The F-rank Hunter Who Turned Into a Golem Is Overpowered Chapter 16

Chapter 16

About 30 minutes before Doja heard the scream.

A group of people was in a precarious situation in one part of the testing field. The group consisted of Sim Young-jin, Sung Min-ho, and Kim Joon-su.

The three of them, breathing heavily, hid in a secluded area. Kim Joon-su laid the unconscious Sung Min-ho down on the soft ground.

“Ugh, Young-jin, let’s just give up… Min-ho’s in this state…”

“Dammit, why are you so scared? It’s not like they’re going to kill us!”

“Still…”

“It’s already happened. Besides, do you think they’ll just leave us alone if we run?”

“That’s why I’m saying we should give up. It’s like saying we don’t care about the points and we won’t resist anymore.”

“You’re so frustrating. Do it if you want.”

“Ah, Young-jin…”

Sim Young-jin gripped his sword tightly and stood up. Sung Min-ho was unconscious, and Kim Joon-su had no will to fight. He had to fight on his own. Catching a few monsters and passing wouldn’t be enough to earn his uncle’s approval.

He needed the top score.

If he didn’t get first place, he couldn’t face his uncle.

“I’m going.”

“Are you really going? You saw him too. He didn’t even draw his weapon. And judging by how much he enjoyed watching us suffer, he wasn’t even using a tenth of his strength.”

“So what? This is an opportunity. I’ll leave a lasting impression on the examiners.”

Sim Young-jin knew that the difference between him and the examiner was clear, and there was no way he could win in a normal fight.

So, he needed to approach it differently.

“Where are you going?”

“Deeper in.”

“I… I’ll go with you!”

“Get lost. I’m going alone. You take care of Sung Min-ho.”

Sim Young-jin left Kim Joon-su and Sung Min-ho behind and ventured deeper into the forest. He planned to exploit the arrogance of the examiner and use the boss monster as a distraction to find an opening.

‘There’s nothing money can’t solve.’

In fact, Sim Young-jin had more information than others. He had bribed one of the examiners in the Cheolwon testing site to get various details in advance.

However, one thing he regretted was that many of the details were vague, suggesting the examiner he bribed wasn’t particularly powerful.

According to that examiner, the one Sim Young-jin targeted was supposedly the weakest, but he certainly didn’t seem that way to Sim Young-jin.

‘I’ll have a word with that guy after this is over.’

Still, the information about the field was quite accurate. The layout, the location of the monsters, and the safe rest areas had all matched up well.

Thanks to that, Sim Young-jin and his friends had earned 770 points, putting them in the top tier among the examinees.

Thump, thump, thump, thump—

‘The footsteps are already getting louder!’

Sim Young-jin, now fully pumped, continued toward his destination. Soon, he would get a glimpse of the boss monster.

“Grrraaarrgh!”

At a wide-open space halfway up the mountain, with a tall cliff behind it. The area seemed artificially carved out of the mountain.

‘How did the Subjugation Army manage to capture a monster like this?’

Chains thicker than an adult male’s wrist dangled everywhere, holding back the boss monster, the Giant Horn Ogre.

The Giant Horn Ogre was a rank-5 monster, but as a boss monster, it was at least rank-4. Some individuals had even been recorded reaching rank-3, making it a formidable foe.

‘This guy should at least give the examiner some trouble.’

Sim Young-jin pushed through the bushes and stepped in front of the beast. Despite being in an exam, knowing that an examiner would save him if things got out of hand, his hands were still sweaty with anxiety.

“Come quickly…”

Sim Young-jin charged forward with all his might.

“Graaaarrr!”

Whoosh!

The Giant Horn Ogre’s massive arm swept past Sim Young-jin’s hair, sending a chill down his spine. He breathed heavily, narrowly avoiding the attack, and swung his sword.

Clang!

The Giant Horn Ogre tilted its head, confused. It had dodged, expecting the sword to aim for it, but the blade had struck something else.

“Ugh.”

Sim Young-jin had targeted the chains, not the monster. He had thought that cutting was his specialty, but the chains barely showed a scratch.

‘These aren’t just ordinary chains.’

The chains were specially designed to restrain the Giant Horn Ogre. If they were regular iron chains, they would have broken under the Ogre’s strength long ago.

Crack—

The Ogre grabbed a nearby tree with one hand. The thick trunk didn’t quite fit in its giant hand, but with its immense grip, the Ogre crushed it into a manageable weapon.

“Grrraaaagh!”

The Ogre swung the tree around like a club, kicking up a storm of dust in the open space. Sim Young-jin used the cover of the dust to weave through, searching for a way to break the chains.

‘It needs to move even more violently.’

There were five chains restraining the Giant Horn Ogre: one for each arm, each leg, and one for its neck. The chains in the ground were buried deep, and the ones on the cliff were securely fastened. But Sim Young-jin figured that the more violently the Ogre moved, the more strain it would put on the chains, especially where they were fastened.

Smack!

“Ugh!”

Sim Young-jin was sent flying, rolling across the ground. Fortunately, he hadn’t been directly hit by the Ogre, but instead had been struck by one of the chains while dodging.

“Graaaarrr!”

The Ogre moved closer to the exhausted Sim Young-jin, but the chain pulled taut, preventing the Ogre from reaching its prey. Frustrated, the Ogre began thrashing even harder.

‘Yes, that’s it! More! More!’

The more enraged the Ogre became, the more the chains creaked and rattled. Finally, after a tense moment—

Ting!

One of the massive stakes embedded in the cliff was pulled free.

***********

“Hey, isn’t that getting a bit dangerous?”

