Chapter 81 – A Second Family (Part Six)

“A variant…?”

A startled Il-hyeon stammered.

The strange sensation from the core in his hand was the same as when Hyeon-seo had appeared.

“No wonder it was so tough. The amount of Ether it absorbed was almost at an A-rank level.”

He had wondered why the Gate was only rated A5 when it was teeming with such difficult monsters, but it made sense if the one he’d just defeated was a variant.

The mutated, crimson giant wouldn’t have been detected in the Gate’s rank analysis, meaning the other B-rank monsters alone must have emitted the A5-rank wavelength.

He wondered if mutant monsters were always this common, but given the circumstances, it wasn’t a bad thing.

“Hoo…”

Il-hyeon grew quite excited at the unexpected harvest, and the core in his hand vibrated in response.

When he carefully infused his remaining power into it, a brilliant light erupted, just like before.

“Ugh.”

Il-hyeon placed the core on the ground and stepped back.

The light was almost too bright to bear, but having experienced it once before, he didn’t panic and simply closed his eyes.

Various images of what might emerge this time flashed through his mind.

A man, a woman, an old person, a child?

Would it be humanoid again?

What kind of abilities would it possess?

When the light subsided and he opened his eyes, he came face to face with the result.

“Cough, cough!”

A man let out a harsh cough.

He had jet-black hair and eyes, and the sharp, handsome features of a movie star.

Above all, his superior proportions and long limbs stood out.

But Il-hyeon’s expression soured completely.

It wasn’t for a foolish reason like being jealous of his looks.

“First… let’s get you some clothes.”

The man who had appeared with the light was completely naked.

Fortunately, there was no one around because of the monsters. Il-hyeon made a mental note not to use cores outdoors in the future as he quickly dragged the man into a half-demolished shopping center.

After a difficult search, he found a clothing store and picked out some clothes with the least amount of dust and dirt on them for the man to wear.

“Hah, hah.”

“Are you okay?”

Seemingly too weak to answer, the man nodded, his breathing ragged as if he’d been struggling for air for some time.

It was similar to when Hyeon-seo had appeared.

She, too, had taken some time to come to her senses after being summoned from a core.

Of course, she had been completely unconscious at first, but she woke up quickly and struggled for about an hour.

It seemed to be some sort of initiation ritual for adapting to a new world.

He looked a bit pitiful, sitting there listlessly as if suffering from severe motion sickness.

“Stay by his side and watch him.”

Il-hyeon turned his head and spoke to the fox. The creature, swishing its nine tails, scurried down from his shoulder and stood beside the man.

Il-hyeon left the building and approached the corpses of the fallen monsters.

He then retrieved the cores, pulling them one by one from the bodies of the four giants.

In a normal situation, it wouldn’t have mattered if he left them, but this was a site he had jumped into without authorization.

There was no backup team to control access to the area, nor a cleanup crew to collect the monster corpses and cores.

If he just left them, there was a high chance they would be stolen by unwelcome visitors who heard the monsters were dead.

That was why, knowing each core held immense power, he had made sure to collect them after taking down each giant.

*Crack!*

A sense of satisfaction washed over him as he absorbed the four cores, each containing a substantial amount of Ether.

He had gained a considerable amount of Ether from these cores, made an unexpected acquisition, and Valkyrie’s debut had been a success.

Most importantly, he had successfully concluded the operation without any further damage.

As Il-hyeon wiped the sweat from his brow with a relieved expression, an Aegis transport aircraft descended from the sky.

“I did the right thing… right?”

* * *

“I never had to write an incident report at my old company, but here I am.”

Il-hyeon sighed deeply as he left the room.

No one had harshly reprimanded or blamed him, and it was more of a report explaining what had happened than a true letter of apology, but it was still an unpleasant task.

After submitting it, he went from the upper floors of the Aegis headquarters back down to the basement.

In the examination waiting room, the man was sitting and stroking the tail of the red fox resting on his lap.

“Feeling any better?”

“Ah, yes. I’m fine now.”

The man replied to Il-hyeon’s question.

After about an hour, he had been able to talk and walk around, but now he seemed to have fully recovered. He was also properly dressed.

Based on their few conversations, his first impression was that he was a bit more reserved than Hyeon-seo.

“I have a general understanding of the situation now. Thank you.”

The man smiled, expressing his gratitude to Il-hyeon for bringing him into existence.

Information about this world seemed to have settled in his mind, and he appeared to have a firm grasp of the situation.

“Don’t mention it. What about the test results?”

“Ah, here they are.”

The man picked up a paper from the table and handed it to Il-hyeon.

Il-hyeon took the results sheet and scanned the contents, but there was nothing to see.

His readings were no different from a normal person’s, with an overall rank of F. He had no special powers.

Il-hyeon let out a small laugh at the disastrous results for an Awakened.

It wasn’t because he was disappointed by the low rank.

He had already sensed the faint energy circulating in the man’s body before the test, so he had fully expected this outcome.

In Hyeon-seo’s case, she had also been like a normal person at first, with her powers only manifesting after some time had passed, so there was no cause for concern.

“Will I really develop powers over time?”

“Of course. It was the same way before. They’ll probably appear by tomorrow.”

