Chapter 92. The Ripple Effect of Artificial Awakening
Chapter 92. The Ripple Effect of Artificial Awakening
A quiet stillness hung in the air.
Lee Chae-hyun wore the expression of someone who had just heard something they shouldn't have.
"...What?"
Her face practically said, 'What did you just say?'
Her eyes went wide, her lips slightly parted.
She stared at me, completely frozen.
"You heard me just fine."
At that, Laila, who was sitting next to me, waved both hands in a flustered manner.
"Haha, it was a joke! A joke!"
But Lee Chae-hyun didn't nod, nor did she laugh.
Instead, she was staring at me with a strange look, as if trying to see right through me.
[No but seriously, is artificial awakening actually possible lololol]
[Fuck, if that were possible they'd be raking in cash]
[The Unknown Hunter's very first disciple lololol]
While expressing doubt at Laila's sudden reaction, I glanced at the chat window.
[Hero... even so, this is a bit...]
[Even so, she's someone who was upset because she couldn't awaken...]
[Chae-hyun, cheer up]
In the slightly awkward situation, I lowered my head first.
"Ah, sorry... I was just trying to lighten the mood."
Laila, still smiling, patted Lee Chae-hyun on the back.
"Chae-hyun, that startled you, didn't it?"
Lee Chae-hyun nodded, but a faint trace of suspicion still lingered in her eyes.
And then she glanced at me once more and mumbled quietly, almost a whisper.
"...I think it might have been real though..."
Laila shot me a glare.
'...'
---
The moment the stream ended and the screen went dark, the room suddenly fell silent.
Laila quietly tidied up the dishes, and I leaned back in my chair and stretched.
Then, Lee Chae-hyun looked at me with a slightly hesitant expression.
"...Chairman."
Her voice held a slight tremor.
"Can you really... help me awaken?"
I was momentarily at a loss for words.
My eyes instinctively turned toward Laila.
Because Laila had deliberately laughed off what I had said.
"..."
"The thing is..."
"Yes..."
"When I was the only one who couldn't awaken, I was so incredibly upset... My family all acted like it was nothing... but the people around me were so judgmental, always asking why I was the only one who couldn't..."
"..."
"Eventually, when I wasn't around, rumors even started that I wasn't their real child."
Unlike the way she had acted nonchalant on stream, Lee Chae-hyun's eyes were now glistening with tears.
"Can I really awaken?"
At her words, Laila quietly set the dishes down for a moment and stepped in front of her.
"...Yes. You, Chae-hyun, are more than capable."
"Really?"
"The word 'awakening' sounds grand, but in reality, isn't an 'awakened one' just 'a person who handles mana'?"
Lee Chae-hyun's eyes widened as if surprised, but she soon sank into deep thought.
Laila's words were true.
The existence of a hunter, after all, came down to 'did mana flow through their body, and could they use it to subdue monsters?'
'It's not like some status window appeared like in a novel...'
Laila watched her for a moment, then quietly smiled and continued.
"Actually, the reason I cut you off during the stream..."
"You were worried about the changes this would bring, Big Sis..."
"Yes, because if the world finds out that artificial awakening is possible... everything will change."
I had thought there would be some changes, of course, but I hadn't taken it as seriously as Laila did.
But her words carried weight.
"Awakening, up until now, has largely depended on luck. Governments, corporations, and guilds accepted that uncertainty and built systems around it. But..."
She quietly intertwined her fingers and went on.
"If it becomes known that 'someone can cause an awakening' through their will, through their technique..."
Guilds, the Hunters Association, the hunter license system.
Even the power dynamics between nations could shift.
The competition, the dealing, the wars surrounding awakening...
"I've heard about it too. That in the early days, unethical experiments were conducted for the sake of artificial awakening..."
The early days of awakening.
To increase their numbers of hunters, a few nations carried out unethical biological experiments.
Ingesting monsters, ingesting the hearts of dead hunters...
"This is a problem on a completely different level from us clearing gates. It would shake the very foundations."
I listened to her words in silence.
Lee Chae-hyun did the same.
She bit her lip lightly and stared down at the floor with a thoughtful expression, only her eyes moving.
'Was it already too late...?'
Even if Lee Chae-hyun awakened at this exact timing, word would inevitably get out.
Because she had met with us.
The public would imagine all sorts of things from that trivial encounter.
"...I see. It was that... dangerous of a thing."
"Hehe, it's just that you need to understand a little bit how delicate something like this is."
Even after Laila finished speaking, a heavy silence lingered in the room.
