“…Pardon?”
Kim Ji-eun blinked.
“Play…?”
Kang Gi-tae let out a hollow laugh.
“Do you think this situation is a joke?”
Lee Min-jae added sharply.
Kim Jin-woo also stared at Ji-hoon with a hardened expression.
“Yes. Well, is there a problem?”
Amid those stares,
Ji-hoon casually chewed his jerky.
MUNCH, MUNCH.
“Let’s look back at everything we’ve done so far.”
Ji-hoon asked after finishing the jerky.
“…What?”
Kang Gi-tae frowned.
“We broke the walls.”
Ji-hoon raised a finger and pointed at the wall.
“And then the walls changed.”
That was right.
This maze was not a maze.
It was effectively something like a labyrinth.
A Gate they could only escape by solving its puzzle.
Ji-hoon folded his fingers down one at a time.
“When we broke things, the structure changed.”
“….”
“When we moved, the paths changed.”
“….”
“And using a Detection Skill didn’t accomplish much.”
The others silently stared at Ji-hoon’s hand.
They had wandered for hours without finding an answer.
Something they had desperately tried to ignore.
What if it was impossible no matter how hard they tried?
That terror and fear slowly crept up within them.
“E-even so, can we just give up like this?!”
“What are you talking about? I never said anything about giving up.”
Ji-hoon calmed the agitated Kang Gi-tae.
“Could it be…?”
Kim Ji-eun’s eyes lit up as though she had realized something.
“We’re not supposed to charge ahead blindly. There’s a trick!”
Ji-hoon gave Kim Ji-eun a thumbs-up.
“It looks like even the E-rank Hunter has caught on. Have you, Mr. C-rank Enhancement-Type Hunter?”
“Urgh….”
“So let’s play for now. We just have to do absoooolutely nothing.”
Ji-hoon dusted off his hands and lay down completely.
He looked ready to fall asleep at any moment.
Poppy and Choco lay down along with him.
[I will follow your lead, Big Brother!]
[Choco trusts you too, Big Brother.]
“Come on, everyone, lie down. You’re exhausted, so get some rest.”
“Do you… truly think that makes sense?”
Kim Jin-woo asked quietly.
But his voice was not accusatory.
“At least in the five years I have worked as a Hunter, I have never encountered a Gate like this.”
“Would you believe me if I told you there was one in the dimension where I lived?”
Hell. Hell Farm.
Whenever Abel was bored there, he would play games with Ji-hoon and the Demonic Beasts of Hell Farm.
Who could escape a labyrinth the fastest? Who was the best at solving puzzles? Games like those.
–Sometimes staying still can help, you know?
When Ji-hoon followed Abel’s advice, a hidden passage had actually appeared. That was the first time Ji-hoon had escaped a labyrinth ahead of everyone else at Hell Farm.
“We don’t have any other options anyway, do we?”
“Even so….”
“Then let me ask you the opposite question.”
Ji-hoon slowly raised his eyes.
“What can we do that will make things better?”
“….”
This time, no one could say anything.
No one voiced an objection either.
Kang Gi-tae and Lee Min-jae stood trembling with their fists clenched.
Kim Ji-eun sat down and gathered mana to restore the power of her Water Spirit.
Kim Jin-woo leaned against a wall with his arms folded, standing as though he were keeping watch.
How much time passed like that?
“…Nothing’s happening.”
Kang Gi-tae spoke irritably.
At that moment,
“…Wait.”
Kim Jin-woo murmured.
“The mana… is moving…?”
The air inside the maze changed.
A gentle breeze blew.
Ji-hoon rose with a grin.
The necklace made from a Griffin Feather vibrated faintly.
“Just as I thought.”
[Big Brother, the mana is moving.]
A moment later,
CREEEAK—
the walls slowly began to part.
“What is this…?”
“This is crazy… It was real…?”
The walls truly parted.
As they opened to either side, the walls began sliding into a single-file line one after another.
RUMBLE— CRASH—!
As if they had been that way from the very beginning,
the walls made the space where Ji-hoon’s group stood the starting point.
SHHHK, SHHHK, SHHHK, SHHHK!
Then they formed a straight path ahead.
“…A path appeared.”
It truly was a path.
A straight path leading all the way to the exit.
“Ha… Hahaha…! We did it! We did it!”
