GDDHM 9

9
The next morning.
The path to school was peaceful.
The second semester had begun, and the summer heat that had plagued everyone for months had finally retreated. Warm sunlight and cool breezes had a way of lifting spirits, and the chatter of students heading to school seemed unusually loud. It was the kind of morning when the assault by the Golden Wheel felt like a distant dream.
Cheon Do-hyeon passed through the School Gate with a light step.
Whoosh—
Though the hallway was packed with students, no one collided with him.
Normally, this would have been impossible—Do-hyeon’s frame was roughly twice the size of an average student.
The secret lay in a martial technique he’d learned just yesterday.
Heavenly Demon Phantom Step.
When used in conjunction with the proper hand seals, it created illusions difficult to distinguish from reality.
But by applying only the footwork itself, its true subtlety emerged: the ability to slip through an opponent’s blind spots with uncanny precision.
Right now, Cheon Do-hyeon was practicing that very thing—walking in the Phantom Step while threading through gaps in people’s awareness.

Thanks to this, he navigated the crowded morning commute with remarkable ease.
‘I’ve only obscured my presence and varied my stride’s rhythm, yet the world reacts as though I’m not here.’
He was lost in the sensation of moving like a ghost.
“Huh? Do-hyeon!”
An unexpected visitor appeared.
The figure casually tapped Do-hyeon’s shoulder in greeting. It was Kim Jun-pyo.
“…!”
‘My presence was obscured. How did he notice me so easily?’
Do-hyeon stared at him in surprise. Kim Jun-pyo, seemingly unaware of Do-hyeon’s astonishment, held out a bottle of Chocolate Milk with an embarrassed smile.
“Have you eaten breakfast? Here, drink this.”
“I told you not to buy me things like that.”
Cheon Do-hyeon’s tone came out sharp.
When Do-hyeon refused to take the Chocolate Milk, Kim Jun-pyo looked sheepish and added more.
“Come on, just take it. I bought it because I wanted some myself.”
He forced the bottle into Do-hyeon’s hands with a goofy grin.
Cheon Do-hyeon finally understood.
‘He carries no Killing Intent.’
The Heavenly Demon Phantom Step disrupted an enemy’s malice, but it seemed powerless against someone approaching with pure, unadulterated goodwill like Kim Jun-pyo. Cheon Do-hyeon let out a dry laugh and accepted the milk.
After that, Kim Seung-yeon approached and struck up a conversation naturally.
“Hey there~ good morning!”
“…”
Cheon Do-hyeon shook his head at Kim Seung-yeon’s loud entrance, looking worn out.
“Let’s go together!”
#
Bickering as they made their way toward the classroom.
The moment they entered the hallway, Cheon Do-hyeon sensed something—a subtle wrongness prickling against his skin.
‘The stares… they’re sticky. From where?’
Perhaps it was the sharpened senses that came from his cultivation, but he could instinctively feel which students among the hundreds held malice toward him.
Do-hyeon expanded his Qi sense, taking a count of how many people were radiating Killing Intent in his direction.
Eyes hidden among the crowd of students. About one in every five.
Concentrating further, he could almost read the emotions mixed into their Killing Intent—a greed like watching lottery numbers being drawn. Do-hyeon had little trouble inferring who was orchestrating this from the shadows.
Wasn’t there someone who had recently had an invitation rudely rejected by him?
“Class President.”
“Hmm?”
“Go find out what Jang Gi-han is plotting.”
But Do-hyeon wasn’t the type to simply endure things passively.
“What? How am I supposed to know that?”
Kim Seung-yeon asked back with an exasperated expression.
“I wouldn’t expect you to. But if you’re going to be this uncooperative, we’re done pretending to be close.”
Since witnessing Cheon Do-hyeon’s strength firsthand recently, Kim Seung-yeon had become completely captivated by his mysterious power.
Her goal was to grow closer to him and then study the force he wielded.
So she had no choice but to comply with this unreasonable demand.
“…ugh.”
She rolled her eyes, then hurried off in some direction. Cheon Do-hyeon watched her departing figure with a satisfied smile.
True to her reputation as an information broker, she made several quick calls and returned shortly with a pale face.
“Hey, Cheon Do-hyeon!”
There was something unsettling about the urgency in her expression as she rushed over.
“I figured it out. It was on the school community board.”
“The school community board? There’s something like that?”
Kim Seung-yeon’s face fell.
“Right. Seems you’ve forgotten that you were the school’s official outcast not long ago.”
“…So what about this community board?”
Cheon Do-hyeon asked without bothering to deny it.
Kim Seung-yeon thrust her phone screen at him. The display was filled with a bright red notice post.
“There’s a bounty on the anonymous board. If you turn him into a cripple… they’re offering the latest Mana Amplification Potion.”
“But it’s an anonymous board—how can anyone trust that?”
“Look at the user ID. See the gold badge? Named users get that mark only if they’re at least a member of the Mage Noble Family. It’s Jang Gi-han.”
Cheon Do-hyeon’s eyebrows twitched.
So Jang Gi-han wouldn’t dirty his own hands—too beneath his pride. Instead, he’d unleash the hyenas prowling the school corridors to do his hunting for him.
“What do we do? Maybe we should leave early today? The delinquents from other classes have their eyes on fire, according to what I heard.”
