By Zephyria A test subject? Eui-jae frowned slightly at the story he was hearing for the first time. He didn’t know how suspicious the plan was, but he was already wondering why they had chosen an Awakened as a test subject in the first place.
It was obvious that it was more difficult to attract or forcibly kidnap an Awakened than a normal person. So, that meant there was something they could only get from an Awakened, which was why they were using them as test subjects. Even so, he couldn’t help but think it was an excessively laborious experiment. What were they trying to get by putting in that much effort?
Sa-young, who had been observing Eui-jae’s face as he was lost in thought, asked in a casual voice.
“Do you know how people Awaken?”
“…Being chosen by the System. Isn’t it?”
Eui-jae recalled the day the System appeared. Some scenes were accompanied by other senses every time he recalled them. It could be the sound he heard then, the smell he smelled, or the touch he felt. For Eui-jae, the Day of the Rift was a memory that held all of those things.
In the midst of the carnage where everything was broken and collapsed, Eui-jae was huddled in the gap of a collapsed building, hugging his parents’ corpses. The acrid smell of burning and the stench of blood mixed together to create a terrible odor. The cold, dead body temperature. The sound of a Monster’s footsteps tearing through the streets rang in his ears.
Sa-young nodded.
“That’s right. So, what does the System look at when choosing an Awakened?”
Sa-young pointed at the glass with his finger, and the black blood that had been melting the glass gathered together and formed the shapes of people and Monsters. The black Monster rushed at the small, black person.
“The System,”
A square window appeared above the small, black person’s head.
“responds to desperate wishes….”
‘I want to live.’
‘I don’t want to die.’
The black person also rushed towards the Monster without avoiding it. Among the two figures that had been wrestling for a while, the Monster turned back into black blood.
“When a human has a desperate wish, the System is drawn to that energy and seeks out the human.”
“……”
“This is common sense. That’s why people swept up in the Rift are more likely to Awaken than ordinary people. Begging not to die is also a kind of wish.”
Eui-jae stared blankly at the figure of the black person standing alone. When Sa-young moved his finger, the black person also became a small puddle.
“But… there are people who are dissatisfied with that fact.”
Eui-jae slowly raised his head and looked at Sa-young.
“Do you know what I mean?”
As of now, the System is an absolute and omnipotent being. Most people live in accordance with this, but people who feel that the System’s choice is unfair would be different. Perhaps they think that humans should be able to awaken their abilities on their own.
Sa-young, reading Eui-jae’s increasingly serious expression, asked, resting his chin on his hand.
“…Is it possible that the people you mentioned are the same group as the drug dealers?”
“Hmm, let’s think about it more.”
Sa-young said casually in a playful voice.
“Do you think I told you all this just to ask you that?”
For a moment, Eui-jae considered lifting the table next to him and planting some manners that this crazy brat didn’t have in place of his hair for 3 seconds, but he held back because of the situation. Sa-young also asked back like that, but he didn’t seem frustrated, so he was able to immerse himself in thought.
“You said they’re dissatisfied with the System’s choice.”
If his guess was correct that the unknown people who wanted to awaken their abilities on their own were selling drugs. And if they were using it as bait to gather Awakened to use as test subjects….
“Are you saying they’re doing this to artificially create Awakened?”
“Correct.”
Sa-young answered coolly this time without beating around the bush. Eui-jae felt like the hairs on his body were slowly standing on end from his fingertips.
They would create Awakened with only human power, without being swayed by the System’s choice. On the surface, it was a plausible argument, but he had a feeling that there was definitely another purpose behind it.
It was a drug, of all things. If you get addicted, your aggression explodes and you lose your reason, and in the end, even your human dignity is tainted and you die. There was no way that the purpose of the crazy bastards who were feeding that kind of drug to the Awakened as an experiment could be normal.
“Let’s say they artificially created Awakened. What’s next?”
What were they going to do with the Awakened? When Eui-jae asked casually with his arms crossed, Sa-young took his hand off his chin and shrugged.
“I don’t remember well. I think they said something about stopping Doomsday.”
“Doomsday?”
“Well, I didn’t listen to the bullshit in detail.”
