A corner of the Velvet Academy, an indoor training facility that had been neglected for a long time because it was separate from the other facilities and rarely used.

Usually, the only things that filled this place were the musty smell of dust and pitch darkness… but…

Today, hundreds of people gathered here, buzzing with conversation.

Murmur, murmur─

“Hey, you too…?”

“Did that bitch call you?”

Those who had gathered here couldn’t hide their confusion as they stared at each other.

“Yeah, Choi Ah-ram suddenly started cursing and told me to come to the G-building training ground…”

“Crazy bitch. I don’t give a shit about her, but she sent me a long text full of curses, bringing up my complexes and past when I’ve never even looked her in the eye before.”

At first, they thought it might be a wrong number, but Choi Ah-ram had carefully crafted each text, addressing each person by name and bringing up their hidden complexes and past.

“Well, with this much effort, I guess I should come. But it looks like she’s called everyone she knows here, huh?”

“What if she doesn’t show up today and just drops out instead?”

“If she does that, I’ll find her even if I have to go to the ends of hell and beat her up.”

Kkachh!

One of the girls spat on the floor with disgust.

“Damn it, this bitch isn’t going to show up, so what’s the point of this stupid gathering? I’m out of here-”

Clank!

Just then, the sound of the door locking came from behind them.

Thud─

Thud─

Thud─

Thud─

The lights above turned on one by one, illuminating the stage in front of them.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

And then, a small girl with pink hair and pink eyes, dressed in a suit, appeared with small steps.

Choi Ah-ram.

Everyone’s gaze was fixed on her.

“Hello, everyone?”

She greeted them with a twinkle in her pink eyes.

“… .”

“… .”

“… .”

Choi Ah-ram looked around at the bewildered faces and said in a clear voice,

“Hmm, there are some friends I haven’t seen in a while, and some I saw just a while ago?”

“Hey, you bitch. What the hell is this? Did you miss your medication time?”

The first to speak up was Kim Soo-hyun, the black-haired girl who had told Yoo-ri to join her party this morning.

She glared at Choi Ah-ram with a fierce expression.

“Fuck. I was already pissed off because of that retard Lim Ga-eul today, and now you…?”

After the practical gate training, she had received unbelievable news.

Her party was not the first, but the second.

And then, another bug from that party, the failed dealer Choi Ah-ram, had the nerve to tell her to come to the training ground.

So she came here without even taking a shower.

“Wow! Kim Soo-hyun! Didn’t you call Lim Ga-eul a retard earlier!?”

Choi Ah-ram narrowed her eyes at her.

“It’s a bit much that you’ve ignored me at that time, but I can understand why. Hmm, hmm.”

As she said this, she nodded her head.

Kim Soo-hyun frowned.

“This bitch must have eaten a whole box of expired medication…”

“Hmm, it’s not fun when you keep talking like that.”

“Fun? What the hell are you talking about, you bug? You’re dead today.”

Kim Soo-hyun rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward.

Choi Ah-ram’s face turned cold.

“I don’t like people who talk too much. The only reason I like you at all is because you hate Lim Ga-eul, but you never did anything nice for me either.”

Her slender fingers pointed at Kim Soo-hyun.

“Yeah, I’ll make an example out of you. If I don’t, no one will listen to me.”

As she finished her sentence, a thin black beam shot out from the tip of Choi Ah-ram’s finger.

Ping!

A sudden attack.

The beam pierced Kim Soo-hyun’s abdomen as she stepped forward.

“Keuk…!?”

Kim Soo-hyun clutched her pierced abdomen, her eyes wide.

Choi Ah-ram looked down at her with a cruel smile and said in a cold voice,

“Now, I’m not the person you used to know.”

Flop!

Kim Soo-hyun collapsed on the spot.

Bright red blood began to flow from her fallen body.

“Huh…?”

“Soo-hyun!!!

“Is that, is that black magic!?”

“That bitch sold her soul to a Demon!”

