The Age of Curses and Napkins

As the gate to another world opened, the number of ability users began to grow, little by little. People confirmed that the closer one was to the gate, the younger they were, and the more front-line soldier they were, the higher the probability of awakening became.

Countless scientists and psychologists scrambled to uncover what the conditions for awakening actually were. But before long, all that came back to them was a big pile of eavesdropping.

Every time they thought they'd found something, the opposite case would pop up and overturn the paper. Hypothesis after hypothesis, reality would take a shit on it. The aphorism of some old man who'd given up resisting the law—"I know nothing"—won another victory today.

But just like when someone said "Dig into the ground, does money come out?!" and the rebuttal came back "That's mining, you old fool!":

The professors who became the self-appointed masters of "voluntary slave-contract signers" — after analyzing countless cases — successfully identified several keywords for ability manifestation that "applied to almost everyone."

First: The direction of an ability generally depended on the mindset at the moment of awakening. The more combat-oriented the ability, the more frequently it appeared in tense, life-or-death situations. The instinctive ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠killing intent — the "I have to kill this thing or I die" mindset that came up countless times in wrestling with monsters on the front lines. Looking at how most combat personnel awakened with offensive abilities, you could measure just how much the situation at the moment of awakening mattered. And he knew that not as theory, but because he'd experienced it firsthand, even having his thigh pierced through.

Temporary patchwork guard Kim Chomo shouted at the people around him to move quickly in his direction.

More than half had already sped through the school's main gate, but there were always some people who moved slowly for various reasons. A student on the verge of a rampage, who'd just taken a hit to the back of the head on the way out — there was no telling what was going through their mind.

The classmate who'd been trying to talk him down while being careful not to upset anyone, and the colleague who'd been about to report the location of the smoking spot — both were treated equally.

KWA-A-A-ANG!!

"HIIIIIIICK...!!"

Kim Chomo had smashed the school's wall clean through with a single fist. The students who saw this broke into a full sprint with terrified expressions. From the perspective of the troublemaking student who'd been reaching for the back of his head to threaten him, this situation was probably impossible to comprehend.

He'd done exactly what he always did, but suddenly facing a lunatic who smashed walls — understanding the situation wasn't easy. With almost no situational information, the best he could figure was something like "This thug's switched from cigarettes to targeting people now!" or "He's gonna threaten me properly this time by smashing the wall!"

Holding his head where he'd been hit, unable to even think about picking up his fallen glasses, he muttered:

Scritch scratch... The newly awakened ability user, peeling off the shell of his cocoon, seemed to want to stop adding more victims by whatever means necessary.

Kim Chomo glanced around. Since there was no answer against violence, everyone was either calmly heading this way, or...

...or they were frantically fleeing in the complete opposite direction, toward the back door by the main gate.

As Kim Chomo breathed a sigh of relief, pulling energy from his surroundings, a black mist seeped into the three former perpetrators who were now victims, in an instant.

Before long, they began writhing on the ground, screaming silent screams.

The second keyword for ability manifestation:

Unlike the scientists who'd only grasped it in theory, Kim Chomo was a man who'd endured countless awakening disasters firsthand. The ability a soldier awakened with just before dying, in a situation where he'd lost his mobility after having his thigh slashed by a monster, was a curse-type ability that carved the exact same wound into the legs of every living creature nearby.

So when he looked at the boy with those glasses — no, the school bullying victim who'd just manifested an ability — with the eyes of someone who'd seen countless cases, he figured it was probably a curse-type ability. But...

Despite being a frontline soldier who'd seen countless nails, blades, and claw marks — and even laser burns — the wounds weren't on the outside of the body. How was he, not even a doctor, supposed to know what was happening internally? The surrounding students stood frozen in shock, and Kim Chomo let out a sigh as he stepped into the scene.

Seeing the young curse-type ability user already hunting for his next victim before even figuring out what was going on, Kim Chomo slammed the gray-and-black tentacle-like curse ability to the ground with one hand.

Kim Chomo shook his head back and forth. He was lamenting his own situation when the boy finally came to his senses, picked up his glasses, and put them on. What he saw around him was...

The three lumps on the ground, their entire bodies scraped raw against the stone floor, and the boy whose head he'd grabbed, staring at the identity of the lumps — and the face of the security guard laughing at the sight.

The students' lives, who'd lost control of their bodily functions from the agony, quietly fell into ruin. Beep beep beep—

The distant sound of an ambulance siren, growing closer, made you think — in this age where information spreads instantly via SNS, maybe it wasn't all bad.

And so, Kim Chomo, who happened to be the one present when the biggest incident of the day occurred, scratched his head and prepared his response as a guard.

It wasn't as if there had been no minor ability users before. Cases of children under eighteen manifesting abilities existed, though they were rare.

But this case was, in many ways, an ability manifestation that set off alarm bells throughout society.

Now here was a chance to meet reality face-to-face instead of just theory. How delightful!

It was plainly a curse that scooped up every miserable disease combination known to man. The thought "If our kid is unlucky, that freakshow could happen to them too" flashed through every parent's mind.

Now that the child was in this state because of ability manifestation caused by school violence, the higher-ups thought someone had to take responsibility ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and tried to pin the blame on the poor guard.

That person was an irregular who could make government policy lose all its value in an instant, like toilet paper from a back-room stall. How many crimes rank higher than defying the state? You'd have to be certifiably insane to threaten someone in court. Fighting someone at all was an intelligence problem at this point.

If the target had been twenty people, things would've been twisted until the school itself was obliterated, and the lives of the poor victims who'd been hit by the ability storm would've been ruined.

The best course of action in that moment was to cut out the three who were both perpetrators and victims, and evacuate the rest. As a regular civilian guard, he'd produced the best possible outcome. Wasn't that worth more than an investigation?

Of course, Kim Chomo was an ability user himself — an exceptional one, even. In reality, if he'd absorbed all the nearby trees, he could've knocked them out before even using the curse. But Kim Chomo was only one person, and the chances of him getting hired as a guard with his ability were zero.

So what could he do? He had to change the ecosystem of the school itself before more bombs went off.

Kim Chomo's last words shook all their hearts.

In a country where faster attack methods than abilities are everywhere, didn't this look like the "certain type of incident" that happens in America? Those incidents at least have the advantage of being able to confiscate physical weapons. Abilities, on the other hand, are weapons you never know when you'll be handed.

In a situation where victims become perpetrators, you can't call it a plan to rely on the meager mercy in their hearts.

In the end, the school and the Ministry of Education couldn't mete out a severe punishment to either the victims or the perpetrators of this incident.

The hardline stance — parents manage their kids properly, students behave properly — was the strongest measure. Stronger than any campaign, any lecture, any social penalty.

One single butterfly effect of this age of ability users had succeeded in nearly uprooting school violence.

The thought that his future self would suffer didn't weigh heavily on the young teenager yet.

Dying on a hospital bed after enduring nothing but pain from a young age — that fate was apparently something everyone was afraid of.