Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

142 – The Draft

 

The ‘Awakener Academy’ that Myung-jun conceived and Soo-jeong designed divided its admissions into two major categories.

One category was the ‘national representative students,’ who were admitted based on recommendations from each country, with a set number of slots allocated per country.

The other category was the ‘general students,’ who applied and were admitted through an open examination, regardless of their status.

Naturally, the Awakeners admitted with the support of their countries were expected to return to their respective countries after completing their training. However, the situation was different for the general students.

Myung-jun’s plan was to determine the affiliation of the general students who completed the academy course through a draft process, similar to how rookie players are selected in sports.

This idea stemmed from Myung-jun’s desire to elevate the level of Awakener forces worldwide to a similar standard before D-DAY.

“First, all general students will be placed in a non-contract status at the time of admission, regardless of their nationality or previous clan affiliation. At the time of graduation, the top five students will have the right to choose the clan they wish to join, while the remaining graduates will be assigned to the clans that desire them through the draft process.”

“Is there a specific reason you want to implement this system?”

“The main reason is my belief that competition is the greatest motivator for human growth. The merit of being able to choose their desired clan if they rank in the top five will drive the admitted Awakeners to do their best to be among the top five. Additionally, the instructors will also strive to highlight the advantages of their clans to the top-performing students to have them choose their clan after graduation.”

At this point, Luis Pereira, the representative of the Floresta Clan, which had transitioned from a private clan to being part of the Brazilian government’s Awakener management organization, BEF (Brazilian ESP Force), spoke up.

“It sounds plausible, but in practice, won’t the top five students all end up choosing the Liberal Clan?”

“That depends on what conditions you offer and how you persuade the students. To be honest, the system I just described is overwhelmingly favorable to you. If we wanted, we could set conditions requiring any number of students to contract with the Liberal Clan for a certain period, regardless of the numbers.”

Myung-jun’s words were true.

The fact that the Liberal Clan, which could absorb all graduates except for the national representatives who had to return to their countries, was adopting a system that allowed other clans to take top Awakeners was a significant concession.

Realizing this, Zhai Tianlin asked Myung-jun.

“What does it mean that their affiliation is nullified at the time of admission?”

“It means exactly that. Once they enter the Awakener Academy, their nationality will be changed to Liberty City. Afterward, when they decide which clan or government agency to join, they will go through the procedures to receive a new nationality from that country.”

At that moment, a man in military uniform, representing the United States, spoke up.

He was John Bolter, an Awakener with the top-class handgun ability, ‘The Parabellum,’ capable of penetrating the thick skull of a 7th-grade monster with a single revolver shot from 5 kilometers away.

“As a basketball fan who enjoys watching the NBA league, I have a question. Will there be a salary cap applied during the draft process?”

The salary cap is a system where the league sets a maximum limit on the salary a team can offer to reduce disparities between teams. It prevents wealthy teams from creating a superstar squad that could dominate other teams by imposing a hefty luxury tax on teams that exceed the salary cap.

However, Myung-jun shook his head and answered Bolter’s question.

“We won’t apply that.”

“Then, theoretically, a team could offer astronomical amounts and monopolize the top five students?”

As a representative of the wealthiest country in the world, Bolter’s voice was filled with confidence.

However, despite Bolter’s confidence, Myung-jun responded to him with an indifferent expression.

“Go ahead and try if you can.”

“Is that confidence that you won’t lose the Awakeners you’ve set your sights on, even if the U.S. government is the competitor?”

At this, Soo-jeong, who had been listening to Myung-jun, stepped forward and spoke to John Bolter.

“If an Awakener thinks money is the most important, they will follow the money. Those who like the Liberal Clan will choose us. An Awakener who dreams of being a hero respected by everyone might choose the Servihum Clan. The choice is up to the Awakeners.”

“If that’s the purpose, why only allow the top five to sign free contracts? Why not let all graduates sign freely without the draft system?”

“If we allow all to sign freely, clans with less favorable conditions will find it impossible to secure outstanding Awakeners.”

Soo-jeong explained.

“As you know, the Awakener Academy run by our Liberal Clan does not charge tuition or class fees. We provide enormous training and accommodation costs, and even equipment made directly by the Liberal Clan, without asking for anything in return to nurture the Awakeners.”

Even if they end up in a place they don’t want, they will lend their abilities to that clan for a certain period to help in monster subjugation.

That was the ‘tuition fee’ the Liberal Clan demanded from the academy students.

“Of course, we can’t make those precious Awakeners work for minimum wage, so clans participating in the draft must offer a minimum annual salary of 1 billion. If a clan can’t afford that, they will be disqualified from participating in the draft.”

“That’s not a small amount.”

“By the time they safely graduate from the academy, even the weakest graduate will be stronger than the top rankers in your clans. Considering the income that an Awakener of that level can generate in a year, it’s not that expensive.”

