ReLife Player

[Mana Test]

<After the End of the Century District>, a law was enforced that required all children to have their mana tested at the age of compulsory education.

So, a few days after the entrance ceremony, Doan Elementary School was testing the mana of its first graders.

The staff dispatched to conduct the test were from the Korean Mana Management Agency’s dedicated mana measurement team. The man in the black suit had been measuring the mana of up to 180 children since morning.

«Oh, it won’t hurt, right?»

The mana measurement for class 3 was nearing completion. Hayang had been worried since yesterday about the fact that there were only a few turns left.

«It’s not like I’m giving you an injection. I saw Yeonsungjin and Mabangjin in class 2 do it earlier, and they said it didn’t hurt at all.»

Minji shared what she knew with Hayang and the other anxious girls. Despite the fact that the semester had only just begun, her energetic personality had made her a favourite among them.

«Well, it’s just touching the crystal ball.»

Still keeping his distance from the children, Eunha leaned against the wall and blurted out.

The mana test was a simple matter of touching the mana-sensing crystal ball. They couldn’t ask the children to do complicated tests if they didn’t know how to handle it, so it was just a matter of determining how much mana they had in their bodies.

«What if I have a lot of mana?»

«Huh, now my hidden power will be known.»

«Eek, my inner Black Flame Dragon is going on a rampage!»

While it was understandable that the kids were excited to test their mana for the first time, Eunha was annoyed that they had to wait in line for such a simple task.

The kids were sensitive to Eunha’s reactions. None of them approached him, especially since he was wearing an impression of a wild-eyed maniac.

«Captain, it’s our turn!»

Except for one.

«Haa….»

The semester had begun and the kids were forming their own groups, or cliques, in the class. Most of the kids were struggling to get into their current clique, or trying to hold onto the ones they already had.

Eunha wasn’t interested in socializing with the kids. He purposely gave off a «don’t come near me» vibe, so they didn’t approach him.

The problem was Eunhyeok. Min-ji and Hayang were trying to socialize with the girls, but with his head full of sword thoughts, he only followed Eunha around. And because of Eunhyuk’s friendliness, the boys would occasionally talk to him.

«»I want to quietly go through school life.»

«Huh? What’s wrong, boss?»

«Haaa, never mind. So, do we have to get in line now?»

«Yes! The teacher is coming soon!»

When I got back to my seat, Yoo Ji-na was lining up the kids. It was her first time as a first-grade teacher, and she was having a hard time dealing with innocent children.

«Okay, kids, be quiet! Who wants to be the first to be tested?»

«Me!»

As the kids shied away from the mana test, Yoo-na looked for the one who wanted to go first.

The first one to raise his hand was Eunhyuk. He jumped up from the crowd and shouted that he wanted to be the first to be tested for mana.

«Okay, Eunhyuk. Do you want to go first?»

«Yes!»

Eunhyuk stepped forward with great momentum.

The Mana Management Bureau staff, who had already dealt with about 90 children, tiredly pointed to the crystal ball.

«Just put your hand over there.»

«Hehe.»

The crystal ball on the podium was so large that Eunhyuk had to look up. Curious, he placed one hand on the crystal ball.

The crystal ball was designed to measure the mana that children unconsciously shed.

Recognizing his mana, the crystal emitted a pale light from its center. The light filled an area halfway across the crystal before slowly fading.

«What do you think, what do you think?»

«Well, compared to his peers, he has more mana.»

Among the kids tested so far, there were not many who had an unusually high amount of mana. Most were average.

But Eunhyuk was different. He was well above average, which made them wonder about his future.

The employee who had been recording similar numbers looked at Eunhyuk with interest.

He was pleased to hear that he was above average and walked down the podium.

«Does anyone want to be recognized first? If not, we’ll go in order of attendance~»

Attendance number one got up on the podium and began to measure their mana.

The mana bureau employee lost interest again when he saw that the children’s mana wasn’t even up to the average. Although they were past the age of proclaiming themselves to be the center of the world, the children who had some expectations couldn’t hide their disappointment when they saw their mana levels.

«Well, if my mana is average, what’s the big deal. Isn’t it?»

Minji was equally disappointed. She crossed her arms, looked at Eunha, and blurted out.

«It’s like you already know the answer and just want me to say it. This is totally unfair.»

