017. Skill Reveal (1)
017. Skill Reveal (1)
The blazing sun scorched the ground.
Heat shimmers rippled over the training ground track.
And on that track, I was running.
Huff—
Haaah—
Huff—
Haaah—
My breath was stuck right at my throat, and my heart pounded like it was about to burst.
My grown-out hair was already soaked with sweat, stinging my eyes.
The fiftieth lap was right in front of me.
My legs felt as heavy as if iron weights were tied to my ankles.
If I'd paced myself from the start, it wouldn't have been this hard.
'Fifty laps at a dead sprint right from the start...'
I don't know about other people.
Because right now I'm dying of exhaustion.
The only thing that mattered was putting one foot in front of the other, alternating left and right, and pushing one more step ahead of me.
Still, I'd almost finished the laps.
Honestly, from the midway point on, I couldn't even remember how many laps I had run,
but right around the time I started losing track, the Instructor called out my count for each lap I completed.
"...Fifty. Cadet Jin Yu-ha, good work."
"Huff, huff—!"
Thud.
My knees buckled and I collapsed on the spot.
Drip, drip.
Saliva spilled from my mouth.
That sickly sweet taste in my mouth was fucking awful.
"...Cadet Jin Yu-ha."
"Yes?"
I knitted my brows and lifted only my head.
"First, at least drink some water."
The Instructor held out a water bottle to me.
"Ah, thank you."
Gulp, gulp─
As I gulped down the cold water, my mind cleared a little.
Only then was I able to check my surroundings.
Kang Do-hee, Shin Se-hee, and the two other guys were all looking at me.
Kang Do-hee seemed to have finished her fifty laps long ago and was already on to the next exercise, while Shin Se-hee was still standing on the track.
And those two guys were off the track as well, but...
if they aren't doing the next exercise, what the hell are they sitting over there for?
I remember those bastards crashing out after just two or three laps right at the start.
Every single one of them stood with their mouths hanging open, wearing an expression like they'd just seen something unbelievable.
"Impressive. I honestly never expected you'd actually manage it... You really surprised me."
The Instructor was the same.
"When you said you'd train at the standards of a special admission cadet... honestly, I thought it was just false bravado. But it seems you had your reasons."
"...Heuheuheu."
A laugh naturally slipped out.
"Then let's proceed directly to the next training."
Four hours of basic training followed, from 8 a.m. to noon.
As she had stated the day before, the Instructor conducted the training based on the standards of the special admission cadets.
Training where we tied weights to our feet and repeatedly climbed a rope up and down.
Then training where we did push-ups in a handstand.
Of course, still with weights strapped to our feet.
Then squats and lunges to build thigh strength.
As befitted a Hunter's body, distinct from an ordinary person's, the units of weight were different, and the brutal training continued, testing the limits of the body at every moment.
Of course, not everyone could train at the same pace.
No matter the exercise, Kang Do-hee was the fastest, followed by me. And after me, Shin Se-hee, the Wizard.
And the two tag-alongs just dabbled a tiny bit in the beginning before crashing out immediately and taking a break.
Maybe because I was right there as a point of comparison, every time that happened, the Instructor's expression hardened with clear displeasure.
By that point, I was basically being treated the same as a special admission cadet.
"That's all for today's basic training. Good work. We'll reconvene after your meal. Individual role training will start with theory."
At that, Kang Do-hee vanished as fast as a puppy about to shit.
'Guess she's off to enjoy a smoke.'
She held out for four hours of training, so it's understandable.
I tried to get up from my spot too.
"Are you going to Do-hee again?"
The one who stopped me then was Shin Se-hee.
"Don't do that and just have a meal with me. I'll treat you. Is there something you especially like?"
"Not necessary."
I radiated obvious discomfort as I refused her.
At that, Shin Se-hee's smile only deepened.
"Jin Yu-ha, you really are interesting."
"I, for one, am not particularly interesting. Can I please just go now..."
