Chapter 13
The next morning, right after I submitted my application to join the Student Council.
I received a message from the Student Council, telling me to come for an interview after school tomorrow.
Park Siwoo walked up to me.
Judging by his bright expression, it seemed he had received the same message as I did.
“They told me to come for an interview at the Student Council today.”
He showed me his phone proudly.
“Me too.”
“For real? Guess they haven’t noticed that you sleep through class every day.”
I snorted at his words.
After talking with Park Siwoo for the first time yesterday, I realized he was a better guy than I thought.
How should I put it—he had great chemistry with people.
There was never a shortage of others around him.
He was like a human capybara.
Well, with his good looks, brains, and athletic ability—not to mention a pleasant personality—there was no way he wouldn’t be popular.
As we were chatting, Helena Raiders, who had just arrived, came into view.
She naturally sat next to me and asked nonchalantly,
“I didn’t think you had any friends. I thought you were just a loner.”
Her tone was sharper than usual.
“Don’t tell me you’re still sulking about yesterday?”
“……I’m not.”
She sharply turned her head away, avoiding my gaze.
She was sulking.
“But Helena, you’re not really in a position to talk, are you?”
“What did you just say?”
“I mean, come on. You don’t have any friends besides me either.”
“Who said you’re my friend?”
“What, we’re not? Then that means I have a friend here, and you don’t… so you’re the real loner.”
Helena glared at me with dagger-like eyes.
But since she didn’t say anything back, it seemed I had hit a nerve.
Finding the exchange amusing, Park Siwoo suddenly burst into laughter.
“What’s so funny?”
“I kinda felt it yesterday too, but you two are really close, huh?”
“Don’t go pairing me up with that person.”
Helena snapped back at him, her voice raised.
Seeing her reaction, Park Siwoo laughed again and shrugged. “Alright, alright.” Then he returned to his seat.
Not long after, Instructor Kang Jae-seok walked into the classroom.
“Everyone’s here except one. I have an announcement. This afternoon, we’ll be conducting the weapon selection. Once lunch is over, gather at Hanul Hall.”
The instructor’s words stirred excitement among the cadets.
Finally, it seemed like real classes were about to begin.
And understandably so.
For the past few days, all we’d done were dull theory lessons or physical training drills.
Weapon selection, huh.
It was, quite literally, the process of choosing the weapon I’d use from now on.
It was a pretty important event, as it determined the direction of one’s growth. Depending on the weapon chosen, a player received a growth-weight bonus.
The problem was… I still hadn’t decided what weapon to use.
Unlike other Playable Characters, this character didn’t have a designated main weapon.
Thanks to the skill 【Weapon Mastery】, I could handle any weapon proficiently.
On top of that, through the demon’s authority of the 【Dark Relic】, I could even create any weapon I needed—so I never really had to worry about this.
But skipping the Academy’s main weapon setup and losing out on the weight bonus event seemed like a waste.
Besides, according to the Academy’s training curriculum, cadets had to choose a main weapon.
I turned on my phone and checked my status window.
【Status Window】
【Name: Yoo Sung-woo】
【Age: 17】
【Title: Hidden Player, A-Rank Villain Devil Knight】
【Stats】
【Strength: 32 Endurance: 40 Agility: 37】
【Intelligence: 16 Luck: 9 Magic Power: 34】
【Special Stat】
【Resistance: 72】
【Skills: 【Lamb】 (SS), Asura Divine Art 1-Star (S), Weapon Mastery (A)】
It was a flawless, evenly distributed, hexagonal stat chart.
If my stats leaned heavily toward one side, I could’ve at least chosen a weapon that fit them.
I guess I’d have to decide based on the character’s identity.
Right now, I was playing the double role of a Villain and a Hero within the Academy—a double agent. One misstep could give them a reason to suspect me.
To minimize suspicion, I needed to draw a clear line between Devil Knight and Yoo Sung-woo.
The Devil Knight was a stylish fighter who used the demon’s authority and multiple weapons with masterful precision.
So Yoo Sung-woo, within the Academy, should display a completely opposite fighting style.
In fact, I already had something in mind.
A Fist King build centered on the Asura Divine Art.
It was what players often called a “gimmick build.”
Decent durability and regeneration, but lackluster attack power.
Its only weapon was a pair of close-combat gauntlets, and there were restrictions on armor weight.
Because of that, the build relied heavily on skills—something only eccentric players who liked self-imposed challenges would pick.
But I had my reasons for considering this build.
The Fist Build, under certain conditions, was theoretically the strongest build.
In Become a Hero, playing with penalties came with high-risk, high-reward mechanics.
For example, players who fought without armor or weapons would receive additional stat points every level.
Considering how hard it was to earn stat points in the later stages, that was a huge advantage.
With twice as many stats as other characters, I’d have overwhelming specs and raw power.
And if I paired those stats with a skill whose power scaled with them—
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it the strongest build of all.
Of course, this build came with several problems.
First, it only truly shined in the late game, once stats were sufficiently inflated.
In the early stages, everyone leveled up at about the same pace, and small stat differences could be overcome through weapon or skill choice.
On top of that, given Become a Hero’s brutal difficulty, raising a character all the way through the late game with penalties active was nearly impossible.
The second issue was finding the right skill to fully capitalize on those inflated stats.
No matter how high your stats were, without a matching skill, the build was doomed to fail.
That’s why most players only dabbled in the gimmick build early on, then switched to a main weapon once a good skill dropped mid-to-late game.
