Chapter 162 – A Lesson in Discipline

After exiting the Tower of Infinity, Min Do-jun turned around with a troubled expression.

Unlike when he entered, the hidden dungeon’s portal was now brightly illuminated.

‘The problem with hidden dungeons is that once discovered, the portal becomes visible like this.’

Though invisible before discovery, once found, the portal reveals itself for anyone to see.

‘With it shining so brightly in this dark subway station, anyone could find it easily.’

Although he could no longer use it himself, he still felt reluctant to let others have it.

‘The only fortunate thing is that this is a ghost station where people rarely come…’

But that wasn’t entirely true, as his presence detection characteristic picked up five approaching people.

‘They’re coming this way.’

Judging by their direction, they might discover the dungeon portal.

‘That would be problematic.’

The location of a hidden dungeon with 9 remaining entries could be traded for a good price.

However, if these people arrived and discovered its location, the value of this information would decrease.

‘I can’t let that happen.’

Min Do-jun activated invisibility and approached the people.

Though he didn’t know why they were visiting this ghost platform, he couldn’t just stand by.

“Isn’t this place a bit scary?”

“Hehe, you coward. What’s there to be scared of?”

As he got closer, he could hear snickering.

‘Students.’

Looking at their uniforms, they appeared to be high school students.

‘Two boys and three girls.’

The male and female students seemed to be from different schools, judging by their different uniforms.

‘Are they here for some kind of courage test?’

That seemed the only reason to enter an empty ghost platform.

But Min Do-jun soon realized his assumption was wrong as he listened to their conversation.

“Hey, how much further are we going to walk?”

“I think this spot is good.”

“Yeah? Hold her tight. This bitch.”

Slap-

Without hesitation, one of the male students slapped one of the female students.

Thud-

“Wow, Mingyu, that slap was crisp~”

“I didn’t even hit her that hard, but she’s acting weak, crazy girl.”

“Damn, she’s really putting on airs.”

“Stop pretending and get up, you bitch.”

The other students mocked the fallen female student.

This made the situation immediately clear.

‘Two boys and two girls bullying one female student?’

Just as Min Do-jun had assessed, four students were mercilessly berating one female student.

“Get up now!”

“Hey, be quiet. Someone might hear.”

“Who would hear? There’s no one here but us.”

The male student who had been making noise instructed the female students.

“Lift her up.”

The two female students on either side grabbed the fallen girl’s arms and pulled her to her feet.

“Face me, you bitch.”

Slap- Slap-!

The male student’s slaps were relentless.

Each time his hand struck, the girl’s head whipped to the side.

Her cheeks swelled, and her mouth bled from internal cuts.

“That’s what you get for irritating my girlfriend. Huh?”

“Hey, stop hitting her. You might leave marks on her face.”

“Yeah. If someone recognizes her, it’ll be troublesome.”

“Let’s hit her somewhere else instead.”

The male student stopped his assault and passed the baton to his girlfriend.

“Hyemi, you handle it.”

“Okay.”

“Hehe, that girl is dead now.”

At that moment, the female student who had been silently enduring spoke with difficulty.

“Why, why are you doing this? What did I do wrong…?”

“Ha, listen to this girl?”

The female student crossed her arms and glared.

“You don’t know what you did wrong?”

“No.”

Thud-

A fist unexpectedly struck her stomach.

“Your ugly face is what’s wrong. Understand?”

The bullied girl’s appearance was objectively less attractive than the others.

But she never imagined that would be the reason for the bullying.

“Get up. We haven’t even started yet.”

“Wh-what do I have to do for you to stop?”

“What?”

“What do I have to do… for you to stop bullying me?”

“Ha, look at this girl? She still has the energy to talk, seems like she hasn’t been hit enough?”

The female student, laughing incredulously, answered as if stating the obvious.

“Unless you change your annoying face, we’ll keep bullying you.”

“……”

“Don’t want to be bullied? Then die and be reborn. That’s the only way.”

“Hey, isn’t that a gamble? What if she’s reborn even uglier?”

“You’re right. Kik kik kik.”

“Just scrape your face on the asphalt. That would look better.”

“Kuk kuk kuk kuk kuk.”

The bullied girl remained silent.

She had painfully learned that responding would only provoke the students further.

But even her silence seemed to irritate them.

“This girl isn’t reacting much?”

“Are we the only ones having fun?”

“Hey, you’re secretly laughing at us, aren’t you?”

“This won’t do. You need more beating.”

Seeing how they were determined to hit her regardless of reason, the girl finally realized.

It wasn’t because her face was unappealing.

They were hitting her simply because they wanted to, without any reason.

“Hold her tight. I’m going to hit her with a full swing this time.”

After instructing the female students to grab her arms, the male student rotated his shoulder, preparing to slap her cheek.

“Here I go.”

Just as he was about to swing his arm with a running start.

Thud-

The male student’s arm was blocked.

Min Do-jun, unable to watch any longer, had intervened.

“Huh! Wh-what is this!”

“Gh-ghost!”

The students were startled and backed away as a person appeared before their eyes.

But the male student whose arm was caught couldn’t escape.

“L-let go! Ah, aaaah!”

Min Do-jun, who had been holding the arm with tremendous strength, applied even more pressure.

Crack-

“Ku-kuaaaa!”

As the ulna in his forearm broke, the male student screamed loudly.

