Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Qualifications (3)
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Awakener Association headquarters.
"There's not a single quiet day... Not a single quiet day..."
Lee Youngsik let out deep sighs as he stared at the mountain of paperwork.
How had he ended up in this mess?
His face, slumped back against the chair, was etched with exhaustion.
It had all started when the carefully prepared award ceremony went to hell.
The event was a disaster.
Homunculus or whatever.
The process or reasons didn't matter.
The results did.
'That's how things always work.'
The media and public were the same.
They judged everything by outcomes.
Kim Gunja's heroics earned nothing but praise, but the Association was riddled with arrows of criticism.
Who the hell planned such a shitty event?
What moron came up with that performance and handed them the ammo?
Moron, they called him.
After all the effort he'd poured in.
...Fucking bastards.
'What a joke. How the hell was I supposed to know if that guy was a Homunculus or not?'
But he couldn't argue back.
Public opinion was always the top dog.
They cheered for the birth of a hero, then scoured for someone to dump their shit-talk on behind the scenes. Super Karens with two faces.
That was the vibe.
From the Association's perspective, they needed a scapegoat, and naturally, it fell on him, the planner.
Of all the goddamn luck.
The board members who'd suggested it?
They were dodging like pros.
Not that he'd expected anything from them anyway.
'Fucking snakes.'
Lee Youngsik hated those board members more than the Homunculus—they were slimy flatterers.
Anyway.
Thanks to that, he'd been reassigned—not quite demoted, but close—to the busiest department in the Association.
They couldn't let his skills go to waste, or so they said.
'What a fucking nightmare.'
It felt like being a sergeant on the verge of corporal, only to drop back to private first class.
Just thinking about it made his blood boil, but Lee Youngsik couldn't let it show.
His grateful aides had followed him here and were grinding away right in front of him. As the de facto leader, he couldn't whine and complain.
"......"
Lee Youngsik's gaze shifted to his aides.
His subordinates sorted papers from the branches like soulless machines.
Their eyes sunken like hollow snowballs.
'Tch...'
Overtime for weeks now.
He was fine, but it pained him to drag his team through the wringer.
A few aides bobbed their heads like sick chickens, dropping to the desk then snapping up. That sealed it for Lee Youngsik.
No more.
"Everyone, pack it in and head home."
"Pardon? But we still have papers due tomorrow..."
Tomorrow? It was already 2 a.m.
"I'll handle it. Go home. We grease machines before running them dry—what the hell is this?"
"But..."
The aide looked worried.
Even all together, they couldn't finish on time.
No way the team leader, even as an Awakener, could solo it easily.
But Lee Youngsik was a pro at handling his team.
"Enough. Clock out. Tomorrow, even if the sky splits, I'll leave first. Got it?"
"Ah..."
You're not the only ones resting.
Let's not all die—rotate shifts.
Finally, the aides got the hint and shuffled up like zombies with a groan.
"Then..."
"Thank you."
"See you tomorrow."
"Not 'in a bit'?"
His joke drew weak chuckles as the aides filed out.
Alone at last, Lee Youngsik exhaled deeply.
It was a demotion in all but name, and the timing sucked.
Demonization incidents tied to Slayers kept popping up.
The Homunculus that had gone quiet was popping out randomly.
And now gates were surging nationwide.
In short.
Shitty timing had unleashed a perfect storm of work.
'But it's not all loss.'
Changes invisible in summaries were hitting real-time, full force.
Pentagram hadn't warned for nothing.
'Bloody Gate...'
All the metrics were inching toward that day.
The Bloody Day, so hellish it was called the descent of hell on earth.
But so what?
"Who knows if I'll even be alive by then..."
Lee Youngsik muttered.
This job never ended, no matter how much you did.
What if the world just ended? No more drowning in work, right?
Desperate thoughts like that.
Still, habit kicked in—he grabbed a file.
Skimming the report absentmindedly, his brow furrowed.
"This guy again?"
The words slipped out.
Kim Gunja.
Him again.
This time, trouble at some temple called Red Cloud Temple.
Report on a Homunculus appearance and a monk's death.
"At this point, isn't he the problem...?"
Impossible not to think it.
Incidents followed him everywhere.
Suddenly, a childhood manga popped into his head.
Protagonist was a famous detective, murders erupting wherever he went.
Kim Gunja felt exactly like that.
For a split second.
A nasty thought crossed his mind.
"...Maybe plan a party for the board?"
Invite Kim Gunja, of course.
Then one of them... ideally that smug young board member who'd dumped the memorial planning on him...
"...I'm losing it too."
Pent-up rage had him fantasizing wildly without realizing.
Shaking his head, he grabbed another file.
A underground cave in China.
Over a hundred glass tubes—shattered, save one.
Below each: "Failed Experiment" in blood.
Inside the lone tube.
