Chapter 206: Hunter Qualification Exam (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 206: Hunter Qualification Exam (3)
Just as the light from the artificial sun hanging from the high ceiling began to dim, casting the jungle into darkness.
[The second exam is now over.]
The second exam, which had started in the morning, finally came to an end.
“It’s over already?”
Tsk, what a shame.
With the mana I had left, I could have probably eliminated another one or two hundred people.
[Please follow the direction indicated by the artificial light source in the sky.]
Following the light source, which was now emitting a strong beam in the shape of an arrow, I found a long escalator leading upwards.
I guess they can teleport us from the dorms to here, but not all of us from here back to the dorms.
When I finally reached the first-floor hall, the results were displayed on a large screen.
“The number of successful candidates… is only 3,500?”
The number was far lower than expected, and the murmurs in the crowd grew louder.
“Way more people failed than I thought.”
The condition for passing the second exam, the ‘Token Snatching Battle,’ was to collect five tokens, with each person starting with one.
This meant that only one-fifth of the original participants could pass.
What did that mean?
It meant the Association had designed this test to deliberately fail a large portion of the record-breaking number of applicants.
The Association had expected around 5,000 people—about one-fifth of the 27,000—to pass, but the result fell far short of that, with only 3,000 making it.
“Interesting.”
With 27,000 tokens in play, the maximum number of people who could pass was 5,400.
But for the exam to end with only 3,000 successful candidates meant…
“Th-these bastards! They have dozens of tokens!”
“Why the hell would they do that…!”
“I failed because of you, you son of a bitch!”
It meant there were others like me who had hunted down applicants even after meeting the passing criteria.
Just then, I spotted a few guys in the middle of the commotion who clearly had a different aura from the other applicants.
Dangling from their chests were so many tokens it was hard to count them all.
It was a sign of how many applicants they had eliminated with their own hands.
Despite the storm of accusations from those around them, they didn't seem to care in the slightest.
No, they even had the audacity to get angry back.
“All this chirping is annoying. The fact that you think you failed because of me is where you're wrong, you morons.”
“If you want revenge, stop flapping your gums and come at me. I'll take you on anytime.”
Everyone flinched at their words, which were backed by a powerful aura.
Their tone is pretty damn obnoxious, but they're not wrong.
It's nobody's fault that the applicants swarming them with insults failed.
It was simply because they were weak.
It might sound cold, but this outcome was practically inevitable.
“After all, 30,000 people applied for an exam that only accepts 100…”
The number of people who can earn a license from the Hunter Qualification Exam is fixed.
They have to squeeze through the eye of a needle that only fits 100 people, but there are thirty thousand crowded in front of it.
Isn't competition inevitable?
Even if those guys hadn't acted that way during the second exam, nothing would have changed for the people swarming them now.
They're all about the same level. Even if they had fought amongst themselves and passed, they would've just failed the third exam anyway.
It might sound cold, but that's just how it is.
That's the default setting in the world of Hunters.
When you're selecting people for a job that involves fighting monsters, what could be more important than strength?
“Still, that kind of attitude isn't good…”
I'm starting to worry about those arrogant bastards.
I've learned a few things from living in this world for a long time, and one of them is to avoid doing things that will make people hold a grudge against you.
It's true that the applicants they eliminated failed because they were weak.
But just because they're weak now doesn't guarantee they'll be weak in the future.
Some people's potential blooms late, while others might use the injustice they suffered today as fuel to whip themselves into shape and become stronger.
Of course, their numbers would be very small, but could there really be not a single one among the 2,000 gathered there?
“So naive.”
Tsk, tsk.
If they had handled it smartly like I did, they wouldn't have made any enemies.
I eliminated several times more people than they did, yet I only have five tokens left on my chest.
Where did all those other tokens go, you ask?
Where else? I gave them to the fodder who will serve as a cushion for me and my teammates in the next exam.
The ones I eliminated were only those who might have posed a threat to my teammates.
As for the others, the ones who looked like they had a threat level of zero, I actually gave them tokens.
“Ah, there he is!”
A group of people ran up to me, their faces bright, and bowed their heads.
