Face to Face
Jeon Dok-jin was the strongest man in the National Safety Group.
Excluding Kang Jung-gil, of course.
Among the Awakeners of the National Safety Group, none could surpass Jeon Dok-jin. That alone placed him firmly among the considerably powerful as an Awakener. The fact that someone could crush and oppress him with mere presence was nothing short of a profound shock.
Even so... I will not kneel...!
There had been moments when rebel forces surrounded him and he nearly died. Even then, Jeon Dok-jin never gave up; he survived and fought his way out. He was a man tempered on those battlefields. Even in the days before he became an Awakener, he had been a human weapon.
“D-Director!”
When that powerful aura suppressed Jeon Dok-jin, the 15th Combat Unit Captain and the National Safety Group Awakeners watching were startled. Yet they could not step forward—the overwhelming presence pouring from Im Seong-woo’s body as he pressed Jeon Dok-jin was simply too much. It raised goosebumps. Tremendous power flooded the surroundings, crushing Jeon Dok-jin beneath it.
Wh-what tremendous power!
An aura like this!
I-I can’t believe it...!
Every Awakener of the 15th Combat Unit wore a look of pure shock. The other guild Awakeners watching from a distance were no different. Even separated by space, they could still feel the aura being unleashed.
“Grrrk...!”
Jeon Dok-jin clenched his teeth hard. His whole body trembled. His face flushed crimson, veins bulging. His eyes were bloodshot; he looked ready to collapse at any second. That mighty force kept grinding him down.
I... will not... submit!
He resisted to the very end, refusing to yield. How long that struggle lasted, he could not say. Then, in a single instant, the intense aura that had overwhelmed his entire body vanished.
“Haaah!.. Hah!... Haaaah!.... Haaaaah!”
As if a noose had been cut from his throat, Jeon Dok-jin dragged in great, ragged breaths.
“Deputy Director!”
The 15th Combat Unit Captain rushed forward and supported him. At that moment a group of people came running from the far side.
“Protect the Deputy Director!”
In a flash the newcomers formed ranks around Jeon Dok-jin and drew their weapons.
“Are you all right, Deputy Director?”
“Haaah... hah... Even the 14th Combat Unit Captain... is here...?”
“We heard the news and came at once.”
One look at Jeon Dok-jin’s labored breathing told them something serious had just occurred.
“What bastards are running wild in this place!”
The 14th Combat Unit Captain glared ahead and roared. Jeon Dok-jin raised a hand to stop him.
“Th-that’s enough... I’m... fine, so... stop.”
At the Deputy Director’s restraint, the 14th Combat Unit Captain—still radiating killing intent—took a single step back without dropping his guard. The air itself felt like the instant before a battle erupted. Yet Im Seong-woo, standing opposite Jeon Dok-jin, remained perfectly calm.
“As expected of the Deputy Director of the National Safety Group. The fact that you refused to collapse and resisted to the end is worthy of high praise.”
Im Seong-woo meant every word. Since the day he first awakened until this very moment, he had never seen anyone properly withstand his aura and refuse to submit. Among every Awakener who had tasted even a fraction of his true nature while he founded Cheonseong Guild and built its power, not one had failed to bow his head. The subordinates standing with him now were no exception; when shown even a portion of the power he possessed, they had eventually abandoned resistance and yielded.
But this man—look at Jeon Dok-jin, Deputy Director of the National Safety Group. The unyielding spirit with which he fought to the last drew genuine admiration for the tenacity and mettle he carried.
“I find myself coveting you. When I see talent like yours, I get the urge to bring you into our Cheonseong Guild.”
“That’s... nonsense... and you know it well yourself... Hooo...”
Im Seong-woo nodded without argument. He understood perfectly: a man like this would die before he ever submitted under force.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
Having steadied his breathing somewhat, Jeon Dok-jin fixed Im Seong-woo with a hard stare.
“I’ll give you one more chance.”
He raised a hand.
“Three people. Exactly three. Including myself and the two team leaders standing behind me—only three will join as observers. I’ll give you ten minutes. I hope a satisfactory answer arrives within that time.”
Then he turned and withdrew.
“......”
Jeon Dok-jin watched him go in silence.
“This absolutely cannot be overlooked. Even if it is the Cheonseong Group, this is unacceptable!”
Having been briefed on what had just occurred, the 14th Combat Unit Captain raised his voice. The act was an open insult to the National Safety Group.
“But it was incredible. Someone who could suppress the Deputy Director with aura alone...”
At the 15th Combat Unit Captain’s bitter remark, the 14th gritted his teeth. He too had felt that mighty presence while rushing over after the report. He had assumed a real clash had taken place—yet it had not. The aura belonged to Im Seong-woo alone. That realization struck hard.
The National Safety Group fielded as many as five hundred Awakeners, organized by rank and system. The 15th and 14th Combat Units ranked among the lowest combat formations. Even so, the two captains themselves held the 16th and 17th places within the entire organization. From third through seventeenth, every ranking Awakener wore a captain’s insignia.
Then who held second place?
None other than Jeon Dok-jin.
And first place...
“Deputy Director, what will you do?”
“This isn’t something I can settle on my own. I need to make a call.”
...was Kang Jung-gil.
“Executive Director, do you think those people will accept?”
“If they refuse, what can those nobodies do? The National Safety Group? I could finish that so-called Deputy Director myself.”
