The One Who Exists Yet Does Not Exist

People were already wearing looks of open discomfort.

"What? What's with all the faces? You got a problem with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me showing up?!"

At his threatening bark, not a single member opened their mouth.

"Really is a shame… If it weren't for those National Safety Group bastards and their whole operation, things would've been a lot nicer. Looking at it that way, you've got to envy places like Africa or the Middle East — total lawless zones. I hear Awakeners over there actually get to use their powers properly and get the respect they deserve."

It was a remark utterly devoid of sense.

But no one said a word against it. No one wanted the trouble landing on their own head.

And Awakeners were people who had nothing left to fear.

That strange energy — what had come to be called Psychic Energy — could shield a body even from bullets. Of course, power gaps existed among Awakeners themselves. Some went down under a sustained hail of gunfire before long; others tanked rounds for ages and bulldozed right through police special units.

Police had been deployed. Military units, too. None of it made dealing with Awakeners easy. Plenty of people had started fretting that the country was sliding toward a soft civil war.

But just as anxiety mounted and public opinion toward Awakeners began to sour, Awakeners with actual principles started helping the police and soldiers take down the vicious ones, and the mood began to shift. Into that gap stepped the National Safety Group — and the situation flipped.

This man clearly belonged to the sort who hated the way things stood now.

"Today I'm hitting six hundred on bench."

The number six hundred made people stare.

The problem was that Seong-min was currently using the bench press.

"You, quit dicking around and move. I'm using it."

Seong-min looked at the man.

"What? You got a problem?"

That was when the trainer hurried over.

"Another member is using it at the moment, so if you could just wait a little—"

"What did you just say?!"

The man's eyebrows shot up.

"It's fine."

Seong-min stood from the bench.

"Go ahead."

The man let out a snort of a laugh.

"…Look at this guy fold."

The trainer's expression was thoroughly sour. But Seong-min caught his eye and gave a small shake of the head that said leave it. The trainer sent him an apologetic look in return.

Not that the man cared either way. He ordered the two underlings he'd brought along to start loading plates. At six hundred kilos, that meant a serious stack of iron.

"Alright. Let's see how this goes."

The man lay back on the bench and took hold of the bar.

Saaa…

In an instant, eerie Psychic Energy rolled off him in waves — the kind of aura only an Awakener could manifest. Even the people who had been watching him with open dislike shrank back the moment they saw that haze of power.

And the man savored every bit of that atmosphere.

"Heh heh heh…"

"Haaah—!"

With a shout of effort, he drove the bar up.

"I-It's moving."

"He's actually lifting that…"

"Insane…"

Whether they liked the man or not was secondary. The sheer fact that a barbell of that monstrous weight was rising off the rack was enough to leave every gym-goer watching in stunned disbelief.

"Take a good look!"

Relishing the eyes locked on him, he lowered the bar to his chest and pressed it back to full extension in a clean line.

At five hundred kilos, he had done ten reps. So with the jump in weight, maybe five this time?

No.

"T-Ten."

"He hit ten again!"

The weight had climbed from five hundred to six hundred — and he still knocked out ten reps. It was genuinely astonishing.

He racked the bar, sat up, and looked around.

"Anyone else here who can lift this?"

Of course there wasn't.

"You all saw that, right? That's the level I'm at."

Starting from the bench, the man proceeded to demonstrate deadlifts and squats at the same six-hundred-kilo weight. Past a 1,500-kilo total on the big three — all the way to an 1,800-kilo total. A staggering record.

If he had been an ordinary person instead of an Awakener, they would have called him a true monster. But he wasn't ordinary. He was an Awakener. A superhuman. So of course it was possible.

"The world's gotten ugly. You all know that, right? How rough things have become these days. Which is why today… I've brought you all some good news."

Nobody present believed for a second that whatever came out of this man's mouth would be good news.

"Our Gangrim Guild has decided to take responsibility for the Yangcheon-gu area."

"Take responsibility? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Ah—exactly what it sounds like. Any unpleasant business caused by Awakeners in Yangcheon-gu, our Gangrim Guild will protect you from and cover for. That's what it means."

Protect and cover. On the surface, it almost sounded like a public service. In practice, people who talked like this rarely turned out to be doing anyone any favors.

"So everyone who trains at this gym will pay a nominal protection fee of fifty thousand won per person to our Gangrim Guild, and from next month on, that's the condition for coming here. That's what I'm saying."

"Are you out of your mind?!"

"Fifty thousand won a head, just like that?!"

"What kind of law is that supposed to be?!"

"This is seriously too much—"

"Did I tell everyone to shut up or not?!"

The man's voice cracked like a whip, and the people who had been voicing their grievances went silent at once.

"This is only natural. What kind of era do you think this is? The age of Awakeners. Being able to train at a gym safely, free from people like that — you don't even realize that's a privilege?!"

"This is illegal!"

"I'm calling the police!"

"You think you can get away with this when the National Safety Group exists?!"

"Then how did the old gangsters operate before we showed up? The police existed back then too, didn't they?"

The air around them went cold.

"The National Safety Group? Go ahead and call them. But unless they're planning to make enemies of every Awakener in the country, you really think they can sweat the small stuff like this? Even if that bastard Kang Jung-gil himself steps in, it's impossible! New Awakeners are still appearing all over the nation. Thousands of them already! Go file your report. Sure, we might take some heat for it. But you'd better keep this in mind. Every single one of you standing here… I've got a good look at your faces. Think carefully about what that means."

