The Grade 3 Disaster Awakened #2

Yeom Hoon found himself backed into a corner. The man who had casually evaded even the nation’s pursuit squads was now being pushed around by nothing more than students whose ID cards still smelled of fresh ink. His pride refused to accept it, but right now he unfortunately had neither cigarettes nor time.

“…….”

In front of Yeom Hoon stood a female student dancing with painful clumsiness. It was genuinely terrible dancing. Yet watching that awkwardness, Yeom Hoon felt a strange flicker of kinship.

“Hey, were you a bullied kid too?”

He asked, but the meaning never reached her. All sound had been cut off. He quickly guessed her ability probably interfered with sound or hearing. Anxiety swiftly swallowed him whole.

At this rate I won’t even know if the police sirens are blaring.

In his nervousness, Yeom Hoon laughed. Laughing when he was tense or flustered was an old habit of his.

I need to get out of here fast.

But the male student had no intention of letting him leave.

“Hehe, you’re not going anywhere!”

With a burst of speed, the boy charged in low. Thinking the kid was aiming for his groin again, Yeom Hoon tried to kick him away, but the student simply powered through, grabbed his leg, and yanked him down.

“Namjin Tackle!”

It was a textbook tackle. Yeom Hoon had trained under a demonic instructor until his ribs snapped just to learn how to escape this position, so he figured he’d be fine—but.

“Now! Do it now!”

The male student reached out, aiming straight for the gas mask. He was trying to rip it off. Yeom Hoon panicked hard. At the same time, a pink-haired girl who had appeared out of nowhere began smashing his torso with a frying pan.

“Die! Die! Die already! Die!”

“Ack! Hey! Ack! I’m getting hit too! Aaaack! I’ll take the mask off! Changsik! Now! Now! Changsiiik!”

By the time Yeom Hoon’s gas mask was finally torn away, another male student who had stayed hidden until now approached, clutching a thick wad of cash.

Cash? What the hell are these little shits planning?

There was no discernible pattern or rule to the students’ behavior. They were pure, inconsistent chaos. And that was exactly why Yeom Hoon felt real fear.

—These kids are insane.

“It’s my first time turning bills into chocolate! Wait! Wait just a second! The money my dad gave me for dinner! The bills! Aaaah! Transform! Hooooooo—!”

The student called Changsik blew on the bills. In an instant they shimmered and transformed into a pile of small coin-shaped chocolates.

A Change-type ability user? But what was the point of the chocolate—?

“Breadbutt! Now! Burn the chocolate over fire! Fire! You suck at cooking anyway! You can definitely do this! If you cook it, it’ll pump out toxic gas like crazy! You’ve got this!”

“Dyaaaaahhhhh!!!”

The girl shrieked like a raptor spotting prey and piled the chocolates onto the frying pan. She thrust it toward the burning house nearby and roasted them at blinding speed. Chocolate wasn’t supposed to burn that fast, was it? That wasn’t the real problem.

“Acrolein, benzene, formaldehyde. Toxic substances released when chocolate burns! The same stuff that comes out when Breadbutt cooks tteokbokki at our house. If you shoot that straight into the respiratory tract—”

“You fucking bastards! You cafeteria rejects! Let go! Let me gooooooo!”

Only then did Yeom Hoon realize what the brazen students were trying to do. He thrashed wildly, but the horribly charred chocolate was dumped mercilessly onto his face, nose, and screaming throat.

“Gaaaaaaaaaah—!”

“Gurgh… gurghk!”

Yeom Hoon, attacked by a boiling cocktail of carcinogens, clutched at his throat and nose in utter agony. Thanks to that, he unleashed a burst of superhuman strength that sent all of us restraining him flying backward like ragdolls. But it didn’t matter.

His respiratory system had already been wrecked by countless arsons; there was no way he could withstand Breadbutt’s “cursed chocolate filled with bad luck and malice.”

Sirens wailed in the distance. This should have been the end—

That was what I thought until—

“You little shits—”

Yeom Hoon roared with a scorched voice. He pulled a small pebble-like object from his pocket and shoved it into his mouth. I immediately recognized it as a Concept Stone.

