The Age of Self-PR (1)

The day after a fresh black mark was added to Yeongeun's life.

Calling it the next day was generous. It had been past midnight, so was it still today? Franc and Hwayeon, having watched Yeongeun flee to work that morning without so much as meeting my eyes, asked what had happened. I answered honestly, and was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠promptly denounced as a perverted beast of a demon.

"……Hwayeon still owes me a wish, doesn't she? And I'd like to watch Franc take a semen enema, too."

I'd seen Yeongeun collapsed in the bathroom the night before, tears on her face, and sworn I would never do that to her again. So it was only a threat. Even so, Hwayeon—and Franc with her—went pale and clamped their mouths shut.

Take it that seriously, and I'm the one left embarrassed…….

I was still a student, so on Friday, July 24th, I ought to have been at school. The campus was empty, though. Everyone was off on a two-day, one-night seaside training camp.

Even if classes had been running as usual, I had something more important. I couldn't have gone.

"All set?"

"Set for what? Like there's anything to prepare. Hey—let me focus on driving! You want me to start calling you Madam Jeong?!"

She kept glancing over to talk while she drove, so I gave her an earful, and her mouth jutted out on the spot. Older sister or little sister—hard to tell. Sigh.

Today's schedule was a promotional shoot: me and the Grand Blue raid team, filmed alongside the team's video PR unit. Franc and I were in my sister's van, bound for the West Sea.

Since we were promoting anyway, we'd decided to put Franc on camera as well—known as she was for being my spirit—and Hiarid, my pet. Hiarid's wings made a car impossible, so she was following overhead.

I'd asked. She could hit two hundred kilometers an hour at her best. Rare physical-reinforcement types broke the sound barrier, she said, but she was an elemental type, so she was slow.

Spatial Perception confirmed Hiarid keeping pace behind us. A glance at the side mirror showed vehicles from the Ability Users Association and the government trailing in our wake.

Aunt Hyeryeong and Yeongeun had decided to open part of the shoot to a few agencies, steering things so that rumors about me would spread on their own. The ones chosen were the government, the IWO, and the Ability Users Association.

That was why my sister—discharged only yesterday—was coming along in place of Hwayeon and Aunt Hyeryeong, both of them too busy.

Originally it was supposed to be just me and Franc, there and back.

Anyway. Behind our car, a forty-seat coach carried Video PR Team Leader Ahn Hyeonjung and his crew, along with the filming gear. Beside it ran the Association's bus, and behind that, a bus from the government's Ability Affairs Bureau.

From the Association came External Operations Team Leader Chae Hoon—the same man I'd met over the Energy Eater incident. As it turned out, he led External Operations Team 1. There was a Team 2 as well, and their work was different. Team 1, under Chae Hoon, handled publicity and external affairs. Team 2, under Team Leader Kim Jihun—someone I'd only ever spoken with by phone—handled internal matters: aberrants, and ability users affiliated elsewhere than the Korean branch of the Association.

Kim Jihun was also attached to the Special Task Force. Aberrant-related work overlapped with theirs, so he did both.

On the bus from the Ability Affairs Bureau, under the Office for Government Policy Coordination, rode someone Yeongeun had sent. A Grade 3 civil servant, and she looked exceedingly strict. At our first meeting she'd worn triangular glasses straight out of a comic and raked me up and down with a sharp gaze that held not a shred of goodwill.

Why had Yeongeun sent a woman like that? They called her a section chief, so the post wasn't a low one.

In any case, once everyone gathered, the procession swelled past a hundred. All I had to worry about was the ability demonstration. Herding people and meeting them face to face was my sister's job.

She flicked a look at the trailing vehicles in the rearview, then fixed her eyes on the road ahead.

"You don't need to prepare? Mentally, or your gear, or something?"

"No. I've never once taken help from an item, and I have no reason to be nervous. So why would I need to prepare my mind?"

"Listen to you boast. If I hadn't helped you with Black Thunder, you'd have suffered plenty."

Boast? The accusation was so absurd I stared at her.

"What kind of defamation-by-stating-the-facts is that? And you ought to remember the fights I botched because of you! The battle with the Flauvis took time, sure, but at its core it was a long-range contest. In the end, I would have won!"

"Hmph. So impressive. Really."

Why was she so prickly today? It wasn't even that day. From the back seat, Franc—who had been quietly listening to our bickering—smiled brightly and spoke.

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

"Seoha truly is remarkable, isn't he?"

"……."

My sister and I lost whatever we had been about to say. Franc's eyes went round, as if she meant every word.

