The Monkey's Grin
Her expression was ice-cold. But my muttered curse apparently didn't reach Moon Cheol-woong's ears. He dangled my wallet in front of me, shaking it back and forth like he was taunting a dog.
"What? Why do you keep staring?"
From his reaction, it was obvious he knew exactly whose wallet he was holding. Maybe I'd dropped it by accident. Maybe he'd casually stolen it. Or maybe he'd really just picked it up by coincidence. There were several possibilities, but none of that mattered right now.
The real problem was that Moon Cheol-woong was deliberately messing with me.
If I had to name the cause, it was obviously the humiliation I'd given him by stepping on his foot in class. I stared at his ridiculous attitude and thought to myself, 'What the hell is this guy relying on to act like such a clown?'
In a one-on-one fight, someone of Moon Cheol-woong's level wouldn't even be able to respond properly before getting crushed. Besides, even Sung Hyun-wook—one of the A-class members—had used his sword energy against me and still lost. There was no way a guy like Moon Cheol-woong, who was barely scraping by in F-class, could beat me.
But that was only from the perspective of someone who knew everything.
The fight between me and Sung Hyun-wook had taken place in a secluded spot with only a few other A-class members present. The story hadn't spread properly yet. And it was clear it wouldn't spread in the future, either.
'There's no way he'd go around bragging that he lost to a Gunner.'
Sung Hyun-wook was A-class. I was F-class. And on top of that, I was a Gunner. For a swordsman to lose to someone like that was the ultimate humiliation. A guy with an ego so massive he wouldn't bend even while getting beaten to death would never spread the story himself. And the lackeys who'd been with him wouldn't dare say anything first, either.
'Han Bo-eun doesn't seem like the type to gossip about it either...'
At the time of the fight between Sung Hyun-wook and me, the only true outsider present had been Han Bo-eun from F-class. Her personality was the quiet type who kept things to herself rather than spreading rumors, though she did have a bit of a clumsy side.
'Huu...'
When I organized the situation like this, it started to make sense. Why these bottom-feeders like Moon Cheol-woong in front of me were acting so bold. They simply didn't know.
This guy had no idea how strong I really was. Even though I'd fought Yoo Heeyeon antagonistically in A-class, I hadn't revealed my actual combat power. There were also rumors that I had connections to people like Jeong Eunseo and Nam Jin-seok, but compared to Yoo Heeyeon's guild, Artemis, those weren't particularly impressive groups.
To Moon Cheol-woong, I was easy prey. An opportunity to show off his abilities to the Artemis Guild that her parents belonged to. Currently, I was in a hostile relationship with Yoo Heeyeon. In other words, it was no different from saying that I stood in direct opposition to the Artemis Guild.
If someone stepped up and dealt with me first without them having to lift a finger, he probably thought he'd receive a good evaluation or at least get noticed. Moon Cheol-woong was one of those opportunistic bastards.
'That's why he tripped me the moment I entered the classroom. Fuck... I didn't even do anything.'
Sudden irritation flared up, but I decided to hold it in. There were too many eyes watching.
I responded calmly.
"That wallet is mine. So give it back."
Moon Cheol-woong grinned as he twirled the wallet around and answered.
"How the hell is this wallet yours? Is your name written on it somewhere? Or did you put mana on it or something? You have no proof it's yours. No proof at all."
-Crunch.
He wasn't wrong. I couldn't say with absolute certainty that the wallet was really mine. The exterior looked identical, but looking inside, it really might not be mine—it could actually be his. It was probably 99% mine, but there was still that 1% chance of an exception.
And even if it was my wallet, if I called him a thief and smashed his face in, we'd both get suspended at best. No one would call it self-defense.
My patience was slowly reaching its limit. Not because he'd done anything particularly outrageous, but because his expression was even more infuriating than I'd imagined.
This guy was turning his head this way and that with a ridiculous monkey-like face, sneering at me. It was the kind of face that made you want to beat him up even if he was just standing still. The fact that he was waving someone else's wallet around made staying calm feel like the abnormal choice.
"This fucking bastard..."
The moment I couldn't hold back and cursed, Moon Cheol-woong spoke as if he'd been waiting for it.
"Whoa... that's fucking scary. Not satisfied with framing an innocent person, now you're even swearing? I'm shaking. Why don't you just hit me? Go ahead and smash my face and get suspended again. How about it? Hit me right here. Right here."
He kept poking his own cheek with his finger, provoking me.
'I can't hit him.'
At the academy, injuring or harming someone during a one-on-one spar wasn't punished. Sparring was one of the most important ways to develop real combat sense, and above all, it was a combat action that required mutual consent.