In an instant, sharp screams and confusion filled the training ground.

Scrape, scrape─!

And the floor began to crack.

“What the fuck is this!!!!!”

As cracks suddenly appeared in the ground beneath them, the students scurried to find safer positions.

Kwajijik─!

There was more than one crack.

Kwang! Kwang! Kwang! Kwajijik!

Simultaneous loud earthquakes shook the training ground with vibrations and the sound of something breaking.

Finally, a monster’s hand tore through the floor, gripping the edge of the cracked ground.

And countless other hands followed, emerging from the other cracks.

Ferocious hands with thick muscles and sharp, hook-like claws that hid nothing of their brutality.

Confusion.

Moreover, most of those gathered here had not been wary of Choi Ah-ram, so they hadn’t even brought their weapons.

Some tried to somehow calm the situation, but the sudden situation of a Demon and a gate explosion only accelerated the confusion.

“Yeah, that’s right! Call the instructors! Call the principal!”

A student shouted amid the chaos. Choi Ah-ram watched them with an interested expression.

She wanted to crush the hope they were clinging to.

“I’m sorry, but we’re already inside the gate. So no electronic devices will work here.”

“……What!?”

“Hehe, the people you’re so desperately waiting for won’t come here. Well, they might figure out the situation later and come… but by then, it’ll all be over, won’t it?”

Choi Ah-ram prayed with her hands clasped in front of her, speaking to the air.

“Ah, He is truly omniscient and omnipotent…”

She stepped down from the stage, her steps light and graceful.

Then she placed her foot on top of Kim Soo-hyun’s head, who had charged at her earlier.

“Really, why can’t you guys understand the situation? Right, Soo-hyun?”

“… .”

Kim Soo-hyun, who had already lost consciousness from her pierced abdomen, could not answer.

But Choi Ah-ram continued as if she didn’t care.

“Hehe, yes. I’ve become a Demon. Thanks to that, I can put people who ignored me like this under my feet. This feeling…”

She looked down at Kim Soo-hyun under her feet and pulled up the corners of her mouth in a sinister smile.

“It’s the best!”

Then she rubbed her feet on soo-hyun head and said,

“You guys have always felt this way, haven’t you? Ignoring me, looking down on me…”

“… .”

“So, how does it feel now? Huh? How does it feel when the positions are reversed, when someone who ignored you and treated you like trash is now beneath you?”

Krrr!

Kyahaaaaaaah!

In front of their eyes, the monsters chased the students, who screamed and ran for their lives.

The scene overlapped with her own before she became a Demon.

The monsters had the faces of those who had ignored and looked down on her, and the fleeing students had her own face.

In fact, only a few people had directly bullied her here.

Velvet Hunter Academy was a place where even the toughest individuals were pushed to their limits every day with rigorous classes.

So they had spent more time training and recovering their body than paying attention to others.

But Choi Ah-ram thought that they were all guilty of their gazes, their attitudes, and everything else.

Of course, it was only natural and obvious in this world for the strong to stand above the weak.

Ahahahahahahahaha!!!

Suddenly, she burst out laughing.

“Yeah, it was all a fake world! You guys were all bugs and worthless bastards… but I didn’t need to put up with all that…!!!”

She laughed for a while, then let out a lazy sigh.

Haa─

“Hmm, so… where’s Lim Ga-eul?”

Choi Ah-ram looked around, searching for her.

But no matter how hard she looked, she was nowhere to be seen.

“I really want to see her face.”

Lim Ga-eul, who had stayed in the same hell as her and then suddenly abandoned her and ran away alone this morning.

Choi Ah-ram couldn’t forgive her.

Hmm─

“I need Lim Ga-eul… she has to be my finale…”

As she narrowed her eyes and carefully scanned the fleeing students,

“This Pink Brat bitch, her chuunibyou has gotten worse.”

Suddenly, a clear voice pierced her eardrums.

She turned her head.

Next to her, a black-haired boy stood with a stiff expression on his face.

