HLSEBT - 30

30. Grade B is too strong 2

“Of course, it’s not the Protection Bureau but someone from Yeouido, right? I wonder how it feels to hide your identity, show up only when needed, solve the problem, and then disappear. Must be thrilling.” 

I just did my job for the money. 

“What do those people even look like? Pale and handsome like Lee Hae-kyung, maybe?” 

You can see what they look like if you turn around. 

“But honestly, I don’t think I’d even dare talk to someone like that. Even standing in front of Seo Do-jin makes my legs shake—I couldn’t even ask him for a photo.” 

“To be fair, the presence of an A-class esper is no joke…” 

“Kang-ho plays with people using just his pinky finger.” 

“I heard girls from the guide class climbed onto the ceiling just to catch a glimpse of Seo Do-jin and ended up falling and getting casts.” 

“Those crazy kids. It’s not like they have teleportation abilities or anything!” 

Seo Do-jin is popular? 

Yoon Tae-ha, who had been listening with amusement, inwardly frowned. If that guy keeps recharging his ego like this, it could become a problem. 

“Transfer student! Come out and give it a try. Will I be the first to witness the skills of our new face?” 

In the middle of their chatter, the teacher called Yoon Tae-ha forward. It was already her turn. She quickly scanned the students’ results. Everyone still had a long way to go. 

She stood up from her seat to approach the teacher, but the students sitting in front of her blocked her path. With others seated on both sides and behind her as well, getting out wasn’t easy. 

The seated students were fully aware of this. But even knowing someone was waiting to come down from behind, they didn’t budge. 

With a small but clear voice, she said: 

“Excuse me?” 

“What?” 

“You need to move so I can get through.” 

“You’re a telekinetic. Why don’t you just levitate or something?” 

The same boy who had been talking about the overwhelming presence of A-class espers sneered at her. The group snickered among themselves, their laughter dripping with malice. 

“Stop fooling around. Move.” 

“Hey, don’t hurt our feelings, transfer student. This isn’t a joke—it’s serious. Just jump over us or something. Isn’t that basic stuff you should’ve learned?” 

Then, the two boys pressed their shoulders together, completely blocking her path. Yoon Tae-ha sighed softly as she looked down at the tops of their heads. 

“At least ask politely.” 

“We haven’t even had your initiation yet. You need to greet us properly if you want to be friends, right? Either tumble through the air or give us a nice greeting…” 

One of the boys, his voice quivering with mockery, looked her up and down before playfully tapping her ankle, exposed above her sneakers. Of course, no one in the North Shelter would ever dare touch an esper like this. 

Espers only had one life. Touching someone outside a formal sparring arena meant accepting the consequences—even if the touched body part disappeared by morning, there would be no complaints. 

[Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it!] 

Jet, observing the situation, tried to stop his esper. What do they think I am? 

She leaned down slightly and lightly placed her hands on the heads of the two boys. It was time to carry out her mission of drawing attention, no matter what it took. 

“Looks like you’ve lost your mind…” 

A transfer student grabbing a classmate’s hair on the first day? The surrounding students gasped audibly. 

But she hadn’t grabbed their hair. 

After lightly tousling their hair and removing her hands, the two boys who had been snickering mockingly shot up into the air like helium balloons. 

The two large figures wriggled as if freed from gravity. “Aaaah!” Their screams caused the other students to cover their ears. 

“What’s going on over there? What’s happening!” 

The teacher, realizing trouble was brewing, shouted. Someone responded with an astonished voice, tattling loudly: 

“Teacher, the transfer student is using telekinesis on people!” 

“Isn’t her arms and legs swelling up? They look thicker than before!” 

“No, she’s always like that!” 

When she lifted them about five meters off the ground, a path cleared. 

“I’ve never seen someone lift another person before…” 

“Isn’t lifting fellow students against school rules?” 

The troublemakers spun slowly in the air like deliciously roasting Baumkuchen. 

“Aaaah! What if my legs explode? Put me down, put me down! I’m dizzy!” 

The transfer student calmly walked down the now-clear stairs. 

Once the path was open, she gently returned the students to their seats. As their backsides hit the stands, the boys hugged their legs and trembled violently. 

“Using telekinesis to lift people outside a formal sparring arena violates school rules!” 

The teacher rushed over and scolded the transfer student sternly. Yoon Tae-ha feigned ignorance and bowed her head apologetically.

“I’m sorry. Since they wouldn’t move, I couldn’t step on my classmates to get down…” 

The teacher attempted to rub his forehead in exasperation but was thwarted by his helmet. Looking slightly embarrassed, he cleared his throat and tried to regain his composure. 

“Lifting people with telekinesis is something you do only after graduating, receiving your official rank! Didn’t they teach you that in the East Shelter?” 

“I don’t remember well. There were too many rules.” 

The teacher’s expression turned dizzy with disbelief. Meanwhile, the boys who had just returned from their mid-air adventure were still muttering, checking if their arms and legs were still intact. 

