The Superpower Testing Room
Superpower Testing Room #032. No matter how much I called upon my ancestors, nothing changed. The training repeated every day until my mental strength was completely drained, like wringing out a dry rag.
“One, S-rank! Two, S-rank! Three, S-rank! Why aren’t you following along?”
“No way, not even A-rank but straight to S-rank? Isn’t the goal way too high?”
“If you’ve got talent, you should aim high, right? Besides, the higher and more unrealistic your goal is, the better.”
“Just what kind of talent are we even talking about…?”
Whenever I asked what this so-called talent was, she’d just say she could tell at a glance. It was nice that she was being generous even if it was vague, but no matter how I looked at it, I was clearly someone who would stay in the lower-middle ranks because of my mana issues.
“Here, time for your injection.”
“No…! Steroids are bad for you…!”
“Oh come on, stay still. This isn’t steroids. It’s a mix of aspirin, elixir, and muscle growth agents.”
“That’s even worse…! Gyaaaaah!”
“Hold still! Besides, this has little to no addictive side effects!”
Meanwhile, the drugs were administered. The injections she’d given me several times before were medicines I vaguely recognized.
‘Isn’t this the growth accelerator that shows up as a consumable in the game?’
It was a makeshift drug you could make by combining elixir, aspirin, muscle growth agents, and a few other medicines. It temporarily reduced recovery speed but granted extra experience points during hunting or training, so it was widely used. Of course, since it only gave flat bonus experience rather than a percentage increase, it was only efficient in the low-level range. Considering my current state was rock-bottom even among low levels, it seemed like she was using it at just the right time.
“Alright, now spread your legs and stand.”
“They’re spread.”
“Wait, let me adjust your posture a bit.”
“……Why the legs, though?”
“I’m going to split your legs.”
“What, what? Legs?! Aren’t you supposed to do that slowly?!”
“Normally, yeah. But you’ve got talent, so it probably won’t matter much.”
“What kind of dogshit logic is th—”
“Relax! One, two, three!”
Crack.
“Kyyyyyeeeeek!”
My legs were mercilessly split apart. Even though I screamed in pain, the elixir and painkillers fixed me right up. What followed was stretching based on flexibility. Cheon Mari demonstrated absurd postures, yet somehow I managed to pull them off too.
“I’m burning out……”
“Sounds like you’ve still got plenty left to burn~ In that case, five more sets of lat pulldowns~! Back to the elixir tank we gooo~!”
“Eek.”
Doing an I-pose against the wall wasn’t enough; I had to mentally grind through all sorts of exercises. Even then, my body had gotten so used to it that it started moving on its own.
“Four more! Just four more! Four more and it’s the last set!”
“You bastard! How many times have you said it’s the last set?! And it was three just a second ago! Why’d it jump to four?!”
“The meaning of ‘last’ changes depending on the situation and atmosphere! Good, you’re doing great! Come on, for my sake, let’s do five more!”
“Ugh.”
I hated myself in every way possible. I wanted to rest.
“I-I have to run away……! I don’t wanna dieeeee……!”
“Where do you think you’re going? Our cute little Kang Si still has at least three more hours, don’t you think?”
“Hwaaaaaah!”
My whole body felt like it was turning to dust. I tried to flee, but I was only dragged back. No matter how much I struggled, once Cheon Mari picked me up, there was no resisting. Just as I was about to resign myself and continue training with parched lips, a sudden thought struck me. I looked at Cheon Mari, who was lifting a 300kg barbell with one hand beside me.
“This…… How long do I have to keep doing it……?”
“Hmm…… We’ve done one week, so two more should do it.”
“T-Two weeks? It won’t get longer, right?”
“Don’t worry! If we increase the intensity every day, it won’t go beyond two weeks!”
There was nothing but training. This was hell. I let out a silent scream as the days dragged on. It was rehabilitation without any actual recovery.
* * *
Exactly three weeks since training began. Half of vacation had passed, and the day of my discharge from the hospital was approaching. Every single day had been the same. Endless training. Endless time in the tank. Collapsing from exhaustion at the end. Cheon Mari would collect me and carry me back to the hospital room. It was amazing that I’d kept this up for three whole weeks. It was amazing that a mere middle schooler had gained muscle at all. It was amazing that the foundation, the very basics, had been laid.
