WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈
Chapter 78: Riichi Mahjong
──────
“Phew.”
Back in reality, Kim Mi-ri caught her breath. She could still vividly see herself unifying the realm, ascending the throne as emperor, and receiving the praise of all beneath heaven, but the Anomaly gave her no time to dwell on those memories, not even for a moment.
[Kim Mi-ri: Passed 5 out of 10 questions]
[History Test Passed]
The chalk that had carved those words onto the blackboard fell limply to the floor.
“It’s over. By the way, you all sure sleep a lot.”
She pressed her fingers to the backs of the fallen agents’ necks.
Each time, an agent convulsed before waking.
“Ugh, my head...”
“Uurgh...”
“Take your medicine. A powerful sedative should settle even the turbulent torrent of memories quickly.”
The agents took out pills and swallowed them.
Once they had regained their senses, they asked what had happened.
“Rest assured. I handled the test well. History class is over, so let us go deal with the rest.”
“...Agent Kim Mi-ri?”
“What is it? Have you not fully regained your senses yet? We still have time, so you may rest as much as you need.”
“No, why are you talking like that?”
“Are you filming a historical drama?”
Only then did she blush and correct the way she spoke.
“No, it’s just! You try living as a king for ten years! Wouldn’t you get used to talking like this?!”
“We’re fine with it. You really do seem like a genuine martial artist now, so it suits you.”
“What was the last question? From the way you’re speaking, it sounds like China. You mixed in some Chinese just now too, didn’t you?”
“Could it have been the martial world? Unifying all beneath heaven?”
“Stop it!”
Unlike before they took the test, the atmosphere was warm.
They had passed one test, leaving only five.
To confirm the results, they headed to the bulletin board in front of the main building’s entrance.
“...”
The conditions on the board had changed.
[Graduation Requirements]
[Pass 9 Tests]
[Test Subjects: History (Passed) / Physical Education (Passed) / Art (Passed) / Mathematics (In Progress) / Music (Not Taken) / Science (Not Taken) / Korean Language (Not Taken) / Technology and Home Economics (Not Taken) / Military Drill (Not Taken)]
[Whether a subject is passed is shared by all students.]
[Once all nine subjects are passed, every student in that grade will graduate.]
[If at least one subject is not passed every six hours, every student will repeat the grade.]
The number of subjects they had to pass had increased.
“I don’t think it intends to let us out.”
“Even the condition forcing us to pass at least one subject every six hours is vicious.”
“But for an Anomaly’s irregularity to change in real time... that isn’t common, is it?”
Kim Mi-ri offered a theory.
“The External Special Advisor said the Anomaly here was born today. Maybe it’s related to that.”
“You mean it’s still growing because it was just born?”
“That makes sense. Since it’s still growing, its irregularity and unusual traits haven’t settled yet. They’re changing as time passes.”
One of the agents frowned.
“That’s vicious. Based on the changes so far, the number of tests we need to pass will likely keep increasing. It may only be this bad because not even a day has passed. In a few days, the conditions could become even more malicious.”
“Then there are two things we can do. Pass the tests quickly, or find another method and neutralize the Anomaly.”
As they discussed their options, Kim Mi-ri activated her Qi Sense and examined the surroundings.
‘We’re cut off from the outside. My Qi Sense can’t detect anything at all.’
Not even her Qi Sense could detect it. It was as though the outside did not exist; even air could not pass through.
‘Then getting out is impossible. I can’t help Master.’
She could only hope there was an irregularity causing time inside to flow faster than time outside.
After assessing the situation, she led the agents onward.
“For now, let’s work together. We have plenty of time before the next test. If we gather everyone and exchange information, we may find a way.”
“Let’s do that.”
Just before they left to search for the other agents, someone spoke.
“By the way, do you think another team has already passed two tests?”
“Maybe the External Special Advisor did it.”
“Could Shin Yeong-mun have activated his Mystery? If he activates it properly, it can have incredible effects. He may have passed the tests with that ability.”
At those words, Kim Mi-ri recalled the first time she had seen Shin Yeong-mun use his ability.
[Ah.]
[What is it?]
[Mi-ri, I’m apologizing in advance.]
[Excuse me?]
“Ugh.”
“Mi-ri?”
“It’s nothing.”
She shook off the old memory.
“I remembered the first time I was struck by lightning, and my body started tingling before I realized it.”
＊＊＊
『Tick, tock.』
The bald Mathematics Ghost urged the agents on from the teacher’s platform.
『Time is passing. The time limit lasts until my patience runs out. I’ll count prime numbers, so answer when one comes to mind.』
It would have been less nerve-racking if it had clearly stated the time limit.
Instead, the agents were given an uncertain deadline and racked their brains.
『2, 3, 5, 7.』
Since it was counting prime numbers, was a prime number the answer?
