Chapter 82 – Making a Move (Part One)

“Ughhh!”

Il-hyeon stretched his stiff body as he got up.

The sun, high in the sky, shone in his eyes. After a long-awaited rest, his body felt refreshed.

Absorbing a core of nearly A-rank level had put a considerable strain on his body, but after taking the entire day off yesterday, he felt fine.

He wondered if it was okay to be resting at a time like this, but he had ultimately received a one-month suspension and couldn’t go to Gate sites for the time being.

Normally, the international organization would have raised a fuss, claiming a month was too short for ignoring their orders, but due to the recent surge of Gates, they let it slide.

Il-hyeon’s sudden suspension drew a lot of attention, and the international organization fabricated the situation to make it seem like he was at fault, having the global media report it as such.

The story was that he had trespassed into a region occupied by terrorists, where Gate intervention was forbidden.

However, public opinion didn’t turn against him, thanks to the fact that he had braved the danger to save lives and his actions during last year’s Christmas Nightmare incident. The reaction was actually quite favorable.

In truth, it was impossible for Il-hyeon’s image to be tarnished by something so minor, as he had consistently donated billions to Gate-damaged areas whenever he had the chance.

In the specific region where the Gate had appeared, they treated Il-hyeon like a hero, holding him in high esteem.

It felt a bit like both sides were using him as a tool to spread animosity towards the international organization that sanctioned them, but they still seemed genuinely grateful.

‘I wonder if Seong-won is doing okay?’

Il-hyeon thought as he dried his face with a towel after washing up.

Today was two days after Choi Seong-won’s ‘birth’ and also the day of his debut, his first time heading to a Gate site with Aegis.

Since Il-hyeon himself couldn’t be there, he was curious and a little worried, but seeing the abilities Seong-won had awakened yesterday, he trusted he would do just fine.

With all the summons out on site as well, Il-hyeon plopped down on the sofa in the empty living room and instinctively grabbed his phone.

‘Choi Seong-won is the number one search term… Was it always this easy to trend?’

He was no longer impressed, even when Choi Seong-won proudly held the top spot on the portal site’s search rankings.

The internet was buzzing with talk about Aegis’s new member, Choi Seong-won.

Following the recent surprise recruitment of Hyeon-seo, the addition of another unknown member had the whole world in an uproar.

Especially after Hyeon-seo, whom no one had expected much from, was revealed to be incredibly skilled and the possessor of three rare abilities, this new recruitment drew even more attention than before.

But since no solid information had been released, it was all filled with flimsy, speculative stories.

However, they had firmly latched onto one thing: his connection to Il-hyeon.

‘The newly risen Kang Il-hyeon is building his own faction within Aegis with talent he personally recruited… What is this nonsense?’

Il-hyeon let out a dry laugh at the article, which read like a piece of fiction, and flopped onto the sofa.

Hyeon-seo and Seong-won, both summoned from cores, were officially announced as having been recruited by Il-hyeon.

Hyeon-seo’s unexpected abilities were proven as the high-rank Gates and monsters she handled became known one after another. Il-hyeon’s eye for talent and his ability to scout, not just a promising rookie but a top-tier Awakened, were praised to no end.

Furthermore, it was revealed that shortly after her debut, before she became widely recognized, Hyeon-seo had appeared on an internet broadcast.

Famous Awakened on par with Aegis members often avoided showing their faces in the media depending on their disposition, so when a pre-debut video suddenly surfaced, many people looked it up.

The video captured her candid self before she became a famous Awakened. Her immense appetite, which seemed completely out of place, and her quirky, non-arrogant demeanor earned her many fans.

Most importantly, her looks could rival any celebrity who lived by their face, and she was strong enough to be a member of Aegis. But with her unique charm added to the mix, the effect was multiplied.

Recently, she had even received a commercial offer so lucrative it would have surprised Il-hyeon.

Seeing as she didn’t refuse the offer and said she’d think about it, it seemed she wasn’t entirely uninterested in that sort of thing.

They had more than enough money, so they didn’t need more, but there was no reason to stop her if she wanted to do it.

‘But… is it really okay for me to be lounging around like this…?’

Il-hyeon tossed his phone aside and let out a sigh.

After being so busy for so long, he couldn’t get used to suddenly having nothing to do.

On top of that, he felt a sense of frustration, knowing that people were getting hurt because of Gates even at this very moment, while he was just sitting on his hands.

‘This isn’t good…’

Il-hyeon touched his forehead.

Wanting to save people was one of his key motivations for being an Awakened, but sometimes it felt a bit excessive.

As he was now, he couldn’t save everyone in the world, so there was no need to feel overly obsessive about it.

Il-hyeon shot up, went into his room, and pulled some suitable clothes from his closet.

He figured he’d go see a friend he hadn’t been able to meet because he’d been so busy, running out to all sorts of sites or cooped up at home training his abilities.

Partly to get some fresh air and clear his head from the frustration.

***

A Gate, shimmering with blue light.

Rain was drizzling from the dusky sky, and in front of it, five Awakened stood waiting under umbrellas.

