Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 32

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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 32
The meeting room had fallen silent.
It was a silence so complete that even a breath felt like a disturbance.
The executives watched the screen with keen interest.
Everyone had expected Group 4’s shooting to be led by Seong Sohui, the Guild member whom Yun Mihui had publicly declared her disciple.
But the one who had stolen the spotlight was an unexpected name: Hyeonjun.
It wasn’t merely a case of doing well.
Genius.
The word fit him so perfectly that no one would have hesitated to use it.
“It’s a close one.”
Kang Daewoong’s voice broke the silence.
It was little more than a mutter, but it was enough to ripple through the stillness.
Starting with him, others began to speak up one after another.
“What on earth is that guy?”
“Something monstrous just crawled out of nowhere.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. He must be new to magic, surely.”
To everyone gathered here, Hyeonjun was a beginner in magic.
There was no magic-related element in any of the records they had.
That was precisely why they couldn’t help but be astonished and impressed by his ability to outpace Seong Sohui.
‘I thought he was pretty good with magic last time, too.’
Kang Daewoong was the only one who knew Hyeonjun used magic.
Even he was surprised by the skill on display.
‘I never imagined he’d beat Seong Sohui.’
Group 4’s shooting came to an end.
The result was just as it had appeared on screen.
Hyeonjun had surged ahead with overwhelming force, while Seong Sohui, chasing right behind him, made several mistakes.
For some reason, Seong Sohui still looked rather happy.
‘She always used to stake her life on winning and losing, but she was one who knew how to enjoy herself.’
That, too, must have come from her teacher’s influence.
Kang Daewoong stole a glance at Yun Mihui.
She watched the screen with a stiff face, then left her seat.
“Hohoho…”
Kang Daewoong was in high spirits.
Only a few minutes earlier, she had been sneering faintly, making no secret of her disdain because Kim Changdong’s skill training scores were poor.
Now that her own disciple had found himself in a similar predicament, nothing could have pleased Kang Daewoong more.
‘Looks like she handed Sohee some information on the other Hunters, too.’
To fall behind the first-place finisher despite committing such misconduct. It was entirely the fault of a teacher who had failed to teach her student properly.
‘I’d like to give that good friend of mine some kind of reward.’
Without meaning to, Hyeonjun was steadily earning Kang Daewoong’s favor.
***
Once skill training ended, the Hunters moved to the cafeteria for lunch.
A well-balanced spread of nutritious food.
Hyeonjun, who usually lived at the hunting grounds and made do with a quick meal, emptied his tray in a frenzy.
“…Were you starving?”
Seong Sohui sat down across from him, glancing at him cautiously.
When she asked carefully, Hyeonjun lifted his head.
“Why do you keep talking to me so casually?”
“What?”
“You’re younger than me, and I’ve been letting it slide, and now there’s no end to it.”
“Wh-what age are you, then?”
“Twenty-five.”
Seong Sohui opened and closed her mouth.
It was the age when even a single year makes a big difference.
Seven years older than her, Hyeonjun was practically a grown adult far above her.
“…No, I thought you were around my age… Sir…”
Seong Sohui stammered, her face flustered.
“I’ll take that as a compliment, so from now on, use polite speech.”
“Y-yes…”
Satisfied, Hyeonjun turned his full attention back to his meal.
Seong Sohui also picked at the side dishes with her chopsticks.
Having cleared his tray in no time, Hyeonjun narrowed his eyes at her.
“Are you going to be full eating like that, picking at it?”
“I’m full…”
“Suit yourself.”
“…”
Seong Sohui quietly set down her chopsticks and asked.
“How are you so good at using Magic Arrow?”
Hyeonjun was about to say he’d just practiced a lot, but he caught himself.
‘If I say that, it’ll give away that I’ve had Magic Arrow all along.’
Hyeonjun hadn’t updated his Hunter information.
He couldn’t predict what kind of penalty he’d face if some other undisclosed detail came to light.
“It just worked when I tried it.”
The words left Sohui’s head reeling.
It was the same thing she’d often said to the other promising trainees who had joined around the same time as her.
‘So this is how it feels.’
Infuriating.
It wasn’t just infuriating, either. It was unbearably infuriating.
“I’m not using honorifics anymore.”
“Do as you like.”
“Can’t you just tell me? What’s so great about it, anyway?”
“Is that how people talk when they’re asking for a favor?”
Not that I have anything to tell you.
