Chapter 30
* * *
The journey to the BattleNet Academy wasn’t smooth from the entrance.
“…What brings you here?”
The security guard blocked their car on the main gate and looked at them with suspicious eyes.
“Um, I’m a student here.”
“Ah, you’re Yoon Seah. This car isn’t registered in the database. Would you like to register it?”
“Yes.”
“Understood. You may proceed.”
When Yoon Seah showed her student ID, the security guard registered the car’s number and allowed them to enter, but…
“Huh! What is a crappy car like that doing in the academy?”
“It’s Yoon Seah. She’s the one who messed up big time. But who’s next to her?”
“That’s her uncle. The guy who broke the dual sword statue.”
“Ah~!”
Behind the open car window, the guards whispered to each other.
“Uncle, you can go this way.”
Although these words must have reached Yoon Seah’s ears, she pretended not to hear.
With a playful smile, she guided Seong Jihan to the underground parking lot of the academy.
The underground parking lot was as spacious as Sword Palace’s.
The spaces were wide enough for one car each, and some of the parked cars were high-end imported models.
Although people often said that there were more foreign cars than domestic ones in Gangnam, there weren’t any domestic cars around.
‘It’s all foreign cars.’
With the absence of domestic cars, the car moving around the parking lot stood out even more.
“There… let’s park next to the elevator.”
“On spot 17?”
“Yeah, I usually park there.”
Skrrt-
After parking the car, Seong Jihan asked in a nonchalant tone, “When does your class end?”
“Um… around 3 PM. Will you pick me up?”
“That should be fine. I’ll play a round of BattleNet here.”
“Come on, Just go home. It’s uncomfortable and what about lunch?”
After playing a game on BattleNet and pondering about the three dantians, time would quickly pass.
Seong Jihan waved his hand dismissively towards Yoon Seah, who was looking at him worriedly.
“Don’t worry about me.”
“But still…”
If Seong Jihan didn’t wait here, considering Yoon Seah’s personality, she would probably take the bus back.
In that case, the meaning of driving her here this morning would be lost.
“Call me when your class is over.”
“Ugh, seriously…”
Since it seemed impossible to persuade him, Yoon Seah got out of the car with an excited expression.
As Seahwas about to pass through the automatic door to take the elevator…
Screech-
A high-end sedan stopped in the parking spot next to Seong Jihan’s car, and a middle-aged man with a burly build emerged.
“Hey! How dare you park such a crappy car here!”
Yelling abruptly, the man’s appearance was too flashy to be called a driver.
“Do you know where this is? Move your damn car this instant!”
Was he the trouble Yoon Seah mentioned?
‘I expected some mocking, but I didn’t expect someone to actively pick a fight.’
Seong Jihan didn’t feel the need to retort to that comment.
Instead, he covered the middle-aged man’s mouth with his index finger.
“Come out quickly. Who the hell is in this car… mmpf-!?”
Instantly, the driver’s mouth stiffened because of Seong Jihan’s force.
Although BattleNet’s abilities were somewhat weakened in the real world, the power of his force was enough to shut a person’s mouth.
“Mmpf, mmph…”
The middle-aged man strained to open his mouth, but his jaw seemed to be glued shut, making it impossible to open.
It wasn’t just his mouth that didn’t move.
‘My-my body won’t move!’
As if trapped in concrete, he couldn’t move from his upright posture.
Meanwhile, Seong Jihan calmly waved his hand to Yoon Seah.
“Go, Seah.”
“Uncle… Don’t wait here. Go home. Now that I think about it, the student council work must have piled up. I don’t know when it’ll end. And on top of that, you’re causing such a scene…”
Yoon Seah looked at the middle-aged man briefly, and though she said so…
“Don’t worry, This is nothing. I’ll handle it, so contact me when it’s over.”
“Ugh…”
Seong Jihan seemed completely uninterested in leaving.
As Yoon Seah sighed and looked at him, at that moment…
Clank-
The back door of the sedan opened, and someone got out.
“What’s going on?”
A female student appeared, her arms crossed.
Although she had a tall and slender figure and a cold demeanor, she quickly approached with a smile when she saw Yoon Seah.
“Oh my. Seah! Are you finally going to come to school from now on?”
“Yeah. It’s been a while, Heesu.”
Yoon Seah waved at her with a smile.
Kim Heesu.
She’d become friends with Kim Heesu shortly after she entered the academy.
They were close enough to have participated in the student council elections together, and she was the acting vice president.
“You changed your car?”
“Yeah. I decided to get the previous one serviced,But, Heesu, what about you…”
Kim Heesu glanced at the compact car Seong Jihan had driven, then looked concerned.
“What happened to all of your other cars? Why are you using such a thing…?”
“Oh, my dad sold all the cars.”
“ugh.. Really?”
Yoon Seah casually mentioned, causing Kim Heesu to look somewhat disappointed.
“Commuting in a car like that… It’s bound to attract a lot of attention. How about I give you a ride home? I’ll drop you off at Sword Palace.”
