Hunter Corps Training Camp—1
"Hey, you f***ers! You gonna move like slugs?"
"Keep your damn heads up and snap to it!"
The instructors suddenly raised their voices.
The young men—now recruits—fidgeted in confusion.
Huh. At least they don't seem keen on hitting people.
Watching the vein-popping instructors shout, Kim Min-jun actually thought they were kind.
As rough as the words were, they still told them what to do.
"Close it up! Shove the guy in front like you're gonna crush him!"
"Why aren't you repeating the command!"
"Uh—close up to the front!"
Browbeaten by the instructors, the men tightened the gaps between them.
They stood there without chairs for a moment.
Then the battalion commander stepped up onto the stage.
"Alright. Before we start the schedule—hands up if you have talent as a Hunter but didn't apply to the Hunter Army!"
He announced that anyone who spoke up right now could be transferred into the Hunter Army.
"As you know, Hunters are treated differently from regular soldiers—right from day one."
He listed benefit after benefit the Hunter Army received.
"You lot won't even make 700,000 won a month as sergeants. In the Hunter Army, a private starts at three million."
Even so, the men just stared at the officer.
Not everyone had a knack for being a Hunter, and if they did, they would've applied already.
"Hrm. No takers?"
It was the ritual question asked with every new intake.
Less than three minutes in, the commander started to step down.
"Sir. We've got one."
"What?"
At an instructor's words, the commander's gaze swung to a corner.
"You—who just raised your hand—get up here. Move!"
All eyes turned that way.
Naturally, the one with his hand up was Kim Min-jun.
"Yes, sir!"
Per the commander's words, he put strength in his legs and jumped straight onto the stage.
"W-whoa!"
"You're kidding me!"
Crack!
The wooden floor splintered as one man shot into the air.
The recruits gaped at Min-jun, floating midair for a beat.
"..."
Same for the instructors—and the commander.
The battalion commander cleared his throat as Min-jun landed right in front of him.
He had told him to hurry, but who expected him to fly up?
"If you've got Hunter talent, why did you apply to the regular army?"
His tone softened a little.
If a real Hunter prospect emerged from the regulars, that would be a plus for his own promotions.
"I missed the application window."
"I see. You—come with me."
"Yes, sir."
Min-jun followed the commander out of the auditorium.
The other recruits glanced over, envious.
"Eyes front!"
"Face forward!"
"Close up the ranks!"
Of course, the instructors corrected them in short order.
**
Min-jun entered the battalion commander's office inside the training camp.
"Wait here. A Hunter Army NCO will come for you."
"Yes, sir."
Smiling mildly, the commander made two instant coffees.
"You really should've read the posting more carefully. You'll catch hell in the Hunter Army."
He handed one cup to Min-jun.
"Thank you."
Who'd have thought he'd be drinking coffee made by the battalion commander on day one.
About ten minutes later—
"Loyalty! Is this the recruit with potential as a Hunter?"
A burly man in uniform entered the office.
Nearly two meters tall, thick and rugged.
A soldier with sergeant's stripes—Lee Seung-ho—snapped a quick salute to the commander.
"Good—you're here. He's the one I reported."
A colonel speaking politely to a sergeant?
He'd heard the Hunter Army's rank dynamics differed from the regular forces, but seeing it was something else.
"You say you've got Hunter aptitude. Open your status screen and read your stats out loud, one by one."
Those awakened as Hunters could call up a status screen that quantified their abilities.
At most, it was simple numerics—strength, agility, and the like.
It didn't show levels or classes like a game.
Put simply, Earth's Hunters were like enhanced humans—think 'Captain Africa.'
"Yes, sergeant."
Min-jun summoned his status screen on the spot.
Come to think of it, Isgard had status windows too—how would it look here?
[ERROR]
"…It says error."
Strength, agility, stamina—
Plus his unique class skills and mana—
None of it would read properly.
Maybe because he'd returned using only his own mana, not the Saintess's power?
The system was riddled with errors.
"You trying to mess with me?"
At "error," Lee Seung-ho glared like he'd kill him.
A status-screen error?
In over three years of service, he'd never even heard of such a thing.
"Every year there's some guy without talent trying to sneak into the Hunter Army."
He began to suspect Min-jun.
Now and then, people exploited the loophole that others couldn't view your screen, angling for Hunter perks.
Of course, they always got found out within a week.
"Sir, I saw it with my own eyes. That recruit jumped over five meters in one go—straight to the stage."
Sensing things turning sour, the battalion commander quickly stepped in.
"…If you saw it yourself, sir, I'll report up the chain first."
While Sergeant Lee reported to Hunter Army HQ,
the commander bounced his knee, unable to sit still.
So the Hunter Army really is a different class than the regulars…
More than he'd expected.
I really ought to get into the Hunter Army.