The way she was talking made him less willing to keep the conversation going.
Hyeonjun waved his hand back and forth.
“Go practice on your own~”
He left the spot first.
Sohui clenched her teeth and trembled, her fists tightly balled.
‘I’ll knock that smugness right out of him, one way or another!’
The gauge of her anger, which had been held down for a while, surged back up, and her pride, which had been bent low, lifted its head once more.
.
.
.
The afternoon session, and the last training of the day, was Basic Combat.
Hyeonjun returned to the gym chewing on the sports jelly Hyeona had packed for him.
Hunters’ eyes were drawn to him wherever he went.
From theory to basic stamina and basic skill drills.
Hyeonjun had displayed overwhelming ability across all of that training.
It was only natural that the gazes directed at him carried a mix of admiration and envy.
‘This is a burden.’
Hyeonjun made a point of looking away from the Hunters’ stares.
And then someone came up to him.
“Um…”
“Oh, Changdong.”
Kim Changdong approached Hyeonjun cautiously.
“How do you manage to use Magic Arrow so well?”
Changdong asked, glancing nervously over his shoulder.
The one standing there was Sohui.
The moment her eyes met Hyeonjun’s, she jerked her head away.
‘That guy.’
Now she’s sending Kim Changdong to ask. She must be pretty curious.
“Changdong, tell your friend this. I really don’t have anything to teach her.”
“Ah… well, this isn’t something Sohui asked me to do. I’m the one who’s curious…”
“Anyone who lies with a face like that won’t be fooled.”
“…I’m sorry.”
Kim Changdong slunk away.
Sohui could be seen scolding him.
‘We’re the same age, and yet she’s the one lecturing.’
Personality aside, the gap in their standing within the Guild is probably significant too.
For now, Sohui is ahead of Kim Changdong in terms of skill.
Once Kim Changdong has raised his Level a lot, that positioning might just flip.
“I hope everyone enjoyed their lunch.”
Nam Jaewoon returned right on schedule.
The Hunters gathered in front of him once more.
“The final training session of Day One is Basic Combat. It will be conducted as a simulated battle against Robots.”
Their official designation was Combat Humanoid.
Developed in the early days of the Great Upheaval by a consortium of various corporations and government bodies, excluding Seongsam and KS, the Robot had been built for a single purpose.
Deployment into Anomalous Spaces.
But it had never managed to overcome the limitation of having no Traits, and its commercialization had ended in failure.
No matter how advanced the technology, it could not replicate the mysterious force called Trait, and without Traits, the Robots were nothing more than ordinary scrap metal to Monsters.
‘Still, it was too good to simply throw away.’
The alternative was to put them to use training Hunters.
Bipedal locomotion, a combat-specialized AI, a Level System with ten tiers. They were a configuration perfectly suited for training.
‘They’re expensive, so not just anyone could use them. And now I get to see one up close.’
After digging around for information, Hyeonjun had learned a good deal about the Robots as well.
“The Robots you’ll be facing are Level 3. They aren’t strong, but they aren’t weak either.”
Nam Jaewoon explained the Robots to the Hunters.
Even the level of the Robots they would be facing.
‘Level 3?’
The moment Hyeonjun heard it, a question mark flashed through his mind.
‘Against Level 3, an E-Rank Hunter fighting alone might be in real trouble.’
Combat Humanoids were designed to be a match even for Senior Hunters, on the assumption that they do not use Traits.
For Low-Rank Hunters, even if they used Traits, taking on a Level 3 alone would be an extremely difficult task.
‘There probably aren’t many people here who could fight one alone.’
Nam Jaewoon didn’t explain anything about those matters.
‘Is he leaving it out on purpose?’
Or had he simply forgotten?
The answer became clear from the explanation that followed.
“There are three evaluation criteria. Close-combat engagement and response capability, ranged engagement and response capability, and support capability. Please note that it’s not just about fighting. How you handle the enemy’s attacks is also part of the evaluation.”
Hyeonjun paid close attention to the support capability.
Calling it support, but it wasn’t just about combat. It meant they intended to include cooperation among Hunters in the evaluation as well.
‘So don’t take them on alone.’
An implicit instruction to form a Party.
Of course, whether the Hunters would catch the hidden meaning behind the criteria was a separate matter entirely.
“Everyone, move over this way.”
Nam Jaewoon herded the Hunters toward one side.
As he operated his smartphone, rectangles of colored light appeared on the floor.
