Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: A Coincidence for the NPC (2)
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***
Kim Mansu was the instructor in charge of training the recruits for the Sunjuk Mercenary Corps.
But not only did Kim Mansu himself not consider himself a "real" instructor—none of the other instructors did either.
It was only natural. Who would take seriously a man who had been the vice captain of the mercenary corps just a week ago now playing instructor?
He hadn't become an instructor because he wanted to pour his heart into recruit training or because he had a burning desire to teach anyone.
It was because he'd beaten up the son of a city councilman who had been picking fights with him, and then knocked out the reporter who had been filming it all as a bonus.
In short, the reason he became an instructor was disciplinary action.
To placate the city councilman who had stormed into the mercenary corps headquarters screaming his head off, the captain had personally demoted him from vice captain to instructor.
However, anyone in the mercenary corps knew that this punishment was purely formal.
What mercenary corps in the world would waste a superhuman-level asset like him on instructor duty?
Kim Mansu knew it too, so he endured the boring days without complaint.
Yes, boring days. Today, yesterday, and probably tomorrow as well.
Kim Mansu slipped out of the office, avoiding the staff who were watching his every move, and lit a cigarette by the window overlooking the outside.
The weather in Kaesong visible through the window was the same as always. Neither particularly good nor bad.
Far off, the dimensional gate was bustling as usual, with people and containers constantly coming and going.
Fools hoping to take the entrance exam for the mercenary corps occasionally came into view, but most couldn't endure the test and slunk away with their tails between their legs.
A few with some talent must have passed, as they walked past down the building corridor following an instructor.
Of course, not a single one caught Kim Mansu's eye.
'The mercenary world these days is short on manpower too. The recruits look like total...'
As Kim Mansu was killing time with such thoughts, someone caught his eye.
A guy dressed in a neat casual suit that looked like his girlfriend had picked it out, dragging a large carry-on suitcase.
A lost reporter? A new civil servant? Kim Mansu figured there was nothing worth seeing and turned away. Or tried to.
But the moment he tried to look away, the guy started walking straight toward the Sunjuk Mercenary Corps building.
'...No way, here for the exam?'
Only then did he narrow his eyes and scrutinize the guy. Enhancing his vision with mana, the man's figure came into sharp focus.
'Looks like a damn parasite.'
The guy dragging the suitcase had a pretty handsome face.
His eyes gleamed golden—probably color contacts—but no matter how you sliced it, he looked more suited to being an idol than a mercenary.
His age seemed somewhere between boy and young man, but it was hard to pin down exactly.
'...He actually looks decent?'
Looking closer, the aura he gave off was pretty impressive.
His gait evoked the image of a calmly honed blade, and the tension visible in his movements was taut enough that he could throw a punch at any moment.
Not just some pretty-faced nobody—he was definitely someone who had trained properly.
'Superhuman aspirant... timing suggests he flunked out of the academy?'
Superhuman aspirant.
The term for those who had been stuffing themselves with elixirs and training since childhood to become superhumans.
Most were kids from wealthy families who could afford the elixirs, but occasionally there were cases from poor families who gambled everything on feeding them to their kids.
Of course, if popping elixirs guaranteed becoming a superhuman, superhuman cultivation would be a national project.
Only a tiny fraction of aspirants could even sense mana, and among those, the number who could wield it and become true superhumans could be counted on one hand.
Some applied to the Superhuman Academy to boost their chances even a little, but...
The Superhuman Academy existed for superhumans, plain and simple.
Only those who were already superhumans or on the verge of becoming one could get in.
So every year around admission season, droves of young people despaired at the clash between their talent and reality.
For rich kids, it was just "at least the elixirs kept them healthy." But for poor kids, it often meant abandoning school to pay off elixir debts by joining a mercenary corps.
Judging by his gait and aura, this guy seemed like a prime example of that case.
'I'll handle his entrance exam myself.'
Kim Mansu smoked his last cigarette down to the filter thriftily, then headed down the building stairs.
Sure enough, in the lobby, the exact guy he'd seen from the window was talking to the lobby staff.
"Hey, Park Young-soo."
"Yes, Vice Captain. What is it?"
"Hey, kid, how many times do I have to tell you I'm not vice captain anymore? Anyway, you see that guy over there?"
Kim Mansu grabbed another instructor passing through the lobby and pointed at the guy with the suitcase.
"I'll handle that guy's entrance exam myself."
"Vice Cap... no, Brother Mansu, you're doing it personally?"
"Yeah, that punk looks promising at a glance. I've got a good feeling."
"...I don't sense anything."
"Hey, you think you're on my level?"
He glared, and the instructor grumbled but headed to the lobby counter.
The instructor approached the lobby staff and started talking, and soon the guy with the suitcase pulled out some paper.
What was that? As Kim Mansu narrowed his eyes, the instructor returned empty-handed.
"What? Why'd you come back like that?"
"He says he doesn't need the entrance exam."
"What? Why? Did we recruit our own clerk or something?"
