Even Today, the Ranker Dreams of Retirement

Title: What’s the cutoff for Ullim International High?

Body: Ullim International High is my dream school, but I heard it’s not easy to get in.

*Ullim International High is short for Ullim International Magic School!

└It’s not that hard to get in. If you’re a magic-type Awakened.

└But if you’re not an Awakened, there’s no chance.

└First of all, are you an Awakened?

└Becoming an Awakened in the first place is probably harder lol. How many teenage Awakened are there?

└I am an Awakened… Is F-rank okay?

└Oh, congrats on awakening.

└Even F-rank is enviable…

└Yeah, but is there any need for an F-rank level Awakened to go there? I heard the school classifies F-rank separately and neglects them lol. I heard F-ranks can just go to regular high schools if they wear control items, so that might be better.

└Is that so…

└No! If you’re aiming for university, F-rank isn’t bad. There’s a special admission process for hunter universities, and only hunter high school students can apply. My younger sibling got into Korea University that way.

└Ugh, Awakened are really the new elite class lol. They even take university spots with that? Where’s the conscience?

└The comment above, don’t criticize if you don’t know. The hunter special admission is only for hunter-related departments, and they select quotas separately so it doesn’t affect regular high school students.

└I want to go to Ullim International High too… The food there is delicious… The facilities are good… The uniforms are cool…

└Looking at these comments, everyone’s so young. You all admire hunters because you don’t know better, but if you look closely, being a hunter isn’t all good. Having to fight life-and-death battles every day, how can that be good?

└I don’t want to be a combat-type… Please let me be a production-type hunter ㅠㅜ I want to live safely and richly just making items.

└Do you know how much even top-tier production-types struggle to get materials and research?

└I don’t aim for top-tier! I just want to be a decent production-type hunter who can make a good living quietly while also enjoying some perks! I’m off to pray for awakening again today!

└The comments are going off-topic. Anyway, OP, I hope you consider your career path carefully with your parents and make a good decision. I’m rooting for you!

└Thank you 🙂 ♡♡

◆◇◆◇◆

“Hyun Habin, I tried to take her off the scholarship list since she might be included due to special admission, but I’m not sure if it’ll work out.”

[Hey, won’t she run away if you make her a scholarship student?]

“Exactly. That’s why I especially asked an insider to be careful about that part.”

Hyun Siwoo, who had returned to Fides’s office while Habin went to school, nodded. This was possible because he had established connections at Ullim International High to prevent the Hapjeong Station disaster.

Thanks to this, he could easily get Habin into Ullim International High and adjust other minor details.

[You’re working quite hard to prevent the kid from dropping out.]

“Indeed. But Ullim International High has many attractive aspects, so there might be things Habin will like.”

[For example?]

“It wouldn’t be fun if I told you in advance.”

As Hyun Siwoo spun in his chair and started flipping through documents again,

Ring ring ring ring-

Hyun Siwoo frowned and answered the sudden call.

“What’s the matter?”

-Fides-nim! It’s nothing serious, but…!

“Go on.”

-You said you were going to give special lectures at Ullim International High this time, right? And that you wanted to go as an adjunct or visiting faculty if possible.

“Yes, yes. Is there a problem?”

-Well…

Hyun Siwoo waited for the next words while stamping documents. After a moment of silence, the informant on the other end of the line continued.

-Solaris is also participating as faculty.

“Huh?”

-Um… If Solaris is participating and you go too, won’t it draw attention? I think it might be better to look into other schools.

“That, that shouldn’t happen.”

Hyun Siwoo raised his head in surprise. Solaris… Surely not?

“Is it Chae Jise or Chae Jiseok who’s going?”

-Both of them.

“This is crazy.”

[Wow, is this the Hyun Habin effect? It looks like all the top rankers are gathering at one school. If the Hapjeong Station disaster happens now, there’d be no problem at all!]

“Ha… But I still need to go.”

You never know what might happen. It would be great if the Chae siblings and Hyun Habin could prevent the disaster, but.

‘Even with Solaris there, I can’t be at ease… They might both be absent from school at the crucial moment. Plus, I heard Hyun Habin often skips classes.’

It would be better for Hyun Siwoo to be there, just in case.

‘Hah, if Solaris and I both go, it’ll draw too much attention. Maybe I shouldn’t have sent her to school after all.’

[Looks like sending Hyun Habin might have made things bigger unnecessarily.]

‘Indeed.’

Unaware of his thoughts, the voice on the other end of the line continued.

-Is that so? Then should I mark you down as going too, Fides-nim…?

“Yes…”

[Are you serious?]

‘Still, probably nothing will happen. I’ve laid a lot of groundwork so far.’

In preparation for when he needed to influence Ullim International High later, Hyun Siwoo had frequently given special lectures at numerous magic-related schools worldwide, not just Ullim International High. Since no school would turn down the world’s strongest magic class, the process was quite smooth.

‘I’ve visited numerous countries as a smokescreen, so I was planning to say I’d briefly stay as an adjunct faculty at Ullim International High, famous for being a magic-related school, while visiting Korea.’

Why not just say it coincidentally overlapped with Solaris?

[But won’t there be people who make an issue out of this preemptively? Saying you’re planning something with Solaris.]

‘Then we’ll come up with something else when the time comes. Like saying we’re doing business together or collaborating on an education project? Chae Jise is so famous in the business world that people won’t be too suspicious if I say I’m meeting her for business reasons.’

Just like how people wouldn’t think much of it if Bill Gates and Warren Buffett did something together?

