The matches proceeded at a relatively brisk pace.
Unlike the Academy’s own tournament, there was no time limit until a winner was decided, but thanks to the matches being split into two arenas and running simultaneously, things moved quickly.
Just after an hour had passed, the 26th match finished, and finally, it was Kim Seojun’s turn.
When Kim Seojun saw his name appear on the large TV in the waiting room, he made his way toward the arena.
After descending about fifty steps, a side door leading directly into the arena appeared.
There, assistant professors from the Academy who were standing by checked Kim Seojun’s student ID and face, then conducted a body search.
They meticulously checked to make sure he didn’t have any artifacts, or things like potions that could temporarily boost his abilities, or totems for area buffs.
But Kim Seojun had left his spatial pouch in his room before leaving home today, so there was no problem.
“Student Kim Seojun. Once you enter the arena, you can pick whichever weapon you want from those lined up against the wall. The match ends immediately if either contestant surrenders. Refrain from using techniques that could threaten your opponent’s life as much as possible. If anything strange happens, the professors will intervene themselves, but in that case you’ll be disqualified for a foul. Do you understand everything?”
“Yes.”
As Kim Seojun replied briefly, the side door to the arena finally opened.
Right in front of the door, all sorts of weapons were displayed neatly, but they had all been specially treated so they couldn’t inflict fatal injuries, only suitable for matches.
Among them, Kim Seojun grabbed a longsword that first caught his eye.
“Uwoooooooh!”
“That’s Kim Seojun, the pride of the 3rd Academy!”
“Kim Seojun, fighting!”
As the students of Class A sitting in the stands saw Kim Seojun choosing his weapon on the big screen, they erupted in cheers.
Even Joo Gwangsik, who was scheduled for the 29th match, joined in the cheering.
“If you win in under a minute, I’ll call you hyung!”
His voice was so loud that it thundered through this huge Hunter Dome.
‘What kind of embarrassing support is that?’
Kim Seojun shook his head as he walked to the center of the arena.
A student was walking out from the other side as well.
Kim Seojun’s opponent, Jo Taesoo.
Did he hear Joo Gwangsik’s voice too?
His expression was thoroughly sour.
Instead, Joo Gwangsik’s shouting seemed to have only fueled his fighting spirit.
“Both of you, fight fair and square.”
The professor in his thirties, acting as the referee, looked back and forth between Kim Seojun and Jo Taesoo, then retreated far back. Then, he pressed the button in his hand firmly.
Beeeep—
The light hanging from the dome ceiling changed from red to green.
At the signal for the start, Jo Taesoo moved first.
“Let’s see you try and win in under a minute, you 3rd Academy flunky.”
Jo Taesoo sneered at Kim Seojun, leaping back to open up the distance, then brought his palms together in front of his chest, his eyes glowing golden.
In that instant, three giant ice walls, each two meters wide and two meters tall, crashed down with a heavy thud about two meters in front of him.
Kim Seojun instantly realized Jo Taesoo’s Shinhui was ice-related, and without hesitation, charged forward.
‘As normal as possible…’
Kim Seojun purposely used the bare minimum of his internal energy, not wanting to draw suspicion.
Yet, even so, his movements were frighteningly fast.
As Kim Seojun quickly closed the distance, Jo Taesoo twisted his palms and aimed at the ground. At that moment,
CRACKKK
The ground in front of Jo Taesoo was instantly transformed into an icy sheet.
And not just plain ice—it was slick, like a slide, so whoever stepped on it would lose their balance.
But—
Crackle. Snap snap.
It was as if Kim Seojun had spikes on his soles; he ran across the ice with no trouble.
There was no way Jo Taesoo could have known that Kim Seojun had used a psychokinetic barrier to cover the soles of his shoes with something like real spikes.
“You bastard!”
Jo Taesoo clenched his teeth and thrust both palms forward. The ice shields in front of him suddenly fired a barrage of ice spikes like rain.
However, Kim Seojun sliced through every incoming ice spike with deft swings of his sword.
Dozens of spikes were shattered with each slash as he dashed right up to Jo Taesoo’s nose. Flustered, Jo Taesoo swung both arms backward, then thrust them forward with all his might.
“Haaah!”
BOOM
With a deafening crash, the three ice shields shot toward Kim Seojun all at once.
The massive ice shields, pressing in from three directions as if to crush Kim Seojun, were quite threatening.
But that was only if his opponent wasn’t Kim Seojun.
