NOVEL NEXT chapter 26
Chapter 26. Infiltration
“Eh? You are…!”
Joo Si-hyung, caught off guard, displayed a startled reaction.
As expected, he recognized who it was in an instant.
“Could you keep this a secret?”
In truth, Joo Si-hyung was a college alumnus of Kim Do-jin’s father, Kim Mu-ho, and Do-jin seized the opportunity to leverage their deep connection.
“Hmm…”
After a moment of contemplation, Joo Si-hyung nodded, much to Do-jin’s relief.
“Alright. I suppose so.”
In gratitude, Kim Do-jin gave a slight bow before pressing the mask back onto his face.
“…”
Joo Si-hyung merely regarded him with an expression of intrigue, which was interpreted as a signal that it was fine to proceed.
“Well then…”
With that, Kim Do-jin slipped past Joo Si-hyung and completely departed the scene of the incident.
* * *
“Whoa!? Professor Joo!”
A throng of people surged around Joo Si-hyung as he emerged from the alleyway.
It was the late-arriving reporters from the Choinbu and agents from the Special Defense Agency who had rushed in.
“Professor Joo! Have you confirmed who that hero is?”
Naturally, the reporters were fixated on the hero who had recently defeated a villain while clad in a black mask.
“Where is that hero now? Have they already left?”
Joo Si-hyung shook his head vigorously, feigning ignorance amidst the barrage of questions.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see anything.”
The reporters and agents surrounding him gasped in surprise.
They had rushed here upon hearing that Joo Si-hyung had pursued the mysterious hero, only to find him claiming to know nothing, which was certainly misleading.
“Y-you mean Professor Joo couldn’t catch up?”
Of course, that wasn’t the case, but Joo Si-hyung chose not to deny it.
He simply stated that he had nothing more to share and would take his leave.
Thus, that evening’s news was plastered with somewhat distorted information.
A hero had emerged, faster than Professor Joo Si-hyung in South Korea.
* * *
At the lake park in front of the ‘Arc’ dormitory.
As evening fell, countless students wandered along the walking paths.
Yet, among those many students, not a single soul knew.
The fact that Carla Arlen, sitting on one side of a bench, had a face flushed bright red.
“Ugh….”
Carla Arlen, overwhelmed, clasped her face in her hands and exhaled deeply.
The incident of physical contact with Kim Do-jin during the morning’s ‘Free-for-all’ exam.
The memory of that moment stirred turmoil within her heart.
‘How could such a thing happen…’
It was merely a scuffle, yet for Carla Arlen, it was the first time in her life she had been so intimately close to a man, skin against skin.
The image of Kim Do-jin, overpowering her with his strong grip, sitting atop her, and the sensations from that moment remained vividly etched in her mind.
Thus, to calm her racing thoughts, she had come to sit on a bench in the park.
“…!”
Coincidentally, the very culprit of her distress appeared at that moment.
Kim Do-jin, clad in a black zip-up hoodie and black sweatpants, stepped out of the dormitory.
‘Where is he going?’
Suddenly filled with curiosity, Carla Arlen began to stealthily follow him.
Time passed in this manner.
“Eh?”
Kim Do-jin had ventured outside the Arc, and Carla Arlen, intrigued, continued to trail him discreetly.
However, her uncharacteristic pursuit could not last long.
As soon as they entered a quiet alley, Kim Do-jin suddenly quickened his pace, leaving her unable to keep up.
“Haah….”
In the end, Carla Arlen had to return to the dormitory, feeling a sense of regret.
“Ugh….”
Once back in her room and after a shower, Carla Arlen instinctively turned on the television.
Yet, the news blaring from the screen suddenly captured her eyes and ears.
[Not long ago, an incident occurred on a street in Itaewon where a villain incited a riot. In the chaos, tragically, one innocent citizen lost their life, and two others were severely injured, stirring a sense of sorrow. Yet, amidst this turmoil, a newly emerged masked hero has become a topic of intrigue.]
Karla Arlen’s eyes widened in surprise as she keenly observed the conversation between the news anchor and reporter.
