Discipline 11. The Disciplinary Committee Leader Purges the Villains (2)

Anomia's objective was retaliation.

There might have been other goals as well, but one thing was certain: Ahn Woo-jin was the target.

That was why they had kidnapped the Secretary to use him as bait.

Woo-jin combed through his knowledge of the game.

Compared to the Six Sinners, Anomia was a lower-threat villain syndicate. Their scale, however, was considerable, and even they possessed a fair share of strong combatants.

The person to watch out for above all was their top executive, AQ.

That said, the probability of AQ being present at Grey Star approached zero. He was a bodyguard who never left the side of the boss — a coward.

Anomia's leader would be keeping far away from the danger zone. And like a visitor at the zoo, he would simply watch the situation unfold from behind the glass.

Which was exactly how Woo-jin could guess the man's location.

The building called Grey Star was where, in the original game, the Anomia suppression operation had taken place during the first semester of the second-year arc. There, Anomia's leader had issued orders to his subordinates and waged battle against the protagonist's party like a man playing chess.

Woo-jin remembered vividly where exactly that had happened. The original story was easy to recall, after all.

And so he had entrusted the top executive AQ and Anomia's leader to the strongest fighter in Ahseong High — the Disciplinary Committee's Vice Leader, Oh Baek-seo.

As for the rest of Anomia's forces, by his estimation — at least the number that would be gathered at Grey Star — Woo-jin was certain he could win without Baek-seo's help.

In the end, the moment Woo-jin rescued Disciplinary Committee Secretary Park Min-hyuk, Anomia's future would be ruin, staring them in the face.

Every footstep squelched through the rain. The black ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clouds choking the night sky were still pouring down their deluge.

Woo-jin slipped a wireless earpiece into his right ear and spoke in an even tone.

"Arrived at the destination. Commencing the operation to rescue the Secretary and purge Anomia."

─ Right.

─ Yes, sir!

─ Understood.

The replies of Vice Leader Oh Baek-seo, Public Decency Enforcement officer Ha Ye-song, and Treasurer Yoo Do-ha rang in his ear.

Woo-jin arrived at the front entrance of Grey Star as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

Wee-oo. Several combat turrets and a swarm of patrolling drones registered his presence. The armed Anomia soldiers raised their weapons as well, mana coiling around their bodies as they eyed him warily.

"He's here. The Ahseong Disciplinary Committee Leader."

"So that's the guy…?"

"Wait. He's coming in through the front door?"

"What, he planning to die alone? What a funny bastard."

"Something about this feels off…?"

Among the force arrayed at the entrance, the relatively stronger ones found themselves swallowing dryly without meaning to.

An unfathomable pressure was radiating from Woo-jin.

Then, all at once, their instincts screamed at them.

They vastly outnumbered him. They even had combat robots at their disposal. And still, something told them they could not defeat that black-clad man striding through the darkness of the night.

Tszzt.

Woo-jin's eyes flared with teal light in the dark, electricity crackling around his irises. Mana activation.

His hands drew the two grips fixed at his belt. Schick! He crossed and swung them downward, and steel rods shot out from within each grip.

One was a black three-section staff — the very equipment that had once subdued the Anomia forces massed at the subway station.

Pa-jijik! Teal patterns etched themselves along its surface, following the mana circuits, as Woo-jin's lightning mana awakened.

The other was the Wallshatter Staff.

An explosive-type magical device that discharged tremendous lightning energy. It stirred with a faint teal current, ready at any moment to unleash its stored mana.

At last, as Woo-jin stepped through the front entrance, every light in the place converged on him — as if designating the target that was to be focused down.

Woo-jin stood motionless, staring back at the enemies who sought his life with eyes like sheets of ice.

The air stretched taut. Every Anomia soldier held his breath. Then the platoon leader of the entrance garrison roared:

"All of you, ATTACK!!"

Taking that command as their starting flare, the turrets and drones flooded red and switched into combat mode.

Paaaah! The combat robots condensed their mana and fired beams, or launched small missiles. Woo-jin kicked off the ground, accelerating in an instant, and slipped clean through the volley.

BOOM! Mindless explosions swallowed the ground and kicked up clouds of dust.

The turrets and drones locked onto Woo-jin's biometric signature in unison, and Anomia's armed soldiers charged at the single enemy named Ahn Woo-jin, every one of them with their bodies reinforced by mana.

Pa-jik!

