GDDHM 13

13
The next morning.
Cheon Do-hyeon was called to the administration office the moment he arrived at school,
and upon entering the office, he received a single sheet of paper.
[School Violence Prevention Committee Disciplinary Notice]
Disciplinary action: 10-day Attendance Suspension.
Offender: Cheon Do-hyeon, Grade 1, Class 2.
Victims: Lee Chan-hee, Moon Seong-il, Park Tae-woong, Kang Min-ho, and eleven others.
It was a unilateral decree. The aggressor and victims had been perfectly reversed—a conclusion reached by them alone, leaving no room for rebuttal.
The moment Do-hyeon stepped out of the office, Kim Seung-yeon appeared as if she’d been waiting.
“Hey! Does this even make sense?”
She must have been waiting in the hallway for some time, yet she already knew exactly what notice he’d received.
Kim Seung-yeon followed close behind him, bristling with indignation.
“School Violence Prevention Committee hearings are supposed to be held at the District Office of Education! By law, you’re supposed to get at least a written statement and a right to explain your side! But the school ignored all the District procedures and threw out an Attendance Suspension overnight? What the hell did Jang Ki-han do to make this happen?”
She clenched her lips tight, her anger burning as if the injustice had been done to her.
A ten-day Attendance Suspension constituted Level 6 disciplinary action—a severe punishment.
For such a heavy sanction to arrive as a unilateral decree without proper investigation or a right to explain was a clear violation of law and procedural protocol. Kim Seung-yeon’s fury burned at that reality.
But Do-hyeon simply signed the disciplinary documents and walked out calmly.
“You don’t care at all?”
When Kim Seung-yeon asked, Do-hyeon stopped walking.
“Class is about to start. You’ll follow me all the way out of school?”
“It’s my choice!”
They walked down the hallway in silence. It was class-change time, and the corridor was unusually quiet, cool air drifting in through the open windows. For Do-hyeon, the Attendance Suspension wasn’t discipline—it was a “warning” sent by Jang Ki-han.
A show of force, a threat not to overstep.
But Do-hyeon’s lips twisted into a subtle smile.
‘You made a mistake.’
You’ve actually unlocked the shackles of school from around me—with your own hands.
Do-hyeon swallowed the quiet, burning rage within him and headed home. Behind him, Kim Seung-yeon watched with eyes full of conflicted emotion.
#
Back at home, Cheon Do-hyeon sat down in the lotus position at once.
It was time to absorb the Mana and experience he’d gained from raiding the Golden Wheel’s Zone 4 factory the previous night.
The moment he closed his eyes, the events of last night materialized vividly in his mind.
Murderous intent surging from all directions.
Spells hurtling at him seeking his life.
One misstep and he would plummet into the abyss of death—a tightrope walk where life and death hung in the balance. True combat experience where mortality truly mattered.
‘I should have dodged in that direction back then.’
‘I was too excited trying to break through head-on. I got lucky.’
Cheon Do-hyeon never allowed himself arrogance. He followed Cheon Woo-hyuk’s teaching, pondering better approaches. It was a legacy that his grandfather had left him before the Celestial Demon Divine Art Scripture itself—and that legacy was what made his martial prowess skyrocket.
In his imagination, Cheon Do-hyeon raided the Golden Wheel’s Zone 4 branch over and over, deliberately imagining the worst scenarios and pushing himself into them.
Fleeing isn’t the answer.
Don’t fight where your opponent wants to fight.
Draw the battle into an environment of your choosing.
The moment he transcended mere combat recollection and stepped into a new level of insight.
Thrummmm—
The Celestial Demon Divine Art Scripture began to vibrate.
Cheon Do-hyeon was too absorbed in his thoughts about martial arts to notice what was happening.
Particularly, he was contemplating the Celestial Demon Illusory Step he’d recently acquired.
There had been a breakthrough moment during this battle when he deployed the Celestial Demon Illusory Step.
‘It wasn’t simply a stepping technique that created illusions.’
Cheon Do-hyeon could create illusions other than clones by force of will.
From this inference, the Celestial Demon Illusory Step wasn’t merely a technique for casting afterimages.
At the stage of Perfection, it was a martial art capable of manifesting any illusion that could deceive an opponent’s eyes. The moment Do-hyeon tasted the edge of that possibility, his heart raced.
‘I see. I was thinking of martial arts too narrowly.’
