Chapter 1: At the Entrance to Hell
Kang In, a second-year high school student, was just an ordinary person.
An ordinary school life. Ordinary friendships.
To put it nicely, he was ordinary. In reality, he was a student who was mediocre at both having fun and studying.
Unlike the troublemakers, he had never made lots of friends or experienced many different things. But neither was he a model student who studied hard.
He was simply an average person living an average life.
He hated the troublemakers, yet at the same time, he admired them.
He was jealous of the model students and envied them.
As time passed, his mind gradually became more sensitive.
Anxiety and dissatisfaction were slowly taking root in a corner of his heart.
‘What am I? What am I even doing with my life?’
He was always asking himself these questions, but he never expressed them out loud.
Even if he did, his friends would not care, and it would not change anything.
“Hey, did you see the new character’s skills? They’re totally going to nerf him right after release.”
A group of students behind Kang In was enthusiastically talking about a game.
It was a game he played too, so he became interested.
Wanting to join the conversation, Kang In turned around.
They had a fairly enjoyable conversation.
But even while talking with them, Kang In could not shake the feeling that he was somehow on the outside of the group.
The truth was, Kang In was someone who liked games, but he was not someone who was good at them.
He looked around at the lively faces of his friends as they happily talked about games.
I’m jealous.
How are they all so good at games?
“By the way, Hyunjoong, I heard you joined a G1 pro team?”
“Yeah, it worked out that way. I won the KEG Amateur League and barely managed to earn a spot on a pro team.”
“Damn, you’re freaking awesome.”
At the center of the group was a boy named Kim Hyunjoong.
He had already signed with a professional team because of his incredible gaming skills, making him the envy of everyone who was even remotely interested in gaming.
One of the friends let out an envious sigh.
“I want to try becoming a pro gamer too.”
“Pfft! Where does some Gold-ranked scrub like you get the nerve?”
“Anyone can become a pro gamer.”
“Why don’t you try streaming instead? We’ve got content right here. A Gold Player’s Journey to Becoming a Pro Gamer.”
“Ha-ha-ha! That’s freaking hilarious!”
Even Kang In, who had not said anything, laughed.
Kim Hyunjoong had given up on studying a long time ago.
And for good reason. Because of his professional career, attending school regularly was practically impossible. Still, he had a personal goal of graduating high school, so he occasionally came to school whenever he had time.
Kang In quietly watched Kim Hyunjoong, who was always so confident.
Having a special talent really is a blessing.
Compared to vague and uncertain studying, Kang In thought having a clear talent like that was much more advantageous.
Deep down, he envied Kim Hyunjoong.
Thud!
“What? You son of a bitch? Hey, grab this bastard!”
Suddenly, a loud noise and laughter came from behind them.
Kang In instinctively turned toward the sound.
Several rough-looking students, the kind commonly called school bullies, had surrounded a chubby classmate named Jin Cheolmin and were bullying him.
Among them was Kim Hyunsu.
With his short sports haircut, dark skin, and huge physique standing just over 190 centimeters tall, he perfectly fit the image of a school delinquent.
He was nicknamed the “Mad Dog.”
Once he started a fight, he attacked his opponent like a mad dog and kept beating them until they were nearly dead.
Everyone at school knew that he was someone who should never be messed with.
Bam!
Kim Hyunsu punched Jin Cheolmin in the shoulder.
“Hey, this bastard is freaking hilarious. He’s so big that no matter where I hit him, my fist lands perfectly. Hey, what score did I get this time?”
“Beep-beep-beep. N… ninety points?”
“Ha! Why the hell is it only ninety, you idiot?! Haven’t you ever used a punching machine?”
Kim Hyunsu put Jin Cheolmin in a headlock and threw him to the floor, immediately putting him into a wrestling hold.
“Ghk… cough, cough!”
Jin Cheolmin’s face turned bright red as he struggled on the floor, drool dripping from his mouth.
But no one tried to stop them.
The students simply treated it as a joke and chose to ignore the reality right in front of them.
Bullies these days were quite cunning.
Because school violence had become such a sensitive social issue, they rarely committed serious violence openly in front of everyone.
Instead, as time passed, they learned clever ways to torment other students under the excuse that it was all just a joke.
Kang In continued watching the bullying from the corner of his eye.
In truth, part of him was secretly relieved.
At least the person lying on the floor isn’t me.
At least my life is better than the life of the kid being bullied.
