CHAPTER 115. S-Ranker

"A dog's happiness is measured by how useful he is to his master."

- Taiga Aisaka

...

A truth that hurts.

.....

Multitask: the user can perform multiple separate tasks at once, as their brains can process multiple independent trains of thought/function at the same time, and their bodies are able to perform them without interfering/overlapping with the other actions.

In the simplest form, you use both of your hands and try to draw a circle one clockwise and the other counterclockwise simultaneously.

It seems easy, but it's pretty hard to do for the human mind. But due to my high INT, I can perform basic or maybe even intimidating levels of multitasking.

And I am sure even if I don't gain the skill Parallel Processing, I would be able to gain skills related to multitasking like Clear Mind, Indomitable Will, Hyper Mind, Maximum Brain Capacity, Multi-Focus, Multi-Power Use, Supertasking.

And multitask alone will grant me a basic level of Parallel Processing.

I also remembered it could be very useful in many, many situations.

I was also curious about what other things I could gain if I master all these skills.

There is a high possibility I could gain a very basic form of the skill called Mind Over Matter or MOM.

'I need more than this... More than ever to break the world barrier'

To break the limits I can't limit myself with just few things when I not even brewer about the existence of the system and who decided to hear my desperate yelps for help.  

I need power more than even I could imagine at my current from I need to break world barriers' to travel this vast multiverse filled with opportunities just waiting for the right person to snatch it.  

I can't be coward at just settle in this world when I know I can achieve much more.  

Jin continued to grin while planing his next moves while slowly studying the interior of the waiting area. Just like the people waiting inside, the building didn't change much, either.

The Hunter Association itself was established less than ten years ago, so perhaps unsurprisingly, the building was still clean and neat as if it opened its doors only yesterday.

The interior layout was pretty much the same as shown on the internet, too.

If there was one thing different, then it'd be….

'Those people over there.'

When Jin quietly stared at a contingent of men and women decked out in clean-cut business suits across from where he was, an ahjussi sitting next to him opened his mouth.

"They are all from various Guilds, apparently."

"Various Guilds, is it?"

"Yes. Well, Hunters don't usually seek out smaller Guilds, so they resorted to sending people over here and set up camp, just so they can sweet-talk Awakened like us after we're done with the evaluation."

Indeed, there was a certain chilly, unfriendly, and competitive air circulating among those folks.

'And, the way they are looking in this direction is pretty predatory, too.'

Well, there was a reason for that, of course.

"I'm telling you this because it might help you, but you see, it's better not to sign up with Guilds like theirs."

"Why not?"

"From what I hear, smaller Guilds take on lots of dangerous raids, and their Hunter fatality rate is far higher than average, too."

Jin nodded his head in agreement.

At the end of the day, the circumstances of smaller Guilds would always remain a bit ambiguous.

Unlike privately-organized freelancer-led raid parties, clearing low-ranked dungeons wouldn't satisfy them financially, but then again, the skills of the Hunters signed up with them weren't quite good enough to clear higher-ranked dungeons.

So, 'accidents' happened frequently during their raids.

'Which means, recruiting new Hunters becomes doubly important for them.'

And so, they arrived at a point where they had to follow the potential newbies right into the Association building and prey on them.

"Ah, right."

The ahjussi dabbed the sweat drops away from his wide-open forehead with a handkerchief and cautiously extended his hand towards Jin, bringing him out of his thoughts on how to become an undefeated supervillain.

"Well, it's fate that we meet like this, so how about we introduce each other? My name is Yun Jeong-Hoon."

"I'm Sung Jin-Woo," Jin gave him his name as he didn't mind that much.

Their introduction was kept to a minimum, and they quietly waited for their turns.

"Next, please."

Since the location for the evaluation itself was wide open, one could easily read the expressions on those who finished the test, as well as the employees performing the said test.

And the expression of the guy who had taken his test just now didn't look so good.

'I guess it's either a D or an E….'

Those folks from the smaller Guilds must've thought about the same thing as Jin, because they showed no interest whatsoever even when an Awakened walked right past them.

Wasn't that too honest a reaction from them?

Jin even began wondering if there was another, more discreet way to find out one's evaluation result or not.

"Next up, please."

Yet another result came out.

This one also must not have been so good. The steps of the Awakened walking out of the building seemed heavy. But, that was par for the course, really.

'Well, if high-ranked Hunters appeared frequently, they wouldn't be paid big bucks, anyway.'

For regular citizens, even being a rank C would be a huge jackpot.