Wiiing.
With a mechanical hum, the floor began to open.
From beneath it, all sorts of things rose up.
Wrecked cars, cracked roads, collapsed buildings, and more.
The gymnasium, which had been empty only moments ago, had become a magnificent urban cityscape.
“This is a recreated city district. You’ll be deployed here to fight the Robots stationed throughout the area.”
The premise of the scenario was as follows.
The Robots were terrorists.
The Hunters were the ones tasked with stopping those terrorists.
“There are two ways for you to win.”
The first.
Protect the buildings from the swarming Robots.
“Do you see the buildings in front of you?”
Three buildings stood before the Hunters.
Red light blinked around the outline of those buildings.
“These buildings marked in red are where civilians have taken shelter. If you can protect them from the terrorists for two hours, you win.”
And then the second.
Take down every single terrorist.
“Any questions?”
“What happens if we fail?”
“The orientation will end at that moment.”
A remarkably drastic penalty for failure.
These were Hunters who had been testing with desperate determination, all to catch the eye of Guild representatives.
An early end to the orientation was the one thing they most wanted to avoid, and that held true for Hyeonjun, who was after the fee discount benefit.
“Are there no weapons?”
“There’s a weapons storage locker in the central building. You can grab what you need from there.”
“Do we really have to hold the line together?”
“How you move is entirely up to you. I’ll give you some time to discuss it among yourselves.”
The Hunters exchanged wary glances.
Hyeonjun was the first to offer an idea.
“There are twenty of us, so how about we split into groups of six, seven, and seven and defend the building?”
Cooperation Score. And on top of that, building defense.
No matter how you look at it, this mission was designed for everyone to defend together.
‘We could go hunt the enemies down first, but that would be terribly inefficient.’
The gymnasium was huge, and the urban district built inside it was, naturally, just as vast.
Rather than wandering around searching for them, it was better to wait here and let them come to us.
But not everyone was thinking the same way.
“What a ridiculous thing to say.”
Seong Sohui scoffed and shot the words straight at Hyeonjun.
“This is an individual competition. Do you really think we’ll get good scores by huddling together?”
“It’s still better than failing to hold anything.”
“Fail to hold? I’m here, aren’t I?”
Seong Sohui radiated a fierce self-assurance.
The other Hunters seemed to share the same confidence.
“They’re just training robots, after all.”
“There’s no way we won’t hold.”
“Think carefully and choose. Do you want to sit at home cowering like a scared puppy, or go out and actively hunt the enemy?”
Seong Sohui closed with a rather provocative remark.
Her resolve was so firm that no one even thought to argue with her.
‘So these guys are actually skilled, huh.’
Judging by how they conversed with Seong Sohui, they seemed to be promising members of Seongsam as well.
Word had apparently spread among the Hunters, and everyone seemed to be falling in line with their opinion.
“It might be easier to make a name for myself if I go alone…”
“Attack is the best defense, they say. Why bother guarding the building at all?”
“I think I’ll just go solo too.”
Hyeonjun scratched the back of his head.
‘I placed first in every other training exercise, and yet not a single person is willing to listen to me.’
Maybe it was because he hadn’t shown anything in direct combat yet.
Everyone drifted, as naturally as water finding its way downhill, toward the path of every man for himself.
Kim Changdong, the only one who might have been an ally, glanced around nervously and gave Hyeonjun a small, apologetic bow.
‘Apart from guild prospects like Kim Changdong or Seong Sohui, most of them will struggle even to take on a single robot.’
At least two. Maybe three.
That’s what it would take to stand a chance against a Level 3 robot.
‘I suppose they can’t be expected to know the robots’ strength. But at least they should have some sense of the room.’
None of them even bothered to look for the meaning hidden within the instructions.
Even with a little thought, it’s easy to see that the key here is cooperation.
“Are you finished discussing?”
The atmosphere was settling into a decision.
When Nam Jaewoon asked, Seong Sohui answered for the group.
“Yes. We’re done.”
“Good. Then we’ll begin in ten seconds.”
Seong Sohui met Hyeonjun’s eyes and raised one corner of her mouth in a mocking smirk.
Hyeonjun ignored the look and made up his mind.
‘Guess I’ll hold it alone, then.’
Not like anyone else is going to hold anything.
So where will those robots head?
Toward the building, of course.
-Bang!
The starting gun rang out.
Like sprinters bursting from the blocks, the Hunters charged out into the city streets.

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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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