episode_0026

Exam day.

After finishing the surprisingly easy personality test, I walked to the counseling room.

As I entered the room labeled as the corner counseling room on the third floor, Violet, dressed in a pure manner, greeted me with a pen in her mouth instead of a cigarette.

As I walked in, her initially demure expression gradually transformed into a seductive one.

“Welcome. Did you do well on the personality test?”

“It was hard not to do well, to be honest.”

I replied with a faint smile and took a seat.

The hero test consisted of three stages: personality test and counseling, physical test, and practical test.

The personality test was practically impossible to fail if you had a normal way of thinking.

Most of the questions were like this.

If an elementary student is jaywalking, what would you do?

1. Stop them. 2. Watch them. 3. Cheer them on to cross quickly.

…It was roughly like this.

I wondered if there was any meaning in such a test, but it seemed that there were a few people who failed every year.

“Most of the hero test failures happen in the second and third tests.”

The first test was said to be mainly about filtering out villains, including counseling.

Just mentioning villains naturally brought a certain figure to mind.

“Do you know Kang Seok?”

“Yeah. He asked me to pretend not to know him and help him out in this test.”

Upon hearing this, Violet crossed her legs and smiled.

Her thick thighs were ideal legs in themselves.

“What should I do? Just reveal it?”

With a slow touch, Violet caressed the back of my hand as if everything depended on my touch.

My decision was already made.

“No, just let it go.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.”

Violet replied with a grin.

If I had asked her not to let me take the test, she would have probably done so.

But I had to defeat Kang Seok head-on.

“Oh, by the way, do you know the physical test is a race?”

“…I’ll somehow get through that.”

It was information Minji had given me.

Then Violet added one more piece of information.

“So, with many talented applicants this time, it might turn into a relative evaluation, right?”

“…”

That was news to me.

Minji probably couldn’t even know how many talented applicants had applied for the test.

Seeing my bewildered expression, Violet smiled.

“I guess this is new to you.”

“Yes.”

“Just make sure to stay ahead by more than half a lap from the beginning.”

“…That’s…”

It was a bit difficult to hear that easily.

Staying ahead by more than half a lap from others consumed quite a lot of stamina.

After acquiring the stamina skill, I had no problem maintaining a long run.

Thanks to my strength, I was also on the faster side.

But if asked if I was fast among the talented individuals, that was another story.

For instance, Choi Gaeun, who needed to be tackled immediately, had a speed that was hard to catch up with, and Minji said she used telekinesis to move her body and increase her speed during the test.

There was no way there weren’t such talented individuals in this test.

Among them, to stay ahead by more than half a lap from the beginning, I might have to use all my strength.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to walk in the later stages.

“Don’t worry. Once it becomes a relative evaluation, everyone won’t be able to run properly in the later stages.”

“…”

That statement seemed to imply that something was going to happen.

“Don’t you trust me?”

“…I do…”

Reluctantly nodding, I was informed from outside the door that the counseling was coming to an end.

“Good luck.”

With Violet’s encouragement, I left the counseling room and headed to the physical test venue.

The physical test venue looked like an ordinary sports field. The only difference was that it was filled with hero aspirants from the track to the stands.

Although the people on the track were hero applicants.

“Hey, I came from the Waterbird Entertainment…”

“Hey, isn’t that the hero who did the soju ad?”

“There are heroes from Guardian too, right?”

“Wow… she’s really pretty, like, really gorgeous.”

The examinees participating in the test started to get excited as they looked around the audience seats.

Scouts were scanning the audience seats to see if there were any potential talents to bring back to their agencies for the second round of the test.

Heroes like Choe Gaeun and Minji were occasionally sitting among the audience.

I lightly waved my hand in the direction where two people were sitting.

Choe Gaeun nodded slightly, and Minji mouthed a word of encouragement.

The word of encouragement she mouthed was ‘focus, you idiot.’

Among those harsh words, I could feel the affection.

All the examinees seemed to be motivated by the scouts and heroes they saw, showing signs of excitement.

