Chapter 22

Chapter 22

I Became the Academy Mafia, Chapter 22“Damn it!”

Thanks to that freshman causing a commotion inside the sparring arena, everyone’s attention around here began gathering in this direction.

A freshman who didn’t know his place had issued a ‘Challenge,’ so I had planned to use this opportunity to raise our club’s standing...‘This is dangerous.’Yeah, this was a truly dangerous situation.

I never imagined he would fight this well against our club members.

No, he’s a freshman?! He’s a newly admitted freshman, isn’t he? Then where the hell did an absurd monster like that come from?[If you don’t want your club shut down, get in here right now, you bastard.]

His voice echoed from the speakers connected to the sparring arena.

Anyone could tell that the statement was openly targeting our ‘Fund Investment Club.’‘He’s blatantly provoking us!’He was clearly trying to drag us into a mudslinging fight.

How, how the hell did things end up like this?

The groundwork for attacking the ‘International Trade Club’ this time had been perfect.

We would bribe the people recruited by the International Trade Club and make the other side attack us first, securing both image and justification, then counterattack using the personnel we had prepared in advance! After that, we would subjugate the ‘International Trade Club’ under us and use our financial power to monopolize distribution within the Academy!

If everything went according to this plan, our club’s future would be smooth sailing.

But.

That bastard, that freshman, was the problem.

What? The ‘International Trade Club’ belongs to him? And he even called in this many spectators?

Haven’t we completely fallen into a trap instead!

On top of that.

“Wow, even if they’re a non-combat club, they’re losing to a single first-year?”

“Looks like the Fund Investment Club is screwed when it comes to recruiting freshmen this time.”

“There sure are a lot of interesting things to watch today.”

Of all days, today was the day we were trying to win over other clubs.‘Damn it, why are you looking at me like that! Stop looking at me like that!’The meaning behind those gazes was far too obvious.‘Huh? Maybe they’re not as impressive as we thought? At this level, maybe we could take them too?’ Their eyes were filled with greed and ridicule.

At this rate, forget the ‘International Trade Club,’ we were going to lose our limbs first.

The priority was to somehow reverse this atmosphere.

Pretending to naturally brush back my hair, I wiped away the sweat and forced the corners of my mouth upward.

For now, I had to look as calm as possible──“──Senior, are you the president of the ‘Fund Investment Club’?”

“Hmm?”

I turned at the voice calling me and saw a guy with glasses and an impassive expression.

Judging by the color of his name tag... a first-year?

“What does a first-year want? Sorry, but we’re not recruiting freshmen right now.”

“...

That’s not it. Our president inside told me to give you this.”

“What?”

The bespectacled guy said that and handed me a document envelope.

“And he said that if you don’t enter the sparring arena immediately, he’ll reveal this to everyone here.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’ve delivered everything my president told me to say. Then, I’ll be going.”

“What? Wait!”

After saying only what he wanted to say, the guy turned around and walked off somewhere.

Wondering who the hell he was, I opened the document envelope, and the paper inside came into view.

“Huh?”

The moment I checked its contents, I immediately closed the envelope again.

Wait, why is this here?

“President? W-what’s wrong all of a sudden?”

“...”

“What the hell did that guy give you?”

The other members were saying something, but none of it entered my ears.

Of course it didn’t. How the hell was I supposed to tell them that inside this envelope was evidence proving we had been embezzling small amounts of our investors’ money all this time! Why, why the hell was this here...

Only then did everything click into place in my head.

Why had so many students gathered at this sparring arena?

Why had the guy who just handed me the ledger called that freshman inside the sparring arena his president?

Why was that guy staring at us right now with such composure?

“This is fucking bullshit...! You goddamn rookie!”

He had been planning to create this situation from the very beginning.

A situation where our corruption could be exposed in front of everyone.

A situation where all of us had no choice but to attack him!

But it wasn’t over yet. His move was only check, not checkmate.

First, I had to escape this check.

“...

Instructor. Can every member of the ‘Fund Investment Club’ enter now?”

“Right now? Well... the ‘Challenge’ was issued against your club, so there’s no problem under the school rules.”

No matter what method I had to use, I had no choice but to shut that bastard’s mouth.

_______________

...That’s probably what he’s thinking.

They say people who don’t understand chess don’t even realize they’re finished until checkmate is declared. They looked exactly like that.

You could tell just from those murderous expressions.

