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Chapter 177

Yu-Hyun acted as if he knew where the negotiation point would be and when we would initiate a negotiation in advance. If that was the case, there was a possibility that enemy combatants were lurking around the negotiation point.

Although only Yu-Hyun was visible at the moment, it was impossible to tell whether more enemies were hiding or not. Since the examination site was in an abandoned city, there were many places for enemy combatants to hide.

"What\'s with the atmosphere? Weren’t you the ones who requested for a negotiation?”

"...Don\'t come any closer."

Dae-Man stopped Yu-Hyun from approaching any closer. While a subtle tension filled the air between me and Yu-Hyun, I silently signaled to Dae-Man. He also seemed to instinctively be aware of the danger.

Yu-Hyun raised both hands in the air as if to show that he had no hostile intentions.

"What’s wrong? I really am alone. Besides, we can\'t fight during negotiations, can we?"

"..."

I couldn\'t decipher his true intentions. Was he trying to get us to lower our guard, or was he trying to get us to feel alerted by his presence? It was an ambiguous situation where it was difficult to figure out whether we should be on guard or not. Just that fact alone meant that we were at a disadvantage against Yu-Hyun.

The reality of the situation was that with the exception of me, the other members were exceedingly conscious of and alerted by Yu-Hyun’s presence. Yu-Hyun emanated a unique aura that was different from most people. I wasn’t sure if he was naturally letting out such an aura without intending to do so or whether he was doing it intentionally.

Yu-Hyun scanned the faces of the hostages with narrowed eyes.

"How did you manage to capture only the best of the best? You all must have incredible luck—"

"Cut the nonsense," Dae-Man said, interrupting Yu-Hyun.

"Let’s proceed with the negotiation. Isn\'t that why you came?"

"...Fine. I get it, so relax your expression, dude," Yu-Hyun said while clapping his hands in a sly manner.

Dae-Man continued to maintain a hostile look on his face and kept his guard up against Yu-Hyun. From my knowledge, those two knew each other personally, and yet Dae-Man was openly showing animosity toward Yu-Hyun.

Dae-Man was serious at all times. He would always remain faithful to a role assigned to him, and he wouldn’t let his personal emotions interfere. Fortunately, he was on the same side as me.

Yu-Hyun clicked his tongue as if he found Dae-Man\'s seriousness annoying.

"You\'re taking this too seriously for no reason, man," he said.

"Yu-Hyun, don’t mock other people\'s seriousness. That’s one of your flaws," Dae-Man said while staring at Yu-Hyun with a solemn face.

Yu-Hyun lifted one corner of his mouth in a smirk and then turned his gaze toward me. He tapped on his wristwatch and said, "What I mean is... it’s just an exam. There’s no need to take it too seriously, right?”

“It’s precisely because it’s an exam that we have to take it seriously,” I replied in a deliberately concise manner.

I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be good to prolong the conversation. I always felt uncomfortable whenever I interacted with Yu-Hyun. His gaze was always filled with the intention to observe my actions. That was what was likely to be the cause of my discomfort.

After hearing my words, Yu-Hyun nodded as if he understood what I was saying. Then he frowned and said aggressively, "Who are you trying to deceive? The exam isn’t that important to you either, right?”

"...What?"

"Never mind. That\'s not what we should be discussing right now. So, how much are you willing to give me Ha-Yeon for?”

Yu-Hyun’s frown disappeared instantly and was instead replaced by a smile that was uncomfortable to look at. His facial expression had shifted so quickly that it felt abrupt. I felt uncomfortable once again.

The exam was important to me.

Since I had done worse on the written exams than I expected, I had to make up for it on the practical exam. Even if I utilized my connections and received several recommendation letters, it would be difficult to enter the Central Paladin Order with poor grades. Just what exactly did Yu-Hyun use as a basis to blurt out such words?

[The truth is that it really isn’t very important!] Baron Samedi said.

[To you, this is just another means to an end after all,] Legba said.

I ignored their words. My mind felt a little chaotic. I pulled the handcuffs I was holding. Ha-Yeon screamed out loud and was dragged along. I planned on completing the negotiations quickly and sending Yu-Hyun away.

