048 – The Prisoners Are Too Strong #1
“So, when I spat on my palm, we could suddenly see the demon beast trapped inside, right! People were locked inside an abandoned piano academy building!”
Bangdaengi Baek Yeo-ul excitedly chattered on, boasting about how much they had contributed during an event that had occurred several days ago.
“It’s not a lucky thing to encounter a demon beast in the city center, right? But my “Bad Luck” ability has actually become a guide instead! It’s become adaptive now, so I’ve totally reached second rank!”
“This body’s “Treasure” also performed admirably! You see─.”
The team “Dish-less Day” confronted and captured the third-ranked wanted criminal “Pinocchio,” also successfully rescuing the hostages!
The fact that students had taken down a third-ranked criminal twice was an unprecedented situation, which had caused the entire school to buzz with excitement.
Actually, the festival-like atmosphere wasn’t strange, but where there’s good news, there’s often bad news as well.
For instance, this.
“Hey, Bangdaengi, what happened to Yu Yeo-reum?”
At the question from the D-class student Kim Jin, who looked like a schoolyard bully, Bangdaengi Baek Yeo-ul closed their excited mouth and glanced at the speaker with a glare.
“I’m not Bangdaengi! Stop calling me that!”
“You are Bangdaengi. So, what happened to Yu Yeo-reum from Class F?”
“Yu Yeo-reum….”
Baek Yeo-ul looked at me.
When everyone’s gazes fell on me, I placed my leg in a cast casually on the desk. The cast was covered in graffiti written by many students, resembling a graffiti practice wall in a back alley.
“I combined forces with Yu Yeo-reum, and everything was fine until we took down Pinocchio. But then more remnants of the ‘Villains’ arrived.”
While dealing with these remnants of the “Villains” alongside Yu Yeo-reum, I ended up losing consciousness after the injuries I sustained from battling the “Judge” and a broken leg inflicted by Pinocchio.
“When I woke up, neither Yu Yeo-reum nor the remnants of Villains were anywhere to be found. No matter what happened to them, I’ll find them all.”
This is the script I’ve written.
Everyone who listened to my story displayed a variety of emotions in their eyes.
Some looked moved, others appeared tense.
“So, what happened to the hostages?”
The newly appointed class leader, Cheon Yura from D-Class, asked the question.
Although originally the vice-class president, Cheon Yura was small in stature like a child, but her straightforward nature and concern for others made her a favorite among the students.
Even Bangdaengi had once evaluated her saying, “Yura is kind. Even when I couldn’t control my powers, she was the only one who treated me without discrimination!”
Anyway, our new leader seemed curious about the hostages who had been trapped.
Hostages?
The short-haired girl. The school uniform girl. The chubby one.
These three were originally villains who had joined forces with “Villains.”
They were handed over to the academy so they would appropriately face the necessary procedures.
Perhaps they would even be enrolled here at the academy.
Anyway, as the day wore on,
I was summoned to the “Consultation Room.”
Inside, Officer Jin Ramyun, who had set up residence there, was present.
“Ha Nam-jin, don’t you remember anything? Any idea where Yu Yeo-reum went or what happened to her?”
Jin Ramyun interrogated me as if questioning everything.
Because this aunt had a good instinct, I had to be careful with my words.
“I don’t know! I want to know just as much! Where are Yu Yeo-reum and Seo Ga-eul right now? They’re the ones making me suffer the most! Look at these tears! They’re tears of a man!”
In my opinion, men should cry only twice in their lifetime.
Once when a crazy deer kid fed me poisonous mushrooms.
And right now.
I truly am curious about where Yu Yeo-reum and Seo Ga-eul are and what they’re doing! And the fact that I’m suffering because of them is without a doubt sincere!
These are truly heartfelt tears of a man!
After licking my tears with her tongue and tasting them, Aunt Jin Ramyun nodded.
“This taste reveals honesty. Alas, this case gets more complicated. By any chance, have you heard of ‘Gu Se-jun’ before you lost consciousness?”
Gu Se-jun?
What’s that?
Since it was my first time hearing the name, Uncle Jin Ramyun explained.
“It’s a name we obtained from interrogating Pinocchio and Kim Mari. He’s apparently a key player in the “Villains”. Both the academy and the government consider him at least a 4th grade special criminal.”
Does he understand the concept of a 4th grade?
Meaning he has firepower equivalent to Yu Yeo-reum.
