The Captives Are Too Strong #1
"So I spat into my palm, went ptooey! and suddenly the building where the monster was trapped appeared right in front of us! Turns out people were locked up inside an abandoned piano academy!"
Bread Butt Baek Yeoul was chattering away with sparkling eyes. She was busy bragging about how much of a hero she had been during the incident a few days ago.
"Running into a monster in the middle of the city is supposed to be terrible luck, right? But my Bad Luck actually became a landmark! Now that I can apply it like this, I've officially reached full Level 2!"
"This body's relic played a big part too! Let me tell you what happened—"
Team No Leftovers had confronted the Level 3 fugitive Pinocchio, captured him, and safely rescued the hostages. The fact that students had taken down a Level 3 wanted criminal not once but twice had the entire academy buzzing with a strange excitement.
It wouldn't have been weird if the whole school had broken out in a festival mood, but good news always comes with bad news. For example—
"Hey, Bread Butt. So what happened to Yu Yeoleum?"
At Kim Jin's question—the D-class student who looked like a delinquent big sister—Bread Butt Baek Yeoul shut her excited mouth and shot the girl a glare.
"I'm not Bread Butt! Don't call me that!"
"Bread Butt is Bread Butt. So what happened to Yu Yeoleum from F-class?"
"Yu Yeoleum..."
Baek Yeoul glanced at me. When everyone's eyes turned my way, I propped my casted leg up on the desk with a loud thump. The cast was covered in so many students' doodles that it looked like some back-alley graffiti practice wall.
"There was no problem when Yu Yeoleum and I teamed up to take down Pinocchio. The problem was the remaining Villainers who showed up right after."
Yu Yeoleum and I had fought the remnants of the Villainers to the bitter end, but the injuries I'd gotten from my fight with the Judge, plus the broken leg from Pinocchio, finally made me lose consciousness.
"When I opened my eyes, Yu Yeoleum and the remaining Villainers were nowhere to be seen. I don't know what happened, but I'll find every last one of them."
This was the scenario I had written. Everyone's eyes shone with various emotions as they listened. Some looked moved, others tense.
"So what happened to those hostages?"
The question came from Cheon Yu-ra, the new class president of D-class. She had originally been the vice president. Though she was tiny, she had a strong personality and was always looking out for others, so everyone liked her. Even Bread Butt had once said, "Yu-ra is kind. She's the only one who treated me normally even when I couldn't control my ability!"
Anyway, our new class president seemed curious about the hostages who had been locked up.
The hostages? Short-hair girl. School uniform girl. Chubby one. Those three had originally been villains who joined the Villainers. Since they had been handed over to the Supernova Academy, they would go through proper procedures and be dealt with somehow. They might even be transferred into the academy.
With that kind of atmosphere, after school ended.
I was called to the counseling room.
Inside, the detective big sister dispatched from the police—Instant Ramen Sister—had set up camp.
"Ha Namjin, do you really not remember anything? You don't know where Yu Yeoleum went or what happened to her?"
Instant Ramen Sister questioned me like I was a suspect, digging for information. Since this big sister had sharp instincts, I had to choose my words very carefully.
"I don't know! I want to know too! Where Yu Yeoleum and Seo Gaeul are right now and what they're doing! I'm the one suffering the most because of those two! Look at these tears! A real man's tears!"
In my opinion, a real man should only shed tears twice in his life. Once when that crazy deer bastard fed me poisonous mushrooms. And the second time was right now. The fact that I was genuinely curious about what Yu Yeoleum and Seo Gaeul were doing right now! And the fact that I was truly suffering because of them! These were real man's tears, poured straight from the heart!
Instant Ramen Sister licked my tears with her tongue to taste them, then nodded.
"This flavor is the taste of truth. Ah, shit. Things are getting more complicated. What about 'Gu Sejun'? Did you hear anything about him before you lost consciousness?"
Gu Sejun? What the hell was that? It was the first time I'd heard the name, so when I shook my head, Instant Ramen Sister explained.
"It's a name we got from interrogating Pinocchio and Kim Mari. Seems like a key figure in the Villainers. Both the Supernova Academy and the government are treating him as a special criminal of at least Level 4 or higher."
Did that mean he possessed a Level 4 concept? It meant he had firepower on par with Yu Yeoleum.
"He's an unregistered Awakened. The only information we have on him is that he's the son of the cult leader from that noisy Garden of Eden incident back in the day. In my opinion, he was directly involved in this incident."
