“I watched the trainees’ actual combat sparring with great interest. More than I expected… many of you have a solid foundation, which makes this instructor truly pleased.”
Instructor Park Moon-ho met the eyes of Kim Seo-jun, Yang Hwi, and Shin Tae-yang one by one.
Then he turned his gaze to Irina, Choi Cheol-min, Ahn Ji-woon, and Im Hee-joo.
“Of course, there are still many trainees who are lacking in various ways, but I am satisfied, as I expect great progress from you all. However!”
In the middle of his speech, Park Moon-ho suddenly widened his eyes and glared at three people.
His targets were Park Hae-sung, Min So-ra, and Jo Tae-seok.
“Some trainees not only lack basic skills, but also show no tenacity, no pride, and depend entirely on Mystique—a pitiful sight to behold. I’m sure those I’m talking about know very well who they are.”
Park Moon-ho did not avert his gaze from the three.
He was now blatantly cursing them with his eyes, as if to say, ‘You worthless idiots!’
Park Hae-sung almost lashed out again.
He wanted to argue that as long as an Awakened Hunter could use Mystique well, and its grade was high, that was all that mattered.
But a hand grabbed his wrist to stop him.
It was Choi Cheol-min.
As the oldest in age, Choi Cheol-min looked at Park Hae-sung and shook his head.
His expression seemed to say: Don’t make a scene now, you’ll lose more than you gain.
At first, Park Hae-sung looked annoyed, thinking, ‘What’s this about now?’ but soon sensed Choi Cheol-min’s sincerity and calmed down.
As wild as Park Hae-sung could be, he wasn’t so clueless that he couldn’t read the meaning behind Choi Cheol-min’s expression.
“Very well. This concludes the light morning training. Let’s have a simple breakfast and then move on to the main education. Everyone, follow me and board the capsule for transport.”
At Park Moon-ho’s words, some trainees’ faces turned pale.
The thought of having to ride the capsule again brought back memories of yesterday’s dreadful experience.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. An empty stomach only makes the food taste better. Hoo hoo hoo.”
With that, Park Moon-ho walked toward the capsule device in the corner.
The second day at the Jaeger Camp passed in a whirlwind.
Just as Park Moon-ho had said, after thoroughly emptying their stomachs, the trainees enjoyed an incredibly delicious breakfast and then went to the audio-visual room to learn all sorts of knowledge essential to a Jaeger.
There was only a single hour of theory, and as soon as class ended, they were taken to field practice to experience what they had just learned.
For example, after learning about five types of monsters that appeared from Rifts in theory, they immediately moved to the training hall on the first basement floor to engage in live combat training against actual monsters.
Once such relatively simple (?) training was over, it was time for lunch.
Lunch break lasted a full two hours.
With free time until 2 p.m., all the trainees returned to their rooms for some well-earned rest.
The real problem began after the break.
That was when the true essence of Jaeger training began.
Two hours of high-intensity training to build up basic physical strength.
Then another two hours of pushing their bodies to the limit, learning close-quarters combat techniques.
Those with poor stamina felt as if they were going to cough up blood.
Even as the trainees gasped for breath, their lungs about to burst, the instructors paid them no mind.
After such frightening and brutal afternoon training, it was dinner time once more.
Thanks to being completely exhausted, the evening meal tasted heavenly.
After dinner, night training commenced.
For night training, they were split into teams of two or three to focus on agent skills—basic infiltration, demolition, stealth, sniping, ambushes, and the like.
All education ended at 11 p.m.
By the time they returned to their rooms, the trainees would fall asleep the moment they hit the bed, without even enough energy to do anything else.
Kim Seo-jun was no different—he was exhausted.
Most of the training was done while their magic was blocked by the MPSP, and though Kim Seo-jun had inner energy, he strove to refrain from using it during training.
Thus, the burden on his body was inevitable.
Despite the hellish training he’d already endured to overcome his innate problems, Jaeger training was on a whole different level.
Nevertheless, this was a welcome development for Kim Seo-jun.
It wasn’t the nightmarish training of the Martial World, but the structured and intense regime here was enough to bring back old memories.
Even while participating in the camp training, Kim Seo-jun added his own unique regime, recalling his past experiences.
He pushed himself even harder, whipping himself to go further, training at least twice as hard as the others.
And even late at night, back in his own room, Kim Seo-jun’s training continued.
This wasn’t so much forced training as it was voluntary cultivation.
He simultaneously practiced Yang’s Dual-Focused Mind Art and Immovable Heart, as well as Eight Extremes Iron Mountain Stance, and worked on Solar Divine Art late into the night, doing his utmost to increase his inner power.
