2
Chapter 2
This was his fourth civil servant exam.
A hundred minutes for a hundred questions.
Even for a test he had never seen before, the techniques he'd honed over four years hadn't vanished.
'First, just figure out what kind of exam this is.'
Fingers drenched in cold sweat trembled uncontrollably. Lee Yeon-woo barely managed to grip the exam paper and flip to the next page.
The cover page of instructions turned, revealing the subsequent pages where the actual problems began.
As he skimmed down to identify the question types, Lee Yeon-woo froze at the very first problem.
Question 1. A train is speeding forward. Four tracks lie ahead, and you can determine which track the train will take. With the following people tied to each track, which one would you guide the train toward?
[Track A: You alone.]
[Track B: Your two parents.]
[Track C: Five of your friends.]
[Track D: A hundred innocent people unrelated to you.]
1: Track A.
2: Track B.
3: Track C.
4: Track D.
A question with no right answer. A subjective problem that varies from person to person. A question that would cause an absolute uproar if it ever appeared on a civil service written exam.
And a type of question he never imagined he would face at this moment.
Lee Yeon-woo screamed internally.
'How am I supposed to get this right! There's no correct answer to begin with!'
His grip tightened instinctively, and the ballpoint pen dug into the exam paper as if to rip through it. Beads of sweat dripped from his chin, staining the crumpled sheet.
One drop, two, three, the stain steadily widening.
Even then, he could hear the sound of pens scratching aggressively from those around him.
Scribble, scrawl, rip, scratch.
Glancing with bloodshot eyes at the other examinees, he saw pale faces buried in their papers, their ballpoint pens dancing in a frantic blur.
'What is this? Is the test different? How are they so fast?'
The doubt was short-lived. He checked the clock at the sound of the ticking second hand and realized ten minutes had already vanished. Ninety minutes remained.
Even at one question per minute, he was running out of time.
'This is no time for this. I have to solve the problem. There's no time to hesitate.'
Hurriedly returning his gaze to the exam paper, Lee Yeon-woo barely recalled a maxim that had followed him since the college entrance exams.
'The intent of the examiner. Right. Let's figure out the intent.'
Lee Yeon-woo's eyes fixed on the six characters located at the very top of the page.
Human Qualification Exam.
An exam that tests one's qualification as a human, and turns those who fail into beasts. Considering that meaning, the intent became transparent.
'An exam to determine who is human. I just need to choose the most human answer.'
He had grasped the general context. His bloodshot eyes moved rapidly.
He interpreted the question quickly yet carefully, then chose one of the four answers.
It wasn't easy. The ballpoint pen moved back and forth between the four options several times.
'Track A? Saving 107 people by letting only myself die. Since it's self-sacrificing, Track A is the most human. Or, a humanly selfish option? Sacrificing a hundred strangers for my own sake?'
Somehow he narrowed it down to options 1 and 4, but he couldn't just pick an answer recklessly.
The ballpoint pen, hovering a few centimeters above the paper, remained frozen. It simply trembled.
If he was wrong, he might be disqualified as a human and become a beast because of this single question. What was at stake wasn't a civil servant job, but human dignity.
'What... what should I do.'
Lee Yeon-woo closed his eyes tightly. The sentences he had memorized right before the exam had vanished. Instead, his own shabby face from the mirror this morning, his parents' white-haired faces, and the faint memory of a friend's face came to mind.
'I don't want to die. I don't want my family or friends to die. I'd rather a hundred strangers die.'
His honest feelings faced in an extreme situation.
'I am human. The choice my heart dictates is the human answer. If I fail, it just means I wasn't human to begin with, so...'
As if firing a gun, as if giving up, impulsively, he slammed the pen down and marked the answer with a V.
4: Track D.
"Phew."
He had solved only one question, but he felt as drained as if he had finished a sprint. He painstakingly lifted his sagging hand and wiped the sweat soaking his face.
Perhaps because the tension had eased slightly.
The world that had narrowed down to a single question on the paper expanded, revealing the various figures in the exam room.
Rattle-rattle-
A man shaking his legs incessantly was chewing on the end of his pen.
"H-huff. Sob."
Someone was sobbing with a hand over their mouth, spilling tears, while another had their shirt drenched in sweat as if caught in a downpour.
"Cough, cough. Ahem. Hmmm."
