Chapter 307 – Part 2 – Qualification Exam

Choi Seong-min taking the Team 2 Leader position?

Both An Gi-hyeon and the person in question, Choi Seong-min, were shocked by this surprising decision.

However, An Gi-hyeon immediately objected as if he couldn’t accept it.

“This is ridiculous! A newcomer who just entered yesterday suddenly rising to a team leader position! There has never been such an absurd precedent anywhere!”

“If there wasn’t one before, there will be one starting today.”

“I cannot accept this! Aren’t you showing too much favoritism just because he’s your direct subordinate?”

“I am showing favoritism. That’s exactly why you accepted him as an employee despite complaining about parachute appointments and such, wasn’t it?”

“B-but that’s different from a team leader position…”

“I have the authority to place anyone in key positions. If there’s a team leader I don’t like, I can replace them with someone else anytime.”

“…”

“Of course, there needs to be some justification for that… but fortunately, there seems to be sufficient justification right now.”

“What did I do wrong…”

“You’re still acting until the very end, you piece of trash.”

An Gi-hyeon involuntarily trembled at Song Chi-hyeon’s murderous glare.

“Even when you should be apologizing and stepping down, you’re still playing dumb until the end. Damn it, if you have any conscience, don’t say another word. Before I rip out your tongue.”

“…”

He had forcibly silenced him, but if he hadn’t done this, it seemed like he would continue making excuses.

‘Stop whining and just hand over the team leader position, will you?’

Song Chi-hyeon was planning to use this opportunity to place Choi Seong-min in the team leader position.

‘That way he’ll have time to hunt.’

A supervisor is fundamentally a job where you follow teams around all day and just monitor them in dungeons.

While you’d receive a lot of incentives, there’s no time to hunt separately.

Even if he wanted to help Choi Seong-min grow, he couldn’t.

‘I told him to wait until I could transfer him to another department, but honestly, I don’t know when a position will open up either…’

Rather than waiting indefinitely, it seemed better to place Choi Seong-min in the team leader position to create time.

The team leader position, unlike supervisor, had plenty of free time.

‘And I’ve got the perfect justification to pull down the team leader too.’

He couldn’t miss this opportunity that had come by chance.

That’s what Song Chi-hyeon thought, but he didn’t know.

This wasn’t chance but an opportunity Choi Seong-min had created.

Taking the team leader position was exactly what Choi Seong-min had intended as his real goal.

Therefore, there was no reason to refuse.

“Choi Seong-min. You agree too, right? About taking the team leader position.”

“If you would allow me to do so, I’m confident I can work hard.”

“…”

An Gi-hyeon, who had been watching the two, made an incredulous expression.

-These bastards! Look at them conspiring to steal my position!

Reading his thoughts, Song Chi-hyeon glared again.

“What’s with that expression? Do you have complaints about my decision as a Great Hero?”

“…No, I don’t.”

He said no, but An Gi-hyeon was burning up inside.

-Damn it, you fucking Great Hero bastard!

The curses flowing directly into his mind made Song Chi-hyeon’s face harden like stone.

‘This bastard really…’

Just as he was thinking of punching his head for no reason, Choi Seong-min suddenly spoke up.

“Great Hero-nim. I’m sorry for being presumptuous, but there’s one thing I’d like to request.”

“A request?”

“I would like you to temporarily postpone appointing me as team leader.”

Even without saying it, he could tell what intention lay behind those words.

‘Is this guy serious?’

Song Chi-hyeon asked formally despite knowing.

“Why do you want me to postpone it?”

“I’m truly grateful that you would place me in the team leader position, but if you do that, there will definitely be complaints from the employees. Even I would find it absurd if a newcomer who just entered suddenly got promoted to team leader. There will definitely be people who won’t acknowledge it, like Team Leader An Gi-hyeon here.”

Though he didn’t say it, just looking at An Gi-hyeon’s hostile glare was enough to tell.

That he was full of dissatisfaction with Choi Seong-min becoming team leader.

“So how about this? We hold an exam in front of the employees. To see whether I’m qualified to be team leader or not.”

“An exam in front of people… What specific kind of exam are you talking about?”

“A team leader position should require being skilled at handling work and being the strongest in the team, shouldn’t it?”

“And?”

“I will master all the processes that need to be learned as team leader in just one day today. Also, I will show that I can win in a match against Team Leader An Gi-hyeon, who is the strongest in the team.”

When his name came up, An Gi-hyeon looked over with surprised eyes.

