Chapter 20: Your Name (1)

 

After resting thoroughly all day. The next day.

 

Even though my muscle pain was completely gone, my brows were still deeply furrowed as I sat in the lecture hall.

 

A concern that hadn’t been resolved despite racking my brain all night.

 

It was because of Winterer’s contradiction, an early-stage villain.

 

“This lecture, I’ll teach it myself. Regarding the main enemies of the Awakeners, the habits of villains….”

 

‘Huh, what’s with Winterer? Does she have some hidden setting?’

 

Winterer, an early antagonist who makes you understand what villains are in the game at a glance.

 

Her notoriety was widespread in Korea.

 

She was a character who tried to kill the Chairman, the backbone of the Korean Awakener society.

 

Given that goal alone, it was not surprising she was designated as a first-class villain.

 

At the same time, her role in the game was to be the punching bag.

 

From the prologue, she failed in her academy attack and appeared as a typical fool, and in the second attack, she was completely defeated by the player, a classic villain.

 

Therefore, I didn’t particularly care about her.

 

If you didn’t know, you would head straight to a game-over route, but once you memorized the pattern, it was a piece of cake.

 

To me, she was just an extra villain A.

 

‘…I was sure it was like that, but what? Why didn’t she use Haru?’

 

However, when thinking about Seo Haru’s existence?

 

There was no way she would have just failed the attack.

 

If she had cooperated with Haru, even the seasoned Chairman could not have survived.

 

Winterer wasn’t a villain so stupid as not to know that.

 

Yet, the academy attack failed.

 

Haru merely broke some buildings and got caught by the Chairman.

 

It went beyond Winterer not using Haru’s abilities, to the point it seemed she intentionally let her go.

 

‘There’s no way a villain would do that to Haru….’

 

“Ahem. Seo Yu-jin cadet? Focus on the lecture. It’s quite embarrassing to daydream so openly.”

 

“…Ah, I’m sorry!”

 

“Puh, then Seo Yu-jin cadet, explain the characteristics of villains in this opportunity.”

 

While I was lost in thought, the Chairman called me.

 

With a smile that seemed to ask if I was really going to daydream in the lecture of the highest authority on villain identification, who was ranked fourth in S-class.

 

…I couldn’t afford to offend the boss who gave me a part-time job with an hourly wage of 1.6 million won.

 

I quickly stood up and answered.

 

“Yes. Villains are unique cases that appear infrequently among Awakeners….”

 

Villains. Unlike common criminals, they accepted murder as if it were a drug, an abnormal existence.

 

For them, killing was their only happiness and reason for existence.

 

Because their brains, soaked in excessive dopamine, lived craving only that.

 

At the same time, they also possessed sociopathic traits.

 

At the moment of Awakening, their brains completely lost the ability to empathize due to an unknown stimulus.

 

Villains genuinely believed it didn’t matter what happened to others.

 

These two factors combined made villains a social evil.

 

They forgot the moral values or principles they had built up until Awakening, and pursued the dopamine from murder for pleasure.

 

An evil far incomparable to common criminals.

 

“In summary, they are bad people.”

 

“Perfect. Then, what do you think about the possibility of rehabilitating villains? Considering Seo Yu-jin cadet’s hypnosis ability, it seems you would have an interesting view.”

 

“I assure you, it’s absolutely impossible.”

 

Villains couldn’t be rehabilitated even with my hypnosis.

 

My hypnosis’s duration varied depending on how much the other person hated it.

 

But villains literally hated the command ‘live kindly’ more than death.

 

It was about five times easier to make them commit s*****e, so that said everything.

 

To impose such a command consistently to the point where daily life is possible?

 

It was clearly impossible, and it was actually impossible.

 

I had once tried to rehabilitate a level-0 villain as a favor for a friend, but it was undone in less than three seconds.

 

‘Well, this is not something I can say right now.’

 

“Recently, various media have been glorifying or rehabilitating villains, and there has been much talk from human rights groups….”

 

“Absolutely impossible. Yes. Seo Yu-jin cadet’s words are one hundred percent correct.”

 

The Chairman’s face was filled with a smile, seemingly pleased with my explanation.

 

She even licked her lips as a bonus.

 

-Churp. Mumble, mumble.

