NOVEL NEXT Chapter 26
This is a branch of Sikrito under the Organization.
I was waiting for my teammates to carry out a specific mission.
One of those teammates, Han Taewoo dressed in a purple suit, was standing in front of me now.
He’s the team leader.
“Have you arrived, Senior?”
I put away the cell phone I had been looking at into my pocket as I greeted him.
Han Taewoo pointed at my pocket with his chin and asked.
“You were reading my novel, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me what rank the protagonist achieved in the latest chapter.”
“B-Rank.”
“Hmm? So you did read it.”
“Haha… Yes. Who else would read it besides me?”
Han Taewoo smiled and sat down next to me.
“It’s just a hobby, you know. But if I focus, it could become a huge hit.”
“So why don’t you focus and retire early?”
Han Taewoo stared at me blankly before suddenly putting me in a headlock and shouting.
“Are you making fun of your senior, kid?”
“Didn’t you say it first, Senior? And it doesn’t hurt at all.”
Since I already had a defensive barrier around my head, I felt no pain whatsoever.
“Tch. Anyway… wait a little longer. Something big is coming in the next episode.”
“How many times has that ‘something big’ been announced now?”
A peculiar novel where the only child of S-Ranked Hero parents wreaks havoc at an Academy and continues to do so after graduation.
That’s Han Taewoo Senior’s web novel.
He claims that this type of material is popular these days.
Since I don’t know anything about web novels, there’s no way for me to verify that.
What’s certain, however, is that regardless of whether his material is trending or not, his web novel had already flopped long ago.
For one, the female protagonist has an extremely poor personality.
Not only does she lord over the Academy using her parents’ influence, but she also singles out a pitiful professor as her academic advisor and torments him.
At that point, the comments were already riddled with criticisms, and Han Taewoo Senior was really struggling back then.
For something he supposedly wrote as a mere hobby, he seemed to be quite invested in it.
Nevertheless, some readers held on with the hope that something might happen between the protagonist and her advisor and kept following along.
But the advisor quietly disappeared without a sound after the protagonist’s graduation and hasn’t reappeared to this day.
Since then, a large number of readers fell off, and I’m the only one who’s stuck around until the latest chapter.
I don’t really want to keep reading, but since he’s the senior I’m closest to, I have no choice but to continue.
If I didn’t read each chapter and give him feedback, he’d probably get disheartened again.
I force myself to read chapter after chapter, not wanting to see our team leader moping around.
And… Han Taewoo Senior is my only close friend.
“Just wait a bit longer. Something big will happen soon. But aren’t you going to give me feedback on this latest chapter?”
“Well… I should…”
I’m not sure where to begin.
“That villain, Doctor Cube. Isn’t that supposed to be a rip-off of Doctor Shift?”
“What are you talking about? Just because the names are similar doesn’t mean it’s a copy. That character is completely my creation.”
“Is that so? Anyway, what exactly is that villain supposed to be? What kind of crazy person would use such techniques in this world?”
Han Taewoo Senior insists that his web novel’s villain, Doctor Cube, is not a rip-off of the very famous fictional villain Doctor Shift.
Doctor Cube is a former hero who turned villain and uses various strange techniques with aura.
The most representative of these techniques is the one that compresses people into perfect cubes.
That’s why he’s called Doctor Cube.
“Why? What’s wrong with that?”
“I’ve never heard of or seen aura being used that way. Also, the motive for becoming a villain is weak. Even though it’s fiction, there needs to be at least some plausibility. You keep creating characters without thinking things through, so every time a new character appears, your readers drop off in droves.”
Han Taewoo Senior scratched his head irritably after receiving this harsh feedback.
“Shit… This is strange… I thought I had done a pretty good job…”
“If you were going to make Doctor Cube the main villain, you shouldn’t have killed him off so pointlessly in just one appearance.”
“You should’ve said that earlier, man! Should I go back and revise it?”
Han Taewoo Senior immediately started looking for his cell phone, feeling around on his suit.
“Is Ji-a going to be late?”
“I’m going to take Min-ha to school first.”
“Are you really taking a fully-grown kid to school?”
“Ah. They asked the parents to come for counseling.”
Min-ha is the only child of Han Taewoo Senior and my classmate, Seo Ji-a.
“Are you not sending her to an Academy?”
“Yes, we should. Ideally, we want to send her to Graford, but since Ji-a and I aren’t A-Ranked yet, we have a lot of preparation to do.”
“That makes sense. Graford is better than any ordinary Academy. So work harder and achieve A-Rank before Min-ha’s enrollment. Stop writing web novels.”
