Chapter 126 – Headhunter (Part Six)

“Um… what happened to your face?”

Choi Eun-chae, the head of Aegis’s research team, asked as she looked at Il-hyeon’s swollen cheek.

At her words, Il-hyeon touched his face and found it was indeed puffed up.

He’d used his Transformation ability to get rid of the dark bruise, but it seemed to have swollen up belatedly.

He quickly used his ability to reduce the swelling, then gave her an awkward look.

“You haven’t been out in the field because of your suspension… Did you get into a fight with someone?”

“Well… it’s not exactly something I’d go around talking about.”

Il-hyeon said with a shrug, and Choi Eun-chae nodded, deciding not to press the issue.

“Well, if you need any medicine, just let me know. We’ve developed a few new drugs that are quite effective on the Awakened.”

“I appreciate the offer.”

Having heard secondhand how Choi Eun-chae had treated Ghost after he lost their bet, Il-hyeon rejected her offer at once.

Unless it was an officially distributed product, there was a high chance he’d become a subject for the research team’s clinical trials.

“Ah, thank you.”

Il-hyeon took the cup of coffee a research team member brought him and slowly looked around.

Choi Eun-chae’s office hadn’t changed much from before.

He remembered absorbing a B-rank core here for the first time, but there wasn’t a core sitting on the table this time either.

Though there was a small, unfamiliar device on it.

“By the way, your visits have become a bit infrequent lately. Of course, I know it couldn’t be helped because of your suspension…”

“No, I’ve already arranged to have the core fragments I’ve collected moved here. They should be arriving soon. It’s quite a large amount.”

“Oh, really? Thank you.”

Choi Eun-chae beamed, genuinely delighted by Il-hyeon’s words.

She had just been running short on the core fragments needed to continue her research, so this was perfect timing.

“How’s the research coming along?”

“Right, this is the perfect time to show you.”

Nodding as if she’d just had a great idea, she immediately opened a drawer.

From inside, she took out something that looked like a small, spherical model and showed it to Il-hyeon.

It was a strange object, glowing with a blue light and giving off an alien feel.

“What is that…?”

“It’s made from core fragments. In their natural state, straight from a monster, cores are absolutely immune to physical intervention… well, impossible to affect, with one exception…”

As she mentioned the one exception, Choi Eun-chae glanced at Il-hyeon before continuing.

“But in this shattered state, they’re very easy to process, so creating different shapes like this is a piece of cake.”

Choi Eun-chae rolled her chair over and picked up the small device that was sitting on the adjacent table.

“And… this is a compact Ether charger. You can probably guess what I’m about to do, right?”

*Click.*

Choi Eun-chae opened a small port on the spherical model.

She inserted the compact device into the opening, which looked like a battery compartment, and quickly closed it.

A moment later, a white light began to flow from the charger inside.

The light spread throughout the blue sphere, and Il-hyeon could feel a familiar sensation emanating from it.

“This feels like… a core. Though the shape is different.”

“Would you try breaking this? Without using your ability.”

Choi Eun-chae handed the spherical model to Il-hyeon.

Following her instructions, Il-hyeon took the sphere in his right hand.

And without using his Predation ability, he squeezed with all his might.

*KRRRK!*

He applied an immense force, enough to easily crush thick steel rebar, let alone a diamond.

But the round model remained completely unaffected by the pressure.

“Hmph… It won’t break.”

Though his palm throbbed and he winced, Il-hyeon was inwardly impressed.

She had certainly shown him a similar result using core fragments and Ether before.

But it was clear at a glance that this was on a whole different level.

This time, it wasn’t connected to all sorts of complex equipment like before, and consequently, it didn’t need to be fixed in one place; it could be moved freely.

Furthermore, back then, the object had been so unstable that it shattered on its own shortly after being supplied with Ether. But this one, even to Il-hyeon’s eyes that could see the flow of Ether, didn’t seem like that at all.

“Have you managed to miniaturize it?”

“That’s right. And we’ve succeeded in increasing its stability, too. It won’t suddenly fall apart as the core fragments separate like before.”

“That’s incredible…”

“Haha, it is, isn’t it?”

Seemingly impressed by her own achievement, she continued proudly.

“And most importantly, we discovered something completely different from what we predicted last time.”

“Something different?”

“Until now, we thought that infusing core fragments with Ether simply increased their hardness to an absurd degree. But as we continued our research, we realized it was more than just that.”

Choi Eun-chae shot up from her seat and pointed at the model in Il-hyeon’s hand.

“As long as it’s infused with Ether and remains stable, it can negate all physical intervention. Just like a monster’s core.”

At her words, Il-hyeon looked down at the sphere in his hand.

“Is that true…?”

“We brought in a few of the other team leaders to test it. It’s certain. It’s absolutely impossible to break by physical means.”

“…That’s very interesting. It could be useful in many ways, couldn’t it?”

“Well, if we can get it to a level where it can be commercialized. We’ve made a lot of progress compared to before, but there’s still a long way to go. Even with some improvements, it still consumes an enormous amount of power, and the problem is that storing that much power within the core fragments is difficult to begin with.”

Choi Eun-chae said.

As she said, it still had several inherent problems.

