Life Reversal With Random Skills - c11
Title: Life Reversal with Random Skills! Episode 11
After the start of the combat proficiency test, the viewing room was filled with a thick tension.
Not only the hunter applicants taking the exam but also their acquaintances were equally tense.
The families, friends, lovers, children of the hunter applicants.
Numerous people stared at the screens, divided into hundreds, holding their breath while watching the screens of those they were rooting for.
Of course, there were also people who weren’t nervous at all.
The guild’s scouts.
The seasoned scouts observed the hunter applicants incessantly, jotting down notes or typing on tablet PCs.
“Oh, there are more decent applicants than I thought?”
“Yeah. There seem to be more promising candidates in this round.”
“Right. We should keep an eye on not only Kang Seorim but also other applicants.”
The guild’s scouts, among hundreds of hunter applicants, took note of the names of awakened individuals who performed better than expected, considering recruiting them.
That was the moment.
“Oh! They’ve clashed!”
At that moment, Heo Yeeun’s gaze, which had been fixed on Ha Minwoo’s screen, abruptly shifted to another screen.
It was inevitable.
Because two screens were projecting similar areas.
The meaning of two screens projecting similar areas was simple.
It meant that two hunter applicants had encountered each other within the exam venue.
And in this exam, when hunter applicants met, there was hardly a case where they simply dispersed.
As if to prove that, the hunter applicants on the screens fiercely rushed at each other as soon as they spotted each other.
Swish!
Hunters drawing dangerous trajectories with swords and spears.
Watching them thrust, slash, evade, block, and counterattack, the people in the viewing room held their breath.
The tension-filled viewing room.
Even those who had been loudly chattering as if they were at a marketplace couldn’t open their mouths casually at this moment.
Their fight was not merely to determine victory or defeat but a bloody battle to take each other’s lives.
“Whoa…!”
Amidst such intense struggle, a middle-aged woman suddenly stood up and shouted.
Please! As if praying for it not to be true.
The screen she was looking at was broadcasting a horrific scene.
“It’s over….” Heo Yeeun furrowed her brows.
One person on the screen was thrusting a spear into the abdomen of another.
Blood flowing down the spear.
“Oh, no! What do we do! Hyunseok!” The middle-aged woman screamed as she watched.
It seemed to be the mother of the applicant who was stabbed with the spear.
Swoosh!
The victorious hunter withdrew the spear.
As blood sprayed like a fountain, the bushes turned red.
The gushing blood and contorted faces.
The applicant who let out a short moan struggled to regain balance but collapsed.
…
Looking at the horrific scene on the screen, the people in the viewing room held their breath.
All that could be heard was the cries of a mother calling out her son’s name and weeping.
It was a completely natural reaction.
No mother could watch her son being killed without being shocked.
But despairingly, the brutal scene didn’t end there.
The victorious hunter, that is, the winner, thoroughly searched the body of the loser who had died a moment ago.
Then, they looted valuable items and left.
There was no remorse or respect for the dead.
“Oh, Hyunseok. What do we do, our poor son…”
The loser’s mother collapsed to the ground, murmuring helplessly.
She couldn’t be expected to be in her right mind, witnessing her son being not only killed but also robbed.
But neither Heo Yeeun nor anyone else condemned the winner or pitied the loser.
Because from the moment they stepped into the world of hunters, they had to be prepared for such an end.
It had been accepted for a long time that the world of fighting was cruel and brutal.
After the first fight occurred, battle scenes were broadcast on other screens as well.
It was the start of the hunter applicants, who had been wandering in the forest, beginning the test in earnest.
Hunter applicants fought fiercely as if it were astonishing, considering they had so far only hunted spirits quietly.
Blocking, hitting, stabbing, slashing, looting, killing, choking, and other merciless battles.
It might seem somewhat brutal, but this was the essence and core of the combat proficiency test.
In dungeons where the law didn’t function, robbery and murder were too common.
To operate as an official hunter, one had to endure this level of trial.
“….Huh?”
It was then.
Heo Yeeun’s head turned away from the grieving mother, tears streaming down her face.
It was inevitable.
One screen had completely taken Heo Yeeun’s gaze.
Clang!
The screen turned white.
Soon it flashed orange and red.
And finally, the entire screen turned black.
“Explosion…?”
The reason the screen turned black was due to the explosion.
It was an explosion of such magnitude that it covered the entire space the camera was capturing.
Everyone in the viewing room’s gaze turned to that screen.
Even the middle-aged woman who was crying over the loss of her child turned her gaze there.
That’s how eye-catching that particular screen was.
“That’s Minwoo’s screen, isn’t it?”
Surprisingly, the screen that captured everyone’s attention belonged to Ha Minwoo.
Unbelievable.
What on earth was happening?
Minwoo oppa caused that tremendous explosion?
“Could it be the magic he used earlier?”
Heo Yeeun blinked incessantly.
She recalled what happened during the awakening ability test.
Back then, Ha Minwoo completely destroyed the examination room using a dazzlingly powerful skill.
So, could this explosion be the result of that magic?
Heo Yeeun was amazed by Ha Minwoo’s greatness, but there was another real surprise.
“….!”
As the smoke cleared from the explosion, Heo Yeeun’s pupils dilated.
Her mouth hung wide open.
