Chapter 57: A Sincere Sneeze
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 57: A Sincere Sneeze
Ability Evaluation.
This process, which categorized the abilities of awakened hunters in greater detail, was just as important as the rank evaluation.
The hunter profession was useful against dimensional entities, but some special abilities were also valuable in society.
For example, the ability to read minds was incredibly helpful in criminal investigations.
And healer-type abilities, useful in all situations, were highly sought after everywhere, regardless of rank.
That was why the Hunter Training Academy invested heavily in these ability evaluations. While most hunters discovered their powers upon awakening, new aspects of those abilities could emerge depending on how they were used.
‘In my case…’
It was an electricity type. To be more specific, it was specialized for offense.
Baeksan could probably use it in more versatile ways, but for me, right now, all I had was 0.1% output and two shots of Brain Thunder.
The evaluation method was simple: when an instructor called your name, you would go up and demonstrate your ability.
Thanks to this, the chattering voices of those waiting their turn and those being tested mingled, creating quite a noisy atmosphere.
“Student Kang Ha-chan.”
Just then, my turn finally came.
I walked toward the instructor who had called my name, and she looked at me and said, “Please use your ability.”
I began to take slow, deep breaths.
As I mentioned before, I needed to graduate from the academy as quietly as possible.
Therefore, I absolutely had to control my output for this ability evaluation.
0.1%.
It was time to draw out my power again.
I started gathering the aura dwelling within my body at my fingertips.
I wouldn’t make the same mistake I did with Catherine.
“Ugh.”
It was at that moment.
Suddenly, the tip of my nose started to itch, and I reflexively inhaled.
“Achoo!”
Fzzt!
And my surroundings went dark.
“Huh? What the? Why did the lights go out?”
“Is it a blackout? But there’s no way our facility would have a power outage…”
“Someone turn on the lights! What’s going on all of a sudden?”
The sudden darkness threw the room into a commotion.
In the midst of the chaos, I stood silent, my face pale as a sheet.
I’m screwed.
This was one hundred percent my fault.
As the commotion swelled around me and a cold sweat broke out on my brow, my eyes met with the instructor's.
She was staring at the red spark I had created with my sneeze, and her eyes slowly began to widen in realization.
She might not have been able to sense the aura inside my body, but since I had drawn it out externally, there was no way a hunter like her could fail to recognize the magnitude of the output she had just seen.
“S-Student Kang Ha-chan…!”
Just as I hurriedly dispersed the aura from my hand and reached out, Seo-ho moved faster.
Dashing through the noisy crowd in the darkness, Seo-ho clamped a hand over her mouth and quickly dragged the instructor out of the room.
I stared blankly at his swift, seamless movements, and a moment later, the lights came back on.
“Ah, they’re back on!”
“What was that? A real blackout?”
Amid the noisy chatter, I clenched my fists, a cold sweat trickling down my back.
I glanced around, wondering if anyone else had noticed, but thankfully, everyone was just talking amongst themselves. No one was paying attention to me.
Most of them were students, not active hunters, and the commotion from the blackout had prevented them from looking my way.
“Didn’t you just feel a high-energy output?”
“You too? I definitely sensed something right before the blackout.”
But it was a different story for the instructors, who were active hunters.
They were looking around, sensing that something was off.
One of them met my eyes for a moment before quickly looking away.
His expression seemed to say, It couldn't have been you, at least.
But why did that piss me off?
Should I just blast them with a Brain Thunder?
“It burst out too explosively. At their level, it would have just felt like a sudden flash of light. No one would know except the one who saw it right in front of you.”
Baeksan added, elaborating.
That was a relief.
“Come to think of it, Instructor Na-hyeon is gone. Where did she go?”
Just then, one of the instructors mentioned the name of the woman Seo-ho had whisked away at lightning speed.
Clank—
Right on cue, the door Seo-ho had taken her through opened, and Instructor Na-hyeon walked in.
Her eyes were dazed and unfocused, her face was flushed, and she was even drooling a little.
She walked over to me and let out a dry cough.
“Ah, ahem, I had to use the restroom urgently. My apologies. Please, continue. Mr. Ha-chan.”
Mr.?
How did I become ‘Mr.’ in that short time?
