episode_0001

‘Thwack-!’

It wasn’t the sound of hands clapping together, but rather the sound of a hand hitting a face.

‘Thwack- Thwack-‘

A black-haired girl with an indifferent expression held onto the collar of a girl whose cheek looked bigger than hers, slapping her cheeks alternately.

“Ugh…ugh…”

The girl who was continuously being hit seemed to have lost all strength to resist, as her arms hung limply without any defensive movements. If the black-haired girl hadn’t just held onto her collar, she would have already fallen. However, the black-haired girl, not willing to let it go, continued to hold onto the collar and started speaking to her semi-conscious opponent with a pitiful look in her eyes.

“Senior, can you put up a fight? Where did your initial confidence go? You’re just slouching like a squid now?”

The girl lightly tapped the face of the girl she called senior, demanding an answer, but all that came out of the senior’s mouth was a groan.

Shaking the hand holding the collar lightly, the girl continued to speak. With each shake of her hand, the senior’s body swayed like a broken doll.

“Hehe…oh, is your face squishy like a squid? Are you imitating a squid because your IQ is at a fish level and you got tangled with me?”

Despite the insulting words, the senior remained silent. Not only did she lack the strength to speak, but any response would only prolong the current cycle of violence.

The response came from behind the black-haired girl.

“Yeji, squids and fish are from different families! Fish have tails, while squids have feet instead of tails, squids are part of the octopus family~”

The black-haired girl, Yeji, looked back and received the explanation with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“Huh? Ayeon, squids and octopuses are not from the same family. Squids and octopuses are two different species, but…no, that’s not important right now!”

While instinctively pointing out the mistake, Yeji realized she was going off track and yelled out as she transitioned back to Ayeon’s face.

Ayeon, seeing Yeji’s reaction, chuckled and seemed genuinely amused. Ayeon often made ridiculous jokes, sometimes so foolish that it was hard to tell if she was serious or not, to lighten Yeji’s mood.

While she played a role in cheering Yeji up at times, sometimes she seemed so foolish that…even though she was the one to make such jokes, Yeji would get angry just hearing the word “fool.”

“So, are you saying those words because you’re a fool?”

Yeji’s words seemed straightforward and there was no way to evade them, but Ayeon, seemingly exempt from getting upset over being called a fool, chuckled and replied.

“There are still fools like you around~? Since the incident with Aram, there haven’t been any~ I showed anyone who dared to say such things that they would be trampled mercilessly, who would dare say such things to me?”

“Ugh, I feel like I’ve hit you more often…”

Yeji let out a small sigh, not making any more insulting remarks or questions about the senior still in her grip. Instead, she pushed the senior slightly with her hand, then swiftly spun around before the woman could fall, delivering a roundhouse kick to the senior’s chest.

“Ugh!! Ugh…”

As the woman fell with ungraceful sounds, her two friends, who seemed to be her companions, sat down in fear around her.

“Wow! As expected! Yeji’s roundhouse kicks are always fantastic to watch!!”

Watching from behind, Ayeon clapped and cheered for Yeji’s attack.

“Shall we accept the surrender of the defeated? How should we handle it this time…”

Yejee, who was stroking her chin with her thumb and forefinger, raised her hand as if she had a good idea and ordered the three women.

“That’s right! Should we try that this time? Come on, seniors, get up.”

The two women who had fallen down staggered to their feet, but the last woman who had taken the final blow seemed to be unconscious. Seeing this, Yejee frowned as if annoyed and said,

“Ah, damn it, if you can’t even handle this much, why did you step up in the first place? Seniors, take off your underwear.”

Currently, South Korea is facing its biggest crisis along with low birth rates.

– The worst employment rate era

The generation that entered the era of low childbirth rates without hope at first.

– A generation without competition

– A generation where anyone can enter the university they want and get a job at the company they desire

– There is no traffic congestion, leisure destinations are quiet, and housing prices are overflowing with supply rather than demand, with one person owning one house as the norm

However, this was nothing but a fantasy for them.

No, maybe it could have been possible in the distant future. Of course, when such a time comes, there will be another problem due to the population being too low…

At present, they are living in the era of the worst employment rate.

Graduating from university and competing is not just with competitors of the same age. As soon as they entered society, they had to compete with millions of job seekers.

Furthermore, in response to the population decline, companies began actively investing in chat GPT in offices and automation equipment in factories.

Although the trend of automation equipment was gradually settling in, it was said that the era was overwhelmingly accelerated due to the population decline.