 

“No matter what is said, you can’t understand until you experience it yourself. The more I see, the more indecent he seems. A graduate student. No, there’s no one better to take over than him….”

 

‘What’s with this old lady? Is she sulking because I said everything she was going to lecture? How unreasonable.’

 

Anyway, I thought I had paid the price for daydreaming during the lecture, so I sat back down.

 

Yu Shia, who was sitting next to me, immediately handed me a piece of paper.

 

[Surprising. I thought you would say something like, ‘Of course it’s possible. Actually, I’m quite strong.’]

 

-Scribble, scribble.

 

[That’s what I said during the entrance exam. When did you hear that?]

 

[It was going around on the internet? It was cute.]

 

[…Wasn’t it cool?]

 

[Everyone said it was cute because it was clumsy.]

 

“….”

 

…My earlobes belatedly became a bit hot.

 

I had said it to impress Alice, but seeing it written down like this, it seemed a bit childish.

 

I quickly turned my head, wondering if Alice thought the same.

 

“…Hmph.”

 

-Whip.

 

“…”

 

‘Right. She’s still sulking.’

 

She wouldn’t even make eye contact with me.

 

Well, it wasn’t an incomprehensible reaction.

 

I had put her to sleep without permission yesterday and even bought her a bunch of painkillers that work well for her period.

 

What’s up with this guy? Disgusting. Extreme repulsion. Did he do something to me?

 

It was only natural for her to avoid me thinking such things.

 

However,

 

-Scribble. Slide.

 

[Yujin, did you really not do anything yesterday?]

 

Regardless of not making eye contact, Alice handed me a piece of paper.

 

This was… probably her way of extending an olive branch.

 

You didn’t do anything, right? Okay. Let’s move on.

 

It was undoubtedly a written message with such a meaning.

 

I gladly accepted it.

 

‘Even I would have been suspicious, but she’s trusting me? Ah, my wife. Love….’

 

-Whip.

 

“…?”

 

“Hmm? Hmm~?”

 

…Shia snatched it away though.

 

I blinked in confusion, not understanding why.

 

But Shia just smiled meaningfully and started writing with her pen.

 

-Scribble. Whip.

 

[Do I look like someone who would do something to a sleeping person?]

 

“…Tsk.”

 

-Whip.

 

[I wasn’t asking you, Shia. Besides, I know Yujin isn’t that kind of person.]

 

Alice clicked her tongue once and tossed the paper right back to Shia.

 

She did it so quickly that I couldn’t even see what was written.

 

‘What the heck is this…’

 

-Whip. Whip-whip.

 

[Well, you’d know best. How much did you bother Yujin that he put you to sleep and left you?]

 

[Yujin didn’t leave me alone? He even untied my hair so I could sleep well.]

 

[He did leave you. While you were sleeping, Yujin and I… did ■stuff. Then we had a cozy lunch together at Yujin’s place.]

 

“…What?”

 

The rapid-fire rally, reminiscent of a ping-pong match, paused for a moment.

 

Alice’s blank voice was a bonus.

 

Blink, blink. She stared at the paper intensely, as if trying to make sense of it…

 

-Slide.

 

[Hey, Shia. I can’t see the first letter because it’s blurry. What did you do with Yujin?]

 

[I deliberately wrote and erased it. Can’t use such words in a sacred lecture hall.]

 

[What kind of word is it?]

 

[To put it mildly, something that makes a man and woman sweat together?]

 

“…? …!!!!!!?”

 

-Whip.

 

This time, she stared at me.

 

With her eyes wide open. As if asking if this was true.

 

…Hey, you guys are having a conversation without showing me. You need to ask for me to answer.

 

“What’s wrong, Alice?”

 

“…Ugh.”

 

-Scribble. Whip.

 

[Stop with the dirty jokes, Shia. Yujin isn’t like that.]

 

She even ignored me when I asked.

 

Alice, her face flushed red, threw the paper back at Shia at lightning speed.

 

Resulting in the start of the second round of rapid-fire note exchanges.

 

-Whip-whip-whip.

 

[He totally is.]

 

[Stop lying. Yujin doesn’t know about such things.]

 

[As if. He’s a guy. You think he wouldn’t be interested?]

