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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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“Ah, hello.”
“Are you the one who’s supposed to be joining us?”
After shaking off Justitia’s annoying sister and going up to the podium where the staff were gathered, a few people offered me handshakes.
I casually accepted the handshakes and sat down, and gazes started pouring in from all directions.
‘Are they looking down on me?’
While some gazes were simply curious, some were filled with hostility.
It was understandable, considering someone with unverified information had parachuted in, even if it was temporary.
Since I wouldn’t be seeing these people again after today anyway, I decided to ignore them.
“Haha, the academy is quite conservative, isn’t it?”
Just as I was sitting there, silently enduring the gazes, someone next to me offered a handshake.
“But not everyone’s like that. Let’s try to get along during our short time together.”
I turned my head and saw a familiar face.
“Ah, I’m late with my introduction. I’m Resurrection, the hero in charge of Class 1, Year 2 this year.”
World Rank 13, Resurrection.
He was considered barely within the top 12, the threshold for being called a top hero.
“Nice to meet you. I’m…”
Since I’d been greeted, I felt obligated to respond, so I reached out and shook his hand.
“…Ugh.”
It was at that moment that something strange happened to my eyes.
“What’s wrong? Are you alright?”
‘…What?’
As I clutched my eyes and lowered my head, stopping mid-handshake, Resurrection spoke in a worried voice.
Was my right eye, which had been weak since childhood, acting up again?
‘No, both my eyes hurt.’
But it wasn’t just my right eye, which I usually covered, that was hurting.
This has never happened before. Was this also a symptom of ‘Villainization’?
“Are you sure you’re alright? Do you want to go to the infirmary?”
“Ah, yes. I’m fine.”
Fortunately, the pain subsided after a while.
“I’m… Oh Ji-seok. Nice to meet you.”
I felt like I was getting more stares, so I gave a fake name with a smile to avoid suspicion and accepted Resurrection’s handshake.
“Aha, you’re Korean.”
“Yes, as you can see.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Then, he suddenly started scrutinizing me.
“Somehow, you resemble someone I know.”
‘…Is he suspicious?’
I couldn’t help but tense up at his words.
Even if my physique and details had changed, my current face was based on ‘Kang Haneul.’
A perceptive person would be suspicious.
As expected, the experience of a hero bordering on top rank couldn’t be ignored.
“I also think all foreigners look the same, haha.”
“Is that so? Me too. Hehe.”
Fortunately, it seemed like his suspicion stopped there.
Well, no one would easily imagine that I, who escaped after causing such a ruckus, would brazenly infiltrate the academy.
“Ah, almost all the students are here.”
As I sat there, still on guard, Resurrection pointed to the auditorium and spoke.
“It seems like it’s about to start.”
That’s right. It was about to begin.
– Dominating Hands, all members infiltrated.
The entrance ceremony, and our operation.
– All transformations except for Kang Haneul will be released shortly. I’ll notify you separately when the time comes.
Pandora’s cute synthesized voice from my earpiece reminded me of that fact.
“Wow, there are a lot of newbies this year.”
“…?”
Was it my imagination?
“But once they’re trained, they’ll be quite useful…”
Why did Resurrection’s body next to me seem to be twitching?
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The entrance ceremony finally began in earnest once all the students were gathered.
The procedures, which brought back quite a few memories for me, began to unfold one after another.
The opening ceremony, marking the start of the Hero Academy.
The memorial service for the previous generation of heroes.
The principal’s tedious speech, same as always.
All of these were no different from an ordinary school, but none of the students let their guard down.
The prestige of being the world’s best hero training institution.
The photos of graduates engaged in hero activities filling the entrance ceremony hall.
And the aura emanating from the faculty, all of whom were famous heroes.
All of this kept the students on high alert.
“Then, next… we will have the freshman oath.”
After the principal’s speech, which managed to make a few students yawn despite all that, finally came the freshman oath.
“The freshman representative, please come forward.”
Thinking that the moment had come, I clenched my fists discreetly, and she stood up and started walking.
‘Should I just rush in and snap her neck?’
Lumia Obse.
The most promising rising star of the generation, who passed the International Hero Academy’s entrance test with top honors.
As she appeared, constantly praised by the media as the hero who would succeed Justitia, everyone’s attention focused on her.
“Greetings, everyone.”
Honestly, I was a little nervous.
What should I do if she recognized me?
“I’m Lumia Obse, the freshman representative.”
Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
With a gentle, friendly smile, she simply walked past me and stood before the microphone.
– *Clench…*
Watching her, my heart started pounding.
Could I kill her if I attacked now?
‘Calm down. Think rationally.’
But there were too many eyes watching.
I couldn’t be caught again before getting my revenge.
And for the ultimate revenge, capturing her alive would be best.
“It’s truly an honor to give the freshman oath…”
“Ugh.”
As I focused, calming myself, my eyes started burning again.
‘Should I get a health checkup?’
I couldn’t draw attention here, so I gritted my teeth and endured the pain.
“It’s time for us to move on from the Justitia incident.”
At Lumia’s outrageous remark, I forgot the pain and opened my eyes wide.
“Clinging to and obsessing over the past only hurts us. The past is the past, and the future is the future.”
“Huh?”
At that moment,
“We are the future buds who will be responsible for the unknown era that lies ahead.”
“What is this?”
Something unbelievable unfolded before my eyes.
