All I could see around me was sand, rocks, and a gray sea.
"Where... where am I?"
The guys around me were already in a state of confusion, looking bewildered.
Indeed, who would have expected to be suddenly transported to such a remote place?
Except for me, of course.
"That damn instructor..."
The yellow-haired punk next to me was biting his lip and looking around.
Oh, so he's trying to observe his surroundings like a hero candidate, huh?
"Damn it! Why isn't the internet working!"
...It seems he was upset because the internet wasn't working.
There were a few others who were seriously observing the area to figure out where we were, but I was paying attention to the deep gray color of the sea and the angle of the rising sun, which allowed me to deduce our location.
"The West Sea, I guess."
More precisely, a remote island in the West Sea, a bit away from the Korean Peninsula.
It was a random event that occasionally appeared in the first class at the Academy.
At the same time, the sound of a smartphone alarm could be heard.
【Main Story Open】
[To become the Emperor of the Dark World, you must first imprint your power! Make your classmates respect or fear you!]
[Target Number: 0 / 10]
"Main Story?"
A clue had emerged. The ending of CS focuses on living the life of the character.
And the main story points to becoming the Emperor of the Underworld.
If I follow the main story, I'm sure I'll find a clue.
"Hey, you."
While I was thinking about this, the yellow-haired punk approached me with a smile.
"Why are you looking at that boring dictionary at a time like this? Is there something written about surviving on a deserted island?"
He muttered this as he looked at my smartphone. A dictionary?
"Does this look like a dictionary to you?"
"Of course it's a dictionary, not a scholarly journal. You're the type who calmly reads such things at a time like this. Hey, stop looking at that and listen, I have some important information to give you..."
He said this with a wicked smile.
"Information?"
He smiled at my puzzled question.
"Right! Information. I was thinking, where have I seen those reefs before? Oh, I've seen them in the West Sea. So, this must be the West Sea!"
It was information I already knew.
Still, that crazy instructor, sending students all the way to the West Sea and telling them to be back by 4 PM. It's even more absurd when you actually experience it.
"By the way, I'm from Incheon, so I know quite a few people around the West Sea. You looked like someone with some money just now. What do you think?"
What nonsense is this guy trying to spout?
"1,000,000 credits. If you give me 1,000,000 credits, I'll take you with me. Or 1,000 dollars, that's fine too. I have to pay the fishermen, so I don't get much. Look over there."
He pointed to one side of the island as he spoke. There, a group of other guys were gathered, having a strange meeting.
"You don't want to be part of that, do you? If you come with me by boat, we can be back at the Academy by 4 PM at the latest. Very comfortably, I mean."
I said to him, who was speaking so confidently, in a calm voice.
"You. What's your name?"
"Huh? My name? Jin-woo Bifalt. Bifalt is my last name. Oh, don't tell me the instructor asked you to introduce yourself?"
Jin-woo Bifalt. I thought he didn't look Korean, and it seems he's an immigrant Korean. And Bifalt...
"Are you part of the 'Family'?"
I asked calmly, and he widened his eyes before patting my back.
"What? I thought you looked mixed, but you're 'one of us' too? Then we can talk. Yes, I'm part of the 'Bifalt Family' under Calione. This is going better than I thought."
Then the 'fishermen' he mentioned must be related to Calione.
As I was thinking this, he put his hand on my shoulder and said,
"If you're one of us, it's better to be on good terms with me. I might be able to get you a position. Hahaha!!"
I shook off his arm indifferently and walked towards where the other guys were gathered.
"Hey, are you going to help too?"
As I approached, a guy with glasses who was supervising the others called out to me.
"Just curious. What's your plan?"
The guy smiled and said,
"You'll definitely be satisfied when you hear it. You know this is an uninhabited island in the West Sea, right?"
I nodded.
"Fortunately, one of the guys here knows a bit of spatial magic."
The guy with glasses looked at a girl, who blushed and lowered her head.
"Just... a little. Ah! I'm Kim Se-ah."
I introduced myself by my full name, as it was written on my name tag.
"...Han Yu-jin. So?"
After a brief greeting, I asked the guy with glasses again, and he continued.
"According to Se-ah, if we have a magic stone to supplement the insufficient mana, we can return to where we came from. The problem is..."
"Where to get the magic stone on this uninhabited island."
He nodded, confirming my guess.
"Exactly. The problem is how to get the magic stone. If we have it, we can all return by 4 PM."
The guy with glasses spoke in a serious tone.
At that moment, three people ran up from the other side and shouted,
"There's a dungeon with goblins here!"
"Dungeon? Wait, if it's a dungeon, we can get magic stones... Did Instructor Ji-soo-hyun think of this too?"
The guy with glasses smiled, sensing the possibility of getting magic stones.
