Chapter 6

Shin YuSung confidently scanned his card for the Image Room. A clear, mechanical voice read his information out loud.

[Your student card has been scanned.]

[Student ranking undefined, F Class Shin YuSung]

He had no ranking because he hadn’t taken any exams yet. Before Shin YuSung could reply, Lee SiWoo broke free from the group of students and rushed towards him.

“H-hey, YuSung-ah! It’s not that I don’t believe in you or anything, but…”

Lee SiWoo looked up at Shin YuSung with worry tinging his face.

“Isn’t this your first time using the Image Room? But you’re trying to beat five rank 3 monsters… Is that really okay? On top of that, the training you do during class factors into your grades…”

The reactions of the other F Class students were also generally negative. Shin YuSung may have won against Ju HaJin, but that was just a spar. Image Room training was a completely different experience.

“This is my first time in the training room, but—”

Shin YuSung straightened his long hair and smiled.

“—it isn’t the first time I’ve fought a rank 3 monster.”

Veen.

The door opened automatically, and Shin YuSung slowly walked into the Image Room.

[You have entered the Image Room.]

Veen.

As the door closed, Shin YuSung took a brief glance behind him; 29 students were staring back with varied reactions and expressions.

The weakest Traits, F-rank.

Gaon Academy’s weakest class, F Class.

But the majority of his classmates didn’t believe that he could clear the room.

‘I guess a rank 3 monster is hard to beat for the people in F Class.’

Shin YuSung’s Trait was F-rank.

An F-rank student killing five rank 3 monsters in their first year was nothing short of a miracle, but it was something he could easily achieve.

‘…A hunter’s strength doesn’t come entirely from their Trait.’

Following the manual that he had read last night at his dorm, Shin YuSung expertly operated the Image room.

“Location: random.”

Zzt.

As Shin YuSung finished speaking, the Image Room, which was nothing but white from top to bottom, turned into a barren wasteland.

[The location has been set to wastelands.]

This was a hologram created by the facility.

Shin YuSung kept modifying the settings.

“Monsters: Five rank 3s.”

[Setting: Fighting monsters. Difficulty: Rank 3, five orcs.]

Zzt!

Perfectly crafted orc holograms spawned in the room as the mechanical voice finished speaking.

To Shin YuSung, who had been stuck living in the mountains, the Gaon Academy facilities were fascinating. It seemed like the rank 3 monsters were what was fascinating the Class F students, however.

As the glass walls weren’t soundproof, Shin YuSung could hear his classmates’ voices through it.

“An actual rank 3 monster…”

“And orcs even have intelligence.”

“Even still, I think… he’ll kill at least three out of the five?”

The instructor, Lin Xiao, looked at Shin YuSung with his arms crossed.

‘I’ll be observing just how long you can survive this.’

Shin YuSung swung his head back to look at the orcs. Even if they were just holograms, they felt as vividly real as actual monsters. As orcs had high intelligence, they could create their own parties and formations.

Because of that, five orcs had pretty good synergy.

‘For their weapons: one glaive, two bows, two axes.’

Shin YuSung shifted his stance to best suit his opponents. He led with his left foot and pulled back his right. His arm was perfectly balanced to cover the bottom half of his body. The posture of the only disciple of the Fist King was more or less the same as his master’s.

‘Master told me this when I was nine.’

[Of course! Any hunter at nine years old can kill a rank 3 monster with one blow!]

In reality, the Fist King’s standards were much too high. His training regimen was something that only someone born with the nine blocked yin pathways and abundance of bodily yang, like Shin YuSung, could successfully complete.

‘To think that anyone attending the Academy is frightened of a rank 3 monster…’

Was F Class weak, or were rank 3 monsters strong? No matter which it was, he definitely believed there was some sort of mistake in his master’s teachings.

Paaat!

Shin YuSung pulled mana from inside his body and wrapped it around himself. This was not the power of a Trait—through building up his mana with training and meditation, he was able to physically manifest it.

