Discipline 11. The Disciplinary Committee Leader Purges the Villains (3)
"Joining up now. Leave the rest to me."
Ahn Woo-jin murmured the words as he strode toward Lee Ji-su and Jang Ha-mun. The order had come through his wireless earpiece.
"Haaah."
Lee Ji-su let out a sigh and rose to her feet, both hands shoved into her pockets as she looked him over.
"I heard you were strong for a Tier 4... but at the end of the day, you're still Tier 4. You can't help but lean on elemental mana."
Ji-su went on.
"Which is a shame, because your affinity with us is terrible. Lightning mana means nothing in front of us."
"Kheheh!"
The hulking man, Jang Ha-mun, tore out a fistful of his own hair and slurped it into his mouth like a mouthful of noodles.
Ha-mun swallowed the hair. And in that instant—
Zzzzzzt!
A translucent magnetic field of pure mana unfolded outward from his body, spreading fast.
His Unique Ability, Magnetokinesis. Magic Formula Type 1: Magnetic Field Deployment.
Bzzt... The cyan currents coursing through the black three-section staff scattered in a blink. Even the wireless earpiece in Woo-jin's right ear went dead. A heartbeat later, the three-section staff and the wall-press rod began to tremble, straining to drag themselves toward Ha-mun. Magnetism.
Woo-jin had expected this. He calmly locked both weapons into his belt—after all, he had deliberately channeled lightning mana into the three-section staff to bait the magnetic field out in the first place.
The strength of Ha-mun's magnetism varied enormously with the distance between him and any metal object. And right now, Woo-jin stood quite far away. There was no risk of losing the two weapons fixed at his waist.
"It's an ability that turns hair into a magnetic field...! In front of me, lightning mana is absolutely useless...!"
Ha-mun grinned with a thick, slurred voice. Eating hair was the activation condition for Magnetokinesis.
He wouldn't be able to keep this up for long, though. Deploying a magnetic field of this scale demanded a considerable amount of mana. It was a fact Woo-jin could deduce easily enough even without his knowledge of the game.
"Don't touch the functions—just float it."
Ji-su drew out her smartphone and released it from her hand. The phone hovered gently in midair, and she angled her face toward its camera.
"Can you see me? Great. This is Anomia's special broadcast~."
Suddenly she waved her hand at the camera in greeting, a counterfeit smile blooming across her face.
"?"
What on earth was going on?
Woo-jin stared at her, puzzled. He had never seen anything like this in the game.
Ji-su pointed at him with her thumb.
"Standing right in front of us is the Disciplinary Committee Leader of Ahseong High. From now on, I'm going to beat this bastard into the ground. Huh? Hey—rigged, you say!? Does this LOOK rigged to you, you idiot? Open both your eyes and watch. The fight's about to start."
"What are you doing?"
"Can't you tell by looking? It's a broadcast."
Ji-su answered flatly, then flashed a wide grin.
"A ZTube livestream. This stream will be proof that we destroyed you. And that'll raise our notoriety, right? Right?"
Notoriety had the power to captivate people. Anomia was a syndicate of villains that rejected all pretense and hypocrisy, and proclaiming their infamy in pursuit of their ideology was the very purpose of their activities. The more notorious they became, the more would-be villains they could absorb—and the more business partners and sponsors willing to fund them.
In other words, the 'Subjugation of Ahseong High's Disciplinary Committee Leader, Ahn Woo-jin' event was going to become prime nourishment for Anomia's explosive growth. Their leader had already endorsed the plan in advance.
"Why are there so many goddamn attention-seekers in this world..."
Woo-jin snorted quietly, thinking of the Sword Master of Sindorim.
"Disciplinary Committee Leader~ how about dying honorably for our sake?"
Ji-su beamed and raised her right arm. A low mechanical hum whined—the drones training their sights on Woo-jin responded.
The air grew heavy and still.
"...Fire."
Ji-su gave the order, lowering her arm.
And then—
RATATATATA!!
The drone force opened up on Woo-jin with a hail of mana rounds all at once.
