Korea, known as the top country in producing hunters…
Gaon Academy, which always claimed to be built on a meritocracy based on skill, had always maintained its place as first in the country, even when the competition was quite fierce.
"No matter how great you guys are, though~ if they keep singing your praises, the rest of us just look like fodder. Don't you think so?"
Inno Academy's Na JiHye. She had honed her skills for that day. She said that with her hands on her hip, her posture screaming confidence.
"This is why we prepared all of this for you! Haha! First is you, Adela. Next, Shin YuSung!"
Rush!
Eleven students surrounded Adela.
The girl in question scanned her surroundings, expressionless. The fact that those people were participating in the Selection meant that they were the top students from their respective academies.
"What, wanna surrender?" asked JiHye with a proud look on her face.
Adela slowly opened her mouth.
"…Just because there are more of you doesn't mean anything will change."
"You conceited little…"
One male student grimaced and made a motion to lunge at her. JiHye grabbed his clothes and pulled him back.
"Idiot, don't fall for it."
He froze on the spot, even though the girl holding him back was small in stature. JiHye seemed to be the leader of the Anti-Gaon Alliance.
"Hmph! you sure sound confident, don't you? Against eleven people, no less!"
JiHye drew a line in the air with her finger. Suddenly, a yellow-colored barrier encased Adela. Inescapable, and cube-shaped. The girl had opted to trap her opponent instead of using it to protect herself.
"Ready!"
At JiHye's thunderous cry, all of the students prepared their strongest attacks.
—A lit bomb.
—A drawn bow.
—Fire created through their Trait.
—A gigantic mace attached to a steel chain.
Even a glancing blow from any of those would prove fatal.
JiHye laughed confidently.
"Fuha! Do you have any idea just how much we prepared in order to defeat you?"
The Anti-Gaon Alliance practiced for three hours every day at the sparring arena.
Every student was from a different academy, and some had to take the subway to meet up because they couldn't afford a portal. Even so, the thought of defeating Adela motivated them all.
They had practiced the timing of that attack for a month.
"Fire!"
JiHye lowered her hand. As she did so, all of the prepared attacks flew towards Adela in unison.
Woosh.
The stronger a technique, the more time a hunter needed to pull it off. That was not the case for Adela. One of her talents was exceptional mana control. The reason why JiHye had used her barrier to buy time was to give the others time to charge their own attacks, creating an equal playing field in that regard.
"You can't dodge this!"
Flash!
The barrier imprisoning Adela disappeared. All that was left encasing her were the myriad of attacks, threatening her from all directions.
"Everyone's attacks are…"
Adela stretched out her hand.
Her expressionless face, staring at JiHye, seemed to vaguely be marred with contempt.
"Meaningless."
Clench!
Adela squeezed her fist, grabbing thin air.
Boom!
The white mana exploding from her body consumed every single object in her vicinity.
Woosh.
The white smoke cleared, revealing an otherworldly scene before everyone's eyes. The green vegetation was completely cloaked in ice, and the attacks of her opponents were frozen in mid-air.
"H-huh?"
Blink blink.
JiHye stared at Adela and gulped.
"…This wasn't supposed to happen."
Their ultimate attack had been blocked.
The eleven students, seeing what had happened, abandoned each other and began running for the hills.
"The fuck…"
"H-how are we supposed to win against that?"
"I'm done with this!"
However, Adela did not let them escape as they pleased.
Freeze!!
Chilly air enveloped the area in an instant, freezing the ground. Excepting JiHye, who used barriers, everyone's feet were stuck to the ground.
"U-ugh!"
"I can't lift my legs!"
"Do something!'
Adela stood atop her garden of pandemonium. With a wave of her hand, she gestured at the scene, as if telling JiHye to look.
"…The strong do not form groups."
The girl's empty eyes were particularly aggravating to JiHye at that moment.
"Uu, uuu…"
"No need for that."
* * *
* * *
She had finished talking for the moment. Adela lowered a single finger.
Woosh! Stab!
A shard of ice that had been stuck to the ground shot through the air and pierced a student.
"Urk!"
They immediately dispersed into blue pixels.
In that artificial world, all of the senses were recreated to mimic real life, including pain. The students, still stuck to the ground, began to tremble in terror.
"I-I give! I forfeit!"
"Me too, me too! I forfeit!"
"Kyaa! Me too! Quick!"
[21 people are left.]
The students were ejected out of the portal after forfeiting.
Adela stared at her hands with the same empty gaze. Even though she had only lowered one finger, every single student had disappeared except for Na JiHye.
