As I watched Shin PD roll on the floor after getting hit in the solar plexus by Older Brother Sang-gu, suddenly, the Status Window chimed.
Ding!
[A new skill of Sky Demon Martial Arts has been temporarily added.]
[Sky Demon Martial Arts Unreleased Skill: Black Killing Demon Palm (黑殺魔掌) – The newly renewed Black Killing Demon Palm tailored for a new era! The lethality has been completely removed, but the pain inflicted on the target has been maximized. Furthermore, a curse that cannot be washed away for a lifetime! Punish the unbelievers who dare to disturb the heavenly spirit! It inflicts no physical damage! It delivers horrific pain! The target’s pain resistance temporarily drops by -100% upon use! Every time it hits, the target’s immutable stat, Luck, decreases permanently by 10!]
“……”
Black Killing Demon Palm (黑殺魔掌).
Just hearing the name gives off an ominous vibe.
‘Use Black Killing Demon Palm.’
Fwoosh-!
Shouting it in my mind, black flames erupted from my hand.
Seeing no one around me was surprised by my sudden human ignition made me think this was something only I could see.
‘What will happen if these black flames touch someone else’s body?’
Of course, it’s obvious good things won’t happen.
A skill created to maximize pain.
If used, the target’s pain resistance drops to -100%.
And their immutable stat, Luck, decreases by 10 each time it gets hit.
Stats are generally 50 on average, with a maximum of 100.
So if I hit Shin PD ten times with this Black Killing Demon Palm, his Luck stat would drop below zero.
What happens when the Luck stat hits zero?
He would probably live a life where nothing ever works out and get slammed by all sorts of bad luck every day.
A horrifying thought.
In the old days, I wouldn’t have used such a horrific skill, no matter how much I disliked the person.
But why was I…
Smack!
“AAAH-!”
“…I was just thinking about how to deal with you.”
“W-wait, let’s talk this over….”
“…You came to me on your own, didn’t you?”
Smack!
Without any hesitation or doubt, I slapped Shin PD’s cheek.
“Ow… I’ll just check the nearby CCTV~”
As if accustomed to such situations, Lawyer Lee Kim-jang briefly stepped aside to handle the aftermath.
Smack!
The sound of my slap filled the parking lot.
Smack!
That makes seven hits.
The black flames swirling in my hand scorched Shin PD’s face.
“UAAAAHHHH-!!”
Seeing Shin PD clutch his face in pain, the flames visible only to me seemed to indeed be hot.
But that didn’t mean…
Smack!
My hand would stop.
Perhaps he was too in pain to resist, Shin PD writhed on the ground, pleading.
“Please…! Stop it…! I…”
Smack!
“AAAHHHH-!!!”
Shin PD seemed to realize that I would never listen to him, and he crawled on the floor towards Older Brother Sang-gu.
“Shut up…! I’m going to die here…! Help me…! Please…!!”
“……”
Sang-gu looked at Shin PD’s face and checked his cheek.
Nice and clean.
Could it be because the Black Killing Demon Palm has no lethality?
Shin PD’s cheek was perfectly fine—white, even.
In contrast, my palm was the one turning red from hitting him.
Sang-gu looked back and forth between Shin PD’s cheek and my hand and clicked his tongue.
“…Ye-rin.”
“Yes, Oppa?”
“I’m worried you might hurt your hand at this rate. If you’re okay with it, can I finish this?”
Though Older Brother Sang-gu was worried about me, I quickly shook my head.
“No, I’m sorry, but I’ll finish it.”
…Because I had so much more I wanted to do to this guy.
“……Okay.”
Understanding my feelings from my gaze, Sang-gu nodded.
And then…
“UAAAAHHHH-!! NO-!!”
He dragged Shin PD towards me.
In response, Shin PD clutched Sang-gu’s ankle and wailed dramatically.
“Stop-!! Please stop!! Ugh…, it really, really hurts! Please…!”
“Are you kidding me?”
Sang-gu looked at Shin PD with pity and said coldly.
“How much pain do you think Ye-rin will inflict with those tiny hands? If I had stepped in, you’d really be dead.”
“Then you hit me! Just hit me…!!”
“Shut up.”
Thwack!
Without hesitation, Sang-gu kicked Shin PD to throw him right in front of me.
“AH!”
Already all limp, Shin PD couldn’t even manage his own body.
I looked down at him.
‘All this trouble because of such a pathetic person….’
As I gazed at Shin PD, flashes of the events with Na Ah Ah appeared in my mind.
First, the moment he forced Lee Hye-jeong from A Rank to B Rank.
‘Shin PD saw the A Rank pool and thought that dropping her was better. So he put her in B Rank.’
‘Unfair… so unfair, Ye-rin…. Ugh… Waaah…!’
…I still vividly recall how much Lee Hye-jeong cried that day.
“Why did you do that?”
“I-I didn’t do anything…”
Smack!
“AAAHHH-!!”
Next came the moment he made Seo Yoo-jin a scapegoat to the public.
‘The company said if things go south, we’d drop Na Ah Ah… Mom and Dad said stop being an idol if it’s going to hurt me….’
‘I I just want to be an idol so badly… It’s my dream….’
‘But if I run away now, I might never get to be an idol again, so I came back… but it’s scarier than I thought….’
I remember how much Seo Yoo-jin trembled in my arms that day. How soaked my chest was with her tears.
“If you saw us as at least human, you wouldn’t have done this.”
“I-I apologize! I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I apologize…!”
Smack-!
‘You know how desperate trainees are. Always using them to create controversy, and when they get backlash, you just create another scandal and send the small company trainees to take the fall, you trashy people….’
You know how desperate we are.
You know how hard we’ve worked better than anyone.
