Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: Part 2 Episode 14
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The administrative procedures wrapped up quickly.
In the end, all the Abyss kids ended up holding hands and leaving school together.
As the kids who'd been embroiled in controversy during the semester started packing their bags, a strangely graduation-like atmosphere settled in.
Choi Sun-ji, who had spent some time as Lee Sae-byeok's desk mate and tried to win her over with snacks, watched her pack with a troubled expression.
Lee Sae-byeok dumped the mountain of apology letters piled on her desk straight into the trash and brushed off her hands.
As she headed to the back of the classroom to clean out her locker, she blinked at the sight of it stuffed full of apology letters and snacks.
She scratched her head for a moment, then pulled out just the snacks from the locker and held them out to her desk mate, Choi Sun-ji, who had given her things like Pocky and Myeolchi One Bite all this time.
"Here, you deal with these."
"?"
"You eat snacks all the time. I actually hate this stuff."
Choi Sun-ji, who had abruptly been handed a pile of snacks, stared at Lee Sae-byeok as she neatly gathered her textbooks and stationery.
She had come like a storm and was leaving like a storm.
Choi Sun-ji had tried to get close by offering Pocky and Myeolchi One Bite every day to show her goodwill, but Sae-byeok slept through it all every time, and they never really bonded.
Later, rumors started swirling that she was hanging out with scary kids, and Choi Sun-ji got too intimidated to approach.
"Sae-byeok... you're leaving too?"
"Yeah."
Hearing that she was going made her feel oddly empty. Choi Sun-ji looked down at the snacks she'd received from Lee Sae-byeok and spoke up.
"Why are you going?"
"If the expelled kids go to another school and act up the same way, I'll be in a real bind."
"Oh..."
She was the type who subtly looked after the kids around her.
Realizing a bit too late that she wasn't such a bad person only amplified the regret of not getting close.
Without prejudices, she seemed like she had a fun personality. Not just Lee Sae-byeok—Woo Ji-yoon and the others seemed pretty charming too.
"Where are you going?"
"The school right next door."
"Huh?"
"I'm transferring to the school right next door. Don't worry. We won't mess with your school—we'll live quietly."
It seemed the transfer school was already decided.
Choi Sun-ji's eyes widened at the mention of the school right next door.
The nearby school was Nagil High School, and gates popped up around there unusually often, so a lot of neglected kids from home ended up going there.
Plus, with so many gates, quite a few kids awakened while wandering around the school neighborhood.
"The kids there are kinda rough though..."
"Yeah?"
Lee Sae-byeok's indifferent expression, like she couldn't care less, threw her off.
She'd heard that she'd been bullied by the bad awakeners here, but she didn't seem scared at all.
Suddenly, the large and small scars on Lee Sae-byeok's arms and neck caught her eye.
"I got into it with them too, but they were all bark like kittens."
"Did they beat you up?"
This girl gets picked on from all directions.
You'd think the Abyss kids would have her back, but how does she manage to attract so much trouble?
It was cute how she was acting tough about getting roughed up, but it also tugged at her heart a little.
She was worried about her heading to an even rougher place. The person in question seemed weirdly nonchalant, though.
"If it's the school next door... let's hang out often. I'll buy you tteokbokki."
"How do you eat all the time?"
Despite the teasing words, Lee Sae-byeok smiled and shot back playfully.
Her smile was so heart-fluttering that Choi Sun-ji stared blankly at her face for a moment.
"Can Woo Ji-yoon and the others join? I'll chip in five thousand won."
"Y-Yeah! Sure!"
"Then give me Woo Ji-yoon and the others' contacts too."
"Huh?"
Somehow, on the last day, Choi Sun-ji ended up with almost every contact from the association kids.
§ § §
One time, a box of apples and red ginseng showed up in front of me.
[Sae-byeok student. Did you get the gift okay?]
[Yep.]
[Sae-byeok student lol... You know that player block list thing...]
[I don't wanna eat it.]
[Oh! That's not what I meant... Eat it well lol;; I'd be grateful if you just accept it.]
