Kneel! (5)
Scratch. Scratch.
There was still time left before the first morning class began.
Inside Classroom 1 of the second year at Cheonghwa High, the quiet atmosphere was broken only by the soft scratch of ballpoint pens and mechanical pencils.
Classroom 1 held the so-called crown prince of the entire second year: Lee Jeongjun.
Maternal grandson of the Hankook Group, one of Korea’s top ten conglomerates. At the same time, paternal grandson of the honorary chairman of the Doa Daily. A true member of the royal family.
He had never once surrendered first place across the whole of Cheonghwa High’s second year. His short-cropped hair only made his already cold features look colder.
Before class started, Lee Jeongjun was focused on solving a math problem whose type had been deliberately altered.
I can’t believe I couldn’t solve a problem like this…
It was the highest-difficulty question that the math freak Lee Jangyong had put on this exam. Jeongjun had recognized the twist in the type, but time had run out before he could even attempt it. The problem needed a solid ten minutes at minimum. Every other question had been high-difficulty as well, so time had been catastrophically short. Even the top Gangnam instructors would have clutched their heads and charged at it.
Grit.
While solving the problem that had cost him the score, Lee Jeongjun ground his teeth.
I was the one who couldn’t solve it. The rest of those bastards never stood a chance.
One math problem had robbed him of a perfect score across every subject. He now understood exactly why no perfect scorer had ever appeared since Cheonghwa’s founding. He had wanted the glory of being the first. Once again, the chance had slipped away.
“Hoo.”
He set down the pen he had been writing with and let out a short breath. Cheonghwa High’s written exams were several times harder than the infamous “hell CSAT.” With problem-solving ability at this level, a perfect score on the actual CSAT was more than possible.
“Hey, hey! Second-year Class 3 is going crazy right now.”
“Huh? Why?”
“A perfect scorer showed up across every subject.”
“……!!”
The whispered conversation from the seats behind him twisted Lee Jeongjun’s face for a split second.
Class assignments were ranked by grades. Second-year Class 3 held the school’s third-ranked student, Lee Hyoju. The two of them were related. The chairman of the Oyang Group—his grandfather’s younger brother—was Lee Hyoju’s grandfather. The two old men were brothers, so they might be close. But once you moved past them to their children, the relationship became pure competition. When the two grandfathers passed, no one knew how the board would shift. Especially in this era of global competition, blood ties didn’t mean much.
To Lee Jeongjun, Lee Hyoju was no different. Right now she was simply a rival.
Fuck. Lee Hyoju…
He had believed he had thoroughly surpassed her, yet it seemed she had taken the perfect score this time. Rising fury clenched his fist. The math problem he had been solving until moments ago. His pride stung. He had dismissed her as a lesser player and barely paid attention.
“Want to know the real shocker?”
“What is it?!”
“The top of that class isn’t Lee Hyoju… Ha Taewoong got the perfect score.”
“Ha Taewoong?”
“The Sabaeja, Ha Taewoong! You don’t know him?”
“Ah! The Sabaeja!”
“……??”
The continuing conversation made Lee Jeongjun freeze. The person he had assumed was Lee Hyoju turned out to be a Sabaeja instead—so absurd he almost couldn’t process it.
For the school’s reputation, Cheonghwa granted preferential admission to underprivileged students through the Sabaeja track. He had never spoken to any of them, but he knew a few existed. For two years they had never even dared to meet his eyes. They were nothing more than window dressing used for the school’s social prestige. Cheonghwa admitted them as model cases for the education world, but almost none of them finished their school life and graduated. Even the lucky ones who received a diploma were under a strict obligation never to claim they were Cheonghwa alumni once they entered society. Graduating from an ordinary school would have done their lives more good. Realistically, under Cheonghwa’s roof they were… slaves.
And one of those Sabaeja had scored a perfect score?
“Is that for real?”
“The whole place is exploding right now.”
“Why the chaos?”
“Math Thug flipped his eyes and declared Ha Taewoong a cheater.”
“He stole the exam sheets?”
“Who knows. Second-year Class 3 just turned into a bomb site.”
Grrrk.
Lee Jeongjun quietly rose from his seat. He intended to see this unbelievable situation with his own eyes and judge it himself. If the Sabaeja really had committed an illegal act…
I’ll kill him.
A slave who dared to covet his masters’ rice bowl. For people no different from the lowest caste, the only answer was death.
“…….”
The murderous aura rolling off Lee Jeongjun instantly silenced the small stir that had risen in the classroom.
Thud. Thud.
The murmuring Class 1 students watched Lee Jeongjun leave the room like a reaper of the underworld.
“Let’s go too.”
“What the hell is happening this early?”
“A Sabaeja bastard dared to pull something like that…”
“We need to clean out all the Sabaeja while we’re at it.”
Rumble.
Without exception they shoved back their chairs and poured out. But when they saw the corridor already packed with students, they were more than a little startled. By rights today was the day grades were posted. The fact that the grade announcement had not happened was already strange. In the end, a Sabaeja’s illegal act had turned Cheonghwa upside down.
