Cheori blinked in confusion while I held him in my hand.
“You were definitely far away from me.”
“Squeak.”
“Then why did you come with me?”
“Squeak-squeak?”
Why are you asking me?
Cheori let out a small cry that seemed to carry precisely that meaning.
This was driving me insane.
Why had he followed me out?
I scratched the back of my head vigorously and released a quiet sigh.
“I suppose there is nothing I can do.”
Even if I wanted to return him to the tower, I would not be able to leave the tower for a while if I entered it now.
For the time being, I had no choice but to let him stay with me.
I spoke to Cheori as he eagerly looked around, seemingly trying to understand his surroundings.
“This is my home. My house.”
“...Squeak?”
“You will have to stay here for a while. At least until I enter the tower again.”
After adding that, I placed Cheori on the floor.
He looked around before suddenly heading toward something.
The place he was heading toward was....
“Hey.”
“Squeak?”
“Do not eat that, you little bastard.”
It was where my phone was lying.
Did he have any idea how much that thing cost?
Cheori was trying his hardest to stuff the phone into his mouth despite it being far too large for him.
I snatched the phone away after it had already become covered in his saliva.
“Squeeeak....”
Cheori stared longingly at the phone, but I could not give him this.
I wiped the saliva off with my clothes and turned the phone on.
“No one contacted me.”
I had wondered whether I might have received a message.
However, there had been neither a call nor a text....
“....”
Rub, rub.
I rubbed my eyes with my right hand and opened and closed my mouth.
“What?”
Why was it not changing?
This had to be a lie.
Otherwise—
“Why has so much time passed?”
My eyes trembled as I checked the date displayed on the phone.
It was January 21.
I was certain I had entered the tower on January 16.
I had only spent about a day inside the tower, so how had so much time passed?
However, that did not matter right now.
The greatest problem was—
“January 21....”
Wednesday.
The moment I checked the time on my phone, I rushed into the bathroom.
I did not have time to stand around.
January 21.
Today, Wednesday.
At the Awakened Association in Gangnam—
“I cannot be late for the on-site registration...!”
It was the day of the E-Rank Promotion Exam.
***
“Huff, huff.”
I leaped off the bus, gasping heavily.
‘Thank goodness it was still dawn when I left the tower....’
Had I returned after noon, I would already have been too late.
I trudged along the main road in Gangnam, which was crowded with Hunters who had come for the promotion exam.
“Squeeeak....”
A small cry came from my pocket.
I lowered my gaze and found Cheori peeking out with only his head visible.
“I told you to stay inside.”
“Squeak!”
“...Do whatever you want.”
I had originally intended to leave him at home.
However, when I tried to leave, he kept following me.
I could not afford to waste any more time, so I had no choice but to bring him along.
Still, I was more worried than I had expected.
‘I seem to recall that bringing a living monster out of a Gate is a serious crime....’
He looked like an ordinary black snake, so no one would notice, right?
Besides, the Verdant Tower was not an ordinary Gate in the first place.
I let out a quiet groan and opened the doors of the Awakened Association.
“You bastard! Why are you touching my sword!?”
“Everyone, get lost! Unless you want to die by my hands during today’s exam!”
“I hope I pass this time....”
Clamor.
The space was packed with all sorts of people.
Good.
Now this felt like a place where people actually lived.
I nodded at the familiar atmosphere overflowing with hostility and pushed my way through the noisy crowd.
“Excuse me. I heard that there is an E-Rank Promotion Exam today.”
“Yes. The promotion exam is scheduled to begin in approximately one hour and thirty minutes.”
“I would like to take it as well. Same-day registration is available, correct?”
“Of course. You only need to register at least one hour before the exam. May I see your Awakened Registration Card?”
I took my Awakened Registration Card from my pocket and handed it over.
The Clerk immediately began typing something, then returned the Awakened Registration Card along with a rectangular sheet of paper.
“Please review this.”
“This is....”
“It is a waiver confirming that you accept responsibility if you are injured or killed during the exam.”
The promotion exam was dangerous.
In a way, that was only natural.
The exam was meant to determine a person’s actual ability inside a Gate.
If it were conducted in complete safety, it would accomplish nothing.
As a result, although it was extremely rare, there were cases in which people died during promotion exams.
This form was probably an extension of that.
“If an accident occurs due to an abnormal event inside the Gate, the Awakened Association will provide full compensation, so you do not need to worry about that.”
“Well, I am not worried.”
I could not take the promotion exam unless I agreed in the first place.
I casually marked my agreement and returned the paper to the Clerk.
“Your application has been accepted. These are your examinee number and emergency beacon. Please attach the emergency beacon to your wrist immediately. Keep your examinee number with you. An announcement will be made in thirty minutes, so please proceed according to the instructions given then.”
“Thank you.”
I took my Awakened Registration Card, examinee number, and emergency beacon, then walked toward a quiet corner.
“So this is the emergency beacon.”
It was a device designed to alert the exam supervisor if a participant encountered danger during the promotion exam.
I examined the device, which resembled an ordinary wristwatch, then fastened it around my left wrist and checked my examinee number.
“Number 738....”
Did that mean more than seven hundred people were taking the exam in Gangnam today?
That was more than I had expected.
Branches of the Awakened Association were spread throughout the country.
Each branch conducted its own exams, which meant those seven hundred participants were only the people taking the exam in Gangnam.
“The more people there are, the more people will fail....”
As far as I knew, the promotion rate from F-Rank Hunter to E-Rank Hunter was approximately thirty percent.
It was an unwritten rule of promotion exams that the more people participated, the more people failed.
