Academy's Silver Gatekeeper-Chapter 43

“Why the hell hasn’t there been any word yet?!”

Jung Yuhyeon hurled a dagger across the room, snarling. He’d been assured everything was ready—that “they’d handle it for the money they got,” clear and simple.

They weren’t amateurs or con men with fancy words. They were “professionals” who’d carried out similar operations many times. Their methods were filthy, but they were certainly reliable enough to be called pros.

That was why he trusted them—he even handed over a share of his “interests,” the most crucial portion, just to get rid of Baek Seojin. Because to Jung Yuhyeon, that man was a humiliating reminder of something he never wanted to face again.

He’d lost to a mere Silver Examiner without even putting up a fight, while he was basically a Gold-level student. Not to mention being the Student Council’s Vice President. It was a total disgrace.

‘I spent so much effort buying my way into the Vice President seat.’

Skill alone wasn’t enough. He also needed the students’ support and a respectable image. Being true to himself, he solved those problems with money, deals, and blackmail, all behind the scenes.

That was how he became Vice President, only to be placed on probation after a few short months. “Probation” basically meant having his Vice President status put on ice, so his anger burned, ready to explode at any moment.

“…Uh, hyung? No news yet? Telling me to wait it out? Isn’t this too slow? Are they sure they’re doing their job right? They’d better not run off with the share I gave them!”

He even got a dose of “You think I’m like you?” in return. Furious as that made him, he tried to suppress it—he desperately needed results.

All he wanted was for that man to vanish from the Academy, from the world. And if it tarnished that man’s name with all sorts of scorn, so much the better.

Yet before long, he learned a shocking truth.

“…What the hell is this.”

Every TV news channel, every online article, even the newspapers… all of them were splashing the face of Baek Seojin everywhere. Or at least he kept showing up in the shots.

Technically, Baek Seojin wasn’t the main subject—he was just in the photos next to the real star. But for Jung Yuhyeon, that alone was overwhelming.

‘Th-that’s Irina. Why is she shaking hands with him?’

South Korea’s mightiest superhuman—and also its biggest lunatic. If you pissed her off, she’d crush you whether you were a villain or not. The country itself was wary of her.

She had as many fans as she did haters. But in the end, no one questioned her strength—she was among the best of the best.

Word was that a corporate heir tried to court her and ended up with a busted… well, you get the idea. A high-ranking clan officer also tried hitting on her and got all their limbs broken. There was a reason even villains called her the “crazy blonde.”

So… Irina was photographed with Baek Seojin, actually shaking hands with a relaxed smile?

‘N-no way. Maybe it’s just a coincidence…?’

Irina, smiling while shaking hands with someone, letting reporters photograph them? This was the same Irina who greeted paparazzi with curses and the middle finger. Even an idiot could see that they clearly had some connection.

Which meant Baek Seojin was personally acquainted with the last person on earth you’d ever want to piss off.

‘Thank God.’

As soon as he realized that, Jung Yuhyeon felt relieved. He still believed nothing had been set in motion yet, so at least the worst catastrophe had been avoided.

“Hey, you little bastard! Get your ass home now!”

That relief was shattered by the furious roar of his grandfather, Jinhan, the group’s honorary chairman.

He was the person in this world who scared Jung Yuhyeon most. The moment the day’s lectures ended, Yuhyeon rushed home. Why was his grandfather so enraged?

As soon as he stepped inside the house: “You insane brat! How far did you go, huh?!”

Honorary Chairman Jinhan was waiting for him, golf club in hand.

“G-Grandfather, what’s—?”

“What’s with me? Hey, you worthless punk, do you have any idea what kind of chaos you’ve caused? Number Two, you tell him. Make sure he hears how serious this is!”

Only then did Jung Yuhyeon realize that his two older brothers and his father were also there, each one groaning like they, too, had been whacked by that golf club.

“Hyung, what is—?”

“Yesterday, the entire group’s affiliates—Irina flattened them.”

“…Huh?”

“Yes, I mean it. She literally swept them clean.”

They weren’t monsters or villains, so what the hell was he talking about? Yuhyeon had no clue how this had happened—why that woman had come after them.

But his brother’s next words were even more shocking: Out of nowhere, the prosecution launched a massive search-and-seizure operation against their corporate branches. Their moles within the police promptly disappeared.

Everything was carried out so covertly and swiftly that the media barely noticed. Or maybe the news cycle was too fixated on some unprecedented Gate incident that bypassed a protective barrier.

“W-why is this happening…?”

