KOREAN NATIONAL ACADEMY MIDTERM EXAM (SPRING)
DAY 5 OF 10
It was the morning of day 5 of the midterm, and that mean the real business was about to start for everybody watching.
The leaderboard would be updated for the first time at noon. They’d be able to track who was at the top, who was putting up a fight, who was failing… and although the guilds were technically locked out from seeing any footage, they had their ways of finding out the results.
Moon Hyuna didn't hate the guilds. Many of the instructors at National were affiliated with a guild in one way or another, so they had a working relationship. But they knew that National was her territory. Whatever they did with the information they got, they had to be careful not to cross the line she maintained. Keep the students out of it until the semester is done, after finals. She didn't want to hear a peep from them during or after the midterm exams.
She sat in the front row of the Tank, surveying the floating monitors. She wasn't a proctor for the exam—only overseeing it in general—but she had showed up every day anyway to spectate. It was her responsibility as headmaster, but also…
Her eyes landed on a hologram following Sunghyun. He was resting after killing a C-rank raptor, getting a drink of water, not a single scratch on him despite the blood.
The batch of second year students this time around were astonishing. Every class had its standouts, but this class had superstars. Lee Sunghyun was a no-brainer. The genius swordsman who came from nothing. His story would've felt like a B-rate webnovel author had conjured it up if it wasn't really happening in front of her eyes.
Hyuna’s eyes flicked to another monitor, where Yuna was hiking up a hill, spear in hand. The youngest child of the Shin family. She’d awakened an S-rank magic skill in her early teens and immediately started on the path of a hunter, showing prowess in both melee and magic. She would’ve dominated without question if an anomaly like Sunghyun hadn't shown up.
Her gaze drifted again, scanning the many monitors. And then there was a student even weirder than the both of them.
Her eyes landed on the one depicting Lim Suho.
He was with Oh Jihyuk. This was already a strange combination of people. And even stranger was that they were standing in front of a giant cauldron of delicious-looking stew, serving breakfast to dozens of students who were lined up like they were at some kind of wilderness cafeteria.
The kids always found a way to surprise her.
⊕
“3 points for a bowl!” Jihyuk shouted, hands cupped around his mouth. “Discounts considered if you bring edible ingredients to trade!”
“Um, I have this cabbage thing…?” the student at the front of the line said, holding out a plant that looked like a napa cabbage had been drawn by an abstract artist. “I don't know if it can be used or—”
Suho deftly snatched it out of her hands and tossed it into the ever-growing pile of ingredients behind him.
“Free,” he said, handing her a filled up bowl. “Return the bowl when you’re done.”
“Oh my god, thank you so much!”
She gleefully took it. Jihyuk smiled, totally understanding her relief. Being hungry and subsisting on roughly foraged vegetables and dry rations sucked, especially when you were tired after a long day of fighting monsters. Smelling the aroma of real food and stumbling onto Suho’s camp had probably felt like a dream to them.
“There’s plenty for everyone!” Jihyuk shouted, advertising as best as he could. “Come one, come all! Breakfast of champions!”
They obediently fell into line without even realizing it. As the line dwindled, Suho also began scraping the bottom of that huge pot with his ladle. The students waiting started to get fidgety, hoping it wouldn't run out before it got to them.
Luckily for them, not just in a way that made food tasty, but Suho had the mind to make just enough for everyone. He ladled out the last bowl, the final person in line letting out a huge sigh of relief as the warm sides of it met his hands.
“Thank you.”
Suho just nodded. He surveyed the area, making sure no one else was coming, then moved the pot from its spot to be washed. Jihyuk spotted the movement and quickly went into action.
“Breakfast service has ended!” he announced, hands cupped around his mouth. “Lunch will start at NOON SHARP! 3 points for a bowl! Service will be FREE for the first five students to volunteer for dishwashing duty!”
And thus began the mad scramble to get those five free spots.
Suho stepped back and watched as students dove to be the first to grab the pot. He smiled lightly to himself. He knew it was just wishful thinking, or maybe the homesickness that always lingered, but over the last couple of days he’d start to feel like he was part of something again.
The smile faded as he looked across the camp and saw someone leaning against a tree, watching him. It was a male student, average height and build, holding a spear. Suho didn't recognize him, which meant he wasn't in the advanced spearmanship class. But his eyes didn't move from Suho, even after he was caught staring.
He looked deeply dissatisfied with something.
He turned and disappeared back into the forest.
⊕
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
The proctors who weren't already aware of Suho’s camp had their jaws drop once they saw it in action. Every year, there would be one or two larger teams that worked well together. But they never got this big. Suho was basically feeding a small town. About a third of the class was gathered around his camp.
Moon Hyuna smiled, amused. This was a first for her too. No students had gone and started a cafeteria during the midterm while she had been headmaster here. Certainly not to this industrial degree. Suho alone might not have attracted many people, but Jihyuk had organized the people who showed up well.
“…Is this allowed?” one professor muttered, nonplussed.
“I think so…”
“I mean, kids have traded points for supplies before, just not like this.”
“Why’s Jihyuk there, anyway?”
It seemed like some people hadn't caught up with how they’d ended up in a partnership. Before they’d started this strange arrangement, all the proctors had been monitoring the students they were assigned to only. It was when their kids ended up at Suho’s camp that they realized something else was going on.
“Jihyuk started the arrangement,” a male professor explained, one whose students had joined fairly early. “From the beginning he made the students pay for meals.”
“Does he get a cut of the profit?”