And I couldn't help but smile too when I heard that a dungeon had been found.
Goblins are the monsters that signal the start of an adventure, allowing you to experience your abilities.
Then, how much of my current strength can I actually use?
In the midst of the excitement, I realized that the story had finally begun.
* * *
In front of the Calione mansion, at the smoking area, Farnello, the right-hand man of Don Vito Calione, and other members of the organization were chatting.
"Ha."
Farnello sighed. One of the members asked, surprised by his first-ever sigh,
"Mr. Farnello, sighing? Are you worried about the young master?"
Farnello lifted his head slightly and exhaled a puff of cigarette smoke.
"Is it that obvious?"
"It's not just obvious; it's written all over your face."
The other members started laughing at this, and Farnello joined in, seemingly caught up in the mood.
"Hahaha! You got me. The young master has only grown up in Calione. It's natural to be worried about him at the Academy."
Another member tried to comfort him.
"But he is the young master of our Calione. I don't think he'll be bullied or hurt anywhere."
Hearing this, Farnello sighed even more deeply.
"Ha, do you think I don't know that? I'm not worried about that."
He stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray. His hand was wrapped in a plaster cast.
"Even if he grew up in Calione, he's the boss's son. I just hope he doesn't cause any trouble from the first day."
Despite his words, a smile filled with anticipation appeared on Farnello's face.
* * *
"...What is this?"
The guy with glasses, who had been watching me from behind, muttered in a trembling voice.
Well, I would have reacted the same way if I saw this.
"Keeek..."
"Annoying."
I crushed the goblin's head in my right hand with a powerful grip.
With a squish, a disgusting sensation filled my palm.
"Filthy creatures."
I threw the goblin's head at one of them and crushed it with my foot.
"I should have brought a gun."
I shook my hand and looked behind me.
"Is this enough?"
"...Huh? Oh, yeah... It's enough."
Fourteen goblin corpses lay around me, all broken, crushed, and mangled.
I didn't expect to achieve this much.
It was my first real combat.
'This is enough to pass. I feel relieved that I won't be getting beaten up anywhere.'
I had landed my first effective hit on Farnello, who was teaching me martial arts.
I barely managed to hit him once, but it was clear that I wasn't a bad fighter; Farnello was just incredibly strong.
Of course, the martial arts I learned from Farnello alone wouldn't have been enough to do this. What supported me was this.
[Name: Eugene Han Calione]
[Gender: Male]
[Occupation: Heir of the Underworld]
[Character Traits: Bad Boy, Heir of the Underworld]
[Bloodline: Calione]
This bloodline ability appeared after I became a bloody mess several times during training with Farnello.
Bloodline abilities usually manifest when you are born into a different race, monster, or special family.
I never dreamed that the Calione family would have a bloodline ability.
[Bloodline: Calione]
- Monsters weaker than you have a high chance of feeling fear.
- Your abilities increase in proportion to the number of enemies around you.
- Your abilities increase in proportion to the duration of the battle.
This ability was practically that of a berserker, specialized for massacring civilians.
"That crazy guy, he's checking his phone with blood-stained hands...!"
Amidst this, a voice came from behind.
Is that how it looks to the others?
A vibration buzzed in my hand. Glancing at my phone, I saw an alarm.
【Main Story】
[To become the Emperor of the Dark World, you must first imprint your power! Make your classmates respect or fear you!]
[Target Number: 5 / 10]
It seems I instilled fear just by that display.
'An unexpected bonus.'
In the original story, I would have had to gather magic stones from goblins and escape the island together.
But in a test where rankings are determined, there's no need to do that.
I planned to use a shortcut.
At that moment, Kim Se-ah was speaking to the others.
"I'm going to reverse-engineer the magical traces to open the portal that brought us here. Since it's the instructor's portal, it will take some time to interpret... but we can all return."
"How long will it take to interpret?"
Kim Se-ah stretched out her hand and said,
"Five hours with the magic stones we have now. It's 10 AM, so we can all be back by 4 PM."
The others' expressions brightened at Kim Se-ah's words.
There was one thing that bothered me, though.
"Are the others just going to do nothing?"
The guys who hadn't done any work, just watching from the side, were the ones I glared at.
"If we have more magic stones, we can reduce the time, right?"
"Uh, yeah."
Hearing Kim Se-ah's answer, I turned and started walking back towards the dungeon.
"Hey, where are you going?"
One of the guys in the class called out to me.
After hearing that story, he's still asking?
"Are you going to just sit around and watch for five hours?"
"What?"
"Instead of wasting time, try to kill one more goblin. You're students at the Academy, after all."
Leaving those words behind, I walked back towards the dungeon.
The murmurs from behind.
Soon, the sound of other students approaching could be heard.
