9. How to Tame a Beast
Jeong Seong-min’s intentions were obvious.
The person who came to call him to the gym was Woo Min-woo.
The path he and Woo Min-woo took to get here would also have been captured on CCTV.
If he and Woo Min-woo caused trouble in that situation?
Regardless of victory or defeat, both he and Woo Min-woo could be expelled.
Because a hunter academy that taught practical skills strictly punished school violence without any exceptions.
Of course, in Woo Min-woo’s case, going against Jeong Seong-min’s words would be more frightening than being expelled.
Woo Min-woo would definitely take all the blame until the end without mentioning Jeong Seong-min’s name.
“Min-woo, even if it kills you, at least stab that bastard once with the knife. If not, you’ll die. Got it?”
Pak!
“Ugh!”
Jeong Seong-min mercilessly pushed Woo Min-woo.
Placed in front of Han Seol by chance, he pointed his trembling sword at Han Seol and shed tears.
“Ready? Ready… Action!”
Jeong Seong-min began filming the two with his smartphone.
It was muted, so his voice wasn’t recorded.
Now, if he uploaded the filmed result to the academy bulletin board using Woo Min-woo’s account, both Woo Min-woo and Han Seol would be finished.
Well, they would pretend to look for the informant who filmed the video, but if they went into hiding, the chances of them getting caught were slim.
Han Seol would claim his innocence while mentioning them, but that was also baseless, so he could just deny it.
The fact that Woo Min-woo was a 2nd year meant that, despite appearances, he had passed the same midterm and final exams as Han Seol and been promoted.
He was by no means an easy opponent.
However, Han Seol pointed his index finger lightly at Woo Min-woo.
“What’s that bastard doing?”
“Who knows. Has he gone mad?”
“That crazy bastard, kekeke!”
When Han Seol, who hadn’t even brought a weapon, pointed his finger at Woo Min-woo instead of getting into a combat stance, Jeong Seong-min and his gang began to sneer.
However, the sneering didn’t last long.
Pyung! Thwack!
“Ugh!”
Han Seol’s Magic Missile flew like a bullet and properly struck Woo Min-woo’s head.
The impact was so strong that Woo Min-woo, who flew back about 1m, collapsed on the spot and fainted, foaming at the mouth.
Naturally, Jeong Seong-min’s gang was stunned and shocked at the sight.
“Wh-what?”
“What did that bastard just do?”
“Could it be a skill?”
“Stupid! How can you use a skill without a trigger?”
A trigger was the activation mechanism for skills.
Usually, passive skills were constantly activated just by having them, but active skills were manifested when the skill’s name was called out, activating the trigger.
However, for Han Seol, who could use Magic Missile as much as he wanted without chanting, there was no need to specifically cast Magic Missile.
“Anyway, that bastard is screwed now. Hey, upload what’s filmed here using that Woo Min-woo bastard’s account.”
“Okay…”
Pyung, thwack!
“Ugh!”
“What the…!”
“Is that bastard really crazy?”
One of the gang members who tried to take Jeong Seong-min’s smartphone was hit in the head by Han Seol’s Magic Missile and fainted.
At the sudden situation, the gang was dumbfounded, but then they seemed to realize the situation and all glared at Han Seol, growling.
Fortunately, both Woo Min-woo and the guy who just collapsed were fine because Han Seol had lowered the power, otherwise their heads would have shattered like watermelons and died.
Regardless, Han Seol stared at them with icy eyes and pointed out their mistake in an indifferent tone.
“I’ll overlook the minor mistakes, but the biggest mistake you made was thinking that I would just let you go. Why did you think that? Did you really think that I wouldn’t dare touch you because you’re a gang with a 2nd year leader? I hope not. If that’s true, you’ll all have to crawl back to the dormitory.”
“That son of a bitch…!”
In the end, Jeong Seong-min, whose anger had reached the top of his head, even causing the veins on his forehead to throb, coldly gave an order.
“Beat up that bastard. I’ll take responsibility for the rest.”
