In the repetitive life.
Before I knew it, the midterm exam period was approaching.
[……Doesn’t it feel like things have been passing by too quickly?]
‘At times like this, let’s just go with the flow. When did we start worrying about the speed of development?’
Fortunately, starting in the second semester, we had no theoretical exams, just hands-on practicals.
It wasn’t that we weren’t taught theory, but from this point on, it was all about the practicality.
As for the midterm exam of the second semester, it was an extension of the previous gate training.
Hunting a boss monster alone, rather than just dealing with common mobs.
Since we had only been fighting common mobs for a while, the academy kids were brimming with confidence.
Some were visibly terrified of the term boss monster, but most didn’t seem too worried.
“Sign here, academy kid! A boss monster is just a big mob!”
“Are you scared of a boss monster? I’ve lived a rough life, so that’s just cute to me!”
“What’s really scary isn’t the boss monster. It’s the downward trend of the graph!”
“What are you talking about!? What’s scarier than a boss monster is a long-term project that disappears without a trace!”
“It’s not the boss monster that’s important! My cock has disappeared! I’ve turned TS!!!”
“Don’t worry, TS is common here in No-Pia. It’s no big deal.”
I had no great fears either.
Of course, I had never personally taken one down, but since I was hanging out with Hyeji, I thought a boss monster was just a little tougher target.
So I didn’t pay much attention to the professor’s warnings before the midterms.
“Everyone! If you handle it step by step as you’ve learned, you can definitely manage it.
Your exam scores will be rated considering various indicators, such as how you handled the situation and your clear time.
It’s not necessary to defeat it. Even if you can’t catch it, you can still earn partial points based on how you handle things.
No matter what method you use, the academy will accept it all.
Please don’t complain even if accidents happen. Responding immediately is a hunter’s quality.
So, everyone, don’t worry and prepare for the exam.”
With those words, dozens of gates appeared in the wide sparring ground.
Designated students stood in front of the gates, and once the professor gave the signal, they all entered simultaneously.
After a dull moment, students with haggard expressions started coming out one by one from the gates.
Their conditions varied.
Some were vomiting right after coming out. Others were holding their heads and trying to sleep.
Most looked pretty bad.
Some were even sprawled out in a sorry state.
It seemed they hadn’t been able to properly deal with the boss monster.
Watching those students, Piece spoke to me quietly.
[Are you not worried?]
‘Those foolish kids will struggle, but the monster’s head is pretty much the same.’
Honestly, I was confident about one-on-one combat.
And compared to Hyeji, this monster was nothing.
Bored from waiting, I was dozing off when Hyeji woke me up.
“Shinwoo, it’s your turn.”
“Really? I’ll be back.”
“Hold on. Take this.”
“Oh, right. Thanks.”
Before entering the gate, I checked my equipment.
Two-handed sword. Longsword. Spear. Mace, one of each.
And the dozens of grenades and a few Molotov cocktails Hyeji gave me last.
It might seem excessive, but since you never know what’s coming, I prepared as thoroughly as possible.
Just because I was confident didn’t mean I wouldn’t prepare.
Dazed, I stood in front of the gate.
When the professor’s signal came, I slowly stepped inside.
*
Gate Control Management Room.
Here, numerous research students were operating complicated machines.
Originally, such precise machinery was supposed to be managed by staff.
But somewhere along the line, it became the norm to delegate it to research students and go off for fun.
Several research students in their master’s program and a few doctoral students were fiddling with machines with dazed eyes.
Countless screens were displayed for monitoring purposes in front of them.
However, the place where their attention was truly focused was…
“Hurry, hurry and grab it!”
A pot of ramen, which they had secretly cooked while professor was absent.
At the direction of the doctoral student, the master’s students had brought the ramen.
When the time came, they planned to pin all the blame on the master’s students.
However, if they had realized such an obvious fact, they wouldn’t have become research students in the first place.
Just a bunch of self-indulgent researchers were fixated on the pot of steaming ramen, giving off a pungent aroma.
Desperately waiting for their turn to come.
Once the serving was done, there were no further conversations.
The only sound remaining in the management room was the slurping of ramen.
In the midst of this, a master’s student questioned a doctoral student.
“Senior, don’t we need to monitor this?”
