An Off-Campus Activity Request.
To put it simply, it was a part-time job.
And one that only students of the Superhuman School could do, a somewhat dangerous and difficult part-time job.
E-rank Gate clearing party. Those interested, please contact ✕✕✕-✕✕✕✕.
Popular idol bodyguard request. Tank Position welcome.
Nightclub guard. Interview required. Preferred if confident in your appearance.
Active Superhuman Gate support. Students who can carry a lot of luggage welcome.
Monster cleanup, grade E+. Healers and tanks welcome.
Unregistered Gate patrol. D-minus grade. Experienced applicants welcome.
……
……
……
Movie special effects request. Magic-Type greatly welcome. (Additional allowance if explosions are possible)
“This is about all first-years can choose from.”
“Hmm.”
Daehyun let out a light hum as he looked at the numerous requests listed before him.
They ranged from simple Gate clearing to assisting at a mere club, and even movie special effects requests.
They were all written on the memo Kang Shinhyuk had given him.
‘Most of them are odd jobs or simple tasks.’
They were jobs ordinary people could not do, but they also did not require an especially remarkable Superhuman.
Every request written on his memo was like that.
They were truly jobs suited for students, jobs that required someone at exactly a student’s level.
‘So this is the average level of requests.’
After lightly scanning the memo, Daehyun nodded.
They called it off-campus activity, but when broken down, the intent was to commercially use students.
‘Not bad.’
He did not see any particularly high-difficulty requests or ones that would help him grow, but the greatest merit was that he could leave the school.
And money had its own meaning as well.
“Jobs that are too easy or idol bodyguard work will have fierce competition. Maybe applications are already closed.”
When Daehyun tilted his head seriously, Kang Shinhyuk scratched his head and continued.
“I do not really recommend places that have interviews either. Most of them are all about connections.”
“Hmm.”
Simple work. Idol bodyguarding. And interviews.
Daehyun began visually crossing out the places Kang Shinhyuk mentioned one by one.
From a list that had contained over two hundred requests, more than half vanished in an instant.
Was he supposed to choose a request or not?
Daehyun turned his head and looked at Kang Shinhyuk.
“……Where did you apply?”
“Me? I obviously went with idol bodyguarding.”
Meanwhile, he had already finished applying for himself.
Daehyun turned his gaze back to the memo in his hand.
“…….”
“Wow. That is brutal.”
The remaining requests were things like porter, transporting Gate casualties, and party mood-maker.
Even among odd jobs, they were either treated poorly or made one wonder whether they could truly be called work.
Kang Shinhyuk laughed and sighed.
“That is why you should have applied earlier. Ah, you left school early then, did you not?”
“Be quiet.”
“Argh!”
Daehyun lightly flicked Kang Shinhyuk, who was snickering, on the forehead, then turned his gaze back to the memo.
“Is there anything you recommend?”
“Ugh…… That hurts. It hurts.”
Kang Shinhyuk rubbed his reddened, swollen forehead and pointed to one spot with his finger.
“Even if I call it a recommendation, I only mean it is relatively doable.”
“Even that is something.”
“Hmm…… The only thing that seems possible right now is this.”
His finger pointed toward the upper part of the memo.
Daehyun moved his eyes.
Active Superhuman Gate support. Students who can carry a lot of luggage welcome.
“A porter?”
“Yeah. There is some hazard pay and compensation, but considering the labor and danger, the pay is not particularly high. Above all, apparently, it is exhausting.”
Kang Shinhyuk ended by saying that he had heard it from a senior last year.
In short, the cost-effectiveness was poor.
Because of that, although there were plenty of openings, it was not something one needed to do in the position of a student. That was what being a porter was.
‘If I were to classify it, this is the lowest class of commoner.’
In the end, this was all he could choose.
It was not an especially appealing job, but he could not throw away the opportunity like this.
“With this request, it starts tomorrow right away.”
“Tomorrow……”
He was not in a position to be picky between cold rice and warm rice.
Daehyun nodded as if he had made up his mind.
“The faculty office should still be open, right?”
