Transported After Flaming the Author
I'd seen plenty of stories where the protagonist gets isekai'd after leaving a scathing comment for the author right from the first chapter. But I might be the first one to show up at the editorial department swinging a baseball bat and a sledgehammer in a fit of rage. That said, those scenes in dramas where old chairmen clutch the back of their necks and collapse when they get too angry… I guess that shit was real.
After suffering through a massive wave of confusion, I finally calmed down enough to stand in front of the full-length mirror in my empty one-room apartment and examine my transformed appearance. Dyed blond messy hair, an impressively tall and bulky frame, muscles packed onto every inch of my body, and tattoos covering the insides of my wrists and forearms. The owner of this unmistakable street-thug look was none other than Han Seong-jin.
He was the NTR bastard who appeared at the very end of Love in School, a notorious delinquent whose reputation stretched far beyond the academy and across the entire local area. Strangely enough, the moment I became Han Seong-jin, his memories flooded into me as vividly as if they had always been my own. Everything about what the previous Han Seong-jin had done, how he lived now, his relationships, the whole story and every detail behind it.
“Tsk. Growing up in an environment like that, it’s no wonder he turned out this way.”
He was a hopeless piece of trash who barged into the final stretch of a light novel and forced an NTR drift ending on me. But after retracing the path he’d walked, it was honestly more surprising that he hadn’t turned out even worse.
I picked up the phone lying on the rickety nightstand beside the bed. It had a pattern lock, but the moment I grabbed it, my fingers moved naturally, as if it had always been mine. A ton of messages had piled up. Most of them were garbage from the group chat with the delinquent crew I ran with. Stuff like suggesting we take the motorcycles out for a spin after a long time, arguing about which billiard hall to hit, which club had the best girls, who got laid, and so on. There were even messages about meeting up with some delinquent girls from the nearby girls’ high school for a big group thing, telling me to come first and pick whoever I wanted.
Besides the crew group chat, several private messages had arrived too. One in particular caught my eye.
The problem was that I had saved the girls not by name, but by numbers attached to “sex partner” and a few physical traits. She was a pretty girl with a beauty mark near her mouth and layered brown-dyed hair that suited her well, but I didn’t even know her real name. I must have heard it at some point, but the fact that the previous Han Seong-jin hadn’t bothered to remember it said everything.
The rest of the messages were the same. I sent a blanket reply to all the girls begging for sex, telling them I didn’t have time for a while. Then I messaged the delinquent crew that I was sick and couldn’t move, so they should do whatever they wanted without me. After that, I checked the other texts.
“Before the new semester starts… That means that incident hasn’t happened yet.”
When I thought about the heroines who, in the original ending, had been stolen by Han Seong-jin, fawning over him while their appearances changed dramatically, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I had loved those heroines so much… But at least it was fortunate that I had become Han Seong-jin. Since I was now the perpetrator of the NTR, if I just acted properly, none of that would happen. In this world, I could create a proper, righteous story. A world where the heroines could be happy.
Then first, I needed to gently nudge the person involved so things could go back to the way they were supposed to.
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March 2nd. The weather was still quite chilly as the opening ceremony for Jinsu Higher Education Academy began. From the original description, the academy seemed to play a role similar to a regular high school in reality. The only difference was that the students were one year older than real high schoolers. Since I had graduated quite a while ago, I headed to school with a faint sense of excitement.
The moment I passed through the school gate, I received countless fearful glances instead of handshakes.
“H-Han Seong-jin…”
“Hey, don’t make eye contact. What if you get marked?”
“What class is he in again? He’s not in ours, right? Please, anything but that.”
‘Hmm. I really lived a flashy life, huh.’
I could physically feel the students buzzing and stirring the moment they saw me. I looked terrifying, and the crew I led was even more frightening, so the students quickly kept their distance and subtly avoided my gaze. From what I recalled, I had never personally committed violence against other students in the academy. The problem was that the underlings in my group had no such restraint. They resorted to violence at the slightest provocation, and since I, their boss, had never really stopped them, our crew had become an object of terror within the academy.
‘First impression is a solid zero.’