“For now, put me down as going.”

Hyun Siwoo made a clean decision. No matter how he thought about it, this decision shouldn’t cause any major problems.

Probably.

◆◇◆◇◆

However, at that moment.

“What do you mean it’s not a problem!”

“It’s totally a problem!”

“What on earth is going on?!”

In a dimly lit conference room decorated with neon lights.

The people seated around were muttering in panic.

“Why is Solaris suddenly moving?”

“Why is Fides coming?!”

Amidst the commotion, a red-haired woman sitting to one side spoke up.

“Everyone, shut up.”

“……”

Silence fell. The woman with short red hair was a face everyone knew well.

Errata, the leader of Minor Patch. She sighed.

“Are you all dense? Can’t you use your brains?”

“‘Second’, do you have any good ideas?”

“I’m in a f***ing bad mood, so shut up for now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Errata let out another sigh and looked around the round table. About half the seats were empty as some attended via video conference, while the other half were present in person.

This was no ordinary meeting. It was a gathering of the Seven Apostles who received direct orders from the Administrator.

Errata was the ‘Second’ Apostle, but she had the Third to Sixth Apostles wrapped around her finger. The Seventh was killed by Fides during a mission, so he was out of the picture.

Anyway, up to the Sixth member was directly affiliated with Errata’s ‘Minor Patch’, showing how closely they were connected to her.

There was only one person with whom she had a lukewarm relationship.

‘Kang Taeseo.’

Being all high and mighty just because he’s the ‘First’ should have its limits.

It really irked her that instead of joining Minor Patch or contributing to the Apostles’ meetings, he was busy playing hero in his home country.

Errata glared at Kang Taeseo sitting next to her, then turned her head back to the opposite side of the round table.

“Hey, Fourth. The situation’s pretty messed up, right? Didn’t you guarantee that we could trust you?”

“How was I supposed to know this would happen! Why are they all coming to Ullim International High of all places?”

“It’s a hot place, a hot place!”

The ‘Fifth’ sitting next to him snickered with a playful expression, but quickly shut his mouth again when he saw Errata’s cold face.

“…Hapjeong Station. We’ve been preparing for that experiment for over three years, centered around that place.”

The artificial gate creation experiment.

It was something this Apostle gathering had put tremendous effort into preparing. Methods to generate gates of desired ranks, ways to manipulate ranks mid-way. After all that research, just as they were about to put it into practice, suddenly the top rankers were gathering nearby right before execution.

‘Is this really a coincidence?’

Errata couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling.

‘There must be something…’

“Anyway, we can’t change the location at this point. All the cheats and effort we’ve put in there would go to waste.”

“Why there of all places?”

The ‘Third’ answered in a cool voice while flipping through documents.

“It had many good aspects for using cheat mode. It was the biggest metropolis among the candidates. We could also cause many casualties.”

The ‘Fifth’ shrugged his shoulders.

“Ha, we went through so much trouble to create this. If this fails, our Administrator’s quest will be ruined too.”

“So we just proceed? With all the top rankers there watching with eagle eyes? It’ll surely be suppressed much faster than we planned. Then it’ll be hard to gather data! There will be fewer casualties too!”

Everyone turned to look at the ‘Fourth’ simultaneously. He was the one in charge of this incident.

“Why, why are you all pushing it on me? We decided this together! And what’s wrong with fewer casualties? It’s just an experiment anyway.”

Backed into a corner, the ‘Fourth’ instead put on a brazen face and fought back.

“Oh, oh, we might even be able to take care of the Chae siblings and Fides together this time! Could even Fides survive in the high-difficulty gate we created? This is rather an opportunity to deal with Fides! Fides has been a pain in our neck all this time! Always interfering with our work!”

“Hmm……”

“That’s a reasonable point.”

The ‘Sixth’, who had been quiet, cautiously opened his mouth.

“Then, let’s postpone the timing of opening the gate for now.”

“Postpone?”

“I think we should find out what’s going on first. How about we go check the situation and then decide?”

“……”

Silence fell around the round table at those words. Errata slowly nodded.

“Indeed, gathering information would be good. Who wants to go?”

“……”

No one dared to answer hastily. Errata turned to look at Kang Taeseo sitting next to her. Kang Taeseo had been fixated on his phone throughout the meeting.

“Hey, are you even listening to the meeting?”

“Yeah.”

Kang Taeseo, who answered briefly, looked down at his phone again. The screen, thoroughly hidden from the other Apostles, showed a conversation he had just had with Hyun Habin.

As it happened, Kang Taeseo had recently contacted Hyun Habin. After hearing Errata’s conversation, there were many things that bothered him about Hyun Habin.

Don’t you need documents these days?

He had opened with this, but the reply was unexpected.

Hyun Habin

Nope! Don’t need them!

I’m finally going to escape the training institute!

Escape?

The answer to that came much later, just now.

Hyun Habin

Yeah, I found a way

Oh, and I’m in the middle of an entrance ceremony so I won’t be able to reply soon

‘Entrance ceremony?’

Mulling over that ominous name, Kang Taeseo sent a confirmation message.

What entrance ceremony?

Hyun Habin

I’m entering Ullim International High

“…!”

“Hey, ‘First’! Are you listening or not?”

Kang Taeseo slowly raised his head. The people at the round table were looking at him. The Sixth opened his mouth again.

“…About who’s going to Ullim International High.”

“I’ll go.”

Kang Taeseo answered immediately.

“What?”

“I said I’ll go.”