To outsiders, she might have looked somewhat grotesque, but she didn’t care about that right now.
No, she had no reason to care.
Just like her, countless people in the viewing room had their mouths hanging open.
“The…the forest….”
The forest.
It disappeared.
It wasn’t a metaphor.
In the area where the smoke cleared, the forest had truly vanished.
It was as if a hundred bulldozers had pushed through the dense forest like the Amazon, leaving it barren.
“This…this is insane. What’s that?”
“N…No way. He pushed the forest away.”
“Wh…what’s wrong with that person? Is that applicant? Did a regular hunter make a mistake?”
“Wait a minute. Can a regular hunter do something like that?”
“This is insane. They swept away not only spirits but also the entire forest. What kind of magic did they use…?”
Everyone in the viewing room was astounded.
Even the guild scouts were equally astonished.
Experienced scouts.
They had encountered numerous hunter applicants while working as scouts.
Most of them were trash, but occasionally there were gems, promising individuals.
Kang Seorim was one of those gems.
But that applicant over there was different.
They didn’t just have gem-level talent; they possessed a talent akin to a gold mine.
“Applicant 119, Ha Minwoo? Who’s that? I’ve never heard of them before.”
“Me neither. How come there was such a strong applicant? But why didn’t we know about them until now?”
“This is insane. How can this be possible? They’re a monster. They’re more of a monster than Kang Seorim or Hwang Sanha…”
The guild scouts murmured as they looked at the screen of Applicant 119, Ha Minwoo.
They had come here to recruit promising hunters.
Among them, the most desirable catch was, of course, Kang Seorim.
Kang Seorim was such a skilled individual that they could rival Hwang Sanha.
But now, at this moment…
Their attention was completely diverted elsewhere.
Kang Seorim?
Hwang Sanha?
Neither of them.
Their attention was focused on the unknown applicant, ‘Ha Minwoo’.
“It’s starting again!”
It was then.
Heo Yeeun’s head turned again in astonishment at the sight of the screen showing the intense scene being broadcast.
“Kang Seorim is starting to move!”
The reason her head turned was simple.
The screen where the fight was happening belonged to Kang Seorim.
Kang Seorim.
A promising hunter known as a genius or a fraud.
Her approach to the combat proficiency test was different from other hunter applicants.
While other hunters continued the test by primarily hunting spirits, occasionally engaging in battles with other hunters, the main purpose was hunting spirits.
But Kang Seorim was different.
She focused on hunting other hunter applicants rather than spirits.
It might seem somewhat cruel, but when you consider only the results, it wasn’t a bad choice.
The way to pass this test was not only by hunting many spirits but also by knocking out competitors.
In fact, many people chose this method in this test.
But her approach to combat was a bit different.
Unlike the other applicants who fought fiercely, she overwhelmed her opponents with overwhelming force, swiftly taking them down as if pushing them aside like a bulldozer.
“The top candidate is indeed different.”
Kang Seorim, with pink claws in both hands, swiftly dealt with opponents she encountered among the hunter applicants.
Behind her, only warm blood remained after she swung her claws like a black panther.
“Indeed….”
Heo Yeeun watched Kang Seorim swing her claws without hesitation, the blood not drying despite her relentless attacks.
Ha Minwoo and Kang Seorim.
Indeed, who would take the top spot in this test among the two.
—
I constantly roamed the forest, hunting spirits.
Spirits weren’t so common, so filling up a hundred of them wasn’t easy.
“Still, I’ve caught nearly sixty.”
I’ve hunted approximately sixty spirits so far.
If you catch a hundred, you win the test, so this should definitely surpass the middle ranks.
“I’m lucky some mild skills came out.”
Fortunately, the winning skills from the random skill selection were somewhat mild.
Of course, most of them were powerful enough to cause a massive explosion, but some were mild enough that I could progress relatively quietly.
It might seem like a first-world problem to others, but it was truly fortunate for me.
I just wanted to finish the test as quietly as possible.
“It’s also fortunate that I didn’t have to fight other hunter applicants.”
Another fortunate point was that I didn’t have to engage in combat with other hunter applicants.
Of course, I didn’t fight, but that didn’t mean I didn’t encounter them.
I did encounter other hunter applicants occasionally while wandering through the forest.
But fortunately, there were no skirmishes.
Perhaps it was because of the power of my skills.
I had a rough idea why they didn’t approach me and disappeared.
They must have been scared and fled from the magic I cast.
In fact, it was a wise decision on their part.
Powerful skills that could turn a dense forest into a bald spot.
No one in their right mind would charge at someone who could do that.
“I’m lucky. It was just luck.”
They thought of me as a terrifying presence and ran away.
But I was just as scared.
I had an S-grade skill, but my defense was too ordinary.
No, even the power and type of S-grade skills were all random.
“Phew, let’s just keep going like this. Then I’ll pass.”
Now, there were only 40 spirits left.
Yeah, it’s almost over.
Just keep doing what I’ve been doing.
If I do that, I can safely finish the test without fighting other hunter applicants.
As I thought that…
Suddenly, the bushes nearby split roughly, and a hunter applicant popped out.
“The atmosphere doesn’t seem welcoming…”
She was a female hunter with short hair wearing pink claws.
She looked very dangerous.