NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3
003 – The Greatest of the Past!
“Ramen party!”
Bubbling, bubbling, bubbling-.
I tossed five packets of ramen into a huge pot and boiled them furiously.
Splat-.
I squeezed in an entire bottle of ketchup, and the mouth-watering aroma pierced my nose, sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine.
“Is that ssamjang? Is there ssamjang? Just a spoonful of ssamjang in ramen? This is—.”
—This is already an artistry that will go down in history.
Khehe, ramen, you chewy, plump beauty.
Let’s see who dies today, you or me!
“Is it okay for me alone to eat something this delicious? Hehe, all you ramen noodles are doomed!”
Five packets of ramen.
It would have been nice to toss in some ham too, but even back then, our fridge didn’t have anything like ham.
No money either.
Bang, bang, bang, bang-!
Just then, someone knocked on our door.
When I opened it, a bunch of comically ugly men with nasty faces barged into our house.
“Hanam-jin. Today’s the day to pay back your debt. Do you have the money ready?”
Ah-.
Loan sharks.
I recalled how my mom and dad had ventured into business in their later years and ended up crashing spectacularly, resorting to loan sharks, which had caused me so much trouble.
Today, if things had gone according to plan, my leg should have been crushed by a truck and I should have been on my way to the hospital, so I never anticipated these guys would show up.
They apparently took all the insurance money and hospital bills I had received back then.
“What? You were boiling ramen?”
“I’m hungry, so this works out. Little brother, neatly put it in a bowl and bring it to your big brother.”
“Ugh, what the hell is that smell? Ketchup? Who boils ramen like this? So dumb!”
Splash-.
The loan sharks dumped all my painstakingly cooked ramen down the sink.
At that moment, I heard something snap in my ears—
“Those bastards who don’t know the value of food! Everyone, get ready!”
“What?”
“What the hell did that guy just say?”
“Is he crazy?”
Memories of the days when I struggled to get food flashed through my mind like a montage.
The long, long days of humiliation—
How I lashed out with a whip against chief Kim Jang-dong for all the emotions I felt!
“Do you guys even understand the heartbreak of selling your dignity for just two potatoes? Those bastards who don’t know the value of food deserve to pay a price!”
Thud-!
I shouted with all my might and jumped into the air to kick the loan shark’s head.
Thwack-!
The loan shark boss, who had the power of ‘impact’, flew back and crashed into the wall.
Seeing his eyes roll back in white, I couldn’t tell if he was dead or just unconscious.
「Name: Kim Do-jun
Status: 《Unconscious》 – Lost consciousness due to a major shock.」
“B-Boss!”
“You bastard!”
“Shut up! No, I’ll shut you up!”
I then ran over and kicked both men hard in their groins.
Thwack-!
“Ahhhh~”
“Gugh!”
The men foamed at the mouth without even the chance to react, and I managed to loot their pockets, collecting a total of 230,000 won.
230,000 won!
How many packets of real ramen could I get with this?
I don’t know! Damn!
“I’m rich! Hehehe! The greatest of the past! You all happy too? Huh?”
“Uagh…”
“Ugg…”
「Name: Kwon Yeong-min
Status: 《Pain》 – Feeling extremely painful.」
「Name: Kim Tae-yang
Status: 《Shock》 – Received a major shock with no sensation in the lower half of the body.」
To be reduced to this state from just one kick to the groin. At this rate, survival in the world ahead is doomed.
‘So what now?’
Let’s put my brain, which prides itself on being the smartest among high school dropouts, to work and see what future is obvious.
If I let these go, they’re definitely going to come back and try to get at me.
“That’s just how humans are.”
People who cause trouble for others are always the first to retaliate when something minor happens to them.
These guys struck me as just that type.
“I’ll just bury you in my yard. I’ll plant flowers on top of you too. Isn’t that nice? You turds will be reborn as flowers. This is ultimate recycling.”
Snap-.
I tightly tied the loan sharks’ fingers with zip ties, and they flailed around in protest.
“Stop! Hey! Hanam-jin! You’re not that kinda guy!”
“Hey! You said you’d bury us! This isn’t a joke! You! MURDER! Help! Someone help!”
“Don’t waste your energy, shout all you want. You know better than anyone that there’s no one home next door, right?”
This rundown neighborhood, suffering from failed redevelopment, has its perks.
No matter how much screaming there is, nobody will hear them.
“…That crazy bastard’s lost it!”
“We told you to settle it when you paid back the principal! I’m really going to die! Hey, you bastard! Boss! Get up!”
Getting tired of their constant wriggling, I kicked their groins a few more times and they settled down.
However, I think I’ll need a shovel if I’m gonna bury these guys in my yard…
“Ah?”
It dawned on me late that we didn’t even have a shovel at home.
I guess not. Burying them, let’s just pass on that for now.
“You guys should consider yourselves lucky. I’m really good at rummaging around trash cans for recyclables. Now that it’s come to this, I might as well recycle you a bit.”
If I told them that even garbage like them had some use, they’d probably be surprised.
But in my immensely clever head, a plan began to form.
“Hey, have you ever kidnapped someone? Can you kidnap someone again?”
At my question, the expressions of the loan sharks, who had been bruised from the groin kicks, suddenly crumpled up.
They looked like a homeroom teacher staring at a student who wrote “Emiya Kiritsugu” as their career aspiration.
How did I know that expression? I didn’t want to know.
“I…who are we kidnapping?”
“The president.”
If it’s the only daughter of the South Nam Group, she’d be getting presidential-level protection.
Thus, it was no different than kidnapping the president herself.
Perhaps touched by my profound plan, the loan sharks exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
# # #
“Shovel and pork belly. This is what life is.”
