The Virtual Combat Simulation Room fell into a momentary silence.
The cause was, without a doubt, Kim Joohyuk.
Instructor Liliya, the Labyrinth Monster specialist, and even the students who had been watching with excitement were standing there with their mouths hanging open.
Among them, Yoo So-yeon was especially dazed, her mouth agape in disbelief.
Choi Ah-rin, however, looked at Kim Joohyuk with a strangely serene yet somewhat proud expression.
A moment of silence.
"H... How?"
Listening to Liliya's stammering, incredulous voice, Kim Joohyuk chuckled.
"It works, right?"
"...!"
Liliya flinched at his laugh. She frowned and spoke immediately.
"N-No! Not yet!"
"Why? I did everything?"
"Again! Try it again!"
Despite Kim Joohyuk's words, Liliya acted stubbornly. She manipulated the remote control and created another Stone Goblin in front of him.
However.
[Thwack!]
Betraying Liliya's expectations, the Stone Goblin's stomach was pierced by Kim Joohyuk's sword, meeting instant death.
"It works, right?"
"How on earth did you do that!?"
Liliya shouted as if this was absurd. Kim Joohyuk maintained his smile and spoke.
"I told you, if you just stab it, it dies."
"Ugh...!"
Liliya frowned at his relaxed tone.
"Don't get so arrogant just because you solved this one thing!"
Honestly, what Kim Joohyuk had just shown was shocking enough that she might have to rewrite her thesis on Labyrinth Monsters and submit it to the academic society.
However, rather than acknowledging that fact, the urge to crush the arrogance of Kim Joohyuk, who stood there with such a leisurely expression, took priority. She immediately manipulated the remote.
The scenery of the simulation room began to change.
Seeing the environment shift around Kim Joohyuk, the students' eyes widened.
[Krrrk! Krr-r-rk!]
Before anyone knew it, Liliya had summoned eight Jungle Goblins in front of Kim Joohyuk, who now stood in a narrow, straight labyrinth corridor.
Let's see you try this too...!
The official name was Jungle Goblin.
However, their true name in the Contractor industry was 'Anger Management Disorder Goblins' due to their filthy tempers.
Of course, if that were all, it would have been laughable for Liliya to act so confident after placing just eight goblins. But the terrifying thing about Jungle Goblins wasn't their temper.
If he fails to kill even one of them in a single strike...
The Jungle Goblin would instantly use Howling to summon every other Jungle Goblin in the labyrinth.
And if that happened?
The Contractor who failed to finish the job would be beaten to death by fearless, anger-filled goblins swarming from both front and back.
Therefore, the standard procedure when encountering a Jungle Goblin in a labyrinth was to either avoid engaging and run, or to kill it in one shot with the help of a Constellation using magic.
Of course, slightly stronger Contractors could dispose of them before they screamed, but Kim Joohyuk was a 1st year who hadn't even contracted with a Constellation yet.
Moreover, she had heard that while he killed all the Orcs, his speed wasn't exactly fast.
So, there was no way Kim Joohyuk, holding just a sword, could—
[Thwack!]
—do it...
[Squeal— Crack!]
"..."
[Crunch!]
"It works, though?"
...It works?
Liliya unwittingly floated those words in her mind before speaking with an incredulous expression.
"H... How?"
"I did exactly what was written on the test paper?"
At Kim Joohyuk's words, Liliya stared blankly at his feet.
There lay the Jungle Goblins, disappearing together in harmony, each with a sword wound in its head.
Kim Joohyuk shrugged at the sight.
As expected, the monsters coming out of here are all a bit awkward.
Kim Joohyuk had caught a lot of monsters.
Not just 'a lot,' but an enormous amount—no, beyond enormous. If counted by numbers, he had probably caught hundreds of thousands of them alone.
How did he catch so many?
The world 300 years ago was just like that.
You couldn't see monsters in the cities, but if you went just a little to the outskirts, monsters ran rampant. It was a world that made it confusing whether the owners of Earth were humans or monsters.
Living in that world while constantly killing monsters, Kim Joohyuk had memorized the disposal methods of most monsters not with his head, but with his instincts.
However, precisely because of that, Kim Joohyuk clicked his tongue looking at Instructor Liliya and the students, who wore expressions of disbelief.
I guess since they borrow power from Constellations, they can't even handle a Stone Goblin?
In Kim Joohyuk's memory, a Stone Goblin was certainly a tricky monster, but it wasn't one that couldn't be killed with a sword.
If you can just thrust the sword into the grain on its stomach, killing it with a sword isn't impossible.
Well, he had killed the Jungle Goblins purely with physical stats, though.
"A... Another one!"
As Kim Joohyuk was thinking that, Liliya's voice rang out.
"What?"
"Try another one!"
"Again?"
"It's not 'again'! Student Kim Joohyuk got a 0 on my test! So prove the others too! Proof that you can do everything written on the test paper you submitted!"
Liliya screamed shrilly.
Seeing her face filled with an expression screaming I'm so wronged! without knowing what exactly was so unfair, Kim Joohyuk nodded as if he understood.
