Chapter 127

Chapter 127

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 127“The color of your aura is muddy! You should've worked harder on your aura control in your everyday life!”

“You call this garbage mana?! This is just blue trash! Blue! Trash!”

“I'm ashamed that someone like you attends the Academy!”

“You call this aura? Wasn't that just the wind blowing?”

My body froze at the sight of the examiner driving students away while relentlessly hurling insults.

Kwak Chun-sik.

No, why is that old man here?

But it didn't take long to sort out my thoughts. Hadn't I already said it myself? If he worked at the Academy as an instructor, he could live in the city without having to worry about the Association watching him.

Apparently, after the investigation into the Villain Alliance was finished, rather than return to Gangwon Province, he'd immediately taken a position as an Academy instructor.

“If something like that happened, you could've at least contacted me.”

“I heard I had a class with the first-years from first period today anyway, so I didn't bother saying anything separately. I also forgot.”

There are things you can forget and things you can't. How do you forget to tell your disciple── come to think of it, one little thing after another that I'd forgotten to contact him about began coming to mind.

Don't tell me he's doing this on purpose?

For revenge?

“A-ahem! Enough. Are you going to be measured?”

“Are you evaluating us yourself instead of using a machine, Old Man?”

“Of course, you brat. How many people in the Republic of Korea besides me are qualified to evaluate aura and mana?”

“That's true.”

Even if they put him and a machine side by side to evaluate someone, people would probably trust Kwak Chun-sik's judgment over the machine's.

“But you seem to be giving the other students pretty harsh scores.”

“You brat. I'm saying all this for their own good. I'm deliberately provoking them so they'll work harder. Seriously, what would a youngster like you know... tch, tch.”

“Ah, yes...”

Judging by the way he spoke, despite what he said, it seemed he was at least scoring them fairly.

“Come on, the others are waiting. If you're doing it, do it. If not, come back later.”

“I'll do it.”

It wasn't much different from having my violin performance evaluated in front of Paganini, but I'd practiced all this time, so I thought I could at least show something that wouldn't embarrass me.

I raised my hand and brought forth my aura, beginning to shape geometric forms.

Tetrahedron, cube, sphere.

As I moved my aura and formed various shapes just as I'd done whenever I had time until now, exclamations of admiration began sounding from all around.

It wasn't exactly common to see aura manipulated this precisely in the palm of someone's hand, so I could understand their reaction.

“Ohh, it seems you've at least practiced hard all this time.”

“I can't exactly make a mistake and damage your reputation, Old Man.”

“Kahahaha! That's right! That's right! If you're my disciple, you should be able to do at least this much with ease.”

Saying that, he scribbled something on the evaluation sheet.

“You've definitely mastered the basics now. If only the other brats could do even half as much as you... right, are you still wearing that?”

...

By that, he probably meant the pink bracelet worn on the wrist.

“Yes. I'm wearing it under my shirt for now.”

“Good. At this point, you can start going around without it. You worked hard.”

“Thank you.”

“Good. Then I'll see you later. Next!”

As soon as I left the area evaluating the Energy category and confirmed no one was nearby, I immediately removed the detestable pink bracelet.

“Finally free.”

There was no bittersweet feeling whatsoever.

It was simply refreshing.

“I can return this later.”

He said he'd see me later anyway, so I could give it back then.

The next place I headed was the Defense testing area, where Bear Grizzly, who had held the microphone earlier, was conducting the evaluations.

“Oh.”

The timing happened to be perfect, and I could see Jin-woo taking the Defense test.

The Defense test was conducted fairly simply. Bear Grizzly would control his strength and strike the students once, and the students had to block his attack.

“Jin-woo Vivald. Ready?”

“Yes. Instructor...! Come at me!”

“Hup!”

At that moment, with a short shout, the combat knife swung from his hand and stabbed toward Jin-woo's thigh.

Under normal circumstances, he would either defend by coating himself in aura or mana, or deflect the Instructor's attack.

But──

Stab.

“Hm?”

Jin-woo merely turned his leg slightly as though telling him to stab if he wanted.

He accepted the knife flying straight toward his thigh.

At the same time, Jin-woo thrust his own dagger toward Bear's neck.

Stop.

The dagger halted right in front of Bear's throat.

“Jin-woo Vivald. What is this...?”

Bear asked in a genuinely flustered voice, as though he had no idea what had just happened.

Well, of course.

How many people would simply take the hit in a test where they were supposed to block it?

He'd basically become an Instructor who attacked a defenseless student without meaning to.

But Jin-woo's following answer was even more absurd.

“I learned it from that crazy── my mentor. She said sacrificing flesh to take bone is also a form of defense. She said I'd get a high score if I did this. Is that right?”

Hadn't he said during training that he'd even learned how to get stabbed while avoiding blood vessels and major muscles?

Looking closely, despite having been stabbed with a knife, Jin-woo's leg wasn't bleeding much at all, and it didn't seem seriously injured either.

“Your mentor is... Han Yeo-eun?”

“...

Yes.”

“Jin-woo Vivald... you've been through a lot.”

For some reason, his eyes were full of sympathy.

He quietly pulled out the knife, took a potion hanging at his waist, sprayed it onto Jin-woo's wound, then patted him on the back.

“Attack is also a means of defense. Minimizing your own damage, inducing the opponent to lower their guard, then striking with a single blow was excellent. Jin-woo Vivald!”

“I-Instructor...!”

“Right, suffer as much as you can now. Later, you'll even learn how to move your internal organs and get stabbed in the stomach too.”

“...

What?”

“Next. Is there anyone next?”

“No, Instructor. You're joking, right? That's actually true?”

“Next!”

