The First Test
"Jeez. Even these weirdos show up for the interview."
After tossing out a nameless man and woman beyond the exam hall doors and calling the office staff to haul them away, I brushed the dust off my clothes with a few pats.
The moment I opened the exam hall door, some fist came flying at me. I blocked it and checked the situation—turns out it was just these idiots kicking up a fuss over something trivial. Normally, I'd have just kicked them out, but their faces screamed they'd jump the guide staff if I did, so I knocked them out for a quick trip to dreamland.
Once I'd dealt with those two, I felt the surrounding assassins poking at me with their stares—tension, wariness, suspicion, all sorts of eyes jabbing into me as I started walking.
Watching them part left and right as I moved, it felt like I was pulling off Moses' miracle or something. I stifled a chuckle at the thought and headed to the front of the exam hall, climbing onto the podium and grabbing the mic.
"Ahem. Mic test."
Confirming it worked, I looked up to find hundreds of eyes staring at me, heavy as lead. But as an interviewer, how could I dodge them? I met their gazes head-on and opened my mouth.
"I'm Baek Se-rin, the interviewer for your interviews today and the exclusive assassin of Jin Yeon-ah, Baek Ya-seong's youngest daughter. Remember me if you want. No point memorizing the ones who fail today's test anyway."
A light self-intro to kick things off now that I was standing in as interviewer. Then I brought up the topic everyone here was probably waiting for.
"Alright, now I'll explain the first test."
No need to drag it out with fancy rhetoric. This wasn't some bonding session—it was just about picking usable assassins for Jin Yeon-ah.
The moment I said "first test," the assassins' stares shifted. I flashed a grin at them.
The woman who appeared out of nowhere and sorted out the commotion in an instant drew every eye in the room. She introduced herself as Baek Se-rin, the interviewer for today's session and Jin Yeon-ah's exclusive assassin.
And naturally, Choi Do-ah's gaze was among them.
No way... she's an exclusive assassin?
Baek Ya-seong's assassin at such a young age was shocking enough, but hearing it straight from her mouth that she was an exclusive assassin left Choi Do-ah stunned.
She'd studied up on Baek Ya-seong while prepping for the interview, so she knew exactly what an exclusive assassin meant. The other assassins wore similar expressions—they knew it better than she did, if anything.
Amid all those focused stares, Baek Se-rin spoke in a calm tone.
"Alright, now I'll explain the first test."
No intent to waste time on chit-chat—she cut straight to it. The assassins, still lingering in their awe, sobered up instantly.
Baek Se-rin looked barely out of her teens, and the shock of her being a Baek Ya-seong assassin—not just any, but an exclusive assassin—was huge, but nothing topped the importance of this Baek Ya-seong entry exam.
Choi Do-ah tensed up again, focusing on Baek Se-rin's words.
"Honestly, I heard there'd be about 500 people at first, so I thought about testing you all myself one-on-one... but then no one would pass, so we switched it up."
A few assassins let out small laughs at her words. Probably taking it as a joke to lighten the mood.
But Choi Do-ah and the sharper ones couldn't bring themselves to laugh. After seeing Baek Se-rin take down those two earlier, it felt entirely possible.
Once the chuckles faded, Baek Se-rin pressed something on the podium.
"So, the replacement test? It's to check if you have what it takes to be Baek Ya-seong assassins. Resumes cover your physical specs, but who knows if you're solid all the way through?"
Right as she finished, the exam hall floor began to shift and deform with a low hum.
Woooong——
Holes opened in the floor, and uniform rectangular metal plates rose from them, about the size of lab tables.
"Everyone, stand in front of one of these metal plates. The test starts after."
At Baek Se-rin's order, the assassins moved immediately—one per plate. All 497 of them lined up perfectly.
The moment everyone was in position, the exam hall doors swung open, and Baek Ya-seong office staff filed in—not walking empty-handed, but each shouldering a person.
Thud, thud, thud——
They dumped the people onto the metal plates in front of the assassins, one each.
What the hell...?
Choi Do-ah's eyes widened in confusion at the sudden turn. If they'd just been plopped down, she might not have freaked out this much.
The reason for her panic? The people on the plates were fully restrained—handcuffs, leg irons, gags, and ropes binding them tight head to toe.
She didn't look around, but the murmurs from other assassins confirmed they were just as thrown.
Ignoring the growing unrest, Baek Se-rin displayed a 30-second timer on the exam hall's screen.
"The ones in front of you are all death row inmates from Central's prisons. Every one committed capital crimes and got the death sentence. And for the ones killed in today's test? We've got notarized approval for it to count as legal execution."
Baek Se-rin's tone was as flat as her words. So deadpan it almost calmed Choi Do-ah's racing heart.
Or maybe it was because the words "death row" and "death" from her mouth stirred no real emotion.
As Choi Do-ah examined her own reaction, she could roughly guess the first test.
The timer and bound inmates made it easy to infer. And Baek Se-rin's next words confirmed it spot-on.
"Alright, first test: Kill the death row inmate in front of you within 30 seconds."
Gulps echoed from spots around the room. But Baek Se-rin just calmly started the timer.
"Starting... now."
The timer started ticking, and I quickly scanned the assassins.
As I'd mentioned earlier, I'd originally planned a simple one-on-one against all of them myself. But Jin Yeon-ah chewed me out, saying no one would pass, and ordered a test that could rank them. So this was the first test we came up with: taking a life.
Guys trying to become official assassins probably haven't killed anyone yet.
In modern dystopian Korea, 2046. Assassins handle all sorts of jobs, but the big one is assassination—taking lives.
Back-world types like me or the other four might be different, but regular folks aiming to go pro? Zero murder experience.
Murder licenses only come with employment at an assassin corp.
But if you can't kill, you're no assassin... perfect test material.
That's why I had Jin Yeon-ah request 499 death row inmates from Central, and got procedures in place for any killings here to count as official executions.
Killing without hesitation is a core assassin skill. This test would sort them by reluctance—innate or not.
Figures... everyone's hesitating hard.
Glancing around, I rubbed my chin at their uniform reactions. Training academies use near-real dummies for practice kills, but I never thought that meant much.
Why? No matter how lifelike, a dummy doesn't feel like the real thing. Your brain knows it's fake deep down.
But a real person?
Of course you feel the difference.
Real skin warmth, heartbeat, terrified eyes facing death, desperate struggles to live. No dummy replicates that.
First kill always hits with resistance. Key is overcoming it fast.
I set 30 seconds based on my experience—if you can't do your first kill that quick, you're done as an assassin.
Still no big differences... wait, huh?
Up to the 5-second mark, no one moved much, and I was nodding to myself—until one assassin caught my eye.
While everyone trembled or froze, this woman gripped her dagger with cold eyes. Impressive black ponytail to her nape.
The instant I locked on her, she moved the dagger.
Crunch——
Straight through bone, into the heart, life snuffed in one thrust.
"Ooh."
My impressed murmur mixed with the first death row inmate's light fading out.