"Yeah, we're students at the Academy!"
"This is part of Academy activities, right? Let's go!"
Most of the students, except for Kim Se-ah, who was reconstructing the spatial coordinates, and a few others guarding her, followed me.
The goblins, the weakest of the monsters, were practically their first real combat. Killing a living being would not be easy for them.
However, violence is ultimately contagious.
As soon as I entered the dungeon, I grabbed the first goblin's head and slammed it into the wall.
"Kiit-!"
The goblin let out a short scream as it was pressed against the wall. I then grabbed the head of the goblin next to it and smashed it down with all my strength, compressing it vertically.
The last goblin, witnessing its companions being instantly turned into jerky, collapsed to the ground.
This was evidence that the goblin was feeling fear towards me due to my bloodline ability.
With a crunch, the goblin was immediately trampled to death.
Feeling the fear from behind, I turned to look at the other students who were staring at me blankly.
"..."
Perhaps because they had just seen three goblins die cruelly in an instant, most of them were looking at me with bewildered expressions.
"Are you just going to watch?"
I shook the goblin blood off my hands and spoke in a mocking tone to motivate them.
"Exactly how much do I have to spoon-feed you?"
These words acted as a trigger, converting the fear in the students' hearts into anger.
"Kill them all!"
"Let's get back quickly!"
"Kill them all!"
A moderate amount of fear makes you cautious, but overwhelming fear drives you mad.
With the situation set up to this extent, I thought it was enough and walked out of the dungeon.
"You're stronger than I thought?"
The yellow-haired punk, who hadn't entered the dungeon with the others, approached with his arms crossed.
"Want to team up with me? Huh? It would be convenient to have a solid back-up, right?"
He still seemed to think I would go with him on the boat.
"I don't need it. I have to leave soon."
Ignoring his pitch, I took out the emergency phone from my pocket.
A bulky phone with an antenna. The punk chuckled.
"Will it work? There's no cell tower around here."
I ignored him. After a brief dial tone, someone answered.
[Yes, young master.]
"Where are you?"
[We're almost there.]
"Got it."
I hung up and looked at the sky. The punk next to me asked,
"What? Is that a satellite phone?"
I nodded, folded the satellite phone, and put it back in my pocket.
The punk looked at me in disbelief.
"You carry a satellite phone but don't have money to give me? Just come with me on the boat, okay?"
Shaking off the persistent punk, I pointed to the distant shoreline.
"I'm going to take that."
"Huh? That?"
A distant propeller sound could be heard.
Why gather magic stones to return to the Academy when I knew I would be picked up from the West Sea?
I am the heir of the underworld. I had more money than I could ever use.
"Huh? A helicopter?"
The punk's expression hardened as he saw the approaching helicopter.
Did he not expect anyone to come to this remote place? Ignoring him, I slowly walked towards the beach where the helicopter was about to land.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, young master."
Han Se-joon got out of the helicopter and offered me his hand.
I nodded and grabbed his hand, entering the helicopter.
"Huh? Hey, hey! Take me too! Huh? We're friends, right? Huh?"
Han Se-joon held back the punk as he tried to climb into the helicopter.
"Step back."
"Wait, what? What? Really? Really?!"
The helicopter's propeller noise grew louder. Below, I could see the stunned punk.
I would have liked to take him, but unfortunately, it was a small helicopter with no extra seats.
Besides, I wanted to see if he could escape on his own.
Most importantly,
'You should be able to handle this.'
He didn't seem like an ordinary guy, so I wanted to check.
If he really belonged to a Calione family, he might be hiding something.
As I was thinking this, I remembered something I almost forgot and leaned out of the helicopter.
"Tell them they can use the magic stones from the goblins I killed."
"What? Hey! Hey!"
With that, I gave the punk a smirk and sat down.
The helicopter rose higher.
Looking out the window, I could see the group still reconstructing the spatial coordinates watching us.
By the way, how did the main story turn out?
【Main Story Completed!】
[To become the Emperor of the Dark World, you must first imprint your power! Make your classmates respect or fear you!]
[Target Number: 19 / 10]
[Exceeded! Rewards for the achievement will be given.]
The continuous alarm from my smartphone. I smiled in satisfaction and entrusted myself to the helicopter heading back to the Academy.
* * *
In an empty classroom, a woman was watching the situation on the island through a hologram floating in the air.
"Phew, that kid is really a pain in the ass."
Ji-soo-hyun, who had deliberately left coordinates to ensure all the students could return, knew about the goblin dungeon on the island.
In the OT, where everyone was supposed to cooperate to return, the kid had shown off his skills and left the island calmly in a helicopter, as if his job was done.
"Understanding monsters, combat skills, the ability to use the environment, and the ability to instill fear... "