The Concept Holder
I needed some kind of connection if I was going to kidnap Seo Gaeul. After all, you had to at least run into the target somewhere, right? While I was racking my brain for a way to make that happen, the admission documents for Yeongsa High caught my eye.
Yeongsa High was an institution dedicated to educating and training young Awakened. That meant there was a high chance Seo Gaeul was attending this school right now. Judging by the fact that the girl in front of me, Baek Yeoul, also seemed to go here, asking her would probably get me an answer pretty quickly.
So when I asked, “Does Seo Gaeul go to this school too?” the high school girl who had just been looking at me with the pitying eyes of someone staring at a starving UNICEF child suddenly turned ice-cold.
“Seo Gaeul?”
The way her facial muscles twitched made it obvious at a glance that her relationship with Seo Gaeul wasn’t good. I’ve always been ridiculously quick at picking up on stuff like that. Smart people tend to have good instincts, after all.
“I’m leaving.”
Baek Yeoul whipped her head around and stormed out of my house. The men in suits all shuffled out after her in a hurry. Even the loan sharks I’d been planning to bury in the yard slipped out with them.
“Wait? I still needed to ask about the kidnapping.”
But whatever. It didn’t really matter. Those loan sharks were obviously going to come back to squeeze more money out of me anyway. More importantly, the pork belly I’d bought wasn’t enough for more than one person. It was actually better that they all left on their own.
They say if you can’t share it, don’t even let the chimney smoke out. That kind of thing.
Sizzle—
The pork belly I was grilling for the first time in years was so delicious it brought tears to my eyes.
Three days had passed since I returned to the past.
The victim, Mr. Kim Taeyang, and two others were found to have been involved in the loan business and were under investigation for charges including assault and murder. The police are focusing their investigation on revenge-driven homicide—
“What the hell? These bastards got themselves killed?”
Early in the morning, the news coming from the TV snapped me wide awake. It looked like someone had taken out the loan sharks. I’d been planning to ask those guys about the “foolproof kidnapping method with no consequences,” so I couldn’t help but get pissed off. Whoever had the nerve to mess up my plan—I swore to myself that if I ever met them, I’d kick them right in the balls.
Son of a bitch!
Since it had come to this, I’d have to come up with the entire kidnapping plan from A to Z all by myself. But there was no need to worry. Who was I? I was Ha Namjin, the smartest middle-school dropout around.
“The original plan was always to change things up as I go anyway.”
Slurp. Slurp.
After filling my stomach with ssamjang ramen, it was already 7:30 in the morning. I think Yeongsa High started at eight?
Creak—
I closed the rusty iron gate and stepped outside. The weather was pleasantly warm. The only uncomfortable part was that my old high school uniform, which I’d only worn in first year before tossing it on a hanger, was now so tight it felt suffocating. It used to feel a little baggy back when I was a first-year.
“Guess I’ll have to get a new uniform.”
I glanced at the students walking down the street. Kids around my age were all wearing similar uniforms and heading in the same direction. As far as I knew, that Nazi-looking outfit was the Yeongsa High uniform. The design completely ignored practicality in favor of pure aesthetics. It really stood out.
Did that mean I’d have to wear something like that once I became a student here? The thought made me shudder like I was turning into some kind of imperialist sympathizer, but I quickly calmed down. After all, the only reason I was enrolling at Yeongsa High was to get close to Seo Gaeul. Once I succeeded in kidnapping her, I wouldn’t need to keep going to school anymore.
In a year, when the world went to hell, a high school diploma would be about as useful as toilet paper. Actually, if I was being honest, it wasn’t even good enough for that. Certificates and diplomas were usually printed on A4 paper, which had terrible texture.
Lost in those thoughts, I soon arrived at the school gate of Yeongsa High.
“This place is huge.”
It looked more like a university campus than a high school. I’d heard they bought the grounds of a failing university that couldn’t attract enough freshmen and turned it into this place. From what I’d looked up, they even had university-level courses.
“Who’s that guy?”
“His uniform is completely different.”
“Is he a transfer student or something?”
It seemed my presence stood out quite a bit in this weird school. Well, I couldn’t help it since I was the only one wearing a different uniform. The Yeongsa High uniform cost over a million won, so I couldn’t get one right away and had to wear my old high school uniform. My dark blue uniform honestly looked insanely outdated even to me.
I headed toward the main building with my admission papers in hand. The main building looked like the Blue House where the former president used to live, so it wasn’t hard to find.
It was eight in the morning. The staff must have been diligent because they were already at work. I approached the counter and asked the friendliest-looking lady there.
“Excuse me. I’m here to complete my enrollment.”
“Hmm? Oh, please show me your documents.”
Slide. Flip.
The female employee began looking over the papers I handed her. I stared intently at her face for a long time. I was trying to use the Emotion Perception I’d received from Seo Gaeul. But no text appeared.
There had to be some kind of rule for using this Emotion Perception. After three days back in the past, I was starting to vaguely figure out what those rules might be.
“You’re Ha Namjin, right? It’s been about a month since your Awakened examination? You haven’t had any follow-up tests since then?”
“No, I haven’t. Each test costs two million won, you know.”