The moment Lee Jeongjun stepped out of the classroom door, the crowded corridor split open as if by a miracle.
“Everyone to the main auditorium!!”
“A Sabaeja challenged Math Thug!”
“What? Math Thug?”
The nuclear bomb of Monday morning had fully detonated. Never in Cheonghwa High’s history had there been a morning of chaos like today.
Thud. Thud.
I left the classroom and started walking. At that moment the packed students parted like the miracle of Moses, clearing a path. The gazes fixed on me were pure contempt. The way aristocrats once looked at untouchables could not have been any different from the looks they gave me now.
“A Sabaeja got a perfect score?”
“How the hell did that bastard steal the exam questions?”
“Look at that shameless face.”
“Fucking piece of shit…”
Their careless insults reached me unfiltered. If it bothers you that much, go regress yourselves~!
I had nothing to feel guilty about, so I squared my shoulders. These bastards looking down on me were laughable. Not one of them had a wallet sturdier than mine. Honor? Power? All of it crumbled helplessly in front of money. In a capitalist market, money was the Creator. It realized most of the desires you wanted. Of course you couldn’t buy non-physical things like pure love or moral and spiritual elevation. But almost everything else could be satisfied.
The conglomerate families these Cheonghwa High students blindly looked up to were nothing more than high priests of capital. If they lost their capital overnight and went bankrupt, everything they enjoyed would turn to ash by morning. In that sense I was an invincible victor. My bank balance was multiplying without limit every second. And ultimately I was… of the bloodline of the great Haryun Group. In the past I would have died rather than get entangled with them. Now that I had a second chance, I would actively accept and use it. Why? Because in the future I was dreaming of again, the great Haryun Group would be…
“Taewoong…”
My homeroom teacher, who had followed me all the way toward the auditorium. Worry filled her face. My parents still knew nothing about the situation. I had asked her never to contact them.
“Please bring the principal as well.”
“…….”
My teacher looked at me with complicated eyes. She had already half-guessed my true standing.
“I will.”
I gave a small nod and she immediately turned and left.
Rumble.
I strode boldly into the newly built main auditorium. A building completed with PTA funds. Swimming pool underground. Multi-purpose gymnasium and main auditorium on the first and second floors. Above that, the third-year classrooms and major club rooms. With only twenty students per class, the entire school population was around six hundred even if everyone gathered. The space could hold them all.
I flung open the grand auditorium doors and entered with swagger.
“Shameless bastard…”
One step behind me, Teacher Lee Jangyong spat a curse. The fool had no idea what fate he was about to meet today.
“He’s really going to face Math Thug?”
“Did that Sabaeja bastard take something?”
“We have to stomp him properly and kick him out! How dare he!”
The kids pouring in behind Lee Jangyong and hurling words of hatred had also picked the wrong day.
I climbed onto the auditorium stage. I stood in front of the electronic board that was sometimes used for lectures by prominent social figures. From the stage, all the expensive auxiliary fixtures came into view at a glance. I hadn’t wanted to go this far. But my fans’ burning interest had ultimately forced me onto the stage. Honestly, deep down I had hoped for an opportunity like this. A light warning to kids at Oh Gwangjun and Oh Seora’s level would never land properly. Today’s stage had been opened for me.
Swoosh.
I turned my body. The blazing gazes of the second-year students flooding in behind me all locked onto me at once. In the past this would have been an unimaginable situation. The old Sabaeja me would have immediately bowed my head and apologized. But the current me had no reason to do so. This was a stage like the coronation of a newly born king.
I curved my lips into a leisurely smile.
“He’s smiling?”
“Is his head full of flowers? He’s not right in the head, is he?”
“Fucking bastard!”
“Drag him down!!”
Curses erupted from the mouths of Cheonghwa High students who normally restrained their language. A Sabaeja they had treated as an emotional trash can getting a perfect score. That alone had dealt a serious blow to their pride.
“This is the method you wanted. If you lose… confess and get out!”
The math gangster—no, the math freak—Lee Jangyong smiled vilely, already certain of victory. Defeat was not even in his calculations.
“Have you considered the opposite possibility?”
There was no need for me to sink to his level. I answered in a refined tone. I had no desire to become the same grade of human garbage that cursed and intimidated others. In a second life, patience came standard-equipped.
“Heh heh. Fine. If I lose… I’ll kneel before you.”
Lee Jangyong, who was not merely well-versed in Korean high-school math problems but fraudulently good at them.
“Very well. If I lose, I’ll cleanly withdraw from school.”
I had no confidence. No confidence that I would lose to him! Thanks to Lee Jangyong in that previous era, I had clung to mathematics even after entering university. The buff I had received thanks to Grandmother after regressing was also playing a part. Not only had my physical abilities risen—my mental reaction speed had changed as well. And decisively…
“I ask for fair play.”
I extended my hand forward. The gazes of the students packed in like spectators all fixed on the stage.
“Keh keh keh. Fair play is fine by me!”
Certain of victory, Teacher Lee Jangyong smiled sinisterly and grasped my hand.
At that very moment—
You have encountered an Acquired Villain!