I could tell he was a big shot, but in reality he had nothing to do with the kidnapping of Yu Yeoleum and Seo Gaeul. Looks like things were snowballing. As a real man, I felt responsible for this incident too.
"I don't know who this Baek Se-ju or whatever is, but I will definitely catch him and throw him in prison. Like this! In this! Good! World! To organize an armed group! And threaten citizens! I cannot tolerate it!"
"Ugh, you're loud. For the time being, you should stay quiet too. Your leg is injured, isn't it? There's also a rumor that those super-villain bastards might be targeting Supernova Academy students. This was supposed to be a secret, by the way."
"Big sis, you still can't keep a secret, huh?"
"I told you. That's the backlash from my Sixth Sense. It makes me say everything honestly."
"Even what color panties you're wearing today?"
"Leopard print today. Hey! Why are you asking something like that!"
"I'm wearing tiger print today. We match."
With that kind of atmosphere, I managed to get off the suspicious list from the sharp detective big sister while also gathering various pieces of information. Leopard print, huh. Impressive. Oh, there was one thing I was curious about.
"Setting Pinocchio aside, what will happen to someone like Kim Mari? Those guys had already promised to surrender to me."
"We'll observe them a bit more and maybe transfer them to Supernova Academy. Or we might put them in the government's secret Suicide Special Forces."
Suicide Special Forces? What a grim name.
"Haven't you seen the movies? The ones where they make deals with villains, release them, and send them on dangerous missions. It's exactly like that. They give criminal Awakened difficult missions in exchange for a chance at rehabilitation."
Creating a kamikaze special forces unit out of minors and ordering them to charge with a banzai cry. This Seventh Republic of Korea was as vicious as the Japanese Empire in its imperial days.
"So what this big sis is saying is, try not to live a life of crime if you can help it."
# # #
"Loser Namjin! Deoksoon, Changsik, and I are going to the zoo! Come with us!"
"Yeoul, isn't this less about playing and more about working?"
"Special activity..."
After school, as I was about to head home, Bread Butt and her friends were waving wildly from far away.
"What about Taeseong?"
"He's been busy with his part-time job these days! So? The zoo! They say there's a spider that barks like a dog! No matter how you look at it, doesn't that sound like a spider monster with the Dog concept? We should go check it out!"
Well, spiders can bark like dogs sometimes. Truthfully, both humans and animals have moments in life when they want to bark like dogs.
"Sure, let's go."
"Oh? Really? What's gotten into you! Loser Namjin! You've been saying you're busy every day and going straight home lately! You wouldn't hang out even when we asked!"
That was true. For the past few days, my routine had been going straight home after school. Using my injured leg as an excuse. But if I kept rejecting my friends' invitations with the same reason, it would start looking suspicious. So I went to the zoo with them.
Bark bark...!
"It really does bark like a dog!"
"It must be a crazy alien!"
Changsik was terrified as he looked at the palm-sized spider. Even though it was trapped in the enclosure, its dazzling golden shine was incredibly imposing.
Bark bark...!
"It's a monster! Definitely a monster! Where in the world would you find a spider that cries like that!"
When Changsik kept making a fuss, the zookeeper uncle who had secretly let us in spoke in a low, worried voice.
"You kids are the No Leftovers team from the newspaper, right? Could that thing be a monster too? It came into our enclosure a few days ago, so I've been feeding it..."
The iron rule was to report any monster sighting to the authorities immediately. That was why the zoo had contacted our Supernova Academy.
"...Alright! I'll handle this! Everyone get out! Unless you want to get caught up in the great catastrophe curse filled with my Bad Luck! I'll carry the team! This is Baek Yeoul of the Baekdang!"
Bread Butt was as motivated as ever. Once she got like this, no one could stop her.
After the monster extermination ended and we were on our way home, Deoksoon and Changsik headed to their own houses, leaving just me and Bread Butt.
Bark bark...!
Hm? My sensitive ears picked up a strange sound. I turned my head, wondering what was going on, and saw Baek Yeoul's eyes darting around nervously.
"What? What sound? I didn't hear anything?"
"Hey, Bread Butt. I haven't said anything yet?"
Rustle, rustle, rustle—!
Baek Yeoul's bag suddenly started thrashing around like it was alive, and something popped out.
Pop—.
Bark bark...!
"Uwaah! Fuck, it's a facehugger!"
