Chapter 11 – A Blessing in Disguise (Part One)

The first thing Il-hyeon did when he got home was use his Transformation ability to change his face and clothes back to normal.

Once his face had returned to its familiar form, he headed straight for the bathroom.

The dirt and bloodstains from his battle with the monsters felt utterly grimy.

After tossing aside his filthy clothes, he turned on the shower and let the warm water wash over him.

Feeling refreshed after his shower, Il-hyeon took out the items he’d brought back.

There were eight Ether Cores, smaller than usual.

He held the cores in one hand and began to absorb them one by one.

“The output is definitely a little weak… A bit of a dull flavor.”

Il-hyeon clicked his tongue.

Just as a person can’t live on one type of food alone, he was growing weary of the E-rank monster cores he absorbed with his Predation ability.

But he didn’t get ahead of himself.

D-rank monsters were in a completely different league from E or F-rank ones.

They were the starting point for what were classified as ‘Ace Monsters.’

A D-rank Gate didn’t mean that dozens of D-rank monsters would come pouring out.

If that were the case, humanity would have been wiped out long ago.

In a D-rank Gate, the Base Monsters were typically E-rank, numbering in the dozens to hundreds, while one or two D-rank Ace Monsters would appear.

In gaming terms, if Base Monsters were trash mobs, then Ace Monsters were like mini-bosses.

Of course, the pattern varied depending on the Gate’s nature—some had no Ace Monsters at all, while their Base Monsters were of a relatively higher rank—but this was the usual case.

Therefore, the power gap between D-rank and E-rank monsters—the dividing line between Ace and Base—was stark.

There was no need to take such a risk while hiding his abilities to act as a Scavenger.

It wouldn’t be too late to get greedy after he was done with his life as a Scavenger.

Il-hyeon gathered the shattered core fragments scattered on the floor and put them in a plastic bag.

Then he tossed it into a corner of the balcony, where several similar bags already sat.

The core fragments that piled up after absorption couldn’t be recycled, nor could they be altered with his ability.

And since he couldn’t just throw them away anywhere, they were a subtle headache.

“I need to be done with this soon.”

Il-hyeon muttered wearily, leaning back on the sofa.

Hiding his identity consumed more mental energy than he had expected.

There was so much to consider, and he found himself hesitating even when using his powers.

Even the smallest, most thoughtless actions now required caution.

“Still, I’m almost there.”

Il-hyeon clenched his fist.

He could feel that he was incomparably stronger than when he first started.

If he absorbed just a few more cores, he felt he would have enough power to start making demands in a contract with an Awakened corporation.

For example, a condition to keep his specific ability rank private.

Even Lee Tae-in, the B-rank Awakened who was the current face of Valse Inc., had never revealed his ability rank to anyone.

Normally, an Awakened’s ability rank was essential information for a company’s PR and for securing jobs, so such a request was rarely granted.

But Lee Tae-in had apparently made it a non-negotiable condition from the very beginning of his contract.

His demand was ultimately accepted—something only possible because he was a B-rank Awakened, a key asset on a national level.

And for Il-hyeon, the most important condition of all.

Gaining ownership of the Ether Cores from the monsters he hunted.

It was crucial for his future growth.

Since Ether was practically the entire source of revenue for Awakened corporations, he couldn’t demand all of it.

But he needed to be in a position to negotiate a condition where he could receive a portion of the cores as his share, instead of cash.

‘Even if I’m barely a C-rank… no, even just at the top of D-rank, companies would be falling over themselves to sign me as a top prospect if I showed them my abilities.’

Il-hyeon didn’t know his exact rank.

An Awakened’s rank wasn’t something you could get measured just anywhere; it wasn’t that simple.

But he had three abilities.

Even if he hid the specific ranks of his abilities, just having three of them was an enormous advantage.

Moreover, all three were new types of abilities, never seen before.

His specs were more than enough to make corporations go wild.

In fact, if he revealed that all three of his abilities were SSS-rank, there would be no hassle; every government and corporation would roll out the red carpet for him.

No, they’d be begging him to join.

Then he wouldn’t even need to worry about any of this.

The problem, however, was that they wouldn’t be the only ones taking an interest.

On the contrary, an excessively extraordinary talent could make him a target.

A South American Awakened, born with an S-rank ability and hailed as a prodigy, was found dead in his home at nineteen with his throat pierced.

The IRC, a criminal organization of Awakened, had tried to recruit him. When negotiations failed, they reportedly killed him without a second thought and left.

To them, any Awakened who could become a threat and wasn’t one of their own had to be either recruited or eliminated.

Besides him, a promising A-rank ability user from Iran, the first to appear in a decade, went missing and was later found as a corpse floating down a river.

He had died without a trace, and with no facts ever coming to light, rumors swirled that he had been assassinated by a rival nation.

One might think South Korea, with its many high-rank Awakened, would be relatively safe, but what about an unprecedented SSS-rank ability?

