Lights Out
Over the past six hours of waiting, I'd gathered all sorts of information.
The trailer owned by Diamond Guild had not only equipment but a makeshift shower facility installed as well. I'd heard that after an expedition, Diamond Guild's Awoken would roughly rinse themselves off when stripping out of their suits in the trailer, then head somewhere like a sauna afterward.
So I'd given the middle-aged civil servant a heads-up in advance.
"When the rescue team comes out later, please guide them straight to the shower room. No matter how cramped it is, the shower room inside the management building is better than doing it in the trailer."
The middle-aged civil servant said he would have done that even if I hadn't specifically asked.
There was only one shower booth installed in the trailer. To cut down on time, some of the rescue team members would end up using the management office's shower room anyway—and for my plan to work, Min Hyeokju had to be that person.
Min Hyeokju, who didn't give a damn about seniority and insisted on washing first. The opportunity arrived so quickly that all my fretting seemed ridiculous. The situation unfolded so naturally that Min Hyeokju headed for the shower room inside the management building.
I quietly tailed after him.
"Hey, where are you going?"
But of all people, that woman from earlier called out to me. I had no choice but to brush her off with a rough lie.
"Ah, my stomach hurts. Aren't you busy? Your company's people just came pouring out."
"Ah... yeah. I am busy."
She seemed offended, spun on her heel, and left.
What's her problem? I'm the one who's busy as hell.
After confirming she was heading in a different direction from me, I hurried to the room with the shower. Hearing the sound of water already coming from inside, it seemed Min Hyeokju had gone in still wearing his suit, just like me.
It was much easier to take off than a one-piece C-rank suit, but A-rank suits were also the tight, skin-clinging style, so fully stripping would take about thirty seconds. And no matter how short the shower, it'd be at least a minute. Minimum estimate: one minute thirty seconds. I had to settle this within that window.
I'd already broken the lock on the shower room door.
I immediately contacted Senior Kim Chan-il, asking him to carry out what I'd requested earlier—and as fast as possible. I was just waiting for my senior to finish the job I'd asked of him.
My heart was pounding. I'd given him the signal before entering the building, so why was this bastard of a senior taking so long? Every second felt like my blood was drying up. My mouth was parched dry.
Flash!
Finally, my senior completed what I'd asked. Min Hyeokju, showering inside, let out a stream of curses.
"What the fuck is this all of a sudden? Why'd it go pitch black? Huh?"
Power outage. The shower water was still running, but because of the blackout, he wouldn't be able to see a thing.
I'd begged and pleaded with my senior beforehand to cut the power to the management building at the exact timing I wanted. Over six hours, I'd planned out the locations, routes, and ways to avoid being noticed by others. The hardest part had actually been persuading my senior—but since he didn't seem like someone who'd lived a particularly virtuous life, money ended up solving everything.
I'd told him I'd explain later why I was doing this, so now I needed to think of some excuse...
Anyway, my senior had cut the power to the management building as requested, and now it was my turn to move. I shouted in a different voice—one I'd recorded on my smartphone several times and practiced by replaying it.
"I'm sorry, Awoken-nim. I'm a management office staff member, and it seems there's a power outage. We'll fix it right away, so please don't worry. This happens often."
"I got it, so just hurry up and fix it!"
What a temper.
"About that—it seems there's an electrical short in the shower room. Please turn off the shower and stay still. There's a risk of electric shock."
He was ranting and cursing up a storm inside, so bad it was hard to listen to with a clear head.
"Then I'll come in and take a quick look before leaving."
Barely getting permission, I opened the shower room door. I'd covered both the shower room window and the window of the connected room with thick cloth. No light was seeping in, so nothing could be confirmed. Min Hyeokju would never realize who I was.
I carefully entered the shower room. I pretended to check something with my smartphone's flashlight, then headed back toward the entrance. Figuring out an escape route first—that was a criminal's iron rule. I was feeling that thrilling tension like I'd become a thief. Since I'd simulated several times beforehand so the smartphone light wouldn't reveal my face, there was probably no chance of being caught.
"Check complete. Now I'll go out and restore the power. I'm truly sorry."
"Shut up! Just hurry and turn the power back on!"
Yammer all you want.
I smiled secretly in the darkness and pointed my smartphone's flashlight at Min Hyeokju's face. He threw another fit about how bright it was. I ignored that appropriately and casually reached out my hand. My fingertips briefly brushed somewhere on Min Hyeokju's arm.
That brief moment. That was enough.
OFF
I turned right around and exited the shower room.
Your life as an Awoken ends here. Go fall into the abyss and feel the despair, you bastard.
Sensing something abnormal in his body's change, he was noisily ranting about something inside the shower room, so I shouted one line back—something like, "Did you get electrocuted? Stay still like that. It's dangerous."
I snickered inwardly as I slipped out of the room. Then I headed straight for the bathroom and called my senior to tell him he could flip the breaker back on now.
Outside, I acted as if nothing had happened. The lights at the management office entrance and such had all gone out, so the people outside had also noticed the power outage. But since the power came back on in less than a minute, they were acting as if nothing had happened.
And in reality, nothing had happened. Except for one person.
My senior approached me. He muttered about why I'd made him do this, whether I was really giving five hundred thousand won for something this minor, and that if I'd committed some weird crime, I'd have to take responsibility alone.
I whispered into that senior's ear that if he kept blabbing like that he'd get caught, and if he got caught the five hundred thousand won would be null and void.