I fell on my ass in shock as the golden facehugger latched onto my face. If this kept up, I'd become an Alien dad before I even got married!
"Barkbark! No! Come here! Back in the bag! Shoo shoo! Get in there!"
Pop—.
Baek Yeoul pulled the golden spider off my body. The moment I saw that, my vision went blurry.
"Hey, didn't you say you were going to exterminate that monster spider? You just stuffed it in your bag?"
So Bread Butt had finally gone completely insane. Though it seemed she had a lot to say for herself.
"B-but how could I kill something as cute as Barkbark!"
She seemed to have named it Barkbark. Because it barked, so Barkbark? Bread Butt's naming sense was truly hopeless. And more than that—cute?
Growl, grrr, garrr, garrr, krrrr, krrrr!
She thought this crazy radioactive mutant spider was cute? This eight-legged creature invading Earth!
"Hand it over! I'll deal with it!"
"No! This is a good spider! I know it is!"
"How would you know?"
"...Huh? Oh! My mom has a hobby of raising spiders and snakes, so I know! From what I can see, this is a good spider! It's just acting like this because it's hungry. If you give it ketchup like this, it calms down."
Swipe—.
Baek Yeoul pulled out a fast-food ketchup packet from her pocket, tore it open, and held it out to the spider. The crazy spider licked the ketchup like a stray cat eating Churu.
"I was trying to get rid of Barkbark with tears in my eyes, but during our struggle the ketchup packet fell. Barkbark gobbled it up in a hurry! And then it became gentle. Isn't that amazing! From what I saw, Barkbark definitely loves ketchup!"
A monster spider that loves ketchup? In this world, such a thing—
—could actually exist.
"What a good guy! There are no bad people among those who love ketchup, and no bad monsters among those who love ketchup. Hey, spider. If you like ketchup, try making a hioong sound."
"Loser Namjin, no matter what, how could a spider make a hioong sound?"
"But a spider barking like a dog makes sense?"
We were having that kind of silly conversation when—
Hioong...!
The spider cried out with a strange sound. The moment Baek Yeoul saw it, she completely lost it.
"It made a weird sound! I knew it! I'm definitely taking this one home to raise! Barkbark, back in the bag! Come on! Shoo shoo!"
Baek Yeoul carefully stuffed the now-docile ketchup-eating spider Barkbark back into her bag. A high school student who carries a monster around in her bag. Yeah, she's not exactly normal either.
Kyu-ing.
"Hm? Loser Namjin, did you say something just now?"
"I didn't say anything? See you tomorrow!"
Swipe—.
After parting ways with Bread Butt, I opened my bag on the way home. Inside, Ing-ing—who looked like a cotton candy cloud—wriggled and grumbled.
Ing-ing-ya-ing.
"Are you complaining that you were stuck in the bag all day? Can't be helped. This happens because you keep crawling into my bag on your own. You should've just stayed in the basement."
Kyu-ing.
"I understand how you feel."
It seemed Ing-ing didn't like being in the basement these past few days.
"Oh, right. Here."
I held out the Stone, Leaf, Sand, and Wind concept stones I'd obtained from the orphanage to Ing-ing. If Ing-ing ate them, it would absorb only the toxins and spit them back out. I was especially greedy for that Wind concept, but since Ing-ing already had Cloud, I wasn't sure what would happen.
Kyu-ing.
In the end, Ing-ing absorbed all the concepts of wind, leaf, sand, and stone for itself! This crazy bastard Ing-ing! It ate everything!
"Hey, would it kill you to leave some for me? If you eat all those concepts you'll get a stomachache later! What are you even trying to become?"
Ing-ing-ya-ing.
It sounded a bit wronged. Anyway, I stuffed the increasingly super-monster-like Ing-ing back into my bag and returned home. My heart already felt heavy. Still, I couldn't avoid it.
Kyu-ing...
Even the super-monster Ing-ing seemed scared, trembling inside my bag. I gathered my courage and opened the basement door.
Clank. Creeeeak—.
The moment the door opened, voices reached me.
"Yu Yeoleum, you're low rank so you can't drink this water. This water is only for me. And you smell, you know? Take a bath. Oh wait, you're trapped so you can't, right?"
"Give me that water. Now."
"If you're so upset, why don't you break those chains and come over here yourself. You can't, right? Because you have no strength? Since you can't see the light, you're no different from normal girls—"
The two women trapped in the basement. The moment they saw me, they frowned fiercely.
What I'm about to tell you is the story of me and these two.