Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Sniper at the School Gate (2)
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Hanshin High School had always been home to more delinquents than your average liberal arts high school.
But after Dokgo Hyun started hunting them down, their numbers plummeted rapidly, and the low-tier punks who weren't even real delinquents kept their heads down.
Dokgo Hyun had toned down his hunts a bit once he reached his senior year.
But today, some self-proclaimed lowlife punks, bored out of their minds, had shaken down some freshmen for cash. Dokgo Hyun chased them down like he'd been waiting for it and smashed them all to pieces.
And of all days, the entire school had turned into a death game arena today.
All the other delinquents caught up in the tutorial of death had died, leaving just one survivor.
That last delinquent was burning with a twisted sense of mission.
'I'll use this chance to kill Dokgo Hyun!'
A normal person might've thought something more constructive, but delinquents were punks at heart.
Maybe getting dragged into this death game had messed with his head, too.
That's how this deranged sense of duty was born.
Bang...!
Bang...!
Even now, as he stealthily tailed Dokgo Hyun from behind, threatening gunshots echoed from outside.
'Use the gunfire to mask my footsteps.'
It had worked so far.
Dokgo Hyun descended to the first floor without looking back, and the delinquent followed.
Click.
Dokgo Hyun entered the principal's office.
'The principal's office? Why the hell is he going in there?'
It was way too suspicious.
'Is he luring me in?'
The thought made the delinquent's blood run cold.
He imagined charging in after him and getting grabbed by the collar and beaten senseless.
"Urk."
But the delinquent steeled himself soon enough.
'Guys. Give me strength. Give it to me, the last delinquent of Hanshin High!'
Trembling legs steadying, he positioned himself in front of the principal's office door.
The moment he went to kick it open.
"It's not locked. Come in."
Dokgo Hyun called from inside.
The delinquent's eyes widened.
Dokgo Hyun had obviously noticed him tailing him from the start.
Click...
The delinquent cautiously opened the door and stepped inside.
There was Dokgo Hyun, rummaging through the principal's desk.
"Why are you following me?"
Dokgo Hyun asked, and the delinquent swallowed hard.
"Le-Let's settle this... you bastard."
The delinquent's voice shook badly.
He'd never been this tense in his life.
"Looks like you wanna kill me while everything's chaotic. You serious?"
"Yeah! You punk!"
His voice cracked.
His throat was parched from the nerves.
"I could ask why, but looks like your throat's too dry. Hold on."
Dokgo Hyun filled a paper cup with water from the principal's dedicated water cooler.
"Here."
The delinquent flinched, thinking it was a punch, but took the water without refusing and downed it in one go.
His throat really had been that dry.
After one sip, that classic delinquent bravado kicked back in.
Crunch.
He crushed the empty paper cup in his fist.
"Dokgo Hyun. Let's fight for our lives."
"I'm kinda busy. Gotta find the principal's car keys. I'll hear you out, so tell me why you wanna fight."
Dokgo Hyun said it without even looking at him.
"That pisses me off...!"
The delinquent's fist trembled.
"You're more violent than any real delinquent, and now you're acting all nice! All noble! Why look down on me!!"
"Never acted nice or noble. I ignore you 'cause you're dead meat anyway."
"So quit acting superior!!"
"God, you're annoying. Why aren't you dead yet? Not enough poison?"
"Huh?"
Thud.
One of the delinquent's knees buckled.
"Gah, hack!"
He couldn't see his own face, but it was already turning greenish.
That's when it hit him.
"P-Poison...?"
"Yeah. You're poisoned."
Dokgo Hyun had spotted the water cooler the moment he entered. He'd taken a sip first himself, then pulled out the Venom Knife.
Activating [Venom Mode], he'd plunged the green blade into the top of the cooler.
The water turned into poison.
He'd only dipped it for about three seconds before pulling it out, but the Venom Knife's toxin was insanely potent.
You had to look really closely to notice the faint greenish tint in the water.
Right after, the delinquent had appeared at the door, and Dokgo Hyun casually invited him in.
Then offered him the poisoned water from the cooler.
"H-How could you...!"
The delinquent clutched his throat, tears streaming down.
His lips turned deep green.
"You knew exactly what resolve I had coming after you, and you just... poison me like this?"
"Don't care about your resolve. A delinquent's 'resolve' is predictable anyway."
Dokgo Hyun stated the facts calmly.
"A school punk like you has no one to protect, no standout talents, no goals before dying. You're not even really enjoying the tutorial, right? You're just the typical thug who picks fights for satisfaction. Am I wrong?"
"..."
"Ever think about how I feel, wasting time fighting trash like you?"
Dokgo Hyun laid out the facts with an irritated glare.
"Ah... Aah..."
Dying, the delinquent reflected on his life.
'When did I even become a delinquent?'
It wasn't some deliberate choice.
He'd grown up loved by his parents as a kid, like any delinquent.
But around middle school, things started going off the rails, and after that... he'd just hung with the wrong crowd and ended up here.
Up to now, he'd never once reflected on himself.
Only in these final moments did something like regret hit him for the first time.
"..."
The delinquent died amid his first and last reflection.
"Tch."
