This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 359

“What about their reputation in that sense…?”

“Huh?”

Didn’t you just say that you had looked into it yourself earlier?

So why the reaction like this is all news to you?

I pondered for a moment, wondering if my question had been unclear, and quickly added an explanation.

“Well… it’s like this. You know, when carrying out missions, the attitude they have… like how some people seem perfectly fine normally but then completely change when it comes to those Another Ones…”

“Uh… I guess?”

I mean, what the heck does “I guess” even mean?

“Weren’t you the one who said you had looked into the people written here?”

“I did look into it. I did, but…”

“But?”

“I thought if I went too deep, the fact that we’re investigating those on the list might get back to their side.”

“Ah, right…”

That was definitely the case.

If the Association Chairman had some special intent in gathering them, they wouldn’t just sit back and let it happen.

So, as Chae-rim said, if they had been investigating those on the list more closely?

That information would surely have reached the Chairman’s ears as well.

If that were the case, all the trouble we went through just to gather information could be rendered moot.

‘Still…’

It would have been nice to have more information about these people.

If only, at least in that case, I could develop mere conjectures into something a bit more plausible.

It’s frustrating to have to end it here, but what can you do?

There’s just nothing more.

So I was about to give up when… a breakthrough came from an utterly unexpected place.

Seeing as the Senior might have a different perspective, I had received Chae-rim’s consent and shared that very list with her.

As I handed over the documents to the Senior, she glanced at me while examining them carefully, and I heard her say “Hmm?” when her gaze landed somewhere around the middle of the document.

What was that reaction?

Could it be that she knows someone on the list?

Although I wondered how someone who had been active only in the Seoul area since her debut could possibly know heroes from other regions, on the other hand, knowing the Senior, it seemed possible—her Student Council President spirit was thoroughly shining through in the hero industry.

Thanks to that, her connections among heroes were exceptionally extensive, especially for someone who had only been debuting for three years.

But that’s not all, is it?

This is just information I picked up somewhere, so I can’t say for sure, but from what I’ve heard, the number of heroes who follow her, having only debuted for a year or two, is quite significant.

It seems the very nature of the Senior, who has made it a habit to care for those around her after being reelected to the Student Council—something that most people find difficult even once—had left an impression.

In any case, it didn’t seem unusual that she would know heroes working in different regions.

“Do you happen to know anyone from that list?”

I asked her that because I thought it was a possibility.

“Ah, well… we’re not exactly acquaintances…”

It was a rather disappointing response, but she said that they weren’t exactly acquaintances.

So what does that mean?

“Just someone I’ve seen passing by a few times?”

“Isn’t that usually considered an acquaintance?”

“Is it? Hehe…”

“In any case, where did you see them? Since your activities are in different regions, it can’t be during missions, right?”

But the Senior isn’t the type to wander around, so it must have been in a professional setting.

“Maybe during training?”

“Yeah, that’s right. And… I also saw them during the advancement exam.”

“So, what was it like?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know… their personality and stuff…”

“Umm…? I only saw them from a distance, so I didn’t have a chance to talk to them…”

Well, that makes sense.

Even though the Senior takes good care of those around her, she’s not the type to just go up and chat with someone she doesn’t know.

“Oh, that…”

“Oh! But they did stand out quite a bit.”

“They stood out?”

“Yeah.”

Standing out, huh?

Does that mean they have considerable skill?

“If you say they stood out that much, their skills must have been impressive, right?”

I thought there might be some truth to that, but the response I got was a bit different from what I expected.

“Well… I don’t think they gave off that kind of vibe…”

“What do you mean?”

“You know… since the year before last, they started checking the abilities against Another Ones during the advancement and qualification exams, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

I distinctly remember it being since the year before last.

In fact, we had both panicked when that fact was made public about a month before the exam.

‘In the end, it was all meaningless worry…’

Anyway, bringing it up suddenly must mean it’s related to that…

“Do you know how they check it?”

“I heard they use the virtual equipment in the training room to create a virtual enemy with the same specs as the real deal, and then they observe how they overpower it and how long it takes to do so. Is that right?”

How would I know this since I’m not even a hero?

Well, it’s because I had to bust my butt to get certified just to handle that virtual equipment about six months ago.

‘It was such a struggle…’

Honestly, at first?

I thought it was just a complicated computer, so I underestimated it.

I was confident in dealing with machines.

Also, even though it was in a past life, I was one of the fastest to adapt to the smartphone era as the market shifted from feature phones to smartphones.

So I thought I could get the hang of it quickly, even if it felt a bit challenging at first…

But when I got my hands on it, that wasn’t the case at all.

Especially memorizing the commands derived from the buttons scattered all over the device was the hardest part.

Memorizing commands for a fighting game is at least fun because it’s a game, but dealing with this…?

Despite the difficulty, the reason the certification for handling virtual equipment has become popular among hero managers is simple.

It’s hard to handle, but if you can, you can provide the heroes you’re in charge of with training environments that are as close to actual combat as possible.

That’s the kind of outstanding performance virtual equipment boasts…

“Recently, the importance of abilities against Another Ones has definitely increased, but ultimately, it’s just one subject in an exam, so everyone doesn’t put their all into it.”

“Well… of course not.”

If it was the only thing determining the exam, that would be one thing, but in circumstances where various other things are at play, there’s nothing more inefficient than focusing solely on one subject.

Because if you exert yourself early on and then get fatigued, making mistakes later on would lead to disasters.

“But that girl didn’t do that.”

“Hmm… really?”

“Yeah, she treated it like she had a vendetta against Another Ones, smashing them to pieces. It got to the point where even the examiners, who usually don’t intervene, stepped in to pull her back.”

That’s how much they intervened—there must have been some excessive incidents that threatened those around them.

Even if virtual equipment mimics reality perfectly, seeing a fake version of Another Ones to the extent of going berserk is something else entirely.

That level seems to go beyond simply hating Another Ones.

Is it because I happened to hear such information that I’m feeling this way?

Suddenly, I began to feel uneasy.

How could I not?

All these newly assigned people to the Seoul area are just like those.

If the Chairman’s intention is to gather such people in one place, it’s definitely not going to be something ordinary.

What on earth is the Association Chairman thinking?

The more I think about it, the deeper my unease grows.