GDDHM 10

10
Cheon Do-hyeon moved with purpose, swift and deliberate.
‘Seize as many as possible before they band together.’
He’d caught Kim Byeong-ju, the Golden Wheel’s action leader, but overconfidence was dangerous.
Mages grow stronger when they gather. Synergy amplifies their power. If a dozen of them unleashed fireballs simultaneously in this narrow corridor, what then? Cheon Do-hyeon was formidable, yes—but he was flesh and blood, a human. A single blind volley could prove fatal.
‘So I’ll take them one by one.’
Divide and Conquer. That was Cheon Do-hyeon’s strategy.
Cheon Do-hyeon checked the class schedule Kim Seung-yeon had given him.
[Grade 1, Class 4—Science Period]
Grade 1, Class 4 had science class at precisely that hour. As he neared the classroom, students poured out toward the science lab. Among them, one boy caught his eye—darker-skinned than his peers, with a compact, wiry frame.
‘That must be Lee Chan-hui.’
The boy yawned, jaw slack with drowsiness. His body slouched, his indoor shoes dragging across the floor as he shuffled forward—completely unprepared for what was coming. Easy prey.
Scrape-scrape.
Lee Chan-hui fought to stay awake, his feet moving slowly. The corridor bent sharply ahead. Before reaching that corner, the lagging boy would be separated from the group—if only for a moment.
Cheon Do-hyeon didn’t miss that window.
‘Now.’
His eyes flashed, and his presence dissolved like smoke.
[Cheonma Hanyeong-bo]
He poured everything into the technique, and his form faded completely from sight.
Moments later, he materialized directly behind Lee Chan-hui.
Soundless. Invisible. Lee Chan-hui had no chance to react.
“Mmph?!”
The boy’s eyes widened in shock.
He tried to cry out, but Cheon Do-hyeon’s hands were faster.
One palm clamped over his mouth; the other seized his neck.
“Shh.”
Terror flooded Lee Chan-hui’s eyes. He clawed for his Mana, but too late.
His specialty—Earth Magic—nearly ignited, yet black energy poured from Cheon Do-hyeon’s grip first.
[Heubseong Daebeop]
Crack-crack.
Mana torn violently from his core—a sensation he’d never endured. The world turned white with agony.
“Gurgle—”
The boy’s body went limp as he lost consciousness. Cheon Do-hyeon caught him soundlessly and shoved him into a nearby Cleaning Cabinet, wedging him into the shadows.
Click.
He snapped a photograph, then turned to leave—
“Right, almost forgot.”
He pulled the Mobile Phone from the boy’s pocket and smiled to himself, satisfied, moving on to the next target.
#
Class 7, physical education.
“Ugh, changing clothes ruins my hair!”
Moon Seong-il grumbled in the empty Locker Room, peeling off his shirt. Then—the sound of a door opening behind him.
Creak.
The hinge screamed loudly.
“Who’s there? I said I was changing!”
Moon Seong-il scowled, annoyed, and spun around—
A massive shadow fell over him.
The attack came hard and fast, but Moon Seong-il practiced Enhancement Magic, an unusual discipline that kept his reflexes sharp.
He drove his body upward to pin the assailant with raw force.
His opponent didn’t yield.
“Hng—”
Being overpowered in strength was a new experience for him.
Moon Seong-il twisted with skill, shoving the faceless attacker sideways while launching himself backward to create distance.
In that brief moment of separation, he got his first clear look at his assailant.
“Insane—you’re that Wanted criminal…!”
It was Cheon Do-hyeon, the man with the bounty posted on the community boards.
Moon Seong-il spun his Circle, activating Enhancement Magic at once.
His muscles swelled in real-time, veins bulging as though supercharged.
He grinned fiercely, slamming his fists together.
“Lucky me! The Mana amplifier is mine… Ugh!”
He never finished the sentence.
Thud.
Cheon Do-hyeon had done nothing more than a simple action.
Stomping the floor with a heavy bang.
Yet from that alone, he felt a pressure unlike anything before, and Moon Seong-il dropped to his knees.
Cheonma Gunnim-bo.
The Locker Room floor reverberated, and a twisted gravitational force he’d never experienced before crushed down on Moon Seong-il as if to flatten him.
“This is gravity magic…!?”
“…going?”
Cheon Do-hyeon let out a scoff as if the response wasn’t worth acknowledging, then tapped Moon Seong-il’s solar plexus lightly with his foot.
A strangled gasp.
A small kick delivered while Moon Seong-il barely endured the Cheonma Gunnim-bo.
That alone was enough for the massive body enlarged by Enhancement Magic to crumple lifelessly.
A dull boom.
The sound of concrete being driven into properly.
“…that’s going to hurt.”
Cheon Do-hyeon looked down at the unconscious boy with something like pity.
Click.
He snapped a photo and pocketed the boy’s Mobile Phone with practiced ease.
“Next is… let’s see.”
Next was the one at the School Canteen, the one smoking in the bathroom.
