Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 208



Only Noblemtl

208.

“Hey, God.”

Suddenly, Rebecca Wong called me.

“huh?”

Arriving at Escondido Elementary School, everyone was going to their respective work stations when suddenly my name was called. I tilted my head and looked back. Then, Rebecca, with her usual confident demeanor, spoke in a very cautious voice.

“Well, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Are you okay, beggar?”

“No, so······ what?”

“I saw an elementary school student kneeling and bowing in front of you the other day.”

“······.”

I saw you. You bastard.

“By any chance, you didn’t psychologically restrain that girl or anything like that? I believe that the God I know wouldn’t do something like that.”

“I read Lolita and found it very impressive.”

I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

Of course, nothing Rebecca Wong had to worry about happened.

Rather, the problem was that something happened that we ‘didn’t’ worry about.

“That can’t be true, Rebecca. That can’t be true.”

After reassuring Rebecca, who still looked worried, and turning around, my expression hardened again.

The current me is not a god in a world where social consensus exists, but the master of the ‘Ninja Clan’.

If I were to describe it as a novel, it would be like this.

“Rebecca Wong tilted her head and turned away.

‘No way, no way. God can’t do that.’

Shin was a good friend. He was considerate, kind, had his own opinions, was a good writer, and took charge of his own life. A friend like that… could not possibly be the master of the ‘Ninja Clan’.

Everyone who knew God would think so.

But the reality was different.

“Huh.”

God walked with a smile. They gathered one by one beside him as he left the hall and walked down the hallway to the other side of the school, where all the filth of the world was collected (the garbage dump).

It was a ninja.

Boom-boom-boom-boom-!

Boom-boom-boom-boom-!

Bam-! Bam-! Bam-! Bam-! Bam-!

Bam-! Bam-! Bam-! Bam-! Bam-!

A sinister background music resonates. It is the ninja’s own voice. Ten ninja, and Ashley, in black and masked at the front, reports to the master.

“The preparations are complete.”

“good.”

The master nodded and extended his hand.

“It is time to root out this vile evil.”

And they started to root out the evil (trash) within the school.

“Gather all the trash here!”

“Yeah, here’s a can!”

“Cans are for recycling!”

“······.”

The kids are really cute.

I stood there leisurely and thought.

As the leader of the ninja clan, I not only joined in on the role-playing games the kids played, but we also picked up trash together like this.

Even something as simple as picking up trash, which would otherwise be considered just labor, changed everyone’s attitude in an instant when they were given a fun motivation like this.

Then, the children added their own settings to such actions.

“You’re rooting out evil again today. Haha.”

“My deceased uncle will be very happy to see this.”

“With great power comes great responsibility.’ That’s a great saying.”

The children of the Ninja Clan did not follow the setting exactly, but they borrowed many of the settings that impressed them from the comics they read.

First of all, someone in the family died and they came here, and they suffered trauma from the grief that came with it and they tried to overcome it.

‘Interesting.’

Children of today seem to be more impressed by their weaknesses than by the ‘super’ and ‘heroic’ aspects of the heroes of the past. To be exact, their human side, or should I say drama? There was a strong feeling of focusing on the relationships between each character.

For example, stories like ‘who is dating who’, ‘who broke up with who’, gossip that everyone, regardless of age or gender, can enjoy.

As I went through them, I thought:

‘Why is that?’

Children tend to follow the path that adults have created. That’s why I thought this was a result of following the flow of the comics market created by adults rather than a child’s taste.

So the question I had was, ‘Why do adults like that these days?’

However, the children also paid attention to the parts that are absolutely essential to comics.

It was a ‘battle’.

“Master! I picked them all up!”

“Today too, Asukrim!”

A group of cute children gathered together to pick up trash and expect something in return.

I was willing to spend any amount of money for the little ones in my ninja clan.

I smiled broadly and took out my wallet.

At that very moment, a firecracker flew in from somewhere, landed at our feet, and exploded.

Papapapang-!

A series of sparks that jump out.