Even the crew was scary, so I hadn’t considered how the top-ranked delinquent among them would appear to ordinary students. It would be nice if everyone simply accepted that I had turned over a new leaf, but with my track record, it would be stranger if they suddenly started viewing me favorably.
So, receiving the terrified stares of the entire student body, I pushed through the crowd and headed toward the annex building’s fifth floor where the opening ceremony would be held.
“Oh, Seong-jin!”
“Yo, long time no see! Why was it so hard to see your face during break?”
The delinquent crew greeted me, their leader, as I arrived. I roughly acknowledged their greetings and scanned the signs held by the teachers standing at the front of the auditorium.
‘Third year… Class 3.’
When I walked toward the third-year Class 3 area, the faces of the students already standing there were painted with utter despair. I walked straight past them and found the one person I was looking for.
‘There he is.’
Short, neat hair cut in a very “student-like” style. A physique noticeably smaller than mine. A face that looked decent enough, but carried an expression full of uncertainty. Gong Yeong-bae.
The protagonist of the romantic comedy light novel Love in School, and the unfortunate man who had all his heroines netorare’d by me, Han Seong-jin, at the very end.
And right beside him… a female student with long, flowing black hair and an incredibly voluptuous figure that seemed far too developed for her age was chattering and laughing with Gong Yeong-bae. Her face was beautiful even without makeup, but her long eyelashes and the charming mole beneath her eye added an extra allure. Her lips glistened with some kind of gloss. That girl, whose appearance stood out even among the other students, was Lee Yu-ri, the student council president of Jinsu Academy and Gong Yeong-bae’s childhood friend.
She and Gong Yeong-bae had feelings for each other but never managed to confess, both of them just drifting along until they ended up as the tragic heroine who got netorare’d by Han Seong-jin.
‘She’s even prettier in person.’
I had seen her face many times in the illustrations, but the real Lee Yu-ri possessed an overwhelming beauty that made those illustrations look pathetic by comparison. For a moment I lost myself staring at her, then cleared my throat and reminded myself of my original purpose as I approached Gong Yeong-bae.
“Hey.”
Gong Yeong-bae turned toward me, took one look at my face, and his complexion instantly turned deathly pale.
“M-Me…?”
Hmm. Starting off by scaring him this much wasn’t ideal. I smiled and placed one hand on his shoulder, speaking in a gentler tone.
“Yeah, you. Gong Yeong-bae. I’ve got something I want to talk about. Mind stepping aside with me for a bit?”
“Hiiik!”
Because of my vicious appearance and infamous reputation, I ended up frightening him even more than I intended. At that, Lee Yu-ri stepped between us and blocked my way.
“What the—what do you want? You’re Han Seong-jin, right? What could you possibly have to say to Yeong-bae?!”
“I called him because I have business with him. You don’t need to worry about me talking to the guy. Hey, Gong Yeong-bae. It’ll be quick, so just come out for a second. It’s not something I can say in front of other people.”
“Hiiik… Yu-Yuri…”
Pathetically, Gong Yeong-bae hid behind Lee Yu-ri—who was shorter than him—and kept glancing at me nervously. There was no way Lee Yu-ri wasn’t scared of me either, yet this bastard was using his childhood friend, a girl no less, as a shield. What the hell was he doing?
“Hey, what are you hiding back there for? I said it won’t take long. Come out so we can finish this before the opening ceremony starts.”
“Hey! Wait!”
I lightly pushed the resisting Lee Yu-ri aside and beckoned to Gong Yeong-bae with my fingers. I didn’t particularly want to grab another guy’s hand and drag him out. Seeing Lee Yu-ri pushed back helplessly, Gong Yeong-bae looked at me with trembling eyes before reluctantly following my gesture.
Lee Yu-ri tried to follow angrily, but the other students around her held her back, saying she might cause a huge incident. Thanks to that, I was able to slip away with Gong Yeong-bae into a quiet, empty hallway. The moment we were alone, I got straight to the point.
“Hey, Gong Yeong-bae.”
“W-What…?”
“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say and choose. Lee Yu-ri, Jeong Eun-ji, Choi Su-yeon.”
The moment I listed the three girls’ names, Gong Yeong-bae’s pupils shook like they were in the middle of an earthquake.
“Out of these three, who are you going to date? Tell me.”