Chapter 140

Chapter 140

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 140Creeeak─ Creeeak─Every time the rust-red door swayed in the wind, the irritating sound of metal grinding echoed out.

A shabby tavern that looked as though it had been built from collected scrap metal.

Even though countless people continuously burned tobacco and unknown substances, the distinctive stench of garbage refused to disappear.

The smell of human trash.

Still, even a place like this was somewhere people lived. The noisy residents of Junk Town simply covered their own smell with the strong scent of cheap whiskey handed over by the master today as well.‘You bastard! I asked for gasoline and you gave me diesel?’‘You're the idiot who couldn't even tell the difference, so why the fuck are you blaming me!’Drunken people traded blows as sparks flew and metal fragments scattered everywhere, but the others merely picked up the debris that came from the fight.

No one tried to stop them.‘Fine, bastard. I'll dump diesel into your car right now too, so let's call it even. Huh?’‘Are you fucking crazy! You're going to wreck whose car───’At that moment.

Jingle─At the sound of the bell from the entrance, the gazes of everyone watching the fight focused there in an instant.

It wasn't a strange reaction.

Because into this place made of garbage and built from garbage walked a man wearing a clean black suit and fedora.

The man swept his gaze around once, then sat at the lounge bar where the master was, placed down a small mana stone, and spoke quietly.

“Milk.”

“Hah, what?”

After making such a heavy entrance, he asked for milk.

At the unexpected statement, the master stared at the man in disbelief.

“This isn't a place for little brats, so we don't have anything like tha... t!”

The bald man pushed his fedora back and smiled at the stranger.

But.

“His face... is gone?”

Because he couldn't perceive the man's face at all.

It looked distorted, like an empty void.

“What are you going to do after seeing my face?”

The man's voice as he spoke was strange.

A voice that seemed as though it should come from that hazy face, like a pitch-black black hole shifting through a heat haze.

The master couldn't see his expression, but he could tell the man was smiling.

“...

Are you a villain?”

“Does that matter? What should matter is why I came here.”

Tap. Tap.

The man spoke while tapping the table with his index finger.

At that, the others also began turning their attention toward the man at the lounge bar one by one.

“...

Why did you come to Junk Town?”

“I received a request.”

“A request?”

“A request to clean up Jeju Island's trash.”

“Clean up trash... what the hell are you talking abo──”

Boom!

As though signaling the start of battle, the man slammed his fist into the table and wooden splinters scattered in every direction.

“Enemy attack! We're under attack!!”

The master quickly raised an arm to shield his face from the fragments and shouted, and as though they'd coordinated beforehand, the other Raiders inside the tavern simultaneously rushed outside.

And...

“Eat this, you bastard!”

As if pulling a shotgun from beneath the table, he aimed at the man's chest and pulled the trigger.

Boom! The shot struck directly.

But the man took the entire impact without moving an inch and silently slipped a hand into his inner pocket.

“You call that a shotgun?”

Out came an old-fashioned double-barreled shotgun.

“This is what you call a shotgun.”───!!

The master's body took the shotgun blast head-on and was blown through the tavern wall to the outside.

The man stepped through the hole he'd created into the back of the establishment, spotted the Raiders who had already surrounded the area, and shrugged.

“Maybe because you're like ants, the moment one of your comrades gets hit, you all swarm over immediately.”

For Raiders who had fallen all the way to the bottom even in a lawless place like this, survival was extremely difficult.

That was why they gathered the corpses of dead monsters and piles of trash and built their own city, naming it ‘Junk Town.’

The rule was simple.‘Only trash can help trash.’If a Raider was in danger, another Raider would help.

That was how they survived.

“Kill him!”

At a woman's shout from somewhere, an enormous amount of smoke began pouring from the guns in their hands.

A barrage of gunpowder strong enough to overwhelm even the stench of the junkyard.

The assault continued until every magazine had been completely emptied, then gradually died down.

“Huff, huff, huff.”

Only after firing in a frenzy for a long time did exhaustion finally hit them.

The Raiders waited for the smoke to clear.

And.

“!!”

At last, the man appeared.

With both arms spread wide as though daring them to do more, he had calmly received the bullets and explosions.

There was nothing more than a little dust on his clothes.

He looked completely unharmed.

“Is that all for the welcome?”

At the sight of him tilting his head as if telling them to keep going, the Raiders began hesitantly backing away.

“M-monster! He's a monster!”

Concluding that stopping him with their own strength was impossible, they decided to summon Junk Town's greatest fighting force.

“Call the Cleaners! Ordinary firearms don't work!”

At his shout.

Woooooo────A siren echoed throughout the city, and the Raiders surrounding the faceless man began making way.

Through the gap came a group of five or six people.

Each wore an iron mask that looked as though it had been made from scrap metal.

When they spotted the man standing atop crushed bullets, they clicked their tongues in disbelief.

“Damn it, what kind of mess is this during siesta time?”

“Why the hell did someone like that come to Junk Town?”

“He's after something, obviously.”

“Maybe he's a fixer sent from another district? Fixers usually dress like that.”

Grumbling like that, they soon brought forward the muzzles of their heavy weapons, including the flamethrowers strapped to their backs, and shouted.

“Hey! What the hell are you?!”

“We'll roast you alive.”

At their words, the man clapped as though he'd been waiting for them too and greeted the Cleaners.

“Finally. The Cleaners, Junk Town's true fighting force.”

The man slowly began moving.

