“Yeonwoo’s starting point was near the southwest.
Even just looking up, blood fiends were falling—but at this point he was moving to the opposite side?
Co to think of it, the first four participants had all used up the full ti without the safe-zone barrier ever breaking. So it was entirely possible Yeonwoo didn’t know the rule in detail.
“Ah....”
Roy sighed softly. He’d secretly hoped after seeing Yeonwoo place fifth, but it seed the only one he could trust was Taeeon.
Just then, Yeonwoo, having run full tilt to the western edge of the floating island, suddenly stopped, drew his bowstring taut—
Pa-at!
—and in the blink of an eye loosed an arrow into the air.
“Kieeeek!”
“Kiek!”
Double kill! With a single arrow he took out two fiends at once. A roar of astonishnt echoed through the arena.
“Waaaah!”
“He’s insane.”
“That’s a C-grade?”
“No way!”
Unbelievable. Roy, too, couldn’t close his dropped jaw. He’d thought of Yeonwoo as kind but a bit simple.
‘M-my Yeonwoo has changed...!’
Covering his mouth, Roy couldn’t look away from the screen. Every expression of disbelief and cries of “cheater!” filled him with pride, straightening his spine that had been bent low in disappointnt.
While the audience buzzed, Yeonwoo imdiately began crafting a second arrow. At the sa ti, two more fiends spawned to the north and south. It looked like he planned another double-kill. But the eastern fiend, created earlier, was about to touch the barrier.
“Just shoot!”
It would benefit Yeonwoo to hit at least one more rather than let the evaluation end. Seeming to share this thought, he drew again toward the eastern fiend.
Shu-uk!
“Kieek!”
He barely managed to slay it just before it reached the safe-zone barrier. It looked as though he might craft a third arrow—but none ca. Perhaps already too strained, he slumped to the ground, face ashen white like a blank sheet.
[Announcing grades now.]
[Participant Park Yeonwoo’s grade is—]
He’d taken less ti than those before him and slain fewer fiends. Considering everything, probably a D?
[B.]
“B?!” Roy cried out before he could stop himself. Yeonwoo, too, was stunned by the unexpected grade, his face dazed.
✧
Eight hours of filming had passed. By now participants were beginning to falter—groans of exhaustion echoed everywhere. Even Awakeners aren’t built to stand motionless for such long stretches. And outside scheduled breaks, they couldn’t even go to the bathroom freely. One by one, people began collapsing in their seats.
Staff burst in from ti to ti, urging them to hang on just a bit longer, to correct their posture—but to no avail.
‘...I want to go ho.’
Roy, half-lted with fatigue, glanced ahead: Yeonwoo’s back was hunched; he’d seemingly passed out sitting up. Taeeon, by contrast, sat bolt-upright, watching another participant’s evaluation.
‘Scary guy.’
Co to think of it, Taeeon had been like that even at the idol sports festival—maintaining perfect posture the whole ti, sparking fan chatter.
Shooting Star saved ₩18 million on spinal surgery costs (Taeeon_photo.jpg)
Thanks to these two next to him, –₩36 million (Roy_Yeonwoo_collapsed.jpg)
That post went viral, and Yeonwoo and Roy had to attend a posture-correction center for a while.
Twelve hours of filming had passed, and many participants were failing to reach even five minutes, so the schedule was running ahead of ti. The last returning participant was number 152—but Roy still had fifty more people ahead of him. It felt like 120 days of waiting, yet only the 150s now.
Just as boredom was twisting Roy’s insides, Taeeon stood, turned around, and caught Roy’s eye. At that mont, Taeeon clenched his fist toward Roy. Startled, Roy’s bent spine snapped straight.
‘And he’s... smiling?’
He’d thought it was a warning to correct his posture—but was it a sign of “good luck out there”? His own guilty conscience tingled.
As expected, Taeeon chose “mountain” among the three options. With his Earth elent, it was the perfect terrain. Arriving at the evaluation zone, he found himself in a densely wooded safe-zone—thick underbrush and dozens of trees, a faint mist lending a subtle tension to the scene.
“Hello. I’m Kim Taeeon, number 153.”
Then his self-intro began.
“My elent is Earth, and my specialty is plant cultivation. Why I’m here... I have a lifesaver. A friend who gave a second life. I decided to participate to repay them in so small way. I will do my best!”
Taeeon bowed toward the cara. Roy slamd his palm against his own forehead.
‘Good grief! He’s crazy...!’