As lunch period approached, the ringleaders of each class—the ones who ruled their domains—vanished without a trace.
“Huh… I don’t see Chan-hui anywhere?”
“Seong-il didn’t show up?”
“Teacher, Gwang-hun disappeared.”
It was hunting like a ghost.
#
Lunch period.
An Abandoned Warehouse behind the school.
Kim Min-ho, the real power in Class 9 and the de facto leader among the first-year bullies, tapped his Mobile Phone anxiously.
[Hey, where is everyone? You tracked Cheon Do-hyeon’s location, right?]
[Lee Chan-hui? Moon Seong-il?]
Something was wrong.
He could see the read receipt appear—the ‘1’ marker disappearing—but no replies came back.
“Did these bastards all lose their minds…?”
The original plan was to drag Cheon Do-hyeon to the Abandoned Warehouse and deal with him there.
But once lunch period came around, his members had vanished like smoke.
“Did they get scared of this asshole Cheon Do-hyeon?”
He was muttering to himself, letting out a scoff at what seemed like an absurd thought, when—
The warehouse door swung open.
A man walked in with the sunlight, his silhouette crossing the threshold.
The man walked with slow, heavy steps, his school uniform necktie undone.
A massive frame, muscles rippling with each deliberate movement with surgical precision.
It was Cheon Do-hyeon.
“Huh?”
Kim Min-ho’s eyes went wide. He’d come on his own.
This was an opportunity.
He immediately sent a message to the group chat.
[Emergency! Abandoned Warehouse! Cheon Do-hyeon spotted! Everyone come running!]
The moment he sent it, the read receipt appeared.
Kim Min-ho broke into a confident smile as he blocked Cheon Do-hyeon’s path.
“Hahaha! The guy I was looking for just walked right up to me on his own?”
……
Something about the strange composure he was showing made Kim Min-ho’s unease grow.
Step, step.
“Don’t come any closer, you bastard. You’re done for.”
Kim Min-ho hurriedly drew up his Mana and deployed his wind magic.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
Blades of wind tore through the air from his hands. Kim Min-ho swung them menacingly as he shouted.
“You’re finished now. I just sent out the coordinates to the guys. In one minute, they’ll all be pouring in here.”
He was more than enough alone, but with the others joining soon, there was nothing to worry about.
So he tried to comfort himself inwardly.
Time was on his side.
But.
A minute passed. Three minutes passed.
Outside the warehouse, all was silent.
Not a single ant stirred.
Cold sweat beaded on Kim Min-ho’s forehead.
He checked his mobile phone again. They’d all read it—he was sure of it. So why?
Cheon Do-hyeon, watching him, let out a soft chuckle.
“How much longer should I keep you waiting?”
“What—what?”
“Weren’t you waiting for your friends?”
“You bastard! Someone like you—I could crush you and still have strength left over….”
Kim Min-ho didn’t get to finish. His mouth snapped shut.
Cheon Do-hyeon had pulled something from his pocket and scattered it across the floor.
They were…
Mobile phones.
“…What?”
Kim Min-ho stared blankly at the phones rolling across the ground.
Familiar cases. Lee Chan-hui’s phone. Moon Seong-il’s. The others’.
“You—you son of a bitch, what the hell—”
Kim Min-ho’s voice trembled like a goat’s bleat.
Cheon Do-hyeon approached, footsteps steady, and spoke.
“Don’t worry. I’ll send your friends to join you.”
“H-help!”
Kim Min-ho backed away.
He had never been the hunted. Wherever he went, he was the predator, the one who smelled fear.
School was a place where he found prey to savagely dismantle, and his mercy was in choosing not to strike.
But not now.
No—only now, facing a real beast, did he understand.
He had been a counterfeit all along.
“Don’t come! Don’t you dare! Wind Cutter!”
Frantic with terror, Kim Min-ho hurled spells.
But Cheon Do-hyeon didn’t hesitate.
[Cheonma Hanyeong-bo]
The wind blade shredded through Do-hyeon’s afterimage.
“Got him!”
Kim Min-ho cheered, thinking the spell had landed. But it was only an illusion created by the Cheonma Hanyeong-bo.
The real Do-hyeon was already inches from his face.
“That was merely an afterimage.”
“Ahhhhh!”
Thud!
A solid fist drove into Kim Min-ho’s abdomen.
“Nngh…”
As Cheon Do-hyeon cast the Heubseong Daebeop on the writhing thug clutching his stomach, the last gang member finally collapsed, foam flecking his lips.
Click.
Cheon Do-hyeon took one final photo for proof, gathered all the images he’d captured, and attached them to a community post.
He titled the post: “Check This Out, Jang Ki-han.”
The moment he uploaded it, the view count began climbing visibly.
“He’s going to lose his mind.”
Cheon Do-hyeon pictured Jang Ki-han’s face—crumpled and ruined, though he’d never actually seen it broken like that.
A smile spread across his face, as though he had just completed a perfect, satisfying revenge.