Hero Academy (3-34)
What the hell is going on…?
I walked the corridor with Saint Blue — no, with Yoon Jia — making conversation as we went.
"I'll be in your care for the week."
"Likewise. Looking forward to working with you."
Yoon Jia smiled brightly as we talked, then suddenly tilted her head as if something had just occurred to her.
"Have we… met somewhere before?"
"Hmm…? Maybe in passing?"
"Ah~ I guess so…."
The question she carried was one I shared. People were strange that way — a voice alone was rarely enough to drag a memory into the light. Even knowing Saint Blue's face and voice, I hadn't matched her to the woman I'd met in the dark with Go Chungshin that night, simply because I couldn't see her face. Now that I had her mannerisms, her features, and her voice laid out like an answer key, the identification was certain.
…The Church.
Yoon Jia belonged to the Church, and she had clearly stated that she and her boyfriend shared the same affiliation in War of Religions. That meant the incident that night had been the Church's doing — and the next day they had cleaned up every last trace themselves. A perfect crime.
Well, there's nothing I can do about it anyway…. For now, I'll focus on Yoon Jia.
More important than Jia herself was using her to dig out Go Chungshin's real intentions. If I pieced together what the woman walking beside me said with what Saint Blue said inside War of Religions, I could refine it into something useful. Learning Chungshin's affiliation alone was already worth the effort.
That said, I wasn't personally close to Yoon Jia yet, so the only conversations we could have were limited to the business of the field trip. We agreed to meet at the academy entrance on Monday with the six cadets.
"Then I'll see you Monday."
"Yes. See you then."
I exchanged a rough farewell with Yoon Jia and headed for the security office. Walking alone, I found a smile spreading across my face of its own accord.
Go Chungshin… you've got the nerve to ignore academy regulations and date a woman?
They'd been together since before he even got the job, but that wasn't my problem. Chungshin was clearly in violation of academy rules, and I now held the leverage to have him thrown out of this place. On top of that, I'd uncovered the single most important piece of information.
Bug Killer… the name matches perfectly.
Yoon Jia's boyfriend was Go Chungshin, and Go Chungshin was Bug Killer — that much was confirmed. Now I finally understood why Bug Killer had been missing all this time.
Game addict or not, he simply hadn't had time to play.
…I should do a little scheduling, then.
First I needed to create the conditions for Chungshin to play War of Religions. I couldn't be certain, but I was fairly sure that Yoon Jia's friend request to me hadn't been her own idea. We got along fine now, but there had been an awkwardness at the start….
Armonia and I both suspected that Chungshin had deliberately asked Jia to send me that friend request. The suspicion was entirely reasonable. And if it turned out to be true, the situation would only get more entertaining from my end.
Heh heh… fly and crawl all you want. You'll never beat me.
Unless Chungshin got his hands on some kind of cheat program, beating me was flatly impossible. War of Religions wasn't a game where climbing the ranks automatically raised your power. Even back then, Chungshin hadn't managed a single kill against me — he hadn't even posed a real threat.
I know what he's up to now…. Time to finish the work first.
I arrived at the security management office and began selecting guards. The personnel for the field trip were organized into five squads total — meaning thirty guards to assign.
Eh, I'll just jam them in somehow.
With that thought, I filled out the roster, assigning two newly hired guards and one veteran to each squad. And then came the grand finale — Squad Five. Without a moment's hesitation, I added one particular name to the list.
Go Chungshin….
I was already looking forward to how thoroughly he was going to entertain me.
"Fucking hell, this is bullshit!"
Go Chungshin bellowed the moment he stepped into the dorm after finishing his afternoon shift. Almost immediately, a shout came back through the wall.
"Hey, some of us are trying to sleep! Keep it down!"
"…Shit."
Chungshin muttered under his breath and sat heavily on the edge of his bed. Even though the guards each got a private room, the facilities were still a far cry from the dorms used by assistant instructors and full instructors. The soundproofing was mediocre, and security wasn't exactly tight. None of that registered with him in the slightest.
He scowled and muttered to himself.
"Fuck… I thought things were finally gonna be easy for a while…."
Chungshin had been over the moon when he learned Sung Suho would be away on a field trip. Suho never so much as glanced at the other guards, yet he hounded Chungshin with relentless, personal spite. Chungshin had even dared to hope that a full week without seeing that face might let things settle down.
That hope had shattered in a single day.
"Bullshit… that bastard's taking me along on purpose…. And Jia's going too… ah, fuck…."
Escorting Sung Suho was irritating enough on its own. Having his girlfriend Yoon Jia along for the ride made it infinitely worse. There was a real chance he'd end up eating humiliating remarks right in front of her.
"At least the destination is the Church…. I'll keep as close an eye on that bastard as I can while we're there."
