SSS-Class Revival Hunter

Chapter 141: The Late Life (3)

★

Well, it was time to talk about my defeat. I had only played the role of a protagonist and a hero so far, but now, I became a villain who had to be taken down.

Until now, losing was not something I could accept because one defeat was fatal for me. If I had been defeated, the slum would have been engulfed in flames and completely burned down. My defeat meant the fall of the empire, gangho, and so on...

In this case, however, my defeat didn’t mean destruction. This was new. Finally, this was the story where I had to lose. The story could reach the ending only when I[1] met my fall.

[Your immersion level is 100%.]

But I[2] was strong and thoroughly cunning.

I didn’t know how other people remembered their school days. Were they happy and fun? Was their classroom small enough to embellish everything that happened there because of the ignorance and excuses of childhood mistakes, only to paint the past in pretty sepia as time passed?

I was a little more clever and cunning than them. Maybe there was no one like me in other schools. Or perhaps people didn’t really remember a person like me, but I existed.

Falsely accusing or actually framing a classmate. Threatening classmates to silence them. If you were a person who remembered doing all of these things, you were my comrade. At least you would be able to know that I existed. If I was lucky, you would understand me.

Yes, while other students were defenselessly tinkering away with their so-called school days, we easily hunted down foolish prey.

Our hunting was stealthy, so people didn’t remember. With our proficiency, we kept our hunts a secret. However, most people ended up understanding our hunt in the exact opposite way. They called us immature, not smart enough to engage in advanced hunting.

Who were they calling not smart enough? Who? Us? How ridiculous! They didn’t even remember what happened right under their noses.

Now I was going to confess my secret hunting techniques to these people.

This was how things used to be before I was possessed by someone else.

In school, students are divided into two groups. First, there are students who are good at studying. If they want to get good grades, students have to put in effort, but they don’t want to put in effort more than others. However, it’s easy and takes no effort to ignore and laugh at others.

Sarcasm takes no effort either, so any student can easily join in on making fun of others. This is the main difference between studying and sneering. A lot of students can easily bully others. Studying, on the other hand, is difficult.

To increase the score by one point on the test, a student had to study for an extra ten minutes. Meanwhile, it takes less than ten seconds to make fun of someone else.

‘Who is better at making fun of others?’ is a much more interesting question than ‘Who is better at studying?’ It’s also a much easier activity. Unlike studying, anyone can easily join in on this game. Therefore, it’s much more impactful. That’s why sneering can happen in any school.

This was how the theory of bullying came to be.

First, the scapegoat should stand out. Were they noticeably richer or poorer than other students? Did they have a particularly strange appearance? Did they give off a strange smell? Did they slur their words? Were they overly diligent? These all made good selection criteria. It didn’t matter which one you chose.

Since it’s easy to make fun of others, the person you’re making fun of should also be defined by traits that make sneering at them easy. There’s a good reason Kim Yul was chosen as the prey.

“He’s noticeably poor,” a student said at some point. “It’s so pungent. Every time I go near him, my nostrils get assaulted by a horrible stench.”

Even a monotonous school uniform couldn’t hide poverty. The cruel thing about poverty is that it’s visible. Anyone could see that Kim Yul was poor. Everyone found the smell he gave off unpleasant. It was easy for anyone to laugh at it, so you could easily get started.

“Hey, it doesn’t feel right to say this, but if I go near him...”

“Oh, right. He does smell a little. I feel bad for him...”

At Level 1, you should take it lightly. As you are already aware, you shouldn’t reveal your goal from the beginning. That’s stupid.

“I heard he’s attending this school thanks to a scholarship?”

“I’ve known Kim Yul since middle school, and even then...”

It’s better to start out by turning him into a simple conversation topic.

“Do you want to know a secret? Actually...”

Little by little, you should increase the number of students participating in the conversation.

“That’s where he lives? That is literally a dumping ground.”

“His dad collects garbage.”

“Uh, is he the guy who picks up garbage near my house?”

“Come on...”

That was how you were supposed to gradually increase other’s attention to an issue. What you had to be careful about was to never reveal your malice.

