October came.
The public park in the morning, where the scorching late heat completely disappeared, and only the chilling wind blew.
“Hoo, hoo!”
Yoo-seong was doing repetitive movements with his body.
Push-ups, iron bars, and dips using parallel bars were repeated regularly. It wasn’t an incredible number of repetitions, but Yoo-seong’s posture was excellent.
By the time the muscles of the whole body were shaking, Yoo-seong had stopped exercising and began to run.
“Hook, whoop!”
Go around the Citizens Park a few times, and go out and run the streets. After dozens of minutes of running to the house, his body was almost at the limit.
He could have used an elevator, but Yoo-seong ran up the stairs to the homemade building.
For the past four months, he had been training without rest. It was the result of his research on automatic hunting.
A button led you to the maximum performance that your body could perform with a simple touch.
Then, if you trained your body’s physical abilities, wouldn’t it increase your ability to press the button naturally?
He ran until he reached the door to the roof of the building. He opened it slowly.
Now, the training was just beginning.
The Striker was waiting for him.
The Striker was a professional, striking practice machine that could be anchored on the floor. It was divided into several parts, and Yoo-seong had spares to replace any damaged parts.
Standing before the sandbag, Yoo-seong took a breath.
Then he stared at the strike.
OK.
-Auto hunting by pressing a button.-
The button in front of him was activated. The ability to control the activation/deactivation of the button was one of Yoo-seong’s achievements over the past few months.
Click!
Yoo-seong pressed the button without hesitation.
Perpuck!
A clicking sound was heard immediately.
As if they were not exhausted, Yoo-seong’s limbs began to hit the Striker with terrifying momentum.
Most people may laugh, seeing this sight. He would, too. Yoo-seong looked ridiculous.
He was not positioned correctly in a martial arts stance. He just seemed to be swinging his limbs wildly. However, if a skilled person was observing, they would see that each attack had an extremely efficient direction and power control.
How many minutes can I go this time?
The Striker began to creak gradually.
Yoo-seong’s face was getting red, and he wasn’t feeling too well.
‘Slightly, a little more…’
It wasn’t Yoo-seong that moved his body.
However, he could feel the results created by the automatic movements: muscle fatigue, reaction when hitting, and above all, exhaustion and breathlessness.
Yoo-seong endured the pain of hitting the Striker with a body that has just finished multiple exercises and long-distance running.
There were three ways to deactivate a button once pressed.
Puck! Perpuck!
I want to quit.
Yoo-seong’s body was sore, and he was panting hard.
However, he had to be patient.
Yoo-seong knew well that automatic hunting did not lie. The fact that automatic hunting was still in progress was proof that his body could still withstand the power.
Yoo-seong clenched his jaw and remained focused.
Pajik!
Finally, it was the Striker that gave up.
The parts, which were tightened tightly, threw back with a loud sound.
At the same time, automatic hunting was turned off.
“Ugh….”
Yoo-seong, who suddenly gained back control of his body, shook with fatigue. His necks and lungs felt like being stabbed by a knife.
In the early days of training, Yoo-seong used an ordinary sandbag hanging from the chain on the support beam.
However, the sandbag was brutally smashed under the performance of automatic hunting. There was no practice mode in automatic hunting. The body would smash the target as efficiently as possible.
At first, the sandbag was smashed once every four days, and when the body was trained, and Yoo-seong was able to withstand auto hunting for a long time, he had to change the sandbag once every three days, once every two days, and finally once a day.
That was why he started to use this special Striker. This was the first time he was able to smash it.
I finally smashed a special product that I wanted to break.
After clearing up the mess, Yoo-seong went down to his room.
‘It’s so hot…’
As he pulls off the sweaty top, his rising muscles began to show.
Four months.
For an average human body, it was an incredibly short time to transform with exercise. An average person needed to exercise steadily for three months before starting to see a little change in his/her build.
However, in the meantime, Yoo-seong’s body had already made great strides.
