Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: School Life
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Shin Noda waited with his foot propping open the front door, waiting for Park Ha-yeon to come out.
They always went to school together.
“Come on out.”
“Just a sec!”
Park Ha-yeon hurriedly slipped on her shoes and came out.
“Sorry~”
“Let’s go.”
There were 10 minutes left until they’d be late.
If they delayed any more, they’d have to run, so they quickened their pace.
“Shin Noda. Did you see the Dark Knight news?”
“…Yeah.”
“I knew he’d cause an incident eventually? A villain’s just a villain!”
Shin Noda gave a wry smile and ruffled Park Ha-yeon’s hair.
“Ah! My hair’s all messed up!”
“More importantly, how’s Class A? The homeroom teacher okay? The other kids?”
Her expression darkened for a brief moment.
Shin Noda didn’t notice, not paying close enough attention.
“I-it’s fine. The teacher seems like a good person. Friends too……. Yeah.”
“By the way, Hwang Je-seong’s in your class, right? What’s he like?”
“I haven’t really talked to him much, but he seems super fun and really popular!”
“Yeah? Why don’t you get friendly with him? He’d be a big help.”
“Uh-huh….”
Before they knew it, they’d reached the street across from Hero Academy.
Just cross one three-lane road and they’d arrive.
They calmly waited for the walk signal.
Shin Noda suddenly voiced his curiosity.
“Isn’t there some weird kid in your class? Super fat with sharp teeth….”
“Nope? No one that fat at all.”
Green light.
The signal changed.
They crossed the street.
Numbers appeared under the green light.
25.
24.
23.
….
10.
At that moment, from the opposite side—the way they’d come—Yang Min-seo started running over.
Her usual foreign luxury car was parked there.
Shin Noda found it strange.
‘Why park across the street when you could right in front of school?’
This was due to a mistake by Yang Min-seo’s driver, Lee Jin-hyung.
Today, he had ‘accidentally’ taken the wrong road and entered the lane opposite the academy.
“I’m sorry, miss. I took the wrong turn. To go back, we’d have to loop all the way around. What if you’re late? I’m truly sorry.”
Yang Min-seo let out a deep sigh and said,
“Just drop me here. I can walk across the crosswalk. I hope this doesn’t happen again.”
She opened the car door and stepped out.
“Yes. Truly sorry.”
Yang Min-seo confirmed 10 seconds remained on the pedestrian signal and dashed across.
Missing it risked being late.
In her urgency, she stared straight ahead.
She didn’t notice something hurtling toward her from the side at high speed.
“Ah!”
Park Ha-yeon spotted something and gasped.
A house-sized 25-ton truck.
It accelerated even through the red light.
The onrushing truck was moments from hitting Yang Min-seo.
‘No!’
Her body sprang toward the crosswalk like a coiled spring.
Intending to save Yang Min-seo.
Shin Noda reached out, grabbed her by the scruff, and yanked her back.
She tumbled to the ground.
‘Too dangerous.’
Even with all the Orbs of Growth she’d consumed and her resulting growth, Park Ha-yeon couldn’t withstand a truck barreling at that speed.
Shin Noda resolved to stop this tragedy himself.
‘Can’t let Yang Min-seo die.’
“Overload.”
Incantation for the Magic Engraving.
Vast mana surged through Shin Noda’s body, activating the Magic Engraving.
Glowing red geometric patterns.
Telekinesis alone couldn’t yank her out directly—the truck was too close.
Without slowing the truck even slightly, she’d collide while he pulled her free.
Shin Noda thrust both hands toward the truck.
Telekinesis C-rank.
Even boosted by the Magic Engraving, it fell far short of countering a 25-ton truck’s force.
He gritted his teeth.
‘If I can just buy a moment!’
If he didn’t act, Yang Min-seo would die.
That simple fact drove him to clash with full power against the massive truck.
Telekinesis bore down on the 25-ton truck.
Screeeeech.
Conflicting forces collided, twisting the truck’s frame.
Yang Min-seo finally glanced aside and spotted the truck, but too late.
Less than a second to impact—zero chances of self-escape.
Shin Noda pushed harder.
Screeeeech.
A mere split second, yet it felt eternal to him.
Blood erupted from his eyes and nose.
His internals wrenched from the strain.
He tasted the metallic tang of blood and roared.
“Grraaaaaah!”
His brain burned.
Shin Noda endured through sheer will.
