Chapter 121 – Headhunter (Part One)

Inside a helicopter crossing over the middle of the ocean.

Il-hyeon and Jeong Jin-seong sat facing each other, digging through documents.

They had gathered every piece of data the prison had on Won Yu-han, including detailed personal information and criminal records, as well as how he was managed during his incarceration.

A staggering amount of criminal records poured out, along with a list of potential grudges inferred from them.

However, among all of it, they found no particularly suspicious individuals or any clues.

A great deal of time had passed since his active years, and besides, there were only a handful of Awakened in the world powerful enough to attack an international prison.

“Nothing really stands out, does it?”

“Hmm… no, it doesn’t.”

“It seems impossible to find anything right away. Let’s hand this over to the analysis team and request background checks on everyone involved.”

Having already invested a significant amount of time, the two closed the files without any lingering attachment.

Just then, the helicopter they were in reached its destination, landing in a forest and revealing its previously transparent form.

After they disembarked and the helicopter departed, they naturally started to head into the villa.

But halfway there, Jeong Jin-seong stopped Il-hyeon, asking to speak with him privately outside. He told the bewildered Seo Jeong-hwa to go on ahead.

Without much thought, Seo Jeong-hwa nodded and headed for the villa’s basement, where their base was located.

“What is it?”

“It’s about Seo Jeong-hwa. She followed you to the prison, saying she had something important to tell you. What was it?”

“Ah…”

At his words, Il-hyeon wore a troubled expression.

It seemed Jeong Jin-seong thought there might have been some important information behind Seo Jeong-hwa’s excuse.

Il-hyeon explained that she had simply lied to follow him out.

For a moment, Jeong Jin-seong looked utterly dumbfounded before bursting into laughter.

But he soon wiped the smile from his face and said to Il-hyeon.

“Then isn’t it about time we sent her on her way?”

“Seo Jeong-hwa?”

“Yes. It looks like we’ve found out almost everything we needed to. It’s time to erase her memories and send her back. She may be strong for a criminal, but she’s not at a level where she’d be of any immediate help to us.”

He was saying that since she was no longer needed, they should erase her memory and return her to society.

Given that various secrets related to their operations, including the location of this place, could be leaked, it was a reasonable measure in a way.

They had kept their promises to free her from the brainwashing and not hand her over to the government after everything was over, so there was no major issue.

However, Il-hyeon couldn’t agree with Jeong Jin-seong’s opinion.

“Ah, there’s just one thing I need to check…”

“Check?”

‘I have to find out for sure about her Ability.’

Seo Jeong-hwa’s SS-rank Ability, as shown by the test results.

Because of the absurd value, it had been dismissed as a simple error, and as if to prove that, a retest had indeed shown a different Ability. But considering Il-hyeon’s own case, exceptions could always occur.

The more immediate problem was the criminal organizations running rampant.

“Well, if that’s the case. It doesn’t matter much. We have more urgent things to deal with.”

“What’s our plan now? With those guys running wild like this.”

“It’s difficult to manage because of the sudden surge in Gates. On top of that, the retired high-ranking Awakened are no longer around, so we’re even more short-staffed. Given the number of Gates appearing, we should be focusing all our efforts on dealing with them, but the timing is just awful.”

Jeong Jin-seong said.

It was timing that anyone would agree was intentional.

If it weren’t for the number of Gates from the new cycle, it would have been only a matter of time before these criminal organizations, now acting so openly, were annihilated.

What’s more, the criminals were even using the Gates that appeared everywhere as a tool to inflict greater casualties at their terror sites, which made things a complete headache.

“People who didn’t even bat an eye at all those Gates before are now terrified. Given the situation, it’s understandable, though.”

The vast majority of people refrained from going out, and even while cooped up in their homes, they were gripped by severe anxiety.

Gripped by an intensely stoked fear, the public urged the government to suppress the terrorists quickly, but the government had no capacity to root them out immediately.

Because the government had always downplayed the number and scale of Gates, claiming they had plenty of manpower and that everything was absolutely safe, the public didn’t understand the true situation.

Public opinion blaming the incompetent government for failing to deal with mere underworld criminal organizations grew stronger, and discontent swelled.

Normally, governments around the world would have controlled the media and blocked any information that could cause fear or controversy, but this time, the enemy wasn’t monsters, but people.

The targets of the terror attacks were mostly facilities crowded with civilians, and the allied criminal organizations had even gone so far as to seize control of broadcasting stations in several countries.

They were putting a tremendous amount of effort into spreading fear among the public this way, so even the governments that controlled the media had no way to contain it.

In the end, the lies they had told to reassure the public came back to haunt them as criticism against the government in this changed situation.

This sentiment was especially strong in South Korea, which possessed a number of high-ranking Awakened incomparable to other nations.

In fact, they were even being criticized by the citizens of other countries; nothing more needed to be said.