You would also know that it wasn’t the time to set the plan in motion yet. Look. Rather than saying “Doesn’t Kim Yul creep you out a little?” it was better to say...

“Hey. Guess what? The person who picks up the waste from my house is really Kim Yul’s father!”

This was a much wiser choice.

“What? Really?”

Of course it was a lie.

“How did you know?”

“I wasn’t sure at first either, so I asked the man who picked up the trash last Sunday, ‘Are you Kim Yul’s father? I’m his friend from school.’ He got a little embarrassed and asked me to look after his son in school.”

“Oh my god...”

“Seriously?”

Lying was our most basic skill. Although our classmates were skeptical, they looked at me with sparkling eyes. Those eyes of curiosity were proof of success. We succeeded in attracting attention to the story of Kim Yul.

“Kim Yul! Is your father—”

“Hey, hey. Why would you ask him that? Don’t.”

“Why? You were lying, weren’t you?”

“It’s not like that. Anyway, sorry, Kim Yul. Don’t worry about that.”

At Level 2, you should just observe. From here on out, malice would snowball on its own.

“Ha.”

Everyone in the world made mistakes. Some students more than others. Now, your classmates paid more attention to Kim Yul’s every move, as if they were holding a magnifying glass over his mistakes.

“Haha...”

He missed the volleyball during gym class and had to run a little further to get it. After falling asleep during the fourth period, he dozed off even during lunchtime. He stuttered a little when he answered the teacher’s question.

So they laughed.

“Ha...”

It didn’t matter if it was a very minor mistake.

“Hey, he always goes behind the school during lunchtime. He does that to...”

“He feeds the chickens? Really?”

“Go to the window and look down. It’s real.”

You should always remember the theory of sneering. The scapegoat should easily stand out, and people should feel at ease to participate in the game.

“Kim Yul, look over here!”

“Oh, he really sees us.”

“Does he plan on getting the chickens for himself after they grow bigger?”

“Ewww.”

The ultimate goal was to create a game that everyone could participate in. As you already know, the vast majority of bullying stopped at this point. This kind of bullying could occur naturally without a main perpetrator and accomplices. Even if there were only participants, the bullying could easily reach Level 2.

Level 2 bullying indicated minor violence once every two weeks. Group violence occurred once every three months, and public beatings once every six months. Lastly, one small unerasable scar was left on the scapegoat.

It could last an entire semester, or even three whole years. Occasionally, there would be a student who temporarily took the lead, but there was no long-term instigator...

But you already know we weren’t going to stop here.

“Hey. Let’s test it.”

We went one step further.

“Test what?”

“These are the shoes I bought. They’re brand new.”

If you successfully progressed the game up to this point, you must be very good at lying. From now on, you had to perform a little magic show for your classmates.

“I’ll use a marker and draw a star on the soles of my shoes like this. Can you see them? You guys can see it, right?”

“Yeah. So?”

“I’m going to leave them in front of my house along with the garbage.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“You idiot, Kim Yul’s dad collects garbage from near my house.”

It was a lie. The garbage collector who passed by your house wasn’t actually Kim Yul’s father. But that didn’t matter because the students supposedly knew one of the routes Kim Yul’s father took to collect garbage.

“If Kim Yul’s father is really the man who collects garbage and finds a brand new pair of shoes amid the garbage, he’ll obviously give it to Kim Yul as a gift.”

“Uh...”

“I guess so?”

“I bet Kim Yul will wear these shoes to school tomorrow.”

Actually, you prepared two pairs of identical shoes.

“Hey, look. I’m leaving them here. You see them, right? I’m not going to move them from here.”

One pair was thrown away at your house in front of your friends. The other pair had already been left on Kim Yul’s father’s route a day earlier. Of course, both pairs had ★ drawn on the soles.

You just wanted to show your friends a cool magic show, so you acted like I drew the ★ right now. If you had been a little more cautious, you would have hung out with my friends all day and created the perfect alibi.

The next day in the classroom during lunchtime...

“Hey, hey. Check it out!”

“What if we get caught looking through his stuff?”

“Just take a quick look!”

