Chapter 293
Chapter 293
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 294
Chapter Title: The Great Raid
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The flame shot into the sky by Kim Chung-beom drew the attention of countless students taking the exam.
It wasn't just any magic—it was a non-combat spell, the firework magic, which signaled that some special situation had arisen.
And the students interpreted that magic as meaning "Kim Seon-woo has been spotted."
A week earlier, from the moment the exam rules were revealed in advance, the students in Group B had planned to take out Kim Seon-woo first.
All of this was a result of the tremendous impact he had left with his mana storm during last year's final exam.
Time passed, and students began gathering one by one at the spot where the flame had been shot.
The number totaled twelve.
Considering that only about four minutes had passed since the firework went off, quite a crowd had assembled.
Once the twelve students had gathered, they eyed each other warily for a moment.
They had come to take out Kim Seon-woo, but fundamentally, this exam was an individual competition. Betrayal could happen at any moment without it being strange.
At that point, Park In-hwan stepped forward.
"Put your mana away. You know this isn't the time for us to fight each other."
At Park In-hwan's words, the remaining twelve students nodded and withdrew their mana.
Their top priority was to eliminate the greatest threat in this exam, "Kim Seon-woo," first.
Above all, since there was a 680-point bounty on Kim Seon-woo, they had to take him out if they wanted to claim first place.
"Hmm... But why is it so quiet around here?"
Park In-hwan looked around in puzzlement.
Even though this was the spot where the firework had been launched, there wasn't the slightest trace of battle.
No other suspicious signs either.
That's when Park In-hwan spotted a man furtively glancing around in front of a tree.
It was a classmate who usually had no presence.
"What's his name again?"
Park In-hwan pointed with his finger, thinking.
"Park Chung-beom?"
"Yang Chung-beom."
Yang Chung-beom gave a curt reply to Park In-hwan's question. Park In-hwan nodded with an "Ah!"
"Ah, right. Yang Chung-beom. But Park Chung-beom is easier, so I'll call you that."
"No."
Yang Chung-beom responded seriously to Park In-hwan's joke.
Park In-hwan narrowed his eyes at the reply.
Last year, no one would have dared show him that attitude...
The Park In-hwan of last year would have exploded at that, but after receiving several harsh lessons from Kim Seon-woo last year, he had learned to control his anger.
"Anyway, was that flame magic just now from you?"
"Yeah... It was me."
The surroundings stirred briefly at Yang Chung-beom's answer.
"Why'd you fire it?"
"Well..."
Yang Chung-beom trailed off. His face looked uneasy somehow.
Why was he acting like that all of a sudden? As the twelve students felt doubts, Yang Chung-beom looked up at the sky.
More precisely, at the tree above.
The moment they followed Yang Chung-beom's gaze up to the tree.
Mana fluctuations were felt from there.
At the same time, four neutral-attribute magic orbs shot out in four directions.
Bang!
The orbs flew toward the heads of four people.
Precisely.
Since there was no presence at all, they didn't even think to defend.
Their heads exploded and they vanished just like that.
"What—what the hell!"
The remaining eight panicked greatly at the sudden ambush.
Before they could even be surprised, four more magic orbs shot out from the tree.
Kwaaang!
"Argh!"
And another four disappeared.
In an instant, only four remained out of twelve.
The surviving four students immediately assumed combat stances and shouted loudly.
"I—It's Kim Seon-woo!"
At that shout, Kim Seon-woo leaped down from the tree.
The four immediately tried to attack Kim Seon-woo with their respective magics.
But Kim Seon-woo leisurely dodged the attacks and shoved a magic orb into the gut of the nearest enemy.
Kwaaang!
"Argh!"
Another one vanished.
At the same time, two students wielding a spear and an axe attacked Kim Seon-woo from behind.
But two magic orbs manifested above Kim Seon-woo's head and blew their heads apart.
Kwaang!
"Hoo..."
Kim Seon-woo let out a short breath.
In an instant, Park In-hwan was left alone.
He had taken out eleven people in less than ten seconds.
"You crazy bastard...!"