"How many tokens do you have?" I asked.

Yu-Hyun smirked.

“If I tell you that, won’t I be in too much of a disadvantageous position?”

“If you don’t want to tell me, then so be it. I suppose this will be the end of the negotiations then.”

"Hey... Why are you in such a hurry? Let’s take it slow. Slow and steady,” Yu-Hyun said.

Yu-Hyun started stacking the tokens he had accumulated on the floor. Just from a rough glance, I could tell that it was a significant amount.

“It should be roughly over twenty,” Yu-Hyun said nonchalantly.

Dae-Man widened his eyes in surprise while standing next to me. The reactions of the team members were not much different. Everyone seemed surprised that Yu-Hyun had brought such a large amount of tokens.

"Twenty? That\'s not enough," I said.

I was bluffing with the intention of gauging Yu-Hyun’s reaction. Yu-Hyun tapped his watch and shrugged.

"Is that so? But this is all I have," Yu-Hyun said.

"That’s too bad. How many can you give for Ha-Yeon?" I asked.

"Well... it doesn\'t really matter since I\'m already at a disadvantage. How many tokens do you want?"

"Fifteen."

"Hah," Yu-Hyun chuckled.

He then started counting the tokens piled on the floor.

"Nineteen, twenty... Looks like I have exactly twenty-four. Fifteen seems a bit much, let\'s go with ten."

"Ten? That’s not enough. Make it sixteen."

"...In this situation, shouldn’t you settle for thirteen since that’s a number between fifteen and ten?”

“We suffer losses if you drag out the time with small talk, so that’s why we need compensation. Seventeen."

"What a load of crap. Let\'s go with fifteen like you originally said."

"Eighteen."

"Ah, fuck... Fine, let\'s go with eighteen."

Yu-Hyun counted out eighteen tokens and handed them over curtly. After ordering one member of the team to receive the tokens, I confirmed the quantity and then sent Ha-Yeon to Yu-Hyun\'s side. I then threw the key to the handcuffs to him, but he failed to catch it.

He picked up the key that had fallen on the floor and brushed off the dirt that was on it.

“That was bloody hard to catch. If you were going to throw it, you should have put more effort into throwing it well.”

"You should have just put more effort into catching it."

“Hmm, I suppose that’s true.”

Click.

Yu-Hyun unlocked Ha-Yeon\'s handcuffs with the key. Once the handcuffs were completely released, the chain broke. It seemed like they had intentionally designed it like that so that the handcuffs couldn’t be reused.

Once the handcuffs were completely released, Ha-Yeon seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as if she was relieved from a huge discomfort. Strength returned to her pupils that previously lacked focus. She occasionally glanced at me, but she didn\'t speak. It must have been because she lacked the energy to speak or because she thought it wasn\'t the right time to do so.

As if something had suddenly come to mind, Yu-Hyun suddenly asked, “Aren’t you going to ask why I came alone?”

Yu-Hyun didn’t even glance at Ha-Yeon, as if he wasn’t even remotely interested in her. I couldn\'t understand why he was asking such a question. I revealed my discomfort and said, "Do you really have to ask?"

"...Uh, if you don’t want to tell me, then never mind.”

Yu-Hyun sighed as if he was disappointed, and then tapped his fingers on the digital clock.

*

The number of tokens we obtained by negotiating with Yu-Hyun was a grand total of twenty-three. He exchanged Ha-Yeon for eighteen and In-Ah for five tokens.

It seemed like Yu-Hyun originally had no intention of negotiating for In-Ah. But for some reason, after seeing In-Ah looking at me all grumpy, he suddenly offered five tokens and demanded a negotiation.

Since there was no reason to refuse the offer, I accepted it. There was no bargaining. After the negotiation, Yu-Hyun took the two of them and headed in the direction of the Department of Priests students.

Right after concluding negotiations with Yu-Hyun, I took Su-Ryeon and the remaining two hostages and headed in the direction of the Department of Crusaders students.

Dae-Man once again requested the negotiations, but this time it didn\'t take as long as before, perhaps because he had become more accustomed to it.

