Chapter 62. People of the Research Complex.
Chapter 62. People of the Research Complex.
"You said you're an Awakened. What kind of ability do you have, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Well... it's not a combat-oriented ability, but I can tell whether someone else is an Awakened, and I can read their emotions to some degree. I suppose running a business is what brought these abilities out."
"Still, being able to identify Awakened individuals and read people's emotions is an excellent ability for distinguishing good from bad."
"Haha, if only I'd had such an ability back when I was running the company."
"Even so, thanks to your ability, your group must consist only of decent people."
At my words, he gave a bitter smile.
"That's not quite how it works. Even if someone is relatively bad, we can't just expel them, can we?"
It was clear there were bad people among them, and he had the air of someone who wished he could cast them out.
"So there are people like that here."
He glanced briefly at the President before speaking again.
"Not all of them are like this, but politicians put their own safety above everything. And they act as though they're special."
The truth was, his own conduct had always been a little different from other chaebols. He constantly educated his children, telling them they were not special, that they'd simply been born into a wealthy family by luck, and that they should never act conceited. He also made them start from the bottom and kept the company's books completely transparent.
"To be honest, I don't particularly like politicians. Apart from the current President and a select few, that is."
"...?"
"Back during the military regime era, the company's chairman at the time was killed in a certain 'accident' after falling out of favor for refusing to provide slush funds. He had no children, so I, who was the vice-chairman back then, ended up running the company."
"Then..."
"Haha, still, eliminating us wasn't easy. Because the country's foreign currency reserves would be in danger if we disappeared. We placated them just enough while secretly supporting those who had been wronged."
"So that business about special treatment and all that was..."
"I simply didn't trust any of you. I had no idea what you might make people do under the name of the 'government' again. And in our current situation, if you ordered it under the pretext of reconstruction, we'd be helpless, wouldn't we?"
I gave him a look that seemed to ask if he trusted us now, but he shook his head, saying he still wasn't entirely sure. He added that trust would likely build with time and shared experience.
He fixed his gaze on me again and asked something that had been on his mind.
"You, in particular, were a rather unusual case. Even with my ability, I couldn't tell whether you were an Awakened or not. The others in your group are clearly Awakened, but they gave off a somewhat different feeling..."
That would make sense. I had personally taught and awakened my companions, so their strength was a blend of the System and cultivation methods. As for me, I had essentially transcended the realm of simply storing mana in my body, so whether I counted as an Awakened was ambiguous.
"Anyway, the more I look at you, the more fascinating you become. You possess some kind of seasoned wisdom that doesn't quite fit a young man. I simply couldn't shake the feeling of meeting our first chairman."
On the outside, I was just a young man. Inside, though, I had the core of an old man (?) who had lived for over nine hundred years.
"Now that you're here, please eat before you go. There are also some people I'd like to introduce you to."
After we had coordinated our opinions, they told us they would call us when the meal was ready and showed us to a space where we could rest. We spent that time resting and speaking privately among ourselves.
"Mr. Sihu, it's fortunate that the negotiations proceeded smoothly without any discord."
"I thought there'd be a lot of hard-headed bastards here. It was unexpected."
"As the Chairman mentioned just now, there will be people with grievances. And they'll try to use the contents of our discussion to find fault one way or another."
Honestly, I'd have liked to eliminate those impure elements the Chairman spoke of. Fat pigs that ate away at a group from the inside were utterly useless. And my reason for wanting to eliminate them wasn't anything grand. I simply found Chairman Lee Hyeon-cheol likeable? That was about it.
'I just need a justification... I wish they'd pick a major fight with us.'
Of course, I wasn't some lunatic who'd kill people just for picking a fight. I just wished they'd commit a major fuck-up... Still, the people in the meeting room had been more or less decent.
"The people here seem decent enough."
"Yes, they were surprisingly reasonable people."
"Then the real problem must be the groups at the hospital."
'I sensed a strangely familiar aura from that direction... I'll have to check it out.'
While my companions were chatting idly, a knock came from outside. The person who entered was the attendant secretary who had been standing behind the Chairman. He had come to fetch us because the meal was ready. When we entered the dining room, the people I'd seen before were there alongside some I hadn't met.
"Allow me to introduce you. These are my son and my grandchildren."
