A Monument for Those Who Wish for an Upward Trend
The guild's interior repairs didn't take long. It was treated like this level of destruction was the bare minimum. After all, Cheonma was the kind of guy who smashed everything he touched. So instead of restricting his behavior, they'd apparently come up with this twisted kind of workaround.
Thanks to the punishment, blood wasn't circulating properly in our legs. Both Cheonma and I were barely standing, clutching our trembling thighs.
“So, Shinwoo my boy, how exactly did you block my attack earlier?”
“Cheonma Repulsor. I just gathered mana in my palm and blasted it.”
“Ahem! Discard such an irreverent name at once. I specially permit the name Heavenly Demon Heaven-Shattering Palm.”
“No thanks. I’m sticking with Cheonma Repulsor.”
It’s Repulsor, after all. My dream is joining the Avengers.
Iron Man’s second disciple. The first one’s obviously Spider-Man.
“Cough… I see. At that level, there should be one technique that fits perfectly.”
“Cheonma Grandpa! No, Santa Grandpa! I believed in you!”
“Gal!! Do not utter those ominous foreign names!!”
“So what present are you giving me, Santa?”
“Hm? I never said I was giving you anything.”
He’s Satan, not Santa.
The difference between ‘Santa’ and ‘Satan’ is just one letter, but the meaning is polar opposite.
Cheonma was the type to dangle bait and then refuse to hand over the actual gift. He really was no different from a Satan bastard. With no other choice, I decided to pull out a bargaining chip that might actually tempt him.
“Hey, Santa. Remember Ryu Kanghyuk?”
“This brat is getting more and more disrespectful.”
“How about a photo of that guy getting stepped on?”
“…..Show me first.”
I opened my phone’s photo gallery and showed him the selfie I’d taken last time while stepping on Kanghyuk’s head. Cheonma stared at it intently, then suddenly tried to send the picture from my phone to his own. I snatched it back immediately.
Fucking old geezer trying to mooch for free.
Cheonma’s eyes went bloodshot. He sprayed spit everywhere as he roared at me.
“Hand over that photo immediately!!!”
“Gift first, Santa.”
“…Ha… Fine. I shall contact you later regarding the gift. Come then.”
Cheonma and I exchanged contact information. Even during the exchange he kept looking for openings to steal my phone—quick jabs, feints to divert my attention, all sorts of tricks. The old man tried everything.
What a pathetic bastard.
Fuck off. Don’t make that sound reasonable when you’re the damn scammer.
After much struggle, the contact exchange with Cheonma was finally complete. The moment he received my number, a voice phishing call immediately came from an unknown number. Except this time they weren’t asking for gift cards—they wanted photos.
These murim bastards are running wild with burner phones now?
Can’t be helped. Let’s send them the photo.
I told each voice phisher I’d send it, waited a moment, then fired off Halrbumba. The instant the messages went through, I saw numerous martial artists in the distance screaming and falling into qi deviation. Cheonma clicked his tongue, realizing his final attempt had failed.
Where do you think you’re going, you sons of bitches.
A question suddenly occurred to me, so I asked Cheonma.
“But why do you need that photo so badly?”
“I shall synthesize my visage and hang it prominently here!”
“……How vulgar, Cheonma.”
“Gal!!!!!!”
With everything settled, it was time to resume the guild requests. I grabbed Hye-ji, who was steeling herself in the distance, and Jung Ayeon, who was standing beside her like a traitor, and headed for the reception desk.
However.
“We’d like to proceed with our request.”
“I’m sorry. None of you may perform requests any longer.”
The receptionist coldly declared that we could no longer take on commissions.
“Is something broken? Weren’t the repairs already finished?”
“From today onward, all of you are banned from entering our guild.”
“What the hell for?”
“The guild master has personally restricted your access.”
The reason was simple. The internal damage had been far worse than usual, so they were banning the culprits—us—from entering. Hye-ji stormed off to find the guild master, yelling that she’d held back this time and demanding to know why he was throwing such a fit, but the master had already fled.