A Tier 4 Anomia soldier slashed at Woo-jin with a sword wreathed in electric mana. Pa-gak! Woo-jin deflected the strike with his three-section staff.

THWACK!

"Gghk—!"

A split second later, a teal streak split the night rain and struck the soldier's hand. Kwajak! The bones of his hand shattered, and the sword clattered free.

One after another, the three-section staff carved half-moons through the air, swinging with bone-crushing weight.

WHAM!!

The driving blow sent a shockwave of electricity rippling outward as it hurled the enemy away. In that instant, his ribs crumbled like powder.

Pa-jik! Sparks born from the shockwave's wake rode the pouring rain, splitting into a dozen forks.

The rain-soaked enemies around them dropped in a heap, electrocuted.

"Gghh—!"

"Kraaagh!"

Woo-jin moved with swift precision, clubbing down every paralyzed enemy with the three-section staff.

Thud!

Thwack!

WHAM!

Ten enemies — including a Tier 4 member of the organization — were laid flat in the span of a breath.

Whenever an Anomia soldier dropped his weapon, Woo-jin snatched it out of the air and, with practiced ease, hurled it at a turret or a drone.

Pi-woong! A spear crossed the air in a dead-straight line and skewered a turret through its core.

Whirrr! A spinning axe spiraled in and split another turret's barrel cleanly in half.

One by one, the turrets spat sparks, their lights dying out as they bowed their heads.

The drones unleashed a coordinated barrage, but Woo-jin evaded it with leisurely flicks of his body as he strolled along like a scholar from an old painting — as though he had read and processed the trajectory of every single bullet.

Again and again the three-section staff whirled, discharging its shockwaves.

Each time, brilliant arcs of lightning scattered in every direction. Screams rang out ceaselessly from all quarters as enemies dropped like flies.

But unlike the narrow subway car, this was an open battlefield with exits on every side.

"Surround him!"

Little by little, Anomia's forces encircled Woo-jin from all directions, pressing their attacks.

If this went on, the moment Woo-jin let his guard down was bound to come. Bringing him down would be only a matter of time.

…Or so they thought.

Pa-at!

"!"

Using the hardened strength of his mana-reinforced frame, Woo-jin stamped on an Anomia soldier's head as if he'd been waiting for exactly this, and leapt. It was the nimble movement of a squirrel.

He broke through the encirclement, kicking off walls and structural beams to spring higher and higher.

In a single bound, Woo-jin rose to a lofty vantage point.

He whipped around and gazed down at the spot where Anomia's forces had bunched together most densely.

PA-JIJIK!!

Woo-jin's other weapon — the Wallshatter Staff — unleashed a storm of lightning.

A dozen forks of teal electricity stretched through the empty air like the roots of a tree, cleaving and churning the atmosphere.

Kwa-reureung! And then the thing in Woo-jin's hand took on the shape of a mighty, unrelenting bolt of thunder that refused to lose its light.

It was the sight of ultra-dense mana — refined through years of supreme mana cultivation since infancy — flowing unfiltered through the Wallshatter Staff's mana circuits and pouring out in full.

The staff's true potential was being drawn out before everyone's eyes.

"What in the world is…?"

Anomia's forces went silent as they stared at the spectacle.

They couldn't even begin to think of a response.

How in God's name were they supposed to block that?

Then Woo-jin flung the Wallshatter Staff down at the enemies.

The image of a lightning bolt crossing the sky engraved itself on every retina in the space of an instant.

A blinding flash.

The staff, shaped like a falling thunderbolt, slammed into the ground.

KWA-REUREUREUNG!!!

"GAAAAAHH!!"

"AAAAAGH!!"

A tidal wave of lightning came surging down, sweeping everything before it like a spring storm.

The explosion of condensed mana and a cascade of bolt after bolt of electricity engulfed the enemies in the blink of an eye, burning and crushing the entire area.

Pa-jijik. When the lightning finally settled, Anomia's soldiers collapsed one after another, steam rising off their bodies.

Their mana-reinforced bodies had kept them alive — but by that same token, they were forced to faint while feeling the searing pain at its absolute worst. That, too, was partly because Woo-jin had calibrated his strength.

The swarm of drones met much the same end. Every last one spat sparks, powered down, and plummeted to the ground.

Crash!Crash! The fallen drones shattered, spraying debris.

Tszzt, tszzt. Woo-jin landed lightly on the ground where teal currents still coursed.