Dokgo Hyun checked the coins, then closed the dead delinquent's eyes with a wistful gaze.
Just in case, he checked the uniform jacket.
To at least learn the guy's name.
But no name tag—the typical delinquent move.
The nameless delinquent faded from everyone's memory, even in death.
* * *
With ten minutes left on the timer.
Some players resorted to tricks.
"Let's do this. Time to show off the broadcasting club's skills."
The broadcasting club teamed up with the art club to melt the snipers' hearts.
"The teachers turned into snipers, but they don't really wanna kill us."
Naive as hell, but they believed it.
If the teachers were being controlled, some goodness had to be left inside.
Beep!
The broadcast speakers blared to life all at once.
"Teachers! Please don't shoot us!"
"Teachers! We love you!"
The broadcasting club head shouted first, then they all burst into song.
"Your grace is as vast as the sky~."
"The more we look up, the higher it climbs~."
Then the art club kids rushed out with hastily made banners to persuade the snipers.
The banners read cringey lines like 'We don't wanna die!', 'Let's all survive!', 'Teachers! We love you!' and so on.
Students hiding and watching around the school were dumbfounded.
"Idiots... You think that crap'll work?"
"Why's the cringe hitting us too? Ugh."
"Huh? But it's kinda working?"
The snipers didn't shoot the banner kids.
The vice principal, who'd been firing warning shots nonstop, trembled.
"Ugh... Uuugh..."
He lowered his sniper rifle.
The absurd plan actually worked.
"Huh?"
"They're really not shooting?"
"Did the persuasion actually work?"
"No way that cringey shit worked?"
Those peeking from hiding stood up in disbelief.
"Grr... Ha... Students..."
"Aaah... You kids."
The teacher-snipers slowly lowered their weapons.
Like they'd snapped out of some control, if only briefly.
"Go...!"
The vice principal pointed at the portal.
"Before we... lose our minds again...!"
Thud!
Thud thud!
The other four teachers dropped their pistols to the ground.
They'd lost speech, but their gestures screamed hurry!
"Sob sob...!"
"Thank you... Teachers."
The art club kids with banners bolted into the portal at the school gate.
All the art club kids with banners made it safely inside the portal.
"Huh?!"
"Hey! Hurry!"
"We got here first!"
"Noobs who aren't broadcasting club—stay back! We escape first, then you follow!"
The broadcasting club head yelled into the mic, but.
"Now's our chance!"
"If not while the teachers are sane, we'll never get another shot!!"
Opportunists surged out.
The limit dropped with every one who slipped inside.
"No!"
"You bastards! Don't freeload!"
Ugly scuffles broke out between the broadcasting club and the rest.
"Aaaagh!"
"Don't pull my hair, asshole!"
"You stop cutting in line!!"
The field turned into a pathetic brawl pit.
The teachers silently watched them fight over the narrow portal.
That's when.
Riiip!
Riiiip rip!
Something tore.
"Huh?"
"What the—?"
The teachers—no, snipers—were ripping the skin off their own arms.
Click! Click!
Inside their arms: submachine guns linked to ammo belts.
The belts connected to their guts, where high-capacity magazines had replaced organs.
"What the hell...!"
"Cyborgs...?"
"This can't be real."
They'd seen bodies turn to blocks and goblins kill people, but teachers turned murder machines? Shocking.
"Teacher. One question."
The broadcasting club head on the field asked quietly.
Standing before gun barrels, escape impossible, his face was serene in resignation.
"Was the emotion from our teacher song all an act...? To lure us out?"
The five teachers nodded in unison.
"Sorry. But this much is real."
The vice principal said straight, aiming his gun.
Pretending half-mad, then sane—it was all theater.
A ploy to drag out the hiders.
The club head nodded.
"Everyone, run!!!"
He charged the vice principal to buy time as a bullet sponge.
But.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
The right-arm SMG fired high-velocity, high-pressure rounds.
Powerful enough to shred bulletproof vests—it punched through the club head effortlessly.
"Kyaah!!"
"Run! Everyone run!!"
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
Gunfire drowned the screams.
Dozens of players sprinting for the portal painted the field red.
Sssizzle...!
The barrel glowed red-hot.
"All dead, Vice Principal."
"Yeah. Looks like it."
The sniper-teachers muttered.
No sorrow.
The teachers hadn't done the tutorial.
No player status.
Supervisors appeared before them with an ultimatum.
'Turn your body into a murder machine to live? Or die as plain humans? Decide in 10 seconds.'
Most chose death...
"We wanna live, too."
Those who chose life got suspicious gems implanted and bodies rebuilt.
Thus, murder machines. Snipers.
Once teachers, now snipers stood amid countless corpses on the field.
Machines or not, what they'd done tormented them.
Cowardly and ironic, but that was their truth.
In that moment.
Whoosh!
Thwack thwack!!
An arrow from somewhere slammed into flesh.
"Guh...!"
It came from the second-floor window of the main building.
Archery club room.
"Tch. Tough bastards."
Archery club members on the second floor caught their breath, hiding by the window.
Na Youngho, the club's ace, peeked past the curtain, timing his shot.
"Fire again!!"