The long-awaited final day of combat power measurement had arrived.
On this day, everyone was extremely tense and on edge.
The reason was simple.
The problem was those three walking into the drill ground with such nonchalance.
Bu Sinhyeok, Baek Arin, Hong Ichan.
If you listed their nicknames in order:
“Deserter, Rich Girl, Boss Mob.”
These three could be summed up in those words.
“Today we win.”
Last year's three top prospects glared at them, grinding their teeth.
“Please! Let’s be evaluated less shamefully today.”
They weren't aiming for anything grand, merely hoping to get scolded less.
On the first day of evaluation, everyone except those three had been met with rebukes, curses, and shouts.
The seniors all said the same things.
‘You got beaten that miserably by them!?’
‘Where did your experience go, up your ass!?’
‘Get out! And you call yourself Hongik!? You deck yourself out with expensive items and chug elixirs, and that score is what you get!’
Tears streamed down everyone’s faces.
Reactions to the second-half evaluation were especially intense.
The reason was simple.
“Because of those three.”
“Let’s all unite today. This isn’t about the evaluation.”
They exchanged glances and silently cried out, ‘Down with them.’
Sinhyeok was tense at the slightly different atmosphere from yesterday.
“What’s with today?”
“Mister, they’re all giving that look. Like the other trainees in boot camp.”
It was a situation all too familiar.
“Think we might be screwed today.”
He already had a feeling today wouldn’t be a smooth day.
“Quiet.”
As always, the Sergeant Major appeared today.
Everyone quickly lined up in the drill ground.
“There are two evaluations today. Individual tactical ability evaluation and actual combat power grade evaluation.”
Put simply, it tested how well you could reconnoiter, and how well you could actually fight.
“First, the individual tactical ability evaluation is optional.”
The reason it was optional was because the actual evaluation was based on the results and contents of the operations conducted so far.
The item being evaluated here was completely separate, but it held symbolic significance and took up a major part of their military life.
If you didn’t master ‘Reconnaissance,’ it was hard to grow as a commander.
That was why everyone tended to prepare in advance.
“Anyone volunteering?”
After gauging the mood, those with considerable confidence raised their hands.
“Let’s see, about seven or so.”
Gim Hyeonsuk looked at those who raised their hands and spotted Sinhyeok making a blank expression.
“Hey, raise your hand. Don’t think about skipping because it’s annoying.”
“Huh?”
“Hurry up.”
Sinhyeok was immediately picked by the Sergeant Major.
“Ah, yes ma’am.”
‘If I do this, the balance will collapse.’
Sinhyeok had tried to not step forward.
‘I already know all the records anyway, so why bother.’
Still, he raised his hand.
She swept her gaze across again and stopped at Ichan.
“You there.”
“Huh? Yes ma’am!”
“You too, hand.”
“…….”
Ichan also timidly raised his hand.
Then her gaze stopped on Arin, and she pondered for a moment.
“I, my ability is completely different.”
“Does reconnaissance follow your Awakened class? It follows your ability. Tch.”
She thought briefly before moving on.
“You pass for now.”
She looked over the rest and dug up a few more.
“Ugh, I’m such a mess.”
“Everyone raise your hands on your own. If you think your ability is related to reconnaissance, raise your hand. Don’t come crying about it later when you’re up for promotion.”
The Sergeant Major only stopped after gathering more personnel.
“Those who volunteered, wait.”
She came down to the drill ground and took out a human-sized cube from her inventory, setting it down.
‘This puzzle is still the same.’
They were still using the same item.
“The method is simple. Find the core inside this space. Your score is determined by the time taken, and additional points are awarded for discovering monsters, traps, resources, ruins, items, and so on. Easy, right?”
What she said was very easy, but this puzzle didn’t look so simple.
“Then you, who’s ready, start first.”
A staff sergeant standing in the very front row raised his hand with an awkward smile.
[Entering the Labyrinth of the Flowing Maze.]
“Urk!”
He was sucked right in.
The Sergeant Major immediately pulled out a timer and checked the time.
“Proceed at 100x speed.”
[Increasing the labyrinth’s progression speed by time acceleration of one hundredfold.]
The item’s clear voice resonated across the drill ground.
After about fifteen minutes had passed, she touched the labyrinth.
“Bring him out.”
He came out and collapsed to the ground with a thud.
“Eliminated. No score.”
“Huuurk.”
He went to the corner with an exhausted face.
“This is why I said I wouldn’t do it.”
He watched with a gloomy expression.
“Next, come.”
They started coming one by one in order.
