# Chapter 54
The woman was more level-headed than expected.
“Why should I trust you?”
Her gesture, responding like that and trying to stab him, was terribly vicious. Iyeon, who barely avoided it by twisting his waist, drew in a breath at the tingling sensation rising from his side. Wow, I think I pulled a muscle… This is why they say trouble comes when you do things you’re not used to.
There was a limit to how long Iyeon, with his moderate physical abilities and no martial arts training, could continue blocking the flowing attacks. After blocking the staff with his arm and rubbing his numb skin, Iyeon stepped back, but for the woman who could accelerate instantly by freezing the ground beneath her feet, such distance meant nothing.
Pure white frost reached Iyeon’s ankles in an instant. As he hesitated to maintain his balance, his foot slipped.
“Ugh!”
Iyeon barely managed to keep his balance, nearly taking a hard fall on the ice sheet connecting him and the woman. Just as the woman was about to swing her staff at the hunched Iyeon, he shouted as if throwing something:
“I’ll give you one of my marks!”
Halt. The woman’s body stopped. Iyeon carefully tempted her while reading her face.
“My goal is the survival bonus points. No matter how badly things go, getting one mark to start with isn’t a bad deal, right?”
“…”
The woman’s grip relaxed only after a long while of scrutinizing Iyeon as if searching for hidden intentions. I thought I was going to die. Iyeon sighed and flopped down on the still unfrozen ground, extending his left arm. A round mark was clearly engraved on his forearm below the shoulder.
“We’re on the same side now, right?”
The woman, who had been staring at Iyeon’s arm, lightly tapped the mark with the end of her staff. The mark that received the attack disappeared like ink being erased.
“What’s your name?”
“Young.”
“Oh… What’s your surname?”
The woman looked at him as if he were pathetic.
“Seo.”
“Seo Seo-young? I’m Jung Iyeon.”
“…Are you making fun of me right now?”
“Huh?”
Young tightened her grip on the staff without saying anything. Only when he saw her shoulder muscles twitch did Iyeon realize she had a single-syllable name. Just tell me with words, your behavioral pattern is exactly like my roommate’s… Iyeon grumbled, muttering the best curse he could come up with under his breath.
After that, the two engaged in small talk under the pretense of temporary alliance bonding.
“Tier 1?”
Iyeon asked with surprised eyes. He had only heard about it, but it was his first time talking with a Tier 1 participant in a Tier 2 exam. The proportion of Tier 1 applicants in Jeong-Yeon would probably be less than 0.1%.
Young nodded nonchalantly, but her eyes were sharp. As if anticipating the dismissive glance that would come her way.
“Wow… You must be really strong, Young-ssi.”
So when Iyeon said that, Young blinked as if somewhat surprised. Her face showed she’d heard something unexpected.
“You’re the first person to say that.”
“Don’t fall for me.”
“…”
“…No need to take it so seriously.”
Iyeon muttered dejectedly. It was too much to look at someone like trash—no, garbage—just for making a joke.
“Are you trying to get a hunter job?”
Almost all Tier 1 participants in Jeong-Yeon aimed for tier reassessment.
Despite the mere difference of one rank, and often no perceptible difference in superpower strength, the treatment of Tier 1 and Tier 2 was completely different. After all, qualifications to work as a hunter or establish a mutant specialist company required Mugunghwa Tier 2 or higher.
As evident from Iyeon’s case, D-grade missions assigned to Tier 2 hunters essentially didn’t require significant superpowers. Depending on the superpower one possessed, even at Tier 1 level, they could be sufficiently capable of performing such tasks.
It was perhaps natural for informed Tier 1s to think, “I can do that too.”
“Hunters earn a lot of money, right?”
“Generally, yes.”
Not only was the starting salary remarkably high when hired as a hunter, but many companies also provided some support for combat assistance tools made by engineers. Iyeon struggled financially because the person paying his salary and providing tools was himself. The sorrow of self-employment, you might say…
“Then you must be aiming for the upper ranks too, Young-ssi.”
For Tier 1s who had completed ability assessments to advance to Tier 2, they needed additional proof that they could maintain combat superiority even among Tier 2s. The easiest way to challenge this was Jeong-Yeon.
