Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: A Reckless Gamble
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About 30 minutes before Do-jae heard the scream.
On one side of the testing grounds, a group was facing a precarious situation.
It was Shim Young-jin, Sung Min-ho, and Kim Joon-soo.
The three of them, breathing heavily, had hidden themselves in a secluded spot.
And Kim Joon-soo carefully laid Sung Min-ho, whom he had been carrying, onto the soft ground.
"Huff, huff... Young-jin, let's just give up... Min-ho's in bad shape..."
"Damn it, why are you so scared? They're not going to kill us!"
"Still..."
"It's already happened. Besides, do you think they'll just leave us alone if we only run away?"
"That's why I'm saying we should give up. It's a way of showing we don't care about the score, that we won't defy them."
"You frustrating bastard. If you want to, go ahead."
"Ah, Young-jin..."
Shim Young-jin stood up, gripping his sword.
Sung Min-ho was unconscious, and Kim Joon-soo had zero motivation.
He had to fight, even if it was alone.
Simply passing by killing a few monsters wouldn't be enough to earn his uncle's acknowledgment.
The highest score.
If he wasn't first, he couldn't face his uncle.
"I'm going."
"Are you really going? You saw him... that guy... he didn't even draw his weapon. Half his real strength. No, seeing how he enjoyed toying with us, it's probably not even a tenth."
"So what? If anything, this is an opportunity. A chance to make a deep impression on the examiners."
Shim Young-jin thought.
He recognized that the gap between him and the examiner was clear, and he could never win in a normal fight.
That's why a conventional approach wouldn't work.
"Where are you going!"
"Deeper in."
"I... I'll go with you!"
"Get lost. I'm going alone. You just take care of Sung Min-ho."
Shim Young-jin left Kim Joon-soo and Sung Min-ho and headed deeper into the forest.
The examiner who was looking down on him.
He would find an opening between that psychology and the aggro drawn by the boss monster.
‘There's nothing money can't buy.’
In fact, Shim Young-jin had more information than others.
He had bribed one of the examiners at the testing grounds to obtain various pieces of information in advance.
The only downside was that a significant amount of the information was vague, perhaps because that examiner lacked influence.
According to the bribed examiner, the one he had targeted was supposed to be the weakest, but that wasn't what he felt at all.
‘I'll need to have a word with that bastard after this is over.’
Still, the information about the field where the test was held was quite accurate.
The terrain, monster locations, and places to rest—most of it matched up well.
Thanks to that, Shim Young-jin and his friends' score was 770 points.
A score that placed them at the very top among the other examinees.
Thump, thump, thump, thump—.
‘I can already hear footsteps!’
Shim Young-jin, fully hyped up, headed toward his destination.
Before long, he was able to see the boss monster.
"Grrrr."
A wide clearing on the mountainside.
Behind it was a towering cliff.
In many ways, it seemed to have been artificially carved out of the mountain.
‘The Suppression Corps that brought a beast like this here is pretty amazing.’
Clank, clank—.
The boss monster, a Giant Horn Ogre, paced back and forth within a narrow range, weighed down by chains thicker than a grown man's wrist.
It was a Giant Horn Ogre, the boss monster of the Grade 5 Horn Ogre species.
As a boss, this beast was at least Grade 4.
It was a powerful monster with a record of reaching Grade 3 depending on the individual.
‘An examiner would definitely have a hard time with this one.’
Shim Young-jin pushed through the grass and stepped out in front of the beast.
Even though it was a test and an examiner would appear to save him if things went wrong, he couldn't help the sweat forming in his palms.
"Come on..."
Shim Young-jin charged forward with vigor.
"Krrrrr!"
Whoosh—!
The Giant Horn Ogre's long arm brushed past Shim Young-jin's hair.
A heart-stopping moment.
Shim Young-jin, calming his racing heart, swung his sword.
Clang—!
The Giant Horn Ogre tilted its head.
It had dodged, thinking the sword was aimed at it, but he had been targeting something else.
