The Monster Aspires to Be a Hero!

Feeling victorious after passing the first and second exams, I proudly left home.
As I stood at a nearby bus stop, Jieun appeared shortly after.
“Did you wait long?”
“Felt like 10,000 years.”
“Isn’t that when you’re supposed to say ‘I just got here too’?”
“I just got here too.”
“Tsk.”
Jieun briefly scrunched her face before letting out a short sigh.
Then she showed a slightly brighter expression.
“Congratulations. But you passed the first and second exams, right?”
“Huh? Um… yeah, I passed.”
I didn’t say anything, yet she seemed to know just by looking.
Still an amazing superpower.

Come to think of it, that suit Iron had been wearing that tormented me was likely made by someone with the same abilities as Jieun.
“Then I suppose you’ll have to ponder a hero name, practice signatures, and prepare a hero suit now?”
“I suppose so?”
“Let me know if you need any help later.”
No, she meant I absolutely must let her know.
That’s the vibe I got from her gaze, so I ended up nodding reflexively.
…It does seem I’m truly doing something I shouldn’t.
Using the excuse of having a monster within me to be aware of her feelings to some degree, yet not reciprocating – this act of mine.
From my self-centered perspective, it may seem like I’m doing it for her sake, but from another angle, isn’t it just stringing her along?
As I became aware I was doing something utterly deplorable, looking at Jieun filled me with anguish.

Why not just accept her feelings now?
With a presence like you clinging to me?

‘A presence like you’ is rather harsh phrasing.
As I scowled and conversed with the monster presence, Jieun was staring intently at me.
My prolonged silence must have made her feel uneasy.
“Sunbae?”
“It’s nothing.”
With lingering inexplicable guilt, the weekdays passed and the weekend arrived.
Guessing the third and fourth exams would involve mountains, I packed luggage suitable for camping overnight.
Just preserved rations from the mart, padding, and a sleeping bag, but still.
Carrying my belongings, I headed to the exam venue in time for the appointed hour, where buses were prepared to transport us.
“Examinee number 123, Jinwoo Lee.”
“Um… ah, yes. Confirmed.”
After showing the staff my ID and admission slip, they told me which bus I would ride.
I boarded and blankly gazed out the window.
Perhaps because I had arrived early to avoid a repeat of last time, the bus was completely empty.
By 30 minutes before departure, around 90% of people had boarded, and at 20 minutes prior, they announced all examinees had arrived.
Having seen the penalty for tardiness and received the warning, it seemed no one would be late this time.
The vehicle carrying us began driving down the road.
After blankly watching for a bit, I decided to take a brief nap.
I awoke to a commotion, and we had already arrived at our destination.
I quickly gathered my belongings and exited the vehicle.
As expected, our stopping point was a wooded mountain valley.
Most examinees had looks of bewilderment, while only some seemed nonchalant.
The nonchalant ones, like me, seemed to be those who had packed larger luggage in anticipation.
They likely had the same expectations as me.

The third and fourth exams of this certification will be held here.
The staff member with a microphone mentioned the exams to be conducted at this location today.
The third and fourth stages of the hero ability certification exam would be held concurrently over 2 days.

Scoring for this exam has already begun the moment you arrived at the venue.
At those words, a stir arose among the examinees.
Referring to the location as just ‘rural area’ instead of Seoul or another specific place had already dropped a hint.
Examinees who had prepared for camping in the mountains in advance would receive bonus points.
At those words, the previously nonchalant examinees’ faces brightened with a sense of pride.
And I felt the same way too.

This exam will be conducted in teams of 3.
Those without combat-applicable abilities were each distributed a vest.
It seemed the teams would consist of 2 combat ability users and 1 non-combat ability user.

The goal of this survival test is to survive in the mountains for 2 days, with points awarded or deducted for every action.
The staff said that as they distributed wristbands to all of us.
It seemed this wristband would monitor our actions in the mountains and calculate our scores accordingly.

Teams of 3 with a non-combat ability user will receive severe deductions if that member is taken hostage or judged deceased.
Further explanations from the staff continued after that.
To summarize concisely:

Survive in the mountains for 2 days.

Form teams autonomously, but must include 1 non-combat ability user in a 3-person team.

Consider the non-combat ability user a civilian and protect them. However, they are not merely deadweight to be protected.

There are bonus and deduction factors scattered throughout the mountain.

Procure food supplies through foraging or find hidden stashes.

