Chapter 21
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Limit Measurement
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C2 Field. Class C freshmen lined up in formation. Just like Class A, they donned their interface bands and waited. One by one, they began their limit measurements.
"Phew. I'm so nervous."
"What's there to be nervous about? Just let it all out."
"Easy for you to say. You're manifestation type. Enhancement types have to put on a show."
It had only been a day at the Academy, but cliques were already forming. Boys with boys, girls with girls. With crews not yet assembled, most stuck to their own kind.
Men and women were separated, but wasn't completely severed. Beneath the surface, girls were still vying for the boys' attention.
Who to approach for the smoothest entry into a crew? A fierce numbers game raged on. They smiled, but the smiles weren't genuine.
'Phew, I can do this.'
Yoo Gayoung stood alone amid her peers. Her status was lofty, but her skills were lacking, leaving no one by her side. It had been this way ever since her superpower awakened.
At the Yoo Sung Group main house, in Purifying Flame's Team 1, and now here at the Academy. Yoo Gayoung was always on the outside looking in.
"Tsk tsk. You see that video from yesterday?"
"The one where she's vulgarly jerking off on a park bench?"
"Doesn't even know her place, begging someone to take her in. Makes no sense."
They whispered about her—loud enough to carry, but pretending it was hushed. Adjusted just so it reached her ears. As if they wanted her to hear.
In Class C, Yoo Gayoung was practically an outcast.
Resentment toward forbidden superpower breeding, jealousy and inferiority aimed at chaebol heirs, contempt for the "failed" third-generation scion of Yoo Sung Group—
It all blended together. The hostility was so blatant it thickened the air around her, keeping everyone at bay.
She was used to it by now. Others' stares had crushed her before, but they'd also fueled her resolve to rise again.
—Miss Gayoung, you can do it. I'm just F-rank myself, but I climbed all the way to Yoo Sung Group security detail.
—My security got demoted...
—Tch. Don't sell yourself short, miss.
The criticism hammered at her like a blacksmith's mallet. It forged her singular determination to overcome these unfair odds and prove herself to Yoo Sung Group. She'd steeled her will and trained until her bones ached.
That grit had landed her a reliable captain. She didn't know when he'd tire of her, but until then, she'd make full use of him.
Yoo Gayoung had no intention of squandering her stroke of luck.
"Next. Number 12, Yoo Gayoung."
She gathered the surging energy boiling up from her lower abdomen—right where her womb sat—and stepped forward. She would give her all in the limit measurement. For the highest rank possible.
The limit measurements proceeded steadily, starting with Kang Minjung. Students revealed their true limits one after another.
Manifestation types unleashed their powers in torrents. Elements raged, targets shattered. They poured their strength into airborne targets until they collapsed in exhaustion.
Evaluations combined multiple criteria. To my eyes, it looked like Lim Sarang was scoring arbitrarily. A quick glance and jotting down numbers—hardly objective.
But the students said nothing. They accepted their scores in silence. Maybe Lim Sarang was more impressive than I'd given her credit for.
"Next up, Jeong Sua. Come on out."
Jeong Sua stepped forward, a wooden sword strapped to her back from who-knows-where.
The girls' eyes locked on her. She was the Academy's top admittee—number one among every Korean applicant. Impossible not to watch.
'How impressive is she gonna be?'
Nerutube overflowed with hero footage. Channels dissected their fights in detail. Naturally, clips of Korea's top hero, the world's top—even those.
They wielded overwhelming might. On screen, heroes fought like gods of war, dazzling in combat prowess.
Korea's number one hero was an Academy grad, just like these girls. Jeong Sua growing to that level? It sparked vague fantasies.
So her limit measurement had everyone hooked. Enhancement type—what level target would appear...?
A single target materialized. A monster with real physical mass, summoned by the interface band. What incredible engineering.
The dummy resembled a ragged centipede. A glowing "20" hovered over its head—its level.
Past enhancement types hadn't come close to level 10. Yet Jeong Sua started at 20—
'What a gap.'
The number drove home the chasm between her and her peers.
