97. My Buff is a Drug
97. My Buff is a Drug
Hye-yong didn't waste any time either. He raised Burst Wolf and aimed at the longsword melee dealer behind the tanker.
Thanks to the holy relic he'd already prepared, which granted him firearm proficiency and accuracy buffs, he could pull the trigger without hesitation.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The bullets, however, stopped just short of the melee dealer.
The telekinetic must have blocked them with psychokinesis.
'So that's one way to use it.'
Well then. Time to go after the telekinetic.
Realizing they were the next target, the telekinetic pulled the debris they'd been controlling close to themselves.
But to Hye-yong, his firearm proficiency and shooting accuracy buffs were so high he could see every gap in their defense.
'If I shoot here....'
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Ghk!"
The telekinetic, who'd been concentrating to draw up more psychokinetic power, took two rounds near the forehead and one in the shoulder. The floating chunks of debris clattered to the ground around them.
They'd gathered the debris for cover, trying to stop the bullets, but Hye-yong's firearm proficiency and shooting accuracy let him thread the needle through those tiny gaps.
Was their defense weakened whenever they used psychokinesis to attack?
Even though the shots carried no mana at all, their power was more than enough to shatter their concentration.
'Huh. Even without a trait, you can get good mileage out of shooting if your aim is solid.'
Baek Yun-seo herself had said she was a non-Awakened, after all.
Which meant she had no relevant trait.
Against aberrations, it would be useless, but against another Awakened, even manaless gunfire could be plenty irritating.
"Kobel!"
"Cover me while I refocus my psychokinesis!"
Clang!
The shield-bearing tanker stepped forward to protect their teammate.
Now it was Hye-yong's turn to leave things to his own party members.
Thwack! Thwack!
Lanfang repeatedly struck the shield, probing for openings.
Since her movements were faster than the tanker's, every time she aimed for a gap, the tanker had to twist their body and ruin their stance to block.
But countering with a skill like Shield Rush would leave an opening of its own, and she'd surely dodge it.
In that moment of distraction, Park Yuri tried to drive a punch into the tanker's exposed thigh.
But the melee dealer guarding the tanker intercepted her with a swing of their sword, forcing her to withdraw for a second.
The telekinetic seized that opening.
They drove the sharp edge of a piece of debris toward her neck.
Hye-yong, of course, was watching, and he wasn't about to just stand there.
Twung!
A shield instantly formed and deflected the debris.
He had a window to open fire, but he figured it'd look a little odd if he hogged all the action. He held back on shooting and chose to focus on his blessings instead.
'With this, I can cut loose!'
Confident in her safety, Park Yuri launched an all-out, reckless assault.
She ignored the melee dealer entirely and kept driving her fists into the gaps around the tanker, who was too overwhelmed by Lanfang's attacks to focus.
Wham!
"Gahk! What are you doing?! Guard me!"
The melee dealer took a big swing at their teammate's shouted rebuke, but Park Yuri's protective shield made the attack useless — it just bounced right off.
"What the hell kind of shield is that...."
Wham! Wham! Wham!
In that time, Park Yuri's knuckles hammered into the tanker's back repeatedly!
The blue-trailing mana-infused fists weren't huge, but every time they struck, the tanker screamed.
"Graaaah!"
They were beating on the shield-bearing tanker from front and back — a ridiculous situation where the rear members could only stamp their feet in frustration.
Papapapak!
The telekinetic gathered debris again and launched it at full power, but Hye-yong barely had to concentrate; his barrier didn't even get scratched.
Which meant the level gap between them was enormous.
'It does use divine power, but... eh, I can hold out just fine.'
The Divine Power Lv.5 that Yoo Ji-ah had given him was a huge asset.
In a sense, it might as well be cheating, but so what?
It was within permitted bounds. The instructor was the one who gave him the stat, wasn't she?
"Will you do something?!"
"Do what?!"
Thwack! Thwack!!
Park Yuri cut off the tanker's desperate shout and kept kicking low.
The tanker's stance completely collapsed. Their shield finally dropped, and they started taking damage from Lanfang as well.
Swish, swish!
She slashed fast with her blade tonfas. It didn't feel like cutting, probably thanks to the protection magic, but those hits sealed the outcome.
Beep!
"Graaaaaaaaaah!"
Bzzzzt!
The light on their anklet went out, and at the same moment, a surge of electricity wracked the tanker. They dropped to their knees.
"Urgh...!"
Not enough to knock them out, but enough to neutralize them.
This counted as a death in the match.
Clack.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The telekinetic saw Hye-yong raise his gun and frantically dragged debris in to block.
