Three Problem Children, But the Strongest #1
The morning class was a simple simulation exercise. Our instructor pointed at two students. “Alright, we have a young pregnant woman and a man holding a knife. The pregnant woman will be played by… Kim Jin! And the man with the knife will be our class president, Jeong Uiseon.”
In every school, there’s always one student the teacher loves to pick on. The moment a question pops up or a demonstration is needed, that poor kid gets dragged out like a lab rat.
“And Ha Namjin! Get over here, you punk! What would you do in this situation? The pregnant woman is facing off against the man with the knife!”
Captain Kang Cheolmin always called on me first. Every single time.
“It’s Namjin again today?”
“He’s completely marked by the Captain.”
“He’s not the Captain, he’s the instructor!”
The moment my name left the instructor’s mouth, the entire classroom erupted into chaos. Everyone’s eyes sparkled with the same unspoken question: What ridiculous stunt is Ha Namjin going to pull this time?
Damn it. Honestly? I love the attention. After spending years with only loneliness and Ing-ing for company, having everyone’s eyes on me feels sweeter than honey.
The problem is that popularity is like a sandcastle in front of a wave. The public gets disappointed easily and turns away just as fast, so I always have to stay on my toes.
In this situation, if there was a way to meet everyone’s expectations while solving the Captain’s dilemma…
“I’d take the man’s side.”
“What?”
The Captain’s face twisted in disapproval. Kim Jin, who had been chosen as the pregnant woman, and Jeong Uiseon, playing the knife-wielding man, both frowned in clear confusion.
The classroom immediately began to buzz with whispers.
“Ahem. Does no one understand?”
I couldn’t believe I had to explain something this obvious.
“The pregnant woman has a baby in her belly, right? That makes two people. But the man is only one. Therefore, this is a two-on-one situation, which is unfair to the man. So, to make it fair, we should side with the man.”
I stepped over to stand beside the man and shouted.
“You cowardly pregnant bitch! How dare you use your numerical advantage to oppress an innocent man! But now it’s two against two!”
Our battle begins now!
Everyone seemed stunned by my righteous judgment and incredibly realistic acting. I didn’t waste the opportunity. I slapped the prop knife out of Jeong Uiseon’s hand with a sharp chop.
Clang!
“Huh?!”
The class president looked shocked, but I had already kicked the fallen prop knife far away with a solid thwack. With the greatest threat—the weapon—now gone, the simulation of “a man threatening a pregnant woman” was effectively resolved.
The kids watching let out a collective “Whoa!” of surprise. Even Captain Kang Cheolmin swept his hand down his face from forehead to chin, looking utterly exhausted.
“So what you’re saying is, you’d distract the dangerous individual and use that opening to eliminate the biggest threat first? The method was bizarre, but… I’ll give it a passing grade. Ten thousand points to you.”
+10,000 Points
Hell yeah! Ten thousand points secured!
Just thinking about buying an ice-cold cola from the school store made my tailbone tingle with excitement. Come to think of it, does Seo Gaeul like cola? If I brought her a cold one, maybe I could earn some points and get her to cooperate. The thought put me in an excellent mood.
“Ha Namjin, you little punk. Your mind’s clearly somewhere else. Spring fever?”
Thwack.
The Captain smacked the back of my head while the rest of the class burst into laughter. He was right. I had been distracted all day because of what happened that morning.
Kidnap Yu Yeoleum and keep her by your side.
What the hell was Seo Gaeul thinking, saying something like that? I had no idea what her intentions were. When I asked for a reason, she just clamped her mouth shut like a clam. She really knew exactly how to drive a man insane.
If she wanted cooperation, why ask me to kidnap Yu Yeoleum?
Maybe the basement was too lonely for her. She might need a roommate down there. After all, Seo Gaeul was the type who would gather a bunch of people she didn’t even like just to throw a noisy party and enjoy the chaos. For someone like her to suddenly be locked up alone in a quiet basement, it wouldn’t be strange if she felt bored and lonely.
Yeah, that must be it.
In other words, Seo Gaeul was asking me to create an equal “kidnapping mate” for her. Like how only children sometimes beg their moms, “Make me a little sibling!” Exactly like that. I really am a genius.
…Which meant the target was Yu Yeoleum.
The problem was that Yu Yeoleum was so powerful she was called the pride of the elite F-class. She was already working as an active explorer even though she hadn’t graduated yet. How the hell was I supposed to kidnap someone like that?
Still, I was lucky. There was an opportunity today. The afternoon schedule was group practical training, so I could observe Yu Yeoleum’s abilities firsthand and come up with a plan.
###
The group practical was an exploration. We were entering the training Great Labyrinth for a hands-on class.
“Everyone, let’s do our best again today.”
“Indeed!”
“I-I’ll be different from last time!”
“……”
Once again, the “Leftovers Squad” had gathered. Unlike last time when everyone looked depressed, this time there was a spark of hope on each face.
“Ha Namjin, you boasted that you’d take first place in this practical, didn’t you?”
Right before entering the Great Labyrinth, Teacher Kogae, who was guarding the entrance, slightly lifted her eyepatch and stared at me with a meaningful gaze.
I stared right back without flinching.
“Teacher Kogae, you haven’t forgotten your promise that if I take first place, you’ll give me a kiss, right? A promise is a promise.”
“I am not Teacher Kogae. I am Teacher Moon Hyeon-a. Go ahead and struggle all you want. Even though Gaeul is resting because she’s sick, our F-class has Yeoleum.”