Naturally, the more outstanding the performance, the better.
“You too?”
“My acquaintances came to watch, so I’d like to perform well if possible.”
Since their primary goals aligned, the start was good. Iyeon nodded happily.
“But where are we going?”
Even while conversing, their movement hadn’t stopped. Mostly, Iyeon led and Young followed. Though they were both seeing this terrain for the first time, Iyeon continued to push deeper into the residential area without stopping.
“Ah, I brought something I drew.”
“Something you drew?”
“This should be far enough.”
The place where Iyeon stopped was an ordinary alley. A street naturally formed by the high walls of houses.
Saying he had drawn in advance meant that he had already formulated a strategy in his mind before even starting. A plan that could be mobilized in any map, in any situation, as long as certain conditions were met.
Young’s combat style, primarily using her body, was perfect to fit into that plan.
“My ability is drawing materialization. Yours is ice freezing, right?”
“Drawing materialization?”
Young asked as if surprised. It’s not a commonly possessed ability. Iyeon smiled as he took out several papers filled densely with drawings from his bag.
“Young-ssi, have you ever done something like herding?”
Step. Cautious footsteps tread the alley. A man wearing a black hood kept looking around as he advanced bit by bit.
The street was quiet, but he couldn’t completely relax. His body was hunched, tense from not knowing where people might jump out from.
Maintaining vigilance, the man grumbled internally. While he was briefly checking things out, all the nearby participants had formed alliances with each other, saying he could join if he acted as a guide. A guide in the nice sense of the word, but really, they were asking him to be bait.
They also added that they would provide definite cover from behind, so not to worry. He didn’t believe those words, but it was also true that he had no choice. If he refused right away, they would rush at him first.
As a hunter with some experience, the man was confident in his ability to pull his weight, but he wasn’t sure he could handle three or four people at once. He had no choice but to pretend to go along with them and look for others. He just hoped that the disposable teammates watching him from beyond the curved alley would do their part.
Unfortunately, judging by the lack of noise, it seemed there were no superhumans fighting in the vicinity. It’s much easier to attack people fighting each other from the side than to rush at someone who’s on guard against everything. His luck was truly terrible.
The man, who had been peeking out from between the right-angled walls to check the situation, finally stepped out when he saw the empty space. So far, he strangely hadn’t encountered anyone. It couldn’t be that there was no one already, not long after the test had started…
Crunch.
“…?”
Hearing a sound beneath his feet, the man looked down curiously. When he lifted his sneaker, he could see a round, crumpled piece of paper trash discarded there.
Only then did he notice that such paper trash was scattered here and there beneath the walls he had entered. He had been so focused on whether people were present that he hadn’t paid any attention to what was around.
But once he recognized it, it was an extremely suspicious prop.
The space created by the terrain setting function did consider reality to give a feeling as similar to the actual situation as possible, but it didn’t pay attention to details. For example, there’s no furniture inside the houses in the residential area. It’s extremely rare to fight while trespassing into other people’s houses, and even if you accidentally enter one, it’s common sense to leave quickly without touching anything.
In such a situation, there’s no way they would implement trivial trash on the streets. That means the paper trash the man stepped on was not implemented, but…
“You’re not alone, right?”
“Ah!”
Startled by the sudden voice from in front, the man flailed his arms. Following his randomly swinging movements, a fist-sized water droplet formed in the air shot forward. The momentum was quite fierce.
“Ah, I came here to avoid water, but here’s water again.”
The light voice grumbled, but by quickly hiding behind a utility pole between the two, the voice’s owner avoided being hit by the water stream. The owner of the voice, who peeked his head out from beside the thick cover, was wearing blue goggles.
“Calm down. I’m not attacking either.”
The man hesitated at Iyeon’s words. Iyeon smiled blankly to reassure the eyes filled with deep wariness.
“Looking at you, you seem to be a sacrificial lamb, but I’m sure it’s not by choice. Don’t you want revenge?”
The man and Iyeon faced each other silently for a moment. Gulp. Saliva went down the man’s Adam’s apple.
