School Life is Fucking Spectacular # 8
School Life is Fucking Spectacular # 8
"Whoa, why's this place so goddamn huge?"
The entire top floor was a bathhouse, half of it was the baths, the other half a Korean-style sauna. The snack bar was closed since it was nighttime, but I'd have to hit it up next time.
Anyway, probably because it was past eleven, the big bath was empty. I basically had the place to myself.
"I feel like a piece of meat in a stew."
Sinking into the hot water and kneading my aching muscles was pure bliss.
Right after finishing training and grinding through a workout, too. I couldn't feel more refreshed. Damn, being a student really is the best. Counting just the hours, that was like five hours of training and lifting combined?
After clearing Challenge Mode earlier, I tried out all the other training exercises. Doing them made time fly by just as much as gaming. School life's about to get fun.
—Splash.
I soaked for a while, then got out.
* * *
Back in my dorm room, I nuked the sausage and chicken drumstick barbecue I'd bought at the snack bar, then cracked open a five hundred mil bottle of zero cola.
Then I sat down in front of the computer in nothing but my boxers and a white tee. Ah, I'm fucking dying for a beer. Sitting at the computer at night with no beer?
Are you trying to kill me?
"Gimme a beer."
I never thought I'd suffer such brutal torture in my life. It honestly feels like my soul's getting sucker punched.
I'm gonna have to find a way to score some beer. Back in high school, borrowing a buddy's older brother's ID was a done deal, but now? I got no buddy's older brother. That's why connections matter. I'll have to figure something out.
Anyway.
—Takatak.
I brought up the internet and went to a search portal. What I'm about to do isn't surfing—it's studying. I still don't know shit about this world. So I gotta put in the time to dig up info. Which makes it studying.
So what should I search... right.
"Lee So-ra."
Bam. Smacked enter and the results exploded onto the screen.
"Hm."
Quite a lot of results.
A sharp, striking beauty with wild red hair that really leaves an impression. Lots of profile-type stuff on the side... damn impressive. I jumped straight to a video portal, typed in the name, and videos just started pouring out.
—Kwaang!
Instructor Lee So-ra in the videos was so badass I couldn't tear my eyes away.
The instructor, in a suit, leaps between buildings, her red hair streaming, pulling off high-altitude jumps as she beats the shit out of superhuman criminals they call "villains."
—Kwaang!
—Kung!
Her violence had zero mercy.
High-speed maneuvers: the instant she grabs a villain, she digs her fingers into his shoulder and uses the other hand to slam his face. Then she stomps the bastard, his face already caved in, and plummets—from midair.
—Kung!
The villain she used as a stepping stone literally shattered into pieces and died.
"Awesome."
This is a real superhuman?
Does that make any sense? This woman is straight-up sprinting vertically up the side of a building. I can only marvel.
And that's not all.
Another video showed the instructor lifting a monsterkin that looked mostly human except for the carapace on its skin and its crab-like eyes. She grabbed the thing by its thighs and chest and ripped it clean in half, left and right.
And then there's the clip where she jumps straight onto a giant monster's head and stomps the crown of its skull until it pops.
"Is this some wuxia? Is she busting out the Heavenly Demon's Imperial Descent Step?"
She moved like a literal high-level martial arts master. Peak expert grade, at least. One hell of a highlight reel. Step outta line and you're dead, for real. So this is the level superhumans can reach.
I kept digging for info while I was at it. Apparently, Instructor Lee So-ra suddenly retired at some point and became an academy instructor. She used to be crazy popular, a hero with huge expectations, and people said she retired way too early. Tons of speculation about why, but apparently she never said herself.
Must've been personal stuff.
"Alright. Now, the academy Chairwoman."
Time to look up the Chairwoman sis.
—Takatak.
A black-haired beauty with a scar across her face. In the photos, her hair's in a ponytail, she's wearing a black uniform with a jacket that has gold braid on the shoulders. The general's cap and sunglasses combo is badass.
If Instructor Lee So-ra used spiked gloves and knuckles as weapons, the Chairwoman was a straight-up swordswoman wielding a long broadsword.
"So she's practically a first-generation Awakened, a war hero treated as basically a national treasure in Korea because of her insane exploits in the Dimension War."
The Dimension War was a massive disaster way back.
The sky split open and monsters and powers from other dimensions flooded in. It broke out all over the world, and in the aftermath, Northern China and Russia, Africa, and South America were destroyed.
But Korea somehow survived. They say it was because the first-generation Awakened fought their bodies to pieces.
"But how old is she?"
No info.
She looked to be in her late twenties, but if she had fought in a war decades ago, she was probably much older. Her name's just listed as Black Yaksha, too, with no legal name.
Looking at related news articles, it seems like she used her power to wipe all personal info completely. Erased it before the internet really took off, so now literally nobody knows.
"So I almost got on this person's bad side, huh."
Back home, isn't the ultimate war hero like MacArthur? I basically almost got on MacArthur's bad side. That kind of priceless experience you couldn't pay me to have. Getting a two-shot with MacArthur is just too much. Give me a break on that one.
"Next... Kainus Family."
