The Saw-Toothed Shield

A week later, the new employee training finally came to an end.

Honestly, the ideological indoctrination hours in the curriculum had been tedious. The classes on Shinseung Group's history hadn't been much use to Haneul either, and he genuinely couldn't fathom why he was expected to memorize the rags-to-riches saga of the company's founding chairman word for word.

But the curriculum had also included plenty of meaningful lectures.

'Pretty useful stuff, actually.'

Haneul looked over the sheet of paper with the curriculum printed on it and gave it a favorable review.

Of course, he'd received similar training back in his intern days. But the lectures aimed at full-time employees were of an entirely different caliber, so Haneul pricked up his ears and refused to let a single word or fragment of a hint slip past him.

It wasn't just Haneul, either — his fellow trainees were all hyper-focused on the lessons.

The moment the new employee training ended, field placements began.

First, the Raid Support Team Leader came into the Complex Center's grand auditorium and picked out whichever new team members caught her fancy. She was a slender beauty who looked to be in her late thirties, and she introduced herself as Lee Ji-yeon.

After scrutinizing all 311 new employees, she selected mostly those who had bloomed healing-related abilities.

A few, like Haneul, kept their abilities hidden, but most of the recruits flaunted what they had bloomed as if it were a badge of honor. Healers were especially prone to this tendency.

'If I got into the Raid Support Team, at least it'd be less dangerous. Tch! If I'd bloomed a healing ability myself, I wouldn't have bothered hiding it in the first place.'

Haneul jutted out his lower lip in a sulk.

After the Raid Support Team came the Resource Exploration Team Leader, who appeared in the auditorium. This one was a man in his fifties with a shaggy, unkempt beard. His name was Lee Jun-woo.

"This batch is a sorry lot."

He skimmed the new employee roster with a listless expression, grumbled loudly enough for everyone to hear, and then selected a grand total of six people. Mostly, those with long-range scouting-type abilities found themselves caught in Lee Jun-woo's radar net.

Several more rounds of selection followed. By the time lunch rolled around, exactly 200 new employees were left in the grand auditorium.

Haneul was among those 200.

A short while later —

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

To the heavy beat of leather shoes, a powerfully built middle-aged man stepped up onto the auditorium stage. He wore his wavy hair at medium length, tied back into a ponytail, and a black eyepatch covered one eye — a one-eyed man.

And he hadn't come alone. The moment he took the stage, five more figures emerged behind him and lined up like a folding screen.

Chapter 3

The one-eyed man spoke in a husky baritone.

"I am Lee Sungwoo, Expedition Corps Commander of Shinseung."

That single line was enough. The name Lee Sungwoo, Expedition Corps Commander, was so famous that not one of the new employees was ignorant of it.

"That's the Expedition Corps Commander?"

"Whoa. First time seeing him in person."

The new recruits buzzed with whispers.

But the moment Lee Sungwoo furrowed his brow, the hall suddenly went silent.

Having hushed the entire room with nothing more than a shift in expression, Lee Sungwoo jerked a thumb over his shoulder and introduced the five men standing behind him like a screen.

"The men behind me are the Attack Unit Commanders of our Expedition Corps. From here on out, you will all be assigned to the 1st through 5th Attack Units."

Lee Sungwoo didn't drag it out. When the 200 recruits were lined up in a single row by employee number, the first forty from the front were all assigned to the 1st Attack Unit.

The next forty went entirely to the 2nd Attack Unit.

The forty after that to the 3rd... and so it went, down the line.

Haneul's employee number was on the low side, so he was assigned to the 1st Attack Unit.

"You can hash out the remaining details with your respective Attack Unit Commanders."

With those words, Lee Sungwoo left the stage.

Then again, it would have been stranger for a heavyweight like Lee Sungwoo to trade small talk with new employees. Within Shinseung Group, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Expedition Corps Commander ranked as a headquarters director — effectively a company president. And the Attack Unit Commanders of the 1st through 5th Units under his command wielded far greater authority than the other team leaders, because the Expedition Corps monopolized the core business of pioneering Highland and subjugating its magic beasts.

