I Become a Mafia in the Academy [Novel] Chapter 22

“Damn it!”

Thanks to that freshman stirring up such a commotion inside the arena, everyone’s attention had begun to shift toward us.

When I heard that some clueless freshman had issued a Challenge, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to strengthen our club’s reputation. But…

‘This is bad.’

No… This was really bad.
Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined he could overwhelm our club members like this.

He’s just a freshman! A freshman who enrolled this year! So where the hell did a monster like that come from?

[If you don’t want your club disbanded, get your ass in here.]

His voice boomed through the arena speakers.
Anyone who heard it would know he was openly calling out the Fund Investment Club.

‘He’s provoking us! right out in the open!’

There was no doubt about it. The bastard was deliberately dragging us into a public mudslinging match.

How… How the hell had it come to this?

The plan to bring down ‘the International Trade Club’ had been flawless.

We’d bribed the very people they’d recruited, turning them against the club so it’d look like they attacked us first. That would give us both the justification and the public support we needed. Then, with the people we’d prepared in advance, we’d launch our counterattack. After that, we’d absorb ‘the International Trade Club’ as one of our subordinate clubs and use our financial power to monopolize the academy’s distribution network.

If everything went according to plan, our club’s future would have been guaranteed.

But…

That bastard. That freshman was the problem.

What? ‘The International Trade Club’ belongs to him? And he even summoned a crowd to watch?

We’d walked straight into the trap we’d laid for someone else.
And to make matters worse—

“Wow, Seriously? Even if they’re a non-combat club, they’re losing to a single freshman?”

“Looks like the Fund Investment Club can forget about recruiting any new members this year.”

“There’s a lot to watch today, isn’t there?”

Today, of all days, was when we were supposed to be recruiting and persuading members from other clubs.

‘Damn it!! Stop looking at me like that! Don’t look at me with those eyes!’

The meaning behind those stares couldn’t have been clearer.

Their eyes were filled with greed and mockery, as if to say, “Huh? Maybe they’re not as impressive as we thought. If that’s all they’ve got, maybe we can take them on ourselves.”

At this rate, forget the ‘International Trade Club’, Our club would be the one torn apart first.

Right now, the priority was turning this situation around somehow.

Pretending to brush my hair back, I discreetly wiped the sweat from my forehead before forcing a smile onto my face.

First, I had to act as though nothing was wrong—

“ㅡExcuse me, Senior… are you the president of ‘the Fund Investment Club’?”

“Hm?”

I turned toward the voice calling me. A boy wearing glasses stood there with an expressionless face.

Judging by the color of his name tag… A first-year?

“What is it? Sorry, but this isn’t the time for recruiting freshmen.”

“…It’s not that. Our club president asked me to deliver this to you.”

“What?”

The bespectacled boy held out a document envelope to me.

“And he said that if you don’t enter the arena immediately, he’ll make its contents public for everyone here to see.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve delivered everything my president told me to say. Excuse me.”

“What? Hey, wait!”

After saying only what he’d come to say, the boy turned around and walked off.

Frowning in confusion, I opened the envelope. Several sheets of paper slid into view.

“…What?”

The moment I saw what was inside, I immediately stuffed the papers back into the envelope.

Wait… Why is this here?

“President? W-What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

“……”

“What did that kid give you?”

The other club members kept talking, but I couldn’t hear a single word.

How could I possibly tell them that the documents in this envelope contained proof that we’d been embezzling our investors’ money little by little all this time? How… How the hell did he get his hands on these…?

Only then did everything click into place.

Why so many students had gathered outside the arena.

Why the boy who had just handed me the envelope had called that freshman inside the arena “President.”

And why… Why that bastard was looking at us with such complete confidence.

“Damn you…! You little brat!”

He’d planned this from the very beginning.

He’d deliberately created a situation where our corruption could be exposed in front of everyone.

A situation where we had no choice but to go after him!

But it wasn’t over yet. His move was only check, Not checkmate.

The first priority was getting out of check.

“…Instructor. May the entire ‘Fund Investment Club’ enter the arena?”

“Yes? All of you? Well… technically, the Challenge was issued against your club as a whole, so there’s nothing in the academy rules that says you can’t.”

No matter what it took, We had to shut him up.

***

…Or so they thought.

I’d heard that people who don’t understand chess never realize they’ve already lost until someone actually says ‘checkmate.’ Looking at them now, They couldn’t have fit that description more perfectly.

Just looking at those bloodthirsty expressions was enough.

Those were the faces of villains, not people aspiring to become heroes.

But there was no point in saying that out loud. In the end, they were simply products of an academy system that had long since rotted from within.

