A Man Who Loves Money
Thanks to last Friday's mana test, I'd been assigned to A-Class — the Academy's most exclusive tier, capped at a hundred students a year.
B-Class and C-Class were still considered elite, supposedly, but once you got down to those ranks the headcount ballooned past a thousand.
That didn't mean I was stuck in a lecture hall with a thousand other kids, though.
And a hundred classmates still sounded like a crowd, right?
Wrong again.
Tankers, healers, mages, archers, melee dealers — everything got subdivided by specialty, so joint classes were vanishingly rare.
In my case, I was taking lessons alone.
Everyone else versus a brand-new transfer who had walked in today. Of course the curriculum wouldn't line up. That much was obvious.
Nothing I could do about it.
Senior Ahn had gone through the same thing last week, and with the mana I was packing now, they said I'd catch up on the practical combat modules in a single day.
Even so, they'd assigned me a dedicated archery instructor.
One-on-one tutoring at an Academy with tens of thousands of students. The way they treated their elites was no joke.
Thinking of the kids who'd grown up without a scrap of this kind of privilege left a bitter taste in my mouth.
"Incredible… How long has it been since you Awakened?"
"A week?"
"That's impossible… You're not even a former Mana Manifestor, and you're sitting on this much raw power…"
"So — did I pass?"
"Ah. Yes. You did."
The instructor had tested my mana and come away stunned — not by the raw quantity on paper, but by watching me actually put it to use.
The test was simple: fire an arrow loaded with mana.
First shot for accuracy. Second for power.
He told me to pack it to the absolute limit. Why the hell would I waste that much? I loaded a clean two percent and loosed.
A thunderous boom. A blast of wind pressure that slammed the air flat.
The arrow obliterated the target wholesale and vanished somewhere out over the Incheon coastline.
They'd set the range outdoors, aimed seaward, precisely for contingencies like this — so at least there was no risk of collapsing a building.
"Y-you really didn't use any skills just now?"
Probably the same reaction Senior Ahn had gotten last week.
The man — clearly the archery specialist — stood there with his jaw hanging open, too shocked to close it.
Different instructor from the one who'd handled her, then? His reaction looked brand new.
"That's what I said."
"Th-this is an extraordinary gift. In two years as an instructor, I've never seen anything like it."
"Thank you."
The praise did nothing for me. I already knew.
My mana reserves outstripped Jang Ahra's — one of the most famous Awoken in the country, a raid-team Sword Master. On test day they'd told me a B-10 put you inside the top ten nationwide. At A-10, I was almost certainly the Academy's undisputed number one.
Well. Co-number one.
Senior Ahn was sitting on the same rank.
Heh.
Two arrows, and the lesson was over. Starting tomorrow, I was to train alongside the other elite archers.
Mana really was a bully. Absolute tyranny.
I'd come to the Academy to learn real combat tactics, but with power this overwhelming, was there even anything left to teach me?
First class, though. Couldn't help that.
I headed straight outside. Afternoon lessons had wrapped earlier than expected.
Might as well find Senior Ahn wherever she was training nearby and sit in on her class. No point showing up at the business building early with nothing to do alone — better to let the corporate types stew a little. Make them sweat.
Second Basic Archery Training Ground.
The second she spotted me, Senior Ahn started waving like a maniac.
Her face without the glasses still looked a little off. Improved eyesight was something to celebrate, sure — but that sharp, intellectual edge of hers had softened, and I found myself missing it more than I expected.
Students started murmuring.
What now.
Had the rumors already blanketed even these kids?
I'd found one thing the Academy absolutely had to teach me before I left: their insane information network.
How does literally everyone already know who I am?
And once I founded my own company, I was going to lock internal leaks down hard.
The instructor called me over. If the students knew, of course the instructor knew. He looked thoroughly pleased with himself as he addressed me.
"Already finished basic instruction and here to observe?"
I gave a light nod. At a normal school that would have looked insolent. Here, it was standard.
"Don't just watch — join in. You'll be doing it from tomorrow anyway."
"Is that all right?"
"Of course. Full authority over this class sits with me, the instructor. Nothing to worry about."
"Understood."
At a regular school I would have recoiled. For me, though, it was a welcome invitation. I had zero intention of lingering leisurely through Academy life, and the class itself looked interesting enough.
"The equipment used here has no mana coating. Channel mana into it and it shatters almost immediately. This class is pure archery — no mana whatsoever."
I already knew. Senior Ahn had told me. And even without that, one look at the arrows sailing toward the targets in a clean, unpowered volley would have told anyone the same thing.
"The stronger your foundational archery becomes through this class, the more that skill multiplies once you bring mana into real combat. But that means grueling, repetitive training."
This was exactly what I'd wanted.
Build the fundamentals solid, and mana becomes exponentially more efficient in the field. Until now I'd been papering over every technical gap with raw power, and I'd felt how wasteful that was.
This class was precisely what I needed.
"One more thing. Through this training, you'll also learn to suppress your mana. Outside a dungeon, you can't afford to leak power every time your emotions spike. Unfortunately, that happens more often than we'd like — among us Awoken."
This instructor, at least, seemed like a functional human being. Probably why they'd put him on A-Class.
My archery without mana was, in a word, pathetic.
Worse than Senior Ahn, who had less raw strength than I did. Worse than some of the girls, even.
The students who'd been watching me with bright curiosity started clicking their tongues in open disdain.