'So I'm completely screwed, then. This means I've been assigned to the most dangerous place there is, the one with the lowest survival rate of all. Haaah.'

Haneul discreetly dragged a hand down his face.

But he couldn't let his displeasure show at his first face-to-face with his direct superior, the 1st Attack Unit Commander. Haneul hurriedly smoothed his expression and gazed up at the man with wide, bright eyes.

At the same time, his mind snagged on one crucial point.

Inside the soul of Lee Ji-yeon, the Raid Support Team Leader he had seen just moments ago, there had been a 'medicine bottle' stamped with a plus sign. That bottle was Lee Ji-yeon's Mental Image — though its shape hadn't been especially distinct, and its color was faint.

The Mental Image within the soul of Lee Jun-woo, the Resource Exploration Team Leader, had been a 'nose'.

'A nose? Could that man have an extraordinarily developed sense of smell?'

Haneul made this guess as he looked up at Lee Jun-woo on the stage. He couldn't say for certain, but the nose of Lee Jun-woo's Mental Image was clearer in form than Team Leader Lee Ji-yeon's medicine bottle, and faintly colored as well, if only slightly.

By comparison, the Expedition Corps Commander Lee Sungwoo's Mental Image was a different animal altogether.

A ball of fluff so bright it dazzled the eye. That was Lee Sungwoo's Mental Image.

'That's no ordinary ball of cotton. Every single strand of it is steeped in the energy of lightning.'

The ball of fluff Haneul had found within Lee Sungwoo's soul was no haphazard wad of cotton; it felt like tens of thousands of fibers, each one saturated with lightning, compacted densely together. In fact, sparks darted and crackled around it — snap! zzcrack! The ball gleamed resplendently in gold, and the shape of the eyeball embedded within it was perfectly distinct.

'A ball of fluff with a single eye. It's practically a lightning spirit.'

Haneul was suddenly struck by a thought. Of all the ability users he had ever met, the one with the most intense Mental Image was HR Team Leader Lee Jaein. Within his soul, Lee Jaein kept a single blade hidden away — a sword that poured out light. Even that image radiated far deeper color and far more forceful pressure than the Mental Images of Lee Ji-yeon or Lee Jun-woo, team leaders who supposedly came ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and went from Highland all the time.

'And yet even that formidable HR Team Leader doesn't hold a candle to the Expedition Corps Commander's Mental Image.'

Haneul clucked his tongue.

'Then what about the 1st Attack Unit Commander?'

Haneul fixed his focus on the man before him — the commander who stood with his hands clasped behind his back in an arrogant posture, holding forth before his forty newly hatched chicks. Moments later, the commander's Mental Image swam into Haneul's view.

'Oh. The 1st Attack Unit Commander's soul is filled with a shield.'

And not just any shield — a shield built for offense and defense alike, its rim bristling with sharp sawteeth.

'But hold on... what is this?'

The corners of Haneul's mouth stiffened slightly. The instant the commander had laid eyes on the new recruits, his soul had drained of color, turning thoroughly gray and lifeless.

'The 1st Attack Unit Commander has no intention of exchanging a shred of feeling with us. He sees us as nothing but tools, plain and simple.'

Perhaps it was because he'd grown up an orphan on Old Earth. Outwardly, Haneul was meek and personable, but inside he was drier and more self-serving than anyone might have guessed. Through those eyes, the 1st Attack Unit Commander was a man best kept at arm's length — and just as the commander regarded his recruits as tools, so Haneul shut the door of his heart against the man.

The two of them had come unstrung from the very first button.

The bus carrying Haneul rolled down the riverside expressway and crossed Seongsu Bridge. A placard reading [1st Attack Unit] hung from the front windshield.

Haneul couldn't tear his eyes from the vista of the Han River unfolding beyond the window.

"Whoa, it's the Han River!"

"This is the first time I've ever really seen it up close."