"Hngh."
What Shim Young-jin had aimed for was none other than the chains.
He, who had prided himself on his cutting ability, found that the chains, whatever they were made of, were only slightly scratched.
‘These must not be ordinary iron.’
Chains that could restrain a Giant Horn Ogre.
If they were made of ordinary iron, they would have already been shattered by the Giant Horn Ogre's brute strength.
Crrrack—.
The Giant Horn Ogre plucked a nearby broadleaf tree from the ground with one hand.
The thick tree didn't fit in the ogre's massive hand, but it crushed the wood with its unique grip to make it easier to hold.
"Krrrr!"
As the ogre, now with a suitable weapon, swung its arm wide, a cloud of dust swirled in the clearing as if a typhoon had struck.
Shim Young-jin used the moment the ogre's vision was obscured to dart around, searching for a way to break the chains.
‘It needs to move more wildly.’
There were a total of five chains restraining the Giant Horn Ogre.
Both arms, both ankles, and finally, its neck.
The anchors for the ankle chains were driven into the ground, while the other three were embedded in the cliff.
None of them looked easy to remove, but one thing worth trying was that the more violently the ogre moved, the greater the strain on the chains.
And that strain would surely be applied not to the chains themselves, but to the ground and the cliff where they were anchored.
Thwack—!
"Gah!"
Shim Young-jin was sent flying and tumbled across the ground.
Fortunately, he hadn't been hit directly by the ogre, but had been struck in the side by a chain that whipped around as he dodged an attack.
"Krrrat!"
The ogre tried to approach Shim Young-jin, who was clutching his side and gasping for breath.
But the taut chains held it back, leaving it unable to do anything despite the defenseless Shim Young-jin right before its eyes.
The thoroughly enraged ogre began to thrash about even more wildly than before.
‘That's it, that's it. More! More!’
The more the beast raged, the more the chains jerked and strained.
And a moment later.
Twang—!
One of the massive anchors embedded in the cliff was pulled out.
***
"Hey, isn't that a bit dangerous?"
The control room. The examiners were watching the entire situation unfold.
One of them spoke.
"Chief, what should we do?"
The Exam Chief replied, sipping his coffee with a relaxed expression.
"I'm already watching. The order has been given, so just keep a close eye on the other examinees."
"Yes, sir!"
The Exam Chief set down his coffee and glanced around.
One person was sweating profusely.
His awkward focus on the monitor, trying to avoid eye contact at all costs, was conspicuous.
"Examiner Lee."
"Yes! You called, sir!"
The examiner shot to his feet and answered the Exam Chief's call.
He managed to clasp his trembling hands, but he couldn't control his shaking pupils.
"Which examinees are you in charge of?"
"Yes, sir! Lee Hyun-ho, Choi Tae-geun, Song Ah-hee... and Shim Young-jin."
The Exam Chief gave a faint smile when he heard the last name.
Then he nodded.
"You. Come to my office after the exam is over."
"Sir? Yes, sir..."
"And switch the examiner in charge of that kid with Examiner 8."
"Yes, sir!"
The Exam Chief shuffled through some papers and pulled out a file with a photo of a brightly smiling Shim Young-jin attached.
‘Shim Young-jin, 24 years old, recently promoted to C-rank. His demonstrated skills are ambiguous. Family is just his mother? Jin Ja-kyung? Ho, so the head of the Polina Group is his mother? Then his uncle must be Song Deok-hoon.’
The Exam Chief nodded.
He figured that for someone like Shim Young-jin, advancing from D-rank to C-rank in just a few weeks and bribing an examiner were both plausible.
The one question was why someone like Shim Young-jin would apply to the Suppression Corps, and as an officer, no less.
‘Is this also Song Deok-hoon's doing?’
The Exam Chief suspected that Song Deok-hoon was trying to accomplish something through Shim Young-jin.
Song Deok-hoon's guild also had a close relationship with the Hunter Association.
