Empty House Burglary (4)
Lee Hyun tilted his head.
The Kim Min-jung he knew wasn’t the type to show such emotional reactions.
“……You did well to keep an eye on Team Leader Seo Ae-ri. That person was originally someone Team Leader Lim was also interested in.”
“Team Leader Lim?”
“Yes. She was originally a KAIST engineering PhD, but after awakening as a Hunter, she started taking a deep interest in dungeon research.”
Lee Hyun nodded.
That was why he himself had started to take interest in Team Leader Seo Ae-ri.
“The reason she volunteered for Z Team was because she was very interested in exploring and researching long-unsolved dungeons.”
“Yes. Especially, she believes there’s a specific pattern in how dungeon concepts are determined and focuses her research on that.”
“Pattern, huh…….”
For a moment, Lee Hyun’s eyes lit up slightly.
If that assumption was true, it would be a great help in finding dungeons related to Sun Wukong in the future.
“Originally, she seems like the kind of talent who should be in the Research Support Division?”
“That’s right. White Burn also scouted her for that purpose, but what can you do? She wanted to run around the field herself.”
Kim Min-jung shrugged and continued.
“In fact, Team Leader Seo is someone with a very strong sense of self, or rather, her own world. That’s why she doesn’t get along well with people even in Z Team……. Especially, she had serious trouble with every team leader.”
Given the past Z Team leaders who had strong disciplinary aspects, it seemed they had clashed while trying to use Team Leader Seo Ae-ri somehow.
“So if you can just secure Team Leader Seo’s independence, it won’t be difficult to bring her over as an ally.”
“You have a much better eye for people than I do, so that must be right. Are you close with Team Leader Seo?”
“We eat together occasionally? But sometimes she disappears without a word, so not often.”
“Then I should contact her after lunch later.”
“Yes. Understood. But…….”
Kim Min-jung nodded, then looked at the name ‘Team Leader Eom Gi-seon’ with a complicated gaze.
“Do we really need to bring that person in too? If you need other recommendations, I can suggest as many as you want…….”
The way she trailed off felt like she wanted to keep her distance.
“Is there a reason?”
“Well……. Haah! That guy is hopeless.”
“……?”
“There’s just something. Anyway, it’d be better if you avoided him.”
A reaction that avoided explaining and just expressed disgust.
That only made Lee Hyun more curious.
‘Maybe an ex-boyfriend?’
The thought that he should meet him even more made a grin appear on his face.
In the bleak company life, you need the occasional pleasure of teasing cute(?) juniors to make it bearable.
Did Kim Min-jung see through Lee Hyun’s thoughts?
She glared at him with slightly axe-like eyes.
* * *
Right after lunch break ended,
Lee Hyun headed to the 6th floor of the Research Support Division, where Team Leader Seo Ae-ri often stayed, together with Kim Min-jung.
‘None of the team members have come yet.’
Usually, when a new team leader was appointed, they would at least show their faces as a courtesy.
It was absurd that they were openly ostracizing him like this.
Because of that, Lee Hyun had separately submitted evaluations to HR for the team members on grounds of ‘unauthorized absence’ and ‘neglect of duty.’
Soon, HR would verify and issue warnings.
Then they would come rushing back. Especially since they were large corporation employees hungry for performance evaluations.
Even more so for Z Team members, who were mostly safety-first types hoping to keep their positions.
“Seeing this, you really are quite vicious, sunbae.”
“What did I do?”
“After reporting neglect of duty, you applied for field work. You wanted to make them sweat, didn’t you?”
“Well, something like that?”
“And then you’ll apply for a mission right away so they won’t even get to meet you?”
“I said they just need to receive the items within 3 days. After that, why drag it out? We can just go explore the dungeon right away. Two people were enough before, so why bother dragging along a bunch of headaches?”
“That’s why I’m saying you’re vicious……. In the end, it’s the same as when Team Leader Jung was here. They’re all going to get struck by lightning.”
“That just means humans lack learning ability.”
Kim Min-jung shook her head.
No matter how much Executive Director Jung took care of them, if Lee Hyun cleared long-unsolved dungeons one after another with only a small number of people, what would happen?
Just as Executive Director Jung had worried before, they would all become useless surplus personnel.
Not only would their performance scores hit rock bottom, but they’d likely become targets for restructuring.
Companies hated idle personnel the most.
At that point, even Executive Director Jung wouldn’t feel the need to protect them.
‘You guys are really pitiful. How did you end up picking a fight with Senior Jang of all people…….’
From the moment Kim Min-jung heard that Lee Hyun had requested the team leader position, she was certain that this fight was already over.
“It seems to be here……. There she is.”