Despite being holograms, the orcs reacted to Shin YuSung’s show of force.

“Keek! Kill the human!”

“Human! We’ll punish you!”

Fwoosh!

The orcs’ first attack was an arrow.

Shin YuSung tilted his head to the side and easily dodged it, then dashed forwards. At the same moment in time, he struck with his fist.

Boom!

The orc that was hit by his punch turned into dust along with his axe; the orc had completely dispersed into tiny bits of data. Shin YuSung threw a kick before any of the orcs had the chance to be surprised.

Crunch!

His foot landed squarely on another orc’s head.

With the sound of a watermelon being split in half, that orc also dispersed into data.

“K-keek! Human! Strong!”

“Shoot the bow!”

The orcs took that chance to shoot another arrow. Two arrows flew towards Shin YuSung. He started to concentrate in an effort to dodge the attacks, and, due to his Trait’s power, the arrows became infinitely slower.

‘I can see it.’

He slipped in between the arrows and ran like the wind. It wasn’t enough to just win—Shin YuSung restricted himself to performing only the most efficient movements. He did not perform a single unnecessary action.

Tap!

He closed the gap in an instant and struck out with his palm.

Battle God Style – Savage Dragon's Boulder Crushing Palm

Boom!

The shockwave caused by the explosion turned two orcs into nothing but dust. Shin YuSung’s hair whipped gracefully in the air from the wind pressure of the shock.

“Keeek!”

The remaining orc swung its axe around wildly, but Shin YuSung easily stopped the blow with an expressionless face.

Crack.

His palm, coated in mana, was like steel. It was not a state of power a student could feasibly attain. Using mana to strengthen one’s body without the help of a Trait severely increased its consumption.

On top of that, if one wanted to focus mana on a singular part of their body to strengthen it, they had to endure bone-shatteringly harsh training to achieve it.

Shin YuSung’s current strength was not due to an innate Trait, but the fruit of his efforts. The rewards of his training were greater due to this.

[Fighting monsters. Difficulty: Rank 3, five orcs have been cleared.]

Like the mechanical voice had announced, Shin YuSung had destroyed five orcs. He didn’t look even a little bit winded.

Step step.

Shin YuSung left the room with a nonchalant expression on his face. The students couldn’t hide their shock.

“Yu… YuSung, you…”

Lee SiWoo, who was watching, couldn’t finish his sentence as his mouth was gaping wide open, flabbergasted.

“Y-you r-really won…”

Sumire, who had come from Japan to study abroad in South Korea, was someone who usually stuttered her words. Today, however, she was stuttering even more.

It was a level of fighting prowess that nobody could imagine coming from an F Class student. The instructor, Lin Xiao, gulped.

With a shocked expression, he looked at Shin YuSung and asked:

“A-a-are you really from F Class?”

At the question, Shin YuSung looked around at the F Class students. Even excluding the previously discouraged Lee SiWoo and the timid Sumire, the expressions of the other students had changed.

He gave a small smile and opened his mouth.

“Yes, I’m from the F Class.”

Shin YuSung was the singular wildcard that F Class had—their hope for the intramurals.

* * *

Gaon Academy headmaster’s office.

The newly appointed instructor, Lin Xiao, roughly shoved the door to the office aside and entered it.

“Headmaster!”

Jin ByungCheol, who was hitting his scalp with a comb* at that moment, yelled at Lin Xiao with a frigid expression.

“Goodness, Instructor Lin Xiao! Can’t you at least knock before entering?”

“I apologize! Should I at least knock right now?”

“Ugh, it’s fine. It’s fine! For what possible reason did you…?”

Jin ByungCheol asked with an indifferent expression.

Lin Xiao described in detail what had happened in the training room.

“…Then the student with the F-rank Trait beat five rank 3 monsters! And he didn’t just beat them, he destroyed them! One shot one kill! Complete blindside! Two years just now!”

“What is ‘two years just now’?”

