Chapter 76 – A Second Family (Part One)

It was a late evening at the cafe, neither too crowded nor too empty.

A man who had briefly gone to the restroom returned in a flurry, speaking to his friends at the table.

“Hey, hey, hey! Did you guys hear?”

“Hear what?”

“They’re saying Heo Yu-ra died yesterday. It’s crazy! They just announced it!”

“…What? Didn’t she just join Aegis a little while ago?”

The man’s loud voice caught the attention of those nearby, and murmurs of surprise rippled through the cafe at the unexpected news.

“What, is that for real?”

“No way. Yesterday was supposed to be her first mission.”

“Right?”

At first, most people were skeptical of the sudden news.

Almost everyone was aware of Heo Yu-ra’s highly publicized transfer just a few days prior.

But as countless articles related to the incident began flooding the internet, the atmosphere quickly turned clamorous.

“Wow, it’s true. They said she was killed by a mutant A-rank monster that appeared out of nowhere.”

“Whoa, seriously.”

“She was so cool…”

“I guess Gates are getting really dangerous these days.”

Even within the small cafe, a variety of reactions erupted from every corner. The internet, where the news was spreading like wildfire, was even more chaotic.

She instantly shot to the top of the real-time search rankings, and reactions of shock poured in.

The Awakened-related communities, which were always keenly interested in such matters, were in an uproar.

-……? Is this for real?

-Rest in peace.

-She donated to disaster relief last year, and I heard she was always so friendly and polite… This is such a shame.

-Sigh, I’ve been a fan for 8 years. Why has it been like this lately? T_T

-Told you she was all hype. Making a big fuss about joining Aegis, only to die on the first day.

-You psycho, you’re gonna get sued for that.

Heo Yu-ra’s public image had been quite positive, so the majority of reactions were ones of sadness and sympathy.

Of course, amidst the sorrow, many were curious how such a tragedy could have occurred on her very first day.

-She was skilled and seemed destined for success, but then this suddenly happens… Did she make a mistake out of excitement?

-She’s not some rookie with only a year or two of experience, so that’s not it. It seems like she was ambushed by a mutant that didn’t even show up on analysis while she was separated from the team.

-It hasn’t even been that long since the top prospect Lee Tae-hee died. Isn’t Aegis not what it used to be? At this rate, they’re going to be completely overshadowed by the government’s Response Team.

-Are you a blockhead? Lee Tae-hee’s situation was unavoidable, and your twins died without even catching a single monster. In the end, it was Kang Il-hyeon who saved a hundred thousand people during the Christmas Nightmare.

-Aegis and government fanboys are at it again. Don’t you ever get tired? Take it somewhere else.

“Dammit, those bastards started it first, what is this nonsense!” a man muttered, grinding his teeth as he stared at the comment section on his phone.

He was an ardent fan of the Aegis Awakened and couldn’t stand the taunts from the malicious fans who fawned over the government teams.

He had been excited when Heo Yu-ra joined as a new member, expecting great things from her, but now he was in a foul mood after this incident on her first day.

His friend, who was sitting at the same table looking at a laptop, was unaware of his inner turmoil and shot him a pathetic look.

“What are you mumbling about… Stop messing around and let’s finish this assignment.”

“How can I focus on an assignment right now?! Dammit, I guess Kang Il-hyeon is the only one we can count on.”

Lately, the Response Team fanboys had grown incredibly arrogant, all thanks to Seol Ah-yeong, the Team 1 Leader from the government.

She possessed an S-rank ability and, despite her young age, held a top position among A-rank Awakened.

Of course, Aegis had its own team leaders, each with formidable skills, but the Response Team’s leaders were not to be underestimated. Their fans were excitedly proclaiming that Seol Ah-yeong was the top Awakened on the verge of reaching S-rank.

But to counter her, Aegis fans had Il-hyeon, who was rising like a meteor.

His brilliant track record and explosive growth, shattering all sorts of records for speed, were unparalleled. He carried the collective expectation that he could surpass Seol Ah-yeong.

But Il-hyeon, who was in the same cafe, flinched when he suddenly heard his name being called from the table behind him.

*‘That startled me.’*

Il-hyeon let out a deep sigh.

After a quick glance back to assess the situation, it didn’t seem like they had recognized him.

He had a hat pulled down low and was even wearing sunglasses, so he wasn’t easily recognizable, but there were too many people with sharp eyes to ever let his guard down.

“Hmm…”

Listening to the chatter about Heo Yu-ra all around him, Il-hyeon felt a complex mix of emotions and sipped the last of his coffee.

The tragic end to that day’s events had been a considerable shock to him as well.

The monsters that attacked the nearby islands were dealt with swiftly, and those crossing the sea were eliminated before they reached the mainland, preventing further casualties. But many had already been injured or killed.

Moreover, Heo Yu-ra had died instantly, her lungs and heart pierced through. And the one who saw that blood was Hyeon-seo.

*‘I couldn’t believe it at first.’*

Without any hesitation or emotion, she had killed a person, not a monster.

Although Heo Yu-ra had clearly been in the wrong, it was hard to imagine such an act coming from the Hyeon-seo he knew.