I tried to brush her off with a suitable reply, but Shin Se-hee started talking entirely on her own terms.
"Clearly, you don't strike me as someone who'd need to enter through the quota system... so why did you come in that way...? That's been bothering me so much. So I want to know..."
"...."
"And strangely, you seem wary of me even though we've just met for the first time, haven't you?"
Shin Se-hee tilted her head sideways, a finger pressed to her lips. She definitely had the pristine, sparkling looks of someone who built a fandom on her face alone.
"If you know I'm wary of you, could you not be a little wary of me too?"
"Why on earth do you dislike me so much? I've never done anything to you."
Shin Se-hee asked as if she truly couldn't comprehend it.
"Hey, there are two guys right over there who like you. Why not pay attention to them instead?"
The quota students, who were maybe lamenting among themselves, sat slumped on the ground, heaving out sigh after sigh.
Shin Se-hee looked at them with coldly sunken eyes.
"...Ah, you mean that trash?"
Shin Se-hee spoke in a voice full of contempt.
This time, it was my turn to be a bit surprised.
This girl isn't the type of character to say things like that so directly.
"Ah-ha!"
Perhaps seeing my expression, Shin Se-hee burst out laughing, giggling away.
"Ah, that look on your face. It's way too fun! Why, didn't you think I'd say something like that?"
"To be honest, yeah."
I nodded, feeling nonplussed.
"Mm, but if I didn't do at least this much, I felt you'd absolutely never give me the time of day. See? You're finally looking at me now."
An odd light flickered in her eyes.
'...Ha, shit. This is exactly why I was on guard against getting tangled up with her.'
Shin Se-hee was smart.
Occasionally that intelligence leaked out in weird directions, but that didn't change the fact that she was sharp.
Since she fundamentally enjoyed scheming from behind the scenes, she was quick to assess people and grasped in an instant how to play someone in the palm of her hand.
Hardly a day had passed,
and she'd apparently already calculated that the ordinary approach wouldn't work on me.
'But is she really worth going this far for me?'
"I could treat you far better than Do-hee does. Why do you insist on following her around like that?"
"Because she's trustworthy."
At that, Shin Se-hee let out a little laugh, kuk-kuk.
"Even so, Do-hee will be difficult, you know?"
"She thinks I got in easy without any effort. If I can just show her that isn't the case..."
"No, it's not about that. No matter how impressive you prove yourself, you won't be able to get close to Do-hee."
Shin Se-hee spoke with an uncharacteristically firm voice.
"Do-hee simply despises the Male Quota System itself with a passion. It's connected to how she lost someone precious to her."
"What...?"
What the hell kind of bullshit is that?
I recalled Kang Do-hee's personal story in my head.
— Guild Master...
Right, the Guild Master.
When it came to someone precious to Kang Do-hee, it was definitely her.
Whenever times were hard or a situation was difficult, Kang Do-hee would light up a cigarette and think of the Guild Master.
I knew her as the unni Kang Do-hee had followed ever since she was young.
'I'm pretty sure she was betrayed by people... the guild she belonged to was disbanded, and from then on Kang Do-hee started operating alone.'
Since it was Kang Do-hee's personal story, the narrative about the Guild Master stops right there.
After that, it's the process of a wounded puppy slowly opening up her heart.
The character was charming in how her initially self-righteous personality gradually transformed into a bright, open one.
So I had anticipated being rejected to some degree from the beginning.
'But, that Guild Master being betrayed is connected to the Male Quota System...? How in the world?'
I looked at Shin Se-hee.
"If I dangle this as bait... I think you'll bite. So, how about it? Shall we have a meal together?"
A mischievous smile hung on her lips as she spoke.
"If it's just a meal... Fine."
I nodded.
* * *
The place she led me to was famous for being expensive, even within Velvet Academy.
A place you couldn't even go to without a reservation.
It was probably booked up months in advance.
