They said nothing when villains were killing citizens and running amok, but suddenly they’re expanding and strengthening the Ability User Punishment Act hahaha
It’s obvious they’re in cahoots with the big-time villains, right?
Dark Knight doesn’t take bribes and just comes to kill them, so they’re scared shitless and barking like crazy lol
Looking at the law amendment content, it’s literally targeting Dark Knight hahaha
Existing villains aren’t even affected lol
Commoners are struggling to survive on triangle gimbap and convenience store lunchboxes, yet they won’t pass any important laws and only work hard saving their own skins haha
Please, I wish Dark Knight would wipe out the entire National Assembly
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Deep within a cramped shantytown in Seoul.
A house made of steel plates on the verge of collapse.
A man wearing a white doctor’s coat was concocting a strange drug.
“Now is the time.”
He smiled fiendishly as he looked at a map of Seoul.
Arrows were drawn here and there in red pen on the map.
“I shall make them exactly like me. I shall pay them all back.”
His face was grotesquely melted and twisted.
It was a wound obtained half a year ago from an Awakened belonging to K-Group, the nation’s largest conglomerate.
His name was Maboseong.
He was a genius chemist who was occasionally struck by brilliant flashes of inspiration.
Maboseong had accidentally discovered a method to dramatically increase the production efficiency of existing potions.
Seeing this as a chance to turn his life around, he started a business, taking out bank loans and even borrowing from private lenders.
At first, it grew smoothly.
This revolutionary potion was about twice as cheap per unit as existing potions, and the more he sold, the more enormous the profits became.
Then one day, K-Pharma, a subsidiary of K-Group, released a product identical to his.
With their difference in production scale, his profits dwindled, and soon supply contracts were severed, to the point where he couldn’t even handle the loan interest.
He sued K-Pharma and naturally lost.
Because he hadn’t filed a patent.
He had naively believed that since filing a patent would expose the manufacturing method, they could never copy it without it.
The company eventually went bankrupt, and Maboseong was ruined.
Under relentless debt collection, even his family left him.
Maboseong thought all of this was K-Pharma’s fault.
Starting the next day, he began a one-man protest in front of K-Pharma headquarters.
Perhaps by luck, before long his story made the news, and K-Pharma arranged a meeting with him.
K-Pharma headquarters conference room.
The CEO personally stepped forward to lead the conversation with Maboseong.
“Mr. Maboseong. This is troubling. What on earth has our company done?”
“You stole our technology and sold it!”
“K-Pharma was already developing the same medicine. Making reckless assumptions is troublesome. And if you really disliked that, you should have filed a patent.”
Maboseong slammed his fist on the table.
“Lies! Bullshit! People like you couldn’t make that medicine! You stole it! You blocked my loan extensions and ordered the loan sharks to hound me! You ruined my life!”
The K-Pharma CEO got goosebumps.
He felt madness from Maboseong.
He wasn’t normal.
“Hoo. Well, anyway. It’s unfortunate that our products overlapped and caused a small business to fail. As a gesture of consolation, I’ll give you two billion won in good faith. With this money, you can pay off your debts and live as before. But never bring up this subject again.”
Two billion won.
This money could settle most of his remaining debts.
But the CEO’s proposal reached Maboseong differently.
It was confirmation.
‘This bastard. He’s finally confessing! If he didn’t steal my tech, why would he offer money!’
Maboseong lost his reason and grabbed the CEO by the collar.
“You bastard! Die!”
The CEO was a black belt in martial arts and not someone who got pushed around, but Maboseong’s strength was too great to do anything.
Having sparred with not just ordinary people but even Awakened, he was certain.
‘This guy. He’s an Awakened…!’
“Bodyguard! This man is an Awakened. Hurry!”
The bodyguard, a former Hunter, struck Maboseong’s back and pulled him off the CEO.
Maboseong was an Awakened ill-suited for combat.
He stood no chance against an Awakened who was a former Hunter.
The fistfight quickly ended in Maboseong’s defeat.
Maboseong pulled a glass bottle from his bag.
The bodyguard stayed still at first, thinking it was a potion.
But seeing Maboseong take a stance as if to throw it at him, he changed his mind.
The bodyguard decided to prepare for any eventuality.
As feared, the glass bottle flew toward the bodyguard.
Thanks to his preparation, he caught it safely in his hand.
He immediately hurled it right back at Maboseong’s face.
Maboseong had no ability to dodge or catch it.
The glass bottle shattered against Maboseong’s face.
The liquid inside flowed down his skin.
Sssss.
The acid solution bubbled and melted Maboseong’s face.
At the smell of burning flesh, both the CEO and the bodyguard covered their noses unconsciously.
“Madman.”
The bodyguard beat Maboseong severely and reported him to the police.
An Awakened assaulting an ordinary person was subject to aggravated punishment.
Maboseong was investigated under arrest for assaulting the K-Pharma CEO.
