After waiting for an hour looking around the island and checking everything through the drone. Kim Hajin decided to go down from the World Tree. Something quite hard even taking into consideration that he has parkour, which makes him quite nimble.

“*sigh…* That was such a pain…” Hajin said once he made it all the way down. “Well, I better prepare to go.”

While Hajin was quite in the safe range, with 53 points on the second day of the exam, he wanted to at least get in the first half of the cadets, and considering that in his novel, Kim Suho got 130 points, he still needed to make at least 20 or 30 points more.

With that thought in mind, he turned to go. But had to stop all of a sudden, with a chill going up to his spine, while cold sweat was running through his body. In front of him was Boss, the leader of Chameleon Troupe, disguised as Seo Ijin, a cadet.

“What’s the matter?” He asked her, trying his best to remain as calm as possible. In his mind, he was sure that she was only here to observe as someone wanting to recruit promising cadets.

“…” Seo Ijin, or Boss, took out her sword, and pointed it at him with a calm and cold face, sending, even more, chills up Hajin’s spine. “You know what.”

It came clear to him. She wanted to fight. But in front of such a powerful enemy, there’s no way that Kim Hajin would be able to do something. He could just wait to be defeated. At least if it was in another place.

In this exam, cadets didn’t fight to kill, they just had to take the other cadet’s smartwatch. And with Hajin’s luck. Said smartwatch was being loosely worn by Boss. Whether it was because of the watch notwithstanding her magic power, or other reasons, it wasn’t his problem. He had a chance.

“…” Hajin didn’t answer her. He barely focused on weaving Aether in the form of a thread, one so thin it couldn’t be seen normally, while also making it travel close to the floor towards Boss, who didn’t notice it thanks to her attention being always on him.

“Your weapon, take it out.” Boss said while frowning.

“Weapon…?” He answered, still focused on controlling Aether.

“…” Boss nodded, not bothering to answer with words.

But at that precise moment, Aether had already finished its route towards Boss’ smartwatch.

“*sigh…*” Hajin sighed while yanking the smartwatch to his hands, which came out without Boss even noticing it. He then reached to his pocket, faking that he was taking out his weapon, but instead, a smartwatch came out.

“…” She frowned at it. “Are you surrendering…?” A cold voice came out of her mouth while a disappointed face looked at Hajin.

“Does this looks like it’s mine?” Hajin smirked, before nodding towards her wrist.

“What are-”

Boss froze at that moment, and as if she was a rusted machine, her head slowly turned towards her wrist.

“Eh…?” She was dumbfounded, rotating her writs around as if trying to find something that should be there.

Hajin’s bet paid out. With fake skin surrounding her thanks to Jain’s Gift, Boss’s sensitivity go too low, enough for her not to notice the smartwatch being pulled out of her wrist.

“You know you’re out the moment I crush this, right?” He smirked deeper at her.

“…” Boss didn’t even listen to him, she was dazed, lost at what just happened while looking at her wrist. “T-This… T-This can’t be…”

With a carefree smile, and while thinking about the SP he got thanks to the expression Boss was making right now, Kim Hajin reached towards her to put her smartwatch back on her wrist.

“W-What are you…?” She asked, still in a daze.

“I’ll let you go this one time, okay?” He said while smiling carefreely, before getting out of there.

“Let me go…?” She still couldn’t believe what happened.

Hajin didn’t stop to answer her, he just focused all the strength he had to get the hell out of there before she decided to do something else.

“…” Boss just glanced at his back, before looking back down at her wrist.

Minutes after Hajin left, she was still looking at the smartwatch that the seventeen-year-old cadet put again on her wrist after taking it off from her, without her noticing.

Even if she had Jane’s disguise on her and her sensitivity was lowered, there’s no way a cadet so young should be able to trick her like that and take her smartwatch right under her nose, basically humiliating her.

“*sigh…* He didn’t even move…” She muttered, before calling her subordinate. “Jain, did you see?”

Normally, Jain should be watching everything that happened around them, that was her job right now besides letting Boss disguise into a cadet. But maybe because of bad luck from Boss or really, really good luck from someone else. The answer she received wasn’t what she expected.

[Hm…? See what?] A few moments after she called, Jain answered, quite lost on what her boss was asking.

“…” Boss frowned.

[Ah, ah, ah. Sorry. I got distracted for a moment. But it’s not my fault! Droon kept pestering me to buy him Legos. So, what’s up?]

