Chapter 8
Chapter 8
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: (Former) Loser vs. (Former) Delinquent
-----------------------------------------------------------------
CCTV footage showed 'Toilet Bitch' Shin Nari thrashing about.
Her muffled voice must have triggered it—a memory from some moment in the past flashed through my mind.
[Ahaha! Loser! No, wait, I guess I should call you Urinal Boy now! Ahahahaha! Ugh! Stinks like shit!]
"…"
Revenge really does have a sharp, satisfying bite.
The first stage of her conditioning wasn't even complete yet, but just seeing Shin Nari flail around like that filled me with considerable satisfaction.
But my revenge wouldn't end with fully breaking her in and turning her into a toilet.
Jin Kyung-pil and Song Woo-seop. And... those trash bitches who framed me as a sex criminal.
I'd already dug up where they lived and how they were scraping by.
Jin Kyung-pil had graduated, completed Awakener training without issue, and joined an agency, but he'd been deemed unfit due to some incident. Lately, a private military company had apparently recruited him as their in-house Awakener after keeping tabs on his abilities...
What a fucked-up world. That bastard, born with a killer ability, had rampaged through every atrocity imaginable, and now he was probably raking in money no ordinary person could dream of. Reality isn't like dramas—guys who swung their fists freely in school often kept thriving well into adulthood.
At least, in a sliver of silver lining, Song Woo-seop had gotten busted for thug life on the streets, killed someone, and ended up in prison. If an Elite Awakener Agent hadn't stepped in to subdue him, the body count wouldn't have stopped at one.
He'd even swung a knife and killed a guy, so as a regular civilian, he'd have gotten at least fifteen years for sure.
But... because he was an Awakener, his sentence got slashed down to just two years.
If his criminal record hadn't forced him out of training, or if a private military firm had scouted him like Jin Kyung-pil, he'd probably have weaseled out of even those two years.
In the judicial system of a weak nation like this, Awakeners are invincible gods.
'Ha. Is this really the 'silver lining'?')
A rage-inducing reality.
Anyway, Song Woo-seop was probably out there riding his delivery bike like a maniac right now. He'd completely given up on Awakener work, it seemed.
So, he became my first target.
I couldn't touch Jin Kyung-pil yet—not with a private military company backing him—and the other bitches... it wasn't their time. Those cunts would come after I'd finished conditioning Toilet Bitch.
Clank—
I pulled something from the shelf.
Thinly processed steel plates. I layered them over my abdomen and the major joints where the aorta ran, lining the inner fabric. Specially treated inner lining on my clothes. No one would spot the plates from the outside.
I still vividly remembered that sleazy snake-eyed bastard Song Woo-seop carrying blades around, carving scars into me and the other kids he bullied.
A guy like him might snap and swing wildly like a rabid dog if I beat him senseless. Better to prepare thoroughly, even if the odds of him landing a knife on me were slim.
I quietly pulled out the black van parked in the garage and drove to another building in this ghost town, then texted Song Woo-seop from a burner number.
[Web Sender] Delivery Driver Song Woo-seop,
Previous order canceled and delivery address changed—please deliver to the address below.
XX-dong XX Address / Sangdong Road
Special note: Extra 50,000 won delivery tip paid on site!
Luckily for me, the bastard was working as a delivery driver.
A few extra tens of thousands in tip money, and my prey would come bounding over like a dog in heat.
Pathetic that I'd suffered so much at the hands of such a dimwit.
'No helping it... I was alone back then.'
How had a third-rate Awakener like Song Woo-seop run wild in school like that? Our homeroom teacher had spelled it out.
When I'd gone to her sobbing, begging for help, that woman didn't offer comfort or protection. Instead, she launched into a lecture.
About how I still didn't get reality.
Song Woo-seop was a prized recruit slated for an Awakener agency, and they had no intention of making an issue of his behavior—nor the authority to, even if they wanted to.
According to her, if Korea were part of the Five Eyes or one of the G7 nations, scum like him couldn't have rampaged so freely.
But in Korea, kicked out of even the G11 about fifteen years ago due to low birth rates, things were grim. Back then, the population had already shrunk to a tenth of pre-kaiju levels, and the deep-sea kaiju invasions had wrecked nearly every city.
A weak nation's public authority couldn't just subdue reserve ability users from international organizations—the so-called super rookies.
School violence was a massive social issue even before superpowers existed. Now, these thugs with uncontrollable power and abilities ran amok like runaway trucks.
Our school, Lilac Commercial High, had about six Awakener kids.
Jin Kyung-pil's ability was Hardening. Turning his body harder than metal. The power handed to him to protect humanity? He swung it wildly. He'd rammed his shin, hardened like a steel bar, into my thigh and side.
...Whether misfortune or fortune, I had unusually strong natural healing. The ability test had pegged me as baseline human, but somehow, cracks in my bones healed in a week. It still hurt like hell, of course.
That just made the bullying worse. Jin Kyung-pil and his crew pushed me to my limits to see how much I could take.
It started with fingers, then wrists, then they stopped holding back. The beatings came every few days, so brutal that a sandbag seemed preferable. They treated me like a stress toy.
Song Woo-seop was the worst of them. His ability let him control a blade's sharpness. He'd carry jackknives and butterfly knives, slicing into my flesh however he pleased.
And every time... our 'Toilet Bitch' kindly stitched me up. Always smiling sweetly, bandaging my wounds with care.
Back then, I mistook it for kindness.
Until I was branded a sex criminal.
That's when the knocking started.
Thud thud thud.
Ah. Right on time.
-"Delivery!"
I had no idea what food he'd brought, but I opened the door anyway. A familiar voice was calling from outside.
"...People actually live in a dump like this..."
Click.
"Oh, yeah, prepaid, right?"
I checked his face as he grumbled at the sight of the house, which was little more than a ruin. Yep, it was him. Those slitted snake eyes. Song Woo-seop.
I took the bag and peeked inside. Non-spicy kimchi stew? Guess that's what people order. Good thing it wouldn't spill or melt.
As I held the bag, he turned back toward his bike with a shady expression, so I called him out.
"Hold up. I didn't order this."
"Huh? What do you... I came to the updated address, though?"
"Really? Then recite it."
His face twisted as I hit him with casual speech right off the bat.
"Sigh... XX-dong XX... isn't that right?"
"Nope. Hey, delivery boy, bad eyes or bad ears? It's not me."
Of course, I don't look down on actual delivery drivers. Unlike these thug scumbags, they're honest folks earning an honest living. But I could say anything to smash Song Woo-seop's pride.
Tremble tremble.
He was holding it in, even through the humiliating words. Had the bastard grown up a bit? A high school punk like him swallowing this shit?
No... grown up? This prick? Nah, that wasn't it.
Pfft... heh heh heh...
Laughter bubbled up unbidden. I suddenly realized it wasn't growth—it was just an act, him desperate not to go back to prison after tasting jail once.
"Ha... fuck... watch your mouth, alright? What's so funny...?"
"Whoa, hold on—looks like you've packed on some food weight, huh? Yeah? Living like a beggar?"
"...What the hell do you mean, 'food'...!"
I cut him off, stepped close, and patted his cheek. His facial muscles twitched violently.
"You half-ass delivery bitch, can't do your job right? Huh? Why's your ugly mug shaking like that? Pissed off? Heh heh heh, don't worry, I won't snitch."
[You loser prick, can't you do shit right? Huh? Why's your face trembling? Scared? Kick kick kick, you won't die, relax.]
A voice from Song Woo-seop long ago echoed in my head.
And in that instant—
"You fucking cunt, thinking you can mess with me!"
He finally snapped.