Rule 6: The Disciplinary Committee Leader Shuns Attention Seekers (1)

"Smash that subscribe button, hit like, and turn on notifications~!"

Walking through the city or around campus, you'd occasionally spot students broadcasting or filming videos. A boy sitting on a fountain, chattering away into a smartphone clipped to a selfie stick, for instance.

The girl dancing in front of a smartphone planted before the central steps near the school plaza was another such case. Neither of them paid the passing students' stares the slightest mind, carrying on with their streams and shoots as if the world didn't exist.

"Looks like they're filming ZTube videos," said Ha Ye-song, the Disciplinary Committee's public decency enforcer, walking beside me.

Oh Baek-seo was trailing right along with us.

"There do seem to be more of them lately. This time last year, it wasn't quite like this, was it?"

"A kid at our school kicked off the whole craze. It's the age of ZTube now, you know?"

"Is that so?"

ZTube. The name of the video platform all the students loved. Anyone could upload videos, and once you gained a certain following, you could start earning money. The sponsorship revenue was nothing to sneeze at, either.

Me, though? I avoided ZTube videos. I knew all too well how dangerously addictive they could be.

If nothing else, preserving the dignity of the Disciplinary Committee Leader meant keeping my brain's equilibrium in check. Simply put, I'd prioritized maintaining a healthy dopamine system and maximizing academic efficiency.

Which was why I had no idea who Ye-song meant by "the student who kicked off the ZTube craze at Ahseong High."

"If our Baek-seo unnie ran a talk show, she'd rake in an absolute fortune…."

I agreed. If a girl as graceful and beautiful as our vice leader started a talk broadcast, my wallet would open without a fight, for starters.

"I'll pass, thank you. Not interested."

Baek-seo waved her hand with a smiling face.

"So who's this craze-starter anyway?"

"ShinsoTV. The 'Sindo-ring Swordmaster'!"

Ye-song answered with the confidence of a mother bragging about her own child.

Sindo-ring Swordmaster?

Wasn't that name… just a little terrible? There were cool titles out there like Sword Saint or Sword Demon. Why on earth…?

"There's also MushroomOverlord, ranked second in popularity at Ahseong! People call him 'Mushroom' for short!"

"Uh, yeah…."

By the time I'd heard the name of the number-two ranked star, I'd given up on thinking about it entirely.

For a while, Ye-song chattered happily about the Sindo-ring Swordmaster. Apparently he'd shot to fame with videos of himself performing high-level sword-action choreography with his crew to pulse-pounding music, or unfurling graceful sword dances.

"You should take this chance to watch him for yourself. He's seriously cool. He actually made first place on my boyfriend-candidate list recently."

It was that drowsy stretch right after lunch—which was, incidentally, the whole reason we were out walking in the first place. A little idle entertainment couldn't hurt.

"Fine, let's have a look."

We sat down on a bench away from the foot traffic. Ye-song pulled up the video on her smartphone and held it out to me, eyes sparkling in anticipation of my reaction.

I ignored her and just watched.

An intro played out over slick music: a boy in a goblin mask performing a sword dance.

So this is the Sindo-ring Swordmaster.

He was cool, I'd give him that. Romanticism check: passed.

The main video began, and the boy from the intro greeted the audience.

A voice modulator had distorted his speech.

He wore the Ahseong uniform, but with his name tag removed, there was no telling who he was. After the standard broadcast greeting, he moved into some light banter.

Honestly, I couldn't call it entertaining—but his delivery had a certain wit to it, and the altered voice was the sort women tended to like.

Before long, Shinso moved into the main sword dance.

The room filled with darkness. A BGM that belonged in an anime battle sequence began to play, and Shinso wreathed the blade in his hand with mana.

Fwoosh!

The mana converted into fire.

Elemental conversion of mana—a technique only someone who had reached at least the 4th Tier could perform. Ability realms were graded from the 1st Tier up to the 9th, and the 4th Tier marked a strongman in at least the upper-middle ranks of Academy City.

Oh. A sword dance with a flaming blade. That was genuinely cool. Romanticism check: passed.

The fire-wreathed steel carved through the darkness again and again in dazzling flourishes, keeping time with the music. Shinso's movements were supple and fluid, yet disciplined all the same.

At every highlight, the sword dance slowed dramatically—slow motion deployed to stage each striking moment for maximum impact.

Shinso's sword dance had a hypnotic, spellbinding quality. I could see why he was popular. Entrancing the brain into mindless viewing was, after all, the most addictive formula there was.

Looks like all style and no substance… but his combat instincts are real enough.

I could tell from his preparatory movements at every turn that Shinso was performing his flashy sword dance deliberately. The guy was likely a genuinely capable fighter in his own right.

Eventually, the video ended.

"Hehe."

Ye-song was practically begging for my reaction with her whole body—the picture of a girl showing off her boyfriend. Well, she had said he was first on her boyfriend-candidate list.

"…Not bad. Very flashy."

That was the entirety of my review. Ye-song, who had been waiting for me to continue, showed bewilderment in both eyes.

"Huh? That's it?"

"What more do you want?"

"No awe? No amazement?"

"I did that internally."

"…Leader, please never do reaction streams or anything like that."

Ye-song puffed up in a sulk.

Why, though…?

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Ever since watching the Sindo-ring Swordmaster video Ye-song had shown me, I'd kept my distance from the guy.

And then one day, it happened.

Lee Se-ah—the girl who would one day grow into a great villain—had sent me a CoconutTalk message.

Shinso? Shinso as in the Sindo-ring Swordmaster, presumably. Why was everyone losing their minds, and why was she telling me about it? I couldn't make sense of it.

Just as that question formed, another message arrived from someone else entirely.

Now even Ye-song was in an uproar.

