116 – The Time of Heroes and Valiants! #2
Director Kim Usu was a self-made man who was born in an ordinary household and worked tirelessly to achieve success.
「Son of Chungnam, Kim Usu! Congratulations on entering Seoul National University!」
「Congratulations on graduating top of your class from Seoul National University’s Business School!」
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the time when Kim Director slept only three hours a day to study shaped him into the person he is today, but…
In truth, he wasn’t shy about showcasing his extraordinary knack for networking more than his studying abilities.
―Professor, this is a thousand-year-old ginseng from our hometown. When boiled, it’s incredibly effective for bl**d circulation.
―Wow, what kind of root is this and why is it so thick?
―During this practice, I kindly ask for your supervision… Hehehe…
The reason he was able to transfer from the National Intelligence Service to the Superhuman Management Office was because he excelled at networking. After all, the Superhuman Management Office was the powerhouse department of the 7th Republic.
However, the one mistake Kim Director made was hesitating between Nam Woo-joo and Nam Bada, ultimately choosing the cunning Nam Bada.
Nam Woo-joo was the crown prince of the 7th Republic, while Nam Bada was more like a hired hitman who only took dirty jobs. Once Kim Director became an underling of Nam Bada, he ended up doing a lot of dirty and embarrassing work that he couldn’t even brag about to others.
‘This isn’t the image of myself that I had envisioned!’
For someone who was celebrated as the son of Chungnam with banners hanging in his hometown, this was a cruel turn of events. But when Nam Woo-joo was dethroned due to the Demon incident and his younger brother Nam Bada received full authority to clean up the aftermath, the situation changed.
‘This confirms my choice was the right one!’
Though he was still involved in dirty and unpleasant work in the sunless underground, working under the now-powerful Nam Bada turned out to be an excellent long-term decision.
However, a crisis came into his life.
A research facility jointly created by the Witch’s Sect and the Superhuman Management Office was visited by Seugal, who proceeded to wreak havoc.
“These crazy bastards!”
Bang! Bangbangbang! Bangbang!
She was tearing the facility apart by firing bizarre shockwaves from her palms, and just watching her was draining. But Kim Usu wasn’t merely a scheming opportunist.
“Fire tranquilizer rounds designed for patients! Tranquilizer rounds!”
Peeoooosh!
Several needle-tipped projectiles were aimed at Seugal, and a few of them halted mid-air as if blocked by an invisible barrier.
“d*mn it, what a monster of a girl!”
Kim Usu knew that Seugal, the princess of Seonam, possessed a concept called “Miracle.” It seemed that this allowed her to create a defense barrier that defied physical laws.
But…
The output of her ability, which had been functioning as a defensive barrier, began to weaken.
It was clear that while she could use her “Miracle” concept for defense, her control over it was still crude, limiting its duration.
Tsstt…
Eventually, several tranquilizer rounds managed to hit Seugal’s body as she clicked her tongue in frustration.
“These bastards…”
With a powerful sedative strong enough to knock out an elephant, Seugal kept cursing until she finally collapsed.
Director Kim Usu felt a mix of relief and sudden exhaustion.
“Director, what should we do? The principle is to quietly dispose of illegal intruders and witnesses. But this is Seugal of Seonam.”
“I don’t know, dammit!”
If they handled someone as famous as Seugal improperly, who knew what might happen. Hence, he decided to contact Nam Bada.
“Mr. Bada, this has happened. What should we do?”
Nam Bada’s order was straightforward: detain her for now and wait. He would take care of it personally.
At that point, Director Kim Usu finally felt reassured.
‘Indeed, I’m a good networker. I thought I’d go bald from stress.’
But then,
Another stressor emerged that threatened to take the remaining hair off Director Kim Usu’s scalp — Hanamjin.
The young man who was presumed dead after going missing during the Nam Woo-joo elimination operation suddenly resurfaced from the underground, making an absurd claim.
“You’re saying you’re President Nam Tae-geon’s grandson?”
“That’s right. Although I don’t particularly like admitting it. If you have doubts, why don’t we do a DNA test? I’m pretty sure with all the facilities down here, you can do something as simple as that.”
Even in this underground research facility, DNA testing was simple. However, whether it was plausible for the President Nam Tae-geon to have a grandson was dubious.
After all, the probability of President Nam Tae-geon fathering a grandson was precisely zero.
Director Kim Usu had worked under Nam Tae-geon for a long time and knew quite a bit about his biological son, Nam Ha-neul.
His strained relationship with his father Nam Tae-geon, his enrollment in the military academy to become a soldier—these were all known facts.
Additionally, he knew that Nam Ha-neul was infertile (不姙), which caused him to fall out of favor with his father Nam Tae-geon.
In other words,
Nam Ha-neul was physically incapable of having a son. Thus, Hanamjin’s claim was undoubtedly false.
‘It has to be a lie.’
Nevertheless, Kim Usu’s hair itched unusually, much like it had during the time he was stationed and agonizing between Nam Woo-joo and Nam Bada.
He scratched his sparse scalp with his fingernails as he asked,
“Are you just stalling time to escape with that DNA test stuff?”
“Why would I run away? The rats like you, who’ve been hiding underground doing strange things, are the ones who should be running. I have only one demand: hand over Seugal.”
Kim Usu knew Hanamjin well.
As Hanamjin was a classmate of the Superhuman Management Office and a lifelong lieutenant managed by Captain Kim Jang-dong, he was aware that Hanamjin was currently at the center of a major event, being commended as a hero with a military medal for valor.