Sinhyeok waited for his turn with blank eyes.
“I’m last.”
Right before him was Ichan.
“Hyung, it must be pretty hard. Everyone’s gasping for breath.”
“That thing isn’t easy. The room locations change every moment, bosses pop up here and there, and the core darts all over the place, seriously.”
Song Jaesik, last year’s top prospect standing in front of them, pricked up his ears at those words.
‘That’s right, that’s it.’
He’d gotten himself a decent tip.
‘I’ll thoroughly wipe the floor with them.’
Finally, when his turn came, the Sergeant Major looked at him with a slight smile.
“You were from 3rd Platoon, 2nd Company? I heard you found the core twice.”
“Yes! That’s correct!”
“Hmm, I expect good things.”
At her words, his shoulders puffed up with pride.
He turned around with confident eyes and stared at Sinhyeok and Ichan.
“Watch closely. Juniors.”
At the blatant provocation, Sinhyeok looked bewildered, while Ichan flinched slightly.
“Hurry up and get in.”
Urged by the Sergeant Major, he immediately entered the Labyrinth of the Flowing Maze.
After he entered, the Sergeant Major immediately measured the time.
Time passed, and at fifteen minutes, she immediately reached out her hand.
“Uwaaack!”
Staff Sergeant Song Jaesik emerged with a loud noise, drenched in sweat.
“I f-found it.”
She stopped the timer and checked the time.
“Alright, start mapping.”
She touched the labyrinth.
Then a hologram appeared in the air.
[Loading the labyrinth map.]
[Challenger, please complete the map.]
He began filling it in step by step.
After he finished writing everything, the Sergeant Major briefly checked.
“Checking accuracy.”
[Comparing the map’s state after the last core contact.]
[Accuracy 60%, missing portions 60%.]
“Okay. Reconnaissance Grade D.”
Hearing the grade, he smirked.
‘Not bad. Reconnaissance is a skill where even that grade is hard to get.’
“Next is Ichan?”
When the Sergeant Major called for the next person, Ichan appeared with an expression lacking confidence.
“Begin.”
Ichan hesitantly went in.
Time passed, and no one had any expectations.
As fifteen minutes approached, the Sergeant Major was about to call for a stop.
“Now, uh.”
Swoosh.
Ichan came out and looked at the Sergeant Major.
“Did you find the core?”
“Huh? Y-yes.”
Everyone was slightly surprised.
The Sergeant Major checked the time and gave him the same score as Staff Sergeant Song Jaesik.
“For now, your time is the same as his. You write the map too.”
A hologram appeared in the air.
Ichan muttered with an unconfident face.
“I’m not confident. Is this it?”
After he finished writing, the item began its analysis.
[Accuracy 60%, missing portions 55%.]
At those words, the Sergeant Major assigned the grade with surprised eyes.
“You too are Grade D.”
At those words, Staff Sergeant Song Jaesik’s eyes trembled.
“Staff Sergeant Hong Ichan, that’s impressive.”
At the Sergeant Major’s praise, Ichan’s shoulders straightened proudly.
“Next is you. Come, Kkoltong.”
“Staff Sergeant Kkoltong!”
Sinhyeok snickered at the openly used nickname.
“Shall I go right in?”
“Yeah, start.”
Sinhyeok immediately entered.
The Sergeant Major checked the time and said.
“Shall we see if he breaks the record?”
Five minutes passed, and just as the Sergeant Major was stretching, Sinhyeok came out.
“Huh? Wha!?”
“Huh!”
Sinhyeok looked at her calmly. She checked the time and flinched.
“The record was cut in half?”
“I’m a bit good at this. Please bring up the screen. I’ll start mapping.”
She brought up the hologram with a bewildered face.
After he finished writing everything.
[Accuracy 100%, no missing portions.]
At the item’s overwhelming announcement, everyone made stunned expressions.
“When is the next evaluation?”
“Soon.”
She immediately began without delay.
However, the following actual combat power evaluation was ordinary.
“Still, it’s a decent showing.”
Because their levels were so low to begin with, they took a spectacular beating.
The monsters were D-rank at best, and Sinhyeok was the same.
The reason was the item restriction.
“This is a foul. Banning all items for an Alchemist.”
“If it’s unfair, learn more skills.”
At the Sergeant Major’s firm words, Sinhyeok felt aggrieved.
“Wow, I’ll level up just out of spite.”
The others cheered and were satisfied with their very, very ordinary scores.
“This is what gives you humanity!”
“This is great!”
“Good, good!”
Watching those who were happy, Sinhyeok snickered.