“Instead of pushing me, why don’t you guys work harder to improve your performance?”
“I don’t plan to. I intend to coast along and eventually become an Academy professor.”
“Professor Hyeon? Professor Gyo?”
At my words, Han Taewoo Senior smirked and lightly punched my shoulder.
“Will the Academy even accept you? They don’t even know the name of a hero who hasn’t made it onto the Organization’s list. Besides, if you were serious about that path, why did you even join Sikrito? Why come here in the first place?”
“I told you already. I don’t like being photographed, criticized, or drawing attention from civilians.”
“Anyway, you’re such a dull kid, like a moldy fungus.”
As Han Taewoo Senior clicked his tongue, he suddenly snapped his fingers as if remembering something.
“Hey! Why don’t you do this?”
“What?”
“Struggle a few more years and then transfer to the Academy. Go ahead of us, before Min-ha enrolls, and be a professor there.”
“And then?”
“And what? You’re going to be Min-ha’s academic advisor, obviously.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at his ridiculous suggestion.
“Do you want me to train Min-ha into an F-Ranked hero and send her off to construction sites?”
“What? You plan to become a professor with that attitude?”
“Where do you expect me to teach defense techniques so they can be applied?”
“Hmm… You’re right. At least start practicing some kind of comprehensive combat techniques from now on.”
“Sounds easy, but…”
As I mumbled, another hero entered through the door.
It was Seo Ji-a, wearing a similar purplish suit like Han Taewoo Senior.
Seo Ji-a, with her long, black natural hair and slightly melancholic expression, smiled when she saw me.
Min-ha looks exactly like her mother rather than her father.
I’ve only seen pictures of Min-ha so far.
When I first saw those pictures, I thought they were of a younger Ji-a.
Min-ha and Ji-a are practically identical.
“You’re here early?”
“I’m unmarried, so I don’t have much to do. I heard you’re taking Min-ha to school.”
“Yeah. I already visited the school and had a talk with her homeroom teacher.”
At that, Han Taewoo Senior interjected.
“What did they say? Can Min-ha go to Graford?”
“They asked about our ranks first.”
At that, Han Taewoo Senior closed his mouth.
Both Han Taewoo Senior and Seo Ji-a are B-Ranked.
“Hmm, we’ll work hard and see.”
Having received an awkward reply, Han Taewoo Senior scratched his chin and tried to sound nonchalant.
“Hey, did you know that Hyeon wants to become an Academy professor?”
“What? Why? What kind of professor all of a sudden?”
“I asked him to be Min-ha’s academic advisor.”
“Huh?”
Seo Ji-a turned to look at me and shook her head.
“He just wants to be a professor. What’s this about being an academic advisor?”
“It’s perfect! You’ll train Min-ha to become S-Ranked.”
Seo Ji-a piled on, and I gave a troubled smile.
“I should be the one upgrading my rank first. S-Ranked is too much. You two are the most headache-inducing parents.”
“If Min-ha doesn’t do well, can I find you at the Academy and slap you?”
Han Taewoo Senior laughed raucously after making some nonsense remarks.
At that moment, a call summoning us from the command and control room came through.
They had all gathered to start the detailed mission briefing for today’s operation.
“Where are we heading again?”
“Central border area. We’re intervening in a border dispute that recently broke out.”
Han Taewoo Senior answered as we walked down the corridor.
“This deployment isn’t too burdensome. We’re facing a conventional army, so if we don’t leave a trace, it should go smoothly.”
Walking next to me, Seo Ji-a playfully nudged my shoulder.
“Hey, Professor Hyeon. How about some spicy galbi jjim when we’re done?”
“I don’t like spicy food, you know that.”
“No, it’s spicy but in a tasty way. Really, trust me.”
“Deliciously spicy? That still means it’s spicy, doesn’t it?”
We continued our trivial chatter as we entered the command and control room.
The moment the automatic doors of the command and control room closed,
the scenery flipped in an instant, and once again I found myself standing on the ground, gazing up at the sky, just like in that recurring dream.
Like in the dream, a meteor was slowly descending, piercing through the clouds from above.
And as always, I just stood there, dumbfounded, staring at it.
“No…!”
Soon, the meteor crashed far away on a distant mountain, and I collapsed to my knees on the ground overwhelmed by a profound sense of despair.
* * * * *
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the cold floor of the document storage center.
The mental barrier that had shaken me almost to the point of unconsciousness was now calm and solidly protecting my mind.
Slowly raising my upper body, I picked up the school records of Han Taewoo and Seo Ji-a that were scattered on the floor.
What exactly did I just see…?