“Shut up. If anyone makes a sound, you’re dead.”
After saying a kind sentence like, “I’m a light sleeper, so I’d appreciate it if you could be considerate, my friends,” to my fellow first-years who became my roommates by chance, I quietly laid out my future plans in the now thankfully silent room.
It’s been exactly one month since the start of the semester, so the next scenario—the midterm evaluation—should begin in two weeks.
That meant I had to help Fuyuno Tsubaki become strong enough to beat the cadets of the Jincheon class within those two weeks.
It wasn’t an issue for me at all, but helping Tsubaki grow that much was clearly going to be difficult.
After all, the amount of mana she had, as I confirmed through her status window, was only 3.
That’s even less than when I first awakened.
It was such a pitiful number that you could call it the lowest among all superhumans.
Even though the Yin Constitution has the same extreme mana sensitivity as the Yang Constitution,
you still need a certain baseline amount of mana.
Even I have at least 100.
With only two weeks left before the midterm, there was no way she could increase her mana to the necessary level through regular methods like mana training.
So, I needed to use an unconventional method.
“······I’ll have to feed her an elixir.”
Obtaining an elixir in the closed environment of the Daecheon Academy wasn’t easy—but just because it wasn’t easy didn’t mean it was impossible.
I’d have to put in some effort… but that wasn’t a problem for me.
Resolving to act tomorrow, I went to sleep to prepare for the day ahead.
***
The next day, after finishing my morning classes and packing my bag to go eat, a timid voice spoke up beside me.
“Um, excuse me······.”
It was none other than Fuyuno Tsubaki, who now basically had “hesitation” as a passive trait.
“Don’t say ‘excuse me.’ Call me by my name. I call you by yours too, don’t I?”
“Really? I-Is that okay? Then… W-Woobin.”
“What?”
Tsubaki, for some reason looking embarrassed, asked me a question.
“Um… have you decided on a club yet?”
“Club?”
“Yeah, all the cadets in Daecheon have to join a club. You were supposed to choose one three weeks ago, but… you’ve been unconscious for a month…”
She looked very apologetic as she mentioned the one-month period.
It seemed like she thought I got hurt because of her.
Of course, she wasn’t wrong—I did get hurt fighting Hobabas to save her—so I didn’t bother trying to comfort her.
Instead, I just answered her question.
“I already decided. A while ago.”
“Y-you did? That’s a relief… Um, can I ask which club it is? For reference, I joined the book club. I like it because no one talks to me and I can quietly read…”
“That so? Well, you probably haven’t heard of mine, but there’s no reason to hide it. It’s called Violent Dragon.”
“Vi…olent Dragon?”
“See? You don’t know.”
Clatter.
“Ah!”
As I finished packing my bag and stood up, Fuyuno Tsubaki, who had tilted her head in confusion at the mention of Violent Dragon, hurriedly jumped to her feet to follow me.
I let out a small snort at her over-the-top reaction—which I never seemed to get tired of—and, as a reward for making me laugh, gave her a brief explanation of Violent Dragon.
“It’s, uh… just normal. Just a regular thug club.”
And also, it’s the only way I can get my hands on the elixir I need to feed you.
“Oh… just a regular thug club…? Wait—what? A regular… thug? W-Wait, what?!”
Leaving behind Fuyuno Tsubaki, who blinked wide-eyed and tilted her head again, still clearly not understanding my kind explanation, I headed toward the cafeteria.
I’ll drop off the application after all the lectures are over.
To Violent Dragon—the most ideal club to boost my infamy, led by the most infamous, most vicious delinquent in the history of Daecheon Academy.
***
“Alright, I’m heading out. Make sure to finish everything I told you to do before you sleep. I’ll check it tomorrow.”
“Y-yeah, got it. See you tomorrow, Woobin…!”
“If you don’t, you’re dead.”
“Hehe, okay.”
…Why does she look happy after I said she’d die?
What a weird girl.
After all the classes ended, I would’ve normally walked back to the dorms with Fuyuno Tsubaki since our route was the same, but I had something to take care of and parted ways with her at the classroom.
“Ugh, even in the game it was buried in some godforsaken corner and always a pain to find, but in real life? It’s even worse.”
Although Daecheon Academy was technically located within Korean territory, the place was so massive it was practically treated like an independent nation.
Because of that, even finding a single club room wasn’t easy.
And since Violent Dragon’s clubroom was so tucked away that even Fuyuno Tsubaki had never heard of it, the effort it took to find it was easily double that of any other clubroom.
“Phew… Thirty minutes on foot from the main building? Seriously?”
The clubroom was that far and that hidden—it took a full 30 minutes of walking.
Sensing an ominous aura leaking out from the slightly open door, I swallowed dryly and stepped forward.
Then I kicked the door open and shouted:
BANG—!!!
“Take me in, rookie coming through!”
As the door slammed open, light from the outside poured into the pitch-dark clubroom.
With my loud voice on top of that, it was only natural that the girl sleeping inside was woken up.
“…Ugh.”
Disturbed by the commotion I caused, she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, then glared at me with eyes red as blood.
“…Who the hell are you?”
She shot me a short question.
RUMBLE…!
“······!”
Immediately after, the pressure in her gaze and voice crashed down on me.
All she did was glare and say a few words, but the mana she subconsciously released reacted to her irritation and crushed down on my shoulders.
