Inside the lab.

The situation was completely tilted.

When the Water Shadow Knight duplicated himself and increased his power, there was chaos, but that was it.

The knight's duplicate succeeded in hiding the real Iyeoreum for a while by mixing it with the water spray, but the teachers were able to find her again.

Among the countless expressionless duplicate enemies, Iyeoreum's face, listening to Kwon Rena's performance, was filled with emotion.

As long as the performance did not stop, the possibility of the teachers losing the real Iyeoreum disappeared.

Since they no longer knew where Iyeoreum was, there was no need to fight while hiding.

Kwaddeokdeok!

When Im Yeonhwa swung her sword like a blunt weapon, the knight succeeded in dodging, but the duplicate enemies standing behind her and spreading darkness were not safe.

With a sound like a wooden doll breaking, the duplicate enemies collapsed and melted into the darkness, disappearing.

It is common to stop or slow down when you see the enemy, who had been in human form until just now, leaving behind only bubble-like remains.

However, the teachers present here looked even more energetic.

As expected from a teacher who teaches students heading to conquer the other world not to be fooled by the enemy’s appearance, they were not shaken by this much.

‘If we had succeeded in killing the performer by surprise, there would have been a breakthrough!’

Ppaang!

Gong Cheong-hwan’s fist struck the clone’s lower abdomen.

It was an advanced technique that cleverly circulated the power and destroyed things it touched from the inside, using the tiger claw and forefoot swinging movements of Taeho-kwon.

When Gong Cheong-hwan opened his fist and straightened his fingers, the clone collapsed and scattered like water.

“There are people who like to study this kind of thing, so I tried to leave the shell, but it’s softer than I thought.”

By the time the voice mixed with regret was heard, the surroundings had already become quite bright.

Because of the war, the Water Shadow Knight had no room to increase the number of copies of this summer, and the cloned enemies were being quickly subdued.

‘If we continue like this, we’ll lose.’

The advantage of spreading darkness in a closed space. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The numerical advantage of using copies.

The presence of hostages.

There were almost no factors that could cause the Water Shadow Knight to lose.

The fact that the intruders wearing crow masks had decent skills made the Water Shadow Knight expect a draw, but he never thought of losing.

Until he heard that performance.

‘I’m going to lose, even though I’m always a candidate when it comes to selecting the world’s strongest players, and I’m the one who wields enormous intellect that no human can handle, and I’m the one who holds the bodies of the mythical world’s powerful clans in my grasp? Just because of that kind of performance?’

Zhuge Zhao succeeded in engraving the word on the armor of the cloned knight.

The clone struggled to resist, but Zhuge Zhao’s word penetrated through the armor and gradually penetrated into the skin, and it disappeared because it could not withstand the force.

Now, all that was left was the main body that was facing Im Yeon-hwa.

“This must have been the main body! It somehow had some flavor.”

Im Yeon-hwa looked extremely happy and relaxed.

Even if the Water Shadow Knight had relaxed some of his strength to clone Lee Yeoreum, he couldn’t believe that such a difficult player had come here.

He had faced Grand Crosses like the Yellow Rose Knight and the Earthquake Knight, and the team masters of Air Society and White Tempest, which were considered to be among the top 10 teams in the world, but Im Yeon-hwa’s current skill was not inferior to theirs.

‘Is she a true race? But was there anyone among the powerful Jin tribes that were stationed on the Korean Peninsula who fought this type of battle? In the first place, wouldn’t it be normal for Jin tribes to deal with it directly when their intelligence was overflowing?’

No matter how complex the Water Shadow Knight’s thinking was, it was useless against Im Yeon-hwa’s strength.

Now that the hostage’s safety had been secured, there was only one reason why Im Yeon-hwa didn’t immediately pour all her energy into subduing the Water Shadow Knight.

It was to preserve the laboratory as intact as possible and secure evidence of the atrocities that had occurred there.

When Im Yeon-hwa realized what he meant, the Water Shadow Knight’s despair rose and a memory of his conversation with him came to mind.

―I will give you this formation.

Before the Water Shadow Knight put on his full-body armor, he engraved Jin on the back of his hand.

The Jin written on his long fingers indeed held useful power.

It was a top-notch product that would make those who followed him spit blood, kneel, and ask for the transfer of the jin.

