I AM (5)
[ Labyrinth Cleared ]
We returned to the set the moment the labyrinth ended.
I sat in a chair, utterly exhausted, while the other kids were already laughing and chatting as if they’d become best friends. Fresh, young bodies. They were different from me in so many ways—I was already worn down to the core.
Must be nice.
“Great work, everyone.”
The main MC, Yu Ji-in, had appeared out of nowhere. She spoke with a practiced, smiling tone.
“All 96 of you cleared this level test. Now, shall we introduce your mentors?”
The contestants broke into applause. Some even let out cheers.
“First, the High-ranker martial artist, DK.”
At Yu Ji-in’s introduction, DK walked in.
He was dressed like he was about to drop a rap album on the spot. I knew his face well—he was a rapper-turned-explorer who had actually released records.
“Yo, what’s up!”
Whoaaaa— clap clap clap clap—
The contestants poured out their reactions to him as he waved his hand in a hip, casual way. Some even jumped to their feet, overreacting.
Ugh, so loud.
My knee was killing me, and now my ears were under attack, too.
“Next, the High-ranker warrior, Kim Yoon-jun.”
Mentor Kim Yoon-jun. He was wearing a coat, but it couldn’t hide the rippling muscles beneath. He was an actor-turned-explorer.
“Nice to meet you all.”
The reaction he drew was just as intense as DK’s.
“Next. The High-ranker spellcaster, Yu Yul.”
Third, the spellcaster Yu Yul.
It was a fairly unfamiliar name. The contestants’ reactions were slightly delayed, and many looked like their brains had frozen at the sight of her.
I’d been puzzled by her when I watched the show on air, too.
Usually, when they pick a ‘mentor,’ they go for someone at least somewhat famous to the public, but she was a completely unknown explorer.
Anyway, she was a plump woman. Appearance isn’t everything, but considering the job of an explorer—which requires constant running and jumping—her physique was quite unusual.
But… wait.
What is this?
My brow furrowed naturally. It was because of the faint aura of mana radiating from her.
It wasn’t enough to be distracting, but it felt like she was already cloaked in mana.
It was incredibly subtle, and purely my own intuition, but still.
“Finally, the High-ranker archer, Kim Ji-an.”
In the meantime, the fourth mentor had appeared. She was an archer who used a bow as her main weapon.
The four mentors and Yu Ji-in took their seats at the judges’ table one by one.
“Could everyone please step down from your chairs for a moment?”
At Yu Ji-in’s request, the contestants stepped off the set and lined up.
“First, we will announce the rankings based on the level test. Starting with 1st to 10th place, the S-Tier.”
Rankings.
I felt anxious. No matter how I looked at it, I was sure I’d be in last place.
[ 1st Place: Lee Jun-ho ]
[ 2nd Place: Seo Ji-woo ]
[ 3rd Place: Ryu Yeon-hwa ]
[ 4th Place: Kang Hyun ]
[ 5th Place: Kate ]
[ 6th Place: Jo Woon… ]
“Will the ten people called please step forward?”
The TOP 10 stood before the judges.
Mentor Kim Yoon-jun grabbed the microphone first.
“My thoughts on your level tests… first of all, they were good. It really made me think, ‘Wow, the skills of the MZ generation these days are quite something.’ There were definitely some disappointing parts, though.”
He pointed to Lee Jun-ho.
“Especially you, martial artist Lee Jun-ho. You were perfect in every aspect. Speed, boldness, and most importantly, strength. There wasn’t a single thing lacking.”
“But.”
That was when DK picked up his mic. He stared at Lee Jun-ho through his sunglasses.
“Don’t you think you’re getting hit a bit too much? It’s like you have this mindset that it’s fine if a few dozen goblins come at you. If you keep taking hits like that, your ‘mileage’ builds up without you even realizing it.”
Lee Jun-ho nodded with a serious expression.
“I think I moved too aggressively because I wanted to clear it quickly.”
“That happens. You just shouldn’t do that in a real fight. Anyway, congrats on 1st place. You’ve definitely earned it.”
“Thank you!”
Lee Jun-ho smiled brightly and bowed.
The mentors gave fairly favorable comments to the other nine as well. It lasted about six or seven sentences each.
“1st to 10th place, please take your seats in your respective chairs. Now, we will call the A-Tier explorers, 11th to 20th place.”
The seating was completely rearranged, and the 11th to 20th place contestants came out next.
The mentors didn’t hold back on advice for them. Perhaps because they were lacking compared to the top ten, there was more to say.
“B-Tier, 21st to 30th place, please come out.”
After that, 21st to 30th, 31st to 40th, 41st to 50th, and 51st to 60th followed.
“We will now call the D-Tier, 61st to 80th place.”
From 60th place on, they called 20 people at a time. My name wasn’t on that list, either.
“Please come out.”
From the D-Tier on, Yu Ji-in spoke less, and the mentors’ comments were reduced to a word or two.