“······.”

“······.”

“Cough?!”

“Ugh?!”

The children reacted a little late, perhaps because it was their first time experiencing the situation.

I too fell to the ground, pretending to be hit by some unidentified explosive device.

Fading Mind (Setting).

Then, several cloaked heroes appeared from beyond.

“This is the Justice League, the enemy has been neutralized.”

“Chwiiiiiiii······. Everyone has been affected by my sleeping gas.”

“Good job, Batman. Flash, get them to Justice League headquarters.”

“okay!”

······Suddenly, DC Comics heroes invaded our ninja clan.

“Shoooooosh-! ······Ah, sorry. Could you follow me for a moment?”

Flash made a sound with his mouth and then spoke politely.

At his request, several ninja awkwardly got up from their seats and followed him, all dressed in a shocking red outfit.

And the next moment, Ashley was barely able to stand up, relying on the plastic sword.

She awakened as a ninja and surprisingly withstood Batman’s sleeping gas.

Ashley tries to fight the Justice League to protect the fallen ninjas.

Just then, a ‘Phussung-! Phussung-!’ sound was heard from behind.

“It is unforgivable that you would try to harass such a beautiful woman.”

Damn, the heroes of Marvel Comics are joining the fight to help the ninja clan!

A tangled story. Emotions sprouting between them!

“Kyahahahaha! Barrybarrybaetbaet-! Ma batshi-!”

Finally, even the villains who can be called ‘true evil’ are joining the fight!

The story, which was so entangled and unpredictable that it was impossible to tell where it would lead, even expanded into the school.

As Batman fled, throwing his Batarang and looking for a favorable location, and Iron Man chased after him, going ‘Phussung, Phussung’, I followed the kids and watched them.

Then, the ninja clan, DC and Marvel superheroes, and each villain faced their ultimate enemy.

“······What are you guys doing there? Shin, you?”

The most evil villain ever, Stanford University’s Galactus.

It was Kate Moore.

“Ugh······! What is that huge thing?!”

“Oh my god, it’s so huge!”

“Language!”

Kate Moore warns us to be careful with our words.

In front of him, each hero alliance gathered together and faced off, and Kate, who couldn’t understand the current situation, let out a long sigh and came closer.

Thud, thud.

Every time she walked, the earth shook with her fearsome footsteps, and heroes, villains, and ninjas were paralyzed with fear.

“No way. The kid who just said something bad, come out. I have to take him to the teacher.”

The person who said the bad words was Batman.

Faced with an unspeakable evil (Kate Moore), he felt fear for the first time in his life. But he was not alone.

While allies who had been with him, and even enemies he had been fighting for (10 minutes), were trying to protect Batman, Captain America stepped forward and shouted, holding a shield (made of paper).

“Avengers assemble!”

[Waaaaaaaaagggghhh-!!]

A coalition of heroes, villains, and ninjas rushing forward.

But then Kate Moore’s rebuke followed.

“Be quiet! This is school!”

Everyone knelt before him!

“Ugh, this can’t be happening······!”

“How, this power······!”

Just when everyone was about to collapse in despair.

‘It’s my turn.’

I slowly stepped forward.

“god?”

Kate tilted her head. I sent her a hand signal.

[The kids are playing. Please keep them occupied. I’m taking them out.]

“What are you saying with your hand gestures?”

“······.”

It didn’t work at all.

***

Children who were scolded and kicked out.

As they watched Batman being helplessly dragged away by Kate Moore, they vowed to rescue him at any cost.

This issue ends by showing everyone learning from defeat and becoming one······.

‘No, but. Anyway, isn’t it just going to be a bit of a scolding and then it’ll go away?’

On the way back to Stanford in the car, feeling a little suspicious.

Kate Moore asked from the passenger seat.

“What the heck was that just now?”

“Oh, I was just hanging out with the school kids playing roles. Superheroes, villains, ninjas. The three teams fought fiercely and today, they got punished by Kate Moore.”

“Was that it?”