“Well, that’s a bit troubling…”
“That’s what friends are for”
Kim Heesu smiled brightly, and Yoon Seah looked at Seong Jihan.
“Uncle, what should I do?”
In this situation, where a friend was offering a ride on her way home, there seemed to be no need to decline.
‘All of Seah’s friends cut contact with her after the Sword King left for Japan…’
Those friends who wanted to befriend her because of the Sword King gradually drifted away when he left for Japan.
The high school girls who used to visit the penthouse often no longer came around.
Even Yoon Seah, who used to talk about her friends a lot, stopped mentioning them all of a sudden.
However, now, during this time, a friend was suddenly acting so close?
‘I’ll wait and see.’
Thinking that, Seong Jihan responded to Yoon Seah’s question.
“I think It’ll be fine.”
“Well then… Uncle, I’ll take Heesu’s car today! I can’t make you wait here, after all.”
“Alright. Ms. Heesu, right? I’ll leave Seah in your care.”
As Seong Jihan spoke to Kim Heesu, she smiled brightly and nodded.
“Yes. Seah’s Uncle, But, um…”
“…?”
“Can you release my driver now?”
Kim Heesu seemed to be aware of Seong Jihan’s abilities, likely from watching his stream.
Snap!
As Seong Jihan snapped his fingers, the previously immobilized chauffeur slumped down.
“Ah… ah…”
The relief from his released body was temporary.
“Is it still a crappy car?”
“Oh, no, not at all!”
The grumpy driver trembled and quickly stepped back. He didn’t want to experience what happened a little while ago ever again.
* * *
Leaving Seah behind, he left the parking lot.
“I should start BattleNet as soon as I get home.”
Seong Jihan’s current goal was to participate in the August Promotion Battle scheduled for August 25th.
If he kept finishing 1st, he believed he should be able to reach level 25 before that day.
He also had to schedule a meeting with Masied and research the survival map’s epic quest, so he had a lot to do.
Vroooom-!
The academy’s entrance gate opened, and Jihan’s compact car drove out past the mocking security guards.
“Hah, it’s quite impressive to bring a car like that to the BattleNet Academy.”
“Instagram-worthy, isn’t it?”
Click!
A security guard lifted his phone and took a picture of him to post on social media.
It was an unthinking act, but…
– How could the Sword King’s family fall so much…? To think they’d commute with a car like this.
└ Even if she fell, she’s still worth about 50 million USD.
└ This isn’t the level of concern the security guard should have.
└ Still, taking such a car to a Battle Net academy… Aren’t they embarrassed? Lol.
In no time, the photo garnered attention and soon turned into a news article.
And this…
“Jihan has left the Sword Palace.”
It caught the attention of various guilds.
* * *
[A crappy car passed through a BattleNet academy’s gate. Who is the person inside?]
A small photo article that appeared early in the morning.
At first, it seemed like it didn’t catch much attention, but when it was revealed that the people inside were Seong Jihan and Yoon Seah, it quickly became a hot topic.
Given the ongoing Sword King controversy, it was a plausible event.
– A BattleNet academy’s tuition cost is about 300K USD, yet they have enough class to ride a crappy car like that.
– Didn’t the Neo Self-Defense Force pay yet? Why are they still using a car like that?
– Wasn’t that a sponsored car? It’s going viral.
└ There’s no way they’d sponsor someone with an old model.
Unlike the general public who merely treated it as gossip, Lee Hayeon, the 3rd division head of the divergent guild, gleamed as she read the article.
“Gayeong, We need to be at the academy parking lot tomorrow early morning.”
“Understood.”
She’d been rejected after asking Jihan for his phone number just the day prior, However, rather than feeling discouraged, Lee Hayeon was eager to continue her pursuit.
There’s no tree that doesn’t fall after being hit ten times, right?
‘I need to recruit him somehow before others.’
Lee Hayeon recalled Seong Jihan’s performance from the game yesterday.
He hadn’t just gone down from the tower and killed tons of monsters, he’d even defeated a semi-boss monster like a Flesh Golem, a monster even those in Gold league struggled with.
‘He was truly amazing…’
His unbelievable feat led to a heated debate in the BattleNet community.
– He…defeated it after receiving a buff, right?
– There was no scene of him receiving a buff though.
– Hey, how did he defeat that without a buff? Even a Gold-rank player would struggle to defeat it alone.
– He probably got a buff through telekinesis.
– Yeah, That makes sense.
The debate about whether Seong Jihan received a buff or not had escalated.
In the end, it was concluded that “Seong Jihan defeated the Flesh Golem with Crystal Buffs through telekinesis!”
Even though the game was notorious for lacking balance, it was still absurd that a Bronze-rank had single-handedly defeated a Flesh Golem.
‘Whether he received a buff or not, the fact that he defeated the Flesh Golem in one hit is what matters.’
Lee Hayeon logged into Seong Jihan’s channel, lost in thought.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel