Hunter Academy’s Battle God

Chapter 28

A Class, during their break…

It was forbidden to be ‘loud’, as per the class president Kim EunAh’s orders, but someone fearlessly opened the door to the classroom and began to shout.

“Hey guys, I’m here!”

Whhr, slam!*

Kim EunAh, who had been sitting on a desk, almost dropped her phone in surprise.

“…Who the hell?”

Furious, she grimaced and turned her gaze towards the door. The student in question began running towards Kim EunAh.

“It’s EunAhhhhh!”

Pink hair that could remind someone of cherry blossoms…

A girl with a short stature threw her body towards Kim EunAh and caught her in an embrace.

“How did my EunAh do without me? Course, I bet it must’ve been awful since I wasn’t here!”

The owner of this bubbly personality was Amy, a transfer student from America and a popular broadcaster. Due to this, she often went out on extracurriculars and rarely went to school. She was the sole student in A Class who could act friendly around Kim EunAh.

“Hey! Get off me!”

Kim EunAh forcibly tore Amy away from her as the other girl began to rub her face in her stomach.

“Heh heh, EunAh~ we’re friends, right?”

Even as Kim EunAh did this, Amy was grinning widely. Of course, Amy wanted something else from the other girl.

“You’re second in the student rankings, so you’re going to be in the Representative Selection? Right? Hmm~?”

As a streamer, Amy wanted broadcasting rights for the Representative Selection event from Kim EunAh. She tried to appeal to the other girl by twisting her body one way or another; Kim EunAh replied to her with a bitter expression.

“It isn’t me, though?”

“Heh heh, there you go agaaaain! Don’t joke around~”

Amy crinkled her eyes jokingly, as if not believing the other girl. She poked Kim EunAh’s side.

“It isn’t me.”

Kim EunAh repeated it again with a straight face.

Amy’s eyes widened as she finally understood the situation.

“Ehhhhhh!?” she screamed.

Kim EunAh scratched her ear at Amy’s overexaggerated reaction and continued to speak.

“Sorry to say, but I didn’t get chosen for it.”

“H-how! I know you’ve never won against Adela even once, but aren’t you still super strong?”

“You wanna die? I’m gonna beat her soon, okay?”

Kim EunAh glared at Amy, who had collapsed on the floor in shock. Amy had already promised the news station a spot, believing in Kim EunAh’s skill. She had also told her viewers that she had the broadcasting rights for Gaon Academy in the Representative Selection.

To think that Kim EunAh, who she had believed in, did not actually make it to the selection. Amy began mumbling to herself, still on the floor.

“My life is ruined…”

“What, hey! Is that all it takes for you to get depressed?”

For reasons unknown, Kim EunAh was oddly weak towards Amy. Kim EunAh felt bothered when she saw Amy’s shoulders sag.

“…Why don’t you go and ask the person who was actually chosen, then?”

“Who? Don’t tell me… Adela?”

Amy gulped as she imagined the girl in her head.

“Y-you want me to ask Adela…if I can film her? N-no way! She’ll…definitely freeze me!”

After Amy’s spar against Adela, which lasted two seconds with her complete defeat, just thinking about the other girl made her shudder.

“After she does that, she’ll grind me up whenever she wants to eat some shaved ice…with strawberry syrup…”

Amy began muttering in fear. Seeing this, Kim EunAh sighed.

“No, not Adela. Shin YuSung,” she replied.

“Shin YuSung? Who’s that again?”

Amy tilted her head in confusion. Kim EunAh gave a curt response.

“The transfer student.”

“Ah, the rumored~! Wow, then the transfer student immediately stole your place at the Representative Selection? Damn, that’s sick…”

Amy wasn’t very aware of what went on in the school due to her busy broadcasting schedule. Actually, she had no interest in it.

“If I search him, he’ll pop up, then! Let’s have a look-see.”

Her search returned a flood of K Channel broadcasts. Amy clicked one of the videos and—soon enough—had an awestricken expression on her face.

“W-wow…”

To Amy, a streamer, Shin YuSung’s existence was in and of itself a shock.

“He’s really…”

Amy was sincerely impressed.

Of course, what had caught her eye was not his skills but something else.

“…hot!!”

Amy muttered under her breath as if she had found a precious jewel. Shin YuSung’s beauty was more than sufficient for the star quality needed to be on air.

Amy smiled happily, thinking of her rose-tinted future.

‘What if I partner with this guy!? And on top of that, if I can broadcast the Representative Selection? Heh, fufu…

She imagined being the shining light of the news station… Endless applause… A stream of donations from the viewers!

‘I’m giddy just thinking about it!’

Amy grinned, satisfied, and turned her shining eyes towards Kim EunAh.

“I… I-I’ve decided!”

Amy began talking to her without caring about the fact that Kim EunAh was looking at her phone, indifferent.

“This man shall be my partner!”

Amy seemed to greatly like Shin YuSung, even referring to him in a polite manner.

* * *

* * *

Gaon Academy’s cafeteria.

The cafeteria was ostentatious enough that its buffet rivalled the quality of those in hotels.

“As expected, this is also really delicious.”

But no matter how delicious the food was, Shin YuSung was the only one who had cleaned four plates of it.

“YuSung-ah, you really are good at eating. I… can’t even finish two plates without my stomach crying out for mercy,” muttered Lee SiWoo, impressed.

As Shin YuSung looked at the food on his plate, he thought back to Martial Spirits’ Mountain.

The concept of a meal did not exist to Shin YuSung on that mountain—every moment was dedicated to training and survival.

If there was a lake next to where he was training, he fished. If there was a forest nearby, he ate fruits. Shin YuSung had not taken time to enjoy food—he had fed off the environment.

Even without much to eat, he was never afraid of starving. This was all just a natural concept to Shin YuSung.

“Oops.”

He accidentally dropped some fried chicken from his chopsticks. As that happened, Sumire caught the chicken midair with incredible reflexes.

“Oh~ nice catch.”

Lee SiWoo clapped as he saw Sumire’s chopstick maneuvers.

“Oh, um, Shin YuSung-ssi…”

Sumire glanced at Shin YuSung, then stretched out the piece of chicken between her chopsticks towards him.

“…H-here you go!”

“Thank you, Sumire.”

Shin YuSung took the chicken.

After he did so, Sumire blankly stared at the spot where her chopsticks had touched his.

For three seconds…

Sumire’s face suddenly grew red from wherever her imagination had led her.

“Why did you stop eating?”

Sumire flinched at Lee SiWoo’s question as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“…Eek!? N-nothing!”

Sumire resumed slowly poking at her food with her chopsticks. Lee SiWoo looked at her in a dissatisfied manner, leaning his chin on one hand.

“So gloomy.”

At that moment, a bright and cheerful voice, in complete contrast to Sumire, called for Shin YuSung.

“Found you!”

Amy Rose.**

Gaon Academy’s most popular celebrity, at least 10,000 viewers watched her streams the moment they went live. Amy began talking to herself, complimenting Shin YuSung’s looks.

“Wow! He looks even hotter in person!”

Amy stared at Shin YuSung with an exhilarated expression. The other students in the cafeteria turned their gazes towards her.

“It’s Amy!”

“Was she supposed to be at school today?”

“But she’s talking to the F Class students.”

She was popular enough that her appearance somewhere was enough for people to gossip about it. Amy looked around her vicinity.

“Hey, I have something I need to say to you! Can we go somewhere quiet that isn’t this cafeteria?” she asked.

Amy’s eyes were glittering.

Shin YuSung gave a quick glance at his empty plate, then nodded his head.

“Sure.” 

Shin YuSung and Amy left the cafeteria in a rather sudden manner. Lee SiWoo began to mutter, impressed.

“…As expected of YuSung.”

“What?”

Sumire expressed her puzzlement at the boy’s impressed words. Seeing this, Lee SiWoo clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“You haven’t noticed already? What do you think Amy would want to talk to Shin YuSung about at a quiet location?”

“Th-that’s…”

The blood drained from Sumire’s face. Lee SiWoo continued to mutter with a confident expression on his face.

“I really am observant. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.”

On the other hand, Sumire was staring at her plate and holding back tears.

* * * *

The Academy’s park, where the lake was visible…

Amy took out a white desk from her wrist Pocket. It amazed Shin YuSung that such a large item could fit in her wristwatch-sized Pocket.

The girl sat at the desk with practiced motions.

“‘Kay, ‘kay! Let’s first sit down and have a chat!”

“Sounds good.”

This was the first time that Shin YuSung had met Amy face-to-face, but he already had the gist from the headmaster.

[Our YuSung is so popular that even news stations could come and contact you! Even some of our students fall under that category. Their names are…]

Amy was among the list of names that the headmaster Jin ByungCheol had given him. With the help of the fans and popularity that Amy had built up through her broadcasts, Shin YuSung could instantly boost his prominence.

It was important for a hunter to boost one’s own prominence. It was, of course, crucial for the Representative Selection’s voting portion, but it also helped with the extracurriculars that he would participate in afterwards.

There were a limited number of skilled students in the academy.

For Shin YuSung, who had his hands full with both the Selection and with gathering team members for the intramurals, Amy approaching him was a great opportunity.

“So you currently run a broadcasting program, and you’re quite popular, right?”

Amy aggressively nodded her head at Shin YuSung’s lead-in.

“Yes! Correct! It seems like our talk will be short! I thought it would be! I heard you were chosen for the Representative Selection. If you want to be chosen as the representative for the entire nation, then popularity is absolutely essential!”

Like she had just said, both his prowess in the selection and the votes from the citizens were important. Having a high level of skill was a must, but participants who were popular and more familiar to the public had an advantage.

“But you’ll have a tough time beating Adela in popularity, don’t you think?”

Amy smirked and moved her eyebrows up and down. Unlike Shin YuSung, who had spent 12 years on the Martial Spirits’ Mountain, Adela had appeared on TV and had perfectly completed various extracurricular activities.

It was a fact that Shin YuSung was losing out to her in that aspect.

“That’s true,” he replied calmly.

Amy quickly stood up from her seat in response.

“However…!”

Grinning, she clasped her hands together and began to rub them together in an effort to charm the boy.

“It’ll be a different story with my support, heh heh!”

Amy was skilled at flattery, possibly due to her early debut in society.

“If you just let me have the broadcasting rights for the Selection, this broadcasting genius will help you in this endeavor with all of her heart!”

It was a perfect appeal and shining eyes from Amy. Shin YuSung leaned his chin on one hand and began muttering with an indifferent expression on his face.

“Is that so?”

Amy was thrown off by Shin YuSung’s apathetic response.

“Are those all of the conditions?” he asked in a steady voice.

Amy nodded her head with an expression on her face that implied that she now understood what he was talking about.

“Ah, ahh~ so that’s what that was about! Man, I must be out of it! Of course, we’ll split the donation money 50/50!”

Amy easily put forth an outrageous condition. But Shin YuSung still looked dissatisfied.

‘Th-this…isn’t good.”

Amy broke out in a cold sweat as she became more and more thrown. Shin YuSung slowly began to state the condition that he wanted.

“You know that I’ll need a party in the case that I win in the Representative Selection, right?”

“R-right? There’s only one representative, but there’s also a lot of team-based events in the International Competition.”

Amy nodded, face scrunched up in confusion.

“I’m currently very lacking in team members.”

Hearing this, Amy realized what condition he wanted.

“…N-no way.”

“Yep. Join my party. Oh, of course, that is only in the case where I win in the Representative Selection.”

In preparation for students like Amy approaching him, Shin YuSung had created a plan to win them over to his side in advance.

Of course, it was a difficult feat to get someone as popular and skilled as Amy as his party member, even among the A Class students.

But Shin YuSung had an ace up his sleeve—the broadcasting rights.

“Um…I dunno, anything can happen, so forming a party with you is a little…”

Amy was sweating.

It was proof that the broadcasting rights that Shin YuSung was offering her was that attractive to her. Instead of trying to pull her in and coax her further, he tried pushing her away.

“Is that so? I really need team members right now. If it’s too hard for you, I think I can probably look for someone from a different academ—”

“Uh, uhh…you can’t! Waah! Please reconsider that!”

Amy was brought to tears by her and Shin YuSung’s tug-of-war. She desperately wanted the broadcasting rights for the Representative Selection.

The first reason was because of the promise she had made to the news station and her viewers.

The second was the desire she possessed to become an even more popular streamer.

Amy couldn’t afford to give up the chance to broadcast the Selection. Shin YuSung smiled.

‘I guess this is the time to pull her in.’

Shin YuSung checked the time with his Pocket, then asked a question to the fretting Amy.

“Looks like it’s almost time for class. Have you decided yet?”

No matter how much she mulled over it, the answer was already set in stone. Eventually, Amy bowed her head to Shin YuSung.

“I will join your team, Mr. Leader!”

She was completely lost to Shin YuSung’s push and pull tactic.

*Korean classrooms have sliding doors.

**No, really, that’s her name.

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