Not On Purpose
I sent Kim Suhyun off to her lecture and headed toward the examination area. I waited quietly for the candidates hoping to take the test, but… there was no one. Not a single person.
This is getting ridiculous.
Just yesterday the place had been packed with students eager for their Silver exam. Today? Nothing but empty air. A few students walking by glanced at me, then immediately bolted in the opposite direction. It was bad enough that I started wondering if Jeong Yuhyeon had pulled some kind of dirty trick.
Does this even make sense? Can things really flip this drastically in a single day?
They say I’m too strict with the Silver promotion exams.
Yeah, I’ll admit it. I went in with the mindset that I wouldn’t let anyone pass. I’ll confess that part without hesitation. But I never held back anyone who was clearly good enough. The moment I evaluated them, I could feel it. They were still far too lacking.
Ever since my trait changed, I’ve been getting this strange resonance from inside. A gut feeling that if I sent them through now, these kids would meet a terrible fate. Sure, they might cruise through the Academy wearing their shiny new Silver badges for now. But in the not-too-distant future, the day would definitely come when those same students would be attending their own funerals.
It wasn’t just the average students. Lee Hyunwoo was the same. Even Park Junwoo and the rest of those delinquents were no different. The gap in skill wasn’t zero, but ultimately they were all in the same boat. If they ran into a real crisis, nine out of ten would end up dead or crippled.
As for Jeong Yuhyeon… yeah, let’s just leave him out of this.
Still, I can’t exactly go around telling people that every kind of disaster imaginable is going to hit within a year.
I even considered claiming, “Actually, my ability lets me see the future!” That way I could explain everything—from the situation with Kim Suhyun to the need to strengthen the current students. At first, it sounded like a perfect solution.
But I quickly realized how stupid that idea was and erased it from my mind.
First of all, if I claimed I could read the future, the amount I actually knew was embarrassingly small. I wasn’t even a dedicated reader, and the novel hadn’t even finished. At best, I knew that Kim Suhyun would become the Red Witch, that a catastrophe was coming soon, that certain people were secretly villains, and that a few characters would die. That was literally it.
Saying I can only see specific parts of the future sounded way too convenient. And if a real ability user who could read the future actually appeared?
The odds that my life would stop being my own were extremely high. Reading the future? Even I had to admit it was an insanely desirable trait. Individuals, organizations, even entire nations would immediately try to get their hands on me.
Honestly, that would still be the better outcome. The villains would target me instantly.
After dealing with Jeong Yuhyeon yesterday, I became even more certain. I’ll admit the Silver Gatekeeper trait is powerful to the point of being broken. But right now, I can only barely handle Gold ranks. If I push it, maybe I could manage Platinum. But at the Academy, Platinum sits between B-rank and A-rank in the outside world.
When you consider that famous ability users and infamous villains are all seasoned A-ranks, and that the Elders were former S-rank ability users…
The more attention I draw, the less future I’ll have. Right now, even if I died and came back to life, there’s nothing I could do.
The Elder I met last time—Kwak Hyuk—couldn’t even be called something I “stopped.” After just two attacks, my body had been on the verge of shattering. If Ma Hakjun hadn’t blocked the third strike, I would have died right there. And if Kwak Hyuk hadn’t retreated, I definitely would have died on the spot.
That’s exactly why I need to become stronger than I am now. For my own survival, at the very least. And on a larger scale, for everyone else’s sake.
But the kids have to actually show up first.
The words slipped out on their own. Ah, I’m screwed.
“Examiner sir!!”
Still, it seemed the heavens weren’t quite ready to abandon me yet. At the booming voice, I lifted my head. Just as I expected.
“I’m here for the exam again today! This time I’m definitely getting Silver!”
It was Lee Hyunwoo—the guy who smashed even talent itself with pure effort.
“Yeah. But I don’t see any other kids today.”
“It’s not just today. It might stay like this for a while.”
“Huh?”
“They’re saying the exam is too strict, so the students are already avoiding it.”
Lee Hyunwoo blinked at me with wide eyes, clearly having no idea what I was talking about. Anyone else might not get it, but this was Lee Hyunwoo we were talking about. A person who valued effort, growth, and every single drop of sweat along the way. If something was hard, you just had to get stronger until it wasn’t. If you couldn’t pass, you simply trained harder until you could. That was his mindset. He didn’t understand the concept of giving up. In a way, he was the perfect talent who wouldn’t break even against the most extreme gatekeeper.
“You look like you don’t understand, Lee Hyunwoo.”
“Honestly… yes. I mean, the exam isn’t some kid’s game. If you can’t pass, shouldn’t you just keep trying until you do? I don’t get why anyone would suddenly look for an easier test.”