“I’d like to hear more detailed plans. How will the lecture curriculum be structured, how will national representative students and general students be managed, and what training facilities are prepared for each ability?”

Seeing Bolter’s proactive approach, Soo-jeong smiled.

By the time they showed interest in the specific details, their minds were already set on ‘participating.’

As she had anticipated, when she summoned the hologram screen and began explaining the detailed plans, the eyes of the Awakeners attending the meeting sparkled with curiosity.

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[Liberal Clan’s Awakener Academy, ‘Icarus,’ is about to open! Top-ranked individuals worldwide have announced their participation as faculty members.]

[Official announcement from the Chinese government: ‘The Communist Party government will spare no effort in supporting the Liberal Clan’s academy by mobilizing all capabilities of the Ministry of Education.’]

[John Bolter, the only world-ranked member of the U.S. Awakener management organization EDF, says, ‘Icarus will be the new paradigm for the future training of Awakeners.’]

[Consideration for smaller clans? The Liberal Clan announces plans to distribute graduates, except for the top five, to various clans through a draft system.]

[General admission for the Liberal Clan’s Awakener Academy ‘Icarus’ begins. Over 200,000 applicants in just one day.]

As the detailed information about ‘Icarus’ released by the Liberal Clan became public, the entire world was literally heating up.

The general admission system of Icarus allowed even non-Awakeners to apply.

The only condition for applying to Icarus as a general applicant, even if one was not an Awakener or had no experience in monster hunting, was to possess a unique ‘talent.’

Myung-jun’s reason for expanding the admission target to include non-Awakeners was very simple.

Many of the abilities gained during the awakening process were often based on the talents the individuals already possessed.

Moreover, with the equipment that the Liberal Clan could currently produce, it was possible to equip non-Awakeners with combat power surpassing that of Awakeners. Therefore, Myung-jun did not include the condition of being an Awakener for general admission.

Just as Arin had Awakener her abilities as a Seeker after receiving a drone from Myung-jun before her awakening, the decision was based on the judgment that awakening individuals with special talents would yield better results.

And the result was an explosive response, with over 200,000 applicants flooding in just one day after the open recruitment began.

Soo-jeong, while enjoying the enthusiastic response, began to coldly sort through the applicants to select those who would undergo testing.

“Unfortunately, we can’t test all these people. So, let’s eliminate those who don’t seem to have potential during the document review.”

With the help of AI, Soo-jeong categorized the over 200,000 application documents based on their talents.

People with talent in drawing were grouped together, those with talent in cleaning were grouped together, and so on.

After categorizing the documents, Soo-jeong left only one person with the most outstanding talent in each category and eliminated the rest.

When she finished the selection process, only 200 people had passed her rigorous standards.

She then stopped further selection and handed the list of 200 to Myung-jun.

“I think this should be enough for the first round of successful candidates.”

“A chess champion? A professional tennis player? There’s even a firefighter?”

Curious about the criteria Soo-jeong used to select these talents from the vast array of applicants, Myung-jun asked her.

He wanted to know the standards she used to keep these individuals, excluding those who were already Awakener.

Soo-jeong, with sparkling eyes, began to explain to Myung-jun.

“A chess champion, for example, seems like they would be good at strategic decision-making based on the situation, right? I’m thinking of giving them a toy army that can be controlled with a board-like controller. As for the tennis player, I’m considering creating combat equipment that can be used like a tennis ball. And for the firefighter, I want to see how well they can fight with special heat-resistant equipment.”

“So, the criterion is whether or not you can create equipment that can utilize these people’s talents?”

“…Yes.”

“That’s great. If they can fight monsters with that equipment, it might lead to the emergence of new Awakeners with related abilities. And if those abilities are unique enough, we could accept them as crew members and unlock new blueprints for equipment.”

Myung-jun’s ability was to unlock new equipment related to the special talents of crew members whenever they joined.

For example, when Ho-chang joined, the development tree for the Guardian Suit, a defense-specialized power suit, was unlocked. When Byung-tae joined, the development tree for special armored vehicles was unlocked.

However, this ability did not always manifest just because the number of crew members increased.

In fact, when Deki, an Elemental Master who could freely control the four elements of earth, fire, wind, and water, joined as a crew member, no new equipment was added to the list of developable blueprints.

Soo-jeong hoped that this opportunity would allow them to find crew members with unique abilities that could unlock new equipment.

And her hope was also what Myung-jun desired.

“There are many talented individuals who seem like they could unlock interesting abilities if they join. Let’s proceed with this. You’ve worked hard on the selection process. I’ll handle contacting the successful candidates.”

That afternoon, a week after the Liberal Clan closed the open recruitment for Icarus’s general admission, many hopeful applicants who had applied with a sense of anticipation received notifications that they had passed the document screening.

The notifications included instructions to come to Liberty City in Japan on a specified date for the second round of testing.

And that day coincided exactly with the day when various governments had promised to dispatch their national representative trainees to Icarus.

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