Chapter 49 - The Power of Reason

The Power of Reason

“Ah……what?”

Seol-young stared at the falling pieces of the core.

The core she held in her hand was shattered.

Il-Hyun felt frozen and embarrassed in place, and several thoughts passed by in a short moment.

Phoenix, the criminal who broke the core, trembled happily.

And then, when what it had done had finally registered into its head, its happy face gradually started crumbling.

Phoenix and Il-Hyun both looked at their empty palms.

An awkward silence filled the area around the three of them.

“I heard that you could break a core, but this is really…what do you want to do now?” Ah Seol-young, who fixed her crumbling expression, asked Il-Hyun with a light voice.

He thought she was going to turn them both upside down while she’s enraged, but she came out surprisingly calm.

“Why not think of it again? Won’t you consider the offer ?”

There she goes again.

“No. It’s better to just repay,” Il-Hyun quickly replied.

Obviously, the broken core now has a different appearance and scarcity.

However, even if it was a core derived from a mutant, the difference from the common core was not as great as to affect its price that much because it had never been revealed by any studies.

Anyway, even if he paid back, it wasn’t too hard to pay some extra bit of Money.

Anyway, for some time, he kept struggling like that, and what else was he supposed to do about it?

“I don’t know what you’re wishing to do because it’s been a long time since……that accident happened.”

“I don’t want to work for the government, and I don’t really care about money.”

“Money? Ha! Does it look like we’re here for Money? Of course, our operation costs much more than Aegis. What’s so important about Money when it comes to us? We’re working with a sense of mission.”

“I don’t know about that,” Il-Hyun laughed a bit.

The conditions for recruitment were unparalleled as she and other top-class Awakeners were competing to take over countries around the world.

And then there were salaries, but at the same time, there are also conditions that need to be met.

Perhaps power is the first condition that she’d have.

As a key government official, she comes with considerable power that no other ordinary Awakener could ever get.

It was an open secret that even the gate-related departments and private companies that lined up underneath them posed no restrictions to her.

In a world like this, having some high-ranking Awakeners are the priority to governments.

“I can’t do that,” Il-Hyun said.

Ah, Seol-young looked at Il-Hyun as if she was unconvinced and shook her head.

“Where can I send the money?”

“It’s okay. I don’t need any money. It’s like you owe me or something.”

“No, a person cant just manipulate their debt at will. Can’t I just give it to you?”

“I’m not taking it,” Ah Seol-young responded resolutely to the simple words of Il-Hyun.

This won’t work, Il-Hyun thought.

While wandering, Seol-young listened and put her finger on the communicator for a moment.

Then, while she was talking, the Summons of Il-Hyun came.

The wolf ran over from the West, and a mouse probably hiding somewhere suddenly appeared on his shoulders.

Their family had already increased to give off the feeling of being a bit too big.

“Okay. First, send one down to this location. The last one we sent there was caught. Then, call for transportation, so that if you are worried, you can easily escape. These are…are they all your Summons?”

“Don’t touch them. If someone else touches them, they will bite them.”

Ah Seol-young, who was already reaching out to the wolf, jumped at his words.

Of course, it was a lie, but Seol-young unexpectedly took a step back.

A plane waiting outside the range of view flew in and lowered its altitude above them.

“I’m sorry for breaking the core. Let’s go! Good work.”

“Hey! What’s going on with this strange bird? It looks like it’s a mess.”

“I know,” Il-Hyun pretends to have heard what she said as he boards a blue plane.

Unlike the Aegis transport, the structure was opened on the back.

After sending away the Summons first, he sighed and sat down on a chair.

It’s the first time he felt exhausted after just a conversation.

“When we meet next time, I wish I am more stringer than now.”

Seol-young smiled and waved her hand.

* * *

“You’re dead!” curses poured out from Lee Soo-Yeon’s mouth.

She was sitting in a small chair, and the attending physician was bandaging her head from behind.

The color red was all over the loose bandages, but Lee Soo-yeon’s head looked clean.

“I think the speed of recovery is getting faster.”

Just 10 minutes after the blood spilling out was stopped and bandaged, the doctor clicked his tongue. She looked at her hair that had been cleaned of all the blood of the wound.

As an Awakening specialist bounded to Aegis, it was surprising that they didn’t already have knowledge of their speed of recovery.

“What, no? I don’t need that bandage in the first place.”

She even took off the remaining bandage and threw it into the trash.

Lee Soo-Yeon went alone to block the A3 rank gate.

Their goal was to draw common ground, but unlike the rest of the team, they fought away a horde of monsters from in front of the door.

Support from other Local Awakeners came in late, but the doors were already closed—the Awakeners had gone back in surprise.

Of course, no matter how many times she had asked, there was no information about the monsters, but there was definitely a lot of them.

The defensive coat was smashed in half, and her head was hurt.

However, it luckily didn’t cause any damage to the people in the area.

When the attending physician went out, and it was confirmed he had closed the door, Lee Soo-Yeon opened her mouth again.

“He doesn’t even think about being cautious, though I didn’t expect it in the first place.”

“It was a shock because he was completely different from the person I thought him to be. He looks good for the part, but how can he be so different?”

“Did you believe in this footage? Ghost is completely different in front of the camera.”

“Ah……?”

Il-Hyun’s gaze turned to the side for a moment.

However, Ghost maintained her appearance in front of the camera completely differently.

“Please stop already. This is an inevitable situation…… Ugh.”

“It’s another one,” Ghost sat at the desk while eating bread, and suddenly, she pointed out.

Ghost sat down on the desk and was eating bread and suddenly pointed out again.

“Hmm, you got it right. She isn’t without rumors.”