At Jeong Seong-min’s command, the gang pounced on Han Seol with sharp, lethal weapons.
After properly handling the situation, they could just pin all the charges on Woo Min-woo or similar trash anyway.
There were plenty of disposable tools around.
The gang seemed to be top-notch among the 2nd years, as expected from hanging out with Jeong Seong-min.
Especially since most of them were attackers, they were confident in their fast movements and close combat more than anyone else.
No matter how much the opponent was the 1st year TOP, it wouldn’t be a problem.
No, it shouldn’t have been.
“Ugh!”
“Argh!”
“Aaaaah!”
Thwack! Thud, pyung! Crunch, pyung! Crack, swish! Slam! Pyung!
Han Seol faced the top-level 2nd year attackers without backing down and rather showed his prowess by digging in.
Han Seol grabbed the wrist of the one who charged first, broke it, took his weapon, the sword, and knocked him out with a punch.
It would be easy to cut them all down with a sword.
But that would cause a big problem that couldn’t be handled.
So Han Seol had to be satisfied with just deflecting, blocking, or stealing the timing of their attacks with the sword to twist the flow.
Instead, Han Seol’s fists and feet definitely beat them up.
In between, he lightly shattered their coordination by mixing in Magic Missiles where necessary.
As Han Seol skillfully used their attacks as if he knew and avoided them, and rather twisted them to interfere with each other, they instantly turned into a disorderly rabble.
The start of the misjudgment was that they were also taking the midterm exams when Han Seol was taking them.
If they had seen Han Seol’s matches even once, they would never have made the foolish mistake of pushing with numbers like this.
If this were a battle using magic and aura, it wouldn’t have been this overwhelming.
But no matter how many there were, in a skill fight without using magic and aura…
Even if it were 20:1 instead of 10:1, it was hard to imagine Han Seol losing.
In the end, it didn’t take long for the ten gang members to collapse, covered in blood.
“Phew…”
In the chaotic scene where groans and moans strangely harmonized, only Han Seol was standing.
His whole body was soaked with sweat and his breathing was rough, but even after subduing ten 2nd year attackers with real swords, it was hard to find a single scratch on his body.
“What are you…? Are you really a 1st year?”
Jeong Seong-min, who had been observing the battle and grasped the seriousness of the situation, frowned as he took off his outer garment and picked up his weapon.
His weapon was a spear.
Unlike his personality, Jeong Seong-min’s specialty was coolly and calmly maintaining distance from the opponent and trampling them.
He lowered his posture and pointed the spearhead straight at the approaching Han Seol, but Han Seol’s steps didn’t stop.
The tables had already turned.
Just as it was not easy for the gang to escape from this situation, he had to kill him and get out of here alone.
Simple threats worked on trash like Woo Min-woo, but not on the gang that followed him.
If things went wrong, they could spill the whole truth.
‘I have no choice. I’ll have to at least offer a deal.’
Fortunately, as the 2nd year TOP, he had been scouted by several guilds that could be considered hunters’ workplaces.
If he promised to safely graduate as a 3rd year, join a good guild, and pull them in, they might keep their mouths shut.
In any case, the ultimate goal of those guys was also to become hunters, so even if they were expelled, as long as they could become hunters, there was definitely a possibility that they would turn a blind eye.
To do that, it was important to kill Han Seol here and shut his mouth first.
‘He’s coming!’
When Han Seol fearlessly entered his range, Jeong Seong-min thrust his spear without hesitation.
His spearhead swiftly and accurately aimed at Han Seol’s heart like a snake launching its body towards its captured prey.
However, he realized that his future plans were just empty delusions.
Clang!
“Ugh!”
Han Seol accurately deflected Jeong Seong-min’s spearhead with his sword.
On the surface, it looked like he was swinging randomly, so it seemed like a coincidence that a playful swing hit.
But that playful-looking action tore Jeong Seong-min’s grip, and blood soaked through.
It was because the recoil was more intense than expected, making it difficult to hold and stabilize the spear shaft.
