My Students Regret It After I Retired

14 – Leo’s Disciples

Interrunner, the largest community site in the Peren Empire. Due to its unique characteristic of not sharing a server with the Peren Empire, its security was excellent, allowing people to communicate freely without worrying about the Empire’s prying eyes, making it the most used community.

The operator had almost been caught by the Empire several times but frequently escaped. Conversely, although the Empire tried to ban app usage, the citizens of the Empire somehow managed to bypass the national surveillance and access the Interrunner community to share information and trivial gossip.

Interrunner, a community site with guaranteed security. There, large galleries and small galleries existed.

Galleries like cooking or weapon crafting were popular due to their mainstream nature, but galleries on topics difficult for the general public to access, like crop cultivation, were less frequented.

Galleries that were easily accessible and had a lot of posts were categorized as large, and galleries with few posts were categorized as small.

They were colloquially called large galleries and small galleries.

Leos Gallery, a perfect small gallery even among small galleries, with almost no traffic. Considering the structure where you have to get the most recommendations out of *all* the galleries within Interrunner to get on the popular posts list, the fact that Leos’ post from a gallery that usually doesn’t even get views is sitting at the #1 spot in total Interrunner views and recommendations is an unusual event.

“Leos, you’re in 1st place in the popular posts right now…?”

Heresia said, sounding flustered, and Leos replied as if he didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Popular posts? What are you saying?”

“Don’t you check the Interrunner Leos Gallery often? You don’t know about the popular posts, maybe?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Don’t you go on any other galleries?”

“I’ve only gone into the community with my name in it a few times. There’s no way I’d know the specific structure. And there’s no need to. In the first place, I only found that community by chance while checking a unified search site.”

Heresia shook her head with an “I should have known” look.

‘Well, someone who hardly ever looks at Distance wouldn’t know much about Interrunner.’

Heresia gave Leos a rough explanation of the types of galleries that existed on Interrunner and the site’s structural characteristics.

“So do you understand now? All those various galleries belong to one single site. And out of all those galleries, the ones that people read the most! And the ones that get the most recommendations, those are put in the popular posts!”

“…”

“And Leos-nim, you’re in 1st place out of all of them! 1st!”

“So?”

Leos looked at her as if to say, ‘So what are you getting at?’ and Heresia answered, sounding flustered.

“Just for getting listed in the popular posts on Interrunner, they give you points to use on the site, you know? And it’s actually really useful. You can leave announcements like the operator on all the galleries, you can make whatever galleries you want… and I heard you can use it in a bunch of other ways too.”

“Useless.”

With those words, Leos went outside to scout. He had sealed the Red Gate within a 1km radius, but that didn’t prevent new Red Gates from forming, so it was necessary to check the area frequently.

As the man walked around outside, Heresia followed him closely, chattering away.

“You know! Leos-nim! That point thing is way more useful than you think! It used to be completely worthless, but recently they added a shop, and you can even send stuff remotely. Not just give, but *receive* too.”

Leos asked Herisia, intrigued,

“Just with points, you can send and receive stuff remotely?”

“Yeah. The operator seems to be using a space-warping artifact or their own magic, I don’t know for sure, but there are some confirmed cases of people actually sending and receiving items.”

It was an interesting story. Right now, they were in the heart of the Red Gate vortex. If they were to survive for a longer period, they’d need much more food than they had stockpiled now, and trying to get it later would be too late.

It wasn’t just food. Weapons and other necessities were always better to have in abundance. If they had a means to barter from a distance, they could react dynamically to any crisis that came their way. That’s why Leos asked the question, seriously for the first time.

“How do you use these points?”

“It should be in your Info tab… just a sec.”

Herisia snatched Leos’ distance device, started tapping away, and then her jaw dropped,

[Current Interrunner Points: 1,750]

“Wow… what a huge amount of points…”

Even as Herisia was surprised, the points continued to climb in real time. Points were calculated based on views, comments, likes, and other factors, and Leos, whose numbers were currently dominating all the popular posts, figured he was getting bonus points.

“Tell me about the transfer function. How do I use it?”

“Go to the Interrunner Shop there.”

Leos tapped on his device and went to the shop, and a hidden panel activated.

Required Points by Item

[Auction Participation Pass]: 1,500P

[Item Send]: 200P

[Item Receive]: 200P

[Write Public Notice]: 3,000P

[Gallery Creation]: 1,500P

[Secret Gallery Creation]: 7,000P

.

.

.

[Request Administrator Meeting]: 100,000,000P

Innumerable items. Among them, the administrator request function stood out. An absurd figure of 100 million points. But the story was, if you paid the price, you could meet the administrator directly.

“Wow… come to think of it, that was there too. But the administrator meeting request, just forget about it, okay? The Inter-Runner administrator keeps refusing to provide information, and the Empire is currently in an uproar trying to catch them, so you’d really be in deep trouble if you got tangled up in that.”

Leos, without saying a word, carefully checked each function one by one. In this apocalyptic situation, relying on unknown forces was foolish, but if there was a method for survival available, it was best to use whatever was at hand.

As Leos tapped “Send Item,” a warning window popped up.

[Please scan the item you wish to send with your Distance. The basic size limit is a combined length, width, and height of 3M, not exceeding 10kg. If the basic size limit is exceeded, additional points will be consumed. People or living creatures cannot be transmitted, but in the case of dead bodies, sending is possible.]