Choi Seong-min met that gaze and continued.

“I’ll take exams on two subjects – intelligence and martial prowess – and if I fail even one, I’ll step down from the team leader position. How about it? Team Leader. Isn’t this a good proposal?”

Not just good.

An Gi-hyeon barely held back his rising smile.

This was actually an opportunity.

A perfect opportunity to humiliate Choi Seong-min in front of everyone!

“What does my opinion matter? The Great Hero’s decision is what’s important.”

An Gi-hyeon, suppressing his joy, looked at Song Chi-hyeon as if demanding an answer.

“…”

Honestly, Song Chi-hyeon wanted to stop Choi Seong-min from taking any exam.

There was no need to throw away the opportunity to become team leader.

But thinking about it, it wasn’t a bad proposal either.

‘The guy is thinking of gaining recognition from other employees with this opportunity.’

As mentioned earlier, even if he forcibly placed him in the team leader position, it was obvious he wouldn’t be acknowledged and would be called a parachute team leader.

‘In that case, it might be better to take an exam in front of people and gain public recognition…’

This way, he could eliminate complaints and create solid justification for rising to the team leader position.

‘This guy knows how to think about this kind of thing too… He has quite a meticulous side?’

Of course, all this was under the assumption that he would pass the exam.

“Will you be alright? Choi Seong-min?”

“Yes. I’m confident.”

“Team Leader An Gi-hyeon, do you agree to this too?”

“Of course, Great Hero-nim.”

“Good. Then as Choi Seong-min said, we’ll hold an exam. However, regardless of the results, An Gi-hyeon, you’re fired from the team leader position. This is purely an exam to confirm my subordinate’s qualifications.”

“…How could I object.”

While it was unfortunate to be fired, An Gi-hyeon had no other choice.

This was the only way to get revenge on Choi Seong-min.

‘Choi Seong-min, you bastard. Let’s see you get publicly humiliated.’

Eventually, the three people left the team leader’s office.

“Everyone, pay attention.”

Great Hero Song Chi-hyeon drew everyone’s attention with his authoritative voice.

“Yesterday, there was an unfortunate incident between these two people. After investigating this, I determined that Team Leader An Gi-hyeon was at fault and wish to fire him.”

The employees began murmuring in surprise at the sudden news of dismissal.

The really surprising news hadn’t even been revealed yet.

“And the currently vacant team leader position will be filled by Choi Seong-min here.”

That bombshell statement made the murmuring grow even louder.

“That person is the new team leader?”

“Wait, isn’t that person the newcomer who entered yesterday?”

“That’s right. The parachute appointment that the Great Hero brought.”

Most employees couldn’t accept the statement about placing a parachute appointment in the team leader position.

But the Great Hero’s words weren’t finished yet.

“However, we will first hold a qualification exam to confirm whether he’s suitable as team leader. If Choi Seong-min fails to pass the exam, the team leader position will be filled by someone else.”

The disgruntled atmosphere calmed down considerably when they heard there would be an exam.

They judged it to be somewhat fair rather than forcing someone into the position.

“The exam will test two subjects – intelligence and martial prowess. Team Leader An.”

“Yes.”

“Bring all the materials that need to be mastered as team leader.”

An Gi-hyeon smiled wickedly as he gathered various documents.

“Team Leader An. Explain what materials these are.”

“Yes. What I’ve brought are basic rules, response processes, and work procedures that are essential for a team leader to memorize.”

“If he memorizes all of this, do you think there would be no problem entering practical work immediately after taking the team leader position?”

“Well, yes. Assuming he memorized everything, that is.”

Having received confirmation that there would be no problems if he just memorized them, Song Chi-hyeon addressed the crowd.

“From now until quitting time, Choi Seong-min will memorize these materials. That’s the first exam.”

At first glance, they looked thick enough to be overwhelming to memorize in just one day.

But as if this level wouldn’t be a problem, Choi Seong-min calmly accepted the materials.

Then he went to his seat and began memorizing with his head buried in them.

‘Hmph, you think you can memorize work guidelines that took me two whole months to learn in just one day?’

An Gi-hyeon looked at Choi Seong-min with displeasure, but he also thought it might be possible.

Since he had performed the feat of memorizing materials given impromptu the day before in just 10 minutes.

‘I’ll acknowledge that you have good memory. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if you pass this exam.’

What An Gi-hyeon was waiting for was the martial prowess exam with the match against himself.

‘Yesterday was because I was careless. If we fight again, I’m confident I can definitely win.’