The battle had begun.
Fwoosh! Woo-jin kicked off the ground immediately, swept Park Min-hyuk up into his arms, and dove behind a nearby pillar. The drones' concentrated fire hammered into it.
Several drones that had drifted too close were skewered by daggers thrown from his hand, reduced to helpless scrap metal.
Anomia special-issue daggers. He'd collected them off the enemies he'd knocked out on his way up.
His accuracy is insane.
To Ji-su's eyes, Woo-jin radiated a startling degree of veteran polish. That wasn't a technique anyone could pull off simply by reinforcing their body with mana. It demanded a mountain of practice. Just who was this Disciplinary Committee Leader? Ji-su could only marvel.
"Hh, aahh..."
Meanwhile, behind the pillar, Secretary Park Min-hyuk was trembling like a leaf, paralyzed with terror. Combat had never been his strong suit.
"Can you move?"
"Yes? Y-yes sir...! While they were distracted, I quietly healed your legs...!"
But Min-hyuk had his own natural gift. He was a healer born with innate restorative mana, capable of casting Healing magic on himself and others alike.
"Then we're fine."
Woo-jin nodded. Even as mana rounds raged overhead, Min-hyuk pressed on.
"But sir, what do we do now!? They've nullified your lightning mana—the matchup is way too bad for you...!"
"We win anyway."
Woo-jin declared it flatly.
"Yes? But how...?"
Min-hyuk knew perfectly well how strong his leader was. And yet that attitude—that unshakable confidence of victory, worn so casually against two Tier 5 opponents with a crippling elemental advantage—was hard to wrap his head around.
Clack.
The moment the drone force stopped to reload—
"Run."
At Woo-jin's word, the two of them broke from the pillar and sprinted for the emergency stairwell.
"Trying to escape the magnetic field?"
Ji-su smirked. Ha-mun's magnetic field stayed fixed in place and range once deployed—an easy piece of information to pick up if you had sharp eyes. Seeing them brave the risk to widen the distance, they had apparently caught onto the field's limitation.
Though it wasn't exactly a limitation. All Ha-mun had to do was close the distance and deploy a fresh field. The real problem was that each deployment burned through a hefty amount of mana—he couldn't afford to spam it recklessly.
"Let's stop the drone fire."
Ji-su tapped Ha-mun's arm. If the drones kept shooting, he'd never be able to close in on the enemy. So she chose another way.
"Float those piles of scrap for me."
She jerked her chin in command.
"Got it...!"
Four drones, wrecked by Woo-jin's thrown daggers, rose into the air at Ha-mun's beckoning gesture, manipulated by his powerful magnetic field.
"Hyaa~."
Lick.
Ji-su ran her tongue across each of the floating drones in turn. The saliva she left behind turned jet-black and spread like a virus, racing across the hulls and seeping into the machines' innards. Then she channeled flame mana through her fingertip into the wet patches. Fwoosh! Fire bloomed.
"Throw them."
"Hooop!"
Ha-mun swept his arm, and the four saliva-coated drones shot forward, hurled by the force of his magnetic field.
Vwooom!
The four drones tore through the air toward Woo-jin and Min-hyuk at tremendous speed. The accuracy was poor, but Ji-su hardly cared.
Whoosh! Woo-jin moved like lightning, throwing his body over Min-hyuk and shielding them both behind a structural beam. In that instant, all four drones detonated together.
KWAAAAAANG!!
A violent wave of flame laced with shockwave burst outward with nowhere to hide. Its power was in a league entirely beyond a mere mana grenade—had it hit him square, even Woo-jin, his body reinforced to its absolute limit, would have suffered severe burns.
An ability that turned saliva into explosive ordnance. The Unique Ability Artillery Tongue. Magic Formula Type 1: Bomb Liquid.
The blast's power depended on the amount of mana Ji-su condensed into her saliva and the material used as the explosive charge. Normally, mana couldn't be held in saliva at all—but her Unique Ability made it possible.
