A single dark-blue orb clattered to the floor.
The heavy thud it made against the ground hinted at its weight.
The murmuring of the watching examinees.
“What just happened?”
“Where’d it go?”
Sin Noda turned his head and locked eyes with the proctor.
The proctor felt goosebumps rise all over his body.
Eyeballs turned crimson, as if every blood vessel had burst.
Pupils slit vertically.
Those were the eyes of a predator.
Without realizing it, he shrank back.
“It can’t be.”
The proctor rose from his seat and approached the glass box.
The closer he got to Sin Noda, the more his legs trembled, but he overcame his fear with the single-minded resolve to carry out his duties as a proctor.
Drawing near the glass box, the proctor could faintly guess the identity of the fist-sized orb that had fallen to the floor.
As expected, it was most likely a troll.
‘How much force would it take to turn a troll into something like that?!’
Absurd destructive power.
Never before had anyone been able to use a Psychokinesis skill to this extent.
An announcement voice rang out from the glass box.
“Examinee. C-could you p-perhaps dispel your ability?”
Sin Noda made an expression as if he had only just remembered.
“Ah.”
The red magic crests that had surfaced on his body faded away.
The geometric patterns etched into his arms, legs, and even his face vanished without a trace.
Sin Noda’s soul settled back into its proper place.
At the same time, the blue orb exploded.
Remnants of the troll splattered throughout the glass box.
The debris soon transformed into square particles, sparking as they fell to the floor.
“I-I can hardly believe it even after seeing it, but the score I assigned was A for Overall Combat Ability and S for Skill. But how in the world...?”
Sin Noda didn’t answer.
No, he couldn’t.
The aftershock of using such powerful magic made him feel as though he might lose consciousness at any moment.
He staggered out of the hall.
The Academy grounds looked more like a university campus than a high school.
I staggered around the area.
The fresh air did nothing to improve my condition.
Dizziness.
Pain like being stabbed all over with knives.
And mana rampaging through my body at will.
Everything was a mess.
Something started rising in my stomach.
I hurried to the main building restroom.
“Hwaaaack. Fuck... ugh.”
I vomited into the toilet.
I heaved for quite a while.
My head spun.
‘How the hell did Yongcheonhwa endure this?’
Was it because of the difference in stats?
I had always spoken of Yongcheonhwa as if it were nothing, but she was firmly C-rank.
There was bound to be a difference between her and me, a D-rank.
Coming out of the stall and looking in the mirror, my face was a wreck.
It was covered in bloodstains.
Blood from my eyes, nose, and mouth had dried on my face, making me look like a zombie.
I looked like I had been in a massive brawl somewhere.
Not that I hadn’t been, technically.
My appearance had changed too.
My eyes, which had been dark like other Koreans, had changed into golden irises that shone like gold.
Looking closely, my pupils were slit vertically, like those of a reptile.
At a glance, they looked almost like cat eyes.
“Status window.”
------------
◈ Name
n̶̡̡̛̟̠͈͎̟̍͜͝͡͠ų̢̰̭̲̋͒̓͊̀̒́͘͡l̴̳͙͓̞̻̝͇̥͆̋͂̉̕͡͠͠l̨̛̫̖̝͓̮̳͓͆̃̈̈́̈́͆̈̕
◈ Stats
[Strength 558 B]
[Agility 345 C]
[Intelligence 877 D]
[Luck 147 F]
[Overall C]
◈ Skills
[Succession 366 A]
[Dragon Heart --- A]
[Psychokinesis --- SSS]
[ê̵̢͙̥̟̪̟̾̀̑̐͛ņ̛̛̠̤̫͇̂͒͊̆͊̄̒͜͜ǵ̢̘̖̫̮̜̙̳̙̓̉́́͂̎̎̚͢r̶̡͎̯̙̝̠̾̋̌̄̀͊͢͟ͅą̞̱͕̬̙̗͇̠͊̏͆͋̈̐̆̂͊͟v̙̙̝̬̥͐̂̋́̈́͆͗͘͘͡ȩ̷̥͉̯̼̙̻̼̫̓́͂̂͑̈́̉̅̒͘͢ --- B]
-----------------------------------
“What the hell is this.”
My stats had changed drastically.
Strength C→B.
Agility D→C.
Intelligence E→D.
Luck E→F.
All my stats had risen by one tier.
Well, except Luck, which had dropped instead.
My name and skills were strange too.
My name had clearly been “Sin Noda” up until yesterday.
It had suddenly changed into weird characters.
Setting aside the alien-language skill, my Psychokinesis, which had been doing fine, had somehow become SSS-rank.
“Psychokinesis skill.”
A translucent window appeared before my eyes.