Anyway, high-end gift sets kept arriving. I had no idea how they got my number, but most were adults speaking in that polite Seol Do-yoon style.
I secretly passed them on to Lee Yu-hyun as gifts.
I hoped she'd eat them, but she sent them back without touching them. So a revolving bribe cycle got started.
Once things settled down, before starting at the new school, we had to go through a ton of adaptation classes again.
The voluntary transfers skipped them, but the forcibly transferred expelled kids had extra ones.
They clearly had no intention of paying attention this time either, and they didn't even pretend to be good in front of the instructors.
Abyss had always had mostly bad rumors, but because of me, public opinion among normals overwhelmingly sympathized with Abyss as a whole.
I'd left tons of evidence, and not only expelling the kids who bullied me but blocking their futures entirely had parents panicking—"What about our kid? How do we fix this?"—and it went viral among adults too.
So, several more schools stepped up to take us in.
Nagil High School was one of them.
It didn't have a great reputation, so Lee Yu-hyun hesitated, but I begged to go there for three straight days.
Nagil High had a ton of students involved in Yeo Woo-hee's Abyss cartel plan.
It was a relief that Yeo Woo-hee had backed out, but the leftovers were keeping the structure intact and forming another cartel.
If they went around saying Abyss kids started it, that'd be trouble, so I planned to tell Yeo Woo-hee to clean it up completely.
I had my own plans for the new school.
Right away, I'd link the more docile kids there with our side's docile ones and push them hard as the main force.
Once the main faction shifted there, sorting the hierarchy by grades would make it look legit.
The school's power holders were secretly under Yeo Woo-hee's thumb anyway, so flipping the overall vibe wouldn't be hard.
A perfect Abyss image wash.
A pitiful group of model students covered in scars from past mistakes, now reformed and trying to live right and blend into society.
Whatever. I just wanted it to have that vibe.
And maybe I could snag the top spot title again in the new place.
I planned to hierarchy-ize by academics, so topping the school in grades could count as number one.
They said I was smart, even got called a genius sometimes, so with effort, number one in school should be doable.
Seol Do-yoon being the unspoken number one in Abyss for combined intellect and combat power really twisted my guts.
He snatched all the good stuff without even showing his face, poking at the inferiority complex I'd worked hard to suppress.
So, I planned to aim for number one in brains at the new school.
I headed to the computer lab and pulled up the Hunter rankings page.
Attack Category Overall [Set Detailed Category]
[1] Moon Se-rim - A1
[2] Woo Ji-yoon - A1
[3] Yoo Hee-ah - A3
[4] Lee Kyung-seop - B1
[5] Joo Ho - A5
...
Support Category Overall [Set Detailed Category]
[1] Seol Do-yoon - A1
[2] Park Ha-young - A5
[3] Han Soo-hwan - A6
[4] Kim Esther - A5
[5] Park Hyun - A3
Production Category Overall [Set Detailed Category]
[1] Lee Yu-hyun - A4
[2] Namgoong Eun-ha - A5
[3] Yang Se-ri - A6
[4] Kang Da-gam - B3
I scrolled down, checking names, then closed the page.
Lately, I'd stopped this self-torment.
Up until about five years ago, I'd check the rankings page every time to see if my name was at the tail end, but now resignation had set in—I felt nothing.
While I wasn't looking, my name had vanished from the rankings entirely.
"Sae-byeok, y-you okay? No more ranking self-harm..."
Lee Kyung-seop, who was on the computer next to me, patted my back.
Don't get the wrong idea—I was just curious. I'm not hung up on it.
"Put me on the rankings too..."
"It's fine, it's fine. You're the top dog in Abyss internal lead guitar."
"Fuck, is that your idea of comfort?"
"S-Sorry."
I grabbed the collar of Lee Kyung-seop, who was searching the new school's homepage notices.
I'd admitted to being dead last in the hierarchy and used it as bait back then without hurting my pride, but now that everyone pitied me, it was starting to sting.