“Hup!”
But Jeong Seong-min pulled the spear shaft back with a short breath and thrust it forward powerfully again.
Each time, Han Seol leisurely struck down Jeong Seong-min’s spearhead, and Jeong Seong-min, unable to withstand the recoil, had no choice but to let go of the spear shaft.
“Aaargh!”
Jeong Seong-min held his two hands, torn and soaked with blood, to his chest and stared at Han Seol with trembling eyes, sweating coldly.
“D-don’t come!”
“Looks like you have nothing more to show.”
Han Seol approached Jeong Seong-min, who was stepping back.
Then, as Jeong Seong-min’s back hit the school building and he had nowhere to retreat, the distance between him and Han Seol inevitably narrowed.
“I-I was wrong! If you let me go just this once, I’ll definitely have your back as long as I’m at the academy! I promise! Really!”
“Never mind that.”
Han Seol reached out his hand to Jeong Seong-min.
“Wh-what… Ah, money! W-wait a moment! How much silver do I have…”
“I meant your smartphone.”
As Jeong Seong-min hurriedly rummaged through his pockets, Han Seol precisely pointed out what he wanted.
At that, Jeong Seong-min handed over his smartphone to Han Seol with a crying face and trembling hands.
Unlike the past, smartphones were not portable phones that everyone carried around.
They were quite expensive luxury items, so it was a gift that Jeong Seong-min’s parents had bought with great thought to commemorate him becoming the 2nd year top student.
However, compared to being expelled if the truth was known, having his smartphone taken away could be considered getting off lightly.
But Han Seol’s purpose was not to extort Jeong Seong-min’s smartphone as he thought.
“Those who have come to their senses, take off all your clothes and stand in a line against that wall, arm in arm. Wake up the ones who haven’t come to their senses, even if you have to beat them. Otherwise, I’ll wake them up myself.”
“Wh-what? Take off all our clothes? What is that…”
“This won’t do. Let’s get beat up a bit more.”
Han Seol beat up Jeong Seong-min like beating a dog on the hottest day.
It was chilling to see how he could beat someone like beating a dog with such an expressionless face.
Naturally, the gang’s movements became unified.
“Wh-what, what the hell is this?”
“Shut up and stay still for a bit! If you don’t want to get beaten up like that!”
They woke up their friends who still hadn’t come to their senses, even if they had to slap their cheeks, and hurriedly undressed them, pointing at Jeong Seong-min.
The friends who didn’t know what was going on also began to move swiftly after seeing Jeong Seong-min getting beaten.
Like that, with Jeong Seong-min, who was in a horrible state, at the lead, the entire naked gang stood in a line against the wall, arm in arm.
“Recite.”
As Han Seol began filming with Jeong Seong-min’s smartphone, Jeong Seong-min began to recite as Han Seol had taught him while beating him.
“We are trash-like bastards! I tried to extort 1st year junior Han Seol’s skill books, following the bad practices of Cheongsol Academy! I used my classmate Woo Min-woo to lure him behind the 2nd year building and intended to beat him up with the gang here. Please forgive us worthless people!”
As Jeong Seong-min bowed his waist while arm in arm, naturally, the other gang members had no choice but to bow their waists as well.
“Enough.”
Han Seol, who had recorded the video, took out only the data card from the smartphone and returned the smartphone to Jeong Seong-min.
Han Seol stared straight into Jeong Seong-min’s eyes with an icy gaze and brought his palm to his neck.
Then, Jeong Seong-min instinctively covered his face and curled up his body, trembling, looking pitiful.
Han Seol tapped Jeong Seong-min’s nape with his palm and said,
“Let’s get along well.”
“Yes! Big brother!”
Jeong Seong-min, who seemed to have pulled himself together, bowed his waist 90 degrees toward Han Seol with discipline.
The fear of Han Seol had already taken over his mind.
Seeing his unfamiliar appearance, the gang couldn’t believe it, as if half their souls had left their bodies.