As I stared at her in confusion, Seo-ho emerged from the same direction.
He looked at me and gave me a thumbs-up with a hand hidden behind his back.
Seo-ho, what in the world did you do?
I had no idea, but for now, I decided to just feel relieved and let it go.
“Tch, you idiot.”
Ignoring Baeksan’s jab, I focused on circulating my aura properly this time.
I will succeed, no matter what.
Focusing with more intensity than I ever did for an exam, I gathered the faintest possible trace of aura at my fingertips.
And in that moment.
fzt—
A tiny red spark flickered at my fingertip and vanished.
Seeing this, I turned to the instructor with a bright, pleased expression.
“Is that all?”
“Yes!!”
“Thank you.”
After my polite closing remark, the instructor jotted something down on the tablet she was holding.
“Electricity type, less than a Pikachu, she wrote.”
As Baeksan relayed this, she turned to look at me with sparkling eyes.
Her expression seemed to ask, This is how you wanted it, right? so I gave her an awkward smile.
“Um, Mr. Ha-chan, please put in a good word for me with Mr. Seo-ho.”
I didn't know what she was talking about, but as she whispered this, I had no choice but to nod.
Whatever Seo-ho did, I should pass on the message.
“Fzt, fzt, he says. Crazy, that’s hilarious.”
“Hahahaha, what do you expect from an F-rank? Look at his face. He’s smiling proudly after doing just that.”
“Khehehe, it’s fucking hilarious the more I think about it.”
“Oppa, you’re laughing too much. He might go and tattle on you again.”
As I left Instructor Na-hyeon and started walking back to my seat, I heard a group burst into loud laughter.
I turned my head and, sure enough, it was Lee Su-ho’s group.
Are these guys my fans or something?
They watch everything I do.
But it felt wrong to just walk away after being mocked.
“Baeksan, now’s the time. Get ready to possess me.”
“You crazy bastard.”
I was about to turn around, thinking I should make it so they could never laugh again, but I stopped.
Because I saw someone walking toward Lee Su-ho’s group.
“Students, what’s so funny?”
“Uh, y-yes?”
And when he spoke, looks of panic began to spread across the faces of Lee Su-ho’s group.
Because the person who had appeared before them was none other than the Snow Mountain Wolf, Ha Seo-ho.
As Lee Su-ho’s group froze, staring at his face filled with displeasure and cold indifference, Seo-ho’s voice continued.
“Is it so amusing to watch another student being evaluated?”
“W-Well, that’s…”
Of course, they knew what they were doing was wrong.
It was an act intended solely to piss me off.
So when Seo-ho called them out, they fell silent, glancing nervously at each other.
Their expressions showed they had never considered that Seo-ho, an instructor, would call them out on it.
“Student Lee Su-ho, answer my question.”
The moment Seo-ho singled out Lee Su-ho, the leader of the group, the student looked flustered and lowered his head.
Even seeing this, Seo-ho’s eyes remained cold.
“Uh, O-Oppa…”
Unlike with me, his girlfriend standing next to him was too flustered to say anything to Seo-ho, not knowing what to do.
A textbook example of being strong against the weak and weak against the strong.
“In my eyes, Student Lee Su-ho is in no position to be laughing at anyone. Should I laugh during your evaluation as well, Student Lee Su-ho?”
At that, Lee Su-ho’s shoulders flinched.
Seo-ho was an S-rank.
Lee Su-ho was a C-rank.
The gap between an S-rank like Seo-ho and a C-rank like Lee Su-ho was far more overwhelming than the gap between an F-rank like me and a C-rank.
Frankly, in Seo-ho’s eyes, there was probably no real difference between an F-rank and a C-rank.
As if understanding the implication, Lee Su-ho’s ears turned bright red.
From the moment Seo-ho stepped forward, all eyes, including the other instructors’, were fixed on them with disapproval. No one could withstand that kind of attention.
On top of that, with Seo-ho radiating killing intent right in front of him, he must have felt like a rabbit before a predator.
“Should I laugh?”
“N-No, sir.”
When Seo-ho asked again, Lee Su-ho answered in a barely audible voice.
“If you’re going to mock someone, you must be prepared to be mocked yourself. Do you understand?”
“…Y-Yes.”