I'd engineered this mood, but I'd overlooked how long these looks would linger even after things wrapped up.
'Guess I gotta just go to school diligently.'
I gritted my teeth and forced a positive reframing.
I threw my arm around Lee Kyung-seop's shoulders in a buddy lock and checked the school homepage together.
After the gates started popping, all public places had to provide gate hazard zones and mana density charts nearby.
They also had to confirm Safe Home certification for gate contingencies.
"But why are there so m-many gate outbreaks near this school?"
"It's a high-mana density zone. Y'know, that monster with the insane mana output showed up here once."
Most gates started at F or D rank, devouring people and nearby animals to grow toward A rank.
If you didn't handle the mana scattered by the monster when closing a high-rank gate, the area became a frequent gate hotspot.
Those spots could spawn three F-rank gates in a day.
I gave him the key points, and Lee Kyung-seop nodded in admiration.
"Oh yeah, that's right... You know so m-much, Sae-byeok..."
I turned and stared him down. He avoided my gaze, lips twitching, then burst out snickering.
"No, I'm not mocking you—it's genuine, pure a-admiration!"
"...Tch, can't find anyone I like these days."
"W-Why not?"
Lee Kyung-seop patted my shoulder with a grin. Looking at him reminded me of the rankings I'd just seen.
His rank had slipped a bit since last time.
'Was Lee Kyung-seop fourth?'
Among Abyss kids, excluding mana, his combat sense was the next best after mine.
Top ranks on B-rank mana said it all.
His second awakening seemed like a standard warrior class, but his basic sniping skills were solid too—he handled long-range monsters well.
An ace who could fill any position and pull his weight.
But he often handed his kills to others, so his combat power ranking got underrated and dropped to tenth sometimes.
Why was that? Something about giving merits to people who looked desperate for cash.
'If I'm flipping the power structure, having Lee Kyung-seop take number one would be ideal.'
A group's vibe follows the loudest voice inside.
The problem at the old school was that Moon Se-rim's face came to mind for "Abyss," and their behavior tanked the rep fast.
Woo Ji-yoon was busy with her beauty Insta these days, Yeo Woo-hee would turn the school into her personal buffet, Byeon Woo-jin needed to speak up more, Seol Do-yoon was in college, and Moon Se-rim's perfect reformation was a ways off.
No one fit as Abyss's school face better than Lee Kyung-seop.
Studious, considerate, could throw a sharp jab if not cowed.
Above all, no rank ambition, so no power-tripping.
If his type trended in school, it'd launder the image perfectly and make my school life easier.
"S-Sae-byeok. Why stare like that...?"
"Thinking. Don't talk to me."
"O-Oh. Got it. Stare all you want."
The downside: post-second awakening, it's mostly skills, so not much room for me to boost him.
'If Seol Do-yoon gave him a ride, number one might be possible...'
With debuffs that could lower whole gate ranks.
If I played him right, I could rocket Lee Kyung-seop's rank.
'...Being unawakened sucks.'
He'd probably smirk like "Need my help again?" Making it hard to act.
I knew relying on others' abilities since I couldn't awaken was my current power.
But realizing I had to get used to it made me sick of myself sometimes.
If there was a brain part handling that awareness, I'd rip it out.
I tsked, started typing a text to Seol Do-yoon, then just turned off my phone.
§ § §
Lee Kyung-seop flicked on a small lamp and skimmed through the recent lessons.
'Even switching schools, the curriculum's the same, right?'
Lots of kids figured hunters didn't need studies since that's a job, but gates might close someday.
Better to know what everyone else does, just in case. Future's uncertain.
"Kyung-seop, whatcha doing?"
"Gah, y-you scared me...!"
The sudden voice from behind and chill draft made Lee Kyung-seop flinch hard.
"Why so jumpy? Such a buzzkill."
"Y-Yeah. You moved back in...?"
"Never moved out. Just crashed elsewhere a bit."
Seol Do-yoon grinned, unlocked the suitcase he'd dragged in, and unpacked.
Their first real talk in years since sharing a room.