I waited for someone in a secluded corner of the café.
As I was drinking the iced chocolate I had ordered in advance, the vibrating pager
went off, so I went to pick up the drinks, set four Americanos down on the table, and sat back in my seat.
“They should be here soon.”
Ding—
Just then, the café door opened and a family stepped inside.
They looked around the place,
then spotted me and slowly approached.
“Um... hello.”
The woman in her twenties greeted me first.
She was the woman I had saved in the alley before.
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
After exchanging greetings, they sat down across from me,
and the woman immediately stood up again, bowed her head to me, and said,
“Thank you so much for that day.”
“Thanks to you, I was able to return to my family.”
“I will never forget this kindness for the rest of my life...”
How terrified she must have been. That fear of being caught by a monster in a dead-end alley, unable to escape.
When the woman sat down, this time her family stood up and greeted me.
“Thank you so much for saving our daughter.”
“We don’t know how we could ever repay this debt...”
“Not at all. I should have escorted her all the way to the shelter back then,
but I only told her the direction and disappeared. It’s been weighing on my mind.”
When I apologized with belated regret, they insisted that was absolutely not the case and asked me to raise my head.
“After you saved her, she met the Tigers and made it to the shelter.”
“We are truly grateful simply that you saved her.”
There had been many things I had lacked, but still, with the person I had saved right in front of me like this,
I could at least feel clearly the fact that I had saved someone.
“Even so, I truly want to repay this kindness.”
The man in his sixties handed me a business card as he spoke.
“If you ever find yourself in need of help, please contact me here.”
“I will do everything I can to help you.”
The moment I saw the business card, I was at a loss for words.
The reason was that a name I often saw in everyday life was written on it.
“(No way... To think he was the chairman of a major corporation...)”
The woman I had saved was the daughter of a famous chairman of a major conglomerate,
and realizing that I had formed a connection with an incredible person, I slowly slipped the business card into my wallet.
“Thank you. If anything happens, I’ll contact you.”
“Yes, please contact me anytime.”
“Once again, thank you so very much for saving our daughter.”
They said that if the opportunity arose, they would like to invite me to a meal sometime later,
and I answered that I did not know when it would be, but if they contacted me, I would not forget and would accept the invitation.
“Thank you very much for taking your precious time today.”
“Then we’ll see you again next time.”
After saying goodbye, I parted ways with them,
and now it was time to resolve the last remaining concern.
“(I have an ability... but with my current strength, it’s nowhere near enough.)”
Having gained both my first defeat in battle and a lesson along with it, I made a firm decision and contacted someone.
“(By the way...)”
“(What on earth was that system window?)”
The system window that had suddenly appeared left me with several questions.
Was it one of the phenomena that occurred in order for my ability to manifest, as Team Leader Gang Suhyeok had said?
Or was that itself my ability? The more I thought about it, the more complicated my head felt.
“...I don’t know.”
“If it appears again, I can think about it then.”
With that, I returned to the shelter, and the moment I opened the door—
Click.
“I’m ba—”
“Hey! Lee Suhan!!”
“?”
Wondering what it was this time, I had barely returned when Hayun grabbed my shoulders and said,
“You... manifested your ability?!”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you tell us until now?!”
“Ah... Now that you mention it, I didn’t tell you.”
I had gotten a bit busy and had forgotten to tell the others.
“So you can use an ability now?”
“What kind of ability is it? Attack-type? Defense-type?”
First, I calmed the excited Hayun down, then asked if she wanted to see it.
Hayun nodded vigorously and said,
“I’ve been wondering what kind of ability it would be all this time. You think I wouldn’t want to see it?”
“Sure, well, let’s go up to the rooftop first.”
“I can’t show it to you here.”
“Then go up first. I’ll bring the others.”
“Okay, I’ll head up first.”
“And bring some water when you come up.”
“Okie.”
After going up to the rooftop first, I was moving the objects around me to one side
when Hayun came up to the rooftop with the others.
“Suhan, can you use your ability now?”
“Yeah. I can finally use it.”
As I slowly used my ability, flames began to rise from my body.
Fwoosh.
“Ohhh!”
“It’s a flame ability?”
“Hyung.”
“Isn’t it hot?”
“I’m fine.”
Flames were wrapping around my body, but I did not feel hot at all.
It simply felt as though I had a warm blanket draped over me.
“Hayun, spray some water.”
Swoosh.
“Not on my body, though.”
Hayun slowly approached and sprayed water on the flames around me.
With the sound of the fire going out, steam rose up.
“So it does go out after all.”
