052 – Nymph Oinoi Hates Uniforms!
"Very bad people, they were…! They tried to make off with all the illegal funds and illegal firearms that Illinoi had worked so hard to collect…!"
A large van, the kind you'd expect a broadcasting station to use.
On the screens installed inside it, footage was playing.
It was the bodycam footage Kwang-kwangi had secretly recorded.
A woman wearing a plague-doctor mask and a man with a mechanical arm replacing one of his own had both been captured in reasonably clear detail.
"Hold on, pause it."
Seo Yerim froze the screen.
The image stopped at the moment the mechanical arm fired out.
"Young-eun, can you trace this arm? Find out what product it is? If we track down the buyers, we might dig up some hints—about who these people are, I mean."
"I was already looking into it. It doesn't seem to be a corporate product. Looks like an illegal cybernetic arm implanted in some back alley. I'll need to dig deeper, but judging by the extent of the modifications, it's serious professional-grade work."
An unidentified group.
If I had to guess, there were at least two of them.
There would have to be people supplying the equipment they used, too.
The danger level of this crew was, by my estimate, minimum A-rank.
I moved to the next frame and pointed with my hand at the woman in the white gown.
"That woman with the plague-doctor mask. She sensed the Illuminator team was coming before it arrived. She's a detection-type awakener. At least A-rank, I'd say."
A criminal organization with at least two A-rank or higher abilities clustered together.
Dangerous people by every measure.
I had no idea what they planned to do with the stolen Bifrost, but it certainly wasn't going to be anything good.
I asked.
"There are three S-ranks in Korea right now, right? Well, with Lee Jeonghun having fallen apart in every way possible, I suppose it's two now. Is there any chance there are even more than that? Unregistered awakeners, for instance."
Every awakener was legally required to register their blood, fingerprints, and more with the state. Controlled from all angles, you could say.
If an unregistered awakener caused incidents while hiding their powers, it became a bureaucratic nightmare—so they'd been leashed accordingly.
When this law was passed, there was a massive uproar about human rights violations and whatnot.
But in the end, the law passed.
Awakeners registered their identities in the government database, and in exchange received work from the government or all manner of benefits.
Call it appeasement with a carrot—
"What are the odds there's an S-rank out there who never registered with the government?"
Today.
I suspected that the plague-masked woman might be an S-rank awakener operating outside government control. Seo Yerim hummed and hawed at my theory, saying, "That'd be difficult, but it's not entirely impossible…"
Then she asked me.
"Say this pointy-beaked woman is S-rank. And the mechanical-arm guy would be A-rank. Then why did they abandon everything they were doing and run?"
"That? They ran because they were scared of me. I figured if we fought, I'd find some way to pin down at least one of the two. Seems they caught on and bolted."
"And you're what, exactly? What do you even count as, that these two would run?"
Seo Yerim's eyes narrowed into slits.
I puffed out my chest.
"Those guys actually know about me, you know? They even knew I ranked first in hand-to-hand combat during first-generation training."
"Impressive intelligence network. And they're being extremely cautious. Whatever the case, they tried to steal Telos property. We have to hunt them down. And this one, too."
"Why is the Kore looking at Illinoi with such suspicious eyes…? Illinoi is an infinitely harmless and virtuous organic nymph…! Kindly call Illinoi a nymph rights attorney at once…!"
Illinoi.
Boss of the Fairytale Gang.
No, former boss, I suppose.
The Fairytale Gang was disbanded as of today.
Seo Yerim dragged a palm down her face.
"These are the people who stole the blueprints and materials? Honestly, corporations are a mess too. What do we do with this one? I suppose our company will have to take her in for now?"
"Mwehehe, the Kore smells of money…! Illinoi would be more than happy to become the companion nymph of a Kore like Yerim…!"
And so the strange nymph Illinoi's custody was, at least temporarily, entrusted to Seo Yerim.
She was an S-rank awakener, family to a conglomerate chairman, and thanks to Oinoi she knew a fair amount about nymphs already—an excellent guardian, all things considered.
# # #
"Senior, I heard while talking with Yerim! You nearly fought some dangerous people? Are you okay? How's your body?"
When I got home.
Yu Ari had come over to visit.
There was even an unfamiliar car parked in the yard.
"Oh, you got a car? Black looks good on you."
"Hehe, it's used, though. But more importantly, are you hurt anywhere? I heard you clashed with some absolutely terrifying people!"
"I inhaled a bit of some strange gas, but other than that, nothing wrong."