“Probably…… Uh, hey. Where are you suddenly going?”
“Hmm.”
Daehyun nodded coldly and left the dormitory.
It was time to receive the teacher’s suspicious gaze once again.
‘I heard it should be around here.’
The next day.
Daehyun went outside dressed in casual clothes.
The place where he stood was near a Gate that had appeared out of nowhere in Seoul.
It was the location where he was supposed to meet Daehyun’s client, as relayed by the teacher.
“Oh, over here! Here!”
As Daehyun blankly looked around,
a man who met his eyes began running toward him.
With his large build and slow movements, he resembled a bear.
“You are Student Kang Daehyun, right?”
“Yes.”
He was wearing armor and carrying a heavy shield.
No matter how one looked at him, he was clearly a tank.
“Let us talk as we go for now. Everyone is waiting.”
Guided by the man, Daehyun began walking.
It was not long before the Gate came into view, and at the same time, several people waiting in front of it entered his sight.
“Oh, you are here?”
One person spoke first when he saw Daehyun.
He was a man who seemed to be in his early thirties, with sharp eyes.
He lightly looked Daehyun up and down, then slowly walked over and held out his hand.
“I am Kwak Jincheol, the party leader.”
Daehyun’s eyes moved between Kwak Jincheol’s eyes and the hand he held out.
“I am Kang Daehyun.”
Daehyun also put on a false smile and extended his hand.
A handshake. It was a meaningless act, but there was no need to reject the sincerity shown.
The two lightly clasped hands, shook a few times, then naturally let go.
“These are the people who will be entering the Gate with us.”
Kwak Jincheol immediately began introducing the team members.
The total number in the party, including him, was five.
He continued by saying that they had all met by chance, found that they worked well together, entered Gates together several times, and had since cleared Gates smoothly many times as veterans.
“The grade is D-plus, but there is no need to be afraid.”
A level slightly higher than D-rank.
To Daehyun, it was an exceedingly easy difficulty.
“You just need to stay in the back once we enter, and it probably will not happen, but if things get dangerous, shout loudly. I will help you immediately!”
As he said that, the tank man Daehyun had seen earlier thumped his own chest.
A clang rang out from his armor.
“Student, you only need to carry the luggage you see over there.”
Kwak Jincheol raised a finger and pointed to the pile of luggage stacked in front of the Gate.
Food and water, of course, as well as potions, Fatigue Recovery Tonics, and other basic survival supplies.
“Should I lighten it a bit if it is heavy?”
“It is fine.”
How heavy could it be, even if it was heavy?
Daehyun silently walked to the pile of luggage and lightly lifted it.
Sure enough, the luggage settled on Daehyun’s shoulder without much resistance.
“Oh, you are strong. Are you Assault-Type?”
At Kwak Jincheol’s question asking about his type, Daehyun tilted his head.
‘Did they not tell them detailed personal information?’
Apparently, since it was not a request involving direct combat in most cases, they had not notified them of his grade.
‘Good.’
That was far better than receiving unnecessary questions or gazes.
“…….”
Instead of answering, Daehyun held the luggage and looked toward the Gate entrance.
It was a signal telling them to hurry up and go.
“What an impatient personality…… Everyone, let us go.”
Kwak Jincheol waved his hand toward the Gate.
The remaining party members followed behind him.
“Student Daehyun, why did you think of coming here? Usually, no one wants to.”
While walking inside the Gate, the woman walking beside Daehyun spoke to him.
“I am Lee Jisu. You said your name was Kang Daehyun, right?”
A sudden greeting.
When Daehyun looked at her with expressionless eyes, Lee Jisu smiled brightly and continued.
“That bear-like uncle over there is Park Jeongdong, and as you heard earlier, the party leader’s name is Kwak Jincheol. How is that? Easy to understand, right?”
“……Yes, well.”
Lee Jisu continued the conversation endlessly and smiled softly at the end of every sentence.
She was a typical person similar to Kang Shinhyuk.
“I use long-range magic, and Mr. Jintae fights in close combat with daggers. As for Mr. Jeongdong…… you can tell just by looking, right?”