But thinking back now, even when she had used her Spatial Leap ability to teleport to him, her expression had been rigid, and she had exuded a chilly aura.

She seemed to have been suppressing her emotions to avoid showing them in front of him, but he had vaguely sensed that something was different about her.

It was only now that he was beginning to understand what that feeling had been.

And Lee Soo-yeon, one of the people who had witnessed it firsthand, had spoken with him privately.

*‘She could be dangerous.’*

Il-hyeon tapped his fingers on the table, recalling his conversation with Lee Soo-yeon.

What if, just maybe.

What if one day, Hyeon-seo’s sword turned not toward a monster, but a person?

That would be a truly terrible thing.

At first, he had dismissed the idea as absurd, but Hyeon-seo’s 180-degree change, as if she had become a different person, was definitely unsettling.

Combined with the alien behavior she had shown that day, and the fact that she had emerged from the core of the calamitous monster Nightmare, an unsettling worry was inevitable.

She even had the same ability as Nightmare, and her actions—toying with her prey before slowly snuffing out its life—were eerily similar to the beast’s.

Of course, after the fight with Heo Yu-ra, Hyeon-seo had quickly returned to her usual self, so Il-hyeon didn’t dwell on such thoughts or worries.

Hyeon-seo, along with his other summons, now felt exceptionally close, more than just a part of a household.

Besides, a core was merely an energy source; it had no connection to a monster’s consciousness or thoughts.

Even the electricity for the bus passing by the window or the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling was powered by ether extracted from monster cores.

Lee Soo-yeon was aware of this fact as well.

She simply believed a certain degree of caution was necessary.

Creating a person with free will, an A-rank Awakened at that, carried a completely different weight than anything before. It was only natural to feel a sense of foreboding at her sudden change.

It was like how, in the past, before the Awakened appeared, many people had a vague fear of a rebellion by highly advanced artificial intelligence.

In any case, thanks to that, Lee Soo-yeon had spoken to the company, and the plan to procure A-rank mutant monster cores from all over the world was scrapped.

It wasn’t that summoning a person with his ability was forbidden, but it was decided that he would proceed only with cores he obtained directly from the field, including the one from this incident.

*‘Things have gotten complicated in so many ways…’*

His mind a mess, Il-hyeon habitually traced the untouched sugar packets on the table and sighed.

As Lee Soo-yeon had wished, the A-rank core obtained from the two team leaders’ subjugation of the mutant had come into his possession.

But contrary to his initial expectations, he couldn’t use the core the way he wanted.

*‘Why? What’s the problem?’*

He had thought that any core from an A-rank or higher mutant monster could be used to summon a person, just like with Hyeon-seo.

But no matter how long he held the core, there was no reaction, no discernible feeling.

He had tried again a few hours later, and even this morning, just in case, but nothing had changed.

Il-hyeon was quite flustered by the unexpected situation and came up with a few possible reasons.

First, the theory that the core’s level was slightly insufficient to form a human.

Even though this monster was an A-rank mutant like the last one, it had no special abilities and was relatively weak compared to Nightmare.

If a certain high standard within the A-rank was required, that would make sense.

Or, he could consider the possibility that the conditions he had assumed were wrong.

If the requirement wasn’t that the monster had to be above A-rank, but something else entirely, or if there were additional conditions to be met, he would have to find them.

If that wasn’t the reason either, then Hyeon-seo’s creation might have been a fluke, a one-time event that happened by chance.

He hoped this wasn’t the case, but he had to consider all possibilities.

For now, with only one successful case, there were too few examples to know for sure.

If this incident hadn’t happened, he could have obtained more A-rank mutant cores. The thought made him feel the loss even more keenly.

*‘But… why did I come here again?’*

Il-hyeon stared at his empty coffee cup and the vacant seat across from him, thinking hard.

He wasn’t the type to sit alone in a cafe with nothing to do, so he must have had some business here, but he couldn’t quite remember.

This had happened once before.

He hadn’t been drinking and was perfectly sober, but it was like a film had been cut—he couldn’t remember.

It should have felt strange, but for some reason, Il-hyeon didn’t think much of it.

*Scrape!*

Without another thought, Il-hyeon pushed his chair back and stood up, then headed out of the shop.

He got into a mid-to-low-priced sedan parked in the lot behind the building.

Il-hyeon, who had once lived a walker’s life because the insurance, gas, and other maintenance costs were too burdensome for a young professional, had always been interested in cars. After becoming an Awakened, he had collected several of the models he could only drool over, as if to make up for lost time.

This time, however, he had brought out a car that wouldn’t attract much attention.

“She’s probably getting hungry. I should buy something on the way back.”

Sitting down, Il-hyeon checked his watch and pressed the accelerator, muttering to himself.

He was talking about Hyeon-seo.

She was perpetually hungry, but her food intake had decreased significantly, so it wasn’t as burdensome as before.

She could still eat a lot if she wanted to, but she seemed to be controlling her portions.

She had required a lot of looking after in various ways, so this was a good change.

“Today… chicken. Yes, chicken it is.”

Nodding, Il-hyeon smoothly turned the steering wheel.