[We improved the quality starting Chapter 61. Thanks for the patience! We also are reworking all s at the rate of 5-7 chapters per day. We’re still stabilizing since we’ve just started this series, I apologize for the inconveniences.]
Team Building (5)
“That’s crazy.” Shin Gyeong-Pyo murmured as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Even among the known unique skills, there are none that are of the same category. It’s different from the Taming type, which controls the monsters, since the creature that did not exist in the first place suddenly appeared.”
Lee Ji-Soo let her words out with a pale expression, “But why zombies, among all the monsters out there….”
Even if she had seen and gone through a lot in her life, that scene a while ago must have been shocking for her.
“That’s not important. It is a one-and-only skill that has no replacements, so he gets to call his own price, won’t he?”
Shin Gyeong-Pyo poured out questions to Nate in English as if he found this all fascinating.
“You wouldn’t be creating those zombies in an instance. Are you summoning them from other dungeons? Or from another dimension of Earth? How do you control them? If the effect is this much, the condition to add in the subordinates must be tricky, am I right?”
As I was about to hold back Nate from answering the questions, Lee Ji-Soo unexpectedly stepped forward. “Hey! Wait a minute.”
Her expression, in the meanwhile, had changed completely.
The slightly loathsome expression had been gone in an instant, and she spoke to Nate with a face of determination. “You don’t have to answer.”
However, Nate raised both of his hands and shook his head as if he had not intended to answer easily in the first place.
“Jin-Wook told me not to say useless things.”
As he repeated what I said without a filter, a bitter smile came out without me realizing it.
“Yes, of course.”
Lee Ji-Soo opened her eyes wide and glared right at Shin Gyeong-Pyo.
“Hunter Shin Gyeong-Pyo. Are you trying to take advantage of him just because he’s young?”
“N-No. It’s not like that. I was just asking because I found it peculiar….”
I didn’t like that bastard, either.
Although Lee Ji-Soo had stopped him quickly, I didn’t intend to stay still without a protest.
At this I spoke up, looking at Shin Gyeong-Pyo, “If you have any business with them, please speak to me as their agent. And…. Since you’re the evaluating officer, we’ll definitely be polite to you, but I hope Shin Gyeong-Pyo Hunter will also be respectful to the participants. Just because we’re a junior and an applicant for a promotion, we don’t have to throw away our guaranteed rights, should we?”
One did not ask about one’s ability to the extent that the person did not disclose to others. Of course, there was an unwritten code between the hunters. Shin Gyeong-Pyo apologized a few more times, saying he was sorry, but it was all meaningless.
‘He purposely did so, seeing that no guild affiliates tagged around.’
“Oh, sorry. Excuse me.”
He spoke alternately in Korean and English, looking at Nate and I.
“I was surprised and did so unknowingly. I’m sorry.”
At that time, Kim Ji-Hoon, who was looking at Nate with a strange look, suddenly said, “Based on the data we just received, he doesn’t belong to the Celestial Dragon.”
His intentions were obvious, so I cut him off at once, “The full authority over activities in Korea is already tied up to this side.”
‘This side’ did not refer exactly to Celestial Dragon, but my own company, but I didn’t have to tell him the details.
The official stepped in, “There, so the rating is ···.”
Again, the discussion was short.
“Nate Hope, final Rank ‘S.’“
It was a sure result.
“Well, then let’s move on. This is applicant number three.”
Everyone’s eyes looked sharp.
They should’ve been curious, wondering how much my Mana output would be. The public official, who knew that the repercussions would be huge, sent the data to the hunters with a slightly nervous look. He waited until now without giving any heads-up.
Ding! The data was sent to the three evaluators’ terminals. Immediately, a similar scene from the center was re-enacted.
*
Silence. Nobody could easily open his or her mouth.
“Are my eyes seeing the wrong thing? Is the terminal showing an error, or is the analyzing artifact faulty?”
Shin Gyeong-Pyo stopped murmuring and looked at the public servant beside him. “Is this, perhaps…?”
The public official spoke with a determined face, “Unlike the foreigners, the Awakening process was recorded in videotapes. There is no possibility of unlawful elements being involved.”