That’s probably why this scenario existed in the first place.

The moment they entered the arena, crimson aura began swirling around my body. [Bloodline: Callione] had recognized everyone who entered the arena as enemies.

The exhilaration was on an entirely different level than before. Fighting back the intoxicating rush threatening to overwhelm me, I steadied my breathing and fixed my eyes on the enemies charging straight at me.

A spear, An axe, Gauntlets, A sword.

Each wielding a different Unique Armament, they rushed me together, fully prepared to risk their lives to bring down a single opponent.

Butㅡ

“Too late.”

If they were going to attack, They should’ve done it before all my skills reached their peak.

A hand axe came crashing down toward my shoulder.

Judging that an attack like that wouldn’t deal any meaningful damage, I let it hit me and charged straight at its owner.

A single-point breakthrough.

The axe wielder’s eyes widened in shock as I kept advancing despite his attack landing. But by then… My fist was already inches away from his face.

BOOMㅡ!

A thunderous impact rang out. He was sent flying backward as though he’d been hit by an explosion. I spun and followed up with a spinning backfist.

The opponent behind him instinctively raised his guard. CRACK! My punch shattered his guard before slamming into his jaw.

He collapsed to the floor as if someone had injected him with a powerful sedative.

“Damn it! Stop trying to block him! Dodge, you idiots!”

“How the hell are we supposed to dodge that?! For fuck’s sake, he’s tanking every hit and still beating the crap out of us!”

The mercenary’s complaint wasn’t wrong. The trade-off simply didn’t exist.

Their attacks barely amounted to more than an itch—or, at worst, a little pain. Mine, on the other hand, Every single punch was a fight-ending blow.

“Quit trying to beat him head-on, damn it! This is a Challenge! If we lose, we’ll have to sign those consent forms for a bunch of brats who don’t know the first thing about anything!”

Apparently, the club president had no intention of handing over what was essentially a written guarantee. He roared at his hired mercenaries.

“Everyone, fall back! We’ll wear him down with ranged attacks!”

“Protect the archers and the mage!”

Following the mercenary captain’s orders, the front line retreated and quickly reorganized.

As the formation opened up, four figures came into view.

Judging by what they were carrying, Two archers and a mage.

So that was their plan, Chip away at my stamina from a distance before finishing me off.

Watching them prepare such a textbook strategy, I almost found it admirable.

“Fire!”

The instant the order was given, arrows and fireballs shot toward me.

The mercenary captain had made the right call. In fact, staying calm enough to choose the textbook approach in a situation like this deserved praise.

Unfortunately, Textbook tactics only work against ordinary opponents.

Ignoring the arrows completely, trusting in the durability of my body, I stretched out my right hand toward the incoming fireball and crushed it in my grip.

The spell detonated on the spot, exploding into a violent gust before dissipating into nothing.

The resulting shockwave threw the remaining arrows off course, sending them flying harmlessly in every direction.

“He… crushed a spell with his bare hand… without a scratch?”

The mercenary captain stared at me in stunned disbelief.

Of course, it was only possible because of [the Midas Gloves] I was wearing. But there was no way he could know that.

“I’ve already given you one free turn. My move now.”

As I planted my foot firmly and shifted my center of gravity forward—

“Front line! Hold him!!”

The fighters in front of me bunched together, thrusting their weapons forward to stop my advance. It was a formation straight out of a phalanx, meant to repel a cavalry charge.

Unfortunately for them, They weren’t facing cavalry.

Just before reaching them, I gathered all my strength and leaped high into the air.

“…Huh?”

You can stand there looking dumbfounded all you want. It’s already too late.

As I descended, I unleashed a Rolling Thunder Kick at the club president, who was safely tucked behind the mercenaries and the other club members.

Using gravity and centrifugal force to amplify its power, my heel crashed into the top of his head.

BOOOOM!

“Gaahk!”

The impact was so tremendous that it was hard to believe the sound had come from a human skull. The club president crumpled to the ground on the spot.

After confirming he was completely unconscious, I slowly swept my gaze across the others.

“The client you were hired to protect is down. So… what now?”

The mercenary captain stepped forward through the crowd.

“…The enemy’s charging straight at you, and you just stand there staring? Idiot.”

Clicking his tongue as he looked down at the unconscious club president, he turned around.

“Our ‘Fortune Soldier Club’ is done here. With our client in that condition, there’s nothing more for us to do.”

He started walking calmly toward the arena exit. The other mercenaries began following behind him—

“What are you talking about, Senior?”

My voice brought them all to a halt.

“…What?”

The mercenary captain looked back over his shoulder. I met his gaze with a faint smile.

