Seems Like I've Gotten a Little Famous
The moment the rift vanished, the barrier sealing off the area around us dissolved in an instant.
"I-It's over."
With every cause of the darkness that had blanketed the surroundings gone, Lim Hana was the first to let the tension drain from her body, collapsing right where she stood.
Lamia likewise dismissed the flame-shaped butterflies that had been circling as if escorting the two of them. Han Sul-ye, who had given her all to help me despite this being her first real combat, was on all fours on the ground, gasping for breath in ragged wheezes.
"Phew..."
Unlike the others who had let go of their tension, I drew a deep breath and glared up at the top of the building where the rift had appeared.
Something was still there. The murderous intent that had been digging in like a razor-sharp blade until moments ago was gone, yet I could not shake the feeling that something remained up above.
"I'll be right back. Stay here just in case."
After saying that to the others, I once again used the butterflies' material conversion to form rockets on my back and rocketed up to the rooftop.
Sure enough, something was there.
Strange markings that looked like they might have been a magic circle remained as blackened scorch marks across the helicopter landing pad. And in the center of that circle lay traces of someone who was almost certainly the one who had set all of this in motion.
Causing an incident of this scale—and having it end in a result far from the intended one—would subject the caster to a violent rebound. The blood and flesh scattered at the heart of the circle, looking for all the world as if a living being had exploded whole, were precisely the result of that rebound.
"Tsk."
I clicked my tongue at the sight and descended again.
The moment I touched down, a group of Awakeners came running straight toward us. After that, pure chaos reigned.
We were surrounded by a throng of people—Awakeners who had rushed in to handle the situation, military units sent for support, police for public order, and even firefighters who had come for damage control.
Explaining everything that had happened to the Association staff and the police, then fleeing the swarming reporters to relocate to the Association itself, only happened after the surroundings had completely darkened.
We had been swept into the incident right as we were about to have dinner, so we had no choice but to go hungry through the battle and the subsequent questioning. The only chance we finally got to eat anything came after we moved to the Association.
"You're not planning to make me eat this through my nose, are you?"
When I joked at the sight of the seolleongtang we had ordered for delivery, the bald instructor answered with a laugh.
"Of course not. Though if that's your preference, I won't stop you."
Lim Hana, who had been tense from the crowd of people, finally managed a small laugh at that. Having been through something with a stalker before, she seemed to shrink whenever people swarmed her like this.
Lamia was an active idol, so media interest was bound to explode even more. Han Sul-ye, though she had not debuted yet, was a trainee at the same agency, and so she too received a full share of attention.
In my case... the atmosphere made it hard for people to approach easily, but still, quite a few asked whether I belonged to the same agency as Lamia or Han Sul-ye because of my looks.
Anyway, after finishing all that hectic business and returning, even I—who had always had some confidence in my stamina—was completely exhausted. Needless to say for the other three.
As the hot seolleongtang broth entered my thoroughly worn-out body, the word "paradise" came to mind at once.
"Kuheh!"
When I emptied the entire bowl of hot broth and let out that exclamation at the end, Lim Hana, who had been diligently eating her seolleongtang like a squirrel, burst out laughing.
"Puhat! Seha, you sound just like an old man!"
"Ahem. It was so delicious I couldn't help it."
It could not be helped. Even if my body had suddenly become a woman's, with all the years I had lived so far there was no way acting feminine would come naturally out of nowhere. At first I had tried to at least imitate it, but lately I had pretty much given up. With looks like these, no one would suspect me just because I acted a bit mannish.
After scraping up not only the broth but even the kkakdugi that came as a side dish, and patting my belly, the door to the conference room suddenly opened and Manager Kim from the support team rushed in.
"Seha-ssi, I think you need to see this."
Still working overtime, huh. Without showing that thought, I turned my gaze to the TV Manager Kim had hurriedly switched on.
"Uh, that's..."
Through the news screen, scenes of us fighting the spiders were flowing from various angles.
It had been right in the middle of the city, at a time when there were plenty of people, so the damage had been large. But that also meant there had been just as many eyes watching.
"They didn't even run away and were filming that. People, really."
When I clicked my tongue and said that, everyone gave bitter smiles. Well, it was not the first time Awakeners had appeared, but still, they seemed to lack far too much sense of crisis. If we had not stood in the way and defeated them, the people inside the barrier might all have become a daily meal for those spider bastards—yet they had been leisurely filming videos as if watching a fire across the river.
But that was only the thought of those of us who had actually fought. On the news, the videos shot from various angles were decorating the screen with intense flair, like a trailer for game promotion. In my personal opinion, the most spectacular scene among them was the part where I parried a spider's strike, blew its jaw away with a flying kick, then closed in and unleashed a flurry of techniques to take it down.