And yet, you used that to achieve your success.
Turned our dreams into a laughing stock.
Hunted us like witches.
Dropped us when you didn’t like us.
Forced us out of opportunities.
Sold us off to trash companies.
Smack-!
“Waaaah-! I did wrong! I’m sorry…!!”
After receiving another slap, Shin PD, tears streaming down his face, begged me with hands clasped together.
I grabbed the collar of Shin PD and bitterly whispered.
“What did you do wrong?”
“Th-that’s…!”
Shin PD looked panicked, rolling his eyes before finally shouting.
“I-I introduced Ye-rin to a trash company like MS Planning…! And I apologize for speaking rudely to you until now…!! And… and…!!”
“You’re wrong.”
“……Huh?”
I raised my hand toward the bewildered Shin PD one last time.
“Just being born is your sin.”
And then with my final verdict.
Smack-!
I struck him down with the Black Killing Demon Palm one last time.
“Ugh…, Heurk…!”
Finally, unable to endure the pain, Shin PD collapsed, frothing at the mouth.
As I coldly looked down at the unconscious Shin PD, Older Brother Sang-gu set him down in a corner of the parking lot.
And then, clicking his tongue, he said with disappointment.
“Fainting over this? What a loser to see with open eyes.”
“……True. Oh, by the way, where’s Lawyer Lee Kim-jang?”
“Here I am!”
When I tilted my head and asked, Lawyer Lee Kim-jang, who had vanished earlier, waved from somewhere and appeared.
“Since if this gets out, it’ll cause problems, I went to handle the CCTV.”
“…CCTV?”
I had actually hit Shin PD without a worry the moment I saw the skill Black Killing Demon Palm.
If his wrongdoings came to light, I could’ve portrayed the beating as a justified act through NAS Entertainment.
Since the Black Killing Demon Palm lacked lethality, there were no traces left behind.
But now, Lawyer Lee Kim-jang claims to have handled the CCTV…?
“Since we’re in the guest parking lot, it seems there are no parked cars, so I don’t think we need to worry about a black box.”
“…You seem surprisingly familiar with situations like this?”
“Haha, working as a lawyer at Brotherhood Planning, you get used to it!”
…What kind of stuff has Lawyer Lee Kim-jang been handling at Brotherhood Planning?
Anyway, seeing him confidently say that with such a bright smile, I felt I didn’t have to worry.
“……”
I nodded and looked down at Shin PD one last time.
I hadn’t counted precisely, but I had unleashed at least ten Black Killing Demon Palms on him.
His Luck stat should now be zero.
‘May you live your remaining life in great misfortune.’
You made a living by making others shed blood tears, so I hope you too live shedding blood tears.
I silently wished that and then told Older Brother Sang-gu and Lawyer Lee Kim-jang.
“Now that we’re done here, let’s go. …To the press conference hall.”
It was time to punish others now.
—
After Ha Ye-rin left for the press conference in a car.
“Ugh…”
Still trapped in pain, Shin PD half-came to his senses.
“…Ugh, ugh….”
Fainting just from a few slaps from a girl.
It was unbelievable, yet the pain from his cheek felt all too vivid.
“Ugh…, ambulance… ambulance…!”
In that moment, Shin PD, unable to think about getting back at Ha Ye-rin, picked up his phone to call 119.
Just then.
Rrring!
[Director!]
“……!”
Of all people, the last person he wanted to hear from called.
Shin PD hesitated to answer but realized that ignoring it would lead to even greater pain later, so he reluctantly pressed the call button.
And then….
“Y-Yes, Director. I picked up the call….”
[What the hell are you doing, you bastard-!!!]
…As expected, the Director yelled the moment he answered.
‘Damn it… has Director Jeong already told the boss everything about me?’
Thinking the Director would be furious about the MS Planning incident, Shin PD clutched his burning cheek and desperately began to explain.
But then….
“Ugh…, D-Director…! I can explain everything…! I don’t know what you heard from Director Jeong, but I’m not at all related to this tampering incident…!”
[Director Jeong? Tampering? What the hell are you talking about!?]
“……Huh?”
The Director seemed utterly bewildered by Shin PD’s words.
And then….
[What are you going to do now that you’re being internally reported, huh, you bastard-!!!]
“Internal… report…?”
A new danger dawned on Shin PD.
Hearing the words ‘internal report,’ Shin PD immediately logged onto the internet while still on the call.
And he stumbled upon a post that filled the community and news articles.
[Title: Reporting the Misdeeds of My Idol Academia’s Shin Ji-cheon PD.]
[Hello, I’m Hwang Mi-ae, the writer who worked as a junior writer on the recently concluded Nnet idol audition program ‘My Idol Academia’….]
Upon seeing that, Shin PD felt as if the world was spinning around him.
‘What the hell… why are all these incidents happening at once….’
The tower he had built so far was collapsing.
Of course, this was partly due to Ha Ye-rin reducing his Luck stat to zero, putting him in a state of ‘permanent misfortune’…
But the real reason ran deeper.
Misfortune manifests differently depending on a person’s accumulated karma.
He had risen to where he was by shedding the blood tears of countless trainees, with him accumulating more than enough karma.
[Hello. I was a participant in Shin Ji-cheon PD’s program….]
[I am courageously revealing the truth. Shin Ji-cheon PD is….]
As Shin PD’s standing wobbled, other victims began to line up to expose him. It was only a matter of time.
[Hey, Shin Ji-cheon-!!! The broadcasting station’s bulletin board is in chaos! What do we do…!!!]
Thud.
“Ha…, ugh…, damn it…, damn it…!!”
Shin Ji-cheon PD felt the grasp of countless souls he had sent to their demise enveloping him.
This was truly a downfall.
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