Kim Seung-yeon’s concern was justified.
A Mana Amplification Potion was every mage’s dream item. Simply using it allowed one to temporarily cast spells from a tier higher than their current level. For users below 5-Circle, that experience alone could be the breakthrough that shattered their ceiling.
But the problem lay in the price. When it first released, the amplifier went for around thirty million won, but as supply couldn’t keep up with demand, today’s market price had climbed past one hundred million. It had become such a rare commodity that you couldn’t even buy it if you had the money.
[Reward: Mana Amplification Potion.]
No wonder everyone’s eyes went wild at that post on the community board.
After hearing this, Cheon Do-hyeon sprang to his feet and surveyed the classroom. Sure enough, the students who’d been glancing at him furtively became visible—their eyes alight with a mixture of greed and fear.
Scrape—
Cheon Do-hyeon rose from his seat. The screech of the chair cutting across his desk shattered the classroom’s silence.
“Everyone,”
he called out softly. Eyes snapped to him all at once.
“Anyone here want the Mana Amplification Potion? Come at me now. Try to stab me in the back later, and I won’t hold back.”
As he released a chilling wave of Killing Intent and pressure, the students hastily averted their eyes or looked away. None of them had the guts to charge at him in this classroom—likely because his recent solo demolition of Kim Byeong-hak’s gang loomed fresh in their minds.
“If it were me, I’d make a move.”
Kim Seung-yeon chided him.
“Looks like our class is settled, but what about the other classes? Don’t you think we should go home early?”
“No,”
Cheon Do-hyeon’s lips curled up sharply.
“Class rep. You know who the delinquents are in this school, right? Tell me which ones are closest to our class.”
Kim Seung-yeon asked with an uneasy expression.
“Why…?”
Ambush was a tactic that dealt devastating damage in moments when one couldn’t respond.
If someone was coming to ambush him, he’d simply ambush them first. Sometimes, after all, attack was the best defense.
“Why wait around? I’ll just go get them myself.”
—
The break before second period.
Park Tae-woong, the real power in Class 3, washed his hands in the restroom while gazing at the mirror.
He was a 2-Circle Mage, but thanks to his specialty in Lightning Magic, he’d earned quite a reputation.
‘That bastard Cheon Do-hyeon… I’ll be the one to take him down first.’
With a Mana Amplification Potion, 3-Circle was no longer a dream.
He grinned wickedly, imagining the potion that would soon be his.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh—
In the mirror, a figure appeared behind him.
There had been no sound.
He only realized it when the reflection appeared in the glass.
“…!”
Park Tae-woong spun around in alarm, but there was no one there.
A movement as if from a ghost.
Had he imagined it?
The moment he looked back at the mirror.
“Looking for someone?”
“Gah?!”
Cheon Do-hyeon was standing right beside the sink. He’d moved beyond Park Tae-woong’s perception range using the Heavenly Demon Phantom Step—a technique worthy of display.
Park Tae-woong’s complexion turned ashen.
Since when? He hadn’t even heard the door open.
Recognizing the other’s face, he let out a shaky breath.
“You… you…”
“You said you’d give me a Mana Amplification Potion if you caught me. So I came to deliver it.”
Cheon Do-hyeon spoke matter-of-factly.
Park Tae-woong, panicking, reflexively summoned Lightning Magic to his fingertips.
An ambush. All he had to do was suppress him here.
Park Tae-woong’s specialty lay in fast casting.
“You dare give me distance? Thunder Bolt!”
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
Blue lightning erupted in the narrow Restroom. But where the bolt struck, Cheon Do-hyeon was no longer there.
The Thunder Bolt tore through empty air.
“What?”
The same instant Park Tae-woong let out that bewildered sound.
Thud!
A heavy impact drove into his solar plexus.
“Gaack!”
His diaphragm contracted violently, and the breath lodged in his lungs was forcibly expelled.
Air stolen, his knees buckled.
When he lifted his head, Cheon Do-hyeon stood over him without a single thread of his clothes singed.
“Too slow. Even your collapse is too slow.”
“You… you freak…!”
Park Tae-woong, burning with rage, tried to chant another spell.
But Cheon Do-hyeon gave him no opportunity.
Thump.
Cheon Do-hyeon took a light step forward. Yet the force channeled through that footfall was anything but light.
Heavenly Demon Dominating Step.
The Restroom tiles cracked with a sound like splitting wood.
Park Tae-woong couldn’t even scream under the crushing gravity that pinned his entire body—he was driven straight into the floor.
“Ugh… ugh… gravity magic?! What is this…!”
He felt like an ant crushed beneath a giant’s foot. That was the last thought that crossed Park Tae-woong’s mind before losing consciousness.
Cheon Do-hyeon gazed down at the unconscious Park Tae-woong and raised both hands. It was time to drain his Mana.
Still, the student had his whole future ahead of him—he planned to stop at a reasonable point.
Hum-hum-hum—
As the absorption technique reached its peak power, a powerful suction force materialized in his hands.
“Then I’ll gratefully accept the prize.”
The game Jang Gi-han started—the one with the Mana Amplification Potion on the line—was only now truly beginning.

—————