My sister's face crumpled, like someone had just fed her a mouthful of salt.

The video team, having left Seoul and arrived at Yongyu Island—home of Incheon International Airport—spread out top-tier equipment and began choosing the best points from which to film my abilities. The directors calculated the weather, the angle of the sun, and the rest, conferring with the crew on how to get the finest footage.

Watching them, I thought of Miho waiting at home. If I'd known it would be this leisurely, should I have brought her? She'd whimpered to come along when I left that morning.

While I was in the Phase World, Miho had received a thorough exam from the veterinarian at Dad's hospital. Aside from being a little large, she was still a baby—the verdict was that this was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a time for eating, sleeping, eating, and sleeping again. I wasn't sure the diagnosis applied to an aberrant, but she was still a young child, and dragging her all over hadn't seemed wise. So I'd left her.

I was watching the crew bustle through a set strewn with equipment, building the stage, when a call came in from Branch Director Kang Hyunwoo.

I hung up and looked around.

A short while later my sister, the stern-looking woman the government had sent—some section chief or other—and Team Leader Chae Hoon wedged themselves in among the directors and began drafting a scenario. Reading their lips, I gathered they were working through which scenes to shoot, in what form, from what angle, in what order I should use my abilities, and how to present them.

The scenario seemed to be taking a while, so I suggested I just demonstrate the abilities in sequence, let them film it, and go home. My sister scolded me for it, and I shut my mouth and got out of the way.

"You watch a boring movie and curse everyone from the director who shot it down to the actors, and now you want to half-ass the PR where you're the star?"

I was loitering nearby with an awkward look on my face when Franc and Hiarid approached, freshly coordinated and made up by the makeup team. Filming still seemed a long way off. A walk along the shore with Franc sounded right.

She brightened at the suggestion of a stroll-date for two. We walked the wave-washed beach, and I muttered as I watched a plane climb in the distance.

"I wonder if we should even be filming here. Planes are flying around like that. If one gets caught while I'm demonstrating an ability, it'll be a disaster."

"I heard from Hwayeon that the government requested the airline alliance's cooperation. From this afternoon, some of the Incheon Airport routes are to be shifted to Gimpo."

"It's an international airport. Foreign planes come in too. They changed those as well?"

"Yes. Altering flight paths just for a shoot—how strong is Yeongeun's influence, I wonder?"

"……Let's not think too deeply about it."

"Pfft. Yes."

Just then a cheer rose behind us. I turned and found people staring up at Hiarid as she flew.

She wore a long-sleeved shirt open all the way down the back, and a black flared long skirt. On looks alone she was simply an angel, her beauty too unreal to belong to a human, and no one could tear their eyes away. And with her wings beating as she flew, of course the cheers came.

The scenario must have been settled. Dozens of people swarmed out, launching drones and setting up cameras. I walked over, and my sister, Team Leader Ahn Hyeonjung, the section chief from the Ability Affairs Bureau, and Team Leader Chae Hoon came to tell me the shoot plan was finished.

"We'll begin with the Mana Cannon. Please fire one, ordinarily. Once we have that on camera, we'll compose the next shot."

I was listening to Team Leader Ahn's explanation when the stern woman opened her mouth, looking at me as if she didn't care for what she saw.

"Even granting that you are an ability user favored by His Excellency the President, I cannot understand a privilege so extreme that flight paths themselves are altered."

"……."

Team Leader Chae Hoon, reason and feeling apparently at odds, said nothing to that. He fiddled with his handy-cam and checked the settings in silence.

The stern woman spoke again.

"An ability user need only hunt in the Phase World. I question whether we ought to be extending conveniences so that they may make PR videos in this fashion."

She was objecting to something already settled. My sister and Franc showed their displeasure at once. Leave it alone and my sister's venom would erupt, so I stepped in first.

"Ajumma. You are the section chief of the Ability Affairs Bureau, correct?"

"What else would I be?"

"Well, that's the thing. If you're with the Ability Affairs Bureau, shouldn't you know ability users and the Phase World better than anyone? A section chief of the government's Ability Affairs Bureau, of all people, failing to grasp how important this is and taking a crooked attitude—if word of this reaches the Madam, what do you think she'll make of it? If I get offended and emigrate overseas, or set myself against the government, can you take responsibility for that, Chief?"

The stern woman held a slightly stiffened expression until I finished, then quietly opened her mouth.

