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39. The Blue Uniform 3
39. The Blue Uniform 3
The special class taught by Seo Dojin, who had come from Yeouido, had ended.
The students were heading back to their classrooms, chatting with close friends about what had happened today. Many of them immediately pulled out their phones and logged into the school’s online community as soon as they changed from their martial arts uniforms back into their school uniforms.
They wanted to freely talk about what had happened today. There was so much they hadn’t been able to say at the scene due to worrying about whose gang might be watching.
[Ark West Shelter Bamboo Forest] [Category] [Graduation Class] [Anonymous Free Board]
▶ The transfer student fought Seo Dojin in real life today lolololololol. So fun. A new kid really makes school interesting. She’s absolutely crazy....
⌞Looks like she lost her fear.
⌞When? During today’s special lecture? Did she threaten the teacher again with her telekinesis???
⌞After beating Kim Soochan in a one-on-one match, she also sparred with Seo Dojin lol. She’s really good, almost blew my mind.
⌞In the end, Yoon Taeha broke her own sword too. Seo Dojin gave her a taste of her own medicine. She’s arrogant, so I don’t like her;;;;;
⌞Got cocky with Seo Dojin and got wrecked.
⌞You must not have seen the sparring. If you had, you wouldn’t say that.
⌞Seo Dojin admitted at the end that he might’ve used slightly too much force. Amateurs shouldn’t be running their mouths lol.
⌞How many swords broke today? The principal is gonna cry 😭😭
⌞Young-sik can cry if he wants to.
⌞Young-sik, after you’re done crying, change the catering company.
⌞Change it 222
⌞Change it 333333 or eat the cafeteria food yourself. Stop ordering delivery for just the teachers, sneaky Young-sik...
⌞What about our Jinho? He was aiming for top honors graduation.
⌞Does this mean he won’t get into Ark?
⌞No matter what, someone like Kang Jinho will definitely get into the ark if he wants to. He’s been getting offers from private guilds since the start of the semester.
⌞If he doesn’t get top honors, his starting salary will drop lololol. There’s a big difference between the top graduate and the runner-up.
⌞(NEW) Transfer Student VS Kang Jinho
⌞Is it really coming to this kind of comparison?
⌞I’m rooting for the transfer student.
⌞Me too. After seeing today, if she polishes her telekinesis, she’ll be no joke.
⌞Wait, what? Isn’t she supposed to lack physical enhancement?
⌞But she seems like a dot-five.
⌞Kang Jinho is a dot-five too, so maybe they’re similar.
⌞Guess you forgot how Gangho took down three elites in one go last spring. You goldfish-brained idiots lololol.
⌞Lmao, Kangho is still king in the west.
⌞Hurry up and join the fan club.
⌞This time, Kangho’s going to mess with the transfer student. His pattern’s always the same, isn’t it?
⌞Acts nice at first, then starts bullying later lol.
⌞I’d like to see them fight once.
Kim Soochan was also spamming refreshes on his phone, keeping an eye on the students’ reactions. Something wasn’t right. It was unprecedented for a transfer student to draw this much attention just one week after arriving.
Her agile movements and the sharp, decisive swings of her sword toward her opponent—it was astonishing for an esper who had only recently awakened to possess such skill.
Even if her second-oldest brother was impressive, how much could he have taught her? If she had learned anything before awakening, it would’ve been basic self-defense for ordinary people, nothing more.
Kim Soochan couldn’t even imagine that the transfer student’s second-oldest brother might be Seo Dojin. He continued spiraling into negative assumptions.
“Could it be…”
Perhaps Yoon Taeha would surpass Kang Jinho and rise to the top of the rankings.
What if an esper outside their control managed to secure first place in the evaluation matches?
Kang Jinho was an esper obligated to maintain his position.
Kim Soochan rubbed his still-tingling palm against his thigh and slammed his locker shut roughly. Just as he thought things couldn’t get worse, Kang Jinho was waiting for him at the entrance to the changing room.
“Did you go easy on her?”
Kang Jinho’s expression wasn’t good either.
“Does it look like I went easy on her?”
“You’re saying she genuinely beat you? It wasn’t because of the penalty?”
“Seo Dojin said it himself—this isn’t just about ranks. Were you even listening?”
“How does it make sense for a dot-five to beat you purely through skill!?”
Kang Jinho, his voice rising with agitation, opened the locker room door and checked that no students were passing by in the hallway outside. He then slammed the door shut again.
Kim Soochan spoke scathingly.
“Looks like you’re weak.”
“What?”
“You’ve been eating too many snacks lately, haven’t you? Maybe something similar to what you’ve been taking was mixed in there. Or maybe they gave you something better from the east side.”
Kim Soochan pushed against Kang Jinho’s chest with his finger. The school’s implicit ecosystem was beginning to crumble, and as a part of it, Kim Soochan felt a sense of crisis.
Lowering his voice conspiratorially, Kim Soochan continued.
“You’re a billboard, you idiot.”
Billboard. There was no better word to describe Kang Jinho’s situation.
The contract was simple:
Kang Jinho would take the free amplifiers provided to him and maintain his position as number one in every evaluation.
The brokers would use the fame of the coveted top rank to sell amplifiers to students who wanted to climb higher.
“If I take this, can I become number one too? Even the top student takes it, so if I don’t, won’t I fall even further behind?”
For students contemplating the deal, Kang Jinho served as both an excellent example and evidence of success.
In return for being a walking advertisement, Kang Jinho received stronger amplifiers than what others were given.
But if he fell from first place, he would no longer receive the highest-grade amplifiers for free.
