Chapter 15 – First Day of Work

Two choices.

Remain a Scavenger, or join Aegis.

In truth, there was no need to hesitate.

An opportunity had luckily presented itself, given his current situation.

He couldn’t be a Scavenger forever, and he’d secured all the conditions he wanted.

Even so, the reason he hadn’t answered immediately was disbelief.

The dream of every Awakened, a place where only the world’s best gathered.

He had received a recruitment offer from such a place.

From the very team he had just been fighting.

Of course, he’d believed he would eventually get in, but he never imagined he’d receive an offer at this point in time.

The conditions were good, too.

First, on the important matter of salary, the company and the Awakened would split the value of the cores obtained from clearing a site 50/50.

Considering the usual split was 80/20, one might think the company took a large cut, but the enormous taxes one would have to pay to the country when affiliated with other corporations were practically waived.

Especially overseas, where talent was scarce, they would even offer additional pay to entrust him with jobs, making it a much more profitable arrangement.

On top of that, they handled various matters for him, and the number of jobs he’d be assigned was on a completely different level.

It was incomparable to the sites that yielded low-grade cores worth millions of won each.

And he wasn’t tied down by a contract period; he could leave whenever he wanted.

After the incident ten years ago led to a complete overhaul of the non-Awakened executive board, an Awakened had taken the CEO position, resulting in even better treatment than before.

Thanks to that, rather than solely pursuing maximum profit, they made various aggressive investments and possessed numerous Gate-related technologies they had researched themselves.

‘So, I signed the contract, but…’

Lying on the sofa and looking at his phone, Il-hyeon scratched his head.

Despite having signed the contract, he had been lazing around at home for two days straight.

Given the nature of Aegis, there were no training or education programs for nurturing promising newcomers, so there was nothing for him to go out and do.

Even if there were, it wouldn’t have been much help to Il-hyeon, whose growth hinged on his Predation ability.

In the same vein, he had no need for the company’s training grounds or workout rooms.

He’d also been told during the contract signing that he would be deployed into actual combat immediately.

But there was no actual combat.

They said they’d call when a job came up, but there had been no word for two days.

It was enough to make him wonder if they had signed him and then forgotten about him.

‘Well… I did hear something about this before signing.’

It wasn’t as if Il-hyeon hadn’t anticipated this at all.

He had heard from Lee Soo-yeon beforehand that there wouldn’t be much work around this time.

Aegis’s Alpha Team, which had recently been dispatched to the South American region, had returned to Korea to take charge of the local area.

Compared to being in charge of other regions, which were typically continent-sized, this was a considerably small area.

A smaller area meant a lower probability of Gates appearing, which made it a comfortable assignment for the team in charge.

That wasn’t all.

The existence of the Korean government’s Response Team.

While they were active overseas as part of Ether acquisition and diplomatic efforts, the government’s Response Team handled most of the high-rank Gates within the country, further reducing the workload.

In truth, because of the symbolic importance of their home country, assigning a team here was semi-officially giving them a vacation.

They were told to think of it as a vacation and be on standby, as they would be rotated out soon enough, but it still felt a bit unsettling that nothing had happened yet.

Il-hyeon, who had been lying down, sat up and fiddled with a game on his phone.

He had been trying out various things lately, trying to get inspiration for his Summoning ability.

“A wolf with horns?”

Intrigued by a monster in the game, Il-hyeon closed his phone and got up.

Then, using his Summoning ability, he began to shape a form exactly as he had seen it.

However, there was one difference from his usual method.

He hadn’t used his Transformation ability at all before summoning.

A wolf appeared out of thin air, where nothing had been created beforehand.

It was the size of a person, with real fur and skin.

“Hmm… it looks cool, but I don’t see why it needs horns.”

Il-hyeon tilted his head, looking unconvinced.

It seemed it would be better to use the concentration required to make horns on its forehead to increase its size instead.

‘Well, anyway, I’ve gotten somewhat used to the Summoning ability now.’

He could now summon a creature from nothing, without having to use his Transformation ability as a base.

But of course, it was still more efficient to use it in conjunction with his Transformation ability.

It took less effort and was easier to maintain.

Unless it was a special situation, using them together was far more effective.

‘Transformation and Summoning… I was lucky to get abilities that synergize so well.’

Dismissing the horned wolf, Il-hyeon picked up a piece of paper from the table.

It was the result of his Awakened rank evaluation, which, as part of the initial contract and as a courtesy from the company, had excluded the ability assessment.

An evaluation that measured numerous attributes like dynamic visual acuity, muscular strength, and acceleration with complex equipment to determine an approximate rank.

The Awakened rank evaluation involved a considerably complex process and was just as expensive.

However, even though it wasn’t a national requirement, almost every Awakened active in the field paid the high cost to be measured periodically.

It was a test whose reliability had been proven over time, providing essential information for anyone who didn’t want to die a pointless death by recklessly charging at a stronger monster.

‘They said I barely made C-rank…’

His test result was C-rank.

It was actually higher than he had expected.

Even reaching C-rank was a level that, in a typical case, only veteran Awakened with at least ten years of experience could achieve.

And that was only if they had above-average talent.

It was said that the higher the Awakened rank, the harder it became to grow to the next level.

Even with his Predation ability, it would have been impossible to maintain steady growth with only E-rank cores.