They used some fancy new machines for the examination. They’d draw blood and suck out money like it was blood too. Hospitals were basically thieves.
“Then we’ll need to do a simplified test. Since you Awakened recently, you’re probably still a First Awakening rank, but we need to be sure before we can assign you to a class.”
“Whatever it is, just do it quickly.”
“Then please follow me.”
I followed the woman to a place that looked like a white laboratory. A massive machine resembling an MRI greeted me. It was a huge cylindrical shape and looked quite imposing.
“Lie down here.”
Slide.
I lay down on the hard, uncomfortable device. A large cylindrical machine above me began to spin with a loud whirring sound.
After lying there for about five minutes, I got bored.
“Miss, how long do I have to stay like this?”
“Don’t talk. This machine is a national treasure imbued with the concept of Examination. There are only two of them in the entire world, so if you break it by messing around, we’re in big trouble.”
“Do you have a boyfriend? How about dating someone younger?”
“Ugh, I told you not to talk!”
Anyway, the examination ended with that kind of atmosphere. I had just returned to the enrollment office and was sitting blankly in a chair when the staff lady spoke to me.
“It’s a simple concept examination, so the results will be out in ten minutes. Just sit quietly.”
“Concept?”
“You don’t know? If someone acquires the concept of Muscle, they become stronger. If someone has the concept of Lizard, even if their arm gets cut off, it grows back like a lizard’s tail. Wait, do you not know how Awakened abilities are created?”
I’d heard that question from someone recently. It was Seo Gaeul. Who would’ve thought I’d be reminded of that fateful meeting with her again like this.
“They say abilities are born from strong desires, right?”
“That’s right. When the intense desires of adolescents resonate strongly, they can become Second Awakening rank holders who possess a specific Concept. The ratio is about thirty percent among all Awakened.”
So Concept Holders made up the top thirty percent of Awakened. In other words, the test I’d just taken was to determine whether I was in the top thirty percent or the bottom seventy.
“Kids who have only recently Awakened usually don’t have any concepts yet, so don’t be too disappointed no matter what the results say. Through education and training, you’ll eventually discover your talent. Oh, the data’s out!”
The cheerful woman picked up the paper that had printed out. Then her body suddenly trembled and she scratched the back of her head in shock.
“What is this…? There are two Concepts…!? Section Chief! Section Chief!”
The woman dashed off somewhere. Soon, a bunch of middle-aged men came rushing in.
“Leap. Appraisal. Wow, it’s real. A student who only recently Awakened has two concepts. Section Chief Lee, have you ever seen anything like this? You came from the Defense Science Research Institute, didn’t you?”
“We call this a Multi-Ability Holder. Usually about one in ten Awakened is like this. But this kid is especially unique among all the students I’ve seen.”
The men crowded around my test results and gasped in admiration. It seemed my results had exceeded everyone’s expectations.
The half-bald man in a white coat kept scanning the documents. He looked at my face, touched my head, and even told me to open my mouth and say “Ah.”
“Well, this is amazing. I’ve seen quite a few Multi-Concept Holders, you know. There are about a hundred in this school alone. But this kid… this one really doesn’t make sense.”
“Section Chief Lee! Stop talking like only you understand and explain it so we can follow! What makes this student so special?!”
“This thing called a concept has something called compatibility. You all know that an Awakened’s ability blooms from a powerful desire, right? This kid’s concept of Leap is exactly that.”
Slide.
The half-bald researcher started kneading my thigh with his hand. Knead. Knead. The touch felt extremely unpleasant, so I reached out and stroked the bald spot on his forehead.
“…What are you doing?”
“You touched my leg, so it’s only fair that I touch your forehead. We’re even now.”
Name: Lee Daeryong
Status: 《Flustered》 — He is greatly surprised by the boldness of today’s youth.
“Ahem. Anyway, this kid must have had an incredibly strong desire to run extremely fast for some reason. That’s why the concept of Leap took root in his body. Kid, how many seconds does it take you to run a hundred meters right now?”
“Three seconds? Two seconds? Something like that.”
My honest answer made everyone gasp in amazement.
“That’s incredible. Is he some kind of sports car?”
“No wonder the Olympics are getting boring every year.”
“That’s something our generation could never even dream of.”
Only the middle-aged man called Section Chief Lee remained calm. He continued his explanation in a composed manner, as if trying to settle the agitated crowd.
“Leap itself seems to be an excellent body reinforcement-type concept. That’s why the second concept, Appraisal, is so unusual. Appraisal is the power of discernment. It has no connection whatsoever to the first ability he obtained, Leap.”
“No connection?”
“Director, take a look at Yeoreum from this year’s graduating class. She possesses the rare concept of Light, correct? And the second concept she manifested was Photosynthesis.”
“Light and photosynthesis… Yeah, there’s definitely a connection!”
“Exactly. The concepts of Multi-Ability Holders always develop and evolve through mutually complementary connections. Our curriculum is also built on that foundation.”
All eyes turned to me. It seemed they had grown curious about me, who possessed two completely unrelated concepts: Leap and Appraisal.
“Kid, what exactly happened to you?”