“I wasn’t asking whether you were leaving. I was asking… whether you’re going to take the beating quietly, or fight back first.”

Because I intended to clean up every last one of you.

“…You little bastard.”

His face twisted into a scowl.

Tightening his grip around the handle of his Unique Armament, he glared at me. I simply curled a finger, beckoning him forward.

“Lunch is coming up. So let’s finish this quickly.”

I was starting to get hungry.

***

“Seriously… how does someone wipe out that many people without breaking a sweat?”

Jinwoo stared at me in disbelief as he tried to hand me a towel the moment I stepped out of the arena.

“That’s what you’d expect from an administrative club. You could’ve done the same.”

“Huh? I seriously doubt that. Besides, aren’t all those guys lying over there mercenaries?”

Jinwoo shuddered as he looked at the unconscious bodies sprawled across the arena floor.

“Judging by their skill, they’re probably the kind of mercenaries who work cheap, even among mercenary clubs. They likely figured I wasn’t worth spending much money on.”

“…So they completely underestimated you?”

“Pretty much.”

I walked past Jinwoo and stopped in front of the male instructor standing by the arena’s control panel.

“I believe I’ve won the Challenge. May I receive the Gold Club Consent Form now?”

“Hm? O-Oh, right. They left this with me before entering the arena. Here, it’s yours.”

“Thank you.”

With the Gold Club Consent Form now in hand, I’d fulfilled every condition Ji Su-hyeon had given me.

“Instructor, I’ve met all the requirements you set. May I leave the rest to you?”

“Hah… You really are insane. I honestly never thought you’d actually pull it off.”

Ji Su-hyeon accepted the consent forms I handed her, fanning herself with them as she flashed me a grin.

“Alright. You kept your promise, so it’s only fair that I keep mine. I’ll go negotiate with the Student Council. You go grab some lunch.”

Still using the precious consent forms as a fan, she walked out of the arena.

Watching her leave, I finally let out a quiet sigh of relief. It’s finally overㅡ

Bzzz— Bzzz—

Just then, the phone in my pocket began vibrating violently.

“…This is?”

[Hidden Quest Complete!]
[One-Night Club]
[You have become the first person in the academy’s history to establish a club in a single day. This achievement will be recorded in the academy’s history forever.]
[Reward: Smart Lens]

“So there really was a Hidden Quest tied to an event this big. But… Smart Lens?”

At that moment, a sharp stinging sensation spread through my eyes, as though someone had poured cleansing solution directly onto them.

I squeezed my eyes shut and endured the pain for about ten seconds.

When the burning in my corneas finally subsided, I slowly opened my eyes. An entirely new sight greeted me.

[(NEW) Main Story Unlocked!]
[You’ve stirred up a new wind within the academy! By establishing a brand-new club, you’ve begun writing your own chapter in the academy’s history!. Lead your club to success and promote it to a Silver Club!]
[Objective: Complete 5 Club Requests!]
[Progress: 0 / 5]
[※ Rewards may vary depending on your results.]

“Boss? You okay?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Just like being inside a VR game, the notification windows that I used to see only on my phone were now floating semi-transparently in the air before my eyes.

Various interface windows and numerical displays occupied the edges of my vision.

It was as if a smartphone’s entire interface had been perfectly recreated in midair.

I’d always found it annoying that people gave me strange looks whenever I stared at my phone. If everything appeared like this from now on, I wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.

More importantly, A brand-new [Main Story] had finally opened.

I’d been worried because no new Main Story had appeared since the Deserted Island incident. Thankfully, it seemed I’d been heading down the right path all along.

“…Now, how do I turn this off?”

As my eyes wandered across the floating windows, I simply imagined turning off a smartphone screen. The interfaces instantly disappeared.

Good, It looked like I could freely turn them on and off at will. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about them getting in the way during combat.

“Then that really settles it! We can officially start our club now, right?”

Se-ah and Yeong-je, who had been watching the entire fight from the spectator stands, walked over to me.

“Yeah. Instructor Ji said she’d take care of the rest, so now all we have to do is wait.”

Judging from the Main Story quest I’d just seen, the club’s establishment was practically guaranteed.

The only thing left now was for Lee Haru to crush ‘the Fund Investment Club’ in the upcoming Club War.

After today’s match, not only would ‘the Fund Investment Club”s reputation take a massive hit, but its value would plummet as well. With someone as capable as Lee Haru leading the charge, finishing them off wouldn’t be difficult.

ㅡㅡㅡㅡ♬

The academy bell rang, signaling that club exploration time had come to an end and lunch break had begun.

Its chime sounded almost like the closing note of the battle over the consent forms, One that had felt both long and fleeting