Translator’s Ramblings:

Hey guys, quite a bit of announcements today…

First I would like to thank 2 people who donated some time ago. I just noticed it this sunday since the notification e-mail was sent to my personal e-mail and I kinda of avoid going there (too much RL stuff going there).

Thank you very much and sorry for not noticing it earlier. I won’t mention your names just to play it safe but let it be know you guys rock!

These 2 donations will have far-reaching impact.

Okay, the second announcement is that I am kinda confident on making one more release week. Now, hold your horses…  There is a few points I would like to discuss with you guys.

Not here though. Next chapter is done and I made a teaser out of it. There is a link to it at the end of the chapter (Read this chapter first, no rush). Things will be better explained there. It is better to talk in a more appropriate post than using this chapter for it…

Last but not least is the fact that this last few chapters t.i.tles will be seeing some changes. I could finally understand what this red and blue ocean thing means! To be fair it is kinda surprising I couldn’t find anything in the first place, but I think I focused too much on it being an idiom and missed the forest for the trees.

Here is a resume of it: ()

“The concept is quite simple to understand. The Red Ocean is where every industry is today. There is a defined market, defined compet.i.tors and a typical way to run a business in any specific industry. The researchers called this the Red Ocean, a.n.a.logous to a shark infested ocean where the sharks are fighting each other for the same prey.

The Blue Ocean, on the other hand, is calm, smooth, with lots of food and little or no compet.i.tion. This is where everyone would like to be and it is possible for you to have a Blue Ocean.”

I won’t get too deep on it since this whole note is already quite big and this part in articular will be better explained in chapter 15 but the new t.i.tle will be: “Red Ocean and Blue Ocean are two chapters of a book”. Where that book is actually a real .

Thanks for reading!

After finis.h.i.+ng a simple lunch meal the three gathered inside a room in a hotel built behind Yangpyeong. Usually all of Yangpyeong’s accommodations would already be crowded, and with its hotels being fully booked, Seol Yeong decision to reserve accommodations in advance was an excellent choice.

The thick information book listed each Knight candidate’s picture, height, blood type, and their overall scores in each category, finis.h.i.+ng with their ranking based on the combined values.

“Ms. Maria, is there any standard criteria for one to select a good Knight?”

Seol Yeong asked looking at Maria, who was already helping herself to a gla.s.s of red wine. Even though Maria had carelessly flipped through some pages, she seemed to hold little enthusiasm.

“Well, in fact, seeing it directly is the fastest wat to judge something. But, only the graduates this year should probably exceed 700… It would be convenient if all there was to it was looking at the rankings.”

Maria pointed at the first in the aggregate ranking, Kang Ju-Yeon. ‘Body Reinforcement , Weapon Proficiency , Teamwork B-, Willpower , Potential , Stability ‘, certainly a record befitting of a model student’s report card. Of course the estimated grades shown here were based on nothing but the Knight Temple’s standard, it didn’t mean her body reinforcement reached the A Rank.

“This much is enough to receive C Rank immediately. And, it probably wouldn’t be a difficult matter to get promoted to B Rank.”

She gave Kang Ju-Yeon a high evaluation. Yet, Maria looked at Kang Ju-Yeon’s smiling profile picture and clicked her tongue.

“Despite all that I don’t like this sort of kid.”

“Why?”

“It is precisely a disgust for ‘perfect students’[1].”

Maria extreme words were like those of a thug, actually the way she was acting was no different from a delinquent. Kang Ju-Yeon’s impression and the capabilities she possessed were enough to be immediately chosen and became a new employer in any big enterprise.

“It’s not only my prejudice, the probability of these ‘perfect students’ committing serious mistakes is about 1.76 times higher than an ordinary person. These type of kids are only b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who learned how to score well. Look at it this way, did any teacher ever had them partic.i.p.ate in a real fight?”

It would be a mistake to pick based only on these scores, it wasn’t uncommon for people to end up wetting themselves when ingressing in an actual fight. Kang-Joon too nodded his head knowing the reason Maria said such words was not wrong.

“I want to compliment you for acknowledging your bias.”

“In any case, high-ranked candidates scouted under the right conditions have, evidently, an enormous entertainment potential… the required down-payment is probably just as big…”

Hero Management didn’t possess the capital of those big companies. Clouds and Lescian invested a lot to recruit a large number of Knights graduates this time, being impossible to know how many people they would absorb during their collection. Kang-Joon completed his explanation,

“We want to find out if there is anyone in the lower rankings we can can use.”

“Hm…”

A ranking is, in the end, something which includes a degree of objectivity.

After all, rankings were a merciless division and possessed a rigid hierarchy where those at the end were inferior and the ones on top superior, where the chance of it being incorrect increased accordingly with its objectiveness. Kang-Joon was an easy example of that.

As such, there was only one thing Maria could say about finding anyone they could use among those ranked at the bottom.

“Well, I will see what I can do.”

“They are currently designing Duncheon new city. The construction work should be at its peak now, its probable large management companies are already desperate, all trying to obtain jurisdiction over it. Being under the government jurisdiction yet without any a.s.signed manpower at the moment, its jurisdiction will most likely be granted to a team who could properly dedicate themselves to Duncheon.”

“That situation would require a great number of newcomers.”

“Yes. Therefore, the big companies will clash with each other trying to recruit as many Knights as possible during the Knight’s completion ceremony this time.”

Acting thoughtlessly might result in the situation like that of a shrimp fighting against a whale to occur. There are were many unfavourable conditions. Big companies were trying to scout high quality manpower from the start, but this time 2 of them would go through a b.l.o.o.d.y compet.i.tion.

Although one is already a proven talent from the moment they complete the Knight training course, everyone there always wanted to choose the most remarkable among them.

“Hm.”

Knights were people in the end, finis.h.i.+ng a course didn’t mean they wouldn’t be terrified in a proper fight nor does it prevent them from dying in the future. Besides, Hunters moved in groups, if the Knight at the frontlines doesn’t fulfill their job, the rest might have to experience dangers together.

As such it wasn’t a question who concerned merely the life of a single person. Maria hesitated for a moment then replied,

“Even though I can’t think of those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds from the big companies sweeping everyone, if we are gonna focus on the lower rankings, we should look for those who performed poorly on the Body Reinforcement and Weapon Proficiency categories but with high Willpower and Stability.”

“Why is that?”

“Low Stability means one has poor control over their body reinforcement, in that case one might reinforce their legs in the middle of a battle when, in fact, one needs to strengthen their arms, sending them flying. You and I know well the gravity of such accident in the middle of battle, right? And about Willpower… If a Knight flees because his hand was severed in half, is that not the same?”

“That is true.”

In fact, the capabilities the Management industry made the most use of at the moment were mainly Body Reinforcement, Weapon Proficiency, and Teamwork. Because of that the same pattern could be seen on those ingressing in the field at the moment, the industry created an atmosphere where only those abilities visible with one’s eye were valued.

“From the highest priority we have Stability on top, followed by Willpower, Teamwork, Potential, Weapon Proficiency, and Body Reinforcement. There should be no problem if we follow this order. This way we can avoid any pitfalls.”

“All right,  let’s look through them.”

Translation notes:

‘Perfect student’: The direct translation is ‘good student’ and it means (in this case at least) students who learned to score well instead of learning what is being taught per se.

Initially I tried to think of any word in english that could capture that meaning while still maintaining this slight derogatory tone Maria speech has. I couldn’t think of any and the I found didn’t return any useable example. In the end I am hoping ‘perfect student’ coupled with Maria’s slightly sarcastic tone can bring across that meaning…

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