Chapter 61

Chapter 61

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 61Kwak Chun-sik.

A man called the ‘Aura Master’ overseas, ranked among the very best in the world when it came to utilizing abilities related to aura.

After retiring from being a hero, he killed a villain as an ordinary Awakened and received a three-year sentence in Niflheim, but considering his past record and the fact that he had grudges with most of the inmates imprisoned in Niflheim.

He was instead sentenced to three years of confinement at an Awakened care facility in Gangwon Province called ‘Hero Silver Town.’

Currently, rumors were circulating that he'd become senile...‘A rumor Kwak Chun-sik himself spread.’And it wasn't difficult to guess why.

It was probably to keep annoying flies from clinging to him, while gradually reducing his own presence.

For a hero, presence was a symbol of honor, but it also meant making that many enemies.

“Well, that'll all become meaningless too.”

Inside the helicopter heading toward Gangwon Province.

I muttered to myself while looking down at the vast forests of Gangwon Province spread below.

Before heading to Gangwon Province, I stopped by the Academy and received Ji Su-hyeon's recommendation letter, submitted the ‘Mentor Learning Application,’ then immediately borrowed the family's helicopter and headed toward ‘Hero Silver Town.’

All of this was to prepare for the events that would happen later.

“It should be today, right?”

At this hour, news that those guys had escaped Niflheim should be starting to spread.

I took out my phone and checked a news channel.[Breaking news. A group of villains sentenced to permanent imprisonment in Niflheim have escaped. There are five of them in total, including ‘Bloody Clown,’ who once operated throughout the United States, as well as a Korean villain...]

The event signaling the true beginning of CS.

The main story was still tied to Academy club requests for now, but before long, major incidents would begin erupting one after another, throwing this world into chaos.

And to survive in a world like that...

“I need to become stronger.”

I had to become stronger than anyone else.

That was why I had chosen Kwak Chun-sik as my mentor.[Young Master. We've arrived.]The pilot's voice came through the headset after landing at ‘Hero Silver Town.’

“Good work. I'll contact you when I'm heading back.”

I took off the headset and stepped outside. A bespectacled man who seemed to have been waiting in advance smiled and bowed.

“I heard from the Academy. Are you Han Eugene? My name is Yoo Seok-hoon, and I work as a caregiver here at ‘Hero Silver Town.’”

Since I had come here strictly as an ‘Academy cadet,’ I also bowed with a businesslike smile so as not to be rude in response to his greeting.

“Yes, that's correct. I'm Han Eugene, a first-year at Seoul Hero Academy. Is Mr. Kwak Chun-sik... inside?”

“Ah, yes. He seemed quite interested when he heard an Academy cadet was coming. Normally, outside visits are not permitted for those whose confinement sentences have been finalized... but since this concerns the Academy, permission was granted. He's in the visitation room now, so please follow me.”

As he headed toward the visitation room with me, he enthusiastically began explaining the facilities and advantages of the place, but since it felt like he was reciting settings I'd already seen several times in the game, I let most of it go in one ear and out the other while giving appropriate responses.

Before long, we arrived in front of a building.

“Hahaha! I wish there were more people like you, Eugene, who care about retired heroes. Ah, we've arrived. This is the visitation room.”

We had reached the visitation room before I knew it.

When I opened the door, which looked like the entrance to a high-end café, I saw an old man sitting inside.

Even as he drank ssanghwa tea, his thin hands trembled while lifting the cup, his shoulders drooped, and his hair had turned completely white.

He was the mentor I'd been looking for, Kwak Chun-sik.

“It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. My name is Han Eugene.”

After glancing behind me and confirming Yoo Seok-hoon had left, I immediately sat across from Kwak Chun-sik.

There wasn't a single other person inside the visitation room, all thanks to ‘Yoo Seok-hoon’ voluntarily being considerate toward me.

“An Academy cadet, I see.”

Still drinking his ssanghwa tea, he slowly lowered the cup and stared at me.

Unlike his frail-looking body, his eyes carried an extremely deep and powerful force.

He slowly opened his mouth.

“So, you're the one who asked to see me?”

“That is correct, sir.”

Saying that, I took Ji Su-hyeon's recommendation letter from my inner pocket and carefully slid it toward him.

“This is Instructor Ji Su-hyeon's recommendation letter asking you to accept me as your mentee.”

Kwak Chun-sik looked at the purple envelope placed before him, then let out a hollow “Hah!”

“Ji Su-hyeon... that child wrote a recommendation letter? You must be quite an interesting fellow.”

I didn't answer, merely smiled.

He turned his gaze back down, took out the recommendation letter, and read it.

Soon, a booming “Kwahahahaha!” burst from him.

“As expected, this recommendation letter is just like her.”

Saying that, Kwak Chun-sik placed the recommendation letter in front of me.

It contained the following.[Old man, you'll regret it if you don't take this kid. He's talented, so train him once with the mindset that you're having one last burst of life before death.]...

