Ability Reveal (3)
Ability Reveal (3)
Time rewound to when Yujin cleared Stage 10 of the entrance exam.
The reporters lucky enough to capture it on camera rushed to file their articles at once.
They slapped on labels like 'exclusive' and 'breaking news.'
The articles announced the emergence of a new S-rank candidate.
[Korean Awakener Minor Gallery]
Title: breaking news live just dropped lolol
(screenshot of an internet news article)
reporter bro... I get you were in a hurry, but what's up with those typos...
└ the state of these clickbait bastards these days;;
└ oh wait but is the article real?
└ no way it's real, obviously just bait
└└ fr lol you just know if you click it'll say 'unfortunately eliminated'
A reporter had been so desperate to be first that they'd frantically typed the article on a smartphone.
A new student had cleared Stage 10 of the entrance exam!
Naturally, no one believed it.
The atrocities of reporters blinded by view counts were hardly a one-day affair.
People assumed it was the usual overblown hype, and even that rare new post quietly sank out of sight.
...That was how it should have gone.
Title: that S-rank hype video from earlier is up
(screenshot of a YouXube video uploaded 37 seconds ago)
it's the raw, uncut full vid
how is anyone supposed to watch all that;;
└ aren't you all time billionaires sitting at home? why complain?
└└ (a “why are you being mean...?” emoticon)
└ lol nice I had nothing to watch while eating, gonna wolf it down
A video hurriedly uploaded to a broadcaster's official YouXube channel.
It was completely unedited raw footage, yet some people gladly sat through it.
Awakeners were essentially real-life heroes.
So the entrance exam, where they first demonstrated their abilities, was the ultimate spectacle.
It didn't take long for the reaction to catch fire.
Title: uguyswatsthis
(screencap of the moment after Seo Yujin cleared Stage 10)
that thing earlier is real????
└ so this isn't a shitpost
└└ if you thought it was a shitpost why'd you click?
└└ I'm eating
└└ ?
└ ah dammit what a waste
└ that face is wasted fr
└ I clicked because it's a guy, but why's it real?
A few viewers took screencaps and uploaded them.
That spark soon spread into a massive fire.
Every online community erupted.
[hehe Pentagon Academy today (+729)]
[guys, a likely S-rank candidate appeared (+3811)]
[please take a look at this handsome young man (+12)]
[Reason why it's time for Aika to retire.reason (+9999)]
The reaction was unusually intense.
This happened because the S-rank No. 1 was Japanese.
Korea was undeniably ranked number one in the world for the average level of its awakeners.
Yet the strongest of those very awakeners was Japanese.
As a result, the two countries became fodder for a worldwide comparison war.
Korea is world number one?
Aika alone could annihilate them.
Japan's pride, S-rank No. 1 Aika Ninomiya?
She ultimately got her education in Korea, anyway. Japan is a corpse without Aika.
Isn't Aika basically an honorary Korean?
Such talk was flying around even offline, let alone on the internet.
Then news broke that a Korean had matched a feat only the S-rank No. 1 had ever achieved.
Koreans couldn't help but take an interest.
The blaze that began in the world's strongest awakener nation quickly spread abroad.
Naturally, it spread to Japan, which was just as sensitive to this rivalry as Korea.
It even reached the United States in a single bound, despite it being the middle of the night there because of the time difference.
The whole world was turned upside down.
[R/awakener - 8TH S RANK AWAKENER🔥🔥]
(YouXube screencap image)
[Thread discussing Aika-chan]
Did a Korean male awakener break Aika-chan's record?
>>398
Isn't that edited? Is he an idol?
Japan erupted just as Korea had.
Pentagon Academy was inundated with attention.
Even the chairwoman, one of only seven S-rank awakeners in the world, felt pressured by it.
"Chairwoman!! The press is in an uproar right now..."
'...Tch. At this rate, the pressure would fall directly on the cadet. I'd have to make him reveal at least the nature of his ability.'
That was why, despite knowing it was rude, she had asked Seo Yujin directly about his ability at the close of the entrance ceremony.
Even a seasoned veteran such as herself couldn't begin to guess his ability, so how must it have looked to ordinary people?
If they tried to gloss over it, someone was bound to launch a national petition.
So she'd just ask him which type it was.
Then people would interpret it however they pleased among themselves.
That was what the chairwoman had been thinking when she asked.
"My Innate Talent is hypnosis. Complete Hypnosis."
"......!!!"
A full ability reveal with no brakes whatsoever.
The completely unexpected turn threw everyone into confusion.
[Live Chat]
-Hypnosis???
-Mind control? Is that real? WTF
-No, why would he say that
-What the hell
The live chat for the broadcast momentarily froze under the sudden load.
Revealing that his ability was EX-rank was shocking enough. But what? Hypnosis?
Just hearing that, it obviously wasn't a combat-type ability.
Then what about that purple shimmer with the katana?
And the suspiciously perfect way he handled the monsters?
More importantly, how could an awakener's ability be hypnosis?
Had any awakener in history ever possessed an ability like that?
Not once.
What the hell was with that guy?
"......What in the world is that ability?"
The Chairwoman couldn't hold back and asked.
What on earth did that mean, new cadet?
"It is an ability to manipulate the soul of a living being and command it according to my will."
"The soul?"
"Yes. That's also how I made the monsters kill themselves in Stages 6 and 9."
Yujin was unruffled.
Ah, they didn't know. This was called Hypnosis—my Innate Talent.
...Of course, he was keenly aware that he was doing something insane.
'In the game, the option to reveal it outright hadn't even appeared.'
Hypnosis. Wasn't it obviously an ability optimized for an adult game?
Making this known was essentially declaring, "Hello, I am the Hypnosis Breeding Guy."
