CH 7

{ Episode 7 – Monster }

“Oh, how are you?”

"I'm good."

“Are you the newcomer this time?”

"Yes..."

As I shake off Justia’s annoying little sister and walked up to the podium where the faculty and staff members were gathered, some people came and shook hands with me.

After I shook hands with everyone and sat down, gazes began to gather from all over the place.

‘Is there something wrong?’

Some were simply curious, but few were filled with hostility.

Even if it was temporary, since a person with unknown information suddenly came in, they were not very happy with it.

But after today’s work, those were the people I wouldn’t see anymore, so I decided to ignore them.

“Haha, isn't the academy very conservative?...”

As I was sitting on my seat, silently accepting the pouring gaze, someone next to me asked me with a gesture of a handshake.

"..."

“...But not all of them are like that. Let’s spend some time getting close to them.”

When I turned around, it was a very familiar face.

“Ah, I’m late in introducing myself. I'm 2nd-year class 1 instructor, Resurrection.”

13th in the world ranking, Resurrection.

He was evaluated as being close to the top hero, which refers to a hero who is within the top 12 of the rankings.

“Nice to meet you. I…”

Anyway, since I was greeted, I thought I should answer, so I reached out and took his hand.

“…Ugh.”

Suddenly, I started feeling pain in my eye.

“Why is happing? Are you all right?”

‘…What?’

Instead of shaking hands, I clenched my eyes and lowered my head, and Resurrection spoke to me in a worried voice.

By any chance, was my right eye, which had not been good since childhood, becoming a problem again?

‘No, my both eyes are hurting.’

It wasn’t just my right eye that I usually covered up. My both eyes were hurting, and it was the first time something like this happened to me.

'Is this also a side effect of ‘Villainization’?'

“You’re okay, right? Would you like to go to the medical room?”

“Oh, no. It's fine.”

Fortunately, the pain subsided with time.

“My name is Oh Ji-seok. Please take good care of me.”

And some reason, it seemed that more and more people were looking at me, so to avoid suspicion,  I gave Resurrection a handshake with a smile on my face and a pseudonym.

“Aha, you must be Korean”

“Yes, as you can see.”

“Uhm. I see.”

Then all of a sudden, he started looking at me.

“Somehow, you looked a bit like someone I knew.”

‘…Was he suspicious?’

Within no time, the words that came out of his mouth made me nervous inside.

No matter how much my body shape and details had changed, my currrect face was in fact based on the image of ‘Kang Ha-neul’.

If one was a quick-witted person, one might be a little suspicious.

After all, the hero’s experience, who was still in the top ranking, could not be ignored.

“I thought the same, all foreigners look alike, hahaha.”

“Is that so? You too! Hehe.”

But, fortunately, it seemed that the suspicion had been seized.

After all, no one would easily have expected that I, who had escaped with so much effort, would calmly enter the academy.

“Ah, almost all of the students are here.”

"..."

But as I sat still, the Resurrection pointed to the auditorium and opened his mouth.

“It seems to be starting soon.”

Yes. It was going to start slowly...

– Dominating hands, infiltration complete.

...The entrance ceremony, and our operation.

– Except for Kang Ha-neul, all transformations will be released after a while. I’ll let you know when the time comes.

Pandora’s cute synthesized voice coming in my ears reminded me of that fact.

“Hey, a lot of kids came in this year too.”

“……?”

'But, is it because of the mood?'

“Still, if you roll it once, it’s quite useful…”

'Why does the body of the Resurrection next to me seem to keep wriggling?'

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Once all the students gathered, the entrance ceremony finally began.

As for me, the new procedures, which were quite emotional, began to proceed in an instant.

The opening ceremony to open the door of the Hero Academy.

Courtesy to predecessor heroes.

And as always, the boring principal’s speech.

All of those things were actually no different from any normal school, but I didn’t see any students who were nervous.

Worth the name of the world’s best hero training institution.

Photos of the heroic activities of graduates filled the entrance ceremony hall.

