Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 20

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 20
Several days after the day he figured out the illness afflicting his mother through Discernment.
Hyeonjun had come to the hospital early that morning to sign the consent form for Mana treatment, and as he looked over the added charges, his hands trembled.
‘W-what is all this?’
The hospital bills he had been paying up to now came to roughly 4 to 5 million won.
That wasn’t just the room fee; it included the various treatments performed during the hospitalization and the caregiver allowance.
But now, with Delayed Treatment and its associated costs added on, the total had jumped to more than triple that.
‘I heard the explanation, so I understand why… but still.’
Of course, the hospital hadn’t gone ahead with Delayed Treatment just because Hyeonjun said so.
They had run thorough tests, and the cost of those tests had been added on top.
On top of that were all the equipment and consumables said to be necessary for Delayed Treatment.
The sum included all of it.
‘Even paying this much money, all I can do is delay it.’
The realization left him feeling bitter and heartsick.
‘Damn Petrification. Damn Soul Sedimentation. Damn those villains.’
Silently cursing everything that had brought him to this point, Hyeonjun held out his card.
The hospital administration clerk coldly ignored the tremor in Hyeonjun’s hand and took the card.
“Payment has been completed.”
Bzzt.
His smartphone buzzed immediately.
There was no need to check it.
It had to be the payment notification.
Hyeonjun sighed inwardly, pocketed his card, and left the hospital.
‘All those days of hunting, gone in a blink.’
For the past several days, Hyeonjun had spent most of his waking hours hunting.
He begrudged even the time spent waiting for Monsters to respawn, so after sweeping an entire field, he’d move on to another hunting ground.
Most of the income he’d earned that way had gone straight to the hospital.
And that was only for a single month.
‘Four days of work to cover a month… I suppose that’s a decent trade-off.’
Hyeonjun boarded the bus, dragging his tired body along.
His second destination wasn’t a hunting ground but the Awakening Management Bureau.
Today was the day of the E-Rank certification exam he’d been waiting for.
‘If I just pass this, I can become an E-Rank Hunter.’
Then I’ll be able to enter E-Rank Gates too, and my income should rise past what it is now. Not by an enormous margin, but still.
‘Unless it’s a high rank, the difference between F and E is pretty much nothing.’
Of course, even a small difference like that felt like a blessing to Hyeonjun.
“Oh, come on, why isn’t this thing moving?”
Hyeonjun, who had been standing and gripping the handrail, turned at the bus driver’s voice.
It was broad daylight on a weekday, yet the road was strangely jammed.
Police were controlling the traffic.
“Has there been an accident up ahead?”
The bus driver asked a traffic police officer who happened to be standing nearby.
“There’s been a terror attack. We’re cleaning up, so traffic’s being held for the moment.”
“Tch, these bastards are always causing trouble.”
The driver spat out a curse.
Hyeonjun clicked his tongue inwardly too.
‘Infuriating bastards. They never do anything useful.’
Thankfully, there was still time before the exam.
After waiting a while, the bus finally began moving again.
After stopping and starting over and over, it reached Gwanghwamun, where the Bureau was located.
‘Were there always this many police?’
He got off at the stop and headed toward the Bureau.
The streets were unusually crowded with police officers.
Not just regular police, but Awakened Police as well.
The atmosphere was quite different from his last visit.
Even at the Bureau’s entrance, he had to show his ID before being allowed in.
“Why are there so many police around?”
Hyeonjun asked as he took back his ID from the staff member.
“It’s the Terror Crackdown Period. It’ll be like this for a while.”
“There’s a thing like that?”
“It’s brand new. Since the request for cooperation came in from the Awakened Police Bureau, I don’t know the details myself, but the rumor is that the Director’s family nearly fell victim to a villain, and that’s why it was set up.”
Director of the Awakened Police Bureau?
Hyeonjun thought it over for a moment, then recalled who that was.
‘He’s the younger brother of the Michuhol Guild Master.’
In other words, he was Baek Jejung’s uncle.
And if that was true, then the Terror Crackdown Period had come about because of the incident Baek Jejung had gone through the other day.
‘Or maybe it’s because of some other family member.’
He didn’t know the full family relations of the Police Bureau Director, so he couldn’t be certain.
Hmmm.
Just as Hyeonjun walked past the staff and stepped inside the Management Bureau, his phone rang.
It was a call.
It was Baek Jejung, the one he had exchanged contact information with at the Entrance Test site the other day.
“Hello?”
-Hyung! It’s me, Baek Jejung! You remember our plans today, right?
‘Plans?’
Only then did Hyeonjun remember the promise they had made earlier.
Since the E-Rank certification exam had conflicted with his schedule, they had agreed to meet once today’s exam was over.
‘I completely forgot.’
Well, it’s not like I’ve had any free time.
