The Regressed SSS-Rank Supporter Who Turned Dark - Chapter 31

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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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#Episode 31
Fights breaking out among the trainee Hunters admitted to the Special Armed Forces Training Institute were hardly uncommon.
Everyone was intoxicated with the prospect of becoming a Hunter, and many had lost family or loved ones during their awakening, leaving them perpetually on edge.
A competitive spirit permeated the air beneath the surface, and even without team leader selections, many sought to establish hierarchy through fistfights.
Oh Tae-kwon appeared to be that type of person.
He’d probably read some news article about me and burned with competitive fervor alone, so how delighted he must have been when I conveniently appeared before him.
“Get up, you bastard. Let’s fight.”
Oh Tae-kwon pressed me again.
“Follow me.”
“Where?”
“Hmm. The Rooftop?”
Oh Tae-kwon pondered for a moment before speaking.
“Why bother going all the way to the Rooftop? Let’s just settle it here.”
“In this cramped space?”
“A quick fight doesn’t need much room.”
In the world of Hunters, especially here at the Special Armed Forces Training Institute, avoiding a confrontation only made things more troublesome.
Everyone would mark you as weak, disrespect you, and torment you.
“What’ll it be? Fists? Weapons?”
“Let’s go with fists.”
Oh Tae-kwon bobbed his head side to side as he crept closer.
It seemed he’d done some combat sports in his youth, but what could I do?
I’d trained in boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and MMA since childhood.
Whoosh!
The moment Oh Tae-kwon extended his fist.
Crack!
My calf kick struck Oh Tae-kwon’s shin.
“…!”
Oh Tae-kwon’s face contorted in pain.
Grunt!
Oh Tae-kwon charged again, gritting through the agony.
Crack!
“Ugh!”
Crack!
“Gasp!”
Crack!
“Ahhhhh!”
After taking three consecutive calf kicks, Oh Tae-kwon let out a pained growl.
Limp, limp….
Oh Tae-kwon, approaching with an abnormal gait, slowly crumpled to the ground.
“Go to the Medical Office already.”
I turned to leave just as I said that.
“Who said it was over?!”
Oh Tae-kwon, wreathed in ether, shot to his feet and swung a greatsword at me.
Was he insane?
He was drawing a spirit weapon?
Clang!
I drew Madness’s Butcher and blocked the greatsword.
“Ugh!”
I’d blocked the greatsword with my axe, yet it was Oh Tae-kwon who was pushed back.
A 1-star spirit weapon trying to block a 4-star spirit weapon—it was no contest.
Whoosh!
I swung Madness’s Butcher toward Oh Tae-kwon.
“Hah!”
The startled Oh Tae-kwon raised his greatsword to block my attack, but he couldn’t escape the cost.
Crack!
The upper portion of the greatsword snapped clean off.
I didn’t stop.
I continued swinging the axe at Oh Tae-kwon, and with each strike, the greatsword crumbled further until only the hilt remained.
“So, what’ll it be?”
I scratched my head with the axe, asking Oh Tae-kwon casually.
“Should I slit your throat, or crush your skull?”
“I, that is—”
“Speak. Which do you prefer?”
“Uh, um.”
Oh Tae-kwon stammered, unable to form words.
The eyes that had burned with competitive fire moments ago now trembled with pure terror.
“I’m, I’m sorry… I apologize.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry!”
Oh Tae-kwon screamed with his eyes squeezed shut.
“P, please spare me!”
“No.”
“What…?”
“I have no intention of sparing anyone who bares their fangs at me.”
“You, you’re really going to kill—”
“Yes, I’m going to kill you.”
The axe blade grazed Oh Tae-kwon’s throat.
Blood trickled down.
Crimson blood streamed from the wound.
“Kyaaaaaahhh!”
Oh Tae-kwon’s eyes rolled back white before he collapsed like a sack of flour.
“Tsk.”
My tongue clicked involuntarily.
A would-be Hunter with mental fortitude this fragile….
“Someone take him to the Medical Office. He won’t die if we leave him, but he’ll bleed quite a bit.”
I said that and lay back down on the field cot.
“Um….”
“You have something to say?”
“Is Cha Eun-sung going to be the team leader?”
The one who appeared to be an Assassin-type Trainee asked me.
“No. That kind of tedious work is exactly what I hate.”
“Then who will be the team leader….”
“Decide among yourselves. Actually, no.”
My gaze shifted to Jung Ho-bin.
“You do it, team leader.”
“Me…?”
Jung Ho-bin pointed at himself, his eyes widening as if he couldn’t comprehend what I’d just said.
“You don’t want to?”
“No, no. I’ll do it.”
Perhaps my question sounded like a threat, because Jung Ho-bin quickly accepted the position.
“Now that you’re the team leader, move quickly.”
“Huh?”
“Your teammate is injured. Are you just going to sit here and watch? You need to get him to the Medical Office right away.”
“….”
Jung Ho-bin cursed me with his eyes.
“His spirit weapon is destroyed too, so the ether loss will be significant. If you don’t get him to the Medical Office soon, he might end up in the intensive care ward….”
“Help me out here.”
“Yes, of course.”
Jung Ho-bin, with the Assassin-type Trainee’s help, hoisted the unconscious Oh Tae-kwon onto his shoulder and headed toward the Medical Office.
I could feel Ra Si-hyun’s piercing stare, but I ignored it cleanly.
What’s she going to do about it if she stares….
‘Still drowsy. Sigh.’