Flash
Golden light flickered in Kim Seojun’s eyes, and in that instant, the world around him seemed to slow to a stop.
Kim Seojun reached out both hands toward the ice shields rushing in from left and right.
WHOOOOOOSH
The ice shields created by Jo Taesoo’s Shinhui were sucked up into Kim Seojun’s hands in an instant, vanishing as if snatched away.
With the power of Shinhui absorbed, his hands turned red-hot. Kim Seojun grabbed his right wrist with his left hand, then spread his right palm wide and thrust it forward forcefully.
BOOM
With a deep impact, a massive ice shield nearly five meters wide formed in front of Kim Seojun, smashing Jo Taesoo’s last incoming ice shield to pieces.
As if that wasn’t enough, the giant shield surged forward like a tidal wave.
Jo Taesoo stared at the shield in utter disbelief, then was struck before he could react.
THWACK
Jo Taesoo, unable to dodge or block, was sent flying, his face smashed against the shield, then tumbled roughly across the ground.
He was already unconscious.
The referee checked his condition, then crossed his arms in an X.
Beeeep—
[27th Match Ended]
[Kim Seojun Wins]
Not even a minute after the match had started, as Kim Seojun’s victory appeared in bold letters on the giant scoreboard, cheers erupted from all directions.
“Wow! Who is that kid? He’s incredible!”
“He countered with the exact same technique as his opponent!”
“Which Academy is he from?”
“What kind of Shinhui does that student have?”
Those seeing Kim Seojun for the first time today were all shocked, but the Class A students who already knew him reacted differently.
“As expected, the pride of our class!”
“Kim Seojun is the best!”
“We! Love! You! Kim! Seojun!”
They were overjoyed, as if Kim Seojun’s victory was their own.
*****
Shortly after Kim Seojun’s match, the first round ended.
A total of thirty-two students advanced to the second round.
Among them were the four special participants, as well as Kim Yura and Choi Donghyun of the 1st Academy, and of course, Joo Gwangsik.
But as Kim Seojun scanned the list of second-round contenders, he frowned with a sense of discomfort.
Looking at the thirty-two names, about sixty percent were students from the 1st Academy.
In other words, out of twenty students from the 1st Academy, only one had failed to make it to the round of thirty-two.
‘Is there really such a gap in skill between the Academies?’
Across the 2nd and 3rd Academies, only nine students had reached the round of thirty-two.
The huge disparity struck Kim Seojun as unnatural.
Even statistically, there should have been a thirty percent chance that 1st Academy students would face each other in the first round, but nineteen had advanced, which seemed odd no matter how you looked at it.
Kim Seojun checked the first-round bracket again and saw that there was only one match where two 1st Academy students had faced off.
‘Is this even possible?’
And none of them had faced the special participants either.
It was as if the whole thing had been rigged.
‘Suspicious.’
Kim Seojun decided to watch the live drawing of the round of thirty-two bracket on the waiting room TV more closely.
He left the TV on, stepped out to the veranda, and looked with his own eyes at the podium about forty meters away where the drawing was taking place.
He was watching the flow of magical energy around the podium with his eyes.
Since recently gaining Control as an attribute, Kim Seojun had begun to faintly see the waves of magic emitted by hunters.
When no Shinhui was used, the magic flowed like gentle ripples; if someone used a Shinhui, the waves surged like a storm.
And now, Kim Seojun could clearly see intense surges.
‘Someone is using a Shinhui!’
Someone near the podium was definitely using a Shinhui.
But no one nearby showed golden eyes.
As he checked each person around the podium one by one, Kim Seojun spotted a female bodyguard in a black suit standing perfectly still in the far left corner.
There were six bodyguards around the podium.
They were all hunters with decent magic of C-rank or higher, but with their black sunglasses, their eyes were completely hidden.
But the magical readings of the female bodyguard Kim Seojun was watching kept fluctuating.
[77/Normal]
[76/Normal]
[75/Normal]
…
The readings kept dropping.
Strangely, the decrease coincided exactly with the host’s drawing on stage.
“…In the Red Team, it’s 3rd year Kim Yura of the 1st Academy. In the Blue Team, it’s 4th year Moon Changhee of the 3rd Academy. A match between the Fierce Dragon Empress of the 1st Academy and the Steamboy of the 3rd Academy. I’m looking forward to this one.”
The drawing continued, and Kim Seojun’s name appeared.
“Oh! Next up is Kim Seojun, who put on a very impressive match in the first round today. His Blue Team opponent will be… 4th year Kwon Hyuksu of the 1st Academy! Kwon Hyuksu is said to be unrivaled in defense, isn’t he? This match will be quite interesting. Hahaha!”