Thirty-nine classmates, their hair cropped down to a fresh buzz cut just like Haneul's, crowded against the windows in a rush. Every one of them had come from Old Earth, and none had ever properly seen the Han River before.

In fact, back when Haneul and his classmates had first bloomed their abilities, they had ridden the subway from Mapo and passed beneath the Han River. But since they'd only traveled underground the whole way, not one of them had managed to admire the scenery — which was exactly why they were all so giddy at the sight of it now.

"Country bumpkins, the lot of them."

From the very front seat of the bus, the 1st Attack Unit Commander snorted.

"…"

The recruits grew sheepish, planted their backsides firmly in their seats, and turned their eyes straight ahead.

'Ha.'

Irritation welled up in Haneul all the same. The only reason he stared stubbornly out the window, making a show of it, was that his insides chafed.

Meanwhile, the bus passed Dosan Park and swung into the district around Gangnam Station. The 1st Attack Unit's dedicated building stood right nearby. And not only the 1st Attack Unit — every one of the other units had made its nest around Gangnam Station as well.

It was something Haneul would learn later: ability users who crossed into Highland and waged bloody battles against magic beasts were perpetually saturated with stress, and they needed a proper outlet for it. That was why Shinseung Group had stationed the 1st through 5th Attack Units in Gangnam, the beating heart of the city's nightlife. The same logic held in every other city, too.

Midland Tokyo's Expedition Corps was based in Shinjuku and Ginza.

Midland New York's in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Midland Paris's on the Rue Oberkampf in the northern 11th arrondissement.

That was the standard arrangement.

"We're here. Everyone grab your things and get off."

"Yes, sir, Commander!"

Haneul and his classmates answered almost before the commander had finished speaking, snatched up their backpacks, and stepped down from the bus. Spread out before them stood a fifty-story building wrapped in walls of green glass, its facade engraved with the name [Shinseung Group Expedition Corps — 1st Attack Unit].

From today onward, this would be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the place where Haneul and his classmates ate, slept, and worked.

Chapter 4

"Who in their right mind wants to bunk at the office? When work hours end, naturally you clock out sharp. But of course, you lot will be eating and sleeping right here. Our soft, downy little chicks, every one of you. Heh heh heh."

The 1st Attack Unit senior in charge of the dormitory orientation teased the forty new employees as "chicks" as he assigned them their rooms.

From what he said, the only ones bunking in the 1st Attack Unit building were the rookies: six hires from 2054, nineteen from 2055, and the forty assigned this year, 2056, as the unit's new employees. These were the rookies of the 1st Attack Unit.

While Haneul and his classmates stood lined up in the dormitory corridor on the building's third basement level, waiting for their room assignments, the senior's explanation went on.

"One room per person. Don't give a second's thought to the trivial stuff — cleaning, laundry, restocking your toiletries. The company takes care of all of it. Craving a midnight snack? Just tap your terminal. Everything on the terminal's menu comes free, as room service."

"Whoaaa."

With service on par with a five-star hotel, the new employees' faces lit up.

The senior flashed his teeth in a grin.

"In exchange, all you have to do is pour yourselves into training. That's how you survive as long as possible — long enough to shed that chick fluff of yours. Heh heh heh."

"…"

The faces of the new employees, which had softened into smiles, hardened all over again.

The senior bared his teeth all the wider and pointed a finger up toward the ceiling.

"As you saw a moment ago, this is basement level three. The floor above is used by the seniors who joined one year ahead of you. If you cross paths with them in the elevator, mind your manners and greet them properly."

"Understood, sir."

The new employees snapped to attention as they answered.

The senior gave a small smirk.

"Well, you won't be running into them all that often anyway. Everyone's too busy training and commuting in and out of Highland. And one floor above that, basement level one, is in use by your two-year seniors — the '54 ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hires. Their death rate has shot up lately, so their nerves are worn thin. Watch yourselves around them."

"Y-yes, sir."

At the mention of death rates, the recruits' faces turned even whiter. And in proportion, the smile hanging on the senior's lips deepened.