If you infuse it with more than a certain amount of magical power, it will bloom immediately. About one and a half times the amount of magical power Chae Nayun currently possessed should be enough.
The moment I saved the settings, the surface of Homeros’s Ring split with a crack. As though shedding its skin, it shook off the dirt, revealing beautiful platinum gleaming brilliantly within.
====
[Homeros’s Ring] [Relic] [Bloomed]
A ring once worn by Homeros.
It resonates with nature, imbuing its wearer with a clear energy. The wearer can also partially inherit Homeros’s intellect.
「Intelligence Increase ─ The wearer’s intelligence increases by 0.001 every 24 hours. (Maximum: 0.365)」
「Advanced Magical Power Amplification」
「Camouflage」
===
In addition to amplifying magical power, Homeros’s Ring was a relic that even increased the immutable stat known as ‘intelligence.’ In other words, wearing it for 365 days would raise one’s IQ by roughly 7 points.
“I should raise my intelligence first and worry about the rest later.”
This wasn’t a bound item. So even if I wore it for 365 days to raise my intelligence, then passed it on to someone else, the intelligence stat I had already gained wouldn’t disappear.
Even so, keeping it permanently would be inefficient. The source of my magical power wasn’t ‘Kim Hajin,’ but the stigma engraved upon ‘Idu.’ I couldn’t fit this onto the stigma, either.
Just in case, I held the ring up and rubbed it against Idu once. Rub rub.
“Whew. What the hell am I doing?”
I simply slipped it onto my finger.
The people who could properly use this were Kim Suho and Chae Nayun. Between the two, however, Chae Nayun was unquestionably more suitable. When it came to ‘magical power,’ Chae Nayun was ahead of Kim Suho.
“Speaking of which.”
I checked my stats for the first time in a while.
===
[Strength 2.56]
[Endurance 2.575]
[Reflexes 3.250]
[Senses 4.215]
[Vitality 2.665]
[Magical Power 1.925]
===
Every stat except reflexes and senses had stalled.
I had reached a wall. ‘Wall’ was a term used to describe a point where growth became difficult, and the very first wall was this 2–3 range. After breaking through the 2–3 range, one encountered it again in the 4–5 range, and after breaking through the 4–5 range, in the 6–7 range.
Stagnation usually came at 2, and cadets generally encountered the limits of their growth around the 12–13 range.
“My magical power isn’t even increasing at all.”
That magical power stat would probably remain the same for the rest of my life.
Still, there was one fortunate thing.
[You have succeeded in throwing a weapon of a difficult type!]
[Luck has activated! ‘Beginner’s Luck.’ The accuracy and power of Wire Throwing increase.]
[Talent ‘Sharpshooter’ has risen to Grade 6!]
===
▶「Sharpshooter」
[Intermediate] [Permanent] [Growth-Type ─ Proficiency Grade 6] [Proficiency EXP 0%]
─Sharpshooter’s Proficiency
*Can handle all types of ranged weapons with greater skill.
─Far-Sight
*Can see farther and predict a target’s movement path more accurately.
*Sense increases by 1, and reflexes increase by 1.
─Bullet Time
*In actual combat only, assigns up to 80 seconds every 24 hours to ‘Bullet Time.’
─Veteran Marksman
*Depending on the immutable stat ‘Luck’ of the target, ‘Kim Hajin,’ can inflict special damage on targets stronger than itself.
===
My talent, Sharpshooter, had finally risen from lower-intermediate to intermediate.
Its growth speed was remarkably fast, but in truth, the talent’s real growth was only beginning now.
The sweat and effort I had poured into raising it from Grade 10 to Grade 6 would probably have to be repeated in its entirety to raise it from Grade 6 to Grade 5.
“I can beat Chae Nayun now.”
I was about to close the laptop when I suddenly stopped.
“……I almost forgot.”
My family history. More precisely, Kim Chundong’s family history.
Would the co-author really have left Kim Chundong’s past completely blank? Despite there being no better setting to meddle with than that?
I was suspicious.
Kim Chundong had even entered Cube. Although he was only an extra in my novel, in the real world, that meant he was an elite. Furthermore, talent had a considerable genetic component—roughly 60 to 70 percent was inherited from one’s parents. In other words, there was a high probability that Kim Chundong’s parents had not been entirely ordinary people, either.
