Chapter 89

Chapter 89

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 89As though waking from general anesthesia, my vision, which had been completely dark, slowly began to return in a blurry haze.

“What the hell... is this?”

The unpleasant sensation covering my entire body felt very similar to being teleported by a spatial mage, but compared to that, the dizziness and impact were on an entirely different level.

“Ugh, bleeegh! Bleeegh!”

The sound of someone vomiting came from behind me.

Rubbing my dim eyes, I slowly turned my head and saw someone with his head lowered toward the floor, emptying his stomach.

“This fucking bleeegh! Bweeegh!!”

Short blond hair.

As far as I knew, there was only one bastard with hair like that who would swear while vomiting.

“...

Jin-woo. Jin-woo Vivald.”

“Ugh... Boss? Boss, is that you...?”

Perhaps because of the repeated vomiting, Jin-woo turned toward me with unfocused eyes.

“Wh-what the hell happened? What was that impact just now, and why does my stomach bweeegh!!”

“...

I'm figuring that out too.”

My vision still hadn't fully recovered.[Would you like to switch to Night Mode?][ Y / N ]

For now, I changed the [Smart Lens]

to Night Mode and waited for my vision to gradually recover. Little by little, the scenery around me began to come into view.

“...

This place.”

“Why? Why? Where are we?”

Water dripped from the ceiling along stalactites, and stalagmites rose here and there.

The atmosphere was extremely familiar.

“...

A dungeon.”

“What? A dungeon?”

At my answer, he raised his head and slowly looked around.

“Wh-what the hell. This really is a dungeon? Boss, we were just in class a moment ago... Is this even possible?”

Jin-woo rubbed his eyes and muttered blankly as though he couldn't believe it.

There was only one situation where something like this could happen.

“...

Terrorism. The Villain Alliance carried out a terrorist attack.”

“Terrorism? You mean us ending up here is because of terrorism? Does that... make sense?”

“Theoretically, it's entirely possible. You heard it in Dungeon Studies not long ago.”

“Dungeon Studies?”

The method of artificially creating a dungeon by applying tremendous force to a top-grade mana stone.

When a dungeon suddenly forms artificially, spatial coordinates become severely distorted, drawing in nearby living beings and transporting them inside the dungeon.

That was likely the method of terrorism they'd aimed at the Academy.

But according to the original story, their terrorist attack should have happened on the day of the freshman welcome party.

“...

Things have seriously gone off track.”

Was it because Elusive died?

Or because Ratte successfully escaped?

It seemed something had changed because I had begun interfering with the villains' activities.

Even so, since this event always occurred on the day of the ‘freshman welcome party’ in the game, I'd thought there wouldn't be any major problems.

I never imagined they'd come in like this the day before.‘Then was this an independent action... no, maybe they were actually aiming for something else.’“But Boss... doesn't this place look kind of familiar?”

At that moment, Jin-woo, apparently done vomiting, slowly stood and looked around.

“Familiar?”

“Yeah, take a good look. The shapes of the rocks, and even those bugs crawling over there.”

At Jin-woo's words, I examined the surroundings more carefully.

“Now that you mention it... it does feel familiar.”

Suddenly, I remembered the construction site I'd seen on the way to school.

Would there have been any need to dig up the ground during construction?...

Don't tell me.

“They must have entered through the construction site.”

“What?”

The pieces gradually began fitting together.

“Jin-woo, you saw the construction going on when you entered the main building too, right?”

“Ugh, my stomach... What? Construction? Yeah, I saw it. Didn't they put up barriers and start working about two days ago?”

Just as Jin-woo said, the area around the construction site had always been surrounded by temporary walls, making it impossible to properly see inside.

There was also stage construction around this time in the game, so I hadn't paid much attention to it either.

I never imagined they'd use it like that.

“They disguised themselves as construction workers and infiltrated the Academy.”

“What? Even so, there's no way the Academy wouldn't notice something like that.”

