The Criminal's Cheerful Rebellion (1)
During morning assembly, Lee Gil-young stuck a notice to the blackboard with magnets and left the classroom.
"Starting next week, we'll have career experience activities. By tomorrow, every student must choose the option they'd like to try.
The experience will run overnight for two days, so please make every effort to attend the Academy."
"I'll go over the options for you. A is police work. You'll get to experience the process of tracking down criminals.
B is military. If you choose B, you'll experience a day in the life of a soldier and learn how to handle various types of weapons."
"C is a tour of a pharmaceutical company and an artifact production factory."
The students immediately began trading opinions.
"Isn't the military just pure hell?"
"Is there anything to a soldier's day besides training?"
"Still, trying it once might not be so bad, right?"
"True, it's not like we have conscription."
"What are you talking about? The military is still the military. I'm never going."
"I'm going with A. What about you?"
Kim Gabyul turned around in her seat and asked me.
"I was thinking of going with A as well."
In the original story, the protagonist Seong Hyeon had chosen A.
And if the protagonist went somewhere, it was a hard rule that an incident would break out.
I would probably get to see something very entertaining.
"Welcome, everyone from Warna Academy. I'm Officer Kang Baek-ho."
The man standing on the platform introduced himself, then launched into a brief presentation.
The schedule he laid out for the career experience was simple.
First, form teams of four.
Two teams would make one group—eight people total—and operate together.
One team would be the criminals; the other would be the police.
The thief team would flee from the police team, and the police team would have to catch the thieves.
In short, it was a game of cops and robbers.
The students who had come for the police experience were split in half: half would spend the first day tracking thieves through the mountains, while the other half would track them through the city.
The setup was designed to scatter people as much as possible.
"The teams formed today will remain valid tomorrow, so keep that in mind. Once your team is set, you may begin the experience right away."
At that moment, the presentation screen switched to a team-assignment display.
Apparently the teams were being drawn at random.
The first person selected was… Seong Hyeon.
The instant Seong Hyeon's name appeared, four teammates were revealed in rapid succession.
Seong Hyeon, Lee Jiwoo, Kim Gabyul, Go Sang-hyeok.
That was the lineup for the first team.
"Looks like we won't be on the same team."
Kim Gabyul, sitting beside me, spoke up.
"Haha, what a shame."
In truth, I wasn't disappointed at all.
In the original, Kim Gabyul had ended up on Seong Hyeon's team as well.
The second team's lineup appeared just as quickly.
First Hwang Ju-hyeon, Lee Ye-rin, Moon Seyeon—
and then the name Baek Sejin lit up on the screen.
Hwang Ju-hyeon and Lee Ye-rin were the pair who had been sparring since morning.
Moon Seyeon was one of the original heroines.
"Ugh! Why am I stuck with you?"
"That's my line!"
From the seats ahead came the sound of Hwang Ju-hyeon and Lee Ye-rin bickering.
I was surprised to find myself on the second team.
The original story had never shown the team-selection scene.
More than that, no one resembling Baek Sejin had ever appeared on Seong Hyeon's opposing team.
In fact, the original Baek Sejin had never made a public appearance at all.
For all I knew, the original Baek Sejin might never have come to the career experience.
"We're not on the same team, but it seems we've become opponents."
"Just because we know each other doesn't mean I'll go easy on you."
"Haha, that goes for me as well."
"Group One, please follow me!"
Another officer called out from the entrance.
I met Seong Hyeon and Lee Jiwoo near the doorway.
"Haha, looking forward to working with you."
"Yeah, same here."
"This is gonna be fun!"
Lee Jiwoo was already buzzing with excitement, her voice full of energy.
Following the officer's lead, we arrived at a nearby city.
It was called a city, yet no one actually lived there.
The reason was simple: it had been built purely for training purposes.
Located in South Pyongan Province, on ground slightly higher than Pyongyang, this ghost city had been constructed by the government specifically for training police, students, and soldiers.
"You'll be conducting a pursuit through this city. Aside from these artifacts, you are not to use any communication devices."
The officer handed each of us an artifact shaped like a wireless earpiece, another shaped like a cube, and a bracelet, then collected our electronic devices and stowed them in a bag.
The earpiece-like artifacts were worn in the ear just like ordinary wireless earbuds; four were red and four were blue so the teams could tell each other apart easily.
"The moment the barrier on this bracelet is completely depleted, you are retired. For the police team, you win by restraining a criminal with this miniature binding artifact or by fully depleting their barrier.
For the criminal team, you win if even one person remains uncaught by the cube or still has barrier left after one hour."
"I'll start a three-minute timer now. Criminal team, you may leave at once."