In fact, I’d planned to rush straight to the Hunting Ground the moment today’s exam ended.
‘I guess I’ll have to rest today after all.’
I was being chased by money, but taking one day off wasn’t going to cause any real trouble.
“Ah, of course I remember. Is your exam over?”
-Yes! I just finished the practical part! Hyung, you’re heading into the written section now, right?
“Yeah, that’s right.”
-I already booked a slot for us, so I’ll text you around when it wraps up!
“Sure, see you then.”
Hyeonjun ended the call.
‘He even made a reservation. He’s really well prepared.’
Had he been looking forward to meeting up today?
Hyeonjun felt a twinge of guilt for having forgotten entirely.
“The E-Rank written exam venue is this way~”
Hyeonjun went down to the basement of the Management Bureau and, following the staff’s directions, entered the written test venue.
It was the computer room he’d peeked into when he came to the Management Bureau to exchange Soul Traces the other day.
The seats that had been completely empty back then were now packed with Hunters.
Everyone was busily memorizing something, staring at their smartphones or textbooks.
‘It looks like the CSAT hall.’
Hyeonjun sat down in the seat marked with his examinee number.
He had no intention of studying like the other examinees; he simply spent his time idly watching the people around him.
A few Hunters shot him disdainful looks because of it.
‘If you’re not going to study, at least sit still.’
‘Figures. People who can’t study always end up ruining the mood.’
‘If I score lower than him, I’m going to eat my E-Rank certificate.’
To them, even the small act of someone turning their head felt like an interruption to their studying.
“Good morning, everyone.”
Before long, people in suits filed into the computer room.
Quite a large group.
They were all examiners, there to prevent cheating on the written exam.
“Please put away whatever materials you were reading. From this point on, if anything is visible on your desk, you’ll be disqualified immediately. That includes electronic devices.”
At the examiner’s words, the Hunters hurriedly cleared their desks.
While they did so, the examiners took up positions throughout the computer room.
“Any suspicious behavior will result in one warning, after which you will be removed from the room. Please take care.”
In a tense, heavy atmosphere, the examiners walked between the seats, checking the examinees’ faces and identification.
They even used special devices to test whether anyone was using their abilities.
‘Thorough, isn’t it.’
There had once been a huge controversy over proxy test-taking and cheating in the Hunter Certification Exam.
This kind of rigorous screening was surely the result of that past.
“We will now begin the exam.”
Ding-!
Once every examinee’s identity had been verified, a bell rang to signal the start of the test.
The monitors in front of the examinees, dark until now, flickered to life.
On each screen floated an exam sheet bearing the examinee’s registration details.
Click.
Click.
The room fell silent.
Only the clicking of mouses scattered into the hush.
Hyeonjun was working through the questions faster than anyone else.
‘This is easier than I expected.’
Over the past few days, whenever a hunt ended, he had squeezed in review of the material that was likely to appear on the test.
Calling it review was generous. Hyeonjun had been studying every scrap of information about Hunters and Anomalous Spaces since long before this, purely out of curiosity, so for him it was really just a hobby that helped him shake off the fatigue of hunting.
Click, click, click, click.
Hyeonjun, breezing through the questions.
The clicks came at a pace nothing like the ordinary test-taker’s, and a few examinees glanced over at him, sensing something off.
“Keep your eyes on your own screen. Looking around will be treated as cheating.”
At the examiner’s warning, the examinees flinched and snapped their attention back to their monitors.
But it wasn’t only the examinees who found Hyeonjun strange.
‘That one always ends up guessing. If he’s going to do that, why bother taking the exam at all?’
‘What a waste of an exam fee.’
To the examiners, Hyeonjun looked like nothing more than someone clicking at random.
Otherwise, there was no way anyone could have solved all thirty questions in under five minutes and then sit back with their hands off the keyboard.
Some of the examiners lost interest in him, while others watched him even more closely, looking for any sign of suspicious conduct.
And so time passed.
“Ten seconds until the exam ends.”
Soon, the exam was over.
Across the front screen of the computer lab, the examinees’ scores began to appear.
The Hunter Certification written exam was set up so that grading happened the instant it ended.
“Ah, I blew it.”
“I only needed one more right answer…”
“Aaargh!”
Sighs of disappointment rose from every corner.
But that didn’t last long.
The room began to buzz.
“There’s a hundred?”
“Who?”
“That was supposed to be really hard. Someone got every single one right?”
Even the examiners were stunned.
A perfect score on the written exam.
Every test had at least one killer question, so a score like this was rarely seen.
‘Ah, it’s that guy from earlier.’
‘Good heavens.’
The examinee who had solved everything in a flash and then slumped over his desk.
They had assumed he’d given up and thrown the test away.
The truth was the exact opposite.
“Once you’ve checked your scores, you may leave.”