Not a guild that just handles clean-up like Yujin, but one that could exert strong influence over the Association.
‘Anyway, those Association bastards.’
The Exam Chief was gravely mistaken.
In truth, Song Deok-hoon had no particular interest in the Suppression Corps, but his very existence was causing an innocent man to worry.
"Examiner Yang!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Let's do something about Shim Young-jin's score."
"Sir?"
The man called Examiner Yang was flustered.
They were proctors for a nationally certified exam.
Even if it was the Exam Chief and his superior, being ordered to blatantly commit fraud pricked his conscience.
"Let's not be so rigid."
"But that's a bit..."
"Examiner Yang, I think you're misunderstanding something. I'm not talking about touching his score."
"Sir?"
"Herd the monsters toward Shim Young-jin. The placement of monsters is entirely at our discretion, isn't it?"
"That's true, but... Yes! Understood!"
Examiner Yang reluctantly agreed.
Directly lowering or raising the score would be a problem.
But moving the monsters was, as the Exam Chief said, under the jurisdiction of the testing grounds.
The Exam Chief had the authority to adjust the number of monsters depending on the situation to prepare for any potential incidents.
‘If Shim Young-jin gets the highest score, there won't be any complaints when we bring him in.’
***
Twang—!
"Graaaargh!"
The third restraining chain snapped off.
Now, only the ones on its neck and right leg remained.
Even these had loosened, looking like they would all come free before long.
"Hey, you bastard! Come and get me! Can't reach me, can you? Pissed off, aren't you? Wanna kill me?"
Shim Young-jin darted around in front of the Giant Horn Ogre, taunting it.
The ogre couldn't possibly understand the meaning of human words, but it knew, at least, that he was provoking it.
Even a dog or a cat would bite if you teased it; there was no way an ogre, more intelligent than them, wouldn't understand Shim Young-jin's actions.
"Krrrrr!"
Twang—.
Shim Young-jin's provocation seemed to have worked perfectly, as the chain on its leg snapped free.
Thanks to that, Shim Young-jin was nearly hit by the flying anchor.
"Whew. I don't know who commissioned this, but with this size, no wonder it could hold an ogre."
The size of the anchor was immense.
It easily surpassed Shim Young-jin's height, reaching nearly 3 meters.
Not only that, but it was designed not to come out easily, with cross-shaped hooks on the end like a ship's anchor.
Draggg—.
Dragging four heavy chains behind it was incredibly menacing.
The only thing that made Shim Young-jin feel a bit more at ease was the fact that the beast didn't seem to know it could also fight using those chains.
He just had to maintain a certain distance.
Though it seemed that was about to end, too.
Crumble—.
The anchor for the chain constricting its neck began to shake violently.
Two large, crater-like holes were bored into the cliff, and rocks began to tumble out from within them.
"I'm starting to get nervous..."
Quite some time had passed since he first arrived here.
More than enough time for an examiner to have reacted.
But what was this? The last anchor was on the verge of coming loose, yet not a single soul was in sight.
"Hoo, hoo."
Shim Young-jin's breathing grew ragged with frustration.
He now stood at a crossroads.
To run, or to wait.
If he ran, the sooner the better.
Outside the clearing was a steep slope packed with trees.
The beast's massive body would be a huge hindrance to its movement.
Even for a creature that could effortlessly uproot deeply embedded trees.
And if he waited? He had to hold out until the end.
Hadn't he told his friends earlier? That they would never let him die.
But for Shim Young-jin, who had never once risked his life, an unsettling thought surfaced.
‘What if they're late by a hair's breadth? Or what if they only just barely keep me alive?’
It wasn't as if such cases had never happened.
Accidents could happen anytime, anywhere.
Even a controlled testing ground was no different.
In fact, there had been an accident three years ago where an examinee was injured.
The news report about a C-rank Hunter who became disabled overnight and was now bedridden.
The faint possibility that it could happen to him, too, began to creep into his mind.
‘It's coming out!’