In that instant, his eyes met the truck driver’s.
Clear, alert eyes.
Not drowsy, not drunk.
‘Then fucking hit the brakes…!’
Laura chimed in then.
[Now. Pull Yang Min-seo out.]
The fleeting moment carved from wrestling the speeding truck.
Shin Noda applied telekinesis to Yang Min-seo, yanking her sideways.
Simultaneously, the telekinesis on the truck released.
The truck’s side grazed perilously past her body.
Boom.
The truck plowed straight into the signal pole and flipped.
Yang Min-seo, who had narrowly escaped death, collapsed right there.
Shin Noda dropped to one knee and fell to the ground.
“Cough. Heave.”
He spat blood onto the pavement, gasping raggedly.
‘Body’s shredding apart.’
Yang Min-seo had safely crossed the crosswalk.
She rushed to the heaving Shin Noda and checked his pallor.
“Are you okay…….”
Yang Min-seo’s words drowned under Park Ha-yeon’s panic.
“Shin Noda! What happened?! Should I call 119?”
Other students en route to school fixated on the sudden traffic accident.
They’d seen the truck veer unnaturally sideways and crash, and with Shin Noda bleeding and sporting blatantly unusual tattoos, they realized he’d intervened somehow.
Murmurs rose.
“That guy must’ve stopped the accident.”
“Isn’t he the strongest in Class B?”
“They say he one-shot a ‘Luna Bear’ during practicals.”
“Wow, blocking a truck like that. No way with telekinesis, right? His intelligence stat must be insane.”
Shin Noda informed Yang Min-seo of what he’d seen.
“The truck driver… had no intent to stop. Not asleep, not drunk.”
Yang Min-seo’s eyes sharpened.
She bowed her head.
“I see. Thank you for saving me. I’ll repay this debt for sure. Let me know if you need anything, anytime.”
“You’re… never mind. Not my place to meddle.”
Shin Noda sensed events swirling around Yang Min-seo but couldn’t grasp them.
The original story had no route where she survived.
Thus, her future remained a blank to him.
“Still… if things get tough, reach out. I’ll help. We’re friends, right?”
She nodded with a faintly sad smile.
Police arrived soon after, ruling it drowsy driving.
The driver claimed as much.
No evidence of intent, so they had no choice.
Driver Lee Jin-hyung got fired.
Yang Min-seo could no longer trust or employ him.
***
Hero Academy classroom.
A bespectacled elderly teacher lectured passionately.
He was Park Ho-yeol, the magic studies instructor.
I couldn’t focus.
Last night’s incident weighed on me.
[Villain detention center raided! Incinerated in arson… All innocent guards killed!]
[Raider in last night’s detention center attack, caught on CCTV: unmistakably ‘Dark Knight’. Police verifying facts…]
[Dark Knight finally crosses the line. Is the MZ generation’s hero finished?]
I hadn’t gone anywhere near the detention center.
Yet the articles framed it like I’d raided it and slaughtered innocent civilians.
I didn’t don the Dark Knight mantle for fame, but this blatant slander soured my mood.
Then the teacher called on me.
“You, yellow hair. Does the intelligence stat relate to actual intelligence or not?”
I hadn’t been listening at all.
But I knew the answer.
No original game player wouldn’t.
“The intelligence stat correlates to mana capacity and magical aptitude—unrelated to actual intelligence.”
I answered without delay.
“Were you listening?”
For some inscrutable reason, Park Ho-yeol teacher wouldn’t let it drop.
He fired off the next question right away.
“What I covered five minutes ago. Come up and solve it.”
Park Ho-yeol scribbled a problem on the board.
He peered at me over his glasses.
The problem: proving the formula for mana required to use a skill.
Tough to solve on the spot unless you lived for studying.
I had no clue, naturally.
Not exam season—why bother memorizing that?
As I stepped forward, I silently ventriloquized to Laura, lips sealed.
“Lauuuraaa.”
Park Ho-yeol tsked at my back as I grabbed the marker.
“A first-year with ear piercings. Proper posture and diligence boost study efficiency, you know.”
I let his nagging slide in one ear and out the other.
[But even your inner thoughts reach me. Didn’t you know?]
Laura’s laughter-laced voice reverberated in my head.
‘What? Then why not tell me sooner?’
[I definitely hinted at our first meeting, but you kept mumbling aloud oblivious—it was hilarious. Kuhuhu.]
What a spiteful dragon.