“It’s just a quick look.”

While Kim Yul went down to the cafeteria, we rushed to his desk. His school indoor shoes bag[3] was hanging on the hook at the side of the desk.

The students’ eyes sparkled. As if they were telling themselves that this was just a joke, they continued to laugh as they picked up the bag and took out the shoes, which were a little cleaner than usual.

“Wow.”

“I-It’s real.”

Of course, ★ were drawn on the soles of the shoes Kim Yul wore.

“What the hell. You threw these away, and Kim Yul really...”

“You didn’t plan this with him, right?”

“No, he’s been hanging out with us for two days straight.”

“Then it’s real...”

The students looked at you as if they had just witnessed an amazing magic show.

There were many things you could say at this moment, depending on your personality and tastes. One of your possible choices was to boast like “See? I’m right.” Or you could choose to reveal your malice a little and say “It creeps me out a little.”

But I would recommend this line.

“Whoa, it’s real...”

You should go along with the students and act like you hadn’t been sure this would happen either.

“I mean, that guy could have lied about being Kim Yul’s father, so I wasn’t one hundred percent sure if he was telling the truth either.”

Laugh as if you found everything absurd, check the shoes again, and act as if you just witnessed something unbelievable. Refine your voice as if you just found out something new.

“Wow, this actually happened...”

And then you should take a step back.

“I don’t know about this, man... We can call off the bet. Pretend you don’t know anything. This stays between us. Forget everything. I don’t know anything. Okay?”

Inexperienced instigators always tried to create works on their own. As you already know, that was a foolishly impatient choice. The impatience originated from how you yourself could feel that the evidence and the magic show you fabricated were crude and ugly. That was why you had to perform the magic show perfectly from the beginning.

It was lunchtime, so the students returned to the classroom one by one.

“What’s up?”

“Hey, Kim Yul is actually... ”

“Huh? What is it?”

Of course, you deliberately made sure the show would take place at lunchtime. At lunchtime, classmates returned in groups. The magic show couldn’t be wasted on something like recess. There was plenty of time to spread rumors about the “incident” in whispers.

“The heck.”

The classmates took a look at Kim Yul’s shoes.

“It’s real?”

No, it isn’t.

You sat in the back and closed your eyes, pretending to sleep. You were more cautious than before, so you never spread the story yourself in front of others. You didn’t hog the prey because you knew the virtue of a lion who shared it with his pack.

“What are you guys talking about?”

“Come over here quickly.”

“What’s this about Kim Yul’s shoes?”

You should let the others spread rumors. This way, it’s more fun! Give them the illusion that they discovered the truth themselves. Let them enjoy the bloody meat.

“Eww. Does that mean all his belongings are from the streets?”

Believe in human malice.

“I didn’t tell you before, but Kim Yul’s father actually collects the garbage for a living. Kim Yul and I went to the same middle school, and there was a time when we talked about my parents’ occupations...”

Trust the power of sneering.

“That’s a little nasty.”

Believe in the magic of ★.

“Wow, he just recycles everything?”

“He’s the Recycling Man.”

“Ha.”

★

“It’s unfortunate, but that’s really nasty.”

“Wow, he reeks. Didn’t you say that those shoes were new?”

★

“Hey, Recycling Man is here. Stop talking.”

★

“Kim Yul, did you feed the chickens?”

“Your shoes are clean today!”

“Ha.”

★

After school hours, you formed a group and went down to the main gate. The goal was to chase after Kim Yul. He tilted his head in confusion, but he didn’t care. The moment Kim Yul took his shoes out of his bag and put them on...

“Ha, ha!”

...★ achieved its purpose.

“Haha...!”

“Hey, Kim Yul! Do you know those...”

“Those are the shoes Eun-Seo threw away in front of his house yesterday!”

“Look at the soles of your shoes!”

The young animals were immersed in the pleasure of revealing the truth that Kim Yul didn’t even know, indirectly calling him dirty. There was no use in denying it because we had evidence that those were the same shoes.

