The Lightning Sword's Offer
"I'm... um..."
Baek Hwayeon couldn't bring herself to answer easily.
She was short on money, but she hadn't been the one who took down the gnoll.
I found the whole display a little absurd.
If it wasn't her business, she could just refuse firmly and be done with it. Please, worry about things actually worth worrying about.
Just how desperate was her family for cash that she'd waver at an offer this ridiculous?
I was thoroughly pissed.
Not because of Baek Hwayeon's hesitation. That part was merely absurd.
What really got under my skin was Park Yuri brazenly trying to snatch one of my teammates right in front of me.
Transcendents and Awoken weren't so different after all. Both equally short on manners.
"I'm sorry, but I'll have to decline."
I narrowed my eyes as I spoke.
Park Yuri looked me up and down.
"Civilians stay out of this. Thinking you can do whatever you want just because you signed a contract with an Awoken is a mistake."
"I don't think that at all. You're the one who shouldn't act so rudely just because you're a Transcendent. Like a child."
"What?"
"Isn't that right? I'm sitting right here as the team leader, and you're trying to poach my teammate... Are you always this rude?"
My words flustered the colonel more than Park Yuri.
Park Yuri remained calm and expressionless. The colonel, though he didn't address me directly, slammed the table with a sharp thud in anger.
Startled, I shifted my gaze. When our eyes met, he finally opened his tightly shut mouth.
"This is why you money-grubbing corporate types... Hey, you. Do you think the Transcendent is joking around right now!? You people love money, don't you? Don't you know you won't earn a single coin of that money if the country falls? Didn't you see the Cheonji-dong incident? How many soldiers and Awoken sacrificed themselves there—"
Park Yuri raised a hand.
The colonel's rant cut off, and she continued.
"I lost many comrades there. That's why I'm putting a team back together. Especially talented ones I plan to train myself. This won't be a bad deal for you, and I intend to give your company sufficient compensation, so don't worry. Isn't this a decent offer?"
There was no point in me answering this. It had to look like Baek Hwayeon was choosing for herself.
I quietly turned my head toward her. She nodded back, understanding the situation.
"I'm truly sorry. I must decline..."
"Why?"
"I like this team... I like the team with the team leader in it..."
"That might just be because you're still a rookie. You haven't experienced other teams yet, have you? All the supporters on my team are Awoken. Of course, they're lacking in talent and mana for Awoken, but it's on a completely different level from civilian support. They can carry more luggage faster without getting tired. If you want, I can even assign you a personal supporter."
Bang!
A sudden roar shook the room. The table she'd slammed vibrated as if it would shatter—and actually cracked.
The one who'd carelessly used mana in this situation, in this place, was none other than Kim Isol.
Oh my god... So it finally came to this.
"I've heard enough... This is why all Transcendents need to die..."
Huh? Transcendents? Why?
Please explain yourself, Miss Kim Isol.
Don't tell me you're thinking of picking a fight with Miss Park Yuri?
Just because I boosted your mana a little yesterday, aren't you getting a bit too arrogant?
She's a Transcendent! A Transcendent!
I looked up in panic at Kim Isol, who had been sitting beside me and suddenly stood.
She was seething, breathing hard through clenched teeth. I hadn't checked her expression at all since Park Yuri entered the building, but it seemed she'd been thoroughly furious from the start.
Her next words confirmed it.
"You people lure others like that and end up getting them killed. Just because you're a Transcendent!?"
"What... are you talking about?"
"I'm saying don't make promises you can't keep! You're planning to take her away like that, work her to death, and get her killed!"
I had no idea what Kim Isol was talking about.
Work her to death and get her killed? Who? Baek Hwayeon?
Had she heard some bad rumors about Transcendents?
No—more than that. Was she really this warm-hearted person who cared so much about her teammates?
Park Yuri stared blankly at Kim Isol without the slightest change in expression.
"I have no idea what you're suddenly talking about."
"Don't cause a ruckus so rudely in front of the Transcendent! She's not someone you can casually converse with."
"Hmph. She's just a bit stronger. In the end, she's just another Awoken, right?"
I grabbed the standing Kim Isol by the pants and yanked her down.
Stop it and please just sit.
When I looked up at her with a frowning face, she plopped down noisily with her arms crossed. She was following my words, but her anger hadn't subsided even a little.
"I'm sorry. She's always been a bit hot-tempered."
The still-expressionless Park Yuri gave no reply. Like the colonel, this woman was a true poker face. I couldn't read even a hint of emotion.
"Then, since we only came because we were called, may we leave now? I heard you've already finished clearing the dungeon interior... and regarding the offer you made, we're declining..."
"Hmm... Can't be helped. Fine for now. If something comes up, we'll contact you later. We have a mountain of work to do. Um... is that alright with you, Transcendent?"
"Yes. It can't be helped."
Park Yuri only used honorifics with the colonel.
Even if I was younger than her, couldn't she speak a bit more politely to me too?
My first impression of her was a mess. So what if she had insane potential and already reigned as a world-renowned powerhouse? She had no manners toward me.
I felt like stripping her mana right then and there, but the colonel's words had a point. Without her, not just Cheonji-dong last weekend but all of Seoul might have been wiped out.
As a Seoul resident, I should be grateful, but...
Ah, whatever. I just wanted to go home already.
"Then we'll be going."
I took my teammates and left the stifling atmosphere of the management office.
I wanted to copy a Transcendent's abilities, but would the day ever come when I achieved a 100% Synchronization Rate with that expressionless Park Yuri?
Probably not until the sky split in two.
Having such excellent abilities right in front of me... What a waste. What a waste.
I smacked my lips for no reason and asked something I was curious about.
"Miss Kim Isol."
"What..."
