Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 57
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Charles, whose motive he never wanted anyone to discover had now been exposed, suddenly became rather talkative. It was as if having the burden he had prepared himself to carry for the rest of his life forcibly pried open caused the lock on his heart to pop open as well.
Having poured out all the resentment he had kept buried inside, his expression looked noticeably lighter.
[My condolences, Mr. Ames.]
Kim Jun offered an apology. No matter that it was for an investigation, he had still intruded on a private matter the man never wished to reveal.
But Charles answered with unexpected generosity.
[Eh, it’s fine. Saying it out loud actually made me feel better.]
Well, who would ever listen to such a story anyway? His ex-wife who cheated on him with another man? In hindsight, it was a relief they didn’t have a kid.
“Are we done now?”
Kyung-wan, who wanted to clock out and get some real rest, interrupted. Judging from the atmosphere, the conversation seemed finished. Besides, he couldn’t understand Charles’ rambling anyway, so if they no longer needed him, he wanted to get home immediately.
Kim Jun held him back and led him outside. Tom remained with Charles.
In truth, interrogating Charles wasn’t necessary. The FBI weren’t amateurs, they already had a rough idea of his motive.
The reason they needed Kyung-wan’s ability was because the state didn’t want to lose a talent like Charles.
Even if he had used firearms, the man had single-handedly shot and killed dozens of gang members. That meant he practically possessed firepower comparable to a SWAT team all by himself. If he had resisted arrest with a gun, the casualties would have been staggering.
But he hadn’t resisted, he let himself be arrested. That very fact caught the attention of the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies. They considered the possibility of recruiting him to serve the nation.
However, there was one obstacle: the knot of resentment festering in his heart. They could have taken their time persuading him, but politicians were under pressure from the public demanding countermeasures against superpowered crimes, and that pressure naturally pushed the administration. As a result, their psychologists and profilers produced a proposal for rapid persuasion, and Kyung-wan was simply the tool to execute that proposal.
Kyung-wan noticed none of this. Not that he’d care, his only concern right now was what he would be eating for dinner.
“What’s for dinner today? Maybe a fancy stakee?”
Ignoring Kyung-wan’s insistent tone hinting that he expected a Washington-style steak in lieu of overtime pay, Kim Jun scanned their surroundings. As if looking for someone.
“Stacey!”
He spotted a face and called out a name. A woman in her twenties, with brown hair pinned up, wearing a gray suit on a slim figure, Latina, awkwardly waved when she heard him call her.
[Come here a moment. There’s someone I want to introduce.]
[I heard. The mind-reader.]
[So you knew. Then why are you acting like that?]
Kim Jun looked puzzled at how she hid behind him when she saw Kyung-wan. Stacey answered with a stiff smile.
[That guy is… strange.]
[He is very strange, yes.]
Kim Jun agreed. But that only proved he had no idea what aspect of him she found strange.
Stacey swallowed dryly. Having awakened a sense beyond the standard five senses, a so-called sixth sense, she could detect what scholars called the concentration and activity of S-particles.
In her perception, Kyung-wan was like a mass of S-particles. As if he were an S-particle factory, S-particles were constantly radiating outward from him.
He himself looked completely unaware, but from Stacey’s perspective, there was no way he wasn’t a superpowered individual pretending not to be.
Perhaps this “Twenty Questions of Truth” thing was actually a form of supernatural ability? Honestly, it was hard to believe any ordinary human could surpass precision instruments so easily.
“Who’s she?”
Kyung-wan asked politely when Kim Jun suddenly called over someone named Stacey.
“Introduce yourself. This is Stacey. You remember the sixth-sense psychic I mentioned? She’s the one.”
“Hello.”
“Hi.”
They exchanged awkward greetings. Of course, only Stacey felt awkward, Kyung-wan had no thoughts whatsoever.
“So why’d you call her here?”
He just wanted to go home.
“As you know, the reason we invited Mr. Lee here is to have him pass on the method for Twenty Questions of Truth. Stacey here is considered the most gifted candidate among our agents for developing mind-reading skills.”
Hearing they’d be seeing each other often, Kyung-wan nodded with understanding.
Kim Jun then asked Stacey:
[So what do you think of him?]
Since he knew she could detect S-particles, he was really asking whether Kyung-wan had powers.
She looked at him briefly, then answered:
[It’s complicated. The concentration of S-particles around him is enormous… but he doesn’t seem to know it.]
S-particles, never once detected by machines, were apparently densely packed around Kyung-wan. Kim Jun tried hard to hide his serious expression as he changed the subject.
