Chapter 207
"The first round is a consonant quiz. There will be two types of questions. One is to guess the word by looking at the description on the screen, and the other is to use the consonants to write a word that does not overlap. One is a word knowledge test, and the other is an advanced question that requires a battle of wits. You can get 50 points if you get one question right. If everyone is ready, let's get started."
The first round of
The four participants straightened their posture and looked at the screen.
[#1: ㅇㄱㅁㅇ: A four-character idiom indicating that there is nothing to say in excuses]
Idioms have been around since the beginning.
You are given only 5 seconds to write the correct answer.
'Isn't this too easy?'
Na Ju-young, who is in his second year of high school, quickly wrote down the correct answer while showing confidence.
Idioms were almost like his specialty. In fact, his Korean teacher often gave quizzes related to idioms, so he learned a lot of words through forced labor.
With leisurely eyes, he glanced around at the other participants.
The other two answered with similar looks in their eyes.
On the contrary, the idol in the distance wrote calmly without any change in expression.
'This is where skills will really shine.'
Na Ju-young almost snorted without realizing it.
He doesn't know much about the idol profession, but when he saw people on TV, they often created scenes where their ignorance was exposed.
So his thoughts were exactly in line with that.
He doesn't understand why an idol member who didn't even have time to study and who isn't Korean at that would come to a place like this.
Of course, the idiom itself would be wrong.
But unfortunately, Na Ju-young's prediction was way off the mark.
"All four of you are correct! It's a four-character idiom that appears frequently these days, '유구무언
Na Ju-young looked at Karis with his mouth slightly open.
Even though he got the answer right, he didn't look happy at all.
He's just calmly erasing his own answer board.
'Hey, I guess he just got lucky.'
But it was such a hasty thought.
[#2: ㅇㄱㅇ: A space where you can light a fire]
Maybe it was because he was too concerned about others, but he suddenly got confused in the second question and narrowly missed the correct answer, '아궁이
[#3: ㅅㄱ: A type of bird that lives in our country]
'A bird? A bird? Why is there a bird here all of a sudden!'
His hands started shaking as words from biology, something he had never been interested in before, suddenly appeared.
Na Ju-young desperately racked his brain but failed to get points for the first time as he was unable to write down the correct answer within 5 seconds.
'This, this isn't right.'
He almost had his mind shaken, but fortunately, the interpreter, Park Sang-ho, also got the answer wrong as he couldn't write the correct answer, '솔개
Na Ju-young was relieved, thinking that it was a blessing in disguise.
'Wait a minute! How did the foreigner guess that?'
Suddenly, lightning flashed in his head.
He turned his head and saw that Karis von Walden, standing at the far right, was still twirling his pen with a blank expression.
As if these kinds of problems didn't bother him at all.
A normal person would probably lose their composure here.
If an opponent you were certain was not good at will attack you from the start, you would be embarrassed.
But fortunately or unfortunately, Na Ju-young was still burning with the desire to win.
'Yeah, he'll make a mistake someday! I'll catch up!'
Perhaps it was because his concentration had improved. Na Ju-young was able to somewhat restore his honor by answering the two questions that followed correctly.
In the process, Hong Hyun-joo, the cafe owner, also got one question wrong and received the same score.
But there was one problem: while three others got one question wrong, Karis von Walden leisurely got all four questions right.
"Contestant Karis, your pace at the beginning seems unusual. Have you known all these words so far?"
"Yes."
"Are you usually familiar with idioms?"
Na Ju-young nodded vigorously to announcer Um Sang-yeon's question.
It was the question he most wanted to ask.
When asked that question, Karis paused for a moment and then gave an answer that no one expected.
"I don't read a lot of martial arts works, but there's a novel I started reading a month ago. The author of that work uses a lot of idioms, so I studied them naturally by looking up their meanings."
"Ah, this is also thanks to reading webtoons and web novels! Is that what you mean?"
"I guess you could say that."
Na Ju-young, who was watching the scene, was truly dumbfounded.
'What, you learned it by reading web novels? That's ridiculous. Isn't that something you just skim through in a minute? How can you study Korean like that?'
Basically, everyone will read webtoons and web novels like Na Ju-young.
And in fact, the same goes for Karis.
Because this answer was just a smokescreen.
It was just a white lie to package his foreign language mastery skills.
'It was helpful to have practiced various situations last night.'
At this moment, Karis's head was filled with joy at the effectiveness of previewing and reviewing.
And Na Ju-young, who had no way of knowing this, continued to feel dumbfounded.
'That's ridiculous!'
His shock was compounded when a different type of initial quiz appeared.
[Initial consonant: ㅅㅈ]
A problem where you cannot use the same answer as other participants.
It's a battle of wits where you have to avoid common words and come up with a word that no one would choose within 10 seconds.
'There are a lot of easy words, but they shouldn't overlap.'
Na Ju-young thought for a moment and then wrote 'spoon' as the correct answer.
After 10 seconds had elapsed, each contestant's correct answer was revealed one by one.
