The situation ended with Kim Suho’s arrival, but I spent another hour looking around before descending the world tree.

“Argh, what a pain.”

I couldn’t help but groan as I landed. Even with parkour, the tree was abnormally big. I shook off the numbness in my hands and legs before checking my points.

[22 Points]

That should be a bit below average. I gained 10 from hunting monsters and 12 from Chae Nayun. The first place cadet scored 130 points in the original story, so I needed another 50 points to pass safely. It should be possible if I busily worked today and tomorrow.

I turned around optimistically.

“…”

My body stiffened with goosebumps.

The Chameleon Troupe’s Boss, disguised as Seo Ijin, stood before me. She silently approached and stared with her black eyes.

Why is she here?

Cold sweat ran down my back, and my survival instincts roared. I forced myself to calm down. She should be here to observe, not fight.

“What’s the matter?”

Unexpectedly, she took out her sword and pointed it at me.

“…”

She looked at me with steady eyes and a chilling light flashed from her blade. I didn’t understand why she would pick a fight with me, but I could never win. She would instantly kill me.

“You know what.”

She spoke in a calm voice. This woman was too powerful to be an enemy, like how insects couldn’t call humans their enemies.

However, I found a glimpse of hope in this life-or-death situation.

Cadets didn’t fight to kill in this exam. All we had to do was take each other’s smartwatch. Even if you subdued someone, you hadn’t won yet without their smartwatch. Additionally, you would lose even if you subdued them, but lost your smartwatch.

Currently, the smartwatch around her left wrist appeared loose. Maybe she put it on like that, or it couldn’t withstand her magic power, or I was simply lucky. Regardless, I could escape this situation.

From my sleeve, I weaved aether into a thread thinner than a spider’s. Then I controlled it out of her sight like a worm avoiding a hawk’s eyes. It slowly squirmed towards her left wrist.

I continued staring to buy time. Eventually, the aether thread reached her left wrist and took her smartwatch without her noticing. Then she finally spoke.

“Your weapon, take it out.”

“Weapon?”

She simply nodded when I asked. Meanwhile, the aether thread traveled down her wrist and hovered a centimeter off the ground. She couldn’t see below because of our close proximity. I yanked the smartwatch into my hand when it finally neared.

“Whew.”

Did I get lucky? Or was Boss too clumsy? I succeeded and sighed in relief.

I reached into my pocket and pretended to take out my weapon, but instead brought out Boss’ smartwatch.

“… You’re surrendering?”

She looked disappointed when she saw the smartwatch. She hadn’t noticed at all. Perhaps the added layer of skin from Jain’s gift dulled her sensitivity. Not to mention, she hadn’t released any of her seals yet.

“Does this look like it’s mine?”

I asked as leisurely as I could, and Boss immediately frowned. I pointed at her wrist with my eyes. She tilted her head in doubt and checked.

“… Eh?”

Her eyes widened. She spun her wrist around in disbelief.

“You know you’re out the moment I crush this, right?”

I spoke as calmly as I could. Boss seemed so shocked she didn’t even hear me. She stared at her wrist as if she had lost her country.

“This… this can’t be…”

Would that reaction give me about 50SP? I feigned a carefree smile before gently grabbing her wrist and putting her smartwatch back on.

“W-What, what are you?”

She acted even more flustered than when I stole it, but I continued placing it back around her wrist. I smiled and bluffed.

“I’ll let you go this one time, okay?”

“… Let me go?”

Her sword still aimed at my neck, but I could feel it had lost its edge. I ignored her and turned away.

“W-Where are you going?”

Boss tried to hold me back, but I left and focused everything into my legs. My body felt numb just looking at her.

***

After Kim Hajin left, Boss stared at the smartwatch on her left wrist. She couldn’t understand how Kim Hajin had stolen it. She planned on confirming his ability, but he had shocked her beyond expectations. Even though Jain’s gift took away half of her sensitivity, she never expected such humiliation from a 17 year old cadet.

When did he snatch it? When we first met? When we stared at each other? No, none of the above. Kim Hajin never moved, and his magic power showed no signs of movement either.

Boss looked at her right wrist with a tattoo of a four-leaf clover. Each leaf sealed a portion of her true strength. Boss wondered if she should have released one of them.

“Haaa.”

She asked for help from a witness.

“Jain, did you see?”

— … Hmm? See what?

She frowned at the reply. Jain sounded like she hadn’t paid attention.

— Ah, ah, ah, sorry. I got distracted for a moment, but it’s not my fault! Droon kept bugging me to buy him Legos. So what’s up?”