Kang Gi-tae clenched his fist and strode forward.
The walls began moving again.
But these walls looked much weaker.
They were not even half as thick as the previous walls.
Kang Gi-tae scoffed and clenched his fist.
“A wall like this is nothing now!”
“Wait a moment, Mr. Kang.”
Ji-hoon grabbed the back of Kang Gi-tae’s shirt and pulled him back.
“What now?! What is it?!”
“Just wait.”
Kang Gi-tae waited for a moment, huffing angrily. The wall then returned to its original position.
“What is this now…?”
“See? When we wait, the answer appears.”
Ji-hoon smiled.
Then he addressed Kim Jin-woo.
“Team Leader?”
After exchanging a glance with Ji-hoon, Kim Jin-woo spoke.
“We will proceed slowly, one person at a time. Do not break the walls under any circumstances. Be patient and wait. Move forward when the walls shift.”
Everyone nodded at Kim Jin-woo’s instructions.
“Fuck, they made this shit and called it a maze?”
“They tricked us by calling a labyrinth a maze. Fucking infuriating.”
Kang Gi-tae and Lee Min-jae grumbled.
“J-Ji-hoon, thank you!”
Kim Ji-eun thanked him.
“I apologize for looking down on you because you are F-rank.”
“It’s fine. I wouldn’t trust an F-rank Hunter either.”
Kim Jin-woo started to say something at that, but stopped and patted Ji-hoon on the shoulder.
“I think you will do well no matter which Guild you join. I look forward to working with you during this camp.”
All his teammates walked ahead.
Last of all, Ji-hoon stretched long and hard.
“Urgh… Shall we go too?”
[Yes, Big Brother!]
[Choco thought he was going to die of boredom from waiting.]
And so, quite naturally,
until Ji-hoon passed through the maze and reached the exit,
“Hmm~ Hmmm~”
he made quite a show of being an excited F-rank Hunter, humming to himself.
‘Poppy checked everything properly, right?’
All while deliberately ignoring the gaze watching him.
***
WHOOSH–
The exit Portal brought them back to the orientation hall where they had been just before entering the other Portal.
Those who had been sitting and waiting for Group C looked up.
“Group C. You were the last of the fourteen groups to clear the trial.”
It meant we had taken far too long.
Then again, we had wasted a great deal of time early on.
“Good work. The grading results will be announced in five minutes, so please wait.”
An announcement instructed everyone to return to the orientation hall.
Those who had cleared the trial earlier began gathering one by one.
“Damn, we could’ve at least finished in the middle if we hadn’t been stuck with all that dead weight.”
“We came out far too late. Last place…. I hope our total score at least keeps us from finishing last overall.”
Kang Gi-tae and Lee Min-jae muttered discontentedly.
Kim Ji-eun hung her head, saying it was all her fault.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t any help….”
Kim Jin-woo approached the dejected Kim Ji-eun from behind.
“I did not accomplish anything either. Let us do better starting with the next test.”
He was encouraging his teammate as the Team Leader.
Since he had shown a decent sense of responsibility,
“Hmm….”
Ji-hoon thought he seemed like a good person.
[Big Brother, it seems they are about to announce the results.]
“Looks like it.”
We passed anyway, didn’t we?
That’s good enough.
Why does the ranking matter?
“I will announce second place.”
Everyone gathered there waited for their group to be called.
After all, it was obvious that Group A, which had Baek Kang-hyeon, would take first place.
“Second place is Group A. Congratulations.”
The hall erupted in murmurs.
“Why is Group A second?”
“They came out first. Why?”
“Did they rely too heavily on Hunter Baek Kang-hyeon?”
“No way. They’re all big names in the Hunter world….”
Baek Kang-hyeon merely stood with his arms folded, smiling.
Then,
WINK–
his gaze turned toward Ji-hoon, and goosebumps prickled all over Ji-hoon’s body.
‘Please just pretend you don’t know me, you jerk….’
Nothing good would come of rumors spreading that he was close to an S-rank Hunter.
While Ji-hoon was thinking that, the Management Bureau Proctor took the microphone again.
“And now, the long-awaited first place in this test!”
Which group had beaten Group A to take first place?
Everyone’s attention focused on the announcement.
“First place goes to Group C, led by Hunter Kim Jin-woo! Congratulations!”
