NOVEL NEXT Ch. 66
Did anyone force you? (1)
If this were an ordinary school, after the final assessments, students would generally feel regret, but they'd look ahead at the upcoming semester break with a positive mindset.
No matter what their grades were, just being able to step off the treadmill of rigorous academics for a while is an incredible relief.
However, in the case of the Sorcery Institute, things were different; the atmosphere that lingered after the final evaluations was fundamentally solemn.
Like any other school, the Sorcery Institute would indeed end the term after finals. However, there was one crucial difference: not every student who sat through the final exams would get to enjoy the break.
They would tally the rankings by combining the latest finals and midterm results. The bottom 40% could no longer attend the Sorcery Institute and were forced to drop out.
No, in truth, it was less quitting and more of an expulsion.
Because of this, there were those who could joyfully greet the end of the term, and those who couldn't, coexisting together; so, the usual din of a typical school simply couldn't arise.
That is, usually.
"Hey, did you hear the news?"
"What? ... Ah, you mean about Go Seung-jun?"
"Yeah."
"Of course. There's already hundreds of posts about it today, and the rumors are all over the place. Everyone's making a fuss about it."
Even first-years.
"Go Seung-jun—that's him, right? The eldest son of the Go-gun Group?"
"That's him. There have always been bad rumors about him. I knew he'd get exposed like this someday."
"Are all chaebol heirs just fundamentally assholes?"
"From what I've heard, most of them actually receive really strict character education, though."
"So, even after all that strict education, he still turned out like this?"
"You could just call him a total degenerate, plain and simple."
And even the second-years, who hadn't even taken their finals.
"I heard the person who took care of Go Seung-jun was Kim Dojun, right? The guy who defeated the vicious evil spirit and blocked the attack of Gatura of Salvation?"
"That's right."
"Honestly, I thought his reputation was a bit overblown, but after seeing the video, I changed my mind. What kind of first-year uses Thunder God Art that well, huh? And people are saying he even used a more advanced version of it?"
"Yeah, so Go Seung-jun's screwed either way. Even people in the field are talking about it."
Even the third-years, who were already getting offers from the guilds, everyone during this supposed quiet time at the Sorcery Institute was buzzing about one thing: 'The garbage act committed by Go-gun Group's eldest son, Go Seung-jun.'
Thanks to that, what should have been a quiet time at the Sorcery Institute was now utterly chaotic.
As soon as the instructors caught wind of the situation, they immediately verified the facts with Kim Dojun, the author of the original post, and summoned Go Seung-jun, who appeared in the video that Dojun had uploaded alongside his post.
While Kim Dojun watched in real time as Go Seung-jun was given a taste of true discipline, he wore a greatly satisfied smile.
----
NEWS & TOPIC
Sorcery Institute's finals seemed to end smoothly... but shocking revelations!
The Institute's finals, famous for their fairness, are in fact wide open for abuse.
Shock!! Go-gun Group heir Go Seung-jun revealed to have hired mercenaries to assault a student!
Behind the scenes of the Sorcery Institute final evaluations: suspicions of instructor involvement!
----
"Things are heating up."
Kim Dojun clicked into one of the news articles, which already had hundreds of comments.
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Title: SHOCK!! Go-gun Group's eldest son Go Seung-jun revealed to have hired mercenaries for a student assault!
[content omitted]
--
382 comments
Whiner: He's basically just acting like a mob boss.
ㄴ OrangutanLaughs: fr lol
DeerCrying: But what's really hilarious is that Go Seung-jun hired mercenaries, but they got their asses kicked ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ AncestorWasASorcerer: I heard they got beaten by Kim Dojun, lmao. And looking at the mercenaries, some of them are actually famous. Must be embarrassing to show their faces around now ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ Earthling: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ Belgol: Bet those mercs will retire quietly soon... lol.
GoChangIsElite: Still, to be honest, seeing Go Seung-jun get his face smashed in like that is satisfying, but isn't Kim Dojun at fault too? From the video, he clearly had the ability to deal with the mercs, but he pulverized them just because they attacked him. Kim Dojun is at fault here.
ㄴ BlackCowEdition: The shill has already arrived.
ㄴ MobyDick: Start the three-time chant: Go-gun you f***ing bastard ㅋㅋ
ㄴ G-MAGI: Watching this makes me think Kim Dojun is at fault too,
ㄴ GoChangIsElite: Yeah, I think so too.
ㄴ G-MAGI: Should've wrecked punks like you first... The fact that Kim Dojun didn't smash you first, that's his real fault, ㅇㅇ...
ㄴ JustOnceWantAGradeA: That's right... Kim Dojun is at fault, ㅇㅇ...
.........
......
...
.
-----
He smirked.
Kim Dojun was briefly satisfied to see Go Seung-jun and the Go-gun Group being slammed together just as he'd hoped, but soon started searching for something else.
The search term: interpersonal relationships.
The truth was, Kim Dojun had always been indifferent to human relationships even before entering the Sorcery Institute, and that hadn't changed at all.
'Can't be helped.'
Kim Dojun thought of Tia.
He remembered her throwing a fit days ago after he tried to crack the perfect joke on her.
'If I want to help her experience a range of emotions, I'm going to need a certain level of communication skills...'