Right.

Which meant there were two possible methods.

One was that they used the ability of that bastard who should be with the Villain Alliance by now to deceive the people inside.

And the other was...‘No, let's not think about that yet.’For now, it was nothing more than speculation.

Resolving the current situation came first.

“Anyway, I'm sure they dug a tunnel underneath this place, the Academy.”

“A tunnel?”

The distance between the place where they had been doing construction and the main building where our classroom was located was about five minutes on foot.

Of course, the Academy wasn't weak enough to fall for such a simple operation.

The special materials surrounding the entire area were sturdy enough that something as trivial as a tunnel shouldn't have been possible.

So there was only one person who could make it happen.

The Miner.

A villain with a special ability that could break any ore regardless of hardness.

Only he could have carried out this operation.

“One of the villains who escaped from Niflheim this time is the Miner. With him, they could dig a tunnel beneath the main building within two days. And... they probably created a dungeon artificially right beneath our feet.”

Originally, according to the story, they infiltrated while disguising themselves as heroes who had received invitations, then caused a dungeon to erupt in the middle of the welcome party.

As a result, most of the Academy's students and instructors were swept into the dungeon, and the player was given a quest to rescue the students and deal with the villains here.

To think they'd twist the terrorist attack like this.

I had no choice but to admit we'd taken a hit.

“Huh? Boss, Boss, where are you going!”

As I immediately began walking, Jin-woo hurriedly followed from behind.

“For now, we need to find the other kids who got swept in here. In a situation like this, gathering in one place is the correct answer.”

“Hm? Uh, ah, right.”

“Get your head straight. Jin-woo, this is a real situation.”

After leaving him with that brief warning, I started moving again, and as expected of a dungeon, monsters soon began appearing.

“Boss, those...!”

“Yeah, I see them too.”───! - -! ──!

Insect-type monsters leisurely crawled across the floor.

Ah, don't tell me those are?

And unlike Jin-woo, who looked disgusted at the sight, I felt the corners of my mouth rise slightly.

“To think this would happen...”

“Still, that's fortunate.”

“Hm? This is fortunate?”

Jin-woo tilted his head at my words.

“Yeah, look at them. Don't they seem familiar?”

At that, Jin-woo examined the approaching insects again and finally shouted in realization.

“Ah, no way?”

“Right. This place... looks different, but I think it's our dungeon.”

Our dungeon had also been beneath the Academy, and the dungeon the Miner detonated was beneath the Academy too.

It seemed the two dungeons had mixed together.

Judging by the bizarre rock formations appearing here and there, it was obvious both sides had influenced it.

But the fundamentals weren't that different.

“If this is first-floor difficulty, we don't have to worry about the other kids getting hurt. As long as they cooperate moderately, they should be able to endure. And if even one instructor is with them, they'll be able to move around the surroundings with plenty of room.”

For now, that meant they wouldn't be killed by the monsters.

The artificial dungeon made by the senior clubs was somewhat difficult, but ultimately it was still meant for training.

It might leave trauma, but it wasn't dangerous enough to take lives starting from the first floor.

More importantly, it also meant one of the things the villains had aimed for, monster terrorism, had been neutralized.

They probably never imagined there was already a dungeon beneath the Academy.

In that case, there was only one thing left for us to watch out for.

“...

Prepare for battle.”

“Suddenly?!”

Jin-woo raised his voice in surprise, but thanks to his recent lessons and training, he immediately drew his weapon and assumed a combat stance.

Step─ Step─ Step─The sound of footsteps echoed through the cavern from far away.

I pulled Tommy from the Cube, held it in my left hand, and aimed into the darkness ahead.

The footsteps gradually drew closer.

Jin-woo slowly lowered his body, preparing to spring out at any moment, sweat trickling down his face as the corners of his mouth curled upward.

“You caught that? Boss, even your hearing's monstrous...”

It seemed Jin-woo had heard the footsteps too.