But the most perfect number? Was there such a number among the primes?
『11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31.』
Their opponent was an Anomaly.
A being born from an urban legend created by students.
The students could not possibly have decided exactly what the most perfect number was.
『101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 127, 131.』
In the end, they would have to call out random numbers and hope one was accepted as the answer.
That meant they needed overwhelming luck.
The agents’ gazes turned to Shin Yeong-mun.
‘Should I use it?’
No matter how much knowledge or physical ability an agent possessed, even with the aid of medicine and weapons armed with the Foundation’s transcendent technology, it was always insufficient to survive among Anomalies. At the very last moment, the reality was that they could rely on nothing but their own power.
[The Anomalies here are friendly Anomalies or Safety Anomalies for which all testing has been completed. Agents whose wavelengths or conditions align with them can gain abilities from those Anomalies.]
That was why the Foundation came up with a clever solution.
Use the Anomalies they could control to grant powerful abilities to their agents.
It had been extremely successful. One percent of all agents had received powers called Mysteries from Anomalies.
For example, a Mystery that seduced the opposite sex.
A Mystery that occasionally showed prophetic dreams.
A Mystery that made every bullet fired strike its intended target.
Of course, because such Mysteries could be abused, only A-grade agents had received them. But the Foundation was now desperately short on personnel, so even new agents were being given this opportunity.
‘Phew, let’s use it! At this rate, the only future waiting for us is being torn apart and killed!’
Three people in this intake had received Mysteries, and one of them was Shin Yeong-mun.
‘...’
He closed his eyes. As he focused and used his ability, time outside stopped.
Then, in the darkness beyond his closed eyes, a light came on, revealing a mahjong table beneath it.
“You’re here?”
“Yes.”
“Sit down. I’ve been bored.”
His opponent was a shadow. The human-shaped shadow possessed substance only in its mouth.
“You know the rules, right?”
“One-on-one Riichi Mahjong. All local yaku are permitted, tiles may be exchanged at the start, and there are Dora tiles.”
“You know them well.”
The shadow put a cigarette in its mouth.
“Recite the price too.”
“If I win, I receive luck corresponding to the yaku I complete for twenty-four hours.”
“More.”
“The luck is the same from one han through four han. From Mangan onward, the grade of luck rises in the order of Haneman, Baiman, Sanbaiman, and Counted Yakuman. With Yakuman, the grade of luck rises sharply depending on how difficult the hand is to complete.”
“Is that all?”
“Yakuman can be stacked, and when they are, the grade of luck is squared.”
“Anything else?”
“And...”
Shin Yeong-mun suppressed his pounding heart.
He was a ghost, but whenever he entered this place, his heart beat as though he were alive.
“If I lose, it is calculated the same way, but what I receive is misfortune rather than luck.”
“You left out the last part.”
“All luck and misfortune are shared with nearby people the user recognizes as allies. They are not shared with enemies, and the game cannot be played again for twenty-four hours after it ends.”
That final rule was why he hesitated to use his ability.
“You know it well. Sorry for asking every time, but some people pretend they didn’t know the rules.”
“Haha, are there really people like that?”
“There are plenty. People who can’t accept their own defeat. Human nature is ugly at its lowest. When things are going well, they act like they’d give you anything, but once they fall into the abyss, they hurl every mockery and insult they can. Then they shamelessly feign ignorance before eventually lying down and brazenly telling you to do your worst.”
Luck was fine.
But what about misfortune? As a ghost, he could only suffer misfortune to a limited extent, but those around him could not.
“That’s why I like you. From the way you fumble around like a beginner every time you come here to how you always speak politely. Please, don’t forget that mindset.”
He still remembered Kim Mi-ri being struck by lightning five times in a row in the same place. If not for the Foundation, and if she had not learned Martial Arts, she would have died or been permanently disabled.
“All right, let’s begin.”
“Yes.”
The tile wall was set, and thirteen tiles were dealt.
Shin Yeong-mun quickly assessed his hand.
‘1-man, 2-man, 3-man, 1-pin, 2-pin, 3-pin, 1-sou, 2-sou, 5-sou, East, White, Green, Red.’
He was lucky. If things went well, he could complete Mixed Triple Sequence and Mixed Outside Hand.
‘This is an East-only game. Since East is the Prevailing Wind Tile, a little luck could make it my Seat Wind Tile too.’
If that happened, he would begin with seven han: one han for the Prevailing Wind Tile, one han for the Seat Wind Tile, two closed-only han for Mixed Triple Sequence, two closed-only han for Mixed Outside Hand, and one han for the 1-man Dora tile. If he successfully declared Riichi, he could even hope for Ura Dora.
‘Even if I make an Open Call, it’s five han for a minimum Mangan. If I declare Riichi, it’s at least eight han, so I start at Baiman!’