The man, seemingly anxious about having no abilities, asked, and Il-hyeon told him not to worry.

Perhaps his senses had improved, but he could feel a subtle difference in the man that set him apart from a powerless civilian.

Just then, the space in front of them suddenly distorted.

A crack appeared in the shimmering air, and something tore through it.

“Heave-ho!”

“What? What about the site? Why are you here?”

Hyeon-seo appeared with a flutter of her Defensive Coat.

Startled by her unexpected arrival, Il-hyeon asked.

“I finished all my assignments for today. I heard we got a new member, and I couldn’t wait to meet him, so I came ahead.”

Hyeon-seo looked around, then grinned at Il-hyeon.

“Already? I thought you still had a few left.”

“The schedule changed. Pil-joon is on his way, too.”

“Is that so?”

As Il-hyeon nodded, Hyeon-seo turned to look at the man standing beside him.

The man was staring at her with some curiosity, having just watched her appear out of thin air.

Beaming, Hyeon-seo approached him warmly.

“Hi! I’m Kang Hyeon-seo. I’m so happy to have a new family member.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you…”

“Wait a minute. I’m your older sister. It’s polite to use formal language when there’s an age gap.”

“How can there be an older sister and younger brother when we were both born this year? We’re just friends.”

“Is… is that so?”

When she thought about it, there was no way there could be an age difference between them.

Hyeon-seo had tried to establish a clear hierarchy, but his defense had persuaded her otherwise.

Watching them chatter away while holding hands, Il-hyeon felt like he was watching children playing house.

They looked like a gathering of actors but were playing around cutely.

“Hmm. Anyway, what’s your name?”

“A name? I don’t really have one.”

He slowly turned his head to look at Il-hyeon.

It seemed he was asking Il-hyeon to name him.

“Ah… Right, I have to give you a name.”

Having not yet chosen a name for him, Il-hyeon was once again lost in thought.

He couldn’t just pick one at random, and since he hated tasks like this, it became a headache.

He couldn’t give him the same last name as his, like he did with Hyeon-seo, because that would look strange to others.

Il-hyeon pondered deeply, feeling like a parent trying to name their child.

“Kim… no, Choi. How about Choi Seong-won?”

When Il-hyeon, after some thought, came up with the name, the man nodded in satisfaction.

Just like Hyeon-seo, he agreed at once, making Il-hyeon wonder if he genuinely liked the name or was just nodding along because it was the one he’d chosen.

In any case, Seong-won’s name was decided, and at that moment, he had gained his second ‘human’ family member.

“Congratulations! Let’s give you a birthday punch to celebrate.”

“Aargh!”

Hyeon-seo, who had been clapping, playfully smacked Seong-won’s arm.

But unexpectedly, a scream erupted from Seong-won’s lips.

His face contorted in pain as he clutched his arm, and both Hyeon-seo and Il-hyeon rushed over in surprise.

To the newly born Seong-won, a punch from Hyeon-seo, an A-rank Awakened, was like being struck by a heavy blunt weapon.

“A-Are you okay?”

Overcome with guilt, Hyeon-seo knelt and examined his arm.

Fortunately, the bone didn’t seem to be broken, but the impact had been so great that a dark bruise was already forming.

After a moment of being unable to move, Seong-won brushed it off, saying he was fine, and Il-hyeon’s worry subsided.

“You can’t go around making mistakes with your strength, you hear?”

“Yes… I mean, I didn’t realize he’d be so fragile.”

“You also took time to awaken your powers at first.”

Il-hyeon gave her a light scolding, and Hyeon-seo, who hadn’t considered that, timidly nodded.

Il-hyeon told the two to wait and headed out to look for some ointment for the bruise.

He got on the elevator to go to the infirmary on the ground floor.

Stepping out of the elevator, Il-hyeon came across a familiar face in the hallway.

It was Lee Soo-yeon, wearing a blood-stained coat as if she had just returned.

“Ah, you’re back.”

“Looks like you wrapped things up well on your own. You’re not hurt, are you?”

“No, I’m fine, thanks to you. But you finished earlier than scheduled.”

“Well, our team was suddenly down one person. Team D will cover the rest. But it means we’ll have a bit more work tomorrow.”

“Ah…”

Nodding, Il-hyeon suddenly started to worry about the fallout from his actions and carefully asked her.

“So… what’s going to happen now?”

“Haha, worried now, are you? You probably can’t avoid a fine, and from what I hear, they’re likely to issue a suspension for a month or two. They can’t make it any longer in times like these. Just think of it as a long-overdue vacation.”

Lee Soo-yeon spoke lightly, despite the potentially serious subject.

“I’m sorry. It’s because of me.”

“Sorry? For what?”

“…Pardon?”

“Do you regret the choice you made?”

Lee Soo-yeon asked, looking at him intently.

He didn’t know what she meant by that, but he took a moment to think about her question.

Being away from the field for months, not just a fortnight, would dull his combat senses, and he would miss out on a significant number of cores.

And he would be burdening his teammates during a busy period.

But he had no regrets.

There was something more important to him than anything else.

“…Not at all.”

“Then that’s all that matters.”

Lee Soo-yeon chuckled, patted him on the shoulder, and walked away.