression. Chance of lying increased to 62%.]

It was impossible for the Nano Machine to read human expressions entirely. If it was against a trained spy, it would not have been possible. As for Chun Yeowun who had his doubts, Yumpa gave him some evidence.

"Yeah. We walk the same path of the blade, don't we?"

'We walk the same path of the blade.'

That was very similar to what Chun Yuchan had said before. Yeowun then was able to confirm the shadow of the Blade Clan inside Yumpa.

'A crony...'

He then came to realize the various suspicious things that Yumpa had. He said he went to the Wise and Sword Clan and took out the Blade Clan when he was a blade skill user. Yeowun then went to the private training room for further training.

As Yeowun went down to the forest, Yumpa also went down and met with someone in the alleyway between buildings. He was meeting with Chun Yuchan to give him the report.

"He refused?"

"Yes... Prince."

Chun Yuchan raised his eyebrow.

"He just heard about the information of the third test and left. I didn't say anything that might make him suspicious..."

"Hahahahahaha!"

Chun Yuchan burst into laughter. Yumpa wasn't sure why he was laughing when Yumpa had failed his mission.

"He really is interesting. He just ran off with the information then."

Yuchan waved his hand. He then stopped laughing and continued, "So, a petty scheme won't work."

Yuchan didn't seem to expect much from Yumpa anyway.

"Wouldn't this ruin the whole plan.."

"It is ruined already. Then what? Are you going to beg him to take you in?"

"No, of course not."

As Chun Yuchan said, Yeowun did not trust people easily. He had been suspicious of Yumpa from the beginning and it only became worse as time went by.

"It would have been interesting if your plan worked... but he's too valuable to fail the test for not having the amount of required team members. I would recruit him again if he wasn't in the competition."

Yumpa's plan was to join Yeowun's team and leave his group on the day of the test so that he would fail the test without even taking it on.

Yumpa then knelt down.

"Prince, give me another chance. I have other plans ready."

"No, no. It's alright."

He smiled and reassured Yumpa, but it made Yumpa even more scared.

"B-but..."

"You don't need to do that anymore, so you should go look for a different group to sneak into. Who knows if you will become a leader also?"

"Huh?"

Yumpa was shocked. He had worked so hard to serve Chun Yuchan, but he was now banishing him.

"T-then you won't accept me as..."

"Oh, I already have many fools who I have to kick out, you see."

"Prince! Please give me another chance!"

Yumpa tried to grab Yuchan's pants, but he quickly moved back and dodged it. He then became cold and said, "I don't need a useless fool. Get lost."

Yumpa was abandoned just like that. As he walked back to the dorm while sobbing, Yuchan thought about the concerning part of the report.

'He overpowered Yumpa in one attack...'

This was hard to understand from what he saw himself regarding Yeowun's power two days ago.

Chun Yeowun returned to his private training room in the underground area.

'Eleven people... nothing's for sure yet.'

He had gotten good information, but nothing was official yet. However, he thought he should be ready to recruit people. He already had few from the 8th group, but he still needed more. He also questioned if ones in the 8th group would follow him.

'Let's finish up the training and think about it after I get back.'

He then focused on the remaining training and ordered Nano.

'Nano, did you finish analyzing all the books scanned from the first and second floor?'

[Yes, Master.]

'Nano, can you create an avatar with a certain amount of power and movement embedded with those martial arts techniques that you scanned?'

[That is possible if you appoint a certain entity.]

This was what Yeowun decided to do to move on with his training.

'Set the avatar to be Chun Mukeum, and begin embedding each martial arts technique.'

[Yes, Master. Creating avatar for the simulation...]

And soon, the augmented reality created Chun Mukeum in front of his eyes.

[Peasant. Come and get it.]

'You come.'

[Fool! Hiya!]

The martial arts was low-ranked one from the first floor, but when Chun Mukeum, a proficient warrior, used it, the skill was still quite powerful. Yeowun dodged the skill and used his Butterfly Blade Dance to throw his hand at the avatar's neck.

'I got him!'

[Urgh!]

It was the same way he did it in the forest, but the result was different. Mukeum's avatar neck twisted weirdly as it was struck, and the avatar disappeared.

[Chun Mukeum's avatar died with a destroyed neck bone.]

"What?"

Yeowun was dumbfounded. Just three days ago, the avatar was only thrown to the side. Nano's voice resounded in his head.

[The avatar of Chun Mukeum cannot take the damage from Master.]

'Oh...'

His physical strength was now at the limit, so a young warrior like Chun Mukeum had no way to fight back.

'Hm... this won't work.'

Yeowun then decided to change methods.

'Let's do this. Create five Chun Mukeum avatars, no actually, ten avatars with mid-ranked martial arts skills.'

[Understood.]

He thought that would even out the odds. A total of ten avatars was created. The room was small, but the augmented reality didn't care about the physical size of the room and created a virtual room for avatars to move further back.

'Hm... was this too much?'

Chun Yeowun regretted it a bit but decided to go on with the training. All ten avatars attacked him at once.

'I have to block them at once!'

There was a perfect formation for doing this. It was the second formation of the Butterfly Blade Dance. He quickly spun and swung the hand blade to counter the formation from four avatars. Two of them were struck in their blood points and that made them disappear.

'Got the first. Next... Ugh!'

There was no time to waste. The other avatars quickly moved toward him and Yeowun jumped up to avoid being attacked. And at that moment-

"UGH!"

He bumped into the ceiling. Unlike the avatars, he was still in a small room.