The two men fuming at Im Seong-woo’s side were both team leaders of Cheonseong Guild—Seo Gang-jae and Lee Seok-pil.
“Both of you, calm down. That man withstood Hyung-nim’s aura without submitting even while it crushed him. You’ve felt it yourselves—Hyung-nim can subdue opponents with presence alone. The fact that he refused to yield under that pressure is praiseworthy enough.”
“But, Vice Guild Leader, even so...”
The man addressed as Vice Guild Leader was a rough-bearded figure with prominent cheekbones named Park Chang-jun. Though he looked to be in his late thirties, he was actually three years younger than Im Seong-woo, who was only thirty. He was one of the confidants Im Seong-woo had personally raised during his early company years, and now he stood at his side as an Awakener. Having founded Cheonseong Guild together and laid its foundations, Park Chang-jun served as confidant, closest aide, and younger-brother figure.
As Vice Guild Leader he still did not know exactly how strong team leaders Seo Gang-jae or Lee Seok-pil were, yet it was clear he ranked second only to Im Seong-woo and surpassed the men chosen as team leaders. Cheonseong Guild currently fielded three team leaders. Seo Gang-jae and Lee Seok-pil had once been guild masters of Seogang Guild and Privilege Guild respectively—both outfits active in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. After witnessing Im Seong-woo’s true nature they submitted, entered Cheonseong Guild, and naturally took team-leader posts while their members became team members. Each had led a guild of fifty and fifty-four, not insignificant numbers, and both had made names for themselves in Gangbuk-gu. Former guild masters, they still carried considerable pride.
“Chang-jun is right. Jeon Dok-jin is worthy of recognition. The mettle to endure to the end even while crushed by my aura is, as I said on the spot, enough that I would want to scout him and bring him over.”
More than that, through Jeon Dok-jin, Im Seong-woo found himself reassessing the National Safety Group itself. He had dismissed it as a hastily assembled government response team for Awakeners. Seeing a man like Jeon Dok-jin as Deputy Director erased that notion. An organization led by such a person could not be treated as a makeshift unit.
One question naturally followed.
He possesses the mettle to lead an organization. That a man like him remains Deputy Director means...
Curiosity about Kang Jung-gil, Director of the National Safety Group, rose unbidden. An Ordinary Superhuman—he had risen to the ranks of superhumans as an ordinary person, not an Awakener, and claimed the title of The Absolute. Im Seong-woo had researched him thoroughly, yet questions lingered. Could an ordinary person truly be that strong? Moreover, the realm Im Seong-woo himself had reached as an Awakener was so high that even he could not fully gauge his own strength. When he first stepped into Awakening and passed through that process, he had felt a genuine thrill. Though Awakeners claimed the differences among them were hard to measure, he had known he was special. He had clearly experienced that the power Awakeners wielded—the source called Psychic Energy—was what allowed humans to transcend their limits.
Yet Kang Jung-gil was said to be an ordinary man who could not handle Psychic Energy at all. How such a person could display divine might against Awakeners remained an unsolved riddle. It could not simply be dismissed as a lie, either: in a time of national chaos he had appeared, single-handedly subdued, and arrested the most notorious Awakeners of the day. As a result he gained immense renown and the title of The Absolute—the one who made even Awakeners submit.
The Absolute. How grandiose a title, especially while Im Seong-woo himself existed. Of course, before he had appeared as an Awakener the claim might have held weight. But so long as he lived, it was an empty name. More importantly, the consensus held that the Awakeners active in that chaotic period were inferior to those of the present. After investigating, Im Seong-woo had gauged their skills and concluded they were roughly equal to—or weaker than—the two team leaders standing here, Seo Gang-jae and Lee Seok-pil. In other words, even if Park Chang-jun had gone out instead of himself, the feat would have been entirely possible. His conclusion had been simple: The Absolute Kang Jung-gil was no match for him.
Yet today, after witnessing Jeon Dok-jin, he had no choice but to reconsider. Seating a man of that caliber as Deputy Director could not be dismissed as mere renown gained at a convenient time. Above all, rising to the ranks of superhumans as an ordinary person... that certainly stirred curiosity.
“What’s going on?”
“I have a matter I need to consult with you about, Director.”
“What is it?”
Jeon Dok-jin explained everything that had just occurred.
“So?”
“The situation seems serious enough that I felt I should call.”
“Then let him join as an observer.”
“...Sir?”
“They say even a dead man’s wish should be granted—why not a living man’s? Let him observe.”
“You’re really going to allow observers?”
“What else? You planning to go a round with him yourself, Dok-jin?”
“That’s...”
“Anything else you need to ask?”
“No, sir...”
“I’m hanging up.”
The call ended.
“Deputy Director, what was decided?”
Jeon Dok-jin looked at the two captains who had been waiting for the conversation to finish.
“He said to let them observe.”
“L-let them observe?”
“Is that true?”
“That’s the end of it.”
“......”
“......”
For a moment neither man spoke.
“Hmm... Im Seong-woo, is it.”
At that same moment Kang Jung-gil had finished his workout and was drinking a cool cup of coffee Ju-yeon had prepared for him when the call came through.
Crushed Dok-jin with aura alone, you say...?
Jeon Dok-jin held second place even within the National Safety Group—the strongest after Kang Jung-gil himself, and the strongest among all Awakeners. That someone had crushed a man like that with presence alone was certainly surprising.
“This is getting interesting.”
Kang Jung-gil lifted one corner of his mouth and smiled, clearly amused.