I Became a Disaster-Class Sorcery Genius

Teacher (3)

Exactly thirty minutes had passed since Kim Dojun had logged into Rantiarval.

Currently, he was—

[Iron-Blood: Ayo, you son of a bitch! Get out here!]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: Nope~]
[Iron-Blood: Ah!!!!!!!!!]

—as always, he was teasing Iron-Blood.

Tia's character, Iron-Blood, was swearing like crazy in the newbie village, while the muscular man character, 18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan, was standing imposingly in the center of the village, as if he had no intention of moving a single step.

[Iron-Blood: Please, just come out.]

Kim Dojun, who had sent a laughing emoticon to Iron-Blood's character begging him, adding a final word telling him to screw off, then thought to himself as Iron-Blood cursed at him viciously.

[Iron-Blood: You bastard, I'll really kill you!]
[Iron-Blood: If I ever find you, I'll tie you up and use you as a punching bag.]
[Iron-Blood: I'll torture you with every method I know until you die, you bastard!]
[Iron-Blood: AAAAAAH!!!!!!!]

'Really, as always, I can feel that the Sorcery Killing Technique's boss didn't become a boss for nothing.'

After reading Iron-Blood's chats that sounded somehow chilling, Kim Dojun turned his head and checked the program he had left running.

The program he'd activated—

—was one that created an IP address for a computer that couldn't be traced.

In other words, it was a program that, paradoxically, made it possible to trace him.

There was, of course, a reason why, after all this time teasing Tia using an untraceable PC, he was suddenly doing this.

'By using this program, the address that shows up will be the one I've set arbitrarily, not my actual location.'

Putting it simply, it was basically like a VPN; that's why Kim Dojun had installed it.

He glanced at Tia, who was still swearing her head off, and then turned to fiddle with the map displayed on the program.

'Was it around here?'

Recalling his memories from playing the game, he started searching near Naples in Italy.

After some time—

'There it is.'

He located Feradus's hideout on the outskirts of Naples and let out a dumbfounded laugh.

'Never thought all those retries I had to do because of those bastards would actually come in handy.'

He had only cleared the game "Sorcery Killing Technique" once.

Because of that, his memory of the details was a little hazy.

After all, with a not-so-high intelligence stat, how could he remember every single quest, even the minor side-plot ones?

Still, the reason he was able to immediately pinpoint the hideout as soon as he heard the name "Feradus" was because, during the sub-quest to wipe out Feradus's members, he'd had to retry more than twenty times.

'And on top of that, there was a time limit, a sorcery restriction, and I had to rescue an NPC too, so it was a pain to clear—and with only experience as a reward, I was even more pissed.'

He recalled the way the game would stretch out the loading times like an FPS game by zooming in on the quest area map whenever he retried, and set up the map on the program.

[Iron-Blood: Hey, are you not going to answer me?]
[Iron-Blood: HEY]
[Iron-Blood: Answer]
[Iron-Blood: This little shit's really pissing me off. Hey! HEY!!]

Having finally finished configuring the map, Kim Dojun stared at the running program for a moment, then continued chatting with Tia a little longer.

[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: Getting anxious now that I don't answer? lol]
[Iron-Blood: Want me to set you on fire? I've got an incinerator at home, I'll burn you with that.]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: lol You think you can find me?]
[Iron-Blood: Can't find you, huh?]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: Yup lol]
[Iron-Blood: If I actually find you, I'll kill you.]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: lol Do it, then.]
[Iron-Blood: Seriously, I will. I really will kill you.]
[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: Su~ure]

.........
......
...
About an hour later—

[18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan: Ah, it was fun as always lol. Had a good time, see you~]
[Iron-Blood: YOU SON OF A BIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!!!!!!!!!]

Leaving behind Iron-Blood's barrage of curses, Kim Dojun logged out of Rantiarval. Leaning back in his chair, he stretched his arms and thought to himself—

'Will things go as planned? ... Well, I do have a backup plan, so if it doesn't work out, no big deal.'

He shrugged his shoulders and shut down his computer completely.

Thump.

"Ugh, damn it...."

As soon as he stood up, a fresh wave of hangover hit, and he staggered over to his bed, flopping down limply.

'I'll rest at least until tomorrow.'

With that thought, he closed his eyes.

####

A few days later.

At the headquarters of the giant Italian organization "Avalanche"—of the three executives currently running the syndicate, Diego, called the boss Tia's right hand, said,

"... You're saying the IP was traced?"

He glanced away from Tia, who was staring at him so intensely it was like she'd break him by sight alone, and continued.

"Yes, that's correct."

He felt relieved that he always wore those dark sunglasses. While he answered, Tia picked up and read the document he'd left on the desk.