Once again, Kim Seojun’s opponent was a 1st Academy student.
When the round of thirty-two bracket was finalized, Kim Seojun realized that the matchups had once again been slyly manipulated.
Of the nineteen 1st Academy students, except for the three who had no choice but to face each other, all the rest were matched against students from other academies.
‘So that bodyguard was manipulating the draw.’
Watching her, Kim Seojun noticed she kept sneaking glances at someone.
That person was a man in his thirties sitting in the special seats near the podium, wearing a badge on his lapel that marked him as a 1st Academy professor.
The picture became clear.
A 1st Academy professor had bribed a bodyguard to secretly manipulate the bracket in their favor.
Still, Kim Seojun decided not to care anymore.
Because the bracket manipulation meant he wouldn’t have to face Kim Yura or Choi Donghyun directly in the round of thirty-two, but he didn’t feel like pushing himself to keep winning just to meet them anyway.
‘As long as I make it to the round of sixteen and qualify for the scholarship, I’ll just drop out.’
Kim Seojun planned to go no further than the top sixteen before quitting the tournament.
He thought there was no benefit to standing out too much by advancing any further.
*****
Kim Seojun’s second match was the fourteenth in order.
So once again, he had plenty of time to watch the other students’ matches.
He focused on Kim Yura and Choi Donghyun’s matches.
Though he was also interested in the special participants, naturally his attention was more on his former companions Kim Yura and Choi Donghyun.
Both of their Shinhui were quite famous even within the Academy.
Kim Yura’s Shinhui, ‘Kwonye’, was a mystical fist technique that had reached the level of art itself.
While using Kwonye, Kim Yura’s body could move far faster, and the power behind her attacks increased dramatically.
There were said to be other effects as well, but those details weren’t publicly known yet.
Thinking back to the previous world, where Kim Yura was a master of the So Su Baek Yeom Gong, it felt rather ironic.
Choi Donghyun’s Shinhui was unique, too.
His Shinhui was Martial Arts.
With this, he could move acrobatically at will and excel in every field of martial arts—striking, grappling, boxing, judo, jeet kune do, and more.
Truly versatile.
Anyone who faced Choi Donghyun would be overwhelmed by his diverse yet orthodox display of martial arts before they could even try anything.
The matches between those two drew amazement from the crowd.
Especially Kim Yura, who won in less than two minutes even though her opponent was Moon Changhee, the strongest 4th-year in the 3rd Academy.
Moon Changhee, called Steamboy, unleashed powerful techniques using intense heat, but still lost easily.
Students from the 2nd Academy jeered and mocked the result.
They even rejoiced that the strongest student of the 3rd Academy had been eliminated in the round of thirty-two.
The professors quickly restored order, but the ridicule that had already been flung couldn’t be taken back.
Naturally, the 3rd Academy students were furious.
So when Kim Seojun stepped out for the fourteenth match, they placed even greater expectations on him.
“Kim Seojun! Smash everyone from the 1st and 2nd Academies right into the ground!”
“If you meet any special participants, smash them, too!”
“Damn it, let’s show everyone which Academy has students still standing at the end of the day!”
“We believe in you, Kim Seojun!”
The cheering, which only added a hundredfold to the pressure, didn’t affect Kim Seojun at all.
After all, he planned to fight halfheartedly and surrender in the next match anyway.
Again, Kim Seojun took up a match longsword and entered the arena.
His opponent, Kwon Hyuksu, was such a master of defense that he was nicknamed ‘Iron Diamond’, and he was as big as Joo Gwangsik.
“Don’t mind the comments from the stands; I hope both of you do your best.”
After a brief word of advice from the referee, he stepped back and pressed the start button.
Beeep—
As the green light came on, Kwon Hyuksu took up a taekwondo sparring stance and smirked.
“Come at me as much as you want. If I get pushed back even one meter from here, I’ll concede the match to you.”
An unbelievably arrogant remark.
Originally, Kim Seojun planned to end it easily with Yeokbalsang Gigaese after toying with him a bit, but Kwon Hyuksu’s cocky attitude changed his mind.
Even the image of the 1st Academy professor manipulating the bracket overlapped with Kwon Hyuksu and got under Kim Seojun’s skin.
“Is that so? Let’s see. I’m curious to find out how this ends.”
Kim Seojun returned Kwon Hyuksu’s cold smile with one of his own.