“With footsteps like that... around five adult men? Judging by the clanking noise they're making, they don't sound like ordinary Academy students... Boss, are they villains after all?”

“Most likely.”

Probably villains who had entered this dungeon with us.

Their objective was painfully obvious.

Target Academy students or instructors from behind while they were fighting monsters.

Then we had no choice but to target them first.

“I'll lay down suppressive fire first. During that, you go for the ambush.”

I said that and rolled up my sleeve.

I'd rather not do this in front of the other kids if possible... but given the situation, there was no helping it.

“Got it... huh? What's with that baby bracelet?”

“...

Training equipment.”

A kind of restraint device that hardened the flow of aura.

Using it let me move aura more densely and precisely, but that wasn't what I needed right now.

“We finish this quickly.”

Aura that spread wide and strong.

What I needed right now was my original aura.

“Just knowing what's where is enough.”

I placed my empty hand against the ground and focused my senses.[Activating 「Skill: Aura Sonar」.]

Along with a slight sense of weakness, aura poured from my palm.

The red aura spread widely through the dungeon floor as a medium, allowing me to roughly grasp the terrain, the monsters, and what was located in each direction.

“──Ready.”

Jin-woo gripped his dagger in a reverse grip, poised to charge at any moment.

I wouldn't give a signal.

The gunshots from pulling the trigger would serve as the signal anyway.────!! ────!! ────!! ────!!────!!

The pitch-black cave was instantly filled with flashes of light.

“Ambush!!”

“That's not a normal gun! Get down!”

Apparently none of them knew how to deploy shields, because they dropped flat and began crawling forward.

A few of them seemed to be physical enhancement types and showed signs of trying to stand up recklessly.

“Shh.”

Of course, the moment I stopped firing, Jin-woo rushed them and dealt with those ones.

The others hurriedly tried to respond to Jin-woo suddenly dropping in from above, but the instant I fired precise shots with [Al Capone's Tommy]

, their bodies began dancing in an instant.

And Jin-woo didn't miss the opening, immediately thrusting his dagger toward one man's throat.

“Ghk──.”

A red line appeared across the man's neck as he clutched the wound.

“Yeah, that's right. Hold it tight like that so the blood doesn't spray everywhere.”

Jin-woo kicked the man's body away as though he were pathetic, then immediately rushed toward another.

“Well... looks like I don't even need to step in.”

Hadn't he said he'd recently started receiving lessons from the Vivald Family?

Whether it was the effect of his mentor lessons and Family training, or simply because his opponents were villains, Jin-woo's movements were brutal and without hesitation.

In this regard, he was probably better than Young-je or Se-ah.

“Jenard! You fucking bastarddddd!!”

Another man, seeing his companion fall before his eyes, charged Jin-woo.

The blade came right up to his face, but Jin-woo tilted his head aside with an indifferent expression, showing no fear at all, dodged the blade, then slammed the man straight into the ground.

“Kyaagh!”

“Are you guys really villains? I think the hyungs who trained with me were stronger...”

The ‘hyungs’ he was talking about were probably the regular members of the Vivald Family.

If it was the Vivald Family, which specialized in force among all Families, that was perfectly believable.

More importantly...

“Judging by them, they're just back-alley trash. Looks like they hired a large number of low-level villains just to fill out the headcount.”

“Is that so?”

If you asked whether they were weak enough for first-years to suppress, that wasn't really the case... but it seemed the recent training and mentor lessons he'd gone through had helped.

“Boss, then what should we do? Should we search the surroundings ourselves?”

After dealing with the final man sprawled on the floor with one arm stretched out, Jin-woo turned around and asked.

Dark red blood dripped steadily down the blade of his dagger.

Jin-woo had always only shown a carefree side, but seeing him today, I could clearly feel that he too was growing.

“Let's do that.”

Getting beaten without striking back wasn't my taste.

Shouldn't we repay them from our side too?

“Alright, let's move. We still need to find the others.”