K-Pharma bribed reporters to recast Maboseong as a terrorist funded by a foreign country.
And so the news reported on a criminal who attempted a hydrochloric acid and bomb terror attack on K-Pharma headquarters.
***
“Once again, I sincerely welcome our new students.”
The principal’s speech ended, and the entrance ceremony concluded.
According to the orientation pamphlet I’d received beforehand, I was in Year 1 Class B.
There seemed to be only two classes: Class A and Class B.
Probably due to a lack of Awakened teaching staff.
Looking at the assignment chart posted on the first floor of the main building, I searched for the classroom.
‘Let’s see, Year 1 Class B…’
As I lingered in the hallway, someone grabbed my shoulder.
“Oh, come on. How could you go on ahead!”
It was Bak Hayeon.
The school uniform suited her very well.
The Academy uniform was basically a skirt and dress shirt.
And a winter coat.
With her wearing a coat on top of that, her appearance was breathtaking.
“Oh. You in Class B too?”
“No, I’m in Class A.”
For the record, I got an earful this morning.
She’d gone through the trouble of making dinner, but I came home late so we couldn’t eat together, and she said I ignored all her messages….
I even asked if she was my girlfriend.
“What a shame. I wish we were in the same class.”
From now on, Bak Hayeon had to train without a moment’s rest.
It would have been nice if I could keep watching over her from beside her.
“R-right?”
Bak Hayeon was blushing for some reason.
She quickly ducked into Class A.
‘What’s with her.’
I entered Year 1 Class B.
The other students were already seated.
Perhaps still awkward with each other, there was no small talk.
I sat in the very back seat and took out a painkiller.
The penalty for using my skill yesterday was still ongoing.
Someone spoke to me.
“Good morning.”
Yang Minseo.
The granddaughter of the K-Group chairman, ranked first in the nation’s business world.
Unlike last time, her hairstyle had changed to twintails.
With her small frame and now this hairstyle, she looked exactly like an elementary schooler.
“Yeah. Long time no see.”
After greeting me, she went and sat in the very front seat.
‘A model student.’
Come to think of it, it was soon.
The episode where Yang Minseo dies.
She gets horrifically murdered by the “K-Pharma Villain.”
The method was so brutal that when I first saw it, I wondered why it wasn’t rated R.
Because she was an unpopular character, there hadn’t been much outcry, but under normal circumstances, it was something that would have triggered a barrage of 5,700-character complaints from countless users.
‘Should I try saving her…’
It wouldn’t be a difficult task for the current me.
Her acting like a geezer in the beginning was a bit annoying, but now I didn’t really have any feelings about that.
Letting someone who could be saved just die also left a bitter aftertaste.
Soon, a teacher entered the classroom.
A middle-aged man with pronounced dark circles under his eyes, radiating decadent charm.
He opened his mouth with an attitude that suggested he found it bothersome.
“My name is Song Siyeol, and I’m the homeroom teacher for this class. In the past, I was active as ‘Fire Punch.’”
“Fire Punch, you mean….”
“An A-Rank Hero! Our teacher is A-Rank!”
“As expected of the Academy!”
The students’ reactions were explosive.
The teacher spoke as if it were no big deal, but he was actually a famous hero.
A-Rank Heroes were rare to begin with.
Teacher Song Siyeol continued.
“Since today is the first day, there won’t be any real lessons. We’ll just form teams and do some simple field experience. Going forward, classes will proceed in the teams formed today, and the teams change every semester. I’ll give you some time, so form your teams.”
The students turned their heads, looked at each other, and made awkward expressions.
“It may be sudden, but when you go out into the field as heroes, you’ll often have to form teams on the spot, so think of this as part of your learning.”
Buzz buzz.
The children struck up conversations with people they liked or those sitting next to them.
The first party they were forming.
In the early stages, the difficulty wasn’t that high, so it was fine to form teams haphazardly.
In the game, this situation was used as a tutorial for teaching how to form parties.
Looking over at Yang Minseo in the distance, requests were already pouring in.
“Minseo, be on my team!”
“Yang Minseo-nim, please let me join too… I have C-Rank psychokinesis.”
“Psychokinesis is a dime a dozen! If I may say so, I have C-Rank explosion ability. Unlike a commoner like that, my father runs a business. It’s only proper for people of matching levels to form teams….”
The reason people flocked to Yang Minseo like this was an article that came out from K-Group earlier this year.
Hero Management was a company in charge of supporting hero activities, publicity, and so on, and currently 90% of active heroes had a management agency.
People with sense confirmed the information that the K-Group chairman’s granddaughter was enrolling in the Academy and realized she was the core of K-Group Hero Management.
“Excuse me.”
At Yang Minseo’s single word, the room fell silent.
‘Impressive~’
I was slightly impressed.
I sat with my legs crossed, worrying about how to handle this damn group assignment.
Not that I had any connections to speak of.