One thing that hadn’t changed was that I still had to go to Nartika. Even the day after the intense training ended, I wandered through the company’s interior. It had felt unfamiliar and awkward at first, but after three weeks, that feeling had faded.
“Oh my, who’s this! Isn’t this the little elf kid who comes by our company every day?”
“Hello~”
Some people even recognized me and started talking to me. The most notable were the group of women who exercised every morning in front of the gym. The hunter noonas I ran into whenever I headed to the special training facility. They often called me cute, patted my head, or gave me snacks. Sure enough, today they were grabbing my cheeks and ruffling my hair, saying how adorable I was. I forced a smile to make it obvious I was still a middle schooler.
“He’s getting more like a man every day, isn’t he?”
“Yeah. Just three weeks ago he had this gentle vibe, but now……”
“Now what?”
“No matter how you look at it, he’s seriously f— Mmph!”
“Hey, don’t say weird stuff in front of the kid. Let’s just go train. Kiddo, these dumb noonas were just feeling lonely and talking nonsense. Forgive us.”
One of the hunters covered another’s mouth and urged her along. The rest, however, lingered, looking like they wanted to touch me a bit more.
“Lonely, my ass…… Anyway, look at those abs. Have we ever had a middle or high schooler like this coming through the company?”
“Probably not. Most of them just slack off relying on their parents.”
By the way, there were plenty of other students besides me who came here. It was because Nartika had a program that supported and trained employees’ sons and daughters if they wanted to become hunters. In short, there were kids training through company welfare. I’d never actually met them since they trained on the opposite side from where I did.
“Ahaha, that tickles.”
“Aww, you’re so cute. Hey, want noona to buy you something tasty?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Wanna come over to noona’s place after we’re done? I’ll cook something delicious for you.”
“What…… kind of delicious thing?”
“Hmm, for something tasty, of course it’d be noo—”
Her mouth was covered again. A hunter who had been watching with a fed-up expression spoke up.
“This girl’s lost her mind. You know who this kid’s friends with. What are you gonna do if it causes problems later?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. As long as we don’t get caught, right?”
“Caught, my ass. I don’t want to get fired, okay? Potion costs are already high enough. I don’t even want to think about how much more it’d cost if I got fired from here.”
“Still, wouldn’t it be worth taking a chance once? Huh?”
“Chance, my foot. That’s literally a crime.”
Eventually, the two hunters started bickering. Stuck between them, I could only quietly watch the situation unfold. No matter how much I tried to read the room, the atmosphere remained oppressive. The one saving grace was that the other noonas quietly pulled me out of there.
The noonas who freed me told me to come eat with them next time, to come play at their place, to hang out together, and to be careful on my way. As always, they were kind and friendly people. I couldn’t understand why Cheon Mari didn’t like them much. Calling them criminals, saying their abilities were bad, claiming they only thought about shady stuff. Tsk tsk.
I clicked my tongue and headed toward the usual training area. But today, something felt off.
“Huh, Mari. No training today?”
All the exercise equipment had been pushed to one side. Only emptiness remained in its place.
“I told you yesterday, didn’t I? The foundation’s done, so we’re not doing that hardcore stuff anymore.”
Physical training was complete, so we were moving on to the core of the core—combat training. I wasn’t sure what kind of combat training we could do in a place like this, though.
“But it feels a bit empty to train here. There aren’t even any holograms or anything.”
Usually, academies or companies used holograms for hunter training. Even if it was less efficient than real combat, it was used because the user got hurt less. Naturally, given how things were, if I were training, that’s what I should be using. But there wasn’t really any electronic equipment here.
“Of course there isn’t.”
“Huh?”
“We were never going to train here in the first place.”
Ah, so that’s what it was. In that case, it probably didn’t matter. Cheon Mari soon started walking somewhere, leading me along. We weren’t going to another building, but heading further down a floor. The place we arrived at had a logo combining a person and lightning drawn on the door.
— Superpower Testing Room
“Superpower?”
What? I didn’t think measuring anything here would change anything. When I looked at her with a puzzled expression, she gave a short reply.
“You probably know this already, but before we start real training, there’s something I want to check properly.”
Yet despite her words carrying a hint of doubt, her expression was full of confidence. It was as if she truly believed I wasn’t someone with unconscious mana or whatever, but an actual superpower user. I had no choice but to tilt my head in confusion at the inexplicable situation.