One could still earn a fair bit of money by entering freelancer raid parties, or if one's luck was good, then entering large Guilds was a viable option too, and then there is the entertainment business of becoming an actor or a stuntman.

Indeed, there were four rank Cs among the White Tiger Guild's new recruits, weren't there?

If one successfully managed to enter a large Guild, then it was pretty much guaranteed that you'd earn an annual salary similar to what doctors or lawyers made, with a lot of free time and less work just putting life on the line.

The ahjussi next to Jin spoke again.

"I heard that you'd get a ton of money upfront when signing with a large Guild."

The ahjussi's hand, still holding the handkerchief, trembled softly.

"Actually, I… I owe some money, you see. Because of that, I had to separate from my little girl and must live alone for the time being. Maybe it's because of that, but I… I'm feeling really nervous."

The ahjussi mumbled to himself before flinching grandly and bowed his head to Jin in a hurry.

"Aigoo…. Saying something unnecessary to a stranger I've just met…. I'm a bit of a disgrace, isn't it? I end up talking a lot when I'm nervous, you see."

"No, it's fine."

Jin smiled gently and lowered his head as well.

The ahjussi continued to take deep breaths, as if to reinforce the notion that his earlier declaration of feeling nervous wasn't an exaggeration.

Meanwhile, another Awakened walked out, and….

"Next up, please come this way."

…And it was the turn of the ahjussi.

However, the ahjussi cautiously shook Jin's sleeve, his face full of cold sweat. Could he be feeling ill somewhere, thought Jin.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Jin asked, his voice sounding worried.

The ahjussi shook his head.

"No, no. It's not that, but…. Uhm, do you mind going ahead first? I'm, I'm too tense right now, you see….."

The ahjussi looked really desperate.

Was there a reason to refuse when someone wished to give up his spot in the queue? Jin quickly accepted the proposal.

Anyone would be feeling nervous if these few minutes determined the rest of their lives.

Jin stood up instead of the ahjussi and walked over to the Association employee.

The employee spoke in a business-like manner.

"What is your name?"

"It's Sung Jin-Woo."

"Mister Seong Jin-Woo…. Right. Please place your hand on the black-colored panel over there and wait for a little while."

Following the instruction, Jin walked over to the measuring device and placed his hand on the black panel.

'….Uh? This guy's already been evaluated as an Awakened ranked E?'

The employee took a look at the documentation and glanced at Jin-Woo with a mystified expression. Just why were almost all the Hunters coming here to retake tests all rank E?

The employee's expression changed to that of apathy as he activated the measuring device.

*SFX for a button being pressed*

Bzzzz…..

The magic energy measuring device buzzed noisily, and a short while later, it stopped its operation. The results appeared on the display monitor.

'Huh? What's going on here?'

The employee tilted his head this way and that, before speaking to Jin as the latter was about to take his hand off the panel.

"Hold up, please."

"Yes?"

"I'd like to run the test one more time."

"Okay."

Jin placed his hand back on the panel, knowing it's showing an error.

*SFX for a button being pressed, repeated*

'W-why is the device behaving like this?!'

Cold sweat drops formed on the employee's forehead.

Murmur, murmur….

People observing from the waiting room gradually grew aware of the fact that something weird was going down right now.

'What's going on? Did something happen?'

"'How many times did he activate the measuring device just now?' 

'Kinda looks like there's a problem here, doesn't it?'

When everyone's gazes focused on him, the employee became completely soaked in cold sweat.

*SFX for a button being pressed*

'Argh, c'mon now!! What do you want from me?'

Just as the employee was becoming a nervous wreck…

'What now? Where is Chang-Sik? Why are you alone here?'

The employee quickly looked behind him and found Manager Jeong Ki-Soo from the rank evaluation application department standing there.

'Manager Jeong!!'

Relief formed on the employee's face after an unexpected reinforcement made his entrance.

'The senior officer went to the bathroom just now.'

'That fool, how dare he vacate his position in the middle of office hou…?'

Jeong Ki-Soo couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence.

'…Huh, I'm the same, isn't it?'

Hmm, hmm.

Whatever the case may have been, he did arrive at the perfect time. The poor newbie employee was sweating buckets while the senior was nowhere to be seen. Perfect, indeed.

Time for a veteran to step forward, then.

'Okay, so what's going on?'

Jeong Ki-Soo displayed a bit of interest and took a step forward.

'The measuring device is acting a little weird.'

'The device is what now?'

'Please, take a look. This error message keeps popping up.'

Once the employee took a step back, Jeong Ki-Soo stood in his stead in front of the monitor that displayed the result of Jin-Woo's measurement.

