Chapter 22
“Shit!”
All eyes were on them, thanks to that freshman who was causing a scene in the gym.
A freshman who didn’t even know fractions had issued a ‘challenge’ and was trying to use this opportunity to raise his club’s profile…….
‘It’s dangerous.’
Yes, it was indeed dangerous.
They didn’t expect him to be able to fight so well against the members of their club.
I mean, he’s a freshman! How is he so strong!?
[Get in here now, asshole, if you don’t want to get your ass kicked].
His voice booms from the loudspeaker connected to the training center.
He’s speaking to anyone who will listen and taking shots at their ‘Fund Investment Club’.
‘He’s provoking me!’
It was clear that he was betting on a fight against them.
How the hell did we get to this point?
The outline for the “International Trade Club” raid was perfect.
They would buy off the recruits from the International Trade Club, let them attack first, save face, and use the people they’ve already prepared to counterattack! Then they’ll bring the International Trade Club under their umbrella and use their financial power to monopolize distribution in the school!
With this plan, their club would have a solid foundation.
But that freshman was the problem.
What, he’s claiming ownership of the International Trade Club, and he’s even brought in a bunch of bystanders?
It’s like they were being backstabbed!
Also,
“Wow, even a non-combat club can lose to a freshman?”
“I guess the Fund Investment Club didn’t deserve freshmen.”
“Wow, there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on today.”
It just so happened that today was club recruitment day.
‘Damn it, why are you looking at me like that? Don’t look at me like that!’
The meaning of the stare was very clear.
The greedy, sneering glances that said, “Huh? They weren’t as tough as we thought they were, and if they can do this, we can do it too.”
At this rate they would be eliminated before they could act against the International Trade Club.
The first thing he needed to do was to turn the tables.
He wiped the sweat off his face by pretending to run his hands through his hair, then pulled the corners of his mouth up.
For now, he tried to keep his face as nonchalant as possible──
“──You must be the president of the Fund Investment Club.”
“Um?”
Hearing the voice calling him, he turned around and saw a guy wearing glasses with a blunt expression. Judging from the color of his name tag,……he must be a first-year.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for new students.”
“……My president told me to give you this.”
“What?”
The guy with the glasses says, and hands him a briefcase.
“And he said that if you don’t get in the arena right away, he’ll release this to everyone in here.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’ve told you everything the boss told me to tell you, so I’ll leave you to it.”
“What? Wait!”
He said what he had to say, then turned and walked away.
Puzzled by his identity, he opened the briefcase to reveal the paper inside.
“Huh?”
He looked at the contents and immediately closed the envelope again.
Wait, why is this here?
“President, what’s wrong?”
“…….”
“What the hell did he give you?”
The other members of the club muttered something, but he couldn’t hear them.
How the hell am I supposed to tell him that what’s in the envelope is proof that we’ve been embezzling investors’ money bit by bit all this time! What the hell, what the hell is this…….
And there it was, all organized in his head.
Why are all these students gathered here in this great hall?
Why did the guy who handed him the ledger just now call that freshman in the arena his president?
Why is he looking at them now, as if he’s very relaxed?
“You fucking……”
He’d been trying to set up a situation where he could spill the beans in front of everyone, a situation where they had no choice but to do as he said.
But it’s not all over yet. It’s only a check, not a mate.
First, they must be unchecked.
“All members of the Fund Investment Club, may we begin now?”
“Now? Well, the……’challenge’ was directed at your club, so I don’t see a problem with the rules.”
Whatever it takes to get him to shut up.
* * *
They speak about things that they do not know and think it’s only check but the game it’s already over.
Looking at the way they live they resemble villains not heroes. But I couldn’t blame them, after all, they were the scourge of the academy system.
That’s where the scenario came from.
As they entered, a red aura began to form around my body. Recognizing them all as enemies, the [Bloodline: Corleone] began to react.
It was a different kind of high than before as I catch my breath to keep myself from getting drunk on this ecstasy and glare at the men charging at me.
Spears, axes, gauntlets, swords, they come at me with a variety of unique weapons, ready to die just to hit me once.
“Too late.”
If they were going to charge, they should have done it before all my skills peaked.
A hatchet slams down on my shoulder and figuring it wouldn’t do much damage, I returned the blow and charged at him.
I used one point to break the encirclement.
He was surprised to see me charging at him even though he was wielding a hatchet, but my fist was about to make contact with his face.
Paang───!
With a violent sound, his body is sent flying backwards as if hit by a bomb. At the same time, I spun around and did a backspin punch.
The guy behind me is surprised and raises his guard, but with a boom, I break his guard and my fist connects with his jaw as he falls to the ground like he’s been hit with a sleeping pill.
“Fucking assholes, don’t try to block, dodge!”
“How the fuck am I supposed to dodge an attack like that?”
They cried out in frustration but unlike their attacks, which only itched or hurt a little bit, each one of mine was close to fatal.
“Don’t fight, morons, it’s a ‘challenge,’ and if you lose, we’ll have to give them our club agreement!”
The club leader shouted angrily at the mercenaries, not wanting to give them a written agreement as a guarantee.
“Everyone get back! We’re going for ranged attacks!”
“Protect the mages and bowmen!”
The mercenaries fell back at the captain’s order and began to form up. Then, four figures emerged from the ranks.
Judging by the objects in their hands, they appeared to be two archers and a mage.
I wondered if they were going to use ranged attacks to drain my health first and then fight me in close range.
That’s a pretty standard tactic, I thought, and looked at the guys in front of me.
“Fire!”
With that command, arrows and fireballs start flying at me.
The mercenary captain’s order was not wrong. In fact, he should be commended for calmly coming up with an orderly method in such a situation. However, such methods are only as good as their common sense.