“Don’t use telekinesis on living beings unless it’s a monster you’re allowed to kill. There have been cases where someone’s limbs got damaged because of carelessness, you know.” 

“…” 

“That was a big mistake.” 

Yoon Tae-ha, an S-class esper proficient in telekinesis, nodded quietly. Of course, she already knew all this, but she played along. 

Telekinesis didn’t operate as uniformly as typing on a keyboard. Uneven application of force could lead to parts of the target being damaged or dropped from the air. 

What if the target was a human body? 

It meant there was a risk of damaging a limb or causing a fall from a great height. 

For this reason, B-class and lower telekinetic espers rarely used their powers on living humans—unless it was against monsters they were allowed to kill. 

Of course, Yoon Tae-ha had lifted other espers thousands of times with her telekinesis during real missions. She’d never caused any injuries. 

Even when she wasn’t feeling her best, she could control her powers with her eyes closed. 

“Thirty demerit points.” 

After glancing at the two students still trembling in fear, the teacher made his decision. 

Thirty demerit points on the first day. 

The other students whispered among themselves, commenting on how fiery the transfer student’s temper seemed to be. The penalty was severe because it involved safety violations. It seemed like fifteen points per person, totaling thirty. 

Contrary to the students’ concerns about her rocky start, Jet seemed delighted by his master’s peculiar behavior. 

[You’ve already succeeded in a special mission?] 

Of course. With my experience, not many espers understand as well as I do what shelters hate and guard against the most. 

Though she thought this inwardly, she grumbled aloud about how excessive it was. 

“Thirty points seems a bit harsh…” 

“Should I make it fifty instead?” 

“No.” 

The teacher, looking exhausted, gestured toward the steel rods. 

“At least try to stand those up. If you can lift people, you should be able to handle these, right?” 

“I’ll give it a try.” 

She took her position at the designated spot marked with an X. 

Five rods standing upright would be a grand success. Three would be a moderate success. One would be enough to save face. 

Kang Jin-ho had managed to stand five rods. Here, she needed to loosen her control a bit. The key was to display unrefined power. 

Yoon Tae-ha lifted three of the five steel rods but “accidentally” dropped two midway. To be precise, she made it look like a dramatic failure. She then moved one rod to the far end of the field and stood it vertically next to Kang Jin-ho’s perfectly aligned rods, like a utility pole. 

“Her control is terrible…” 

“She’s only good at lifting things? That’s useless in real combat. Doesn’t it seem like she’ll get crushed during tactical evaluations later?” 

She had successfully planted a seed of doubt. 

But as planned, she received the demerit points and seemed to have successfully convinced the others, especially Kang Jin-ho, that she was an inferior B-class esper. 

“It’s okay. You’ll improve with practice.” 

“It’s harder to move them than to lift them.” 

“Not everyone can move them perfectly—it’s something only skilled students can do. I’m telling you this because it seems like you’re unaware.” 

“…” 

“There are some students who can’t get it right even with practice.” 

Kang Jin-ho proudly gazed at his neatly aligned steel rods and smiled with satisfaction. 

“No one starts off perfect. I’ll teach you how to do it later.” 

---

After the tumultuous “Movement and Transformation” class ended, the students returned to their respective classrooms. Only the instructor remained, beginning to tidy up the scattered steel rods used for training. 

He tried to lift the row of steel rods to stack them back together. 

“Huh? What’s this?” 

But one particular steel rod refused to budge.

He tried pulling his telekinesis to its maximum capacity. There was no reason he should struggle with the training rods—unless his physical condition had worsened recently. Perplexed, he inspected the steel rod closely. 

“Mr. Kim, what are you doing? Aren’t you going to clean up?” 

Another teacher, arriving for the next class, approached him. 

“This one won’t budge.” 

“Huh? Look here. It’s embedded in the ground.” 

“Embedded?” 

Though the floor was cushioned to prevent injuries, it was made of a material so dense that even sharp needles couldn’t penetrate it easily. 

Yet, someone had managed to drive the steel rod cleanly into it, as if sticking a heated skewer into soft pudding, without causing any cracks or fractures around it. The sight was impressive. 

“What kind of lunatic did this…? Is this even possible?” 

The two teachers simultaneously used their telekinesis to try and pull the rod out. But the thin steel rod stood firm like a massive tree with deep roots, refusing to budge. 

“Wow, it’s really stuck! Who did this?” 

“Names aren’t written on the rods… Didn’t someone move it earlier? They all look the same.” 

“Whoever it is, it means there’s an incredible esper among this year’s graduates!” 

As the two teachers marveled at the discovery of such a prodigy, the unknown genius Yoon Tae-ha was busy earning another 10 demerit points in a different class by pretending to lose control of her powers. 

[At this rate, the special quest will be completed in no time!] 

Jet was thoroughly entertained, teasing his master about her “failure” during the orbital proficiency class.