In the monitoring room, the examiners were watching the whole situation unfold.

One of them asked, “Commander, what should we do?”

The exam commander, sipping his coffee with a calm expression, replied, “I’ve already given the order. Just keep an eye on the other candidates.”

“Yes, sir!”

The exam commander put down his coffee and glanced around the room.

A man drenched in sweat was sitting nervously in front of a monitor, trying hard not to make eye contact. His awkward behavior was all too obvious.

“Director Lee.”

“Y-yes, sir! You called?”

At the sound of the exam supervisor’s voice, the man jumped up and replied. Though he tried to steady his trembling hands, he couldn’t hide his shaking eyes.

“Which candidates are you responsible for?”

“Y-yes! I’m in charge of Lee Hyun-ho, Choi Tae-geun, Song Ah-hee… and Shim Young-jin.”

When he mentioned the last name, the exam supervisor’s lips curled into a faint smile. He nodded before saying, “You, come to my office after the exam.”

“Huh? Y-yes, sir…”

“And reassign the examiner responsible for him. Replace them with Examiner #8.”

“Understood!”

The exam supervisor rifled through some paperwork, pulling out a document with a photo of a smiling Shim Young-jin attached.

‘Shim Young-jin, 24 years old, recently upgraded to C-rank. His displayed abilities are ambiguous. His family consists of only his mother? Jin Ja-gyeong… Hmm, so she’s the head of the Pollina Group? That means his uncle must be Song Deok-hoon.’

The supervisor nodded thoughtfully. He wasn’t surprised that someone like Shim Young-jin had been able to bribe an examiner and rise from D-rank to C-rank in just a few weeks.

The only question that puzzled him was why someone like Shim Young-jin would join the Extermination Corps, especially as a senior officer.

‘Is this Song Deok-hoon’s doing as well?’

The exam supervisor suspected that Song Deok-hoon was using Shim Young-jin to further some agenda. After all, Song’s guild was closely tied to the Hunter Association, a guild with strong influence, not just one that handled dirty work.

‘Those association folks, always up to something.’

The supervisor was completely mistaken, though. In truth, Song Deok-hoon had no interest in the Extermination Corps, but his mere presence was causing unnecessary headaches for others.

“Director Yang!”

“Yes!”

“Let’s tweak Shim Young-jin’s score a bit.”

“Huh?”

Director Yang looked alarmed. They were government-certified exam supervisors. No matter how senior the exam supervisor was, manipulating scores outright went against his conscience.

“Don’t be so rigid.”

“But still, that’s a bit…”

“Director Yang, I think there’s a misunderstanding. I’m not suggesting we mess with the score itself.”

“Sorry?”

“Let’s just herd the monsters toward Shim Young-jin. We have full discretion over monster placements, don’t we?”

“Well, yes, but… Understood!”

Director Yang begrudgingly agreed. Directly adjusting the score could be problematic, but moving monsters was within their control, as the supervisor said. After all, they had the authority to adjust the number of monsters in case of accidents.

‘If Shim Young-jin gets the highest score, there won’t be any complaints about bringing him on board.’

*************

Ping!

“Graaaaah!”

The third restraining chain snapped off the giant monster.

Now, only its neck and right leg were still bound, and even those were loosening, as if they would break free any moment now.

“Hey, you bastard! Come at me if you can! Can’t reach me, can you? Pissed off? Wanna kill me?”

Shim Young-jin taunted the Giant Horned Ogre. The beast didn’t understand his words, but it certainly grasped the intention of the mockery. Even dogs and cats bite when provoked, and this ogre, with higher intelligence, was no different.

“Graaaah!”

Ping!

The chain binding its leg snapped loose with a loud noise, narrowly missing Shim Young-jin as it whipped through the air.

“Phew. Whoever made these chains must’ve been good if they managed to trap even an ogre like this.”

The size of the chain spike was enormous. It towered over Shim Young-jin, nearly three meters tall, with a cross-shaped hook at the end to prevent it from easily coming loose. Dragging four massive chains behind it, the ogre looked all the more menacing.

Thankfully, the ogre hadn’t yet realized it could use the chains to fight. As long as Shim Young-jin kept his distance, he was safe for now. But that wasn’t going to last much longer.

Clatter, clatter.

The chain around the ogre’s neck began to shake violently. Two large holes, the size of bomb craters, appeared in the cliff wall, and debris started to tumble down.

“This is getting dangerous…”

A significant amount of time had passed since he arrived here. Surely the examiners should’ve intervened by now. But surprisingly, even with the last chain on the verge of snapping, there wasn’t a single examiner in sight.

“Huff… huff…”

Shim Young-jin’s breath came in ragged gasps as his frustration grew.

He now faced a crucial decision.

Should he run or wait?

If he chose to flee, he’d need to do it quickly. The area outside the clearing was a steep, densely forested slope, which would be difficult for the massive ogre to navigate. Even if the creature could uproot trees with ease, its sheer size would slow it down.

But if he chose to wait, he would have to endure. After all, he had told his friends that the examiners would never let them die.

Still, doubt gnawed at him. For someone like Shim Young-jin, who had never risked his life before, unsettling thoughts began to surface.

‘What if they’re just a bit too late? Or what if they only save me at the very last second?’

Incidents like this weren’t unheard of. Accidents could happen anywhere, even in a controlled environment like the exam field.

Three years ago, a candidate had been injured during the exam. The news of a C-rank hunter who had been paralyzed and confined to a bed spread quickly.

Shim Young-jin couldn’t shake the creeping feeling that the same thing could happen to him.

‘It’s coming loose!’