"This cocky tiger bitch says she can beat every last member of our Center one-on-one! Who wants to give her a taste of their knuckles?!"
The beastkin glared viciously at Yi Rang, who stood in the middle of the spacious ring.
Looking at the hulking predator beastkin surrounding her, Yi Rang was beginning to regret this a little.
"Hey, just to be clear, I didn't say everyone. Only the top seventy percent—"
"And she said we were trash with no beastkin pride!"
Curses flew at Yi Rang from all sides.
Yi Rang was busy wondering how she should take the beating to make it hurt less.
"Center Director! I'm more than enough to deal with her!"
A reindeer beastkin confidently strode forward.
He might not have been a predator beastkin, but he was immensely tall and powerfully built, with an intimidating pair of antlers on his head.
"Hey, Min-Su! Don't hog all the fun and finish her by yourself!"
"Heh. Don't worry, brothers. I'll leave you your share."
Min-Su, the reindeer beastkin, leapt into the ring and leisurely began gathering mana in both hands, as though there were no conceivable way he could lose.
Yi Rang did not stand around and wait.
"You're wide open!"
"Gweh!"
One punch to the face sent Min-Su crumpling helplessly to the floor.
"Tsk, tsk. Using a technique that takes more than a second in close combat? Don't ever do that again. Got it?"
Yi Rang parroted one of Yu-Han's lines and launched into a lecture of her own.
A brief silence followed, but the beastkin soon laughed it off.
"That damn rookie! His problem is that he lets his guard down every chance he gets!"
"Besides, she's a tiger beastkin. The matchup wasn't exactly in his favor, right?"
The next challenger was a black panther beastkin.
She instantly transformed into her "Furry Mode" and pounced on Yi Rang, launching attacks from every direction at incredible speed.
"People call me the fastest beastkin in this office! I'm not dumb enough to let you hit me like Min-Su did!"
Her attacks came at Yi Rang like a raging tide, leaving her barely able to do anything but guard.
Yi Rang let the barrage continue until she had figured out the repetitive, predictable pattern. Then she suddenly caught her opponent by the wrist.
"Nya?"
"Tsk, tsk... All that flashy crap does is leave you wide open!"
With a roar, Yi Rang slammed her into the floor of the ring.
The poor black panther beastkin was in so much pain that she could barely move. Her comrades had to support her as they carried her away.
'Huh. Knocking people down and lecturing them afterward is a blast. You're telling me that bastard Yu-Han's been hogging all this fun for himself?'
Yi Rang kept a cool expression on her face while thinking something that stupid.
---
"Well, look at that. Yi Rang C is having fun."
After peering through the gap in the training-room door and confirming Yi Rang's condition, Kim Ga-Eun turned away in relief.
Rescuing Yi Rang was not exactly her highest-priority objective.
"E-Excuse me, but who are you...?"
Just then, a small, timid voice called out to Ga-Eun.
Startled, Ga-Eun reflexively grabbed the speaker by the throat and pinned her against the wall.
The other person was a brown-haired rabbit beastkin.
"Eep... This happens every time I try talking to one of the predator beastkin... It must be their hunting instincts..."
"Oh! I'm sorry."
After deciding that the rabbit beastkin posed no threat, Ga-Eun released her.
She did not want to cause an unnecessary commotion, and judging by the other person's reaction, situations like this were apparently a normal part of her life.
"Wait... I've never seen you around here before."
"!!"
Ga-Eun immediately reconsidered her assessment.
Perhaps she should kill this rabbit without anyone noticing... No, merely knock her unconscious.
"You must be a new employee! I suppose you're still finding your way around!"
"Y-Yes? That's right!"
Fortunately, the rabbit beastkin had jumped to a convenient conclusion all on her own.
"My name is Baek Myo-Hui. I'm just a trivial odd-job worker. Would you like me to show you around the Center?"
"I'd appreciate that! I'm Kim Ga-Eun."
"To think you would thank a trivial rabbit like me... I hardly know what to do with myself..."
Myo-Hui wiped tears from her eyes, deeply moved.
Ga-Eun could not understand why her self-esteem was so abysmally low.
After walking around for a while, however, she quickly discovered the reason.
"Those are the living quarters for the strong beastkin. Those over there are for the weak beastkin."
One was a modern dormitory with a sunny southern exposure, windows that let in plenty of fresh air, and soft beds.
Beyond a door that looked more like a closet was an old, decrepit dormitory with no windows and only dim, gloomy lighting.
It was obvious which side belonged to the strong beastkin.
"...Isn't this supposed to be an office that fights for beastkin rights? Why are they so different?!"
"You're so kind, Ga-Eun C! But it's all right! Anyone who can't endure it simply leaves on their own!"
Farther down the hall, they reached a storage room filled with weapons and equipment.
"As you can see, this is the storage room."
"...Who manages it?"
