Chapter 1
Final Exam Rankings
“Ha….”
I exhaled and hovered my thumb over the button.
Lying on an empty rooftop bench, having stared a staring contest with my phone, I pressed it cautiously.
“Please, please….”
I squeezed my eyes shut, praying even a little bit that the result would be what I wanted.
Only after my pounding heart calmed slightly did I manage to open my eyes.
[Jeong Juhyeok is ranked 207th out of 301.]
“….”
Seeing the result cooled my heart instantly.
I didn’t want to look at it any longer, so I shut off my phone and snatched it down in irritation.
“Couldn’t even crack two hundred in the end.”
It had been five years since I first awakened at the dojo and came into training.
When I registered as an Awakened and enrolled in the Hunter Academy, I’d been full of dreams and hope.
Once awakened, only effort remained.
If I worked hard, I’d surely get good grades at the Academy and later join a famous Hunter guild — my future looked bright.
‘I thought everything would be possible with effort.’
I’d drawn a life as an S-rank Hunter countless times in my head.
It would be a lie to say I didn’t want recognition from others, but that wasn’t all.
[Nothing is impossible in the face of effort. Got it, son?]
My father’s face, fuzzy with time, floated before my closed eyes.
His value system — which he always gave his son with absolute certainty — was something I could only look at now in photos.
My father hadn’t been wrong.
I remembered the expression on the dojo master’s face the first time I walked in.
That awkward look people wear when they face someone with no talent at all.
Every field I’d ever stepped into had produced the same reaction on people’s faces.
Still, I never let that reaction get me down.
No matter how far behind I was, my father trusted me and pushed me forward.
He always laughed boisterously and filled me with positive energy.
Thanks to him, no matter how exhausted I became, I doubled down on effort and steadily built up skill.
Whether it was studying or training.
In every field, I produced results only after effort that would make others shake their heads.
‘But this time it’s really not easy.’
Every time I hit a wall, I had always beaten it with effort.
Even after entering the Academy I ate, trained, and nothing else — as always — but the fruits wouldn’t come easily.
“Should I just try harder from now on?”
I was already a third-year about to graduate, after finishing the last-semester tests.
No meaningful evaluation remained, and even if there were, at my current skill level no Hunter guild would hire me.
At best I’d join a small guild as an intern and be used as a porter.
Even if I worked hard there, would that be enough?
‘I don’t know.’
Is it really true that impossibility is meaningless in front of effort?
I got crushed by guys who slept through classes.
I was trampled by newcomers who’d only been Awakened for barely half a year.
Each time it happened, a seed of doubt quietly grew inside me.
“…Let’s at least pick up the sword.”
When my mind brimmed with useless thoughts, I needed to tire my body.
That way negative thoughts faded and I could sleep comfortably — lying around moping about it was worse.
I rose from the bench to head to the training ground.
At that moment, a sudden gust of wind swept my hair back.
‘Why’s the wind come up all of a sudden?’
I frowned at the unexpected gale.
I brushed away a little dust — and then —
Bang!
A huge sound echoed from somewhere on the rooftop.
“W-what was that?”
Startled, I turned and saw one of the rooftop storage rooms.
A door that was always locked had been thrown wide open, creaking and swaying limply in the wind.
‘Did someone leave it unlocked?’
Had the wind blown the door open because it hadn’t been latched?
Every evening for three years I’d sneaked up to the roof after dinner — it was my routine — but I’d never seen that storage door open before.
Creak, creak.
The metal door moved at a somehow rhythmic pace.
It felt like someone beckoning me: come here.
Creak, creak.
Curiosity tugged at me.
My dark pupils slid along the door and, without bothering with my fluttering hair, I walked toward the storage room.
‘Maybe there’s sparring equipment inside?’
I clicked into a focused, investigative mode, scratching at my curiosity.
The door wasn’t swinging now; it was fully open.
Normally I’d shut it since I didn’t know what was inside, but curiosity about a storage room I’d just watched for three years got the better of me.
It was probably just wooden practice swords or other Academy sparring gear at most.
I stepped into the dim storage room without thinking much of it.
“There’s a light… good.”
Right inside hung a light switch dimly lit by the sunset. I clicked it and a bright lamp lit the dark storage.
Glancing around, as expected there were ragged wooden practice swords scattered about and, opposite them, sparring guards.
There wasn’t anything particularly remarkable.
‘Why bother building a storage up on the roof like this?’
The Academy grounds were vast and the buildings many.
There would be plenty of unused spaces, so why stack sparring gear in a hard-to-move rooftop storeroom?
As I poked around the narrow room, a different object caught my eye.
‘What’s this?’
A large cube contrasting with the other items.
