TSCU 06

Chapter 6

To understand the current situation, one first had to understand the power structure of this training camp.

Naturally, the person with the most authority was the head instructor, Black Hammer.

Below him were the instructors, followed by a long line of assistant instructors.

But that didn’t mean everything would be fine simply because someone had caught Black Hammer’s eye.

If that were the case, these guys wouldn’t have come after me in the first place.

Kang Hyuk glared at the men standing before him.

Perhaps they were hesitating now that they actually had to make a move, because they hadn’t attacked him right away.

That gave him some time to think.

In the end, what matters is the performance of the trainees assigned to each person.

Even if the overall group of trainees was doing well, an instructor wouldn’t receive much of a reward if the trainees under his direct supervision performed poorly.

That was why Thick Molars was persistently harassing him.

Kang Hyuk was performing the best, but he wasn’t one of Thick Molars’ assigned trainees.

So Thick Molars wanted to crush his momentum completely.

Honestly, if Kang Hyuk wanted to, he could report the matter to the orc in charge of him and have these men dealt with instead.

But he had no intention of doing that.

“How many of you does it take to deal with one person? Don’t you have any pride?”

Kang Hyuk drew his dagger as he spoke.

Despite there being three of them, the men hesitated when they saw the blade gleaming blue.

Once again, Kang Hyuk was reminded that they were still inexperienced youths who hadn’t even shed their trainee status.

If they had spent even a few months living at the bottom of the world here, they would have swung their clubs first instead of running their mouths.

Still, that wouldn’t make any difference when it came to relieving his stress.

Kang Hyuk looked over them one by one before suddenly throwing himself forward without any warning.

Tap!

His target was the man on the far left.

He was the largest of the three and had the most intimidating appearance.

That was precisely why Kang Hyuk had chosen him first.

“U-Ugh!”

Even when Kang Hyuk charged straight at him, the man failed to react properly.

He was acting exactly as Kang Hyuk had expected.

Since he had naturally been gifted with a strong body, there probably hadn’t been many people willing to charge at him without hesitation.

The carelessness born from that arrogance looked nothing but delicious to Kang Hyuk.

The man belatedly raised his club.

Slash!

“Ugh!”

Kang Hyuk swung his dagger upward and cut the hand holding the club.

The man’s grip immediately weakened, and the club dropped to the ground.

Clack!

Ignoring the sound of the club striking the ground behind him, Kang Hyuk placed a hand on the shoulder of the man who had hunched forward and lightly launched himself into the air.

Bam!

His flying kick struck the head of the man standing beside him.

“Urgh!”

As he fell, the man instinctively grabbed Yoo Hyuk-soo, who was standing nearby.

Whoosh!

Yoo Hyuk-soo wasn’t completely incompetent either.

Even while stumbling, he swung his club at Kang Hyuk.

But if he had launched a proper attack, it might have been different.

An attack with neither the proper strength nor direction had no chance of landing.

Kang Hyuk casually avoided it by slightly lowering his head, then swung his dagger upward.

Slash!

“AAARGH! Fuck!”

Blood poured from the slash running from the back of his hand up to his forearm.

With an injury like that, he wouldn’t be able to properly grip a weapon with his right hand for the rest of this fight.

“T-This fucking—”

Yoo Hyuk-soo trembled as he cursed.

Kang Hyuk responded.

In a rather violent manner.

“Guh!”

He thrust his hand straight forward and drove the edge of his palm hard into Yoo Hyuk-soo’s Adam’s apple.

Hyuk-soo clutched his throat and began choking.

“Y-You bastard!”

Meanwhile, the large man whose hand had been cut first tried to swing his club.

Without even properly looking at him, Kang Hyuk lowered his body and swung his dagger.

Slash!

“Ah!”

The man’s shin was cut, causing him to hunch forward.

What an idiot.

Kang Hyuk chuckled and kicked the man’s exposed head with all his strength.

Bam!

The man staggered from the impact before collapsing face-first onto the ground.

“S-Stop.”

Perhaps Yoo Hyuk-soo had realized that the situation was already hopeless.

He spoke with an earnest expression.

Kang Hyuk smiled and replied,

“Stop? Why would I stop?”

He proceeded to methodically beat Hyuk-soo’s body.

He carefully considered every part of him as he swung his fists and feet, making sure not to leave a single spot untouched.

Thud! Bam! Thud!

“Urgh! Guh!”

The other men watched Yoo Hyuk-soo being beaten but didn’t dare try to help him.

And it was understandable.

Unless they had some relationship outside the camp, they had known each other for only four or five days at most.

