A Bleak Beginning
“Kuh… kuaaaaagh!”
The punk who caught my fist square in the face tumbled across the floor, clutching his head with both hands. One glance told me everything—his nose was caved in, the bone half-sunken from the direct hit. Blood was already starting to leak out.
“K-Kang-Seok!”
“You son of a bitch!”
Another guy from the group charged in, just like the first one I’d dropped. This one was slightly better than his buddy on the ground; at least he was tracking my fist with his eyes. He must’ve decided my main weapon was my punches… Cute.
Whoosh.
I threw a light jab. He slipped it with a flicker of relief in his eyes. He probably thought his read was perfect and that I wasn’t as strong as he’d feared. I didn’t bother correcting the misunderstanding. Smashing the guy in front of me was one option, but there was a much better play here.
We traded a few light blows before he backed off, breathing harder. His lungs were already giving out.
“What the hell? Even the top freshman is nothing special?”
His bravado was still alive and kicking. The idiot kept running his mouth. I’d seen this exact type in games countless times. If you didn’t stomp them flat right away and let them land a few hits, they’d get cocky and start talking shit. Guys like this never learned unless you crushed them completely.
In a game, I would’ve shut his mouth with a single decisive blow, but…
This isn’t a game.
I dodged his attacks with ease while throwing out light check strikes. Even when I did land a hit, I held back just enough that he could stand back up. I wanted him on his feet. I wanted him to keep fighting me.
We kept exchanging blows until his breathing grew so ragged it grated on my ears. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin flushed red, and drool was spilling from the corner of his mouth. His face twisted in humiliation. As a student who’d managed to enter the Academy, he’d finally realized it—he was being toyed with.
Even knowing that, he couldn’t back down. All the trash talk he’d spewed earlier had trapped him. Running away now, after everything he’d shown, would be too humiliating.
“You bastard!!”
As if to prove my point, he lunged forward with ragged breaths and a completely broken stance. I watched his fist for a brief moment.
Crack!
I snapped my leg out and smashed his shin. A sickening pop echoed as he collapsed. Sounded like it was broken. I dusted off my hands and turned toward the last one.
The final guy had already gone pale watching his two friends get wrecked. When I stepped closer, he stumbled backward and fell flat on his ass.
“Hiiik!”
His face had gone pure white. Pathetic.
“Hey.”
“……”
“Not answering?”
“…Y-yeah.”
The last remaining thug looked up at me, body curled into itself. I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh. These were the same clowns who’d been acting so tough earlier? The absurdity of it was almost impressive.
Honestly, I’d been planning to go easy on them. Whatever they’d done in the past didn’t matter to me. I figured I’d rough them up a bit and move on. But after seeing this display, I’d changed my mind.
These guys weren’t going to change. Not unless I broke them so thoroughly they’d never even think about stepping to me again. I was certain of it. So I felt zero guilt.
“You got any confidence left? Think you can stand up and swing at me right now?”
“N-no, that’s not—”
“If the second-place student or even someone in the top ten asked me how the hell I became the top freshman, I’d at least understand. But who the fuck are you to question me?”
“……”
“I’m asking. What the hell gave you the balls to act like that? You’ve got no strength, no guts, and your friends are all on the ground after getting their asses beat. Yet here you are, shaking like a leaf. What exactly were you relying on to talk shit to me? I’m genuinely curious.”
The more I spoke, the more eyes locked onto us. And the more eyes that watched, the paler his face became.
“A guy with nothing to back him up, running his mouth.”
Of course, I knew he did have someone backing him. The guy smiling with interest from the back of the room was clearly their patron. And they must have realized by now that even he couldn’t fully protect them.
“Hey.”
“Y-yes…”
I stared down at the now-ghost-white punk and spoke coldly.
“Keep your head down from now on. If I catch you acting up again, you’ll end up just like them.”
I didn’t need to explain what “like them” looked like. He nodded frantically. I clicked my tongue and walked out of the training room. Until the moment I left, every single person inside had their eyes glued to me.
“Ugh.”
