Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: What's Your Identity?
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A one-room studio apartment.
My little nest had become incredibly crowded with more people around.
“Kyahaha!”
“Don’t hit me!”
“Uwot.”
The newly brought twins were genuinely little kids, so they were extremely lively and rowdy.
Unlike Laura, who just lay around all day.
‘Maybe I should move to a bigger place.’
I inwardly pondered if there was a decent apartment nearby.
When I entered the room, Laura was lying on the bed, staring at her smartphone.
“Lady Laura. Please watch the twins for a bit.”
I whined as I spoke.
“Too annoying.”
Laura gave an immediate answer without even turning her head.
“Don’t be like that. While I’m at school, take them to a dungeon or something. Omega’s worth raising, right? What if you lose to the Demon King later?”
“Ugh. Fine.”
The talk about Omega’s abilities had wrapped up back in Busan.
Fortunately, bringing up the Demon King got through to her.
‘Come to think of it, how does Laura know about the Demon King?’
In the dungeon we’d gone to last time, she’d said something had invaded their world.
I suddenly grew curious.
“Last time, didn’t you say robots invaded your world, Lady Laura?”
Laura’s tail swaying gently.
I stroked it as I asked.
“That’s right.”
“What happened? If it drove dragons to extinction, did they lose and the world got destroyed?”
“This place—Earth—is similar. On the Gaia Continent, gates suddenly started appearing too. We couldn’t stop them, and in the end, the Demon King descended and everyone died.”
Only then did Laura set down her smartphone and look at me as she replied.
“Demon King. The name alone makes it sound like something a fantasy world could handle sufficiently. Surprising.”
Honestly, when I’d beaten it in the game, I hadn’t gotten such a scary impression.
After all, it was just text and images in the end.
Of course, clearing it had been insanely difficult.
“I’m calling it the Demon King because you do—for convenience—but precisely, it’s an Outer God. A being like an alien from a place completely different from the reality we perceive.”
Laura made a slightly frightened face.
She cleared her throat and continued.
“That thing originally can’t be accepted in our dimension, so it comes wearing the guise of a Demon King and demons.”
I didn’t get all the details, but I understood she feared and hated the Demon King.
“Anyway, it looks like Lady Laura’s sworn enemy is the same as mine. Let’s work hard at it.”
With that, I managed to dump the twins’ childcare(?) on Laura.
If she even farmed dungeons with them, it’d be perfect auto-hunting.
Having lived for ages, she must have fooled around among humans plenty of times, so maybe she’d tried the ‘mom’ role before.
I trusted she’d handle it well.
I sat down at the computer.
I figured I’d check if the researchers at the CK Biochemical Research Institute had gotten properly punished.
I’d gone through hell infiltrating the lab; at least this made it worthwhile.
“Shinno. Did you study for the exam at all?”
Park Ha-yeon’s voice came from behind me.
Before I knew it, she’d slipped into my room and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Exam?”
A heavy weight pressed down from above my head.
In a perfectly awkward position, Park Ha-yeon’s breasts draped right over it.
I tried my hardest not to show any reaction.
With a vigorous teenage body, if Laura weren’t around, I probably couldn’t have held back.
“Yeah. Once your suspension lifts, midterms are right around the corner.”
It was about that time for midterms.
‘This is bad. I haven’t studied a single thing.’
I’d been so busy with everything else that studying hadn’t even crossed my mind.
“Totally slipped my mind. Haha.”
“Sigh. Knew it. No matter how strong you are, flunking the written part can still screw you over.”
“Well, gotta start now...”
Park Ha-yeon handed me a notebook.
“What’s this?”
“My key points summary. It’s a copy, so use it as much as you want.”
For some reason, her face seemed to glow.
Looks like she came specifically to give me this.
“Ha-yeon, seriously, thank you. Haha.”
Honestly, it was probably too late already, but thanks to her, studying got a lot easier.
Still, I had to avoid failing.
Failing meant mandatory remedial classes, which would steal my time.
“Then, could you maybe take the test for me during the exam?”
After confirming Park Ha-yeon had left, I asked Laura.
“No way.”
Prickly as ever.
I had no choice but to do it myself.
The next day, with my suspension lifted, I went to school and buried myself in studying all day.
I got notes and past exam answers from club seniors too, and barely scraped by without failing.
‘Damn. Looks like I’ll have to patch it up in the practicals.’
Midterms were 50% written, 50% practical.
Even if I bombed the written, I could make top ranks by crushing the practical.
From sophomore year, classes got assigned strictly by grades, so I needed to manage my internal scores.
Top-ranked classes made building connections easier.
As I stared at my report card and steeled my resolve, Yang Min-seo approached.
“Satisfied with your written exam results?”
“Gonna have to make it count in the practicals, I think.”
She let out a soft ‘huhu’ chuckle.
A lovely, refreshing smile.
