16 – Hero Proficiency Test (3)
This was the place where test takers gathered to take the hero ability test.
But among the many test takers, no one approached the kid.
Since the exam was just around the corner, it seemed that everyone was ignoring the child.
ㅡ Are you going?
I have to go.
What kind of hero is that when he doesn’t reach out to people who are really in trouble?
First said that the essence of a hero is to be foolish enough to mess around.
I hurried over to the crying child.
“Hey kid, what’s up? Mom is?”
“Um, uh, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, uh, uh!”
When I said that the child is the mother I took out, she started crying as if pouring out all the sadness of her life that was less than 10 years old.
I wondered where he could make such a cry even though his body was so small.
I knelt down in front of her kid and put my hand on her kid’s head.
As she stroked the little boy’s head like that for a while, the little boy slowly looked at me.
“Your mother is lost? Hmm… what is her name?”
“Black, min, minsuyo.”
“Yes, is that Minsu? Shouldn’t Min-soo find her lost mother?”
“Is your mother a lost child?”
“Yes. So you have to find it. Does Minsu like heroes?”
“Yes! I really like heroes!”
“Really? Who do you like?”
“First!”
I was trying to talk about this and that with a kid who was surprisingly fluent, but I was barely able to communicate.
I don’t think my experience of volunteering at an orphanage or attending kindergarten was useless.
I asked a kid named Minsu where she and her mother broke up.
“The bathroom.”
“Toilet?”
“Yes! I was in a hurry to go to the bathroom, so I told my mom to go to the bathroom. However….”
The little boy started to cry again as if he remembered the situation at that time.
I hurriedly asked the little boy where in the bathroom his mother was lost.
Then she said, “There!”, As if she couldn’t remember, and she only pointed in the general direction.
I showed my back to the kid.
“I was carried on my brother’s back.”
“Yes?”
“Quickly.”
It’s important to find a little mother, but the exam is also important.
If it’s my legs, it’ll be possible.
The kid hesitated for a moment, but she soon climbed onto my back.
“Hold tight!”
I started running with her little boy on my back.
The kid is still as young as a first grader in elementary school.
She wouldn’t have come from very far.
So let’s run first.
The kid goes around in the direction she points with her hand, and she turns to ask if this is the right place.
The kid said, “Here it is!” I was able to find a woman there looking around her anxiously.
“Minsu’s mother?”
“Yes? Mi-Minsu!”
The woman seemed to be Minsu’s mother.
“Ahhhhh!”
As soon as Minsu got off my back, she clung to her mother.
“Where have you been…. Did you find it?”
Minsu’s mother finally felt relieved. She let out a short sigh and patted Minsu’s back.
“Hey, thank you so much for your help.”
“No. I have some urgent business to do.”
“Thank you, Hero!”
I waved to a kid named Minsu and hurriedly headed for the test site.
It was already past 10 o’clock, so I didn’t know what would happen, but I had no intention of giving up.
When I entered the exam hall, the line was long, and it seemed that those who entered after 10 o’clock were supposed to enter on the left.
Ah, you’re tired.
It was a moment that felt just like that.
ㅡ Don’t you regret it? It wouldn’t have been too late if I hadn’t helped the kid.
No regrets.
I regret it, but I think she would have regretted it even more if I had left the kid alone.
If not now, there are exams in June anyway.
You can train with a little more time.
I made eye contact with several candidates standing in the line on the right.
In their expressions, there was a mixture of 20% pity, 50% strange superiority, and 30% contempt.
I can’t blame them for that.
It’s grim, but this is the reality.
From noble mtl dot com
Even if you are late for the CSAT once a year, you cannot take the test.
By the way, would the hero ability test, which is tested every quarter, be different?
The person in charge appeared and took the people on the right line.
After a while, a new officer came and sorted the people on the left line into five groups.
Then, they started taking five people in order.
I stared blankly at it with a feeling of liberation.
The facial expressions of the people on the left line were consistent.
It is like watching a cow being led to a slaughterhouse.
I felt like I could hear the sound of a roar in the quiet hallway.
It took me quite a while because I was at the back.
“Please go in.”
At the words of the person in charge, the group I belonged to rushed inside.
There were supervisors waiting there who looked quite uncomfortable at first glance.
“Please have a seat.”
Of the three supervisors, the supervisor in the center said that with a fairly strong accent.
We sat in our seats hesitantly.
“You are disqualified as heroes.”
He passed the death sentence without hesitation.
It can’t be helped.
Because the CSAT usually feels like that.
“However, I think we should give the least chance. Maybe some of you are late for heroic activities.”
Is there such a person?
At the supervisor’s words, the tension of the four test takers, excluding me, seemed to have eased slightly.
Perhaps he sensed that, the supervisor tightened his expression again.
“The last applicant to enter.”
“Yes.”
“You are 10 minutes late. Do you know?”
“… Yes.”
“An emergency call was made to the scene of the fire. If you had arrived 10 minutes earlier, you might have saved a citizen from cardiac arrest.”
Ah, it’s a pressure interview, right?
What he said was right.
A hero is someone who is always involved in incidents and accidents.
