Chapter 95

Chapter 95

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 95“Aaaaaaaaaagh!!”

The bastard screamed from the pain of his arm breaking.

“Ah, I don't plan on killing you anyway, so you don't have to be too scared. I don't want to attract pointless attention by killing you for no reason.”

So.

“For now, let's be satisfied with making sure you can't run away.”

Once again. With a crack─ the Miner's scream echoed across the 10th floor.

After finishing the measures to ensure he could no longer escape, I stood up and brushed the dust from my clothes.

“This should be enough. Don't try anything stupid and stay quietly right there.”

“Urgh...!”

Well, I'll take that as him roughly saying he understands.

After finishing subduing him, I sat on the stairs to cool off a little and examined the ice crystal he'd been watching.

“Oh. Looks like they're almost finished over there too.”

Under the continued barrage, ‘Snow Girl Pa’ finally took a hit and collapsed.

Apparently this wasn't the only worm around, because the last thing I saw was the crawling bastard trying to escape only to be taken down by Jin-woo, after which all the images instantly went dark.

It seemed the images themselves had been produced by ‘Snow Girl Pa's’ ability.

Then they should be coming up soon.

Grgrgrgrgr─At the same time as that thought, the door connected to the floor below slowly began to open.

“Are you sure Eugene's really in danger?”

“Didn't you see me scrambling up through that hole? Boss is fighting the Miner one-on-one!”

“Han Eugene is fighting the Miner alone?...

I'm jealous.”

“Once we go in, the president might still be fighting, so let's check the situation before jumping in... hm? It's quiet?”

“You're late.”

I waved at the kids as they cautiously entered.

“Huh? Boss, you finished before us?”

“See? I told you there was no way Eugene would lose. Why were you making such a fuss? Transfer ten thousand won to me as soon as we get out.”

“...

I shouldn't have bet ten thousand won.”

Apparently, while they were down there, they'd made a bet on whether I would defeat the Miner first.

“Boss, Young-je said that if we defeat the boss here, all the other kids can get out too. Is that right?”

Apparently he'd heard about it on the way up, because Jin-woo asked about the 10th floor.

“That's right. Since the overlapping dungeon phenomenon has occurred, if we defeat the boss, which is practically the main core of the dungeon, the system should naturally create an exit and allow the other kids to get outside as well.”

In the original story too, when the terrorist attack occurred, everyone was released once the dungeon was cleared, so there was a high chance things would proceed similarly here.

“Really? Then there's no reason to drag this out. Can we challenge it right away? What's the raid strategy?”

Young-je asked with an eager expression, fountain pen in hand.

“There's nothing particularly difficult about it. We can make use of that bastard.”

“Hm?”

The kids looked in the direction I pointed.

There lay the Miner, staring blankly with his arms and legs broken.

“We're going to use that half-dead old man? Doesn't look like he could even tank for us...”

Apparently she didn't trust the Miner's miserable appearance, because Se-ah shook her head and muttered.

Realizing what she was worried about, I smiled and said.

“All we need in the end is his body and his pickaxe.”

I walked over to the collapsed Miner, grabbed his tattered clothes, and dragged him beside the entrance leading into the boss room.

“I don't know if this will work here too...”

The activation condition for his ability was to strike the place he wanted to dig with a ‘tool.’

When I forced the pickaxe into his hand and tapped the wall with it, the surface began rippling as though the wall were soft tofu.

“It works?”

That makes things easy.

I immediately punched the softened wall, and a smile naturally formed on my lips as it burst open.

After throwing five or six punches like that.

At last, a new space appeared beyond the wall.

“This should be enough.”

After dumping the Miner, who had now finished his role, into a corner of the dungeon, I gathered the kids and decided to explain what would happen next.

Now, only the boss remained.

“Then, I'll briefly explain the strategy from here. The 10th-floor dungeon is a place called the ‘Stone Coffin(Stone Coffin),’ and a golem waits there as the boss.”

Though since it was the boss of the final floor, it wasn't an ordinary golem.

“The core that moves the golem is the core of this dungeon itself. Since the dungeons have overlapped, it'll be far stronger and harder to deal with than the original golem. Even if all of us went in together like this, we probably wouldn't have a chance of winning.”

Jin-woo, who had been listening quietly, raised his hand.

“Hm? You're saying we wouldn't have a chance even if all of us went in?”

“None. We'd either get swept away the moment it starts or become stains on the floor. The reason is simple. The golem's strength changes according to the number of people who enter the boss room.”

It was a form of difficulty adjustment for players who played solo without party members.

If you challenged it alone, the difficulty became easier. If several people challenged it together, the difficulty became harder.

A simple system.

However, there was a flaw in that system.

“That's why this little hole is important.”

Back when I played Academy as usual in reality, I'd once suddenly wondered about something.‘What would happen if I coaxed the Miner into digging all the way into the dungeon boss room?’The villain ‘Miner’ was practically essential for speedrunning floors 1 through 9.

I'd used him to speedrun dungeons several times, but I'd never once gone directly into the boss room by digging through it. From the 9th floor, where there were no monsters, you could simply run straight to the boss room.