That crazy bitch.

Who the hell writes a recommendation letter like this?

“So, according to this, you came all the way to Gangwon Province to make me your mentor?”

“That is correct.”

When he immediately got to the point, I nodded and answered.

But Kwak Chun-sik waved his hand dismissively.

“To ask a retired old man to be your mentor. I'm grateful you came all this way to see me... but I can barely take care of this old body. How am I supposed to take responsibility for a disciple too? I have no intention of taking on any disciples, so go back.”

As he waved me away with exactly the answer I'd expected, I met his eyes and slowly opened my mouth.

“If I leave now, your entire family will die.”

“...

What?”

At the same time, the air around us turned ice-cold.

“Child, are you threatening me right now?”

Blue flames gathered in his eyes.

The moment I brought up his family's lives, he released this much pressure, and he thought the rumor about him being senile would work?

“I'm not threatening you. I came to help. Didn't you watch the news today?”

“Of course I did. I heard two of the bastards I once captured escaped Niflheim. Are you saying that incident is connected to what you just mentioned?”

“Yes. Before long, they're planning to attack this place where you are. With ‘the Miner’ leading them.”

Bang!

The table in front of us collapsed with a loud crash.

Kwak Chun-sik had slammed it.

“Fine, child. Let's say everything you said is true. Then how do you know that? It hasn't even been a full day since those bastards escaped, so how does a mere Academy cadet know their objective and target?”

He was clearly suspicious.

It was information far too significant for an ordinary Academy cadet to know.

And since that information had come out of my mouth less than half a day after the escape, it was understandable for him to think that way.

“Because I'm exceptional.”

“What? Are you trying to joke around with me right now... Huh.”

Kwak Chun-sik's words stopped.

Because he had seen the reddish aura around my hand.

“...

A grotesquely destructive red aura. I've seen energy like that once before.”

His gaze slowly moved from my arm to my face.

“...

Who are you?”

As expected, I trusted that he would recognize it immediately.

“──Vito Calione.”

His eyes trembled.

“The head and boss of the Calione Family. The man called Don, Don Vito Calione. He is my father.”

“...

So that's what it was.”

I bowed my head toward him and introduced myself once more.

“Allow me to introduce myself again. I am Han Eugene Calione, a first-year student of Seoul Hero Academy and heir to the Calione Family. I sincerely apologize for not giving you my proper name when we first met.”

About five seconds passed.

With a scraping sound, something slid toward me.

When I slowly raised my head, I saw Kwak Chun-sik wrapping a new table from the corner in aura and pulling it over to us.

What monstrous control.

“...

I suppose your story is worth hearing.”

The aura surrounding the table gradually disappeared as though being absorbed back into Kwak Chun-sik's body.

Kwak Chun-sik sat back down in his original seat and crossed his legs.

“So, the information you mentioned came through Calione's information network?”

It was information I knew from the game, but I nodded and let him assume that.

It wasn't as though Calione wouldn't know information like this anyway.

“That is correct. However, this information was never brought here as part of a transaction.”

“...

If it wasn't information brought for a deal, then why did you tell me?”

“This is... a sort of gift. Something to make a good impression. Isn't this what you value most above all else?”

Saying that, I once again raised a faint red aura over my hand.

“Don't you want to train me?”

I could guarantee it.

He was absolutely the type of man who couldn't leave tempting talent alone.

If you raised your affinity with him in the game, he would tell the player various stories.「There aren't any kids in Korea these days who have awakened aura. What a shame...」After hearing that, I once created a new aura-user concept character and visited him again.

Then he would say this.「Would you be interested in learning Aura Style

from me?」Right.

He was an NPC hiding a job quest that allowed the player to change into a kind of hidden class.

And that wasn't all.

True to his reputation as one of the greatest heroes of the past, there was another hidden event that unlocked once you mastered Aura Style under him...「The greatest talent I ever saw was ‘Calione.’ Hm? Yes, yes, the very Vito Calione of the Calione Family you're thinking of.」「That boy had no teacher. By the time I first saw him, his aura had already changed according to his own methods. Had I met him earlier, he could have reached even greater heights... truly regrettable...」「Hm? Then how did Calione reach that level? Hahaha! Isn't that obvious? Even without aura, he's strong because he is ‘Vito Calione.’ Who knows? If his son grows up and comes looking for me someday... I might even be able to make him surpass his father.」Normally, players used this information as a stepping stone to攻略 Vito Calione.

But right now, I was ‘that’ Calione.

Then what I had to do was practically decided.

Aura was like water, changing depending on how and along what path it was used from childhood.

And the old man standing before me was an authority who could be called the world's greatest when it came to aura.

“I want to learn Aura Style.”

A fresh, green newbie had appeared before him.

And on top of that, someone possessing ‘that’ ability that had astonished him in the past had come to him personally, asking to learn his techniques.

If he truly was an old veteran of the hero world, could he really resist training me?