New S-Class Hero, Honggaksi
A familiar face.
Heh heh heh.
Why bother hiding it? I already had the interview room in the palm of my hand. Seo Aegyo of the Hero Plus Research Institute. I'd contacted her ahead of time! I told her I was coming in for an interview today — and that she was to pass me no matter what, even if I smeared shit on the walls.
Hold on, isn't that just corrupt hiring?
…So what. My life is on the line here. You think I have time to sweat the small stuff? If you've got a problem with it, go be a Main yourself!
Kyshishishishishishishishiit!!
Aigoo, the corners of my mouth were climbing on their own. I clapped a hand over them in a hurry. Habits really are a terrifying thing.
"Hello! Interview number seventy-four, Lee Dogwang! I look forward to working with you!!"
I folded at the waist in a perfect ninety-degree bow to the interviewers. Seo Aegyo sat in the center. To her left was the Association's HR Manager; to her right, the Tactical Support Division Chief of the Operations Control Department sat looking grim as a funeral.
"Ahem…"
If I passed as an operator, I'd be assigned to that Tactical Support Division. Even if those two slashed my score in half, a perfect mark from Seo Aegyo would get me through no matter what. Nothing to worry about. Time to walk in like I owned the place.
That was when the HR Manager flipped through my paperwork and frowned.
"Ah… you're a high school graduate? Part-time experience at a convenience store and a PC cafe, hmm…… and for certifications, you have an ultralight aircraft operator's license."
A drone license, in other words. I'd picked it up as a hobby years ago. It was a lot like a video game, and I'd been thinking about getting a real job back before I obtained a Gift.
But the look on the HR Manager's face… it was the same atmosphere as the day they'd failed me. The Tactical Support Chief just kept sighing and didn't bother asking a single question.
Still, I had nothing to worry about! This was the moment! Seo Aegyo, this is your cue!
But she just stared at me, head tilted to one side. Come on, I need covering fire here! Why are you just sitting there gawking……
Ah…… wait a second.
Now that I thought about it — she didn't know my real name or my bare face, did she?
…Fuck!
I'd just assumed that anyone who served in the Super-science Dungeon would naturally know what I looked like! Tsk! This is completely fucked. A face-to-face interview. I couldn't hack the situation and rewrite it. I had to flip this interview with nothing but my own two hands!
All or nothing, then. I dropped my head and clutched my forehead.
"Kiiit……"
The interviewers' attention snapped to me.
"Hm?"
Who am I? Super Genius Mes—sat! What matters now is overwhelming confidence! Seize the interview room with sheer force of presence!!
I swept my sleeve through the air. A crisp crack of displaced air split the room.
Snap!
"Kihahahahahaha! Why would I hide a thing?! Yes!! I am the very talent you've been searching for — Lee Dogwang!"
The interviewers' shoulders jumped. Good. Keep this momentum and steamroll them! I locked eyes with each of them in turn.
"Just what IS an operator, I ask you?!"
I kicked off the floor and launched myself upward.
"Abyooooh!"
I planted into a perfect handstand. Alpha adjusted my body for me.
Switching to upper-body strength mode.
Anterior deltoids and latissimus dorsi: activated.
Correcting sense of balance.
And from there — one-handed push-ups!
"Some weak little counselor who just sits there tapping a keyboard? Non, non!! A robust physique capable of supporting a hero anytime, anywhere!"
I sprang off my arm like a coil and landed on my feet.
"A sound mind dwells in a sound body! Which is why, outside of my part-time hours, I did nothing but play games!!"
The Tactical Support Chief's eyebrows shot up.
"Games……?"
I didn't so much as twitch. I declared it with my chest thrown open.
"Sir! Do you have any idea how grueling it is to game twelve hours a day? And yet I endured those shut-in hours for one purpose only — to become an operator!"
"Uh…… what do games have to do with being an operator?"
"Good question! The game I played was a hero-training simulation! And not just any simulation — it was a nightmare difficulty where your heroes died like sunfish in the blink of an eye!"
The HR Manager swallowed hard and chose his words with care.
"Games and reality are different things, Interviewer Seventy-Four."
"Exactly! But where is a newcomer supposed to accumulate operator experience?! This passion! This inextinguishable flame of Prometheus! That is who I am — Lee Dogwang, number seventy-four!"
The interviewers looked at each other, wearing the expressions of people who had no idea what to do with me.
Was this not landing either? Was I about to repeat that rejection from nine months ago? Ghh…… this damn society. Maybe I should just become a real Main and raze the whole thing.
But then —
Seo Aegyo's eyes, locked on mine, grew wider and wider. A moment later she licked her lips with languid, feline slowness, and a subtle smile curved across her face.
