Chapter 33

There are certain concepts that appear very naturally in so-called Hunter stories where monsters appear in modern times and Hunters emerge to hunt them.

The ranking system that measures Hunters’ strength and divides them into grades, monster habitats completely separated from civilian living areas, ability users who submit to the system despite having strength surpassing modern military power, an atmosphere where carrying horrific weapons of slaughter seems perfectly normal – things like that.

When reading novels, these minor details didn’t seem strange or worth questioning. After all, who has time to worry about such things when busy watching the protagonist fight monsters and grow stronger?

Going into detail about such trivial matters in the name of maintaining detail would more likely lead to negative reviews.

However, at this moment, Yuseong was directly experiencing through his body how those trivial matters that weren’t described in novels actually came to be.

Ding dong!

“Numbers 351 through 360, please enter!”

Those corresponding to the numbers immediately got up and moved to the ability measurement station set up in one corner of the auditorium.

Though “ability measurement station” might sound impressive, in reality it was just a shabby area separated by lines containing things like barbells and grip strength measurers, and other areas like the ability classification station and detailed measurement station were in similar states.

“This is different from what I imagined.”

Someone sitting in a folding chair muttered words that perfectly described Yuseong’s current feelings.

He had expected at least machines that would display ability scores numerically like a status window when touched, or truly systematic and accurate tests to measure abilities, but what lay before his eyes…

‘It feels like getting a physical at the military recruitment office? No, it’s not just a feeling – that’s exactly what this is.’

Except for the presence of women among those waiting, it was literally identical to a military physical examination. Seeing the men showing subtly familiar movements while wearing bored expressions only strengthened that impression.

Ding dong!

“Next, numbers 361 through 370, please enter!”

Taking out the slip marked 362 from his pocket, Yuseong moved to the area with the “Ability Measurement Station” sign.

“Number 362, you are Mr. Han Yuseong, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Identity confirmed. Please lift the barbell in front of you.”

Seeing an Olympic-level barbell rather than one from a neighborhood gym, Yuseong couldn’t help but ask.

“How much does this weigh?”

“About 300kg?”

“I thought the world record was around the high 200kg range, but you want me to lift 300kg?”

“We’re just checking whether you’re a Contractor or not, so just try and if you can’t do it, say you can’t. Even if you fail this, there are second and third measurements you can go to.”

“Are there any restrictions on form or what abilities can be used? Like, do I have to lift it using pure strength without using mana?”

“An ordinary human absolutely cannot lift this anyway, so what does it matter whether you lift it with pure strength or use some special ability.”

Seeing the expression and voice dripping with irritation at the very model of a civil servant, Yuseong nodded and stepped forward to firmly grasp the barbell with both hands.

“Hup!”

As he applied strength to his arms, the barbell began to rise little by little until it was perfectly lifted above his head.

Though it was an amazing sight that far surpassed the world record, unfortunately it wasn’t particularly impressive to the civil servants and people gathered here to take the test.

“Alright, confirmed. You can skip the second and third measurements and go straight to ability classification.”

“Um, is this it?”

“Yes, that’s it. Please move quickly as others are waiting.”

“……”

A feeling of betrayal.

Though he desperately tried to convince himself this was just a process to quickly distinguish those impersonating Contractors, the subsequent tests similarly betrayed his expectations.

“Martial arts and the ability to create vines? Well, martial arts should be classified as martial techniques, but creating vines could be either magic or psychic power. Is it okay if we just classify it as hybrid?”

“Yes, blood pressure, cardiopulmonary function, vision all normal. You can move to the next location.”

“Have you ever felt difficulty controlling your abilities or experienced strange impulses? If not, please move on.”

The tests were marked by such carelessness and indifference that it made his worries about Users perhaps having prepared special methods to identify fellow Users seem pointless.

And less than an hour after starting the first test, Yuseong was able to complete all tests and receive a small plastic card with his face on it.

“Alright, Contractor license issued. You can leave now.”

“This feels really… lacking care and extremely sloppy.”

The young man in charge of supervision made an embarrassed expression hearing Yuseong’s unconsciously spoken words.

“Everyone says that. Actually, in the beginning some higher-ups came and complained about what this was, so some more impressive-looking processes were added, but after continued protests we eventually went back to the original way.”

“There were protests? Why?”

“They say we don’t understand the field. With how many people come each day wanting to be tested, where would we find time to carefully test and measure each person?”

