Chapter 86
It was a month later that Ichie finally hit the stat threshold. By then, quite a few students had cleared the requirement and were grinning ear to ear about the D-rank promotion waiting just around the corner. More people than I'd expected had grown rapidly by fighting strong opponents inside gates, and there were also cases like Kim Ju-sung, whose base stats had been high to begin with.
"I'm getting stronger now. Look at this. Muscle."
Ichie flexed the way a bodybuilder would, showing off. The firm, finely cut muscle along her arm traced an appealing curve. I poked it once and said,
"Looking good, Ichie."
When I praised her, she gave a little shrug, clearly pleased. Senior Yujeong clapped for her, congratulating her on hitting her goal.
The training camp had crept up on us the same way the Rookie King tournament once had. We packed the essentials we'd need for the training grounds and got a few quick tips from Senior Yujeong. According to her, the name "training camp" made it sound grand, but in reality it was closer to an experiential field trip or a school retreat.
"A retreat? What's a retreat?"
"It's that evil custom where they drag you off to something like a Marine Corps camp. Absolutely brutal."
Hearing my explanation, Senior Yujeong startled.
"Oh my, really? So that's how it used to be."
Her words left me feeling a little gloomy. Ichie patted my back and said to Senior Yujeong,
"Yujeong unnie, that's mean. Teasing people about their age is bad."
"That's not—"
Senior Yujeong stared at Ichie with a look of pure disbelief, while Ichie only hugged me tighter. After a moment of not knowing what to do with herself, Senior Yujeong wrapped it up like this:
"Anyway, good luck on the exam. It's a shame I can't go with you."
"Huh? Yujeong unnie. You're not coming to observe?"
Ichie asked. I looked at her with a bit of surprise myself. The idea that Senior Yujeong wouldn't be coming along was a little disappointing. She nodded and explained,
"Mentors usually don't sit in. It just puts extra pressure on people. And honestly, there's nothing we can really do for you during the training anyway, so we go handle our own work. I've got a gate exploration team schedule this time."
"That's a shame."
"Message me when it's over. If I can make the time, I'll come. Let's grab a meal."
Ichie cut in.
"And we'll do an event, too."
"An event?"
The word "event" sent my imagination racing in every direction. When my expression turned a little too complicated, Senior Yujeong hurriedly shut the conversation down.
"Ah—just think about what you want to eat. I can even treat you to something expensive."
At that, Ichie said she wanted spicy braised chicken. The thought of the exam tightened something in my chest. I felt like I ought to tell the Almighty not to pound on my heart just to encourage me.
I glanced once at Senior Yujeong's text and tightly took Ichie's hand. She wound her fingers through mine like a spiderweb and rested her head on my shoulder. Up ahead, an instructor was going over the precautions for entering a gate.
We were deep in a forest far from the academy. Somewhere near Gapyeong, they'd said—an old resort area the academy had bought out entirely and converted into a private training ground.
For all the grand name, the training ground itself had nothing particularly flashy. A sturdy warehouse for the equipment used to open gates, staff quarters for the people who managed that gear, a vast open lot sealed off from the outside for gate openings, and clean dormitories built just for us. That was the whole of it.
The students, myself and Ichie included, sat clustered in the middle of the lot listening to a red-hatted instructor deliver the safety briefing. It reminded me a little of my time in the military, and a little of the Marine Corps camp retreats from when I was a kid.
While the lecture went on, cameras rolled behind us. They were for proving to our families that we'd completed the safety education. The content itself wasn't particularly important. It was the exact same material, using the exact same slides, delivered the exact same way as the safety briefing we'd gotten before our first gate practice. Looking around, most people were either on their phones or only pretending to listen.
Ichie must have been bored too, because she started poking my knee with her fingertip. I pressed her nail down with my finger so she couldn't keep prodding. She glanced at me sidelong, then wriggled the finger still resting on my knee like a snake before sliding it up onto my thigh.
I jabbed her in the side. She flinched, then, as if refusing to lose, started pressing firmly into my thigh. Each press sent a strange little jolt through me, and I had to twist my waist slightly and laugh.
I started kneading her thigh in return. Ichie laughed softly and squirmed, trying to wriggle free of my hand. The instructor's explanation rolled on.
"And now, I'll go over how to respond to special situations. This concerns gate instability phenomena—those of you here have probably heard about it at least once from your mentors during practice."
We stopped fooling around and looked at the instructor at the same time. The other students' eyes snapped to him as well, as if many of them had heard of gate instability before. Looking suddenly flustered, like someone who'd been put on the spot to give a presentation, the instructor glanced around, cleared his throat, and continued.
"Originally, this was not a separate training item, but it was added this month under a revision of the safety education requirements. During exploration, severe gate instability or certain accidents can cause a gate to close. In such cases, the gate maintenance team will lock onto a hunter's vital signs and conduct a rescue, so even if a gate closes, please do not panic. Survive within the environment while maintaining your health as best you can."
We waited for whatever explanation would come next. The instructor, looking awkward in the face of our expectations, shoved his hat down a little lower and said,
"That is all."
"Aww."
Deflated sighs rose from all around. We clicked our tongues and turned back to each other. Trying to reclaim the atmosphere, the instructor spoke again in a sterner voice.
"Alright. Safety education is complete, so we will now begin the training camp for D-rank promotion in earnest. We will separate the training groups from the actual promotion groups, so those of you taking the promotion this time, please gather over here."
Following his instructions, we all filed over in a rush. Even setting Ichie and me aside, Kim Ju-sung's group—with Kim Jin-pyo and Oh Min-young—stood out. Jin-pyo grinned when he saw me, while Oh Min-young made no effort to hide her hostility.
Kim Ju-sung was fiddling with his phone, looking elsewhere. The instructor said,
"Promotion groups, please wait in the dormitories while the gate entry training proceeds."
The dorms were split into men's and women's quarters. Even if you were on the same team, co-ed lodging wasn't allowed—which was a shame. Ichie looked equally disappointed as she was ushered past me into the women's dorm. Kim Jin-pyo latched onto Kim Ju-sung, and the other team members either pulled out their phones or drifted over to teammates they already knew.
I quietly gathered my things and headed to my room. I picked a corner room where no one was likely to come, laid out a spot, and lay down. My plan was to mess around on my phone, and if I got bored, call Ichie out for a walk and some idle talk.
I logged into VTube and scrolled through the recent hot videos. Jun-seok's general streaming career seemed to be going decently. Last time I'd checked, his channel had been around three thousand subscribers; now he was on the verge of ten thousand. Not exactly a mega-corp, but a solid success in its own right, wasn't it?
On the channel's main page, a compilation of his recent reactions—titled Donation Reaction Collection—was autoplaying.
"Ah, brothers! Thanks for the donations! For the reaction, I'm gonna go hard on a Zero Two dance! Heeya!"
"…Ah, fuck."
My eyes were ruined. I hurriedly closed the video and looked for something else. A clip came up of a popular streamer with over a million subscribers attempting some special mission. I tapped it without thinking.
"Yes! Hello, my little cuties! Today's donation mission: Go into a funeral home and make the chief mourner laugh! Alright, let's do this!"
"Is this guy insane?"
I snorted in disbelief and shut the video again. There was nothing worth watching on VTube today. Lately I'd been pouring my entire life into exercise, training, meditation, and sex, so keeping up with trends was hard.
I was tapping absently at my phone screen when a text came in.
It was Ichie. Even though she couldn't see me, I nodded and sent the reply.