That was the kind of relative comfort an ordinary person like Kang In felt when looking at Jin Cheolmin.
Kang In quietly looked around, making sure no one noticed.
A bright world filled with close friendships and laughter.
A cruel and dark world filled with bullying and violence.
They were in the same place, yet the environments they lived in were completely different.
For a moment, Kang In felt a huge sense of disconnect.
By then, Jin Cheolmin had been released from the headlock and was lying on the floor, gasping for breath.
“Hey, hey. Sorry about that. You okay? Come on, get up. Get up.”
Kim Hyunsu pretended to comfort him and helped Jin Cheolmin sit down.
Jin Cheolmin adjusted his glasses and muttered something under his breath.
“What did you say? Hey, what did you say? Speak clearly, you idiot.”
“Did this bastard just insult us?”
“Hey, you son of a bitch. Did you just insult us?”
His pointless muttering had created another problem.
Kang In had seen Jin Cheolmin muttering to himself several times before.
The truth was, there was something dark and irritating about him.
Not everyone was like that, of course, but Kang In believed there had to be a reason why people who were bullied ended up being outcasts.
Kang In lowered his head.
He knew.
He knew that thinking this way was cowardly, disgusting, and shameful.
‘But I’m just an ordinary person. At least I’m someone who doesn’t deserve to be bullied.’
Kang In comforted himself with the thought that, at least, his life was not an unhappy one.
He turned his attention back toward the bright world.
The smiling and laughing faces of his friends filled his view.
Yeah. So what if I’m just average?
If I can just live like this until graduation without anything going wrong, that should be enough.
And so Kang In ignored the violence happening behind him and convinced himself that it was something that did not exist in the world he lived in.
That was until Kim Hyunsu inexplicably singled him out a few days later.
That was when Kang In’s ordinary life began to fall apart in an instant.
It was lunchtime, just like any other day.
After eating lunch, Kang In was sitting alone at his desk reading a book because he had nothing else to do.
His friends had all gone outside to play soccer, and Kang In had always been far removed from sports, so he returned to the classroom alone.
Then, from the quiet back of the classroom, he felt a strange gaze.
He turned around without thinking.
Kim Hyunsu was sitting on the window frame, staring directly at him with wide-open eyes.
Kang In calmly turned his head back and focused on his book.
But his heart would not stop pounding because of the indescribable fear he was feeling.
Why is he looking at me like that?
Guys like him don’t usually sit alone like that during lunch.
Instinctively, an alarm began ringing in Kang In’s head.
Danger.
Kang In desperately tried to think of a way out.
He would pretend he had finished reading the book and leave the classroom as if he were going to return it to the library.
Screeech.
Kang In stood up as naturally as possible, holding the book.
Then he left the classroom and headed toward the school library.
After walking a few steps, Kang In turned around and looked back down the hallway.
Fortunately, Kim Hyunsu had not followed him.
“Phew.”
He let out a sigh of relief.
Just now, it had felt like standing in front of a predator waiting to pounce on its prey.
Kang In entered the library and tried to shake off his negative thoughts.
Meeting that delinquent like that was just a coincidence.
He sat down in a corner of the library and tried to finish his book, but the words would not enter his head.
“No way… He didn’t single me out or anything, right?”
Kang In muttered to himself.
Throughout his school life, he had never done anything attention-seeking or acted in a way that would make him a target for the bullies.
Even among his close friends, he was a quiet presence.
No matter how much he thought about it, there was absolutely no reason for them to bully him.
“Nothing will happen.”
Smack!
After school, on the school rooftop.
Kang In’s head was violently turned to the side.
“Hey, why did you run away that time? Do I look like I was going to kill you?”
“Why? What do you want?”
“No, you bastard. You looked at me like I was some kind of bug and then ran away.”
His cheek stung.
Fear and anger slowly gathered inside Kang In’s chest.
What he had feared had actually happened.
His mind became a mess as he tried to figure out what to do.
Two emotions collided inside him.
Fear and anger became tangled together, clouding his judgment.
Fear screamed at him to run.
Anger screamed at him to fight back.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
Smack! Smack!
Kim Hyunsu slapped Kang In across the face while his entire body remained frozen.
“This bastard is scared shitless.”
The other delinquent beside Kim Hyunsu laughed.
“Hey, do you know how hurt I was back then? You can’t look at someone like they’re disgusting and then run away.”
“No… I didn’t run away. I was going to the library because I had to return the book…”
Smack!
