I'll Take the Retest's First Place Reward (1)

"What exactly is your problem? People asked Aegis for help. Of course we go help them. Isn't that what a hero does?"

An Yumin's face twisted beneath her black hunter suit. Watching her, the blonde nun Ha Yeeun ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠let out a long sigh.

"Haa... I. Already. Told. You! This collab stream is way more important! It's not just streamers showing up — famous hunters are coming too! How many times do I have to say it?"

"Hero work matters more than some broadcast! And now that the freeloader's gone, we should be working even harder!"

"But if I keep skipping important streams, what happens to our hero sponsorship deals? Without my channel — Saintess TV — Aegis never would've gotten this famous in the first place! And just the other day we already went out on a mission because you insisted, Yumin!"

"......"

Neither of them was giving an inch.

Silver-haired mage Song Sia leaned against the clubroom wall with her arms crossed, watching the argument unfold with a blank stare.

They're fighting again.

Ever since they'd expelled their operator, Lee Junwoo, those two had been positively giddy. By the final stretch of high school, both of them had piled up no small amount of resentment toward him — and once he was gone, they'd run wild. Exactly like this.

An Yumin had always thrown herself into hero work. Especially the kind that matched the textbook definition of a hero — forever desperate to play savior for the so-called poor and unfortunate.

Without Junwoo around to rein her in, I guess this is what happens.

But as far as Song Sia was concerned, that childish sense of justice was worthless. Being poor and unfortunate didn't make someone inherently good.

Over the past month, Aegis had charged into hero work exactly the way An Yumin wanted — free of charge, no compensation. And so the flood of cooperation requests had gone completely feral. Objectively speaking, the three of them were awakened with skills well above the high-school level. But three people simply could not handle that volume of work.

Even when we go out on missions, the backlog just keeps growing.

It had been different when Junwoo was around. He set clear standards of his own.

He only helped people who genuinely, desperately needed it.

And only those who understood the value of that help. Aegis was still just a club, after all. One-time assistance was one thing — ongoing care like continuous monster subjugation simply wasn't feasible.

Song Sia flicked open her phone and checked public opinion on Aegis.

Plenty of requesters wanted even more help. Junwoo had dealt with those toxic clients personally — taking the abuse himself, sometimes even confronting them head-on.

An Yumin... she used to despise him for being cruel to those pitiful people.

She'd constantly cursed him out for looking down on the weak. She'd cursed him over his private life, too.

But the current Aegis had no one left to handle the practical side of hero work. Neither An Yumin, with her justice-first tunnel vision, nor Ha Yeeun, who thought of nothing but her personal stream, was remotely capable of that kind of labor.

And of course, what Junwoo had done for Aegis was only the tip of the iceberg. Beyond all that administrative work, he'd personally managed each of the three members one by one — even Song Sia herself, who was widely regarded as having no emotions at all.

It would have been better if he'd stayed. But unfortunately, Junwoo's mental state didn't look like it could survive the formal hero activities that would begin after academy enrollment. Chronic sleep deprivation had him constantly late or absent from class. Even during hero missions, exhaustion left him zoning out more and more often.

He's not like me. Junwoo isn't a machine the way I am. Push him that hard and of course he'd break.

Song Sia quietly closed her eyes. She had been raised like a machine from childhood — stripped of emotion by her own household. Her father, the guild master, was a cold man who lived solely for the profit of the guild and the family. He drilled the same lesson into every heir candidate: just as aging athletes get sold off to other teams, anyone whose performance drops must be cut without hesitation.

Junwoo...

As an operator and manager, his abilities were solid. But as an awakened, he was so powerless he barely qualified for the title. Add the mental issues that would only worsen going forward, and there was no reason to keep carrying him. So she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had voted for his expulsion.

Let's see how far you get without me. You're going to regret this — I guarantee it.

The words Junwoo had thrown over his shoulder as he left the clubroom suddenly surfaced in her mind. An Yumin and Ha Yeeun had laughed even at that. Song Sia had stayed silent.