There was an old saying that fists were scarier than the law. Get murdered, and even if the courts finally move, the dead do not come back.

Report these people and they might well be punished. But what about the retaliation afterward?

Among everyone present, there was not a single ordinary person who could stand up cleanly against a pack of Awakeners.

"Get this through your heads. We don't just sit there and take it either. We can't get all of you… but your level? We can ruin you just fine."

It was open thuggery. Open threats. And still, no one could say a word against it. They were that afraid.

"And you think it's just us doing this? The times have already changed. No matter how hard the National Safety Group tries to crush every Awakener, perfect control is impossible. That's what I'm telling you."

Blind spots always existed. And there was such a thing as the balloon effect — squeeze one side and the other bulges out. Action bred reaction.

Even so, Korea was in far better shape than most of the world. Which only underscored how deep the chaos ran in places like the United States and beyond.

"If you don't want to pay fifty thousand in protection, quit the gym and go somewhere else. Problem solved, right?"

The trainer's face went ashen. That was not just telling the members to leave — it was an act aimed at killing the gym itself.

"Having the customers pay is… difficult. What if the gym covered it on its own instead?"

"How much?"

"Around a hundred…"

"A hundred? You joking? I can see more than twenty people in here right now… It's fifty thousand per person. Otherwise, you pay fifty thousand for every single registered member on your books."

"Th-That's ridiculous—!"

It was pure extortion. Illegal collection, plain and simple. Report it and these men would almost certainly face punishment.

And then what?

They would come back for revenge. The trainer knew that, which was why even this absurd demand left him unable to open his mouth.

The man narrowed his eyes again, working the room.

"I'll say it one more time, right here. If you want to report us, report us. But you'd better be ready for what comes with it. As of today, the number of Awakeners ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who've joined our Gangrim Guild is over one hundred and fifty. You understand what that means? Over a hundred and fifty Awakeners."

From a hundred, now up to a hundred and fifty. The number alone crushed the spirit out of everyone listening. A single Awakener was already formidable. One hundred and fifty of them.

"Honestly, isn't this only fair? In times like these, if paying a protection fee means we keep other Awakeners from hurting you, isn't that worth every won? And I'll say it again — we're not the only ones collecting fees like this. It's happening nationwide."

Even with police in the world, robbers and gangsters still existed. Awakeners were no different. The National Safety Group was real — and still there were people with no sense who ran wild, and scenes exactly like this one still played out.

"I'll give you three days. Have an answer by then."

With that final threat delivered, the man withdrew.

"Those bastards are straight-up thugs!"

"Fifty thousand extra, paid to them?!"

"Let's call the police!"

"And if they come after us for it?"

"You're not going to report them because you're scared of payback? Come on…"

"Then you do it, hyung."

"…"

The moment the suggestion landed on him personally, he had nothing to say. And that was only natural. File a report and then catch retaliation from a guild claiming more than a hundred and fifty Awakeners — what then?

"Can't they just lock all of them up?"

"There are already thousands of Awakeners in the country. New ones every day. Try rounding them all up and the whole nation blows."

"Kang Jung-gil could step in, couldn't he?"

"He only takes down the real boss-tier monsters. If he started crushing Awakeners across the board, you'd get nationwide backlash."

It was not a simple problem.

That night, Seong-min stayed on the rooftop training until eleven. For a finish, he put a cigarette between his lips, ready to smoke one before heading down.

As long as Awakeners don't disappear, problems like this can crop up anytime.

Awakeners were people who had gained power on the level of superhumans. Telling them to live ordinary lives like everyone else was never going to be simple.

Korea was more or less getting a handle on the atmosphere — but America and the rest of the world were still in full-blown chaos. Things worse than what he had seen at the gym today were almost certainly unfolding over there. They still had not managed to drag in the ones who had committed truly massive crimes.

Of course, Seong-min had no particular desire to play the apostle of justice, or to become some Hollywood-movie hero.

More than anything, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he had no interest in drawing the public eye and becoming a household name the way Kang Jung-gil had. Do that, and even living an ordinary day-to-day would start coming with chains — the same way celebrities could not casually date or hang out out in the open downtown.

But quitting a gym he had been attending without trouble, walking away as if surrendering to those bastards, sat just as badly with him.

So was there no other way?

He had told himself he would work out a plan, but just as the trainer had said, it would not be easy.

That did not mean there was no method at all.

That day — the day Kang Jung-gil earned the title of The Absolute and the fervent support of the entire nation.

Where there was good, there was always a cost. In exchange, Kang Jung-gil's face and name became known across the whole country. He could no longer move around freely. Seong-min had asked him then whether he was all right with no longer being able to live the way he used to.

Over the phone, the man had not sounded concerned in the slightest.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He had already started as acting director of the National Safety Group, cut down vicious Awakener factions, and risen as an Ordinary Superhuman to become The Absolute. For a man like that to say he could simply go back to how things were…

"Exist, but also not exist?"

What on earth was that supposed to mean?

In that instant, Seong-min understood exactly what the man was getting at.

"You're saying you can escape even from the situation you're enjoying right now?"

Escape — from the very seat of being The Absolute.

"Then what happens? Does the situation itself stay intact?"

"Because you escaped from that situation."

"Hoo…"

Seong-min let out a long breath as he recalled that phone conversation.

The one who exists, yet does not exist.

With the Escape skill—

He had said it was possible.