The Thug Hides the Villainess

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023 – Three Troublemakers, But the Strongest #1

“Okay, then this morning, we’ll have a simple simulation class. Here, we have a young pregnant woman and a man wielding a knife. The role of the pregnant woman will be… Kim Jin! You’ll play that part, and the man with the knife will be the class president? You do it.”

In school, there’s always that one student who gets picked on by the teacher.

When the teacher needs to ask a question or has to do a practice session, that student gets treated like a guinea pig.

“And Hanam-jin! You come out here! What would you do in this situation? A pregnant woman confronting a man with a knife!”

Captain Kang Cheol-min always calls me first.

“Is it Nam-jin again today?”

“He’s totally singled out by the Captain.”

“He’s not a Captain; he’s an instructor!”

Just hearing my name called by the Captain sent the class into a ruckus.

Everyone was looking at me with what felt like an excited, “What amusing thing will Hanam-jin show us today?”

Damn it! To be honest, I like the attention!

Maybe it’s because for years, my only friends have been loneliness and Ying-ing, but all this attention from others feels like pure honey!

The problem, however, is that popularity is like a sandcastle in front of waves.

The public gets easily disappointed and turns away easily, so it’s always nerve-wracking.

In this situation, if there’s a way to meet everyone’s expectations and solve Captain’s tricky problem?

“I’d side with the man.”

“What?”

The Captain made a sour face.

The delinquent Kim Jin, who was chosen for the pregnant woman role, and the class president Jeong-ui-seon, who was the man with the knife, also frowned a bit in surprise.

The class buzzed.

“Ahh, does nobody understand?”

I can’t believe I have to explain even this much.

“The pregnant woman has a baby in her womb, right? So there are two. But the man is one. Therefore, this is a 2:1 situation, which is unfair to the man. Supporting him will make it fair.”

Swish-.

I stood next to the man and shouted.

“You cowardly pregnant woman! How dare you use numerical superiority to pressure an innocent man! But now it’s 2:2!”

Our fight starts now!

Everyone seemed dazed by my just and factual judgment and realistic acting.

I didn’t miss the moment and struck down the model ‘knife’ that the class president was holding, making it drop to the floor.

Clang-.

“Huh!?”

The class president looked bewildered, but I had already kicked the model knife away with my foot.

With the biggest threat, the “man threatening the pregnant woman,” gone, the simulation was as good as solved.

The kids watching went “Oh─!” in surprise, and Captain Kang Cheol-min swept his hand from his forehead to his chin in exasperation.

“So, Hanam-jin, you divided the attention of the threat and took the chance to eliminate the risk factor first, right? The method was quirky, but well, it’s a passing score. I’ll give you 10,000 points.”

Oh yeah, 10,000 points!

Just thinking about going to the store to buy a cold cola made my tailbone tingle with excitement.

By the way, I wondered if Seoga-eul liked cola? If I brought her a cold cola today, maybe I could gain points and get her to cooperate.

“Hanam-jin, you, your mind is elsewhere right now, aren’t you? Are you lovesick?”

Thud-.

Captain hit my head, and everyone erupted in laughter.

He was right. I had a lot on my mind today due to what happened in the morning.

Kidnapping Yu Yeoreum and bringing her to my side─ what was Seoga-eul thinking saying that? I couldn’t figure out her intentions. Every time I tried to ask, she would clamp her lips shut like a clam, proving to be a girl with a knack for driving men crazy.

If she wanted cooperation, did she mean to have someone kidnap Yu Yeoreum?

Why did Seoga-eul say something like that?

Maybe the basement was too lonely.

I might need a roommate down there.

After all, Seoga-eul would throw parties with a bunch of unwanted guests just because she was lonely and enjoy the noise, right?

So, her suddenly being trapped in a quiet basement must have made her bored and lonely.

‘That seems likely.’

In other words, she wanted me to create an equal “kidnap mate.” Just like only children sometimes tell their moms, “Make me a sibling!”

That’s exactly it. I’m so smart.

…So, it comes down to Yu Yeoreum.

The issue is that Yu Yeoreum is so powerful, she’s even called the darling of class F in the elite circles.

She hasn’t even graduated yet, and she’s already active as a field explorer. How on earth would I manage to kidnap someone like her?

Luckily, there’s a chance today.

This afternoon, we have group exercises, so I can witness Yu Yeoreum’s abilities firsthand and then plan.

# # #

The group exercise is exploration.

We will enter the practice “Great Labyrinth” and conduct the exploration.

“Alright, let’s all do our best again this time.”

“Sure thing!”

“I… I’ll be different from last time!”

“…”

This time, the “No Leftovers Group” was assembled again, but unlike last time when it was a gloomy meeting of stragglers, everyone’s faces were filled with a bit of hope.

“Hanam-jin, you boldly proclaimed you would come in first in this exercise, right?”

Before entering the labyrinth, Teacher Ko-gae lifted her blindfold slightly and fixed a meaningful gaze on me.

I matched her stare without backing down.

“Teacher Ko-gae, you haven’t forgotten the promise I made about you kissing me if I came first in this exercise, have you? Don’t go back on your word.”

“I’m not Teacher Ko-gae; I’m Teacher Moon Hyun-a. Now, go on and flounder about. Although Gaeul is unwell and resting, we still have Yeoreum in class F.”

I really wanted to win first place in this joint practice between classes D and F.

Even though Teacher Ko-gae was blinded, she was quite the beauty. If I got a kiss from such a gorgeous woman, I could cherish that memory for life.

Swish-.

