Chapter 133
Chapter 133
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 133
Chapter Title: Promotion Exam (4)
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“Where does it hurt?”
The media room began to stir.
People looked at Hilde, bobbing in the ocean with a face contorted in pain.
Hilde wiped his face with wet hands.
Even after wiping his face, the pain etched into his expression didn’t fade. Agony flickered in his furrowed eyes.
People murmured in surprise.
“Did he get hurt?”
“Did he mess up the jump? That would hurt like hell.”
“He seemed fine when he jumped in….”
The murmurs continued endlessly. Eyebrows furrowed. While people exchanged puzzled voices, Ami set down her soda.
Shu and Lee Ho widened their eyes from the seats next to her.
Ricardo scowled and muttered in a menacing tone.
“That bastard’s hiding something again….”
Only the people in the same row caught his low mutter.
Lee Ho answered.
“Why’s he acting like that?”
“No clue.”
Ami spoke as she watched Hilde take a deep breath and start swimming.
“He’s looked off since earlier.”
The swimming portion began.
Ocean swimming was another timed trial. They had to cover a considerable distance within the limit. Swimming through set checkpoints, the test ended upon reaching the protruding cape on the opposite side.
If they ran out of energy and needed rescue, they failed.
Even arriving at the destination past the time limit meant failure.
Hessy Lyle took the lead toward the goal.
Tom followed close behind without much gap.
People’s gazes flew to the rookie at the tail end and stuck there.
“He was fine when we saw him yesterday, right?”
Ricardo asked Shu.
Shu nodded without taking her eyes off the screen.
“He even said so himself.”
She’d forgotten about the open Zero Cola in her hand.
“He said his condition was great, so as long as he nailed the shooting, passing wouldn’t be an issue.”
“Then what happened last night?”
“Even the creatures were quiet last night….”
When Lee Ho asked back, Ricardo pulled out his phone to check the duty roster.
Lee Ho and Ami craned their necks to peer at the roster Ricardo held.
A shadow fell over the phone screen.
“Yeah, no kidding. Center Core was dead quiet yesterday.”
“And even if something popped up, they wouldn’t call rookies the day before the exam…. Meaning no way he got roughed up on a mission~.”
“Did he eat something bad for dinner?”
Ami turned her gaze to the screen, eyebrow arched.
“Like puked his guts out the night before….”
No clear answer emerged.
While they tossed around guesses, Hilde swam on. He advanced slowly but steadily. His speed was much slower than Tom and Hessy’s, but unlike them, he sliced through the water with barely any effort.
“He’s really good at swimming.”
Lee Ho said it, arms crossed as he watched.
Those seated in the same row silently agreed. Yet their faces remained tense.
Every time his face surfaced, pain was clear on it.
Time was getting tight, too.
Badgers began alternating between the screen and their watches.
The tension-induced silence in the media room shattered at one point.
Bang!
The door flew open.
A silver-haired man strode in amid the racket. Seniors who’d been checking watches or screens turned their heads. Shu and Ami, Lee Ho and Ricardo did the same.
The commotion was so loud even Angela and Karl tore their eyes from the screen.
Only Yoon didn’t glance his way.
But Asil headed straight for Yoon, stopping abruptly only when he reached the row where the handlers sat.
“Yoon.”
His voice dripped with anger.
Yoon lazily rolled his eyes toward him.
The atmosphere shifted in an instant. People tensed up, eyes fixed on the two men. Few Badgers didn’t know Asil had once grabbed Yoon by the collar.
Ami stood from her seat.
But Asil ignored the reactions around him, glaring only at Yoon.
“I need to talk to you.”
“What about.”
Yoon replied, eyes rolling back to center.
A precarious silence followed. Asil clenched his fist, glaring at Yoon before glancing at the screen.
His junior trailing slowly behind the others.
Asil swept his eyes over the screen with a frown and spoke lowly.
“Outside the media room.”
“Don’t you think you’re too late?”
Though he’d asked “what about,” Yoon spoke indifferently, as if he knew why Asil had come.
The ex-detective bit his lip hard.
Yoon stayed put, eyes locked on the screen.
“Sit and watch.”
“The hospital…”
“Sit or get out.”
It was a voice cold enough to make people swallow.
But the feared clash didn’t happen. Asil gritted his teeth, hesitated, then plopped into the nearest empty seat. He hunched over, glaring daggers at the screen.
His furrowed brow showed no sign of relaxing.
Those nearby craned their necks, faces eager to speak.
But Yoon and Asil ignored them.
One of them, Ami, gave up and sank into her chair.
“We gotta ask him the second it ends.”
“Please, Senior. If we go, he’ll slam the door in our faces for sure.”
“Should’ve gone sooner.”
While Lee Ho pleaded with Ami, Shu fidgeted with her phone.
The test continued. The ocean had several lifeboats floating in reserve. Among the swimming rookies, Hessy at the front was nearly at the cape. The instructors proctoring the test raised beach towels, waiting for the rookie’s arrival.
Tom wasn’t far behind Hessy. He’d reach the goal soon, too.
Only Hilde was on the edge.