-------------
◈ Name
Psychokinesis
◈ Grade
--- SSS
◈ Description
e̱̭̮͔͕͉͓͊͂̓͒̊ǹ̙̻̪͎͇͖̑͋͐̔͌͑̋̓͆t̷̡̧̠̺̠̼̻̖̤͚͊͛̆̔̊̑̍̌e̶̮͈̦̱͔̥̱̬̥̥̓̔̑̿͘r̨̘̗͎̦̞̳͂̐̽̐͞͝ t̵͕̥̞̘̀̊̉͗̔̆̚͢͢͞h͖̜̼͈̜̖̑͛̏͊̃́̒̅͘̚e̶̡̛̙̠̭̬͕̩̟̭̿̿͒͒̊͗̕͢͞ d̸̺͍̗̱͈̯̪̱̫̓̔͒̇̐̒͌͢͡͠e̡̨̧̡͔̼͙̼͔̓͆̋̏̂̾͗t̨̨̘̻͕̫̖̼̣͂͂̄̋͒̍͐͞aà̷̠̺͎͕͙̏̋͑̓̂̽i̛̬̘̟̺̬͓̫̽̉͋͐̋̄͜l̢̢̛̲̳̭̻̮̥̓͆̔̕͘͞
-----------------------------------
I opened the skill window just in case, and sure enough, this one had changed strangely too.
“Um... Lady Laura... what... is going on...?”
I squeezed out a voice that wouldn’t come out, barely managing to speak.
[Ah. It seems to be a bit broken. In that state, you won’t be able to use Psychokinesis at your level, so I shall restore it soon.]
“My... stats....”
[It seems your body transformed to accommodate my soul. Fundamentally, you’re trash, so it didn’t improve much.]
Hearing those words, I thought to myself.
‘So if Laura’s soul enters, my body gets stronger... If I let her in one more time, wouldn’t I reach B-rank, A-rank in no time?’
That thought ended there at Laura’s next words.
[But it cannot be done a second time. If you transform any further, your body will reject the soul that is “you.”]
For now, I left the restroom to return to the hall.
Because if I stayed away too long, I might be disqualified.
But Yang Minseo was loitering in front of the restroom.
When I came out, she opened her mouth as if she had been waiting.
“There you are. Sin Noda. I saw your fight with the troll in the testing room earlier. I apologize for ignoring you this morning. You’re a more impressive person than I thought.”
“....”
A nuisance had latched onto me.
I headed for the hall without answering.
“H-hold on. Don’t ignore me! You don’t look well, and no wonder. You used such an incredible skill. Others might not know, but I can tell. My skill lets me see through everything.”
Not everything, surely.
The Eye of Truth’s concept was obtaining information on what you saw with your eyes, but since its rank was low for now, it probably wasn’t very useful.
If it were that great a skill, she should have fainted after seeing Laura clinging to me.
Yang Minseo pulled a glass bottle from her pocket.
A glass bottle filled with blue liquid.
It was a potion.
“An apology for speaking out of turn this morning. You seem to be in a lot of pain, so use it.”
I took the potion from her.
Pride?
I was hurting like hell; I had none of that.
I popped the lid off and downed it in one gulp.
My condition gradually improved.
The dizziness and pain disappeared.
‘Now I can live again.’
I thanked Yang Minseo.
“Thanks. I feel much better thanks to you.”
“I’ll take it that there are no hard feelings, then.”
“Why don’t you speak casually? We’re the same age.”
“This is more comfortable for me.”
“By the way, I know potions are incredibly expensive. Is it really okay to give something like this just as an apology?”
Potions were made by mixing troll blood with various additives, and had the effect of healing even severe wounds down to the bone in an instant.
They were literally an extra life.
Demand was high, but the ingredients were rare, so a single bottle usually cost around 10 million won.
“My father runs a few small businesses, and among them is a potion business.”
But it wasn’t that small.
Not when he was number one in Korea’s business world.
“Well, thanks anyway.”
I returned to the hall in a refreshed condition.
The first-round passers were quickly narrowed down, and I was among them.
The second-round interview was no big deal.
It was on “basic common sense” and “heroes for the public good.”
Having been forged in a veritable hellfire peninsula, I possessed the ability to ramble for over an hour about things I neither believed in nor knew well.
A middle-school-level interview was a piece of cake.
A few days later, at the cafe I always went to, I logged into the Academy website on my iPad.
The final acceptance notice appeared the moment I logged in.
------------------------
We sincerely congratulate you on your acceptance.
You have passed in 77th place out of 164, and have been granted the “Silver” rank.
The benefits of the “Silver” rank are as follows.
1/2 Scholarship.
Free dormitory fees.
Free textbook support.
For further details regarding rank assignment, please refer to the website.
---------------------------