Truthfully, causing this much of a scene wasn’t ideal. To the upperclassmen, I’d just shown them a cocky freshman throwing his weight around. To the other new students, I’d probably cemented my image as a nasty-tempered asshole.
But damn, they pissed me off. I’d seen their type too many times—guys with zero backing and zero effort who waltz into the Academy on whatever half-decent talent they were born with, then spend all day dragging down the people actually trying. It was better to crush those kinds of pests early.
Still, the atmosphere outside the training room was…
“It really is dead silent.”
The place was never exactly loud, but it had never been this quiet. My footsteps echoed like I was walking through a graveyard. Everyone had clearly heard the entire exchange. Even the people in the mana training room were poking their heads out to see what was going on. The rumor would spread like wildfire.
“Haa…”
A sigh escaped me. My grandmother used to say that sighing too much would make you die young. That was obviously a lie. If it were true, I would’ve dropped dead years ago.
“Since it’s already like this, maybe I should’ve beaten them a little harder.”
I felt like I’d gone too easy on them. It genuinely bothered me.
After Lee Sungjin left, the training room exploded into noise. The silence from moments ago now felt like a fever dream.
“That’s the top freshman?”
“Total lunatic.”
“He couldn’t have missed that there were seniors watching.”
The upperclassmen were the ones talking the most. They couldn’t stop discussing the insane freshman who’d just caused a scene. Some were genuinely angry, calling him arrogant for acting that way as a newcomer. Others suggested they should just wait and see. But not a single person felt sympathy for the three who’d gotten beaten.
It wasn’t that they deserved it. The upperclassmen simply had no reason to care. Whether Lee Sungjin was the top freshman or not didn’t change the fact that three people had rushed one guy and still lost completely. Once every person in the training room witnessed it, those three were finished. No one would bother paying attention to them again.
The real focus was, of course, the top freshman himself.
Rumors about Lee Sungjin had already spread to some degree. During the entrance exam, he had subjugated a C-rank monster in under two minutes—a record no one had achieved since the Academy’s founding. An unprecedented feat. In a freshman class packed with exceptional talents, he had still managed to claim the top spot with an absurd record. Naturally, many upperclassmen had been curious about him.
They just hadn’t expected to receive that curiosity back in quite this way.
Fights between freshmen were whatever. They were all new faces full of youthful energy—anything could happen. Disagreements could easily turn into brawls. That wasn’t what caught the seniors’ attention.
What mattered was that he’d caused such a scene even though he knew full well that seniors were present in the training room. If it had simply been a loss of temper, then he was just another hot-headed idiot. But if he had done it on purpose, fully aware of the audience…
“Then he’s a real piece of work.”
In the corner of the training room, a woman who had been quietly observing the students’ training narrowed her eyes and muttered to herself. Professor Siren.
There had been plenty of talk about this freshman class among the upperclassmen. With so many promising talents, most of the chatter had been filled with anticipation. She hadn’t paid it much mind. No matter how impressive the freshmen were, they were still freshmen. They’d be clumsy, unable to control their strength properly. She’d had no intention of bothering with them, preferring to focus on the upperclassmen as usual.
That was what she had thought, until—
-Ah, there’s a real crazy one among the new students this time. Have you seen him?
The headmaster had personally mentioned the top freshman. That alone had been enough to shift her opinion. The headmaster had never directly commented on a freshman before. Even someone like her couldn’t help but grow curious. To call him not just noteworthy, but a “real crazy bastard”? She had to see what kind of monster would earn such praise.
So I followed him here… and he really is insane.
He was even crazier than she’d expected. There were still things she’d need to observe, but the scene she’d just witnessed told her plenty. What stood out most was how perfectly he understood his own capabilities.
He had crushed the first opponent with raw power, then toyed with the second. The way he lightly dodged attacks while adjusting his punches so the opponent wouldn’t fall—it was impressive. Avoiding attacks was one thing, but controlling your strength so precisely that your opponent stays on their feet? That wasn’t something just anyone could do. Certainly not at the freshman level.
Whether he had the ability to clean up the mess he’d just caused remained to be seen, but…
“I believe a recommendation letter for first-year advisor just arrived on my desk.”
At the very least, he was worth keeping an eye on.