---

All Awakened Ones must report to the Association or an equivalent organization the moment they awaken.

This applies to Korea and other countries as well.

With the introduction of the Hero Special Act, the registration of Awakened Ones was established as a subordinate regulation.

While the laws vary slightly from country to country, they are largely the same in the grand scheme of things.

However, unregistered Awakened Ones still exist.

They could be hermits living deep in the mountains, far from civilization.

Or orphans born in shantytowns or poor neighborhoods.

If not, they are likely villains.

But the Awakened Survival Audition [Birth of a Hero] decided to give these unregistered Awakened Ones a chance.

If they provide detailed reasons for being unregistered, they will be recognized after various investigations.

Of course, there’s a condition that they must register as Awakened Ones after participating in the program…

Unless they’re villains, there’s no reason to refuse registration.

In fact, the government has promised to cover the costs of the registration process.

The program benefits from the increasing number of Awakened applicants.

The government saves on labor costs for investigating unregistered Awakened Ones and reduces their numbers.

The Association can identify villains in the process, making it a win-win.

The production team sifted through the documents of the first-round qualifiers, looking for potential issues or usable aspects.

They were holding a meeting ahead of the second round.

“Half of the first-round qualifiers are unregistered?”

“Yes, where did they all come from suddenly…?”

Right after the domestic first round, the judges immediately flew overseas.

Just as the domestic round saw an overwhelming number of applicants, the overseas round also drew massive crowds.

Even after filtering out many, there were still 600 final qualifiers.

Of these, nearly half—338—were unregistered Awakened Ones.

“Wait… if they’re unregistered, they don’t even know what rank they awakened at, right?”

“Exactly. You only learn about the number of magic circuits in your body when you study as an Awakened One.”

“If it were me, I’d take out a loan to get tested and apply for a loan from the Association to get Hero qualifications… It’s a life-changing opportunity.”

“Everyone has their own circumstances. Being a Hero isn’t as great a job as it seems.”

A Hero dispatched to assist the production team chuckled and responded.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it in a bad way…”

It seemed like they were implying it was a cushy job, so they apologized.

But the Association Hero didn’t mind much.

They’d seen it all before, and the production team was relatively mild.

“It’s fine. I *am* living the cushy life, right? Sitting here reviewing documents with you all while earning ten times the salary.”

“…Is that so?”

Above all, financial stability had given them a rock-solid mentality that even gold couldn’t dent.

The meeting room was filled with awkward laughter as the strange atmosphere lingered.

“We’re back. Everyone’s worked hard.”

“You two worked the hardest, following Hero Jeong Gyeoul around…”

It was deemed impossible to control Jeong Gyeoul without the senior PD Choi and Writer Wang.

The two had accompanied Jeong Gyeoul to the overseas audition locations.

In the process, they lost weight they couldn’t shed before.

As a side effect, even their hair started falling out.

“…How are the qualifiers?”

“Better than we expected. The program might be more popular than we thought. The problem is, it might also be more exhausting than we anticipated.”

Physical Category, Super Ability Category, Magic Category.

Many had ambiguous abilities that didn’t clearly fit into any category.

There were also many unregistered Awakened Ones.

Former villains who had served their sentences and returned.

Awakened Ones from the North.

Awakened Ones who had their Hero qualifications revoked.

Awakened Ones who voluntarily gave up their Hero qualifications to join the audition.

It was a complete mess.

As the briefing continued, PD Choi and Writer Wang felt their minds drifting.

They had just been freed from the headache of dealing with Jeong Gyeoul, only to receive a list of qualifiers that promised even more challenges.

***

The judges were given three days to recover from their overseas trip.

After the break, they split into two groups for the second round.

Group A: Kim Yu-shin, Park Seol-hwa, Jeong Gyeoul.

Group B: Jeong Ha-yul, Lee Ha-yoon, Jang Gil-yong.

To avoid repeating mistakes from the first round, detailed evaluation guidelines were provided for the second round.