And, the circle formed of teachers made up of famous heroes who were known just by hearing their names.

All of that was keeping the students’ excitement at a maximum.

“Then, in the next order… there will be a freshman oath.”

Nevertheless, after the principal’s speech that resulted in some biggest yawns, the freshman oath finally came.

“The freshman representative, please come forward.”

As I was clenching my fists without anyone knowing, thinking that something was wrong, the cross-dressing girl got up and started walking.

‘Should I just jump in and twist her neck.’

Lumia Obse.

The most promising youngster of her time who passed the entrance test of the International Hero Academy as the top scorer.

Everyone’s attention began to focus on her, who was praised by the media as a hero who will succeed Justia.

“Hello, everyone.”

To be honest, I was a little scared.

What should I do if she recognized me?

“The freshman representative. This is Lumia Obse.”

But fortunately, that didn’t happen.

With a gentle smile, she quietly passed me by and stood in front of the microphone.

– Awkward…

As I looked at her, my heart started beating like it was going to explode.

'If I attack her now, will I be able to kill her?'

‘No. Calm down. I have to think rationally.’

There were too many eyes to be reckless.

I couldn’t get revenge here because I couldn’t be caught again.

And for the ultimate revenge, it would be best to capture her alive.

“It’s such an honor to take the freshman oath…”

“Ugh.”

Because of this, as I was focusing on her, I began to feel pain again as if my eyes were on fire.

‘Should I get a health checkup?’

I couldn’t attract attention in a place like this, so I gritted my teeth and endured the pain.

“It is time for us to recover from the shock of the Justia case.”

I opened my eyes wide, forgetting even the pain at Lumia’s absurd remarks that I had heard in front of me.

“If we cling to and obsess over the past, we are the ones who will suffer the loss. The past is the past and the future is the future.”

“uh?”

Right at that moment.

“We are future sprouts who will be responsible for the unknown era that will unfold in the future.”

“What is this?”

The unbelievable happened in front of my eyes.

“So now we have to move forward, to the future…”

Among the many people gathered in the auditorium, inside the bodies of some.

‘…..Tentacle?’

Something bizarre and ghastly, like a tentacle, began to appear very clearly.

“Mr. Resurrection.”

While watching the grotesque scene in a daze, I hurriedly spoke to the Resurrection next to me.

“Look, do you see those…”

The man who had been next to me until a while ago had disappeared without a trace.

“Mr. Resurrection just said he was going to the bathroom. So lower your voice.”

“Hey, over there. Can you see it?”

“Yes?”

“Here, the tentacles...”

I grabbed a teacher who frowned and scolded me, pointed forward and asked, then she looked at me with her surprised eyes and said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Hey, there. The front of the second row from the right. And the third from the back. Can't you see?”

“…..?”

I asked again with a serious expression on my face, but she only had an expression on her face that she did not understand what I was talking about.

“Um, hmmm.”

It was so frustrating that I wondered if I should take a picture and show it, but then I started to hear a coughing sound from the side.

“Let’s be quiet.”

The professors were glaring at me silently.

‘This… what the hell…’

It was only a small fraction, but even two or three of the professors had disgusting tentacles wriggling inside their bodies.

Because of that, I turned my gaze forward with a puzzled expression, and Lumia was looking at me with a mysterious gaze.

‘What?’

Unknowingly, when I averted my eyes from her, a very strange sight was unfolding.

‘What are these guys doing?’

The tentacle holders quietly exchanged glances with each other, and one by one they were going backward.

It was such a silent move that no one noticed it.

Except for me, who saw something wriggling inside their bodies.

“Excuse me.”

I stared blankly at the empty seats of the guys who disappeared from the auditorium in an instant.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom for a while.”

Soon after, I quietly got up from my seat, left those words behind, and started following them.

– Kang Ha-neul. Where are you? All of sudden?

“……..”

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‘Where are these guys going.’

The reason I followed them was simple.

It was because no variable could be tolerated in our mission.