“But this is a bit too much!”
Kim Ji-Hoon, who was glaring at the hologram with a stiffened expression, spoke. “Let’s skip the useless chit-chats.”
His words were icy.
“Him being brought to this place only means that he was verified so in the previous stages.”
The public official stepped forward.
“With that, is there a need for him to proceed with the combat capability assessment? As you know, because Mana Output capacity of the applicant is over S-Rank, the evaluators get to decide on the method of grading.”
Lee Ji-Soo shook her head.
“Would it mean anything? The situation now calls for us to skip the process since we cannot safely catch alive monsters to assess S-Ranks; we are now dealing with an SS-Rank…”
But then.
Kim Ji-Hoon extended his hand to stop Lee Ji-Soo’s words.
“Wait a minute. We don’t have to necessarily skip the assessment process just because there are no monsters for him.”
Lee Ji-Soo’s gaze sharpened. “What are you saying?”
I smiled inwardly.
‘Obvious bastard. Yeah, I knew you would be that way.’
Lee Ji-Soo protested.
“No matter how well he does, we can’t give SSS-Rank in the promotional examination conducted in Korea. He would be assigned to SS-Rank as he was graded in the Output evaluation; what would there be more to this?”
“The combat capability assessment doesn’t necessarily have a positive effect.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“The rating adjustment is at the discretion of the evaluating officer who is in charge of the final evaluation. We’re evaluating whether that applicant has the right combat capability to match the SS grade. Isn’t it a rule that if we think he lacks competence for it, we can decrease to an S-Rank… Or even worse than expected, to even lower Ranks?”
Shin Gyeong-Pyo Hunter then chimed in. “Yes, if it’s only been a few months since Hunter Seo Jin-Wook to have Awakened…. Wouldn’t he lack the sense of combat and skill you can expect from hunters of S-Rank And above?”
“No, but we don’t have any monsters to assign to him!”
“Without monsters, wouldn’t we have to follow the practice of foreign countries?”
“In cases of foreign countries…. Wait a minute. Are you saying you’re going to fight?”
There are such countries that replace the combat capability evaluation with a battle among hunters instead of hunting.
Kim Ji-Hoon continued, “I guess I’m the right person for the opponent. To base it on the ranks.”
I was grateful for Lee Ji-Soo, who stood up for me, but she alone was not enough.
The decision was ultimately subject to the evaluators’ majority vote, and the current situation is 2:1. It was not enough to turn it over.
I stepped out to shorten the time.
“I understand. Put your sword against mine, right?”
Kim Ji-Hoon smiled grimly. “I’m glad you understand quickly.”
Then, a magical voice from Lee Ji-Soo rang in my ear.
It was sent to me secretly so that only I could hear it.
– Kim Ji-Hoon, that bastard, he’s setting you up purposely. Don’t expect him to be clean on this official occasion. If it’s that bastard, he could cleverly disguise things as an accident. You are aware that the recovery position isn’t an all-around, right? Even if he doesn’t kill you, he can make you stay in rehab for months…
I cut off her magic voice. I replied using the same skill as she used.
– Thank you for your concern. But I think I’ll be okay.
Her eyes widened because of the contents of the unexpected answer, and the way it was delivered.
“Okay. Let’s get this over with.”
“The whole process will be recorded on video. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried about that, but there’s something else I’m concerned about. If the battle intensifies and either side becomes unconscious, what happens to the promotion?”
“Don’t worry. The examination won’t be invalidated even if you turn unconscious. The final rating will be given by evaluating the abilities shown during the competition.”
I shook my head.
“No, no. Not that,” I said with a smile. “What about the other case?”
In other words, I meant what would happen if Kim Ji-Hoon, an evaluating officer, fell unconscious as a result of the match.
“Ha!” He smiled, showing his teeth as if he were dumbfounded.
“I heard it’s by a vote of the majority. Do the only two people except for unconscious people who can’t express their opinions have to agree?”
“You’re funny. It’s a probability that you don’t need to expect, but we’ll automatically give you an SS rating if that happens. Do you all agree?”