Of everyone I had met so far—excluding the principal Go Yeoryeong and the head of the Yang family, Yang Gajeong—this was the first person I’d encountered who could exert this level of pressure.
This was none other than Ryu Jia, heir to the Ryu clan, ranked fifth among the noble families.
The most infamous, most vicious, and most powerful delinquent in Daecheon Academy’s history.
“I asked who the hell you are.”
When I didn’t answer, Ryu Jia sharpened her already fierce eyes and sat up completely from the sofa.
Her long, fiery red hair tumbled down to her waist, and her chest—the largest I’d ever seen—bounced with sheer force.
She had only risen from the couch, but every one of her movements carried an overwhelming intensity that locked your gaze in place.
“…What the hell is with this guy.”
As I stood there, momentarily dazed by Ryu Jia’s overwhelming presence, she had already walked right up to me.
Though she was a full head shorter than me—me being 185 centimeters tall—she looked up at me in a way that somehow made it feel like she was looking down on me.
That was the gap in power that existed between her and me at this moment.
“Hey, not gonna answer?”
But I couldn’t just freeze up.
Ryu Jia was the person who could help me the most with my “Yang Family Breaker” plan.
I had to make her my ally—no matter what.
So I activated my mana core, brushed off the mana pressure that had been suffocating me, and declared in a firm voice:
“My name is Yang Woobin. I’m here to apply for Violent Dragon. I want to join.”
I pulled the application form out of the inside pocket of my Daecheon Academy uniform and handed it to her.
Ryu Jia glanced between my face and the form, then frowned and said:
“…Are you out of your mind?”
There was only one answer I could give to that.
“Absolutely.”
***
“I don’t know what your deal is, but Violent Dragon isn’t a place for some flimsy little guy like you. Even the boldest girls can’t pass the entrance test and end up quitting. So save yourself the regret and just leave.”
Not far from the Violent Dragon clubroom was its private training ground—commonly called the “fighting pit.” That’s where I was now, listening to Ryu Jia’s sincere advice.
She might be infamous as the strongest, worst, and most violent delinquent in Daecheon Academy’s history, but that didn’t mean she was reckless.
That’s why she was saying all this.
To begin with, Ryu Jia wasn’t so much a villain as she was… a beast who lived according to her instincts.
She still had a sense of reason.
In this world, it was a given that men were weaker than women—and for someone like Ryu Jia, one of the strongest of the strong, I probably did seem like just some weak little guy.
With only 100 units of mana in my core, her reaction was understandable.
Still, no matter how she saw me, I was here—an applicant who had walked thirty minutes with a form in hand.
As the club president, it was her responsibility to evaluate me.
“I won’t regret it. If I thought I couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t have come in the first place. So let’s just get started already. The entrance test.”
“Hah… A guy who’d fall over from a poke is talking big… geez.”
Letting out a deep sigh that made it clear how much she didn’t want to do this, Ryu Jia rolled her neck and loosened her shoulders, preparing for the entrance test.
Despite living like a beast, she clearly had a strong sense of responsibility.
“I’ll ask one last time. You’re really going through with this? I won’t be held responsible.”
After doing a quick warm-up, Ryu Jia clenched her fist and drew it back beside her waist, giving me a final warning.
And to that warning, I had only one thing to say:
“What’s with all the talk, oh great Ryu Jia? You nervous or something?”
“…H-hah. I’ve lived a long time, but I’ve never heard a guy talk to me like that. Fine. You asked for it!”
With my provocation, Ryu Jia gave up on trying to warn me and steadied her stance.
This was the entrance test for Violent Dragon, also known as… the Initiation Ritual.
If you could stay conscious after taking a hit from the club president, you passed.
If you lost consciousness, you failed.
That was the absurdly simple nature of the test.
The only problem was… the president, Ryu Jia, wasn’t exactly simple in terms of strength.
“Block it well. Don’t make me clean up a corpse or anything…”
She probably didn’t intend to kill me, but with the kind of power she had, the risk of death was very real.
I steadied my breathing, activated my mana core, and brought the mana throughout my body to its peak.
At the same time, I used my trait, Mana Liquefaction, and gathered just enough mana in my palm that I could manage.
“Here I come.”
Right after those quiet words, the ground beneath Ryu Jia’s feet boomed as it burst open.
It sounded like a bomb had gone off—but I didn’t even register that.
There was only one thing I needed to watch: the crimson-haired superhuman charging at me like a cannonball.
“Kh…!”
Even though I stopped breathing for a moment and focused every ounce of my attention on her, I couldn’t track her movements with my current eyes.
She was coming straight at me—I knew exactly how and even what kind of attack she’d use—yet I still couldn’t perceive her at all.
But even if I couldn’t see her or react properly, I could still move my body.
Now!
I recalled everything I’d learned from playing Hero of Reversal, then swung my mana-charged right palm with all my strength, at the exact calculated timing.
BOOOOM—!!!
The moment I felt something connect with my palm, a massive explosion blocked my vision.
Thud! Rumble—crash…
Then, behind me, I heard something slam into the wall and debris come crashing down.
Clutching my right hand, which felt like it might have broken a bone, I turned around.
“…Wha—how… the hell did this happen?”
And there she was—Ryu Jia, embedded in the wall and buried under rubble, blinking in total confusion like she couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
I gave her a big grin and said:
“Well then, today’s our day one, yeah?”
And just like that—I joined Violent Dragon.
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