As Do-hyeon gathered his insight and exhaled deeply, the energy flowing through his body surged and trembled.
Soon the density of the vital force enveloping his body grew terrifyingly thick.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Voooom—
An oppressive Energy Wave erupted from Cheon Do-hyeon’s body.
– Celestial Demon Illusory Step: 3 Stars achieved
– Celestial Demon Domination Step: 2 Stars achieved
– Star Absorption Grand Method, 6 Stars achieved
Another breakthrough past his limits, another prize won. Cheon Do-hyeon rose from his seat and stretched.
Now he needed to prepare for the raid on Club Babylon, Jang Ki-han’s money laundering front. According to the intelligence he’d gathered, Babylon was the nerve center where all the branch operations funneled their funds.
Jang Ki-han would have prepared thoroughly. But that also meant Babylon was the one place where Cheon Do-hyeon could deliver a killing blow.
“Ten days’ Attendance Suspension?”
There had to be evidence in Babylon that could pin Jang Ki-han directly.
If he could just secure that, he could make sure Jang Ki-han never set foot in School again.
#
At the same moment, darkness had settled over the city.
Kim Seung-yeon stood before a mirror, reapplying her crimson lipstick.
She had recently spied on Cheon Do-hyeon’s battles and stumbled upon an unexpected revelation. A mage at the level of Ignition with magic—
And watching Cheon Do-hyeon suppress that power, Kim Seung-yeon had found the thread that could help her breakthrough the wall at 2 Circle.
‘I don’t have to be bound by rigid magical forms.’
The moment she stepped away from the conventional wisdom of what it meant to be a mage, a new path revealed itself.
But for now, it was only a possibility.
‘If I could just see a bit more…!’
Her thirst for knowledge had grown sharp, and then she’d heard that Cheon Do-hyeon had raided a Golden Wheel branch, and was now turning his attention to Babylon.
‘I’m worried.’
Club Babylon couldn’t be taken down with mindless brute force.
The data hidden there would have real value.
‘Cheon Do-hyeon won’t know how to collect evidence. I should help him.’
To access the server where Babylon’s core information was hidden, she’d need to reach their closed-network server. What her intelligence had uncovered was the building blueprints from when Club Babylon was constructed.
Based on these, there were two places where the closed-network server likely existed.
The top floor room
And the underground level 2 basement space
To check both locations, she’d have to enter the club directly. Kim Seung-yeon had dressed in a flashy one-piece dress to disguise herself as a regular customer.
With heavy makeup and high heels, she looked like someone else entirely.
‘Maybe even pretty?’
She had a Forged ID in hand, but the moment she stood before the guard at the entrance, her heart thundered so violently she thought it might burst.
If the faint EDM sound drifting up from below hadn’t been there, she almost thought the guard wouldn’t have noticed her at all.
The guard glanced at her with the corner of his eye, then gave a small nod.
“Go on in.”
Following the man’s gesture through the entrance into Babylon, Kim Seung-yeon let out a quiet sigh of relief where no one could see.
As she descended along the entrance, the sound grew louder.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Inside the club, the EDM sound pouring from massive speakers made her heart thunder as if it would split.
Among the flickering psychedelic lights, the silhouettes of men and women twisted dizzyingly together as they danced.
For a moment she was nearly mesmerized by the decadent spectacle, but she gathered herself again.
‘I need to get to the top floor first.’
Glancing upward,
on the railings of the second and third floors, she could see people leaning back leisurely, gazing down at the level below.
It was clear that the people on the second floor
had paid more money than those on the first, and the third floor visitors more still.
And the top floor Kim Seung-yeon needed to reach was the third-floor VIP section.
‘I have to get all the way up there…’
That was when it happened.
“Hey there.”
Out of the darkness, someone’s hand swept around her arm and hooked her.
Kim Seung-yeon turned in surprise, and there stood a man with a slick-faced grin, his white teeth bared in a smile.
“I was watching from upstairs, and you caught my eye. Want to come up and have some fun?”
“…Which floor?”
She asked the floor number point-blank, and the man, amused by her bold directness, let out a small chuckle and held up three fingers.
Third floor. VIP section.
Seeing that, Kim Seung-yeon couldn’t help but laugh along with him.
‘Lucky!’
She broke into a bright smile in his direction, reveling in the stroke of fortune.
‘Lucky!’
But what she didn’t see in her joy was
the eyes of the man escorting her had gone cold and sharp, like a serpent’s gaze.