Exiled from the Hero Party (2)

Ha Yeeun was a nun of the Goddess Sect — and a streamer.

At first it had been a nobody channel with three viewers. After she started broadcasting Aegis's hero activities, though, it became a genuine major operation with thousands of people watching.

Naturally, I was the one who built that channel.

In my previous life I'd been a hardcore veteran of the original game, and I'd even run a fairly popular gaming stream of my own. So even Ha Yeeun, whose broadcasting talent scraped the absolute bottom of the barrel, could be turned into a major personality.

That meant that logging into her channel should have given me manager privileges by default. Except Ha Yeeun had already stripped those privileges away.

She did it the second I got kicked out of the party.

Still, some scrap of attachment must have lingered, because I remained a subscriber. The stream finished loading. Live video began playing on my phone screen.

Then a shrill, theatrical voice cut through.

"So Aegis is going to keep operating at the Academy too? But one's missing, right? She didn't show up at the graduation ceremony? That pack mule — wait, the manager, I mean."

I knew who he was. A streamer who'd been climbing the charts lately on the platform TkaTV. The rumors around him were ugly enough that, back when I was still the operator, I'd blocked him from getting anywhere near us.

A familiar voice answered him almost immediately.

An Yumin's voice.

"Don't talk about him. He's someone we won't be seeing in the party again."

"Whaaat?! For real? What happened? Spill! Did the manager get fired?"

The chat exploded. When I'd been the manager, I'd kept that chat window under iron control. Now there was no control at all. The feed was a flood of trolling and abuse — all of it aimed at me.

"That manager — wait, you guys called him the operator, right? There were tons of weird rumors. GoldenSun hitting on Aegis's female fans and all that… is any of it true?"

Sensing the content angle, the man started pressing the three of them harder.

For one last moment I held onto hope. But neither the chaos in the chat nor the man's thinly veiled attempts to stir the pot drew a single word of defense from any of them.

"Well. He left for a reason, I'm ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sure."

That was An Yumin's only answer. In that instant, something inside me went hollow.

"What about the others? How do the rest of you feel?"

Ha Yeeun ignored him entirely. Or rather, she looked too busy hunting for her best camera angle to care.

The man drifted over to Song Sia.

Song Sia rarely showed emotion and hated talking to people she didn't have to. But under the man's relentless questions, she finally opened her mouth.

"…It was about time he broke down. There were defects."

"Whoa. Broke down? The way you put that — classic rich-girl energy. So that's how it is? Defective product, toss it and buy a new one?"

"…There's a line of people waiting to be the manager. Operators too."

With that, Song Sia turned her back.

I'd expected it, and still. Not one of the three had a single decent word for me.

The chat burned hotter.

The public roasting aimed at me was spiraling out of control.

Is this really how you're allowed to throw someone away?

The world spun the way it had during the panic earlier. A vicious sense of betrayal blacked out my vision. I felt something crack open inside my chest — a sharp, splitting pain. I clutched at the tightness in my ribs, and right then—

Ding— ding— ding—

The same alert tone I'd heard at the administrative office rang out again.

I couldn't make sense of the words. The alert had been sounding nonstop since the moment of my exile.

What… was destroyed?

In that instant, the authority floating in the air before me — the peacefully glittering mirror — went dark the way an LED light dies when the power cuts out.

At the same time, a sound like shattering glass rang through my ears like tinnitus.

Crash—

No — more precisely, it was the sharp crack of the authority itself, of that shining mirror, breaking apart right in front of my eyes.

The world went black.

And then a notification window I'd never seen before rose into my field of vision.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

The realm of the Awakened — something I'd wanted so desperately and never been able to reach. A 2nd Awakening notification was glittering right in front of me.

Dazed, I pressed the button on that window.

It wasn't a system prank or a bait-and-switch. A 2nd Awakening was genuinely possible — for someone as extra as me.

To my bewilderment, achievements I hadn't even known existed had been completed.

Hidden Achievements.

The original game, Ashen City of the Full Moon, being a mobile title, was packed with all kinds of achievements. But true to the name "Hidden," these were ones even a hardcore veteran like me had never seen — and now they were marked complete, just like the notification window in front of me.

Apparently those Hidden Achievements had served as the trigger ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for the 2nd Awakening. It felt so much like a god's practical joke that I almost couldn't believe it.

So I left the bench I'd been sitting on and hurried back to the dorm I was using now. Then I pulled up the notification window I'd checked a moment ago.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I checked the detailed contents of the awakening again. Pressing the Details button brought up a new popup.

There were a few other warnings, but the core was those two lines. A Hidden Awakening would generate a special Title — and if you didn't follow that Title's fate, the Authority would be taken back.

Knowing what that meant sent a chill down my spine.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

To an Awakened, an Authority is life itself. That isn't a metaphor. An Authority is literally linked to an Awakened's mana heart. Under normal circumstances, an Authority only vanishes when the Awakened suffers a life-threatening injury.

In short, this Hidden Awakening carried a very real risk of death.

"So… what about it."

I wasn't afraid. My body was trembling — not from terror, but from excitement.

2nd Awakening. The first real fork in the road that separates Awakened by tier. The so-called Named Awakened — the ones people call true pro Hunters or Villains — are all multi-awakened. Named Awakened typically go through a third awakening. The absolute top-tier, the ones called Transcendents, awaken four times or more.

It was a devil's temptation. Even if it might cost me my life, there was no chance I was walking away from this opportunity.

The faces of those three rose in my mind. GoldenSun, the one who did all the dirty work. The defective, broken comrade who always needed someone to clean up after him. That was how the three of them had condemned me.

I'd been betrayed by the person I liked. Betrayed by the comrades I'd cherished. There was no other choice left for me.

I pressed Yes, of course.

Time to say goodbye to that miserable two-star Authority. All it could do was summon a mirror, and its only attack skill was a Level 1 garbage stab. Now I'd finally become an Awakened with real skills of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my own.

With restrictions like those, no matter how bad it is, it has to be better than what I've got now…

A mirror rose into the air once more.

Woooooom—

The already-shattered mirror resonated, wrapped in ink-black mist.

Flash—

In that moment I became aware of it — a new sensation blooming inside my mana heart. At the same time, a notification window appeared.

And the moment I read the description of that Active Skill, the words died in my throat.

"Uh…?"

I was stunned. A 2nd Awakening I'd pulled off by pure miracle — and the Active Skill was mirror generation again? It wasn't even a joke. Worse, unlike the pathetic light-mirror I'd had before, this one had no effects at all.

Is this thing insane?

But the disappointment lasted only a moment. Thankfully, the skill description wasn't finished. Unlike the first Authority, this new one apparently came with a Passive Skill.

"Wait… what is this?"

I read the rest in a hurry.

It can form Authorities?

And unlimited ones, at that. The second the meaning hit me, my whole body started to shake.

Apparently, I'd just awakened an absurdly broken cheat Authority.