"Gas…!?"
Yu Ari.
She placed her fingers on my wrist.
Taking my pulse, was she?
"How is it?"
"It was tear gas. It's nonlethal so your health should be fine, but you must have had terrible coughing, sneezing, and runny nose. Are you all right? I'll spray you with the solution I brought to clear out the particles!"
Oh, really?
So it was tear gas.
I had no idea.
Thanks to the spider-silk amulet necklace Oinoi had given me, the effects seemed to have been blocked entirely.
Sssk, sssk—
Yu Ari sprayed away the tear gas particles clinging to my body.
She didn't stop her hands as she asked.
"By the way, Senior, you're on the verge of entering B-rank, aren't you? It'll take a detailed examination to know for sure, but that's my read."
"Really?"
B-rank.
At those words, my heart raced.
As I'd said before, F-rank awakeners were practically no different from ordinary people.
The only difference was having enough mana in their bodies to endure the strain of entering or exiting a rift.
E-rank was about the same as F-rank.
From D-rank onward, awakeners became aware of the mana within their bodies and could use it to reinforce their physical abilities.
From C-rank, they could reinforce their bodies and then expel the leftover mana to coat weapons and the like. From that point on, you could honestly start calling them 'superhuman.'
And as far as I knew, B-rank was a realm that only a select few among C-rank awakeners—the ones called 'elites'—could ever reach.
It felt like only yesterday that reaching C-rank had nearly made my heart burst with joy, and now B-rank was already within reach!
Had I really become someone worthy of being called an 'elite' too?
Just as I was celebrating, Yu Ari spoke up.
"Senior, do you know that entering the B-rank realm requires a special rite of passage? Without it, no matter how much time passes, the human body has its limits."
"Ah— I think I've heard something about that."
From C-rank to B-rank.
I'd heard that some special ritual or act was required to ascend to that realm.
I'd have to look into the details.
I didn't even need to explain—Yu Ari, being a doctor, laid it all out for me.
"To reach the B-rank realm, you have to go through an entirely different kind of process. That's the only way the amount of mana circulating between your body and the outside world increases explosively. They call it 'engraving' an attunement."
I had heard of it.
Reaching B-rank required an artificial method.
Supposedly you tempered your body through special training and conditioning, then underwent the procedure?
And the cost was supposed to be astronomical.
Did Seo Yerim and Yu Ari go through that process too?
"Yu Ari, did you go through it too?"
"Back then there was neither the technology nor the knowledge, so it was unspeakably painful. The technicians and doctors were performing surgeries they had no experience with. It was truly dreadful."
"Really? So where did they engrave yours? Let me see!"
"Well, where—
Sshk—
Yu Ari started to lift her outer layer of clothing, then froze.
"…I'm afraid I can't show you that! Anyway! These days the technology has advanced and they've accumulated so much know-how, haven't they? I hear the procedure that used to take 72 hours now only takes 5. Isn't that amazing?"
That much was true.
The technology really had improved compared to back then.
That thug's cybernetic arm yesterday was leagues more advanced than the mechanical arm my old classmate Kang Cheolmin used.
Then Yu Ari added,
"So, Senior—any interest in a little part-time work? You know about the new academy in Nonsan, right? The place where they train awakeners. They're recruiting instructors there—"
Instructors.
They wanted me to teach kids again?
Out of nowhere?
When I looked puzzled, Yu Ari explained.
"It's temporary, but if you take a guest instructor position, you're recognized as half a civil servant. That's the law. And civil-servant awakeners get government support for their mana-circuit attunement procedures!"
I see.
So that's the trick—civil service benefits covered the mana attunement procedure.
For someone with B-rank right in front of my nose, it was a tempting offer.
For reference, the surgery cost was said to be 300 million won.
Three hundred million.
How many chickens would that buy?
How many rounds of the mecha-snail game could Oinoi play with that?
Even for Oinoi, that would surely be enough to clear the final boss.
To rich folks like Seo Yerim it might be pocket change, but for a commoner like me it was a fortune I might never lay hands on in my lifetime—just thinking about it made my head spin.
"Ari, I'll think about it positively for now. Thanks for telling me. I can take some time to consider, right?"
"Of course!"
They say it's good to know at least one civil servant.
You can get legal advice on all sorts of benefits, after all.
And they say it's good to know a doctor, too.
You can get advice about your health.
And Ari happened to be both a doctor and a civil servant.
"A doctor working at a public institution. You're a first-class candidate for a wife, you know."
