Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“Alright, Group 3 will now enter the physical examination room.”

The five members of each squad file in line and enter the examination room.

Inside, partitioned spaces house doctors in white coats. Each person approaches the doctor in turn and sits down.

“Hello, Doctor.”

Do-jae’s seat is number 3.

He is seated right in the center.

The attending physician responded cheerfully to Dojae’s greeting.

“Good morning. Could you hand me the paperwork first?”

“Here you go.”

Do-jae handed over the documents he had brought.

Essential documents like the resident registration transcript and academic certificates had already been submitted online, but items like any special findings from the physical exam, work history, and certifications needed to be submitted in person.

“You have quite a bit of experience. Could you wait a moment while I enter this information?”

“Yes, understood.”

He began inputting the data into the computer, combining the pre-printed documents with the ones Dojae had brought.

In the old days, people would have complained about wasting talent by making doctors do such clerical work, but today’s doctors fall into two categories.

Hunter doctors and regular doctors.

Naturally, hunter doctors rank above general practitioners.

Hunter doctors are vastly superior to regular doctors in terms of surgical speed and accuracy.

Even though they both graduated from medical school, there’s a qualitative difference.

Moreover, surgeons possessing healing skills have reached such a level that even patients who underwent major surgery can get out of bed within days.

Ah, but this is a completely different concept from healers.

Healers enhance recovery rates to enable self-healing, while doctors are the ones who perform surgeries and procedures.

“Hmm, you do have experience, but it’s quite an unusual case.”

“Haha, right?”

The unusual case the doctor mentioned was something Dojae had already guessed.

His career as an F-rank.

Becoming E-rank was so recent that compared to his F-rank days, it was practically nonexistent.

“Since the extermination force recruits from E-rank onward, I’m not sure if your F-rank experience will be recognized. We’ve never had a case like this before.”

“Yeah. F-rankers aren’t recognized anywhere, after all.”

“Yes, then I’ll just submit the basic documents for now and follow up separately about the details…”

“Excuse me, sir.”

“Yes?”

“By any chance, would mana scanning be possible?”

Dojae mentioned the information he had researched beforehand.

He had seen that a simplified mana scan was available at the physical examination center.

“It is possible, but… didn’t you just have one recently?”

“I’d like to get it done again. The application form said it’s possible upon the applicant’s request.”

As Dojae said, the application contained not only precautions but also various pieces of information.

Most people just fill in the blanks and move on, but Dojae had read it carefully.

“Yes, I’ll run the scan for you. But you do understand that to get a final confirmation after this, you’ll need to undergo the full scanning again, right?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The doctor stood up and headed somewhere.

Since this wasn’t a common occurrence, he had gone to fetch a separate scanner.

‘This time, the scan results have to come out right.’

The results from the last scan were utterly unconvincing.

He had suspected either a problem with the scanner or some kind of error, and now a good opportunity had presented itself.

Normally, mana scanning required a six-month period, but planning to join the expeditionary force granted him a re-examination opportunity.

‘It has to come out as C-grade or higher.’

Dojae’s focus on C-rank wasn’t solely about the benefits as a hunter.

From C-rank onward, one qualifies for the expeditionary force officer exam, and only by becoming an officer could he apply for the unit he desired.

This was precisely why Dojae sought to join the extermination corps.

‘I put Mr. Choi in a difficult position, but I had to know. I still need to find the other half.’

The half-bead he saw at Mr. Choi’s shop.

He’d sweated bullets trying to pry out where that half-bead had come from.

He did eventually find out, but since Mr. Choi valued trust with his customers, he couldn’t help feeling sorry when he left the shop.

But even that information wasn’t complete. All I knew was that the seller was a member of the Suppression Army, and that the unit emblem was the Suppression Army Headquarters.

It would have been helpful to know what they looked like, but he said he couldn’t remember every face since dozens, even hundreds, came in every day.

Perhaps Mr. Choi, true to his own convictions, had deliberately held back information he knew.

Knowing Mr. Choi well, Dojae couldn’t press further and had no choice but to turn away.

Ultimately, Dojae concluded he’d become a member of the Suppression Army and search from within, which is how he ended up at the physical examination center.

Thud.

“You’ve been waiting a long time, haven’t you?”

The doctor said as he placed a plastic box, about the size of a briefcase, on the desk.

Opening the box revealed a monitor, keyboard, and tangled strands of wires inside.

“Now, attach these one by one. One on each palm, one on each ankle, and this one on your solar plexus.”

Do-jae followed the doctor’s instructions, attaching them to the designated areas.

Fortunately, the wires were long enough that he didn’t need to take off his shirt.

“I’ll begin now.”

Click.

As the doctor flipped the switch inside the box, the graph on the monitor screen began to fluctuate wildly up and down.

He couldn’t tell what the x-axis and y-axis meant, and all the abbreviations made it baffling. The doctor watched the screen intently.

“Hmm… That’s it. You can remove it now.”

With that, he flipped the switch down.

Zzzzzzzz-.

A paper receipt about 30cm long, resembling a convenience store receipt, emerged from the long slot in the box.

“Haha, this is a simple scanner, so it needs a bit of interpretation. I’ll let you know right away.”

A little time passed.

The doctor compared the numbers on the monitor to the paper, then said with a beaming smile.

