°You gonna continue to react?°
"You're asking like we had a choice.."
°Just wanted to say before you continue to react that time is frozen outside the room so you don't have to worry° Their eyes widened at the sudden declaration and felt relieved afterward.
"There."
Right when my legs were about to give out, we found our target monster. A giant octopus running amok near the beach. There was a black hump was on its that made it seem as though it had two heads.
"How did he pull out his bullets in this state?" asked Yeonha. They should have given up on the questions, the voice doesn't seem to respond unless it's for fun.
"I'm ready."
Yoo Yeonha spoke as she lowered her body in the thicket. Jin Hoseung and Hazuki took out their sword and axe, respectively.
"When we run at it, baby octopuses will pop out of its hump. When that happens, the two of you should fall back and be on standby until I kill them all. Warriors need to save their magic power as much as possible. Black hump octopuses have high regenerative power, so we need to remove its hump in a single blow..."
"You really were planning to ignore him like that?" Suho turned to Yeonha with puppy eyes. The girl was too stunned to speak- Nah, in all seriousness, she felt some guilt on her quick assemptions on Hajin.
Yoo Yeonha's explanation continued.
In reality, it was best to leave the baby octopuses to me. A handgun had a high base power, so it could kill any number of baby octopuses in one blow. On the other hand, it was hard to damage the main body unless a critical hit occurred.
However, Yoo Yeonha didn't say anything to me.
'She really hold a grudge against him..'
So I just stood still, holding myself back from yawning.
'And he finds the time to be bored?' Suho sighed at this thought.
"Then let's start."
The moment her words fell, Jin Hoseung and Hazuki ran up. After closing in a fair amount, Jin Hoseung straightened his throat before roaring.
"Kueeeeek!"
"Kyak!"
My ears felt burning, but it had the desired effect. The back hump octopus lowered its head after discovering us. It then pointed its cannon-shaped hump towards us.
BOOM!
A thundering sound rang out, and dozens of creatures shot out of its hump. Seemingly mushy lumps rained down on us from the sky.
As planned, Jin Hoseung and Hazuki stepped aside, while Yoo Yeonha held up her whip, clearly coursing with magic power.
But I held up my handgun before Yoo Yeonha could make her move.
'Time to see him in action' quietly said Nayun in her mind as she admired Hajin fighting.
"Hey, you don't have to..."
Yoo Yeonha tried to stop me in shock, but I ignored her.
Now was the only time I could shine.
I activated Bullet Time.
Immediately, the blood in my body began to boil. My vision became clearer and the world slowed down. I could see and predict the trajectory of the raining octopuses. Their one-dimensional movement made them much easier targets than the mole crickets.
"So it works like that,.. It seems pretty effective since Hajin impressioned quite the amount of people with his gun" said Rachel to compliment Hajin. She admired him certain of his qualities and couldn't be against him if there was an argument about him.
There were twenty magic bullets loaded.
It was simple. I just had to look where I was shooting and pull the trigger. The added luck was the icing on the cake.
"No need to brag about it" spatted Jonghak seeming to be irrittated by the cadet in question.
Magic bullets silently cut through the air, leaving behind a blue trace. One bullet for one target. The clip was emptied in an instant, but unloading and reloading were also instantaneous.
I shot another twenty bullets, then another twenty.
After I shot 60 bullets nonstop, the world returned to normal.
"Sixty... Just like that?..." apparently Nayun understimated Hajin's gift since she was impressioned by the results.
"... Huh?"
The creatures covering the sun disappeared without leaving behind a trace. The sudden change made Yoo Yeonha and the others confused.
"C-Come on. Let's go."
"Ah, right."
"Yes!"
Quickly snapping out of her daze, Yoo Yeonha rebuked Hazuki and Jin Hoseung. Only then did the two warriors begin to run at the main body. Yoo Yeonha's long whip shot out and grabbed onto the giant octopus's hump.
The moment her elegant whip crushed the octopus's hump, a mole cricket shot out from the ground
Kieeek—
Crying voraciously, the mole cricket jumped on Yoo Yeonha. I fired the last bullet I had in my barrel. Hitting the mole cricket on the mark, the magic bullet detonated inside and splashed the mole cricket's blood and mucus on Yoo Yeonha.
"Ew- I mean you didn't get injured right?" asked Nayun to Yeonha and only got a glare in response with some chuckles that escaped Suho's and Rachel's mouth as they couldn't block or hide them.