“…” Boss didn’t answer this time, she was still pondering on how did Kim Hajin do that. In her mind, it doesn’t matter if Jain’s Gift lowered his sensitivity, it was still quite a feat of dexterity and craftiness that no normal cadet could have.

[Tell me, what happened?] Jain voice came again.

“…I’ll tell you later.” With that short answer, Boss started to move again.

[No, tell me now, you’re making me curious. Argh, it’s all because of that brat, Droon. Boss? Boss?] Jain desperate cries were coldly shut off by Boss.

Her face was one of determination. She was certain of Kim Hajin’s potential. Now, the only thing left was testing Kim Suho, Shin Jonghak, and Cristopher’s potential.

[Yoo Yeonha: Ijin-ssi, where are you? Hurry up. Didn’t I tell you to come back by the half-hour mark? ㅡ.ㅡ]

“…” Boss looked at the message with emotionless eyes. Before moving around with one thought in mind. {Yoo Yeonha, why does this girl keeps ordering me around?}

***

After escaping from Boss, Kim Hajin ran around until he found a river where he could camp. It was the best place he could reach with his tired legs.

 

“*SIGH…* That was so damn close…” I muttered while resting close to the river, before putting on the camp and preparing everything. “Oh, right…”

I turned on my smartwatch.

[Kim Hajin: Hey, I’m preparing the camp. Are you done?]

[Cristopher: Yeah. Moving to your location, I’ll be there soon.]

“Mm? Oh well. I better prepare everything.”

With that said, I started to take out the portable grill, some chicken, meat, and a few fishes that remained from last night. After that, I just waited for the grill to start getting hotter.

Meanwhile, I sat down on the chair and put my remaining bullets on the table.

{Mm… That’s 15 sniper bullets and 20 for the shotgun…} I thought to myself while looking at the bullets.

“I should have at least 20 of them…” With that said, I took out my laptop, where I had 1325 SP. “Mm? I did win a lot of points recently huh?”

Each bullet had a cost of 7 SP, so it was 30 SP for the remaining 5 sniper bullets I needed.

Well, I guess this is it. I put the bullets inside my stigma and stood up towards the grill.

“*whistle…*” While whistling, I started to prepare the chicken and the meat, leaving the fish for later. “Mm…” Thinking a little about the flavor, I focused my will on my stigma.

{Improve the flavor of the chicken.} With that thought, my stigma shined, and the magic power went into the chicken. “Oh? Does this work? Interesting.” With a smirk, I increased the flavor of both the meat and the fish too.

After a little while, the food seemed to be getting ready, but a faint noise woke me up.

*Psss, Psss*

Turning to look at the tall grass that was right close to my camp, while pointing with my gun, I saw Rachel. Grinning, I put down my weapon and waited for her to get out of the tall grass.

“Rachel-ssi?” I spoke surprised, and she looked around, at the camp and the portable grilling.

“…” She looked speechless with her mouth half-open, as if not knowing what to say, with a leaf sticking out of his hair.

“Ah, I liked to be prepared.” I scratched the back of my head while looking at her with a smile. She woke up from her daze, before turning to look at the grill, gulping hard. “Would you like to join us for lunch?”

“…Can, can I?” She suddenly said in a daze, before frowning “Wait… Us?”

“Oh, I guess you didn’t know.” I spoke. “He must be coming soon.” I shrugged. “But, well, to make it fair, it’s going to be 4pts, is that okay for you?” I asked her with a smile.

“I-” She nodded and was about to answer, but was interrupted by a guy falling in the middle of us.

“Yo! Are you really asking for points from her? Don’t be a jerk. She’s with me.” Cristopher stood between us.

“M-Master-!” Rachel shouted in surprise, but then covered her mouth as if she said something she shouldn’t. She then went red in embarrassment.

“Hey.” Cristopher smiled at Rachel “How are you?”

“I-I’m fine… What about you…?” She asked, still a little red.

“I’ve been good. Playing around a bit. So, is food ready?” He asked while turning at me.

“Mm? Oh, right! The food!” I ran towards the food and started taking out the things in the grill. “*sigh…* I almost burn them… Hey, start taking these to the table, dude.”

“Sure.” With a shrug and a smirk, Cristopher came to take the plates of chicken and meat that were already done. Or he tried.

“Let me!” Rachel came running and stopped him. “I want to help…” She whispered.