People watched the white-haired rookie parting the sea slowly, in silence.
Hessy and Tom finished the test.
“Good work.”
“Congrats. These rookies are doing great.”
Two passed rookies.
People quietly offered congrats to Karl and Angela.
The pair nodded in response. If all rookies had passed, even the taciturn duo would’ve smiled and accepted. But the mood wasn’t right now.
One rookie’s pass was still hanging by a thread.
Choi Yoon’s deputy handler, no less.
The area quieted fast as Yoon’s deputy struggled. Eyes shifted from the juniors wrapping towels around themselves and collapsing on the beach.
“Whoa, he can’t stop now.”
Little time left.
At his current speed, it was a razor-thin distance. Yet Hilde suddenly halted with that much to go.
People let out startled noises in unison.
“Why’d he stop?”
“Ran out of steam?”
“So close.”
“A final sprint would’ve squeaked him through….”
“Come on, rookie! Just a bit more!”
Desperate words poured out.
Hilde, unable to hear them, bobbed there, panting for a while.
[Ha.]
Then he let out a small sound.
A voice thick with fatigue. The man raised a wet hand to wipe his face.
After washing it, he closed his eyes and tilted his head back.
Until someone muttered, “Should we call rescue?”
Until someone said, “He’s basically failed now, right?”—then he opened his eyes.
Hildebert stared straight at the drone with golden eyes.
Then he smiled faintly.
“His eyes are gorgeous.”
“He’s so handsome.”
“Whoa!”
The splashing water echoed in the media room.
“Going again!”
Hilde dove underwater.
The media room, lapsed into dismay and resignation, erupted once more. People cheered the rookie slipping through the depths like a seal. “Good job! Just a little more!” Cheers flooded out. Some called remaining time every ten seconds, others the distance to goal.
Voices grew louder as Hilde’s speed picked up.
Since diving, Hilde hadn’t surfaced once.
Existing only as a silhouette beneath the heavy blue sea. He swam on in a continuous dive. No splashing waves, no body parts breaking the surface to part the water.
He cleaved the ocean at incomparable speed.
The cape rushed closer.
In the end, Hildebert reached the cape with ten seconds to spare.
“Woooah!”
The media room exploded in noise.
People shot to their feet the instant he arrived.
“He did it!”
“He passed!”
“Hey, what was that? Why’d he go so fast at the end!”
“That guy did it on purpose, didn’t he? Damn, took ten years off my life!”
“Wooo!”
Ami jumped up and down in joy.
“He passed! He passed!”
“Ah, my heart….”
“Thank goodness.”
Lee Ho wiped his face, exhaustion deepened.
Shu set down her clenched potato chip bag.
“Thought he’d fail….”
They celebrated raucously.
The standing crowd blocked the screen. Euphoria hid the view. Few still watched the screen, thrilled by the movie-like close call.
A space drunk on victory’s thrill.
The rookie crawled slowly from the seawater.
Seniors noticed something wrong only when Hilde, dragging himself onto the beach, tried to rise but buckled at the knees and pitched forward.
[Hilde!]
Tom and Hessy’s voices hit the media room.
[Hilde! Hey!]
Eyes widened.
People froze mid-celebration.
Even those leaving the media room halted.
Ricardo bolted up. Asil kicked back his chair and stood.
Ami’s bouncing eyes turned walnut-sized. Shu spilled her Zero Cola in shock, and Lee Ho slowly rose with huge eyes.
People gawked in horror at the rookie who couldn’t stand on the beach.
[Lost your strength?]
Hessy knelt beside Hilde and asked urgently.
[Or does something hurt? Where’s it hurt?]
[Call an ambulance!]
Tom shouted, reaching an arm under Hilde’s body.
Sounds of instructors scrambling. The red-haired rookie wrapped around his fellow and supported him once they moved.
Tom teared up at his recruit panting on elbows.
[What’s wrong with you?]
[…Tom.]
Hilde muttered in a hoarse voice.
[Sorry, but loosen your arm…. It hurts….]
[My arm? Hurts? Where?]
[Did he injure it around there?]
Hessy dashed to Tom’s side as he quickly released the arm.
Kneeling beside Tom.
As he gripped Hilde’s shirt hem to lift it, Hilde let out a pained noise.
[Wait, slowly…. Slowly….]
[Why? Where’s it hurt? Did you hit a rock on the way down?]
[No… Ugh,]
Hessy slowly peeled up the shirt, and Hilde crumpled his brow fiercely.
He groped the air, clutched his fellow’s hem, and began trembling.
Cold sweat poured down.
[Sorry. Just hold on a bit. Gotta see the wound to treat it.]
[Just to the hospital….]
Hilde buried his face in the sand before finishing.
Hessy lifted the shirt.
Those in the media room couldn’t see Hilde’s torso. Hessy and Tom’s backs blocked it. Instead, they saw the rookies who’d lifted the t-shirt to check the wound freeze in place, stunned and unmoving for a while.
Gazes locked in one spot.
Eyes shaken by shock.
Hessy’s dazed voice echoed.
[What is this?]
Yoon, who’d stood, cut the feed and walked out of the media room.