“Leave it. When has there ever been an accident?”
“……This kind of thing is usually a precursor.”
The doctoral student dismissed the master’s student’s unnecessary question with a loud slurp of ramen.
Just then, trying to move to operate the gate for the next exam participants, the student stumbled over a cable.
Proving the saying that words can be cursed.
Of course, the bowl of ramen he held flew from his hand and landed far away.
Right on the gate operation control panel.
“F*ck! Isn’t it because you opened your mouth that this happened?!”
“Huh?…”
“What are you spacing out for! Hurry and find something to clean it up!!!”
Before he could express his unfairness, the doctoral student’s shout made the master’s student frantically search for something to wipe it down.
Meanwhile, the spilled ramen had perfectly seeped into the control panel’s crevices.
Seeing this, a master’s student eating ramen asked the one who had just cooked it.
“Is the ramen you just made by any chance the special ramen?”
“How did you know?”
“Because the ramen got into the button crevices.”
Ignoring such trivial talk, the criticized master’s student diligently cleaned the panel with some paper he had found.
In the chaos of students refilling the ramen, a little conversation passed between them.
“Hey, but the dangerous buttons on the panel are exposed without covers?”
“They say putting covers on costs money, so the request was rejected.”
“Those assholes. They don’t even give us any money.”
“Hey, hurry and eat some ramen. This thing’s gonna burn.”
As the student wiped down the panel in a frenzy, one of the buttons got pressed down.
However, being stared down by the senior was scarier than the potential outcomes of the future.
The master’s student continued cleaning the panel without feeling any sense of unease.
*
The place I moved to through the gate was none other than a forest.
Luckily, I wasn’t attacked right after stepping out of the gate.
[Another forest, huh?]
‘What can you do about a writer with a deficient brain?’
– F*cking dog.
Ignoring the voice that pierced my mind, I surveyed the surroundings.
Only trees surrounded me. Plus, the high trees restricted my sight.
Just then, a deafening roar echoed, and a massive cloud of dust erupted nearby.
I began to move towards that direction.
[Is it alright to just go straight like this?]
‘Don’t be such a wimp. Besides, it’s just a boss monster, which might just be a bit bigger than a common mob.’
Before long, I arrived at the place I was heading.
Yet, the dust that had risen still showed no signs of settling.
After a brief wait.
When the dust finally settled, what lay before me was a gigantic centipede.
It was so big that it felt like you could park six 5-ton trucks next to each other and still think it was larger and longer.
[……Didn’t you say it was just slightly bigger?]
‘F*ck, you want me to catch this? Are you out of your mind?’
As I recognized the gigantic centipede, it recognized me too.
It immediately began hissing at me like a cat, showing hostility.
I decided to try talking first.
“Elder Centipede, you’re in the wrong world. Go back to the One Punch Man world.”
But maybe I wasn’t drunk enough, as the conversation with the monster wasn’t working at all.
Instead, the centipede started moving around swiftly, preparing to attack.
Regardless of size, it was a target I had to deal with.
I gripped the spear and mace I had brought, adopting a fighting stance.
[How will you deal with that sturdy armor?]
‘I’ll poke at the gaps with the spear and pound it with the mace.’
Then I planned to stuff grenades and Molotov cocktails into any big gaps that opened up.
A simple yet effective plan.
As I organized my thoughts and was about to dash out, a strange roar echoed from afar.
[Wait?? Wasn’t the exam supposed to have only one boss monster?]
‘You must have misheard. Don’t be so sensitive.’
But Piece was right; the distant roar grew louder, and from the direction of the centipede’s right, another boss monster appeared, smashing through the trees.
This boss monster was spider-like in shape.
However, unlike a normal spider, its eight legs looked remarkably sturdy.
Having emerged with a booming roar, the spider immediately ignited hostility upon seeing me.
“Alright… I can handle up to two of them.”
Then, another boss monster appeared, this time from the left side of the centipede.
Like a rebuttal to my assumptions.
This time, it was a long-nosed mosquito, sporting a transparent pair of wings.
[Just don’t say anything.]
‘F*ck, I have no insect-fetish tendencies.’
It was a 1 vs 3 situation.
Ignoring the disadvantage, the boss monsters all charged at me simultaneously.