"If I pull off everything on that test paper, will you raise my score—"
"I got it, just do it!"
At Liliya's words, Kim Joohyuk sighed and nodded. In the end, that day, the students didn't learn how to deal with Labyrinth Monsters.
"Cut!"
[Thwack!]
"Head cut!"
[Crunch!]
"Hind leg cut!"
[Crack!]
Instead, they witnessed bizarre and extraordinary disposal methods demonstrated by Kim Joohyuk, completely different from standard procedures.
"Hmm... 100 points feels sweet, doesn't it?"
After proving everything written on the test paper in front of her, Kim Joohyuk smiled refreshingly at the test paper that had turned from 0 to 100, and at Liliya, who was staring into empty space with a blank expression.
And.
"Uh... Joohyuk? How did you catch that Troller Boar earlier...?"
After class ended, seeing Liliya hold him back as he tried to leave the simulation room and ask him with a strangely calm voice, he...
Grin.
"Not telling."
...said that to Liliya, who was staring at him, and headed for the classroom.
❋ ❋ ❋
The large dormitory where Lokdil Ventric was staying.
Unlike before when the furniture had been smashed, the place was neatly organized. Lokdil looked at Reric sitting in front of him.
As a 2nd year at Valhalla and a scion of the Sunrise Family possessing a not-bad Guardian Constellation, Reric sat before Lokdil with an uncomfortable expression throughout the conversation.
"So, you're telling me... to rat him out to the faculty office right now?"
"I am not telling you to rat him out. I am merely suggesting that it might be good to speak the truth."
Lokdil Ventric spoke with a fake expression unlike his usual self.
However, Reric frowned in front of him and spoke.
"I think I told you last time? I said I'm washing my hands of this matter."
"...If you do that for us, the Ventric side will handle all the aftercare. As you know, if my family moves, supporting you is—"
"Even if the Ventric family provides support, the honor my family lost won't return."
Reric said this and stood up as if there was nothing more to say.
"I will wash my hands of anything related to Kim Joohyuk."
With those final words, Reric seemed to recall something and shuddered involuntarily, then left Lokdil's room without hesitation.
"That retard... tucking his tail just because he got hit once..."
As soon as Reric left, Lokdil Ventric gritted his teeth and muttered.
Just how badly did he get hit...?
Lokdil Ventric didn't know what had happened between Reric and Kim Joohyuk.
He had merely asked Reric to bully Kim Joohyuk and promised a reward if it was successful enough.
And he could be confident that the reward was definitely a good condition for Reric.
Furthermore, Lokdil had even given Reric information that Joohyuk was going to the Constellation's Room through one of the instructors attached to the Ventric side.
Therefore, Lokdil could guess that Reric and Kim Joohyuk had clashed that day, and also that Reric had been soundly defeated.
However, Reric had strong pride, befitting a scion of a noble family.
Thus, Lokdil thought that even if Reric was defeated by Kim Joohyuk in an unlikely scenario, he would continue to oppose him due to that unique pride.
But contrary to his expectations, Reric gave up on opposing Kim Joohyuk.
Then the conclusion was:
What the hell is this bastard?
Kim Joohyuk had the power to overwhelmingly crush Reric—or to be precise, a gang even worse than Reric.
He certainly knew Kim Joohyuk was strong to some extent.
But for a freshman who just became a 1st year to make Reric, who had strong pride, tremble in fear?
From Lokdil's perspective, that was clearly outside common sense.
"Tsk."
He clicked his tongue, frowning.
Through this incident, Lokdil certainly realized that Kim Joohyuk was stronger than he thought.
But that didn't mean he had any intention of giving up.
Give up after suffering such humiliation? That's nonsense.
Lokdil Ventric's mind was already filled with undying rage toward Kim Joohyuk, so he was repeating the thought that he would destroy him by any means necessary.
Therefore.
"Yuria."
"...Yes."
"Did you contact Disera?"
"Yes, I conveyed that you wanted to meet first."
"Where is he?"
"Disera-nim is currently killing time at a place called Arpia Academy in Mexico—"
At Yuria's words, Lokdil answered.
"Then tell him to fly to Korea immediately. Tell him something urgent came up."
"Understood."
Yuria bowed and left the room.
Looking at her back, he momentarily wore a lustful expression, but soon Lokdil smiled, imagining him flying to Korea.
A short while later.
Arpia Academy on the outskirts of Mexico City.
"So?"
[So— it seems you just need to come to Korea.]
[Crack—]
"Well, if my little brother wants it, I should go at least once, right? Is the compensation sufficient?"
[...He says he will take care of you sufficiently if you handle just this one matter.]
"Good, good. I was recently expelled from the family and had nowhere to leech off, so this works out well."
In a place plastered with blood here and there, a man sat atop countless students who had been reduced to bloody pulp.
"Alright, then see you soon."
Snicker.
Disera Ventric smiled and hopped down from his seat.
(End of Chapter 13)
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— Translated by Prime Works —