Ch.66. Punk City and the Human Boy

“For your information, for operational convenience, only men and women can participate. We apologize that other genders cannot participate.”

After receiving guidance from the receptionist, Amon and Sonia headed to the waiting room.

Since it was a cosplay competition in the form of a social movement challenge, makeup and wigs were provided in the waiting room.

Though cheap, they seemed effective enough to set the mood.

With limited resources, Sonia dressed as a man, and Amon dressed as a woman.

After finishing their makeup, the two evaluated each other’s results.

Amon looked at Sonia.

Her male disguise was passable.

However, the quality of the makeup wasn’t very good, and since she had long hair, it was difficult to pull off the male look.

The low-quality wig also added to the awkwardness.

And above all, her overflowing femininity made it impossible to see her as a man.

She seemed to know this herself, as she tried to pretend to be a man with an awkward smile before giving up and slumping her shoulders.

Next came the evaluation of Amon’s female disguise.

“Uh… um… uh…”

Sonia couldn’t close her mouth as she looked at Amon’s female disguise.

Beautiful.

There was no better word to describe his female disguise.

While Sonia’s wig had looked awkward, Amon’s wig suited him perfectly.

Sonia had always thought Amon’s thick eyebrows and downturned eyes were masculine.

But with a slight adjustment to his eyebrow color and eyeliner, femininity radiated from him.

With female makeup applied to his already flawless skin, which had no beard marks or blemishes, there was no trace of masculinity left.

As the finishing touch, he applied tint to his lips and added earrings, and there stood an unmistakable young woman.

“Young woman” wasn’t enough to describe it.

There stood a woman of unparalleled beauty.

His face was so beautiful that if he were to become an actress right now, no one would notice anything awkward about it.

Sonia, who had been staring at Amon in a daze, finally came to her senses and said:

“Um… unnie?”

“…”

Amon was at a loss for words.

He had put in some effort thinking he might as well do his best, but he never dreamed he would have talent in female disguise… no, disguise in general.

As he got into it, he found it fun and went all out without thinking, but even he was taken aback by the result.

The quality was so high that he seriously questioned his masculinity.

But it seemed a waste to remove the makeup given how well it had turned out.

So he closed his eyes and revealed the result.

“Let’s go quickly…”

The longer they stayed here, the longer his time of humiliation would last.

It would be better for his mental health to get evaluated quickly and get it over with.

He urged Sonia and went up on stage.

The judging rules for the competition were simple.

Participants would be scored by judges and other participants on how well they portrayed the opposite gender.

And prizes would be awarded according to the scores.

First, Sonia.

She received an effort award.

It was clear she had tried, but her femininity simply couldn’t be hidden.

She acknowledged this herself.

She came down from the stage with the effort award prize, a doll tucked under her arm.

And next, Amon.

“What? Isn’t this too much?”

As soon as they saw Amon, he was unanimously declared disqualified.

They asked why a woman would come up without even trying to dress as a man.

But when Amon revealed that he was actually male, the reaction flipped.

“Perfect score… perfect score…”

A perfect score from everyone.

He was the champion of the day.

While Amon was wondering whether to be happy about this or not, a man in a suit approached him.

And taking out his business card, he said:

“At our entertainment agency—”

“Please leave.”

For a moment, an expletive almost burst from his throat, but as a devout believer, he barely held it back.

The scout left reluctantly, clicking his tongue.

And when Amon returned to the waiting room, he immediately sat down on the floor and muttered:

“Shit…”

Sonia patted him on the back.

***

“Let me make this clear… I’m really not going to be an actor.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

On the bus ride back to the orphanage, Amon repeatedly emphasized to Sonia.

While he hadn’t decided on a career path yet, he had no interest in acting.

And among all possibilities, he would never, ever be a cross-dressing actor.

Sonia nodded at Amon’s repeated assertions.

“I understand. I won’t make you.”

