The Sync Rate Rose

"Was it the spit?"

Even after I got off work and lay down on the narrow bed in my one-room, that was all I could think about. The moment I set my eyes on the empty air, those familiar blue letters began to shimmer again.

The odds were extremely high. The system had opened the instant Seo Jia drank the coffee I'd spat into in a fit of irritation, and the alert that had called it biological information was far too blatant to write off as coincidence.

"Hmm..."

Naturally, the naked body of an ex-girlfriend from years ago rose in my mind. She'd worked as a nursing assistant — quiet by nature, and a completely different woman once she was in bed. Because of that, the whole time we were together we bit, sucked, and rolled around like maniacs without caring where we were.

I'd even figured that if she got pregnant we could just get married, so I hadn't bothered with contraception and had come inside her, bare, more times than I could count.

And when we were finished, as if by routine, I would feed her the thick semen.

"...But nothing happened back then, did it?"

No status window. No synchronization message. No inscrutable class called Maker.

"So what was different?"

Did that mean the ability didn't trigger just because my bodily fluids entered someone else's body? Or was it because I was Awakened?

"That doesn't seem right either..."

We'd broken up since, but even while I was dating her I was already the E-rank Polisher working at Daon. Which meant...

"Is the difference on her side?"

Once the thought got that far, a fairly convincing hypothesis took shape. My ex had been an ordinary person who knew nothing of mana. Seo Jia was a hunter who could wield magical power.

"Hsss..."

I shot upright and turned on the computer, then searched every keyword that came to mind — hunter reawakening, class change, unique class blooming, all of it. Nothing useful turned up.

Of course, there were occasional cases of lower-rank hunters accumulating long experience and advancing into higher classes. Combat classes into related higher combat lines. Production classes into a higher tier of production work. But no matter how thoroughly I dug through the hunter community, I couldn't find a single case of someone breaking out of the existing mold and changing into an entirely different class track the way I had.

Should I just ask outright?

After a brief hesitation, I logged into the hunter community. An anonymous board where you had to verify you were Awakened before you could post — in short, the hunters' version of Blind.

"......"

I deleted the post at once. I wasn't a god, and claiming I could see a person's potential sounded like nonsense even to me.

"What the hell is this, seriously..."

A class called Maker, sprung out of nowhere. A sync rate with Seo Jia of a mere 0.2 percent. And even with that pathetic figure, I could see straight through her potential and the equipment that suited her, down to the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠last detail. If the sync rate climbed any higher, I couldn't begin to guess how far I'd be able to see.

"Haa..."

When I shut the computer off, my face — twisted into something complicated — stared back from the black screen. Questions chased questions, and in the end I had to go to work after a sleepless night.

"Whoa, Assistant Manager Han. What's with that face?"

"...I didn't sleep well."

"Didn't you put away a serious amount last night? At this rate you'll drop dead before the world does, you idiot."

"As if. Even so, I've got at least six more years in me."

At my comeback, the team leader snickered and turned his eyes back to the paperwork. I was roughly rubbing my tired eyes, just about to tie on my work apron.

The workshop door cracked open with a creak.

"Assistant Manager Han."

A familiar voice. The moment I turned and saw who it was, my heart dropped even though I hadn't done anything wrong.

Seo Jia. She gave the takeout coffee carrier in her hand a light shake.

"Wow... you look exhausted. Have a cup of this before you start."

A cold iced Americano landed on my desk with a soft thunk.

"...Is this mine?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

In five years at Daon, this had never happened once. At the words that slipped out of me, Seo Jia's feline eyes narrowed just a fraction.

"Am I not allowed to buy you one?"

"No, it's not that."

It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠probably wasn't intentional, but Seo Jia making my life difficult had been a fact of life right up until yesterday. They say when a person suddenly starts doing things they've never done, it means their time is up...

Is this the sync rate too?

I was thinking that, about to get to work, when Seo Jia's eyes showed no sign of leaving me.

"Why are you staring like that?"

"It's nothing."

"......"

Then, her own coffee in hand, she leaned at an angle against the far side of my workbench. On any other day she would have dumped the job on me and left without a backward glance, but today she didn't look like she meant to go anywhere. She seemed to have something to say, so I set my tools down and looked at her.

"Assistant Manager."

"...Yes."

"What did you do to my sword yesterday?"

The other shoe, at last — and my heart thudded down with it. I did my best to look unbothered, took a sip of coffee, and answered.

"I just changed the setup a little."

"The setup...?"

"Yes. I changed the grip and the center of balance, and I touched the gear's internal circuit output a bit too."

"How?"

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

The way she picked at every detail made it plain something had happened yesterday. I set the plastic cup down and said it flatly.

"I lowered the output."

"...You lowered it?"

Seo Jia's eyes went round. It was the reaction I'd expected — the exact opposite of the usual fix. So I asked first.

"Your records."

"Pardon?"

"Yesterday's training record. Did it drop a lot?"

At the question, Seo Jia flinched and looked at me.