At those words, Hwang Ju-hyeon, Lee Ye-rin, Moon Seyeon, and I entered the city.
For a place no one lived in, the interior was surprisingly well maintained.
Not a single collapsed building was in sight; they must have repaired it constantly.
"Let's start with introductions. I'm Hwang Ju-hyeon, a martial artist who specializes in hand-to-hand combat."
Hwang Ju-hyeon's voice reached me twice as he sprinted through the streets, golden hair streaming behind him.
He must have switched on the artifact; the voice coming through my earpiece overlapped with the one coming from the runner beside me.
"I'm Lee Ye-rin. I've trained primarily in magic. My specialty is wind magic."
"I'm Baek Sejin. Just an ordinary swordsman."
"You used black magic when you sparred with Kim Gabyul, though?"
Hwang Ju-hyeon asked, voice full of curiosity.
Once again his words arrived in stereo.
"Haha, that is something I can do as well."
The moment I admitted I could use black magic, Moon Seyeon's gaze locked onto me like a nail driven into wood.
Ohoho! Has she found a kindred spirit, or is she trying to gauge the rank of the demon you've contracted?
Even Marbas acknowledged how intently Moon Seyeon was staring at me.
"I'm Moon Seyeon. I know a little black magic and summoning."
After watching me for a while, she finally looked away and introduced herself.
"Hahaha! Two black mages on the team—we really do look like actual criminals!"
Hwang Ju-hyeon laughed heartily.
Hearing that booming laugh in double made Lee Ye-rin's face crumple.
"How rude! This is exactly why pure martial artists who only know how to move their bodies are hopeless.
Sorry, everyone. As you can see, our Ju-hyeon is a bit dim, so he says dim things sometimes."
Lee Ye-rin looked horrified and apologized on his behalf.
Only when she saw that none of us seemed particularly offended did she finally relax.
She clearly knew how frightening black mages could be.
"We're getting close to the city center. What do we do?"
"Let's split into pairs and scatter. If all four of us move together, we'll leave far too many traces."
"Okay. Then Ju-hyeon and I will go this way."
Lee Ye-rin said so and veered right with Hwang Ju-hyeon.
Apparently feeling guilty, Hwang Ju-hyeon followed without a word of complaint.
"We should conserve mana as much as possible. Mana traces can be tracked."
"Got it."
Fortunately, no one on the opposing team was particularly skilled at mana tracking.
Seong Hyeon was versatile but still inexperienced, and Go Sang-hyeok was a pure physical fighter.
The only real threats were Lee Jiwoo and Kim Gabyul.
Even Kim Gabyul struggled to track mana that wasn't black mana or holy power, so as long as Moon Seyeon and I were careful, we could easily neutralize her tracking.
"Where should we go?"
Moon Seyeon asked as she ran behind me through the streets.
"For now, I think our best goal is simply to put as much distance as possible between ourselves and the police team."
We ran the full three minutes.
"Police team, departing now."
The officer's voice came through.
Moon Seyeon and I entered a reasonably tall building, while Hwang Ju-hyeon and Lee Ye-rin hid underground.
The moment the three minutes ended, the police team came after us with terrifying speed.
Far in the distance I could already see them following the path we had taken.
Lee Jiwoo summoned a spirit and took to the sky.
"What now?"
"I think it would be best to keep an eye on the police team's movements and simply stay out of their way."
Just then the police team reached the fork where we had split.
After what looked like a brief discussion, the four of them plus two spirits started heading toward Hwang Ju-hyeon's position.
"They're moving your way. Be ready."
"Roger. We'll be fighting, so backup would be appreciated."
Hwang Ju-hyeon's voice came through the artifact.
"I'd really prefer it if you just ran away…"
"Seriously, why do they keep insisting on fighting?"
"If the barrier runs out you retire, right? So we just fight and strip their barriers. Let's do a diversion."
"…Is that how it works?"
Lee Ye-rin was being persuaded by Hwang Ju-hyeon's argument.
"Sounds like a good idea to me."
Moon Seyeon seemed convinced as well; her purple eyes sparkled as she fixed her gaze on the direction they were in.
I was tempted too. Honestly, I had never really considered winning by completely draining the police team's barriers.
Having Seong Hyeon's police team win the way they did in the original wouldn't be bad, but wanting to win yourself was only human nature.
"Then we'll take them from behind. If you're spotted, just keep their attention on you."
"…Fine, for now."
"Okay, we'll hide as best we can."
Lee Ye-rin's resigned voice followed.
Not long after, her furious shout blasted through the artifact.
"You crazy bastard! I told you to stay hidden!"
"We already got spotted—what am I supposed to do?!"
The sound of the two of them fighting again came through loud and clear.