# Chapter 49
## 05. Secret Trump Card: Disqualification Upon Use
On a night when the bright moon hung in the sky with only a few exceptionally bright stars peeking out to observe the earth below.
The surrounding area, filled with shops that had mostly closed for the day, was quiet, without even passersby. A peace and stillness, as if even the earth was asleep, had settled into every corner of the street.
What broke the silence that seemed like it would last forever was the sound of urgent footsteps.
Pat-pat-pat. It was a small sound, but since the surroundings were so quiet, it sounded as loud as thunder. Following the echoing sprint through the narrow alley revealed a somewhat rare scene.
There were two shadows. A small one leading the way and a man with blue goggles chasing fiercely behind.
The creature in the lead was faintly glowing with a fluorescent light. It was difficult to identify the creature precisely, but with its long ears and stubby tail, it resembled a rabbit.
However, as everyone knows, ordinary rabbits don’t glow.
“Seriously, this thing is disgustingly fast…!”
– Just a bit more running. At the next corner, turn left and then right.
Iyeon, who was panting and expressing irritation, increased his speed. His wide sleeves fluttered violently. Sweat was already soaking his back and neck, but he couldn’t let it go now.
The Level 8 variant jade rabbit was much easier to catch at night than during the day because it glowed in the dark. This was already the fourth night of searching while fighting off sleep, and he had finally spotted the rare creature.
The jade rabbit running swiftly in front of Iyeon was only about the size of a human head. Despite the chase going on for quite some time, it showed no signs of fatigue. If he lost it here, who knew how long it would take to find another one.
His complexion was already becoming more haggard by the day due to lack of sleep, and he couldn’t extend his owl-like lifestyle for many more days. Let’s just take tomorrow off. Iyeon squeezed out every last bit of his energy. Just a little more, just a little…
– Good job.
The moment Hyegang said that through the goggles, Iyeon’s strength completely drained. Staggering, he sat down, placed both hands on the ground, and hunched over, breathing heavily like someone on the verge of death. He really felt like he might die, no exaggeration. He had never so desperately missed the health of his youth…
The jade rabbit continued running past Iyeon who had collapsed like a paper doll, but from here on it wasn’t Iyeon’s concern anymore. Someone was standing firmly in front of the jade rabbit as it ran down the narrow path.
“Your stamina hasn’t improved at all.”
As the man muttered disapprovingly, he waved his hand, and wire-like vines erupted from the ground, constricting the jade rabbit’s body. The jade rabbit twisted its body a few times in resistance, but it couldn’t overcome the solid metal. The glowing creature finally gave up and went limp.
Sano walked past the bound jade rabbit and approached the collapsed Iyeon. As the large man stood right in front of him, Iyeon’s body was covered in shadow.
– Hyung, are you okay?
“Gasp, I, never again, jade rabbits or anything…”
More than half of his muttering was just the sound of breathing as he kept his head down. Sano clicked his tongue and grabbed Iyeon’s forearm. Though it was a light gesture, Iyeon was pulled up at once like a radish being plucked from the ground. His slender body wobbled a bit before steadying itself by bumping his head against Sano’s shoulder.
“How did you handle Jeong-Yeon missions all this time?”
Sano’s face showed genuine curiosity as he asked.
Je Sano, as a top-tier hunter, probably couldn’t imagine it, but the quarterly missions for a D-class variant specialist company were always like this. Capturing low-level variants without special combat abilities wasn’t much different from catching stray cats. No, slightly more threatening than cats… like a deer perhaps?
Given the characteristics of low-level variants, which were mostly small, finding them was more challenging than capturing them. As a result, there were overwhelmingly more occasions to use other abilities rather than superpowers. For instance, physical strength, endurance, herding skills, Hyegang’s information gathering abilities, that sort of thing…
Anyway, that’s why he didn’t need to draw well until now. Somehow things worked out even with sloppy work. There was rarely a need to implement materializations too complex to handle with drawings.
This situation was already like that, but it had become even more so since Sano joined Chageum. Recently, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Iyeon wasn’t using his superpowers at all. Because all he had to do was find the fleeing variant, chase it into Sano’s domain, and after that, it was a piece of cake. The efficiency was incomparable to standing still in the middle and fumbling while drawing.