“You’re too noisy.”

Min Do-jun delivered a light punch.

The male student spat blood and lost consciousness.

His nose was completely shattered.

“R-run away!”

Someone shouted, but no one acted on it.

This was because Min Do-jun had instantly grabbed the collars of the remaining three and pushed them against the wall.

Thud-

“Ouch.”

“Damn!”

The cornered male student tried to escape when he saw an opening, but.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Min Do-jun quickly tripped him, then stomped on his shin.

Crack-

“Uh, uaaaaaaah!”

The sound of breaking bone was chillingly loud.

Tremble tremble-

The remaining two female students didn’t even think of running away, they just trembled.

They neither believed they could escape nor wanted to end up with broken bones like the male students.

“You girls. You hit this girl for no reason earlier, right?”

“I-I didn’t hit her. Hyemi, she hit her.”

As her friend waved her hands in denial, the girl called Hyemi glared.

“Hey, you……”

“From what I saw, you’re both the same. But still……”

Min Do-jun raised his palm.

Slap-

The girl called Hyemi was slapped and fell to the ground.

“Those who use violence need more pain to come to their senses, right?”

“Augh……”

“Get up. Stop pretending to be weak.”

When the girl didn’t rise, Min Do-jun forcibly lifted her.

“One more time.”

Slap-!

Thud-!

After the second slap, Hyemi collapsed again.

“Get up. Don’t pretend again……”

Seeing her rolled-back eyes, it seemed she had fainted.

He had tried to use minimal force, but didn’t expect her to lose consciousness.

“……”

The remaining female student looked at him with terror-filled eyes.

“Have you been waiting long?”

“Wh-why are you doing this to us?”

“Just because. You’re ugly.”

Slap-

After taking down the students, the only person left standing was the bullied girl.

Flinch-

When Min Do-jun looked at her, the girl instinctively startled.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh? Ah… yes.”

Surprised by Min Do-jun’s suddenly gentle voice, the girl realized.

The man before her had no intention of harming her.

“Can you walk?”

“Yes……”

“Then go home first. I still have some lessons to teach these friends.”

“Ah, than-……”

“Hurry.”

After sending the girl home without even accepting her thanks, Min Do-jun kicked the fallen students.

“Get up. We’re far from done with your education, you bastards.”

Later, to ensure they wouldn’t retaliate against the girl, Min Do-jun thoroughly disciplined them mentally before driving them out of the station.

‘Good. I’ve removed them all without being discovered.’

With this, only Min Do-jun knew the location of the hidden dungeon.

‘I’ve properly fixed their mindset, so they won’t bully that girl again. And they won’t come back here either.’

Since he had disciplined them while disguising his face, there wouldn’t be any future problems.

Satisfied, Min Do-jun activated invisibility and left the station.

* * *

Lee Min-jung, who had just become a high school student, was looking forward to making new friends.

However, after being targeted by the so-called “illjin” (bullies) female students, Min-jung had to abandon her expectations for friendship.

No one would want to become friends with someone who was associated with bullies.

Being targeted by illjin meant exactly that.

‘At least they don’t hit me.’

Min-jung endured it.

The intensity of the bullying was at a tolerable level.

That was until they called male students from another school with the purpose of “educating” her and dragged her to a ghost station in Incheon.

‘My cheeks still sting.’

On her way home.

Min-jung touched her reddened cheeks.

She had been mocked before, but this was her first time being hit.

‘It was really terrifying.’

The moment she was slapped, her mind cleared.

She thought she might end up in the news if things went wrong.

That was until a man appeared like a ghost.

‘At first, I really thought he was a ghost.’

The man wasn’t a ghost residing in the ghost station.

Even a ghost couldn’t possess such strength.

‘He’s probably a B-rank or higher hunter who can use stealth.’

She prided herself on knowing more about hunters than others.

After all, her sister was also a hunter.

‘Even though she’s my half-sister with a 14-year age gap…’

To Min-jung, whose parents were divorced, her sister was like a mother figure.

Min-jung hesitated in front of her house.

‘She should be home at this hour, right?’

She was afraid of facing her sister.

‘She’ll definitely be upset if she sees my injuries.’

Her sister would get angry and worried even over small scratches.

If she saw her reddened face, she would surely make a fuss.

Especially if she learned that Min-jung had been hit somewhere.

‘I need to be careful not to get caught…’

She entered the security code and carefully opened the front door, sneaking in like a thief.

However, once the code was entered, it was only a matter of time before she was discovered.

“Min-jung, is that you?”

As expected, her sister was home.

“Huh? Y-yes.”

She tried to escape to her room with a vague answer, but she couldn’t stop her approaching sister.

“What happened to your face?”

“Ah, that……”

Having learned from experience that lying would only make things worse, Min-jung told the truth.

She expected a scolding, but surprisingly, her sister listened calmly.

“So. Are you hurt anywhere else besides your cheeks?”

“Huh?”

Her sister’s calm attitude felt strangely unfamiliar.

“Ah… I was hit once in the stomach, but I’m fine.”

“Come here.”

Her sister placed her hand on her cheek.

A warm light emanated from her hand, instantly healing the redness and injuries on her cheek.

“Thank you, sis.”

Min-jung smiled brightly.

She had expected a severe scolding, but fortunately, it went well.

That was just her misunderstanding.