He was going to study!
... Though, honestly, he didn't plan to study in earnest, just skim the surface.
Still, just the thought of even a little bit of studying was a huge decision for Kim Dojun, and with a resolute expression, he clicked into a related post to start reading.
It didn't take long for him to find some genuinely useful tips.
[To get closer to someone, you need to empathize with them a lot. Even when you don't understand their point of view, sometimes what's needed is just empathy.]
"Empathy, huh."
He thought, am I not already doing that enough? A thought that Shin Se-yeon would have called total nonsense, but Kim Dojun boldly kept reading.
[Of course, deep empathy can be tough to pull off at first. But anyone can do basic empathy! If someone talks to you, respond to them. If even that's hard, just repeat the last word they said. Make the other person feel that you're interested in what they have to say!]
"Repeat the last word... Noted."
Muttering to himself, he logged into Rantiarval.
Tia, who used to camp AFK, now seemed to have the hang of things, and after finishing a hunt, flew straight to the village to start chatting.
[Iron-Blood: You f***ing bitch, you're lucky to run into me.]
[18yearoldHSgirl: Oh, lucky to run into you?]
[Iron-Blood: ?]
[18yearoldHSgirl: ?]
[Iron-Blood: Damn, I really want to kill you.]
[18yearoldHSgirl: Want to kill me?]
[Iron-Blood: No, not just kill you, want to rip you to pieces.]
[18yearoldHSgirl: So you really want to kill me, huh?]
[Iron-Blood: ?]
[Iron-Blood: You f***ing bitch.]
[Iron-Blood: Are you mocking me?]
[Iron-Blood: Hey.]
[Iron-Blood: Hey!]
[Iron-Blood: You f@#$@#%]
After just five minutes of conversation, staring at Tia's once again deranged self,
'... Guess empathy is pointless with sociopaths.'
Remembering that she was, after all, the queen of maglignant spirits, Kim Dojun quietly logged out of Rantiarval.
Three days later.
[Is Kim Dojun at fault too?]
[Kim Dojun's violence cannot be justified.]
"So these idiots finally start acting out."
The Go-gun Group finally began to use its power.
####
Finals were over, and the end of the term was drawing close.
Kim Dojun chuckled in disbelief as he saw the sudden spike of negative news articles about himself.
Was it because he was surprised by the unexpected response?
No.
'It's almost amazing just how textbook their moves are.'
Kim Dojun read the articles pouring out from the Go-gun Group.
'They're admitting their own fault, but also claiming that I messed up too... huh.'
Right now, the Go-gun Group's articles took many different forms, but underneath they always followed the same pattern.
'Go-gun Group—more specifically, chaebol scion Go Seung-jun—definitely did wrong. But Kim Dojun used excessive violence.'
In short, Go Seung-jun made a mistake, but Kim Dojun was too harsh— that was the gist.
'I guess they've given up hiding their crime, realizing that wouldn't work at this point, and now want to drag me down into the mud with them.'
'That's the pattern these articles follow.'
Most of them also included trashy rumors about Kim Dojun's supposed past misconduct or suspicious behavior as part of an effort to muddy the waters and get out of this situation.
'Nope.'
But Kim Dojun wasn't about to let the Go-gun Group get away with that.
'Maybe if I'd just lay low after getting beaten, it could've gone that way.'
He picked up his phone and dialed somewhere.
'But since they insist on counterattacking, I'll take this to the end.'
Trrrrrr—
A short ring.
[Hmm-hmmhm, why'd you call? Something you want to say?]
At the sound of Shin Se-yeon's voice, Kim Dojun spoke.
"Hey, you know a reporter, right? Give me the number for any one of them."
####
Journalist Lee Youngcheol of 'Jinseong', one of Korea's top three sorcery industry magazines, focused his sharp eyes on the podium.
Standing at the podium was none other than Kim Dojun, who had declared just last night that he'd hold a press conference about the incident.
'A prodigy of sorcery and already a huge figure, but maybe his political sense is still just that of a student.'
Watching Kim Dojun, Lee Youngcheol thought.
He guessed the reason Kim Dojun abruptly called a press conference was the Go-gun Group's news offensive that had begun spreading two days prior.
Because the Go-gun Group was doing its utmost to cleverly mix half-truths and lies to sink its dirty laundry beneath the mud.
It was only natural that Kim Dojun would be sucked into such a fight against a megacorp. He might have come to clear up some of the rumors with this press conference.
'But that's exactly what he shouldn't do.'
If he went for mere clarification, things would only unfold exactly as the Go-gun Group wanted.
Among the crowd setting up for the press, there were certainly some reporters there on Go-gun's payroll.
And, in fact, most of the reporters present now—
"Kim Dojun, there's talk that you could've handled this quietly, but you made it public and damaged the reputation of your seniors in the field. What do you say to that?"
—were nothing more than a pack of wolves, not after truth, but shamelessly tossing out any question, no matter how unfounded, just to suck up views with sensational headlines.
So, just by showing up to explain himself, Lee Youngcheol thought Kim Dojun had already fallen for their tricks and felt sorry for him.
"So what."
"?"
"Did anyone force them?"
"???"
Hearing that, Lee Youngcheol couldn't help but gape.
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