‘Am I getting a little taller…?’
His shoulders got definitely wider.
‘Well, if you exercise, your bent spine may stretch out.’
He thought little about it. He was more satisfied that his six-pack was becoming more defined to dwell about the height he was not even sure he grew.
The human body was a very clever mechanism.
If you were constantly exposed to a certain environment and got used to it, your body adapted accordingly.
In this case, the environment where Yoo-seong’s body was exposed was automatic hunting.
Naturally, his body was also turned into a perfect frame for perfect movement.
Soon, Yoo-seong would be reborn as a big player.
…
Before one became a hunter, they had to take an evaluation.
You had to pass tests on knowledge of monsters, as well as related laws and regulations.
In addition to having the basic physical skills, a candidate was measured on whether he/she could take the correct action against a monster.
There were two successful teaching institutes. Yoo-seong attended one after his morning exercise.
Because of the bank account’s balance, there was little pressure on attending a large academy in the metropolitan area.
“I got it!”
“Right!”
The written examinations were scheduled twice a year, every March and September.
Successful candidates were posted on the school board. There were cheers and frustrated cries around him, but Yoo-seong was feeling neither cheerfulness nor frustration.
‘I’m stuck.’
He was expecting to take half a year preparing to be a hunter, but he already passed on his first attempt at the examination.
In a way, it was a natural result. Besides self-training every morning, Yoo-seong was obsessed with writing notes.
It was a new way to replace the goal of life that has been going on for the past nine years.
Moreover, he was twenty-nine years old. It was ridiculously late to start studying hunters. He couldn’t always depend on the button to beat monsters.
-If you pass the handwriting, please come to the measurement room.-
Passers, including Yoo-seong, moved to follow the school broadcast.
Every season, after passing the written test, the successful candidates were gathered to enter the ‘practical class’ – a preparation for the actual test.
The practical class includes basic physical strength training, and it seems to be a combination of a college entrance exam and military training.
“I will update you on your status. Please line up in turn.”
A doctor dispatched for measurement was on one side of the room, operating a deep body.
A ‘deep body’ was a machine used to gather the candidate’s status, or more commonly known as ‘the stat’.
The technology to measure the stat appeared with the advent of monsters.
The stat measures a person’s physical ability, the degree of strength of the body, special abilities, equipment, objective’ combat power’ value.
Deep bodies measure stats from a pure base state. On average, a healthy adult male’s stat is at 80, a female at 62.
However, the basic idea was that it was worth trying to take the practical class when men reached a minimum of 100, and women, 80.
“135.”
“Good!”
As the doctor provided his status, a young man in the deep body raised his arms.
“Yeah, 135? Three more than last time?”
“It’s difficult.”
The young man’s friends lined up and slapped his back.
As with any academy, there are also groups of friends that have become close to each other for months.
Of course, Yoo-seong was not in any group. There is no reason to play with young children in the academy because he was busy catching up on his studies. He started late.
The measurements continued.
“114.”
“109.”
Indeed, stats higher than the average appeared.
“81.”
Not everyone was qualified.
“Boo.”
“It’s because I don’t exercise. I kept studying in the academy.”
Small, but booing sounds were clearly heard.
The man who got 81 turned red. He was helpless about it. Unlike in studying, where anyone who puts on effort can pass, physical strength was not something you could easily control.
The instructor approached the student.
‘Perhaps I can offer advice that the practical class would be difficult for you. If your stat number is low, the likelihood of passing the class is low.”
“79.”
“Boo.”
“89.”
“That’s a waste.”
The students with passing stats gathered in one corner of a dressing room, watching the others in a relaxed manner.
“Next, Mr. Oh Yoo-seong?”
“What do you think will come out, 79?”
“I’ll still give you a good 88,” the instructor said.
“What is an 88? I hope to get an 89.”
Before long, the doctor had finished measuring Yoo-seong, and a sheet of paper with the results came into his hands.
“Huh?”
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