“This concludes the evaluation. The results will be announced later, so everyone disperse.”
“Yes ma’am!”
Ichan and Arin were filled with dissatisfaction over their individual combat measurements.
“You can’t help the level and skill difference.”
“Hmph. If I were that level, I could do that much too.”
The two grumbled at each other with expressions full of complaints.
The two received C-ranks on their individual combat assessments. Considering they hadn’t even surpassed level 10, this was very impressive.
And that was without the help of items too.
“What can you do? Blame being low-level.”
Sinhyeok made an enlightened expression. The two looked at him and scoffed.
“Pfft.”
“Hyung got a D-grade.”
He choked up at the word D-rank.
“Hey! They told me not to use magic bullets either, what was I supposed to do! What!”
The fate of one banned from using all items was miserable.
“Yes~ we saw it very well.”
“Hyung, you were truly miserable~”
Sinhyeok sighed at the two taking turns roasting him.
“Sigh, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Hehe.”
“Hee hee.”
The two ended up laughing at Sinhyeok’s appearance.
“Ugh, let’s just go eat.”
“Yeah.”
Arin followed behind Sinhyeok and asked about what she’d heard earlier.
“But mister, what do they give you if you do well on the combat power measurement? Earlier, seniors from another company were talking about rewards and items.”
“Ah, that? The battalion commander gives gifts to staff sergeants who do well on the combat power measurement. Like letting them put in a production request at the workshop, or letting them participate in an S-rank Gate raid, or the battalion commander personally giving them a bus run, things like that.”
The two’s mouths dropped open.
“Jackpot. S-rank?”
“A bus ride with the battalion commander himself?!”
The two gasped at the benefits and rewards beyond imagination.
“So jealous.”
“Wow, I should’ve fought monsters harder.”
Sinhyeok didn’t particularly react.
“Why make a fuss over that? I’ll get it eventually.”
“When would we ever get that?”
“Right, hyung.”
Sinhyeok looked at Arin’s lamenting reply with narrowed eyes.
“With your wealth, nothing should be impossible?”
Baek Arin glared at him at the mention of ‘wealth’.
“Ah, come on.”
“Don’t even say it, mister! I really hear every ten minutes that you’re the owner of Hanha Group, that your wealth is really over a trillion! How many times do I have to hear that!”
She shouted, seemingly choked up.
“Hey, hey, hold it in.”
Sinhyeok tried to calm her down as the surrounding attention focused on them.
“It’s true! I have a lot of money! So what! It’s my money! Why does that matter!”
Perhaps because everything that had built up exploded, she shouted fiercely.
Those around them snickered and moved aside.
“Hey. If you act like this, you’re trash-tier.”
She calmed her heart and quickly glanced around. Everyone was already laughing.
She quietly bowed her head in all directions and offered apologies.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Sinhyeok and Ichan also bowed their heads together and offered a barrage of apologies.
“Sorry. Our little sister is a bit crazy.”
“Sorry. Our older sister is not in her right mind. Please overlook this.”
Passersby giggled at their words.
“Alright, I won’t ask from now on. Still, you did well today. Pretty impressive.”
“Okay. We know you’re loaded, so we won’t ask!”
“Heh. You guys again?”
Baek Arin’s face turned red because of the laughing seniors leaving.
“Haa, I’m going crazy, really.”
Baek Arin, who had exploded, trudged off.
“Hey, where are you going! You have to eat!”
“Damn it! If I go to the mess hall now, I’ll die of shame!”
She ran away.
Sinhyeok chased after her, laughing.
“Then should we meet in the room?”
She spoke without looking back.
“Deal!”
She ran off in a hurry.
Ichan and Sinhyeok headed toward the barracks, laughing.
The three gathered in Sinhyeok’s room, eating ramen and talking.
“Hyung, then who do you think will get the reward this time?”
“Hmm. I think it’ll be those three. The ones right behind us when we were running.”
Baek Arin immediately realized who he meant.
“Ah, those three? They were giving us looks and glaring at us a lot.”
Ichan also figured out who they were.
“Those weird seniors?”
Sinhyeok had overheard something about them and explained.
“I asked a platoon leader I know. They said they’re people who came in last year. Not recruits, but cases personally scouted by the battalion commander from outside.”
The two nodded at his words. Baek Arin also agreed and said.
“They were definitely good. Those people.”
“They were. Good skill usage for their levels, and good body control too.”
The two acknowledged them as well. Sinhyeok mentioned them and predicted the reward.
“It’s probably them, right? I heard they got it last year too.”