With her current skill, something the size of a drone marked the upper limit of what she could use as explosive material. The ability had one more flaw: she couldn't manufacture and store explosives in advance. The mana saturating her saliva dispersed after just one minute, so every charge had to be made on the spot.
Fwoosh!CRASH!
Flames engulfed every direction, and shards of drone metal sprayed out at bullet speed, hammering the structure ferociously. Because Woo-jin and Min-hyuk had hidden themselves behind the structure, they weathered the explosion unscathed.
"Tch."
Ji-su clicked her tongue. Something felt off.
Are his reflexes just that good? No... more than that, it's like he already knows our abilities.
Despite fighting them for the very first time, Woo-jin was handling everything with practiced ease—as if he'd clashed with Ji-su and Ha-mun here a dozen times before.
Did our information leak out too?
It was the likeliest explanation. Woo-jin already had a track record of uncovering Anomia's schemes and crushing them in advance.
It didn't matter either way. Ji-su decided to provoke him.
"Hey, hey! What kind of Disciplinary Committee Leader runs away like a coward, huh? Aren't you even a little embarrassed? Stand and fight, you weakling! That's the only way we get any fun out of this!?"
Laughing, Ji-su repeated the process from moments ago.
KWAAANG!
Two fresh drones soared out and detonated violently right where Woo-jin and Min-hyuk had been standing—though by then they had already tucked themselves behind another structure, escaping the brunt of the blast.
Zzzzzt... Before long, the magnetic field began to flicker and dim. The telltale sign that appeared just before it collapsed.
"Kkuh, hah...!"
The hulking Ha-mun lunged toward Woo-jin and Min-hyuk hiding behind the structure, tearing out another fistful of hair and slurping it down like noodles.
Zzzzzt! The old field died as a new one unfolded in its place. No matter how far they fled, as long as Ha-mun could close in and eat his hair, escaping the magnetic field was impossible.
"All I have to do... is take... your weapons...!"
Ha-mun's goal was to shrink the distance to Woo-jin, then yank his weapons to him with powerful magnetism. No matter how hard Woo-jin tried to keep his gear, if the weapons were dragged toward a strong magnetic field, he'd be dragged along with them. After that, it would simply be a matter of settling things in close quarters.
And then—
SHHHHAAAA!!
The successive explosions had lit fires after all, and the sprinkler system finally triggered, spraying water down in force. Right where Woo-jin and Min-hyuk stood. They were soon soaked through, like drowned rats. The water never reached where Ji-su stood.
"......"
Puddles spread steadily across the floor. It would be dangerous if lightning mana flared in these conditions—but Ha-mun's magnetic field blanketed the area, so there was no need to worry. As long as he didn't get careless and let his field scatter, that is.
"Hmm?"
Ha-mun froze in astonishment. Because Woo-jin—drenched from the sprinklers—burst out from behind the structure with the black three-section staff and wall-press rod gripped in his hands.
He met the onrushing Ha-mun head-on.
"Kuheh!"
A grin spread across Ha-mun's face. So he'd finally chosen open battle. It made sense—there was no other option left to him.
Behind Woo-jin, Secretary Park Min-hyuk was running for his life. The secretary had served his purpose as bait; he was nobody now. As Min-hyuk made for the emergency stairs, Ha-mun stripped his attention away entirely.
Only Ahn Woo-jin. Only the thought of facing Ahseong High's Disciplinary Committee Leader stoked the fire of Ha-mun's fighting spirit.
"Hm?"
Abruptly, Ji-su felt something wrong. From behind her—faint, almost imperceptible, like an auditory hallucination—she thought she caught an unnatural sound. She turned around. But all her eyes found was solid wall. Her imagination, probably.
"!?"
Suddenly, Ha-mun's eyes went wide.
"That sound...!?"
He stopped dead in his tracks on the sprinkler-soaked floor. There was a sound coming from beyond the wall. With senses sharper than Ji-su's, Ha-mun grasped its nature instantly.
The sound grew clearer and clearer. A piercing shriek of splitting air.
"Ji-su!!"
