Chapter 160
Kang estate.
“Do you think he will come?”
“No way.”
“Yeah, I guess he won’t be able to.”
Some civic groups behaved like dogs, barking at the behest of wealthy organizations in exchange for financial support. They were but mercenary protesters; for the last eight years, the people swarming the Kang estate’s gate were precisely this sort.
“Strip Kang Dae-Guk of his title,” “Stop funding the Kang family,” “Execute Kang Hyeon-Ah”... In the midst of signs with hideous slogans, one new sign stood out: “Expel Kang Jae-Hyeok from Lion’s Castle! A national institute is no place for the brother of traitors—we won’t use tax money to raise a second terrorist!”
Now, not even Jae-Hyok’s future was safe from criticism. They slandered him for his dirtied blood, insulted his personality, and spread rumors to make him lose all support.
Hmph. How could anyone endure this for long? The boy’s mental state must’ve reached its limit.
The leaders of the protesters knew this better than anyone. Throughout their lives, they had ruined too many people in this way.
That stubborn bastard won’t be able to go near his house again.
That much was obvious by looking; the walls of the Kang estate were stained with more filth and graffiti than ever. It was their proudest work to date. Who would dare return to such humiliation? The leaders fought back their smiles. Normally, after something like this, the victim would snap and try to escape.
But...
How many times had they trashed the Kang estate’s outer walls over the years? It was too many to count, yet every time, Kang Jae-Hyeok would prove them wrong. That stubborn kid never flinched under their shouts and curses and, almost casually, took to cleaning the trash and graffiti every morning.
The kid spent hours cleaning—only for them to re-dirty the walls over the course of minutes once he was done. It was clearly a losing battle, yet the kid never stopped, never ran, never cried for it to stop... Perhaps that was why they felt goosebumps sometimes. The kid couldn’t be normal in the head.
Hmph. Regardless, things will be different now.
The kid had entered Lion’s Castle and experienced ordinary society, so how could he still remain as calm as he had in the past? It was impossible. Now that he’s tasted what a normal life is like, just the thought of returning home will fill him with hopelessness.
“Keheh. Puha!”
One of the leading protesters recalled Jae-Hyeok’s calm face as he erased graffiti and threw down his cigarette butt, crushing it under his heel. He was convinced that the Jae-Hyeok of the past would never come back again.
“Such dirty people. Well, maybe only people like you would be out here, willing to bark like dogs.”
“Who said that!?”
The protester spun around angrily, only to blink in surprise.
There, a pretty girl was standing before their group, hands on her hips and clicking her tongue. His first thought was that she was just some cheeky kid. However, her unusually gorgeous hairstyle and luxury accessories stood out. She looked like the lady of an aristocratic family.
Even more striking...
That uniform.
The protester swallowed. She was dressed in the uniform of a student of Lion’s Castle. Although she was young, she had to be a good player.
“Why did you come to such an ugly place?” another of the lead protesters spoke up while trying his best to smile. A student of Lion’s Castle had come to the Kang family’s abandoned mansion, and she was picking a fight. It was blatantly suspicious, so they should approach things cautiously.
“Isn’t it because of all of you that this place looks ugly?” The gorgeous blonde-haired girl, Cheon Hye-Ji, crossed her arms and glared at the protesters. “I think it would be much nicer without all the trash you threw on the streets and the tents set up like a pigsty. In addition, why did you write that trash graffiti on the wall? Even pigs know how to use a toilet. Congratulations, you’re worse... ”
A stream of insults poured out of the girl’s mouth in an instant, stunning the crowd.
The first one to come to her senses was a middle-aged woman. She yelled angrily, “Is this how you talk to adults? Haven’t you been educated at all?”
“Old Hag, listen to your own angry grunts before you say that. You must be here because you weren’t educated as a child, right?”
“O-old hag? You mannerless brat!” The woman’s eyes rolled and she raised her hand to slap Cheon Hye-Ji.
“Wait!” One of the lead protesters grabbed the woman’s hand in a panic.
“Don’t stop me! Any student of Lion’s Castle who recklessly attacks a civilian will be expelled. What are you worried about... ” The middle-aged woman’s words trailed off in a daze when she caught sight of a group making their way over.
“People are noisy no matter where they go.”
Among them, there were famous students whom the middle-aged woman recognized.
There was Chae Da-Hee, the second strongest student among the current year’s freshmen—she was a talent who’d been praised repeatedly in the media as South Korea’s future. And next to her was Yoo-Jin—the youngest daughter of the owner of Fnatic Group, a corporation famous for its mana battery business. The middle-aged woman had seen Yoo-Jin in the news when the Chairman of Fnatic had come to her entrance ceremony.
Also...
Another girl stood behind Da-Hee and Yoo-Jin. She was silent, studying the Kang estate’s stained walls with a tight brow. But her presence shocked the middle-aged woman even more than the other two, not because of her rare light-blue hair and beautiful appearance, but because of what they represented. She was, without a doubt, the most famous teenager in South Korea—the granddaughter of the Bow Saint: Jang Yeon-Ju.
“Y-you... No, why are you here?”
The middle-aged woman wasn’t alone in her recognition. A wave of whispers spread across the protesters’ group, and everyone’s expression turned polite. It didn’t matter how young these students were. Just the influence of the three girls alone was such that the protesters could only smile.