Entering the “Great Labyrinth” felt like my insides were twisting again, and soon I found myself in a high-altitude location where my sight cleared.

Are we on a cliff?

No, it feels different.

“We’re on a building, right?”

Beneath a sky hazy with dust, we stood on a building amidst the wreckage of a collapsed city.

For some reason, it felt like a world that had been destroyed.

That scenery was something I was somewhat accustomed to.

“Po, post-apocalypse….”

Even quiet Deok-soon seemed happy to share something again and explained the situation in a small voice.

Post-apocalypse.

A world post-destruction. That explanation fit perfectly. Last time, we had teleported to some sort of ‘forest,’ but this time it’s a ruined city.

What exactly is this “Great Labyrinth”?

“So, what’s the plan?”

Geum Tae-seong looked at me.

Choi Chang-sik, Deok-soon, and Baek-Yeoul were also watching me.

We can take note of the points first while keeping the thought of kidnapping Yu Yeoreum set aside for now, right?

In a ruined city, I’d consider myself an expert.

“This time, like last time, I was thinking of focusing on ‘Monster Hunting.’ Is that alright? There are plenty of places in the city among these buildings where monsters could be hiding. Let’s go down the buildings first.”

Luckily, the building’s stairs were intact, and we could easily make our way to the city’s ground level. What to do now─.

I took a look at a nearby manhole cover.

Creeeak-.

The door opened.

“Jackpot.”

The underground in a ruined world could indeed be called a separate kingdom. There are bound to be monsters that eat the rats and insects swarming around.

However, Deok-soon peeked into the open manhole and gagged a bit.

“…Uugh.”

It smelled bad.

It looked like Baek-Yeoul and Chang-sik were fine with their strong noses, but Tae-seong and Deok-soon hesitated about going down there.

I needed to offer a tip.

“In smelly places, breathing through your mouth helps quite a bit.”

Maybe because they trusted my achievements from the last exercise, Deok-soon followed my advice and started breathing through her mouth.

Her action seemed a bit exaggerated, but maybe it made things better because her expression eased.

Thus, we entered the sewer.

Splash-.

The grimy water rose to our ankles, and it was truly disgusting.

What was even worse was that the inside was winding.

With numerous intersections, even I found it hard to lead the way.

“Which way should we go?”

Just then, as I paused for a moment, Baek-Yeoul, who I thought had been quiet all day, stepped forward.

“I! I know! This is the time to do this, you know!”

Clack, spit-.

Baek-Yeoul spat on his palm.

Then he slapped it onto his other palm to make it splash.

“It veered right! Let’s go right!”

What a primitive and superstitious navigation method.

Is he at the same level as Amazon natives?

But when you add Baek-Yeoul’s concept of “bad luck,” this superstitious navigation method becomes meaningful.

Encountering “monsters” in such a stinky sewer would truly be the worst case scenario, wouldn’t it? So, following this bad-luck compass of Baek-Yeoul, we’d have a dramatically increased chance of encountering “monsters.”

Splash-splash-.

While we walked through the underground sewer, we reached a dead end.

“We’re blocked!”

A dead end appeared before us.

Swish-swish-swish-.

An incredibly thick steel plate stood in our way.

What is this, a bomb shelter?

“Th-this can’t be….”

Even Baek-Yeoul, who had been overconfident for a while, sank into gloom at this situation where we could progress no further, wondering if this bad luck was truly ‘bad luck.’

As I was about to suggest we turn back, something very strange wafted into my nose, an aroma of strawberries that didn’t belong in this underground sewer. And I sensed some movement coming from behind us with splashes-splash-splash.

Squeeze-.

Choi Chang-sik grabbed my wrist.

“…My friend. You absolutely must not engage in any sudden actions from here on out. Absolutely!”

He looked as startled as if he’d spotted a starving Tyrannosaurus.

No, what appeared was even more astonishing than a dinosaur.

It was Yu Yeoreum.

She casually ignored us and stared silently at the dead-end steel wall, her eyes glowing white.

Zzzziiiii-.

At that moment, two glowing eyes in this dark sewer looked like a gleaming “Supernova” or “sun,” making me marvel at its beauty.

Zzzziiiiiiiiiing-. Kwaaaaaaaaah-!

Yu Yeoreum’s eyes emitted two beams of light.

Suddenly, the thick steel door was pierced through as if hit by a futuristic welding tool!

What the hell is that? Shooting lasers from her eyes? No matter how much of an awakener she is, can a human really do that?

Even Deok-soon, usually quiet, seemed to finally find her words.

“Hi, it’s heat vision. It’s when you shoot thermal rays from your eyes. You see it sometimes in movies where Superboy uses it, and it’s kind of niche, but even heroes like Homelanders in dramas….”

I understood that whatever it was, it was amazing.

How astonishing that even quiet Deok-soon was speaking up! She was busy marveling, “Is that the power of class F’s president Invincible? Guess the call sign isn’t exaggerated.”

At that moment, I could understand the “true meaning” of the phrase Seoga-eul said about “kidnapping Yu Yeoreum” to me.

Yu Yeoreum is invincible.

Trying to kidnap someone who not only moves faster than me, who has the concept of “jump,” but also shoots crazy laser beams would practically guarantee the kidnapper’s ‘death.’

In other words—Seoga-eul was saying to me, “You could never collaborate, so go out and die.”

In that sense, I clenched my fist tightly, hunched over my upper body, and─.

“Nam-jin Kick!”

Paaah-!

I propelled myself toward Yu Yeoreum, splashing water everywhere.