‘Try a bit harder,’ or ‘This part was a bit disappointing’—that was it.
“We will now call the F-Tier, 81st to 96th place.”
The final F-Tier.
Would it be 81st? Or 96th?
Honestly, it was a luxury to even be nervous.
It took me 3 hours and 20 minutes. How could I not be 96th?
“…94th, Kim Jang-hoon. 95th, Lee Jong-hyuk. 96th, Seol Ha-woon.”
It didn’t feel great to have it confirmed, though.
Anyway, I stood at the very end of the 16 F-Tier contestants.
The kids in this line didn’t look happy at all. The mentors only gave them a word or half a word each before moving on.
It was a lineup destined for the cutting room floor.
My situation was even worse. I’d only been standing for three minutes, and my knee was already starting to ache. Probably because of a bad landing in the labyrinth.
So, I closed my eyes and tried to endure the pain, when—
“What are you doing?”
Kim A-rang approached and asked.
“…It’s nothing.”
“Then come out, quickly. We have more filming to do.”
Suddenly, I tapped my wrist. The NaN status window floated into my retina.
“…Yes.”
96th place.
My mouth tasted bitter.
I just hoped I wouldn’t be edited out entirely.
“Hmmmm.”
In the editing room, Kim A-rang was browsing other communities on her smartphone.
“PD Yoon. Do we really not need to push any viral marketing?”
There were quite a few posts related to this season, but they were all over the place.
“Not yet. We might not even need to.”
Right now, it was a break during editing.
Yoon Sa-hyeok was extremely thorough with his routine; after working for 50 minutes, he had to take a 10-minute break. If you repeated that 13 times a day, you could go home, and if you spent seven years doing that by his side, you could become his right-hand person.
“So… have you thought about Seol Ha-woon, who I mentioned before?”
I carefully brought it up.
Kim A-rang had conveyed the information about Seol Ha-woon and her own thoughts to Yoon Sa-hyeok. Yoon Sa-hyeok seemed quite surprised by Seol Ha-woon’s ‘Zero Trap’ performance, too.
“Yeah.”
“So, about that…”
“I’ll leave the editing to you.”
The words I’d been dying to hear. Yoon Sa-hyeok said it as if it were no big deal, and Kim A-rang shrugged as if she were calm.
“Well, yeah. I’ll do that.”
Despite her words, her heart was pounding. She felt great. She felt much better than she’d expected.
“Do you know why?”
“…Pardon?”
Yoon Sa-hyeok suddenly pointed at her.
“The reason PD Kim is in a good mood.”
“…Why, why would I be in a good mood? I’m just tired.”
“It’s because it’s a picture you’re painting yourself.”
Yoon Sa-hyeok hit the nail on the head.
“…….”
Come to think of it, that made sense.
Every season of Labyrinth Exploration so far had gone according to Yoon Sa-hyeok’s vision, and they had all been massive successes. Even Lee Je-hoon had been Yoon Sa-hyeok’s pick.
As a 7th-year PD, Kim A-rang was now at the level where she could lead other main programs, but in the shadow of Yoon Sa-hyeok, she always felt like she was hiding herself.
Because whatever she did, Yoon Sa-hyeok would always be the ‘correct answer.’
In that sense, Seol Ha-woon was the first character Kim A-rang was in charge of… well, saying she was in charge of him made it sound like she was taking responsibility, but anyway.
He was a character she wanted to paint on her own terms.
“Will you be okay?”
Yoon Sa-hyeok twisted his lips.
“With what?”
“You’ll be angry if the painting breaks while you’re drawing it. It has to be someone who won’t break easily.”
“Breaking…”
Kim A-rang thought of Seol Ha-woon.
Thinking about what he’d done to her since the first interview, he wasn’t someone who would break easily. He was just slow. Because one of his legs was broken.
“…He’s already a person with a broken leg, isn’t he?”
“Pfft.”
Yoon Sa-hyeok chuckled at Kim A-rang’s joke.
He liked cynical jokes like this. It meant he had a bit of a sociopathic streak.
Kim A-rang stretched and said,
“Ugh~ They say you can’t be full from the first spoonful anyway, right? If he breaks, it means my intuition was wrong, so I’ll just have to accept it.”
Beep—
The alarm on the digital clock rang. It was the signal that the break was over.
Yoon Sa-hyeok immediately resumed editing, and Kim A-rang shook her head in disbelief as she looked at her own screen.
“…Seol Ha-woon.”
He was there.
The stage where everyone had left after he was confirmed as 96th place.
The sight of him sitting alone in the darkness, staring straight ahead.
Quite coincidentally, his eyes flashed blue for a split second.
It was the perfect cut for a dramatic scene.
“This is the plight of the last-place contestant…”
And, how far will this 96th place rise?
Is it worth watching?
Or will he just be forgotten like this?
Kim A-rang smiled.