A boy with an arrogant expression pushed his way to the front of the student group. He said coldly, “I came to visit a friend.”
The protesters frowned. The boy’s rude attitude was quite annoying. Fortunately, he looked like an ordinary student. “Did you perhaps come to the wrong place? As you can see, this isn’t a nice place for you to visit—”
The arrogant-looking boy sneered. “And who made it like this, huh? Fucking disgusting bastards.”
Did that kid just cuss at us... the stunned protesters doubted their ears, but the boy said no more and simply checked his watch. “What’s taking them so long?”—Just when the boy spoke, the distant roar of bike engines reached everyone’s ears, growing rapidly until even the pebbles on the street rattled from the vibration.
Then, a fleet of dozens of motorcycles rounded the corner, tore down the street, and came to a sharp stop directly in front of the Kang family’s residence.
It was then that the protesters realized: The bikes... They were arcane bikes—the pinnacle of cutting-edge arcane technology, something no ordinary people could hope to ride.
“What’s with all this noise?”
One by one, the protesters who’d been wasting time drinking and gambling since morning came out of their tents to join their gobsmacked companions.
What greeted their bleary eyes were dozens of boys and girls dressed in black uniforms dismounting from motorcycles and summoning bows and guns.
“L-Lion’s Castle!”
“...The Shooting Club?”
To ordinary people, the Shooting Club’s ranking inside Lion’s Castle didn’t matter. As one of Lion’s Castle’s clubs, it was untouchable all the same. Among the mundane populace in Korea, clubs like the Shooting Club were revered or feared.
“Clean it up!” the arrogant boy, Roh Jun-Yeop, barked an order, and the Shooting Club members opened fire.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
Bullets buzzed and arrows whistled. It seemed like the end for the protesters, but every arrow and bullet hit only the protesters’ tent frames. Dozens of tents were torn apart like rags and collapsed in an instant, but no casualties occurred.
It was marvelous marksmanship.
The protesters' mouths hung open, but no one spoke; they only trembled.
Roh Jun-Yeop saw the puddles of urine on the ground from the people who’d been inside the tents and said. “You filthy bastards are dirty to the end. Pack up and get lost now. If you set up your tents here again, you will be the ones I turn into rags, not your tents.
The faces of the protesters went from pale to red with anger. “Y-you dare to threaten us? Aren’t you afraid of public opinion? If we report to the media that you’ve committed violence against civilians then—”
“Then what? What do you think will happen to you?”
“What?”
“If word of what happened today gets out and we suffer even the smallest damage, what do you think will happen to you?”
“......!”
The faces of the protesters paled. They recalled the rumor that a player excelling in marksmanship could kill a target from thousands of meters away.
“Just remember one thing. If you come here again, bullets will rain down at least once a week. Who knows? Someone might die by accident.”
“L-let’s withdraw.”
The protesters realized they were dealing with someone they couldn’t talk to and decided to pack their bags first. Even if they retreated, their supporters were strong. Once informed, the protesters believed the higher-ups behind them would take some action.
However, their expectations were soon shattered.
Minutes after communicating the situation via text, the leading protesters all received similar replies from their supporters:
“Never contact me again.”
“We’re done.”
“Our relationship ends here.”
The students who’d arrived today were far too great. Sensing sharp teeth, the sponsors scattered, pulling back their hands and decisively cutting ties.
The leading protesters stared at their phone screens in a daze. Their bosses—no, their sponsors that had firmly supported them for eight years, had actually abandoned them?
The protesters were stunned. I’m fired... just like that? What happened!?
They couldn’t believe it. Kang Jae-Hyeok... this little boy had been confined at home for most of his life and only entered Lion’s Castle at the end of April. How could he have made such friends in just three months? It didn’t make sense.
It’s not like he has hypnosis, right?
The more the protesters reflected on the situation, the more they understood that today had to have been the result of a third party targeting them.
The protesters were just starting to feel suspicious when Jae-Hyeok arrived at the scene, hands full of grocery bags, flanked by Do-Jin and Hae-Rin. “What’s going on here?”
What happened next caused the protesters’ thoughts to freeze.
Be it Chae Da-Hee, Yoo-Jin, Jang Yeon-Ju, that arrogant-looking boy, or the dozens of Shooting Club members—everyone’s expressions immediately softened on hearing Kang Jae-Hyeok’s voice, and they turned to him in unison.
Roh Jun-Yeop waved his hand and said cooly, “It’s nothing important. You can get started cooking. We’ll be in soon. I’m starving.”
He didn’t want Jae-Hyeok to witness any more of this mess than necessary. It’s really hard to repay my debt to this guy. Now I finally have a chance to do something.
Roh Jun-Yeop had felt heavily burdened after receiving so much help from this junior of his. Now that he was doing something for Jae-Hyeok, he felt a bit relieved, proud even...
That was, until Do-Jin interrupted.
“By the way, Roh Jun-Yeop, why are you here? Are you also friends with Jae-Hyeok?”
Roh Jun-Yeop’s temples throbbed and his next step stuttered, but he didn’t reply, instead spinning around and venting his anger on the protesters.
“What are you waiting for!? Stop standing blankly like idiots and clean that filthy wall right away!”
“H-hik!”
On this day, the protesters were forced to work until they truly regretted all their actions over the past eight years.
In addition, word of Jae-Hyeok’s brilliant connections spread throughout society.