"...How did you know?"

"Because you came looking for me like this in the morning. I figured if the sword's balance suited you, the record would have improved along with it."

"Ah..."

Seo Jia nodded as if that finally made sense, then held up her slender fingers.

"It dropped by 4.7 seconds."

Insane.

I'd barely touched the thing, and the record fell that far? I was startled on the inside, but I still didn't let it show, sipping my coffee. Seo Jia, on the other hand, looked thoroughly thrilled.

"It was really strange. Normally, when I face the second golem, the sword follows just a hair late, you know? But yesterday it felt stuck right to my hand."

"I see."

On any other day she was the kind of woman who would have lobbed a few complaints and demanded I recut it to her taste. Now she was spilling every sensation and experience she'd felt, in exhaustive detail, right in front of me. My gaze drifted, naturally, to the space above her.

Aside from the equipment compatibility that had risen after passing through my hands yesterday, not a single number had changed. Maybe that was why the other entries caught my eye.

Potential and growth compatibility... Is that something I can touch too?

The moment the curiosity flashed through my head, a new system line rose in front of my eyes.

Ah... so this still doesn't work.

That, I could accept. Seeing every piece of a hunter's information off a sync rate of 0.2% was absurd even to me. No — just being able to see whether the equipment setup was right was already an impossible ability.

That was when it happened. As if she'd felt my gaze, Seo Jia narrowed her brows.

"Why are you staring at my face again?"

"No, I was just..."

I slipped my eyes away and turned the subject quickly.

"I was wondering if anything else you mentioned yesterday still felt uncomfortable."

"Something uncomfortable?"

"Yes."

I meant to check, without giving the Maker ability away, whether there was anything else I could naturally improve. Five years as a Polisher. Packaging it as advice drawn from experience and instinct wouldn't have been hard. But...

"......"

Nothing to improve, it said. Seo Jia's equipment compatibility had only just cleared halfway — a mere 53%.

Current stage? Is it a sync-rate problem?

It clearly meant there was still plenty of room left to raise it, and yet I couldn't see any of it.

"I think I'm fine."

Oblivious to what was going on inside me, Seo Jia looked quite satisfied.

"If you keep setting it the way you did yesterday, that should be enough. At first I thought it felt a little awkward, but once I actually got into training and swung it, it was much more comfortable."

"Even so, it still won't be a perfect fit for you."

"What? This much seems like plenty to me."

Yeah. No.

You're still only at 53% equipment compatibility.

And even that had made the training record improve sharply. So what if I could push the compatibility higher still? From the standpoint of someone who handled hunter equipment, I couldn't help being dying to know what kind of result would come of it.

"Anyway."

Seo Jia went on, smiling.

"If the record drops again at this afternoon's training, I'll really admit it's thanks to you, Assistant Manager Han."

"...You already said with your own mouth that it dropped."

"One time could be a coincidence."

"You're awfully particular."

"Hunters have to be particular if they want to live long."

Offering a plausible excuse, Seo Jia thoughtlessly picked up the coffee sitting on my workbench. Then she caught the straw between her lips and took a hard pull.

"......"

I looked from the cup in her hand to her lips and back. Feeling my gaze, Seo Jia seemed to notice something was off a moment too late and lowered her eyes. The two coffees she'd bought — and of the two, her own sat perfectly untouched on the far side of the bench.

"Uh..."

"That's the one I was drinking."

At that indifferent line, Seo Jia's face went stiff as stone. My straw was still caught between her full lips.

"Ah— aah...!"

Startled, she yanked her mouth off the straw.

"I-I'm sorry! I thought it was mine, and before I knew it...!"

"Well, it happens."

I answered offhand, without much thought. We were both a little old to make a fuss over something that small... That was when it happened.

"I-I'm really sorry. I'll go buy you a new one."

"No. It's fine..."

"No! I drank the wrong one, so I really am sorry!"

She was flustered far beyond the usual Seo Jia. Then, face flushed red all the way to her ears, she snatched up her own coffee and fled the workshop in a rush.

"What's with Hunter Seo Jia?"

Team Leader Park, who'd been watching the whole thing from beyond his monitor, asked with a grin.

"...She drank my coffee by mistake. I think it startled her."

"Yeah? Even my kid doesn't care about stuff like that. Don't tell me that was Hunter Seo Jia's first kiss."

"Not a chance."

I let out a short breath of a laugh and let the team leader's empty joke pass. Hunter Seo Jia, at her age.

Then I looked at my coffee — the one she'd grabbed by mistake and set back down. A faint lipstick mark remained on the tip of the clear straw.

It really went up.

Zero point one percent. A figure so slight it might as well not exist. But I had seen, with my own two eyes, the message that the sync rate had definitely risen.

The first time, coffee I'd spat into. This time, a straw I'd put my mouth to and sucked. One thing in common: my saliva had gone into Seo Jia.

"...Interesting."

I felt like I could see ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what it took to raise the sync rate tied to Maker.