"I watched the Grand Blue Master's verification footage carefully, from beginning to end. What I confirmed was a clumsy, pathetic display—someone failing to properly use the abilities he possesses. I am the sort who believes that, as a system, it is safer to form raid teams that value the teamwork of many, even if the specs are somewhat lower, than to pursue the maximization of any one ability user's power. They say the Grand Blue Master's ability is great enough to overwhelm a High-Rank Variant single-handedly, but one can never defeat an absolute majority. That is a law of nature."

"I'll admit I made a spectacle of myself on camera. I'm a long-range style, but for the verification I forced an infight, and I couldn't rein in my temper, so I looked like a fool on top of it. Otherwise the Solid Snake wouldn't even have gotten close. But that one flying up there—can't you see her? Didn't you receive the report?"

"……."

The stern woman looked up at Hiarid circling overhead, frowned, and pushed her glasses back into place.

"How many of those lower-spec, teamwork-first ability users you mentioned do you think you'd need to gather to face that one? How many times have raid teams that tuned their teamwork like that been wiped out by a Peak-Rank Variant? And even if you gathered them, could they tame something like her?"

She seemed to have nothing to say. Her face……. Huh? I'd expected a hysterical outburst, but her expression was unexpectedly calm. She stared through me with cold eyes, then gave a slight nod.

"I will admit my judgment was hasty. You are certainly a talent His Excellency would take a liking to."

What was that, out of nowhere. Hard to adjust to.

I still had plenty of barbs left, and I was scowling, unsatisfied, when the stern woman spoke again, her eyes sharpening.

"After I received the directive to cooperate with your PR shoot, I played your verification footage something like a hundred times and investigated every incident and accident you were involved in. And the judgment I held until just now was simply this: a kid who happened to possess a strong ability. Nothing more, and nothing less."

I listened in silence, and she went on, her expression saying she understood a little better now.

"Sloppy responsiveness. Sloppy judgment. A sloppy way of fighting. And then, when you arrived here and everyone else had their heads together, faithful to the work they were actually meant to do, you came slouching over and tanked morale with remarks that did not even make sense."

Ugh. Had I really come off that badly? Watching the live broadcast, it hadn't seemed that bad.

"But the conversation we just had told me otherwise. You are not a fool who does not even know his own ability and is dragged about by power. You are a typical lazy genius. Your mind turns quickly, your analysis and your judgment are good, you are intuitive—but you find thinking deeply a bother, and outside your own interests you are indifferent. A kid."

A k-kid?! This woman—I've been patient and patient!

I bristled, and Franc caught me from behind, arms around my waist.

"Please, endure it……!"

Hmph. I let it go because every word of it was true.

"Taken together, you are a commander type who prefers playing to working. But remember this. The world's present impression of you is no different from mine before we spoke."

I turned and stared at Team Leader Chae Hoon. He cleared his throat—ahem—and avoided my eyes. He'd been thinking that too?

Well. People with no chance to meet me had only the verification footage to judge by. It figured. The ones who actually knew me were family, Grand Blue's core officers, and the branch director.

Hearing the stern woman out, the boycott by Cheonggung and Muhwaryeong finally made sense.

"So that's why Cheonggung and Muhwaryeong were plotting a boycott. Because I looked easy."

"That is correct. Look easy to underestimate, and you get eaten. That is the way of this world."

"I'll remember that. Thank you for the advice. A. Jum. Ma."

I took my revenge for being called a kid, and the section chief's eyebrow twitched. I hooked the corner of my mouth up in a grin, and she let out a sigh, as if she still thought me a child.

Anyway, it had been a good talk. If not for that section chief, I would have gone around grinning like a damn idiot, pleased with myself, knowing nothing.

Hmm. Was this why Yeongeun had sent her? So I'd hear something sharp and grasp how things actually stood? She didn't want to be the one saying the bitter things and earning my dislike, so she'd sent a stand-in?

I switched on my Certifier for a moment and sent Yeongeun a message.

Franc, reading the message over my shoulder, seemed to understand the situation as well. Her brows climbed into a worried arch. Then she pulled out her phone and started firing off messages……. To Yeongeun?

After sending it, I listened while Team Leader Ahn, Team Leader Chae Hoon, the stern section chief—whose atmosphere had shifted, just a little—and my sister explained the direction of the shoot. First, to build a sense of mystery, they would film me walking up into the sky as far as a kilometer, laying Space Walls as I went. From there, I would demonstrate the attack skills I had, one by one.

Just then five women in shirts bearing the PR team's logo swarmed over, caught my arms, and dragged me into our Grand Blue coach.

"Uh—?"