Of course, it wasn’t a jin that he received for free.

―If your jin intentions and actions are revealed, you could end up in trouble with the team, the jin clan, and even the country. This is a kind of insurance for that time.

―You’re kind. It’s not like it came for free, is it?

―The moment you use this jin, you are no longer an equal trading partner to me. Be prepared to have a master-servant relationship and use it.

He also increased his subordinates in this way.

He made a reason for those who didn’t voluntarily offer their loyalty to become subordinates.

Will I be captured like this?

Or will I become his subordinate?

The answer was set.

It was humiliating to go under him, but there were countless opportunities.

The Knight of the Water Shadow breathed a supernatural power into the jin that he had hoped would never be used in his life.

Paaaaat!

Even under the armor, Im Yeon-hwa sensed the ominous energy that Jin was emitting, and she adjusted her sword, while Jegal Jae-gyeol and Gong Cheong-hwan immediately blocked Lee Yeoreum.

However, in the blink of an eye, the Water Shadow Knight had moved behind Lee Yeoreum.

The power contained in the Jin was the power of teleportation, which meant that he would save her in any crisis as a condition of establishing a master-servant relationship.

The Water Shadow Knight, who had moved beyond the laws of physics, roughly grabbed Lee Yeoreum’s long hair with his hand engraved with Jin.

“I can’t leave my precious test subject behind.”

Of the three, Gong Cheong-hwan was the first to notice Jin’s presence.

The clan had already missed several important opportunities because of the Jin he had planted.

Jegal Jae-gyeol and Im Yeon-hwa did not understand the exact principle, but they understood that the hand contained a powerful ability that could ignore the laws of physics and move.

And that the author had no intention of giving up on this summer.

“Mr. Summer, I’m sorry......!”

The knight of the water shadow, who had already begun to transfer, was dimly visible.

Lim Yeon-hwa swung her sword while chewing on her sorrowful heart.

The direction the sword was headed was the hair.

Crunch.

The blade of the sword that Lim Yeon-hwa swung cut the hair that the knight was holding.

When Lee Yeo-reum, who was suffering from having her hair grabbed, lost strength and fell forward, the knight of the water shadow quickly reached out with his other hand to grab her, but he couldn’t.

[Stop.]

Not only Gong Cheong-hwon’s words, but also the word ‘stop’ engraved by Jegal Jae-geol was written at the foot of the knight of the water shadow.

The two shamans engraved and spoke of the spell that restricted his movements.

However, the spell could not stop the formation he had engraved.

The Water Shadow Knight realized that he couldn’t do anything, so he gave up on Yeoreum and tried to retreat, but even the retreat didn’t go as planned.

Crunch.

Immediately after a crimson flash passed before his eyes, the Water Shadow Knight didn’t understand what had happened.

The sight of blood splashing on Im Yeon-hwa’s sword felt unrealistic.

Im Yeon-hwa seemed to have decided that she couldn’t stop the unknown power hidden in the knight’s hand, so she tried to separate her hand from the target.

So first, she cut off the hostage’s hair from her hand, and then the knight.

The Water Shadow Knight realized that all of this was real at the excruciating pain of her hand being cut off.

The hand holding Yeoreum’s cut hair floated in the air for a moment, but soon the power of the truth was activated and it completely disappeared.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

The Water Shadow Knight screamed so loudly that it didn’t even bother him at the sound of the alarm.

The pain of his arm being cut off was nothing.

It was simply because he could clearly see what fate awaited him in the future.

There was no way the Ministry of National Defense or Namgung Group would save him.

The three knights’ oaths that the knight had already abandoned were the same.

At best, he could expect his intervention, but if the knight was caught, the clan would use all means at their disposal to personally interrogate and capture him.

Of all his subordinates who had been captured by the clan so far, there had not been a single one that he had personally tried to save.

“Shut up!”

Thud!

The scream of the Water Shadow Knight did not last long.

When Im Yeon-hwa slashed the knight’s neck with the back of his sword, his mind became dizzy.

The Water Shadow Knight quickly lost consciousness due to Im Yeon-hwa’s attack while he was defenseless.

* * *

Once he starts, there is not much a chess knight can do until his turn comes again.