 

[Yujin doesn’t know about that stuff!]

 

[He knows very well. He was so passionate, he devoured two whole chickens by himself after washing up.]

 

[Lies, lies. Shia, you’re a liar.]

 

[Would you believe me if I showed you proof? See my clothes? The ones I wore yesterday got drenched thanks to Yujin, so I came wearing these.]

 

-Creak.

 

Why are they so engrossed in this note exchange? Should I switch seats with them?

 

As I pondered, I heard a faint sound.

 

It came from Alice.

 

Her lips moved close to my ear.

 

-Whisper, whisper.

 

“Um, Yujin? Shia was lying, but, um… she said her clothes got wet because of you yesterday….”

 

“Huh?”

 

‘What’s this? Does she want me to pay for dry cleaning?’

 

I wondered what she wanted to ask, but it seemed like she was talking about Shia’s clothes getting soaked in my sweat yesterday.

 

Only then did I understand why the two were behaving this way.

 

Well, it made sense. Shia had gotten covered in sweat helping me when I collapsed from exercising. Instead of thanking her, I didn’t even offer to pay for dry cleaning.

 

It seemed this had caused some indignation between the girls.

 

‘I thought Shia was wealthy enough to let it slide… Tsk. I’ll have to ask the Chairman for an advance.’

 

“So, today’s lecture ends here.”

 

“Yeah, so I’ll take responsibility.”

 

Just as the lecture ended, I declared I would take responsibility and compensate her.

 

Alice was startled.

 

“…!!!!!? Y-Y-Yujin. Responsibility…?”

 

“After all the trouble I caused Shia yesterday, I can’t just pretend it didn’t happen, can I?”

 

“H-Huh?”

 

“It will probably cost around ten million won, but I’ll try to arrange it quickly.”

 

‘Artifacts must have high repair costs.’

 

But I was confident.

 

Even though it was just soaked in sweat, I would have it fully serviced, not just dry cleaned. I would make it pristine like new.

 

Even Shia, who had been watching…

 

“…? Yujin? What are you talking about?”

 

“Huh?”

 

I expected her to be moved, but she looked dumbfounded.

 

What’s going on?

 

“Since your expensive artifact got soaked. I thought I’d cover the repair costs….”

 

“You can just wash it with water, you know?”

 

“…Really?”

 

“Yes. Besides, I did it because I wanted to, do you think I would ask you for money?”

 

“Eh. Then Alice, why were you…?”

 

What is this? I thought they were talking behind my back because I didn’t pay for the dry cleaning.

 

Why was she angry then? I stared at Alice.

 

Alice looked between the paper in her hand and me.

 

“Um… Yujin. What did you do with Shia yesterday?”

 

“Huh? Ah, so you were talking about that? Are you interested too? My sincere workout.”

 

“…?”

 

Alice looked blank.

 

She turned her gaze to Shia.

 

“Shia?”

 

“It was a joke, but he actually fell for it. Puh.”

 

“That thing about men and women getting sweaty.”

 

“If you exercise, you obviously get sweaty. I got soaked helping exhausted Yujin.”

 

“Men being interested.”

 

“Isn’t it rare for a guy not to be interested in working out?”

 

“…”

 

Alice looked down at the paper once.

 

Then at Shia. Then at me.

 

Finally, back at the paper again.

 

Then,

 

-Shaking.

 

She seemed incredibly conflicted, tears welling up.

 

Grinding her teeth in frustration.

 

“Alice? What’s wrong…?”

 

“…Yujin, you don’t need to know.”

 

“Yeah. You don’t need to know~.”

 

“…?”

 

What is this? Did Shia beat Alice in some game of Go without telling me?

 

The world of girls is beyond my understanding.

 

* * *

 

Anyway. As I was fooling around with my wives, the Chairman approached, having finished her lecture.

 

“Cadet Seo Yujin. I need a word with you….”

 

“Yes? Ah. Please go ahead.”

 

‘Why suddenly? Did something happen to Haru….’

 

[I’ll use telepathy to avoid causing a commotion. Tomorrow, the 7th-ranked S-class will be visiting the academy.]

 

“…”

 

-Clenching.

 

‘The only male among the S-class. That guy, is coming….?’

 

Along with the news that made me grit my teeth.