Daehyun silently nodded.
He could not understand why she was telling him this.
He was not curious, and it was not as though he had any use for knowing it.
“Ah, I was being a little noisy, was I not? Sorry. It has been a long time since a student came, so I got carried away……”
Lee Jisu, who had been talking by herself, suddenly shrank back. Daehyun merely scratched his head without much reaction.
At that moment.
Flap flap flap—!
“Wait.”
A strange sound suddenly rang out.
Kwak Jincheol abruptly raised his hand. It was a gesture telling everyone to stop.
“Jisu, light.”
“Ah, yes!”
Whoosh.
Lee Jisu cast a spell and created fire in the air.
Kwak Jincheol still did not lower his hand.
“Wait. Throw the fire when I give the signal, and Jeongdong, watch the front.”
Their nerves sharpened in an instant.
Only silence flowed through the vast interior of the Gate.
Flap flap flap—!
A noisy echo gradually drew closer.
It sounded like wings, or perhaps simply like wind.
Whatever it was, one thing was certain: something was coming from within the lightless interior.
“Jisu.”
“Yes.”
Kwak Jincheol gave an order with the tip of his chin, and Lee Jisu reacted by throwing the fire into the darkness before them.
For an instant, the inside lit up brightly.
And…….
“Damn it!”
As though he had seen something in that brief moment, Kwak Jincheol’s expression darkened in an instant.
“Jeongdong! Raise your shield!”
“Yes, sir!”
At his booming voice, Park Jeongdong raised his heavy steel shield.
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the darkness ahead.
Screeeeech—!
From within the darkness, a huge living creature revealed itself.
“Damn it! It is a Vampire Bat (Vampire bat)!”
A large monster that exactly resembled the shape of a bat. Commonly called a Vampire Bat.
It was a troublesome Named Monster that often appeared in Gates between D and C-rank.
“Stay calm! Jeongdong, hold out a little longer, and Jisu, prepare your magic!”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
So they could respond in a fleeting instant, the commands were simple and precise.
Screeeeech—!
The shield of Park Jeongdong, the tank, firmly endured the monster’s attack, and Lee Jisu prepared her magic as quickly as possible.
“Hup!”
At the same time as the command, Kwak Jincheol, who had somehow drawn daggers in both hands, jumped high.
Slash slash—!
His daggers quickly stabbed and cut across the bat’s entire body.
Blood gushed from all over the bat.
It was not quite a fatal blow, but it was enough to buy time.
“Now, fire!”
BOOM BOOM BOOM—!
Lee Jisu’s magic struck the bat. Along with a tremendous roar, countless explosions erupted across the bat’s body.
Screech……!
The bat thrashed wildly, but it did not last long.
Under their complex yet reliable coordinated attack, the creature soon breathed its last.
“……For now, I think it is dead.”
“Haa!”
“Wow…… That startled me.”
The battle that had taken place in that brief instant ended in victory, and the three people aside from Daehyun caught their breath for a moment. Daehyun watched them with a measure of interest.
‘I see. It was not a lie that they have worked together for a long time.’
The speed at which the party leader gave instructions, and the time it took the party members to understand and act on them. There was no hesitation in any of it. This must be the camaraderie that came from long-standing trust.
‘By the way, this creature.’
Daehyun looked at the bat’s corpse lying on the ground. They had done well, yes, but there was something that bothered Daehyun.
‘It was running away.’
The sound he had heard before this creature appeared. If Daehyun’s instincts were right, that had been the sound of wings. Not the sound of simple flight, but the sound of a desperate struggle to survive.
‘From whom was it running…… hm?’
While silently looking over the bat’s corpse with his eyes, Daehyun stared closely at the wound on its right leg.
‘This is…… not a wound those people inflicted.’
It looked more like a wound made by a blade than by magic, and its shape was different from the wound left by Kwak Jincheol’s daggers.
On top of that, from inside the wound, he could see something black leaking out.
An indirectly felt, familiar, and deeply missed energy.
‘……Demonic Energy?’
Daehyun’s eyes narrowed.