What could it be?

I opened ZTube on my phone and went to ShinsoTV's channel. There was a video uploaded in the early hours of the morning—apparently unrelated to the sword dances he usually posted.

The title: To the Disciplinary Committee Leader of Ahseong High.

The Disciplinary Committee Leader of Ahseong High in the current Academy City? That was me, wasn't it?

I clicked in immediately.

In the video, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Shinso—the boy in the goblin mask—greeted the camera and got straight to the point.

Ah.

I had a pretty good idea where this was going.

Please. We haven't even formally met yet. Let's not do this….

Shinso bowed deeply at the waist, the very picture of courtesy.

And there it was—the line I'd been dreading, spoken aloud at last.

A "lesson"? What is this, a martial arts world?

Shinso's challenge—the video was less an invitation than a gauntlet thrown—was rapidly clawing its way up the real-time trending charts. No, not clawing. Ascending.

A deluge of likes rained down from viewers. The comments were pure pandemonium. Some students left critical remarks at Shinso for issuing a challenge out of nowhere, but most were visibly eager to see me and Shinso square off.

Of course they were. People naturally chase stimulating entertainment, and when that entertainment ties into their everyday lives, the thrill only multiplies.

Selfish little bastard.

I was irritated. This attention seeker hadn't considered my wishes for even a second—he'd pursued nothing but buzz and his own self-actualization. He'd clearly agonized over the decision, but if this was the result of all that soul-searching, the only thing I owed him was a string of curses.

Once something blew up this big, even ignoring it with a poker face became difficult. Which was no doubt exactly what Shinso had counted on.

This attention-seeking bastard. This just got complicated….

Worse, Shinso had praised me as "the leader even the famous genius Oh Baek-seo follows." I was sure he'd meant it innocently, but it was practically poking at my sore spot.

There are still plenty of members unhappy that I became leader….

Thanks to my showing during the monorail incident on day one, the skepticism toward me had eased somewhat—but among the second- and third-year members, plenty still doubted my abilities. My plan had been to quietly rack up accomplishments and smother those doubts one by one. And then Shinso had gone and dragged it all into the open and set it on fire.

"Leader."

Amid my brooding, Oh Baek-seo called to me. A faint scent of black tea drifted into my nose. At some point she had set a warm, freshly brewed cup down on my desk.

"What are you going to do about him?"

"Shinso?"

Baek-seo nodded. Her usual gentle smile was on her face, but the atmosphere around her was distinctly colder than normal.

"Want me to go take care of it?"

"Sorry?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Baek-seo spoke in a quiet but crystal-clear voice. "There's no need for you to deal with a bothersome kid like that. A sparring match would obviously end up being filmed—so I'll put out the word that if he tries to disrupt Disciplinary Committee work with these stunts again, he'll face severe punishment. There's both a school rule and precedent that let me do exactly that."

Baek-seo laid it all out in a smooth, honeyed tone—sweetness on the surface, steel underneath. Apparently his challenge had gotten under her skin too.

But.

"That won't work."

"Hm?"

I knew she was saying it for my sake, but if I did as she suggested, I'd be the one in trouble.

If I hand this mess over to the vice leader….

Unless every single member already believed I was the right talent for the leader's seat, letting her swat him down in my place would only elevate her prestige. My authority as Disciplinary Committee Leader would end up living in her shadow.

That, I cannot allow…!

Do you have any idea how much hell I went through to reach this position?

"I'll handle it."

Really, this might be a blessing in disguise. I might even be able to turn Shinso's proposal against him.

If I crush him decisively, my standing inside the Disciplinary Committee could actually improve.

I had no idea how strong Shinso was, but this was unquestionably another chance to show the committee what I could do.

…Honestly, though, all of that might just be excuses I was slapping on after the fact.

"There's really no need for you to step in—"

"I'm just annoyed, that's all. So I'll do it."

Exactly what it sounded like: I was irritated. I found myself wanting to personally take down this ill-mannered, chuunibyou sophomore with my own two hands.

"Hmmm… All right. Let's do it that way."

Baek-seo answered with an innocent, sunny smile.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Ah Woo-jin's comment appeared under ShinsoTV's challenge video. It accepted the sparring match.

"The Disciplinary Committee Leader of Ahseong has accepted Shinso's challenge, apparently."

Mahyeon High School—the elite academy known as Ahseong's great rival. Its Disciplinary Committee Leader, Lee Je-ho, received the report from his vice leader and pushed up his glasses with a stony face.

"Ahseong's Disciplinary Committee Leader… the one who took the leader's seat over Oh Baek-seo's head, was it?"

Last year, Je-ho had believed beyond any doubt that the 45th leader of Ahseong's committee would be the genius Oh Baek-seo. The result had been different: some unremarkable boy had seized the position right out from under her.

That boy was the 45th Disciplinary Committee Leader, Ahn Woo-jin.

"How convenient. At last I'll be able to analyze what kind of man Ahn Woo-jin really is."

Shinso, whom Woo-jin would be facing, was a seasoned fighter of at least the 4th Tier. Every strongman in the academies—Je-ho included—had already parsed the videos and knew it. This duel, then, would be a golden opportunity to verify the true strength of Ahseong's 45th leader, Ahn Woo-jin.

And the factions taking an interest didn't stop there.

"Say that again. Ahseong's committee leader is dueling Shinso? The ZTuber, you mean?"

"Perfect timing. I've been dying to know how strong Ahseong's leader actually is."

"Now we'll finally get a proper look at what he can do."

Nearly every academy with autonomous authority in Neo Seoul took a keen interest in the news of a public duel between Ahn Woo-jin and Shinso.

And at some point, without anyone noticing the exact moment it happened, their duel had become the single hottest topic in all of Academy City.