In the end we gave up and prepared to return to the academy. That was when Jung Ayeon suddenly cried out in panic.
“This is unacceptable! Banning all of us from entering!!”
Being barred from the guild she wanted to join must have been devastating for her.
“To be precise, only student Shinwoo is banned.”
“Ah, then there’s no problem.”
“Fuck you, Kyaru you bitch.”
“Young master? What are you doing? You are in the way, so please leave quickly.”
She abandoned us and began processing guild requests with sparkling eyes. Hye-ji, however, simply looked bored. She declared there was no need to bother with requests from such a low-tier place. A few people glared at her fiercely and flinched, but no one actually moved.
I would’ve done the same. She was fucking terrifying.
In the end, Hye-ji and I had no choice but to take the gate and return to the academy.
The atmosphere at the academy was extremely strange. Even though it was the weekend, crowds of people were rushing around everywhere, and the only sound that filled the air was tearful laughter. The one common factor was that every single person was wearing clown makeup.
“…Hye-ji, is today Halloween?”
“No, it’s still ages away.”
They ignored us standing there like idiots and began moving in perfect unison toward somewhere. We followed and arrived at the large central plaza in front of the school, where countless clowns had gathered. The sight of them packed shoulder-to-shoulder reminded me of Gasan Digital Complex Station during rush hour.
What the fuck is this.
The entire area was a chaotic mix of screams, conversations, crying, and laughter—the natural consequence of so many people gathered in one place. Then someone stepped onto the stage, and the noise died down in an instant.
That person was—
Why is Elsia up there?
It was Elsia. Unlike her usual self, she was wearing full clown makeup as she slowly ascended the stage. Red suit. White face paint. Blue decorations around her eyes. A big smiling mouth drawn on. She even had a green wig. Yet her massive chest refused to be hidden. If anything, the tight dress shirt of the suit made her volume even more prominent.
“Fucking bitch.”
“…I didn’t say anything this time.”
While Hye-ji suddenly exploded with rage, Elsia grabbed the microphone and shouted in a solemn voice.
“Everyone!!!! What do you do if it crashes even harder!!!”
“Then what if it drops even more and tells you to go ahead and kill yourselves!!!”
“But what happens if all of you actually kill yourselves!!!!”
They’re all coin addicts.
Fuck, it’s not like I wanted to invest.
Elsia suddenly pointed at someone in the crowd in front of the stage.
“You there, clown!! Are you afraid right now!!!”
“I’m not afraid!!!”
“You’re not afraid of this catastrophic crash!!!!”
“Because this money isn’t mine—it’s all the bank’s!!!!”
“Excellent!! More than half of my own money is my husband’s!!!”
“Hey, you fucking bastard!!!!!!!”
I charged forward in a fit of rage. But the crowd formed an iron wall to protect Elsia, blocking my path. Instead of attacking me, they politely guided me all the way to the front row. It was as if they understood my fury.
Even after I reached the front, Elsia still hadn’t noticed me. She continued her radical speech.
“Everyone!!! How do we break through the previous high!!!”
“But we cannot allow these young lambs to kill themselves! So do you know what we need right now!!!!”
“Listen well!!! We must release the sacrifice and advance summon the previous high!!!”
Advance summon… Elsia really is worthy of inheriting my ‘Ra’s Winged Dragon’ deck.
No!!! Yu-Gi-Oh is a game meant for playing “romance” decks!!!
Shut up. That’s what the god said.
At that moment, Elsia screamed in a voice filled with pure madness.
“That is why we have prepared!!! A sacrifice for our previous high!!!!”
Everyone reached a fever pitch thanks to Elsia’s words. Following her gesture in the midst of that madness, a voluptuous figure was dragged out from behind the stage. The person was blindfolded, had all four limbs bound, and even though they were on a cart, multiple clowns were sweating buckets as they pulled it. It must have been incredibly heavy.
And the person was someone I knew.
“Let me go, I say!! I am the president of the Academy!!!”
Indeed. The Academy President was being hauled onto the stage with his limbs tied and an eye patch covering his eyes.