A word came out that he never even imagined he'd hear in a place like this.
Sihyun stared blankly ahead, even forgetting that he'd been looking for the white-haired boy just a moment ago. But the others, like they were used to it, slowly got up and started walking out through the door leading outside.
Still caught off guard by the situation, Sihyun hurriedly snapped his gaze around, rushed up to the staff member in charge, and slowly opened his mouth.
"What the hell is this 'accommodations' thing?"
"Yes…? Uh…. The accommodations you'll be staying in for the next month."
But the answer he got back was one full of confusion—like, why were you asking something that obvious?
He suddenly remembered how everyone had been carrying oddly large bags. So that was why.
Since if he asked any more, he'd obviously just get weird looks, Sihyun put on a small smile and nodded. Then he followed what the others were doing at an unhurried pace, heading toward this so-called accommodations.
'So that building I couldn't figure out the purpose of was the dorm.'
Sihyun slowly looked around the small room spread out in front of him, then sat down on the bed, yanked out his phone like his life depended on it, and only then started looking up what this "test" actually was.
At this point, screw suspicion and whatever else—what he was most worried about was his own path forward.
"Fuck…. I should've looked this up earlier."
In the end, the test was over with that thing he'd just done, and everyone who'd been tested was required to undergo a mandatory month of training.
People who awakened after going through what they called Dreamwork—those people would wake up after living in this world for years, sometimes even longer, like it was all just a dream.
So right from the moment they awakened, they were already used to using skills or abilities, and because of that they could quickly suppress the chaos that exploded right after the world flipped over due to Gates.
But starting one year after the first Gate incident, awakenings through Dreamwork dropped to the point of being rare, and most people just awakened with powers out of nowhere, without warning.
Naturally, people who awakened without knowing a damn thing started dying in droves—getting drunk on money and power, acting tough, and doing stupid shit. That stirred up the whole country: bereaved families, the families of surviving awakened, civic groups, everyone raising hell. And from then on, this bare-minimum measure—a month of education—ended up getting created.
"If I'd known it was gonna be like this, I wouldn't have done it…. I should've just taken it with taxes withheld…. It still would've been a hundred million, at least…."
When he'd heard about the test from Gyumin, he'd honestly thought it'd be easy. His entire brain had been fixated on the three hundred million that would get deposited into his account. But now he was supposed to spend a whole month packed in with hundreds of people like this.
Sihyun made a hollow, devastated face like he'd lost his country, then hurriedly grabbed his phone again and started calling someone.
-Hello!!
"…It's me."
-Oh! Hyung! Did the test go well??
"Why didn't you tell me there was training…."
-Huh? Uh…. I was going to earlier, but….
'Ah…. I hung up because I was late.'
He knew it was a ridiculous thing to take out on someone, but lately, everything kept getting subtly tangled up, and Sihyun was stressed out.
So the words didn't come out nicely. And at the same time, he felt a faint disgust at himself for snapping at someone else over his own problems, which just made his head even more complicated.
He acted like it wasn't showing, but his exhausted heart was leaking out and slowly swallowing up everything around him.
If he really had to point to the start of it, it was from the moment he'd come back to reality like he'd been chased out. The abilities he'd carried for so long had been reset, and then there were the house and money problems tightening around his neck by the second. Seriously—nothing was working out at all. At least when he was doing quests, it was hard, but the rewards were guaranteed, and it was fun working through things step by step with Taewoon.
"Haah…. I'm really sorry."
-Eh, it's fine! When your training ends, you have to tell me! I, Lee Gyumin, haven't forgotten the debt of gratitude for saving my life!
"Ahaha. Right…."
Still, hearing Gyumin say the exact line Sihyun had been waiting for more than anything, Sihyun felt a little calmer and let out an awkward laugh.
-Oh, right—speaking of that, since we're here… when this training ends, do you want to join our guild?
"…What the hell is that now."
But at another contextless line popping out of nowhere, Sihyun let out a long sigh and flopped back onto the bed.
It wasn't like the word "guild" was completely unfamiliar. Back when he'd been really into online games, it had been a small guild, but he'd even been a guild master once—so he knew what it was, if anything.
And besides—hadn't two guilds had a huge influence on what happened to his home?
Still, when he was getting a real offer like this in real life, it was kind of embarrassing no matter what.
-Ah! I didn't explain properly! So what it is, is….
"Wait a second. But—"
-Oh, right, you must be tired, and I'm being too impatient. You don't have to talk about this right now! Rest well today, hyung!
"Uh, yeah."
Click. Unlike usual, the conversation ended in an instant. Sihyun, still a little stunned, hung up the call and shook his head, letting out a hollow laugh.