Why was he the one feeling embarrassed? While Roy squeezed his eyes shut, cringing silently, Taeeon kept clenching and unclenching his fists to shake off nerves. Watching him, Roy’s own palms broke into a sweat. He felt like a secondary victim of god-sizing—he had no idea what Taeeon might do next.
Fortunately, the introduction ended and the countdown began.
[Ready]
Roy could sowhat predict what Yeonwoo would do—but Taeeon was a complete wild card, and that made him even more nervous.
‘An earthquake? Or maybe he’ll split the ground?’
He’d taught Taeeon so hand-to-hand combat, but not enough to tackle blood fiends bare-fisted. School combat training was just for ergencies, not to catch fiends with his bare hands.
‘Whatever it is, his elent is elent—so it won’t be small scale.’
[Start]
The countdown ended and the evaluation began. A blood fiend spawned in a treetop and dove rapidly toward the ground. On screen, Taeeon took a startled step back—perhaps seeing it from above made a difference. But only for a mont.
Kneeling on one knee on the mossy earth, he pressed his palm to the ground and murmured softly, “Please.”
The mont he did, the ground began to tremble. What started as a faint vibration grew stronger as the sweat on Taeeon’s brow multiplied.
“Kieeeek!”
“Kiek!”
Blood fiends falling from the trees smashed into the trembling earth with shrieks as if being torn apart. The shaking trees clashed their leaves in a rush—swoosh!—filling the arena with a refreshing wave-like sound. Dozens of leaves, unable to withstand the quake, danced down above Taeeon’s head.
“Ughhhh.”
Roy, seeing such a spectacle, applauded in awe. This needed to be captured on film—oh wait, the representative was already filming it. In any case, he felt proud of his hyung, who was sothing to boast about anywhere.
But Taeeon’s feat ended there. Though a high innate grade, his skill proficiency was woefully lacking. The tremor’s power was useful, but it only knocked down the fiends spawned in the trees; those erging from the underbrush only staggered, taking no real damage. A fiend charging from behind brushed the safe-zone barrier, ending the evaluation.
Then Taeeon’s grade was announced.
[Announcing grades now.]
‘C. C, please be C.’
Riding the bus with Yeonwoo and Taeeon until he unlocked his Skill Lock, Roy couldn’t afford their grades to be too high—others would then target his bus.
‘I should’ve told them to take it easy if I’d known they’d do this well.’
He’d have been better off if all three of them had tanked the evaluation and been mocked as nobodies.
[Participant Kim Taeeon’s grade is—]
[A.]
As soon as Taeeon’s grade was declared, applause burst out. At the sa ti, dozens of participants began eyeing Taeeon with expectations of “I want to team up with that person.” Among over 150 participants, fewer than twenty had A grades. While everyone else gazed ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) up at Taeeon, only one person crumpled to the floor in despair.
“Nooo! Buhuhuh.”
“Oppa, I don’t think I can catch the bus... I brought Kim Taeeon... He’s my hyung...!”
Roy felt a foreboding sense that he was about to fight a lonely battle.
✧
A little later, during break ti, Yeonwoo and Taeeon—A and B pinned to their na tags—approached Roy, who sat alone.
“You exhausted, little one? You look completely wilted.”
“Roy, you okay?”
The murderous wait tis and back-of-the-line numbers sapped participants’ strength even standing still. Not even hidden S-ranks were exempt.
“I feel like I’m dying.”
“You look it. With back-of-the-line numbers, we’ll all keel over waiting.”
“Ha ha. Yeonwoo—”
Taeeon, aware of the caras, laughed awkwardly and cut in to stop Yeonwoo.
“See? Was I wrong? Look at this—do you think he got a C?”
“Shut up, Park Yeonwoo.”
It was outright deception for soone who knows his nickna at school to mock a C. Roy glared icily, and Yeonwoo shrugged.
“Your eyeballs are gonna pop out, dude. Instead of glaring, do you have any plan? From what I saw, that wasn’t easy.”
“I know. And it’ll probably be an F for , so don’t get your hopes up.”
“What a C-grade comnt.”
Then Taeeon, surprised, tried to console Roy.
“Feeling wiped? Want to get you an energy drink? If I ask staff, I can probably grab one—”
“No? Don’t need it. Instead, you and I should swap clothes.”
“Clothes? Why clothes?”
At Roy’s suspicious request, Taeeon looked puzzled.
“After this break, it’ll be my turn soon.”
“Yeah.”
“So I’ll need them then.”
“...My clothes?”
“Maybe it’s the aura of an A-grader or sothing?”
At Yeonwoo’s mutter, Roy gave a aningful smile.
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