Leos pressed “Confirm” after reviewing the precautions, and a bright light shimmered on the Distance screen before a green light appeared, scanning the surroundings.

[After scanning is complete, enter the Distance’s unique ID of the intended recipient, and the item will be sent. The basic range limit is 300km. If the range is exceeded, additional points will be consumed.]

“Herisia. Give me your Distance ID and go into the cave.”

“Wait, just a minute, Leos-nim. Are you going to use that now? No way! It’s so hard to gather points, you should use it later when you really need it…”

“I don’t trust these things until I see them with my own eyes.”

“…Well, I haven’t actually seen anyone use this function for real either. There are some testimonial posts online but they’re few and far between, and the function itself hasn’t been around for that long. It only appeared after the Red Gate emerged, so…”

“I see. For now, go inside the cave. Tell Bendict to film you.”

“Why the filming?”

“I need to know exactly how long the item transmission takes, and the form in which the item is transmitted.”

“Wow… how can you analyze something like this so thoroughly? It seems you’re kind of my type, Leo-nim…”

“I’ve always lived like this. I’ve fought in places where I couldn’t survive without preparing this meticulously.”

“…”

Heresia, who had been playfully joking, grew somber at Leo’s words.

“That must have been really tough… I guess you reached your current level by diligently analyzing monsters in the same way… Anyway! We can talk later, let’s go in quickly!”

Heresia went straight into the cave, and Leo intentionally scanned a rock about the size of a human head.

[Send it? 200 points will be deducted.]

[Estimated remaining points after payment: 1500 points]

It was an act that consumed a significant amount of points, but Leo pressed ‘Send’ without hesitation. Unknown power is worse than no power at all.

“Kyaaa!”

At the scream echoing from the cave, Leo immediately ran towards it.

“What’s wrong, Heresia!”

As Leo shouted, Benedict, who was holding up a rock with his hands, spoke.

“Hyungnim! Heresia almost got crushed to death by a rock while trying to catch an item! This… I think it’s broken? It seems that crazy admin turned what you sent into a rock! What kind of barbaric, lump of rock is this!”

“I sent the rock. There wasn’t anything else around to send.”

“You have a great eye, hyungnim. If you send a rock, there’s no impact even if the item disappears on the way, right? I am so moved by your great wisdom, hyungnim, that I, Benedict…”

“You’re being annoying, shut up.”

“Yes sir!”

Leo ignored Benedict’s words and slowly walked over, receiving the distancer from Benedict to check the recorded footage.

On the distancer’s screen, a bright light began to flicker, and then, as if being 3D printed, the shape of an object was rapidly drawn and the object appeared there all at once.

“Just what kind of ridiculous power is this…? When I was still active, there wasn’t even talk of, let alone information about, anyone with this kind of ability.”

They say this function was introduced after the Red Gate vortex appeared, so there might be some connection there.

Leos pushed that thought aside and checked his points.

[2,152 points]

Points that keep increasing in real-time, with this alone he could pull off things far more incredible than he imagined.

*

Leos’ former disciples.

Sirna, Enas, Belin, Kozarik, and several others gathered and started moving. Among them, Darec spoke to Belin.

“Belin, you don’t look so good. It’s probably the old memories, right? Since we always used to clear Gates with that b*stard. I never liked him from the start. Always hogged all the credit.”

Enas frowned and spoke to Darec.

“Darec. Shut your mouth, I told you not to talk about him.”

“What… he probably died in prison anyway, right? The place he was locked up was right in the middle of the Red Gate vortex. No matter how much he struggled, how could he possibly survive, all alone?”

Darec thought for a moment, then his face twisted as he spoke.

“Enas, you’re not still saying you need to hear that guy out, or some crap like that, are you? You said that kind of nonsense on the first day, right? You’re getting worked up now just because his name came up, so you must still think that way?”

“I said I don’t…”

“Yeah, of course you shouldn’t. Belin was even hurting himself and crying, suffering right in front of us, if you think that was a lie, then you’re just plain stupid.”

“I know… I know, so just shut up.”

After Enas said that, she left her spot, and Darec shook his head, muttering.

“She’s still acting like a moron. Belin, don’t worry. That guy’s dead, and clearing Gates is nothing for us, even without him.”

“…”

When Belin didn’t say anything, Darek pointed towards the distant Red Gate and said,

“You saw it when we worked together, right? How well I kill monsters. Honestly, if that Leos hadn’t gone and soloed all the mutants, I could’ve killed just as many monsters as him, you know?”

Darek grinned, swinging his massive spear.

“Everyone, get ready to watch. I’m going to record us wiping out the Red Gate mutants, show it to everyone. Show them how amazing we are, how the Gatekeepers are going strong even without that Leos guy.”

The man then started walking towards the Red Gate, certain that he could kill the gate monsters.

*

Heresia looked at Leos with a puzzled expression and asked,

“Leos-nim, what’s wrong? Is something the matter?”

The man, who had been staring off into the distance, scanned his surroundings with a cold expression and muttered,

“We’re moving to another location. Somewhere within the safe zone that can conceal the body and aura better than a cave.”

“Brother, why all of a sudden? At least tell me the reason.”

“Secondary Chain Reaction.”

“…Huh?”

“The Red Gate’s Secondary Chain Reaction is about to begin.”