Ian and His Backup Plan

Ian's furious voice was loud.

His questioning of Madison immediately drew the attention of the other students. The whispers throughout the classroom abruptly ceased. More than thirty pairs of eyes turned toward Ian in astonishment.

"Huh?"

Madison's hand was still suspended in midair, held in the position from when she had shoved Ian. She slowly pulled it back, looking deeply confused and clearly unable to understand why Ian had reacted so strongly.

"Ooh~"

A whistle came from the back of the classroom, courtesy of the class's most mischievous student. Several others immediately began to egg them on, as though they thought there was some tangled love-and-hate drama between Ian and Madison.

Everyone crowded closer, eager for gossip.

"No, no, no. There's no story between me and this guy for you all to enjoy. His brain just short-circuited. I don't even know why he's reacting so strongly!"

Madison rolled her eyes at everyone.

She was an expert eye-roller.

"A blushing boy's face is worth more than any argument." Someone spoke in an affected voice from the crowd. It was one of the students who loved messing around, and the onlookers' gazes grew even more suggestive.

"Eddie, what kind of bullshit are you spewing?"

Madison pouted in confusion. She turned to look at Ian, who was shaking an empty pill bottle, then was startled as well. "Damn it, why are you blushing at a time like this?!"

The blonde girl was getting flustered too.

"I'm angry! Angry! Do you know how much you just cost me?" Ian immediately snapped back, his voice filled with indignation.

He was calculating his losses.

The more he calculated,

the more his heart bled—if he ever encountered a powerful enemy in the future and died with only a few experience points left to level up, Ian swore that even as a ghost, he would never forgive his deskmate.

"?????"

Madison had no idea what Ian was talking about.

And then—

"Ha! I knew it!"

Emily, the girl with wavy brown hair, entered the classroom. After asking the other students what had happened, she immediately stormed furiously toward Madison.

"Ian doesn't like me! And there's a reason you bitch kept targeting me!" As she spoke, she secretly glanced at Ian, but Ian did not even look at her.

It couldn't be helped.

The boy whose heart was bleeding was still obsessing over the level-up buff he had lost. Yet Emily interpreted this scene as Madison's "emotional manipulation" of Ian.

She gritted her teeth at Madison.

Madison gave a huge, disdainful eye-roll, her emotions perfectly stable. "Save it, Emily. I target you because you don't even have enough talent to be a bitch."

She held her fingers apart in an exaggerated gesture indicating "this much," the kind that would make Koreans ecstatic. "Maybe find a few more men to practice with? Oh, wait—"

Madison's acting was a little over-the-top, though deliberately so. She suddenly covered her mouth as if she had just realized something, mercilessly mocking Emily.

"Haven't you already been doing that? Then why haven't you improved at all? Did you only learn how to seduce people?" Madison was the first to laugh mockingly.

"Fight! Fight~!"

The students, delighted by the chaos, all started chanting. Emily trembled with rage and was about to roll up her sleeves for a hair-pulling war when the classroom door was violently pushed open.

A bespectacled man with an imposing presence entered.

"Quiet!"

Walter White, the chemistry teacher, might have only started teaching at Metropolis Public High School this year, but he possessed considerable authority as a teacher. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he knew quite a few gang members outside school.

There were rumors

that he was the head of a gang.

Teaching was merely a cover for concealing his identity as a crime boss. Quite a few students at the school believed this absurd, heavily altered Dragon King son-in-law-style plot.

Because of that,

the crowd that had been cheering instantly scattered like birds and beasts.

Emily also slunk back to her seat.

"Class begins now."

Walter White began his dull and tedious chemistry lesson.

Lunchtime.

The cafeteria was loud and bustling.

"Where is he? That badass."

Ian carried a tray piled high with food as he looked around. He spotted his target, then walked straight over and sat across from a tall, skinny boy from another class.

Amid the noisy surroundings,

someone sat down opposite him.

"Hm?"

Sam Winchester looked up and saw Ian. Not wanting Ian to humblebrag at him again, he instinctively picked up his tray and prepared to stand up and eat elsewhere.

"Sam."

Ian stopped him.

"Sam Winchester, right?"

He began confirming the other boy's identity. "If my investigation is correct, you have an older brother named Dean Winchester, right?"

"Can we talk?"

Ian maintained a polite attitude. Sam Winchester had not wanted to speak with Ian, but after hearing Ian mention his brother, he came back around.

His tray was placed back on the table.

The two Family Men sat across from each other, though the atmosphere was clearly not very harmonious.

"What do you want to say?"

Sam Winchester stared hard at the student from the neighboring class. He was a little worried, though recalling that there were no women in his family made him slightly less tense.

"Why did you investigate me?"

Sam's tone was unfriendly.

Ian did not answer directly.

"Some people at school think you're a loner, so they often like to cause you trouble... I've already taken care of them for you." Sensing Sam's resistance, he first tried to show goodwill.

"Oh?"

Sam frowned at that.

"You took care of those annoying guys for me? Do you mean you cut them into five pieces, put the pieces in five separate places, then used salt and kerosene to burn them to ashes?"

"I hope you remembered to stab their hearts with a Demon-Killing Knife soaked in holy water. That can tear apart their souls." The boy who looked like an innocent puppy said something shocking.

He described a horrifying method in the calmest possible voice.

"?????"

Even Ian nearly lost his composure. Seeing Ian's dumbfounded expression, Sam smiled faintly, looking as though he had expected this.

"It seems the reason you came to find me has something to do with my family's profession." Sam lowered his head and took a bite of his food. His shocking words just now had clearly been a test.

"Smart."

Ian sighed in admiration.

"My grades aren't much worse than yours, thank you." Sam replied while taking out a notebook. "You can tell me what you've encountered."

"Have supernatural incidents been constantly happening around you, or do you often wake up from nightmares at night?" He intended to take notes while making a preliminary analysis of Ian's situation.

Sam had gone through this process countless times since childhood.

However—

"Let me get straight to the point." Ian did not mention that Sam could only compare to him because he deliberately controlled his scores. That was the best proof of his high emotional intelligence.

"I don't actually need your family's ghost-hunting services. I just want to ask you to go home, ask around, and look into something..." Ian glanced around before leaning forward slightly.

"How can I kill a Reaper?" Ian did not see any Reapers nearby, but he still lowered his voice. Perhaps this was what it truly meant to never stop until one said something shocking.

"Gasp!"

Sam sharply drew in a breath.

"Are you insane? You want to kill a Reaper?!" He was clearly well-informed and actually knew what Ian meant, which surprised Ian somewhat.

"Uh, not exactly."

Ian hesitated slightly.

"Whew~"

Sam had only just breathed a sigh of relief.

"I want to kill a whole nest of Reapers."

Ian corrected his wording again.

"?!?!"

Sam's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. His expression was horrified and aghast. Seeing that Ian did not appear to be joking, he could only feel that he had probably encountered a real madman.

He was far too bold!