This situation right now was an obvious variable unless I had gone crazy.

If I lose Lumia because of this, I will miss the golden opportunity to get my revenge.

There was still a little time left before the start of the operation. So first, figuring out the variable in front of my eyes was the most important.

With that thought in mind, I succeeded in catching up with the student who left the auditorium last, and started carefully following him.

‘Is he going higher from here?’

The guy kept going up.

Aside from the classrooms, the upper floors of the academy were the teachers’ office, the principal’s office, and the medical room.

'Then, is his purpose one of those three?'

“There...”

I quietly reasoned inwardly and followed behind him, then suddenly stopped as he stopped.

“Who are you?”

In the blink of an eye, the guy turned around and asked in a cold voice with his eyes shining.

“………”

And the silence began.

He stared at the place where he was, and after a few minutes, he tilted his head for a moment, then started moving forward.

‘I almost got caught.’

Fortunately, it was the end of the hallway, so I was able to hide behind the wall.

Anyway, if he reacted like that just because of a small sign, there really seemed to be something going on.

'What the hell is that guy?'

“Excuse me.”

“……..!”

As I was relieved that I was not caught, suddenly a voice came from behind.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen your face.”

“I don’t think he is a student. Who are you?”

Two sophomore student council members who were present to help with the entrance ceremony were looking at me suspiciously.

“…a new professor at the academy.”

“Okay, excuse me.”

Thinking that the trailing was wrong now, I took out my teaching certificate and showed it with a slightly irritated voice, and the female student nodded her head and was immediately convinced.

“By the way, what about that one?”

It was at that moment that an ominous feeling spread through my limbs-

“There, he is in his school uniform, so he looks like a freshman.”

“…………”

“The entrance ceremony is still ongoing. What are you doing here?”

-A type of warning that informs the moment of crisis, which I learned while working as a black agent for a long time.

“Have you been bunking since day one? It's bad.”

“Go back to the auditorium right now, otherwise…”

“Ha.”

At that time, while we were on the alert, the student standing in the hallway sighed and began to break his neck.

“You guys, you’re out of luck.”

At first, it seemed like a simple stretch, but sooner or later, the neck of the guy started to bend to the extent that it crossed 40 and 60 degrees and approached 90 degrees.

“Maybe you could have lived today.”

At that bizarre scene, the student council members began to retreat in contemplation.

“…sh*t.”

Unable to ignore the uneasiness I was feeling all over my body, I unconsciously stretched out my hand forward.

Alert: Skill < Defense (LV1) > has been used.

At that moment, a translucent window appeared in front of me with a refreshing sound.

◆Defense: You can summon a barrier with a cooldown that blocks enemy attacks.

◆Price: The user's defense is reduced in proportion to the amount of impact for a certain period of time.

“What?”

And before I could even read it all.

– Kwagwagwagwang…!!!

An attack flew with a roar and terrifying speed.

“Kyaak!?”

“What……?”

But for some reason, the person who made the attack was intercepted right in front of me.

– Kwakdeukdeuk…

It was the student from earlier who was surrounded by tentacles protruding from his bent neck and became like a monster.

“F*ck.”

'How the hell did this happen?'

'Can a human become like this?'

'The subject of demonization must be a 'non-human' animal.'

“What are you.”

The student in front of me was clearly a magical beast.

“Groorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…”

No, he had become a monster.

“Damn it.”

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Meanwhile at that time.

“Um, this one.”

Paradise, who had been disguised as a student and mixed in the auditorium, put her hand in her pocket with a characteristic pleasant smile.

– Swish…!

The card flew like a bullet and pierced the head of one of the faculty members.

“I guess we'll have to start sooner than expected.”

“Kyaa!!”

A few seconds later, screams began to echo throughout the auditorium.

“Hello, puppies.”

Dice smiled as she said that, and in her eyes, the tentacles that had stopped moving after violently wriggling around the faculty member’s body were being reflected.

“It’s time to take the medicine.”