Before she was covered in goo, Yoo Yeonha calmly spread out her magic power. The mucus from the mole cricket fell down after hitting this barrier.
"Uk..."
But she couldn't block everything. Yoo Yeonha gave me a deathly glare, but she knew now wasn't the time to complain. She shot out whip towards the octopus once again.
"You had the time to glare at him why didn't you just attack the creature instead of wasting your time like that" said Nayun while shaking her head. As she was about to stop "Ouch-!" Yeonha pinched her friend and only ignored her complaints afterwards.
A beast-like whip then joined the sword and axe's dance with tentacles.
**
Case closed. Time elapsed: 9 minutes 40 seconds.
Yoo Yeonha had brilliantly cut off four of the eight tentacles. All that while standing next to me and not moving more than a foot. She had thoroughly fulfilled her two duties — supporting the warriors and protecting the sharpshooter.
"..."
Now that the battle was over, Yoo Yeonha had her eyes closed shut.
Around her ankles and snow-white collarbone were the mole cricket's dried blood and mucus. After letting out a sigh, she took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped them off.
Then, she turned towards me.
"Excuse me."
Her eyes were smiling, but it didn't seem so friendly. I met her eyes without being able to answer. The anger hidden in her eyes were like blades. Yoo Yeonha was a fearsome woman. More so than anything else, she hated her body and clothes getting dirty.
"You don't have to be so maniac" was the only comment that Yeonha received from Jonghak since the start of the reaction. She bowed her head to hide her hurted feelings but quickly got up as she suppressed the sour feeling in her lungs.
"You didn't need to bother. I can take care of a mole cricket just fine. Much cleanly."
"..."
"Oh come on! He helped you!" as she shook Yeonha's shoulders to tease her.
"Because of you, my clothes ended up getting dirty."
At that moment, two insensitive warriors approached me.
"Whew, that was swift thanks to you. I saw it. You killed the baby octopuses, right? Guns have their advantage, huh."
"They don't only have one if it's in Hajin's hands" said Rachel not bothering to hide her smile and got one in return from Suho and chuckles from Nayun and Yeonha.
"That was amazing!"
It was Jin Hoseung and Hazuki, who were covered in blood and ink.
Seemingly afraid to get her clothes dirty, Yoo Yeonha slowly stepped away.
'She's too protective over her clothes' thought Nayun.
**
[Team 5 — Total time: 58 minutes 58 seconds. 16/100]
16th out of 100 teams.
Though she finished in the upper half of the teams, Yoo Yeonha's expression couldn't be said to be good.
But since grades were based on individual performance filmed through drones, she didn't mind too much. Understandably, Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak's teams took first and second place respectively. But she was bitter that Chae Nayun's team came in higher.
"Why are you jealous?" asked as she turned her head to the direction of the girl.
"You don't have to" said Suho before Nayun could comment "Everyone's good or better at something but we always have a quality that makes up for it". He tried to cheer her up before Nayun annoyed her and she smiled as a response.
"Drones filmed everything. They'll be sent to your smartwatches, so why you were quick or slow to hunt your monster, your team's compatibility with the monster, and how you could improve for next time. It'll be part of your grades."
Kim Soohyuk gave a long-winded statement. Yoo Yeonha slightly turned her head and looked behind her. A dull looking man was yawning in a daze.
It was entirely his fault that her team came in late. Because he lacked stamina, they couldn't reach the monster quickly. What should have taken just 10 minutes ended up taking 50 minutes.
"Okay it's true that it's a big difference, no need to be so harsh-"
But it was also thanks to him that they managed to end up 16th. His quick bullet serenade eliminated all the baby octopuses in 3 seconds. Since Yoo Yeonha was prepared to scuffle with them for 15 minutes, it could be said that he played a big role.
But of course, she still played the biggest role as she was the one who crushed the main body's hump.
'*sigh* You can't change people..'
"..."
Yoo Yeonha held back her impulse to blame someone. But that only increased the unreasonable sense of jealousy and envy she felt towards Chae Nayun. She faced forward and glared at Chae Nayun's head. If she wouldn't be found out, she wanted to smack the back of her head.
"Hey-! I didn't do anything!" tried Nayun to defend herself from her agressive teammate.
Yoo Yeonha's hands trembled, reaching towards Chae Nayun's head.