“…Huh?”
The mere fact that a new masked hero had appeared was not particularly shocking.
What truly astonished Karla Arlen was none other than the hero’s appearance.
“Could it be…?”
The footage displayed was merely distant shots taken by ordinary citizens with their smartphones, lacking clarity.
Yet, no matter how she looked, the hero bore a striking resemblance in height and build to Kim Do-jin, wielding the same ‘rock manipulation’ superpower.
And above all, the outfit was identical to the one she had seen Kim Do-jin wear just moments ago.
“Kim Do-jin?”
Of course, the attire was rather unremarkable, so it was entirely possible for someone else to wear the same clothes.
However, Karla Arlen could not shake the feeling that this black-masked hero was indeed Kim Do-jin.
‘What on earth is happening?’
Her suspicions only grew, and a glint of cunning shone in her eyes as she began to formulate a plan.
‘I need to confirm this myself.’
* * *
“Ahh…”
Returning to her dorm room, a wave of comfort washed over her.
Though her original outing had taken an unexpected turn with the villain confrontation, it had ultimately turned into a stroke of incredible luck.
She had unexpectedly devoured the top-tier superpower, ‘Time Transcendence.’
“Bark!”
After giving Winter a few affectionate pats as he wagged his tail in greeting, Kim Do-jin began to thoroughly test his newly acquired power.
First, the ‘Time Transcendence’ ability that Lee Woo-sang had wielded.
As the name suggested, it was a power that allowed one to perceive and act beyond the flow of time.
– Wham!
The moment he summoned his mana to activate the ability, the surrounding movements began to slow down.
Winter, who had jumped up beside him, seemed to move in a slow-motion blur, as if at half speed.
It felt as though time itself had decelerated, leaving him the only one able to move at his original pace.
Kim Do-jin trudged past Winter and sank into the sofa, and only then did the ‘Time Transcendence’ ability exhaust its mana, releasing with a pop.
“…Bark?”
To Winter, it must have seemed as if Kim Do-jin moved at roughly double speed.
“……”
Winter stood frozen, staring blankly at Kim Do-jin, who, with a sly grin, continued to experiment with various tests.
The conclusion drawn anew about the ‘time transcendence’ ability was, indeed, nothing short of fraudulent.
While there was a sensation akin to water pressure during the activation of the ability, making movement not entirely free, and the consumption of magical energy was severe, it was a power that was astonishing enough to outweigh all those drawbacks.
‘The activation time is short, and the speed is somewhat disappointing, but that’s probably just because my magical energy is only at B rank…’
If this ‘time transcendence’ ability was on par with what Kim Do-jin’s true self possessed, then the perception of time could slow down to 0.1 times, perhaps even 0.01 times, depending on the magical energy expended.
Of course, that would mean his own movements would accelerate.
‘Could it be that I could devour the time transcendence ability…? It’s growing much faster than I initially thought…’
After satisfactorily completing his tests, Kim Do-jin decided to try out a second ability he hadn’t even dared to hope for.
What could this second ability, lying dormant within the villain Lee Woo-sang, be?
“Umm…”
Surprisingly, even Kim Do-jin could not discern what it was.
A mana wavelength of a type he had never encountered, even with over fifty abilities devoured.
‘I can tell it’s a passive form, but… it’s hard to guess what exact effect it has…’
For a long while afterward, Kim Do-jin tried to uncover the identity of the ability, but ultimately, he failed.
“Ugh…”
His curiosity remained unsated, but there was nothing to be done.
It was clear he possessed an ability, so he had no choice but to postpone discovering its nature.
‘Someday, I’ll figure it out.’
With that thought settled, Kim Do-jin slowly wrapped up his day.
* * *
The next morning.
Karla Arlen, having arrived at school early and seated herself, was staring intently at the classroom door.
She was waiting, keenly aware of when Kim Do-jin would arrive.
After some time had passed.
– Creak.
At last, Kim Do-jin opened the classroom door and stepped inside.