Expelling him had been the rational choice. She'd even believed it would be better for Junwoo himself. And yet the twisted expression on his face that day still lingered in her memory.

I'd never seen that look on Junwoo before.

Recalling it left her with a strange feeling. But Song Sia, who had no emotions, couldn't identify why. Or rather — she was somehow afraid of finding out. So she rejected the feeling outright.

It's over anyway.

The other members of Aegis, on the other hand, she still needed. As a three-person party, their composition was solid, and their public image was excellent. Even her ruthless father had praised her Aegis activities. There was no reason to sour her relationship with the other two just to cling to Junwoo.

Probably. That's right.

If An Yumin and Junwoo ever crossed paths, trouble might flare up. So Song Sia had already taken a few quiet measures to ensure the two of them never met again. Since she'd submitted Aegis's recent activity reports in Junwoo's place, it hadn't been difficult.

I've already greased a few palms in the administrative office. Even if not Theia, I should be able to secure a recommendation letter for another academy if needed.

And though she couldn't explain it even to herself — whenever she saw the way Junwoo looked only at An Yumin, that single-minded devotion of his, something in her chest had started to feel tight. Personally, Song Sia also considered staying near him dangerous.

...... Enough. Stop thinking about Junwoo.

She deliberately turned her gaze toward the two who showed no sign of ending their argument, and opened her mouth.

"That's enough pointless debate. Let's just recruit a new operator. Neither of you can even write a simple report, so the work keeps piling up."

"A new operator?"

"Yes. One person left, so we need to bring one back in."

"Fine by me! Then we need someone who can handle stream manager duties too! But absolutely no one who's a disgusting womanizer like Junwoo!"

At Song Sia's words, the other two finally ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠agreed. But the atmosphere in Aegis — once it had started to crack — would not settle so easily.

The day of the retest.

I arrived at one of Theia Academy's exam halls.

Whoa. That's a lot of people.

They shared the same foundation, so the distance wasn't far, but the high school campus and the academy grounds were kept completely separate. The retest doubled as an entrance exam for both existing Theia High School graduates and applicants from outside high schools — which was why it was held at the academy rather than the high school.

Of course, even among external awakened high schools, the top academic performers had already secured admission to Theia Academy through a separate track, no exam required. So the examinees gathered in this hall were, by definition, a tier below the students whose enrollment was already locked in.

Which works out perfectly for me.

In the original game Full Moon's Grey City, the first episode of the academy storyline opened with this retest. The original protagonist, An Yumin, also started her first quest here. The retest was a monster-hunting exam using one's own Authority. As a first quest, Normal Mode was so easy it barely amounted to a system tutorial.

But this is Hard Mode now.

Clearing the academy storyline on Normal Mode unlocked Hard Mode for a second playthrough. The true story of the original continued through Hard Mode clears — so of course this reality was running on Hard. That was why I'd worked myself half to death raising An Yumin to this point. The result? My own exile. Great.

Anyway, the Hard Mode retest was no joke. In terms of difficulty, it was harder than the final episode of Normal Mode.

The old me never could have managed this.

Even on Hard Mode, I'd cleared it so many times I had every pattern memorized cold. But with my old garbage Authority, even a veteran like me couldn't pull it off — especially not first place, which required competing against one particularly troublesome character.

But that was then.

Through my 2nd Awakening, I now possessed the Authority known as the Throne of the Shadow Mirror.

And I've already acquired an item that can generate a new Authority.

The graduation commemorative piece: a Holy Knight's Sword Blessed by the Goddess. Honestly, it wasn't a particularly special blade. Just an ordinary iron sword carrying a blessing from Goddess Church priests — not much different from a longsword you could buy at any hunter shop.

Price-wise, maybe a few million won at most.

For fresh academy cadets just graduating, it was a decent enough item. But high schoolers, the moment they graduated, wanted nothing more than to shed every last scrap of high-school identity. The sword was stamped with the high school's emblem and graduating class number, so most Holy Knight graduates were embarrassed to be seen using it.