The weakness of my ability was water. It was only natural, but some abilities possessed power
that ignored even elemental compatibility, so I had wondered if perhaps mine might be like that too.
Unfortunately, however, they were flames that went out quickly upon touching water.
Of course, if I raised the firepower, I could evaporate water as well, but if I raised the firepower excessively,
it would probably harm me too.
“What are its characteristics?”
“Flames whose power changes depending on my emotions. Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything.”
“Hmm... emotions, huh? Then if you get angry, will it become insanely strong?”
“Maybe. We’re done checking, so let’s go down now.”
Since I had shown them my ability, I was just about to head down when an unexpected situation occurred.
Flash.
[Showing your ability to those around you complete.]
[The conditions have been met.]
“...?”
Along with a message saying the conditions had been met,
the system window appeared once again.
[Situation analysis complete.]
[Please select the ability you desire.]
[Time remaining - 2:59]
《 Plate Shield 》
《 Shadow Leap 》
《 Spectrum Veil 》
“.......”
As I stared blankly at the system window,
Hayun turned her head and said to me,
“Huh?”
“What are you doing, Suhan? Aren’t you coming?”
“Ah... I’m going to get some air for a bit.”
“Go down first.”
“Got it. I’ll go down first.”
It seemed this system window was visible only to me,
and once I was left alone on the rooftop, I slowly examined the abilities and checked the remaining time.
“Time remaining is one minute and thirty seconds...”
Before, it had said that the system window had judged it to be an emergency and assigned an ability on its own,
but since it was not an emergency this time, it seemed I could choose one myself.
“I don’t really know what’s what...”
I was unable to see detailed information about the abilities.
When there were only ten seconds left, I chose one ability with the thought that I should just pick anything.
[Would you like to select this ability?]
Yes / No
“Yes.”
[You have selected Shadow Leap.]
[The selected ability will be permanently possessed,]
[and information regarding the ability will be transmitted to the user immediately.]
Once again, information about the ability flowed into my head,
and as I thought more deeply about the identity of this system window,
I returned to my room with a heavy heart.
Flop.
“Haa... What am I supposed to do about this...”
This had become quite a serious situation.
There were many ability users in the world, but all of them possessed only one power.
In other words, there were not yet any ability users who possessed two powers like me.
Of course, there might be at least one somewhere in the world,
but up until now, no ability user with two powers had appeared.
“For now, I should tell him about this.”
First, I decided to tell Team Leader Gang Suhyeok about this,
but I found myself sinking into questions about which one was my real ability and what the identity of the system window was.
《 Shadow Leap 》
[You can move while in a shadow state.]
“Still... it’s a pretty decent ability. Should I test it tonight?”
I decided to think about the headache-inducing stuff later
and test out the ability I had newly obtained this evening.
Knock, knock.
“Suhan, come out and eat dinner.”
“Okay.”
At Jiyeong’s words telling me to eat dinner, I left my room and headed to the living room.
On the dining table was a luxurious feast along with a cake.
“(What is this? Is it someone’s birthday today?)”
I hurriedly tried to think if anyone besides me had a birthday this month,
but I was the only person with a birthday in September, and I realized that cake was not a birthday cake.
“Teacher, is today some special day?”
When I asked the teacher, who was setting out the food, Hayun, who had been laying out the utensils, answered instead.
“What do you think? It’s a day to celebrate that you can use your ability now.”
When she said that, since I had been living all this time unable to use an ability, it was more than enough reason to celebrate,
I unknowingly broke into a smile.
“If you’ve got nothing to do, go call the others.”
“Got it.”
It had not even been that long since they celebrated my birthday, and yet they were celebrating me again over something like this.
Meeting them felt like the greatest luck of my life.
===
PM 10:00
Step, step.
“Then, shall I test out the ability I just got?”
In the dark evening, I went up to the rooftop and began looking for a suitable place
in order to test my ability. When I arrived at a place with many shadows, I tried using it.
Ssssss.
As my field of vision lowered, my body became one with the shadow and began to move.
Whoooosh.
I moved across the ground in shadow form, but when I had gone about ten meters,
the ability came undone, and I was forced back out.
I began trying everything I was curious about, learning this ability’s weaknesses and strengths.
“Phew... It uses quite a lot of stamina.”
It had the drawback that using it for about ten minutes reduced my stamina by half,
but I could teleport to other shadows and move at a speed similar to a car,
so if I built up my stamina more, it would be an extremely useful ability.
“Let’s go back and sleep now.”
Returning to the rooftop of the shelter like that, I gazed at the full moon
hanging in the night sky and thought,
“(Things are going to get even busier from now on.)”