Bring It On!
Everything had been hellish since the end of 2054. That was when her life had truly fallen apart. That was when she lost all joy in living. And today was no different.
Yuju dragged her frail body through the crowd. “Huff… huff… huff…”
Tens of thousands of people trudging along. A full 64 kilometers they had to walk. She had already been walking for four hours, with another sixteen still ahead. Tragically, her weakened body made it an ordeal.
Under the blazing sun, Yuju finally dropped to her knees.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it…!”
Her shrunken height meant more steps to cover the same distance. That translated directly into greater stamina drain. The real problem was that her changed body had also lost its former endurance. Even when she took Gwangjeungcho, her teenage body had maintained decent stamina. Now it was far worse than even those drug-fueled days.
She had trained relentlessly ever since becoming a woman, but the limits were painfully obvious and crushed her will.
Eventually, the Hunter Watch strapped to her wrist caught her eye. Feelings of surrender began to bloom—
“Yooju, I’ll support you.”
Fortunately, her girlfriend stepped in to stop it.
Lim Hana helped the sweat-drenched Yuju to her feet. Worried she might collapse from heatstroke, she even cast a simple ice spell. It didn’t create a cloud, but a chunk of ice formed in her palm.
“Yooju, rub this on your face.”
“Th… thank you…”
The rest of the group watched the pair in silence. The sight felt strangely off compared to the past, as if their memories were being distorted. The two were clearly lovers—still were, in fact. Yet the scene looked far more like simple friendship than romance. There was no trace of love in it. Only cold pity remained.
“Anyway, the test room should be just a little farther. Hang in there until then.”
“Got… it…”
They kept walking endlessly. The worry gradually faded from Lim Hana’s face until only a blank expression remained. In the distance, a white building appeared beside the road. Everyone broke into a run, shouting that they could finally rest. Lim Hana practically dragged Kim Yooju along. Even when Kim Yooju cried out in pain, she paid it no mind.
By the time they arrived, Kim Yooju had to clutch her own arm. The agony of overstretched muscles and the feeling that her arm might pop out of its socket. She had every right to complain, yet surprisingly, Kim Yooju said nothing. She simply felt grateful that Hana had helped her all the way here.
Truly, she was a hopelessly foolish woman.
“Let’s see… Combat Test… Aha!”
“Looks like we just go into an empty room and take the test.”
“But what are those people carrying out?”
They stared at the bags people were bringing out after finishing their tests. Something was pulled from one of the bags, its wrapper peeled away, revealing a burger coated in gold leaf.
They were stunned. It was simply impossible.
A gold-plated burger had nothing to do with an academy that operated on hostility toward students. Based on the academy’s behavior so far, they should have been lucky to get a single water bottle. This cognitive dissonance was the reward.
It could only mean one thing.
“If you’re skilled enough, they treat you decently?”
“Pretty much.”
“Or maybe it’s just this place. After all, this is the academy that declared it would turn top performers into graduate students.”
“Yeah, that’s true too.”
What was certain right now was that passing the test got you a burger. Since they were already starving, it was perfect timing.
Lim Hana and her friends entered an empty room brimming with confidence.
And then they were swallowed by hallucinatory magic and the violent assault of a golem.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Mooooom!!!”
“Come at me! Teeeeeng!!!”
“Kyaaaaah!”
They were spat out looking like rags. The golem kindly tossed their belongings after them. It was pathetic.
“Ugh… ughhh…”
“Is everyone okay…?”
“Y-yeah…”
They thought they had coordinated well, but reality proved them lacking. Because they had believed their abilities weren’t that bad, the blow hit even harder.
I was definitely top-tier back in Korea.
I thought this level wouldn’t be a problem.
I figured we could at least hit mid-to-upper ranks.
It’s not like I had any obvious weaknesses.
In the end, they even wondered if the test difficulty was simply absurd. Though that thought was immediately contradicted when another group emerged perfectly fine from the room next door.
What… the hell is this…
Lim Hana’s magic staff trembled in her grip. She had wandered off the right path for a while, but she never imagined she would crumble this badly.
The fight had been horrific. Her magic didn’t work. Her mana was wasted.
