Chapter 123: Verification of Life (2)

Good. It landed perfectly.

Thinking that, Yeorum distanced herself.

A portion of the battle was over, and her body became relaxed. The time she spent walking awkwardly while holding onto Yu Jitae’s hand flashed across her head. “You’ll now learn how to walk.” Those were the exact words that Yu Jitae had used back then.

The fact that she will learn how to walk implied that she wasn’t able to walk until now, so Yeorum had been discontent and doubtful.

But now she had a rough idea.

This was how great ‘walking’ was.

Since she had been holding back because of what Sophia said, it was the first time she used everything in her arsenal against a living target in a real battle. Strength overflowed from her body. Despite the fight having ended, her dragon heart still pulsed with a thud. 

The first thing that she thought of was Yu Jitae.

Yu Jitae.

He was a very strange human.

At times, he was like a kidnapper but now he was acting like a guardian. At times, he acted like a human but was like a red dragon during training.

Plus, before, he had been acting as if he was interested in teaching her, but was now like a true teacher. 

She wasn’t sure but now she was certain. Yu Jitae’s training method was correct, and he was her teacher. 

Just then, she had proven that with her own body.

“Oi! Yu Yeorum!”

That was when Sophia urgently ran up and pushed a potion bottle into her mouth. Her own shoulder had a hole that bled heavily but she didn’t care.

After Yeorum swallowed the potion, Sophia yelled.

“Yu Yeorum. Are you crazy for real?”

“Aingg. What now.”

“What were you thinking, like seriously?”

“We won anyway.”

“No we didn’t. It’s not over yet! Why in the world did you start this just by ourselves? We almost all died here!”

“You don’t die though? You just get proclaimed that you’re dead.”

“If that happened, you would be dead by me!”

Wearing an expression tainted with fury, Sophia irritatedly shouted.

“Why are you doing whatever the fuc* you want without saying anything?”

“Why not.”

“Stop. I’m really angry right now.”

‘Why’ am I doing this?

Yeorum turned around with an indifferent expression. Sophia shouted something but ignoring that, Yeorum rummaged through her pocket and found a small piece of chocolate.

At a distance, something covered in blue light could be seen raising its body up behind the large, burnt corpse of the large spider. 

“It’s too late anyway. Prepare yourself if you have time to chit-chat.”

Yeorum threw the chocolate Yu Jitae gave into her mouth. She didn’t really like the sweet flavour it had. 

A cigarette would have been better.

***

Petrovic, and not only him but most of the superhumans that had been active during the Great War, tended to find the new generation of superhumans sloppy. 

Petrovic always thought to himself.

Back in my days, my mother would die if I died to a monster. The life of a single mother who had lost her husband to a monster in her youth; her life that was spent trying to feed my younger brother and I, rested on my shoulders.

But do the kids these days even understand that?

The kids these days,

They were sloppy.

There’s no eagerness, no sense of danger and no urgency. The desire to get stronger at the risk of their lives is non-existent. Since they are feeding themselves on a safe grassland with plenty of water, they don’t understand how it felt to look for weeds and devour it up to its roots at a dusty desert. 

To them, superhumans were some sports players or something. 

Geniuses existed in any era, and there were some dumbfounding ones like Yong Taeha in the mix, but that was the end.

Most of them avoided risky places and were busy trying to push their task onto someone else. It was impossible to find any young one that tried zealously to kill monsters at the cost of their flesh. 

Of course, it wasn’t their fault as cadets. He just found it regrettable that the era and the society had made them like that.

That’s what he had been thinking, but –

– Wahh! Yu Yeorum!!

– So cool!!

– Wtf! She’s really insane!!!

– YOOOOOOO!!!

Petrovic formed tight fists.

On the screen were superhumans of the past.

They had young and immature faces and it was a sloppy battle, but he could see a reflection of the past young soldiers in them – those who had to shoulder the lives of their families and those that were made to realise that weakness was a sin. 

“Ouuhh damn! It’s crazy!!”

The moment Yu Yeorum dashed through dozens of metres and landed a strike onto the boss, Petrovic unconsciously swung his fist and destroyed his bookshelf. Books came crashing down but he didn’t spare it a glance.

“Stay on your toes everyone! It’s not over yet!”

The middle-aged retired soldier yelled excitedly.

“I’ve said it many times, but you always have to understand the monsters when you’re fighting a monster inside a fissure!”

– Yes sir.

– Yes, you said it!

“Why would the boss have a human body on it as a mere spider?”

As soon as his words came to an end, the second phase of the boss raid began.

Flames erupted and the body of the spider was scorched to ashes. Like all arthropods, spider-type monsters were also weak to fire. 

However, things were different for the human body that was attached to the outer shell of the spider. Despite its head being cut off, it began to move.

Kwakwakwang!

At the same time, the entrance of the boss room that had been blocked by Yeorum, was opened. While swearing out loud, approximately 30 cadets came rushing in as a grooup.

Grit… griiit…

The second phase began with the human body separating itself from the outer shell. Although the upper body resembled a female, what came out from beneath the shell were four pairs of wings, and it looked like a winged insect.

– Uaak, looks disgusting.

– Damn it. The soup I had in the morning is coming back up.

– Woah, it looks shit fr;;

Witch.

It was a monster resembling a human that used magic.

Petrovic focused on the screen with a frown. From now, the insurmountable wall of reality, that small levels of desperation cannot deal with, will come crashing at the cadets. 