"Junghyeok-ah. It's fine. I was the same on day one. You just have to get used to it. They're younger than us, but they've been taking this class a lot longer."
"Thank you."
That was zero comfort, by the way.
I planted my feet, clenched my jaw, and kept shooting.
Around me, kids were loosing arrows on the run, on lateral sidesteps. When the hell was I supposed to close a gap like that?
I was aiming for early graduation, damn it.
Stamina fully recovered.
Energy consumed: 0.1%
Just standing still and drawing a bow was burning through my stamina at a ridiculous rate. Without mana, I was no elite — that much was clear.
But I used my ability to restore spent stamina, repair torn muscle, and heal the raw skin on my fingers. I could keep firing longer, steadier, and in greater volume than anyone else on that range.
By the time class was winding down, the instructor and every single student were staring at me without blinking.
"No way…"
"Doesn't that oppa seem kind of cool?"
"What the hell. He isn't even using mana and he can keep shooting like that? My fingers were killing me."
"Last week it was that noona's mana that blew everyone away. This week it's that hyung? Where does the Academy keep pulling these people from?"
"Hey, at least we're fine. The guys who got demoted to B-Class because of those two were crying and screaming. Heh."
I can hear all of you, brats.
Whether it was our absurd mana reserves, something they sensed in the skill itself, or just the pure-hearted bluntness of being young — I didn't see a single one of the absolute bastards I'd met out in the working world.
Day one. Maybe they just hadn't shown their true colors yet.
The instructor approached.
"That should be enough. Remarkable for a first day — especially the durability. Did you do some kind of specialized athletic training?"
"No."
"I see. In any case, that's all for today's class."
Whew.
Finally over.
But when was I supposed to start running and shooting at the same time?
Still — compared to the start, my accuracy had climbed sharply by the end. Rate of fire, too. I'd call that enough for today.
The moment class ended, a few of the girls tried to close in on me. Senior Ahn shut them down with perfect, ruthless efficiency.
The look on her face said she was about two seconds from dragging me behind a building and yanking my pants off.
Sorry, but I'm busy today.
I peeled her off and headed straight for the business building. She'd been through this herself last week, so she let me go with a resigned wave.
A glittering high-rise that looked like it belonged in the middle of Gangnam. I walked straight in.
Time to collect some sponsorships.
Hong Eunyoung was already waiting. And not alone — three cute young girls were half-hiding behind her back.
"You're here."
"These the ones?"
They looked thoroughly cowed. Touching girls this fragile… Hong Eunyoung really was something else. I'd have to punish her more sharply going forward.
"Yes… All F-Class healers…"
"I see. Understood. Follow me for now — second-floor business meeting rooms."
"What? Why there?"
"You'll see when we arrive."
I'd been about to ask the first-floor reception desk for directions, but Hong Eunyoung said she already knew.
Right. She used to be an instructor at this school. I'd already started thinking of her as nothing but my personal slave.
Second floor, so we took the stairs. Rounding a corner — huh.
The hallway was empty. Surely it wasn't only Diamond Guild that had shown up?
"This way."
I followed Hong Eunyoung toward the meeting rooms. The building already felt nothing like a school. True to its name, it was a facility built purely for business.
"In here. It'll probably be packed."
Even without the warning, I could hear the murmur of voices from inside. Figures.
"Do the girls and I need to come in too?"
"Yes. Of course."
"What exactly are you planning to make us…"
"You'll understand once you're inside. Hey, kids — no need to look so terrified. This is all for your own good."
"Y-yes…"
They looked exactly like Lee Donggeul the day Kim Isol had chewed her out — trembling like frightened hamsters, peering up at me.
Hong Eunyoung's taste is becoming very clear.
Sigh…
I locked my expression down and opened the door.
"Ah, you've arrived. We're from Super Supporter—"
"A pleasure, Kang Junghyeok-ssi. Our company—"
"We're ranked among the top five firms in the industry—"
The second I appeared, people surged forward offering handshakes. Familiar conglomerate names mixed with companies I'd never heard of in my life.
Even mid-sized outfits had come sniffing around? Not a bad feeling at all.
And among them — one executive from Diamond Guild.
He didn't approach. He simply rose from his chair in silence. A man who'd been holding a spear, with one of the same goons who'd surrounded me alongside Kim Jaeseok standing at his side.
I ignored everyone else and walked straight to them.
"You came."
"Yes."
"Who first?"
"This one's mana, to start with."
"Understood."
The meeting room layout was unusual. One wall of a massive waiting lounge — big enough for dozens — held three separate doors. Private or small-group interviews happened inside; the lounge was literally just for waiting. A space designed for one-on-one secret negotiations.
I opened the middle door and went in.
Hong Eunyoung and the girls followed, along with the Diamond Guild executive and his companion.
A collective groan rose from the scouts of every other company still waiting outside.
"What… Diamond already snatched him?"
"They're always first. What a waste of a trip…"
"We could've matched better terms, but whatever — they never know what they're doing."
They clearly thought a sponsorship deal was already sealed. Before I shut the door, I turned, smiled, and spoke to the room.
"Everyone. Please wait a moment. I intend to speak with every single person here."
The lounge went dead silent the instant I finished.
I added one more line.
"I'm someone who likes money more than any of you think. Now then — excuse me for a moment. I had a prior appointment with Diamond Guild on a separate matter. We'll discuss sponsorships after that."
I closed the door, slowly, behind me.