It was larger than what an adult could fit in one hand.
Unlike usual cubes made of many colors, this one was entirely white.
‘Why’s something like this here?’
I reached out instinctively at the strange object.
When both my hands gripped the cube, a white window popped up right before my eyes.
[Scanning user…]
“…huh?”
I blinked, caught off guard by the unreal message.
I stared blankly as the message blinked and another line appeared.
[Scan complete.]
[Transferring subject to the Training Chamber.]
“What?”
The message droned on in a voice I couldn’t interpret.
Sensing that something was wrong, my mind automatically tried to calculate what the situation could be.
No — there was no need to compute.
A message had appeared the moment I touched an unfamiliar object. I’d seen similar cases in class or online, though never personally.
‘An artifact?’
If I kept touching it I didn’t know what would happen.
My survival instincts kicked in and I tried to pull my hand away quickly, but in the brief moment I’d spaced out my fate had already been decided.
My hand that had tried to escape was sucked into the cube like a black hole.
“W-wait!”
Shouts didn’t make it stop.
The cube showed no mercy and absorbed my body; within seconds it had swallowed me completely.
[Pleasant to look at.]
When I entered the Academy and the instructor saw me for the first time, he said:
[Everyone should follow Jeong Juhyeok’s example and train hard.]
He praised me until his mouth was dry, hopeful that others would be inspired.
[No matter how hard you try, can you ever reach my toes?]
Soon enough, I’d hit a wall.
It wasn’t the first time; I didn’t feel much surprise anymore.
‘I thought I could get by just by trying harder.’
I’d believed that if I pushed just a little more, relentlessly swinging the sword, I’d be fine.
I told myself I’d catch up with them someday.
[The secret? I don’t know anything like that.]
The crack in that belief began when I asked a slovenly archer for advice.
I’d asked, wondering if there might be some other trick, and he replied genuinely that there was no secret.
He wasn’t hiding something — he honestly didn’t have a secret — and his answer made me pause.
‘Can it really be possible?’
Still, it was fine.
When I saw even the slightest change after sweating it out, I took comfort.
I could steadily grow by wiping away distractions.
[You and I were born different.]
If I hadn’t been utterly crushed by someone who belittled my efforts, I might have kept that mindset.
[Isn’t it strange to think that you, from an ordinary family, would have the same bloodline as me, with A-rank Hunter parents?]
The ability in one’s blood is different.
He was born for the sword; I’d been born without purpose.
‘But if I work hard like this, I’ll still become a fine Hunter.’
One who set an example.
A Hunter who always showed a proper attitude and kept improving.
‘But what was that Hunter’s name?’
Who remembers a Hunter who’s only diligent?
Who remembers a decent but ordinary Hunter?
‘I never wanted to dream of being some merely adequate Hunter.’
To cultivate just enough ability, get a mediocre job, and live on as a D-rank Hunter — that wasn’t for me.
To carry loads as a porter for years until I finally could hold my own.
If an S-rank gate opened, I’d be swallowed up among countless hunters in a raid and disappear without my name being remembered….
‘I didn’t swing my sword every day to be a forgotten, ordinary sword wielder.’
Which painter would want to be unnamed? Which writer would want their work unread? Even a hobbyist craves some attention.
‘I want to be the best.’
That desire, which had lived in my heart ever since I first held a sword, flared up and widened.
“If I could be the strongest….”
The word of desire burst out and my eyes widened.
A plain stretched out before me — a meadow.
Like one painted on a canvas, a vast plain unfurled.
“…An artifact.”
I pushed aside the thoughts that had been turning my mind and tried to recall how I’d come to this place.
‘I touched an artifact and got dragged into an unknown place.’
Of all times to touch an artifact.
Even I wondered why I’d acted so boldly when I normally wouldn’t.
‘Maybe I’m inside a gate?’
Fearing monsters, I frantically surveyed my surroundings.
The endless plain showed nothing but soil and grass until the horizon.
There was only one thing.
‘…What’s that?’
About fifty meters away, a doll stood motionless.
The doll held what clearly looked like a real sword in its right hand.
Its face was blank; only joints were visible, giving it a creepy aura. It hunched its head, and perhaps noticing my stare, it slowly lifted its head.
‘Dangerous.’
I should run right now.
Even without knowing where I was, I felt instinctively that I needed to put as much distance between myself and that monster as possible. I took a step back — and the doll picked up another sword from the ground and threw it toward me in a parabolic arc.
“….”
A real blade landed at my feet.
Suspecting a trap, I hesitated to approach. Then, like before when I’d been pulled in, a new message appeared before me.
[Defeat Sword Doll 1,000,000 times 0/1,000,000]
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