“…is that enough?”

Ah, Seol-young was famous for her personality as well as her excellent ability.

Of course, that was not enough.

“Cant you tell. she has been rated S rank since she was 15, and everyone supported her like a queen here and there, do you understand what it looks like.”

“Hmm……”

Il-Hyun’s face crumpled in silence.

Obviously, this was never their last meeting.

Of course, even if they ever meet again, she had no intention of collecting her debt, but his head felt like it was already burdened.

Both Aegis and the government response team are two of the best Awakening groups in the world, so they often work together in the field.

In the eyes of the media, the two of them were rivals, and in fact, everyone thought so too, but saying they have a partnership is more accurate than them hating each other.

All Aegis guys that had been kicked out of Aegis went there, and even if they did have the skills, their personality’s are shit.

It was the only news that could come from Central America by searching for Ghost.

It was said that there was an absurd incident that occurred just a year ago when a spy was installed inside Aegis.

“But, by the way, it seems difficult to cover Europe with only the four of us.” Seok Pil-jun said while leaning against the wall.

While he says this, all four of his teammates who sat in the room were exhausted and droopy.

While one of the team leaders was injured, everyone was upset because the gates had appeared more than they expected them to.

At the same time, there is no high-ranking and urgent gate, so they’re still waiting, and even now, the smaller gates had been left open.

“I was asked for back-up, and I will be going out for the other team as soon as possible. Don’t expect much. The situation isn’t that serious.”

Three gates appeared simultaneously on the European side.

In addition to the monsters that Il-Hyun faced, the monsters that appeared there all had their own abilities.

It was not uncommon for three of them to be activated at the same time, and all of them had unique abilities.

“It would have taken time to find the killer who attacked us already. Then this happened……”

The Aegis, as well as governments around the world, have worked together to find clues about the culprit, but all of them are still out of shape.

No matter how well you hide, there are still limitations. But in this case, it was completely different.

After its tail was caught, problems with gate analysis disappeared.

They the culprits stopped the activity and hid again.

Il-Hyun didn’t know for what purpose they did those things, but it wasn’t common sense that should be used in understanding the activities that had happened.

“Well?”

Then something opened and came in.

It was a small gray puppy and a mouse on its head.

The team members, except Il-Hyun, suddenly looked at the guys who had intruded with an unfamiliar expression—he laughed at them.

“It’s my new family.”

“Oh, Summoners…It must have been a long way after the fight.”

“Lonely these days? Do you have a better job to do?”

The team members Il-Hyun haven’t seen for a while were the first people his dog have met.

Even the Phoenix pulled his head out of the inside Il-Hyun’s pocket.

It was like he had a collection of pets. However, this was simply a brief reduction in the size of the Summoners.

Tak!

Il-Hyun bounced his finger, a spark of fire blazed from the little bird that had taken off, and the appearance of Phoenix was seen.

The guy with big wings flew around the room.

“The pilot wanted to stun the wolf…but I said otherwise, and I had to change its appearance for a while.”

“It’s okay,” Ghost muttered as he looked at the gray puppy, who was running wild and shaking its tail.

Curious, the puppy tried to take the bread Ghost was eating, but he fell and rolled with the piece of bread onto the floor.

“Well, why don’t you make a summoner unit with cores?”

“Yeah, do you know how to do it?” One of the team members, who had a lot of questions about Il-Hyun’s new ability, looked at him, and asked.

“These guys are so greedy about the cores that I think it will be a big deal if I level up at all for the time being,” said Il-Hyun.

If the Summoner ate too many cores, he couldn’t grow himself.

Even so, it’s still not enough to leave every dangerous gate to Aegis and the Summoner. And if the Summoner ate away all the cores there, there would be nothing left for the company.

At the same time, it was also a matter of efficiency.

The summoners became more potent as they consumed the Ether, but basically, the first one to be summoned would also be the first one to become stronger.

“I can’t make anything like a dragon.”

“Well, it would be nice, but it should not be easy… don’t be stalled.”

There is a limit to summoning something because it is made with one force.

It can’t be summoned indefinitely, and if you make the defense strong to prevent an attack, you will have no choice but to drop speed or other aspects.

Just giving Phoenix one immortal property was already quite a lot to give up.

Now, after absorbing multiple cores, it’s gotten pretty strong overall.

Then I ate one whole, A-rank core. I’m not sure what changed, though.

Il-Hyun, who thought he was crazy about Phoenix, thought hard.

While I was here, I called out to Phoenix, who was having trouble eating his core, but I haven’t confirmed its effectiveness yet.

“Uh… the color has changed? Is that an ability?” Seok Pil-jun pointed his finger to a flying Phoenix.

It was totally true.

The reddish Phoenix was reversed entirely in color and had a blue flame.

Everyone was staring blankly at the beautiful figure of the bird blowing ice crystals here and there.

At that time, Phoenix flaked its wings and released energy.

Thud!

The shockwaves spread out inside the room—it was so intense that, that Ghost who was sitting on the desk ducked and covered his head.

“This is another monster……!”

Ghost who rolled and fell on the ground looked around.

Objects in the room were turned over, and the windows were all broken, some even hanging on the floor.

A fluorescent lamp exploded, electric power was splashed, and the electronic clock hanging on the wall stopped working as it was tilted.

Above all, however, the defense coats they were wearing and the swords they were holding stopped working.

“It completely looks good,” Seok Pil-jun said as he checked his coat back and forth.

Even the circuit burned out, making re-usage impossible.

“I should contact the head office again and ask for our resupply,” Lee Soo-Yeon muttered with laughter in the ridiculous situation they were in.