“An unregistered Awakened One. The only information we have on him is that he’s the son of the noisy ‘Eden Paradise’ cult leader. I believe he had direct involvement this time.”
He might be a formidable figure, but in fact, he has nothing to do with the kidnapping of Yu Yeo-reum and Seo Ga-eul.
It seems like things are getting bigger.
I also felt a sense of responsibility as a man in this situation.
“I don’t know who this Gu Se-jun is, but I will certainly capture him and send him to jail. Like this! With passion! In this good world, it’s intolerable to organize an armed group and threaten citizens!”
“Whoa, keep it down. You should lay low for a while. Your leg is injured, after all. There’s also a rumor that those Super Villains might be targeting students from this academy. This was supposed to be a secret.”
“You’re still bad at keeping secrets.”
“That’s what I said before. It’s a side effect of my ‘Sixth Sense’, where I end up being honest about things.”
“Like your underwear color today?”
“It’s leopard print. Hey! Why are you even asking me that!”
“Mine is also tiger today, so we match.”
In that way, I managed to remove myself from the list of suspects thanks to the perceptive police officer, and I gained some information along the way. Leopard print? Incredible.
Oh, I have one question.
“Let’s say Pinocchio, but what about someone like Kim Mari? They had already agreed to surrender to me.”
“We’ll continue observing them. Either they’ll be enrolled here or they’ll be recruited into the ‘s*icide Commando’, which our government secretly operates.”
s*icide Commando?
That was a sinister-sounding name.
“Haven’t you seen the movie? You release villains on parole and assign them to dangerous missions. It’s exactly the same. You give reformed Awakened criminals difficult tasks and provide them with opportunities for redemption.”
Creating a kamikaze special unit with minors and having them perform banzai charges—this Republic of Korea under the 7th Republic system is as ruthless as Japan was during the Imperial era.
“So, what this aunt’s trying to say is you should avoid crime as much as possible.”
# # #
“Ha Nam-jjin! Deok-sun and Chang-sik decided to go to the zoo, and you should come too!”
“Yul, technically, it’s not for fun but for work, right?”
“Special mission…”
After school.
As I was about to head home, Bangdaengi and friends were waving frantically from far away.
“Where’s Tae-sung?”
“He’s busy with part-time work these days, right? How about it? The zoo! They say there’s a spider that barks like a dog! This clearly seems like a spider possessing the concept of ‘dog’, doesn’t it? We need to check it out!”
Well, spiders can bark like dogs too.
In fact, both humans and animals occasionally feel like barking like a dog at certain moments in life.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Eh? Really? What’s gotten into you! Ha Nam-jjin! Lately, you’ve been saying you’re busy and going home early every day so we couldn’t hang out!”
That’s true.
For the past few days, my daily routine was to head straight home after school, citing my “injured leg.”
But if I kept rejecting my friends’ invites for that reason, it might raise suspicions.
So, I went to the zoo with them.
-Woof woof…!
“It really does bark like a dog!”
“It’s definitely crazy alien!”
Chang-sik shivered with fear at the sight of the palm-sized spider.
Its dazzling golden color was imposing, even though it was confined.
-Woof woof…!
“It’s definitely a demon beast! Where in this world would you find a spider that makes such sounds!”
As Chang-sik made a fuss, the zookeeper who had secretly let us in spoke worriedly in a low voice.
“Are you guys that team in the news, “Dish-less Day”? Is this critter also a demon beast? A few days ago, it crawled into the cage, and I fed it out of curiosity…”
It is a rule that all demon beasts discovered should be reported immediately to the relevant authorities.
Therefore, the zoo contacted our school.
“…Alright! I’ll handle it! Everyone, leave! Don’t fall into my curse of disaster, fully brimming with my “Bad Luck”! Leave it to me, Lady Baek Yeo-ul the Hundred!”
As usual, Bangdaengi showed zeal.
Once Bangdaengi gets like that, no one can stop them.
After the demon beast was successfully dealt with and we were on our way home,
When Chang-sik and Deok-sun had gone to their homes, only Bangdaengi and I were left.
-Woof woof…!
Huh? An odd sound reached my sharp ears.
I turned my head to see Bangdaengi’s uneasy eye movements.
“What? What sound? I didn’t hear anything.”
“I didn’t say a word yet.”
Pstt, pstt, pstt-!
Bangdaengi’s bag started thrashing around as if it were alive, and something suddenly popped out.
Plop-.
-Woof woof…!
“sh*t! It’s a facehugger!”
It latched onto my face, and I fell over in shock.
