Get Schooled / True Education — Chapter 9¶
Complete detailed sequential transcription¶
Supplied source: Chapter 009.zip
Archive integrity: 130 ordered WebP strips plus manifest; all images are present and no failures are reported.
Reading order: 001.webp through 130.webp.
Opening — Jo Hong-gi challenges Na¶
The chapter resumes in the gym immediately after Na announces a joint behavioral-education class for the automotive and electrical-engineering departments.
Jo Hong-gi steps forward.
“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, CALLING THE SHOTS?”
Na repeats his identity as field inspector Na Hwa-jin.
Hong-gi recognizes him from the news. He describes Na as the man who can smash a student’s skull without suffering normal consequences.
Rather than fear that authority, Hong-gi treats Sanmaeg as a second experimental group:
“SO WE’RE GUINEA PIG GROUP TWO?”
He tells his department that students at this school have more backbone than the ones Na handled before.
The electrical faction surges forward.
Na breaks the first rush¶
Na draws or tosses his batons into position and meets the group head-on.
The webtoon alternates between close impacts and wide panels of students being thrown out of formation. Baton strikes catch arms, shoulders, legs, and torsos. Korean impact lettering fills the dark backgrounds.
Na calls toward Hong-gi:
“DID YOU MISS ME?”
The taunt makes clear that he is not treating the crowd as a serious threat.
Several students collapse before reaching him. Others stop involuntarily as the space in front of Na fills with fallen classmates.
Hong-gi refuses to stop¶
Hong-gi manages to catch or seize one of Na’s batons.
He says that the others may have learned their lesson, but he will not quit. If Na continues acting as though he owns the school, Hong-gi will beat him to a pulp whether he is an adult or a teacher.
Na answers that anyone with a problem can come at him.
He identifies the first principle of the class:
“LESSON ONE.”
“UNDERSTAND MY AUTHORITY.”
Hong-gi attacks at full strength.
Na redirects the motion, turns Hong-gi’s arm and balance against him, and sends him crashing down.
He mocks the result as anticlimactic and criticizes the boy’s arm and technique as amateur.
Hong-gi’s status depended on everyone assuming that his strength was exceptional. Na dismantles that assumption in seconds.
Electrical Engineering’s number two takes command¶
Students rush to Hong-gi and try to wake him.
The department’s second-ranking member decides that the class cannot retreat after their leader falls. He orders another coordinated attack.
The crowd charges again.
Na moves through them with controlled brutality. He does not simply knock them unconscious. He strikes the buttocks and upper legs repeatedly, producing a humiliating punishment that leaves students writhing and unable to sit comfortably.
Students scream:
“MY ASS IS ON FIRE!”
The visual tone is intentionally comic, but the purpose is disciplinary: the injury is painful, memorable, and immediately associated with refusing the class.
The student who tried not to participate¶
One nervous boy attempts to remain outside the confrontation.
When Na asks who else wants to continue, the student signals that he was not part of the attack.
Na catches him anyway and controls his posture.
He explains that a deputy or subordinate cannot separate himself from the actions of the leader he chose to follow. A reference to Sun Tzu accompanies the lesson: command creates responsibility throughout the chain beneath it.
The student is punished with the rest.
Na then asks:
“ANYONE UP FOR SOME MORE?”
No one responds.
He tells them that, if they are finished, they should sit down slowly so the movement does not worsen the pain.
Rows of previously dominant students lower themselves to the gym floor with tears, shaking legs, and rigid backs.
The first written test¶
Na changes the lesson without warning.
“SCHOOL IS FOR STUDYING, NOT PRETEND LITTLE GANG WARS.”
Papers are distributed.
The title reads:
“SANMAEG’S SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED EDUCATION”
“BASIC ACADEMIC ABILITY TEST — LANGUAGE”
The questions are comically easy relative to the students’ age. The test resembles elementary-level reading and vocabulary work.
Na says that the results will determine their fate.
The gang leaders who confidently challenged an armed adult now stare at basic questions with sweat and panic.
Hyeung-joo’s secret strength¶
Hyeung-joo’s narration resumes.
He explains that he never told the others, but he is the number-one academic student in the entire school.
Panels show his pencil moving steadily while the surrounding fighters struggle.
His high score is not luck. It is the result of the same years of work that Hong-seong dismissed as “doing nothing.”
The test transforms the trait that made him socially vulnerable into the basis of institutional power.
Work as the new school order¶
The story advances to the following day.
Students drag heavy tires, run laps, carry equipment, and perform exhausting physical tasks under supervision.
Hyeung-joo narrates:
“THE SCHOOL NO LONGER FIGHTS.”
“WORK IS SALVATION FOR STUDENTS.”
The statement is partly sincere and partly dark comedy. The students are too exhausted—and too tightly organized—to resume the department war.
Na’s new caste system¶
A ranking chart is posted based on test scores:
- 0–59 points: Third Estate / Peasants
- 60–90 points: Second Estate / Nobles
- 100 points: First Estate / King
The terminology parodies feudal society.
Students with poor scores receive the hardest work and the least authority. Mid-range students occupy a relatively comfortable position. The perfect scorer becomes royalty.
Hyeung-joo is seated above the others in an ornate chair.
He is the only student who earned 100.
The boys who once called him a maggot must now look upward when speaking to him.
The “king” gives an order¶
After a round of punishing exercise, students ask what they should do next.
Hyeung-joo sits stiffly on his throne. His face shows that he is still frightened of the people below him, even though Na’s rules now place them under his authority.
He makes a tentative decision:
“HOW ABOUT…”
“TEN MORE LAPS?”
The students react with despair.
The chapter closes on the title of his new position:
“FIRST ESTATE: KING.”
Chapter-level observations¶
1. Na replaces violence with another hierarchy¶
He does not immediately create equality. He builds a deliberately artificial caste system based on academic performance so the students experience how arbitrary status becomes when the valued skill changes.
2. The punishment targets pride¶
The buttock strikes, slow sitting, simple test, and feudal labels are all designed to humiliate boys whose identities depend on appearing physically dominant.
3. Hyeung-joo’s authority remains psychologically unstable¶
He has the score and the formal title, but years of abuse have conditioned him to expect retaliation. His final order is both revenge and a nervous test of whether the new rules are real.
4. The chapter redefines “strength”¶
Hong-gi’s physical confidence fails immediately. Hyeung-joo’s patience and academic discipline become the qualities that control the room.