《Lohana Restaurant》
In Velvetsra, the Sponsor—the Player—could give gifts to characters,
and among those, a meal ticket for this 'Lohana Restaurant' was one option.
'It's a must-visit spot that raises affection for any character who loves food.'
As expected of a rich young lady, she got right in free pass, no reservation needed.
"Thank you for visiting, Shin Se-hee. I'll help you with your order."
A smiling employee approached and took the order. At that, Shin Se-hee asked me,
"What would you like?"
"...Black Cow steak. Medium rare. Handle the rest as you see fit."
When I answered without even looking at the menu, Shin Se-hee looked surprised.
"Wow, that's the best thing here! Ah, I'll have the same, please. And the rest, the usual for me."
"Yes, order received."
"Jin Yu-ha, have you been here before too?"
"...Not often, but yes."
It felt weird to say I'd been here often in a game, so I answered like that.
"I see. But why didn't I know about you..."
"That's not important, so let's move on. Why exactly does Kang Do-hee hate the Male Quota System?"
Not wanting to get any more entangled, I got straight to the point.
"Hmm..."
At that, Shin Se-hee languidly glanced at me as if sizing me up.
She was probably gauging if there was anything else she could milk me for with this.
But surprisingly, Shin Se-hee nodded right away.
"Well, alright. I'll tell you. Actually, it's something you'd find quickly just by searching the internet. For that kind of information, a meal together is more than a generous price."
"Ah."
"Bait with a short shelf life is best used immediately, you know?"
She said that with a soft smile.
"Hmm, this is something I looked into personally, so it might not be perfectly accurate... but it was two years ago."
*
Two years ago.
Kang Do-hee was a fairly well-known up-and-coming Damage Dealer in the Parandis Guild, slowly building up her reputation.
And the Guild Master of that place was Kang Do-hee's role model.
An icon, perfect in both martial prowess and personality.
S-Rank Hunter, Choi Hye-seo.
From a strong sense of responsibility to protect people to a thoughtful personality that cared for her guild members...
She was someone worthy of respect in every way.
Kang Do-hee followed her around, nurturing her dreams of being a Hunter, and learned so many things.
But amidst all that, an incident broke out.
"Guild Master!"
"Ah, Do-hee."
"What's going on all of a sudden? Calling for a full member assembly?"
At Kang Do-hee's question, Choi Hye-seo pressed her fingers to her brow as if she had a headache.
"Haah, there was a gate explosion recently, and it looks like we'll need to deploy to support it."
"A gate explosion?"
"Yeah, Arachne's Nest. That gate exploded."
B-Rank gate, Arachne's Nest.
There was never much to gain from it originally, and once you went in, the spider webs were so hard to peel off that people threw away their clothes more often than not. Because of that, it was an unpopular dungeon.
Since hunters stopped going there for that reason, the monsters inside expanded their forces until the gate finally exploded!
"But it's a bit of a headache of a type. The boss monster won't come out of the gate."
"...What?"
That case was definitely unusual.
Normally, when other gates exploded, the boss monster and regular monsters would all come pouring out together.
"It sent its minions outside the gate to kidnap people and drag them into the gate."
"...Then what do we do?"
"We go rescue them. So this operation is a rescue."
"Got it, I'll get ready!"
"No, this time only the guild's elite will go. I'm sorry, but Do-hee, you can't come along."
"...Why!"
"The gate may be B-Rank, but this rescue operation is calling for A-Rank Hunters."
At that time, Kang Do-hee was still a B-Rank Hunter.
Of course, there were rumors circulating in the shadows that in terms of raw potential alone, she surpassed even the S-Rank Choi Hye-seo, but in the end, she was still just a rookie and there was no helping it.
With the orders already handed down like that, there was nothing she could do.
"Tch! Fine... You'd better take care of yourself."
"Don't worry. I'll be back in no time."
Seuk seuk─
And so Choi Hye-seo left Kang Do-hee behind and set off on the rescue operation with the guild's elite.
