Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?
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The students clustered around Yang Min-seo whispered as they looked at me.
“Who’s that guy?”
One student pretended to know.
“I know him! He’s the one who passed the entrance exam by luck when the testing device broke.”
“You mean the monster that suddenly vanished?”
“Why is Yang Min-seo talking to a guy like that…?”
The aspiring Yang Min-seo Corporation recruits seemed pretty dissatisfied.
I can hear you all, you idiots.
If it was the testing device, they must mean that glass box from the entrance exam.
Compressing the troll into a marble must have looked like a device malfunction to everyone else.
With reactions like that, it felt awkward to bite.
“There seem to be plenty of others who want to join.”
Yang Min-seo leaned down and whispered in my ear as I sat there.
A faint perfume scent tickled my nose pleasantly.
“I already know. You’re not D-rank. I don’t know why you’re hiding your power, but let’s get along.”
“……”
I sighed and nodded.
She was being this persistent. I wasn’t some Zhuge Liang; I couldn’t keep refusing.
I signaled my agreement.
“Fine. I’ll join your team.”
“Thank you.”
Yang Min-seo wrote my name on her paper.
Then she turned around and spoke.
“Those of you confident you can deliver B-rank or higher performance, please raise your hands.”
Most couldn’t raise their hands.
B-rank meant you could fight properly with your ability.
It was a level rare among students.
Except for two.
A red-haired beauty with light green eyes.
Her chest was overwhelmingly larger than the others.
It was the main character, Oh Ha-na.
And a black-haired, black-eyed girl who raised her hand but had no presence: Ji So-yeon.
She wasn’t as stunning as Oh Ha-na, but she was beautiful enough.
Yang Min-seo nodded as if to say, go ahead and appeal.
It was a completely arrogant attitude, unlike how she treated me.
Oh Ha-na stepped forward first.
“My name is Oh Ha-na, and I can manipulate air. Like this.”
Her body floated slightly into the air.
Wind whistled fiercely beneath her feet.
The onlookers let out small gasps of admiration.
I already knew, so it wasn’t that surprising.
‘Not a bad ability. Especially against humans….’
“If that’s all, it’s a bit lacking, right? I have the perfect ability for a hero too! Anyone want to help me out for a sec?”
No one stepped up.
Well, of course not.
They were all rivals for spots in Yang Min-seo Corporation.
Oh Ha-na frowned and reached out toward a male student next to her.
“Hey, friend. Thanks. You’ll help, right?”
“No, I—urk… gah!”
He suddenly clutched his throat in agony.
He couldn’t breathe at all; his face turned beet red.
“W-what’s going on?”
The students backed away from the suffering boy to observe.
He was on the verge of death.
“L-let… go… c-can’t… breathe…”
“Shall I stop here?”
She released her power, and the male student finally gasped for air.
She wore a triumphant expression.
“How’s that, Miss Yang Min-seo? That should be enough.”
Oh Ha-na seemed annoyed by Yang Min-seo’s condescending gaze and sneered the “Miss” part.
“Hmm. Yes, it is. You pass.”
Oh Ha-na was a character with pretty useful abilities in PvP.
She became “air” against later monsters, though.
Next was Ji So-yeon’s turn.
Only I noticed, but she was already demonstrating her ability.
Yang Min-seo looked around for her and spoke.
“There was one more earlier, right? Where’d she go?”
“H-here…”
Ji So-yeon’s voice came from right by Yang Min-seo’s ear.
Her ability was invisibility.
While Oh Ha-na was choking an innocent student, Ji So-yeon had gone to the corner of the classroom and taken off her uniform.
Clothes don’t turn invisible.
I focused my gaze, hoping for a peek, but she vanished the moment she stripped, so I saw nothing.
Ji So-yeon hugged Yang Min-seo from behind and released invisibility just on her hand to show her.
“If I’d h-held a k-knife, you’d be d-dead, Yang Min-seo…”
Yang Min-seo looked slightly displeased by her timid speech but soon smiled in satisfaction.
“Hehe. Interesting. You join our group too. That makes four. Recruitment closed. Those who didn’t make it, there’ll be chances next semester, so look forward to it.”
And so the team was formed.
Me. Yang Min-seo. Ji So-yeon. Oh Ha-na.
Somehow, I was the only guy.
Teacher Song Si-yeol drawled.
“Once teams are set, head outside. Be at the main field by 10:30.”
The students rushed out in a group.
I stood up leisurely.
‘I’ve got time anyway.’
As I left the classroom and walked down the hall, someone shoved me against the wall.
It was one of the sycophants who’d been fawning over Yang Min-seo earlier.
The one with explosion powers whose dad was a businessman.
He snarled at me with a fierce face.
“You! I heard your skill is just telekinesis and you’re dumb too. You only passed thanks to that device glitch. A loser like you doesn’t belong in Yang Min-seo’s group, so get out.”
He was a head shorter than me.
I shoved his shoulder and asked.
“What if I don’t wanna?”
“Ha. Fine, I won’t just tell you to leave. Three million won.”
“What?”
“I’ll give you three million won. Go tell Yang Min-seo you have personal reasons and want out.”
“Pass.”
His fist grazed my cheek and hit the wall.
A small explosion erupted on the wall.
