Cheon Do-hyeon moved busily, with a clear objective in mind.
'Take down as many as possible before they can gather.'
He'd defeated Kim Byeong-ju, the Golden Wheel's chief enforcer, but he couldn't afford to become complacent.
The more mages gathered, the greater their synergy became.
What if more than a dozen of them simultaneously unleashed fireballs in a narrow corridor?
Cheon Do-hyeon was undoubtedly strong, but he was still a human being made of flesh and blood.
Even a stray Fireball could inflict a fatal injury.
'So I'll take them down one at a time.'
Defeat in detail.
That was Cheon Do-hyeon's strategy.
Cheon Do-hyeon checked the timetable he'd received from Kim Seung-yeon.
[First-Year Class 4 - Science Period]
As luck would have it, Class 4 had science.
When he approached their classroom, he saw students pouring into the corridor to head toward the science laboratory.
Among them, Cheon Do-hyeon spotted one particularly conspicuous boy.
Compared to his peers, the boy had unusually dark skin and a sturdy, compact build.
'That's Lee Chan-hee.'
The boy seemed sleepy, repeatedly opening his mouth wide to yawn.
His body sagged lazily, and he shuffled along, dragging his indoor slippers across the floor.
Completely defenseless, with no idea what was about to happen.
Perfect prey for a hunt.
SCUFF, SCUFF—
Lee Chan-hee continued walking, struggling to stay awake.
Soon, the corridor reached a corner.
Because he was walking so slowly, he would be separated from the group for a brief moment before rounding it.
Cheon Do-hyeon didn't miss that opportunity.
'Now.'
The instant Cheon Do-hyeon's eyes flashed, his presence became as faint as smoke.
[Heavenly Demon Phantom Step]
As he executed the Heavenly Demon Phantom Step to its utmost, his figure seemed to melt away and disappear.
A moment later, Cheon Do-hyeon suddenly appeared behind Lee Chan-hee.
There had been neither sound nor any indication of his presence, leaving Lee Chan-hee no chance to react.
"Mmph?!"
His eyes widened in surprise.
Lee Chan-hee tried to scream, but Cheon Do-hyeon's hands were faster.
One hand clamped over his mouth, while the other seized him by the back of the neck.
"Shh."
Lee Chan-hee's eyes filled with terror.
He belatedly attempted to gather his Mana, but it was already too late.
His specialty, earth magic, was on the verge of activating.
However, black energy erupted from Cheon Do-hyeon's grasp first.
[Great Art of Star Absorption]
CRRRUNCH—
The sensation of having his Mana forcibly extracted.
The unfamiliar agony turned Lee Chan-hee's vision completely white.
"Grrrgh..."
As the boy lost consciousness and went limp, Do-hyeon caught him without making a sound.
He then stuffed Lee Chan-hee into a cleaning closet in a secluded corner.
CLICK—
He took a photograph and was about to turn away when—
"Oh, right. I should take this too."
He pulled the phone from the boy's pocket.
Then, wearing a satisfied smile, he headed toward his next target.
Class 7, physical education period.
"Ah, shit! Changing clothes is going to ruin my hair!"
Moon Seong-il was grumbling as he removed his shirt inside the empty changing room.
That was when he heard the locker room door opening behind him.
CREEEAK—
The hinges sounded unusually loud.
"Who's there? I said I was changing!"
Moon Seong-il frowned irritably as he turned around.
At that moment, an enormous shadow descended upon him.
The attacker attempted to subdue him in one move, but Moon Seong-il reacted quickly thanks to his training in an unusual branch of magic known as Enhancement Magic.
Moon Seong-il attempted to overpower the mysterious assailant through sheer strength.
However, his opponent was no pushover either.
"Urgh!"
Being outmatched in strength was something he'd never experienced before.
Using a practiced technique, Moon Seong-il pushed the unidentified attacker sideways while simultaneously throwing his own body in the opposite direction to create some distance.
Having secured a brief moment of breathing room, he finally identified the person who'd attacked him.
"Holy shit! You're that wanted bastard...!"
It was Cheon Do-hyeon, the boy with a bounty on his head in the school community.
Moon Seong-il immediately began rotating his Mana Circles, preparing his Enhancement Magic.
His muscles started expanding in real time, as though he'd taken some sort of performance-enhancing drug.
Confidently, Moon Seong-il smashed his fists together and declared,
"Perfect timing! That Mana Amplifier is mine... Urgh!"
He couldn't even finish his sentence.
THUD.
Cheon Do-hyeon had performed an extraordinarily simple action.
He'd merely stamped his foot against the floor.
Yet that alone subjected Moon Seong-il to a pressure unlike anything he'd ever experienced, forcing him to his knees.
[Heavenly Demon Dominion Step]
The changing room floor trembled.
An unfamiliar, distorted gravitational force pressed down on Moon Seong-il, threatening to crush him to death.
"Is this gravity magic...?!"
"You think?"
Cheon Do-hyeon snorted as though the question wasn't even worth answering.
He then lightly struck the solar plexus of the immobilized Moon Seong-il.
"KUARGH!"
It was only a small kick.
But Moon Seong-il was already struggling just to withstand the Heavenly Demon Dominion Step.
That tiny blow was enough to send his body, enlarged by Enhancement Magic, collapsing helplessly.
THOOM—!
His body slammed heavily against the concrete.
"...That must've hurt."
Cheon Do-hyeon looked down at the unconscious boy with an almost sympathetic expression.
