Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Perfect Score and Supplementary Classes
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A night where clouds veiled the moon.
Light leaking from the laptop illuminated the dark room.
[No results from the investigation yet?]
[Almost done, miss. Nothing suspicious so far. Only the third young master left.]
[I see.]
[But is this guy really a wolf? His usual conduct is impeccable... Anyway, no need to worry too much.]
[Got it. Contact me right away if anything comes up.]
Setting down her phone, Ju A-rin rubbed her temples and closed her eyes for a moment.
The so-called wolf hunt.
The task of rooting out the moles was nearing its end.
Fortunately, no suspicious signs anywhere.
The more she dug, the more he seemed like a decent person.
Was the prophecy just a prophecy after all?
Ju A-rin hoped it would all wrap up without incident.
....
Yet the nagging doubt in one corner of her heart refused to fade.
For some reason, she couldn't brush off that person's words.
He always showed unexpected sides, and more often than not, they turned out to be spot on.
"Today's sparring too..."
He roused the immovable Cheon Seo-yun with a single taunt, then leaped like some circus act, tossed his sword to push her back.
Everyone dismissed it as Cheon Seo-yun being off her game, but Ju A-rin thought differently.
"He's definitely not ordinary."
Whatever technique it was, that plummeting sword was no easy block even for her.
Too many tells to chalk it up to his weapon again. Her suspicions had only grown.
"Hiding his skills? Why?"
Ju A-rin murmured softly, tapping her fingers on the innocent desk.
But she soon gave up.
It was too hard to approach the truth on assumptions alone.
"Already this late."
Noticing it was past 10 p.m., Ju A-rin saved her file, closed her laptop.
Urgent work done, about an hour left before bed.
Habitually glancing at the fridge.
Gulp.
She swallowed hard and turned away.
Drinking every night for a week felt disrespectful to her body.
Ju A-rin dove onto the fluffy bed like she was fleeing.
To distract herself, she picked up her phone, her hand naturally going to the gallery.
There, a hard-won photo, snapped while minding the person next to her.
Roberto Vanessa.
One of the rising stars in the art world, dubbed the reincarnation of Klimt for his flair in capturing sensual female forms in vibrant colors.
His handsome looks made him hugely popular, notoriously hard to book.
To think she'd see him at Taehak. And not once, but for a whole month...
Meeting him in person, his speech and vibe were overly slick, not her type at all. Still, she was genuinely captivated by his work, so the sentiment lingered.
His lecture structure appealed to her too.
Bzzz.
Right on cue, her phone vibrated.
[How was today's lecture, everyone? This is Roberto. Discussing art at the world's top military academy feels strange to me too, but...]
Ju A-rin flinched, then shook her head.
Were all celebrities like this?
Having to provide this service amid a busy schedule—life sounded exhausting.
* * *
Spatial transformation through magic and science fused. A product of magitech.
The space-shaking turbulence was real enough, but it barely scratched the surface of what hit my retinas.
The rest expanded the space via magic.
Soon, I felt dropped into an isolated field.
Green grass sprouted on the ground, the gray ceiling turned blue, holding clouds.
Of course, rendered imagery. A virtual world, lacking full realism.
But with nerve-tingling BGM, it was backdrop enough to amp up the fantasy vibe.
Field setup complete.
You are now the human hero facing off against a horde of vicious orcs.
Beginning monster generation.
Please wait.
I waited as the human hero, not Park Ha-yul.
Static crackled, and burly green monsters spawned one by one, filling the front.
At the space's edge.
On a lavish platform rose an orc shaman in golden ritual robes, raising his staff and roaring.
His lackey orcs hoisted axes, spears, swords—every blade imaginable—joining the chorus.
Like the final boss of a VR game.
Even as illusion, this scale stirred my parched emotions plenty.
A sudden surge of competitive fire quickened my pulse.
Preparation complete.
Target: Slay Orc Shaman, Kron.
Mission starts on countdown end.
May luck fill your path.
10
9
.
.
Calmly deep-breathing, I fixed on the distant orc shaman's brow.
Goal: End him in one shot.
Distance? Roughly 250m? Or 300m?
Far, but heightened focus let me spot the fuzz on his face.
No, coarse black hairs swaying in the wind.
7
6
I slowly wrapped the enhanced Heavenly Silken Thread around my right wrist.
Extends to 300m max, but now same as before, about 1m.
