Chapter 56: 56

“Please, help us! Please!”

He was clinging onto someone’s leg and desperately crying out . Hak-Joon was sitting on a higher place, watching this scene unfold .

The person frantically asking for help was none other than himself .

>

His face below seemed to be slightly older than his current self . Seeing how that version was crying out the names one by one, he must’ve been close with every one of them .

>

However, the real Hak-Joon had no idea who they were since he couldn’t see their faces . Even the names being called out were unfamiliar .

“Please, please…”

His figure sitting on the floor howling out came across as truly pitiful and sad .

No one looked back at him despite his ardent, desperate cries . They could’ve reached out or glanced in his direction at least once .

For some reason, the past and present didn’t seem all that different to him .

>

… . It was so vivid that it irritated him .

He wanted to wake up as soon as possible . A dream with such an unpleasant feeling was so rare that it could probably be counted in one hand .

It was then, the scene below Hak-Joon changed .

“This… Goddammit…”

Expletives came out from Hak-Joon’s mouth .

His heart pounded away as his breathing became shallow and heavy . His vision was clouding over, and it felt like the inside of his head was getting hotter .

The ‘Hak-Joon’ below was currently holding onto a certain woman in the scene; it was the woman with short bob-cut hair was bleeding from both her mouth and eyes .

“But, why…?”

Step!

A familiar face approached .

It was the face he didn’t want to see, even in his dreams .

It was Jung Dong-Yeong .

“That’s why you shouldn’t have done that, Hak-Joon-ah” .

As always, he spoke with a kindly voice . With a tone seemingly chiding a younger brother, he was driving a cold hard dagger deep into Hak-Joon’s heart .

“Had you listened to everything I said, that girl wouldn’t have died, you know?”

“Aaaaaahk!”

“Aaaaaahk!”

Hak-Joon woke up from his dream with a scream .

His whole body was soaked in sweat . Hak-Joon had been sleeping inside a darkened storage facility .

>

His confusion lasted only for a short while .

He remembered the situation before he fell into a slumber .

>

His arm, the shoulders, and his back flinched .

His whole body was screaming in pain . He had blacked out while getting severely beaten up .

The face he didn’t want to remember popped back up inside his head on its own .

It belonged to Jung Dong-Yeong .

“Goddammit . ”

A younger brother? Family? Friend?

What a nonsensical notion that was .

Jung Dong-Yeong always physically abused his fellow Guild members, the ones he called his ‘family’, for minor matters that didn’t warrant such a treatment .

“If you tell me the truth, I’ll go easy on you, Hak-Joon-ah . You knew, didn’t you?”

Jung Dong-Yeong was aware of Hak-Joon’s relationship with Su-hyeun and believed that the two were plotting something behind his back from the very beginning .

Of course, Hak-Joon didn’t know that and from his perspective, this whole thing came across as massively unfair .

“Didn’t I tell you what I hate the most? Lying and betrayal . Those two . I told you to never do those two things, didn’t I?”

“Heh . ”

What a bunch of bullcrap that was .

Don’t do those two things?

“Just those two?”

That wasn’t even true .

Jung Dong-Yeong would start throwing his fists around first if something got on his nerves or pissed him off somehow .

If a dungeon conquest had been scheduled prior, he’d hold himself back but once the schedule was cleared, he’d start beating people up without fail .

This time, he went too far . Hak-Joon ended up fainting, after all .

Jung Dong-Yeong didn’t even bother to confirm the detail of the actual relationship and simply decided to vent some steam here .

Squeeze!

Bang!

Hak-Joon slammed his fist against the storage wall . His anger welled up so much that he could hardly contain himself .

He felt like abandoning everything and leaving .

Ring!

Just then, his phone with the cracked screen resting on the ground began ringing noisily .

Hak-Joon’s gaze shifted towards the name appearing on the phone’s screen . The moment he saw the name of the sender, ‘Yun-seon’, he ended up biting hard onto his lip .

He picked up the phone, sucked in a deep breath, and opened his mouth .

“…Hello?”

Su-hyeun changed his clothes at home, took a shower, and headed to the Awakeners Accreditation Authority immediately .

As he walked down the familiar hallway, several people recognized his face and began glancing in his direction . They were Awakeners that fought alongside him a few days ago .

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Even if he was left with little choice back then, there was no doubt that this event outed his face publicly . It might be limited to a few Awakeners at the moment, sure, but it was only a matter of time before everyone found out, too .

>

He wasn’t all that interested in the attention . Rather than feeling chuffed, he was instead burdened by it . To high-ranking Awakeners, ‘attention’ was the same thing as expectations .

Su-hyeun was well aware of how burdensome attention and expectation could be .

“Fuu-woo-”

Su-hyeun arrived before the director’s office and took a deep breath .

He had to meet the director sooner or later, but that didn’t mean he held a favorable impression of him . It’d be truly difficult to find a polar opposite of the director in this world .

Knock, knock!

Su-hyeun knocked on the office’s door .

When he did, the person on the other side answered .

“Come in . ”

It was a heavy, bassy voice .

Just hearing it alone worsened Su-hyeun’s mood . He inwardly recited the Hanja word for ‘patience’ and opened the door .

Creak!

He spotted two men inside the office .

One of them was the director, while the other was someone he met a few days ago: Kang Seung-Cheol .

“Good to see you . ”

“…Uh, sure . ”

Su-hyeun formed a somewhat weird expression and waved his hand at Kang Seung-Cheol, greeting him with a warm, inviting face .

He was hoping against hoping, but as expected, they wanted to talk about “that” .

He stared at the director . The man’s uptight-looking face, where liver spots had begun showing up, seemed quite old even now . In reality, it was far younger than what Su-hyeun remembered .

