I Became a Mafia in the Academy

Chapter 280

That night, back in his room at the Corleone mansion, Han Seo-joon dazedly recalled the events of the day.

The meeting between Corleone’s heir and the Director of the National Intelligence Agency.

At first, he wondered how the two had come to meet, but when he joined him at the table, it soon became clear why.

‘An agent planted in the orphanage tried to take him hostage'.

The director insisted that he had nothing to do with them and will not be held responsible.

Lying on the bed, Han Seo-joon remembered the first time he met the director.

‘Are you Han Seo-joon?’

The director, who had graduated first in his class at the National Intelligence Service's training center.

‘I want you to work with me on something.’

The idea was to infiltrate Corleone over the course of decades.

Because of this, Han Seo-joon had to spend a long time infiltrating.

He made up his life as a loser and lived like a bum on the streets of Corleone to make connections on the inside.

Through his connections, he worked his way up the ranks of Corleone's.

Eventually, he worked his way up to the position of personal assistant to Eugene Han Corleone, Corleone’s successor.

However, the organization didn't have high hopes for him.

They didn't think there was much to be gained from being the secretary to Corleone’s successor, with titles like "Corleone’s bastard" and "incompetent successor".

He spent a lot of time doubting himself, wondering if what he was doing was right but over the past half a year, the man he had served had begun to change.

It was as if he had become a new man.

He quickly became recognized as Corleone’s legitimate successor, and even became an Executive in the Corleone organization.

As a result, the amount of information he had access to increased.

Finally, he thought, I can do something.

[G: Let's meet sometime]

The director of the bureau, who he usually doesn’t hear from, texted him first.

Han Seo-joon sighed as he tossed his cell phone into the laundry basket.

The words the director had spoken today were still ringing in his ears.

"As the official director of the National Intelligence Agency, I'm here to tell you that we have no relationship with the person in the photo sent by Corleone Junior, and we have no relationship with Corleone Junior's injuries.

Chick, chick-!

He lit a cigarette, picking up where he left off on his undercover mission.

Whoosh.

Taking a deep breath in and out, Han Seo-joon looked down at his hand. The glittering light was wistful.

The night in Corleone gradually passed with his worries.

* * *

"I haven't seen you since the beginning of the second semester. So, how was your vacation?"

Bear Grizzly, the instructor in charge of the survival course at the Seoul Hero Academy said.

‘Today is survival class day.’

"It's a beautiful day, and the temperature is just right, so it's a great day to be outside, right?!"

As you might expect from his past survival cooking classes, where students compete in a cook-off using only ingredients found in the wild, most of his classes are outdoors, and because of this, his survival classes are quite popular with the students.

After all, there are a lot of people at the school who like to be physically active.

"……is annoying."

Not a very good class for someone like me who hates being bothered.

"Eugene, you look like you have no energy today, are you okay?"

Young-jae walks over to my slumped self and asks with concern.

I was feeling unusually unmotivated today, probably because I stayed up late gathering information, not to mention the confrontation with the director last night.

"Just do it. The class is worth it."

"Well, that's good, and if it's too much, I'll tell the instructor and we can go to the nurse's office."

"…… Do you think he'll let us go?"

You know, the guy who crushes up some nearby herbs and applies them to anyone who gets hurt in class?

I'm lucky he didn't give me a piece of grass to cheer me up.

I turn back to Bear, who is eagerly explaining what we'll be doing today.

"Today we'll be learning about tracking."

……tracking?

Did they teach tracking in survival classes?

"It's very important to follow the trail of something in the wilderness or inside a dungeon. Of course, it could be food, or it could be the trail of the person who escaped first. Now, how many of you here can use proper tracking skills?"

Several students, including myself, raised their hands in response to the instructor's question.

"Four? That's definitely more than the rest of the classes, since it's Ms. Ji-hyun's class. Anyway, the lesson I'm going to teach you today is called ‘Finding Ji-hyun'."

"""Yes!"?""

The children begin to squeal at the terrifying idea of ‘finding Ji-hyun'.

Seeing this, the instructor calmed us down and continued.

"Currently, Instructor Ji-hyun is hiding somewhere in the Academy. You have only one goal, take a picture of Ji-hyun and send it to me. This happens to be the last class of the morning, so the first cadet to complete the mission will be free until lunch!"

Jin-woo raised his hand confidently.

"So…we're supposed to scour the entire academy and take a picture of Instructor Ji-hyun?"

"That's right. Your comprehension is good today, cadet Jin-woo."

"So, is there a prize for first place?"

"A prize? Hmm……Certainly, you'll work harder at this kind of thing with a prize on the line. Good."

After hearing Jin-woo’s words, he fumbled in his pocket and took out something.

A moment later, he pulled out something in the shape of a human face that gave me an eerie feeling just by looking at it.

"Human-face mushroom. I was lucky enough to pick them two days ago. It's an extremely poisonous mushroom that can harden an opponent's muscles when applied to a weapon. It's a poison that works on demons, who are immune to most poisons, so you'll have plenty of use for it."

The Human-face Mushroom is a new item to this side of the world.

It was one of the most common poisonous mushrooms in the game due to its powerful paralyzing toxicity.

As he says, it's so toxic that it can even affect demons, making it a must-have for later progression…….

The only downside is its rarity.

I remember it being treated as a very rare item in the game because it was so rare in nature.

"It's the only thing I can give you right now."