‘That’s a shame…’

Though she said that, in reality, Sonia wanted to see him in female disguise one more time.

Of course, since he would hate it, she probably wouldn’t get to see it again.

While Sonia was reminiscing about Amon’s female disguise, Amon was trying to shake off the chill running down his spine.

‘Being a TS actor can’t be the true ending…’

Unless it was some kind of joke ending, he had no intention of living as a woman.

His desire to become a legend was about fields worth boasting about, not about becoming a legend through cross-dressing.

After a long meditation, Amon overcame the demon gnawing at his mind.

Although there had been an incident that shook his masculinity, it wasn’t without gain.

Thanks to it, he discovered his talent.

‘Check for disguise.’

After checking the “disguise” category, Amon looked at other talents connected to disguise by lines.

Talents were like mind maps, where one talent provided some correction to other related talents.

For example, if one had high sword skills, it would also somewhat correct hand-to-hand combat skills.

In other words, through mediocre talents, one could trace back to the main skill tree and talent.

Amon listed his mediocre talents and his outstanding ones.

Guns were a mediocre talent.

Disguise and charm were outstanding talents.

Combining these, he could roughly see the path he should take.

‘Assassin? Scout? Agent? Or fixer?’

Either way, he had found his path.

Amon was quite satisfied with his determined career path.

If he didn’t care about the ending and just wanted to cause trouble, there were many skill trees Amon could choose from.

The most outrageous skill tree he knew was something like this:

<More health than the final boss, 85% reduction in all physical damage, 95% reduction in magic damage, and 70% reduction in status effect damage. A 2-second cooldown, 15-second duration unstoppable skill, increased attack power when freed from immobilization, life steal on all damage, slow effect on normal attacks, stun and knockback on melee attacks, and an area EMP effect every time health drops by one bar….>

The infamous long one.

A balance-breaking skill tree that, once completed, could annihilate an entire city even if the whole city turned against you.

However, to complete such a build, you’d have to destroy multiple relationships, ruin ending branches, and sacrifice many good NPCs, guaranteeing a bad ending.

Naturally, Amon declined.

He wanted a happy ending.

And for a happy ending, information gathering was essential, and minimal force was necessary.

Especially when you didn’t know the walkthrough, careful information gathering was important.

The paths that satisfied this were scout or hacker.

In this situation, the fact that the scout-related skill tree was his career path was quite welcome news for Amon.

‘I’ll check other scout-related talents later.’

Satisfied with today’s harvest, he closed the notebook with the list.

And turning to the side, there was a girl nodding off.

She must have been quite tired.

As her head swayed back and forth, it tilted towards Amon’s shoulder.

Amon properly supported her head.

With the warm sensation on his shoulder, he looked out the window.

Though technology had advanced, the city was gloomy.

The occasional sound of sirens and gunshots within it.

This world that some would call a city of sin.

But Amon’s heart was racing.

Since the unknown was a primal element that tickled human curiosity,

Amon looked forward to the world he would face after graduating from the orphanage.

***

The day right after Thanksgiving.

That day was also a festival in America.

In fact, the next day could be considered the main event.

The Friday when America goes most crazy.

Black Friday.

Almost all items were discounted by 90%, and it was a period when 80% of American companies’ sales were generated.

The blessing of Black Friday also came to the orphanage.

The orphanage, with its tight budget, couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity.

The orphanage director’s wallet, which had been as tightly closed as a safe, opened.

She bought all sorts of things that the orphans and nuns would use for the next year.

During this time, Amon and Sonia were also busy.

The active flow of goods meant that no matter how many people were hired, there was always a shortage of hands.

During this period, there were plenty of errands, so they ran around the city until their feet sweated.

Moreover, since they could expect additional bonuses for errands during this period, they eagerly ran around on errands.

And so, the hectic Black Friday holiday passed.

The meta of frenzied impulse buying that started on Friday continued until Sunday.

By Monday, those people returned to their workplaces, freed from the madness.