"Level 20..."
Lim Sarang was evaluating. Scoring every move Jeong Sua made. The interface band tracked her physical changes, feeding data straight to the teacher.
I watched it all unfold from behind Lim Sarang.
"How strong is a level 20, teacher?"
"......"
I kept firing questions whenever something piqued my curiosity. I'd been pestering her nonstop during measurements. At first she shooed me away, but eventually she just gave up.
"Interface dummies are about half the strength of the real thing. That level 20 dummy? Actual monster's an Undead Centipede—closer to level 40."
"So, in terms that—"
Lim Sarang scowled and cut me off. Her glare was sharper than usual. Tense over the top admittee's evaluation.
"...You know gate ranks?"
"No clue."
"...What about hero-monster comparison metrics?"
"No idea..."
"Then how am I supposed to explain? You know nothing."
"......"
That's when Jeong Sua shouted.
"Teacher! Tell me how much I get if I take this thing down!"
"...Oh!"
Her words struck like lightning. A way to gauge the thing's power clicked in my head.
No matter how you dressed it up, monsters boiled down to money.
Monster value, gate danger, hero ranks—all factored into one number: bounty payout.
Know the subjugation fee, and you could ballpark its strength.
"Level 40 Undead Centipede. Gate popped up in the US West Coast. First subjugation clocked in at about $10,000."
"Uh, um... one, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand... dollars, so three more zeros... ten million won? Ten mil for one bug?"
Ten million won per monster. Catch one creepy crawler the size of a two-story house, pocket ten mil. Suddenly its threat level sank in.
"...That's insanely strong."
A level 1 goblin fetched 1,000 won. This was ten thousand times that. You'd need to slay 10,000 goblins just to tango with one Undead Centipede. It hit me.
'Wow...'
Could Jeong Sua take it down? The band summoned based on her limits, but she might still struggle and fail.
"Jeong Sua, ready? Operate the interface to start the measurement."
"Yes."
She drew the wooden sword from her back and gripped it. A few practice swings to test it. Her handling was no joke.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—whoosh. She toyed with it like a pen, total control, like it was glued to her hand. Mesmerizing.
'Sword Fairy—that's Jeong Sua's superpower.'
A blade-based ability. Just how powerful...?
Kieeeek—
Jeong Sua tapped the air interface, and the Undead Centipede lunged.
It looked ready to crumble—ragged and unsteady. Body the size of a two-story house. Just watching made my knees buckle.
Thinking of facing that? My interest in being a captain suddenly plummeted.
"Captains go inside gates too?"
"Gotta follow to supply heroes with semen."
"Ah."
I seriously hated that idea.
Kieeeek—!
The Undead Centipede roared. Green venom dripped in globs as it charged Jeong Sua. Blinding speed.
Jeong Sua showed no sign of dodging. Stood rooted like a tree. Just held her wooden sword at a slant.
Kwaaaang—!
Like it wanted to burrow into the earth. It slammed its head down viciously. Crashing into the dirt—no undead smarts there.
But a solid hit. It swallowed Jeong Sua whole—ground and all—in one gulp.
Shwaaak—
The moment I thought she'd been eaten, the Undead Centipede split clean in two. Venom sprayed everywhere. If it weren't interface-summoned, we'd all be showering.
The corpse and poison dissolved into holographic shards.
"Keep going."
"Yes."
Jeong Sua was unscathed. Still full of energy after slaying the band-spawned monster. Even accounting for my semen, wasn't this a bit much?
A new dummy spawned.
Level 25. The interface had bumped up her assessment. Credit for one-shotting the Undead Centipede. But even the level 25 fell to a single slash.
"All top admittees like that? Is it common?"
"Huh?"
Lim Sarang shot me a look like I'd said something stupid.
"That's rare even here at the Academy. World-class talent."
"World-class?"
"But top overseas academies? They wouldn't take her."
"Why not?"
Lim Sarang chuckled.
"Her written score was in the gutter."
"...?"
"Near zero on the written exam. To claim top spot anyway? She had to deliver that. Naturally."