Though it was just a scuffle with a snot-nosed kid, I should have been awake, yet sleep crashed over me the moment I lay down.
* * *
Thirty minutes later.
Instructor Kim Sang-eung appeared with Oh Tae-kwon.
Oh Tae-kwon’s complexion was ghastly pale from blood loss, but the neck where my axe had cut him was healed without a single scar.
It must have been possible because he received treatment from a Hunter with healing abilities at the Medical Office.
I wondered if they really needed to erase the scar entirely.
A scar would have served as a lesson for him to remember.
“Cha Eun-sung.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well done.”
“Sir?”
“If you’d let that coward use ether and swing a spirit blade around, I’d have been disappointed. But you handled it appropriately.”
“Ha ha….”
“Why didn’t you kill him?”
It wasn’t me who was startled by Kim Sang-eung’s question—it was Oh Tae-kwon.
“If it were real combat, I would have.”
“Have you killed before?”
“Around eighteen people….”
My teammates’ faces drained of color.
Promising recruits they may be, recognized for exceptional potential in this cohort, but they were still greenhorns who’d never seen actual combat.
To such teammates, my words must have sounded terrifying.
Once you work as a Hunter, you come to understand that you end up killing people as casually as eating meals for one reason or another.
“Yet you spared him.”
“He’s on the same team regardless. I judged there was no need to kill him.”
“An answer beyond reproach.”
Kim Sang-eung nodded with an expression of “as expected.”
“Listen up, all of you. Cha Eun-sung is right. Teammates within the same unit can throw fists at each other. But if you’re killing and being killed by one another, that’s not a team. Remember—inside a Gate, the only person you can trust is your fellow teammate.”
Half right, half wrong.
Inside a Gate, the only person you can truly trust is yourself.
Teammates betray you more often than you’d think.
Of course, from an instructor’s perspective, he can only speak in principles, so I couldn’t push the matter further.
“Oh Tae-kwon.”
“Yes…?”
“Don’t ambush your comrades again. If you pull that stunt one more time, you’ll die by my hand first. Understood?”
“Y…yes, sir!”
Oh Tae-kwon shouted while standing at attention.
“So, have you selected a team leader?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s the team leader of Bravo? Surely….”
Kim Sang-eung’s gaze settled on me.
“I took the position.”
Jung Ho-bin quietly raised his hand.
“Why are you the team leader?”
“Sir?”
“Shouldn’t Cha Eun-sung be the team leader?”
Kim Sang-eung pressed Jung Ho-bin as if interrogating him.
“Cha Eun-sung said he didn’t want to be team leader, so I took the position instead. Ha ha….”
Jung Ho-bin answered with a wry smile.
“Trainee Cha Eun-sung.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you take the team leader position? That’s unlike someone who aspired to be a Navy Special Forces officer.”
“I thought that becoming team leader would saddle me with more responsibilities than benefits.”
“So you don’t want to take on responsibility?”
“Yes, well. That’s the gist of it.”
“Hmm.”
A flicker of disappointment crossed Kim Sang-eung’s expression.
“It’s not too late even now—wouldn’t you reconsider taking the team leader role? I think you’d guide your teammates well.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I’ve made my decision. Besides, it wouldn’t be respectful to the person already elected as team leader.”
Jung Ho-bin started to open his mouth, but when our eyes met, he clamped it shut.
“If that’s your resolve, then so be it. Pity. What a waste.”
“Thank you for the kind words.”
I gave a slight bow, and beneath the brim of his cap, Kim Sang-eung’s eyes flashed with meaning.
‘You really want to do this?’
I deliberately looked away, pretending not to catch his gaze.
No matter what, I wasn’t going to be team leader.
What was I supposed to do, babysitting greenhorns?
I’d already grown sick of cleaning up after others—I had no desire to do it anymore.
Unless, of course, I was compensated accordingly.
* * *
Despite it being the first day of enrollment, the training proceeded at a relentless pace.
Out of every fifty-minute session, thirty minutes were devoted to theory, with the remaining twenty spent on basic practical exercises.
For freshly awakened prospective Hunters, it was invaluable instruction. For me, it was not.
Over the past decade, I’d done these things as routinely as eating—there was nothing new to learn, and my practical field knowledge far exceeded what the instructors were teaching.
As a result, drowsiness crashed over me like a wave, making it nearly impossible to concentrate.
Physical training would’ve been more bearable, but sitting at a desk listening to theory lectures, I could only bob my head like a sickly chicken.
“Trainee Cha Eun-sung.”
“…Yes?”
“Are you in the habit of dozing off during instruction? You’re learning knowledge that determines not only your life, but your teammates’ lives as well.”
Kim Sang-eung fixed me with a stern gaze.
“My apologies…”
“If you’re that drowsy, either stand in the back to listen, or go splash some water on your face and come back.”
“Yes.”
I seized the opportunity and headed for the restroom.
Some fresh air and a splash of cold water seemed like they’d help shake off the fatigue…
“Sigh.”
After washing my face with cold water and catching my reflection in the mirror above the sink, I couldn’t help but exhale heavily.
What was I even doing here with all these greenhorns…
Soon, a large-scale Gate phenomenon will unfold on Jebu Island.
“I wish someone would attend the training session in my stead…”
The murmur escaped my lips unbidden, when suddenly the Infinite Deck materialized before me, and a single card slipped free from within its depths.
– Shall I attend in your place?
The [Mutation] card asked me.

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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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