Beyond people being horrified, even his beloved wives might recoil from him!
But Yujin was the self-proclaimed Second-Round Hypnosis Breeding Guy.
Despite all those risks, he chose not to hide his ability.
'No matter how I thought about it, this was the only breakthrough.'
Before the regression, just how much talk had there been about his harem?
A guy who just happened to luck into a strong ability yet ignored the law.
The ability itself looked fishy anyway. No one could understand why he'd become the disciple of S-rank No. 1, either.
And a harem? Who did he think he was?
There had been so many posts and comments like that, he'd ultimately grown sick and tired of the internet.
But what if he didn't hide it at all?
A young man who knew his ability was dangerous and honestly confessed it from the very beginning.
A young man who used an ability more prone to corruption than any other in a purely upright manner.
A young man who hadn't just lucked into a strong ability, but had grown strong by diligently training a non-combat ability.
A young man whose effort had been recognized, earning him a place as the disciple of S-rank No. 1.
A wholesome young man.
At the very least, this kind of image-building was possible.
The achievements he would go on to earn would support that image.
Of course, people would still talk.
But wouldn't it be at least a hundred times, a thousand times better than the First Round?
This was precisely Yujin's thinking.
And events unfolded just as he expected.
Public opinion, both online and offline, shifted rapidly.
...For a reason entirely different from what he'd thought.
[Korean Awakener Minor Gallery]
Title: Hypnosis? Isn't this an ability totally optimized for eroge?
The awakener industry already has a male-to-female ratio of 1 to 9
and his Innate Talent is hypnosis?
If that's fr then isn't every day a forest of dicks for him
ha why didn't it come to me instead of some alpha male
└ Hm, is it really that serious?
└└ It is that serious;; some people are thirty-year-old virgins while one guy gets 24/7 orgies with a single hypnosis click
└└ with a face like that he probably didn't even need hypnosis
└└ ah
If a mediocre-looking man had gotten the hypnosis ability, it would have been controversial.
But, that face.
With a face like that, he hardly needed hypnosis.
He probably revealed it because he knew that too.
Yujin was simply too handsome for merely coming clean about his ability to stain his reputation.
In fact, it had the opposite effect.
[R/awakener - Virgin VS Yujin]
Virgin: jerks off while imagining awakening
only uses hypnosis to sleep with girls
keeps his ability a secret for life
Yujin: brought girls home every day even before awakening
uses hypnosis to pull off sick quickdraw techniques
doesn't hide his ability
The 'Virgin vs. Chad' meme from the Anglosphere was translated almost instantly and flooded the internet.
Thanks to the Western bros' meme game, Yujin's reputation skyrocketed as well.
He alone was unaware of it.
'I had revealed it, so now I truly had to live earnestly. For the sake of my wives, I'd live a life without a single lapse!'
He made that utterly pointless resolution.
He'd been acting like a wholesome young man from the start anyway.
* * *
After revealing my ability on a live broadcast, my once-confident demeanor grew heavier with every step back toward my seat.
It was because of Alice and Sia.
'The mood had finally been good for once... Now they'd both be horrified, I bet.'
I'd be lucky if they just shunned me as some creep who used hypnosis.
I'd even prepared myself to be slapped as they shouted, 'You hypnotized us, didn't you? You pervert!'
The misunderstanding would clear up once enough time passed and I proved my sincerity through my achievements, but...
To put it another way, it meant I needed time.
Until then, the two of them would shun me.
After two weeks of torment, sunlight had finally broken through to my battered body and mind.
If they shunned me... it might hurt. A lot.
The thought made my feet refuse to move.
'No... You two were all I needed. If you hated me, how was I supposed to live...?'
"Yujin!!"
"......Huh?"
Contrary to my fears, an incredibly bright voice greeted me.
It was Alice.
"Hypnosis? That's incredible! What a cool ability!!"
"Wh-what?"
'What? Why was she so pleased?'
Her flushed, heated cheeks. Her two hands clasped tightly together. The distance between us, even closer than before.
It didn't look like the reaction of someone who'd just heard my ability.
-Mutter, mutter.
"Hypnosis powerful enough to command monsters to harm themselves... It has limitless potential."
'Sia didn't mind it at all, either.'
Rather than shunning me, Yoo Sia was busy thinking about how her clan could use my ability.
...Why? Had I unconsciously used hypnosis?
"You two really don't mind my ability?"
"Not at all! It's fascinating, actually! Please use it on me, too!"
"What do you mean!?"
She even went so far as to ask me to hypnotize her.
...Come to think of it, even before the regression, everyone used to tell me to use it more often.
I rarely did because I felt sorry about it, though.
Could women actually like being hypnotized?
"That sort of preference...."
"I know! You use it to treat depressed people and stuff, right? I've been having trouble sleeping these days, you see!"
"Ah."
Nope. I was the piece of trash.
'She was so innocent... Was this the youthful freshness of someone in her early twenties?'
"...Why would you trust me with that? It's a dangerous ability, so I'm never using it on you."
"Aww, come on~ Please?"
"Not even for you, Alice."
"Hmm. If you'll hypnotize me..."
-grin.
"I might be able to forgive you for a little bit of mischief?"
"......!!!!?"
'Was she seriously trying to seduce me... No, no no. She definitely just meant tickling or something. Yeah. Hold back, hold back. I'd sworn I wouldn't use hypnosis...!!!'
Thanks to my dangerously seductive wives, today was another exhausting day.
* * *
That night, after I revealed my hypnosis ability, I went beneath the academy.
'I hadn't expected to be using hypnosis right away.'
"Look at this coin. Three, two, one...."
With a woman bound before him, Yujin began his first mission.