Are those faces supposed to belong to aspiring heroes rather than villains?

Still, it wasn’t like I could criticize them for it. In the end, this was a side effect of the Academy system having become far too stagnant.

That was probably why such a scenario existed in the first place.

The moment they entered, a red aura began wrapping around my body. [Bloodline: Calione]

had begun reacting after recognizing everyone who entered the sparring room as enemies.

A sense of exhilaration on an entirely different level from before. I steadied my breathing so I wouldn’t become intoxicated by that euphoria and glared at the guys charging straight at me.

Spears, axes, gauntlets, swords.

They were charging at me alone with all kinds of unique weapons, ready to kill.

But.

“Too late.”

If you were going to come at me, you should have done it before all my skills reached their peak.

A hand axe came down toward my shoulder.

Judging that an attack of that level wouldn’t deal much damage, I took the hit and charged toward him.

A single-point breakthrough to escape the encirclement.

He looked shocked that I was still charging despite him swinging the hand axe, but my fist was already about to have some intimate contact with his face.

Baaang───!

With a violent sound, his body flew backward as though struck by an explosion. At the same time, I spun and threw a backfist.

The guy behind me hurriedly raised his guard in surprise, but with a crack! my fist smashed straight through it and struck his jaw.

At once, he collapsed to the ground as though he had been given a sleeping pill.

“You fucking idiots! Don’t block him, dodge!”

“How the hell are we supposed to dodge attacks like that! Fuck, he just takes every hit while punching back!”

Just as the guy shouted indignantly, there was no exchange rate to speak of in the first place.

Their attacks barely made me itch or hurt a little, while every single one of my attacks was nearly fatal.

“Don’t fucking fight him, idiots! This is a ‘Challenge’! If we lose, we have to write a consent form for some clueless bastards!”

Apparently he hated the idea of giving up a consent form, which was practically a guarantee, because the president angrily shouted at the mercenaries.

“Everyone fall back! We’ll attack from range!”

“Protect the mages and archers!”

At the mercenary captain’s order, the guys retreated and began reorganizing their formation.

As the front line opened, four people came into view.

Judging by what they held, there seemed to be two archers and one mage among them.

Were they planning to wear down my stamina with ranged attacks before fighting me again?

Thinking it was an extremely orthodox method, I looked at the guys before me.

“Fire!”

At the command, arrows and fireballs began flying toward me.

The mercenary captain’s command wasn’t wrong. If anything, he deserved praise for calmly thinking of such a textbook method in this situation.

However, textbook methods only worked within the bounds of common sense.

I ignored the arrows that arrived first, trusting in my body’s durability, then reached out with my right hand toward the fireball and crushed it in my grip.

The spell exploded and vanished, generating an enormous gust of wind from the backlash.

As a result, the remaining arrows lost their trajectories and flew off in strange directions.

“He... crushed magic with his bare hand without taking any damage?”

The mercenary captain stared blankly at me as though he had seen something unbelievable.

In reality, it was possible because of the [Midas’s Gloves]

on my hands, but there was no way he could know that.

“I gave you one turn, so now it’s my turn to go in.”

I stomped down and leaned my center of gravity forward.

“Front line! Block hiiiiim!!”

The guys at the front clustered together and extended their weapons to stop me. It was a movement reminiscent of a phalanx stopping cavalry.

But their opponent wasn’t cavalry.

I leaped with all my strength right in front of them.

“Huh?”

It was already too late to stand there looking blank.

I descended straight toward the ground and unleashed a rolling thunder kick at the president, who was being protected by mercenaries and other club members.

The kick, its physical force amplified by gravity and centrifugal force, slammed directly into the top of his head.

Booom!

“Kgh!”

With a tremendous sound that made me wonder whether it had really come from a human head, the president collapsed into place.

After confirming that he had completely lost consciousness, I looked around and spoke.

“Your client has fallen. What are you going to do?”

At that, the mercenary captain appeared through the crowd.

“...

An enemy charges at you and you just stand there blankly watching. What a stupid bastard.”

Clicking his tongue while looking at the president lying on the ground, he turned around.

“Our ‘Fortune Soldier Club’ is done here. With the client in that state, I don’t think there’s anything more we can do.”

He slowly began walking toward the entrance of the sparring arena. The other mercenaries tried to follow him, but───“What kind of nonsense are you talking about, Senior?”

The guys stopped at the sound of my voice.

“What?”

The mercenary captain turned only his head to look at me. I chuckled at him and said.