"So it's just you left."
Adela stared at her blankly.
JiHye had erected a barrier in order to protect herself. Her hands were shaking.
'…I already knew Adela was strong.'
It was impossible for her not to know. JiHye had admired the girl ever since she was young. She watched her every move, including the raid that she had participated in Italy when she was nine years old with other hunters, as well as the girl's entrance exam for Gaon Academy.
The reason JiHye had been able to reach the Representative Selection was because Adela was her goal.
But still, they were worlds apart. Adela had an oppressive strength to her that couldn't merely be labelled 'talent'.
Step, step.
"I remember now… You are… The person from back then who told me that you wanted to be my rival."
"Y-you…"
JiHye had said that to the other girl in a fit of anger during an extracurricular. Now, however, she seemed happy that Adela had remembered her. Her nose was flushed red.
"…Remembered that?"
Adela couldn't help but remember—JiHye was the first person who had ever called her a rival, after all.
Her own reaction was quite different.
"Very well, I will treat you like a rival, then… Just how long will you last?"
The hairs on JiHye's body stood on their ends as Adela said those words.
"Hieek…"
As soon as she breathed out, a white mist formed from her mouth.
A chilling feeling swept below her feet; only then did JiHye realize that something was wrong.
Crack.
The chill slowly crept up, freezing her legs.
'It… broke through my barrier…'
JiHye didn't want to admit defeat, but she had no choice. She opened her mouth.
"I f… for… f…"
But it was too late. The words couldn't leave her mouth.
As JiHye's hands froze over—
Shatter!
—the mana in them maintaining the barrier could be maintained no longer. It fractured, then shattered into many pieces, like glass.
Wooosh!
The chilly air rushed towards JiHye with the strength of a blizzard.
Adela approached the ice statue that was formerly human and poked its forehead with a single finger.
Crack!
JiHye's head fell onto the ground as the rest of her crumbled. While she couldn't feel it happening to her, as there was no feeling left in her body, her eyes were still cruelly functional.
'…As I thought, it was impossible.'
JiHye soon turned into blue pixels and vanished like the others. Adela had managed to retire twelve students at once.
[The number of participants remaining has been reduced to 20. The next event will now begin.]
A hologram began to display itself from her Pocket, showing instructions.
Brbrbrbrbr!
With a bone-chilling earthquake that shook the entire map, a portion of the island disappeared.
[A portion of the map has been deleted to match the reduced number of participants.]
[The locked hidden event (Token Scramble) will now begin.]
[Those who manage to obtain a token from the boss monsters will move onto the finals.]
The location of the boss monsters was displayed on the participants' Pockets, including Adela's.
[Mount Sarnia – ??? (Rank 4)]
[Sarnia Cave – ??? (Rank 4)]
The location Adela chose to go to was the cave that was near the grasslands where she was at. The lengthy Selection was drawing to a close.
* * * *
[Mount Sarnia – ??? (Rank 4)]
[Sarnia Cave – ??? (Rank 4)]
A sudden hidden event began.
YuSung was checking the information on the hologram. At the same moment, Amy was making a fuss through her texts.
[Amy?: whoaa! this owns!]
[Amy?: boss monsters! tokens! this is a super rare event! hehe, if i do some rough calculations… around every 5 years or so?]
"Is that so?" remarked YuSung, who was moving up to higher ground. Based on the information Amy had fed him, he already knew that participants would be chosen to move up to the finals based on survival. The Association had, however, begun a hidden event.
[Amy?: hmm, let's say that, usually, two people are more~ than strong enough to defeat a rank 4 together. Keep that in mind and proceed!]
YuSung nodded, understanding what she was getting at. The Selection had another goal, other than to choose a representative… It was to show off the nation's power
This hidden event seemed to be an extension of the latter.
'It probably won't be a big deal.'
The two who earned a token from the boss monsters would eventually be pitted against each other in the finals to choose a winner amongst them. Even if one managed to obtain that token through luck and cowardly tactics, they would get weeded out by the voting phase.
Essentially, all he had to worry about was not having the boss monster he was chasing down overlap with someone else.
Curious, Amy shot YuSung a message.
[Amy?: so, party leader-nim, which are you going to go to? the cave or the mountain?]
"Hmm…"
He pondered over the answer. But only for a moment.
YuSung was next to the river, which was very close to Mount Sarnia.
"The mountain would be best for sure since it's nearer."
The destination had already been chosen for him.
.
.
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