But while they did, Park Yuri closed in and pulled back her fist.
The telekinetic tried to block Park Yuri's punch with a free hand of psychokinetic force, but the power of Park Yuri's full-strength blow was stronger than the psychokinetic resistance.
"Hrup!"
Wham!
In the end, they took a fist right to the face.
After that, it was Park Yuri's rush time, pure and simple.
No time to fight back — just an endless hail of fists, one after another.
"Ko... Kobel!"
Seeing the telekinetic getting pummeled, the melee dealer was visibly shaken.
That one was C-rank. They seemed to be the center of the team.
"I'm right here, you know."
"Huhk!"
Lanfang appeared in front, swinging her blade tonfas. The melee dealer flailed their sword a few times and, in the end, let an attack through.
Then they gave up a three-hit combo....
Bzzzzzt!
"Gyaaaaah!"
They exceeded the damage limit and were eliminated.
"Haahp!"
At the same moment, Park Yuri let out a sharp battle cry.
She threw one powerful blow that practically screamed this is the end.
Wham!!
Bzzzzt!
"Grgghk!!"
The moment the punch landed, their protection magic hit its limit, vanished, and the entire opposing party was processed as eliminated.
A voice — presumably an instructor's — echoed inside the otherworld.
— Test complete! Please move to the waiting room.
It had been a little underwhelming, but a win was a win.
Hye-yong raised both arms and yelled with genuine delight.
"Let's high-five!"
"High-five!"
"You get one because we won!"
Smack! Smack!
They high-fived with both hands, then stepped back out.
-
— Let's high-five!
— High-five!
— You get one because we won!
— Smack! Smack!
'Heh heh. Good to see. They really do carry that youthful vibe....'
Dozens of monitors surrounded the room.
Dozens of instructors sat watching them.
This was the evaluation room, where they observed student sparring from multiple angles and assigned scores.
Among the many instructors assigned to this evaluation was Blessing Mage instructor Yoo Ji-ah.
From start to finish, her gaze had stayed near whatever screen showed Hye-yong.
'He seems to have quite a few close friends. And more than anything, he looks happy, which is a relief.'
Choi Hye-yong's face, laughing in the joy of victory.
At the very least, it didn't look like a fake smile.
Like that, with friends.
Enjoying youth, just living happily — if only he could go on like that....
As she was thinking that, she heard other instructors talking.
"This student, Kobel, also has ability that stands out even for a C-rank average...."
"Yes. Given time, they could comfortably aim for B-rank or higher."
"This time, though, it feels like Choi Hye-yong was overwhelming."
"Seeing his barrier application, there's no way he's truly D-rank."
"Besides the barrier, there seemed to be separate enhancement buffs as well, didn't there?"
"It's astonishing that he was F-rank until just recently."
She was listening blankly when one instructor spoke to her.
"What do you think, Instructor Yoo Ji-ah?"
"Ah."
She shook off her reverie and answered.
"Yes. From the strength of the barrier to the timing of its generation — if you look at the very top of C-rank, there's not a single flaw. The enhancement buffs look to be at least two different stats at or around Level 8. I don't think it would be strange for him to advance to B-rank right this moment."
The other instructors conferred, taking Yoo Ji-ah's comments into account.
"No shame in raising him to B-rank, you say... If it's true he started from F-rank, that's an outpacing growth rate. Though, of course, that seems unlikely...."
"The possibility that he was hiding his power all along seems high. That kind of growth speed simply doesn't make sense by normal standards."
"I don't think it's a good practice, but... it happens sometimes. Students who could raise their rank but don't, and instead hide their strength."
"This autonomous update system really is an issue. This facility's problem is that it gives students too much autonomy. What advantage could they possibly think they gain by hiding their strength?"
"What can we do? That's the facility's policy. We can't interfere with what the Chairwoman established."
"Even if they're legally adults, by the way they think, they're still no different from kids... It does feel like this is going to cause a problem someday."
After grumbling briefly about the facility's system, the instructors returned to the topic of what to do with Hye-yong's results.
"This student, Choi Hye-yong — his shooting skill was remarkable. I ask just in case, but... there's no firearms-related trait, correct?"
"No. His student file only lists the Blessing Mage trait. Though it hasn't been updated yet aside from a stamina enhancement buff."
"Even when it updates, there likely won't be a firearms trait. There's never yet been a case where a Blessing Mage trait manifested alongside a firearms-related trait."
"Do you remember? Student Kobel defended using debris, but Hye-yong precisely spotted those tiny gaps and forced bullets through them. If it's pure skill, you have to call it genius."