"Why, trivial beastkin like us, of course! We handle everything from weapon inspections to cleaning! It's our job to make sure the useful beastkin can work without a single hassle!"
Myo-Hui proudly puffed out her chest, but Ga-Eun could not help feeling sorry for them.
"This is the cafeteria!"
"...I suppose beastkin like you also do the cooking and washing up. Are you at least paid well?"
"We earn minimum wage."
"Isn't that horribly unfair?!"
"Ga-Eun C, we're trivial lives. It's only natural that we receive trivial treatment while doing trivial work!
"And I'm happy! I've learned how to find happiness in trivial things!"
Something about Myo-Hui's words made her sound broken, and Ga-Eun fell silent.
"...I see. Thank you for showing me around the Center."
Resolving that she absolutely had to bring this Center down, Ga-Eun hurried away.
With her usual vacant expression, Baek Myo-Hui picked up something Ga-Eun had dropped.
"This is... a gas capsule? Ga-Eun C has been dropping these all over the Center...
"Come to think of it, I'm certain we weren't expecting any new employees today."
Myo-Hui added,
"And Ga-Eun C didn't even seem to be beastkin... Just like our center director...
"But all of that is trivial!"
Smiling, Baek Myo-Hui put the capsule back where Ga-Eun had left it and returned to the trivial tasks she loved, such as cleaning and washing dishes...
---
Meanwhile, Yi Rang had already racked up five wins in a row.
'Yeah, come to think of it, I'm strong too! I just forget because I'm surrounded by monsters all the damn time!'
Park In-Hyeok looked displeased as he surveyed his battered beastkin subordinates.
"Hey! Yi Rang, was it? You're better than I expected! How would you like to join our Center? I'll make sure you're treated well!"
"You said you'd kill me and sell me off, and now you've got the nerve to say that?!"
"So I scared you a little. Big deal! You didn't seriously think I'd do it, did you? People in this line of work say stuff like that all the time!"
"And you think I'm gonna buy that?!"
"My, how feisty. Ma Sa-Yun, get in there and finish this."
The beastkin who entered the ring this time was the largest of all the beastkin gathered there.
He was a lion beastkin standing more than two meters tall.
The lion beastkin called Ma Sa-Yun muttered in disappointment.
"To think they struggled against an opponent of this level... I'll have to retrain the lot of them."
"An opponent of this level? Don't take me lightly!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Yi Rang realized they sounded exactly like something a third-rate villain would say right before getting flattened.
Her instincts proved correct.
Ma Sa-Yun immediately struck her with a lariat, sending her sailing straight into the ropes.
Yi Rang's head spun from the impact.
"Ugh... Are we seriously the same kind of beastkin...?"
"I have an exceptional aptitude for physical enhancement magic. I'm strong enough to lift a truck with my bare hands. So surrender before you take any more of a beating."
"No..."
"Even after we offered to recruit you? You're beastkin. Why won't you stand with your own kind?"
"How the hell is framing innocent people supposed to help beastkin...?"
"If we want to rise to the top, we have to be willing to get our hands dirty and make sacrifices!"
"Yeah, I don't see it that way. And... I owe Cheong-Am Center a debt."
Yi Rang had meant a literal financial debt that made it difficult for her to change jobs.
Ma Sa-Yun, however, appeared to interpret her words differently.
"...Your determination and loyalty are astonishing. Forgive my disrespect. I shall honor you by defeating you with my full strength!"
Just as Ma Sa-Yun was about to drive his fist into Yi Rang, her survival instincts sounded the alarm.
The scattered memories of battle and training drifting through her unconscious mind suddenly converged into one.
They included not only her training with Yu-Han, but everything she had experienced during her time as a sanctioner trainee.
"!?"
In a single instant, Yi Rang's knife-hand brushed Ma Sa-Yun's fist aside and sent it veering away.
She redirected its trajectory as naturally as diverting a stream of water.
'Did she use magic in that brief instant?'
Casting magic complex enough to redirect his punch in the middle of close combat—Ma Sa-Yun had never even heard of such a fighting style.
Drunk on adrenaline, Yi Rang stared silently at him, her eyes wide and blazing.
"Interesting!"
Ma Sa-Yun was just about to charge at her again when thick smoke suddenly began pouring into the room.
"!? Gas attack! Summon your gas masks!"
Park In-Hyeok, Ma Sa-Yun, and several of their subordinates managed to pull gas masks over their faces in time.
The beastkin who failed to react immediately stiffened and collapsed.
"Paralysis gas...! Does that tiger bitch have an accomplice?!"
Yi Rang herself, however, had also been caught in the gas and lay sprawled on the floor with a ridiculous expression on her face.
The ferocious look she had worn moments ago had vanished without a trace.
"...Guess not. Anyway."
At that moment, laughter echoed from somewhere nearby.
[Hello, everyone at Cheonrang Center! My name is Yu-Han, animal lover and specialist in slaughter and deboning!]