Ex Rank Supporting Role’s Replay in a Prestigious School

Chapter 991

Even after Huang Ji-ho's welcoming speech and the opening declaration, the opening ceremony continued.

Now, it was time for each country’s representative to step onto the stage for their athlete’s oath.

The Korean representative, Yeom Jun-yeol, the Chinese representative, Lu Bo-won, and the Japanese representative, the same lady as before, took their turns.

The Korean and Japanese representatives were expected, but it was surprising that Lu Bo-won had been chosen.

“Wasn’t Lu Bo-won scolded by Huang Ji-ho for fooling around? But to be selected as a representative, he must have some skills.”

Yi-shin had thought there was a high chance that the representative would be replaced by Li Wei, but it seemed that Lu Bo-won had taken the spot.

Lu Bo-won wore a mischievous expression, but when he met the stern gaze of the Chinese coach, he awkwardly smiled.

It seemed like he almost tried to fool around again but restrained himself.

The failure of fooling around with Huang Ji-ho didn’t matter much, but since this position was related to Yeom Jun-yeol's international debut, Yi-shin hoped he would exercise some restraint.

“I swear, on behalf of all the athletes, to respect the rules of the Exchange Tournament and participate fairly.”

The three representatives recited the same oath in their respective languages.

They took turns one by one, and to Yi-shin’s ears, Yeom Jun-yeol’s oath stood out as the clearest and most impressive.

It might be because of the familiar language, but Yeom Jun-yeol read the oath confidently with his wonderful voice, without a hint of nervousness.

"Considering the functionality of the uniforms, Yeom Jun-yeol wearing the Korean team's gear made it seem like something from a high-end fashion brand like Nuru."

Yi-shin could clearly picture the members of the Palbulchul Yongjok and the Red Lion team taking photos around the Eungwang Global Stadium.

This year’s Korean team uniforms were designed based on the Taeguk symbol from the South Korean flag and the silver color from Eungwang High’s emblem. The design, which harmonized the black base with the silver Taeguk pattern, was impeccable.

Huang Ji-ho, who had high standards of aesthetics, personally oversaw the inspection, leaving no flaws in the uniforms.

“The designs of the Chinese and Japanese teams weren’t bad either…”

Lu Bo-won’s Chinese team uniform was slightly wrinkled.

Yi-shin guessed it was probably from playing around in the waiting room and getting hit by the coach.

Still, the design of the Chinese uniform, symbolizing Zhuque and incorporating curves and red silk, wasn’t bad.

The issue lay with the Japanese team.

About half of the Japanese representatives weren’t properly wearing their team uniforms.

“Why did they unbutton all their shirts?”

“They probably didn’t like them. Some even took off the zipper decorations that had the same lotus pattern. I think I’d do the same.”

Yi-shin overheard the conversation between Maeng Hyo-don and Dukgo Miro.

Dukgo Miro had joined after successfully completing the opening performance.

Everyone had expected Dukgo Miro to sing the competition song he performed in the playlist or the track featured in the PlayerZ trailer, but instead, he sang a theme song created by Eungwang High’s composition department specifically for the Korea-China-Japan Exchange Tournament.

It was common for international sports events to have theme songs, but the fact that it was composed by student amateurs instead of professional composers and performed by the school band had left some worried. However, the performance was met with immense enthusiasm.

In front of 15,000 spectators, Dukgo Miro and the band played without a mistake, finishing their performance amid applause.

“I thought he’d be distracted by the stage, but Dukgo Miro is as sharp as ever.”

As Dukgo Miro had pointed out, some Japanese students had altered their uniforms.

Rather than saying they altered them, it was more accurate to say they removed decorations they didn’t like.

The buttons and zipper decorations they removed all had lotus patterns on them.

“To put something symbolizing that lady on their clothes... It’s like they’re blatantly saying they’re only supporting one person on the team.”

In a figurative sense, it was like all of the Korean team’s uniforms bore the symbols of Yeom Jun-yeol’s Hong-ryong, Joo Su-hyeok’s Duwitnarae, and Ahn Da-in’s bullet—each representing someone from the team.

If an insane person from the Korean team had tried to do something like that, the person symbolized by those elements would’ve stopped them directly, right?

If the whole team had agreed on it, it wouldn’t have looked good either, but it seemed that the Japanese team had produced their uniforms without such agreement.

Arihara Tomoaki, who openly despised that lady, was wearing a plain t-shirt instead of the team uniform top.

The Japanese uniforms weren’t just decorated with lotus patterns; the colors also resembled the hues of a lotus, so removing just the patterns didn’t seem like it would be enough.

In contrast, Hirano Seiji had properly worn his team uniform and stood straight.

“It’s time,” Yi-shin murmured.

“Oh, if we just did that first, we could watch and quickly enter,” said another voice.

Even after the three countries had finished their oaths, they were still standing on stage.

An important event was still yet to come.

Normally, after the oaths, there would be a brief stage ceremony or celebration before the athletes left, but there was an additional procedure specifically added to the opening ceremony of this Exchange Tournament.

Originally, this wasn’t part of the plan, but Yi-shin’s suggestion had been accepted by Huang Ji-ho and proposed to the other countries.

[Next, we will select the first event.]

The announcer’s voice rang out, and the audience started murmuring.