"If he had a proper firearms-related trait, student Kobel would have taken heavy damage the moment a shot slipped through while defenseless. Seeing how the gunshots' power was notably reduced suggests he has no trait. That's a shame in its own way. With pure skill like that, the synergy with a firearms trait would have been tremendous."
"Personally, even if his marksmanship is excellent, I see prolonged use of firearms as a negative factor. Without a trait, even if your firearm proficiency rises, the actual power of the shots doesn't increase."
"Let's view the outstanding marksmanship as a small advantage... and base the score primarily on the barrier and blessings. Instructor Yoo Ji-ah said he'd have no shame being raised to B-rank, so I think in this test we should award bonus points...."
Yoo Ji-ah had been trying to listen closely, never knowing when another question might come. But ultimately, her focus blurred and she sank back into her thoughts.
It was, of course, because Hye-yong was on her mind.
'I'd like it if he could just forget everything and live happily, but....'
Strangely, other thoughts kept surfacing.
She hadn't yet informed the facility about Hye-yong's reawakening.
As the other instructors had just said, students advertising their abilities in this facility was a matter of autonomy.
Even though it made evaluating students difficult, the Chairwoman insisted on autonomy.
So, since Hye-yong himself hadn't reported it, Yoo Ji-ah felt no need for her, as his instructor, to disclose it either. She alone knew.
As far as Yoo Ji-ah was concerned, she wanted to help Hye-yong's path forward — help whatever he was trying to do. She had no intention of obstructing or blocking him.
...At least, not yet.
'The performance itself still seems lacking, but in divine power application alone, he's already surpassed Father.'
Others might not see it, but they couldn't deceive Yoo Ji-ah's sharp eye.
She had clearly seen him cast buffs on his two teammates almost simultaneously the instant he blocked an attack with his barrier.
It was clumsy.
He was clumsily hiding his strength.
He might have intentionally dialed down the power, but he was showing immaturity when it came to controlling his innate superiority.
His casting speed and blessing-switching ability were top class even among active hunters.
Customized blessings tailored to each person's abilities.
Yet, the core was ultimately his barrier....
Choi Hye-yong had not been wrongly served by his parents' blood.
He was blending his parents' abilities and utilizing only the outstanding parts.
As if to say, I am their child.
Just moments ago, she'd been gazing at him with a fond feeling. Now, barely a few minutes later, her mood had turned complicated.
She was grown and old enough, yet her emotions swung like a teenage girl's.
She thought herself ridiculous, but she couldn't control her feelings.
Yoo Ji-ah monologued internally, as if transcribing the questions she wanted to ask Hye-yong directly.
Using even the title she'd once used to call him.
'Nephew... is this really a reawakening?'
'Or have you been secretly hiding that skill all along?'
'Was pretending not to recognize me just an act to feign memory loss?'
'Did you smile at me, who you hated so fiercely, simply to deceive me?'
'Perhaps even that long aphasia... was merely a device to conceal yourself.'
If Choi Hye-yong had been hiding his power all this time...
If he'd been treated like an F-rank loser all along, not caring in the slightest, and had simply kept his power to himself...
Then that meant....
'Then, to you, Nephew, that night really was an unforgettable moment — one you wouldn't forget until your very last breath.'
'And the reason you're beginning to reveal your presence now... is it to take revenge for that night?'
'If... if that's the case.'
— If, someday, Hye-yong awakens or something like that and tries to take revenge against us, you must stop him.
— I don't want my son to live a life with nothing left but emptiness.
— Just... let him live ordinarily... just like everyone else....
'I would have no choice but to stand in your way, Nephew.'
'Because those words... are the last will your mother left to me. The final assignment left in this sinful life.'
[ Don't call me nephew. ]
[ Don't pretend you're my family. ]
[ You disgust me. ]
The memory of the first note Choi Hye-yong had ever shown her surfaced, and her mouth turned bitter.
Yoo Ji-ah prayed with a desperate heart.
'I pray that the images my nephew has shown me were not born from hatred.'
'I pray that he has forgotten about his parents, forgotten about me, and is simply living happily as one human being.'
'I want to believe that the lively laughter I saw from him was not simple acting.'
'Please... just allow me to watch over him from afar.'
'Please....'
Yoo Ji-ah's earnest prayer.
The subject of that prayer, Hye-yong, was right now....
'Ah, I wanna touch Yuri's tits. And finish that development work I started before. Should I just stalk her today and jump her the second she goes into the dorm?'
...Busy hatching a scheme worthy of some thug who was so horny he never gave a single thought to bigger things like life.