I Became the Disciplinary Committee Leader of Academy City

So, I've been reincarnated.

That was the realization that struck me when, cradled in the arms of a childcare robot, I'd finally grown old enough to tell the world around me apart from myself.

I had been reborn inside an open-world game set in an academy city — one I used to play for hours on end. It took a long stretch of confusion before I finally accepted reality and set my mind straight.

Well, I've been granted a second life... I might as well live it well, and live it happily.

That was the conclusion I reached after years of agonizing. A simple conclusion, on its face — but the road to it had been long.

For that, I need to meet three conditions.

That was what it would take for me to enjoy a happy life in this world.

First: land a reasonably good career.

The prerequisites were good grades and an impressive academic record.

Second: wipe out the villains.

The villains in the original scenario didn't concern me. Those I could leave to the original protagonist. The problem was the event villains — the ones who operated independently of the story and threatened the academy city itself.

Villains were beings that destroyed the academy city's order — or the academy city outright.

And what happened in the game when the event villains were left to their own devices? They swelled into unstoppable factions and entrenched themselves as great evils looming over the academy city.

Beyond its borders lay an apocalyptic wasteland crawling with magic beasts. This place was the only ground I had to live in peace.

So I couldn't just stand by and let them be.

Third: marry my childhood friend.

My childhood friend. The beautiful girl who had been the first person in this world to take my side.

Her looks all but guaranteed she'd grow into a stunning beauty, and she was sharp as a tack besides — so I vowed to become a man worthy of her, no matter what it took.

Good. That's airtight.

With the game knowledge and a lifetime of experience from my previous life, those three conditions were well within reach.

Difficulty-wise? Totally doable.

But the world rarely bends to anyone's plans.

"You're so pure, Woo-jin. I hope you stay that way."

I had only been acting my age — playing the innocent child, nothing more.

My childhood friend left those cryptic words behind and then vanished without a trace.

Where could she have gone? I scoured every corner of the city searching for her, wearing the soles of my shoes to rags. But far from finding where she'd gone, I couldn't even scrape together a single clue.

Only belatedly did I accept that my one and only ally was gone. Only then did I notice my shoe soles had worn through like old cloth.

When I came home, a heaviness settled in my chest and a deep wave of emptiness washed over me. That feeling locked me inside my room — a prison — for months.

And then, years later, a letter arrived at the house.

It was a letter from my childhood friend.

Written on the page was her current situation: she had been officially recognized as a heinous criminal.

The worst criminals of the academy city were known as the Five Sinners — and with her added to their number, they had apparently become the Six Sinners. She'd earned it, racking up infamy with terror attack after terror attack.

Only then did I realize who she was.

She was one of the worst villains in the entire game — Kim Dal-bi.

The name she'd told me had been an alias all along.

From the look of it, Kim Dal-bi had been planning to become this long before she ever befriended me.

Well, that's just absurd.

For days afterward, hollow laughter kept slipping out of me at odd moments.

The day I passed the high school entrance exam, a single note had been left in the house, nestled among a bouquet of purple peonies.

A congratulatory message from our very own up-and-coming heinous criminal.

I felt no bitterness. I simply took it as a kindness and placed the peonies in a water bottle.

That day, my chest felt remarkably, almost startlingly at peace — and with it came a quiet certainty: I could now strike one of the three prerequisites for a happy life off the list.

Keeping fresh flowers for long was a losing battle, though. Later, I had them pressed flat into dried flowers and carried them with me like a talisman.

Before I knew it, I was in my second year of high school.

A spring day, the last of the cold finally loosening its grip.

Clad in my black uniform, the red armband of the Disciplinary Committee fastened around my left arm, I walked with a straight back toward the platform where rows of students stood at rapt attention. There, I stopped, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gave a slight bow of the head, and straightened my officer's peak cap.

Squeeak.

I tapped the microphone lightly, and a howl of feedback rang out across the grounds. Once the Disciplinary Committee students' attention had sharpened and fixed itself on me, I raised the mic and spoke.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ahn Woo-jin, a second-year student, and I will be serving as the 45th Disciplinary Committee Leader."

The Disciplinary Committee Leader's inauguration ceremony. This was the moment for the incoming leader to declare his ambitions.

The gold-bordered red armband on my left arm was the symbol of the Disciplinary Committee Leader, handed down to me here and now by the former leader.

With every courtesy, and in a voice weighted with gravity, I continued.

"I'll keep this brief. Within the school and beyond it — every disturbance and every criminal act committed within the districts under our jurisdiction will be met with the strictest sanctions and harshest punishment to date. There will be no compromises. As Disciplinary Committee Leader, I hereby pledge my utmost devotion to preserving this school's peace."

The Disciplinary Committee, the strongest force in the school's hierarchy of power, would henceforth crush the villains 'in the line of duty' under my direction — and the Committee's operational radius extended to the districts outside school grounds, after all.

The results would accumulate, and my academic record would blaze bright for it.

Two of the conditions I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠set for my happy life, feeding into each other in perfect synergy — I had finally seized the chance to fulfill them both.

Of course, that path made a confrontation with my childhood friend, Kim Dal-bi, all but inevitable.

But my mind was already made up.

She was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the worst of villains — left alone, she would entrench herself as a shadow looming over this academy city.

Which meant I had no choice but to stand in her way.

"For the school. For the students. Fight alongside me, all of you. Thank you."

As I bowed solemnly at the waist, hundreds of Disciplinary Committee members erupted into applause.

That day, I became the Disciplinary Committee ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Leader of Academy City.