Training as a Jaeger was, for Kim Seo-jun, a stepping stone for another great leap forward.
Compared to the solitary, self-designed curriculum he’d had at the Hunter Academy, this systematic training was on another level entirely.
Thanks to that, Kim Seo-jun’s physical abilities, Mystiques, inner power, and magical energy all improved dramatically.
A place where bright light enveloped the whole room.
Inside, three people were gathered.
A man in his early to mid-thirties with handsome, masculine features; a beautiful woman in her late twenties with a clean and elegant image; and Choi Kyung-moon, the one who played a decisive role in sending Kim Seo-jun to the Jaeger Camp.
They were all watching a video displayed as a hologram above the central table.
Kwon Yoon-sung, the thirty-four-year-old man, was watching intently with his arms folded. Lee Chae-yoon, the charming twenty-eight-year-old woman, was resting her chin on her hand atop the table, staring fixedly at the screen.
Choi Kyung-moon, meanwhile, seemed busy, working away at something on his laptop on a small table a bit off to the side.
“Choi Kyung-moon. Are you working even after coming all the way here? You should be writing criminal reports at the station, not dragging work into the meeting room.”
Kwon Yoon-sung grumbled at his two-years-younger brother-in-arms, Choi Kyung-moon.
“I just caught a real nasty villain. But this guy absolutely refuses to cooperate when I’m writing up the report. So, I need to prep it myself so I can question him tomorrow.”
“Jeez, Kyung-moon oppa. You always come up with the weirdest excuses. You’re just nervous watching the Jaeger trainees’ performance reviews, so you’re pretending to be busy. Am I wrong?”
At Lee Chae-yoon’s lighthearted words, Choi Kyung-moon gave a feigned cough and kept typing away.
“Oh, so that’s it? I suppose so. Of the ten Jaeger trainees, one is your much-younger baby brother, and another got in thanks to your recommendation letter, so of course you’re curious how they’ll be evaluated. Then just come over and watch with us—why act so shifty? Like a kid trying to avoid getting caught. Tsk.”
Kwon Yoon-sung went over, grabbed Choi Kyung-moon by the arm, and pulled him to the central table.
“Here, look. This is the overall report card for the trainees.”
When Kwon Yoon-sung manipulated the panel, the hologram vanished and was replaced by a page listing the Jaeger trainees’ names and scores.
[1st]: Yang Hwi. 113 points
[2nd]: Shin Tae-yang. 109 points
[3rd]: Choi Cheol-min. 105 points
[4th]: Ahn Ji-woon. 92 points
[5th]: Irina. 90 points
[6th]: Park Hae-sung. 81 points
[7th]: Im Hee-joo. 75 points
[8th]: Min So-ra. 74 points
[9th]: Jo Tae-seok. 66 points
Seeing his younger brother, Choi Cheol-min, who was eight years younger, ranked third, Choi Kyung-moon relaxed, but then looked surprised when Kim Seo-jun’s name was nowhere to be seen.
Noticing his expression, Lee Chae-yoon removed her hand from her chin and tapped the panel a few times. Then,
Bzzz
The holographic display shifted, showing a photo and a table with detailed information about one person.
The photo’s subject was none other than Kim Seo-jun.
[Evaluation Pending]: Kim Seo-jun. 188 points
Seeing what was written at the very top, Choi Kyung-moon glanced at Lee Chae-yoon, puzzled. She spoke first.
“You want to know why, even though he’s first by points, he’s listed as ‘Evaluation Pending’, right?”
“Unless there’s another problem…”
“You’re right. Because of a separate issue, we didn’t include him in the normal ranking.”
“…What kind of issue?”
Choi Kyung-moon was genuinely confused.
From his investigation, Kim Seo-jun had no issues.
His father was the secretary of the Hyunmu Guild and once a renowned field Hunter.
His mother, Baek Yeon-ji, looked young for her age, but was just an ordinary housewife with nothing out of the ordinary in the family history.
Granted, the fact that Kim Seo-jun, despite his youth, handled people like Professor Shim Jae-deok so skillfully, and his boldness and ruthlessness in dealing with the Lee brothers, Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo, were notable. But none of this would disqualify him from becoming a Jaeger Numbered Agent.
Seeing Choi Kyung-moon’s confused face, Lee Chae-yoon manipulated the panel again and played a video.
It was a video taken on the first day, showing the Jaeger trainees inside the vehicle elevator as they descended to the camp.
The trainees hadn’t known, but during that long descent, a high-precision scan was being conducted inside.