Kim Min-jung and Lee Hyun spotted Team Leader Seo Ae-ri at an experiment table specially prepared inside the research floor, staring at a flask.
She seemed to be researching potions. Large and small flasks containing various liquids were bubbling or emitting unknown smoke.
Kim Min-jung was about to call out to Team Leader Seo Ae-ri, who hadn’t noticed them even though they were right next to her.
But Lee Hyun slightly raised his hand to stop her.
Then he smiled faintly…… his expression was subtle.
Surprise?
Fondness?
It seemed Team Leader Seo Ae-ri was quite to his liking.
‘Does he know what kind of experiment this is?’
As Kim Min-jung stared at Lee Hyun, he casually threw out a remark.
“That, if you keep trying to increase only the muscle fiber ratio, the saturation point will come quickly. It might be better to add one mutation genetic element and redesign the cell structure itself.”
“……!?”
Kim Min-jung’s eyes widened slightly at the incomprehensible string of terms.
Team Leader Seo Ae-ri also finally noticed their arrival and slowly turned her gaze toward Lee Hyun.
An unreadable look.
Lee Hyun pretended not to see that gaze and approached the notebook that seemed to be sketched by Team Leader Seo Ae-ri, adding something with a pencil.
“At this rate, the tissue won’t hold up. If you only increase muscle density, the ligaments will give out first. So rather than Vampire’s CW-K blood, Lycanthrope’s RD genetic element would be better. So if you change this chemical structure from this form to this form,”
Lee Hyun added a sketch of an even more incomprehensible model over the existing sketch.
“You can temporarily flexibilize the entire body structure. Wouldn’t this create a form that’s much safer while easily doubling the enhancement value?”
For a moment, as if realizing something, Team Leader Seo Ae-ri snatched the pencil from Lee Hyun and began pondering deeply while writing equations made of incomprehensible letters and numbers on the sketch.
Then she carefully mixed the solution in the flask this way and that. The color changed little by little in an unknown way.
Each time, Lee Hyun continued to add advice from the side.
“No. Here, it would be better to use a mutation accelerator to definitely increase efficiency.”
“…….”
“It’s good that you added mutation material to the enhancer composition, but the cell adhesion rate isn’t even 60%, is it?”
“…….”
“This way, side effects will come first. If you just add one mana stabilizer as a medium, the mutation will be absorbed more naturally, right?”
Kim Min-jung felt like her eyeballs were spinning.
‘W-what the hell, I don’t understand a single word!’
Even though Kim Min-jung had graduated from the Awakener Officer School and prided herself on having sufficient basic knowledge,
terms like genetic elements and mutation materials made her head spin.
But there was one thing she could clearly tell.
Through Lee Hyun’s advice, Team Leader Seo Ae-ri’s previously stuck experiment had gained momentum.
In reality, Team Leader Seo Ae-ri’s hands moving the flasks without a single word had become very busy.
Before long, other researchers had gathered around, watching the situation with interest.
“What, that actually worked?”
“Right, it’s amazing……. She shifted the focus of enhancement from output to buffer, didn’t she?”
“It looks like she used mutation elements to change the muscle fibers to an elasticity base?”
“Wait a second. Wouldn’t that mean you could even use the recoil as a weapon? Crazy.”
“Usually, when the mutation stage applied to the genome is that large, it quickly exceeds the critical point and makes self-restoration difficult, but with that method, it doesn’t seem like it would be a problem?”
“To solve it that way……. We all tried to stop her, so how did he know?”
Kim Min-jung wondered if she had fallen into another world.
“Team Leader Seo is one thing, but have you seen that man before? Was there someone like that in the research floor?”
“Even if he’s wearing a lab coat, with that physique and face, how could you not know?”
“I don’t know about anything else, but can’t we bring him to our team? With that level of imagination and intuition, he’s definitely going to produce something, hmm!”
Speculation even arose about what Lee Hyun’s true identity was.
‘……Did sunbae have knowledge in that area? As far as I know, he didn’t. Did he study separately for 4 years?’
A thought that arose because she didn’t know Lee Hyun possessed the Hwaan Geumjeong that allowed him to glimpse the other side of the world and greatly enhanced his thinking ability.
Instead, Kim Min-jung could think of another senior in that appearance.
‘He looks just like Senior Soo-chan.’
The one who closed his eyes in place of Lee Hyun at the Ice Palace…….
Hisss!
Only purple liquid remained in the flask. It was still bubbling, but boasted a brilliant color.
Team Leader Seo Ae-ri was finally able to put down the flask and wipe the sweat from her forehead.
“It seems you’re researching dungeons with Gothic novels or urban fantasy as the concept.”
Team Leader Seo Ae-ri turned her head back toward Lee Hyun.
Lee Hyun smiled.