But instead of taking such extreme action, she lightly touched Chae Nayun's shoulder.
"Nayun, how was it?"
"Hm? Ah, it's as you see. 4th place. What a shame. I wanted to beat Shin Jonghak and Rachel. What about you?"
"I'm... 16th."
"Oh? Wow, you got 16th with that gun using sharpshooter?"
"We got the black hump octopus. We just had to remove the hump."
"And that's what you did, right?"
Yoo Yeonha nodded with a bright smile.
"Yep."
'Good to see she can control and manage her anger' said Rachel in her mind. She kinda began to fear Yeonha at this point.
**
Late at night, after the end of regular classes, I was working out in the training room.
Because I just came back from running, I felt like I was dying. But it was something I needed to do, I focused on working out for 3 hours. Thankfully, the training equipment wasn't too different from Earth's. It was only that the weights were heavier. For example, the leg extension machine went from 15 kg to 500 kg.
"Is it that huge of a gap?" asked Nayun.
"Hey the v- Hester! Is it not normal to have equipements like that?"
°Actually... You can hardly lift 100 kg and to only arrive at this, you have to train like for a lifetime°
Their eyes widened as they looked at Hajin with pity. Only Rachel and Suho looked at him with sympathy at this point.
"Ugh."
After completing my workout, I fumbled back to the dressing room like a zombie and collapsed on the seat. After collecting my breath for five minutes, I took out my laptop and a fatigue recovery drink from my bag.
First, I checked today's results with the laptop.
[Luck applies! As the enemy is only a low-rank monster, your accuracy increases greatly!]
[All attacks hit their mark! Your Gift's proficiency increases by 20%!]
[Perception increases by 0.03.]
[Luck applies! Your eyes and ears seem to work better!]
[You gain 27 SP.]
"It's unfair.." repeated Nayun mumbling, she annoyed Yeonha with that but the girl coudn't contradict what she said and only accepted to support her.
As expected, I seemed to have gotten lucky with the accuracy I showed during today's combat training. And thanks to standing out to Yoo Yeonha, I gained some SP too.
[Through working out, your strength increases by 0.02.]
[Through working out, your stamina increases by 0.02.]
[Through working out, your vitality increases by 0.02.]
[Mana mysteriously melts into your torn muscle fibers! Your strength, stamina, and vitality increase by 0.03!]
The amount of stats I got from working out was more than I expected. Something like this would have been impossible on Earth. Enlightenment and luck must have played a part.
But with the sharp pain all over my body, I wasn't sure I could even get up tomorrow.
Of course, I already had a solution in mind.
"What now?" asked Jonghak annoyed but less than before. He must have accepted his fate to react to a cadet he didn't appreciate.
===
[Fatigue Recovery Drink]
—Restores the body from fatigue. Contains a tiny amount of temperate mana.
*Current SP: 36
===
This was a fatigue recovery drink provided by Cube.
I planned on modifying its effect.
Of course, something like 'completely restores the body from fatigue' was unlikely to work. Even if it did, it would be a waste to use up all my SP. But with the right amount of restrictions, I could come up with a decent product.
I added one line to the fatigue recovery drink's description.
—If 'Kim Hajin' goes to sleep within 2 hours of use, he will slowly recover from physical fatigue over the course of 8 hours.
I put in four restrictions.
Only Kim Hajin.
Sleeping within 2 hours of use.
Physical fatigue only.
Non-instantaneous recovery, but slowly over the course of 8 hours.
[You can save the modified setting using 0.5 SP.]
Because the drink already had a similar effect, the amount of SP required was exactly the amount I gained from working out. After saving the modified effect, I gulped down the drink.
"Bulp."
Now, I had to go back and sleep.
Otherwise, the drink would have been a waste.
"Agh, my joints."
I staggered forward like a zombie.
"Like always duh-"
**
At the same hour, Yoo Yeonha was analyzing the video from the day's combat training. With several drones filming each team, she could see the battle from multiple angles.
"... At least he's quick."
The more she saw it, the more curious she got.
The black hump octopus fired a total of 59 babies. But before they could even touch the ground, they were eliminated by the sharpshooter's bullets. Black hump octopuses usually reabsorbed the babies they shot out to recover their energy. Then, they'd shoot more out from their hump. Because of this annoying trait, Yoo Yeonha was ready for a drawn-out battle, but the actual fight had ended in just 10 minutes.