I logged into the Purple Banquet.
Tap tap.
Among the countless categories, I double-clicked on Private Investigators.
[‘Veteran,’ the 100% Reliable Information Agency]
[Information Guild ‘Echo.’ We’ll tell you anything you wish to know.]
There were plenty of sellers. However, the ones running banner ads or using Super Calls—another type of advertisement that placed their sites at the top—were no good. If they were confident in their abilities and had already earned word-of-mouth recognition, they would have no need to advertise anymore.
The real deal was here.
[Fixer Yoo Jinhyuk]
Yoo Jinhyuk. He was the final boss of this industry.
Especially when it came to people, he was the sort of man who would dig up every last speck of dust. Naturally, his prices were absurdly high. His basic fee started at fifty million won.
“……Oh, right.”
I was just about to submit a request when I stopped.
“I’m out of money.”
I had spent everything I had on investments and the like.
Vrrrrr─!
Just then, a sudden vibration rang out from the desk.
It was the seed again.
On the desk, Seed-nim had stood completely upright and was trembling all over. It was protesting that it was hungry.
“All right, all right, I got it.”
I took a fresh piece of gauze and approached the seed.
* * *
[Monday, 1 p.m.]
The troublesome weekend had passed, and a new Monday had arrived.
Monday at Cube was reserved for make-up examinations for the test that had not been completed the previous time. As a result, the cadets gathered once more in the examination room they had visited two weeks ago. Groups 14 through 25 took the test, while the other cadets were occupied sleeping or writing reports.
‘Family history…….’
But only Yoo Yeonha was lost in thoughts that had nothing to do with the examination.
Family history.
What Kim Hajin had said yesterday kept bothering her.
Kim Hajin had recognized Berbette’s face at a glance. But it made no sense that, among all those criminals, he had specifically memorized Berbette’s face.
According to what she had found, the man was a con artist who operated solely in Europe. There was no way he could have had a bad history with Kim Hajin. It would make more sense to say that he had memorized the faces of every internationally wanted criminal.
‘Why on earth…….’
Regarding Kim Hajin’s strange obsession with wanted criminals, Yoo Yeonha had spent all of Sunday making all sorts of guesses, beginning yesterday, and had finally arrived at one hypothesis.
He had suffered something terrible at the hands of someone in the past, but did not know who the culprit was. Thus, in order to find that criminal, Kim Hajin had memorized the international wanted list almost by heart.
Of course, it was still nothing more than speculation.
However.
‘Orphan.’
Add one more keyword, and the story began to fit together rather logically.
Kim Hajin had no parents. That was a well-known fact. Once, some delinquent punks had even taunted him for being parentless.
‘Then perhaps…….’
Kim Hajin’s parents were dead. No, they had been murdered by someone. That was why he memorized the faces of criminals, and that was why he hid his power: to find the culprit and kill him.
It was a story she could at least accept.
She added one more keyword to her notebook.
‘Tragic past.’
“Yeonha. What are you writing so intently?”
Chae Nayun suddenly asked. She appeared to have just woken up, and glanced at Yoo Yeonha’s notebook with tired eyes.
“Family history? Orphan? Tragic past? Hey, don’t tell me you were adopted?”
“……Are you insane? I just have something I’m curious about.”
“Hm…… Well, you’ve always been curious about a lot of things. You obsess over things that could easily be ignored and dig into them relentlessly. But you never get anything out of it. You’re secretly a klutz. No, you’re an obvious klutz.”
“Nayun? If you’re going to sleep, why don’t you just keep sleeping?”
Yoo Yeonha said through clenched teeth. Chae Nayun yawned widely and leaned back against her chair.
“Yaaawn~ I guess I will.”
Once the intruder had withdrawn, Yoo Yeonha sank back into the boundary between delusion and thought.
If Kim Hajin really had such a past, then discovering what it was might give her a very advantageous position when she tried to recruit him in the future.
Investigating someone’s background was a shortcut, but as long as she did not get caught, there was no problem.
Kim Hajin was that valuable a talent—someone she wanted to bring into her guild. This incident had only reinforced that certainty. He might even be more valuable than Kim Suho. No, at least that was what she thought.
“Hmm……”
Someone who could uncover Kim Hajin’s family history.