If I stay like this, I’ll become the father of an alien without even getting married!
“Kangkang! No! Come here! Back in the bag! Shh! Get in quickly!”
Plop-.
Bangdaengi pulled the golden spider off my body.
Seeing that, I felt dizzy.
“Hey, you were handling this demon beast but you stashed it in your bag?”
Is this Bangdaengi finally losing it?
But Bangdaengi had a lot to say too.
“W-, but how could I k*ll this cute Kangkang!”
He named it Kangkang?
Kangkang because it barks? Bangdaengi, your name-giving sense is hopeless.
Most importantly, calling it cute?
-Hrroo, Arrroo, Krrroo, Krrroo, Grrroo, Grrroo!
Is this crazy radioactive mutant spider cute?
An eight-legged creature invading the Earth!
“That’s enough! Let me handle it!”
“No! This spider is kind! I know it!”
“How do you even know that?”
“…? Oh! Because my mom has a hobby of raising spiders and snakes. From what I’ve observed, this spider is kind! It’s just acting up because it’s hungry. If I give it ketchup, it will calm down.”
Swish-. With that, Baek Yeo-ul pulled a fast-food ketchup packet from her pocket, opened it, and offered it to the spider.
The crazy spider licked it like a stray cat would ture.
“With tears in my eyes, I tried to let Kangkang go, but during the struggle, the ketchup packet was lost. Kangkang hastily ate it! And then became calm. Truly amazing, right! I think Kangkang definitely likes ketchup!”
A demon spider who likes ketchup?
What in this world could make you-.
-It could happen.
“What a good boy! There aren’t any bad people who like ketchup, and there aren’t any bad demons who like ketchup. Hey, spider. If you like ketchup, make a roaring sound!”
“Ha Nam-jjin, what is even a spider roaring?”
“Isn’t a spider that woofs even stranger?”
While exchanging these off-topic responses,
-Hoooooong…!
The spider made a strange roaring sound.
Seeing it, Bangdaengi, Baek Yeo-ul went absolutely mad.
“It made a strange sound! I’ll raise this guy! Come on, Kangkang, let’s go back into the bag! Come here! Shh!”
Bangdaengi, Baek Yeo-ul gently tucked the calm ketchup-eating spider Kangkang back into the bag.
A high schooler carrying around a demon beast in a bag.
He clearly isn’t normal either.
-Gwheeeeng.
“Huh? Ha Nam-jjin, did you just say something?”
“I didn’t say anything. See you tomorrow!”
Swish-.
After parting ways with Bangdaengi, I opened my bag while walking home. As soon as I opened it, the cotton candy-shaped cloud Yining wiggled and grumbled.
-Gwheeeeng.
“Are you complaining because you were stuck in the bag all day? There’s nothing I can do since you randomly hopped into my bag. You should’ve just stayed in the basement.”
-Gwheeeeng.
“I understand how you feel.”
It seems Yining didn’t want to stay in the basement lately.
“Ah, speaking of which, here.”
I handed over the concept crystals of “Rock,” “Leaf,” “Sand,” and “Wind” that I had obtained at the orphanage. If Yining ate them, it would absorb the toxins and spit them back out.
Although the “Wind” concept is particularly tempting, since Yining already has the “Cloud” concept, I don’t know what might happen.
-Gwheeeeng.
To put it in perspective, Yining ended up absorbing Rock, Leaf, Sand, and Wind concepts all by himself!
Yining, you crazy! You’re eating them all!
“Hey, leave some for me! Will you have indigestion later if you eat everything? What are you trying to become?”
-Gwheeeeng.
Slightly frustrating, huh?
Anyway, I carefully tucked Yining, who’s gradually turning into a Super Demon Beast, back into my bag and went home.
Already feeling heavy-hearted.
Still, it’s something I can’t turn away from.
-Gwheeeeng….
The Super Demon Beast Yining itself seemed afraid, shaking nervously inside my bag.
I mustered the courage to open the basement door.
Clunk, creeeeak-.
As soon as the door opened, voices were heard.
“Yu Yeo-reum, you’re lower in rank, so you can’t have this water. I’m the only one drinking this. And you stink, you should take a shower. Oh, right, can’t take one while locked up?”
“Give me that water. Now.”
“If you’re upset, come and get it. You can’t, right? Since you’re too weak? Can’t see the light, so you’re no different from ordinary girls─.”
Two women locked in the basement.
Upon seeing me, they scowled.
This is the story of me and these girls.