Wait, predict the opponent's move and think about the next move.

That was exactly my situation right now.

'The opponent moved as expected. There won't be a problem with the move.'

I had known about the relationship between Namgung Group and the Three Knights' Oath for a long time.

After the Rose Farm incident, Cheon Dong-ha reported this.

- The Namgung Group was involved in the construction of the Rose Farm owned by the Three Knights' Oath. I failed to obtain detailed information, but I found out that the department in charge of developing the Namgung Construction's geomantic terminal was in charge. And······.

The land of the Rose Farm was in a state where Hwang Ji-ho could not use the power of his clone.

So I thought that the Three Knights' Oath, especially the Knight of the Water Shadow, had been working with the Namgung Group for a long time to plan things.

Also, although there was no clear evidence, I had guessed that they might be involved with the government.

There was no way they could have done that without the government's help, since they were messing with land on the Korean Peninsula.

And the circumstances that connect all of this were captured in this exchange.

It was that Lee Yeoreum, an employee of Namgung Group, was entering the Ministry of National Defense Research Institute with a psychic simulator and was under high-level surveillance.

‘Lee Yeoreum was under surveillance, but she was not subjected to experiments like Jared Lee. That was strange.’

When I considered this, I realized that the mastermind was restricting information.

They would use Lee Yeoreum as bait, but they would completely shake things up.

In order to create a pretext for Hojok and Eternal Lake to intervene, they had to lure the Knight of the Water Shadow.

If the Knight of the Water Shadow, who played with Cheongho’s body and indirectly participated in the attempted murder of Hwang Jiho, is ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ revealed to have tried to perform the same experiment on Jared Lee on Lee Yeoreum and Kwon Rena, they will have a solid pretext.

Not only that, if it becomes clear that the Ministry of National Defense is involved, not only will Hojok be less at risk in the future, but they will also be in a favorable position when negotiating with the government.

‘But Lee Yeoreum, Kwon Rena, Namgung Gyuyeon, and other Silver Advertisement people could also be in danger.’

Even knowing that, this time I chose to wait after making a move in advance.

I kept wondering if my move was perfect and how my opponent would respond.

After the match, the White Tiger, who came to the waiting room, interrupted my thoughts by speaking.

“You think a lot. Did you watch my match?”

Of course I did.

For the sake of the cadets who had to play against a 5,000-year-old tiger, I did my best to interrupt while thinking about this incident.

If I were to translate my thoughts while the white tiger was playing into sound, it would be loud enough to hurt your ears and annoying.

Also, since he learned from me, he was pretty good at it and there were many references, so I watched the game without missing a single one, but I don’t know why he asked me that when he knew that.

“I asked knowingly.”

“Baekho hyung, Dong-ha hyung is playing. Please refrain from idle chatter.”

“Didn’t you exchange opinions with Cheon Dong-ha about my moves while I was playing?”

“I guess you weren’t concentrating on the game and were using Eui-shin hyung’s senses to check the situation in the waiting room?”

Don’t bother your little brother.

Time passed as I was internally warning the white tiger who was childishly picking on my little brother.

I looked around where the kids in my class were sitting, but Mok Woo-ram and Kwon Rena were still nowhere to be seen.

And there was no Moon Sae-ron.

‘It doesn’t seem like Moon Sae-ron just left. He must have gone to meet Namgung Gyu-yeon.’

In the third grade, Moon Sae-ron was eliminated by the mastermind after receiving information that he shouldn’t have known.

Moon Sae-ron was eliminated after synthesizing numerous pieces of information and reaching that conclusion, and it seemed possible that one of the people who provided that information was Namgung Gyu-yeon.

When Cheon Dong-ha, who was the last to play, won, the Eun Kwang High School chess team finished all the games with a perfect record, and the commentary process was over.

Just before going up to the stadium to greet the players, Hwang Ji-ho appeared using the attendant’s passageway.

Since the name of this facility is Hwangmyeong Arena, it was natural that Hwang Ji-ho could come and go freely if he wanted to, but if he came here leaving his class behind, he must have come to convey important information.

Hwang Ji-ho had a bright expression, but he couldn’t hide his displeasure as he spoke.

“The work was completed successfully. As you guessed, traces of Cheongho’s body being studied were also found.”