“So, we must now move forward, towards the future…”
Within the bodies of some of the many people gathered in the auditorium,
‘…Tentacles?’
…something grotesque and eerie, like tentacles, started wriggling, and I could see it clearly.
“R-Resurrection.”
I blankly stared at the eerie scene and hurriedly tried to talk to Resurrection, who was next to me.
“C-can you see them? Those…”
But what was this?
He, who had been next to me just now, had disappeared.
“Resurrection said he was going to the restroom. So please lower your voice.”
“E-excuse me. Do you see them?”
“Huh?”
“The t-tentacles.”
I hurriedly grabbed a teacher, who frowned at me, and pointed to the front and asked, and she looked at me with surprised eyes and said,
“What are you talking about?”
“R-right there. Second row on the right, front. And third from the back. Don’t you see them?”
“…?”
I asked again with a serious expression, but she just looked puzzled.
“Um, ahem.”
Just as I was wondering if I should take a picture and show her, I heard a cough from beside me.
“Please be quiet.”
The professors were staring at me.
‘What is… going on…’
Only a few, but two or three of the professors also had eerie tentacles wriggling inside their bodies.
Dumbfounded, I turned my gaze forward to see Lumia looking at me with a puzzled look.
‘Huh?’
I unconsciously looked away from her, and a very suspicious scene unfolded.
‘What are they doing?’
The tentacle-possessors were exchanging glances and leaving one by one.
Their movements were so subtle that no one noticed.
Except for me, who could see something wriggling inside their bodies.
“Excuse me.”
As I blankly stared at the empty seats of those who had disappeared from the auditorium,
“I’m going to the restroom for a moment.”
…I quietly stood up, said so, and started following them.
– Haneul. Where are you going? Gotta poop?
“…”
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‘Where are they going?’
The reason I followed them was simple.
I couldn’t tolerate any variables.
Unless I was going crazy, this situation was clearly a variable.
If I messed up the operation and missed Lumia because of this, I would lose a golden opportunity for revenge.
There was still some time left before the operation began.
So, first, I needed to identify the variable in front of me.
With that thought, I successfully followed the last student to leave the auditorium and carefully tailed him.
‘Is he going further up?’
He kept going up.
Besides classrooms, the upper floors of the academy housed the teachers’ office, the principal’s office, and the infirmary.
So, was his destination one of those three?
“You there.”
Just as I was silently making deductions and following him, he suddenly stopped.
“Who is it?”
He turned around in a flash and asked in a cold voice, his eyes glinting.
“…”
Silence.
He stared at where I had been, tilted his head for a moment, and then started walking forward.
‘That was close.’
Fortunately, since it was the end of the hallway, I was able to hide behind the wall.
By the way, if he reacted like that to even the slightest sound, it really seemed like something was going on.
Just what was his identity?
“Excuse me.”
“…!”
Just as I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t been caught, a voice suddenly came from behind.
“I haven’t seen you before.”
“You’re not a student, are you? Who are you?”
Two second-year student council members, who were there to help with the entrance ceremony, were looking at me suspiciously.
“…I’m a newly appointed professor at the academy.”
“I see, excuse me.”
Thinking that the tailing was over, I showed them my ID with a slightly annoyed voice, and the female student nodded in agreement.
“But what about you?”
It was at that moment that an ominous feeling spread through my limbs.
“You there, you look like a new student in that uniform.”
“…”
“The entrance ceremony is still in progress. What are you doing here?”
The warning, honed from my long years as a black ops agent, signaling danger.
“Skipping class on the first day? How rebellious.”
“Go back to the auditorium right now. Otherwise…”
Why was that warning spreading through my body?
“Ha…”
As I took a defensive stance, the student standing in the hallway sighed and started cracking his neck.
“You guys are really unlucky.”
At first, it looked like simple stretching, but his neck began to bend at an increasingly unnatural angle, approaching 90 degrees.
“You could have survived today.”
At the grotesque sight, the student council members turned pale and started backing away.
“…Damn it.”
Unable to ignore the uneasy feeling spreading through my body any longer, I unconsciously reached out.
[Skill: Defense (LV1) has been used.]
At that moment, a clear notification sound rang, and a translucent window appeared before me.
[Defense: Summons a barrier with a cooldown that blocks enemy attacks.]
[Price: User’s defense decreases in proportion to the impact for a certain period of time.]
“What?”
And before I could even finish reading it,
– *Kaboom…!!!*
An attack flew in at terrifying speed with a loud roar.
“Kyaa!?”
“What…?”
But the one who launched the attack, which was blocked right in front of me for some reason, was
– *Crack…*
…the student from before, now surrounded by tentacles sprouting from his twisted neck, looking like a monster.
“Shit.”
What was going on?
A human turning into a monster?
Monsterization should only target animals, not humans.
“What are you?”
The student before me was clearly a monster.
“Grrrr…”
No, he had become a monster.
“This is crazy, shit.”
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Meanwhile, at that time.
“Hmm, this.”
Paradise, disguised as a student and blended in with the crowd in the auditorium, put her hand in her pocket with her characteristic cheerful smile.
– *Whoosh…!*
A card, shot like a bullet, pierced the head of a staff member.
“I guess we have to start earlier than expected.”
“Kyaaa!!!”
A few seconds later, screams echoed through the auditorium.
“Hello, little shits.”
The tentacles, wriggling violently from the staff member’s body before stopping, were reflected in Dice’s smiling eyes.
“It’s time to take your deworming medicine.”
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