Gulp.

The moment Yeom Hoon swallowed the Concept Stone, blood vessels bulged across his face and his eyes turned bloodshot at terrifying speed. I knew those symptoms all too well. They were the side effects of consuming an unpurified Concept Stone.

“The stolen Cloud concept now dwells within me. Cloud— Haaaaaaa—”

Yeom Hoon spewed scorching gas from his mouth like clouds. Flames flickered as thick smoke rose and drifted. It was clearly no ordinary vapor. The moment it touched the road and telephone poles, they melted with a sickening hiss.

“H-he evolved it! The concept evolved! He’s exhaling mist-like breath now! Touching that fog won’t just cause burns anymore!”

“Power is overflowing! I should’ve done this from the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠start! From the very beginning! Am I a multi-ability user now? Me! You can run your own damn cigarette errands!”

People who swallowed unpurified Concept Stones gained the power but lost their minds. They were called Mains. Fighting a deranged Main was pure nonsense.

That was what I was thinking when—

Ziiiing—.

A ferocious beam of heat shot out of nowhere and punched straight through Yeom Hoon’s torso. It was fair to say his abdomen had been perfectly cauterized. The whole thing happened so fast that none of us could react.

“Ha Namjin, I had a bad feeling and of course you caused an incident.”

“You kids were already experiencing real combat before me.”

When I turned my head, I saw Uncle Kim Jangdong from the Superhuman Management Agency and Yu Yeoleum from Class F walking through the flames toward us. What a welcome sight. Looks like Changsik had used the business card I gave him to contact Chief Kim Jangdong properly. I hadn’t expected Yu Yeoleum to show up too, so I was pretty stunned. At the same time, I felt like I was going insane.

She had taken down a Main with nothing but a laser from her eyes? How the hell was I supposed to kidnap someone like that?

“Gurgh…”

The arsonist Yeom Hoon collapsed, writhing, then coughed up the Concept Stone like phlegm. Exactly as expected.

“You swallowed something full of toxins without hesitation. It’s basically the same as drinking poison. You’re only still alive because you’re an Awakened. You’re on borrowed time now.”

The end of Main-ification was death. Yeom Hoon’s remaining lifespan would probably be a few months at the shortest, a few years at the longest.

“…Kuhuhu, isn’t this what you wanted? You want to kill me, don’t you? Instead of waiting for me to die, why don’t you just blow my head off yourself? You want to. I know. You and I are the same kind.”

“Me?”

“You never hesitate when it comes to violence. People like me and those stupid villains who’ve crossed the line are usually like that. Like the brakes are broken. So tell me, exactly how many people have you killed?”

Yeom Hoon laughed pathetically, his voice cracking. Seeing the corners of his mouth trembling with terror, it was clear he wasn’t actually laughing.

I finally understood the smile I had seen that day in the burning department store. He had simply been nervous and scared out of his mind.

“Dude, the reason I’m not killing you is simply because I enjoy beating you up more than killing you! Take one hit! No, two! No, three!”

“Aaaack! Guaaaaagh! Just kill me! Aaaack! Aaaaaaaaaaack!!!!”

Yeom Hoon turned out to be even more pathetic than I thought. How did such a petty, pathetic excuse for an alpha male have the balls to set fire to a department store? Watching him foam at the mouth and faint after repeated groin strikes, I honestly couldn’t make sense of it.

“Praying Mantis. Why the hell did you team up with a guy like this? What exactly are you?”

Sama Jun, who used to be Wang Ja-hyun’s underling. I had no idea why this guy was even here. At my question, Sama Jun barely regained his senses and let out a creepy “Heh heh heh” laugh.

“…Even if I told you, would you even understand? Can you handle it? If you knew who’s backing us, you would—”

A mere minor talking about backers. This really was a crazy world. Maybe the reason a coward like Yeom Hoon burned down a department store was because of those backers?

“So Yeom Hoon was nothing more than a single matchstick.”