On a wet bench nearby, the small summons were huddled together, sitting on a handkerchief.

“Yaaawn.”

Ghost let out a long yawn and leaned his back against a wall.

He stared blankly at the rainy weather before speaking.

“Wanna go get some pajeon after this?”

“Ooh, yes please.”

With lunchtime approaching, Hyeon-seo clapped her hands in delight at his suggestion.

But Lee Soo-yeon cut in.

“No, we don’t have time for that.”

“Aw, come on. We have a forty to fifty-minute break. We can pop over to Korea and back.”

“Sorry, but I’d rather not rush through lunch.”

Lee Soo-yeon said with a shrug, and Hyeon-seo, who had been excited at the mention of food, deflated again.

Seeing this, Ghost burst out laughing.

“Come to think of it, Seong-won doesn’t eat a ridiculous amount like this one.”

“What do you mean, ridiculous?”

“Well, honestly, I was a little surprised back then too.”

“It was impressive.”

As Lee Soo-yeon and Seok Pil-joon chimed in, Hyeon-seo, who had been about to deny it, blushed in embarrassment.

At their first meal together, everyone had doubted their own eyes watching Hyeon-seo single-handedly clean out an entire large restaurant.

Seong-won’s appetite, on the other hand, was even smaller than the others’.

It was completely different from their expectation that he would devour a huge amount like Hyeon-seo.

“Everyone’s different.”

“People… haha, right.”

Hyeon-seo and Seong-won.

Both were beings born from Il-hyeon’s ability.

But their appearances, personalities, combat abilities, and overall capabilities were all different.

In hindsight, it was a mistake to assume they would be similar in the first place.

Kigigik!

With a bizarre, ear-piercing sound, the blue fissure throbbed.

At that signal, the five Awakened quickly tossed their umbrellas and moved.

The summons, now grown to their original size, followed them as they moved to their designated positions.

Not long after they had surrounded the writhing fissure, the Gate opened and monsters poured out in all directions.

A battle began as the team members clashed with the humanoid monsters wielding weapons, and the loud clang of metal on metal echoed around them.

The summons also went on a rampage, and the team members’ swords sliced through the monsters.

Monsters were cut down as soon as they emerged from the Gate, and the battle proceeded with the team in a position of overwhelming advantage.

But the enemy’s counterattacks were fierce, and a monster’s sharp spear thrust toward an opening.

Thwump!

Seong-won, who was fighting a monster with his sword, was suddenly pierced through the side.

He spat out red blood and gripped the spear that had run through his abdomen.

A wound so deep it would be life-threatening even for an Awakened.

But the other team members and summons didn’t even look back at him, focused on their own fights.

It wasn’t because they didn’t care for their comrade.

They simply knew that Seong-won had intentionally let the monster’s attack hit him.

Sssss!

The wound where the spear had pierced him began to regenerate rapidly.

He snapped the spear with his bare hands, pulled the monster’s arm toward him, and smoothly pushed his sword into its heart.

Seong-won’s abdomen, which had been struck, was restored to normal. The monster that had stabbed him stared blankly at his face as if unable to comprehend the situation, and then died.

Seong-won pulled his sword from the collapsed monster’s corpse and reached out for another sword aiming for him.

Kwak! The monster’s bizarre, jagged sword pierced his hand, but once again, Seong-won paid it no mind and immediately reached with his other hand to snap the monster’s neck, ending its life.

As Seong-won pulled out the sword firmly embedded in his hand, the wound healed completely in less than a second.

“Hah, no matter how you look at it, that’s a tough way to fight.”

Ghost, who had avoided the attacks coming from all sides by turning intangible, floated up and muttered, stroking his chin.

After a moment of admiration, he deactivated his ability and sliced the necks of the surrounding monsters in one go.

There were quite a few Awakened with regeneration abilities. It was a useful power that not only healed minor wounds much faster but also allowed one to withstand major, life-threatening injuries to some extent.

But the new member, Choi Seong-won, was on a different level.

His ability was even labeled differently on the scanner: Super Regeneration.

Unlike ordinary regeneration, all his wounds healed in an instant.

Whether his limbs were blown off, his stomach was pierced, or even if his heart was impaled, he would regenerate without it even hindering his fighting.

Yesterday, when they didn’t know this, everyone had rushed over in shock when Seong-won was hit by a monster’s attack and started bleeding profusely.

For some reason, he had turned off his coat’s defensive function, so the beast’s attack pierced his body directly without any protection. He had looked to be in real danger at that moment.

That is, until they saw him take the hit and then calmly slice the monster’s neck.

That was when they realized he possessed an ability that made him more monstrous than the monsters themselves.

‘Even a mediocre Awakened would be incredibly difficult to deal with if they had an ability like that.’

Choi Seong-won, his Awakened rank was A, just like Hyeon-seo.

His base combat abilities, which were based on his physical prowess, were already at that level. Possessing such an ability on top of that made him no different from a monster.

‘If I had to face him as an enemy, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.’

Ghost, who had been lost in thought for a moment, let out a small laugh.

Then he threw himself back into the battle, becoming fully immersed.