“No.”
“No?!”
Murmurs of confusion rose from the spectators. Jihyuk seemed to be an integral part of this operation, but he didn't get anything from it?
“That doesn't make any sense…”
“Is he scared of Suho?”
“He’s not taking full advantage of the situation.”
“He’s pretty smart.”
Hyuna’s voice suddenly cut through the chatter. They turned to discreetly glance at her, sitting at her seat with her legs crossed, scrolling through some information on her tablet.
“It’s a good move on his part to not try and take any of the earnings.”
She stopped once she reached his profile. It was as she had thought.
Rank #101. An unimpressive rank, especially for someone of his wealth. Jihyuk was clearly quick-witted, based on what she was seeing, but it seemed that academics wasn't his strong suit.
She flicked through the notes on him.
“He should've bowed out by now,” she said. “But thanks to Lim Suho, he’s guaranteed to make it to the end.”
She closed the information on him.
“So why bother taking profit off of his benefactor? His number one priority must be to never get kicked out of this camp.”
If Jihyuk had been greedier, and had wanted a cut of the points, Suho probably wouldn't even have associated with him. She watched the two of them work, Suho preparing the vegetables and meat for the lunch rush, Jihyuk overseeing the volunteers washing the equipment. Although all hunters had basic survival skills, higher-ranked raid teams tended to relegate these kinds of tasks to porters and other support staff they brought along. It wasn't common to find somebody this adept at it.
And yet…
Hyuna wasn't impressed.
It was cute. She respected what he was doing. But she didn't have any affection for it. Because she was in charge of a hunter school. It wasn't bad to have the skills to survive in such a harsh environment. But if he kept doing charity work and only this until the end of the exam…
He’d waste all of his time, and hers.
Hyuna glanced at her watch.
The leaderboards would update at noon.
⊕
Suho was out and hunting again to prepare for lunch. The others at camp usually provided enough materials to add into the pot, but after a couple days, the gathering had either scared off or totally cleared out the monsters nearby. They needed to go farther and farther out to hunt, so it was hard to bring the corpses back afterward.
Unless you were used to it, like Suho was.
He saw movement out of the corner of his eye—tall blades of grass rustling as if something was running through it below.
He bolted after it. The mystery monster kept trying to weave and confuse him, but he stayed on its trail. Finally, as the grass began to thin, he saw two ears pop out above the blades.
He knew what it was then. There was only one monster in the catalog that looked like that. D-rank jackrabbits. They were harmless to higher ranked hunters, but bullies to lower ranked ones. He’d have to hunt quite a few to properly fill up the pot, which wouldn't be hard.
Judging by how the grass was now rustling all around him, they traveled in colonies.
Suho threw his spear, aiming slightly ahead of the trail the jackrabbit was leaving. With a sickly shht, the weapon sank into flesh.
The movement stopped. Suho approached, leaned down, and picked up the dead jackrabbit by the ears. It was much larger than Earth’s rabbits, with thicker claws on its feet. But it would cook all the same.
He drew the spear out, stored the rabbit in his pack, and went after the next one. He checked the time after number three. It was nearing lunch prep time. Suho thought he’d stop at five—that should be enough for the camp, considering their size.
That was when he heard a shout in the distance.
Suho rushed towards it. The grass thinned, and he saw a male student with brown hair between the trees being attacked by two jackrabbits.
They were taking turns leaping up and thumping their feet into him, kicking off any part of his body they had access to. He had his arms up, trying to protect his face at the least.
He gripped onto his spear and tried swinging it as one came back in. It hit the jackrabbit in the side, but didn't hurt it much. The second jumped in through the gap and kicked its heavy, clawed feet across his face.
“Agh!”
He fell backwards. As he did, Suho finally caught up.
He skidded to a halt, raised his spear, and smashed it down on the rabbit that had hit the student. Its head caved in, instantly dead. The second yelped and turned tail, only to be pierced through from the back.
It struggled, but couldn't get anywhere. The life quickly faded from its eyes.
Suho turned to the student, who was still on the ground.
“Are you okay—”
“Fuck, why would you do that?!”
He was taken aback by the angry tone he was met with. The student finally lowered his arms, removing his hand from his aching face.
It was the same person who had been staring at him earlier from the edge of the forest. He glared at Suho, grinding his teeth.
“I was hunting those!” he shouted. “You just stole my kills!”
He certainly hadn't been anywhere near killing them, but Suho understood the frustration. He tried to backtrack, raising his wrist and clicking through screens on his watch.
“Here, I’ll send you the points—”
“I don't want your fucking pity! Fuck off!”
Suho was aware he had made a mistake by stepping in when nobody had asked for help, but he didn't know where this excess of anger was coming from. He glanced towards the nametag on the student’s uniform. It read “Ma Woojin”. They'd definitely never met before.
“Can I take the bodies?” Suho asked. He still needed them for lunch.
“You—no! They're mine.”
They really weren't, but even someone as bad at reading the room as Suho knew to leave it.
“Okay. Sorry. I’ll go.”
He backed away, then turned into the woods. He could still hear Woojin grumbling behind him.
“Fuck… what the fuck is wrong…”
Suho frowned.
This was the first time anybody had been so adverse to his help. But this was also the first time he was among people that could fight back on their own, and weren't just unawakened civilians. Maybe he had been deluding himself by thinking everything was starting to feel welcoming again. He’d been inside a bubble, sheltered by Jihyuk and the camp, and he had never wandered outside of it.
The realization left a bad taste in his mouth.