"... It's nearby?"

"Yes, that's right."

With Tia's follow-up remark, Diego nodded, gauging her mood as he continued.

"Uh, so—what do you intend to do?"

"What else? Of course, I'll go and tear them apart myself."

She began slipping on her fingerless gloves as if she might head out right this instant.

Diego was once again struck by a feeling of alarm at the boss's anger, something he'd never experienced before, and—

"Um..."

—cautiously tried to speak further.

"... May I state a personal opinion?"

"What is it?"

Tia answered as she finished donning her gloves.

A few weeks ago, she'd been so cold-blooded—it came back to Diego as he opened his mouth.

"I think... there's a high chance that this IP is a fake."

"Why do you think that?"

In response, Diego recounted what he'd heard from the other members when he got the report, adding his own opinion.

After listening for a while, Tia came to a conclusion.

"So what you're saying is, it seems like the other side is blatantly throwing us a bone with this IP?"

"That's right. Last time I received a report, the user with the nickname '18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan' was supposedly using a PC you can only get at the Pantheon."

Diego paused, then continued.

"If that's the case, and we're suddenly able to trace their IP right now, I can only think they're after something else."

After Diego finished, Tia paused to think.

"I'm aware of that, too."

She answered soon after.

"It definitely wasn't possible to pinpoint their location before, so for it to suddenly be possible now is odd. It's almost like they're deliberately telling us to come find them."

"Exactly."

"If their goal was just to troll me, they wouldn't have revealed their IP—even now. So, if they're showing me a certain IP knowing something about my identity, they've probably got another motive."

"Correct. Also, though it's not confirmed and wasn't included in the official report, the location traced with this IP appears to be the hideout of the scarab group, Feradus."

Diego finished reporting.

But Tia just nodded and stood up.

"Then we just need to go right away."

"... Sorry?"

"I said, let's go right now."

"... But you just said you understood—"

Seeing Diego's confused expression, Tia pressed on.

"You said it was Feradus's hideout, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Then the other party's a player from the underworld, and probably wants to use me to cut out Feradus, huh?"

"... There could be other theories, but right now, that's the most reasonable."

"If they're using even me to get rid of Feradus, they must have quite a grudge with those guys."

"... That could... be the case?"

"That's good enough. Whatever, something will come out of it if we go."

With that, Tia began moving toward the door, as if there was nothing left to discuss.

"And I never liked those bastards anyway."

Creak—!

"This is a good opportunity to just wipe them out."

Bang—!

Uttering those words, she marched out of the room.

Diego stared dumbly at the closed door and then recalled a conversation he'd had with Tia a few months ago.

'Feradus? Why bother with those bottom-feeding scarabs?'

'As you know, things have been getting a little messy with our business in Naples lately—a lot of complaints from the contractors we're protecting.'

'Leave them.'

'... Are you sure?'

'They haven't crossed the line yet. Groups like that need to exist so ours looks even better. It only works in our favor.'

'Understood. I'll avoid any overreaction.'

'Good.'

It was a brief conversation, short by any standard.

Remembering that the evaluation of Feradus hadn't been that poor just a few months back, Diego wondered—

'... Maybe she just needed an excuse to attack.'

With those thoughts, he tried to guess at the boss Tia's true intentions. With a look that mixed curiosity and intrigue, he gazed at the door.

'I'm starting to get quite curious about 18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan, too.'

And with that, he set off to assist his boss, Tia.

####

In the basement of a rundown building, hidden in the underbelly of Naples, Italy, was the hideout of the underworld's bottom-feeders—the scarab group called Feradus.

If you paid them, they would do literally anything.

Even the underworld had its own form of law. Even the most notoriously twisted groups, like Twisted Evil, respected these codes to a degree. But the scarab groups, including Feradus, were different.

As long as they could make money!

Murder? Kidnapping? Any inhumane act you could think of.

True to their reputation as the bottom of the underworld, if the price was right, there was nothing they wouldn't do.

And among the scarab groups, Feradus was at the very top. The boss, Lido Radonchire, had been in a great mood lately.

He'd just landed a big deal.

Money is money, regardless of who hands it over, but this commission—from the infamous Twisted Evil—was special.

If he could successfully handle a request from one of the three groups representing the Pantheon, the value of Feradus would skyrocket.

And with the value soaring, so would the money flooding in for him.

In this way, just a short while ago, Radonchire had been elated, picturing his future after soaking up a bit more infamy with another score under his belt.

"18yoHighSchoolGirl-chan, do you know them?"

"Uh...?"

At least, that was the case until Avalanche, the giant cartel that ruled Naples—and, indeed, the criminal underworld of Italy—broke into the hideout and launched a raid.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
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