“Mm? Don’t worry. You look tired, go and sit there.” Cristopher flicked her forehead.

“Auch…”

“Also, is that a new trending?”

“Huh…?” Rachel tilted her head.

“That.” Cristopher pointed his finger towards the leaf picking out of her hair. “You have a leaf there.”

“W-What!?” She tried to take the leaf while shaking her head with an embarrassed face, it was really red now.

“I didn’t know she could make those expressions…” I muttered unconsciously.

“Mm? Really? She does that all the time. She’s quite clumsy, really.” Cristopher shrugged while chuckling.

“I-I-I’m not... I’m not clumsy…” Rachel lowered her face, which was turning even redder than I thought was possible.

After the fish was ready, I took it on a plate towards the table, where everyone sat. I then checked that there wasn’t any drone close, and gave the ok sign to Cristopher, who took out the cooler with the beverages.

“Rachel, do you want beer or cola?” He asked her.

“Um… Cola, please…” She said shyly.

“Sure, here.” She put a cola for her, then looked at me.

“Mm? What?”

“Whit?” He rolled his eyes. “Beer or cola?”

“Beer this time.” I shrugged. {Letting go every now and then isn’t that bad… Wait… Is his alcoholism rubbing off on me…?} I thought for a moment, but then shook my head at the stupid idea.

“Here.” He threw me one, which I barely caught.

We then started to eat. It was quite the weird menu, as it had only meat. Beef, chicken, and fish.

“Um… Hajin-ssi?” Rachel suddenly spoke, making me look at her. “What have you been doing until now?”

“Huh? Yes?” I was quite surprised. {Oh, right… She may have found out I killed those Djinns…} I took a sip of my beer before answering. “Well, I was just running around, trying to get points.” I smiled at her.

{Let’s pretend a little bit, if she insists more, I’ll say it.}

“*sigh…*” Or so I thought before Cristopher sighed. “You can be such a kid. She already noticed. Sherlock.” He rolled his eyes before drinking a sip of his beer.

“W-What!? I know! I just wanted to pretend!” I unconsciously retorted at him.

“That’s why I said you can be such a kid.” He pointed his beer at me while shaking his head.

“You…” I felt the blood going to my cheeks.

“So… It was you? The one who shot these bullets?” Rachel took out one of my rifle bullets.

“*sigh…* Yeah…” I finally answered. “It was me.”

“I knew it… You are the only cadet to use guns…” She said while nodding as if confirming something to herself.

“Either way… Don’t tell anyone. I may be disqualified if they know I brought my personal weapon.”

“Relax. She’s not going to say anything. Right, Rachel?”

“Un…” She nodded. “I’ll keep the secret…”

“Thanks.” I scratched the back of my head while nodding at her.

“But… Why?” She asked again.

“Um?”

“Why did you shoot at them? I had it under control.” She asked me.

“Um…-” I didn’t know how to answer.

“Oh, I told him to do it.” But thankfully I didn’t have to, as Cristopher interrupted me.

“W-What? Why!?” She asked him with her eyes widened.

“Because you wouldn’t do it yourself.” He said before taking a piece of meat and eating.

“Wouldn’t… Do it myself…?” She asked

“Precisely.” Cristopher shrugged.

“But-” She tried to retort, but he interrupted her.

“Look. I’ve been training you for a while now. And I know, that while you’re strong, you are not merciless. You would have doubted to kill them. Even more without the knowledge that they were Djinns.” He looked at her with a stern look. “I don’t know why they would want to kill you. But they tried. And that’s enough reason to deal with them.” He frowned.

“Look, man… I don’t think-” He put a hand in front.

“You may be asking how do we know what happened, right?”

“…” She didn’t answer, just nodded at him with a dazed face.

“We knew he was a Djinn, that guy Joo Yeohoon.” He said before sipping from his drink. “And when he suddenly teamed up with you? Things were fishy. So Hajin checked on you.”

“…” She looked at me with a questioning gaze, at which I just nodded.

“I was thinking of helping you when I found out about the other two waiting for you…” I said while glancing at Cristopher. “But he told me you could make it.”

“…” Her eyes went wide and then turned towards Cristopher again with her mouth half-open.

“Again. I’ve trained you. I know how much you’ve grown up.” He smiled at her. “It’s just… You can’t trust Cube on matters related to Djinns, okay?”

“Why…?” She suddenly asked.