"It was like that earlier too, but looking at it this way, it's really flashy."
At Lamia's words as she blankly watched the screen, everyone nodded.
"Can't we block that?"
At my words, Manager Kim gave a bitter smile.
"It would be possible if we bring up portrait-rights infringement, but since everyone's already seen it, it probably won't mean much."
"Yeah."
It was already annoying enough having eyes gather whenever I walked the streets; looks like I would have to go around pressing down a mask and hat again.
I had thought I would just ride a bit of fame like this and that would be the end of it, but Manager Kim's thoughts seemed a bit different.
"It's a chance to really boost the newly formed fixed party."
"Boost?"
"I was thinking of filming gate exploration videos and uploading them to places like YouTube. I don't know for sure, but just the revenue from the videos alone seems like it would be pretty decent."
"..."
I quietly checked the faces of the members gathered around. Lamia and Han Sul-ye were originally affiliated with an agency, their looks at a level acknowledged by themselves and others. Lim Hana did not have flashy looks like the two, but she was still someone whose appearance would make you turn around for a second look if you passed by. As for me, well, no need to say.
The reason the broadcast was in an uproar in the first place was because owners of such flashy appearances had spectacularly and exhilaratingly beaten down giant spiders with hideous forms in a thrilling manner.
"I agree."
Before I could even express my opinion, Han Sul-ye suddenly raised her hand and spoke.
"I think having name recognition first will help no matter what we do."
I looked at Lim Hana. I thought she would oppose since she had experience of being pushed around by people, but after thinking for a moment she showed an unexpected reaction.
"I also... if it's something that helps everyone, I have no intention of opposing."
Not active agreement, but not active opposition either, huh.
This time I turned my gaze to Lamia. She seemed to check something on her phone for a moment, then said with a bitter smile.
"The company is going crazy saying we absolutely have to do it."
A golden opportunity had come to make Lamia's name known. If becoming an Awakener could not be reversed anyway, the company's position would inevitably be to maximize profits by utilizing these images as much as possible. I had been fretting over how to pull Lamia into the party, but it was resolving itself like this.
As for me, it just felt like daily life would get a bit more bothersome, so I had no particular intention of opposing.
"I don't plan on actively communicating or anything, but just filming combat videos and putting them out seems fine enough."
The act of filming combat videos in real time and uploading them was currently blocked on video platforms. There had been a case before where someone did that and a video of an entire party being dismembered live had gone out. Filming videos for stat records was something we had been doing from the start, and editing them appropriately to upload would not be a big burden. Among viewers, there were quite a few who only enjoyed watching these exploration videos. Depending on how you looked at it, they were even more practical scenes than games or combat sports matches. If that could cover even a little of the fixed party's operating expenses, it was rather a good thing for me.
After finishing that exhausting day's work, I went home, washed roughly, and went to bed.
And as always, I dreamed.
From the other side of a street where people came and went, a woman with a body that looked nice at a glance approached, then made a surprised expression upon seeing me.
So this is today's concept.
Lately she seemed to have gotten into something, trying these concepts a lot more than usual. Considering yesterday had been an affair with a married woman in Dongtan missy look, today's was relatively mild.
Pretending to be calm as I walked toward her, suddenly her face scrunched up.
"You. Where did you pick up this scent."
"Scent? Do I smell?"
I answered nonchalantly, but she did not drop her serious expression as she spoke.
"Tell me what happened today."
In the end I had no choice but to tell her in detail about the fight that had happened today.
"Do you have any idea what it might be?"
I myself did not know the full story of the incident in detail either. It had just suddenly happened, and the monsters that popped out recognized me, so I was essentially forced into the fight. But looking at her atmosphere, it did not seem like something that could be dismissed as mere coincidence.
"As you might have guessed, there exist beings like me in the world."
Well, of course. There are many Awakeners in the world, and among them there are bound to be those who are entangled with beings like her, just like me. I never had the arrogant thought from the start that only I was so lucky as to form this kind of connection.
"Just as there are countless people in the world, such beings also have quite diverse relationships."
"Relationships?"
"Just as there is a food chain in an ecosystem, these beings also have a relationship of eating and being eaten."
"Then..."
She spoke with a bitter expression.
"The reason the monsters charge at you like mad the moment they see you is ultimately because of that. Since you carry a lot of the energy originating from me, they're desperate to snatch it. The difference is just whether the desire they feel is appetite or lust."
"Then... no way."
"I've been trying in my own way to awaken your abilities to prevent such situations, but if by any chance you lose in a fight against them, you'll be eaten by them right away. In various senses of the word."
"..."