Initially, due to the high initial costs, investments were made only by small and medium-sized enterprises, and there was a lukewarm response from large companies without concerns about labor. However, as time passed, large companies also actively invested in automation equipment as they showed a high return on investment compared to labor costs.

In order to solve this, the government came up with a new solution as a last resort, adding an additional mandatory education course for three years before entering university after becoming an adult.

This had an unexpected effect. Even if graduation was delayed by three years, the number of workers retiring at the age of 60 was several times higher than the number of graduates, which gradually helped stabilize employment.

It was also a great help for universities, as there had been indicators that the level of university students was insufficient to keep up with university classes, so universities had no choice but to conduct classes similar to high schools for 1-2 years. Thanks to the classes at special schools, the academic level of new students increased dramatically.

However, there were some side effects at first. Although it was mandatory education for adults, since it was a school, strict rules similar to high schools such as banning alcohol were applied, which caused a strong backlash. Moreover, there were difficulties in dealing with intentional disruptions of classes or violent incidents.

In addition, the government came up with one more policy, dividing humanities schools and vocational schools by region to ensure that students focusing on their studies were not disadvantaged. Vocational schools accepted students in a support format, and students who caused problems in regular schools were forcibly transferred to vocational schools.

Initially, there were concerns about operating vocational schools in each region, but a unique culture was created among the delinquent students, and it became a trend for troublemakers from high school to voluntarily apply.

With the unruly kids running wild and the reins completely off, incidents were happening almost daily, and the police were reluctant to intervene.

Once considered lawless territories, humans were said to be social animals. Soon enough, they began to create rules amongst themselves. The rules were simple:

– If you don’t like someone, fight them to determine the hierarchy.

– The outcome, rather than the process or method of the fight, determines the result. However, weapons are prohibited.

– The loser must obey the winner’s commands without question. The loser can challenge again as many times as they wish. This rule applies equally to students from different schools.

– Killing or causing disability to the opponent is prohibited.

– If you don’t want to be a loser, transfer to a regular school. Otherwise, you will be considered to obey all orders from the higher ranks.

The strict law of the jungle.

At that time, students who were good at fighting from each school gathered to establish these rules and arbitrarily made them public. Originally intended for their own benefit, the idea was to use force to subdue those who did not comply.

Surprisingly, many students agreed. Tired of fighting recklessly every day, and most having some experience in fighting, they were familiar with the law of the jungle.

Afterward, many things changed dramatically. Perhaps due to the risk of losing, they bickered and argued but did not engage in fights recklessly. Moreover, since the method of fighting was autonomous, even if they won, the risk of being outnumbered by friends or being ambushed was high. Once a fight broke out, a culture emerged where the victor thoroughly trampled the opponent.

Mentally or physically. Even taking humiliating photos or performing disgraceful acts to prove their victory became a ritual.

Even in schools where delinquent students gathered, factions and shuttle groups were bound to emerge. However, the top groups did not necessarily force the shuttle groups to submit after fighting.

For them nowadays, fighting was a matter of pride from medieval times, almost like a duel. As a result, the top groups naturally maintained a certain level of respect for each other, resembling a normal school environment.

Occasionally, those with slightly superior skills who engaged in fights everywhere like crazy would eventually decline if they did not have the reputation to maintain their position, leading to either transferring schools or falling into the shuttle group.

However, it was not all peaceful. Excessive brawls or frequent disputes for personal reasons often led to group fights or all-out brawls. While there were secret fights outside of school, if it turned into a public match, other students would watch excitedly as if it were an event, eagerly anticipating what humiliation the loser would face.

This culture originated in a region of Gyeonggi Province but spread nationwide to delinquent students in the industrial sector through an app called ‘Pigeon.’ In all industrial areas of South Korea, these rules were being applied.

The ‘Pigeon’ app is a community app that only special school students can use. Once school verification is done, anyone can use it, and there are separate communities for each school, region, and industrial sector where users can write anonymously and use messenger services. Although the app has an official name, it is more commonly known as ‘Pigeon’ among students due to its notification sound being similar to ‘cooing.’

There were side effects. The biggest issue arose when there were both boys’ and girls’ schools in the same area. Since it was impossible for girls to beat boys in violence, they eventually resorted to crossing the line and began using weapons, leading to a fierce debate over the allowance of weapons for a while.

However, this conflict was absurdly resolved by a single citizen petition. In response to a request to divide schools by gender, the government promptly implemented the measure before a more troublesome issue arose. As a result, the implicit acknowledgment of the cutthroat system within the school industry was established, and the students became the literal owners of the schools, exerting more influence than most teachers.

The Future Special School that Yeji and Ayeon attended was one of them.