Someone else had lit that match and thrown it. I could smell the conspiracy. Maybe it was even connected to the “traitor” Seo Gaeul had mentioned.

The noisy police cars and fire trucks arrived at the scene like yowling cats. Only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then did everyone openly show their relief and excitement.

“Guys! We did it! I told you I’d carry the team! Me! I did it! I’m Baek Yeoul! These bastards were nothing special at allllll!”

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

In her excitement, Baek Yeoul wildly smacked both Yeom Hoon and Sama Jun on the head with her frying pan. Police officers and firefighters tried to stop her, but they couldn’t restrain an Awakened like Baek Yeoul.

“It really was my first time turning bills into chocolate! I can’t even imagine how limitless my Change ability will ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠become from now on!”

“Two tickets…”

Everyone was celebrating victory in their own way. However, I couldn’t just rejoice with them.

“Kids! See you later! I’m heading out!”

It was already close to midnight! I had left Seo Gaeul alone for way too long! I was screwed!

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sprinted back home at full speed. I was worried she might have extended the chains somehow and escaped, but when I returned to the basement, Seo Gaeul was sitting with her arms crossed, looking perfectly composed.

“Hey, pervert. Why are you so late? Do you even have any intention of training me?”

“I thought you would’ve extended the chain length and escaped by now.”

“How could I escape when Ing-ing is guarding me?”

━Kyu-ing.

I didn’t know what it meant, but apparently she couldn’t escape. The strength left my legs.

“Gaeul, I used to have a recurring dream.”

“A dream? What are you talking about? Did you at least bring food for me to eat?”

“I don’t think I’ll have that dream anymore.”

I glanced at the Cloud Concept Stone I had secretly swiped earlier.

Leap and Cloud. You get the feeling, right?

I had planned to feed it to Ing-ing, let the slime purify the toxins, then absorb it myself. But a problem occurred.

━Kyu-ing.

After eating my Cloud Concept Stone, Ing-ing refused to spit it back out! Even stranger, its body began to wriggle and tremble, and then—

“What the— Hey! Pervert! What did you do to Ing-ing! What the hell did you feed it?!”

“Ing-ing! Spit it out! I didn’t give it to you to eat! Just absorb the toxins and spit out the rest! Hey!”

Poof.

Ing-ing had transformed into an incredibly fluffy cotton-candy-shaped cloud! It had completely made the Cloud concept its own!

━Ing-ing-ya-ing.

From a droplet-shaped slime to a bizarre cotton-candy cloud monster! Crackle! It even fired real lightning like a storm cloud and knocked flies out of the air!

“Oh? Looks like Ing-ing has more tricks than the pervert.”

━Kyu-ing.

I had been thrilled at the thought of absorbing the Cloud concept, but now I felt dizzy. In the end, Ing-ing was the only one who benefited. But… wait a second. If things were like this, even if the world ended, couldn’t I use Ing-ing to power household appliances?

The air conditioner I had left unused because of power shortages, the fluorescent lights, the refrigerator, the washing machine, even the Triceratops doll! If I used Ing-ing like a generator, I could run them all!

As expected, I really was the luckiest man alive!

The weekend flew by in that mood and suddenly it was Monday! I must have used too much energy subjugating Yeom Hoon because I slept through the entire Sunday and skipped it completely. It felt incredibly unfair. Seo Gaeul had also pressed the call bell and thrown a vicious tantrum. Still, there was one good thing about Monday arriving so quickly—

“Ha Namjin. Choi Changsik. Baek Yeoul. Oh Deokhui. You have all received a police commendation. A special guest from the station will personally present the awards, so please be on your best behavior—”

“Captain! Can we use the Treasure Hall too! Is it possible to upgrade our Knight Brooches?!”

“Ha Namjin! Be polite! You brats! Everyone is very interested in this miraculous event where you students joined forces to subjugate a special-grade wanted criminal. Because it is such an unprecedented occurrence—”

To get straight to the point, the Treasure Hall was now open! It meant I could obtain the tools I needed to kidnap Yu Yeoleum!

Now then, what kind of treasures were waiting for me?