Then one time, when I entered the boss room with him, I discovered something surprising.

The boss couldn't recognize anyone who didn't enter through the main entrance.

The same phenomenon occurred when I came with party members.

If only one person entered through the main entrance while the others entered through abnormal means, the golem's difficulty was adjusted according to the number of people who came through the main entrance. If several people then attacked it together, the dungeon could be cleared at an extremely easy difficulty.

In other words, bug-like gameplay was born.

“No, that actually works? President, how do you even know that?”

Young-je asked, unable to understand my explanation.

“We haven't even cleared this dungeon yet.”

At those words, the other kids also began looking at me.

Apparently they found it strange that I knew the dungeon's strategy in such detail despite never having cleared it before.

Well, I'd prepared insurance for exactly that.

“I told you before that this dungeon was made by the club that used our club room before us, right?”

“Right?”

“And that club disappeared overnight.”

“Well... that's what the ghost story says.”

I looked at the kids listening closely to my story and gave them the answer I'd prepared beforehand.

“They disappeared so quickly, but they still left things behind. While cleaning, I happened to find some of their research materials among the things that were going to be thrown away. It was labeled ‘Error Occurrence.’”

“Oh...”

“There was something like that in the club room?”

Of course, it was a lie.

But apparently my explanation made sense, because the others nodded.

“Now that I've explained that, I should explain the strategy. The method is simple. Three people, including me, enter first and take position. Then when the remaining person enters and the golem stands up, we pour every attack we have into the core. Any questions?”

I swept my gaze across them as I said that, but no one had a question.

“Jin-woo will be the one to open the door and enter. The rest of us will go in first and take our positions. Jin-woo, open the door and enter exactly five minutes from now.”

“Okay. Then I just stand in front of the door, right? I'll open it exactly five minutes from now~”

The four of us entered first through the little hole.

When we emerged from the other end of the hole, we saw an enormous sleeping golem.

“...

It's seriously huge. That thing moves?”

Se-ah was the last to crawl out of the hole, muttering as she brushed off the dust.

Just as she said, the golem was about the size of a two-story building and sat silently in place.

“I'll keep it simple. When the door opens, the golem will open its eyes. At the same time, the core in its chest will begin glowing. That's our opportunity.”

A golem's core was no different from a vital point on a human being.

That was precisely why attacking the core wasn't easy.

“Once the core activates, a shield will form around it. Since it's a shield protecting one of the golem's vital parts, it'll be quite sturdy... but I'll handle that. Se-ah, move us in front of the core. Young-je, put as many buffs as you can on Choi Yeon.”

“...

Me?”

Choi Yeon looked puzzled when her name suddenly came up.

“Right. Once I break the shield, destroy the core in that opening. That's your job.”

Among us, the only one besides me who could properly land a critical blow on the golem's core was Choi Yeon.

But since I had to destroy the shield, Choi Yeon was naturally the only candidate left.

She should definitely be capable of destroying the core.

“Choi Yeon, have you learned the Azure Sky Sword?”

“...

The basics.”

“Then...

you can do it too, right?”

“Yeah. I can.”

“Then that's enough.”

Checking the time on my wrist, I saw that about two minutes remained before Jin-woo entered.

In the meantime, Choi Yeon stood beside me receiving all kinds of buffs from Young-je.

With her eyes quietly closed and her hand gripping the hilt, she looked every bit the swordsman.

“30 seconds.”

Se-ah's voice came as she watched the clock.

I began forcing aura into my gloves as though pounding it into them in preparation.

As if I were cramming all the aura I had left into this one strike.

As I forcibly began imbuing the gloves with aura, [Midas's Gloves]

gradually began turning red.

“10 seconds!”[Bloodline Ability: 「Calione」 dominates 「Midas's Gloves」.]

Seeing the message I'd been waiting for appear, I smiled slightly and looked at the knuckles resting over my hand.

Unlike before, when they had merely formed the shape of knuckles, sparks were now erupting around my right hand from the repulsive force.

“5 seconds!”

I grabbed my right wrist with my left hand and prepared my strongest strike.

“1 second!”

At that moment, Jin-woo's voice came from the entrance.

“Boss, I just come in like this?”

At that instant, the golem's closed eyes flashed open and the core in its chest activated, blazing brightly.

“I'll move you!”

At the same time, Se-ah's mana wrapped around Choi Yeon and me, and the scenery changed.

In an instant, Choi Yeon and I were moved up to the golem's eye level.

“Choi Yeon! Get ready!!”

Leaving Choi Yeon behind me with her eyes still closed, I twisted my waist and swung toward the green barrier surrounding the core.

Kigig kigigigigig──!!

As the repulsive force from my fist began hammering against the shield, cracks began appearing across its seemingly solid surface.

Then Choi Yeon's voice came from behind me.

“──I'm ready.”

“Blow it away!!”

Crash!

At last, as the shattered shield revealed the purple core beyond it, Choi Yeon quietly murmured.

“Genesis Sword(Sword of Creation).”──Dawn arrived.