Shin Gyeong-Pyo agreed as if it was ridiculous, and Lee Ji-Soo also nodded with a determined look.
I looked at the public official and asked him in a carefree manner. “You’ve recorded all these comments, haven’t you?”
“···What a naïve bastard. He has a thick face differently with Seo Gyu-Cheol.”
Nate, who was observing the situation, asked Hibiki about what was going on, and she delivered the content to Nate as if she understood most of it.
Then, he murmured as if he could not understand.
“If Jin-Wook’s output is SS-Rank, isn’t he stronger than S-Rank? But how can an S-Rank judge evaluate Jin-Wook? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
Kim Ji-Hoon’s face changed completely when he heard those words. At this, I suppressed my laughter and stepped forward with my sword.
Then, I turned to Nate. “In the end, he just can’t accept it.”
Kim Ji-Hoon was now shaking. “So, you just need to prove it in front of me.”
What a shady, ugly thing.
*
After a brief time for the public official to revise the electronic documents, we stood with the sword, facing each other due to the changed standard.
‘He would want to step on me before my existence becomes the ignitor that pulls up again the Celestial Dragon, which was falling apart. He wouldn’t be able to kill me here, so is he planning to cut one of my limbs off? Staging an accident, that is.’
He knew that if he cut me up in a disorderly manner that it would be impossible for the limbs to be attached again, I would need to find a rare item called the Elixir, and it would take months to search for it, even if it were the Celestial Dragons looking for it.
He would think it’s hitting two birds with a stone if he puts the newly Awakened Hunter to a hospital bed and if he gets traumatized by it.
‘It is like declaring war against the Celestial Dragon.’
It would be considered impossible in the past days, but in the present situation, he judged that it would be worth it, risking a war.
‘As Ji-Soo said, it’s easy to stage it like an accident. To the extent of evading legal responsibility. There is going to be a lot of criticism that will follow, but he’s not the kind to care about it in the first place.’
He then said, “Since this is not the actual fight and it’s for evaluation, let’s limit the sword energy to this much.”
Cloudy sky-blue sword energy covered Kim Ji-Hoon’s sword.
It was shallow enough to cover only the blade.
I twisted my lips “‘That much’? All right.”
I also covered the common sword I brought instead of the devil’s sword with normal blue sword energy.
“Well, come first.”
“I’m glad you made concessions.”
Instead of shooting the sword energy, I took the sword and dug directly into him.
Chang!
The first moment when the two blades crossed each other. Kim Ji-Hoon’s face seemed like he realized something was wrong.
‘He must be dumbfounded.’
I had already noticed the trick that Kim Ji-Hoon had just hidden on the blade.
‘That sword mastery, [Chain Blade].’
It was a skill that raised Kim Ji-Hoon’s notoriety in the previous life, but his true ability was not known yet in this era.
The skill, which was used by assassins at different dimensions, later became famous on Earth for its unique deception tricks and brutality.
‘That sword energy reflected on the blade is not all that it seems.’
It seemed to have limited the effect of the sword energy very weakly, but in fact, if you looked closely inside, the small saw blade-shaped sword energy was vibrating and spinning at a very high speed.
Just by grazing yourself on that, the flesh would get torn, and tiny pieces of sword energy would dig into the body like shrapnels of the grenade to ripped off blood vessels, causing severe internal bleeding. In the process, the accompanying pain was severe enough to make you want to cut off the body part.
‘It’s a much notorious skill.’
Cling! Clang!
Kim Ji-Hoon was busy trying to stop my heavily struck sword for a while. I didn’t give him a chance to fight back and cornered him. Just as Kim Ji-Hoon’s thin sword energy had a cruel trick hidden, my weak-looking sword energy actually had a powerful force that had been condensed several times.
“Huh?”
There was also a strange reaction among the hunters who were watching.
“What, why is he so good at fighting?”
When it came to combat evaluation, it was natural that evaluators must lead the flow of exchanging attacks with each other.
However, now, the scene looked different from what they had been expecting.
“Kim Ji-Hoon… is falling behind.”
Meanwhile, my opponent looked displeased. “You…. What… What!”
