Episode 12
Chapter 5: Ability User (1)
Yeonghun’s expression grew serious.
It was something he had never expected. It was far too dramatic to be a coincidence. Given his situation, there was definitely a connection.
Knowing the disadvantages one would suffer upon registering as an ability user in that other world, Yeonghun had originally planned to delay his registration for as long as possible. He had thought that if he ran out of living expenses, he would use an ability user’s strong physical capabilities to do day labor.
In that other world, many ability users who registered early had lost their lives fighting monsters. Because they faced monsters while unprepared, they inevitably died easily.
For Yeonghun, who had oriented his goals toward survival and reuniting with Seonhui, it was a meaningless act.
But the situation had changed.
Yeonghun scrapped all his existing plans and decided to go to the place where Espers were registered first. Even if he didn’t register, he had to check on that defense contractor.
They had said they would cooperate with countries other than America, so it was certain they had dispatched support to Korea as well.
The next day, before entering the office, Yeonghun heard a commotion coming from inside.
“This is totally insane! See, I told you. There are superhumans! Ah, why can’t I get superpowers too?”
It was Assistant Manager Kim’s voice. She was completely excited.
“They say it’s roughly one in a hundred thousand. How could that happen?”
Section Chief Jeong was talking back to her.
“Still, the odds are better than the lottery. Even so, I still can’t believe it.”
And Section Chief Park still couldn’t believe it.
Yeonghun opened the door and entered the office. The office immediately went quiet. Today was Yeonghun’s last day.
The office people watched Yeonghun’s mood, and Yeonghun packed his things from his desk. He had already moved most of his things beforehand, so he only needed to take a small box.
It was then.
The Department Head entered, grumbling.
“Geez, the country’s a mess. They’re not kids; what do they think they’re doing?”
The Department Head came in, saw Yeonghun, flinched, and stopped talking. Then he looked at Yeonghun and put on a mocking smile.
Yeonghun paid no mind to that and continued organizing his things. And Assistant Manager Kim looked at him with pity. Ever since he had faltered during the handover last time, Assistant Manager Kim had continued to look at Yeonghun pitifully.
Section Chief Jeong and Section Chief Park seemed to be watching the Department Head’s mood, so they couldn’t say anything to Yeonghun, and the Department Head kept his eyes peeled in case Yeonghun was taking company property.
It seemed he had been completely blacklisted.
Yeonghun only wanted to get out of this place quickly. If it were the Yeonghun of the past, there might have been memories, but for him, it was just a boring place.
After organizing his things, Yeonghun looked around at the people.
Everyone approached Yeonghun. It seemed they wanted to say a word since he was leaving anyway.
“Work hard wherever you go. You’re still young; you’ll succeed at whatever you do.”
Perhaps because they had suffered together, Section Chief Jeong comforted Yeonghun.
Section Chief Park waved his hand once, and Assistant Manager Jeong eventually teared up.
“It must be so hard, right? Since you hit your head last time, you seem like your mind isn’t right; make sure to visit the hospital. What to do…”
Assistant Manager Jeong was misunderstanding Yeonghun. It seemed she thought something was wrong with his head after the injury.
Yeonghun nodded his head only, annoyed.
And the Department Head said something from afar.
“Get it together wherever you go; if you act like you do now, you won’t last a few days!”
Yeonghun frowned at the Department Head’s words. At that, the Department Head stopped what he was about to say. Yeonghun still seemed scary to him.
“So, do you have any place you’re looking into?”
Assistant Manager Jeong still seemed worried about Yeonghun.
Yeonghun just spoke the truth. It was nothing worth hiding.
“I’m planning to register as an Esper first.”
A bomb dropped in the office. Everyone froze in place.
“That’s impossible.”
The words Assistant Manager Jeong had spoken unconsciously reflected everyone’s thoughts.
“It’s true.”
Yeonghun raised his left hand. The tips of Yeonghun’s fingers were glowing white. Everyone was dumbfounded.
“Then, I’ll leave work first.”
Yeonghun lightly greeted the people staring blankly at him. And finally, he looked at the Department Head.
“Department Head.”
“Eek!”
The Department Head let out a deflated sound at Yeonghun’s call.
“Please make sure to deposit my severance pay on time.”
After saying this one last thing to the Department Head, who flinched and stepped back, Yeonghun left the office.
Yeonghun gave a bitter smile.
He had been fired from the company less than a month after coming here. It seemed he just didn’t belong in a normal company.
Fortunately, the president’s daughter wasn’t around today. Lately, he had seen her every day, but thankfully she wasn’t here today. He had avoided unnecessary trouble while quitting.
***
Yeonghun was bench pressing in an empty lot on the small hill behind the neighborhood. The barbell moved up and down over his chest.
Occasionally people passing by watched Yeonghun, then left with bored expressions after watching for a moment.
Among them were some who whispered that he might be a superhuman, but he didn’t care at all.
It was an exercise he had continued since coming to this world, except for the first few days when he was injured.
Running, strength training, and dimensional power training at home. In this way, he trained his body as much as possible.
Three days had passed since he quit the company. Today was precisely the day ability user registration began.
Since becoming an ability user, Yeonghun’s body had changed rapidly.