Ah.
Was I not supposed to say things like that so freely these days?
Right as that thought crossed my mind, Ari, blushing, smacked my shoulder with her hand—paff!
"Hnngh, don't say things like that!"
She's embarrassed.
Even as she got older, this girl still had that fresh, schoolgirl side to her.
Of course, Oinoi still disliked Yu Ari.
"The nymph-hater must leave at once…! This Oinoi must go water the garden, but with a nymph-hater present, this Oinoi cannot even step out into the living room…!"
She cracked the door open slightly and growled with startling ill-grace.
Watching her, Yu Ari looked baffled.
"A nymph-hater? What does that mean?"
"Ah—it's nothing. Oinoi is scared of civil servants in uniform. She's scared of police and soldiers too."
When the Illuminator team from Telos raided the scene earlier and seized the cargo, Oinoi had completely fallen apart.
She'd been restless, fidgeting, trying to flee, the whole thing.
Oinoi had been scared of the police who arrived afterward, too, and the reason was this:
"When this Oinoi tried to eat fruit at the mart… the fearsome nymph-haters tried to seize this Oinoi…! This Oinoi has not forgotten… the terror of that day…!"
It was the first day Oinoi had slipped out of an Anomaly Rift and set foot in this world.
Hungry, Oinoi had wandered into a supermarket and helped herself to the fruit.
She had no concept of money back then, after all.
The police were dispatched, tried to apprehend her, and she bolted wildly until she ended up rummaging through trash cans near our house—or so the story went.
Being chased by the police back then had evidently been so traumatic that even now Oinoi feared and despised police officers and anyone else in uniform.
"They will surely ensnare this Oinoi in a net…! And they will surely sell this Oinoi at the market…! The police are surely nymph hunters…!"
I see.
That grudge is going to last a long, long time.
—Kwang-kwang…!
Then it happened.
Kwang-kwangi, who had been clinging to the ceiling, leaped down onto Yu Ari's head. Kwang-kwangi was shy around strangers—yet it approached a person first?
Had it taken a liking to simple, sweet Ari?
—Hio-ong…!
"Eep! What ish thish! Get it off! Kyaaak!"
But Ari panicked like she'd never panicked in her life.
Kwang-kwangi's ambush had landed perfectly.
Yu Ari rolled around on the floor, thrashing.
Kwang-kwangi, who loved warmth, burrowed right into Yu Ari's top.
And thanks to that, just above the belly button of Yu Ari's hiked-up shirt, a mark no bigger than a pinky nail—a tiny diamond shape—was visible.
Was that diamond-shaped mark the attunement engraving?
Minuscule, yet said to contain technology beyond all imagining?
Everyone got theirs in a different place, I heard.
So Ari's was above her belly button.
"……"
Anyway.
"Ahem, Kwang-kwangi, come here. You mustn't startle people. And Ari, this isn't me trying to touch you—I'm just getting Kwang-kwangi off you, so don't misunderstand."
—Hio-ong…!
Sshk—
I slipped my hand into Ari's clothes and grabbed the gaming spider Kwang-kwangi.
Kwang-kwangi seemed to be reflecting on its misdeeds, slumping into dejection, and only then did Yu Ari calm down, her face flushed, and clear her throat with an awkward ahem.
"What just happened… please forget it. It appeared without so much as a rustle… What is that thing? I've never seen an animal like it. A spider? Its colors are so… Where on earth did it come from…?"
"Really? So much that even your senses couldn't detect it? This is my new friend, Kwang-kwangi."
—Kwang-kwang…!
"Ah… Kwang-kwangi… it slipped past my perception entirely. That's very strange…."
Yu Ari was a Hyper-Sense ability user.
Didn't she see through everything around her?
She was so impressive that she could close her eyes and tell you how many mosquitoes were flying around a wide room and exactly where they'd landed.
Every time she woke from a nap to a mosquito whining in her ear and flicked on the light to hunt it down in seconds, I'd envied her ability.
Then, from the crack in the door, Oinoi grinned wickedly.
"Mwehehe—the Ghost Spider is a master of ambush…! It strikes from behind so the wicked nymph-hater never notices…! If you've learned your lesson, scurry off at once…!"
So that was the idea.
If it could evade even Yu Ari's senses, then the Ghost Spider Kwang-kwangi's stealth and ambush abilities could probably neutralize the senses of even a fairly capable detection-type awakener.
If I ever ran into that plague-doctor again, Kwang-kwangi might prove useful in a fight.