"This is my badge."
"Thank you for confirming, please come in."
The old guard opened the gate and gestured for me to enter the massive campus.
'Dear god, it's huge. Freaking huge.'
This is Blue Light, the place I'll be studying for the next three years — until I'm about twenty.And it's absurdly grand. I mean, even if I owned an underground organization manipulating an entire region like One Line, or had connections with a gang as notorious as Red Oval that even ordinary citizens across the Empire whisper about, I still couldn't afford a campus like this.
Well, technically my organization was so secretive we didn't even have a central base — too risky. Instead, I used sophisticated information-storage methods. Which, by the way, was insanely expensive.
Also, the public doesn't know it, but I actually took over Red Oval a long time ago.Of course, I abolished all the inhumane underground trades and "purified" the group — which, in the end, didn't bring in any profit.
Why am I even thinking about all that again? Don't tell me I'm obsessed with those damn organizations now!?
•••
In the vast academy courtyard, a brown-haired boy was mumbling to himself, dark circles under his eyes deep enough to rival a raccoon's.
He gave off a gloomy aura, as if he were about to curse the entire world, trudging toward the building like a zombie.
Yep, that pitiful panda-looking idiot is me.
Since I missed nearly half the semester, I now have to study everything from scratch.All the knowledge people learned in two months—I crammed it into my brain in a single day.
As a result, I had to take the first day off—yeah, the very first day I came here—claiming I needed time to get used to the area. What I really did was study until I nearly died.
I entered the classroom while muttering yesterday's lessons under my breath.
Creak
"…Next up is—"
The middle-aged woman in a black coat and blue jeans turned when she heard the door open.
That was Wellay, a lecturer at Blue Light, currently teaching "Body Transformation" to over fifty students.
"Oh… you must be the new student. I almost forgot…" She fumbled through her bag for some papers.
While everyone else stared curiously at the newcomer, I walked straight to my seat.
"Wahh…" I covered my mouth and yawned.
"Welcome, new student Ron Irus, to Class 2A–4, we hope you—"
Before she could finish, I collapsed into my chair.And just like that, I fell asleep in class.The very first second I sat down in my new school.
"…"
•••
"I can't believe I got an F on the very first day."
Okay, sure—it's my fault for showing up after forty hours without sleep. But still, have a little mercy, will you?
Back at my small rented room after sleeping six straight hours at school, I wallowed in humiliation.
A man who once ran the underworld, now losing his mind over a single grade.Pathetic.
And the weird part? When I tried to talk to people, they just looked at me and laughed.
'There goes the panda guy.''I thought a bear was roaring in class!''Look, the drooling orangutan!'
First day of school, and I already have a legendary nickname.I swear, I'm punching whoever came up with it.
Since coming to this world, I've barely had time alone—always surrounded by danger, always with my teammates.
'Right, speaking of which, Lunas must be doing forced labor now…'
Because he had served me—a man convicted of trafficking underground information—Lunas was charged with aiding and harboring a criminal.But I'd prepared evidence proving he was manipulated by me, plus testimonies about his kindness and other mitigating factors. His sentence was reduced.
Now he just has to do community work for the church and pay a fine. But it'll take two years before he's free to move around again.
I tapped on the golden wristband on my arm, and a holographic screen appeared.
It was like a smartphone or smartwatch in this world—called a smart bracelet.Honestly, I had no idea how people communicated here, so I just stole the idea from other webnovels: a bracelet with phone-like functions. Simple.
Opening the academy's news page, the first thing on the Hot News section was a very familiar face.
Brown hair, handsome—second only to my past life's face, of course.
Naturally, it was none other than the one and only Ron Irus.Who could resist that charm?
Chuckling at my own narcissism, I clicked on the article.
But the moment I saw it, my grin froze. My eyes were censored with a black bar—like I was some perverted creep on a reality show.
There were only two possibilities:Either I was so good-looking that I made the front page…Or it was that sleeping incident.
I glanced at the title and instantly jumped up.
"Holy sh*t—no way, no freaking way!"
I dashed out of the apartment immediately.
•••
A black-haired girl with her hair tied up high was playing with her bracelet.On the holographic display, she was in a call with a man named Lunas.
"How did you even get those hilarious sleeping pictures of that zombie-looking guy, haha!"
(Don't tell her I sent those to you. I'll die if you do.)
"You should've said that earlier! I already posted them on the school site, hehe~"
(You WHAT—)
BANG! BANG!
"Who's knocking at this hour—? I just uploaded it ten minutes ago! Isn't that too fast?"
(You idiot, you—)
Click!
She quickly hung up, opened the school website, and froze at what she saw on Hot News.
[THE SLEEPING POSTURE OF LITTLE MONKEY R#N]
In the photo, a man's eyes were black-barred, but his face was easily recognizable—slightly thin, boyish, and, annoyingly enough, kind of cute.
Emma's eyes widened as she scrolled down.
[LIKES: 4023 / DISLIKES: 14][UPLOADED BY: ANONYMOUS___(EMMA GRASON)___]
She clicked the post and dozens of pictures appeared—thirty, forty maybe—all of me sleeping in ridiculous positions:
Upside down.Half-turned.Flat on my back, feet bent up near my face like the letter C.
Each one more backbreaking than the last.
BANG! BANG!
"EMMA! COME OUT HERE RIGHT NOWWWW!"
Emma panicked, slammed her tablet shut, and rushed to the door.
She was wearing a black hoodie with red stripes and gray pajama pants.
Click.
The wooden door opened. A brown-haired boy—just like the one in the pictures—glared at her with absolute fury.
"WHY DO YOU HAVE—"
"It was Lunas! He told me to do it! He said he didn't like that you were having fun at the academy while he's working himself to death at the church!"
'Sorry, Lunas.'
Beep beep.
Ron tapped his bracelet."I recorded that, by the way. I'll ask Lunas about it later."He smiled sweetly—like a fallen angel.
"Oh, and I might also ask him about your photos while you're eating. I'm sure he'll be fine with that, right?"
Emma's face twisted, tears forming in her eyes.
"Please… just this once… hic…"Her voice trembled.
"Please don't blackmail me… just because I'm your ex…"
"Wait, what are you—"
Ron turned around and froze.Half the girls in the dorm hallway were staring.
This was the girls' dorm.A man pounding on a girl's door, shouting her name, with a wicked grin—while she cried.
It looked exactly like a blackmail scene.
"Did she say ex-boyfriend? Is he blackmailing her?""Middle of the night and a guy storms the girls' dorm? Call security!"
Ron flinched, sprinting toward the stairs, glaring back at Emma with murder in his eyes—as if saying, You'd better pray.
"Look at those eyes! Someone call security, quick!"
'Tch.' Ron thought as he dashed down the stairs.