The Cleaners watched him warily and prepared for battle.

But the man simply walked as though he had no intention of fighting at all.

Knowing how formidable he was, the tense Cleaners turned their heads to follow his movement.

And at the end of that movement.

He climbed onto the largest motorcycle among those gathered there.

“Idiots. Thanks for clearing the way?”

“What?”

Then he rode straight past the Cleaners and sped into the city.

At the exact moment anyone would've expected a fight, he suddenly ran away.

The Cleaners stared blankly, as though such a situation had never crossed their minds.

The first woman among them to snap back to her senses shouted in alarm.

“What are you doing, you bastards! Run!”

Only then did the Cleaners come to their senses and sprint after the man.

The fact that he was even regulating his speed, as if saying catch me if you can, brought anger to their faces.

But soon, when they saw the direction the man was heading, their expressions hardened.

“...

Isn't that bastard heading for the power plant?”

“The power plant? That's where we were just now!”

“Don't tell me he caused all this just to lure us out?”

Just as they suspected, the man was speeding toward the place Junk Town called its power plant.

“Damn it! I told you someone should stay behind!”

“You were the idiot who said it was boring and we should all go together!”

Inside that place was the core component that had allowed Junk Town to exist in the first place.

“Damn it! Fuck! Get back there!”

“If the power plant gets robbed, we're all dead!! Run!”

Certain of the man's objective, the Cleaners increased their pace.

When they rounded the corner and reached the entrance to the power plant, unconscious guards and wide-open doors greeted them.

“Son of a bitch...! How did he crack the password?!”

The corridor was marked deeply with motorcycle skid marks.

Some doors had been forced open, while others still carried the heavy smell of gunpowder.

Clear evidence that he'd smashed his way through by sheer force and turned the entire place into chaos.

The Cleaners rushed inside the power plant.

But.

“...

Damn it.”

“How the hell did he know it was here...”

And just as their bad feeling had suggested.

The core of the power plant, the ‘Thunder God's Stone,’ which should have been inside the central unit, was gone.

In its place was a crumpled piece of paper stuffed inside.

The woman slowly approached the center, unfolded the paper, and her body began trembling.[Baengnokdam]

The man wanted the Raiders to head to Baengnokdam.

______________

“Junk Town is done too. Can I head back now?”

What I'd done wasn't anything special.

All I did was repeatedly press their berserk button and run away.

“The tangerine farm guys were a little dangerous...”

After I devastated most of the tangerine farm with Tommy equipped with a mana suppressor, Awakened farmers riding horses chased after me with sickles and hoes, and I genuinely almost got caught.

But with this, I'd successfully set Jeju Island's four major factions into motion, so it could be considered profitable.

And considering the items I'd obtained in the process, it was an overwhelmingly profitable deal.[Name: Thunder God's Stone][Rank: Unique][Type: Material][Description: A stone containing the power of the Thunder God. It emits powerful electrical currents on its own and increases elemental affinity.][Name: Golden Tangerine][Rank: Unique][Type: Elixir][Description: A golden tangerine said to grow only once every ten years, and only one at a time, on the oldest among the ghost tangerine trees. Upon consumption, aura and mana recovery speed permanently increases.]

Since I'd told them to come to Baengnokdam if they wanted these back, the other factions would all head there too.

Chuckling at the thought of the scene alone, I returned to the cathedral and found the bishop and Yoon Gwang-su staring at me with dumbfounded expressions.

“The tangerine farm guys and the Raider bastards just sent pigeons. They asked if anything of ours had been stolen too. What the hell have you been doing?”

It had already been six hours since I left after merely saying I would go gather the others at Baengnokdam.

Apparently the other factions had contacted the cathedral too.

“Nothing much? I did something similar to what I did to the cathedral.”

“Something similar?”

I showed her the ‘Thunder God's Stone’ and ‘Golden Tangerine’ as she stared at me in complete confusion.

“Don't you think they'd definitely come if I stole this much?”

“...

Crazy. Sen── Mr. Hitman. You really stole those? Alone?”

“It was easier than I thought.”

For me, who knew their patrol routes, the terrain, and even their security key codes, it was as easy as eating cold porridge.

It would've been stranger if I couldn't rob them.

“If we don't send them any message at all, they'll think we're behind it. We need to say something of ours disappeared too...”

“Same for us. The pigeon one of my apprentices sent said they received a similar message over there.”

“Then say we were hit too. Bishop, you say Ascalon was stolen. Workshop Master, say the secret manual containing Tool Adornment was taken. That much should make them realize, shouldn't it?”

That whoever occupied Baengnokdam would obtain all four treasures.

“...

But will they really come to Baengnokdam? Even if you stole those things and left traces, they could still think it's a trap.”

“If Ascalon were stolen from you and you read a message telling you to come to Baengnokdam, could you really stay away?”

“...

Even if it were a trap, I'd have to go.”

“Exactly. That's why I only took treasures they absolutely have to protect. Only something that important would make them move.”

Saying that, I turned around and looked toward Baengnokdam in the distance.

The countless monsters we'd encounter on the way to Baengnokdam would now be handled by the others.

All we had to do was use the opening and take Fafnir's head.

“Workshop Master. Did you tell the Blue Yaksha Workshop to bring all their forces to the cathedral by tomorrow?”

“I told them clearly.”

“Good. Then everyone should get plenty of rest. Tomorrow, we're going on the real raid.”

A large-scale raid to hunt a dragon(forced participation)

was right around the corner.