“With things like this, we can’t just sit around. We’ll leave the intelligence gathering to the experts and, for the time being, we’ll have to deal with both the Gates and the terrorists simultaneously.”

Currently, Raven was focusing all its efforts on tracking Gullart, the boss of the IRC, who had actively revealed himself this time.

But even so, finding him would be anything but easy.

He had been a target Raven had attempted to assassinate multiple times even before this incident, but all six of the Gullarts they had managed to kill were merely body doubles. He was so meticulous that they had never actually gotten close to the real one.

“Hmm… this isn’t a good situation.”

“Indeed. We’re going to be busy for a while. Very busy.”

The two stood there for a moment.

After a brief silence, it was Il-hyeon who spoke first.

“Ah, but we don’t have to go out on a mission right this second, do we?”

“Not right away. Why do you ask?”

“I was thinking of getting my Ability tested.”

“What?”

Jeong Jin-seong’s eyes widened as he looked at Il-hyeon.

* * *

*Knock, knock!*

When someone knocked on the examination room door, Il-hyeon, who was sitting inside, opened it.

Jeong Jin-seong appeared in the doorway and handed him a few sheets of paper.

“Here, the test results are out.”

“Thank you.”

Il-hyeon smiled and took the papers.

These were the results of the Awakened test, which had been conducted before the Ability test.

Quickly scanning the results, the first thing that caught Il-hyeon’s eye was the red letter ‘A’.

“A-rank…”

“Incredible. An A-rank already.”

Jeong Jin-seong said with a shrug, his arms crossed, while Il-hyeon couldn’t hide the joy on his face.

His Awakened rank had finally reached A-rank.

At A-rank, his physical abilities were already comparable to those of an Aegis team leader.

And if you factored in the power of his unlisted SSS-rank Ability, the situation changed entirely.

Of course, the gap between levels grew exponentially at higher ranks, so he still couldn’t compare to the top team leaders of Aegis, who were far ahead of him.

But regardless, it was certain that he had made immense progress in a short period.

“By the way, what’s with the sudden change of heart? Getting your Ability tested all of a sudden.”

Jeong Jin-seong asked Il-hyeon curiously.

Il-hyeon had definitely made a contract with Aegis on the condition that detailed information about his Ability, like its rank, would be kept private.

That was why, despite undergoing several Awakened tests, he had never even gone near an Ability scanner.

But now, for some reason, he had volunteered for an Ability test.

Although it came with the condition that the results wouldn’t be revealed to others, it was still unexpected.

“There’s just something I wanted to confirm.”

An SS-rank Ability.

His intention was to see if his hypothesis about Seo Jeong-hwa’s Ability test result was correct.

But Il-hyeon gave a vague answer, and Jeong Jin-seong didn’t press further, as if he hadn’t been expecting a specific reply anyway.

*Beep!*

An alert sounded from the Ability scanner on one side of the examination room.

It was the signal that the Ability test results had been printed.

“Looks like it’s out. Go ahead and check it, then come out. Let’s get some dinner.”

“It’s that time already? Understood.”

As Jeong Jin-seong closed the door, Il-hyeon turned his head to look at the Ability scanner.

Unlike the Awakened rank test, the process for testing one’s Ability was very simple. As long as the machine was available, anyone could do it on their own, so he had already arranged for no staff to be present.

Furthermore, he had configured the machine not to store the results, so he didn’t have to worry about anyone finding out.

*Thwip!*

Il-hyeon pulled out the test sheet that was peeking out from the top of the machine.

He looked down at it, his expression slightly tense.

It was almost a completely blank sheet of paper, full of empty spaces.

The verdict was: No Ability.

“Haha…”

Il-hyeon laughed in disbelief.

For a moment, he doubted his eyes, but truly, no Ability had appeared.

Transformation, Predation, Summoning, and the absurd Ability ranks attached to them—all of it.

Not a single one of the things that had appeared on his first Ability test was listed.

Just in case, Il-hyeon ran the Ability test again.

It wasn’t a long test anyway, so it was hardly a bother.

But the results were the same for the second, third, and final fourth tests.

It was no different from the typical case of a non-Awakened or someone without an Ability, where the first test was just an error.

‘This is interesting. Could it be that they’re all like this?’

He had discovered a new fact that others couldn’t even imagine.

Though he didn’t show it on the outside, Il-hyeon was filled with considerable excitement.

He considered the possibility that the machine, having determined the first result to be an error, had excluded the incorrect Ability from subsequent results, or that he had simply stumbled upon a hidden Ability by some incredibly low chance.

‘Either way, I’ve figured out one thing for sure.’

Il-hyeon took a lighter from his pocket.

*Fwoosh!* The flame, instantly enlarged by his Ability, devoured the few sheets of paper and vanished without leaving so much as a speck of ash.

A flame flickering and dying in mid-air.

Watching it, Il-hyeon muttered quietly to himself.

“I wonder if they’d print out a list for me if I asked.”