"I'm Kim Minju, makeup team leader in charge of the Master's makeup. Thank you for having us!"

"Makeup team! Thank you for having us!!"

Kim Minju, who sat me in a chair, wore a pale sky-blue Grand Blue dress uniform. Soon she brought over a large case packed with makeup tools, and another member of the team produced a finest-quality suit cut exactly to my build, the cloth shot through with a deep blue sheen. Then she spread out dozens of cufflinks and agonized over which would suit.

One woman brought a square case as big as her own body and flung it open, revealing easily more than a hundred ties, every one different in shape, pattern, and color. Beside them, well over a hundred kinds of tie pins.

I was staring blankly at the display when the woman named Kim Minju began coordinating my hair, and beside her Franc started issuing instructions with the practiced air of a drill instructor. When Team Leader Kim brought out the tools for a full restyling, I reached over and stopped her.

"Ah. Please leave my hair as it is."

"Pardon? Master, your eyes are soft and your features are distinct—if you swept the bangs like this, I think it would look wonderful."

"I'm not doubting your skill, Team Leader. I don't want my face exposed, so please leave the hairstyle as it is."

"Aigoo~, I don't understand why you'd hide such a handsome face."

"Haha."

My ears were going sweet on me. Dangerous flattery, this.

"What matters isn't the face. It's the ability. Please leave the hair as it is."

I shook my head and said it firmly. Kim Minju looked to Franc, flustered. Franc let out a deep sigh and nodded for them to do as I'd said, and the stylists and coordinators seemed to struggle a little, matching their work to the hair I already had.

They were paid well enough. A bit of hardship was fair.

Anyway, the hectic makeup session passed. With Franc waiting on me, I changed into the suit and even put on the new dress shoes, and they felt as comfortable as if I'd worn them for years. The shoes especially were as good as new, yet without that distinctive new-shoe pinch.

"Seoha. You look truly wonderful!"

"I feel a little dazed."

I gave her an awkward smile as she flew circles around me, bursting with admiration and snapping photos with a happy face.

Still feeling awkward, I approached my sister. Her eyes sparkled as she looked me over.

"Wooow~? Who is this. Are you my little brother? You look like someone else."

"……Enough."

"Enough, what! Get over here a second so I can take a picture. Ah—Seoha!"

Embarrassed by the camera coming out, I concentrated Mana Sieve through my whole body, formed a Space Wall, and leapt five hundred meters into the air in an instant. The fuss was too much.

I could feel them staring up at me where I stood on the amber foothold that had appeared in the air—the stern section chief, Chae Hoon, and the rest, eyes stretched wide. The amber Space Wall, in Aunt Hyeryeong's words, carried a kind of oppressive presence. Like standing before a wild beast with no fence between you. That was probably why their eyes had gone so wide.

Franc and Hiarid, who had flown up beside me, took care not to touch the Space Wall as they looked up at the sky.

"Clouds have rolled in all of a sudden. The view is not so clear."

"Set off one Mana Cannon and they'll all evaporate, so it shouldn't matter much."

Just then a drone shaped like a Chinook helicopter rose beside me, a filming camera mounted on it. Team Leader Ahn Hyeonjung's voice came through the camera.

"Shooting prep is all green."

"Shall we begin?"

"Please, begin!"

I drew a breath and, as planned, began condensing ten thousand TP of Phase Power into my palm. A vortex gathered inside it—the kind of effect that begged for a deep, rolling roar.

"Watching other people, or Franc, they condense hundreds of thousands of TP like it's nothing. Even condensing ten thousand is hard for me."

"That is because the internal mass is different. Your Phase Power surpasses the performance of other elemental ability users by factors of a hundred, does it not? Consider that even they find it difficult to condense more than a million TP."

"Heh heh. Hearing that, I feel a little better."

When the condensation finished, I aimed the Mana Cannon—fist-sized, beginning to burn a fierce blue—at the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sky.

"I condensed it slowly on purpose, so they could see. Next time I can fire it fast, right?"

The answer crackled back through the speaker, stammering.

"O-of course!"

I took it, and launched the Mana Cannon with everything I had, to fly as fast and as far as it could. It left my palm, acceleration catching the instant it fired, and vanished from sight at 1.2 kilometers a second, punching through the clouds. Watching the path it had torn—spreading outward in a circle, as if the sky had been stabbed with an awl—I spoke.

"It should detonate in about three minutes."

"Is…… that so?"

I stood with my arms folded, looking up, and thought how clear the blue was, clouds scattered thin across it. If not for this stinging sunlight, it would have been perfect.