She knew one person. A man who, if he put his mind to it, could dig up even an ordinary cockroach’s genealogy.
But would that good-for-nothing help her?
“……….”
Yoo Yeonha turned on her smartwatch.
At the very bottom was a contact she had kept sealed away for nearly five years.
[Uncle Yoo Jinhyuk]
Yoo Yeonha squeezed her eyes shut and sent him a message.
The End
[Ding-dong]
“Ah, fuck!”
The sudden smartwatch message covered the game screen. It had been a decisive moment! Yoo Jinhyuk let out a shriek and sprang up like a spring.
“What is it this time? Did you lose again?”
His secretary asked indifferently.
“No! Hey, you bastard! Did you link your computer to your watch?”
“No.”
“You did! I lost because the notification went off!”
“I told you it wasn’t me.”
Yoo Jinhyuk clutched the back of his neck. His blood pressure was rising. That had been a fifty-million-won game.
“Damn, my life…… What is it?”
However, his dejection soon vanished. The three characters in the sender’s name were Yoo Yeonha.
It was the name of his adorable niece, cute enough to make him want to give her a playful knock on the head.
“What’s today? My niece actually sent me a message.”
It had probably been five years since they last contacted each other. Yoo Jinhyuk hurriedly checked the message.
[Uncle. Please tell me the family history of one person.]
His head tilted involuntarily at the contents.
“Hmm? She’s actually asking me for something like this.”
“Is it work?”
His secretary’s eyes sharpened in an instant.
“What do you mean, work? I said it was my niece.”
“So is it work or not?”
“……It is work, I suppose. Haaaah.”
Yoo Jinhyuk yawned until his mouth split wide, then lay down on the sofa. More messages from Yoo Yeonha arrived one after another.
[A cadet from Cube. His name is Kim Hajin.]
“Kim Hajin…… Who’s that?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Look him up. He’s a Cube cadet.”
“Is he?”
Cube cadets were limited to six thousand people worldwide. Looking up one of them was a piece of cake. The secretary’s fingers flew across the keyboard like lightning.
His general information was found in no time.
“Born in an orphanage. The only noteworthy thing is that he’s a Cube cadet. He has about three hundred million won in debt.”
“Ah~ So that’s why she said family history. She wants to know who his mother and father are. But he has three hundred million won in debt?”
“Yes. He also has a stock account. I don’t know the exact amount, though.”
Picking at his earwax, Yoo Jinhyuk muttered,
“Really? At that level, I’ll do it for free.”
“……Sigh. I guess my salary’s going to be late again.”
“It won’t be. And honestly, you take too much. Twenty million a month? What’s that about?”
“I’m worth that much.”
“Tsk, tsk.”
How frustrating. How frustratingly rigid. Yoo Jinhyuk clicked his tongue and wagged a finger at his secretary, then suddenly sprang to his feet.
“Get ready. We’re leaving right now.”
“You’re really going to do it for free?”
“Yeah. I think I might need to ask her father for a favor later.”
“Ah.”
Even that finicky secretary immediately understood.
Yoo Jinwoong. Yoo Jinhyuk’s older brother and Yoo Yeonha’s father. One of the active heroes said to be closest to the highest rank, he was a powerful man who had been granted the title of ‘Berserker’ by the Association.
As could be inferred from that title, Yoo Jinwoong had an extremely unusual personality. But he became helplessly weak before one person alone: his daughter, Yoo Yeonha.
“I’m going into the past.”
“What time period?”
Yoo Jinhyuk pulled a helmet-shaped virtual reality device over his head.
There was only one reason he had become the best fixer in the business.
“Seventeen years ago. Or was it sixteen? Just skim through everything from the day that Kim Hajin kid was born.”
He could experience the past.
* * *
On her way back to the dormitory after all regular classes had ended.
Yoo Yeonha pursed her lips as she stared at her smartwatch. Three hours had already passed since she sent the message, yet there was still no reply. It wasn’t that he hadn’t read it—he had read it and left her on read.
“……Why isn’t he replying?”
“Who? What is it? Yoo Yeonha, don’t tell me you got a boyfriend?”