The words that slipped from her lips were Latin. "Ignoscite mihi quod praeclarum Praecursorem agnoscere non potui. Forgive me for failing to recognize you, O great Pioneer."
She switched languages at once, sliding into German. "Ab diesem Moment ist das Vorstellungsgespräch bedeutungslos. As of this moment, the interview is meaningless. Ich gratuliere Ihnen zur Aufnahme. Congratulations on your acceptance."
Haaah… you sure took your time recognizing me, Seo Aegyo. I sent my answer back in French.
"Une punition s'impose, Mademoiselle! A punishment is in order, mademoiselle! On se retrouve plus tard dans le donjon! I'll see you later in the dungeon! Je te chérirai tout particulièrement. I'll cherish you most especially." Heh heh heh.
I'd only meant it as a joke. A little scare.
Oh, for fuck's sake……
Seo Aegyo dropped her head and started breathing hard.
"Haaah… nngh… the Pioneer himself… punishment……"
Hey, calm down! The chiefs are looking at you weird!!
She slammed her palm down on the table and surged to her feet.
BANG!
"This is an unconditional pass! Latin, German, French — all of them perfect!"
She tore the interview documents in half on the spot.
Riiip!
"A high school diploma? And what of it? Evaluating a genius by a curriculum designed by mere humans is nonsense itself!"
Seo Aegyo pressed her thighs together and squirmed as if she were about to wet herself. Face flushed crimson, she reached out and stroked the Tactical Chief's necktie.
"Haaah… and what do you think, Chief? I believe he's the finest talent the Hero Association cannot afford to let slip away……"
The Tactical Support Chief swallowed hard and nodded.
"If the new Director of the Research Institute says so… ah, yes… I have no objections."
Wow… that lunatic……
My performance was a brand of insanity no one else could touch, and she was steamrolling both interviewers with a single sentence. And I gave a Super-science Dungeon access pass to a crazy bitch like that! I must have been out of my mind!
Still, thanks to her, I made it through the interview in one piece. Seo Aegyo dangled a keyring from her ring finger and wriggled it at me in farewell.
"Well then, I'll be seeing you later. Heh heh!"
Could you NOT flash the dungeon access pass so blatantly?!
I dragged my heavy feet toward the lobby.
"Haaah… I'm exhausted."
I felt like Seo Aegyo had sucked the life force right out of me. Anyway — I wondered how Hongryeon was doing. Heroes took a while because they had to have their Gift evaluated.
That was when it hit.
RUMMMMMBLE—!
A sudden quake slammed through the Hero Association building.
"What the fuck?! What was that?!"
A Main attack? Fortunately the tremor died almost as quickly as it had come. The display board, which had briefly dissolved into static, flickered back to normal.
"……Huh?"
A breaking news ticker raced across the bottom of the screen.
A traditional Korean gaksi mask hid the face. But the moment I saw that neat, long reddish-brown hair, I knew exactly who it was.
"That's going way too far, Hongryeon……"
And yet the corners of my mouth climbed all on their own.
"But you did well. Heh heh heh."
From S-Class onward, a hero can designate their own operator. Naturally, Hongryeon would name me. A rookie becoming the dedicated operator of an S-Class hero. Which meant I wouldn't have to deal with the Association's unnecessary interference!
As expected of a Super Genius! A perfect plan.
Right on cue, Hongryeon stepped out of the elevator. A snow-white mask with red dots painted on the cheeks. The kindly smile of the gaksi mask sat so at odds with Hongryeon's expressionless face that the whole effect was faintly awkward. If only she smiled like that normally.
"Hong…!"
I started to call out to her, delighted — and stopped. She was an S-Class hero now. I ought to call her Honggaksi, shouldn't I?
Heh heh heh. Grow up big and strong as a hero of justice, just like this!
"Honggaksi!!"
I waved and broke into a run — and then she vanished from my field of view. A man had stepped in front of her before I could get there.
"My sincerest congratulations on your ascent to S-Class, Miss Honggaksi! Korea's twelfth S-Class. When I saw your name light up on the display board, my heart actually started pounding!"
Hongryeon turned her head toward him.
"And you are……?"
A man with protruding cheekbones flicked his bangs as he spoke.
"Aigoo, how rude of me! I should have introduced myself first, of course!"
He patted his own chest with swagger and launched into it.
"A ten-year veteran operator! Four wide-area Main incidents, dedicated S-Class hero support twice, thirty-five thousand and forty accumulated hours of real-time support! The name's Go Jahyeon."
Go Jahyeon gently took Hongryeon's hand.
"What matters in the field isn't credentials — it's chemistry. And I… I'm quite confident that you and I would make an excellent match, Miss Honggaksi."
With a smiling squint of his eyes, he held out a contract and a pen.
"What do you say? How about giving this Go Jahyeon a try as your first operator?"
…The hell? Who is this asshole?