The practical exam was a tournament-style spar between students.
Ranks based on wins and losses determined the scores.
“I’m planning to invite a martial arts master to prep for the practicals this time. Want to come? All our team members will be there anyway.”
“Really?”
A martial arts master...
I’d never properly learned any martial techniques.
I just let instincts guide me and crushed with overwhelming stats.
It was perfect timing for practical prep anyway, and I figured I might need those skills against future powerhouses.
“Okay. Count me in. Mind if I bring one more? Park Ha-yeon... she’s a friend of mine.”
I couldn’t hog an opportunity like this alone.
“Hmm, for now, sticking to people we know...”
Yang Min-seo’s face stiffened.
“She’s probably scraping low B-rank by now.”
I knew her personality roughly.
So I added,
“Making new connections wouldn’t hurt. Go ahead and bring her.”
Yang Min-seo smiled readily, as if she’d never stiffened up.
***
A certain gym in Seoul.
One side was packed with all sorts of weapons.
Unlike the academy’s, they were all brand new.
Just dulled for safety.
She’d rented the gym with her own money and prepared all the weapons at her expense.
At the appointed time, Yang Min-seo’s team members and Park Ha-yeon all gathered without being late.
“I’m Lee Chan-hyuk, here to assist you all today. B-rank Awakener. Retired now, but in the past, I was active under the hero name ‘Weapon Master.’”
Once everyone had gathered, the man finally stepped forward and introduced himself.
His overall vibe was a 40-something guy in workout clothes.
“Please take care of us.”
Park Ha-yeon replied politely.
The rest gave perfunctory nods, minimal courtesy.
“I’ve heard you’re all rising stars. You’ll probably outrank me someday. But even then, martial techniques matter. Folks without solid basics crumble helplessly against peers or superiors.”
Lee Chan-hyuk sparred one-on-one with the students and gave feedback.
Then he taught specific martial techniques tailored to their main weapons.
His techniques held profound principles—trump cards that could flip a fight’s outcome.
Felt like a collection of moves you had no choice but to know, or you’d get hit.
“As expected of Weapon Master. Calling you a martial arts master was spot on. Worth the invite today.”
Yang Min-seo said as she watched the kids honing the techniques he’d taught.
“Haha. Still, a big rank gap renders it meaningless. You students have bright futures ahead; it’ll help you a ton.”
Last up was Shin Noda.
Since this was for teaching martial arts, skills were off-limits for both.
Shin Noda held a spear, facing Lee Chan-hyuk with sword and shield.
To avoid any suspicion, he locked his stats to around B-rank.
“I’ll yield the first move.”
Lee Chan-hyuk said as he took his stance.
Shin Noda decided to trust his instincts.
Instincts weren’t always bad.
They were patterns built from accumulated info over thousands of years, after all.
The moment his words ended, Shin Noda charged like a bullet.
He thrust the spear straight out.
A textbook stab.
Simple, sure—but unless the stat gap was overwhelming, reacting was tough, dodging even tougher.
“Hup.”
Lee Chan-hyuk deflected the thrust with his shield, let out a kiai, and grabbed the shaft.
Then he started closing the distance.
Shin Noda gritted his teeth and glared at Lee Chan-hyuk as the gap shrank.
Fighting with skills and stats sealed felt so frustrating he could pass out.
Shin Noda kicked the oncoming man with all his strength.
Lee Chan-hyuk released the shaft and staggered back.
He fell back a bit to reset his stance.
“Got some real combat experience, huh?”
Lee Chan-hyuk was inwardly surprised.
Spear users usually panicked and froze when their shaft got grabbed.
Responding like that was proof of heavy real-fight mileage.
What Lee didn’t know was that before getting this strong, Shin Noda had scrapped in countless life-or-death brawls with villains.
That let him react on the fly.
Shin Noda unleashed his next move.
Thrusts weren’t working, so he swung the blade to slash at him.
Even Lee would struggle to grab the shaft coming at him like that.
Lee Chan-hyuk silently blocked Shin Noda’s attacks until a sense of wrongness hit him.
Something was off compared to the other students.
Heroes’ principle was no-kill.
Sure, unavoidable kills happened, but suppression came first.
Students typically learned and showed martial arts for takedowns.
‘This kid—all his attacks are killing blows meant to end people!’
But Shin Noda was completely different.
An efficient killing machine.
That’s how Lee Chan-hyuk felt it.
Like fighting a villain.
‘And he swings blades at people without a shred of hesitation.’
Normal students like Park Ha-yeon or Ji So-yeon instinctively flinched or halted if it looked like they might hurt someone.
Shin Noda? Not a hint of it.
Suspicious kid all around.
“Student. Have you ever killed someone?”
Lee Chan-hyuk asked with a serious expression.
Even in that moment, Shin Noda’s ferocious attacks kept coming.