"Why did you do that earlier? She's a Transcendent! If she got even a little angry, she'd cut us all down in a single stroke."
"Hmph. Like she'd do that? If she were that kind of bitch, she wouldn't be affiliated with the military."
Her head was working pretty well today. What was going on.
"Anyway, I saw you in a new light today. I never expected that Miss Isol would think of Miss Baek Hwayeon and her teammates that way."
"Who's thinking what! That wasn't what I meant!"
"I know. Of course I know."
I stroked Kim Isol's head. It was the first skinship and expression of praise in front of the others.
But she strongly rejected it like an angry cat.
"Ah, I said nooo!"
And so our Daejeon expedition came to an end.
It was time to return to Seoul. And tomorrow, I had to go to work at the company again.
Thursday.
Today was the day for our company's C-Team meeting, and I was attending as well. The reason was obviously because of what happened on the Daejeon expedition.
All our team's Awoken were resting at home. Lucky bastards.
Last Tuesday, I'd only attended the afternoon F-Team meeting. But today, I got permission to sit through the entire general meeting from start to finish.
It was quite a useful time, being able to hear the back-and-forth between various senior teams live.
Department Head Im spoke.
"I hear C-rank dungeons are hot these days because of orcs. How is it?"
"Yes. Orcs are running wild again on the Endless Plains."
"So? Is that all you have to say?"
"W-well, if you just give us the chance, we'd like to head that way too... But I hear the competition is fierce."
Orcs all wore equipment. Iron weapons packed with mana, leather armor, even horned helmets. That meant there was a lot to scavenge as loot. Naturally, companies of all kinds flocked there, and if you were even a little late to the free-for-all, you'd only get to look at corpses.
"Confident?"
"Of course."
"Hmm... Are the Awoken willing to go?"
"With all that money to make, why would they hate it... However..."
The Endless Plains were absurdly vast, true to the name. With so many companies gathering, it was natural that orcs near the gate would be wiped out. I heard you needed to travel inside the dungeon for at least two days just to see an orc. So it was a long-term expedition lasting at least a week or more. The risk was also on the high side.
People collectively called the spaces beyond gates "dungeons," but facing such a vast space felt like setting foot in a world completely different from Earth. Actually, that was true of other dungeons too. The only difference was size—large or small.
That's why gates used to be called dimensional doors. Some scientists even called them wormholes, saying they led to planets beyond the universe. But nothing had been properly revealed yet. It was just an unknown space.
"Alright, next is Kang Junghyeok. Let's hear about what happened in Daejeon."
I spilled almost everything that had happened, excluding the secret of my and my teammates' strength.
Just looking at the quantity and quality of loot obtained from the stingrays, it should have been chaos. But on top of hunting C-rank monsters—gnolls—there were a full sixty scimitars. We'd brought out that much from just a two-day expedition.
The C-Team leaders attending the meeting all wore faces of disbelief.
"Department Head. Can we really believe everything that guy's saying?"
"Then what? Sixty scimitars actually came into the company. If it's a lie, where did all these scimitars come from? Did Kang Junghyeok pour hundreds of millions of his own money into buying them just to inflate his team's performance? Would you have done that?"
"Ah, no. It's just such an unbelievable story..."
"I feel the same. Sixty scimitars... Our team could manage it, but isn't Team Leader Kang's team F-Team? This is only their third expedition, right?"
"Yes. Third."
"See that, Department Head? In this situation, just because he brought scimitars, can we believe what Team Leader Kang is saying?"
"That's why I said he shows talent, didn't I? At the last meeting, if we'd sent that Baek Hwayeon girl to our C-Team instead of D-Team, she would have gladly accepted, wouldn't she? She refused because you insisted on sending a talented friend to D-Team."
The topic suddenly shifted to Baek Hwayeon. Wondering what this was about, I listened...
"Hmm... The government is requesting with double the penalty fee, so we can't refuse. If the Awoken herself refuses, then we'd have something to say on our end..."
At the department head's words, every gaze focused on me.
"You don't need to worry about Miss Baek Hwayeon. She said she'd never join a team without me."
"What?"
"Haha, what's this, Kang Junghyeok. Dating or something?"
"It's nothing like that, but though it's a bit awkward to say myself, my evaluation among the teammates is quite good."
"Is that so? That's welcome news to hear."
"While we're at it, put Team Leader Kang under me as an assistant and send Baek Hwayeon to our C-Team, Department Head!"
They were having a blast among themselves.
Says who?
By the way, the government side had already sent a scout offer for Baek Hwayeon to the company?
That bitch Park Yuri—I couldn't just leave her be. How dare she eye what's mine.
Looks like she still hadn't heard the news about the Awoken who tried to take what's mine, lost their mana, and ended up in the hospital?
Though in reality, no one had heard about that...
Anyway. There was no way my kids would betray me and leave. And I had no intention of going under the seniors' teams as an assistant either.
So speak well, Department Head Im. How much money did I bring into the company this week alone.
"Team Leader Kang. What are your thoughts?"
"Exactly about what? If you're asking whether I'd go as a C-Team assistant, not even a little."
"Not that—about Baek Hwayeon. We can't keep her on F-Team forever, can we?"
I finally felt the time had come.
"Trust me and have all our team members take the D-rank Awoken license test. I stake my name on it that they'll pass."
"What? Not just Baek Hwayeon, but everyone?"
"Yes! And if everyone passes, will you promote our team straight to D-Team!?"
I had no intention of staying on F-Team forever. Of course, I didn't plan to stay long at this company either, but since I didn't have the money to leave and start a company right away, first let's rise to D-rank.
And while at the company, I needed to have the kids take the license tests so the test fees would be covered. Those were pretty expensive in their own right.