Practical Training (2)
A soft crackle.
In a darkness so complete it seemed to swallow even the surroundings, the ember of a cigarette flared and scattered into the air.
"We have no agreement whatsoever with the upper ranks."
"And?"
"Given how thoroughly unprepared we are in every respect — are you truly certain about this?"
He exhaled a stream of smoke, speaking into empty air, yet from that darkness-choked void a voice answered with perfect clarity.
"Doesn't matter. We can leave the contents for later. Right now we only need to prepare the vessel."
"But won't we be short on sacrifices?"
"Just go through the motions. If it comes to it, we can simply test whether it's possible or not. And we already learned from the last experiment, didn't we? Quality matters more than quantity. She's the Association President's bloodline — that should be more than enough for a trial vessel."
At those words, the face of the man exhaling smoke twisted into a frown.
"Ignoring the upper ranks' orders is one thing, and moving the plan forward early is another — I can accept both. But isn't this preparation far too sloppy? I've spent a fair amount of time grinding away at the Academy, you know."
A snickering laugh drifted out of the darkness.
"Alpha, stop worrying so much. You really think I'd cook up a plan that throws away everything I've suffered for until now?"
Something soft landed with a muted thump on the bench beside the seated man — Alpha. Two long cloth bundles.
"Those are—!"
A black bundle and a red one.
"There's a camera over there. Be careful."
The moment he saw the bundles his eyes nearly bulged, but the voice pulled him back. He forced his composure into place and brought the cigarette to his lips again.
"No matter how many times we've scouted it, a Tower is an unknown space by nature — there's always more that hasn't been revealed than what has."
"……"
"For reasons unknown, high-rank monsters suddenly appear. The teacher tries to protect the students, but there are simply too many creatures. The kids panic and charge the monsters. Formation collapses. Students die. The teacher does everything he can, but in the end he's found critically wounded."
The voice recited it all as if reading aloud a delightful little scenario.
"I doubt they'll believe something that convenient."
"Just release a few monsters from the bundles and leave them. Once you let monsters loose inside a dungeon, the dungeon locks them in as its own — even if you clear them later, no one can tell the difference."
Ordinarily, monsters spilling from a bundle were summoned through mana as a medium; when slain, that mana simply broke down and they vanished into the air. But if you used a bundle to summon monsters inside a dungeon, the dungeon claimed them as its own and treated them as Tower monsters. Exploit that, and even if you left a few behind and cleaned them up later, there would be no way to confirm they had come from a bundle.
Having followed the explanation to its end, Alpha sighed and crushed out his cigarette.
"Understood. I'll handle the groundwork."
As he answered and started to rise, something tapped lightly against his shoulder.
"I'm counting on you, Alpha."
A faint shove at his back, and then the man's presence — already barely there — vanished completely.
"I'll be counting on you as well, Teacher Yu I-jin."
Alpha let the words slip toward someone who was no longer there, then trudged off toward where he was supposed to be.
In the original story, four major villain organizations were known to the public.
Freedom, Lilis, Residence, Regular.
Aside from Freedom and Lilis, the others barely moved even in the original. Residence might as well not exist. Regular was a special case of its own, so there was no need to worry about them either.
Those two organizations were a little unusual, but every villain group had its own purpose.
Lilis's goal was brutally simple: power. Obtaining overwhelming strength was their entire motto — a pack of psychopaths who would commit any inhuman act without a second thought to get it.
Freedom was similar, and yet completely different.
Freedom's purpose was peace.
It might sound like nonsense, but the leader of Freedom had genuinely founded the organization for the sake of peace, and in the original he held to that conviction until the day he died.
The methods for getting there were just twisted beyond recognition.
What their plan to quiet the world's chaos needed most of all was the birth of a human with omnipotent power — what they called the Child of God. Create that Child of God artificially, close every Gate, and erase every supernatural ability from this world. Cut off everything that could throw present society into chaos.
In a way, you could call the intent noble. But as I'd said, the methods were warped past all recognition. To achieve their goal they would, just like Lilis, commit any inhumane, inhuman act without hesitation.
And if you asked whether that plan of theirs ever succeeded—
It didn't.
They weren't chasing pure delusion with zero basis, but even so, their wish would never come true that way.
I glanced sideways at Lee Ju-won.
In the story, Lee Ju-won's plan failed because of Lee Yeon-hui, and he offered himself as a sacrifice to force the ritual for creating the Child of God. The catastrophe that act unleashed made him the main villain of the episode without much argument. But why he clung to the ritual that desperately was never explained.
It would be a lie to say I wasn't curious.
But I don't really need to dig into it.
I didn't have that kind of leeway either. If I didn't break Freedom's wings so thoroughly they could never spread them again, things would only get harder the further we went. So there was no reason to mix private feelings into the objective right in front of me.
"We've arrived."
While I was sorting my thoughts, the bus carrying us pulled up in front of our destination — the Tower.
"All right! Groups Seven and Eight will conduct their practical training in the Tower you see in front of you!"
Two groups had been assigned to search each Tower, and we ended up sharing one with Min Ji-won's group.
"There are four routes in total, but we've set the paths so you shouldn't run into each other if at all possible. Focus on communicating with your teammates as you explore."
"Group Seven, you're up first."
With that, one instructor and the members of Group Seven entered the Tower. A short while later—
"Group Seven has entered their route. Group Eight, please come in."
"Yes. Group Eight entering now."
The voice crackled from the radio the teacher was holding. Confirming it, we stepped slowly toward the Tower entrance with our escort instructor.