'Grandchildren? Just how old is this man...'
The people introduced as his grandchildren looked around our age at least. And whatever they'd heard from their grandfather, they greeted me with stiff, disciplined postures. The man introduced as his son was an extremely gruff-looking older gentleman.
After introducing his family, he soon introduced the other politicians who had not been in the meeting room earlier. Truly, the Chairman had a good eye for people, because I felt a slightly murkier energy from these men compared to those I had seen in the meeting.
We were all eating and drinking together, engaged in idle chatter, when the people from the research complex group expressed great surprise that we were independently farming and raising livestock. Then, the President spoke at length about my martial prowess, recounting stories of retaking the military base and Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, and the way people looked at me changed.
Another amusing thing happened: the Chairman's grandson, a man around our age, approached us. To be precise, he approached Jia, not me, and asked her to have a drink with him. It wasn't a sleazy come-on, but more the feeling of a pure, innocent crush.
"It's Miss Jia, right? Would you like to have a drink with me, if it's alright?"
"I'm sorry. My heart already belongs to someone."
As Jia said that, she looked at me, and seeing that, the man was taken aback and stammered.
"But I heard he's Miss Chaeyeon's boyfriend...?"
"That's right. And he's my boyfriend at the same time."
The man looked at Chaeyeon with a gaze that asked if she was really okay with this.
"That's right. Sihu is my boyfriend, and he's Jia's boyfriend at the same time."
"Is that even possible...?"
"Fufu, oppa's stronger and cooler than anyone else. Isn't it natural to be drawn to a strong man?"
The naive-looking man stared at me, his eyes glaring with dejection.
'What an adorable fool...'
Curious about the relationship talk, the man's younger sister also jumped into the conversation. She was a girl who, if you met her outside, would give off a tomboyish vibe, not at all like a chaebol heiress.
"What were you all talking about?"
"Well... this person..."
Upon hearing that I was dating two women, she looked at me with sparkling eyes. Then, glancing at Chaeyeon and Jia, she began asking questions like what they liked about me and how we started dating. It was exactly the kind of talk a girl that age would love.
The three women began to chatter away. The girl reacted with tremendous animation, utterly absorbed in the story. At that moment, the man beside me, who had been quiet, spoke up.
"Ah, that's right, you're Mr. Sihu. I heard from my grandfather that you've done some incredible things. It was utterly beyond my imagination. He also said you were the first person he'd ever met that he simply couldn't get a read on."
The tomboyish girl soon seemed to finish her conversation and went over to the adults, where she started chattering away about every little detail.
The adults, including the President, wanted to continue drinking a bit longer, so we excused ourselves.
I returned to the room with Chaeyeon, Jia, and Choi Jae-hyeok. That was when Choi Jae-hyeok asked me a question.
"Mr. Sihu, I saw you seemed to be pondering something troubled earlier, when you were handing over the food supplies to those men. Is there a problem?"
He must have seen me worrying over that familiar aura.
'Damn, that guy is sharp.'
"I sensed a familiar aura there."
"Is it someone you know...?"
"No. It was an aura I felt back on Titan."
Thinking that another being besides Terion and Leviathan might have crossed over, my companions were seriously concerned.
"Sihu, did someone like Lord Terion or that dragon from last time cross over?"
"Judging by how faint the aura was, I don't think it's anything on that level. What I'm sure of is that it wasn't a human aura."
"If it isn't human... if it's something Mr. Sihu is wary of, it must be a dangerous entity..."
I understood their concern. But the reason it had piqued my curiosity was literally just because it was a familiar aura. It wasn't as if a divine being I'd have to be wary of had crossed over, and there was no reason for such beings to come here.
"It's probably a being from a higher race."
"Oppa, do you mean like the Celestials or Demons?"
"Sihu! You mean it's an angel or a demon...?"
"There's a chance."
Right now, they were probably imagining kind and beautiful angels, or evil and terrifying demons. But well, who could say?
Those beings were neither benevolent nor simply fearsome entities. They were merely a race superior to humans and, deep in their bones, supremacists who regarded humans as nothing more than a lesser species.
Of course, not all of them thought that way, but any angel or demon who viewed humans as actual people was treated as the strange exception.
"If you ever meet one, the image you have in your heads will probably be completely shattered."