At ease, Min-jun simply waited for Lee to finish.
"HQ made a call. You're a special case, so I'll personally test whether you have Hunter aptitude."
If he didn't—and they'd dragged him here for nothing—there'd be severe consequences, Lee warned.
"Yes, understood."
Kim Min-jun had the urge to slap the thug-faced sergeant, but he held it in.
Once he got into the Hunter Army and outranked the guy, there'd be plenty of chances for that.
"Then I'll get going. Loyalty!"
"Loyalty!"
Sergeant Lee Seung-ho exchanged salutes with the battalion commander and left the office.
Min-jun followed Lee to the Hunter Army unit.
"I've been around a few years, but I've never seen a recruit with that kind of physique."
A soldier who hasn't trained jumping over five meters…
"That kid's the real deal. My eye's never wrong."
The battalion commander watched Min-jun through the window and smiled, pleased.
**
About an hour of winding mountain roads in a military vehicle later,
Min-jun arrived at the Hunter Army's dedicated training base.
Holy crap.
It looked nothing like the training camp he'd just been in.
Packed with cutting-edge facilities—screaming "we poured a mountain of tax money in here" at a glance.
"See that?"
As soon as they got out, Lee pointed to a blood-red stone set in the middle of the parade ground.
"Yes."
"Move it even a little and you pass."
"That's it?"
"I don't know where your confidence comes from, but yes—that's it. You've got ten minutes."
It looked like it might weigh around a hundred kilos, but the stone was a dungeon by-product, a Red Stone.
At that size, over 500 kilos. Most recruits strain like they're about to die just to budge it a hair.
Because of that Red Stone, more than half of Hunter Army applicants washed out every year.
Status-screen error, my ass.
If the punk couldn't move it, Lee planned to hand him straight to the MPs.
At this weight I could just hoist it, easy…
Meanwhile,
Min-jun started to lift it in one go, then paused.
One hand's a tad unstable—use both.
Wasn't the rule in the army "don't stand out too much"?
Wait—how are you going to pin stars if you tiptoe forever?
Min-jun snatched the Red Stone up.
"—Hah…!"
Lee was so shocked he fell on his butt.
No recruit had ever lifted the Red Stone in both hands.
Even seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn't believe it.
"S-stop right there! Halt! Don't come any closer! It's dangerous—put it down!"
"Uh—yessir."
When Min-jun hefted it and strode closer like, See?, Lee waved his hands frantically and told him to set it down.
"You—about that 'status screen shows error' bit. Was that for real?"
He looked like he'd just seen something he shouldn't.
What a face.
"Yes, sir. Not lying."
"…Alright. Starting today, you'll train with the other recruits."
After a brief exchange, Min-jun headed into the facilities.
"Strange. The Red Stone's fine."
Lee gave the stone a shove.
It behaved normally.
A sergeant like him could push it lightly like that.
"In our unit I've got the highest Strength stat—and I'm the one who can move it that easily."
And an untrained recruit just picked it up?
"We just brought in a goddamn monster."
**
An hour later.
Recruits finished their drills and trickled back into the parade ground.
They were soaked in sweat from whatever they'd been doing.
"Everyone, at ease—sit."
Sergeant Lee Seung-ho stepped up on the platform and briefly introduced the new arrival, Kim Min-jun.
An instructor, huh.
This time he wore a red cap.
"Up again—we're moving to the next block. The new guy's clueless, so look out for him."
"Yes, sergeant!"
"Understood!"
In under five minutes, the recruits moved to another training area at Lee's order.
"The next four weeks are hell. Hang in there."
"Let's do our best."
Now classmates, the Hunter Army recruits gave quick greetings and a short rundown of what was ahead.
"Since we're thrown straight into live ops after training, the four weeks are nothing but insane drills."
"They work you to an inch of death."
"But weekends are free. It's brutal, so they let you really unwind on off days."
"Hell training," sure—but to Min-jun it was just… regular exercise.
He'd brushed shoulders with death more than a few times in Isgard. This was nothing.
"Do you guys have a PC room here?"
"You mean the cyber-café on base? We've got pretty much everything."
At that answer, a smile tugged at Min-jun's lips.
Perfect timing—the DFO burning event started this weekend.
"Eyes on me, all of you!"
After about thirty minutes of hiking up a mountain path,
Lee stopped at the foot of a stairway.
"From here, with sandbags on, you climb to the top."
Six thousand steps.
Sandbags weighing around 80 kilos.
For an ordinary person, it was near impossible; for those with Hunter aptitude, doable.
"Understood!"
"That's all the voice you've got?!"
"Understoooood!"
Staring at the endless stairs, the recruits felt their minds go blank.
"Haa… You have to grind this kind of crazy training just to nudge your stats up a little. Hunters are nothing like I imagined."
One recruit grumbled to Min-jun.