Not even once… did it land…
All because she had lost her childhood for a brief time. A single wrong choice had led her down the wrong road and forced her to face sin. Still, falling this far felt wrong. The girl she remembered had been overflowing with talent. Since she had been that way in the past, she should still be the same now. Talent didn’t just vanish. Even after taking Gwangjeungcho, it hadn’t flown away like the wind.
She should have been able to take down that golem. Therefore, she concluded that her condition must simply be poor. After months of being tormented by guilt, it made sense she would think that way. Though if the person her guilt was directed toward ever heard it, he would probably just scoff.
Kang Sian… Back then, I should have apologized to Sian…
At the same time, she refused to acknowledge that she had completely screwed up. To be precise, it had been another version of herself that had gone insane, but the fact that it was still her remained unchanged.
With a bitter ache, she struggled to her feet. Then she looked toward the left where cheers were erupting.
“Whoa! A burger!”
“I thought we’d fail because our gear was absolute trash, but it actually worked.”
“No kidding.”
Another group that had passed was standing in front of the test room. They must have done exceptionally well—the golem not only handed them burgers but even patted their heads.
“Damn it…”
It was frustration born of inferiority. The fear of what attitude Kang Sian might show toward her—a walking collection of sins. The fear that she might not even be able to scratch that monstrous woman, Cheon Mari, who was comparable to the Great Whore of Babylon.
Objective truth mixed in with it all. The confusing emotions that somehow still felt nostalgic made Lim Hana bury her face in the ground.
“Hana… are you okay?”
A small hand touched her. When she turned her head, her girlfriend was looking at her with a worried expression. In the past, they would have hugged each other and offered comfort, claiming it was because they cared. But now she had to make an effort to feel those emotions. It might be fake. It might not be. What was certain was that it changed depending on the moment. And right now, it was time to put on the act.
She forced the corners of her mouth upward and said she was fine. Kim Yooju, a woman who didn’t understand a woman’s heart, could finally relax.
However, the other friends didn’t share the same view of Lim Hana. And not in a good way—in a very bad way.
She should’ve done better. Why did she have to run around with dual swords…
Ha, if she hadn’t gone down first, we might’ve managed somehow.
In their eyes, Lim Hana had at least done her part. But Kim Yooju was the one who had dragged the entire party into the abyss. Even though the truth was that they had all failed together, to them it looked like Kim Yooju’s stubbornness was the cause. There wasn’t much evidence; they simply wanted to believe it.
But none of that changed anything. Lim Hana and her friends had failed the test. Now their only options were to leave or try again. If they had any pride as hunters, the latter was the only choice. In fact, even without pride, anyone with courage would choose the latter. They might be addicts, but they weren’t cowards. If they had been cowards, they never would have attacked Kang Sian out of nowhere. As the saying went, ignorance is courage. Because they were fools, they began preparing for the next attempt.
They drank potions, checked their equipment, and loosened up their bodies. Then, at the sound of something flapping loudly, they looked up at the blue sky.
A magic carpet?
A large carpet soared across the sky. Whoever was riding it was definitely disqualified. That was the basic rule, so many people thought so. Naturally, Lim Hana and her friends felt the same.
“What idiots.”
“Only people with no skill pull crap like that.”
Squelch!
Her foot sank into mud. She had thought it was a dry path, but the reality of a swamp was utterly miserable.
“Damn it, why the hell did they build the road like this?”
It was filthy, sucked at your feet, and was even slippery. Cheon Mari scowled fiercely, as if this march was far below her expectations. Naturally, the others weren’t much better off. Everyone trudged painfully across what was supposed to be a road but was really just mud. And this jogging had been going on for a full hour now.
“Sian, are we really going the right way? No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t seem correct.”
“It is. I’ve got a feeling. If we keep going like this, something’s bound to show up.”
“Nooo… something will probably appear. This direction originally led to the old Arecibo Radio Observatory, after all.”
“I’m talking about something beyond that observatory. There has to be something that proves the path we’ve taken so far wasn’t wrong.”
He added that if there wasn’t, the road would have ended long ago. Since it wasn’t exactly wrong, Cheon Mari shut her mouth and stopped complaining.
Though it was gradually fading, the four of them still firmly believed in their choice. And as if responding to that unyielding will, something reacted with murderous intent.