Chapter 19: 19

The sudden thought got the examiner shaking his head .

It was possible to fake one’s magic factor . One would just have to reduce the amount of magic that was injected . Still, it wasn’t an easy feat . Aside from just having a high magic level and factor, a high level of control was needed just to change one’s magic properties .

He could count with his fingers the number of people he knew who had that much control over magic . They were world-class awakeners .

The first man amongst all awakeners who entered the Tower of Trials and had survived until now had that level of magic control .

Moreover, what other reasons could there be for hiding his capabilities? The examiner found his thoughts to be overboard . He started clearing up the place after putting aside his interest in Su-hyeun .

Hak-joon found a black vehicle waiting for him after he exited the institution . It was an expensive foreign car, but it wasn’t that expensive for a somewhat established awakener .

Whirl—

The backseat window was drawn down . The Ares Guild leader, Jung Dong-young, who was waiting in the backseat, spoke to Hak-joon .

“All done?”

“Yes . ”

Click—

Hak-joon opened the backseat door and hopped in next to Jung Dong-young . Jung Dong-young signaled the driver to get going .

“How did it go?”

“I got a B rank . ”

“Well done . ”

It was quite a satisfying outcome . Getting a B-rank just after a year of climbing the Tower of Trials was a rare achievement . B-rank awakeners were one of the top ranks now .

“What is the A rank’s standard?”

Hak-joon’s question contained his earnestness to achieve his next rank as soon as possible . Feeling happy, Jung Dong-young laughed and replied .

“Level 6 and above, factor 55 and above . ”

“Do I have to meet both requirements?”

“Of course . The institution is also paying attention to awakeners of A-rank and above . In fact, those who are above A-rank are the driving forces of this era . ”

“You’re indirectly complimenting yourself . How great . ”

Jung Dong-young was one of the few A-rank awakeners in Korea .

Although it was almost the same as complimenting himself, his words weren’t entirely wrong . In fact, the main leaders of each existing guild were all A-ranked awakeners .

“Besides that, I heard that there was an awakener called Kim Su-hyeun in the evaluation today?”

“Yes . ”

“I heard his ranking was bad . Was it someone else with the same name?” Even if the results were out, he seemed to be quite concerned . In fact, most guilds were eager to recruit the rookie awakener Kim Su-hyeun .

“I think so . ”

“Hmm… What are the chances of him faking his magic level?”

“You know that can’t happen, right?”

It was nearly impossible, even for Jung Dong-young, to have that level of magic control . Regardless of if he were a genius, it wasn’t something that Kim Su-hyeun, who was just in his first year, could do .

Still, Jung Dong-young smacked his lips at the thought of it being fishy .

Compared to Hak-joon, Kim Su-hyeun, who had broken each floor’s records, was more talented .

Not receiving his evaluation until now would mean that the possibility of him not receiving his re-evaluation was higher .

Jung Dong-young thought that Kim Su-hyeun might just be a child from a well-off family .

Su-hyeun picked up his bag and checked his new awakener’s registration card . The letter C that was clearly printed on the card was evidence enough . This card was required before entering public dungeons .

Although he felt guilty for faking his magic level, he could not freely reveal his identity either . He hated the fact that so many people were focused on him . Furthermore, the institute’s eyes were on him, too .

It wasn’t time for him to step into the limelight yet . Hence, he chose not to undergo a confidential evaluation either . Regardless of confidentiality, as long as one had to receive an evaluation, the institute would still find out about it .

It wasn’t tough to change his magic attributes . There might have been no other awakeners in the guilds with better magic control than Su-hyeun .

No, it wasn’t only that . Even in the future, there were no other awakeners with better magic control than Su-hyeun . In terms of magic control, Su-hyeun was too remarkable for any awakener to follow .

Deceiving magic attributes? So long as it was not increasing his magic level, it was as natural as breathing to Su-hyeun .

This annoyingly sluggish computer was testing his patience . Suddenly, he felt lucky to have gotten his awakener registration card .

He just had to endure this frustration until then .

After he had logged into Abyss Online, Su-hyeun looked up “Ares Guild . ” Quite a few articles appeared in the search results . It wasn’t a huge guild, as Su-hyeun had expected, but it was on the larger side .

It wasn’t just how large Ares Guild was that got them famous .