At the examiner’s words, Hyeonjun rose calmly from his seat and left.
Countless gazes bore into his back as he went, and he didn’t spare them a glance.
.
.
.
‘I didn’t expect a hundred.’
I had anticipated a high score, but I hadn’t expected to get every question right. Maybe I got lucky.
‘At this rate, I could even aim for a top spot in the rankings.’
The Hunter Certification Exam has a ranking system.
It’s calculated by combining the written and practical scores, and those who place in the top ranks receive prizes.
‘First place was an E-Rank Rune, if I remember right.’
Second place was an F-Rank Rune.
Third, I think, was something entirely different.
Since you had to finish first out of several hundred people, the prizes weren’t especially valuable given how difficult it was to win them.
But for Hyeonjun, who badly needed every Rune he could get, they were far too tempting to ignore.
‘Maybe I should go for a perfect score on the practical exam too.’
The practical exam is held in the Simulation Room, where targets appear in augmented reality and must be hit.
When I first came here, I wasn’t very confident about the practical portion.
But now that I can handle Magic Arrow almost perfectly, the story was different.
‘The practical exam range is thirty meters in radius.’
It was a distance I felt sure I could hit even if a target appeared at the very edge.
‘I wonder who’s in first place right now.’
Hyeonjun headed for the Simulation Room where the practical exam was being held.
The electronic board there displayed the live rankings for today’s practical exam.
[1st place: Choi*woo, 39]
[2nd place: Kim*hyeon, 37]
[3rd place: Jang*jin, 35]
Hyeonjun clicked his tongue as he checked the scores of his rivals.
‘Tougher than I thought.’
There were fifty targets in total for the practical exam.
To take first place, you had to clear a whopping forty of them.
Everyone had assumed they could coast, since clearing just twenty out of fifty guaranteed a pass, but apparently that wasn’t the whole story.
‘By the way, I don’t see Baek Jejung’s name anywhere.’
Tenth place had thirty-two, so he had to be below that. Still, he was a member of the Michuhol family, so there was no way he’d failed.
“Examinee 142. Please enter.”
After waiting in the holding room, his turn finally came.
Hyeonjun stepped into the Simulation Room.
It was originally used for training, so it was quite spacious.
‘So only the area inside this rectangle is the test zone.’
A green strip of tape that hadn’t been there last time was stuck to the floor of the Simulation Room.
-Targets will only appear inside the green lines. Please let me know when you’re ready.
The staff member’s flat voice drifted out of the speakers.
Hyeonjun loosened up his body lightly and raised a hand.
“I’m ready.”
[Please stand in the designated area.]
This time, a mechanical voice rang out.
At the same moment, a footprint outline appeared at the center of the rectangle.
As soon as Hyeonjun stepped onto it, the mechanical voice continued.
[Targets will shrink and then vanish. Strike them before they disappear.]
[Starting the simulation.]
[3, 2, 1]
The moment the countdown ended.
Pop!
Five or six red targets appeared in the air all at once.
Hyeonjun gauged the distance and moved at once.
Thanks to steadily copying runes every day and absorbing them, his Agility had already reached 100.
With quick, economical movements, he cleared the targets in an instant.
Pop!
The next targets appeared right away, without a moment’s pause.
This time, they were farther away.
Hyeonjun kicked off the ground.
Whoosh!
The targets his fist struck shattered into fragments and vanished in a burst of visual effects.
Pop!
Several targets appeared up close.
And at the far end on the opposite side, several more targets were waiting.
While Hyeonjun cleared the ones nearby, the targets on the opposite side began to shrink.
Miss one, and it’s over.
There would be no second chances.
[Activating .]
Having cleared the targets, Hyeonjun fired an arrow right away.
The arrow pierced through one target, then swerved sharply in a new direction.
Magic Arrow threaded through the targets one after another with fluid movements, as if performing a dance.
Since the targets were illusory and had no substance, the arrows didn’t disappear.
“Phew.”
Pop!
Hyeonjun caught his breath for a moment, then moved again.
This time he controlled both his body and his arrows at once.
No matter where the targets appeared, they were eliminated in an instant.
-Beep-beep!
And then, after a short while.
A chime sounded, signaling the end of the practical exam.
Hyeonjun wiped the sweat from his forehead and grinned.
‘It actually worked.’
Fifty out of fifty.
He had succeeded in eliminating every single target.
Smiling with satisfaction, Hyeonjun stepped up to the exit.
But for some reason, the door wouldn’t open.
“Excuse me?”
Hyeonjun waved at the camera.
After a moment, a voice crackled through the speaker, mixed with static.
-Ex-examinee number 142. All fifty targets eliminated out of fifty. Pa-passed.
The voice trembled for some reason.
Hyeonjun tilted his head and slipped out through the open door.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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