At its end, I manifested the Linked Whisper Sword.
Performance limit 40%, manifest time 10 seconds.
5
4
Prep mostly done, now visualize in my head.
A single beam from my hand piercing the shaman's brow. Repeated a couple times.
2
1
Start.
Windup at the bell.
Truth be told, dagger throw speed affects the thread's extension, so tossing casually works fine.
But human psychology.
Can't shake the bias that extra oomph makes it faster.
I channeled waist twist through shoulder, arm, hand.
Maxing the force transfer, hurled the sword.
Pewng—
Crisp whoosh, sword shot out.
Absolute Hit carved the path, my will propping it up.
The blade slipped through countless orcs, straight for the target.
A ruler-straight trajectory, like lightning piercing air, blazed toward him.
Result came faster than a blink.
He'd just grandly appeared and roared once.
Puk.
The merciless, eyeless blade pierced the orc shaman's brow dead-on.
Arms high, mid-mutter...
He dropped dead.
"...Done?"
Mission cleared.
Time: 3 seconds.
Calculating final score from safety, technique, time.
.
.
Your score: 300 points.
Congratulations. First perfect score.
'Bu-han-si' takes real-time 1st place.
Thrilling, but I was dumbfounded.
Just one sword toss for perfect?
From what I knew, Baek Sa-young's 1st in original was 295.
Ghostly maneuvers: grill, fry, boil, braise.
A one-man show for 295.
"Sheesh."
Time and safety, fine. But perfect technique too?
One-shot kill did it?
Anyway, near-theoretical max score.
Some controversy likely...
Whatever, what's done is done.
Anonymous anyway—no one knows whose 300 it is.
Key: Heavenly Silken Thread's new function thrilled me.
1st Bu-han-si [300pt]
2nd Il-do-yang-dan [291pt]
3rd 10 Circle Mage Ji-long [290pt]
4th I Am Legend [287pt]
5th chlrkdals02 [282pt]
Top spot felt odd, good.
Looking down on protags... not bad...
"Now to rest."
Satisfied end, about to log out.
Flash—rankings shifted again.
1st Bu-han-si [300pt]
2nd Il-do-yang-dan [291pt]
3rd 10 Circle Mage Ji-long [290pt]
4th I Am Legend [287pt]
5th Everyone-Hater Doll [284pt]
New 5th: Surprising, welcome.
Everyone-Hater Doll. That's Cheon Seo-yun...
Drug worked perfectly.
Debut timing faster than original—back to training addict mode.
Powered by rage at me... uh?
"Wait, training grounds now?"
Taehak has many, so low odds of bumping in my #3.
But first met her there too?
Thought hit, bolted out the door.
No way I wanted one-on-one today.
* * *
[Time Remaining: 22 days 4 hours 15 minutes]
Next morning, 5:30 a.m.
Up before alarm, headed to physical training ground.
Standard routine: wrecked shoulders, thighs. Refreshed return.
Quick shower, morning classes—entered dorm.
That's when I spotted the envelope in my mailbox.
"Hm?"
No letters expected, utilities free—no bills.
Casually tore it open, checked the paper.
Pre-Notice for Summer Vacation Supplementary Class Attendees
Target: Park Ha-yul
Period: June 30 – July 30
.
.
Refreshed mood rocketed to Andromeda.
Supplementary classes?
Summer vac has external episodes galore—stuck in dorm for classes?
"What kinda bullshit setting..."
Curse slipped out, then a related detail flashed.
"...Right."
Existed. Just overlooked since original skipped it.
No protag sits through supp classes.
Knew this, would've managed grades earlier.
Acted above it all, now bitter.
Yesterday coolly took penalty points too.
...Damn.
Crumpled paper, pocketed. Chugged water from bottle.
Whole thing down to calm nerves.
Focus: counter.
Good: Still 'prospective', not final.
Supp targets top 650 of 750? Manage from now, escape possible.
Nail this week's formative eval, mid/final exams—could hit top 100.
"Now grades too."
Not hard. Just annoying.
Sigh, stepping off—
Vision warped ahead.
Familiar precursor, tilting head—text etched in empty space.
───────────────
[Inter Quest]
[Goal: Post-Formative Re-rank Total, Within 650th]
[Reward: +10 Days to Remaining Time, 20 SP]
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"Now that's different."
Who'd refuse rewards for must-do?
SP needed too—perfect.
Eyes on me, whatever. Survival first.