Chae Nayun, who had been standing beside her, asked in needless embarrassment. Yoo Yeonha shot her a sidelong glance. Come to think of it, Chae Nayun had recently started acting friendly with her at an astonishing rate. Yoo Yeonha found it uncomfortable, yet felt strangely pleased as well. Chae Nayun had ignored her so thoroughly in the past, so why was she suddenly acting like this?
“I’m dating Jonghak, remember.”
“Everyone in the world knows that’s a lie.”
“……Sigh. He’s my uncle.”
“Reaaally?”
Yoo Yeonha sighed, and Chae Nayun giggled as she split off to the side.
“Hey, you go on ahead. I’m going to practice archery now.”
“Why archery all of a sudden…… Oh, right. You said you were going to bet against Kim Hajin.”
“Yeah. I even rented an archery range. Wanna come watch?”
Over the weekend, Chae Nayun had agonized over Kim Hajin all by herself, then made up her mind all by herself. If, by any chance, Kim Hajin harbored romantic feelings for her, she would win the bet and give him a magnificent lecture. She would tell him that the way he expressed his affection was wrong. And that she was someone better suited to a bow.
“……Watch?”
Yoo Yeonha asked meaningfully. No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t imagine Chae Nayun winning. Kim Hajin’s confidence was always founded on something.
“Yeah. I told everyone to come watch.”
“Even Jonghak?”
“Yep.”
“……Jonghak will probably drag a lot of people along.”
Shin Jonghak would probably do something no one had even asked him to do. In the name of saving face, he would show up with around fifteen people in tow. If Kim Hajin won, Chae Nayun would be humiliated in front of all of them.
“So what? I need to make her understand her place once and for all.”
“……”
Yoo Yeonha gazed intently at Chae Nayun’s imposing face.
The sight of that ever-confident face twisted by shame and frustration.
It seemed like it would make for excellent entertainment.
“Watching? Sure.”
Just imagining it made her happy, and Yoo Yeonha beamed.
At that moment, an alarm rang from her smartwatch.
Yoon Seung-ah [Let’s have a meal together this weekend. I also want to apologize for what happened last time.]
She hurriedly checked it, but it wasn’t Yoo Jinhyuk. It was Yoon Seung-ah. Yoo Yeonha knitted her brows in disappointment.
“Who is it this time?”
Chae Nayun stopped in her tracks and asked again.
“Why are you so curious about everything?”
“No, just because. Who is it? Kim Suho?”
“…Deputy Commander Yoon Seung-ah.”
“Huh? Seung-ah unni? Why would she?”
Yoon Seung-ah and Chae Nayun had a connection. They had both been disciples of Yoo Sihyuk, the top-ranked Hero.
Although Chae Nayun had been only eight years old when she received his instruction, while Yoon Seung-ah had been a full twenty-one.
“There was that incident at the ball. She says she wants to apologize.”
“……Ah. I should’ve gone to that ball too. But I got lost.”
“You should’ve switched places with me. I wanted to go to that restaurant.”
“The one Kim Hajin reserved?”
Yoo Yeonha smiled bitterly and nodded. No matter how much one might love fast food, dishes made by a chef Hero were delicacies anyone in the world would want to taste.
“But I guess there’s something to that Kim Hajin guy, too. Just look at the place he reserved.”
“……”
So this woman was only realizing it now. Yoo Yeonha sighed as though she found it pathetic.
* * *
I walked along while eavesdropping on the conversation between the two women ahead of me. I was startled when my name suddenly came up, but it was nothing but trivial talk. In any case, it was surprising that Yoon Seung-ah and Yoo Yeonha were having a meal together. The two of them were destined to become bitter enemies, after all.
Someone crept right up behind me as I walked slowly.
When I turned around, a familiar face appeared before me.
“Hello.”
It was Rachel. Rachel greeted me with a faint smile.
“Ah, yes. What is it?”
“This. As thanks.”
She held out a small box to me. It was just large enough to barely fit a car key. I looked back and forth between Rachel and the box, then accepted it for the moment.
“Can I open it now?”
“Yes.”
As soon as Rachel nodded, I opened the box. I tensed slightly, wondering if it might really contain a car key, but inside was a Cube laundry card.
“Ah~ Clothes?”
If I gave this card to the laundry, I would probably be able to receive my clothes.
“Yes. Armor is Britain’s only source of pride.”
She bowed her head. Then, without another word, she walked past me toward the women’s dormitory. As expected, ‘sasa…