A Little Growth?
How much time had passed?
When I opened my eyes, the first thing that hit me was the sharp sting of disinfectant in my nose.
Then came a gentle warmth that wrapped around my entire body.
It felt so cozy, like I was lying under warm spring sunlight, that the comforting sensation seeped deep into my skin.
"Feeling a bit more awake now, Gangjin?"
A calm yet kind voice.
I slowly turned my head and saw Sua sunbae with her hand resting on my chest, pink mana flowing from her fingertips.
A soft glow shimmered in her focused eyes.
"Sua sunbae...?"
"Don't move. The Plague Doctor's poison had lodged itself like thorns all throughout your mana circuit."
Sua sunbae's mana gently enveloped my whole body and spread softly through me.
"I've pulled out most of it, but the connection points are still weakened."
Just as she said, my body felt numb, like it had been stabbed by ten thousand needles and was only now starting to recover.
Especially my butt and thigh muscles—the ones I'd squeezed every last drop of mana from—felt like every single fiber was screaming in protest.
"Gangjin, are you okay?"
Chaeyeon asked from beside the bed.
When I turned to look, not only was Chaeyeon there, but also Dohee sunbae, standing with her arms crossed and a serious expression as she watched me.
"Yeah... I feel a little better than before."
"The sky over the western abandoned factory looked ominous."
Chaeyeon, who had been cleaning up residues back at the main school, must have seen the mana vortex that erupted when the Plague Doctor and Jinny's powers clashed.
"What on earth happened there?"
At Chaeyeon's question, I took a deep breath.
Then I began to recount everything that had happened in the abandoned factory.
The eerie pressure from that S-class residue called the Plague Doctor, the desperate barrage of attacks I'd unleashed alongside Jinny.
And the despair I'd felt when the mana suppressant syringe stabbed into my thigh.
The more I spoke, the heavier the air inside the infirmary grew.
Dohee sunbae, who had been listening quietly, finally opened her mouth.
"So it really did show up."
She wore a grave expression, lost deep in thought.
"Gangjin, don't be too shocked, but actually..."
Then, with a serious look, she told me.
"This encounter with the Plague Doctor was an operation that Cheol sunbae and I had planned from the very beginning."
"What? Planned?"
Chaeyeon and I widened our eyes at the same time.
Sua sunbae's hand paused for a moment, and the gazes of the other student council sunbaes guarding the infirmary all turned toward Dohee sunbae.
"The reason we deliberately placed you and Cheol sunbae—who possesses S-class mana—in the western abandoned factory was all for this."
"So that's what it was...?"
I felt a bit bewildered.
The Plague Doctor had been a formidable enemy.
Yet the student council had intentionally set me up against such a powerful foe...
"Gangjin, when you arrived at the factory, didn't Cheol sunbae act a little strange?"
At Dohee sunbae's question, I searched through my hazy memories.
Suddenly, I remembered how, the moment we entered the factory's central plaza, Cheol sunbae had been sniffing around like a dog.
"He kept smelling the air."
Cheol sunbae sniffing around in the center of the abandoned factory.
"Then he suddenly said the sunlight was nice and headed up to the rooftop..."
"That's right. He must have planted some of his mana there beforehand."
Dohee sunbae nodded as if she'd expected exactly that.
"A mana signature of incredibly pure quality—the kind that drives high-level residues absolutely crazy."
She took my hand and continued.
"It was all groundwork to lure them out."
Just then, the infirmary door rattled open roughly.
Along with the familiar sound of slippers dragging across the floor, Choi Gangcheol sunbae walked in, yawning.
"Yo~ Butt-man. You still alive?"
He approached with a languid expression, pulled a shard of a cylinder containing purple liquid from his pocket, and casually tossed it to Dohee sunbae.
"Here. The drug that bastard used and the mana wavelength data."
"Sunbae! Why didn't you show up right away when the Plague Doctor appeared?"
Dohee sunbae caught the cylinder and shouted at him.
"Gangjin was in danger! The plan was supposed to be that you'd appear the moment the Hunter showed up!"
At Dohee sunbae's scolding, Cheol sunbae scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Ah, well... sorry about that."
He avoided her eyes and continued.
"I was going to jump in right away, but you and Jinny syncing up to fight like that... it was pretty impressive."
Sunbae glanced back and forth between me lying there and my butt.
"I wanted to see for myself just how far you two could go in an extreme situation."
He gave my shoulder a couple of light pats.
"Sorry for being late."
What the...?
So he'd been watching the whole time from the beginning.
Was Choi Gangcheol sunbae not just a lazy genius, but someone who moved with meticulous planning?
"It's fine, sunbae."
There was clear sincerity in his "sorry."
Probably because I'd seen an expression on him that he rarely showed.
And honestly, I'd vaguely sensed it during the middle of the battle.
That strange, powerful mana presence watching our fight.
"I'm still clumsy, but I'm an S-class too, you know."
I raised my arm and clenched my fist tightly.
"I want to keep getting stronger by pushing myself as far as I can."
The moment I finished speaking, the student council sunbaes in the infirmary looked at me with smiles full of warmth and pride.
Cheol sunbae met my eyes and grinned.
"Romantic pass. I officially recognize you as the protagonist."
"This operation wasn't just about cleaning up residues."
Dohee sunbae lowered her voice.
"It was bait to reel in the group known as the Hunters."
All the student council members in the infirmary nodded.
"Hunters?"