[Na Ju-young: Spoon 수저
[Hong Hyun-joo: Vertical 수직
[Park Sang-ho: Water quality 수질
[Karis: Practice 습작
All answers are correct, and they have successfully earned points.
But Na Ju-young was more shocked by Karis von Walden's correct answer than by the points he earned.
'You thought of the word practice in such a short moment? And a foreigner at that?'
The 10-second time limit feels incredibly short.
In that short moment, you not only have to think of a word that matches 'ㅅㅈ', but you also have to choose an option that doesn't overlap with others.
A situation where words that are not used frequently in daily life do not easily cross your mind.
In that situation, Karis wrote 'practice'.
Na Ju-young started suffering from the same symptoms that all the Seleves and even the members who were with Karis were experiencing.
'Isn't he actually Korean? How is he Estonian?'
Na Ju-young begins to seriously doubt the nationality of Karis von Walden.
As time passed, his interest became focused on what kind of bizarre answers Karis would write.
Could it be simply a desire to win? Or could it be the anxiety that arose from seeing an opponent he had initially looked down on do well?
Not everything. Neither the desire to win nor the anxiety.
In fact, Na Ju-young was under the influence of the aura that Karis von Walden was secretly giving off, namely the 'Worship and Respect' skill.
The absolute karisma and presence that are activated even off stage, and the disaster occurred when Na Ju-young's mind to check Karis was combined.
In short, Na Ju-young's mind was wandering somewhere other than the answer he has to write.
Three more problems passed.
No one has yet come up with a correct answer.
However, the final initial consonant problem had an extremely high level of difficulty.
[Initial consonant: ㅇㅇㅇ]
A three-letter initial consonant suddenly appeared after only two-letter initial consonants.
And they want them to write a letter that has the same initial consonant repeated three times.
The participants frowned and showed open surprise.
"ㅇㅇㅇ? What is it?"
"Ha...."
To Na Ju-young, who had been pouring a certain part of his brain into Karis, this first sound was like a bolt from the blue.
He was so flustered for a moment that he couldn't even think of a word that started with the initials ㅇㅇㅇ.
'No, I have to write something. Something...!'
Unfortunately, the 10 seconds passed by in an instant.
Na Ju-young, who was obsessed with the burden of having to write something, ended up writing the correct answer that would later become his huge black history.
[Na Ju-young: Dragon (용용이
[Hong Hyun-joo: Ay...ㅇ (아이...ㅇ
[Park Sang-ho: Babbling (옹알이
[Karis: King of Nutrition (영양왕
"I, I just wrote dragon like this... ?"
Na Ju-young's excuses were unacceptable.
As he was suffering from self-loathing, everyone's attention was turned to Karis's answer.
"Participant Karis. Do you happen to know who the Nutrition King is?"
"Yes. I remember him as the 26th king of Goguryeo."
"This is a word that came up in our history class when we were in school. How did the Participant Karis know the history of Goguryeo? The answer is truly beyond imagination."
"Hmm...."
Here, Karis pondered for a moment.
To say, 'I found out about it through an alternative history web novel', it feels like he is using the web novel card too often.
He debated whether to keep his character as is and take a risk, or give a different answer, and soon decided to go with another tech tree he had prepared in advance the night before.
"I thought that in order to work as an idol in Korea, I had to know at least a little bit about the history of the country I will live in. So I read comic books about Korean history for fun, and the one I remember the most was Goguryeo history."
"Oh, are you just remembering the names of the Goguryeo kings that you read about back then?"
"Yes."
In fact, Karis' 'foreign language magician' does not cover the history of the Republic of Korea.
This was an answer that utilized memories from when he lived as Han Ji-hyeok.
When Han Ji-hyeok was in school, the class he enjoyed the most was history, and among them, he liked the Three Kingdoms period.
Since no one on
In particular, the Seleste members who came as audience members were even more dumbfounded.
"Siyoon, did you know that he's also good at history?"
"No? I thought he only spoke Korean well."
"At this point, honestly, he seems more Korean than I am. I fell asleep in history class."
"Karis Hyung-nim is such a fraud."
"I don't know. Let's just cheer."
Meanwhile, Na Ju-young, who was standing the furthest from Karis, clenched his fists and lowered his head.
There is no shame greater than this.
'Even if I can't think of a word, why did I write Yongyong-i, Yongyong-i! You crazy bastard!'
He felt like his mentality, which he had been holding on to with such a tight grip, was starting to crack, but still, a top student is still a top student.
Na Ju-young took a deep breath and slapped his cheek.
'I can still recover! I can't lose to someone I don't know if he's a foreigner or a Korean. I'll definitely turn things around in the next round!'
But the future was already decided.
Even in the second round, which was a proverb, Na Ju-young never got ahead of Karis.
'Why, why are you looking at me like that! Is it because my, my, my score seems so insignificant? Is it pathetic that I don't know more proverbs than you do? Or, is it because of that Yongyong I wrote about earlier?'
He was just struggling in an illusion that had only developed one level further.
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