His hand was nearly complete. Since the first player to complete a hand won in Mahjong, it could not have been better.
Just as he was about to begin, Shin Yeong-mun’s hand stopped.
‘But will this be enough?’
He had experienced Baiman luck before.
He had picked up 50,000 won ten times while walking down the street, found three fourth-place lottery prizes on a single ticket, and received ten extra cans of drinks after using a vending machine.
‘I’ve never experienced Sanbaiman, but it should be better than Haneman. Still, it may not be enough.’
The Mathematics Ghost before him was not the only enemy.
The entire school was hostile, and there was no way to know how many more Anomalies were present.
‘I’ll aim higher!’
Shin Yeong-mun exchanged his tiles.
He replaced every numbered tile, keeping only his honor tiles, and his eyes widened for a moment.
“All right, I’ll roll the dice. Oh, you’re first? Go ahead, draw.”
“...Yes.”
While they played, the shadow asked him a question.
“Is the work at the Foundation manageable?”
“Yes, it is. It’s dangerous, but I like being able to feel sensations from when I was alive.”
“They say even when a rich family falls, it lasts three generations. The Foundation really is the Foundation.”
Four turns passed.
“You seem to be somewhere interesting, though. I watched from inside, and it was quite fascinating.”
“Excuse me? You can see outside?”
“If you can see it, I can see it too.”
“Everything I see!?”
“Yeah. Ah, don’t worry. I’m not the type to judge someone else’s sexual preferences. But ghosts can masturbate too. Doesn’t that mean you can have sex as well?”
“Ugh!”
“Still, isn’t it a little strange that you read more comics than you watch porn? Well, works like ‘Become a Ghost, Peep Freely, and Fuck Freely!’ feature situations that can only happen in comics, so I suppose it can’t be helped...”
“S-Stop!”
“If you look carefully, there should be similar Japanese porn too. Those people have everything.”
Eight turns passed.
“Riichi.”
The shadow declared Riichi first.
“Riichi.”
Shin Yeong-mun declared a follow-up Riichi as well.
“Now it’s a match.”
“Here I go.”
The shadow discarded its first tile.
It was White.
“Ron.”
The match was decided before his turn even came.
Shin Yeong-mun revealed his hand.
“Oh-ho.”
White, White, Green, Green, Green, Red, Red, Red, 4-man, 5-man, 6-man, East, East.
The winning tile was the final White.
“Yakuman, Great Three Dragons.”
“But why did you declare Riichi?”
“Ah, right.”
“Declaring Riichi doesn’t give you much benefit with Yakuman. Aren’t there plenty of people around you who could teach you? Didn’t you know?”
“I learned it, but I forgot because I was nervous.”
The mahjong table darkened.
“Anyway, congratulations on your first Yakuman. You achieved one of the three great Yakuman hands, with a 0.039% probability. But why not aim a little higher? If things went well, you could have completed Great Three Dragons, All Honors, and Four Concealed Triplets too.”
“I considered it, but you declared Riichi first, so I got scared.”
“Oh, so it was my fault. Anyway, congratulations. Luck worthy of this will come find you.”
As the shadow disappeared, it offered one piece of advice.
“My friend, remember that school ghost stories are ultimately made by students.”
“Excuse me?”
“The true masters of school ghost stories are students. Well then, see you next time.”
Back in reality, Shin Yeong-mun mulled over those words.
‘The masters of school ghost stories are students.’
He felt as though he understood something.
Before that, he raised his hand high to solve the problem.
『I will answer what the most perfect number is.』
『What is the most perfect number?』
Naturally, he did not know.
Instead, he had luck.
The overwhelming luck he had obtained by completing the Yakuman Great Three Dragons.
『42?』
『Wrong!』
『Excuse me?』
『There’s no way something like 42, which isn’t even a prime number, could be the most perfect number!』
『N-No! This isn’t right!』
『I’ll tear you into 907 pieces!』
『Aaargh!』
At that moment, a deafening roar like a lightning strike rang out, and a massive hole opened in the Mathematics Ghost’s chest.
『Ah, ahh, Riemann...』
The Mathematics Ghost turned to dust and vanished.
A crisp, disciplined mechanical voice rang in the startled agents’ ears.
『Hey, Man In Black friends?』
It was the sound of a Pulp Action Shotgun being chambered, a sound that stirred a man’s heart.
A man was reflected in the spotless blackboard.
『I was relaxing on a Florida beach, you know? I’ve been working too much lately, so I was enjoying my vacation when some fucking portal brought me here.』
A white man wearing a T-shirt reading “Make America Great Again” aimed his shotgun at the agents.
『In short, I’m in a really shitty mood. Like Harris getting elected. So you’d better answer carefully.』
After lighting his cigar with a match, he blew out smoke and asked,
『You guys prefer Republicans or Democrats?』
Footnotes:
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