“Manager Jang Narae.”
Tension was palpable in the other person’s voice as Suho called out to her seriously.
- Y-yes? Please, go ahead!
“Um... I have an important favor to ask, but it’s not something I can discuss over the phone. Could you perhaps come here for a moment?”
- O-of course! I’ll head over immediately. Where should I go?
“It’s...”
Suho sent Jang Narae the location of the VIP lounge on the 41st floor of the Seoul Goguryeo Hotel, then headed to the venue with Lee Danbi, Minsu, and Minji.
In less than thirty minutes, Jang Narae appeared at the promised location.
Given the considerable distance, she must have rushed here desperately to arrive on time.
The hotel VIP lounge was a place Lee Danbi had recommended, saying she was a regular, but it was Suho’s first time stepping into a VIP lounge at a five-star hotel.
Manager Jang Narae, unable to hide her confusion about why she had been summoned to such a place, glanced around nervously.
The two sat facing each other at the table with the best view, which Danbi had reserved.
Danbi excused herself for a moment so they could talk, while Minsu and Minji stood silently at positions where they could protect the two, entering alert mode.
Even though it was that ambiguous hour between lunch and dinner, not yet a proper mealtime, an afternoon tea spread every bit as splendid as a five-star buffet was laid out in the center of the hall.
Suho offered Jang Narae some refreshments.
“It’s still early for a meal, but please go get something to eat. There are quite a few fruits, too.”
“Ah... yes!”
When Suho got up first to look at the refreshments, Narae followed suit.
Suho brought back coffee, cookies, slices of cake, pudding, and several kinds of fruit and began eating.
So awkward and uncomfortable was she that Manager Jang Narae could hardly tell whether the food was going into her nose or her mouth.
But this was a meeting called by a VVIP client for a reason.
Unable to ask why she had been called first, she simply took small, cautious sips of her coffee.
Soon, Suho opened his mouth.
“Suddenly... asking you to meet at a place like this must have startled you, right?”
“Ahaha... no... um, honestly, it was a bit.”
Suho smiled at that honest reply.
“How old are you this year, Manager?”
“I’m twenty-nine this year. Born in 2010.”
“Oh, you’re the same age as me! As expected...”
“Huh? What do you mean, as expected...”
“People born in 2010 are pretty extraordinary, aren’t they?”
“Ahaha, no. Admittee Suho is certainly extraordinary, but I’m not at all.”
“Come on, you’re too modest. I’ve been observing you closely, and you’re truly amazing. You’re competent. That’s why you became a manager at the top management company at that age.”
“Ahaha... t-this is purely because I got lucky...”
“If you say that, then I got here purely because of luck, too. Ultra-super-special luck.”
If there existed a lucky boy in human history who had overcome odds as astronomical as his own, Suho would want to see his face.
Wasn’t Suho himself living at the absolute apex of that apex of luck?
Seeing Suho suddenly trail off and look out the window, Jang Narae fanned herself with her hand.
What on earth was this person up to? Was he really trying to ask her for work?
Rational doubt began to creep in, but Suho’s questions continued.
“When did you join Towerpia?”
“Ah, I joined not long after Towerpia started. It was before the company had even gone public.”
“Oh, so you were practically a founding member!”
“N-not quite a founding member... I just joined a long time ago. That was luck, too.”
With a petite frame that seemed to be under 160 centimeters and a cute face.
She looked so young that one might believe she was in her early twenties based on appearance alone, but her career made her a woman who could never be taken lightly.
A founding member of Towerpia, the nation’s number one Admitty management company; a figure who had already solidified her position as manager and team leader at the age of twenty-nine; someone properly recognized in all aspects—interpersonal skills, work, and more.
He had no idea how she managed it, but she even had the chops to dig around the Ontower Auction House operated by the government to extract information.
Suho observed her carefully.
But Jang Narae felt like she was dying.
Her previous jobs, her school, her major, her family relations—Suho’s sudden interrogation about her entire background left her completely frazzled.
She had thought the S-Rank Admitty assigned to her this time was a bland, cool-headed man, but had she been mistaken? The questions were excessively personal and were starting to become unbearable.
At that moment, Suho straightened his posture, stopped his questioning, and shifted the topic.