They spent every day undergoing exhausting training before collapsing into bed.

How much friendship could they possibly have built in such a routine?

“Phew.”

After thoroughly beating Hyuk-soo, Kang Hyuk looked down with satisfaction at the man trembling face-down on the ground.

Then he turned his attention to the other two.

“Guys.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Oh? That’s a pretty casual way to speak.”

Kang Hyuk smiled.

The men trembled.

How pitiful they looked.

They cautiously lowered their eyes and answered.

“S-Sorry, sir.”

“Good. Then get down.”

“What?”

“What? You bastard. Get into a headstand.”

Kang Hyuk glared at the two of them.

“What are you waiting for?”

Only then did the two men immediately lie face-down on the ground.

Kang Hyuk sat astride one of their backs and spoke.

“Ugh.”

“Guys. Surprisingly, I don’t really have anything against you. You were just following orders, weren’t you?”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

“Your voice is too quiet.”

“Yes, sir!”

Kang Hyuk nodded in satisfaction before continuing.

“So don’t act up from now on. Go tell the person who ordered you to do this.”

He recalled Thick Molars’ face and spoke.

“Don’t do anything stupid and just take care of yourself. Don’t stare at a tree you can’t climb. Make sure you repeat those exact words. Got it?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. I’m a little tired, so let’s rest like this for exactly ten minutes.”

Sitting there, Kang Hyuk thought.

Even if he said this, Thick Molars wouldn’t be able to scheme against him directly.

He would probably think of another method instead.

If he tries something halfway decent, I’ll just crush him.

Kang Hyuk nodded, then got off the man’s back and stood up.

“That’s enough. I’m leaving. You guys can go too.”

“T-Thank you, sir!”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

He waved his hand casually and returned to the accommodation.

As soon as Kang Hyuk entered, he sat down in his usual place and poured some recovery potion onto his hands.

The pain disappeared in an instant.

He casually shook his hands and thought.

Maybe I should have sent a stronger warning…

He hadn’t simply acted on impulse or beaten them up to relieve his stress.

Everything he had done had been carefully planned according to his goals.

If things proceeded as Kang Hyuk expected, then not only Thick Molars but most of the others would hesitate to touch him.

In fact, if he had wanted to make things completely certain, there had been no need to send such provocative words to Thick Molars at the end.

Still, I can’t let him completely lose interest in me.

His goal wasn’t merely to escape this place safely.

He intended to deal with Thick Molars before leaving the training camp no matter what.

Telling them to deliver those words was groundwork for that.

There was no way that bastard would simply ignore Kang Hyuk’s warning.

He might not be able to attack him as openly as he had this time, but…

“Phew.”

Kang Hyuk reviewed his plan one more time in his head before lying down and going to sleep.

---

“The bodies of you trainees do not belong to you.”

The next day.

Before training began, Black Hammer climbed onto the platform and spoke ominously.

“Until you graduate from this training camp, you must be careful not to suffer even the slightest injury outside of training. Even a small injury could lead to your elimination.”

There was no way Black Hammer was saying this because he was concerned about the trainees’ health.

Sure enough, he soon got to the real point.

“However, last night, I received a report that several trainees got into a fight.”

His sharp gaze swept across several trainees.

The more perceptive orcs immediately realized who the head instructor was referring to and glared at them as if they wanted to devour them.

Yoo Hyuk-soo and his lackeys trembled under the attention directed at them.

Their training would probably become considerably more difficult from now on.

“I won’t punish you separately. However, I will be watching carefully to see whether you can continue to perform your remaining training properly.”

With that, Black Hammer finished speaking.

Just before he stepped down from the platform, his eyes met Kang Hyuk’s.

Kang Hyuk saw a trace of interest in the head instructor’s gaze.

Of course. He received a report.

Kang Hyuk was the one who had inflicted those injuries, but Black Hammer deliberately neither mentioned that fact nor let it show in his expression.

That was a positive sign.

It meant Black Hammer had even greater expectations and interest in him than Kang Hyuk had anticipated.

If used properly, those expectations could become a useful weapon.

“All right! Starting today, you’ll have sparring matches between trainees in the morning, and in the afternoon, you’ll form teams and hunt monsters!”

The instructors soon began explaining the training and drawing up the matchups.

Kang Hyuk’s eyes gleamed.

Both sparring and monster hunting were excellent ways to identify useful people.

He would be able to search for new talents in addition to those he already knew from his memories.

Besides, the rewards from this training are quite substantial.

As Kang Hyuk remembered, this training would continue for exactly three days, and on the final day, the person who ranked first overall would receive a major reward.