"So you admit it was supposed to take longer" remarked Nayun to Yeonha with a wide smirk on her face only for it to be shoved by Yeonh's hand.
"I don't remember seeing him in Agent Military Academy."
Now that she thought about it, she felt dumb for having to think that back then. Of course she didn't see him, he didn't even exist!
The more she thought about it, the stranger this sharpshooter seemed. His stamina was abnormally lower than other cadets, and he had also suddenly changed his weapon...
That was as far as Yoo Yeonha got on her notes about Kim Hajin.
She received a sudden message.
[What's up?]
It was Shin Jonghak. With a grin, Yoo Yeonha tapped on the hologram keyboard.
[Analyzing the video from today~]
[Why are you doing that now?]
[I'm going to inherit a guild in the future, so I have to look for promising talents.]
[There are none in your team. They're all trash.]
"Wow rude-" said Nayun not bothering to turn her face.
Yoo Yeonha snickered. He was right, but also arrogant. If it was anyone other than Shin Jonghak, she would've found such behavior detestable. But just the fact that he was 'Shin Jonghak' turned his arrogance and impertinence into chicness. It wasn't a logical explanation, but the reason Yoo Yeonha liked Shin Jonghak was far from logical in the first place.
"So he made you like that? What secrets are you hiding from us Yeonha~" Nayun was excited to receive tea about everyone in this room since Hajin was the author, he must have included bad habits or compromitted informations about his characters.
[How's that gun shooting guy?]
"Haha."
So he was curious after all.
He had a pretty cute side to him as well.
'Nuh-uh' immediatly thought Nayun. She really can't understand the person sitting beside her.
[He's okay. He did a man's worth of work. Exactly what you'd expect from rank 934.]
2.78 seconds. In that short amount of time, that man had shot 60 bullets and hit 59. Yoo Yeonha made a pulling motion with her index finger. Was it possible to pull the trigger 20 times in a second? Or did that handgun have an automatic firing button?
They all knew that even with a gun like that, it can't be this effective and that the sharpshooter was everything and the consequences od these results.
Ding dong—
In the middle of her thinking, the bell rang.
[Ah, my room service is here.]
Yoo Yeonha hopped towards the door.
Opening the door, she saw her neatly dressed butler waiting in front. She was happy to see the butler her father picked out for her.
"Thank you, Sechan-ssi."
The butler bowed respectfully.
Yoo Yeonha took her food and came back to her seat.
[I'm back. Were you waiting?]
Yoo Yeonha opened the dome-shaped lid on her elegant silver platter.
[No.]
In it were plain food. A patty between two buns, the iconic symbol of commoners. On the side were french fries and a bottle of coke.
People in the room looked at the screen like there was a mistake while Yeonha blushed from embarrassement. Only Suho and Hajin knew this side of her and she didn't plan to let know anyone else about her secret.
It was a hamburger set.
First, she munched on a fry.
[What did you order?]
Shin Jonghak asked just at the right time.
Yoo Yeonha replied casually.
[Just the usual. A little bit of foie gras entier.]
"What a liar-" Nayun didn't believe her eyes and decided to not comment and shut her mouth from the shock. She did want tea but this was on another level. She smiled widely thinking about everything she will know in the future minutes~The atmosphere was quite and awkward after the reveal. Personal informations were revealed on the screen but the cadets didn't know it would be that kind of personal. Yeonha tried to bury her face in her hands avoiding subtile gazes from her friends except for Suho. He looked away with an awkward smile while Nayun looked at him like he was suspicious. The boy was not a good liar and she knew that.
It sounds fishy..
°Hey, back to the reaction. More tea is waiting for you.°
"But we didn't have tea." said Rachel confused. They didn't have tea. They only watched the screen and din't eat or drink since the beginning of their situation. Nayun looks at her with a weird look but before she could ask her how didn't she know what that meant Suho interferred.
"It doesn't mean tea that you drink. It's more like interesting facts about someone". It took some time for Rachel to process the new information and made a realisation face when she understood.
Wednesday's first class, 'anti-personnel training.'
This two-hour-long class simply had two cadets form a pair and spar each other. Spars were done with training weapons, making the fight less painful and easier to grade. In this class, Kim Suho paired with Yi Yeonghan, and Shin Jonghak paired with Kim Horak.
"Uwoooh."