Minji, who was making friends, came over to talk to Eunha, and something seemed to bother her from hearing that her internal mana was average.

«I’m worse than Choi Eun-hyuk….»

That was it.

Eunha stared at her in disbelief.

«Why?»

«Do you know what the stupidest thing in the world is?»

«What?»

Minji frowned, not knowing the intent of the question.

«Comparing yourself to other people. Life is supposed to be relative.»

«Relative?»

She doesn’t know the word relative.

But Minji is intrigued to hear Eunha say something so adult.

«Yes, relative. What’s relative is…. Oh, don’t bother. Go home and look that up.»

«What’s that.»

«Anyway, the stupidest one is the one who compares his mana to other people’s mana.

«Really?»

«If you have less mana, you live with less. Just make sure you have something to make up for it.»

«Hmmm….»

That was the world of mana. It’s a world where mana is power, and it’s only going to get more so. So it wasn’t unreasonable for kids to want to have more mana in their bodies.

However, Eunha had been living with mana that was less than the pre-regression average. While it was undeniable that more mana would be an advantage in a world where mana is power, he was able to make up for his lack of mana and survive.

Being disappointed in the amount of mana you were born with would do nothing to improve your future.

«Damn….»

The chatter grew louder. Feeling burdened by the glittering gazes of the girls close to Minji, Eunha decided to run away from the scene.

«Next. No Eunha! Eunha~»

It was Eunha’s turn. Feeling the sting of the girls’ gazes, he quickly stepped up to the podium and touched the crystal without hesitation.

And the mana in Eunha’s body-.

«Hoo. You’re the most powerful of all the first years in this school.»

Oh no.

The crystal ball was darker in color than Eunhyuk’s, taking up a bit more space.

Come to think of it, it was. Since the manifestation of the Gift, he had recovered half of the mana in his body before the regression, so at the age of eight, he had an extraordinary amount of mana in his body.

«I’m looking forward to the future.»

The staff member patted him on the shoulder excitedly, as if it were his job.

«What? Live with the amount of body mana you have? That would be nice. Some people worry about others…»

The girls’ gazes stung. In a different sense than a moment ago.

Minji was stomping her foot and was getting more angry than when she compared Eunhyuk’s body mana.

«Haha….»

The cool Eunha avoided Minji as soon as he stepped down from the podium. He had finished his inspection anyway, so he decided to hide in plain sight until the class was over.

«Next… Jung Ha-ang. Hayang?»

«Hayang went to the bathroom!»

Eventually, it was Hayang’s turn, but she was nervous and didn’t show up.

Yoo Jin-na decided to give her the last turn and then call the next person.

«It’s Seona. Do you want to go up?»

Yoo Jin-na called out to Se-ona, who stood out from the crowd with her cautious demeanor.

Se-ona nodded her head and went up.

«Ho-oh.»

The staff looked at Seona with curiosity as she stepped up to the podium. Most children were abandoned by their parents as soon as they were born, so it was very rare for them to attend elementary school.

As an employee of the Mana Management Bureau, he had no prejudice against Ain, he knew how important they were to the player world.

«Put your hand here.»

«…Okay.»

It was more like he wanted to know how much mana she had in her body.

Seo-na, who had remained stiff among the children, felt the staff’s favor and smiled.

Flicking her foxtail, she placed her hand on the crystal ball.

«Hmm, this class has a lot of kids with a lot of mana in their bodies.»

Seo-na covered half of the crystal ball with light, about the same as Eunhyuk.

«Heh, she’s pretty good too.»

Eunhyuk, who was looking up from next to Eunha, assessed Seo-na’s mana with a sour face.

«I thought you were going to go on a rampage.»

«Captain. I’m not Minji. There might be someone stronger than me.»

«Well, yeah. Anyway…»

He didn’t seem to have any discrimination against Ain.

Eunha didn’t bring up the rest. He didn’t want Seo-na to feel self-conscious about addressing her for no reason.

Although Eunha wasn’t interested in children, saying he wasn’t interested meant he didn’t want to deal with the kids.

«Next. Se-na~»

Next up was Jin-sena, whose name was similar to Seona’s.

Yoo Ji-na’s voice was hushed as she called out to her.