Rebecca suddenly pops her head out from behind.

“Then, that girl knelt in front of you at that time?”

“Oh, that.”

“The girl got on her knees?!”

Kate and John were shocked to hear the story that had no context.

“He even bowed his head.”

“······The kid just mistook me for a ninja and asked me to teach him techniques. Then he got involved with other kids and that’s how it turned out.”

“Poohahahaha! That’s seriously no joke! This is awesome?!”

John burst out laughing and worshipped me again.

“As expected, he is a god. He attracts attention wherever he goes.”

“It’s strange how it turns out that way.”

Even Kate Moore was convinced.

Well, I also thought it was a strange flow. Whenever the kids were playing and the conversation got stuck, I would intervene and help them resolve it.

Is this all the writer’s skill?

Anyway, now that things have come to this, I have something to say.

“If you guys also come across kids wearing strange clothes, don’t look at them strangely and try to adapt to them. Since we’re here to do volunteer work anyway, playing with kids will give us a lot of experience.”

In fact, I also felt clearly how people living in this time period felt the existence of superheroes.

My words gave different answers to each person.

John first.

“Okay. Okay! I’ll prepare myself mentally!”

Next up is Rebecca.

“Yeah, it’ll definitely be a great experience.”

Finally, Kate.

“I don’t like it. But I have to follow the rules.”

“······.”

I guess the hallway would be a scary place for friends who like to role-play.

After I had conveyed the situation to the other three in that way and made a request, I stopped by a restaurant to have dinner with them, then dropped Rebecca and Kate off in front of the girls’ dormitory and returned to the dorm with John.

“Phew, I’m tired.”

John, who stretched out on the bed like a giraffe that had been running through the meadow all day.

“That’s right. Today in particular······.”

As I was taking off my jacket while answering appropriately, I noticed a package on my desk. There had been some theft issues in the dorm recently, so it seemed like the dorm leader had taken responsibility for bringing it there himself.

“Did you order delivery?”

“No, oh. Simon sent it.”

“Simon?!······I promised to give you the work by tomorrow.”

“Cheer up.”

I turned around with a light smile as I saw John groaning and getting up from the bed again.

I unpacked the package from Simon while he sat at his desk, tapping away at his typewriter without any sense of purpose.

“Hoo.”

“What is it, what is it?”

As I exclaimed in admiration at the sight of the contents, John came running like a giraffe that had found a leaf good for eating.

What was inside the box was a comic book.

It’s a comic book that’s become a huge topic of conversation at the moment.

It’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’.

It was a dark night, and white lightning was slicing through the cover, depicting the main character, Batman, flying towards somewhere.

As I took out the book with interest, Simon’s note underneath caught my eye again.

[Please contact us.]

‘suddenly?’

Simon, who usually contacted the dormitory when something happened, sent me a note asking me to contact him along with The Dark Knight Returns. Thinking that it was a bit dramatic, I handed over The Dark Knight Returns to John Smith, who was looking curious.

“Read it. It’s a really good book.”

“okay!”

The guy got excited and went back with the book, and I left the dorm and headed to the pay phone.

And now I called my now all-too-familiar company, Hardboiled Publishers.

Thump, thump.

Clink.

[Yes, we are a hardboiled publisher.]

“What kind of delivery is this?”

When I realized it was Simon’s voice, I skipped the greeting and asked.

Then a bright voice came back from the other side.

[Author! I’ve been waiting for your call.]

“The Dark Knight Returns. Can I look forward to it?”

[Of course. I put a lot of effort into directing it.]

And Simon’s next words made me laugh out loud for a moment.

[DC Comics is showing great interest in you. They said, ‘We want to work with you.’]

‘The Dark Knight Returns’ and ‘Watchmen’. Not only did they release two works that took superhero stories into a deeper world, but they also created numerous superhero franchises, including ‘Superman’ and ‘Wonder Woman’, and are still maintaining them into the future. These two major American comics companies.

‘This situation is too good.’

Perhaps the new work could lead to a different business than before.