“Just don’t. It’s not a good idea to trust them when it comes to Djinns. So… You just have to kill them.” Cristopher said quite seriously.

“…” Rachel looked down and pondered for a bit. “But… How do I know when they’re Djinns?” She looked at us both.

“Well…” I started. “I guess just fight them until they show their true colors, right?” I awkwardly smiled, as I couldn’t answer that question.

“Mm, that’s one way.” Cristopher shrugged.

“Are there others?” She asked him.

“Yeah, kill them if they try to kill you. Djinns? Humans? Does it really matter? I’ve seen humans that act worse than Devils…” He said with what I could swear was a pair of lost eyes. “Either way. Just fight, they’ll reveal themselves soon enough. Oh, and they also tend to have more magic power than most cadets.” With those last words, he downed his beer.

“…” Without saying anything else I did the same.

“Okay…” Rachel whispered in a quiet voice.

And right at that moment, from my inner pocket, Evandel’s seed suddenly jumped out and started jumping over the table.

“Oi! Come here!” I tried to catch it. But the almond-shaped seed was faster than expected. It started jumping towards Cristopher, jumping over his head again and again, as if being happy.

“Mm? Did you bring…” He tried to speak, but before he did so, Evandel’s seed also jumped towards Rachel and did the same, only that this time, it went right into her clothes.

“Ah! W-Wait…!” She stood up and started patting through her clothes. It was quite the sight, but I turned around, while Cristopher only laughed at what was happening. After a few seconds, Rachel finally took the seed out, it was covered in a slight bit of blood, maybe from some injury, Rachel had while fighting against monsters.

“Sorry...” I finally said, slightly embarrassed, while Rachel was looking at the slightly trembling seed. “That’s… Um… My pet seed…?” I tried to justify it, but it was quite rare.

“Pet… Seed…?” Rachel looked at me with a flushed face. “Then… Wouldn’t it be better for you to plant it…?” She gave Evandel’s seed back to me.

I took the seed and put it inside a container.

“Right… I should…” I whispered.

“Hahaha… Ow man… That was funny…” Meanwhile, Cristopher was just laughing at what happened.

“…” Rachel looked at him with a blushed face, before looking away. “Master… You’re an idiot…” She whispered. And my mind suddenly shut off.

{Did she just say that…?} I was trying to process Rachel’s words.

“Oh, come on. It was just a small laugh haha.” Cristopher chuckled at her reactions. “Don’t be that embarrassed.”

“I-I-I’m not!” she retorted back while crossing her arms.

“Just… What…?” In my novel, Rachel wasn’t the type to express her emotions like this. Honestly, it was quite weird, seeing how a character you thought you knew, would suddenly act completely different in front of you.

After that strange accident, Rachel proposed that we should team up, separating to hunt monsters, and then reuniting to eat, right how Chae Nayun and Kim Suho proposed to her.

Cristopher and I agreed on it, and after we put away everything, we all shared locations and started to move away. But before we parted, Rachel suddenly asked something.

“Um… You said Joo Yeohoon was a Djinn, right? Um… He escaped.” She said to us, but Cristopher suddenly intervened.

“Oh? Him? Don’t worry. I took care of him.” He smiled, and I would swear that it was the smile of a Devil.

“… Okay… Then, see you later, Hajin-ssi, Master.” Rachel said in a daze but then got red again, before running away.

“Just what are you doing to her…” I muttered at Cristopher after looking at Rachel.

“Um? I didn’t do anything! And you can prove nothing!” He shouted at me all of the sudden.

“Huh…?” I was totally confused.

“Pfft… Look at your face man… I was just joking. I really didn't do anything.” He suddenly chuckled, before turning serious while looking at where Rachel went. “*sigh…* She’s just a kid. But she has such a burden to carry… Really. I never liked that kind of thing. But, either way, I guess that’s just how her life turned out to be.” He showed this weird sad smile that I never saw.

“…”

“Oh, for the record. I didn’t ask her to call me master. She started using it as a joke, but it somehow stayed and she sometimes mutters it unconsciously, right before turning red.” He shrugged. “Well, let’s move on.” He said while moving.

“Right.” I nodded while also walking ahead.

“Oh, wait.” He stopped and turned his smartwatch at me. “I’ll give you a few points I took from that bastard and his friends.”

“Oh, thanks! I thought you would just break them.”