"No, he says he's already accepted. He brought the acceptance letter."
Kim Mansu's brow furrowed. Acceptance letter?
"Since when did our corps start handling crap like that?"
"...About ten years now. Vice Captain."
"...."
The instructor shook his head with a sigh, pulled out a pen and paper, wrote something down, and handed it to Kim Mansu.
"That guy's apparently getting assigned to Team 3 for special skills evaluation and straight into combat deployment after."
"Team 3? A rookie to Manchuria?"
"His application must've been something else. If Brother thinks he's decent, go down and check him out yourself."
With that, Instructor Park Young-soo left. Kim Mansu narrowed his eyes at the paper he'd been given.
"Name, Cheon Yeomyeong. Special skill... proficient at everything?"
This guy's nuts. Kim Mansu chuckled and crumpled the paper.
***
After confirming the acceptance letter, the lobby staff led him underground.
It wasn't just some basement reachable by elevator.
Past thick steel doors, down to a place like a bunker, quite deep.
How long had they walked when Yeomyeong's nose picked up a faint smell of blood.
It was slightly different from human blood.
Yeomyeong wrinkled his nose and focused mana on his sense of smell. He still couldn't identify the blood's source, but now he caught the accompanying scents of oil and gunpowder.
'...Not just plain blood.'
The smell grew stronger the further they descended following the staff member.
And finally, upon arriving at the destination.
Yeomyeong realized what the blood smell was.
'...A monster?'
What greeted him was a concrete lot like an entire underground parking garage transplanted there, and in its center, a massive bound monstrosity.
The monster vaguely resembled a wolf. A wolf with two heads and six legs.
"Who... oh, damn. No way it's a rookie."
The man in front of the wolf monster, sharpening a large blade, turned to look at Yeomyeong and the staff.
A man with an impressive long scar across his face, exuding a murderous aura.
The staff who had brought Yeomyeong seemed used to the atmosphere, pulling out papers from his pocket without explanation and handing them to the scarred man.
The scarred man glanced at the papers, then raised one eyebrow.
"They say words become seeds, and here really is a rookie. With shipment in just a day... tsk, confirmed."
As soon as the man said that, the staff bowed curtly and left the bunker. No need to stick around.
In the brief silence, the sound of the staff's footsteps leaving and the monster's panting continued.
Once the footsteps faded completely, the scarred man picked up his blade and approached Yeomyeong.
"Name's Man Seok-cheol. No need to remember yours. We won't meet after today anyway."
"I'm Cheon Yeomyeong."
"Cheon Yeomyeong, you wrote quite the impressive special skill. Bluster, or confidence?"
Cheon Yeomyeong recalled what Seti had written in the skills section of his resume and gave a wry smile.
Proficient at everything
To others, it might come off as arrogance. Had Seti put that in to screw him over? Probably not.
Considering her personality, she must have genuinely thought so.
Yeomyeong pondered how to respond, then decided to trust Seti's judgment.
He pushed humility aside just a bit and answered Man Seok-cheol with a confident face.
"Confidence."
"Oh, the vigor of youth. Not bad."
It was unclear if he was mocking or impressed, but he held out the blade he was carrying to Yeomyeong.
A large, sharp knife like one for butchering tuna.
The moment Yeomyeong took it, Man Seok-cheol turned and pointed to the monster bound in the lot.
"Cheon Yeomyeong, see that monster?"
"Yes, clearly."
"It's one our corps caught in the Manchuria rift. Took some effort to bring it back alive instead of killing it. Guess why we bothered?"
"...For experiments?"
"Close, but wrong. Not experiments—for a test."
"...A test?"
What test with a dying bound monster? As Yeomyeong tilted his head, Man Seok-cheol grinned darkly.
"Cheon Yeomyeong, what's the most important thing for hunting monsters?"
"Weapons, right?"
"Yeah, weapons matter. One magazine from an assault rifle would turn a beast like that into rags... but wrong answer."
He paused, then looked at Yeomyeong's hand as he continued.
"For hunting monsters, humans are more important than weapons. No matter how good your gear, if you freeze up in front of one, you're done."
Really? Cheon Yeomyeong tilted his head.
"You don't seem convinced. You'll pass without even trying."
"What kind of test is this exactly?"
"A test to weed out cowards."
Man Seok-cheol said that, then took a step back from Cheon Yeomyeong.
"Don't move from that spot."
He pulled a small button from his pocket. It gave off an ominous vibe.
Click. The moment Man Seok-cheol pressed it, the chains binding the monster slackened and fell loose.
Grrr...
Soon, the wolf monster's six eyes gleamed toward Yeomyeong.
Regaining its freedom, the monster crouched low, ready to pounce. Man Seok-cheol's gaze on Yeomyeong turned ice-cold.
"The chain around the monster's neck is still there, so don't panic too much. Just don't move a single step from that spot..."
Before he could finish explaining, Yeomyeong moved—faster than the monster.
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