Ten minutes could have saved or lost more lives than that.
I had nothing to say.
“Do you have any objections?”
“No.”
I don’t know if I’m bad at this test.
The supervisor continued to reprimand us.
If you are 1 minute late for the CSAT, you cannot take the test.
Still, the hero ability test gives people who are 10 minutes late enough to take the test.
But if this were real, the villain would run away, the monster would destroy the building, and the patient would keep pressing us to remember that he was dead.
The hero candidates gradually lowered their heads as if they had nothing to say.
“I will give you one last chance to make an excuse. If you don’t, you should be prepared for a significant penalty. Then do it from there.”
Of the five of us, the guy who arrived earlier opened his mouth with a pale expression.
If there are 100 people, there are 100 stories and just as many excuses.
Everyone had a pale expression, but they gave their reasons.
The most plausible excuse among them was that of an aspiring hero who lives alone with his mother.
The story was that her mother was sick and was late because she had been visiting the hospital.
Of course, I was the next to make the most plausible excuse.
“Hmm, Jinwoo Lee?”
“Yes.”
“Uh…. Hmm…. Tell me Why are you late?”
The superintendent looked at me, exchanged a whisper with the person next to him, and asked a little embarrassed.
I’m sure this exam will fail, right?
When I thought that, my rapidly beating heart gradually calmed down.
I had my own excuses.
But there was no evidence to disclose it.
Still, I decided to confess the idea that I had to make ends meet.
“There was a child who was crying. So when I asked about the story, it seemed like I was lost, so I went looking for the child’s mother together.”
“Oh, that’s a wonderful job. Any way to prove it?”
“No. There is nothing.”
“Then can I assume you are lying to pass this moment?”
“I’m not lying, but I can’t help it because there is no evidence.”
“Hmm….”
He stared at me and started whispering to the supervisor nearby.
Then he looked at me with a slightly stricter expression.
“Let’s assume that there is a phrase in the notice saying that those who arrive after 10 o’clock must be disqualified from taking the exam. No matter where you are or what you do, you are sure to be eliminated. Would you have helped him anyway?”
I don’t know why you’re asking me all of a sudden.
Still, I just nodded.
“Honestly, the moment I met him, I thought I had ruined this exam.”
“But why?”
“Still, I can’t leave a crying child alone. Because the essence of a hero is remoteness.”
With my last words, the interview is over.
The person in charge came in and escorted us outside, and we gathered in the auditorium where the slaughtered cows were gathered.
It was a feeling that allowed me to take the test even though there was a penalty.
Iron, who was present as a supervisor this time, came up to the podium while I was sitting in the prepared seat and waiting.
He tapped on the microphone for a while to make sure it was working, then slowly opened his mouth.
ㅡ All test takers here are disqualified as heroes!
He shouted that all the time.
ㅡ In the field, 1 minute 1 second is a matter of whether or not a person’s life can be saved. The people here are people who can’t even keep those basics!
He pressed us over and over again.
ㅡ Still, you don’t know what the world is like. The only family member could be sick, or there could be someone suddenly in front of you asking for help.
Somehow, it felt like I was eye contact with him.
ㅡ So, I decided to give it a chance. However, it will be a rather strict test compared to other applicants.
The faces of the other test takers straightened up after hearing that.
It was understandable since it wasn’t a dropout.
I also let out a sigh of relief.
Even though things got messed up, I think things will go smoothly.
***
As Iron came down from the podium, he sighed as he remembered a candidate named Lee Jin-woo.
As much as he longed for a hero, he had high expectations for a candidate named Lee Jin-woo.
I felt an unbearable sense of betrayal that such a person was here.
After 10 minutes of cardiac arrest, you will be judged brain dead.
If the hero arrived in time and did CPR, he’s killing people he could have saved.
To a hero, time is such an existence.
So he couldn’t forgive the candidate Lee Jin-woo.
As much as I expected, the disappointment came even bigger.
So he sighed and wondered what to do with it as he headed towards where the supervisors were waiting.
There were supervisors who somehow gave off a warm feeling.
“What is everyone up to?”
“Thank you for your hard work, Iron. It’s nothing different….”
The supervisor covered his mouth for a moment and laughed.
“That’s it.”
There was a CCTV video on the screen the supervisor pointed to.
A child started crying in front of this building, and there was a scene where a man approached.
It was a very familiar face.
“Lee Jin-woo, a test taker?”
“Yes.”
Iron looked at the supervisor, wanting something.
What kind of situation is this?
“A citizen came here with a child. It looks like a test taker here, so thank you for helping me.”
So I looked around the CCTV and it seems that candidate Lee Jin-woo was filmed.
Human nature comes out in moments of urgency.
A person who can reach out to others even if he knows his own losses.
It seems that he was talking about whether that person is a true hero.
For some reason, the inside of the iron felt comfortable.
He had his own expectations and his own disappointments… I couldn’t help it if there was a story like this.
On the contrary, I felt that my liking for him increased.
I really liked his willingness to help others even before a very important exam.
On the contrary, even after finding the child, it was annoying to the humans who passed by and entered the building pretending not to see it.
After this test, be sure to scout him.
He promised that.