Remembering that earning money was hard work, they sat at their desks wondering, “Why did I buy this?” and looked for ways to dispose of unnecessary items.

Whether giving them to acquaintances, selling them at flea markets, or returning them.

Once again, a great migration of goods occurred.

In this movement, the orphanage also experienced a pleasant fever.

It wasn’t that they had items to return or put up at flea markets.

The cause of their fever was the influx of items from outside.

Items that were difficult to handle due to impulse buying came to the orphanage in the form of donations.

It was a triple benefit: one could show off with a donation, receive tax deductions, and dispose of bad inventory.

For the orphanage, always struggling with shortages, there was no reason to decline these items.

Items that passed the primary screening by the director and nuns were piled in the center of the orphanage’s playground.

Then the children would flock to the playground to pick out donated items to take to their rooms and beds.

The nuns, who should have been controlling the children, were busy screening items and entertaining donors.

As a result, the playground was as chaotic as a marketplace.

Usually in such cases, the older siblings would pick out the good items first, and the younger siblings would take what was left.

If the younger ones really wanted something, they had no choice but to flatter their older siblings with all their might.

However, with the presence of Amon and Sonia, a bit of civility was added to this disorder.

It wasn’t anything grand.

“Tom, you wanted this, right? Your big brother got it for you.”

“Lumi, your sister doesn’t need this doll, so take it.”

It was about making the act of giving to younger siblings appear as a “virtue.”

With a gentle voice, a kind smile, and setting an example.

There was no coercion or violence.

It was just about stimulating the children’s admiration to create a voluntary atmosphere.

Then, just as a child grows up watching their parents and siblings, other children began to follow Amon and Sonia’s lead and give to their younger siblings.

– Thank you, big brother!

– I love you, big sister!

A heartwarming scene of love flowing downward unfolded on the playground.

But as an ancient sage from the far East once said, “When five people gather, there is always one piece of trash.”

Even as the world changed, his theory still applied.

“Hey, won’t you get lost? Little brats.”

As feared but expected.

Right after Amon briefly left his spot, Jimmy’s group appeared.

At the intimidation of the delinquent group led by Jimmy, the young orphans slowly made way.

Jimmy swaggered through the orphans like a king.

Jimmy and his friends carried armfuls of items back to their room.

Not satisfied with that, they headed to the storage room located next to the playground.

After confirming that the nuns were too busy dealing with guests, Jimmy’s group leaned against the storage room window.

Seeing this, Sonia’s eyebrows narrowed.

Sonia spoke to the back of the heads of the group that was conspiring strangely in front of the storage room door.

“That’s where the nuns sort dangerous items.”

“Hmph. How old are you to believe that? They’re not dangerous items, they’re probably sorting out things for themselves to use.”

“The nuns wouldn’t do that.”

“Naive kid. I’ll show you.”

Jimmy snorted and climbed through the storage room window.

Clatter, clatter.

Immediately after, the sound of a latch being pushed aside was heard from inside the door, and the storage room door opened.

Jimmy’s friends, thinking they were some kind of special forces, moved in unison into the storage room.

After about 5 minutes, Jimmy’s group came out of the storage room.

They had armfuls of spoils from their great adventure.

The group, looking somewhat satisfied, hugged these items dearly.

Sonia frowned as she looked at those items.

“Put those back.”

“You’ve been talking a lot. The nuns won’t know if we bring them to our room. As long as you don’t snitch.”

“They’re dangerous.”

“So are you going to snitch?”

“Haah…”

Sonia glared at Jimmy before turning away.

Unlike Amon, she wasn’t very philanthropic.

Meaning she wasn’t the type to persuade someone who wouldn’t listen to advice.

She lost interest in Jimmy and returned to the younger children.

But that wasn’t what Jimmy wanted.

Adolescence, a time of growth.

It was a time when boys couldn’t help but be drawn to pretty girls.