SILENCE–
Unlike the murmuring from before,
silence continued for a moment.
“Uh… First place is Group C. Hunter Kim Jin-woo? Where are you?”
“Ah, yes, I’m here… but is Group C really first?”
“We were last. Did you enter the number incorrectly?”
Kim Jin-woo and Kang Gi-tae told them to check properly.
Baek Kang-hyeon then stepped forward.
“Group C is indeed in first place.”
Another silence.
Then, moments later,
BOOOOOO–
“This judgment is biased!”
“That’s right! They must know someone on the inside!”
“How can they be first when they came out last?!”
Protests poured in from the crowd.
Baek Kang-hyeon sighed as he looked at them, then drew out his turquoise mana.
FWOOOSH–!
Mana covered the space and calmed the air.
“We will now disclose the grading criteria. Proctor, please proceed.”
The Management Bureau Proctor, sweating coldly under the pressure of Baek Kang-hyeon’s mana, nodded.
“First, Group A. They gave up from the beginning, saying they would leave everything to Hunter Baek Kang-hyeon. An irritated Hunter Baek Kang-hyeon collapsed the maze itself and escaped.”
That was just like Baek Kang-hyeon.
He had gotten pissed off and simply destroyed the simulation.
“Next, Group B. Three Enhancement-Type Hunters escaped by breaking the walls one after another.”
“Group D. Two Supporters concentrated their support on one swordsman, who broke through the walls and escaped.”
“Groups E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, and N. Every group used the same method. One person broke a wall while the others stopped the walls from moving with brute force. They repeated the process of breaking and blocking until they escaped.”
The Proctor snapped the cover of his tablet shut.
SNAP.
“Every group broke the walls by force, creating exits where none existed and escaping through them.”
“That’s the kind of maze it was! What’s wrong with that?!”
“Right! This wasn’t even a maze to begin with! It was a labyrinth!”
The Proctor did not budge despite the continuing protests.
Then,
“Group C. They waited for the flow of mana to settle before moving.”
BEEP–
The Proctor played footage of Group C’s escape.
Everyone who had wondered what a last-place group could possibly have done fell silent.
“…That works?”
“Damn….”
BEEP-BEEP–
“This test was designed to determine whether you could ‘respond realistically’ to variables that arise inside a Gate.”
“Try roaming around a Gate breaking walls and see what happens. You might as well advertise to the Boss Monster that you are right here.”
Everyone gulped at Baek Kang-hyeon’s words.
“Now for the promised first-place bonus. The weakest member of Group C, Hunter Lee Ji-hoon?”
Baek Kang-hyeon handed Lee Ji-hoon a card.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“It is a Black Card that you can use as much as you like at the stores inside the Management Bureau.”
The Black Card gleamed.
It was obviously a VIP card at a glance.
“Use it to pay for a team dinner.”
“No, I mean, why me…?”
“Because you contributed the most to clearing it.”
[Big Brother, chicken! Please give us chicken!]
[Choco wants chicken. SLURP.]
Before Ji-hoon could argue,
the Proctor played the footage.
–Let’s play.
It showed Ji-hoon putting on a lying-down broadcast.
That day, within the Management Bureau’s Returnee Training Camp,
a legend supposedly arose about an F-rank Hunter who was secretly a hidden master.
So they were saying I was secretly a hidden master….
“…As if!”
“Ahahaha! Still, Ji-hoon, is it not nice that we can have a team dinner like this thanks to you? Everyone, cheers!”
At some point, Kang Gi-tae and Lee Min-jae had glued themselves to Ji-hoon’s sides, while Kim Ji-eun excitedly chattered away about the test they had just taken.
Kim Jin-woo also relaxed and enjoyed the drinks.
“God, this is hectic.”
About two hours later,
Ji-hoon tapped Poppy’s feather.
TAP.
“Well? Did you check?”
FWOOOM–
Poppy, who had been in Concealment Mode, revealed himself.
[Yes, Big Brother. A suspect has emerged.]
“What kind of bastard is he?”
[Among the Management Bureau bastards….]
Poppy’s gaze swept across the areas where the Management Bureau Proctors were gathered.
[It is the bastard over there.]
His gaze settled on the Broadcasting Team building, where the staff responsible for filming the test footage were located.