Chapter 83 – Making a Move (Part Two)

“Ah, when’s this guy gonna get here? Don’t tell me he got the car model mixed up and brought the wrong one.”

Kim Byeong-cheol, who had arrived early at the meeting spot, looked around with a heart full of excitement.

As he waited anxiously, glancing at his watch from time to time, the people around him began to murmur, their eyes fixed on something approaching.

A sleek white sports car with smooth, flowing curves was speeding down the road.

Its stunningly sharp, futuristic design captured the attention of even those who knew nothing about cars.

The sports car that had captivated everyone’s gaze soon pulled over to the curb in front of him, and a moment later, the passenger door opened.

Peeking inside just in case, Kim Byeong-cheol saw Il-hyeon.

“What are you doing? Get in.”

“Oh my god! Oh my god!”

His pupils darting around, Kim Byeong-cheol stomped his feet before quickly hopping inside.

The door closed automatically, and the car took off with a heavy exhaust note.

“Whoa… this is insane! I can’t believe I’m in a Laporte! The 50th-anniversary, nine-unit limited edition flagship model from NF Motors! A beast with a sticker price of 8.8 billion won, equipped with an 8th-generation Ether engine! And it even has the Edax all-wheel-drive system!”

“What are you muttering about to yourself?”

Il-hyeon glanced at the overly excited Kim Byeong-cheol.

He was rattling off details that Il-hyeon, the owner, didn’t even know.

Unlike his friend, who was a car encyclopedia, Il-hyeon had bought it simply because it looked incredibly cool. He had only driven it today because Kim Byeong-cheol had specifically asked him to bring this model.

“To think the guy who was always broke and mooching meals off me would be driving a car like this. I never dreamed one of my friends would become so successful.”

“Haha, I guess so.”

Il-hyeon gave an awkward laugh at his friend’s enthusiastic fuss.

“Ah… by the way, I heard the news. Are you doing okay?”

Kim Byeong-cheol asked cautiously in a subdued voice, as if he had just remembered to be serious.

He seemed to be asking about the recent disciplinary action.

“It’s no big deal. It’s not as serious as the media is making it out to be.”

“Really? That’s a relief. You did the right thing. What’s the point if all those innocent people in the area die because of terrorists?”

Kim Byeong-cheol, who had been worried about him since the incident, was relieved by Il-hyeon’s nonchalant attitude.

Besides the disciplinary action, there were also the malicious comments that were the fate of any well-known celebrity, which popped up from time to time.

Especially given the nature of the Awakened fan culture, where fandoms were divided and fought like mortal enemies, much like in sports, many fans from other factions attacked Il-hyeon, who had risen as Aegis’s joker card.

Then again, thinking back, he had always been mentally tough in that regard.

There were times Kim Byeong-cheol envied his personality—his complete disregard for the gossip whispered behind his back by fools.

“So, does this mean you really have to just stay home and do nothing for a month?”

“No, not really. They said I’ll be assigned to another job soon, one unrelated to Gates, but I have no idea what it is. Ah, but of course, don’t go telling anyone this.”

The company couldn’t afford to have someone like Il-hyeon sitting idle during such a busy time, so they told him he’d be transferred somewhere else for a different task after about a week’s rest.

Even when he asked Lee Soo-yeon what it was about, she kept her mouth shut, saying he’d find out on the day.

Wasn’t Aegis a company that handled Gates?

He couldn’t fathom what they were thinking, unless they planned to suddenly have him start crunching numbers on an abacus.

“Okay, okay. It’s a shame Se-hyeong is on duty, though.”

“Well, he’s probably swamped with work these days too.”

When this group got together, it was almost always the three of them, but this time, Kwon Se-hyeong wasn’t there.

Since Kwon Se-hyeong’s job with the Special Police was to control the areas around Gates, there was no way he could meet on a weekday afternoon like this.

“Oh, right! My nephew was begging me to get your autograph. Any chance you could sign one for him?”

“You mean that little kid I saw once last year? Last time, he was so absorbed in his phone game he didn’t even say hello. What’s with the sudden change?”

“You’ve been huge since last Christmas. It’s insane these days.”

*Screech!*

In the middle of their conversation, an SUV suddenly cut in from the next lane to make a left turn, forcing Il-hyeon to slam on the brakes.

The car decelerated instantly, and Il-hyeon shot out his right arm to steady Kim Byeong-cheol as his body lurched forward.

The way the other vehicle recklessly pushed in without checking its surroundings, a normal person would have undoubtedly gotten into an accident; only Il-hyeon, with his top-tier reaction speed even among the Awakened, could have avoided it.

“Whoa, are they crazy? What kind of driving is that! Hey, just ram into them! Who do they think they are, messing with a Laporte? They must not know how much the repairs would cost.”

“Stop talking nonsense… Huh? Wait a second.”

Il-hyeon leaned forward, watching the reckless vehicle intently.

He sensed a suspicious movement—no, an aura.

*’Ether…?’*

He could clearly feel an unusual flow of Ether from around the car’s trunk.

He could distinguish between the diluted Ether used as fuel and energy in daily life and the unprocessed Ether from a core even in his sleep.

But what he felt from the trunk wasn’t diluted Ether; it was the aura of pure Ether.

To be precise, it wasn’t even the kind contained in a core, but something slightly different, an alien sensation.

“What the…”

A bad feeling prompted Il-hyeon to quickly scan his surroundings.