"Rank 934 Kim Hajin, get up!"
"I, I can't."
"Oh~ I remember this! He looked pathetic back then." Nayun smiled as she remembered some memories of the cadet in question.
As for me, I was scuffling with the anti-personnel combat instructor rather than a cadet.
'Poor Hajin' thought Rachel shaking her head.
It was because there wasn't a gun for training. Since a real gun couldn't be used in sparring for fear of unintentional injuries, I was stuck fighting the instructor.
"That's called karma for what you've done." said Nayun with a mischievous smile.
"What did Hajin do for you to say karma?" asked Yeonha less embarrassed than before.
"Favoritism to Suho~". Looking at Nayun with disbelieved eyes, Yeonha still agreed with her. Suho was turning his head discretly while a faint blush appeared on his face. He didn't know why he reacted like that but he quickly came back to his senses and continued to look at the screen.
"What do you mean you can't!?"
The female instructor ordered me to give my all.
Exactly one minute later, it was the instructor who was giving her all. It seemed my 'Gift' was more threatening than she had anticipated.
'What a reversal' said Suho in his mind. He admired Hajin for multiple things and one of them was his capacity to desorient his opponent.
"Get up!"
Seeing my bullet slightly scratch her forearm, she got angry and grabbed me by the collar.
Now that things had come to this, I regretted spending my first two weeks in this world loafing around. I should've spent the time working out.
"He's weak, knows it, and still doesn't do something to fix it." Shin Jonghak sighed with exasperation.
"I can't continue."
"Yes, you can!"
"My body won't move."
"It will!"
The instructor forcefully pulled me up.
"Put up your guard and do something!"
"He really does have bad luck after all. The universe's balance is still working!" exclaimed Nayun.
She was telling me to do something, but the handgun in my hand felt heavy. I pulled the trigger half-heartedly. The instructor blocked the bullet with her hand. Then, she tackled me. Unable to resist, I stumbled and fell. An electrifying feeling coursed through my body.
"I give up, I give up."
"You didn't move after shooting. I said do something!"
Chak! She slapped my face.
"GET UP!"
Chak! I was starting to get annoyed. Come to think of it, isn't this woman younger than me?
'Nearly forgot he was way older than 17 years old'
"I said, GET UP!"
I refused to take it a third time. I grabbed her arm just barely, then...
"You fucker."
"Who said that?"
"I don't know." was the only response coming from Yeonha's mouth.
I bit the instructor's hair with my teeth.
"Ah! What are you doing!? 934... Ak! Let go! Let go! Let go!"
Gnashing on her hair, I pulled back as though my life depended on it.
My strange actions turned the surroundings silent, but I didn't have the time to pay attention to something like that.
"T-This is a warning! Let go! I said, LET GO!"
This hair, I'll bite it off. I swear I'll bite it off.
".....he sweared..." mumbled Rachel in english. She had some problems to accept Hajin's actions.
"Y-You...!"
I could see the instructor's fist in front of my eyes.
I had no memories of what happened next.
But since I managed to gain 40 SP out of it, it didn't feel like such a bad trade.
"Even in this kind of situation his priority's to check his SP?" Yeonha sighed as well as Suho. They were now quite acquitted with Hajin's character even though it was hard to believe that all these thoughts were passing behind these calm eyes.
**
Cube had 'clubs'.
The head instructor Kim Soohyuk told us we wouldn't be able to enjoy our youths, but I didn't set Cube to be such a horrible place. While it was normal to be covered in monsters' blood or to kill Djinns from time to time, Cube encouraged cadets to enjoy their hobbies for their mental health. Being in a relationship was technically prohibited, but it was tacitly allowed by all of the faculty.
Nayun, Suho and Yeonha didn't why they felt relieved and didn't have time to find why as the sentences were displayed on the screen.
Cube's clubs were no different than college circles. Club promotions happened in the second week after first-year cadets came in.
They were glad that their world was still a little inspired from the reality so that their friend would still find things normal contrary to the physical practice.
I set the number of clubs in my novel to be about a hundred, but considering there were only 5000 cadets in the whole school, it might not have been the most realistic. In any case, there was a club for pretty much any topic. There were hobby-like clubs like bowling, pool, and VR, while there were also academic clubs like studying, martial arts, and training.
I planned to join more than one club.
Obviously, the purpose to stay close to the main characters.