No door to close — just an opening wide enough for two people to walk through side by side with room to spare. Even standing right at the threshold, all I could see inside was a blank white expanse and nothing else.
The moment I set foot past the entrance, light wrapped around my entire body in an instant. A sensation of floating followed, as if I were drifting gently upward.
It wasn't my first time entering a Tower, but no matter how often I experienced it, that feeling stayed mysterious. Like being inside a lucid dream, maybe.
I surrendered myself to that enigmatic sensation, and before long we arrived in a broad open space.
Pillars slightly crumbled; a massive painting covering the wall ahead. It felt like walking through the front doors of some grand mansion. Staircases stretched away on either side farther than the eye could follow, and a central entrance led straight ahead.
More temple than mansion, actually.
Stone pillars, stone floors — walls and ground alike. Closer to a temple than a residence.
"Whoa…"
"So this is what the inside of a Tower looks like…"
Beside me, teammates seeing a Tower for the first time kept letting out soft gasps as they turned in every direction. Whether out of consideration or not, the teacher gave us a moment; once the awe had settled one by one, he began the briefing.
"We'll begin our exploration along the path straight ahead. As you were told beforehand, map as you go, complete one full circuit, and return."
"I'll stay at the very rear and handle any emergencies. Beyond that, I won't answer questions or offer help — you will resolve everything yourselves. This is also a test of your independence, so treat me as if I'm not here and focus on the exercise."
"Yes, sir!"
After that brief rundown of precautions and instructions, we followed the teacher's direction onto the center path.
He'd said there were four routes, but only three paths were visible ahead — so either a hidden passage existed, or forks would appear as we went. The teacher kept reporting our status to the instructor already inside, watching our movements the whole time.
"Group Eight has entered the route."
—Confirmed. Reception good.
That radio was an artifact, by the way. Ordinary signals didn't work inside a Tower; without one of those, you couldn't communicate with the outside — or even with people in the same Tower.
I brought one too, just in case.
I'd packed one as a precaution, but both Park Jae-hyun and I were taking the practical, so I probably wouldn't need it.
I was watching the teacher's movements as we walked when—
Thud-thud! Thud-thud!
Something was charging toward us.
"Combat ready!"
Snap!
The teammates still hadn't sensed the presence; they looked bewildered even as they fell into formation at my order. Their speed, though, was anything but slow.
Whoever raised them did a hell of a job. Must be a real saint — face and personality both.
While I was entertaining that idle thought—
Kyaaaaang!
A massive boar-type monster appeared — a Bones Boar.
D-Rank, but its bones were so dense you could practically treat it as C-Rank.
"Kang Min-hyeon. Handle it alone."
"Uh…?"
"You can do it. What, you can't?"
"N-no, I can."
Being thrown into his first real fight solo had clearly rattled him. But a first real fight was exactly why solo was safer. He wouldn't be the only one tense; if everyone piled on and the coordination fell apart, the whole thing would be a wash.
Still, being singled out as the vanguard was bound to make anyone nervous. I searched for a way to give Kang Min-hyeon a little courage and settled on some enthusiastic encouragement.
"Min-hyeon. If you don't drop it in one minute, I'll drop you."
"Hyaaaaaah!"
Fortunately, my passionate support seemed to land. Kang Min-hyeon charged the Bones Boar without a second's hesitation.
And at exactly fifty-seven seconds—
"Hah… hah… ah."
Kang Min-hyeon had taken down the Bones Boar alone.
"Good work. See? You can do it."
Definitely worth keeping an eye on. Yeon Min-ju was solid for a first-year too, but Kang Min-hyeon was the kind of guy who only shone brighter the harder you worked him. I'd already planned to turn this entire exam into a stepping stone for his growth.
"All right. Let's move."
From the rear I kept mapping and issuing orders, and Kang Min-hyeon — denied even a breather — stuck his lip out in mild protest.
"What is it, Min-hyeon? Want a rest?"
"N-no. Hahaha! I was just itching to keep going, that's all."
"Great. Then you're on the next one too."
"……"
I awarded him bonus points for the attitude. He brightened at once, straightened up, and trudged forward again.
Wonder how Min Ji-won's doing.
Nothing should go wrong, but sharing a Tower for the exam made me a little more conscious of her than usual.
"Front line, push it back! Rear, support!"
On Min Ji-won's order, the spear-wielding Hwang Min-su slammed aside the charging bull-type monster — a Wild Cow. The creature staggered sideways, stamping to regain its balance—
KRRAAAASH!
Massive ice spikes punched straight through the Wild Cow. Impaled and immobilized—
"Finish it!"
Hwang Min-su drove his spear home without mercy and ended it.
None of the mistakes from practice. If anything, they looked like entirely different people.
Their movement is better than I expected. They'd settled down during drills, but I didn't think it would carry all the way into a real fight.
It had been a strong start, yet Min Ji-won couldn't help feeling puzzled. Plenty of people improved in practice; translating that same level of performance into actual combat was rarely so easy.
Natural combat types, maybe…?
She'd never met one herself, so she couldn't say what it felt like — but she'd heard such people existed now and then. That might be it.
Still… not just one of them. All of them?
A faint suspicion lingered, but good results were good results. She could hardly interrogate them for performing too well, so she decided to leave it alone—
"Good work."
"…Huh?"
From the rear, where Min Ji-won was issuing commands, Oh So-hee tossed her a quiet word and then sprinted off. Gone before Ji-won could even ask what she meant. Left tilting her head, Min Ji-won simply followed after her teammates at a measured pace.