“I was only asking whether you wanted to get hit without resisting, or get hit while resisting.”

Because I planned to clean up everyone.

“...

You fucking bastard.”

His expression crumpled at my words.

As he tightened his grip on the handle of his unique weapon, I crooked a finger at him.

“Lunch break is coming soon, so let’s finish this quickly.”

I was starting to get hungry.

_______________

“No, how does one person wipe out that many people without sweating even a drop?”

Jin-woo, who had been about to hand me a towel as I stepped out of the sparring arena, looked utterly bewildered.

“That’s just how administrative-type clubs are. Even you could’ve done it.”

“Huh? I don’t think so. And aren’t those guys lying over there mercenaries?”

Jin-woo shuddered as he looked at the guys sprawled across the sparring room.

“Judging by their skills, they were probably cheap mercenaries even within the mercenary clubs. Maybe they decided there was no reason to spend that much money just to deal with me.”

“...

Then the other side completely screwed up?”

“Well, yeah.”

Passing Jin-woo, I looked toward the male instructor standing at the sparring arena control panel.

“It looks like I won the Challenge. May I receive the Gold Club consent form?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. They happened to leave this with me before they entered the sparring arena. Here, take it.”

“Thank you.”

By receiving the Gold Club consent form from the male instructor, I had fulfilled every condition Ji Su-hyeon demanded.

“Instructor, I’ve fulfilled all the conditions you gave me. May I ask you to handle the next step?”

“Ha, you seriously crazy bastard. I thought maybe, just maybe, but I never expected you to actually pull this off.”

Ji Su-hyeon took the consent forms I handed her and waved them lightly with a smile.

“Fine, you kept your promise, so I should keep mine too, right? I’ll go settle things with the Student Council, so go eat lunch.”

Ji Su-hyeon left the sparring room while fanning herself with those precious consent forms.

As I watched her back and finally felt relieved that it was over────Buzzz ──Buzzz.

The phone in my pocket began vibrating fiercely.

“...

What’s this?”【Hidden Quest Complete!】[A Club in One Night][You have succeeded in establishing a club in a single day for the first time in Academy history. This achievement will forever be recorded in the Academy.][Reward: Smart Lens]

“As expected, an event this big comes with a Hidden Quest. But, Smart Lens?”

At the same time, I began feeling a sharp pain as though cleaning solution had been poured into my eyes.

I squeezed my eyes shut and endured the pain for about ten seconds.

When the stinging in my corneas finally began to subside, I opened my eyes and a new sight unfolded before me.【(NEW)

Main Story Opened!】[You have brought a new wind to the Academy! By establishing a new club, you have begun writing your own new history! Successfully lead your club and promote it to a Silver Club!][Completion Condition: Complete 5 club requests!][Requests Completed: 0 / 5][※Completion rewards may vary depending on the result.]

“Boss? Are you okay?”

“...

It’s nothing.”

As though I had entered a VR game, the notification windows that I had previously only been able to see through my smartphone were now floating in the air in a translucent state.

Various interface windows and numbers appeared at the edge of my vision.

The interfaces were perfectly reproduced, as though a smartphone were floating in midair.

It had always been pretty annoying to get strange looks whenever I stared at my phone in front of other people, but if they appeared like this, I wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.

More than anything, what stood out the most was that a new [Main Story]

had opened.

I had been worried because no Main Story had appeared since the deserted island, but fortunately, it seemed I was still on the right path.

“But how do I turn this off?”

I moved my eyes around and thought about turning off my smartphone screen, and the windows in front of me disappeared.

Fortunately, it seemed I could turn them on and off at will. I probably wouldn’t have to worry about them obstructing my vision during battle.

“So it’s really over now! We can create the club now, right?”

Se-ah and Young-je, who had been watching the battle from the spectator seats, approached me.

“Yeah, the instructor said she’d handle the rest, so now we just need to wait.”

Judging by the Main Quest window I had just seen, the creation of the club was practically confirmed.

All that remained now was for Lee Haru to crush the ‘Fund Investment Club’ in a Club War.

This spar would cause both the reputation and value of the ‘Fund Investment Club’ to plummet, so with Lee Haru’s abilities, it shouldn’t be difficult.────♬The Academy bell rang, announcing that the club tour period had ended and lunch break had begun.

The sound almost seemed to announce the end of the battle over the consent forms, long if you called it long, short if you called it short.