I already knew who was in which club.
'Feels weird that he knows so many things about us while we're trying to understand him until now.'
Kim Suho and Yi Yeonghan were in traveling, Chae Nayun was in traveling and hunting, Yoo Yeonha was in traveling and academics, Shin Jonghak wasn't in any, and Rachel was in reading.
Clearly, traveling club was an obvious choice. Next, I had to choose from the hunting club, reading club, and the academics club.
"So he adapted his schedule to our activities? It means that he didn't choose them because he liked them." Yeonha's resolute voice was heard across the entire room.
As students could join multiple clubs, I could join all four if I wanted to.
But that was too difficult realistically. I only had one body to work with.
"And the state of that one body isn't the best." Nayun said it in a scolding tone.
Among these, the easiest club to gain SP from seemed to be the academic club. And of the academic clubs, the academic circle called Veritas had an antagonist that played an important role early in the story.
'He already knew what was going to happen...' Yeonha seemed to remember the so called antagonist as she felt shivers running down her spine.
"VR club, Folklore Village... Interesting."
Suddenly, I got a strange feeling.
Sitting on a bench in Cube's Hero Park, I looked around. Likely because all classes had ended, the park was bustling with people.
It all felt too mysterious. The setting I had scribbled down had taken a life of its own, filling up missing holes and creating this world. There were many things that were new to me. The VR club I mentioned was one of them, and so was that couple secretly making out behind the bushes.
"Ew...." Nayun looked disgusted at the sight of this particular information.
"Ehew, that's a bit..."
Seeing them starting to get touchy, I got up with a frown.
Afterward, I ran around busily, collecting club application forms from the park. Four forms. I didn't get a favorable look when I received them, but I had succeeded nonetheless.
"I'll need to join the traveling club for sure."
Four leading characters were in the traveling club. It was the result of me wanting to tie them together for major and minor events.
"So that's why we're all in this same club, does it have another dangerous event that will occur in it?"
But compared to the club's importance in the storyline, it wasn't popular among students. It only had 20 people from all three grades, and third years were mostly busy interviewing with guilds and internship missions. Realistically, the club only had about 14 people.
I couldn't explain why. That was just how I set it because having more people seemed troublesome.
"Is writting that difficult for him?"
"I think that he just wanted to make the scenes easily."
In any case, traveling club was confirmed. After thinking about the others, I decided to join just two more. Setting the reading club aside, I chose the hunting club and the academics club.
Clubs began after all classes ended, and these three clubs didn't overlap at all. The academic club met on Tuesdays, hunting on Thursdays, and traveling was either Saturday or Sunday.
Rachel ended up being left out, but she was an untouchable existence for now anyways.
"Okay."
Thwack.
After flicking the application papers with my fingers, I stood up. Now, it was time to receive even more obscure gazes from club leaders.
"Seriously, what was he planning" asked Nayun with a curious tone.
**
The capital of Korea, Seoul, was filled with guilds that vied for the world's top position. Distinguished guilds such as 'Essence of the Strait', 'Desolate Moon', and 'Frost Sanctuary' were located in the collectively established guild district in Seoul, making it the center for Djinn and monster subjugation requests, technological advances, and businesses.
"The guild visit is set for the Friday two weeks later."
Seoul's guild district was filled with skyscrapers. But one especially brilliant building wasn't so tall. The geometric design of this building grabbed any passerby's attention. It was the building belonging to the guild 'Creator's Sacred Grace'.
With cutting-edge magic engineering technology, the inside of the building was twice as large as it looked from the outside, while its mana density was always maintained above grade 3.
"Mm, understood."
In this environment optimal for even Heroes, the vice-leader Yun Seung-Ah took her secretary's report.
Currently, Yun Seung-Ah's attention was solely devoted to finding 'promising talents'.
'So that's how he made Suho and his lover meet' Yeonha was wondering if she also had a happy future with someone, she shook her head quickly and paid more attention to the screen.
It was a widely acknowledged fact that Cube's freshman this year were exceptional. It was said that some had Gifts that could alter the guilds' rankings. If she were to let her competitors steal them, the first place position she'd worked so hard to get would be jeopardized.
'Is she treating cadets like mere objects to be stolen at any moment?'. They looked disappointed and slightly angry at seeing the guild's perception of them.
Consequently, Yun Seung-Ah's eyes were glued to the guild's intranet database, which contained videos from Cube's 1st combat training.