“Wait a minute.”
Iyeon suddenly looked at Sano.
“Instead of me needing to run, couldn’t you just come to where I am?”
Sano could move through the ground incomparably faster than Iyeon could run. Thinking about it that way, Iyeon should have been moving much less than when he used to do missions with just Hyegang, but since going on missions with Sano, his amount of exercise had actually increased.
Just now, although Iyeon was the first to spot the jade rabbit, couldn’t Sano have come to him as soon as he found it? Why did I have to chase it all the way to where Je Sano was? As Iyeon belatedly realized this enormous truth and turned a confused gaze toward Sano, the response was matter-of-fact.
“You need exercise.”
“Are you enemies with exercise or something? Lee Hyegang, you should have given more efficient instructions!”
– Ah, well… Hyung, you don’t move much usually.
“Hey! Is that what you should be saying?!”
Iyeon jumped up and down, arguing that as someone in the field, he was better than Hyegang who just stared at a computer all day. He glared with a betrayed look, wondering when the two had teamed up against him, but it had no effect on Sano.
“So, you’re actually capable of performing missions alone.”
“Je Sano-ssi, do you only say what you want to say? Can’t you hear what I’m saying?”
“Choosing such a superpower.”
Iyeon flinched as he met those malicious eyes.
“…What do you mean choosing, I didn’t choose my superpower.”
“And you can’t even draw properly.”
“Are you trying to put me down again?”
Iyeon occasionally practiced drawing under Sano’s supervision, but he hadn’t produced any meaningful results yet. While he fundamentally lacked talent, it was more due to his lack of enthusiasm. It’s naturally difficult to become interested in something you’re not good at.
– Alright, today’s mission is over, so let’s all disperse. We’ll submit the jade rabbit to the Superpower Management Office tomorrow.
Hyegang was the one who mediated the situation. After chattering about his recent situation, mentioning he couldn’t properly log into the game for days due to late-night work, Hyegang quickly said goodbye and ended the communication. Iyeon pulled the now-silent goggles down to his neck and stretched.
“I’m dying of exhaustion. Let’s go home and sleep quickly.”
Sano still had a displeased look but took a step forward willingly.
“Wash up before sleeping.”
“Why would you say something like that and misunderstand? I always wash up before sleeping. I’m clean, you know?”
*
The next day, after dropping off the jade rabbit at the Superpower Management Office, it was later than usual when they arrived at the office. Hyegang, who had arrived earlier, waved some mail at Iyeon who was entering with Sano.
“Hyung, mail came for you.”
“What kind of mail?”
“Here.”
Unable to overcome the muscle pain striking his entire body, Iyeon flopped onto the sofa and checked the contents. It was a guide for the Superhuman Combat Ability Assessment Test. The sender was the Superpower Management Office.
“It’s the SuperCom guide.”
“Time really flies.”
The Superhuman Combat Ability Assessment Test, abbreviated as SuperCom, was a major event under the Superpower Management Office’s jurisdiction held once every six months.
The content of SuperCom was simple if you put it that way. With the purpose of developing superpower application skills and gaining combat experience, it conducted simulated battles for superhumans who performed hunter missions.
Of course, standing out in the test had merits such as reassessment of superhuman tiers, and since the test videos were sent to the affiliated companies to be reflected in performance evaluations, many hunters voluntarily participated. Additionally, since each company needed to have a minimum participation rate of hunters belonging to variant specialist companies, companies actively encouraged participation.
As a result, most test applicants were naturally Tier 2 or higher superhumans.
Since it was a superhuman test, not a hunter test, Tier 1 individuals could participate, but it was essentially meaningless. There was no benefit since they couldn’t perform well anyway, and since it was a simulated battle format involving physical movement, there was also a risk of injury.
For these reasons, even if there were occasional Tier 1 participants, they were so few that they couldn’t properly form their own groups, so they would take the test mixed with Tier 2s. It was an unfair tier in many ways.
Chageum had a total of three superhumans. Among them, Sano wasn’t an official member so whether he participated or not was irrelevant to the company, and Hyegang was excluded as he wasn’t combat personnel. That left only Iyeon.
Since they couldn’t have a 0% participation rate, he essentially had no choice.