After leaving the neighborhood, I bought three portions of pork belly at the supermarket and a shovel nearby, making my bag quite heavy.
Money is truly something wonderful. With money, you can acquire anything smoothly.
Even in a fallen world, money is important.
Of course, back then, “bottle caps” were called money, which had an utterly funny reason behind it.
But let’s save that for later.
With the three portions of pork belly I bought on a whim.
I kept imagining the chunks sizzling away on a grill, making me squirm in excitement and my tailbone tingle.
The well-cooked fat dances on my tongue. You can’t help but get excited over this.
“Khehe-.”
Just as I was feeling good after so many years without grilling meat, I returned home only to be shocked by the sight of many people in black suits crowded around my house.
“I bought meat, but has the word spread already? But there’s not enough to share, is there?”
Are they perhaps the gang of loan sharks?
Five of them.
There might not be enough room in my yard to bury them all.
This is why a person should live in a spacious house.
“If you want to become morons, come at me first.”
Swish-.
As I pointed the shovel at the suited men, they laughed uproariously.
“Is this the guy? The one who hit our lady and ran away.”
“Yeoul, is this the one?”
Swoosh-.
Someone emerged from among the suits.
Someone with a slick bob haircut and school uniform looked oddly familiar when that person shouted.
“Hey! You!”
“What? You little butt!”
The high school girl from the truck accident.
The misfortune I had kicked away has come chasing me here.
Is this how it feels when a discarded devil’s doll keeps coming back?
“Why do you keep meddling in my life! Why do you have to make things tough for me! Why! Whyyyyy!”
I genuinely felt like I was frothing at the mouth with injustice.
“Booty? Meddling? Hey! What have you done to play the victim! You broke my cell phone! Do you know how much that phone costs? Over 2 million won! What are you gonna do about it?”
In front of me, the strangely-shaped phone swung back and forth in the high school girl’s hand, causing my expression to twist in disgust.
Trying to extort 2 million won over a busted phone?
So there’s someone even worse than loan sharks here.
“Hey, Booty, are you saying that the phone is worth more than the lives of about 40,000 people?”
“…40,000? Suddenly?”
“For 30,000 won a month, you can provide vaccines for 600 people according to UNICEF standards. That means with 2 million won, you could save the lives of 39,600 people.”
Perhaps caught off guard, the high school girl made a dumbfounded expression, mumbling, “2 million divided by 3 is…,” as she began counting on her fingers.
Soon, the black suits beside her whispered.
“Yeoul, her calculation is correct.”
“About 39,600 lives with 30,000 won.”
“Really?”
The high school girl trembled in realization.
I pressed on, not caring about the value of money or the fact that she was bad at math.
“Well, I can easily fix the one that broke. That way, there’s no need for you to seek compensation, which benefits both you and me—you save 40,000 lives too. It’s a win-win! How about that?”
“Win-win… That’s just nonsense! Hey, this is a specially customized awakening smartphone from Yeongsa High School! It’s linked with a smart watch. How the hell are you gonna fix it? Just bring your parents over! 2 million won is a lot of money, so it’s better to talk to your parents than a student, right?”
“Ye-, Yeoul-.”
“Calm down!”
The high school girl yelled with a reddened face, and the tall men next to her flailed helplessly, which was quite amusing.
Do they not feel embarrassed to be swayed by a girl?
I thought to myself that I shouldn’t behave like that, and confidently spoke.
“Listen, my mom and dad aren’t exactly people you can meet just because you want. If you meet them, the situation will escalate.”
“What? Your parents aren’t presidents or anything, right? I’m Baek Yeoul from Baekdang! We used to supply ingredients to the presidential office!”
“Our mom and dad… have passed away.”
“…Died…?”
The high school girl, who had been throwing a tantrum like a drowning raccoon, seemed quite startled and quieted down.
The suited men also stirred.
After about five seconds, the high school girl Baek Yeoul sheepishly scratched her forehead. She looked quite embarrassed.
“You have no family? You live here all by yourself?”
“I’m not alone. There should have been three older brothers here who are like family.”
“Those who are tied up over there? They are right there.”
The loan sharks were tied up tightly among the suited men.
They listened to our conversation like dead rats, groveling in a surrendering manner to win the favor of the suited men and the high school girl.
“That’s Baek Yeoul from Baekdang, right? Don’t listen to that jerk! He’s a nutball! He’s the one saying to kidnap the president!”
“After their parents died in an accident, we looked after him like a real brother, but he completely lost his mind! He just boiled some weird ramen and lost it! Look at that ramen he dumped in the sink!”
“The sink? Weird ramen? Ugh-. Ugh. Oh, damn….”
When Baek Yeoul peered into the sink, she gagged a few times before her expression soured.
“What? Are you eating something like this? No money and no parents…?”
「Empathy is reading the disturbance of the mind.」
「Name: Baek Yeoul
Status: 《Pity》 – She feels sorry for the male student who has to eat food waste. At the same time, she is shocked by the economic disparity and feels slightly relieved about her own life.」
“…Huff, I’ll let it go. If I mess with you further, I think our company’s image will get worse. But just remember this, Hanam-jin. I’ll make sure you never forget.”
Swish-. As she said that, the high school girl handed me a piece of paper.
「Hero Academy」
「With the nation in your heart, embrace the era」
「Hanam-jin, dear」
“Hey, you’re an awakener, right? Since I saw the admission papers fly into your mailbox, it looks like we’ll be running into each other at school often from now on?”
Yeongsa High School for awakening students. Elegantly termed “the Stage.”
I had failed to enroll last time due to my mangled leg, and I had no intention of enrolling this time either, but I had always been curious about why Yeongsa High School was called “the Stage.”
As if lightning struck my astute mind, a thought suddenly flashed through.
“By any chance, is Seoga-eul also attending there?”