'They met, got to spend more time together, lived happily ever after while I can try to steal Hajin' That was Nayun's view on the situation. She didn't know why but she felt the need to set Suho with someone.
"Kim Suho really is something."
Currently on her screen was the combat training's 1st place finisher, Kim Suho.
Fighting against a monster, his sword qi stood sharply. But his sword qi wasn't the only awe-striking scene. His sword's fluid movements made it look like his sword was water. His swordsmanship didn't resemble anyone else's, almost like a formless sword technique. With this technique, he seemed to tear apart space along with his target monster.
"Thanks but Hajin already exposed Suho's abilities to us." said Yeonha with sarcastic tone.
"Yes, he doesn't seem close to any guilds either. He is first on our priority."
"I want to bring him in no matter what... Oh? Someone's using a gun?"
"Well, that's what you can call unexpected." said Nayun with tired eyes. It felt like hours passed since the reacting kidnapping and felt exhausted sitting here like that and looking at a screen.
Kim Suho's video ended, and Yun Seung-Ah's eyes scanning the remaining list shined in curiosity.
"Yes. There were talks about it in the guild community."
"Was there? Sorry, I've been too busy lately."
"It was uploaded from the Cube community. He was in Yoo Yeonha's team, which was why it gathered so many views in the first place. According to inside information, he's quite the strange one."
"Mm... strange one, huh?"
"He's not strange, he's particular and different." corrected Suho at vice-leader Yun Seung-Ah's comment that earned him a curious look from Rachel.
Curious about this unique individual, Yun Seung-Ah played the video.
[Team 5]
[Jin Hoseung, Hazuki, Yoo Yeonha, Kim Hajin]
Though not to the point of awe, the 10-minute video most certainly drew her attention.
"He wasn't using an automatic rifle and still managed to fire 60 shots in 2.78 seconds?"
"That's what Yeonha said the first time she witnessed it." said Nayun in a mocking tone.
It was physically impossible. Even if you were quick enough to pull the trigger 60 times, the gun wouldn't be able to endure it. In other words, a trans-physical power was at play.
"Yes. It seems he changed his weapon from a sword to a gun as soon as he entered Cube."
"...Enlightenment."
"She figured it right away but I don't think she's sure of her assumptions." remarked Yeonha, she didn't think of that at first and reprimanded herself for not having the same theory back then.
"I think so too."
Enlightenment at just 17 years old... Leaning back, Yun Seung-Ah fell in deep contemplation.
Changing one's weapon after going through enlightenment.
Though rare, it happened.
'I don"t want to admit it but she's smart....' Nayun frowned at her thought.
Gifts presented cadets with individuality, but before enlightenment, it was impossible to know exactly what one's Gift was. In cases like this, where one has to change to an unfamiliar weapon, one needed three years to catch back up.
"So Hajin's a genius...." murmured Rachel for Suho to hear as he smiled back at her.
This was also why Cube's lower academy, the Agent Military Academy, encouraged cadets to use a variety of weapons. Knowing how to wield several weapons made it easier to transition from one weapon to another weapon should it be necessary.
"He experienced enlightenment early, but if using a gun is all his Gift can do, I can't say it's too desirable."
"Yeah, keep thinking that so I can have him when I'll inherit the guild." admitted Yeonha.
"That's what you were planning when you found his abilities eye-catching?" asked her Nayun with disbelieved eyes.
"Right, if his Gift could be used with a bow, he would have chosen a bow."
"Except for the fact he can use it with a bow too." corrected Rachel at her turn.
Yun Seung-Ah agreed, but being enlightened at the age of 17 was still a rare occurrence.
"We should at least keep an eye on him. Is there a free recruiter?"
"No. Because of how exceptional this year's cadets are, everyone is at their limit."
Yun Seung-Ah hesitated. Nowadays, recruiters were expensive. Even if she hired a new recruiter, without attachment to the guild, they could simply run away to another guild with the guild's information.
"That'ld put her agency at risk even if she gained Hajin from that." stated Yeonha with a grin on her face.
"...Then let him be. If he really is special, I'm sure he'll stand out again."
At that decision, her secretary nodded without objection.
"So....so..." tried to start Nayun but couldn't fine the right word.
"Shameless." continued Yeonha instead of her.
"Right?". They all nodded in agreement, even Jonghak-
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