Chaeyeon and I both expressed confusion at the unfamiliar organization name.
"They're a shadowy group that hunts awakeners and steals their abilities."
Seungwoo sunbae adjusted his glasses as he explained.
"They're a group that habitually targets S-class awakeners. The student council has been tracking them."
Hunters...
Now that I thought about it, the Plague Doctor had looked at me—an S-class awakener—and said things like "Please hand it over nicely" and "steal your mana."
"We set up some bait to lure them in. In the end, we missed them, though."
Dohee sunbae said this while holding up the cylinder.
"But it wasn't a complete waste on our end either."
I asked the sunbaes.
"So the Hunters' goal is to steal the mana of S-class ability users?"
"That's right."
Dohee sunbae put the cylinder back into its case as she answered.
"One of the S-class awakeners at Cheonmyeong High School was taken down."
Even Cheonmyeong High School?
The fact that an outstanding student had been a victim was quite shocking.
"They say he lost his ability overnight and has been holed up in his room ever since, refusing to come out."
Seungwoo sunbae's expression darkened.
As the mood grew heavy, Taeo sunbae, who had been quiet, spoke up.
"Especially an Original spirit like Jinny—they're the ultimate target for those guys."
It wasn't just about hunting monsters called residues.
There was another group of residues that hunted humans.
"Be careful."
At Taeo sunbae's worried warning, I realized I needed to become strong enough to protect myself at the very least.
Jinny seemed to have steeled herself too. She didn't say anything in particular, but I could tell from the strange heat radiating from my butt.
"Alright! Gangjin, time to fulfill your student council duties, don't you think?"
Dohee sunbae smiled mysteriously as she pulled a thick stack of documents from her bag.
"I was going to ask the principal to let you postpone the exam, but thanks to Sua, you're all better now, right?"
That amount. Those papers.
The thing I'd been dreading had arrived.
"Everyone else is taking the midterms. You can't be the only one who skips it."
It was the infamous Student Council Exclusive Type-B Exam.
"Solve it right here."
The notoriously vicious Type-B test papers.
Chaeyeon looked horrified beside me and said, "You're seriously going to make him solve it now?" but Dohee sunbae just smiled sweetly and replied.
"In the case of supplementary exams, Cheol sunbae here has the authority to act as supervisor."
Third-years in Gaon High's student council held authority equivalent to teachers when no instructors were present.
Of course, that also meant they bore responsibility if anything went wrong.
"I see."
I picked up the pen with a calm expression, as if I'd expected this.
Yeah. What had to be done had to be done.
The Type-B exam papers on the desk were truly overwhelming.
Unlike the regular Type-A, mana formulas densely filled every page.
Question 1: Describe the correlation between the variable values according to the Third Law during mana compression and the physical impact force of a summoned entity.
Question 5: Complete the formula that neutralizes an incoming mana wave of constant velocity using 'rotational inertia.'
But something was strange.
The mana formulas that had felt so difficult when I studied with Chaeyeon now read as easily as multiplication tables.
'This... this is exactly what Jinny and I did back at the factory, isn't it?'
I moved my pen without hesitation.
Dohee sunbae watched with interest as I solved the problems fluidly.
Though it was the notoriously difficult Type-B, the experience of crossing the line between life and death while directly clashing with an S-class was clearer than any lecture from even the best instructor.
'Oh? Not bad at all.'
It felt like the theory had been burned into my brain through real combat memories.
Filling out dozens of pages of test papers didn't even take an hour.
When I put down the pen after the final period, I felt a strange sense of catharsis.
"Whew, all done."
Dohee sunbae scanned the papers and whistled.
"Good work. Looks like I don't have to worry about your grades anymore."
After receiving Sua sunbae's perfect treatment and finishing the theoretical portion of the midterms, I left school with Chaeyeon.
The crimson sunset stretched long shadows across the school grounds.
"What kind of organization are those Hunters the sunbaes mentioned?"
Chaeyeon let out a long sigh.
"Yeah... they seem like enemies on a completely different level from regular residues..."
The fact that Hunters were a group meant the Plague Doctor I'd faced was only the tip of the iceberg.
It meant there were countless more overwhelming, far stronger enemies out there...
I had to prepare myself to fight them.
Watching me steel my resolve with firm determination, Chaeyeon spoke.
"Being an S-class awakener isn't all advantages, huh."
She took a few quick steps ahead of me, then turned around to face me.
"Even though I'm only A-class, I'll lend you my strength."
Her words gave me a sense of stability.
"Thanks. That makes me feel really reassured."
Back when I couldn't even control the mana flowing through my butt.
When I was helplessly flailing against even low-level residues, it was Chaeyeon who had saved me.
"I really lucked out with a good friend."
"Of course! Obviously a good friend."
Chaeyeon's eyes sparkled slightly, and her smile deepened.
"Who was it that saved the guy crying and snotting all over the place against a low-level residue again?"
"Hey, don't bring that up...!"
She laughed playfully and ran off, teasing me.
Against the backdrop of the sunset sky, Chaeyeon and I were strengthening the friendship we'd built through training.
We chatted about this and that as we headed toward the central Taekwondo dojo.
That was when it happened.
As we reached the entrance of the alley leading to the dojo,
I saw someone's silhouette leaning casually against an old streetlamp.
"Hey there. Baby monkeys."
A person in a loosely worn school uniform, holding a bag of bread in one hand.
It was Choi Gangcheol sunbae.