Doomsday. There were quite a few people who shouted that Doomsday had come right after the Day of the Rift. But that was also a story from 11 years ago. Could there still be such people in this era where you can know in advance when and where the Gate will open?
Sa-young was indifferent, as if he was serious about not listening in detail.
“Anyway, I don’t have anything to ask of Hyung right now.”
Sa-young shoved the pitifully rolling dagger and the empty Ambrosia bottle into his Inventory. Then, he got up from his seat and fiddled with his clothes, adding in a tone that implied he was going to leave.
“Let’s start by processing the Hunter registration. I’ll send someone over here sometime tomorrow.”
“Okay. Oh, and one more thing.”
When one eyebrow was raised as if to ask if there was anything else, Eui-jae pointed to the black melted table.
“Take the table with you.”
“……”
He couldn’t seat a guest at a table that had melted black because of Poison. Sa-young’s purple eyes looked at him with the meaning of ‘Are you serious?’, but Eui-jae stubbornly pointed at the table with his finger with an expression of what are you dawdling about.
It was said that beautiful people leave beautiful places, but your personality is not beautiful, so it was an unspoken pressure to at least do your face value properly.
In the end, Sa-young could only return after shoving the broken table into his Inventory.
Even after Lee Sa-young left, the Hanover Soup Restaurant in the early morning was as crowded as usual with customers who came to have breakfast before work. Of course, Bae Won-woo was among them.
Bae Won-woo, who yawned and went to work at the Hanover Soup Restaurant, his second job, stood still at the door for a while and blinked his eyes. For some reason, the store seemed more empty than usual.
“Huh? Didn’t the number of tables decrease?”
“Oh? You’re right.”
Another Hunter who was passing by him glanced inside and nodded, saying that it was true. He didn’t forget to give Bae Won-woo a thumbs up for his keen eye and admire him.
“I thought it looked a little empty. Excuse me, where did one of the tables that was here go?”
“……”
‘You’re only quick-witted at times like this. You should be like this usually.’
The Hunters were like dullards when they were needed, but they were quick-witted only about trivial things. Eui-jae, who was staring at the empty center of the store with a faint look, replied.
“It looked like the table legs were about to break… so I cleaned it up for now.”
The only thing that increased while working at the Hanover Soup Restaurant was lies. However, the Hunters saw Eui-jae’s faint face and realized that there was another story behind it. When everyone was wondering what was going on, one Hunter asked carefully.
“Don’t tell me… did some crazy brat Hunter break the table?”
Yes, the No. 1 in the rankings. Eui-jae didn’t answer, but his melancholy face was as good as a positive answer. The furious Hunter tried to slam the table, but quickly changed the angle and slammed his thigh. He couldn’t be on the same level as the crazy brat who was presumed to have broken the table.
“Damn it, that’s why Hunter’s abuse of power is a social problem.”
“Who is it? Do you know how fragile our Hanover Soup Restaurant’s tables are?”
“There’s not enough space as it is!”
“If you just tell us who it is, we’ll take care of it.”
Uninterrupted criticism poured out towards someone who had touched the Hunters’ shelter and small, precious Hanover Soup Restaurant. The main character of the last word was Bae Won-woo.
‘How are you going to take care of Lee Sa-young?’
Eui-jae’s face became even more faint as he saw his future, where he would be shaken off even a speck of dust by Lee Sa-young, let alone take care of him. Bae Won-woo, the guy among guys, the loyal man, said those words to make him feel reassured, but it was rather counterproductive. His complexion was pale today because he had spat out blood in the early morning, so the sadness on his face was doubled.
The buzzing Hunters began to try to comfort Eui-jae.
“Don’t be sad, sir.”
“We’ll commission our Guild’s crafter to make a really sturdy table.”
“Let’s change all the tables and chairs this time. We’ll collect money.”
Their concern for the Hanover Soup Restaurant was truly admirable. Or perhaps it was a sense of crisis that the seat fight during meal times would become more intense. Eui-jae smiled and rejected the Hunters’ suggestions, which were half sincere concern and half personal anger that there were not enough seats.
“Haha…. It’s not necessary.”