“Wow! Is this for real?”

Do-jae secretly hoped.

Truthfully, he had a reason to believe.

The increased mana pool gained from unlocking the memories of his sealed right hand was the basis for his confidence.

“Even though it’s a portable scanner, its accuracy rivals the main scanner. For now, it’s a C-grade result!”

“Oh! Thank goodness. So I can take the officer exam, right?”

“Yes, but this result is provisional! You absolutely must submit it before final approval.”

“Understood.”

The remaining tests proceeded smoothly thereafter.

While Dojae had prepared thoroughly, the doctor also assisted wholeheartedly.

Seeing the doctor genuinely happy for him, explaining things as if it were his own business, Dojae felt a warm sense of gratitude. Such kind people still existed.

‘It was a close call, but at least I got to take the exam. Now all that’s left is to pass.’

Do-jae clutched the remaining documents he had submitted and stepped out of the physical examination room with a light step.

***

Two weeks later.

“Haah… Didn’t get a single moment of sleep…”

Do-jae stood before the main entrance of the exam hall, his eyes hollow.

For the past two weeks, he had frequented a place called a study room for the first time in his life.

These days, they seemed to call them study cafes rather than reading rooms. For someone who had lived in a place filled with the clanging of weapons and the screams of bizarre monsters, a reading room where soft classical music played was a very unfamiliar place.

‘Even being an F-rank Hunter was a blessing.’

After leaving the physical examination center, he was startled to realize he had only two weeks left until the officer written exam.

It made sense; the extermination corps itself was so unpopular that the system was designed to make it easy and convenient for people to apply.

However, the officer exam was split into two sessions, once in the first half and once in the second half of the year, meaning it could only be taken twice annually. Missing this exam meant the year’s opportunities were gone, forcing him to wait until next year.

Thus, the accessibility of the Punitive Expeditionary Force combined with the exclusivity of the officer position created this predicament.

“The problem is the law and national history sections.”

The officer exam consists of five subjects in total.

Land Inspection, Situation Judgment, Introduction to Suppression Studies, Suppression Regulations, and National History.

Land inspection and situational judgment aren’t subjects you can just study separately.

Of course, past exam questions existed, but the scores required to pass easily were achieved.

The basics of extermination studies were also relatively easy.

Things I’d learned through my hunter life just naturally popped into my head, and I just had to apply them to the given situations.

The remaining regulations and national history were poison.

‘Memorization subjects just aren’t my thing.’

That’s how I studied, skimping on sleep, meals, and even bathroom breaks.

I barely managed to scrape my way up to the passing score.

‘The atmosphere is pretty grim.’

A group of men and women gathered beneath the wall, puffing away on cigarettes.

They all looked so burly that anyone watching might think they were a gang of thugs, but in reality, they were Hunters.

And since they were all hunters here for the officer exam, they were all C-rank or higher.

Seeing such individuals gathered together, smoking nervously, looked rather comical.

‘Should I listen in for a moment?’

Do-jae quietly moved toward them, keeping a safe distance.

Judging by the atmosphere, they seemed like people who had prepared diligently, so I thought I might be able to get some good information.

Like, maybe some predicted questions.

“Bro, we’re not actually going to fail, are we?”

“Yeah, I told you to study hard.”

“No, I don’t know about the rest, but memorization… You know I’ve never been good at memorizing stuff, right?”

“Sis, you know that’s all just excuses, right? The department head went out of his way for us. He even assigned us a personal tutor.”

“I know, I know. That’s why I’m asking. Just pick out a few questions for me. You were top of the class back in school, right?”

“Me? Why? I’d actually like to see you fail. If I get to see you get chewed out by the boss… Ha… Ha ha.”

“Tell me. If one person fails, it makes things easier for the rest of us. For the sake of the operation.”

‘Operation?’

Dojae perked up his ears slightly.

The unexpected word piqued his curiosity.

“See! I knew you were on my side, oppa.”

“Sis, are you even listening? It’s getting annoying…”

“Hey, you stop just standing there and take my side, okay? I’ll definitely need you for the first operation. I’ll use my beauty trap to get them!”

“I’m not taking sides. And your voice is too loud.”

“Yeah, yeah, just stay neutral forever. I’m outta here.”

Dojae moved a little closer to them.

Their voices were growing fainter.

But that was a mistake.

One of them noticed Dojae and called out to him.

“Hey, wait a minute, what are you doing over there?”

The distance between Dojae and them was nearly 10 meters.

For ordinary people, it’s a distance where they wouldn’t even notice each other.

Especially on a busy street like this.

But because they were both hunters, they could sense each other even from this distance.

“Ah, sorry. I was wondering if I could borrow a cigarette.”

Suspicious glances poured toward Dojae.

Dojae made up an excuse, saying he was just looking for someone to borrow a cigarette from, and that they were talking, so he was looking around.

Adding a slightly dazed expression to that helped ease their suspicion a little.

“Here you go. Is that alright?”

“Yes! Thank you!”

He hurriedly got his cigarette and left.

He was curious about what happened next, but it was almost time for the exam to start.

‘No point in daydreaming. I need to cram every last word I can before the exam starts!’

Dojae stood at the entrance of the exam hall building.

He stretched his arms wide.

“Waaah!”

After taking a deep breath.

He entered the exam hall.