He looked around.

A great many of the enemies who had guarded the entrance lay sprawled, their bodies twitching in intermittent spasms.

The entrance garrison, annihilated. And above it, Woo-jin alone stood tall.

"……."

Woo-jin picked the Wallshatter Staff back up, let it store its lightning mana once more, and strode calmly into the Grey Star building.

Meanwhile.

'That was the Wallshatter Staff…?'

Anomia's leader, who had watched the battle at the front entrance on his monitor, was struck speechless.

'We never received intelligence that he had a Wallshatter Staff. More importantly — is it even possible to draw that much power out of one?'

Rainy weather or not, the Wallshatter Staff's output could not possibly reach that level.

That was far, far beyond the line.

For the staff's power to be raised that high meant that the amount of mana being filtered through its mana circuits was vanishingly small — or that the mana wasn't being filtered at all.

Which led to one conclusion: his mana purity was extraordinary.

And mana purity was, for all intents and purposes, potential.

It meant one could demonstrate exceptional ability in every domain of mana handling. What's more, the higher one's mana purity, the greater the odds of reaching the higher realms.

That kind of monster is still only Tier 4?

It defied all reason.

"Tch."

The leader clicked his tongue.

Underestimating Woo-jin's combat ability had been a bitter, inexcusable mistake. Even so, he still had more than enough reason for confidence.

'But there's no way he clears the traps unscathed.'

Several traps had been installed throughout Grey Star — preparations laid in case they ever needed to wage a scorched-earth defense.

Mana-detonating mines. Turrets hidden in the darkness. Every manner of lethal trap would be lying in wait for Woo-jin's life.

One or two traps alone would mean nothing to a man like him. But as the damage accumulated, victory was as plain as day.

The leader thought this, and a smile crept across his face.

Wee-ing.

His burner phone rang again. It was Grey Star's control room.

The control room officer's voice was trembling. The leader fell into confusion.

'How on earth?'

Breaching every trap? How was that even possible?

To do that, he would have to know the location and type of every trap down to the last detail…

"!"

The leader realized.

The structural blueprints recording the traps were issued to executives only. If Woo-jin had gotten his hands on even that level of information, then he was without question deeply embedded in the organization.

'Something's… wrong.'

Shocking, unforeseen results kept stacking up before his eyes, and a powerful sense of disquiet took root in him.

At first, he had pictured using Grey Star as the backdrop — treating Woo-jin like a hamster sealed in a case, cornering him, and disposing of him.

That unease grew sharper by the moment.

What if the one who had been dancing in the palm of the enemy's hand all along… was him?

It was that kind of ominous premonition.

He had believed he was already overestimating Woo-jin, already watching him with every precaution. And even that might have been an underestimation.

The leader's face went white. He frantically dialed his top executive.

"AQ…! Take out the Ahseong Disciplinary Committee Leader."

─ Already on it.

Click.

The leader hung up and tossed the burner phone onto the desk.

His thinking had changed. Grey Star's forces might not be enough to bring Woo-jin down.

In that case, there was no choice but to send AQ — the strongest asset Anomia possessed. Only then could he be certain Woo-jin would be dealt with.

Grey Star.

A building held in Anomia's name through a nominee trust. Unlike its derelict exterior, the interior was clean and well-kept.

They had an anonymous, wealthy sponsor backing them. This building, too, had been acquired through that sponsorship. The game never revealed who the sponsor was, though the community speculated it was one of the Six Sinners.

Well, that was neither here nor there.

Plan one: Anomia — the flies who had buzzed in my face one time too many — was going to be dealt with completely. The sponsor could be tracked down afterward, step by careful step.

This was the building where, in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the original game, the protagonist Lee Tae-sung had rallied his party and stormed in to launch a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠surprise attack on Anomia. In other words, a location straight out of the original story.

The original story stuck in my memory well. Working from that memory and keeping the locations of the major traps in mind, there was nothing to trip me up.

KWANG!

I hurled the three-section staff at a black turret that was firing mana rounds at me.

KWANG!

With a thunderous report, teal lightning engulfed the turret, and the machine's lights died on the spot.

I recalled the three-section staff and quickened my pace. Every so often, ambushers would leap out and hurl their attacks at me, and I subdued them with ease.

In the game, a boss waited on Grey Star's upper floors. I remembered the place — built and balanced specifically for that battle.

Min-hyuk was probably up there, too.