The greatest enemy of the Jaegers was the global secret organization known as Moonlight.
Moonlight’s core members were Awakeners who possessed ‘Demonic Power’, and using it, they created countless Dark Magic Awakeners to serve under them.
This made Jaegers extremely sensitive about the source of magical power.
“Please look at the scan results. But, these results are for the three of us only. We don’t mention this to anyone else. Understood?”
At Lee Chae-yoon’s words, Choi Kyung-moon nodded and focused on the footage after the elevator scan.
The instructors, already Jaeger Agents who had passed high-precision magical scans, all had standard magic or White Magic.
Most of the trainees were the same.
Out of ten trainees, three had blue readings, marking standard magic, and four had white readings, marking White Magic.
Two, astonishingly, had golden readings, indicating Super Magic. Those were Shin Tae-yang and Irina.
But there was one problem.
Kim Seo-jun.
His magical scan result was, unbelievably, ‘Error.’
An error in the scan meant it was impossible to scan.
That could mean one of two things.
First, that there was something on Kim Seo-jun’s person interfering with the magical scan.
If that was the case, he might be hiding his magical origin for another purpose, which likely meant his magical source was Dark Magic or Demonic Power.
Second, that his magical source hadn’t yet been determined and everything was still in a pure ‘Void’ state.
But, frankly, the second case was almost impossible.
Upon Awakening Mystique, 99% of Hunters have their magical origin set.
Even the remaining 1% are forced to have it determined within six months of Awakening.
Kim Seo-jun Awakened Mystique in January, and now it was early August.
His magical origin should already have been determined.
So the first possibility seemed far more likely.
“That can’t be…?”
“Right. Oppa, you think that’s impossible. We couldn’t believe it either. That’s why we’ve been having the instructors check whether Kim Seo-jun has any special artifacts on him.”
“If there are no artifacts, the misunderstanding is cleared up?”
“For now, yes. But as you know, with subspace artifacts, we can’t check what’s inside them, so we can’t be sure.”
Lee Chae-yoon also didn’t rule out the possibility that Kim Seo-jun had known in advance about the high-precision scan and timed putting on the artifact just then, then hid it in his subspace artifact afterward.
“I swear on my honor. Kim Seo-jun, that boy has nothing to do with Moonlight.”
“Maybe not. No, I actually think it’s likely. At the very least, I doubt he inherited Demonic Power by blood. But, I do suspect he gained Dark Magic after killing the Lee brothers. That was before six months had passed since his Awakening.”
Lee Chae-yoon’s information-gathering skills were truly impressive.
She had a near-complete grasp of a person’s entire life.
“I think the same as Chae-yoon. Rather than tainted Demonic Power, I think he might have awakened Dark Magic on his own.”
Kwon Yoon-sung, too, was almost certain that Kim Seo-jun possessed Dark Magic.
“But nothing’s been proven yet, has it?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean suspicion is gone. As you know, there’s intelligence that a Moonlight spy has infiltrated this Jaeger camp. A tiny hole can destroy a massive dam, right? I won’t allow even a pinprick to appear in the dam that is Jaeger.”
With such conviction from Kwon Yoon-sung, Choi Kyung-moon couldn’t argue further.
Truthfully, as the person who had recommended Kim Seo-jun, Choi Kyung-moon was deeply dissatisfied that the Jaeger Numbered Agents considered him a Dark Magic user.
Jaeger Number One, Kwon Yoon-sung.
And Number Two, Lee Chae-yoon.
If these two thought that way, Kim Seo-jun had a 0% chance of becoming a Jaeger Numbered Agent.
Worse, he could be framed as a Moonlight spy and either arrested or summarily executed.
The only way for Kim Seo-jun to escape their suspicion was to prove his magical origin was not Dark Magic or Demonic Power, or to undergo a high-precision scan without any artifacts.
But would Kim Seo-jun agree to that?
Unlike the other trainees, Choi Kyung-moon had put considerable effort into bringing Kim Seo-jun here as a Jaeger Agent.
In his view, Kim Seo-jun was the best candidate for the next Jaeger Number Four.
If the Jaegers demanded proof of magical origin or a full-body scan, Kim Seo-jun would surely give up on becoming a Jaeger.
Knowing his character, he’d likely curse out any organization that suspected him before he even joined and walk away.
‘Whew… Still, my judgment of people is pretty sharp.’
Feeling a bit sorry for Kim Seo-jun, Choi Kyung-moon also felt satisfied seeing the score he had achieved.
A whopping 188 points.
That was 75 points higher than the top-ranked Yang Hwi—a truly overwhelming lead.
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