However…
Just as I was deep in thought, Instructor Kang Jae-seok’s booming voice echoed across the room.
“Cadet Yoo Sung-woo! It’s assembly time. Put that phone away!”
“Sorry, sir.”
I could hear the other cadets snickering around me, but I ignored them.
Right now, what mattered most to me was refining my build.
Alright.
This might actually work.
The morning classes passed, and it was soon lunchtime.
For the past few days, I’d been eating lunch with Helena, but she must’ve been truly sulking after I teased her earlier—she told me to eat with my friend Park Siwoo instead.
She was more petty than I expected.
When I returned to the classroom after lunch, Helena was sitting alone at her desk, reading a book. Judging by her expression, I wasn’t sure if she’d even eaten.
Surely, she hadn’t skipped lunch… right?
I was considering whether I should buy her some bread when Park Siwoo called out to me.
“Sung-woo, let’s go change.”
I nodded and pulled my gym uniform out of my bag.
At that moment, Helena glanced over at me.
She was mumbling something under her breath—clearly, she had something to say.
“What are you doing? Come on, let’s go.”
Park Siwoo, waiting by the classroom door, called out impatiently.
Helena’s expression stiffened; she looked flustered.
Then she suddenly called out to me.
“Didn’t you say you had to stop by the infirmary?”
“The infirmary? Where’d that come from all of a sudden?”
Her face twisted as she awkwardly gestured toward her own body.
“You said it yourself before. During the orientation—you needed to go to the infirmary because of your injury.”
“Did I?”
“Yes. You said your body shouldn’t get any scars.”
Pfft.
Understanding what she was trying to do, I couldn’t help but laugh.
She was clearly trying to stop me from going with Park Siwoo—worried he might see the scars on my body. So she came up with that ridiculous excuse.
“What’s so funny all of a sudden?”
I slowly walked up to her and whispered so only she could hear.
“Were you… worried about me? That my scars might show?”
Honestly, I expected her to blush and get defensive—just like when I’d teased her for being a loner.
But instead, Helena looked at me seriously.
“Your scars could become nothing more than a reason for others to mock you.”
“You really think Park Siwoo’s that kind of guy?”
“Maybe not. But you never know.”
I felt a pang of guilt for teasing someone who was genuinely worried about me.
“Thanks for worrying. I’ll buy you some bread later, okay? You haven’t eaten, have you?”
Helena shook her head and replied.
“Who said I’m doing this for bread? So what are you going to do?”
“You didn’t eat because you were sulking, right?”
“I wasn’t! And stop changing the subject—what’s your plan?”
At her insistence, I rolled up my uniform sleeve and showed her.
Under my white dress shirt was a layer of black sportswear covering my skin.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care about my scars—I just didn’t see any reason to show them off to anyone.
And the solution had been surprisingly simple.
Just wear an undershirt.
Seeing that, Helena finally relaxed and nodded.
“Now you can rest easy, Mom?”
“Who are you calling Mom? Just go change already.”
Leaving Helena behind, I followed Park Siwoo to the locker room.
He pressed me for details about what had taken me so long, but I didn’t answer.
There was no reason to mock someone who had genuinely worried about me.
Eventually, we arrived at Hanul Hall, where the weapon selection would take place.
Hanul Hall was an empty, white gymnasium—so vast it looked like a massive movie set.
After a while, the class bell rang, and Instructor Kang Jae-seok entered.
“As I mentioned this morning, today you’ll be selecting your main weapon. Most of you already have a weapon you’re used to, but I encourage you to try different ones—you might discover a hidden talent.”
When he tapped on the tablet in his hand, a mechanical hum filled the air, and one side of the gym wall began to open.
Beyond it lay countless weapons of every type imaginable.
The cadets gasped in awe.
“Once you’ve chosen your main weapon, you won’t be able to change it until next semester, so choose carefully.”
With that warning, the cadets shouted their acknowledgment and rushed toward the display wall.
Everyone seemed incredibly excited.
They chattered like children with new toys, grabbing and swinging the weapons one after another.
I, too, began to examine the weapons lined up on the racks.
Of course, I had already decided on my main weapon long ago.
But I couldn’t just report it to the instructor right away.
Whether he’d accept my choice was another matter entirely.
No weapons, no armor—if anything, he might think I was rebelling.
Still, I had to do it.
Right now, my setup was perfectly optimized for the Fist Build.
The first problem with that build was surviving the early game.
But with my stats averaging 35 in Strength, Agility, and Endurance, there was no reason to worry.
Considering that most Playable Characters started with stats under 10, my survival chances were more than guaranteed.
The second problem was having the right skill.
I already had that covered too—with the Asura Divine Art, a technique personally taught to me by my master, the Heavenly Demon.
And it was an S-rank skill.
Since SS-rank skills were only obtainable through late-game awakening events in Become a Hero, S-rank was effectively the highest tier a player could normally achieve.
In other words, the ultimate Fist Build that no one could ever complete in-game was now possible with this character.
As other cadets began reporting their chosen weapons to Instructor Kang Jae-seok one by one, I also stepped forward.
He looked at me and asked,
“So, Cadet Yoo Sung-woo. What did you choose for your main weapon?”
There was a strange hint of anticipation in his tone.
“I chose unarmed combat.”
“What?”
“I won’t be selecting any weapon.”
Instructor Kang Jae-seok’s face twisted like that of a furious Yaksha.