And,
to cut to the conclusion, Parandis succeeded in the rescue operation.
No matter how formidable the boss monster might be, its weakness to 'fire' was clear,
and with the veteran S-Rank Hunter Choi Hye-seo leading the charge, it was a natural outcome.
They advanced with Wizards using fire magic at the forefront and attacked with full commitment, leaving the enemy helpless to resist.
They were able to rescue the kidnapped people before it was too late.
However, the problem was what came next.
BANG—!
"...What kind of bullshit is that! Hye-seo unni committed sexual assault?!"
"Well, if that's what they're claiming. Nothing can be done about it."
"...And honestly, isn't it possible? You know as well as I do, machines don't work inside gates, and it's easy for all sorts of shady shit to go down in there. That's why drug deals and stuff happen in there."
"Bullshit! There's no way Hye-seo unni would do something like that!!!"
Kang Do-hee raised her voice, insisting there was no way Choi Hye-seo would do such a thing, but no one was listening to her.
The general public, other guilds they had been on close terms with, even the guild members of Parandis itself.
Everyone turned their backs on the Guild Master.
Day after day, articles about the sexual assault poured out of the news, and every portal site was filled with nothing but posts cursing Choi Hye-seo.
How many subjugations had she risked her life on all that time? How many people had she saved?
But this world dismissed all those great achievements as mere trifles and rushed to bury her.
"Hye-seo unni..."
"Do-hee─! Were you worried about unni? I'm alright. The truth will come to light someday."
Choi Hye-seo soothed Kang Do-hee's worries by saying she was fine, but she couldn't completely hide the precarious, shaken heart inside.
From then on, an endlessly tedious legal battle ensued.
While the Parandis Guild Master and Kang Do-hee gathered various pieces of evidence and testimony and fought back, the case was gradually erased by stories of other hunters.
The sexual assault case that had once blazed hot was already old news.
And it wasn't until almost all interest had died down...
"The court finds the defendant not guilty."
Finally, the Guild Master was able to clear her name.
Even so, her acquittal became quite a talking point among hunters,
but the general public still saw Choi Hye-seo as trash who had exploited the sealed-off nature of a dungeon to satisfy her own desires.
In the end, the Guild Master of Parandis couldn't hold on for even a few more months and retired.
*
"Well, so after that... Do-hee stopped trusting anyone, and she started operating entirely alone."
Shin Se-hee said this as she skewered the steak on her plate with her fork and brought it to her mouth.
"...And so, the Male Quota System..."
"Yes, after the Parandis Guild Master was put through that, the Hunter Management Bureau came up with a so-called 'countermeasure' - and that was the Male Quota System. 'The rescue of males should be done by males.' Under that pretense. So how could Do-hee's feelings about it possibly be good?"
"Haah..."
"Mm, it's about time. Shall we head back to the training ground then?"
Jjop.
Shin Se-hee sucked up the rest of her drink and spoke.
'...So there were circumstances like that.'
As I followed behind Shin Se-hee, who walked on ahead, I sank into thought.
If what Shin Se-hee said was true, then getting on good terms with Kang Do-hee might indeed be a distant goal.
'And besides, once her training at the academy is done, Kang Do-hee pretty much never engages in academy activities.'
She only attends the bare minimum required classes,
and as soon as class is over she immediately heads outside to do Hunter work, or if not that, she holes up in her room.
Because of that, Kang Do-hee's personal story progresses a bit unusually.
The Sponsor, the Player, sponsors her, and she builds fame outside through Hunter activities—a system like that.
It's an academy-life game, but played in a Hunter-genre way.
While that happens, she sees the Guild Master reflected in her Sponsor, and her personality gradually brightens.
'Of course, she does participate in the academy's major incidents, but she only makes a brief appearance then disappears immediately again.'
It seemed I'd have to quickly erase the label of the 'Male Quota System' from inside her head.
'Then, shall I start by showing her my skills?'