The elevator might be a trap, so I took the stairs at a run.

When I reached the upper floors, a dark expanse filled my vision. An irritating sound came droning in from all sides, like the buzzing of flies' wings.

As I stepped inside, the many drones lurking in the darkness gave off a ji-ing whine and bared their red eyes.

And then—

WHOOOOM!

A violent impact slammed into my head with a shriek of displaced air.

I registered the fact that a massive fist had just buried itself in my skull. A mana-reinforced punch — the kind only a powerhouse of at least Tier 5 could throw.

WHAM! My body went flying across the open air and crashed hard into a wall. The rubble came cascading down, burying me where I landed.

Must be because the place was designed as a battlefield. Solid walls. Not bad padding, honestly.

"Ptooey."

I spat out the dust that had gotten into my mouth and lightly brushed the debris from my face. A faint glow bled in from a hanging lamp, and the shapes of things began to resolve.

A landscape crowded with scaffolding and structural beams. And at the very center of it stood a hulking man, mana coiled around his fist. He was wearing a Mahyeon High uniform.

Beside him, crouched against a pillar with her knees hugged to her chest, was a slight girl in a hooded jacket. Beneath the outer layer, the black uniform of Ahseong High was visible.

"B-Boss…."

In front of another pillar, Disciplinary Committee Secretary Park Min-hyuk hung limp as a wet rag.

He'd taken more beatings in the meantime — fresh wounds on top of the old. He looked as though he could barely hold himself upright.

"……."

Well. It seemed I had grown rather attached to my Disciplinary Committee colleagues.

Because something inside my chest had started burning like absolute hell.

"Grrr…."

The hulk who had punched me in the head let out a beast-like growl.

I knew that one well.

One of the bosses of Grey Star. The third head among Anomia's executives — a dropout from Mahyeon High, Jang Ha-mun.

"Hello there, Mr. Disciplinary Committee Leader."

The hooded girl, greeting me with perfect serenity, was likewise one of the other bosses of Grey Star. The second head among Anomia's executives — a dropout from my own school, Lee Ji-su.

Both of them belonged to Tier 5.

Click-clack.

Combat drones circled the pair, training their gun barrels on me. It was the exact tableau I'd seen in the game.

So this was the show they'd been waiting all along to put on. It was honestly a pretty impressive sight, too.

"Sorry about the cheap shot. If you were really Tier 4, you'd have had a hard time surviving that last hit."

Ji-su's voice echoed through the space.

"Forgive us for fighting dirty. We didn't have a choice — it was a direct order from the Chief. Eliminate anyone who interferes, and so on. …Huh?"

Whoosh.

The moment I casually pushed my upper body upright, Ji-su went stiff with shock.

No pain. Nothing but the feeling of having been bopped with a rubber mallet.

"What the—? Why are you completely fine?"

Ignoring the bewilderment in Ji-su's voice, I rose to my feet and flicked the dirt from my clothes.

"Got my uniform dirty."

"……."

Ji-su narrowed her eyes. The composure that had been on her face moments ago was gone, replaced by wariness at full strength.

The hulk who had swung at me — Ha-mun — grinned wide and slurred out a thick, lumbering voice: "Kkuh, huh…! He got up!"

The man was an intellectual disability case who knew nothing but the language of beasts.

Meanwhile, apparently believing I had survived unscathed, Min-hyuk burst into a waterfall of tears and bawled with all the dignity of a drowned rat.

"HUAAAH! Boss-niiiim!! Save meee!!"

"If you don't want another beating, shut your mouth!"

"HYEEEK!"

At Ji-su's irritable shout, Min-hyuk flinched and let out a yelp.

He did this every single time. Last year too, on the day he'd been dragged off by the delinquents with a grudge against the Disciplinary Committee — the moment he saw me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠come to rescue him, he'd wailed like that, screaming his head off.

It was so ridiculous that I remembered actually laughing. My gaze shifted to the enemies.

I found myself looking at them with eyes gone cold of their own accord.

"You know full well what the price is for laying a hand on the Disciplinary Committee."

Speaking flatly, I tugged at the edge of the black glove fitted over my hand and settled it snug.

"On-site arrest will be executed, and criminals punished to the full extent."

I recited the Disciplinary Committee's official line in a solemn voice.

"However."

Pa-jijik!

Lightning mana stirred once more along the three-section staff.

"For the likes of you — aggravated sentencing."

I was not going to forgive them.