A New Class #4
A New Class #4
"About what happened back then—I'll apologize again. I'm sorry."
Having heard the explanation about Woong-cheol, he scratched his head and apologized once more. Watching a guy with gorilla-like muscles do this is genuinely weird.
Anyway, I got the message loud and clear: he had no intention of pulling a Woong-cheol on me. So I got in the car. He said he felt bad and wanted to buy me a meal, and hell, I wasn't about to say no to free food.
But.
"..."
There was already a passenger inside.
"There's someone in here already."
"Ignore him."
Looking closer, it was a person with their eyes and mouth covered, limbs all broken. So this was the villain they caught earlier, huh? I poked him, and he didn't react—probably knocked out cold.
Wait, is he already dead?
"Wow. They really subdued him thoroughly."
I shoved him aside a bit and settled into my seat.
"Did you completely shatter all his limbs?"
"Rules of engagement. When a villain is captured, the protocol is to immediately break their limbs and administer a sedative."
So he wasn't unconscious—they'd drugged him. All four limbs were genuinely broken, and the guy was sleeping like a baby, completely oblivious to the world. Must be some seriously strong stuff.
"You never know what a superhuman criminal will do. Handcuffs alone can't stop them, so it's a standard measure."
Ham Woong-cheol got into the driver's seat, started the engine, and kept talking.
"We also blindfold them and cover their mouths. If there's any sign of magic being used, unfortunately, they get fed a bullet."
"Ruthless."
"It's just a safety protocol. The Special Operations Division always operates this way. Same as when you guys did it last time."
Well, fair enough.
We'd done the same thing—caught a villain at the beach and beat the hell out of them.
"Anything you feel like eating?"
"It's late, so let's keep it simple. How about bone hangover soup?"
"Sounds good."
And so we drove off to get food with one villain loaded in the back seat. I asked if he might suddenly wake up, and he said there was no chance of that.
We arrived at the bone hangover soup place.
Placed our orders and sat down.
"Anyway. The fact that you sprang into action the moment you heard from Ryuna—you've clearly got the instincts. You're exactly the kind of talent the Special Operations Division wants. Cadet Kim Geun-cheol. How about joining the Special Operations Division? Seeing how you handled those guys earlier, I'd say you'd fit right in."
Weirdly enough, every agent I meet says the same thing. Ryuna, too. Do I actually have a knack for that kind of work?
Still, I don't really have any interest.
Sure, we need heroes like Special Operations Division agents who lock up villains. But personally, I'd rather be the kind who hunts down and kills monsters.
"I'd rather not become anyone's junior."
"Hm. Is that so."
In the slightly awkward atmosphere, the bone hangover soup arrived, and I talked with Ham Woong-cheol as I ate.
Having food in your mouth does make it easier to find things to say.
"These villains seem to belong to a cult. They're coming to Korea under some kind of directive. What exactly is in Korea that's drawing them here? Figuring that out is also part of the Special Operations Division's job."
"Is that right."
A cult group from my memories.
I don't remember their exact objectives all that well. They were all over the place to begin with. Something about embracing otherworldly power, I think—so is that why they're addicting people?
"I've got a feeling something big is about to go down."
"It is. I'd say it's the most dangerous situation we've faced in decades. Even those students you saw earlier—there are suspicious circumstances surrounding them."
"Really?"
"It means someone has definitely infiltrated the high schools and middle schools."
No elementary schools?
Well, yeah. Students are probably more vulnerable to that kind of temptation anyway.
That's bad news.
—Ssk.
Ham Woong-cheol apparently had a particular style when it came to eating bone hangover soup: he'd strip every last scrap of meat off the bones, transferring them to a separate dish, then spend the whole time meticulously picking off meat with his chopsticks and spoon. For all I knew, the guy did something similar to villains down in the Namsan Underground.
If only I were stronger than Ham Woong-cheol.
I could've just snatched that whole dish of stripped meat before he'd taken a single bite. So this is why power matters.
"But isn't the situation pretty dire right now? And yet someone like you, Agent Ham Woong-cheol... you've got serious standing, don't you? A high-level asset like you is running around catching low-level street villains. Doesn't that feel like a bit of a waste?"
To me, it looked like a waste of time.
Let the rookies handle the small stuff and leave Ham Woong-cheol—a specialist—free to deal with bigger issues. That would be way more efficient.
When I said as much, the man who'd been picking meat off bones turned to look at me like some kind of Terminator and said:
"Even if it's a small, trivial task, it still has meaning."
"Huh?"
"This is where you have to start. Things like this are omens of something bigger. Precisely because of that, you do what you can where you can. Even if the task is the smallest thing imaginable, if you handle it piece by piece from the ground up, you'll eventually reach the top."
Ah.
"Even if it's just one insignificant bastard, you have to go out there on your own two feet and catch him. Big problems only disappear after you've resolved countless small ones."