Leona's full name was Leona Kainus. They said it's an incredible family. Some kind of power bloc that dominates Europe.
"Mister Dominators."
If Korea has its war heroes, Europe has Mister Dominators. They're first-generation superhuman war heroes too, who fought monsters tooth and nail to protect Europe. A faction of superhuman power brokers who came to rule Europe based on that merit.
The Kainus Family seems to be considered pretty strong among them.
"But why'd she come to an academy in Korea?"
It's not like there aren't schools abroad.
"Ares Academy. Search."
Ah, skimming through it, I get it. In superhuman-related stuff, Korea's apparently the strongest in the world. Surpassed even the US. So countries all over send students here.
"Interesting."
That perfectly answered a few questions I had. For reference, the current Sovereign Commander of Korea, basically an absolute monarch... is an S-rank Awakened named Kim Ik-su. Another war hero, apparently.
"Got a bit of an alternate history vibe."
Well, something like that. I kept web surfing while I ate.
"You Antazora motherfucker."
Searched the monster I gleefully mauled in the training ground and a wiki came up. Nice. Let's use this wiki to study monster traits. Wikis actually come in pretty handy for this sort of thing.
But the wiki name is.
"Enha Wiki?!"
These sons of bitches are even here?
* * *
"Ugh, so sleepy."
Guess I went too hard last night. I'm on the verge of dying from sleepiness. But a student's gotta go to school. Dragging my sleepy body forward like a zombie. Advance like the horn of a rhino, Kim Geun-cheol. Even if it's a fucking death march.
—Squeak.
Opened the classroom door like that.
"Yo! Isn't that Scream Man!"
What the hell's with this guy.
A messy brown-haired dude with glasses raised his hand, looking super stoked to see me... what? Hold up.
"Vi— what? What man?"
"I said Scream Man."
"Vi— Scream Man?"
Why the hell are you calling me some incomprehensible nickname like that? What's screaming got to do with me? If you're gonna give me a nickname, give me a decent one...! Don't stick me with a random-ass scream!
"Why are you making a face like you're incredibly flustered hearing something completely unexpected?"
The mind-reader adjusted his glasses with his fingers.
"No one knows your nickname is Scream Man better than you, Scream Man."
"Oh for fuck's...! You punk. Huh? I scream a little bit and you just slap a weird nickname on me. If that makes me Scream Man, then the whole damn world's Scream Man, asshole. A little yelling and it's Scream Man, my ass..."
No way that nickname actually spread, right? I felt the cringe roll in as I sat down and sensed the stares. A few kids in class were glancing over, trying not to laugh.
You shitheads!
"If that was a little, a fly's a loudmouth. You're definitely Scream Man."
A fly's a loudmouth, my ass.
The guy casually sat in the seat in front of me and turned around. But I'm seeing this punk for the first time—why's he acting all friendly first thing in the morning? Honestly, it's throwing me off.
"Obviously, that nickname is already going around the class. Even I laughed yesterday. So, well, Scream Man is a nickname born of affection, so I'd appreciate it if you'd accept it graciously... It'd be troublesome if you react the way you did with Ryu Cheon-hwi."
Ryu Cheon-hwi.
That bastard? One look and you could tell he was acting like an asshole and throwing violence around. I'm not gonna do that to some guy who greets me with a nickname in the morning.
"I mean, shit. It's not like I just do that to anyone. So, your name?"
"I'm Ken. You can call me Ken."
Which country are you from?
"And you're Scream Man."
"Shut your mouth...!"
"More importantly, I've been dying of curiosity. It's no exaggeration to say I came today just to ask this."
—Churk.
He adjusted his glasses again. Specifically, he pinched both ends of the frame with his middle finger and thumb.
"What."
"How on earth could you do that! What in the world were you thinking to drop a family insult like that on the youngest son of the Ryuseong Group...!"
"What?"
Ryuseong Group.
Heard of 'em, but I don't really care. Someone being the young master of some group doesn't mean he gets to hit people.
"It was truly astonishing! A family insult, thrown without hesitation at the youngest son of the Ryuseong Group! I practically trembled! To possess such courage, you must surely be a man of incredible bravery...! I sense something from you!"
"This Ryuseong Group, what kind of company are they?"
"What? Don't tell me you don't even know that!"
I mean.
I don't really.
"Superhuman equipment manufacturing! The Ryuseong Group is the undisputed number one corporation in that field! On top of that, they're top-tier in military supplies! They compete for the very top ranks in monster industries and new energy, too!"
So not Ryuseong, but Samsung-like.
"And you threw a family insult at such an entity!"
"Ah, shit. Hey. When you say it all serious like that, it actually starts to sound scary. You bullshitting me?"
"A foolish question. A guy with your kind of guts wouldn't be scared of this. Anyway, nice talking to you. I absolutely wanted to chat with you. I think we'll get along—"
That moment.
"Geun-cheol? What were you two talking about?"
Lee Si-hoo slipped in behind me and cut in.
"Si-hoo, you're here?"
"Yeah. But, that guy next to you—is he a friend?"
No, literally just met him today.