Park In-hwan spat curses as he grasped the gravity of the situation.
Every time he faced Kim Seon-woo, he felt it—this guy had power that was too much for a mere student.
Kim Seon-woo clapped his hands clean and looked at Park In-hwan. At the same time, Park In-hwan felt a terror as if his heart would stop.
Memories of the ordeals from last year flooded back.
Kim Seon-woo stared at him intently before smirking and saying,
"Our fates are really tenacious, huh. How do we keep running into each other in every exam? I thought you'd get expelled last year, but you managed to avoid it?"
Last year's second-semester final exam.
Park In-hwan had committed cheating while facing Kim Seon-woo and nearly got expelled.
The memory of that day still haunted his dreams.
Kim Seon-woo continued.
"You seemed to be suffering with that off-campus service. Oh! And you got penalty points, so your ranking tanked, right? From 6th to 18th?"
"Shut up."
Park In-hwan clenched his fists at Kim Seon-woo's needling words. Kim Seon-woo smirked and drew up his mana.
At the same time, Kim Seon-woo's figure vanished.
Sensing Kim Seon-woo's charge, Park In-hwan spread a wide magical barrier.
It was instinct born from multiple experiences clashing with Kim Seon-woo.
But.
"Cough!"
Kim Seon-woo's movements were faster.
Before Park In-hwan could deploy the barrier, Kim Seon-woo had released a magic orb into his stomach. It was on a whole different level from last year's Kim Seon-woo.
Park In-hwan vanished without even putting up a proper resistance.
Having finished the fight, Kim Seon-woo took a deep breath and smiled faintly.
Thanks to the 30% stat boost from Unreal's Blessing, he had taken out the twelve enemies more easily than expected.
If he used Battle Lust and Heart of Great Nature on top of this state...
Just imagining it sent thrills down his spine.
"How much time until position reveal?"
Kim Seon-woo checked the time. About fifteen minutes until villain position reveal.
"Kim Chung-beom."
At Kim Seon-woo's call, Yang Chung-beom, who had been dazedly watching the fight, shrugged his shoulders.
"Uh, yeah?"
Kim Seon-woo pointed at the sky with his finger.
"Fire one more firework spell."
In the Group B observation room where the "Jungle Annihilation Battle" exam was taking place, exclamations of admiration kept ringing out.
Because Kim Seon-woo, who was expected to struggle with a whopping 68 votes, was cleverly navigating the situation.
"Wow. I never imagined he'd break the curse like that."
Lily admired Kim Seon-woo as he faced ten enemies on the screen.
She hadn't expected him to draw students' attention to the same spot and lure the enemies in.
It was a clever move to minimize the penalties from the Jungle Curse and position reveal gained from the villain vote.
And through the continued firework signals drawing attention, Kim Seon-woo had already taken out 22 enemies.
His current points: 1740.
A clear lead in first place.
All the observers inside the arena were focused on Kim Seon-woo.
"But the real problem starts now."
Daria, sitting next to Lily, muttered.
30 minutes into the match.
The villain vote penalty, real-time position reveal, was about to begin.
[29 minutes 51 seconds]
[55... 56... 57... 58... 59...]
As the countdown rose, people watched the screen with tense faces.
[30 minutes reached!]
['Kim Seon-woo', with the most votes, will have his position revealed in real-time for 10 minutes!]
At 30 minutes, students on the screen checked their smart student notebooks and began rushing somewhere.
Survivors left: 42.
They all moved as if it had been planned in advance.
Seeing this, Lily let out a hollow laugh.
"This exam rule... was it revealed a week in advance?"
At Lily's question, Choi Seo-yoon, sitting beside her, nodded.
"Yes, I think it was announced in advance for the third-years."
"Really? Looks like they planned this beforehand."
Lily looked back at the students rushing on the screen.
"This is a Kim Seon-woo raid or what."
The direction they were heading was where "Kim Seon-woo" was.
"What the...?"
30 minutes into the exam.
From the treetop, gazing at the surroundings, I felt utter bewilderment.
As soon as my position was revealed, over forty students were charging straight toward me all at once.