“Mm? What do you take me for? An idiot? Points are points. Never decline free stuff!” He said while trading some points with me.

{I really don’t know if he’s being serious or just an idiot sometimes…} I thought while turning my smartwatch on.

***

At the center of the island, slightly towards the north, there was a big tower called the Overseer Tower, it was the place designated for overseers to watch and monitor cadets, and also for the eliminated cadets to rest.

In the tower, the overseers could access every video sent by the drones displayed through the island, and also directly see the cadets through the windows on the upper floors. And right now, in one of these windows, Yun Seung-Ah, who was also an overseer for this exam, was looking out at the island.

“Are the drones not enough? You’re looking out of the windows too?” A male voice came, it was another overseer, a Latino-looking guy called Vieri, who approached her. “Who are you thinking about?”

From his face, you would expect him to speak Spanish any moment, but he still spoke in a Korean accent, thanks to all his years of living in Korea as other heroes who chose to nationalize in Korea when they reach enough fame for a Korean Guild to contact them.

“…” Yun Seung-Ah glanced at him for a moment, before answering. “Kim Hajin and Cristopher.” She said shortly.

“Mm? I know about Cristopher. The so-called dark-horse of the midterm exams. But who’s this Kim Hajin you speak about? Weren’t you a fan of Kim Suho?” Vieri asked while rubbing his chin.

“…” Yun Seung-Ah smiled. She was, indeed, a fan of Kim Suho. He has been her only monitoring target since the start of the exam, and she had even shown herself to him, letting him know she was watching.

But sometimes, there were pieces of info that not everybody knew, and these were real treasures.

Recently, she found one of these treasures thanks to the inner-conflict of another big guild.

“I received an interesting piece of information.” She smiled.

“Information? What is it?”

“How can I tell you? Is top secret.”

It indeed was, a document called Yoo Yeonha’s report came to her hands after she paid some money to the correct people.

“That makes me more curious. Can’t you tell me? We’re in the same guild after all.”

“Who can trust your big mouth.” She rolled her eyes.

Yoo Yeonha was another cadet inside of Cube, a cadet she knew really well because of her connections to the second-ranked guild Essence of the Strait. In her report, she evaluated Kim Hajin in a higher rank than Kim Suho.

If it was any other cadet, she would just call it nonsense. But Yoo Yeonha was calculative, cleverer than a fox, and had a great eye to judge others. If that was her evaluation, it was necessary to at least give him a look. After all, she wouldn’t submit such a report to her father’s guild without a thorough investigation.

“So, are you going to go check them now?”

“Mm…” She pondered for a bit. “Not now, when I have some free time.” She smiled.

Another thing she learned from Yeonha’s report, was the fact that the other cadet, Cristopher, might be hiding much more than anyone else inside this place. A power without precedents among cadets. An honest evaluation that the top-guilds could see just from one fight, but that she’s been slowly and surely investigating during her stay in Cube.

{There might be something he’s hiding. I must find what that is.} Was the thought that currently inhabited her mind. And it wasn’t only Cristopher. She already confirmed a strange power inside Kim Hajin. The magic power of light. A great weapon against Djinns.

If there was a reason why Cube would let their cadets fight each-other in this seemingly-safe Battle Royale, was because they needed to learn to fight other humans, as Djinns were no different than humans when in hiding, and they were the worst enemy of all humanity. Even more than monsters.

She wanted that power for her guild.

“So? What are you going to do?” Vieri asked while looking outside the window.

“…” She tapped her name tag that was resting on her chest.

[Rank 307 Yun Seung-Ah]

“Mm?” He tilted his head.

“This is worth 200 points, right?” She smirked.

“Pfft… Are you really going to use that as bait? I doubt anyone will fall for it. They’ll just run.”

“Really?” She gave a meaningful smile while looking outside the window again. “Then I’ll just have to hide and watch.”

“Haha… Don’t mind me. You do as you wish.” Vieri shrugged while turning around to leave.

After walking a few steps, he stopped and turned to look at her.

“Hey.”

“Mm?” Yun Seung-Ah turned to look at him.

“There’s two of them.” He smirked. “What do you say if I test the dark-horse of the midterm’s exam?”

“…” Yun Seung-Ah pondered for a bit, before returning the smirk. “Sure. You can do so, it’s not like I can’t stop you.” She shrugged. “But… Don’t scare him away. If things are true, we may want him for our guild.”

“Sure thing…” He waved at her before leaving.