In this joint D-class and F-class practical, I was determined to take first place. Even though Teacher Kogae covered her face with an eyepatch, she was an incredible beauty. Getting a kiss from a woman like her was something I could treasure for the rest of my life.
Whoosh.
With that familiar gut-twisting sensation, we entered the Great Labyrinth. Just like last time, we appeared on a high vantage point with a clear view.
A cliff? No, the feeling was different.
“It’s the top of a building?”
Under a sky thick with dust clouds, we stood atop a ruined building in a city filled with the wreckage of destroyed structures. For some reason, it looked like a post-apocalyptic world. It was a sight I was all too familiar with.
“P-post-apocalypse…”
The usually quiet Deoksoon seemed happy to show off her knowledge again and explained in a small voice.
Post-apocalypse. A world after destruction. The description fit perfectly. Last time we had been sent to some kind of forest, but this time it was a ruined city. Just what exactly was this Great Labyrinth?
“So, what’s the plan?”
Geum Taeseong was looking at me. Choi Changsik, Deoksoon, and Baek Yeoul—also known as Ppang-daeng-i—were all staring at me too. I’d think about kidnapping Yu Yeoleum later. For now, the priority was racking up as many points as possible.
A ruined city? Now that was my specialty.
“Should we go with monster hunting again like last time? In a city full of buildings like this, there are plenty of places for monsters to hide. Let’s head down from the building first.”
Luckily the stairs were intact, so we easily made our way down to street level. Now, what next—
I examined a nearby manhole cover.
Creeeak.
The lid opened.
“Jackpot.”
The underground tunnels of a ruined world could practically be called a kingdom of their own. Where there were rats and insects, there were bound to be monsters that preyed on them. However, when Deoksoon peered into the open manhole, she immediately gagged.
“…Ugh.”
It did smell pretty awful. Baek Yeoul and Changsik, who had strong stomachs, seemed fine, but both Taeseong and Deoksoon hesitated to go inside.
Time to give them a tip.
“When it smells bad, breathing through your mouth helps a bit.”
Maybe because they trusted the results I’d shown during the last practical, Deoksoon followed my advice and started breathing heavily through her mouth. It looked a bit exaggerated, but her expression improved.
We entered the sewer.
Splash.
The murky water rising up to our ankles was disgusting. Even worse was how maze-like the interior was. With countless branching paths appearing constantly, even I found it hard to lead the way.
“Which way should we go?”
The moment I paused, Baek Yeoul—who had been strangely quiet all day—stepped forward.
“Me! I can figure it out! In times like this, you do it like this!”
Hack, ptooie!
Baek Yeoul spat into her palm, then slapped it with her other hand so the spit flew off.
“It flew to the right! Let’s go right!”
It was the most primitive, superstitious navigation method imaginable. Was Ppang-daeng-i on the same level as Amazonian tribesmen? However, when combined with her Bad Luck concept, even this ridiculous method gained real meaning.
Meeting a monster in this stinking sewer would be the absolute worst, right? So if we followed the human bad-luck compass known as Ppang-daeng-i, the probability of encountering a monster would skyrocket.
Splash, splash.
We were walking through the sewer when—
“It’s blocked?”
A dead end had appeared. A ridiculously thick steel plate blocked our path. What was this, a bomb shelter?
“T-that can’t be right…”
Baek Yeoul, who had been brimming with baseless confidence until now, instantly became depressed. We couldn’t proceed any further. Just as I was about to turn back, thinking this bad luck was literally just terrible luck—
Sniff.
A strong strawberry scent that didn’t belong in this sewer at all wafted into my nose. At the same time, I sensed several people splashing through the water behind us.
Choi Changsik grabbed my wrist tightly.
“…My friend. From now on, you must absolutely not do anything reckless. Absolutely!”
Choi Changsik looked as terrified as if he had seen a starving T-rex. No—in some ways, what appeared was even more shocking than a dinosaur.
It was Yu Yeoleum.
She didn’t even spare us a glance. She simply stared at the dead-end steel wall and silently made her eyes glow pure white.
Ziiiing—
In this dark sewer, those two glowing eyes looked like blazing supernovas or suns. I was just admiring how beautiful they were when—
Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing—
KWAAAAAAAAAAA—!
Two beams of light shot from Yu Yeoleum’s eyes. The thick steel door was instantly pierced through as if it had been hit by a futuristic welding torch!
Fuck, what the hell is that?
She shoots lasers from her eyes? No matter how much of an Awakened she was, could a human really do something like that?
Even the usually silent Deoksoon seemed so shocked that she started talking.
“I-it’s heat vision. She fires heat rays from her eyes. In movies, Superboy uses it, and in some more niche dramas, heroes like Homelander…”
Whatever it was, it was clearly incredible. For the quiet Deoksoon to suddenly become this talkative said everything.
She kept muttering in awe, “So that’s the power of F-class president Invincible. Her callsign wasn’t exaggerated after all.”
It was at that moment I finally understood the ‘exact meaning’ behind what Seo Gaeul had said about kidnapping Yu Yeoleum and gaining her cooperation.
Yu Yeoleum was Invincible.
Kidnapping a girl who moved faster than me—even with my Leap concept—and could fire insane laser beams was basically asking for the kidnapper’s death.
In other words—Seo Gaeul had been telling me, “I will never cooperate with you, so go fuck yourself and die.”
With that realization, I clenched my fist, crouched down low, and—
“Namjin Kick!”
SWOOOOSH—!
I launched my entire body toward Yu Yeoleum, sending a massive spray of filthy water flying behind me.