“Certainly, Vampires or Lycanthropes are the best for enhancement types, but they’re difficult to touch easily because of side effects. But if you approach it with the Wraith of the Witch lineage as a catalyst like now, you should be able to reduce the side effects, so I think it’s a good approach.”
“……Thank you, Team Leader. Thanks to you, I’ve overcome one hurdle.”
Team Leader Seo Ae-ri bowed her head politely.
At the word ‘Team Leader,’ Lee Hyun’s smile grew wider.
He had definitely won her favor with his help just now.
“It’s nothing. It’s still a prototype, so please continue researching. The direction isn’t wrong, so I think you’ll see good results soon.”
“Does that mean…… I can focus more on research?”
“Of course. It’s something that contributes to the team’s strength, so there’s no need for me to stop you, is there?”
“Th-then,”
“If you need my opinion again, even if it’s lacking, please come find me.”
That was enough. It was the words Team Leader Seo Ae-ri had always wanted to hear whenever she met a new team leader.
And,
Team Leader Seo Ae-ri’s joining was also a welcome thing for Lee Hyun.
‘Enhancement and mutation……. It’s a very good topic for me, who plans to enhance the Snow Queen’s narrative. I think I’ll also be able to find a way to fuse the brain attribute and ice attribute beyond neutralization.’
He could receive a lot of help from Lee Gun-san, the alchemist, but his main field was elemental types. It was quite different in direction from Team Leader Seo Ae-ri.
So Lee Hyun planned to add Team Leader Seo Ae-ri’s research results based on the Snow Queen investigation report he received from Lee Gun-san.
‘Above all, this person isn’t just a simple researcher. She also has considerable skill in hand-to-hand combat.’
Looking at Team Leader Seo Ae-ri’s frame and arm muscles, despite her slender build, she seemed to have trained quite a bit.
Perhaps the enhancement and mutation potions were for herself.
She would be a great help in future dungeon explorations as well.
Lee Hyun shook hands with Team Leader Seo Ae-ri.
Thus, the second team member was decided.
A smooth start.
His smile deepened.
* * *
“Really, how did you know all that? Sunbae, your major in history wasn’t chemistry, was it?”
“It wasn’t my main major, but I was interested.”
“Giving advice to an engineering PhD with just interest……?”
Kim Min-jung looked at Lee Hyun with an incredulous expression, but the only response she got was a smile again.
Knowing that he would gloss over it at times like this, she didn’t dig deeper.
Instead, when the training room prepared on the first basement floor of the company building came into view, her steps gradually slowed.
“……But do you really have to meet Team Leader Eom Gi-seon too? Isn’t Team Leader Seo enough?”
“I haven’t properly talked with him yet. And his background is quite appealing too.”
Team Leader Eom Gi-seon’s background was a little, no, very special.
‘He was from the US Awakener Special Task Force, ‘ASTRA’.’
Advanced Superhuman Tactical Response Agency. Commonly known as A.S.T.R.A.
The places where that most famous Awakener unit in the world was deployed were always battlegrounds where transnational events occurred.
Even the Cheongroe Unit couldn’t surpass their prestige. No, to be precise, it was disbanded right before that.
Therefore, ASTRA’s reputation was ongoing.
Since Eom Gi-seon was from such a place, Lee Hyun couldn’t help but be interested.
‘Moreover, all the operation areas he ran around were famous places. I need to check why someone with this kind of career is stuck in Z Team.’
There were evaluations left by HR or previous team leaders.
Just one word,
—Troublemaker.
On that subject, there was also someone among the executives who left this evaluation.
—Knight.
A person with two keywords that seemed completely incompatible.
Perhaps because of that, he, who was known to have ignored even Executive Director Jung’s summons, was confirmed to be currently in the training room.
“Haah……!”
While Kim Min-jung let out a sigh as if the ground would cave in,
Lee Hyun stopped opening the door to the training room and cooled his eyes.
Shwaaaaaak!
Two slightly curved swords drew sharp trajectories, each aiming for the neck and knee.
Clang!
Lee Hyun took out Sikcheol and Galyuk from his inventory and deflected the trajectories.
At the same time, he threw the Sikcheol he was holding toward that direction.
Bwoooong, Kwaaaang!
Rumble……!!
“……Whoa shit, I almost went to the underworld for no reason by messing with him.”
There, Team Leader Eom Gi-seon, who had barely turned his head to the side and narrowly avoided the axe, was breaking out in a cold sweat.
His severed hair fluttered down.
But,
Contrary to his startled tone, the corners of his mouth were smiling with interest.
“Must be because he’s the guy who took down Mukeshi in one shot, his hands are incredibly bold?”
In the shining eyes of the guy,
Lee Hyun’s expressionless face was reflected.