Jeong Gyeoul had to confirm everything ten times over.

They were so frustrated they wanted to yell at her to stop, but it was unavoidable.

“Evaluate the participant’s awakened abilities and related personal skills. Introduce a practical checklist for first aid, combat skills, rescue skills, survival skills, and communication. Create various scenarios to test adaptability and creativity. I’ve been harassed every day during the break, got a call this morning, and now I’m here listening to explanations… I feel like I’m going to die…”

“…You should’ve done better in the first round.”

“You should’ve stopped me! If you saw your sister making a mistake, you should’ve corrected her!”

Jeong Gyeoul shamelessly shifted the blame to Park Seol-hwa, who had been too busy boosting her energy during the first round to intervene.

“Guys, the cameras are rolling…”

“Let them roll. I’ve already lost it.”

PD Choi would edit out anything unusable and keep anything entertaining, regardless of whether they were told to cut it.

They decided not to act differently just because the cameras were on.

Not that they ever really cared about the cameras in the first place.

“Did the President find any good applicants?”

“Oh, it was insane. You’ll be shocked. There are new abilities we’ve never seen or heard of before.”

“New abilities?”

“No spoilers! Let’s save the shock for later and stop talking about the applicants, okay?”

The judging process was already tedious enough; they didn’t want to know everything in advance.

“Well, the ability is…”

“Ahhh, I can’t hear youuuu!”

Jeong Gyeoul covered her ears and ran to the judges’ seats.

Kim Yu-shin and Park Seol-hwa smiled fondly and headed to their seats.

The first-round qualifiers were already waiting.

The judges finished their preparations, sipping on bottled water.

The difference from the first round was… the addition of an MC.

Whether the MC was planned from the start or hastily added because of Jeong Gyeoul was a secret known only to the production team.

The MC emerged from a hidden space and greeted everyone.

“Hello! I’m Geum Yu-na, the MC for Group A of Birth of a Hero!”

“Waaaaah!”

The participants, who had been bored waiting for the recording to start, erupted in excitement.

“…Why is she here?”

“Isn’t she the one who filmed with you before?”

The MC was Geum Yu-na, the leader of the girl group SOL.

She had filmed *Surviving on an Uninhabited Island* and *Monster Restaurant* with Jeong Gyeoul.

Group A had Geum Yu-na.

Group B had Winter.

Filming three programs in a row, they began to be called Choi Yong-seok’s daughters.

The public, unaware of Jeong Gyeoul’s retirement announcement, included her in the group.

Netizens also referred to the three as the daughters of the Choi family.

Geum Yu-na, nervously continuing the program, sent a quick glance to the judges’ seats.

“This is Gangwon-do, Goseong. Above us are the 38th Parallel and DMZ monsters, and to the right are the East Sea monsters.

Here, you must showcase your skills and abilities. You will be evaluated on first aid, combat skills, rescue skills, survival skills, and communication. Among other criteria, only 50 participants will survive the second round.”

She seemed very nervous but delivered the introduction flawlessly.

“Then… let the second round begin!”

With Geum Yu-na’s signal, the set lights dimmed.

“Kyaaaaah!”

“Grrr—”

“Groooar!”

Three monsters in cages were lifted onto the set, revealing themselves in various locations.

“Wow, they really went all out…”

“They’ve been pulling in a lot of investments, so they’re just throwing money around, huh? PD Choi’s got a bigger vision than I thought.”

There were 350 participants in Group A of the second round.

Participants could choose a monster, and a scenario matching its characteristics would be provided.

There was no limit to the number of participants per team.

One team could have 150, another 100, and another 50.

Or one team could have 200, another 0, and another 100.

Regardless of the scenario or team size, failure to clear it meant elimination for everyone.

If multiple teams succeeded or the number of survivors exceeded 50, the judges would eliminate based on scores.

Some Awakened Ones had already formed connections during the waiting period, while others stood alone like lone wolves.

No one knew which team would have how many members.

The second round had effectively started the moment the participants gathered on the set.

 

---