The atmosphere felt like the competition was going to be fierce.

“On your marks. Get ready.”

It seemed like the seats were assigned randomly.

Unfortunately, my seat was at the very back.

There seemed to be more examinees than I had expected, but I wasn’t too worried.

The total distance to run was 8,000m.

I would probably be the only one to sprint from the beginning with all my strength.

“Start!”

Despite the energetic voice, everyone maintained a slow pace as if jogging, watching each other’s moves.

And in that gap, I seized the opportunity to put strength into my legs and started overtaking one by one.

Sometimes, a few tried to block my path by subtly getting in the way, but each time, I either maneuvered around them or increased my speed to pass them.

The ones who were overtaken were all taken aback, unsure whether to chase after me or maintain their pace.

But they all chose to adjust their stamina.

It was almost like herd mentality.

Except for one person.

“Shit!”

Strongly pushing forward, Kang Seok stuck close behind me, his eyes focused with determination.

It felt like he had been planning this all along.

Surprisingly, he was keeping up quite well with me, despite my relatively suitable body for running with my stamina and muscle skills.

Kang Seok’s abilities were clearly unrelated to running, and with his muscular body, he should have been at a disadvantage in this kind of race, yet he was showing decent running skills.

Nodding in pure admiration, Kang Seok pushed himself harder to keep up.

It seemed like he took my acknowledgment as a challenge.

At some point, the two of us were significantly ahead of the rest.

And then, it happened.

“Ah, please continue running as you are.”

The voice was familiar yet awkward.

Looking towards the direction of the sound, I saw Violet standing on a platform, smiling at me.

“For this test, we will be conducting a relative evaluation to differentiate among the talented and physically fit individuals. Let me guide you once again—”

After Violet’s words, the group running harmoniously behind us gradually increased their speed.

Originally, everyone could have achieved the highest score through absolute evaluation, but with the switch to relative evaluation, only the top 10 or so could obtain the highest scores.

With the two of us leading the pack, the competition for the top spots became even more intense.

And then, one by one, abilities started to come into play.

It was no longer just a simple race.

A man emerged, breathing fire from his whole body, and small rocks rose in front of him.

Another man sprouted small wings from his back, while another had brown animal fur sprouting all over his body before starting to run on all fours.

Both of them were incredibly fast.

Running side by side, they were easily overtaken, but they couldn’t break away from the pack.

Whenever someone tried to break ahead of the pack, they were always obstructed.

And the judges didn’t really intervene in that behavior.

Instead, they urged them on as if to say, “Go faster!”

In reality, both I and Kangseok were quite exhausted, slowing down significantly.

Despite that, we had managed to pull ahead by almost a lap in the beginning, and the others, using their abilities to run, didn’t seem to be catching up due to their slower speed.

“Ha…ugh…”

The sound of Kangseok’s labored breathing mixed with a metallic rasp could be heard.

He looked quite tired, with a face that showed signs of fatigue.

And he was looking at me.

It wasn’t the angry and wary gaze he had when we started.

It was a look that seemed to be afraid of something.

“H-how…?”

Due to his breathlessness, Kangseok’s words didn’t quite finish, but I could tell what he wanted to say.

He was asking how I had anticipated this situation.

In truth, it was all thanks to Violet.

But I couldn’t reveal that, so I just gave a vague answer.

I was also not breathing easily, so I kept it short.

“Fine.”

“…”

Kangseok didn’t get angry.

He just looked at me with a worried expression.

To an outsider, it might seem like the tragic female lead.

But also the villain.

I was the same.

In the end, the top two spots in the endurance test were taken by hidden villains.

When the esteemed hero officials praised us as the future of heroes, I almost burst out laughing.

In fact, Violet couldn’t hold back her laughter and was smiling faintly from a distance.

Glancing at Choe Gaeun and Minji, Choe Gaeun was staring at us with a blank expression as if drooling, and Minji was looking at me expressionlessly.

It actually felt good to see that they had expected this outcome.

And the test had only one final stage left.