Chungshin had already reported everything he knew about Sung Suho to the Church. They'd dismissed him as some nobody not worth the trouble, but they hadn't completely ignored Chungshin's warnings either — they were watching. Still, during the field trip itself he absolutely could not reveal his Church affiliation, so there was zero chance they'd cut him any special slack.
"Just… endure it. Fuuuuck…."
Grind.
He ground his teeth, swallowing his rage the only way he could.
"Shit… fuck…. Haa…."
As he sat there smothering his fury, something caught his eye.
"…Maybe I'll log on for a bit."
Chungshin pulled on his VR Headgear and lay back on the bed.
I flopped onto my bed and hummed to myself.
Dorm life really is the best….
I'd handed the roster of accompanying guards to the principal's secretary and wrapped up the day's work. The notified guards hadn't looked particularly thrilled. Among them, Go Chungshin's expression had been so spectacularly devastated it could have been elevated to a work of art.
Title… Despair.
Damn… I should've taken a picture of that face.
That's our CEO!
I grinned at Armonia's words and glanced around the room. The moment the VR Headgear entered my field of vision, thoughts of Yoon Jia and Go Chungshin surfaced again.
Chungshin… when is he going to start logging in?
Jia and I were both Platinum rank now — roughly the top ten percent. Even so, there had been no reaction from Chungshin's side. I didn't know his main account ID or what rank he was, so all I could do was enjoy the game and wait indefinitely.
Don't tell me he's already been stomped by me and just hasn't shown up?
Well, if he doesn't show, I'll just hang out with Jia instead.
Before logging into Animal Village, I connected to War of Religions to meet Yoon Jia.
Yoon Jia sat with Plunderer in the lobby and spoke softly.
"Matches really are harder to find now that our rank is higher."
"At this rate, the tiers above us must take even longer."
The two of them had queued for a match in the lobby about three minutes ago. It wasn't a long wait by ordinary standards, but matches that used to pop in under ten seconds had stretched to twenty, then thirty — and now it took roughly five minutes to get a single game. VR games simply weren't that widely popular, and the higher you climbed, the fewer players remained. It was an unavoidable reality.
Even so, Plunderer raised no complaints. He passed the wait with casual chatter, looking thoroughly entertained. Watching him, Yoon Jia found a quiet sense of calm settling over her.
If it were Oppa, he'd be grumbling by now….
Yoon Jia loved Go Chungshin. That didn't mean she enjoyed it when he got irritated or vented his frustrations. She was fundamentally timid by nature — the type who scrambled to soothe someone the moment they got angry beside her. Even so, she understood that people weren't perfect, and she worked hard to understand him. And there were genuine good points she felt, too.
Oppa can be rough sometimes, but he's kind most of the time.
She was sitting with that understanding of Chungshin, waiting for a match with Plunderer, when the grayed-out ID on her friends list — Go Chungshin's — flipped to green.
"Hm?"
"Something wrong?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
"…?"
As Plunderer tilted his head, a whisper from Chungshin arrived.
Yoon Jia whispered back so Plunderer wouldn't overhear.
Chungshin shouted that — and then abruptly logged out of the game.
…Is he going to be okay?
Yoon Jia didn't actually know Chungshin's real skill level with any precision. She'd only ever watched him massacre beginners, so all she knew was that he could play decently enough. A short while later, a mysterious player sent her a friend request.
BugSlaughterer… yeah, I can guess who that is.
Yoon Jia let out a hollow laugh and accepted the request.
A laugh came through the whisper.
As Yoon Jia winced and waited for the ringing in her eardrums to fade, the match-found signal appeared.
Yoon Jia gritted her teeth against Chungshin's voice booming through her eardrums and pressed accept.
Something's off, right?
Yoon Jia wore a serious look, completely unaware that her face was visible. On top of that, her eyes kept darting around on their own — it was painfully obvious she was doing something. The whole vibe screamed, I'm talking to someone else right now!
Something told me she was chatting with Go Chungshin. The anticipation was delicious.
And right as that anticipation was peaking, the match-found window appeared. I hit accept immediately. Beside me, though, Yoon Jia seemed to be thinking hard about something, hesitating over whether to press the accept button on her own screen.
Truthfully, I was confident I could pulverize Chungshin if I ran into him — but there was one concern. This game wasn't a solo affair. Five players formed a team, each took their assigned lane, grew through small skirmishes, and seized control through major fights from mid-game onward. The problem was that no matter how thoroughly I demolished my own lane, if top and mid collapsed, recovery got ugly. Up through Platinum I'd been able to force wins somehow, but from here on out, getting good teammates was a skill in its own right.
While I was turning that over, Yoon Jia pressed accept.
We were summoned to champion select, and I locked in the archer I always played. My teammates sighed at the sight of me, but I managed to talk them into it and the game began.
And on the enemy team, one name stood out.
BugSlaughterer….
What a naming sense….
What do I intend to do…?
I answered Armonia's question without a shred of hesitation, smiling as I shouted it out.
It's slaughter time!!!!