"Eek. What do we use that for, instructor~"

Another student responds with a chuckle.

The instructor looked at the mushroom as if it was no big deal.

"Probably, if you take it to someone who deals in such things, you'll get at least five million credits, if not more."

The mood of the class instantly changed.

The children's eyes had suddenly changed from looking at the poisonous mushrooms to looking at the money.

Bear grinned with satisfaction, then looked at his wristwatch and spoke.

"Well, it's good to see you're all fired up, so let's get to work, we've got about three hours until lunch. Now……go!"

With that, the kids rushed out but some of them came up to me.

"Boss, let's look for it together! Isn't it good to have a break together?"

"Eugene, come with me to find her!"

The first ones to cling to me were Jin-woo and Se-ah but I had no intention of joining them.

"You've learned the theory of tracking well so far, so why don't you try your hand at finding her on your own this time?"

In fact, only by solving these lessons with your own strength could you increase your stats in that area.

So why would I intervene when other kids can improve their tracking skills?

I could end up interfering with their blossoming new abilities.

"What?! Boss, you're ditching me? Really?"

"Yep. You go back to your master."

"What's wrong with the real boss? I said the real boss is the only boss for me."

I shake off Jin-woo's clingy grip and walk away.

No, but they said to find Ji-hyun, so why are they chasing me?

I sat down on a bench on the rooftop, where I came to catch my breath and looked down.

I could see the kids from Class A running around, trying to find Ji-hyun.

"How many of them are doing it right?"

The first place they head to is the staff room since it's where Ji-hyun usually works when she's not in class.

It's pretty standard.

"Obviously, if you're looking for someone, it's not a bad idea to stop by the place where they hang out."

But if it's such an obvious place, there's no reason for Bear Grizzly to tell us to look for Ji-hyun.

"I'll figure it out my own way."

The reward was too sweet to give up, and I knew I had to take first place so I set out for Cielo Notturno.

The cafe was still packed with customers even though most of the students were in class.

Hamsters scurry around among them.

"Welcome! Caffè Cielo Notturno-──boss!"

Latte, who is sweating profusely from how hard she's been running around despite her awakening, spots me and smiles.

"Latte, you must be in a hurry."

"What? Ahhhhh, yes, I am."

The recent addition of a new dessert menu is the reason.

In the kitchen at the back of the café, I can see the hamsters hard at work kneading pastry dough.

"But what are you doing at this time of day? Aren't you in class?"

She leaves the guinea pigs to their work for a moment, then approaches, wiping sweat from her sleeve.

For a moment, I wonder if it's okay to leave the counter to a guinea pig, but then…….

"Ding, ding, ding!"

"Yes~ 6500 credits for the cake, here~!"

"Ding!"

……It turns out he's better than I thought.

No, how the hell is he going to understand that ‘dab'?

"Master?"

"Ah, yes. I'm just looking for someone at the Academy."

"Someone?"

"Our class instructor, Instructor Ji-hyun Ji. Do you have any information on her whereabouts?"

As it turns out, the best way to find someone is to ask the person in charge of information.

Hero parties aren't organized by position for nothing. If there's a way to get information, isn't it my job to take advantage of it?

"Oh, you mean Instructor Ji-hyun, of course I know."

It's like this.

"So, where is she now?"

Latte smiles at my question and points upwards.

"Upstairs."

"Huh?"

"The VIP room. She’s probably having cake there."

"Huh?"

Ji-hyun is here?

After hearing Latte's words, I immediately took out my cell phone and headed upstairs.

At the same time, the recent situation began to organize in my head.

The VIP room at Cielo Notturno was a room with all sorts of tricks for secret conversations, and it was equipped to bounce most magic.

But Ji-hyun is eating cake in the VIP room, not on the terrace on the first or second floor.

What does this mean?

It means she's sneaking in to avoid someone.

But who was she avoiding?

"……Instructor Bear Grizzly."

I pushed the VIP room door inward and saw Ji-hyun eating a cake with a fork.

"Eugene Han?"

-Snap.

Her surprised expression as she looks at me is captured on camera and I immediately text it to Instructor Bear.

His reply arrived a few moments later.

[Bear Instructor: Eugene Han. 1st place]

Apparently, no one has found Ji-hyun yet, except me.

No, maybe that was to be expected. Who would have thought that Ji-hyun would be hiding in the VIP room of a cafe?

Not the ‘boss' of the place.

"You, what did you do?"

She drops the fork she's holding and asks me in a shaky voice.

"Oh, someone asked me to find you, so I just sent a quick text to say I found you."

She frowns, like she doesn't understand what I'm talking about but soon…

"What? Who the hell would……Bear?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, shit!"

At the mention of Bear's name, she jumps to her feet, furious.

She looked around, spotted the window, and started toward it.

"If Bear comes, tell him I ran off to the left!"

With those last words, she leapt through the window.

As I watched, a moment later, the door flew open with a bang and a figure rushed into the store.

Instructor Bear approached with a harsh breath.

"Ji-hyun……where is Ji-hyun?"

"She told me to tell you she ran off to the left, and then ran off to the right."

"Really? Well done. Here's your first prize."

With that, Bear hands me the ‘human face mushrooms’ and runs to the open window.

"Hey, Ji-hyun, pay me back!"

"……ah."

So, that's why he gave us that assignment…the mystery is finally solved.

Well……I got the mushroom, so I guess I'm good.