But that was only true for people who didn't understand its real value. For me, it was different.

That emblem and class number bumped it up to rare-item grade.

Just like how my phone never produced a usable Authority — any item you could buy off the shelf was worthless to me.

As that description made clear, rarity was what determined an Authority's grade. An item obtainable only by Holy Knight graduates of the prestigious Theia High School carried considerable rarity. And whether it was the Goddess's blessing or something else, the blade stayed brilliantly polished even without maintenance — so, as expected, it registered as a mirror.

Which meant I could use the Throne of the Mirror.

Through the Holy Knight's Sword, I'd acquired a new Authority. It came with a usable attack skill, and I'd spent the remaining time properly leveling it up.

First place is well within reach.

From Hard Mode onward, the first-place quest rewards were genuinely worthwhile. If things went well, I might even snag another item for a new Authority.

From here on out, every reward I can get my hands on is non-negotiable.

Having obtained a cheat-tier Authority and title, the system had already warned me that I could never defy that fate. Whether it was revenge or becoming a big name in the underworld — with civilian-level stats like mine right now, I was in serious trouble.

Fortunately, the title Cold Fire Avenger doubled all rewards earned through academy-side activities.

I was calmly running through the retest patterns in my head when someone suddenly spoke to me.

"Um... is Group 13 supposed to wait here?"

I turned my head. A female student with long black hair and a neat headband was looking at me.

Just like in the original — she came for the retest.

The rival of this episode in the original work. And the key figure who would later become central to the underworld content: Choi Hana.

There was still a little time before the retest began.

I tightened my grip on the sword hilt. Choi Hana and I were both in Group 13 for the retest. Keeping a bit of distance, the two of us practiced separately.

Swish— Swish—

I could feel Choi Hana's sideways glances as I swung the graduation Holy Knight's Sword.

Choi Hana.

As a hardcore veteran of the original, there was no way I wouldn't know her. Full Moon's Grey City, being a mobile game, had been light on content at launch. One of the features added across multiple seasonal updates was The Grey City's Underworld — and the fact that Choi Hana was the main character of that content had genuinely shocked the player base.

Originally she was basically just an early-game boss type.

Like this retest — Choi Hana was the rival of the story content's first episode. In short, a quest NPC. But for a throwaway role, her character design was so good that a lot of people found it a waste. A cool beauty with long black hair was never going to lack fans.

Whether the developers took that feedback to heart or not, Choi Hana received additional lore and was elevated to the main character of an entire content arc: the daughter of a fallen underworld boss. A setting that suited her appearance so perfectly that players went wild for it.

Though for all that hype, the content difficulty was way too high.

And the newly released limited-gacha version of Choi Hana got mixed reviews for being awkward to use in practice relative to her 4-star rating. Unlike Song Sia or Ha Yeeun — beginner-friendly must-have characters — Choi Hana was notoriously demanding to build.

But as a top-tier ranker, I'd always slotted Choi Hana into my PvP decks without fail. Meaning I was more confident than anyone when it came ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to raising her. Even though I'd been an An Yumin simp back then — and even though we were from the same high school — in this reality, I'd never had a single point of contact with her.

Going forward, that would change. The hidden title Unknown, and the fate of having to reign at the summit of the underworld, meant I would inevitably become entangled with Choi Hana.

But by nature she was deeply wary, and true to her looks, she built ironclad walls around herself when it came to men.

Ha. Come to think of it, my reputation with the girls at Theia High School was... not great. All misunderstandings, of course. Still — even if working with her was mandatory going forward, getting close wouldn't be easy. Though getting close was exactly what I had to do.

Well. Even so, I'm not giving up first place this time.

In the original, first place had belonged to An Yumin anyway. Me taking it instead wouldn't cause any problems.

I focused. It was time to put my first real Authority — the one I'd finally obtained — to use in the retest.

The graduation Holy Knight's Sword. The Authority forged from that blade manifested through my body.

In that instant, the look in Choi Hana's eyes — still watching me — changed.