After that, the training camp’s final examination would continue for several days.

In other words, this was effectively the last opportunity to obtain rewards before graduation.

“All right! We’ll proceed in this order! Everyone, form a circle!”

The matchups were soon completed.

The trainees stood in a large circle, leaving an open space in the middle.

Under the guidance of the assistants, the trainees scheduled for the first match walked into the center.

“Mirian and Liu Xiaoyun. Face each other.”

The first match was none other than Berserker Mirian against a Chinese man named Liu Xiaoyun.

Liu Xiaoyun was nearly 190 centimeters tall, with abnormally long arms.

His weapon was a spear, just like Mirian’s.

After all, the weapons available to trainees were mostly blunt weapons, spears, and daggers.

“That guy is pretty good.”

Kang Hyuk turned his head at the voice coming from beside him.

Lee Tae-beom was standing there.

During training like this, quietly talking to each other was permitted.

Kang Hyuk glanced at Liu Xiaoyun before asking,

“Is he?”

“Yes. Look at how long his arms are. If he extends a spear with those long arms, his reach is incredible. When I saw him fight the monster the other day, the monster charged at him and he just went—”

Tae-beom imitated a stabbing motion with a spear.

“It was over in one hit.”

“I suppose that’s pretty threatening.”

“Right? Especially since his opponent looks like she has a much shorter reach.”

As he listened to Tae-beom, Kang Hyuk vaguely remembered the scene.

Because Liu Xiaoyun’s reach was so long, the monster had died without even being able to get close.

It must have been quite an impressive sight among the trainees.

However, Kang Hyuk didn’t really agree that Liu Xiaoyun was threatening or that his opponent was at a disadvantage.

“I’m not so sure…”

He answered that way before turning his attention forward again.

The sparring match was about to begin.

A man and woman stood facing each other with spears in their hands.

Looking at them, Kang Hyuk thought:

Mirian is at a disadvantage?

If that was what Lee Tae-beom thought, then his ability to judge other people’s skills was rather poor compared to his own strength.

“Begin!”

The moment the orc shouted, Mirian charged forward.

Liu Xiaoyun reacted without delay and thrust his spear straight ahead.

His reach was easily one and a half times longer than that of the others.

The spear instantly shot toward Mirian’s face.

It’s over.

Kang Hyuk reached his conclusion the moment he saw it.

Clack!

The sound of wood striking wood rang out.

Mirian shifted her center of gravity slightly to the right and avoided the spear.

Then she pushed Liu Xiaoyun’s spear aside with the shaft of her own.

Flustered, Liu Xiaoyun tried to quickly retrieve his spear.

But his movements weren’t fast enough to compensate for his extremely long reach.

Before he could bring his spear back, Mirian had already drawn her dagger and placed it against Xiaoyun’s throat.

“Stop!”

The assistant instructor announced the end of the match in a sharp voice.

“You win. Step out.”

“Yes.”

Everyone was dumbfounded by how quickly the match had ended.

Lee Tae-beom was no exception.

“Wow. What was that?”

He could understand what had happened with his head.

But emotionally, it was difficult to comprehend.

Liu Xiaoyun had made full use of his long reach when attacking.

The problem was that he hadn’t thought about what came next.

If someone’s reach was that long, there was no need to fully extend his arm.

Even a slight extension would give him a range equivalent to that of an ordinary person’s full reach.

He could have used that advantage to keep his opponent from approaching while looking for an opening.

Instead, he had recklessly thrust his spear straight forward.

There was no way he wouldn’t lose.

“All right, next!”

After that, the matches continued two at a time.

Some won.

Some lost.

But no one particularly caught Kang Hyuk’s interest.

Eventually, it was his turn.

“Number 32! Number 12! Into the center!”

Kang Hyuk stepped into the circle and saw the person approaching from the opposite side.

Hiro.

In Kang Hyuk’s memories of the future, this man would become better known by the nickname Scavenger.

He looked to be in his early twenties at most and had an innocent-looking face.

But Kang Hyuk knew the despicable personality hidden beneath that appearance.

“It’s a pleasure to fight you.”

Hiro bowed politely to Kang Hyuk with a friendly smile.

Kang Hyuk held a spear that was about half the length of the standard ones and nodded.

“Yeah.”

Scavenger Hiro was originally one of the people Kang Hyuk had decided to kill first, whether inside the training camp or outside.

Kang Hyuk stared at him.

He possessed the Predation Ability.

And humans were no exception to its targets.

He looked at Hiro again and thought:

He wouldn’t be a bad first meal.

Kang Hyuk tightened his grip around the spear.

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