But it was astonishing that the research, which he thought would take at least a few years, was progressing at this speed.

Il-hyeon had practically forgotten about it, merely sending over core fragments in exchange for the research team acquiring high-end equipment for him, but now he was starting to feel expectant.

“In that case…”

Il-hyeon looked down at the sphere flowing with Ether, then squeezed his hand once more.

But this time, it wasn’t physical strength he used, but his Predation ability.

*Crack! Shatter!*

The model made of core fragments shattered, and the Ether flowing within was completely absorbed into Il-hyeon’s body.

Seeing this, Choi Eun-chae gave a hollow laugh.

“Hoo, I guess it’s useless against you, Il-hyeon, since you can even break cores.”

Il-hyeon silently stared down at the fragments that had crumbled powerlessly in his grip.

In other words, this was a material that could never be broken as long as it was sustained by Ether, and at the same time, a material that only Il-hyeon could break.

‘If this… if this produces successful results… it’ll be worth putting to good use…’

Il-hyeon’s eyes gleamed as he gazed at the fragments.

***

“Ughn…”

As the sunlight from the midday sun streamed through the window and touched his face, Lee Dong-won, who had been sleeping as if half-dead, woke up with a frown.

He sat dazedly on the edge of the bed that took up most of the space in his small home, gathering his thoughts.

“It definitely wasn’t a dream.”

Recalling yesterday’s events, Lee Dong-won sniffled.

As if to prove it wasn’t a dream, Il-hyeon’s number was saved in his phone.

Lee Dong-won slowly shifted his gaze to the mirror reflecting his disheveled appearance.

“An Awakened…”

Lee Dong-won’s brow furrowed as he remembered Il-hyeon’s words.

The SS-rank ability that had appeared during his initial ability screening.

He had said it wasn’t a testing error, but a real ability he possessed, one whose specific conditions just hadn’t been met yet.

He had been half in doubt at first, but after hearing that Il-hyeon’s own ability was the same, he’d changed his mind.

There was no reason for a high-ranking Awakened like Kang Il-hyeon, who must be incredibly busy, to suddenly visit him just to tell some trivial lie.

He had nothing to gain from him, and nothing to lose.

The current Lee Dong-won had no friends to speak of, no job, and not even any remaining family.

Nor did he have much money.

From the perspective of Il-hyeon, who likely earned an astronomical amount of money each time he went into the field, Lee Dong-won’s entire fortune was probably an amount so small he wouldn’t even bother bending over to pick it up off the street.

Above all, there were cases that made his offer to join his team believable.

The cases of Kang Hyeon-seo and Choi Seong-won.

They were clearly nobodies, not even famous Awakened, whom no one even knew existed.

But the two who were led into the spotlight by Il-hyeon were not just high-ranking Awakened; they were A-rank Awakened.

There was no official announcement, but widespread rumors said they also possessed very high-grade abilities.

The reason why such powerhouse Awakened could suddenly appear as if they’d fallen from the sky.

And the reason why it was Il-hyeon, of all people, who discovered them.

It was all enough to make him think that Il-hyeon had sought out Awakened like himself, those who had experienced testing errors, and helped them manifest their abilities.

Just as he had now come for Lee Dong-won, who had a testing error of his own.

‘So I’m the third… no, he said he has a colleague named Seo Jeong-hwa, so I must be the fourth case.’

Of course, Il-hyeon had simply summoned them with his ability, without any complex process like talent scouting.

But for Lee Dong-won, who believed what was widely known to the world—something completely different from the truth—it actually lent considerable credibility to his offer.

However, the thought of Il-hyeon’s offer made his chest tighten, and Lee Dong-won shot up and opened the refrigerator door.

“Kuh…”

He downed a cup of cold water and wiped his mouth.

Joining an Awakened team to hunt monsters.

In truth, this wasn’t the first time he’d received this kind of offer.

He had vaguely brushed it off when Il-hyeon asked, but Awakened corporations, intrigued by the man who could even beat down a C-rank Awakened, had indeed made several offers.

Excluding miscellaneous aspects like his detoxification ability or ability resistance, which were similar to a normal person’s, his physical prowess alone was nearly on par with a high-ranking Awakened, so it was no wonder they coveted him.

But Lee Dong-won had no choice but to refuse those offers.

The reason was very simple.

“Cowardly bastard…”

He was afraid of monsters.

Lee Dong-won, who seemed to eagerly jump into any fight without fear, was actually terrified of the monsters that emerged from Gates.

It was true that he genuinely enjoyed fighting strong opponents.

But that was only when his opponents were human.

The world’s first Gate, which had opened in Seoul, heralding the beginning of humanity’s disaster.

A full 20 years ago, Lee Dong-won had been there.

A student at the time, he was caught up in the Gate incident and lost his entire family. The large scar on the back of his neck was also left by a monster from that day.

The unforgettable incident had left him with a severe trauma.

“Dammit.”

Lee Dong-won let out a deep sigh.

Just thinking about what happened 20 years ago made his arms tremble.

But if what Il-hyeon said was true.

If he really possessed an SS-rank ability and had the power to change this precarious world, even just a little, then he couldn’t just sit back and watch anymore.

“Guess I’ll have to go somewhere for a trial run. Sheesh.”