Of course, if you tore off someone's arm or caused a permanent disability, you'd be punished severely. In the end, a spar had to stay within the boundaries of what the word "spar" meant. Conversely, that meant that as long as you stayed within reasonable limits, you could legally beat someone as much as you wanted.
'Should I naturally lead him into a spar and beat him down?'
I considered it for a moment but soon shook my head.
'There won't be just one or two of these clowns who'll try to mess with me from now on. If I have to spar every single time, I'll just be wasting stamina for no reason, and too much information about me will leak out.'
Right now, the only thing known about me inside the academy was that I was a Gunner. But because I couldn't control my anger and fought Sung Hyun-wook, he might have figured out that I possessed an Epic-grade or higher Gunner class.
If a single fight revealed that much, who knew what else would leak if I fought multiple times.
'There's still time until the Class Annihilation Match.'
The Class Annihilation Match, where classes clashed against each other. And before that, the representative selection matches to choose each class's leader. In both of those events, it was overwhelmingly advantageous for my abilities to remain unknown.
I knew almost everything about my opponents. But on the other hand, my opponents knew almost nothing about me. No—they were actually letting their guard down completely. They looked down on me as a pathetic, stupid Gunner and were making a huge mistake.
In battles between the weak and the strong, when the strong lose, arrogance or carelessness is usually the main factor. And my class was a 'Legendary' rank, higher than anyone else's.
'If I take advantage of the superiority of a Legendary-grade class along with this information gap, I can win even more overwhelmingly.'
The reason I needed to achieve an even more dominant victory in the Class Annihilation Match was simple. To give Yoo Heeyeon an even greater sense of despair. And to let the other guilds know of my existence.
'Because the Class Annihilation Match is one of the large-scale events that other guilds also observe.'
The Class Annihilation Match was one of the biggest events held within Broad Academy. It wasn't just one or two students fighting. Since students from all classes participated in combat, it was an excellent opportunity for high-ranking guilds to get a comprehensive look at the talents they might want to recruit.
Not just individual ability, but leadership, crisis management, and how they utilized their class. Simply by watching the Class Annihilation Match, the high-ranking guilds could determine whether a student fit their organization's tendencies and what kind of potential they possessed.
'My goal is to make the neutral factions who don't belong to the Artemis Guild aware of my existence.'
While carrying out this Class Annihilation Match, I planned to not only instill despair in Yoo Heeyeon but also to lure in the neutral forces that weren't affiliated with the Artemis Guild. By showing them my overwhelming potential, I would leave a strong impression.
It wasn't that I wanted to join their factions. This was simply a preparatory step for when I eventually created my own guild and began building my own power—so I could absorb them smoothly later.
I was drawing a big picture.
'Not just relying on Jeong Eunseo and Nam Jin-seok. From now on, I need to build my own forces. And I'll inflate those forces wildly until I can completely crush that damn Yoo Heeyeon, the Artemis Guild, and even Hilleon.'
-Crrrack.
Thinking that, I lowered my head.
I couldn't keep brawling like a child every time someone picked a fight. In the end, I could just crush them during the representative selection match. By then, revealing some of my power couldn't be helped.
I lowered my head like a mature adult and spoke.
"If this is because I accidentally stepped on your foot earlier, I'll apologize. There's a lot in the wallet that I need to take back. If you want, I'll give you the cash inside, so just return the ID and cards."
The moment he heard those words, Moon Cheol-woong's arms began to tremble as he shouted in rage.
"Fuck—! Who the hell do you think is a beggar? You'll give me the money so just return the rest? You crazy bastard—!"
I'd tried to say it as nicely as possible, but to Moon Cheol-woong, it apparently sounded like I was treating him like a beggar.
-Swish.
Unable to hold back any longer, Moon Cheol-woong raised his arm and tried to punch me in the face.
Watching him, I thought to myself, 'Yeah, maybe it's better if I just take the hit and this bastard gets suspended. Then I won't have to see this monkey-faced piece of shit anymore.'
Even if he hit me, it probably wouldn't hurt much anyway. Thinking that, I stared straight at Moon Cheol-woong's approaching fist.
At that moment.
-Shiiiiiiik—!
A chilling wave of mana energy surged from behind me.
-Grab!
In an instant, a girl moved at incredible speed and snatched Moon Cheol-woong's arm right out of the air.
The girl—Jeong Eunseo—spoke to him with an ice-cold expression.
"You. What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Jeong Eunseo. She was now looking at the boy with the same freezing gaze I remembered from the original story.