He couldn’t even speak properly. He was in a hurry to stop my sword path that flowed like rain. As [Chain Blade] wrapped around his blade like a quiet rain shower, general attacks bounced off immediately, but on the contrary, he was being pushed back by my attacks. He finally noticed how powerful the energy wrapped around my sword was.
“This… Crazy!”
I could also hear Shin Gyeong-Pyo’s desolate voice.
“Isn’t that the output of a Hunter, who had Awakened during the Cataclysm that had lived the way of the sword for more than 20 years?”
Twenty years, that was such an underestimate. Wouldn’t it be over 500 years if the owners of these sword movements were combined?
“Keup!”
Kim Ji-Hoon clenched his teeth.
Swish!
That sounded the first barely executed counterattack. The sword energy that he released passed right next to my face.
‘Did he aimed for my face? He’s reckless.’
Lee Ji-Soo’s expression looked distorted.
“Hey, wait a minute!” She beckoned to the public official. She was trying to stop the evaluation through him as he supervised the procedure.
‘It’s the end!’
I wound up his sword with my blade and bounced it back.
The movement was flexible, as if measured with a ruler and fast enough to leave no afterimage. His face was distorted. Staring at him, I got rid of the blue sword energy and put a different kind of Mana pattern on it. A light, sky-blue sword energy, which is different from before, now covered the sword.
“No!”
The faces of the hunters stiffened. They all had noticed that the sword energy I executed was the same as what Kim Ji-Hoon had performed for his attacks so far. In that state, I drew the sword against the leg of Kim Ji-Hoon, who was currently defenseless.
Chaaak!
And a gruesome scream.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Beeeeep!
At that moment, the public official pressed the stop button.
“Stop evaluation! Stop evaluation!”
The hunters came running.
“Start with the hemostasis!”
Shin Gyeong-Pyo poured out the healing potion. Kim Ji-Hoon was crawling on the floor and scratching the ground with his fingernails.
“Ahhhhh! Son of a biiiiiiitch!”
He seemed to be out of his mind because of the severe pain that felt like it was crushing him. His eyes were bloodshot and protruding as if they were about to pop out. His face turned red, then blue again, and then darkened. One of the two legs was completely cut off, and the other was half cut. Hunters who watched the scene quickly realized that it was more than just pain from dismemberment.
“I can’t stop the bleeding! The sliced surface…. isn’t healing?”
They just poured the potion into the part that had been cut off by my sword, but it didn’t work well. In fact, if it had been executed as Kim Ji-Hoon was originally aiming for, the bleeding should have stopped by now, even if the pain continued. I gave the sword energy a variant, very lightly. Shin Gyeong-Pyo argued against me in protest.
“What the hell are you doing?”
At this, I wilfully put on a darkened expression, as if I felt guilty about the whole thing.
“Oh…. I’m really sorry about this.”
“No, I don’t care about your apologies. What on Earth have you done with the sword that….?”
“It has only been a few months since I’ve been Awakened, so I’m a little clumsy in controlling my unique skill.”
“…What?”
Small, sharp fragments of sword energy, like broken glass, continued to mutilate, penetrating all parts of the blood vessels beyond just pressing against the nerves. That’s why even if they used a potion, the wound quickly opens again.
I looked down at his leg and said, “Even if I didn’t intend to, if I think it’s a dangerous situation, it comes out so··· I’ve just imitated Hunter Kim Ji-Hoon’s skill and ‘returned it.'”
In this manner, I was going to leave hints about my fake unique skill [Replica] that I would soon officially announce. Listening to me, Lee Ji-Soo’s eyes sharpened.
“Imitating the skill you gave it back?”
I think she now understood the implications of the words right away.
Before the end of the battle, everyone had seen that my sword flashed exactly the same light as Kim Ji-Hoon’s sword energy.
She spoke while watching Kim Ji-Hoon foaming at the floor and bleeding from every hole in his body, other than the cut surface.
“You mean to say….”
Disgust spread in her eyes.
“Do you mean that Kim Ji-Hoon actually received the attack that he gave to you?”
Yeah, this is it. I smiled inwardly in reply.
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