The actual truth was that Kim Yul’s father had found a new pair of shoes near where he lived and picked them up. After a close examination to see how new they were, he had cautiously given them to his son, thinking that they were in quite a good condition. Even though Kim Yul knew those shoes couldn’t have ended up there by themselves, he accepted his father’s gift without a word.

The actual truth consisted of a father’s worries, silence, and Kim Yul’s expressionless eyes.

But animals weren’t smart enough to think of any of that. They didn’t even try because it was much easier to laugh at him. With the evidence you provided, the animals could enjoy ★ with ease.

“Do you have nothing better to do?” Kim Yul asked indifferently. “Is this funny to you? If you’re bored, mind your own business.”

He turned his back and left the school.

“Uh...”

The classmates were silent for a moment. If someone said, “Hey, this is no longer alright. Let’s stop,” maybe this would have been the end of Kim Yul’s bullying. All you had to do was make people feel like “You’re already a high school student, so why are you bullying someone else again?” As you already know, it took courage to say something like that.

“What? What’s wrong with him?”

“We were just joking...”

“He’s so full of himself.”

“He wears other people’s trash at school.”

“I didn’t know he was like that...”

When no one said what was supposed to be said, things escalated to Level 3—bullying the scapegoat was now publicly allowed.

“Hey, someone should buy indoor shoes and throw them away. Let’s see if he wears those too.”

I wasn’t sure how you would remember your school days.

“He leaves his bag behind during lunchtime. Put this pencil case inside when he’s gone.”

“You’re really evil.”

“Right back at you.”

Were you happy? Did you find it fun?

“Huh? That’s the pencil case I threw away yesterday!”

“What? Did Kim Yul recycle again?”

“Ha.”

Was your classroom small enough to embellish everything that happened there because of the ignorance and excuses of childhood mistakes, only to paint the past in pretty sepia as time passed?

“Eww. The stench is unbearable...”

“Hurry and hide it under his desk.”

“Quick! Next class is going to begin soon!”

I wasn’t like you.

“Where is this strange smell coming from?”

“Do you smell it too?”

“Yeah, it was tough to endure it during math class.”

“Give me a sec. I’ll look for it. Sniff.”

“I think it’s coming from the back row.”

I was a little more clever and cunning than you.

“Yul, why are you washing the mop? Even if you wash it, it’s still a rag.”

“I feel bad for him. He feels sympathy for a rag...”

Maybe there were no people like me in your school. Or maybe you simply didn’t remember them.

[Your immersion level is 100%.]

But I was definitely here in this city, school, and this classroom, holding a mechanical pencil.

“Class president, why are you looking at me?”

The class president had a strange look on his face. “Gong-Ja.”

“What?”

The class president trembled faintly. It looked like he was fed up with something, and it also seemed like he was lamenting over something. But his strange look quickly faded. He cleared his throat and said, “No, it’s nothing. It’s just that I suddenly couldn’t remember your name. What’s your name?”

“What? Are you already suffering from dementia? It’s Hwang Eun-Seo. Hwang Eun-Seo.”

“Oh, yes. That’s your name,” the class president muttered. He usually didn’t interact with my group. “I heard your girlfriend is running for a student council position.”

“Yeah, why are you telling me that?”

“I think I’m gonna run too. Please tell her that I’m looking forward to seeing her in the election race.”

“What? You want to be the student council president? I thought you only cared about studying.”

“If I want to go to Seoul National University, I have to get a recommendation letter. Some say that becoming a student council president is the easy way to get one.”

Was that so? It sounded plausible. It was a bit funny to see him openly say that he wanted to become the student council president to go to Seoul National University. Well, he was the class president and an honest guy, so I decided not to give much thought to it.

“That’s great. Good luck, Class President. I’m going to vote for my girlfriend, but I’m sure you’ll do well anyway.”

The class president nodded. “Yes, thank you...”

I was strong. I was the embodiment of evil.

“...I’m planning on it.”

Therefore, it was time to talk about my defeat.

1. Gong-Ja ☜

2. The bully ☜

3. Korean students weren’t allowed to wear outside shoes in school, so they had to bring a separate bag to put their outside shoes in while they were in school. Outdoor shoes are allowed now, depending on the school. ☜