What kind of tournament starts by selecting the first event at the opening ceremony?

It was like choosing the first match of a soccer tournament or deciding which event will happen first in a multi-sport competition, all at the opening ceremony.

But this Korea-China-Japan Exchange Tournament was officially for fostering interaction and friendship between the countries’ youth players, and the country that proposed this—Korea—was at a disadvantage, so all the countries agreed.

“Originally, the host country, Korea, was supposed to choose the first event. They could choose an event that would give them an advantage in the beginning, but by giving up that opportunity, other countries wouldn’t lose out.”

Though not knowing which event would happen first could make strategizing difficult, it was the same for everyone.

The Chinese and Japanese representatives didn’t immediately accept but eventually agreed.

Rather than let the Korean team choose the first event, it seemed like they were planning to aim for a more chaotic event with more opportunities.

A staff member brought out a crystal box containing three coins, and each representative imbued their respective powers into the coins, changing their colors.

Yeom Jun-yeol’s coin turned into the red light of Hong-ryong, Lu Bo-won’s coin became a dark purple, and the lady’s coin changed into a lotus-petal color.

“What? We’re not tossing the coins?”

“There are three of them, so tossing them would be troublesome. It’s probably just a performance.”

“They’re commemorating the Korea-China-Japan Exchange Tournament coins. They’re using coins for publicity.”

Yi-shin overheard the murmuring from the crowd.

It wasn’t completely wrong to say it was for the sake of promoting the commemorative coins, but it wasn’t entirely accurate either.

They were doing this elaborate process because they couldn’t just blatantly manipulate the results.

The Chinese team’s coach took the three coins imbued with powers and placed them into an opaque ball, checking for issues and shaking it a few times.

Finally, the Japanese team’s coach pushed the opaque ball into the recommendation box suspended in the air.

The announcer added some suspense, making the moment more dramatic.

[The right to select the first event...!]

As the ball spun in the recommendation box, it gradually became more transparent.

Inside, the three coins moved chaotically.

The screen magnified and broadcasted the rolling coins, each glowing in a different color.

Finally, the ball stopped, and its form slowly faded away.

Then, through the narrow gaps in the box, one coin fell out.

The coin that dropped was dark purple, Lu Bo-won’s.

[It will be given to the Chinese representative!]

“Nice!”

Waaaah!

Lu Bo-won jumped nearly two meters high, punching the air in victory.

Though most of the audience was cheering for the home team, the loud cheers from the Chinese representatives, their families, and supporters drowned out the disappointment.

Yeom Jun-yeol lowered his eyebrows and looked apologetically at the Korean team.

With his fans, they chanted “It’s okay!” but Yeom Jun-yeol’s mood didn’t seem to improve.

“…I’ll explain and apologize later.”

All the coins were the same type, and the ball and box weren’t tampered with.

However, the coin was Yi-ho’s creation, and it was engineered to react to the powers of the descendants, altering its weight so that Yeom Jun-yeol’s coin could never be selected.

In other words, it was manipulated to ensure that China or Japan would select their preferred event first.

Lu Bo-won, who was unaware of this, joyfully announced the event he had prepared.

“The first event is…”

Lu Bo-won took a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.

When he pulled it out, an envelope that hadn’t been used fell as well, seeming like it was supposed to contain the paper.

The Chinese coach touched his forehead and stared at the crumpled paper.

It would have been better to just display the event name using a hologram device, but this seemed to be part of Lu Bo-won’s theatrics.

As he unfolded the paper, the surrounding shadows shifted, and silhouettes of armed players rushing toward the rift in the otherworld seemed to emerge.

The words on the paper turned into shadows and grew large enough for everyone to see, set against the background of players charging toward the rift.

It seemed this was exactly why Lu Bo-won had been selected as the representative.

“‘Random Otherworld Strategy.’ Form a raid group and defense team, and we’ll meet tomorrow!”

The event name, written in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, danced behind the representatives.

Yeom Jun-yeol and the Japanese representative adjusted their positions in sync with the movement of the shadows.

Though Yeom Jun-yeol had no issue with this, the Japanese representative didn’t seem like the type to conform to this kind of atmosphere, but she did.

Yeom Jun-yeol summoned Hong-ryong and added a firework display to enhance the shadows, while the Japanese representative also summoned a lotus to decorate the shadows.

As a result, the scoreboard, which was displaying the representatives, became more radiant.

Lu Bo-won, excited that they had followed his lead, tried to perform an impromptu shadow play but was abruptly cut off due to time constraints.

“I wanted the first event to be something a little more advantageous.”

“Our strength isn’t weak, but since we have fewer supporters, our balance is off. We’ll need to carefully consider the formation of the raid group and defense team since we don’t know which otherworld will be selected.”

The third-year students had already started discussing strategies instead of watching the closing ceremony.

The supporter representative Heo Chae-a, and instead of Yeom Jun-yeol, dealer representative Kwak Kyung-gu exchanged ideas.

As the music club of Eungwang High played the background music for the team’s exit, we prepared to leave the stadium.

“Everything is still going according to plan.”

It seemed that the manipulation with the coins had gone unnoticed.

Since it resulted in a disadvantage for the Korean team, there would likely be no suspicion.

But now, it was time to make my move.

As I had planned, soon, the three knights’ oaths would be in motion.