Jimmy, who wanted to talk to Sonia even a little, softened his brusque attitude and called out to her.

And handing her a black vase he was holding, he said:

“You’ve needed this for a long time, right?”

“No, I haven’t.”

But despite Jimmy’s goodwill, Sonia’s response was cold.

“I wanted a flower bed.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“I don’t have space for a vase in my room.”

“Ah, really! Why are you so socially inept? When someone gives you something like this, just shut up and take it.”

Sonia’s eyebrows twitched at Jimmy’s verbal abuse.

But she still refused to accept the vase.

The vase Jimmy had chosen was something she wouldn’t want to receive even if someone else had given it.

The pattern was too tacky and dark…

Even if the vase had been pretty, she didn’t want anything from Jimmy.

If Amon had given it to her, she might have accepted it.

At Sonia’s cold rejection, Jimmy grumbled.

“Forget it if you don’t want it. I’ll keep it in my room. Bitch.”

Jimmy, feeling hurt, was throwing a tantrum.

Whether he intended to project a bad boy image or not, it certainly wasn’t to Sonia’s taste.

Sonia’s eyebrows twitched once more.

Jimmy hugged the vase dearly and headed to his room.

On his way back to his room, his eyes caught a wallet held by a young child.

Jimmy took out his frustration on the child for no reason.

Reaching for the wallet that the child was looking at dearly, Jimmy opened his mouth.

“Give it to me.”

The child hesitated.

Looking at this scene with displeased eyes, Jimmy tucked the vase under his left arm and clenched his right fist.

Raising his fist above his head as if about to hit the child, he looked down and said:

“Are you deaf, idiot? I said give it to me.”

The child reluctantly held out the wallet.

Jimmy reached for the wallet.

Not forgetting to scold the child.

“Learn to read the room. Things like this should… ugh!?”

Just then,

Jimmy’s knees were forcibly made to kneel.

“My goodness… turn away for a moment and there’s mischief.”

Right behind the kneeling Jimmy was Amon, looking very displeased.

Given that one of Amon’s legs was still in the air, it wasn’t hard to guess that he had kicked the back of Jimmy’s knees.

Didn’t Amon say violence shouldn’t be used against people?

It didn’t matter.

Amon called this act a non-verbal expression for smooth communication.

It was definitely not violence.

Jimmy’s pain wasn’t because Amon had kicked him, but because Jimmy’s knees happened to be where Amon extended his leg.

“You bastard!”

Jimmy turned to face Amon with a distorted face.

But when Amon pressed his collarbone firmly with his thumb, Jimmy quickly became submissive.

“Aaagh! Damn! I get it!”

“Stop with that damn swearing. What are you, some punk?”

After quickly subduing Jimmy, Amon gave the child a wallet identical to the one that had been taken.

And he sent the child back to his room with the message to tell him if Jimmy ever tried to harm him later.

“You need to grow up. Why are you acting like this at 17?”

After sending the child away, Amon took the wallet from the hands of the kneeling Jimmy and tapped his head with it.

The wallet opened and closed like a fan as it hit Jimmy’s head.

It was quite a disrespectful act, almost as bad as slapping someone’s cheek.

Of course, it was meant to be offensive, so there was no room for misunderstanding.

Jimmy glared at Amon with fierce eyes, but—

“Can’t you look at me nicely?”

At Amon’s threat, Jimmy lowered his eyes again.

In the past, Jimmy was older and would win in fights, but since Amon hit puberty, Jimmy was no match for him.

Moreover, the director was always on Amon’s side.

Even if they fought equally, the director would only scold Jimmy, saying, “Amon must have had a good reason to use his fists.”

Because of this, Jimmy couldn’t stand up to Amon.

After publicly humiliating him in front of the orphans for a few minutes, Amon returned to his room.

Left alone on the playground, Jimmy gritted his teeth as he watched Amon’s retreating back.

The black vase beside him seemed to emit an ominous aura, as if in sympathy.