“I’ve heard a good deal about Manager Jang Narae’s life overall. There are so many parts truly worthy of respect... How can you live so diligently at such a young age? I’m ashamed as your peer.”
“Ha, n-no. I’m just ordinary... just lucky in many ways... ah, that’s far too much praise.”
Narae waved her hands.
But Suho’s face grew even more serious.
“However, compared to your abilities, the work you’re doing seems far too ill-fitting. Haven’t you ever thought that?”
“Wh...at?”
“Isn’t Admitty management work like that? Doing miscellaneous tasks the Admitties could handle themselves. Even if it’s the Premium Client Management Department, aren’t you ultimately cleaning up after higher-ranked Admitties?”
“......”
“Haven’t there been strange people, unpleasant people? Among those you’ve handled so far. What do you think?”
“That’s... the client’s privacy is confidential.”
“From what I’ve seen, Admitties are generally arrogant. Acting as if having some special ability makes them humanity’s saviors, looking down on non-Awakeners... isn’t that right?”
“......”
What on earth was he trying to do? Jang Narae forgot how to respond.
No, there were so many things she could say that she kept her mouth shut even tighter.
“What do you think? You’ll continue doing that work at Towerpia going forward. Are you satisfied with that? Do you hold any special vision for that work?”
“I... I...”
It was a job she took pride in. So Suho’s direct and rude words kindled anger in her, but from another perspective, every word rang true.
Danbi hadn’t planned on doing this work for her entire life, either. Who would want to grind their life away doing someone else’s menial tasks forever?
She, too, had a dream of finding work she wanted to pursue once she had saved up a certain amount of seed money.
Moreover, even if Jeong Suho was entirely wrong, she had no authority to refute him.
That was the position of a manager, like shackles placed upon an Admitty manager.
Suho, reading Jang Narae’s discomfort, reeled in his direct words and took a step back.
“I’m sorry. Manager Jang Narae, I was too hasty and couldn’t watch my words. It’s just, I felt that Team Leader Jang Narae’s abilities were too good to be confined to Towerpia alone... and...”
As Suho trailed off, Narae raised her head to look at him.
“Personally, I have my eye on you, Manager Jang Narae.”
“Huh?”
Her eyes went wide at those words.
“I’m planning a business, and I need a competent person. Someone to take charge of various important matters—someone I can trust and entrust them to.”
“Uh... m-me, j-just a moment.”
“That’s why I wanted to recruit you, Manager Jang Narae. That’s why I one-sidedly said my piece... I’m sorry. Let me ask just one last thing. What is your current annual salary at Towerpia?”
* * *
After parting with Suho and finishing all her work for the day, Narae was so lost in thought on her way home that she couldn’t even hear the farewells of her leaving colleagues.
Narae’s annual salary at Towerpia was 120 million won, which was top-class among managers her age.
But Jeong Suho had instantly offered ten times that amount.
1.2 billion won.
Excluding bonuses, he said he would pay her 1.2 billion won, after taxes.
Money she would have to work herself to the bone for ten years, no, even longer, to ever touch.
She hadn’t been able to answer in the face of that offer and simply asked for time.
“I’m home.”
“Unni, good work! Have you eaten?”
“Yeah, uh, I ate roughly at the office. What about you guys?”
“Oppa said he’d make me fried rice but burned it all, geez, so I’m boiling ramyeon right now.”
“Hey! I said it was a mistake, didn’t I? I’m never cooking for you again!”
Her younger brother’s sharp voice came from the kitchen.
“Goodness... how do you burn frozen fried rice? You just cover it in wrap and heat it in the microwave.”
Narae threw her handbag to the floor, rolled up her sleeves, and headed into the kitchen.
Narae, who went to work while taking care of her much younger siblings—a third-year middle schooler and a second-year high schooler—was also the guardian of her parents in the hospital.
Though not yet thirty, she was the practical head of the household and the pillar supporting her family, bearing all the burdens alone.
Her parents had become vegetative in an instant due to a traffic accident on their way back from her uncle’s funeral.
Though they couldn’t exchange a single word, the cost of life-sustaining treatment—hospital room fees, ventilator use, nutritional supply, dialysis, and other drug therapies—was staggering.
On top of that, her siblings’ academy fees, the expensive rent for a cramped apartment, and other living expenses...