"Sun-Woo, there\'s something I want to ask," Dae-Man said as we were moving toward the negotiation point.

I nodded, indicating for him to continue speaking.

"...I know we can\'t capture hostages during or immediately after negotiations, but does that rule really have any meaning?"

"No, there is no meaning," I firmly replied.

Dae-Man raised an eyebrow.

"Then it should have been possible to capture Yu-Hyun earlier. If we subdued him without actually making him a hostage and then waited for ten minutes—”

"It\'s possible, but it\'s too risky."

"Why? If it’s just Yu-Hyun alone, I should be able to capture him myself."

Without any need for debate, there was no question that Yu-Hyun was the most valuable person to capture. If we captured Yu-Hyun as a hostage, we wouldn’t even need to negotiate to obtain tokens. Just by keeping him in chains and preventing him from doing anything, the Department of Priests would become helpless. However, we would have to bear too much risk if we captured Yu-Hyun.

"If we captured Yu-Hyun, the Department of Priests would immediately become aware of our location."

Members of the same team could share their locations with each other through their electronic watches. Also, if a team member was captured as a hostage, the other team members would immediately be aware of this fact through their electronic watches. For example, if I became a hostage, all the members of Paladin-D would know that I had become a hostage.

By utilizing these two functions, it would become possible to determine the location of other teams. For instance, students could scatter their team members throughout the examination site after instructing them to regularly share their locations. If one of the scattered team members was captured, then a notification would be sent, and then the team members would know their latest location. By doing this, it would be possible to determine the other teams’ whereabouts as well as the general route they were taking.

One could say In-Ah did not have good physical abilities. This must have been the reason why she was left alone in the enemy territory.

"...If we captured Yu-Hyun as a hostage, the main force would have arrived."

The reason why Yu-Hyun tapped his electronic watch frequently during the negotiations was to share his location with his other team members. The reason why he came alone was because we wanted us to capture him as a hostage. If we had captured him, we would most likely have let down our guard after doing so and the main force would have charged in to reel in the victim that had fallen for the bait.

On the other hand, it would have been advantageous for the students from the Department of Priests even if we didn\'t capture Yu-Hyun and just let him go. After all, doing so meant that they would be able to successfully and safely complete a negotiation with just Yu-Hyun alone.

My thought process might have been a bit of a leap in logic, but it was true that capturing Yu-Hyun as a hostage would entail great risks.

Dae-Man tilted his head in confusion as he listened to me.

"I still don\'t understand, but I’ll trust you for now."

"It would be better to trust me after you understand. Should I explain it again?"

"No, you\'ve been right in all your judgments so far, so you must be right this time too," Dae-Man said with a serious expression on his face.

"It’s not your words that I trust. It’s you that I trust,” Dae-Man said.

"Oh, that’s quite reassuring. Thank you."

Even before the exam, Dae-Man had a tendency to excessively believe in me, but for some reason, this tendency seemed to have intensified. I didn’t know the reason for his belief in me, but I decided to think of it as a good thing and move on. While I was thinking about such things, our footsteps gradually approached the negotiation point.

Min-Seo\'s sarcastic voice echoed out as soon as we arrived at the negotiation point.

"The guests have arrived. Welcome them warmly!"

The area near the negotiation point was covered in thick smoke, which seemed to be smoke from a smoke grenade. Min-Seo’s silhouette was faintly visible through the fog. She was sitting on something that resembled a rock while casually swinging her legs with her arms crossed.

Several students stood behind her while holding weapons. They had miniature grenade launchers, just like the one that Su-Ryeon used. Obviously, the barrels were pointed toward us. There were a few students who were also holding what appeared to be whips.

"Quite a rough welcome..." I muttered to myself while scanning the surroundings.

The negotiation point was a place that was densely packed with tall abandoned buildings. It seemed like it used to be a residential complex before the battle with Wrath. Faint figures could be seen through the windows of the dilapidated buildings.

It seemed like they were combatants that had been deployed by Min-Seo for the negotiation. Unlike Yu-Hyun, Min-Seo had prepared for battle beforehand and was watching us closely. I glanced at Dae-Man and my team members and said, "Get into formation."