This bastard used his power on a classmate.
‘Oh Ha-na too, and this guy… Aspiring heroes like this?’
No mercy needed.
Trash deserves the trash treatment.
“What’s your name?”
“Park Sang-jin. Now we talking? But forget the three million. Since I’m using force now, the deal’s different, right?”
Park Sang-jin. Park Sang-jin…
I remembered.
He was originally in Class A, the one who bullied Yong Cheon-hwa.
A nouveau riche punk who settled legal issues with money.
I’d forgotten about him since he was such an extra.
“Ha, seriously.”
I grabbed his hair.
“Park Sang-jin, you fucking bitch. Wanna die?”
Smack.
I slapped his cheek hard.
“Use your power.”
Smack.
I slapped him again.
He pressed his hand to my chest, bit his lip, and focused like he was trying something.
“Use it, you punk.”
No chance.
Laura was dispelling it in real time.
Park Sang-jin struggled to break free, but no dice.
My raw strength was B-rank.
Even the B-rank boss monster “Nameless One” couldn’t escape.
A mere C-rank student like him couldn’t slip my grip.
I slapped him again.
His face was already flushed red.
His lip burst, blood pooling at his mouth.
I released his hair.
Park Sang-jin slumped to the floor.
I stomped his neck.
Stomped again.
Not enough.
I soccer-kicked his head.
“Urk. Gahk. S-stop.”
A red crystal appeared on Park Sang-jin’s chest.
I instinctively reached for it but snapped to my senses.
‘Have I… always been this violent?’
I’d planned to just slap him a few times and done.
But I got carried away without realizing…
‘Damn it.’
If I actually act like a villain just because people call me one, what’s the point?
I scolded myself to snap out of it.
Killing people nonstop must’ve messed with my head.
I pulled a potion from my pocket and sprinkled it on Park Sang-jin.
His wounds began to heal.
“If you cross my path again, you’re dead.”
I headed to the main field, leaving my complicated feelings behind.
***
Seoul Central District Court.
A gang in strange outfits appeared.
Masks on their faces.
Work clothes emblazoned with the K Group logo below.
The masks they wore were K Group’s mascot Ko(K)ddori masks.
Ko(K)ddori was so popular it was used as messenger emojis thanks to its cute image.
But here, the Ko(K)ddori shape was grotesquely melted into a horrific form, half-torn to expose the wearer’s mouth.
A crude speaker hung around the ruffian’s neck.
[This is K Group, Korea’s leading company endlessly pursuing progress.]
♫♪♫.
A cheerful tune with a recorded mechanical voice.
It was the ringtone you heard calling K Group’s customer center.
The ruffians stormed into the courthouse.
A security guard stepped up to stop them.
“Stop right there! What’s this about?”
[This is K Group, Korea’s leading company endlessly pursuing progress. Breathing with human society, creating a world we live together in: made by K Group.]
♫♪♫.
The ruffians growled “Uwaaah” and lunged at the guard, baring teeth.
They tore into his throat; he died.
Soon, his head dangled as he joined their ranks.
“Call the police—no, heroes!”
Other guards fought back with tasers and batons, but it was futile.
They followed their comrade.
Judge Kim Yong-seok was in his office reviewing cases as usual.
Trials had piled up lately.
All because of villains running wild.
Bang.
Then his office door burst open violently, revealing the ruffians.
Blood dripped from their mouths.
[Breathing with human society, creating a world we live together in: made by K Group. Hello? K Group is a safe company completely free from industrial accidents.]
♫♪♫.
The cheap speaker’s low-quality mechanical voice felt eerie.
“What the—? Who are you? How’d you get in here!”
The ruffians surrounded the judge in an instant.
Then a man in a Ko(K)ddori mask entered the office.
Unlike the others, he walked like a human.
“Long time no see, Your Honor! Remember me?”
“W-who are you…?”
“Don’t you recall case ‘2024ga-dan441’? Oh, right—K Pharma stole a small company’s product. Must be nothing to you, huh? Look what it did to me.”
“Ah, aah. I remember. I do. But why are you doing this…?”
The man removed his mask.
His face was just as hideous.
He grinned, baring teeth.
“I’m that small company’s president. You took K Pharma’s bribes and ruined my life.”
“What nonsense. Any judge would’ve ruled against you in that case.”
“Say it. Say you took K Pharma bribes and ruined Ma Bo-seong’s life.”
He shoved a recorder at the judge.
The judge sensed it instinctively.
‘Even if I do, they won’t let me live.’
“I can’t do that. Leave.”
He steeled himself to protect his honor.
[Protecting the world with safe medicine: K Pharma. Thank you for holding, customer. All counselors are busy—please wait.]
♫♪♫.
The repeating recording and upbeat background music.
That was the last sound Judge Kim Yong-seok heard in this life.
When the clock on the office wall had ticked about 30 degrees.
The government, shocked by the unprecedented attack on a national institution, mobilized heroes and the military to retake the Supreme Court.
But too late.
The attackers were gone, leaving only zombies with limbs torn off, abandoned.
Judge Kim Yong-seok’s corpse was too mangled to even become a zombie.
C-rank hero Constructor surveyed the blood-soaked interior and sighed softly.
“What’s the world coming to…?”