If he made a mistake due to the side effects of the drugs, he’d have to be prepared to disappear.
Kang Jinho knew of one name that had been dragged down from the top of the pyramid. He also knew how miserable the end had been.
“Gwon Min-gi.”
“...”
“You didn’t forget what happened to him, did you?”
Kang Jinho clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, as if his hidden shame had been exposed.
Kim Soochan sneered at him, his face now completely different from the one that had flattered opponents in front of others.
“Get ready for the evaluation match.”
“Damn it…”
“Don’t let it show when the effects wear off. There are plenty of kids who want your spot.”
With a friendly tone, Kim Soochan turned and left his friend behind. Bang! The sound of Kang Jinho angrily kicking someone else’s locker echoed through the empty room.
---
As Kim Soochan climbed back up to the classroom, he encountered the transfer student in the lounge on the floor just above the locker room.
She appeared fresh-faced, as if she had just washed up, and was filling her water bottle at the dispenser.
The memory of his recent defeat still stung, but his curiosity outweighed it. Kim Soochan strode over and spoke to her.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
He gestured toward her side, where Seo Dojin had struck her. The transfer student shook her head and asked in return,
“And you?”
“Ugh, I feel like I’m dying. Where did you learn to fight like that? Are they teaching well in the east these days?”
“I told you, I learned at home. My second-oldest brother practiced kendo.”
“Ohhh… kendo. Right, kendo.”
How dull. Was she hiding something, or did this girl truly have more potential than Kang Jinho?
Kim Soochan couldn’t decide yet.
If Kang Jinho really was finished…
Kim Soochan’s role was to find the most promising buds and introduce them to the right people. He had been the one to discover Kang Jinho.
Espers without anyone to rely on were easily consumed by their hunger for power. Those were the kinds of students Kim Soochan targeted.
Kids with no support, whose only lifeline was the ranking they’d receive after graduation.
The transfer student, her water bottle now filled, rustled something out of her pocket. It was the jelly Kim Soochan had been eyeing.
He had paid extra attention to her since she’d been eating it consistently since her first day of transfer. What if she was the same type as him? She held out the bag casually.
“Want some?”
“Me? You’re giving it to me?”
“Don’t think about taking the whole thing. Just one.”
Suspicious, Kim Soochan picked out a red bear-shaped jelly from her bag.
“There won’t be any consequences after eating this, right?”
The transfer student lightly tapped Kim Soochan’s shoulder and turned away. Only after she had disappeared did Kim Soochan cautiously bite into the jelly, splitting it in half before popping it into his mouth.
Raspberry flavor.
Realizing he had been unnecessarily tense, Kim Soochan furrowed his brow in irritation.
---
After finishing the special class, Seo Dojin climbed into the car sent by his company. His hands were weighed down with shopping bags full of gifts and handwritten letters from students.
“Popular, are we?”
After shoving his luggage into the passenger seat and climbing into the back, Seo Dojin nearly jumped out of his skin—Yoon Taeha, now changed back into her school uniform, was already sitting in the backseat.
She had blown off one class after meeting with Kim Soochan and had been waiting for Seo Dojin.
“...I almost had a heart attack.”
“You put a lot of personal feelings into today’s sparring, huh? The spot where you hit me is bruised.”
“I went easy on you!”
“You’re going to pay for that.”
“My senior said they watched our sparring through the CCTV. They just contacted me. Said my acting skills have improved.”
“Acting skills, my foot.”
“It was a convincing situation, and they said I don’t need to write an incident report.”
“Our director is indeed... a reasonable person.”
Seo Dojin clicked his tongue in exasperation. Yoon Taeha instructed the car’s AI to start moving. “You’re AWOL,” Seo Dojin muttered, but his threats were useless.
Once they were far enough from the school, Yoon Taeha finally spoke.
“Jinho seems like bait.”
Seo Dojin, who had been reporting to Lee Haekyung via phone, raised an eyebrow.
“As expected?”
“Yeah. I think he might be something like a billboard.”
“A billboard covered in spite.”
Thanks to Kang Jinho’s loud shouting earlier, she had heard everything. Fortunately, her hearing wasn’t completely unreliable yet.
From the beginning, the relationship between Kang Jinho and Kim Soochan seemed more nuanced than a simple hierarchy.
Kang Jinho strutted around confidently but occasionally stiffened, while Kim Soochan acted humble but had never truly shown fear—not even once.
The atmosphere that the existing students couldn’t read was crystal clear to her, someone who had come in from the outside.
“There’s probably someone inside the school who first offered Jinho the amplifier.”
“Any idea who? That obnoxious kid? Or the one you sparred with today?”
“Kim Soochan. The one I sparred with.”
“Oh, the big guy.”
“He seems to be testing the waters too.”
“With you? Trying to pull you into the mix?”
“I’m not sure about that part. But he’s definitely observing me. He’s suspicious of my jelly, suspicious of the water I drink. Honestly, he’s very interested.”
The best-case scenario was this:
A new esper with weak control but great potential. A tragic past and a slightly aggressive personality. Someone who draws attention by aiming for top honors.
The transfer student would soon threaten Kang Jinho, the current number one and a strong suspect for amplifier use.
When that happened, those clinging to the existing ecosystem would feel threatened.
They’d either move to eliminate her discreetly or approach her secretly to recruit her. Either way, they’d act to control the entity threatening their ecosystem.
“If things go well, I might be able to buy it directly.”
Yoon Taeha’s goal was to catch the broker’s attention and become an actual buyer of the amplifier.
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