You too, huh. I get it. But what can you do? Some people hate being called Bronze. Others have urgent circumstances. They’ll regret it later and beat the ground in frustration, but if they don’t want it, what am I supposed to do?
“I won’t be like that. I’m going to take the exam from Examiner Baek Seojin, get approved, and advance to Silver.”
“Lee Hyunwoo.”
I already had a rough idea, but I still wanted to ask.
“Why do you insist on taking the test from me? If you asked any other staff member like the rest of the students, you could get your Silver much more easily.”
He was still a freshman. There was no risk of academic probation for staying in Bronze. I asked with that nuance in mind—maybe he was feeling too relaxed about it.
“I hate doing things half-heartedly. If I’m going to do it, I want to set myself up properly, do it perfectly, finish it beautifully, and move on to the next stage. Then do the exact same thing there.”
“That’s going to be incredibly difficult.”
At my words, Lee Hyunwoo smiled as if to say I was right.
“You’re correct, Examiner. But if I put in that much effort, won’t the results be that much better later?”
As expected, the title “effort genius” suited him perfectly. He wasn’t lacking in talent, yet he also possessed effort that surpassed talent. No wonder he would achieve the insane feat of reaching Diamond in just one year.
They said he was the second such case since the Ability Academy was founded.
The other person who set such an absurd record was none other than the “Crazy Yellow Bitch,” Irina. And unlike Lee Hyunwoo, she hadn’t even taken a full year. She reached Master before the first semester even ended, graduated early, and then began crushing Gates and villains as Korea’s strongest ability user.
The author officially certified her as an overwhelmingly broken innate fraud character.
If Lee Hyunwoo was talent plus effort, Irina was simply fraud personified. Thanks to that, I was able to set a relatively detailed goal for Lee Hyunwoo. Instead of reaching Diamond in one year like in the original story, I would raise him all the way to Master. In outside terms, that meant bringing him to the level of a quasi-S-rank ability user.
To do that, two things were necessary.
First, I had to keep him forcibly stuck in Bronze to stack up as many points as possible. That part wasn’t a problem. Lee Hyunwoo wasn’t the type to fall into despair when he failed. Instead, he burned even brighter with the will to overcome it no matter what.
Precisely because of that, the second requirement became mandatory: my own ability to keep up with a Lee Hyunwoo who was growing insanely fast. That was why I needed more Silver exam candidates. To raise him, I had to raise my own level at the same pace. For now, I could somehow handle up to Gold, so I felt relieved. But beyond that, even I wasn’t sure. Honestly, I lacked confidence.
Since both Irina and Lee Hyunwoo were fraud characters, his growth rate would be monstrous.
“Examiner?”
“Ah, yes. Did you call me?”
“Aren’t we doing the exam? I’ve been ready for a while now.”
Typical Lee Hyunwoo. Unlike Jeong Yuhyeon, he wasn’t rude. He could have attacked first, but he had waited politely.
“Sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment. Are you fully prepared for the exam?”
“Of course. Please take good care of me today as well. Oh, Examiner! Since there’s no one waiting behind me today, it’s okay to make it a bit longer, right?”
It didn’t matter to me. If anything, the longer it went the more pitiful the opponent would be. Of course, to our effort maniac Lee Hyunwoo, it wouldn’t be an issue at all.
“Ah, that’s right! Examiner, did you hear the news?”
“What news?”
“You know there’s an organization called the Student Council at the Academy, right?”
Of course I knew. I had even met one of its core members just yesterday. And I also knew that one of them was trash among trash.
“All the core members are at least Gold rank, and there’s even a Platinum. But this morning, a notice went up on the bulletin board. It said the vice president has been demoted to Bronze?”
Oh. I had wondered, but it seemed Student Council President Kang Hana had handled things properly. Demoting a Gold to Bronze in a single day. Her influence as president must be quite strong. Or perhaps Principal Ma Hakjun had already known about Jeong Yuhyeon’s rotten character and trusted Kang Hana’s judgment enough to stamp approval immediately.
“But why are you telling me this?”
“I don’t know why a Gold was demoted to Bronze, but it’s not good news for the Silver examiners. Won’t he try to raise his rank again right away?”
Aha. So Jeong Yuhyeon was going to wreck the Silver examiners and climb back up? Sorry, but that’s never happening. Even if Jeong Yuhyeon died and came back to life, it wouldn’t happen. That guy is going to stay Bronze forever. He’ll graduate as Bronze, live as Bronze, and his entire life will probably be Bronze. No, even lower than that. Since he was rotten from the start, his life will be at rock bottom.
“Enough small talk. Shall we begin?”
“Yes! Examiner. Then here I come!! Uraaaaaah!!”
With a powerful shout, Lee Hyunwoo charged like lightning. Watching him, I activated my trait.
Sweet After Bitter : Trait activating.
Target — Lee Hyunwoo
Stack : 1