Eunha stopped paying attention again. He was only interested in Seona’s mana as the only Ain child at Doan Elementary School, not what the other children’s mana was like.

In fact, as soon as he was assigned to Class 4, he started checking their mana.

Of course, it’s hard to accurately measure body mana with the naked eye. Eunha could only make an educated guess based on the mana flowing out of their bodies.

That’s why he was curious about the Hayang’s mana. He wondered what would happen if she touched the crystal ball since she was visibly shedding a lot of mana.

«There’s only Hayang left.»

«Teacher, Hayang is over there!»

«Yes. Hayang, can you measure your mana now?»

«Yes, yes!»

After going to the restroom with some girls, Hayang hobbled up to the podium.

«Hmm.»

The staff didn’t pay much attention to Hayang.

No wonder.

While Eunha was teaching Eunhyuk about mana, he was also teaching Minji and Hayang how to handle it.

Hayang especially needed to know how to handle mana. As in the last case (her mother’s case), monsters would be able to feel her mana to feed on it.

Hayang had been subconsciously harvesting the mana flowing out of her body for some time. She had a good sense of mana management, and thanks to Eunha, she had stopped letting it flow out of her body indiscriminately.

It was impossible to get even a rough idea of her mana without testing, and the staff, tired from testing after testing, didn’t focus their eyes on her.

The crystal ball would measure her hidden mana anyway.

«Ah, it won’t hurt, will it?»

She placed her hand on the crystal ball,

«…wow.»

I was expecting a bang, but I wasn’t expecting a blast.

Eunha was speechless as he watched her fill the entire area of the crystal ball with dazzling light, bathing the auditorium in a world of light.

«Gah!»

Hayang pulled her hand away in surprise as the crystal ball emitted blinding light.

Then the light from the crystal ball faded,

Crack!

«Ah….»

The crystal ball cracked and shattered.

Hayang was left standing there with a face on the verge of tears, unable to do anything.

«What in the world…»

I never thought the crystal ball would collapse.

The employee looked at Hayang and the shattered crystal ball with a stunned expression on his face.

«Sir, do you think this was already broken from the beginning?»

The employee was thinking that they should take Hayang to the Mana Management Office for a thorough examination.

Eunha had been standing nearby since Hayang stepped onto the platform, suspecting that something serious might happen. As soon as the crystal broke, he stepped forward and shielded Hayang from their view.

«Broken? You mean it was already broken?»

Well, that was possible.

The employee nodded instinctively. There was no way a child with enough mana to break the crystal could still be alive. Their mana would have gone out of control and they would have died long ago.

The employee didn’t know the details of the situation. Before they knew it, they were concluding that the crystal had been overloaded from being used in several schools.

«Sigh, what should we do with her then? We don’t have a new crystal…we’ll have to do it next time.»

«Nah. It’s probably just average anyway.»

«Hmm….»

«The gentleman said that you’re average

«Really?»

«Yeah.»

Hayang, who didn’t realize how extraordinary her mana was, looked up at them with tears streaming down her face. Eunha patted her head and left the platform with her.

Phew, that was a relief.

The reason why she hadn’t gone into mana overload until now was because she was unconsciously controlling it, and because of the food her father, Jung Seok-hoon, had made for her that stabilized her mana.

Without knowing this, the staff could only assume that the crystal ball had overloaded, as Eunha said.

By the way, I’ve been eating food made by her father.

His cooking must have contributed a lot to Hayang’s high mana levels. She had been consuming potions to increase her mana since she was a child.

Inwardly, he was envious, but he couldn’t help it. Eunha realized that he would have to visit the white cafe more often in the future.

Meanwhile, the employee who had to write a report about the broken crystal ball,

«Come to think of it, I had a broken crystal ball a few years ago. No… was it Euna? Yeah, it’s not the first time this has happened.»

Because of the prior history, the staff member didn’t recommend that she get it checked.

And Eunha was troubled to hear that the previous case was his sister.

«…Sis, you didn’t tell me your crystal ball was broken.»

Euna had only told them that her mana had been measured at school and that her body’s mana was higher than average.

Now he realizes that she didn’t tell her parents about the shattered crystal ball for fear of getting in trouble.

My sister, I thought you couldn’t lie, but you’re surprisingly good at it.

Eunha has discovered a new side of Euna.