Kang In’s head turned again, and silence followed.
“Ha… This fucking bastard…”
Kim Hyunsu’s face twisted in anger.
“I saw the book. You hadn’t even read half of it, and you’re telling me you were going to return it? You need to come up with a believable excuse, you bastard.”
This is bad.
His lie had been exposed.
He had only made things worse.
He had not realized Kim Hyunsu had been watching him that closely.
“You bastard!”
Smack!
“Where do you get off!”
Smack!
“Talking such!”
Smack!
“Bullshit!”
Smack!
“There’s a limit to how much you can disrespect someone, you fucking bastard!”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Kim Hyunsu slapped him with every word he said.
Soon, unable to contain his anger, he began beating Kang In mercilessly.
The hand that had been slapping him turned into a fist.
Kang In fell to the ground, and Kim Hyunsu, unable to control his temper, immediately began kicking him.
The other delinquent standing nearby stayed by the stairs to keep watch, simply standing by and allowing the violence to happen.
“You piece of shit! How dare you disrespect me?! Fucking seriously!”
Kang In curled up tightly and instinctively covered his head with his arms.
Fear and anger continued to twist together inside his mind.
“Get your hands off your head, you bastard!”
Kim Hyunsu began stomping on Kang In’s head with his foot.
The kicks grew more violent, and there was no sign that he intended to stop.
At that moment, Kang In felt a serious threat to his life.
His heart began pounding as if it would explode.
His brain started working at incredible speed, and the image of Jin Cheolmin being bullied flashed through his mind.
So this is what it felt like.
Only now, in the middle of extreme fear, did Kang In finally understand.
Violence could happen for absolutely no reason.
People like Kim Hyunsu did not see other students as human beings like themselves.
To them, weaker people were nothing more than prey they could play with.
They had no conscience to begin with.
That was simply how they lived.
Yes. They really were that kind of people.
Beasts wearing human faces.
I have to survive.
I have to fight back somehow.
If I keep taking this beating, I’ll die.
Move. Move!
He repeatedly commanded himself in his head.
But his body would not move.
At that moment, Kang In had no choice but to admit the truth to himself.
Had he been fooling himself all this time by believing that he could get angry?
The truth was, fear had taken control of his heart far more than anger ever could.
Fear made the enemy seem far more terrifying than reality and froze his entire body.
CRACK!
Kang In suddenly felt dizzy.
Something had definitely broken.
“No. Ah… It’s my head. My head…”
His vision became blurry, and his consciousness slowly began to fade.
The world around him gradually grew dark.
‘No! No!’
The moment the thought that he was about to die became firmly lodged in his mind, anger finally exploded inside him.
‘You fucking beast! I’m going to kill you!’
A spark flashed inside Kang In’s mind.
Brutal fantasies exploded through his head.
He imagined ripping out their eyes, cutting off their limbs, and tearing their bodies apart with his teeth.
“AAARGH!”
Kang In suddenly shot to his feet.
It was his final desperate struggle to survive.
At the sound of his tremendous roar, Kim Hyunsu’s face showed surprise.
Sway—
“Uh…”
But what use was there in getting angry now?
The emotion that had suddenly burst out burned brightly for a moment before disappearing as pointlessly as a match that had already gone out.
His vision tilted.
The world began spinning.
Kang In’s field of vision once again collapsed toward the floor.
Thud.
Flash!
“Huuuuuh…!!”
At that very moment.
Kang In opened his mouth wide and his eyes shot open.
The smell of incense drifted through the air.
“Are you awake? You really are unlucky, aren’t you?”
A sweet, alluring female voice came from the darkness in front of him.
Kang In abruptly raised his upper body.
He was wearing a pure white hanbok and lying on a hard, deep-red bed.
In front of him was a dark red blackout curtain.
Kang In’s pupils shook violently.
“Huff… huff… Where… am I?”
“This is the space between Heaven and Hell. Here, you aren’t bound by the rules of predetermined reincarnation. I brought you here so you could have freedom when it comes to making a contract.”
Click. Click. Click.
The sound of high heels echoed through the darkness.
A silhouette behind the curtain swayed like a ghost, appearing and disappearing before gradually becoming clearer.
Kang In narrowed his eyes and stared into the darkness.
Soon, the upper body of someone wearing a black suit with a red tie emerged.
And from beneath the darkness above, a pair of crimson eyes flashed.
Faced with the unbelievable sight before him, Kang In slowly opened his mouth.