“What do you think, you idiot? The job you asked them to do! Your target was linked to that psycho woman! And now that psycho’s on the rampage, the government has realized how serious it is. They’re dissecting all our connections! We can’t get help from anyone because they’re all going underground in terror!”

“N-no! But how the hell did they figure out our connection? You said they were tight-lipped! I just trusted what you told me. You said they’d never failed or leaked anything before!”

“Shit! That’s not the point! The problem is who the hell you messed with!”

From Jung Yuhyeon’s perspective, he did feel it was unfair.

If he had known Baek Seojin was an acquaintance of Irina, he would never have done anything.

After all, getting on that crazy woman’s bad side was a one-way ticket out of this world. She might not care about most things, but messing with anyone under her protection was absolutely off-limits!

“What are we supposed to do about this mess?! We bribed them so much, but the moment that woman growled, everyone panicked and vanished on us! Nobody’s left to help our side!”

Only then did Jung Yuhyeon realize how hopelessly everything had spiraled out of control. It wasn’t just losing to a random Examiner or being suspended as Vice President. If this continued, he could lose all the powerful backing that had secured his status.

That day, his grandfather beat him savagely. He felt wronged and had so many questions, but there was no fixing something that was already out in the open.

When he eventually returned to the Academy, he found the situation had gotten worse. Somehow, Baek Seojin—who seemed to have connections to Irina—was also backed by the Headmaster. And now he was demoting the Silver students to Bronze, telling them to undergo evaluation again.

With things going this way, the next obvious target was him. He’d already been forcibly dropped from Gold once, setting a precedent.

‘If that gets out, every Gold-ranked student might turn against me!’

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Who had he tried to mess with? Damn it! How did it all end up like this?

He clutched his head in frustration, on the verge of screaming from anger and helplessness.

All he’d wanted was to “teach a lesson” to some uppity Examiner. If he’d known that guy had such insane backing, he’d never have dared.

[Our next update: The investigation into Jinhan Group is underway…]

[Today, prosecutors announced the results of their raid on Jinhan Group’s…]

Meanwhile, his own “backers” were steadily going under. There was no end in sight. The prosecutors weren’t going to hold back, because if they did, it was obvious who would take matters into her own hands next.

Honestly, letting the prosecution run wild was safer. If Irina moved again, the entire “Jinhan” name could be wiped off the map in South Korea.

‘Shit, shit, shit… This wasn’t part of my plan! I never meant it to go this far!’

At first, he felt a twinge of guilt, but as always happens with people like him, he gradually channeled that anger onto someone else—namely, the one he blamed for this entire fiasco: Baek Seojin.

“If it weren’t for that bastard Baek Seojin… if it weren’t for that son of a bitch…”

Gritting his teeth, he muttered curses he’d never dare say to the man’s face.

“…”

Some figures stood quietly at a distance, watching him.

A short while later…

“…What kind of bullshit situation is this?”

“I have no idea, so don’t ask me. I’m just passing on exactly what the guys inside told us.”

At the big, shadowy man’s words, the one-eyed woman gave a baffled smile.

Could it be Ma Hakjun, that old fogey, finally went senile? Or did the Academy get a brand-new lunatic?

They were forcibly dropping perfectly fine Silvers back to Bronze. Some said even Gold would be next on the list.

At first, both the reporter and the recipient had just scoffed. It was too ridiculous—completely unheard of.

But the more they looked into it, the stranger it seemed. There should be plenty of pushback, and the Academy’s entire curriculum should be in turmoil. If even the man called Ma Hakjun was behind it, he had a deeper agenda.

“Maybe he wants to raise the kids’ skill levels?”

“Or else he’s trying to remove one of the rank divisions and kickstart some reform.”

The one-eyed woman’s expression turned sharp.

Whatever the “positive change” was, it wouldn’t be good news for them. The more dysfunctional and unjust the world was, the more recruits they gained. So anyone stirring up real improvement was an enemy. For villains, the world was best left as is.

“I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I, but what can we do?”

“We take them out. Starting with this ‘Baek Seojin,’ that piece on Ma Hakjun’s chessboard.”

“I’ve heard rumors he’s friendly with that crazy blonde.”

“Since when did we ever give a damn about that bitch?”

The big man cackled, acknowledging that was true.

“Besides, I hear she just took down a certain group or something.”

“Yes. Our people confirmed it.”

“We can say she took offense there, so we’re attacking his acquaintance out of revenge. They even plastered photos in the newspapers. Everyone knows we can’t touch her, so we go after her friend—that’s all there is to it.”

The one-eyed woman asked “How about that?” and the man nodded.

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