Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: The Physical Fitness Test
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Exam day.
After wrapping up the personality test—which was bizarrely easy—I headed straight to the counseling room.
I stepped into the corner room on the third floor labeled "Counseling Room," where Violet greeted me. She was dressed primly, a pen clamped between her teeth instead of a cigarette.
The moment I walked in, her demure expression slowly shifted into something far more alluring.
"Welcome. How'd the personality test go?"
"It was impossible to fail."
I replied with a faint smile and took a seat.
The hero exam consisted of three stages in total.
Personality test and counseling, physical fitness test, and practical combat test.
The personality test was practically impossible to fail if you had any semblance of normal thinking.
Most of the questions were like this:
What would you do if you saw an elementary school kid jaywalking?
1. Stop them. 2. Watch. 3. Cheer them on to cross quickly.
...Something along those lines.
I wondered what the point of a test like that even was, but apparently, a few people failed it every year.
"Most hero exam dropouts come from the second and third stages anyway."
She explained that the first stage, including counseling, was mainly just a filter to weed out villains.
Speaking of villains naturally brought one person to mind.
"Do you know anything about Kang Seok?"
"Of course. He came to me with a fat stack of cash, begging me to look the other way during this exam."
Violet crossed her legs with a sly smile.
Her thick thighs were the picture of perfect legs.
"What should we do? Should I just expose him?"
Her fingers slowly caressed the back of my hand.
As if everything hinged on my touch.
My decision was already made.
"Nah, just let it slide."
"Got it, then."
Violet flashed a bright grin in response.
If I'd asked her to disqualify me from the exam, she probably would've done that too.
But I needed to beat Kang Seok head-on.
"Oh, right—know that the physical test is a run?"
"...Yeah, I heard something about that."
It was info from Min-ji.
Violet added one more detail.
"Then you should know there are a ton of ability users applying this time, so it might switch to relative scoring?"
"..."
That was news to me.
Even Min-ji wouldn't have known the exact number of ability users taking the exam.
Seeing my surprised look, Violet smiled.
"First you've heard of it, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Blast out of the gate at least half a lap ahead of everyone else, no matter what."
"...That's..."
Easier said than done.
Pulling half a lap ahead right away would burn through a ton of stamina.
Ever since I got the Stamina skill, I could keep running for ages without issue.
My Strength skill gave me decent speed too.
But against other ability users? Not so much.
Choi Ga-eun, my main target, moved at speeds too fast to track with the naked eye.
Min-ji had used her telekinesis to boost herself during her exam.
There was no guarantee none of them were here this time.
To get half a lap ahead of those kinds of competitors, I might have to go all-out from the start.
And if I did that, I'd be lucky to walk by the end.
"Don't worry. Once it switches to relative scoring, no one will be running full-tilt in the late stages."
"..."
Her words hinted at something big about to go down.
"Don't you trust me?"
"...I do..."
I nodded reluctantly just as someone outside announced that counseling time was up.
"Good luck out there."
With Violet's send-off, I left the counseling room and headed to the physical test field.
The test area looked like a standard track-and-field stadium, except it was packed with heroes from the track to the stands.
The ones on the track were all hero hopefuls, though.
"Look, people from Waterbird Entertainment showed up..."
"Hey, isn't that the hero from the soju commercial?"
"Guardians are here too?"
"Damn, she's gorgeous."
The examinees buzzed excitedly, staring at the stands.
Starting from the second stage, scouts from agencies without fresh talent were eyeing us from the spectator seats.
Heroes like Choi Ga-eun and Min-ji were there too, here and there.
I gave a casual wave toward where the two of them sat.
Choi Ga-eun nodded slightly, while Min-ji mouthed a word of encouragement.
Her "encouragement" was "Focus, you idiot."
I could feel the love through the harsh words.
All the examinees seemed fired up, motivated by the scouts and heroes watching.
The air crackled with competitive tension everywhere.
"To your marks. Get set."
Positions were randomly assigned, unfortunately landing me at the very back.
There were more examinees than I'd expected, but I wasn't too worried.
Total distance: 8,000 meters.
No one else would go all-out from the start but me.
"Go!"
Despite the booming voice, everyone jogged along at a leisurely pace, too busy eyeing each other.
I seized the gap, powering my legs to start overtaking them one by one.
A few tried to block me physically, but I twisted away or accelerated past every time.
The ones I passed panicked, torn between chasing me or sticking to their pace.
In the end, they all chose to conserve energy.
It was pure crowd psychology.
With everyone else holding back, jumping out to follow me wasn't an easy call.
Except for one guy.
"Shit!"
The second I overtook him, Kang Seok glared and stuck right to my tail.
I'd half-expected it.
He'd been eyeing me warily even before the race started.
What surprised me was how well he was keeping up—better than I'd thought.
I had Stamina and Strength skills, plus a body suited for running.
Kang Seok's ability had nothing to do with speed, and his bulky muscles should've hindered him, yet here he was, matching me stride for stride.
I nodded in genuine admiration, which seemed to fire him up even more.
He took it as a taunt.
Before long, the two of us were way out in front.
And then it happened.
"Please keep running while you listen."
The voice was familiar yet awkward.
I glanced toward the source: Violet had taken the podium, winking right at me.
"Due to the large number of ability users and top physical performers in this exam, we'll be switching to relative scoring for better differentiation. Let me repeat that—"
The pack that had been jogging amiably together started picking up speed.
Under absolute scoring, they all could've coasted to top marks.
But relative scoring meant only the top 10% would get perfect scores now.
With us two leading, the fight for the upper ranks intensified.
And then, one by one, they started using their abilities.
This was no longer just a run.
A guy burst forward wreathed in flames.
Small rocks popped up in his path.
Another sprouted tiny wings on his back; yet another grew brown animal fur all over and dropped to all fours.
Incredible speeds, all of them—enough to lap me if we were side by side.
But they were stuck in the pack.
Anyone who tried to break out got blocked.
The judges didn't stop it.
If anything, they egged it on.
"Three laps to go!"
Kang Seok and I had already burned a lot of stamina and slowed down considerably.
Still, our early lead was nearly a full lap, and the pack's late abilities couldn't close the gap fast enough.
"Hah... ugh..."
Kang Seok's breathing came out ragged, metallic with exhaustion.
His face was drained, fatigued.
He stared at me.
Not with the anger or wariness from the start.
It was like he was looking at something terrifying.
"H-how...?"
Too winded to finish, but I got the gist.
How'd I predict this?
Violet's doing, obviously.
But I couldn't say that, so I kept it vague.
My breathing wasn't great either, so I made it short.
"Well."
"..."
Kang Seok didn't snap back.
He just watched me with anxious eyes.
Anyone would've mistaken him for some tragic heroine.
Even though he was a villain.
Same as me, really.
In the end, the top two spots in the physical test went to undercover villains.
When the big-shot hero officials praised us as "the future of heroes," I nearly burst out laughing.
Violet actually couldn't hold it in and giggled softly from afar.
I glanced at Choi Ga-eun and Min-ji.
Choi Ga-eun stared at us in a daze, drool practically pooling.
Min-ji watched me stone-faced.
Her "I knew it" expression felt pretty good.
And with that, the exam had just one stage left.