First, I ignored the arrows at hand, trusting in the durability of my body, and then extended my right hand toward the fireball and squeezed it.
The magic recoils and explodes in a gust of wind, dissipating and in the aftermath, the other arrows are disoriented and sent flying in strange directions.
“You can squeeze magic……with your bare hands without getting hurt?”
The mercenary captain stares at me in disbelief. In fact, it was only possible because of the [Midas Gloves] on my hands, but I didn’t expect him to know that.
“Since you’ve attacked once it’s my turn now.”
I stepped forward and tilted my body’s axis forward.
“Form up! Block!”
The men in front of me bunched up and extended their weapons forward to block me, like a phalanx blocking a cavalryman. But they weren’t facing horsemen.
I leap upward with all my might, right in front of them.
“Huh?”
Then I plummet to the ground, unleashing a rolling thunder kick at the leader, who is protected by mercenaries and other club members.
The kick, which uses gravity and centrifugal force to increase its physical power, slams into his skull.
Quang!
“Kaboom!”
The sound is so loud that I wonder if it really came from his head.
The club president falls to the ground with a loud crash and after confirming that he’s completely stunned, I look around and open my mouth.
“You’ve got a client to protect, what are you going to do?”
The mercenary leader pushes his way through the crowd.
“An……enemy is charging at us and you stand there and don’t even see it, you stupid bastard.”
He berates the man on the ground and turns to face me.
“So much for the Fortune Soldier Circle. I don’t see what else we can do with a client like that.”
He walks slowly toward the entrance of the arena and at the sight of him, the other mercenaries try to follow suit, but───
“What nonsense are you talking about, senior?”
Hearing my voice, they stop in their tracks.
“What?”
The mercenary leader turns his head to look at me. I smirked at him and said.
“I was just asking if you’d like to be beaten or if you’d like to resist.”
I said, trying to clear the air.
“You …… asshole.”
His face crumples at my words.
I snap my fingers at him as he grips the handle of his unique weapon even tighter.
“Let’s get this over with, it’s lunchtime soon.”
Because I’m starting to get hungry.
* * *
“No, how can a man wipe out that many people and not break a sweat?”
Jin-woo, who was about to hand me a towel as I walked out of the arena, gave me a wry look.
“That’s what clerical clubs are supposed to do. Even you could have done it.”
“Eh? I don’t think so. Besides, aren’t those guys stretched out over there mercenaries?”
Jin-woo shrugged as he looked at the group stretched out in the arena.
“Judging by their skills, they’re probably cheap labor in the mercenary circles. Maybe they figured they didn’t need to spend that much money to deal with me in the first place.”
“…… Then they made a complete mistake, didn’t they?”
“Well, yeah.”
I look past Jin-woo to the male instructor standing at the stall in the arena.
“Since I seem to have won the challenge, may I have the Gold Agreement?”
“Huh? Uh, yeah. They just happened to leave this with me before they entered the arena. Here, take it.”
“Thanks.”
By taking the Gold Club’s consent form from Instructor Nam, I had fulfilled all of Ji-hyun’s requirements.
“Instructor, I’ve fulfilled all of your requirements. May I ask for the next one?”
“Ha, you’re crazy. I never thought you’d actually do this.”
Ji-hyun takes the agreements from me, waves them around, and smiles broadly.
“Okay, since you kept your promise, I’ll keep mine, too. I’m going to go talk to the student council guys, so go eat your lunch.”
Ji-hyun leaves the room, fanning herself with the precious agreements.
I was relieved that it was finally over when I saw the back of her head.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
The cell phone in my pocket began to vibrate violently.
“……?”
[Hidden Quest Complete!
[One Night Circle]
[You have succeeded in creating a club in a single day for the first time in the history of the Academy, and this history will be recorded in the Academy forever]
[Reward: Smart Lens]
“As expected, an event of this magnitude has a hidden quest, eh, Smart Lens?”
At the same time, I began to feel a stinging pain, as if I had put a cleaning solution in my eyes.
I closed my eyes tightly and endured the pain for about 10 seconds and just when I thought the throbbing in my cornea had subsided, I opened my eyes to see a new landscape.
(NEW) Main story now available!
[You’ve brought new life to the Academy! By founding a new club, you’ve written your own history! Lead your club to success and upgrade it to Silver rank!]
[Achievement condition: Complete 5 club requests!]
[Number of Requests Completed: 0 / 5]
[*Achievement rewards may change depending on the results]
“Boss, are you okay?”
“……Yeah.”
As if I was in a VR game, the notification window that I could only see on my smartphone was translucent and floating in the air.
There were multiple interface windows and numbers in the corner of my vision.
The interfaces are perfectly reproduced, as if the phone is floating in the air.
It was quite annoying to feel like I was being looked at strangely whenever I was looking at my phone in front of other people, but with this display, I didn’t have to worry about that anymore.
First and foremost, the most noticeable change is the new Main Story.
I was worried that the main story hadn’t opened since Desert Island, but apparently I was on the right track.
“But how do I turn it off?”
I rolled my eyes and thought about turning off my smartphone’s screen, and the windows in front of me disappeared.
Luckily, I could turn it off and on at will so I won’t have to worry about it interfering with my vision in battle.
“This is really over! We can start a club now, right?”
Se-ah and Young-jae, who had been watching the battle from the bleachers, came up to me.
“Yeah, the instructor said she’d take care of the rest, so now we just have to wait.”
Based on the main quest I had just seen, the creation of the club was a foregone conclusion.
Now all that remained was for Haru to crush the Fund Investment Club in the club competition.
It shouldn’t be difficult with her abilities, as this battle would not only destroy the Fund Investment Club’s reputation, but also its value.
────♬
The academy bell rang, signaling the end of the club tour and the start of lunch.
It was as if the sound signaled the end of a short battle for the agreement form.