There was even someone coughing fitfully.
Despite that, a cacophony of ballpoint pens frantically racing across exam papers filled the room.
All the noises he hadn't properly perceived due to his near-panic state now poured into his ears, disrupting his focus.
'It's too noisy.'
Frowning, Lee Yeon-woo looked for the assistant supervisor.
However, the assistant supervisor was collapsed at the back of the classroom, leaning against a locker. With a vacant expression and arms hugged around his knees, he looked like he would be no help at all.
Lee Yeon-woo forced his eyes back onto the exam paper.
'Focus, focus. I don't even have enough time just to solve the problems.'
Glancing at his wristwatch, five more minutes had passed. Time remaining: 85 minutes. Questions remaining: 99.
A horrific image of failing because he didn't shade the answers flashed through his mind. Even as a mere thought, he felt a sudden chill.
'No. Read fast, solve fast.'
Flip—flip—
As he harshly flipped to the end of the booklet, he found that every problem was similar to the first. Questions with no right answer, asking for individual subjectivity.
Thanks to that, it didn't seem like solving them would take much time. He would simply pick the honest answers that jumped out at him.
Just as Lee Yeon-woo returned to the front of the paper and raised his pen to answer the second question.
Bang!
A sound so loud erupted that he couldn't help but turn his head. A trembling voice followed loudly.
"This is a shoot, isn't it? A prank? Ha! You're all in on this together! There's no way a person... a person could become a beast!"
It was the long-term exam student who had been gesturing aggressively at the supervisor.
Having stood up while slamming his desk with both hands, he gestured wildly with contracted pupils before locking eyes with the other examinees, who had become just as haggard.
The long-term student hesitated, then suddenly bent over and began grabbing the exam paper and computer sign pen haphazardly, stuffing them into his tracksuit pockets.
"This can't be real. Insane bastards. I won't let this slide. Doing this on a day people risk their lives for an exam... I'm not letting this go. Just wait."
His hands, reddened from hitting the desk, moved busily. Despite having a bag, he awkwardly shoved the large exam paper into his pants pockets in a panic.
Then, leaving his bag hanging by the desk, he practically ran toward the back door of the classroom.
"I'll never forgive this kind of joke."
Ignoring the assistant supervisor slumped in front of the lockers, the long-term student placed his hand on the sliding door.
The diligent sound of scratching pens slowly ceased. Rattle, as the door opened, the examinees' heads turned. Multiple pairs of eyes fixed on the long-term student.
Gazes mixed with faint hope, disbelief, expectation, and fear, accompanied by low mutterings.
"Can we really leave?"
"Please."
"Right, it must be some sick joke. Like some WeTube clickbait."
Seeing the heads turned toward him, the long-term student grit his teeth, his face pale.
"It won't work. I'm going home."
Bang!
The sliding door was pulled open to the end. The long-term student crossed the threshold and stepped into the hallway.
One step, two, three, and four. He walked toward the center of the hallway without any incident.
Hope flickered across the pale faces of the examinees, and just as they began to rise from their seats instinctively.
'That's...'
Lee Yeon-woo spotted the answer sheet lying upside down on the corner of the long-term student's desk. He couldn't see it clearly, but the back of the sheet showed several heavily marked spots.
'He solved all the problems? He even finished marking the answers? Then why make such a scene before leaving? Oh, wait.'
Lee Yeon-woo looked around the exam room.
A great many examinees were preparing to follow the long-term student out, seeing that he had left safely. Even without finishing the questions.
Thirteen people. About a third of the examinees began packing their bags. A quick glance revealed they hadn't even marked their answer sheets.
A sudden chill ran down his spine.
'He wanted the other examinees to leave without properly solving it. The reason is...'
Because the Human Qualification Exam might be graded on a curve.
Because they didn't know how many people would be selected as passing.
To eliminate competitors who might be more human than himself.
As that realization hit, terror surged over him.
'What if it's relative grading? What if only one person is chosen? What if it's a test with insane competition like the civil servant exams? What happens then?'
He thought he only needed to choose the most honest answers.
But what if a competitor was more human than he was, and his human score was lower, and he became a beast?
Looking at the people standing up—examinees competing for a spot as a human—Lee Yeon-woo thought without realizing it.
'Please, just leave like this.'
As if responding to that wish, the speaker crackled.