And right away, Jeong Ki-Soo's expression froze up.

'…How long have you been working here?'

'It's been around two months, sir. Did I press the wrong button?'

'Nope. Just call Chang-Sik and tell him to get over here right now.'

'Excuse me?'

'I'm saying, his toilet break or whatever isn't important anymore, so tell him to get his a*s over here right away!'

Jeong Ki-Soo raised his voice.

The employee flinched and asked.

'W-what's the matter, Manager?'

'This isn't an error message, but it's saying 'impossible to measure'! Don't you understand what that means?'

'Ehhhh?! But, that wasn't an error message?'

Why was every single newbie employee such a dumba*s?

Jeong Ki-Soo's gaze left the employee and landed on the person taking the evaluation test.

'How can such a thing….'

Sung Jin-Woo, who had carefree explosions as if he was waiting for something.

The Master of the White Tiger Guild wanted to know about this man's reassignment evaluation results.

Jeong Ki-Soo's gaze remained locked on Sung Jin-Woo as he looked at Jin's expressions, which told the story why this seems so chill without any care as he turned his head and opened his mouth to speak to the newbie employee.

'You idiot. This message means that this device can't measure that person's magic power.'

'Excuse me? B-b-but, but, doesn't that mean….?'

Did this newbie say it had been around two months since he started working here?

Forget about two months, something like this had not happened in the past two years, so of course, it wasn't surprising at all to see a newbie employee being completely oblivious.

Jeong Ki-Soo's voice trembled as he replied.

'Right…. He's a rank S.'

Rank 'S' – 'Special'.

This rank had been in wide use so people mistook it for an actual official rank, but in reality, this rank simply existed to group those Awakened who couldn't be measured by any device.

'That's why, call Chang-Sik right away. Hurry.'

'I'll call him immediately!'

A short while later, Kim Chang-Sik ran over in a fluster after receiving the call. His breathing was heavy and fast, and he was even trying to fix his falling pants.

'Pant, pant! Okay, let me see.'

After confirming the monitor, Kim Chang-Sik's complexion paled immediately. And then, when he looked at Jin-Woo, Kim Chang-Sik's eyes quaked powerfully.

'This man is the tenth in South Korea….'

Kim Chang-Sik quickly walked over to Jin-Woo.

It was only at this point that Jin-Woo withdrew his hand away from the black panel.

'Excuse me…. Mister Sung Jin-Woo, with the current device…..'

Kim Chang-Sik immediately remembered that Jin-Woo was already a Hunter, so he changed the way he addressed the youth.

'No, wait. Allow me to start over. It's impossible to measure your magical energy output with this device, Mister Sung Jin-Woo Hunter-nim. We need to ask for permission from the higher-ups if we want to use the precision measuring device, so would you mind if you come and visit us again in three days' time?'

Kim Chang-Sik followed protocol and spoke the official line. He couldn't even remember properly the last time he said those words. Jin-Woo was an experienced Hunter himself too, and he immediately figured out what those words meant.

"Fine. But I will come here after five days" Jin told them without any care what rank they are in the association or who they are.

Postponing the evaluation.

5 days, in other words, he is planning to enter Demon's Castle and at least clear 50 floors in five days, then back out again. Once the test result of 'impossible to measure' also pops up in the precision device five days later, then he becomes an S-ranker then into dungeon crawling and maybe wakes up his mother.

'This is for the better.'

He can't be judged to be a rank A. It's impossible; he had broken the limits of how much mana a human body could hold by a very wide margin.

He was sure even the strongest creature in this universe doesn't have the mana he had.

'Whew….'

Jin-Woo sighed after some thoughts when he turned around to leave….

"…."

"….."

"….."

Everyone present inside the building was looking at him weirdly.

…

Aigoo, I know that you're an extremely busy man, so it'd be fine even if you didn't come personally to visit me, you know?"

"Eii~. Even then, you're the one and only Chief Park of the Hunter Association, so how could I dare to use a mere phone to speak to you? It's only correct and proper that I come to see you personally."

Choi Jong-In smiled with his eyes and buttered up the other guy, 40-something Chief Park, causing the latter to let out a gentle chuckle.

Just who was this man in front of Park?

He was none other than the man leading South Korea's top Guild, 'Hunters'.

Also known as the 'Ultimate Weapon', Choi Jong-In. Just one word from him, and the country's most powerful raid team would mobilize like a slick, well-oiled machine.

A man like that was fawning over you, so how could anyone feel bad about that?