Unfortunately, the light in that man’s eyes remained the same as it was in the past .

“I heard you were looking for me,” said Su-hyeun .

“That’s correct . I wanted to speak to you for quite some time . I’m glad to finally make your acquaintance . ”

Rather unexpectedly, the director was smiling affably .

Thinking back to how he tried to paint Su-hyeun as a con-man not too long ago, one had to wonder whether the director had two switchable faces or not .

“I’ve heard a lot about you . It must’ve been two years? I was asking around about you the whole time . As it turned out, you truly are talented . ”

The director then went on to praise Su-hyeun for a long while . The latter settled down on the spot on the couch the older man pointed out . Sipping on the prepared refreshment, he closed his eyes and ears off .

“Okay, so . What is it that you wish to speak to me about?”

Su-hyeun couldn’t endure any longer and eventually chose to speak up .

He couldn’t bear to hear any more of this nonsense; he knew they were just pretenses and lies with an ulterior motive behind them .

The director had to momentarily stop at Su-hyeun’s unexpected question .

His stiff expression only lasted for a brief moment . Soon, he formed a good-natured smiled and spoke again, “You seemed to be impatient . Very well . Let me get straight to the point, then . My friend, are you willing to work for us?”

“When you say ‘us’, do you mean the organization?”

“Similar, but a little different . Here… . ” The director looked at Kang Seung-Cheol standing next to him and continued . “If you decide to join us, then you will be entering the same department as the department head Kang Seung-Cheol here . ”

“I’m guessing it’s a bit different from the normal organization . ”

“Indeed . Unlike other organizations, this organization is about fostering properly-trained Awakeners . As long as you agree… I’d like to leave you with the important position of being in charge of the whole operation . ”

That wasn’t something you’d ask of a person you met for the first time today .

The organization consisted of the A-rank Awakener Kang Seung-Cheol along with dozens of rank B Awakeners . The director wanted to suddenly entrust an organization featuring such a high level of combat potential to him?

When considering the abilities alone, Su-hyeun seemed to naturally fit the role .

“According to the department head Kang Seung-Cheol, you’re an S-rank Awakener . ” The director’s persuasion continued . “Not only are you unaffiliated with any guilds, but you are also exceptionally skilled . On top of that, you have proven your sense of righteousness towards our country during the previous event . There is nobody else better suited for this role than you, my friend . ”

“Righteousness…?”

Su-hyeun’s lips curled into a thin grin .

What absolute nonsense that was .

>

The director could’ve evacuated people ahead of time during the last event, but he still chose to ignore it .

If it weren’t for Su-hyeun, hundreds of thousands of people would’ve died that day .

This man had turned his gaze away from their deaths and utterly refused to heed his request back then, yet he now dared to speak of righteousness?

If having a thick skin was a skill, then the director would’ve been the best in the entire world .

“I’ll have to decline,” Hak-Joon replied .

“Young man… . ”

“Please don’t try to persuade me . Even if you try a hundred times, my answer will remain the same . There’s no reason to waste our energy and get our feelings hurt in the process, now is there?”

The director kept quiet at Su-hyeun’s firm reply .

He was a man who had experienced all sorts of trials and tribulations for a while . He, of course . met numerous people before . As such, he was quite confident of being able to read his opponents correctly .

He heard that this Awakener was only in his mid-twenties . A more in-depth investigation revealed that Su-hyeun didn’t come from any notable wealth, either .

Money and power, plus enticing, sweet words .

The director thought that, as his opponent was still young, giving him praise and offering generous conditions would be more than enough to entice Su-hyeun .

But now…

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It was already quite bizarre to hide in the shadows when you possessed such a high level of talent . Even after emerging into the light, he wasn’t enticed by power and wealth .

The event that led to him revealing himself was also like that; he did it not for the sake of some benefits, but to save the citizens .

>

What utter nonsense .

The director was a man who never believed in this so-called sense of justice or righteousness, even though he mouthed off this term almost all the time .

To him, righteousness was simply nothing more than a nice-sounding word .

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His expression or the way he carried himself made it hard to believe Su-hyeun was still young . His actions made him sound like no ordinary man, but now that they were sitting face to face like this, he far exceeded the director’s initial expectations .

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Should he threaten him instead?

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The director’s expression crumpled unsightly . This was the first time in so long that he failed to control his expressions to this degree .

A standard procedure in enticement would be to say some sweet-sounding words first, followed by scary-sounding threats before throwing a carrot . Rinse and repeat .

However, his opponent was an S-rank Awakener . Although he hadn’t gotten the official re-evaluation yet, his abilities had already been proven .

Not only would threatening him not affect Su-hyeun but dealing with the potential fallout also presented a difficult prospect . In the current situation, it was the director who should be minding Su-hyeun’s moods instead, not the other way around .

“Can I talk to you about something I find amusing?” Su-hyeun asked .

Plop!

Su-hyeun placed a smartphone in front and spoke up .

“I think you’ll be very interested in hearing it as well, director . ”

“…Interested?”

The smartphone was resting before his eyes .

For some strange reason, Su-hyeun’s voice came across as rather ominous to the director’s ears . His instincts were telling him to ignore it, but he simply had to listen .

“Let us hear it, then,” the director replied .

“A wise decision . ”

Su-hyeun smirked and pushed the smartphone towards the director . Its screen was already switched on and the older man was able to confirm the name of the file saved on the device .

The director’s eyes widened . The always-affable facade of his was now cracking up .

“What is it that you want?” The director asked .

Quite different from how he was like when entering the office earlier, Su-hyeun grinned widely as he replied, “Many, many things . ”

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Now, it was time to flip this table that the dear director had oh-so-carefully organized .