Desperation had to be normalised into their lives, not a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. According to the data shared by Lair, the time given to prepare for the underground dungeon raid was three days. 

How much they’ve prepared for the raid will be shown now.

Forgetting to commentate for a few seconds, Petrovic focused on how the situation would unfold hereon. Now that dozens of cadets had entered the boss room, defeating the boss was a natural result and was beside the point. 

“Actually, the audience watching this, as well as the cadets probably don’t exactly know how the marks are given.”

– Isn’t it about who deals more damage?

– No. Last hitting is more important than damage. The one that kills the boss gets more points don’t they?

– Lololololol. You lunatics are obsessed with fighting. You idiots, don’t you know ‘safety first’? Not getting hurt at the boss raid is the most important!

Hundreds of comments were posted after that and they were all correct. They were correct, but what Lair valued, and the thing they were trying to evaluate was slightly different. 

“The most important question is, ‘Which team will adapt to abnormal statuses first and be ready to fight again?’”

Lair wanted evidence, verification of the cadets’ preparation time. How well have they prepared for the raid in three short days? How ready were they for the raid? That was the crucial element of their evaluation criteria. 

“It’ll start now. Gravity will go up immensely!”

Before long, a tremendous amount of pressure began pushing the heads of the cadets down. It was roughly 20 times the gravitational force.

“The cadets will be flustered!”

They probably would’ve gone through several adapting practices, but they were still cadets. The only superhumans that could immediately deal with an immense increase in gravity were the veterans. 

“If they can’t handle it, they’ll drop their weapons that suddenly became heavier, and fall down!!”

His words became reality.

More than half the cadets dropped their weapons, and 80% of the cadets faltered before landing on their knees. Some cadets who had broadswords and heavy weapons like sniping muskets were pinned down by their weapons.

The witch floated in mid-air. She then frantically flew around while showering down piles of icy arrows and bolts of lightning. 

There was nothing they could do when they were on the ground. As long as the cadets weren’t front-guards or physically strong superhumans, they couldn’t do anything against the fierce spells of the witch. With one strike, their protective necklaces were shattered, creating a protective shield around them.

Meanwhile, the cadets slowly pulled themselves together.

“Don’t blink! It’ll be anytime soon!”

There was one team that adapted to the immense gravity before others, and entered the second phase of the boss raid.

– Woah, they must’ve prepared super hard lol

– Amazing. Despite their injuries!

– They got up…!(° ▭°)(° ▭°)(° ▭°)

It was none other than Yeorum’s team. 

Petrovic felt his blood boil somewhere in the depths of his stomach. Besides, they weren’t struggling to fight properly either. Fitting their roles as front-fighters, Yeorum and Sophia jumped up like always, and the two sharpshooters at the back raised their weapons and attacked without any hesitation.

‘Yeorum and the Losties’ were thorough with their preparations as well.

“HOLY SHIT!”

The retired soldier yelled with joy.

Soon after that, the Yong household, Erfan Guild and Noblesse School also got up at around the same time. Because there were so many cadets, the witch had trouble sustaining the spell once all the attacks were focused on her. A few seconds later, the gravity spell was undone.

What could she do when a group of cadets ran up and smashed her to a pulp? The witch was soon killed and the raid came to an end.

+++Score Board+++

1. Yeorum and the Losties: 20

2. Noblesse: 8

3. Team Erfan: 7

4. Squad ‘Dragon’: 6

…

+++Score Board+++

It was an overwhelming victory from Yeorum’s team.

“This will be the end of today’s commentary.”

Petrovic gave a clap with a satisfied smile and signalled the end of the PR team’s live streaming session.

“Today is a great day, because I was able to have a peek at a new possibility. Well then, I will be back when the PR team hosts another video. This was from Balkan Peninsula, a reporter of Serbia’s Association, Petrovic.”

But even after the end of the stream, Petrovic could not stop thinking about ‘Yeorum and the Losties’. 

Seriously, how long had it been since he was this excited?

There were many cadets who spoke about how they would fight desperately, and some might be able to imitate it to an extent. However, he had never seen anyone carry a gaze, an atmosphere and energy around them, that caused him to reminisce on the soldiers of the past. 

Sophia Vorkova, and two cadets whom he had never heard of before. Those three were truly great.

However, Yu Yeorum who had led the three and controlled the flow of the battlefield. She was… a one of a kind, never seen before.

+++

[Official Petrovic of the Association]

Title: Summer is Coming.

Today, I became a fan of one cadet. A cadet whose marvelous, mighty and beautiful talent shines like a star.

+++

That night, Petrovic searched for Yeorum’s fancafe in secret, and discovered a Korean web forum which was the most active.

It’s name was ‘Crazy for Yeorum’.

<Welcome, member ‘PV’!>

However, he felt doubtful on one end. What made a young cadet like Yu Yeorum be like that in such a peaceful era? What were her circumstances?

In fact, even the cadets of Communist China and RIL who have their lives on the line, are not able to fight so desperately. It’s because the fact that they became cadets meant that their positions in their organisations were great enough to secure their lives. 

In any case, this was not a problem that Petrovic had to involve himself in. With a smile, he left his first post on the forum page.

PV: Hi guys! New kid on the block here!

***

After the raid, Yeorum walked outside and glanced around. She seemed to be looking for something.

But once a group of people began walking up to her, she gave a frown.