He didn’t even want to imagine what might happen.

His abilities had all been revealed during his test at age twenty, but the staff member at the time had dismissed it as a simple machine error and recorded Il-hyeon as a non-powered civilian.

At least he wouldn’t have to worry about his ability ranks being exposed because of that past test.

‘I have to hide my ability ranks until I’m strong enough.’

Il-hyeon was definitely a late bloomer among the Awakened.

But with his unparalleled Predation ability, he had no concerns about his growth.

‘It would be great if I could get into a place like Aegis, not some shady company.’

Shady corporations existed among the Awakened enterprises, and quite a few of them sought to exploit their affiliated Awakened.

They would tamper with contracts or take a much higher percentage of the Ether profits.

They were the kind of places that viciously exploited the fact that an Awakened couldn’t secure government jobs on their own.

In contrast, there was Aegis.

Along with the South Korean government’s Response Team, it was the ultimate goal for all Awakened.

It was home to over twenty A-rank Awakened—more than most countries could claim to have at all—a gathering of those who could truly call themselves the best in the world.

Back when he was young and thought he would become an Awakened, Il-hyeon too had dreamed of joining them.

‘But that’s a pipe dream for now.’

Aegis was a place for the best of the best, not a nursery for promising rookies.

Il-hyeon looked around his home.

The place was a mess, cluttered with all sorts of junk.

Large pieces of wood, metal scraps, glass, rubber, and more.

Transforming each material felt different, so he needed to get used to them.

The more he used his abilities, the faster he became proficient, and the broader his range of applications became.

Il-hyeon casually lifted the water from a bowl on the table into the air.

The water, floating in a droplet-like shape as if in zero gravity, began to form a human figure.

A small body, faint facial features, slender arms and legs.

He then imbued it with his Summoning ability.

But in that moment, his power gave out, and the levitating water fell back into the bowl with a splash.

He had gotten much better at summoning, but he showed no signs of successfully summoning a humanoid creature.

Il-hyeon used his ability to lift the scattered droplets and guide them back into the bowl.

Just then, his phone buzzed.

Notifications flooded the group chat he shared with two of his friends.

They were trying to arrange a time to meet up this week.

After checking the messages, Il-hyeon turned his phone face down and set it aside.

Though in the meantime, his two friends were chewing him out for leaving them on read.

‘How am I supposed to explain this?’

That I became an Awakened at this age, that I have three abilities, and that I possess immense potential.

It was the perfect recipe for being treated like a lunatic.

Of course, he wouldn’t say anything until he was done being a Scavenger, but it was something he’d have to tell them eventually.

The thought of that moment made him feel a bit awkward.

“Hm?”

Il-hyeon glanced at his phone.

This time, an app had activated, sending a notification to his phone.

It was the app he’d been using, the one that immediately notified him whenever a Gate opened in Seoul.

‘A D4-rank Gate in Songpa… What is with today?’

His eyes caught the words ‘Emergency Evacuation’ in parentheses next to the notification.

An emergency evacuation order meant the Gate would activate in under twenty minutes.

It wasn’t just today; the number of Gates opening had seen a sharp increase lately.

Gates with short activation times, in particular, had become noticeably more frequent.

‘The next cycle isn’t even here yet… Are the signs already starting to show?’

Deciding this would be the last thing he handled before bed, Il-hyeon shot up from the sofa.

Even though it was a D-rank Gate, the assigned Awakened would take care of the Ace Monster, so it was none of his concern.

It was a shame he’d just showered, but he had a better feeling about this one than usual.

He quickly got dressed and went up to the roof of the tallest nearby building.

Staring intently at the dark streets below, Il-hyeon gathered the abundant air around him and began to transform it.

Transforming air, an intangible substance, was much trickier than other materials, but for the current Il-hyeon, it was entirely possible.

Slowly, the vague shape of a bird took form, and he used his Summoning ability.

A massive hawk appeared, large enough to easily carry a person.

It was translucent and barely noticeable, even up close.

Il-hyeon changed his clothes to a darker color to avoid being seen, then climbed onto the hawk’s back and soared into the sky.

He usually avoided this method for fear of being spotted, but the distance was too great this time.

He flew as high as possible to stay out of sight.

Once he was high enough, Il-hyeon transformed the hawk to a black color so it would blend into the night sky.

So that if anyone did happen to see it, it would look like an ordinary bird.

Only then did its feathers, beak, eyes, and majestic frame become clearly visible.

The hawk cut through the Seoul sky at high speed, the cold night air whipping past Il-hyeon’s face.

The night view of Seoul spread out beneath him.

Towering buildings and countless lights.

It was a breathtaking sight that not just anyone could see, a view that always lifted his spirits.

But there was one thing he had missed.

– Gate rank upgraded… Current estimated rank: B3. Jurisdiction transferred from Raon to Aegis. A-Team dispatched.

A new encounter was approaching.