The Cruel History of Group Projects - 3
After that date with Ji-ah, my daily life became incredibly busy. The fated day was the final day of the workshop. I had to prepare as much as possible before then. It was only natural that my training sessions with Professor Baek Seol-hee grew even more intense.
I was learning dagger techniques from Professor Baek Seol-hee. I thought I had stabbed cleanly enough, but she lightly swatted my wrist aside and drove her fist straight into my solar plexus. I had no idea how such power could come from those seemingly delicate arms, even if they were clearly muscular.
“When you stab, be concise and fast. Minimize any unnecessary movements.”
“Yes!”
Professor Baek Seol-hee was mercilessly beating me down with the wooden dagger in my hand. I could feel with my body that her strikes had become far less forgiving than before. Thanks to my Rigid Body ability, I could at least put up a defensive fight against her. And once I fully absorbed the self-healing ability, I stopped getting injured during training.
When Professor Baek Seol-hee saw that, she gradually increased the intensity. Before long, she started using penetrating force—or whatever it was called—to pummel me. She told me to watch and copy it, but that was easier said than done. Penetrating force was an absurd technique that attacked the inside of the body from a distance. Unless I spread my Rigid Body evenly across my entire body, even reaching the interior, I could barely endure it.
The first day I took a hit from that penetrating force, I suffered from stomach pain all day long. It was a memory I’d rather forget.
I somehow corrected my stance, gripped the blade of the wooden dagger, and hurled it at Professor Baek Seol-hee. The moment I threw it, I launched my body forward as well. The wooden dagger flew straight ahead with powerful throwing force, aimed directly at her eyes.
With a single casual wave of her hand, she deflected it, sending the dagger spinning into the air. The instant it blocked her vision and flew toward the ceiling, I was already right in front of her. I dropped low and thrust my fist forward in a straight punch—bongkwon. It was the very first basic technique she had taught me.
A punch carrying an Awakened’s strength, speed, and full body weight tore through the air toward her solar plexus.
Wham!
The sound of bursting air rang out, but I felt no impact from the hammer-like fist. Instinctively, I decided on my next move. If the pattern held, Professor Baek Seol-hee would use my close-range approach as an opportunity to lock me in a joint technique and subdue me. Should I retract my fist, or try to reverse the joint lock on her instead?
But this time, unlike before, she grabbed my wrist and hurled me far away. I twisted in the air, using a break-fall technique to regain my stance. I had been ready for a follow-up attack, but she didn’t pursue me. She simply loosened the hand that had blocked my punch and waited for my next move.
This wasn’t her usual pattern.
Ever since the day I received a blowjob from her in the jogging trail bathroom, I had noticed that the way Professor Baek Seol-hee treated me had changed slightly. During training, she seemed to avoid close physical contact. At first I thought she had grown tired of me, but that wasn’t it.
Every time I closed the distance and tried to engage in infighting, her face would flush red as she tried to maintain as much distance as possible. When I forced my way into her personal space, she would gently redirect me with movements that resembled joint manipulation. It was a level of skill I couldn’t match yet, but those movements were noticeably slower than before.
Even while deflecting my attacks, she kept stealing glances at my body. They say women can sense when someone is staring at them with desire. Now I finally understood how that felt.
Her eyes would follow the sweat rolling down between my muscles from the harsh training, eventually drifting down to my groin.
“That’s enough for today.”
“Yes. Understood.”
I had been about to charge at her again, but I relaxed my stance. Professor Baek Seol-hee’s face was bright red as she swallowed dryly. There was no mistaking it.
Baek Seol-hee had begun to see me as a man.
The student she had simply looked after with a sense of responsibility had finally realized there was a rather large snake living between my legs. The trigger was probably that incident from the other day. It must have been confusing for her to suddenly see her previously unremarkable student as a man.
“Hyun-do, how are the members of your workshop team?”
“Well, they’re fine except for one. He dropped out.”
“You mean Yoo Jae-hyung. He wasn’t one of my students, so I wouldn’t know.”
Seemingly trying to change the mood, the professor brought up the workshop. One team member who had bailed right at the start. Besides me and Ji-ah, the remaining member was quite the unique character. My head already ached just thinking about it, but at least I had Ji-ah as my emotional support.