And behind him was the one she had been looking for,

Lim Ga-eul.

She was biting her lip as she looked at Choi Ah-ram.

“Ah-ram, you’ve really crossed a line you shouldn’t have…”

.

.

.

The horrific scene of a gate explosion inside the Academy.

‘It’s true…’

Shin Se-hee swallowed hard as she took in the scene before her.

“We’re not late. It’s right on time. This is where the battle begins.”

Jin Yuha looked around and said in a stiff voice.

His words brought back to her mind the conversation she had with him earlier.

“……Huh? Suddenly a Demon?”

“Well, if one of the students became a Demon and was going to cause trouble within the Academy, where do you think they would go? It seems like things will happen differently from the original schedule anyway.”

Jin Yuha, who suddenly came to her with the possibility that a Demon could appear, and even said that it was a student.

To be honest, it was so sudden that her head went blank for a moment.

But since she had asked, she had to answer him.

“……Hmm, I don’t know for sure, but they’ll probably go somewhere where the instructors’ eyes can’t reach, right?”

“Can you pull a list of such spot?”

“… Hey, Jin Yuha.”

“Yeah?”

“Shouldn’t we leave this kind of dangerous work to the instructors?”

Jin Yoo-ha scratched his head.

“Well, I’ve thought about it too… but as you know, I was just suspected of being a Demon not long ago.”

“……Yes.”

“So I thought it would be better not to reveal that I know something in advance. And there’s not enough time to set up a convincing story anyway.”

But his words were a bit strange.

The source of the information that came out of his mouth was unknown.

He seemed to be reluctant to reveal it in front of others, but at the same time, he seemed to be completely open about it.

Yes, he doesn’t hide it.

Especially in front of us.

“Then why are you telling us this?”

“You’re my party members.”

“…Huh?”

Jin Yuha counted on his fingers as he spoke.

“Well, for one, Kang Do-hee is the type to never betray someone once she decides to trust them. Soup, well, if I can’t trust her, there’s no one else I can trust. And Lim Ga-eul is the type to go along with the flow and get swept up in the atmosphere, even if she’s suspicious.”

“…Hey, wait a minute. Who’s Lim Ga-eul?”

“Oh, she’s a senior who’s supposed to be joining us as a supporter.”

Shin Se-hee glared at him with displeasure.

“You said you’d tell me first…”

“I met her today. That’s why I came to you right away to tell you.”

Jin Yuha smiled cheekily.

It was hard to stay annoyed with him, his voice and face naturally easing her mood.

But,

Shin Se-hee still hadn’t heard what she wanted to hear.

He seemed to trust that the others would never betray him, even if he revealed his own suspicions.

So what about her?

The fact that he was telling her this was proof that he trusted her, but…

Since it was their first meeting, she was still anxious.

She wanted to hear that one phrase too.

“……What about me?”

Shin Se-hee swallowed hard and asked in a hesitant voice.

Jin Yuha glanced back at her.

“Actually, in some ways, I trust you the most out of everyone.”

“…Huh?”

“You would never betray me as long as I’m on your side, no matter who I am.”

She bit her lip.

How could he say such things so casually?

This man always seemed to see right through her.

And he always said exactly what she wanted to hear.

“And what’s the big deal between two suspicious people like us?”

Jin Yuha laughed.

“……I, I just do it as a hobby!”

Shin Se-hee turned her reddening face away, trying to act casual, but her heart was pounding loudly.

“Kik. Yeah, yeah. I thought about hiding it at first too… but I figured it might really cause a big problem if I kept hiding it. Besides, we don’t have any growth resources.”

Jin Yuha sighed, looking up at the sky.

“If I hide what I know and end up regretting it later… hmm, that doesn’t seem right, does it?”

As he spoke, his eyes seemed to hold a deep regret, or perhaps even a deep fear.

Looking at him,

Shin Se-hee could think of one possibility.

‘……Jin Yuha, can you see the future?’