“…”

Boss continued thinking, Kim Hajin stole my watch in that short amount of time? Even though my power is sealed, his dexterity and craftiness are beyond a cadet’s.

— Tell me. What happened?

“I’ll tell you later.”

— No, tell me now, you’re making me curious. Argh, it’s all because of that brat, Droon. Boss? Boss?

Boss coldly ended their conversation. She became certain of Kim Hajin’s potential. Now, she had to confirm Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak’s.

Her smartwatch rang.

[Ijin-ssi, where are you? Hurry up. Didn’t I tell you to come back by the half hour mark? ㅡㅡ]

“…”

Boss blankly stared at the message.

Yoo Yeonha. Why did this girl keep ordering me around?

***

I found a new camping spot after successfully escaping from Boss. It seemed just as good as the previous one. Honestly, I stopped along the way near a river because I didn’t have any strength left in my legs. I thanked my luck once again before setting up camp. I sat down and placed my bullets on the table. I had 14 bullets left for the sniper rifle and 20 for the shotgun. Each bullet cost around 7 SP to modify. Although they significantly boosted my strength, I couldn’t waste any.

“I should have at least 20 of each type.”

It would be a disaster if I ran out of bullets during a fight. I opened my laptop.

[Current SP – 1214]

I needed about 2000 to create a decent gift, but my goal kept stretching further because of the bullets. Still, that was better than someone dying. I restocked my sniper bullets and took out my portable grill. Using parkour had made me hungry. Today’s lunch would be braised chicken, although it still looked like night outside. I could barely see anything without my thousand-mile eyes. I took out a frozen chicken from my magical pouch.

[You can add magic power to increase the chicken’s flavor.]

I imbued magic power into the frozen chicken on the frying pan. I didn’t know how, but the chicken suddenly became fresh. When I thought, I should be able to eat it now…

Pssss Pssss—

The tall grass rustled nearby. I pulled out my gun and peered through the grass. However, I lowered my weapon and grinned when I saw who it was. Soon, I heard her footsteps as Rachel emerged.

“Rachel?”

I acted surprised. A leaf stuck to her hair, but she didn’t notice.

“…”

Rachel silently looked around. Her jaws dropped at the high-tech tent and grill. She reacted no differently than Chae Nayun.

“Ah, I like to prepare thoroughly.”

Rachel snapped out of her daze as I cooly smiled at her. She stared at the chicken on the grill. It smelled delicious.

“Would you like to join me for lunch?”

“… Can, can I?”

“I’ll take 4 points to be fair.”

I opened another foldable chair for her and handed her a plate with half the chicken on it. Rachel must’ve been hungry as she finished the chicken in just 10 minutes. I cleaned up the dishes when she asked.

“Um, what have you been doing until now?”

“Yes?”

I tilted my head. She must have realized I had helped her. Was she feeling me out?

“Well, I just ran around, trying to get points.”

I pretended to not know because it would have been too embarrassing to say, I’m the one who saved you.

“Hmm…”

Rachel looked at me strangely, but didn’t ask any further questions. Instead, she stared at the campfire in thought.

I thought she’d keep asking and planned on confessing when she asked for the third time.

“Oh, did you get hurt?”

I discovered a fairly deep wound near her collarbone. She must’ve received it from the previous fight with djinns.

“Ah, yes. Something happened…”

Evandel’s seed suddenly popped out of my pocket.

“Ah?”

The seed bounced towards Rachel and jumped on her collarbone. Rachel shrieked at the unexpected ambush.

“Ah! W-What!?”

“Ah, um, you see…”

I shot up just as surprised.

“Ah, this, what is this!”

Rachel tried to pull the seed off, but it cleverly jumped inside her clothes towards her armpit. I froze as I could no longer do anything.

“You see, it’s um… my pet almond… er, not almond, pet seed. Um…”

While I made excuses, Rachel stuffed her hand into her clothes as I quickly turned around. After a fierce struggle, Rachel resolved the situation with a deep sigh. I slowly turned around and saw her tidying her clothes with a flushed face. I dropped my head, not knowing the seed would do such a thing.

“Um, I’m sorry.”

Rachel looked back and forth between me and the seed.

“A pet seed?”

“Ah, yes. Yes.”

It sounded stupid, but I hoped she would believe me since this world was full of mysterious things. Honestly, I had no better excuse. Rachel sighed again and handed me the seed.

“I think it’ll be calmer… if you planted it in the ground.”

“R-Right.”

I took the seed and trapped it in a container.