At a time when he needed a turning point, joining Aegis might have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him.

But today, it was already past 6 p.m., and there was still no sign of anything.

The sky was already growing dark.

“Guess it’s not happening today either.”

After checking the time, Il-hyeon threw on some clothes and left the house.

***

“Huh? Didn’t you say you couldn’t make it because of work?”

“Something came up and my schedule changed.”

Two of his friends, sitting in a barbecue restaurant, stared at him with wide eyes.

Il-hyeon grinned and slid into a seat.

“Hey, it’s been a while.”

“Good to see you. Sit down, quick.”

He exchanged happy greetings with his friends, whom he hadn’t seen in almost three months due to being swamped with work.

The big guy sitting on his left was Kim Byeong-cheol.

He had a rough-looking face that often led to misunderstandings, but his personality was the opposite.

Moreover, he was an ardent fan of Lee Soo-yeon, who had somehow become Il-hyeon’s colleague.

On his right was Kwon Se-hyeong, a guy who worked in the field for the Special Police.

The work of a special police officer was a bit tough, but the treatment and salary were hefty enough to more than make up for it.

Thanks to that, the competition was quite fierce compared to regular police.

He was probably the most successful one among the three of them.

The gathering hadn’t started long ago; they ordered two more bottles of soju and continued their conversation.

“So anyway, I’m telling you, I chased her down to the scene last week and got Lee Tae-hee’s autograph. Awakened usually don’t do that stuff. This big bro…”

“Hey, hey.”

“Ah, right…”

When Kwon Se-hyeong gave him a look and nudged him in the ribs, Kim Byeong-cheol, who had been chattering excitedly, quickly shut his mouth.

Apart from his job, Kim Byeong-cheol was an avid fan who delved deep into the world of Gates and the Awakened.

After the Gate crisis, the Awakened gained avid fans, much like celebrities.

In fact, it wasn’t just them; most people paid close attention to their work and were enthusiastic about it.

However, Kim Byeong-cheol and Kwon Se-hyeong tried to avoid that topic in front of Il-hyeon as much as possible.

After getting his hopes up only to be judged as a non-Awakened, he had come to loathe any talk related to the Awakened, so they had no choice.

But now, there was no need for that anymore.

“Go on. It doesn’t bother me anymore.”

“What? Why the sudden change? You used to hate talking about the Awakened.”

“You probably won’t believe me if I tell you.”

Il-hyeon chuckled and downed his soju shot.

He had never been a lightweight, but after becoming Awakened, a few bottles of soju barely even registered.

Even now, far from getting drunk, his mind only grew clearer with each shot.

“I quit my job.”

“You were always singing about wanting to quit. You finally did it.”

“Wait. Don’t tell me you quit today and came here?”

The thought that his sudden change of plans meant he had quit his job flashed through Kwon Se-hyeong’s mind.

Of course, that wasn’t it.

“No, I quit over two weeks ago. And I got a new job.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Where?”

His friends’ eyes focused on him, and Il-hyeon hesitated for a moment.

Then he slowly opened his mouth.

“Aegis.”

“Puhaha!”

“Man, this bastard, I thought you were serious!”

At the mention of Aegis, his friends burst into loud laughter.

He had expected it, but Il-hyeon still put a hand to his head at their reaction.

“Hah, I knew it.”

Regardless of his muttering, his two friends started chattering about a new topic.

“I wish I could get a job at Aegis. Then I could see Lee Soo-yeon every day, right? Ugh.”

“It’s a dream job even if you’re not Awakened. I heard even the office jobs start at a hundred million won. A lot of people in the Special Police build up their careers hoping to move to their backup team.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“Stop bullshitting and eat your meat.”

“I’m not… Mmph!”

Kim Byeong-cheol shoved a piece of meat into his mouth with the tongs.

Il-hyeon mumbled as he pulled out a napkin to wipe the grease from his mouth.

“Agh, seriously. You want me to show you my ability right here?”

“I’ll pass. We already saw you move salt grains last time.”

His so-called friends had no intention of believing him.

Just as Il-hyeon was debating whether to subtly transform a spoon to show them, a sudden commotion erupted outside.

People on the street outside the restaurant were gathering, looking up at the sky and murmuring.

“What’s going on?”

The people inside the restaurant, including Il-hyeon’s group, looked outside through the glass wall at the sudden disturbance.

“Hm? I got a text.”

Il-hyeon, who had been looking outside with the others, picked up his phone.

And when he saw who the text was from, his face turned pale.

“No… wait, don’t tell me?”

A massive, white VTOL transport aircraft suddenly landed in the middle of the narrow street of the restaurant alley.

People started snapping pictures of the transport, which looked completely out of place, and soon, its side hatch opened.

Lee Soo-yeon in a black coat and Ghost in his skull mask stepped out, and cheers that were almost screams erupted from the crowd.

They opened the glass door and walked straight into the restaurant.

As the person of his dreams approached, Kim Byeong-cheol froze as if he were about to faint.

Lee Soo-yeon walked up to Il-hyeon, who was standing there in shock, and tossed him the Defensive Coat and Ether Sword she was holding.

Il-hyeon, who had caught the items out of reflex, stared at them in bewilderment.

“What are you doing? We’re here to pick you up. Get in.”