"..."
Hearing that, I felt like something actually clicked.
This Ham Woong-cheol bastard... back when he was interrogating me, I had him pegged as just a complete son of a bitch. But the man does have some professional pride.
Right.
Just like he said, you start small, step by step, and work your way up. Every bit of it has meaning. It's not "what difference does one little thing make"—it's keep stacking those little things until they become something big.
"This place has good food. Cadet Kim Geun-cheol, I'll drive you back to the dorms."
"You seriously just wanted to buy me a meal?"
"And apologize."
After we finished eating, I got right back in his car and returned to the dorms. He apologized one last time, then coolly drove off.
With the villain still in the back seat.
"...Yeah."
It's nothing grandiose.
Can this Kim Geun-cheol, just because he got a few goddamn quests, singlehandedly stop a catastrophe like the Dimension War?
"Even thinking like that is already wrong."
You just do it.
Whether it's something small, or just the one villain right in front of you. As a hero, you just do it. What's there to agonize over? Do what needs doing and get stronger. End of story. No point worrying about whether I can stop it alone or whatever—just do the work and that's that.
No reason to cower, no reason to be afraid. If Vice President Kim Geun-cheol gets scared of something like that, he's nothing but an idiot. And if I can't do it alone—well. I've got friends, I've got classmates. We'll do it together.
Plus, I'm someone who actually knows things. If I start solving things one by one starting now, that'll become a snowball—and when the real catastrophe hits, people will have it a little easier.
That's my role.
Nobody can do everything by themselves.
Unity and cooperation—that's the highest value. And tackling things one small piece at a time—that's the best method.
"And on top of that."
I do happen to have a guide.
—Ding.
The moment I steeled myself and thought it, a sound rang in my ears, and a window appeared before my eyes.
[Sub Quest Occurred]
[Villain Appearance]
"You uncanny son of a bitch."
I smirked and checked the details.
[A villain affiliated with Paradise Ascension Path is planning a drug terrorist attack on Hanbit Elementary School. If this experimental drug infiltrates the children's bodies, monsterization will begin within a short period, and the villains, having obtained data, will carry out further attacks more aggressively.]
"What—!"
No. Fucking. Way.
Something this serious?
Sure, I'd gotten some pretty severe quests and phenomena before, but in terms of sheer impact, this one topped them all. Villains were actually planning to turn little kids into monsters!
"Where?!"
I focused and read the details. Fortunately, I was able to identify the time and location where this attack was going to happen.
Time: next Monday.
Location: Hanbit Elementary School.
—Fwip.
From the fragments of memory that surfaced, it went like this: after lunch, the children suddenly transformed into monsters and slaughtered each other before the situation could be brought under control.
"Insane—!"
Tremble!
My whole body started shaking!
The memory that surfaced was just a fragment, but the feeling that came with it was overwhelmingly vivid. This was something that 'actually happened.' And I had recalled it in the form of a quest!
Yeah.
This is something I know. That's why it surfaced as a quest. Whether I experienced it directly or not, I know about this incident—maybe I'd heard about it in the past.
The villain's appearance, the method. The keyword New Type Drug, and the result: monsterization. These are things I couldn't possibly know unless I had some kind of prophetic ability.
This mysterious power stems from my past.
"So you're telling me to stop something that already happened once...?"
The status window had been telling me exactly that.
"..."
I swallowed hard. My heart was pounding like it was on fire. What I felt from it was an intense impulse.
A fierce, burning desire to set the past right.
* * *
The weekend flew by in an instant.
To mark my election win, I went with Leona to do some volunteer work at the orphanage for the first time in a while. Seeing the kids' faces drove home once again just how monstrous the event set for Monday really was.
With that on my mind, on Sunday, I scoped out the area around Hanbit Elementary School—the site in question—getting a read on the terrain and distances.
Then on Monday, I skipped class entirely and headed there, starting my stakeout before dawn.
"Sorry, guys."
Sorry I, the Vice President, went AWOL.
But I've got something I have to do.
Given the severity of the situation, I did briefly consider asking Si-hoo for help. But not yet. Let me try handling it on my own first. Hadn't Ham Woong-cheol been out there grinding away solo just the same?
I'll go as far as I can by myself, and after that, I'll team up.
"Alright."
Perfectly concealed at my stakeout spot, I kept watch over Hanbit Elementary School. I never forgot to periodically shift positions and scan all directions, either.
If the quest was right, the villain terrorist would show up here today.
"...Hold on."
While waiting for the suspect, I tried doing some reasoning. Wait a minute. A mass drug attack? And it happens after lunch?
So is the bastard planning to spike the school lunch with the drug?
Having reached that conclusion, I focused my surveillance on the building that looked like the school cafeteria.
And then.
—Ssk.
Monday. With classes in full swing, I spotted a suspicious man loitering near the elementary school.
"That bastard?"
I locked eyes on him.