CLICK—
He took a photograph and collected the boy's phone with practiced ease.
"Next up... Let's see."
After that came a bastard at the school store.
Then another who'd been smoking in the bathroom.
And so, as lunchtime approached, the students known as the leaders of their respective classes began disappearing without a trace.
"Hmm... Has anyone seen Chan-hee?"
"Seong-il hasn't come back?"
"Teacher, Gwang-hun has disappeared!"
It was truly a ghostlike hunt.
Lunchtime.
An abandoned warehouse behind the school.
Kim Min-ho, the most influential student in Class 9 and something of a leader among the first-year delinquents, anxiously tapped away at his phone.
[Hey, where is everyone? Didn't you say you'd found Cheon Do-hyeon's location?]
[Lee Chan-hee? Moon Seong-il?]
Something was strange.
The number '1' beside his messages kept disappearing, indicating that they'd been read.
Yet nobody was replying.
"Have these bastards all lost their fucking minds...?"
The original plan had been to drag Cheon Do-hyeon to the abandoned warehouse and deal with him there.
But by lunchtime, the members had vanished as though they'd never existed.
"Don't tell me those bastards got scared of Cheon Do-hyeon?"
He muttered to himself before snorting at such a ridiculous possibility.
That was when—
BANG—!
The warehouse door swung open.
A young man stepped inside along with the sunlight.
His school uniform tie hung loosened as he walked forward with heavy, unhurried steps.
An enormous physique.
Muscles rippling precisely beneath his clothes with every movement.
It was Cheon Do-hyeon.
"Huh?"
Kim Min-ho's eyes widened.
'He came here on his own?'
This was an opportunity.
He immediately sent a message to the group chat.
[Emergency! Abandoned warehouse! Cheon Do-hyeon is here! Everyone, get your asses over here!]
The moment he sent the message, the read indicators appeared.
Kim Min-ho smiled triumphantly and stepped forward to block Cheon Do-hyeon's path.
"Hahahaha! The bastard I've been looking for actually walked right up to me!"
"......"
But perhaps because of the strange composure Cheon Do-hyeon displayed, Kim Min-ho's uneasiness began to grow.
STEP, STEP.
"Don't come any closer, you bastard. You're dead."
Kim Min-ho hurriedly gathered his Mana and activated his wind magic.
SWISH, SWISH, SWISH—!
Blades of wind swirled around his hand.
Kim Min-ho brandished them threateningly and shouted.
"You're fucked now. I just sent everyone your location. They'll all be here in one minute."
'I'm more than enough to handle him alone, but the others will be joining me soon anyway.'
He reassured himself with that thought.
Time was on his side.
However—
One minute passed.
Then three minutes.
Yet outside the warehouse, everything remained silent.
Not even a single ant appeared.
Cold sweat began trickling down Kim Min-ho's forehead.
He checked his phone again.
'They definitely read it. Then why...?'
Watching him, Cheon Do-hyeon chuckled.
"How much longer should I wait?"
"W-what?"
"You're waiting for your friends, aren't you?"
"You bastard! Someone like you is more than enough for me to handle on my own...!"
Kim Min-ho was forced to shut his mouth before he could finish.
Cheon Do-hyeon had pulled something from his pocket and dumped it onto the floor in a clattering heap.
They were...
Phones.
"...Huh?"
Kim Min-ho stared blankly at the phones scattered across the floor.
The cases looked familiar.
Lee Chan-hee's phone.
Park Seong-il's phone.
And the phones belonging to the others.
"Y-you... What the fuck are you?"
Kim Min-ho's voice trembled like a bleating goat.
Cheon Do-hyeon approached him with steady footsteps.
"Don't worry. I'll send you to join your friends."
"H-hiiik!"
Kim Min-ho stumbled backward.
He'd never once experienced what it meant to be prey.
Wherever he went, he'd always been a predator who could smell fear.
His entire school life had consisted of searching for prey to butcher mercilessly.
And whenever he chose not to bite someone, he considered it an act of mercy.
But now, their positions had been reversed.
No.
It was only after encountering a genuine predator that he finally understood.
He'd been nothing more than a fake, merely imitating one.
"Stay back! I said stay back! Wind Cutter!"
Terrified, Kim Min-ho unleashed a barrage of magic.
But Cheon Do-hyeon didn't hesitate.
[Heavenly Demon Phantom Step]
The blades of wind tore through Do-hyeon's afterimage.
"Got him!"
Kim Min-ho shouted triumphantly, believing his magic had struck its target.
But what he'd hit was merely an illusion created by the Heavenly Demon Phantom Step.
The real Do-hyeon had already arrived directly in front of his face.
"I'm afraid that's just my afterimage."
"HIIIIK!"
THWACK—!
A heavy fist slammed into Kim Min-ho's abdomen.
"KUARGH..."
As the bastard doubled over, clutching his stomach and groaning, Cheon Do-hyeon activated the Great Art of Star Absorption.
And at last, the final remaining delinquent collapsed with foam bubbling from his mouth.
CLICK—
Cheon Do-hyeon took one final photograph as proof.
Then he gathered all the photographs he'd taken so far and attached them to a post on the school community.
He titled the post:
'Jang Gi-han, Take a Look.'
The moment he uploaded it, he could see the view count rapidly climbing.
"That'll piss him off."
Cheon Do-hyeon imagined Jang Gi-han's face, which he'd never actually seen but was certain would be twisted into a complete mess by now.
A smile naturally spread across his face, as though he'd just completed a thoroughly satisfying act of revenge.