The defeat in the alley was purely because he had been careless.

If he just didn’t let his guard down, he could win sufficiently.

‘It wasn’t that I was underestimating someone with 20,000 combat power. That’s how I carelessly allowed the first strike.’

Wasn’t his 60,000 combat power for nothing?

If he hadn’t been hit by that surprise dagger throw, he wouldn’t have been so miserably defeated.

“Everyone continue working as usual! Let Choi Seong-min take his exam.”

At the Great Hero’s instruction, the employees scattered to find their work.

“Team Leader An Gi-hyeon. You also continue working until the exam is finished.”

“Understood.”

He glanced at Choi Seong-min and returned to the team leader’s office.

Waiting only for him to pass the intelligence exam quickly and have a match with himself.

* * *

“I’ve memorized everything.”

Song Chi-hyeon nodded as he looked at Choi Seong-min who had come to find him.

‘He definitely seems to have memorized everything.’

He could see confidence both outwardly and inwardly.

‘At this level, there should be no problem taking the exam.’

Song Chi-hyeon gathered the team leader and employees again.

“Choi Seong-min says he has memorized all the materials given this morning.”

At those words, people looked at the clock as if they had made a promise.

“There are still 2 hours left until quitting time, but he’s already memorized everything?”

“Did he really memorize everything in just one day?”

The murmuring stopped immediately when Song Chi-hyeon spoke.

“We’ll consider it a pass if he gets all ten questions correct, and I’ll give the questions right away. For fairness, Team Leader An will give the questions directly.”

An Gi-hyeon looked at the materials and gave questions.

Each time, immediate answers came from Choi Seong-min’s mouth.

All ten questions were correct.

‘This damn bastard really memorized everything…’

Every time he gave a question, he hoped at least one would be wrong, but somehow there was no hesitation in the answers.

‘Right. It’s actually better for me that he doesn’t fail the intelligence exam. Otherwise, he won’t even get to be defeated publicly!’

While An Gi-hyeon was grinding his teeth, Song Chi-hyeon announced the exam results.

“The intelligence exam is passed with this. Now if he passes the martial prowess exam, I will judge that Choi Seong-min has the qualifications of a team leader and immediately appoint him as Hunter Management Department Team 2 Leader. Choi Seong-min, Team Leader An Gi-hyeon, come forward.”

When the two came forward, Song Chi-hyeon said.

“We will hold the martial prowess exam through a match between you two. Choi Seong-min must defeat Team Leader An Gi-hyeon here to rise to team leader. First, since the space is cramped, we’ll move locations. Everyone follow.”

When Song Chi-hyeon took the lead, the employees followed in a line while murmuring.

“He has to beat Team Leader An Gi-hyeon?”

“Is that possible? The team leader is C-rank.”

“Hey, look at the combat power. 20,000 versus 60,000.”

“Wow, that’s crazy. There’s a 3x difference?”

“Isn’t this a mismatch? How can he win?”

“But why is the team leader’s hand injured?”

For employees who didn’t know that Choi Seong-min was the one who cut off An Gi-hyeon’s wrist, it was an obvious match.

The overwhelming combat power difference already indicated the result, so interest was already waning.

On the other hand, An Gi-hyeon, who had experienced Choi Seong-min’s skills, was clearly tense.

‘I can’t be careless. I need to strike first to gain the advantage.’

After that, he planned to inflict the same damage he had received.

‘I’ll stab from shoulder to forearm in order. Then I’ll cut off his wrist just like he did to me.’

His severed hand was his right hand.

Fortunately, being left-handed, there was no hindrance to wielding weapons.

“Here.”

The place Song Chi-hyeon brought them to was a park behind the building.

“The two of you will have a match here, each holding weapons. The first person to surrender loses. Inflicting wounds is allowed, but taking a life will be considered defeat. Both of you equip your gear and prepare.”

Choi Seong-min and An Gi-hyeon glared at each other while putting on their hunter equipment.

When the employees surrounded them in a circle, a space for the match was naturally formed.

Song Chi-hyeon stood between the two as referee.

“If you’re ready, I’ll count down. 3… 2… 1. Match start!”

Until the match began, the employees’ expressions were indifferent.

But as soon as Song Chi-hyeon stepped aside, something unexpected happened.

“Huh!”

In the blink of an eye, Choi Seong-min had approached and was already holding his dagger to An Gi-hyeon’s throat.

“Will you surrender?”

At Choi Seong-min’s question, An Gi-hyeon stammered in confusion.