It looked like he'd expected Sihyun to refuse anyway—and it was annoying how fast his instincts were about that, of all things.
Sihyun had no intention of joining some guild and working. Even setting humans aside, he was sick of fighting now.
"I should be grateful it's at least a single room, I guess."
Maybe the soundproofing was decent, because it was quiet. Sihyun let his thoughts stop ricocheting around and just sat there blankly.
But that silence didn't last long. A small vibration from the watch quickly shattered it.
It was the watch he'd been handed when leaving the auditorium earlier. Sihyun remembered being told that this was how they'd share the training schedule with him.
Sure enough, there was content on the watch display informing him about tomorrow's training.
[Morning (Room 302): Understanding Gates]
[Afternoon (Room 305): The Reality and Application of Combat]
"Wow… just looking at the names, I can already tell it's gonna be boring as shit…."
Still lying on his back staring at the ceiling, Sihyun squirmed around and buried his face into the pillow. Even so, it was three hundred million for just one month of studying.
Thinking about the money, it felt like a little motivation actually bubbled up. Sihyun clenched his fist and started thinking about how he'd use it—then that motivation fizzled out almost immediately, and he spat out a lamenting voice anyway.
"Ugh… I want to eat meat stir-fry with Sohongju. Just one bite."
The meat stir-fry was one of the absolute top-tier dishes among the foods Taewoon made—a dish where he stir-fried pork with peanuts and vegetables, sweet and spicy.
'At first, I freaked out because he was lighting a fire with some kind of sammae-jinhwa and whipping a wok around over it. Heh.'
Of course, since the heat came from internal energy, it was insanely stronger than any fire made from wood or anything like that, and naturally, the juices in the vegetables and the meat were so damn alive it was ridiculous.
Originally, he'd just been saying he wanted to eat spicy stir-fried pork, and since he didn't know the proper recipe, his explanation could only be clumsy—so the taste was different. But Taewoon's skill was good enough to cure Sihyun's homesickness in a single shot.
Sihyun wasn't sure if it was Taewoon he missed or the food he missed, but either way, he kept digging through old memories.
It depressed him that he kept thinking about the past and yearning for it, like he'd turned into some old fart—but the fact those memories kept coming back was something he couldn't really help.
During his teenage years he'd lived in an orphanage and secretly done nothing but work. After becoming an adult, it was embarrassing to admit, but he spent his life with a late-arriving middle-school-syndrome, looking at everything with cynical contempt and just drifting.
The only time he'd lived in a way that was spectacular and varied enough to actually stick in his memory was the ten years inside the game—so maybe that was why he was like this.
"Just hang in there a little…."
And like that, Sihyun spent the first day shut up in his room without even eating.
***
The next day, the training began in earnest. Maybe the several hundred people had been divided into about three groups, because the number of students was noticeably smaller than what he'd seen in the auditorium.
Because of that, the classroom maintained a comfortable density—enough that the hunter instructors could see each student's face one by one.
It felt like what a university class might be like. On the first day, like an orientation, they were scheduled to receive simple introductions and guidance on what the lectures would cover going forward.
"Hey. They say this class is important. You bring a pen?"
"Of course."
At that moment, he could hear a few people chatting familiarly—whether they'd gotten close that fast, or they'd known each other already, he couldn't tell.
And belatedly, Sihyun realized there was one more purpose behind this training system besides what he'd looked up yesterday.
This one-month training program really had been created at first for the safety and well-being of ordinary awakened—apparently that part was true.
But once evaluations started happening, it gradually lost that meaning. Now it was basically one of the places where guilds came to scoop up rookies.
They even said that when the final training ended, the overall evaluation sheets were quietly shared with the guilds. Then, on the day you were discharged, you got contacted one by one in order—which was enough to make Sihyun automatically let out a sigh just hearing about it.
"Alright! Alright! Quiet! To explain it briefly: for the first two weeks, you'll have theory and some simple practical training. And for the remaining two weeks, you'll do training where you'll handle real Gates in order. Of course, active-duty hunters will be with you, and you'll be moving by team, so you don't have to worry. If you just receive the training properly, there absolutely won't be any problems."
'Ha…. what a pain.'
Objectively, for a one-month curriculum, it was probably a set of classes they'd put real effort into. But from Sihyun's perspective—he just wanted to clear it as fast as possible—it was nothing but a tight, annoying schedule.
'Also… where the hell did that white-haired brat go….'
Sihyun glanced at the "Understanding Gates" professor finishing up with a line about wrapping it up soon. Then, today too, he pulled his hat down farther over his face and closed his eyes.