A mere five hundred thousand won. Well, right now it was money I'd have to work myself to death for several days to earn, but still—just five hundred. With a mere five hundred thousand won, Senior Kim and my positions had flipped like this. Because he was my mentor, between the two of us the senior had always looked down on me, but that unchanging relationship had been overturned by a mere five hundred.
Is this what they call insubordination? No—the relationship between the former Awoken Min Hyeokju and me might actually be closer to insubordination.
"Whew~"
Anyway, I'm too exhausted. Why is it so draining just to send off one unlucky bastard. I want to run to the shower room right now and stomp him, that piece of trash—but I can't let it slip that I know he's become a civilian. It was a subtle feeling, like some stress had been relieved yet something was still lacking.
"Hmm..."
This ability I'd come to possess didn't seem suitable for using this way going forward. Rather, as I'd thought, it seemed far more useful for taking Awoken with excellent potential, growing them, and making them my allies.
Currently, the horses I had were Baek Hwayeon and Lee Donggeul. I'd already sent Kim Isol off, and Jang Yong was a guy so pass. But would Kim Isol and Baek Hwayeon grow well like I thought? Those two seemed to have some issues somewhere—mentally, or maybe intellectually. And just those two alone was far from enough. To at least sweep through C-rank dungeons, I'd probably need to go around and expand my network of female Awoken here and there.
Yeah. Using the supporter company's authority to sit in on Academy classes and snatch up young kids with overflowing potential in advance...
Ah, that might be a bit problematic. First, the company pull wouldn't work, and the sponsorship money was also an issue. Competition with big corporations would be fierce too. Then the most urgent priority was still making money, and for that I needed to grow Lee Donggeul and Baek Hwayeon again.
"Ugh... it's not like a squirrel running on a wheel..."
Let's stop thinking about this today. Isn't it a happy day? Didn't I successfully get refreshing revenge on that bastard Min Hyeokju? What kind of expression would Shin Haneul make when she saw Min Hyeokju who'd lost his ability. I needed to confirm those two's miserable states with my own two eyes. It's just a bit regrettable that I can't.
The surroundings gradually grew quieter. It seemed the rescue team leader's interview was proceeding, and as soon as it ended the reporters dispersed. Just in case, I took my senior and avoided places where I might run into Min Hyeokju. Actually I wanted to properly confirm the despairing bastard's face, but safety first. Since he was famous, if something changed the rumors would spread quickly. Just checking the rescue team departing tomorrow morning would let me confirm what had become of him.
My senior and I contacted the company and reported that the rescue team had come out empty-handed. Department Head Im, who still hadn't left work and had been waiting only for our call at the company, said the company would cover the costs so we should stay at a nearby hotel.
Not something to be happy about. It meant come wait in front of the gate again tomorrow.
"Fuck. Tomorrow's Saturday."
"What can you do. Just think of it as going on an expedition."
"If it were a long expedition, at least the next break would be a long vacation. We have to go to work on Monday."
"This isn't the time to worry about that. If the company goes under, do you have somewhere else to go?"
Certainly... I didn't know about my senior, but for me with zero results so far, going to another company wouldn't be easy. Since I was young, I'd hear "go find some other job" until my ears grew calluses. Even successfully getting hired at this company had been tremendous luck.
"And think about Team Leader An Sora or Kim Miyeon who are inside the dungeon."
Yeah, this wasn't a situation to be smiling about. Senior An was always a senior I wanted to work with. The chances of that had become slim once I became a team leader. And Ms. Kim Miyeon was my entry cohort colleague, but only I had become a team leader, so it always weighed on my mind.
"But what about our car that got wrecked?"
"How should I know. Diamond will compensate or something."
While exchanging a few more meaningless words like that, the call taxi arrived, and we were about to head into downtown Suwon. But someone grabbed my clothes.
"Whoa—!"
I spun around in shock, thinking it might be Min Hyeokju.
"Kang Junghyeok-ssi. What crime did you commit? Why are you so startled?"
Standing there was a woman. The cigarette-smoking, manual-obsessed woman from Diamond Guild I'd talked with earlier. The words describing her had multiplied like this, yet I still didn't even know her name.
"I waited but you didn't react at all, so I came to talk first. Our company people are on standby in Suwon today. Same for you, right, Junghyeok-ssi?"
"Ah... yes."
"Then how about we have dinner together?"
"What?"
"Why so surprised! Let's eat together."
I was flustered by the sudden situation, not knowing what to do. I'd thought she was cute for a moment, sure, but a sudden date invitation? I was conscious of Senior Kim standing next to me for no reason. But my senior had enough sense to climb into the call taxi and say to me,
"I'll grab a room first and send you the location... You know our company is too poor to get separate rooms, right? If you're sleeping somewhere else, that means you pay for it. Anyway, I'm going, so play moderately. You lucky bastard."
My senior just took the taxi alone and left. Because of the emergency situation, the civil servants had all gone into the management building for standby, and people from other companies had already all left. The only ones left in this place were me, this woman, and the wrecked cars.
"Sorry. My senior's a bit mischievous."
"It's fine. We're not kids, that level of joke is okay. Actually, the things you said to me earlier were much worse."
.
What did I say again? Ah—that thing about why she was groping her chest after seeing me naked?
A snicker burst out of me, and the woman in front of me looking at me started laughing along. At first she'd given a cold impression, but now she was showing quite a variety of expressions. I found this situation unfamiliar and awkward, wondering what to do, then said we should get out of here first.
"Um... should I call a taxi?"
"No. Let's just walk a bit. Suwon isn't the countryside, so if we walk a little a taxi will come."
And so we started walking. And still, I didn't even know the name of the woman walking beside me.