Come to think of it, Bear Grizzly had probably been Han Yeo-eun's comrade in the past too.

That was probably why he pitied Jin-woo a little more.

“...

Han Eugene.”

“Hello. Instructor.”

“This Instructor is very curious to see how much of an attack you can withstand. What do you want? Should I hit you at testing strength? Or at full strength?”

“Full strength, of course.”

I smiled as I answered his question and immediately took my stance.

CS really was fun in ways like this.

“Here I come!”

At that moment, a different sound from when he tested the other students rang out as his figure moved.

His knife came toward my liver. Green aura flickered ominously along the blade.

I immediately raised the aura in both hands and coated [Midas's Gloves]

with it, then swung my fist and avoided the first strike.

But during that gap, a knee came toward my abdomen.

If I took that aura head-on, it wouldn't be strange for my organs to rupture.

Then it's simple.

“Ghk!”

I tightened my abdomen and layered aura over it to block the attack.

I released the same amount of aura as my opponent and canceled it out.

In front of me remained Bear Instructor's leg, which he hadn't managed to pull back.

I immediately grabbed it and applied a submission hold.

“Where do you think you're going!”

But an Instructor was still an Instructor.

As if saying he wouldn't go down that easily, he swung the dagger he was still holding.

He aimed for my back.

Even without looking, I could feel the razor-sharp intent approaching all too clearly.

But I didn't bother responding.

Because I was certain his attack wouldn't be able to pierce [DisPater].

And as though answering that certainty.

Screeeeech──A sound like a knife scraping across a steel plate rang out.

That was also when the Instructor and I rolled onto the ground together.

Just as the fight was about to devolve into a dirty brawl, he immediately relaxed his grip and raised both arms over his head.

“End. Cadet Han Eugene has already surpassed the level of an ordinary hero.”

“That's too much praise. If you'd stabbed me with the intent to kill, Instructor, the end would've been fairly dangerous.”

It was a choice I could only make because this was a test.

Besides... if we'd gone straight into a messy ground fight, there was no way Bear, once called ‘Real Grizzly,’ would've let me off easily.

“Your defensive ability and technique are excellent. I'll give you a good score.”

“Thank you. Instructor.”

I got up from where I'd been sprawled on the ground, offered him my hand, and helped him rise.

With this, two categories were already finished.

At the same time, a new window appeared before my eyes.[Hidden Achievement Accomplished!][Achievement: 「Didn't Even Flinch!」 acquired!][You successfully withstood Bear Grizzly's full strength during the physical fitness test!][Bear is impressed by your talent!][A special reward is granted!][Physical Durability increases!]

Part of the fun of CS was obtaining these little achievements and rewards.

I couldn't feel it clearly right now, but in the game, once you had this, even without coating yourself in aura, you could take attacks from ordinary people without even flinching.

It was practically the equivalent of consuming an elixir that increased defensive ability.

“There she is.”

When I headed to the next course, the Power testing area, I saw Marie, who had created a doll three times larger than herself, stretching out her hand like a trainer and issuing orders to it.

“B-Berserker!”

-Groooooar!

Marie's doll clasped both hands together and slammed the impact reader as though striking with a hammer.

At the same time, a loud sound rang out from the machine and flashy effects burst forth.[7683! GOOD!]

“That's a good score. Judging by your summon alone, its close-combat power can rival a close-range Awakened.”

“Th-thank you...!”

“Fifth place despite being a magic type. The others are going to be jealous. Good. You can go.”

“Yes!”

After Marie left, I looked behind the Instructor and realized there was a ranking board with the names of the students who had come through here so far.

In the game, it had simply appeared as a display.

Here, they wrote it down by hand.[1st. Choi Yeon 9,417 Pt][2nd. Jung Eui-hoon 8,759 Pt][3rd. Jin-woo Vivald 8,644 Pt][4th. Ahn Byung-hoon 8,018 Pt][5th. Marie Nate 7,683 Pt]

“Oh.”

The numbers on the ranking board were quite high.

Looks like a lot of people had already come through.

Let's see... Choi Yeon got 9,417 points?

Under an average playthrough, it would've been normal to barely break 9,000 or remain in the high 8,000s.

Seeing her record 9,417 Pt meant this version of Choi Yeon was growing faster than usual too.

It felt like she'd become even more serious about getting stronger.

But...

“Sorry, Choi Yeon.”

Unfortunately, I have business here too.

There were two Hidden Achievements hidden in the Academy's first physical fitness test.

And the categories were Defense and Power.

“Next!”

At the Instructor's voice from inside, I took the shotgun out of the Cube and stepped forward.

“I'll do it.”

“Han Eugene? The measurement... are you going to use that?”

“Yes.”[Billy the Kid's Shotgun]

I'd finished registering it this morning.

Since there was nothing to hide, I nodded and stood in front of the machine.

“Do you know how to do it?”

“I just have to attack that section with everything I've got, right?”

It worked on the same principle as the hammer machines in arcades.

It was one of the tests I liked because the method was relatively simple.

“If you know, that's enough. Start whenever you're ready.”

I walked up to the machine, charged aura into the shotgun, and aimed the barrel toward the section that measured power.

“I'll begin.”

At my declaration, the target rose.

The accumulated aura churned.

The machine registered impact for 0.5 seconds starting from the first hit.

Then I'll drive two shots into it within that time.──Bang! Bang!

The brutal gunshots shook the testing area, and an enormous impact ran through my hands as well.

Since I'd fired twice in rapid succession, the recoil was transmitted directly into my body.

And the result.[11073! Perfect!!]

A sound the machine had never produced before rang out.[Hidden Achievement Accomplished!][Achievement: 「With Overwhelming Power!」 acquired!]

Burp.