“My daughter just turned two years old.**”

Jin ByungCheol, who was listening to Lin Xiao’s story, rubbed his chin with a “hmm” sound.

“The name of the student is Shin YuSung, right?”

Jin ByungCheol asked this without showing any surprise. Lin Xiao nodded his head.

“Y-yesss… you are correct.”

“That sounds about right.”

“Wait, a first-year student with an F-rank Trait cleared five rank 3 monsters! This is huge news, even if it was done in an Image Room…”

As Lin Xiao worked himself up into raising his voice, Jin ByungCheol made calming hand motions and clicked his tongue.

“Whoa, whoa, please compose yourself. To think that an instructor hadn’t heard the news yet…”

At the headmaster’s frank words, Lin Xiao realized that there was something odd about Shin YuSung’s identity. It was obvious if one thought about it; an F-rank student destroying five rank 3 monsters without even breathing hard?

“Who is that student, really?” Lin Xiao asked Jin ByungCheol with a serious expression.

“Shin YuSung is…”

With a proud smile, Headmaster Jin ByungCheol continued.

“The disciple of Yu WonHak.”

“…Yu WonHak. Yu WonHak?! Are you talking about the Fist King, Yu WonHak?!”

“So he’s well-known in China too, as expected.”

Lin Xiao couldn’t hold back his incredulity at Jin ByungCheol’s words.

“Of course, what are you talking about?! And one of my parents is Korean…”

A legend in the hunter community.

Even if it was a story from twenty years ago, it was rare to see any active hunter not know the name of the Fist King, Yu WonHak.

“An expert in body strengthening, a notoriously difficult discipline! The man who has mana cultivation down to a science…”

“Yes, those are all his achievements.”

Jin ByungCheol preened while stroking his mustache. Acting as if he and Shin YuSung were close, he continued:

“And Shin YuSung is the disciple whom the essence of those achievements was poured into.”

“M-my god!”

“How strong can he become? Even as an F Class student, it’s possible for him to be in the top 10 of our student rankings. In fact, he might even reach the Seven Numbers above that!”

Jin ByungCheol squeezed his hand into a fist and let out a triumphant “yesss”.

“How great do you think the marketing is going to be around him?”

He bared his dark thoughts out into the open.

“He’s also good-looking, so slap Shin YuSung’s face in a bunch of advertisements and sell him! An academy where even an F-rank can become a member of the Seven Numbers~! Kuhahaha!”

Lin Xiao expressed his distaste at the idea as Jin ByungCheol laughed heartily.

“Headmaster really is pitch-black on the inside.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, hmm hmm!”

Jin ByungCheol slowly walked up to the window and looked outside. He suddenly asked an unrelated question.

“I heard that instructor Lin Xiao taught the first years at Skyscraper Academy…”

The pride of China.

Skyscraper Academy. Lin Xiao taught the first-year students there. Even if he had relocated to Gaon, which had higher pay, he was an instructor held in fairly high regard at Skyscraper.

“Correct.”

“I want to ask you about one thing…”

“What is it?”

“Liú Jùn.”

At that name, Lin Xiao stiffened. Liú Jùn’s name had that much of an effect.

“…Are you talking about the disciple of the Sword God?”

The Sword God, one of the Fist King’s rivals.

Their disciple, Liú Jùn, China’s strongest student, was born with an S-rank Trait and had the sword skills of the Sword God passed down onto him.

“Shin YuSung and Liú Jùn; if the disciples of the Fist King and the Sword God were to fight, who would win?”

Gulp.

Lin Xiao swallowed. He was unique in the regard that he was the only person in Gaon who had seen both Shin YuSung and Liú Jùn fight.

He took a moment to think.

“Hm…”

After gathering his thoughts, Lin Xiao opened his mouth.

“In my opinion…”

*Apparently there’s a comb that promotes hair growth if you hit your scalp with it??

**Lin Xiao was making a wordplay pun/joke because he followed up two 4-syllable Korean idioms with 4-syllable nonsense which turned out to be about his daughter.