Lee Su-ho was on the verge of tears.
‘Damn, so this is the Snow Mountain Wolf.’
I could see now why his fans were so crazy about him.
If I were a woman, I would have definitely fallen for him right then.
Seo-ho was clearly cornering Lee Su-ho like that for my sake, and I felt a sense of reassurance from him.
Connections really are the best.
“Student Lee Su-ho.”
“Yes?”
Just as I was about to return to my seat, satisfied, Seo-ho called out to Lee Su-ho again for some reason.
When the startled Lee Su-ho looked up, Seo-ho spoke, his expression still not softening in the slightest.
“What was that voice? Can’t you answer properly?”
Seo-ho?
“Uh, y-yes, sir!”
“Again.”
“Yes, sir!!”
“Again.”
“Yes, sir!!!”
“Again.”
“YEEEEESSSSSS, SIIIIRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!”
In an instant, Seo-ho had transformed into a tiger-like drill instructor and began testing Lee Su-ho’s vocal cords.
In that moment, I realized.
Seo-ho was far angrier than I had thought.
As if he couldn't tolerate Lee Su-ho’s disrespectful attitude toward me—the benefactor who had helped both him and Si-ho—Seo-ho completely crushed him.
As a result, Seo-ho only let him go when Lee Su-ho was actually whimpering, having screamed until his voice gave out.
It was so bad that even I, the victim, felt a pang of pity watching him sniffle and retreat to a corner with his group.
I was grateful that Seo-ho had done this for me, but at the same time, I was worried.
I was concerned that his reputation might suffer because of me.
“...So cool. Mr. Seo-ho is handsome even when he’s angry…”
“I wish he’d get angry at me too…”
The world was definitely broken.
“It’s a relief to have Mr. Seo-ho here. We’ve had a lot of troublesome students lately.”
“I know, right? Thanks to him, this term should be easy, without any troublemakers.”
“As expected of an S-rank hunter. He’s so reliable.”
Setting aside the broken world in front of me, I was relieved to see that Seo-ho was actually getting a good evaluation from the other instructors.
Since they thought that way, I could relax and finally return to my seat.
“Ha-chan.”
Just then, Eunnamu, who was next to me, gestured for me to come closer.
I leaned down as she beckoned, and Eunnamu whispered in my ear in a high-pitched voice.
“Nice lightning.”
Her voice tickled my ear, and I pulled back, covering it with my hand.
“Right? It was pretty cool, wasn’t it?”
As I replied nonchalantly, Eunnamu just gave me a languid smile without saying anything else.
For a moment, the shadow behind her seemed to ripple into the shape of a cluster of hands, but I tried my best to ignore it.
“Try not to get involved with her, you punk.”
Baeksan grumbled from the side, but this was beyond my control.
From the moment I used my aura, Eunnamu had likely already sensed that I was hiding my true power.
Baeksan probably knew that too, which was why he didn't say anything more about it.
‘Who would have thought there’d be a returnee at the Hunter Training Academy?’
This was something no one could have predicted.
CRASH!
Just then, the door to the ability evaluation room was suddenly thrown open.
Jo Si-a stood there, her uniform jacket slung carelessly over her shoulders. She shouted, her eyes—rarely seen—wide open.
“Who caused that blackout just now?”
And the fact that there was another S-rank hunter here besides Seo-ho was also unexpected.
She scanned the room, then suddenly strode over to Instructor Na-hyeon.
When she asked if she could see the tablet for a moment, Instructor Na-hyeon clutched it to her chest and shook her head vehemently.
Good for her! That’s what a true instructor does!
But that only lasted a moment before Jo Si-a started whispering something in Instructor Na-hyeon’s ear.
Suddenly, Instructor Na-hyeon broke into a silly grin and handed over the tablet.
What the hell, this easy woman!
Looking over the tablet, Jo Si-a let out a thoughtful hum.
Then she slowly turned her head, and her eyes met mine.
For a second, I thought I saw her smirk.
As I tried to avoid her gaze, she returned the tablet to Instructor Na-hyeon and walked over to Seo-ho.
She whispered something to him, and when Seo-ho scowled deeply, she stuck out her tongue and walked out.
Will I be able to graduate from this academy in one piece?