A heart-like muscle mass, thick flesh and veins bulging, pulsed with contraction and relaxation.
A human-shaped figure curled fetal inside, asleep.
"Hng..."
Zhao Lin, in a cheongsam baring her snowy thighs, legs crossed, gazed ecstatically at the tube.
"Jai Nan's dead."
Chungsa's alchemist, Zhukov, spoke.
A dead worm in his hand.
Zhao Lin's beautiful face crumpled.
"What the fuck? Dying left and right? Didn't we just fill numbers sloppily? It was just fetching one item—couldn't even do that?"
"Hee hee. Weak. So weak."
Chao Chao drooled, slapping his balloon gut.
"Ugh, gross."
Thwack!
Her slender leg booted him.
Thud thud.
Chao Chao rolled on bare ground, giggling pain-free.
Used to it, Zhukov ignored him and replied.
"Well... Not strong, but no pushover either. An S-rank non-Ranker could've handled solo."
"Then what? He's dead."
"...I'm puzzled too. After Manub, now Jai Nan. And weird stuff detected."
"Weird stuff?"
Zhukov tongued the worm, murmuring Jai Nan's death images and emotions.
"Crimson. Terror. Aura. Certain death."
His conclusion.
"Like Manub. Energy too. Death method too."
Lightning or wind? Environmental factors.
Anyway, worm intel from afar was fragmentary, limited.
"What...? Then..."
"Yeah. Likely same culprit."
Zhao Lin's aura shifted.
Irritation gone, killing intent surged.
If same person as Zhukov said, the two deaths weren't coincidence.
Someone plotting deliberately.
One prerequisite.
Knowing when and where Manub and Jai Nan were going ahead.
In other words.
"...A traitor inside? Like Huang Shiho?"
"Can't say for sure. But can't rule it out."
"Fuck... Which bastard..."
Her nails shredded hard rock like tofu.
"No sharing plans with new recruits for now. Critical phase of our research."
Old alchemists vs. new.
Power and authority gap between alchemists was no small thing.
"Smart. They're just cannon fodder anyway. And that same guy—maybe the Kim Gunja you mentioned last time?"
Zhao Lin doubted.
Too lucky already, suspicious.
Diving solo into the lab? Yeah.
Zhukov pondered, then spoke.
"...Possible. Tied to every big Korean incident lately. Grew massively each time. If hiding power, totally feasible. If linked this time too, near certain."
Even if not, he was a thorn.
Always tangled with Homunculus, obstructing.
Zhukov stared emptily at the sleeping figure in the tube, then spoke.
"Soon as this one wakes, execute the plan. And..."
His usual restraint cracked—viscous killing intent seeped from him.
"Then. Dispose of confirmed obstacles and traitors."
As sacrifices blessing the first New Humanity birth.
Park Chunduk Academy.
"Hoo..."
Thud.
Exhausted Kim Gunja collapsed onto the sofa.
A long day.
Mentally and physically.
After handling Jai Nan, his temporarily boosted physical and mana levels dropped, hitting him with heavy fatigue.
'Just like early Heaven-Shattering Sword backlash.'
Not sprawling on the floor like then, but same intensity.
Kim Gunja recovered stamina via Customizing Room right away.
Still work left.
Stamina restored, with Staine's help, he backtracked Jai Nan's traces.
To find Monk Jeonghye's body.
After combing the mountain, luckily recovered it.
'Not too far—thank god.'
Then, Jai Nan's mutated corpse as proof, explained to Red Cloud Temple and Association: victim of Homunculus. Cremated together.
Thus, Monk Jeonghye rose as smoke to the heavens.
Remembered by people not as Homunculus, but as a monk.
"......"
Kim Gunja, briefly sentimental, turned.
On the desk: unread letter, too busy.
— The abbot sensed something off too. Before moving with the lay donor... no, Homunculus, he entrusted me with this prepared letter.
From Red Cloud Temple monk: Monk Jeonghye's letter for him.
Kim Gunja stared at the envelope with his name.
Why leave it for him?
Maybe mentions the research Jai Nan sought.
'Research... human experiments, probably.'
For Jeonghye, records from Homunculus days—never to share or reveal.
Maybe.
Depending on contents, his good feelings toward Jeonghye could change.
Truth isn't always beautiful.
Worthy to unearth that past? Unsure, but he wouldn't dodge.
'Just...'
Didn't want to read emotionally yet.
Not even a full day since cremation—put off.
Other things first.
Kim Gunja rose.
To test new unique trait.
"Mm..."
Brief deliberation over, he slipped off a ring from his finger.
Lowest-grade artifact he owned.
Too risky to test on Majesty Ring or Master Ring first.
Kim Gunja gripped the Ring of Immobility, focused mana in his hand, and activated his unique trait, Customizing.
Then.
The mana in his hand seeped into the ring, erupting in radiant light.