"But... honestly, couldn't we just let the world know? We'd just be the ones revealing it."
Even in that other world, which was so familiar with mana, there were a great many people who couldn't handle it.
No matter how much nobles invested effort into their children, feeding them elixirs and assigning high-ranking knights and mages to them, there were still impossible cases.
Although, it was possible if you poured in enough money.
But no noble ever went so far as to bankrupt their estate over it.
'Even if we tell them, there'll be a ton of people who still couldn't use mana...'
"There's no one around right now who could kidnap us and extract the method anyway... No, there's not even anyone who could actually abduct us in the first place."
Those words were filled with conviction.
The overwhelming power to silence any controversy, a presence that defied common sense.
It was something I could say because I knew better than anyone exactly where Laila and I stood in this world.
"Really... Hero, don't you remember what the president of the World Hunters Association said last time?"
"But couldn't we just pass this off as... having discovered a mechanism or something?"
Even if we stirred things up, things would probably get wrapped up neatly on their own...
But Laila subtly averted her gaze and silently pointed a finger at Lee Chae-hyun.
"There could be people who would try to abduct Chae-hyun to find out the method."
With that single sentence, the air in the room grew tense again.
Lee Chae-hyun stared at Laila with surprised eyes, and I furrowed my brows slightly and readjusted my posture.
"This isn't a simple matter. If people learn the method for artificial awakening... the global balance of power could be completely overturned."
"..."
"The technology to create awakened ones. That could become the supreme weapon on Earth, surpassing military power, economic power, and scientific technology all at once."
She quietly took a breath, then turned her gaze back toward Lee Chae-hyun.
"If it's that valuable, they would certainly think about baring their fangs. From their perspective, instead of confronting us..."
She paused, and again pointed her finger at Lee Chae-hyun.
"They will think it's far easier to get to Chae-hyun."
At Laila's words, I fell into thought for a moment.
She was clearly right.
If a secret capable of shaking the world's order was placed upon her, then she was definitely a target worth aiming for.
'Hmm...'
If the problem was Lee Chae-hyun's safety...
"If safety is the issue, isn't it simple?"
At that, Laila tilted her head slightly, and Lee Chae-hyun's eyes sparkled with a hint of unease.
"Laila, you can just place a stigma on all your family and acquaintances. Then, even if someone gets kidnapped, you can locate them right away and rescue them."
Laila lowered her eyes slightly and sank into thought.
It wasn't an unreasonable request.
Once a stigma was placed, she could grasp a person's condition and location, and if she personally intervened, she could even deploy a protective barrier.
"Of course, we'll need to place a stigma on her as well."
Assigning an ordinary bodyguard felt a little uneasy too.
But in that moment, a face suddenly flashed through my mind.
An S-rank hunter who expertly wielded a spear.
The man who grilled lamb over hot flames with an utterly unshaken look in his eyes.
The boss who followed me all the way to a distant country to run a kebab shop.
"...Ah, right."
"Yes?"
"What about Emir... wouldn't he make an excellent bodyguard?"
He was registered as an employee of the foundation, but effectively never came to work.
I'd just found a use for that employee.
"Certainly, if it's Emir... he'd be more than capable."
Lee Chae-hyun, who knew Emir's name, was greatly surprised.
"Hero, but would Mr. Emir actually do it...?"
"If the chairman of his company calls him, he's gotta come running on the double!"
"..."
'Did that sound too much like a boomer?'
Laila looked at Lee Chae-hyun with a warm gaze and took hold of her hands.
"You want to awaken too, don't you, Chae-hyun?"
"Uh-huh, yes... I want to try doing something in that kind of world too..."
The scornful gazes she'd suffered in the past for failing to awaken.
And now, at the hope of being able to awaken, she shed tears.
"Actually, the reason I spoke in such a serious tone... was because I didn't want Chae-hyun to take this too lightly."
"..."
"People around you will probably hassle you quite a bit."
Lee Chae-hyun nodded with a resolute expression, as if she was ready to handle all of that as well.
'To be honest, global repercussions and all that, I really just wanted to use this as a Neotube angle...'
Catching myself thinking like this, I supposed I was a born streamer through and through.
I spoke up to the now-determined Lee Chae-hyun.
"The awakening itself, and the growth process after, probably won't be easy."
"Yes! Chairman, I'll work hard!"
I hadn't said it would be hard just to build some dramatic tension.
It's genuinely going to be hard.
To the point of wanting to die...
'I was not joking...'
She's probably going to truly sweat blood...