“Thank you so much, hyung-nim!”
“We passed the exam thanks to you.”
“We'll never forget this favor!”
This is the difference between those kids and me.
They used useless tokens as medals and earned themselves all sorts of grudges, while I used those same useless things to grant favors to so many people.
Grudges and favors have one thing in common.
You never know when, but they always come back to you.
And it's not always the person you wronged or helped who pays you back.
“Well… they'll figure it out on their own.”
Whether it's a grudge or a favor.
As long as you can handle the consequences and take responsibility, what's the problem?
* * *
The next day.
Like the day before, the third exam began early in the morning. The event was none other than a dungeon raid.
The test was simple: clear an artificial dungeon in a randomly assigned five-person party, all under the supervision of an examiner.
And it was here that Kim Do-jin's favor from the previous day was returned in full.
“Oh, we meet again!”
“It's good to see you, hyung-nim!”
Of the four randomly matched members, two were people who had passed the exam with the tokens Kim Do-jin had given them.
The biggest problem with a hastily formed party is coordinating opinions, but that wasn't an issue for Kim Do-jin's party.
Because the two he had helped were firmly backing him, an environment was created where the other two had no choice but to listen to him.
Having reached a consensus faster than any other party, Kim Do-jin's team also cleared the dungeon at record speed, successfully receiving their passing tokens from the accompanying supervisor.
“Wow… thanks for the carry, hyung-nim!”
“I can't believe it, I'm actually going to the fourth exam…!”
Kim Do-jin celebrated with the overjoyed members for a moment before quietly slipping away.
He felt no need to get any closer to them.
They'll just fail the next exam anyway.
In the Hunter Qualification Exam, individual scores are continuously tallied even in team-based tests.
And after the fourth exam is over, those scores will determine the hundred people who receive a license.
The dungeon raid just now had been practically a one-man show by Kim Do-jin.
He had bulldozed through it with overwhelming firepower, making their presence more or less irrelevant.
In other words, their passing was essentially meaningless.
“Now I can just sit back and watch.”
Having cleared the dungeon at an overwhelming speed, Kim Do-jin found a spot with a clear view of the dozens of artificial dungeon entrances and settled in to watch.
About an hour later, the second party emerged.
Son Seo-yeon was among them.
“Oh, Seo-yeon's party was second.”
In a way, it was to be expected.
Her skills were among the best of everyone gathered here.
Besides, given her ability to use both sword and magic, managing her party would have been much easier compared to others.
After that, parties that had finished the raid began to appear one by one.
There were parties hugging each other after everyone passed, parties with mixed expressions after only some passed, and parties fighting as if they wanted to kill each other after failing the raid.
Im Na-eun and Elena's parties fell into the second category.
Fortunately, since both of them were the only ones in their respective parties to pass, they didn't look too upset. However, they seemed to be restraining themselves, as if trying to be considerate of their failed party members' feelings.
It was when the forty-third party came out of an artificial dungeon that a small incident occurred.
“Stop hitting on me, you crazy bastard!”
Smack!
“Gah!”
Shin Yu-jeong, the last of Kim Do-jin's teammates to finish the raid, had just slammed her fist into the solar plexus of a party member who kept hovering around her.
Violence between applicants was grounds for severe punishment.
But the nearby supervisor just shook his head as if he'd been expecting it, merely scolding Shin Yu-jeong for her actions without imposing any real penalty.
Seeing this, Kim Do-jin frowned.
“My god… just how much was he pestering her?”
This meant that even in the supervisor's eyes, the man had been excessively harassing Shin Yu-jeong.
For a moment, Kim Do-jin, angered that the man had touched what was his, was entertaining some very unpleasant thoughts.
“Listen here, applicant. A dungeon is not a social club. If you act like this one more time, I will use my authority as a supervisor to fail you. Understood?”
“Kuh… I-I'm sorry.”
The supervisor's sharp criticism and warning toward the man calmed Kim Do-jin's anger.
“Lucky bastard.”
Kim Do-jin clicked his tongue, muttering as if it were a shame.
The supervisor would never know.
That his actions just now had ensured a certain man's sex life could continue unscathed.