[I see. Anyway, we’re about to go eat dinner. Would you like to join us?]
[Do I have the right to refuse?]
[Consider it an extension of your duties.]
Stacey nodded. Other superpowered individuals also had higher S-particle density than normal people, but Kyung-wan’s was on another level. If the others were fireflies, he was, exaggerating only slightly, a literal searchlight.
What a bizarre man. Who exactly was Mr. Lee? How could anyone be surrounded by such massive quantities of S-particles?
Meanwhile, upon hearing Stacey would be joining them, Kyung-wan asked:
“Are you trying to honey-trap me?”
“That wasn’t our intention, but if it works, we wouldn’t complain. A weakness is always nice. Just curious, do you like that type?”
By now, Kim Jun was used to Kyung-wan. He had learned it was better to speak without filtering anything. In front of the world’s greatest mind-reader, lying only made one anxious. Honesty was healthier.
Security protocols would be handled by Tom anyway.
“It’s not about type, it’s about how pretty she is.”
“Isn’t she pretty enough?”
At that, Kyung-wan suddenly turned to Stacey and said:
“He said you are pretty.”
“....”
“Pfft!”
Kim Jun froze in shock while Stacey burst into laughter, unable to help herself.
And so, the three headed into downtown Washington. They had already reserved a restaurant with open tables online, so they were seated without delay.
While eating, Kyung-wan heard directly from them that an overwhelming amount of S-particles was concentrated around him.
Kim Jun revealed this to see whether Kyung-wan was aware of it.
“Oh-ho! You can perceive that?”
Kyung-wan looked at Stacey anew. Her “sixth sense” didn’t seem very different from the sense he acquired only when he entered deep meditation.
Yet she could sense like that without meditating?
He set aside admiration for her ability and focused on what she had said about him.
His S-particle density was too high?
Then why was he unaware? Perhaps because he was constantly submerged in such dense S-particles that unless he was in deep meditation, he couldn’t sense them, like a fish realizing water exists only after it leaves the water.
He asked Stacey more about S-particles. He also learned that when a superpowered person uses their ability, S-particles move actively. Whether they were consumed or functioned differently, she still didn’t know.
Armed with useful information, Kyung-wan meditated in his hotel room. Could these S-particles be the key to unraveling the curse of infinite reincarnation?
He doubted it. The simple fact that superpowered individuals had higher S-particle density than normal people suggested no direct tie to infinite reincarnation. Just because a statement was true, the inverse wasn’t necessarily true. Even if infinite reincarnation caused an anomaly in S-particles, that didn’t prove S-particles caused infinite reincarnation.
If it were that simple, why hadn’t he solved the reincarnation problem yet?
Still, despite his doubts, he decided to explore S-particles.
Partly because he had nothing else to do. And partly because he was curious. And who knew? Maybe this could lead to a powerful ability.
Strength was convenient to have. And who knew, even a clue about infinite reincarnation might appear out of nowhere.
During work hours, he assisted with FBI interrogations and taught Stacey the tricks for using Twenty Questions of Truth.
In return, he received detailed observations from her about S-particle movement.
According to her, S-particles sometimes swirled like wind, sometimes clumped like blocks being stacked or dismantled, sometimes compressed, sometimes expanded, they showed many kinds of motion.
It showed she had interacted with many superpowered individuals, and that early in the crisis, countless incidents must have occurred. Still, she hadn’t yet found a pattern.
But one thing was certain: even as nations worldwide struggled with newly awakened superpowered individuals, the United States was stabilizing rapidly thanks to people like her working on the front lines, the administration and politicians acting decisively, and the civilian sector responding well.
Thus, this time without major incident, Kyung-wan’s U.S. schedule ended. He didn’t get a spicy bonus this time, but he gained plenty of information and had a productive trip. After returning home, he planned to rest, until the day the Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service visited his home(?).
“I am Lee Gwan-young, the Second Deputy Director of the NIS.”
“I’m Lee Kyung-wan. Our names are pretty similar.”
If you swap the vowels in Kyung-wan and change the consonants, it becomes Gwan-young.
Lee Gwan-young couldn’t hide the displeasure on his face. He was a high-ranking official guarding national security, how insulting that his name resembled a criminal’s.
“The reason I’ve come is because the state needs your ability.”
“Sorry, but I’m not very good at manipulating comments or public opinion.”
The sudden outburst made his face harden. But Kyung-wan’s mouth didn’t stop.
“And I’m not a NIS employee, so there’s no guarantee the Supreme Court would only recognize defamation if I post comments. Oh wait, does that mean if I’m not originally NIS, then only defamation applies?”