“Guild leader Jung Dong-young . Former gang member . Fistfighter that suppressed all of Gyeonggi Province, except for Seoul . ”

Jung Dong-young had an impressive portfolio . Apparently, he lent his fists to loan sharks and even touched on human trafficking, as well as private loans and ring payments .

It was revealed that the guild was training its own awakeners, and it was gaining higher profits than before . Although they knew he was running a cleaner business than before, those who knew Jung Dong-young said that he still hadn’t cleaned his filthy hands yet .

No matter how great a gangster he was previously, Jung Dong-young could never make a name for himself amongst awakeners as a fistfighter . Besides being known as a fistfighter, he was also a great awakener . There weren’t many A-rank awakeners in this era .

“Hmm…”

In the end, the Ares Guild that Hak-joon belonged to wasn’t a good guild . Even though all awakeners in the guild weren’t corrupt, there was no way the subordinates would be competent if the higher-ups weren’t scandal-free .

There was no way of knowing now . Su-hyeun stuck out his chin and started reading the past trending articles on Abyss Online . Su-hyeun didn’t have much knowledge of issues that had happened before 2020 .

Most of the articles until now were about specific large scale guilds, celebrities’ awakenings, and politics and laws about the awakeners . He had no interest .

Compared to what would be happening not too long from now, these were just minor issues for pure entertainment . Su-hyeun briefly read through and remembered the comments circulating on Abyss Online . Amongst them…

[January 1 . We’re gathering C-rank and above awakeners for a new dungeon attack that appeared in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province . It is an orange level dungeon . For more details…]

There it was .

Su-hyeun’s eyes lit up slightly at the post .

“January 1, 2020 . ”

The part of the future that he had to change .

The beginning was right in front of him .

Act 10

Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province .

It was around a week ago when a dungeon had appeared on Yakshi Mountain, just a short distance away from City Hall . Its difficulty level, orange, was second to last on the easy side of the scale, with the easiest being red .

Lee Ju-ho, who was head of the Dungeon attack and a B-rank awakener, sat down and laid across a table in the cafe .

“Why aren’t there more people applying…”

“It’s the year-end . On top of that, the frequency of dungeons appearing recently has increased rapidly . ”

The man who sat across him, Kim Ba-reum, was Lee Ju-ho’s co-leader of the dungeon attack and also his long-time friend . They needed at least seven awakeners in a team but had only gathered six, including both of them .

“Damn it . It’s getting tougher now, too . As dungeons keep appearing, the price of Ether is getting lower and people aren’t gathering as much . ”

“What do you mean by getting tougher? Even if the prices fall, you could still make a few hundred million won out of them . ”

Kim Ba-reum waved his hand as if telling his friend to not be funny . Lee Ju-ho grinned and picked up his half-emptied Americano, knowing that his own words were silly .

“But the things that happened recently have been quite weird . Aside from the increasing number of dungeons appearing, the number of deaths is also increasing during dungeon attacks . ”

“Since when was there no awakener who overestimated themselves and died during dungeon attacks? The death count would increase as much as the numbers of amateurs increase . ”

“Is that so?”

“Are you sure you didn’t mishear that it’s actually the Tower of Trials’ death count that is increasing? If it’s so, there’s no need to worry . ”

Lee Ju-ho did not pay much attention to Kim Ba-reum’s words .

In the first place, his job as an awakener warranted high risks as well as high returns . Of course, there weren’t as many deaths from dungeon attacks up until now . Amongst awakeners’ accidental deaths, almost 99 percent had happened in the Tower of Trials .

Because of that, those awakeners who were guaranteed a certain level of safety had given up on climbing the tower .

Lee Ju-ho was a B-rank awakener . When Lee Ju-ho first started climbing the tower, he had aimed precisely for a B-rank status . Even if a B-rank awakener joined a dungeon attack, the allocated rewards were different . In fact, being a B-rank awakener in this industry was quite a success .

The money he had earned over the past year had led him to live a decent life where he could afford expensive foreign cars and lavish apartments .

Lee Ju-ho had thought that his life from now on would be smooth sailing .

Ding—

Just then, Lee Ju-ho’s smartphone rang . Who had contacted him? He checked his phone . He quickly sat up while still checking the message .