Ha-mun wheeled around and sprinted at full speed toward her. The moment he wrapped his arms around the still-puzzled Ji-su and turned his back to shield her—
KWAAAAAANG!!
A massive arrow wreathed in wind mana smashed through Grey Star's wall and bored into the interior. A heartbeat later, it detonated.
Several minutes earlier.
Yoo Do-ha, Treasurer of the Ahseong Disciplinary Committee, had resolved to follow her leader's orders. Her assignment: artillery support. In advance, Woo-jin had pinpointed the exact target position for her, based on his knowledge of the game.
"As you command."
On a hilltop, Do-ha drove the tip of her great bow into the ground, anchoring it firm. She nocked an arrow far larger than any ordinary one—nearly as long as she was tall—onto the bowstring. Then she planted her foot on the stirrup set in the middle of the bow, straightened her legs, and drew the string back to its fullest with both hands.
Her body stretched out supple as a cat's. Her form was already reinforced with mana, so the immense tension posed no strain.
As Do-ha activated her Unique Ability, a strange pattern etched itself across her eyes.
Her Unique Ability, Laplace's Demon. Magic Formula Type 1: Precision Equations.
Its effect: to automatically perceive and compute, like a supercomputer, the position and momentum of everything within her field of view. Reading down to the finest unit was beyond her, but the conditions necessary for a successful support strike were more than satisfied.
Thanks to the passive effect of her Unique Ability—Enhanced Vision—every detail of the landscape sharpened into clarity. Even buildings in the far distance stood out crisp and distinct.
The price of the ability was a full day of agonizing dry eyes and a brain turned to mush afterward—but right now, helping her leader came first.
Vwooom!
Do-ha's wind mana flowed into the arrow, and its color deepened into something far more vivid. The arrow itself was a type of explosive—comparable in power to a mana grenade—and an asset of the Disciplinary Committee.
Do-ha aimed at the high-rise building on the outskirts of Academy City. She breathed evenly, held her breath, and stilled every unnecessary movement of her body.
Then she read everything—the countless falling raindrops, the drift of the storm clouds, the wind's direction and speed, even the frantic dance of the surrounding leaves.
"......"
...The perfect moment had arrived.
Do-ha released the string.
FWOOOOM!!!
Wind mana erupted outward like a gale. The arrow she loosed punched through the night rain, streaking straight across the sky before carving the precise parabola she had willed. The wind mana coiled around it shoved the rainwater aside and lent it yet more thrust.
Glowing silver-white, it looked for all the world like a falling meteor.
The arrow tore through the air, its shriek of splitting wind echoing, until it reached the upper levels of the Grey Star building.
KWAAANG!!
It smashed through the wall, arrived where Ji-su and Ha-mun stood, and finally exploded.
"Kugh!"
The unforeseen blast hurled Ji-su and Ha-mun's bodies toward Woo-jin. Zzzzzt...! Ha-mun's mana control wavered and his magnetic field collapsed; the drones caught in the explosion malfunctioned and dropped out of the sky one and all.
Ji-su and Ha-mun rolled across the floor before gathering themselves. A blast barely on par with a mana grenade couldn't deal serious damage to two Tier 5s.
But it was enough.
"!"
Splash.
Her palms hitting the floor, Ji-su flinched. The stretch of ground where they'd been thrown—sprinklers still spraying furiously overhead, water pooling underfoot.
Ji-su screamed.
"Hey! Hurry, the ability—!"
Too late.
CRACKLE-BZZZT!!
"GGAAAAAHH!!"
"AAAGH!!"
A wave of cyan electricity raced across the impure water at terrifying speed and crashed over both of them. Woo-jin had pressed the lightning-wreathed three-section staff to the floor and poured his mana through it in a single surge.
Ji-su and Ha-mun convulsed violently, their bodies trembling, steam rising off their skin. For a moment, they nearly blacked out. It felt like their brains had been scorched; a ringing howled in their ears—but somehow, they endured. There was still a chance to counterattack. Deploy a magnetic field even now, and they could drive Woo-jin into a corner.
