The first thing Deku Kwanoh registered was not the sound of wind, nor the hard impact of the courtyard concrete he had been bracing for.
It was a dense, suffocating stench.
It smelled like rotting garbage, stale industrial waste, and a sickeningly familiar barnyard musk.
His eyes fluttered open, his pristine high school instincts immediately flinching at the filth surrounding him.
He wasn’t lying on the school pavement.
Instead, he was face-down in a colossal heap of wet, decomposing refuse.
”Ugh…” Deku groaned, his voice rough and scratchy.
He tried to push himself up, but his immaculate school uniform—once the symbol of absolute neatness and authority—was now caked in black sludge, grey pulp, and unrecognizable slime.
Oink.
Deku froze.
He turned his head sharply, wincing as a sharp pain throbbed behind his temples.
Less than three feet away from him, a pair of massive, mud-caked pigs were lazily shifting in the filth, snoring loudly.
Above them, a thick swarm of fat, buzzing green flies danced erratically through the humid, foul-smelling air, landing on his cheek before he angrily swatted them away.
”Where… where the hell am I?” Deku muttered, sitting up and wiping a streak of foul-smelling grease off his cheek with the back of his hand.
His pristine composure was utterly shattered.
He looked around.
The courtyard of Shinseong High was gone.
In its place stood towering, rusted metallic monoliths that stretched upward into a smog-choked, purple-tinted sky.
Giant holographic billboards flickered erratically in the distance, casting neon blues and sickly greens across a sprawling, dystopian slum.
The architecture looked ancient yet futuristic—abandoned flying transport chassis half-buried in trash heaps, and towering corporate skyscrapers piercing the upper atmosphere like jagged iron teeth.
Before Deku could even begin to process the sheer absurdity of his surroundings, a strange sound cut through the buzzing of the flies.
Ding.
It sounded like a clean, digital chime echoing directly inside his skull.
In the next instant, a translucent, glowing blue panel materialized right before his eyes, hovering in the air with crisp, futuristic typography.
[Bully System]
Host: Deku Kwanoh
Status: Transmigrated / Reincarnated
Current Physical State: Critical / Sub-Optimal
Available Quests: [1 New Notification]
System Initialization Complete.
Welcome to Sector 9.
Deku stared at the glowing text, his sharp intellect working overtime as the initial panic receded, replaced by cold, calculating focus.
He reached out a trembling, dirt-stained hand and touched the edge of the panel.
It felt solid, like cool glass.
“A system?” Deku murmured aloud, a dangerous, familiar spark returning to his dark eyes.
“Just like in those web novels… But a Bully System?”
Ding.
Another notification popped up instantly, expanding the text on the interface.