They would normally fight each other if they crossed paths, but they weren't—they were coming together.
As if they were one team.
"Is this really an individual competition?"
I hadn't expected the "entirety" to team up like this even after my position reveal, so I let out a hollow laugh.
It looked like they were dead set on knocking me out first.
"I should have suspected it when they all glared at me from the waiting room."
Tch.
The situation was heading straight to the worst.
If I hadn't taken out over twenty enemies beforehand with Kim Chung-beom's magic, I would have had to face over sixty.
Well, forty or sixty, either way, it was too many for one person...
I calmly ran simulations in my head.
Could I handle over forty enemies alone?
"Will my mana hold out?"
Handling them isn't the issue. Mana is the problem.
And as time passed, the guys arrived at my location.
Hiding my presence with stealthy steps from the tree, they couldn't find me.
"This is the spot, right? Why isn't he here?"
"Is the position marker working right? Is it broken?"
Then one approached Kim Chung-beom and asked.
"You were here first, right? Didn't see Kim Seon-woo?"
"Huh? Uh... Haven't seen him from the start."
Kim Chung-beom trailed off.
I thought he might betray me, but surprisingly, he was keeping his loyalty.
"Hmm. What is it? This is definitely the place."
"Kim Seon-woo is good at concealing his presence. He's probably hiding somewhere here."
At that moment, one student looked up at the tree I was in.
"Let's check from the tree top first."
Tch.
At those words, I gathered my mana.
Since I'd been discovered anyway, I had to strike first.
I drew up as much mana as possible.
Outnumbered heavily, I needed to take down as many as possible with the first strike.
"Hoo."
Swirling orbs formed above my hand.
At the same time, sensing my mana, the guys looked up at the tree.
"He's in the tree!"
I immediately jumped down and released the compressed wind-attribute orbs toward the ground.
Pang!
The wind orbs shot toward the ground, then spread out widely, kicking up a storm-like gale.
It was the only area-of-effect spell I could use besides Mana Storm.
Whoooosh!
Kwaaaang!
"Arghhh!"
The whirlwind swept over the students on the ground. At the same time, screams filled my ears.
The razor-sharp winds pouring from the orbs sliced through numerous enemies.
"Ugh! Attack him!"
The bastards collectively drew up mana and manifested their respective spells.
Enhancement, manifestation, support, summoning.
A wide variety of types.
Then, chains of flame surged from the ground toward me.
A support wizard mixed in among them had cast binding magic.
I nullified the attack by firing a magic orb at the chains.
Next, the manifestation wizards tried to shoot spells at me.
Sensing it, I charged straight into their midst.
Once I was among them, they couldn't easily attack me.
They risked hitting their own team.
That was exactly what I was aiming for.
The best defense is a good offense.
I weaved through them, reducing their numbers one by one.
I didn't forget to target vitals to conserve mana.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!
"Argh!"
I took out five in an instant, but their numbers showed no sign of thinning.
Six, seven, eight, nine...
While picking them off one by one, a massive spell flew at me from behind.
I quickly leaped back.
Kwaaaang—
"Hoo. No end to them."
Having retreated, I caught my breath and looked at the bastards.
They stared back at me with tense faces.
"Crazy monster bastard."
"How is he that fast?"
"Can we even win this?"
As we glared at each other in standoff, at that moment.
Wooong!
A magic circle manifested at my feet along with strong mana.
At the same time, my feet turned to stone. Bound by petrification binding magic.
"We—We did it! Got him!"
The wizard who cast the binding shouted as if it were a success.
A third-year ranked 8th, support type.
Jeong Min-woo, was it?
I remembered him as a promising high-rank support wizard.
Then the others straightened up, looking bewildered.
"Huh? W-what? Did we really catch him?"
"Whoa, awesome!"
The atmosphere turned festive in an instant.
Some hugged each other in joy.
I watched them in brief bewilderment before shifting my gaze to the magic circle on the ground.
Then I placed my hand on the ground and injected mana.
Wooong!
Flash!
In less than two seconds, the binding magic vanished.
Jeong Min-woo and the rest blinked as they looked at me.
"That's not fair."