“Your name came up on the participant list as the team leader, Hyun-do.”
“What? Me? Why?”
“Who knows. The professors don’t handle that. The student council compiles the lists.”
“O-oh…”
Now I had to be the team leader on top of everything else. The headache I had avoided thanks to Ji-ah came rushing back with a vengeance.
The final workshop assignment was confirmed.
It was a mock labyrinth exploration using the simulation room on the lowest underground floor of the Hunter Department building. We would explore the interior of a simulator that recreated the inside of a Gate, with points added or deducted based on our actions.
The simulator was modeled after a standard monster Gate, and each four-person team had to explore it together. Our team, however, was different.
Setting aside the person who had dropped out from the very beginning, our team would enter as a three-person group: me, Ji-ah, and a woman named Eva Williams.
After my training with Professor Baek Seol-hee, our team gathered in one place for a meeting. My attempt to resign as leader was, of course, rejected.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. Ha Hyun-do. Lee Ji-ah. I am Eva Williams, a second-year student. Please remember me from now on.”
“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you too. Please take care of us, Eva Williams.”
“Please take care of me. I’m Lee Ji-ah.”
“I would prefer if you simply called me Eva. It is much more comfortable that way.”
We were seated around a table at a café. The woman with brilliant golden hair that caught the light, wearing a riding jacket—Eva Williams was surprisingly friendly despite her first impression. Her speech was extremely polite, like a rich young lady from abroad who had learned Korean. From our very first meeting, she paid for all the coffee with her own wallet.
I hadn’t meant to look, but I caught a glimpse of several sleek black cards inside. So those were the legendary black cards I’d only heard about.
I had no idea why someone like her was in the Hunter Department. Why would someone who could live comfortably just by breathing choose to become a Hunter?
“The reason we gathered today is for preliminary coordination, correct?”
“That’s right. We need to know what each of us can do if we’re going to build teamwork.”
“Then I shall speak first. I am capable of…”
We coordinated our positions and roles. I already had a general idea of what I wanted. Ji-ah was a classic long-range attacker, I would be the frontline tank. If Eva could serve as a close-range attacker to support me, or act as an all-rounder we could call on when needed, it would be the perfect combination.
Eva had an impressive array of special abilities, but the ones that stood out to me were these: superhuman strength, increased agility, enhanced striking power, and even temporary stealth capability. An all-rounder position that could flexibly support both the front and rear lines seemed ideal.
“So, Senior Eva, it looks like you should take on the role of the team’s pivot.”
“Yes, I believe that would be appropriate. Junior Ji-ah will need someone to protect her in emergencies, and it seems difficult for Junior Hyun-do to handle that on top of everything else.”
Eva nodded and agreed with my suggestion. As expected, Ji-ah seemed to be hiding the majority of her true abilities. She probably didn’t want to stand out unnecessarily, especially since she didn’t have an ability that let her objectively gauge others’ strength. If Eva and I rushed her right now, we’d be destroyed in under five seconds.
Knowing how strong Ji-ah truly was, I felt incredibly reassured. It was also why I wasn’t too worried even though we had a dropout. With a bus driver like her, what was there to worry about?
I would hold the front line and endure with my body. In the meantime, Ji-ah would annihilate the enemies. Eva would move fluidly depending on the situation. In emergencies, she would prioritize protecting Ji-ah over me and resolve the situation. Those were our basic guidelines.
When I suggested protecting the long-range attacker instead of the tank, Ji-ah looked a little unhappy, but logically it made sense to prioritize the ranged damage dealer. Since Ji-ah had no intention of revealing her full power, we avoided any major conflict. That was a relief.
What surprised me was that when Eva heard I only had two special abilities, she didn’t react much at all. The other seniors at the start of the semester had looked at me like I was some kind of rare specimen. Was the difference of just one ability really that big? Or maybe Eva simply didn’t care?
After roughly agreeing on positions and roles, we left the café. The three of us decided to schedule a mock battle together and then parted ways. Now the question was—who should we ask to be our mock battle opponents? Maybe I should contact a professor.
As soon as the thought occurred to me, I sent a message to Professor Baek Seol-hee. She replied that she would arrange a mock battle with another team for us.
Honestly, if I didn’t have Ji-ah or the professor, I didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened to me.