Once one became an ability user who utilized dimensional power, basic physical abilities rose rapidly.
But the only way to internalize the increased basic abilities into one’s body was through training.
That was why Yeonghun had continued to push his body to the extreme.
Thanks to that, Yeonghun’s body had become very similar to the Yeonghun of that other world. Having lost a lot of weight, he now appeared to have an average build.
Of course, it was no longer soft flesh filling him out—it was muscle.
Yeonghun grew more regretful about not having an ability detector.
All ability users awakened at F-rank when they first awakened.
But even within that, their ability types and limit levels differed.
However, all ability users could grow to some extent through training from their initial awakening until their dimensional power stabilized.
Of course, to raise one’s level or to increase dimensional power to D-rank or higher, one had to fight monsters.
But without an ability detector, he couldn’t know how much dimensional power he had, so he couldn’t know how much training he needed.
He could only do his best.
Yeonghun finished his target reps and set down the barbell.
Pleasant sweat flowed down his entire body.
It was time to move now.
Yeonghun draped a towel over his shoulder and started jogging toward home.
And three hours later, Yeonghun looked at the Seoul City Hall building before him. The city hall building he knew had been turned into a library, and a strangely shaped building stood behind it.
Yeonghun thought back to when he had registered as an ability user in that other world.
Back then, it had been one year since superhumans appeared and eight months since monsters appeared.
They had not yet installed devices in the city to interfere with monster dimensional transfers, so monster attacks came from all directions.
The economy crashed, and making a living was hard.
And no one knew when monsters would appear, so everyone was on edge.
Yeonghun had also dropped out of university and was getting by each day working part-time.
Living such a hard life, he awakened as an ability user one day, one year after the aurora appeared.
At that time, he had truly been happy.
It might have been dangerous, but it was even more dangerous to remain an ordinary person.
Combat had become more systematic than in the early days, so the death rate had dropped significantly.
Of course, the monsters had grown stronger, so it was very dangerous, but it was tolerable enough.
By registering as an ability user and fighting monsters, he could live a fairly comfortable life on the government subsidy.
For Yeonghun, who had just entered society and was working hard at part-time jobs, he couldn’t help but be glad.
Moreover, intoxicated by the heroism of protecting humanity, Yeonghun fought monsters harder than anyone.
Yeonghun gave a bitter smile. It had been a childish thought.
He entered the unfamiliar city hall building before him.
He saw women guiding people right in front. He approached them.
“How may I help you?”
The government called ability users Espers. Yeonghun remembered this and answered her.
“I’m looking for the Esper registration office.”
The expressions of the woman before him, and of course the woman beside her, both changed.
The woman before him immediately stood up and guided him with utmost kindness.
Her eyes looked at Yeonghun as if he were some fascinating creature.
Perhaps Yeonghun was the first Esper to ask them for directions.
Yeonghun moved his feet toward the place she indicated.
There were large directional signs all around.
Yeonghun gave a bitter smile. This was probably why no one asked.
He followed the directional signs and arrived at a large office.
Above the open door, a nameplate read “Anomalous Ability User Management Headquarters.”
Perhaps it was an office used for other purposes; it smelled of fresh paint.
On one side of the office, desks and chairs were arranged like a normal office, and on the side Yeonghun entered, there were booths that looked like a civil affairs office at a community center, along with sofas where people could rest.
Yeonghun observed the people.
Indeed, there didn’t seem to be many actual ability users.
It seemed the awakened ability users were being cautious.
The first awakened ability users were roughly one per one hundred thousand people.
After that, potential ability users would continue to awaken, but currently, there were probably only about one hundred ability users residing in Seoul.
Since today was the first day and still the morning, it was natural there weren’t many people.
He had planned to delay his own registration, so it was a situation he could fully understand.
Yeonghun looked around.
More important than registering, he needed to find someone from the multinational defense contractor said to be cooperating with the government.
But he only saw civil servants and a few ability users; no one seemed to be from a corporation.
He supposed he would have to ask the person in charge separately.
It was then.
A woman’s voice came from behind Yeonghun.
“Could you move aside a little? You’re blocking the entrance.”
“Sorry.”
Yeonghun apologized, stepped aside, and turned around.
There stood a beautiful young woman with long straight hair.
A tall, slender young woman in a suit slightly bowed her head to Yeonghun and entered.
Yeonghun frowned at the woman walking before him.
It was a face he had seen somewhere before.
Yeonghun put his hand to his forehead, racking his memory, but couldn’t figure it out.
He felt quite unsettled.
She seemed like an important figure, but he couldn’t remember.
He felt he needed to find out who she was.
Then a man approached him as he stood before the door.
The man seemed ready to guide him.
But Yeonghun refused the guidance and followed the woman who had just entered.
And he sat at the consultation desk right next to where she was receiving counseling.
“Welcome. Please have a seat here.”
The consultant was a young woman and was surprisingly very kind.
It had been years since Yeonghun met a kind civil servant, so the seat felt quite unfamiliar.
The consultant requested his ID for identity verification and immediately began the explanation.
Yeonghun listened to the explanation while carefully eavesdropping on the conversation next to him.