Narae was competent and a high earner making ten million won a month, but the living expenses she handled alone were always tight.
If she had been an ordinary girl from an ordinary family, that money could have been spent enjoying life, or saved up as a nest egg for the future,
but for Narae, rather than saving anything, every month was in the red.
When could she ever save money and pursue her dreams?
There were many sorrowful days when she grew weary of manager work.
“Haha... 1.2 billion won... I can’t even imagine it.”
Suho’s offer continued to stir her heart.
He had also said she could bring other trustworthy people with her.
He had said he wouldn’t cut ties with Towerpia.
He even proposed keeping the manager contract in place while she herself came to Suho’s business, saying he would simply assign another manager to him.
It was evident he had taken care in various ways to avoid putting Narae in a difficult position.
* * *
“Now, could you help me test some newly purchased items?”
The place Suho visited with Danbi was the Sanarae Clan training ground.
Located underground, the training ground spanning over two thousand pyeong was an empty space like a large indoor gymnasium, with floors, high ceilings, and all walls made of steel and reinforced with ether—a special space.
Suho checked the [Tempered Lightbeam Ring] he constantly wore on his finger,
wore the [Elastrin Silk Armor] underneath his clothes, and put on the [Glide Armor Coat] on the outside. The armor coat was an outer garment that enabled short flights but also provided some degree of defense.
“Let’s try the coat first!”
Suho, who was also wearing the [Diatanos Belt] that reflected a certain amount of damage and the [Skyfall Boots] that reduced fall damage, was as excited as a child.
“Here, here! I’m going! Huh? Why aren’t I floating? Float. Come on.”
He ran and jumped, or jumped in place!
Suho hopped and flailed with all his might, but the Glide Armor Coat’s flight function didn’t activate at all.
Unable to watch that spectacle any longer, Lee Danbi chimed in.
“Um... Suho-nim, you just need to infuse the coat with ether...”
“Aha! I-I see.”
How embarrassing.
Since Suho wasn’t an Admitty and didn’t know how to handle ether, he had no idea what infusing equipment with ether even meant.
After he had floundered for a while, Danbi thankfully interpreted for him.
“Perhaps because you’re from a crafting and support class, you’re not used to infusing equipment with ether. That makes sense. Shall I try it on?”
“Oh, yes, please do.”
Suho hurriedly took off the armor coat and handed it to Danbi.
The moment Danbi put it on, the coat automatically shrank to fit her figure perfectly.
“Hmm, the fit isn’t bad. The defense seems a bit lacking... but it’s light. The look is clean enough, too. Well, then.”
Danbi lightly pushed off with her feet and soared into the air.
She rose over fifteen meters, lightly touched the ceiling, then glided back down, drawing a large figure eight as she traversed the gymnasium.
On the descent, she was so fast that a sharp *swhoosh—* rang out.
“Woooah...”
There was something mystical about a human defying gravity. Especially since Danbi’s looks completed the scene, it was like a painting.
After demonstrating flight for a minute or two, Danbi spun lightly in the air like a top.
*Tak—* She landed gently.
Danbi took the coat off again and handed it to Suho.
“It’s nice. Now that I’ve infused it with ether, it doesn’t seem to consume that much, either. You’ve bought something useful.”
“Hmm...”
Suho tried it on again, but to him, it was just an ordinary coat. The cool-tone navy color and the cinched-waist design seemed to suit Danbi far more than him.
Suho took the coat off once more and held it out to Danbi.
“This... just wear it, Danbi-nim. It’s not really for me.”
“Whaaat!? What do you mean. You just need a little practice. I’ll explain in detail how to infuse ether into the outer garment.”
“No, it’s really fine. I’m a bit clumsy with handling ether, so it’s difficult. Just wear it, Danbi-nim.”
“Ah, no... how much is this even worth... i-if you insist, then sell it to me.”
“Come on, forget it. Ugh, why are you talking about selling something over its price?”
Suho firmly pressed the coat into the flustered Danbi’s hands and walked toward the damage measuring machine in the corner of the training ground.
“Danbi-nim, Danbi-nim! Please help me!”
“Uh, yes! How may I help you?”
“I want to test the other armor pieces.”
Surely this one doesn’t need ether infusion too?
He was already beginning to feel uneasy.