Conflicts with other teams can result in deduction.
That was roughly the gist of it.
As soon as the explanations ended, I searched for Eunsung, with whom I had briefly chatted during the previous exam.
Since he possessed acceleration abilities and had passed that test, teaming up would be advantageous.
Eunsung also seemed to be looking for me, so we were able to quickly form a pair.
“Thanks. With you, we can start with bonus points.”
“It’s no problem. Let’s first invite one more member.”
Selecting this non-combat ability user could be a crucial factor for the exam.
For now, we were told to think of them as civilians and protect them.
Receiving a hostage or death judgment for the non-combat member would result in severe deductions.
In other words, not an outright disqualification.
The most stable approach would be just fleeing with the non-combat member, but that alone won’t suffice.
The part about them not being mere deadweight to protect was likely a hint.
There are definitely advantages to be gained by utilizing the non-combat member’s abilities.
“Who should we bring along?”
“…Give me a moment.”
It’s the mountains.
The weather in mountains is fickle, and currently being April, the nights will be quite chilly.
If there are any examinees who came prepared for camping, they should be high priority.
At minimum, it means they have decent situational assessment.
What else is characteristic of mountains?
Trees.
Mountains have plenty of trees.
An abundance of trees means limited visibility, effectively restricting primitive abilities unrelated to clairvoyance.
No matter how far one can see, the trees will obstruct the view.
If auxiliary vision-related abilities would help, we need a clairvoyant.
Auditory-based abilities could provide minor assistance too.
But I’m unsure how helpful they would actually be, as pinpoint advantages would be difficult in an echoing mountain environment.
Psychometry could potentially help as well.
By touching any objects the staff or supervisors may have handled, those memories could be read.
But that ability would be useless for objects older than a day.
Clairvoyance does seem the most suitable here.
“Let’s go with a clairvoyant.”
Upon hearing me, Eunsung immediately nodded and used his abilities to dash forward.
The vests for non-combat abilities likely listed their powers, so he probably planned to just abduct a suitable candidate.
Rather than persuading verbally, he chose to just bring them directly.
Though his actions preceded his words more than expected, it felt quite reassuring in this moment.

“Eep?! Wha, What is this?!”
For the person suddenly abducted, this must seem bewildering.
“My apologies. It seems your ability will be absolutely essential for this exam. Could you please lend us your aid?”
First, I apologized for the disrespect.
Acknowledged and praised her abilities.
Stated that we needed her help.
After buttering her up like that, she seemed inclined to listen.
“What, what is this?!”
To her slightly raised voice, we revealed our respective abilities.
“I’m an acceleration ability user. My name is Eunsung Choi, 22 years old.”
“I’m a multi-ability user with physical enhancement and hardening. My name is Jinwoo Lee, 23 years old.”
“I’ll do it.”
The woman, who had been grumbling until then, adopted a very serious expression and agreed to join our team.
Kang Eunhye, 21 years old, clairvoyant ability user, became our teammate!

After forming our team and approaching the staff to register our names, they activated the functions of our wristbands.
Then they instructed us to follow a different staff member.
It seemed the exam would immediately begin once teams were formed, with the starting location differing too.
“The wristbands have multiple functions.”

Scoring

Vital monitoring

GPS functionality
Those were some of the listed functions.
“So if the wristband warns you’ve exited the designated area, you must immediately return. Leaving the area will be treated as exam withdrawal.”
We committed every word from the staff to memory.
“Then best of luck to you all.”
After the staff member departed, we immediately set down our belongings to assess the situation.
“May I bring something up first?”
Contrary to her initial impression, the rather cautious Eunhye raised her hand slightly.
“Yes, what is it?”
“Well, since we need to camp in the mountains… are those the supplies needed for camping?”
Ah, I see.
Eunhye was only carrying a light backpack that seemed to contain just toiletries and spare clothes at most.
We decided to first unpack and check each other’s belongings.
Eunsung and I had each brought sleeping bags, thick padding, spare undergarments, and preserved rations.
As expected, Eunhye had only brought toiletries, cosmetics, and spare clothes.
Eunhye carefully repacked her belongings while stealing glances at us.
“No need to worry. We recommended this knowingly.”
With her clairvoyant abilities, even packing disorderly wouldn’t be a deduction factor.
We reorganized our belongings and surveyed the surrounding mountain terrain.
We needed to find a suitable spot to spend the night.
Ideally, we would find a sturdy, spacious cave, but failing that, we had to prepare a decent camping environment.
That aspect would likely factor into the scoring too.
“As for food supplies… it’s a bit tricky.”
Since the sleeping bags and padding were quite bulky, we couldn’t bring too many rations.
If shared between us all, we might last until tomorrow, but the real issue was water.
Eunsung and I had each brought 1.5L plastic bottles of water, but Eunhye had none.
Humans need around 2L of water per day, so we needed to replenish our drinking supply first.
It seemed we would have to stay quite active.