“……”
Karla Arlen, suspecting that Kim Do-jin was the masked hero from last night’s news, stared at him intently.
“……!”
Suddenly, Kim Do-jin flinched, startled.
As if he had felt a prickling gaze upon him.
But that moment passed quickly; Kim Do-jin resumed his steps and sat back down in his place.
‘Hmm…’
Karla Arlen turned her head to observe him, continuing her watch even during the lesson.
Thanks to her ‘Invisibility’ ability, no one could tell where her gaze wandered, nor that she had turned away.
Time slipped by, and at last, all classes came to an end.
The students rose leisurely, preparing to head home, but Karla Arlen, for some reason, stood up hurriedly and exited the classroom.
Then, astonishingly, she entered the restroom and stripped down to nothing but her panties, leaving her clothes behind.
With her current magical power and control, she could manage to make even her panties invisible, aiming for a perfect state of invisibility to carry out her plan.
In truth, wandering outside nearly naked felt a bit daunting, yet she felt no shame.
After all, no one would see her.
Regardless, Karla Arlen neatly folded her uniform and underwear, hiding them in the restroom before stepping back outside.
‘There!’
She spotted her target, Kim Do-jin, ambling out of the classroom and trudging toward the dormitory.
Karla Arlen carefully kept her distance, trailing behind him until she finally reached the front of his dormitory.
“Um…”
Kim Do-jin, still fiddling with the smartphone he had been toying with for some time, focused on the fingerprint recognition.
– Ding-dong, click!
The front door swung open, and Kim Do-jin stepped inside, still absorbed in his phone.
‘Now’s my chance!’
Karla Arlen darted in right before the door closed, successfully infiltrating his dorm room.
‘Phew…’
As Karla Arlen sighed in relief, brushing her chest, Kim Do-jin lumbered over to the refrigerator and flung the door open.
He pulled out a chilled can of cola and plopped down onto the sofa.
What he would do next was all too predictable.
Kim Do-jin popped the tab, and the can hissed as he took a refreshing gulp.
But in that moment…
“Phhht!”
Was it too hasty a drink?
Kim Do-jin suddenly spewed cola, coughing violently.
“……”
Standing to the side, Karla Arlen was taken aback, her gaze snapping to Kim Do-jin, who, thankfully, began to pat his chest and soon regained his composure.
“Ah… I almost choked…”
Muttering to himself, Kim Do-jin wiped the floor haphazardly and then grabbed the remote, turning on the television.
“……”
Karla Arlen watched as Kim Do-jin sank comfortably into the sofa, engrossed in the flickering screen, before she slowly shifted back to her original plan.
Her plan was to find the mask.
If the hero from yesterday’s news was indeed Kim Do-jin, then that mask had to be somewhere in this very place.
– Clatter…
She slipped into the bedroom, opening every drawer she could find, careful to make as little noise as possible.
Time passed, and then—
‘Just as I thought!’
Karla Arlen finally uncovered a mask hidden in one of the drawers.
It was unmistakably the same mask she had seen on the news the day before.
‘My guess was right. Kim Do-jin was that hero! But… why? Why hide his identity while playing the hero? He’s built such a notorious reputation at school…’
Karla Arlen examined the mask with a mix of confusion and a strange delight, before returning it to its original place.
Now that she had achieved her goal, all she needed was for Kim Do-jin to step away for a moment—perhaps to the bathroom—and she could slip out unnoticed.
“……”
Yet, that moment seemed far off, and Karla Arlen, driven by curiosity, began to open the remaining drawers one by one.
It was then that it happened.
‘……!’
Karla Arlen’s eyes widened in shock.
In the very bottom drawer, shockingly, were countless photographs of Yoon Yoo-na.
‘What… is this…?’
As she flipped through the photos, Karla Arlen could not help but feel a rising suspicion.
It was clear: Kim Do-jin was infatuated with Yoon Yoo-na, and not just casually—he was obsessively, seriously in love with her.
“……”
Frozen in disbelief, Karla Arlen’s body began to tremble uncontrollably.