They were in the heart of downtown Seoul, a place teeming with people, surrounded by high-rise buildings and a large subway station.

It was a massive, privately funded station complex connected to an overpass, a large underground shopping mall, and a department store, bustling with foot traffic.

The black mid-sized vehicle that had cut them off was now heading up into the above-ground parking garage attached to the subway station.

“What’s wrong? Why so serious all of a sudden?”

Kim Byeong-cheol asked, puzzled by Il-hyeon’s sudden grave expression.

All the while, Il-hyeon’s instincts screamed of danger, alarm bells ringing in his head.

“Son of a bitch.”

A possible explanation for the unknown energy in the trunk occurred to Il-hyeon, and he cursed as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

Then, without bothering to use his transformation ability, he gathered power in his bare hands.

A faint light burst forth from his empty palm.

The brilliant radiance quickly subsided, and where the light had faded, a blue bird had been summoned.

“Holy crap, what’s this?”

Seeing Il-hyeon’s summoning ability for the first time, Kim Byeong-cheol froze in surprise.

The bird, nearly the size of a human head, flapped its wings and then landed on Kim Byeong-cheol’s lap.

Startled, he let out a dry laugh as the bird, despite its size, looked up at him calmly.

“You can do this too? That’s awesome.”

Kim Byeong-cheol gave a thumbs-up in admiration.

He knew that Il-hyeon fought alongside mysterious creatures, as that much had been made public, but he never imagined he could summon them from thin air like a magic trick.

Moreover, as someone very interested in the world of the Awakened, Kim Byeong-cheol was well aware of the rarity and value of such an ability.

“But why’d you summon this little guy all of a sudden? He’s cute, I’ll give you that.”

“I have to step out for a bit, so keep him with you.”

Il-hyeon answered curtly and tapped the screen below the navigation system, activating the self-driving feature.

It was a feature only available on a few high-end models, as it hadn’t been commercialized yet, but its reliability was guaranteed for the price.

Il-hyeon set a destination somewhere far away and then flung the car door open.

“What? Hey, hey, what’s going on all of a sudden!”

“Just in case, don’t get out of the car. And don’t come back to this area. Something urgent came up, I’ll take care of it and be back. Just take the wheel and go for a drive or something.”

Il-hyeon quickly darted out.

The door closed automatically, and the car, with its empty driver’s seat, immediately drove off.

Heading toward the subway station in front of him, Il-hyeon ascended the stairs quickly, a sense of foreboding washing over him.

People who recognized Il-hyeon’s face murmured or tried to approach him, but he moved so fast they couldn’t even get a word in.

Reaching the third floor in one go, Il-hyeon entered the parking garage and began searching for the car he had seen earlier.

“Found it.”

Il-hyeon, who had perfectly memorized the license plate in that brief moment, located the vehicle.

But the black SUV was already empty, with not a single person inside.

Seeing the empty trunk left open, it seemed they too had left in a hurry.

Growing anxious, Il-hyeon headed for the upper-level entrance near the crowded overpass. He focused, scanning his surroundings amidst the throng of people.

Finding someone in a crowd this large based on a physical description would have been difficult, but sensing the Ether aura he had encountered before was much easier.

Il-hyeon’s gaze snapped around as he felt that unique energy from before. A man carrying a briefcase was walking at a rather hurried pace with a dark-skinned foreigner.

Il-hyeon immediately followed them as they entered the department store.

Inside, they were taking the escalator down to the first floor. Il-hyeon vaulted over the safety railing and jumped straight down after them.

*Thud!*

Naturally, Il-hyeon’s legs were fine, but the floor couldn’t withstand the impact and cracked, causing an immediate commotion.

People who thought someone had just jumped to their death looked down in shock, while those below stared at him in even greater astonishment.

Il-hyeon pushed through the murmuring crowd and headed toward the escalator where the two men were descending.

“Excuse me, just a moment.”

As the suspicious pair reached the first floor, Il-hyeon approached and called out to stop them.

But when they pretended not to hear and tried to walk on, Il-hyeon physically grabbed their shoulders to stop them.

“Hey, what is it?”

The rough-looking man retorted with an annoyed expression.

It was understandable, being stopped by someone grabbing your shoulder when you were just walking along.

But Il-hyeon didn’t miss the subtle change in his expression.

Seeing the man’s face stiffen with tension, Il-hyeon pointed to the briefcase with conviction.

“Let’s see what’s in that bag.”

“Wha… what? You crazy bastard, stop spouting nonsense and get lost.”

“We received a report. This will only take a moment.”

Il-hyeon responded calmly despite the harsh retort.

At that, the rough-looking man anxiously checked his watch.

He let out a short sigh, then turned to the foreigner standing beside him, and they exchanged a look.

Il-hyeon remained slightly on edge, observing their movements.

However, what he had momentarily feared didn’t happen. The man handed over the briefcase he was holding.

“I don’t know what this is about, but I’m in a hurry, so you’d better make it quick.”

“Of course. Thank you for your cooperation.”

He was a bit bewildered that the man had handed over the bag so readily, but if this all turned out to be a false alarm, it would be for the best.

As the surrounding crowd murmured and stared, the man who had been watching Il-hyeon’s face tilted his head.

“You look familiar.”

“I get that a lot. The combination for this lock is…”

“7456.”

When the man stated it without hesitation, Il-hyeon smiled, slowly entered the combination, and opened the briefcase.

With a click, the lid separated from the base, and Il-hyeon leaned down to get a closer look at the contents.