And the moment exactly three minutes and twenty seconds had passed—

Flash—

Even in broad daylight, a flare I could recognize blanketed the sky, and for an instant the ground went dark. A burst of light that stabbed the eyes spread across a terrifying range, burning away every cloud, and then a roar that seemed to shake the air itself began to hammer the ground.

KRRRRRRRMMMM…….

"Aaaagh!!! Kyaa—kyaak! Agh!"

The screams spilled from the microphone on the helicopter-shaped drone. An explosion like this would be visible from the next country over. Letting them wash past, I asked Hiarid.

"Hiarid."

=Yes, my Lord.=

"Could you withstand that?"

=The probability that I fail to withstand it and evaporate is greater than eighty percent.=

Even a peak-rank variant, an eight-in-ten chance of not holding……. Perfect to feed to those bastards who ran that mock assault on me. I murmured it low, watching the second sun hanging in the blue sky after the flare died.

"It will be more than enough."

"……."

I waited until the burst of light faded, then looked down. If I concentrated Mana Sieve through my whole body, pushed physical enhancement to the limit, and jumped…… would I be all right? A stylish leap down would look cool.

……I didn't particularly want to risk my life filming a stunt movie. I switched on Mana Mode - Acceleration, formed amber walls, and came down in a triangle jump. The drone helicopter kept me in frame even as I dropped hundreds of meters at a time.

The moment I set down simply on the ground, my sister approached with the head of external promotions and spoke.

"The explosion looks bigger than before. The diameter seemed like a hundred and twenty kilometers?"

"That one was fired at five thousand TP. This time I shot it fully charged."

"Incredible…… sir. An elemental cluster bomb with a range of a hundred and twenty kilometers. The only missile of comparable power would be a tactical nuclear missile. And with B-Class physical reinforcement and a recovery ability besides, you are, quite literally, an army of one."

Team Leader Chae Hoon muttered it, dazed, fiddling with his handy-cam. Beside him, Team Leader Ahn Hyeonjung bent deeply at the waist, cold sweat running, and cried out.

"I'm sorry! Noise got into the audio. I think we'll have to shoot it again!"

"Again?"

"Th-the Mana Cannon's blast is too unique to overlay the audio afterward. We had planned to handle video and audio separately, but I-I don't think we can! The staff's screams got mixed into the audio…… I'm sorry!"

"No need to apologize. If I fire it once more now, will that do?"

"Yes! Yes!!"

I watched the video team leader rush over to where his crew had gathered and start bellowing, then turned my gaze. The stern woman was staring at me, the soul gone from her face. I smiled faintly and waved. She startled, then dropped her eyes, face reddening.

All that talk about me must have turned enormously embarrassing.

After that we captured the Mana Bullet, the Mana Cannon, and the Mana Riser in sequence—my sister had advised that Riser sounded better than Ray—and ate lunch at a nearby sashimi house.

In the afternoon, Franc and Hiarid combined their strength to raise storm clouds across a wide stretch of sky and pour a lightning storm down on the sea, and we filmed Hiarid hurling Light Bolts beside them. Lightning falling on the water like rain, bolts of light behind us, me standing in the center with Franc on the right and Hiarid flying on the left—even I had to admit it looked fantastic.

"Heh heh heh."

Lastly, Team Leader Ahn wanted to end the PR shoot with sparring against other ability users. I shook my head and refused.

"I can't control the power of my abilities. Even the weakest of my attack skills, the Mana Bullet, will disintegrate a Mid-Rank Variant if I reduce its force to the absolute minimum. Firing it at people is too dangerous. I won't."

The faces of the C-Class to D-Class ability users from the government and the Association, who had been preparing to spar, went white.

"However……."

"And besides, as the section chief said, I'm weak in close combat."

I said it with a playful smile, but no one found it funny. Team Leader Ahn, the stern section chief, and Team Leader Chae Hoon wore grave expressions and revised part of the plan. The sparring was canceled. Instead, every ability user on standby would be mobilized to attack my amber Space Wall indiscriminately, trying to break it.

So the cameras captured elemental ability users pouring elemental rounds and every manner of skill into the Space Wall I'd raised in the sky—and when the team leader said something still felt lacking, Franc and Hiarid were brought in as well. We finished by filming Light Bolts and Bolts of Judgment slamming into the amber Space Wall.

Of course, the bonus was everyone gaping, mouths hanging open, at a wall that didn't so much as scratch—let alone break—under a wave of elemental rounds poured out at full power by a dozen and more C-Class to E-Class elemental ability users.