But Woo-jin was never going to let the opening he'd made go to waste.
Fwoosh!
He flooded his legs with mana and kicked off the ground. His movement accelerated in an instant.
Ji-su glared at him as he charged, her eyes bloodshot crimson. I have to dodge. But her body wouldn't obey. At that speed, there was no dodging at all.
THUD!
The black three-section staff jammed into Ha-mun's mouth; the wall-press rod drove against Ji-su's throat.
"Ugggh...!"
"Kkh...!"
BOOM!
Woo-jin slammed them both to the ground and loomed over them. Frost-cold eyes burned with cyan light.
Her breath crushed out of her by the pressure of his ki, Ji-su felt raw, animal terror. There wasn't a trace of mercy anywhere in Woo-jin's solemn face.
And yet Ji-su begged.
"Spare me—"
ZZZRAK-KRACKLE!!!
"KYAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
"UUUUUUGH!!!"
Lightning mana erupted furiously from both rods, forcing its way through their bodies and roasting them mercilessly. A brutal, pitiless current. Ear-splitting screams tore the air apart.
At last, Woo-jin stopped pouring out his mana.
"......"
Ji-su and Ha-mun had lost consciousness. They lay there weeping from eyes, nose, and mouth alike, faces grotesquely contorted, steam curling off their bodies.
"Pathetic."
Woo-jin rose from where he stood, rods still in hand, and picked up the smartphone lying on the floor. Ji-su's. The broadcast was still running.
On the screen, his soaked face was being streamed live in real time. Word had apparently spread across the internet, because the viewer count had already climbed to roughly forty thousand.
Every viewer seemed stunned by Woo-jin's sudden appearance. The live chat erupted into chaos.
[whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa]
[Is this actually real??]
[Leader????]
[holy crap it WAS real ㄷㄷㄷ]
[aaa so Anomia just got destroyed right? They're done, right?]
[Are you okay??]
[what is even happening rn]
[Is this for real?? What's going on??]
[no way a Tier 4 just wiped two Tier 5s??]
[wow......]
The messages were flooding in at a blinding rate—too fast to read one by one. Still, one thing was clear: half the viewers were taking the situation deadly seriously, and the other half were not.
This is a mess...
Woo-jin ended the stream without a word. Reporting back to Oh Baek-seo and making an official announcement later was far more sensible than babbling whatever came to mind on a live feed.
─ Leader!?
Suddenly, Ha Ye-song's boisterous voice rang out through his earpiece—the connection finally working again.
"Whoa, you're coming through now! Leader, are you alive? If you're dead, please don't answer!"
"Situation's resolved."
"Thank goodness you're still breathing! Hehe. Actually I hopped off the broadcast just now to check...! So glad you're alive! I was a little worried."
"Are you on your way?"
"Yessir! We've rallied the Disciplinary Committee and we're heading your way! Just hold on a little longer! For the Committee!"
Ha Ye-song's mission had been to gather the Disciplinary Committee and deploy the moment Woo-jin linked up with Secretary Park Min-hyuk.
Woo-jin approached the breached outer wall, letting the wind and rain strike his face as he looked down at the world outside. Four multipurpose transport vehicles from the Disciplinary Committee were racing toward Grey Star.
"Our side is finished as well."
An elegant voice followed. It was Vice Leader Oh Baek-seo.
Her mission had been to subdue AQ—Anomia's strongest combat force—along with the syndicate's leader. If even that was done, then Anomia was as good as annihilated.
"Leader."
"Yeah."
"...I'll hurry over so I can see you."
A single, loaded remark, with the sound of her breath caught between the words.
"?"
What was that?
Not 'I'll rendezvous with you,' but 'I'll hurry over so I can see you'?
It should have meant the same thing, and yet so much feeling seemed packed into that one line of hers. Worry, relief, and then... affection.
No, calling it affection is overreading it.
Woo-jin dropped the thought.
"......"
He drew in a long, deep breath. Just cleaning up this scene was going to take them through the night.