“Still, I am not worried.”
It was only an E-Rank Promotion Exam.
At most, it would probably involve killing monsters inside an E-Rank Gate.
If that was all, I could easily pass without worrying.
I sat down in an empty seat in the corner and stretched out both legs.
“Squeak.”
“You are hungry? Endure it a little longer. I will buy you something to eat after the exam.”
“Squeak, squeak.”
He certainly ate a great deal.
Had he not eaten only a few hours before we left the tower?
As I continued sitting there, drowsiness suddenly washed over me.
“Yaaawn....”
I yawned deeply and glanced at the clock.
Only ten minutes had passed.
‘I became tired the moment I left the tower....’
Inside the tower, no matter how long I lay down, I could neither sleep nor feel hungry.
Yet the moment I came out, exhaustion struck me as if on cue, and I was beginning to feel hungry as well.
‘Does the tower prevent those things?’
I did not know, but it was rather inconvenient.
It would have been nice if I could at least sleep at night inside the tower.
After releasing another long yawn, I quietly closed my eyes.
I should get some sleep before the exam began.
***
“Yaaawn....”
I yawned deeply and blinked my dry eyes as I looked around.
Everywhere I looked, people stood with tense expressions.
After examining their faces, I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket and checked it.
‘738....’
This room was the testing area for examinee numbers in the seven hundreds, so I had come to the correct place.
‘I nearly arrived too late.’
When I woke up, there had only been five minutes left before the exam was scheduled to begin.
I had leaped to my feet and sprinted toward the testing area at full speed.
Judging by the fact that the exam supervisor had not arrived yet, I did not seem to be late.
I released a quiet sigh of relief and looked around.
‘It is noisy.’
The Hunters gathered in the promotion exam area were already wary of one another.
Perhaps that was only natural, since they were all competitors.
I had no desire to participate in that sort of struggle for dominance.
Therefore, I decided to take a step back and observe the situation.
“....”
At least, that was what I had intended to do.
Then why—
‘Why do I keep feeling someone staring at me?’
I quietly shifted my gaze to the side.
There was one area where an unusually large number of people had gathered.
A woman was hiding behind them as though using them as a shield while staring intently at me.
When was the exam supervisor going to arrive?
This was uncomfortable.
If I approached her first, I might become entangled in something troublesome.
I wanted absolutely no part of that, so I simply closed my eyes and pretended not to notice.
‘If she has business with me, she will come over herself.’
***
The Awakened Association in Gangnam.
Not far from the testing area assigned to examinee numbers in the seven hundreds, a woman and a man were speaking to each other.
Special Hunter IDs hanging around their necks identified them as Association Hunters.
“You understood, right?”
“...Do you realize how many times you have already told me this?”
“Um... I am not certain?”
“More than twenty times. I have ears, so I understood everything you said.”
“But the higher-ups consider this important enough to call you in on your day off.”
“Sigh....”
The man with navy-blue hair released a long sigh at the incessant chattering of the white-haired woman beside him.
He wiped his glasses with a handkerchief and muttered,
“More importantly, is there not a high possibility that the person known as Black Dragon is not actually an F-Rank Hunter?”
“That is true. However, as far as I know, it would be impossible for anyone below the upper ranks of A-Rank to kill an Orc Lord that cleanly. You saw it too.”
“...Yes. Even I would have been unable to do that.”
It would have been difficult even for an upper-ranked A-Rank Hunter.
Among B-Rank Monsters, the Orc Lord was considered exceptional in terms of defensive ability.
Had his offensive ability been stronger, the Orc Lord might have been classified as an A-Rank Monster.
Yet someone had killed such a creature in a single blow.
“However, even I, an S-Rank Hunter affiliated with the Association, have no idea who that person is. Every upper-ranked A-Rank Hunter has an alias, so they should be easy to identify.”
“Could that person be a Villain?”
“That is possible. However, think about it. If they were a Villain who had concealed themselves so thoroughly that even an S-Rank Hunter like me did not know them, would they not have eliminated the witness?”
The witness was still alive.
That fact alone made it exceedingly unlikely that the mysterious person was a Villain trying to hide their identity.
In that case, there was a strong possibility that the person was truly a Hunter rather than a Villain.
“Countless guilds have already dispatched people to search for the person called Black Dragon. You know what will happen if Black Dragon joins one of those guilds, right?”
“...I understand perfectly well.”
“Then work hard, our dear ‘Comet,’ Hunter Jeong Chanu.”
Jeong Chanu released one sigh after another at the grinning woman’s words.
He had no idea how long she intended to keep him there and continue lecturing him.
He glanced at the clock and barely managed to suppress another rising sigh before speaking.
“In that case, Senior Seong Yumi, the ‘Mage King,’ what do you think about the fact that the promotion exam was supposed to begin ten minutes ago?”
“...Has that much time passed?”
“Please release the spell now. I need to hurry.”
Seong Yumi pouted, then snapped her fingers and dispelled the magic.
Only then did Jeong Chanu regain control of his body.
He immediately shot forward.
Upon reaching the testing area assigned to examinee numbers in the seven hundreds, he opened the door, cleared his throat, and spoke.
“I apologize for being la—”
“Waaaaah!”
“No, why are you doing this?”
“I-I am sorry, waaah!”
“I told you to stop crying and let go of me. Wait, do not take pictures! I did not do anything!”
“Waaaaaah!”
“Put the cameras down!”
“....”
This was precisely why he had wanted to arrive on time.
Jeong Chanu tightly closed his eyes at the chaotic scene inside the testing area.