The Contractor verification center wasn’t just visited by Contractors.

People wanting to check if they were Contractors, people who hadn’t made contracts but thought they might have some superhuman abilities – they kept flooding in endlessly, so the turnover rate had to be maximized.

“Another problem is that there’s no suitable reference point for measuring Contractors’ strength or abilities.”

Is a strong ability user more powerful than a fast one?

Should a gun-using ability user be rated higher than one who uses cold weapons?

Can you compare the superiority between abilities specialized in destruction versus recovery?

Even trying to rank abilities within the same category required having some samples, but there were no facilities or equipment to accurately measure proper samples.

What made it even more troublesome was that Korea wasn’t the only country struggling with these issues.

It was already giving them headaches with just one country, but now numerous countries were all raising their voices insisting on their own standards.

Eventually, the leaders of various countries held serious discussions about this issue through video conferences and decided to adopt simple worldwide common tests that would just verify someone as a Contractor and classify their abilities.

“That’s actually pretty mild. Want to hear something more serious?”

“What is it?”

“The terms used to call Contractors and monsters. Some call close combat Contractors warriors while others say they should be called knights, or the same monster being called Giant Turtle by some and Black Tortoise by others, and even the term for Contractors varies between ability users, awakened ones, new humans…”

“Ah, I get it.”

Cutting off the young man’s words and walking out of the auditorium, Yuseong let out a long sigh.

“The situation is much more complicated than I thought.”

Beyond major issues like needing to be careful about quarantine since monsters might carry unknown viruses, or claims that monsters were divine punishment sent by an angry god against corrupted humans and Contractors were demons’ servants, problems kept arising even in these minor details.

Yuseong, who had spent most of his time in other worlds due to quests, hadn’t noticed, but people who had to remain on Earth from the monsters’ appearance until now must have experienced tremendous chaos and were still in a position to face great confusion ahead.

And Yuseong’s conclusion about this was simple.

‘I’ll just pass time doing quests until the chaos settles down somewhat.’

A truly model User’s attitude.

Though he wanted to put on the goggles and head to another world right now, Yuseong suppressed that impulse and got into a passing taxi.

‘Securing safe housing has to come first.’

The time ratio between Earth and other worlds was completely arbitrary.

If he didn’t want to become an unexpected intruder on strangers’ intimate moments like yesterday, he needed to find a new place.

‘At least making money won’t be difficult. I can sell the gold coins obtained from this quest.’

Though their value just in terms of gold content might not be much, these were gold coins from another world, not Earth.

He had confirmed that coins and weapons dropped by some monsters were being traded at incredible prices among collectors and historians, so selling them would surely bring in a large sum.

The problem was the process.

Suddenly bringing out a pouch of gold coins to sell would surely draw enormous attention.

So Yuseong wanted to prepare at least minimal insurance.

Even if receiving attention was unavoidable, he wanted to create a plausible intermediate process rather than appearing out of nowhere.

“We’ve arrived.”

Soldiers maintaining barricades and watching the surroundings, and not a few people gathered in small groups nearby talking amongst themselves.

Getting out of the taxi, Yuseong approached the barricade without hesitation.

“Stop! This is a restricted area. Step back!”

Though Korea had prevented monster invasions with some of the lowest casualties in the world due to various conditions overlapping, that didn’t mean there was no damage at all.

They had lost quite a bit of territory to monsters including untouched mountains and rough terrain, villages and small cities with low population density, and due to monsters hiding in the special environment of urban warfare, there were still places in Seoul that hadn’t been perfectly reclaimed.

The place Yuseong had come to was one such area.

“I heard Contractors can enter. Is that not true?”

“Ah, are you a Contractor?”

Modern weapons have powerful firepower but that alone was insufficient for dealing with monsters.

Due to various issues from monsters unaffected by physical force to problems that would arise from using high-powered weapons in urban areas, the government allowed Contractors to enter restricted zones.

Since monster corpses and their miscellaneous items were being traded at tremendous prices anyway, they thought it would kill three birds with one stone – obtaining data on Contractors, dealing with monsters, and stimulating the economy.

However, there was one major problem with this.

“Do you really intend to enter?”

“Yes.”

“How about thinking it over one more time? Going in bare-handed without any weapons is a bit…”

That’s right.

Even with monsters appearing and Hunters emerging to hunt them, Korea remained a country where weapon possession was not permitted due to restrictions on sword and firearms laws.

This was the current state of proud K-Defense.