Kim Usu was also well-informed about the fact that whenever Hanamjin turned on his internet streams, it caused a stir worldwide.
‘Is his stream still on by any chance?’
If the existence of this underground facility were revealed, all responsible parties would surely be swept away like gnats before a storm. Out of unease, Kim Usu inquired.
“Do you have a stream or something going on right now?”
“Not right now, but it depends on how you handle this. My requirements are simple: hand over Seugal and give us the access rights to the entrance of the Great Labyrinth located somewhere in this facility.”
Although he claimed his demands were singular, he actually wanted both Seugal and the access rights to the Great Labyrinth. Of course, Kim Usu’s brain was too overloaded to point this out.
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This underground research facility’s supervisor appeared to be a middle-aged balding man with a fierce-looking face.
“Kim Usu.”
Seeing the name tag on the white lab coat, I decided to negotiate.
“Mr. Ousu, let’s just quietly settle this. If you follow my words here and now, I won’t feel the need to speak about this facility. It’s a mutual compromise.”
“But I’ve already entrusted Seugal’s well-being to Bada. If you take her away now, what am I supposed to say? I can’t just say she disappeared, right?”
“Then say my name.”
“…”
Kim Usu was deep in thought. I, then, shouted to the troops still pointing guns at us.
“What are you all doing? Bring me Seugal right away!”
The soldiers’ conflicted gazes were visible beneath their tactical helmets. After about ten seconds,
Kim Usu, groaning like a sick puppy, spoke up.
“Bring that young lady back.”
“Director! Are you serious? You’re letting them go just like that?”
“What else can we do! If he is really the President’s grandson… And even if he’s not, this guy is way too big for us to mess with. The country is mourning him, and if we get tangled up with him, it will be disastrous for us.”
This guy’s pretty sharp.
I guess it was from all that brainpower that his hair started falling out, turning him half bald.
At that, Seugal appeared.
Seugal looked dazed, like someone who had taken a strong cold medication.
“Huh…?”
This nonsense…
I snapped my fingers and poked her cheeks to test her alertness in front of her.
Her state remained odd.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“She was hit by tranquilizer rounds. Even the mighty Awakened One of the 4th rank will be out of it for about half a day.”
“Ah, so that’s what.”
There was something I had firmly resolved to do when I met Seugal again.
Revenge for causing me trouble.
I had made a promise to myself to bite her.
So when I got a chance, I bit Seugal’s white ear!
“PUAAHH!”
Seugal screamed like a pterosaur attacked by a sea dragon while admiring the ocean.
She then angrily shouted at me,
“You psycho b*stard!”
Though she regained her mind,
Seugal lashed out at the white-coated people in front of her rather than blaming me.
“It’s you bastards!”
“What about us?”
“You bastards killed my mom! It’s you bastards—”
Seugal began to speak, but Director Kim Usu quickly interrupted her.
“Miss Seugal’s mother suffered from an unknown condition called Somnolence Syndrome. The more she slept, the more she slept until she eventually ended up asleep all day long. It was known in foreign countries as ‘Fairy Dream.'”
Fairy Dream.
It must mean something like that.
Kim Usu continued his explanation.
“Originally, this disease didn’t exist in this world. It’s one of the misfortunes that came into the world when the Great Labyrinth’s gate first opened 20 years ago. Therefore, only an unconventional methodology could have treated it.”
He mentioned that there were many patients like Seugal’s mom in this facility, and various experiments had been conducted on them.
“The patients couldn’t handle the magical essence accumulating in their bodies, so they kept slipping into sleep. The only way to make their bodies adapt to the magical essence was to artificially awaken them. The success rate was about 30 percent.”
A 30 percent success rate.
To which side did Seugal’s mother belong, to the 30 or the 70?
“At the time, I wasn’t in charge of this facility, but as far as I know, Miss Seugal’s mother was successfully treated.”
“Success? You can call that a success? My mom lived her entire life in agony, eventually passing away. She wasn’t even truly alive while alive!”
“Choosing to be awake but in pain instead of being trapped in an endless sleep is a choice her mom made. If you are to blame someone, direct your blame at Miss over there.”
Director Kim Usu nodded his chin towards Baek Yeo-ul, who was holding Kangkang and listening respectfully.
“Who, me? What about me?”
“It’s Baek Yeo-ul, is it not? The pharmaceutical company she owns has supported a significant portion of the funding for this underground facility. The treatment for Fairy Dream was developed by Baek Pharmaceuticals.”
It seemed Baek Yeo-ul was deeply shocked upon learning her family was involved with this suspicious facility.
Stories I had been unaware of were now surfacing.
Baek Yeo-ul looked at Seugal with an anxious eye.
Seugal glared back at her with burning intensity.
Even though Seugal was the one being directly affected, Baek Yeo-ul’s family had caused her mother pain in the process of treatment.
A very complicated relationship diagram indeed. How deep would the feud between these two women grow? Kim Usu soon sighed heavily.
“There’s a conceptual stone that Miss Yeo-ul’s mother left within the Level-0 area. Let’s go see it together. Once you see it, you’ll understand what I’ve been saying. Students deserve to know.”
Level-0 must be where the “High-Grade Concept Stones” were stored.
Following behind Kim Usu, there was an extremely large tank containing a girl who appeared to be about ten years old.
“…Isn’t that…”
If we ignore the various machines keeping her alive unnaturally, she looked like a fetus in the womb. Just as I was thinking that, Seugal gasped in shock.
“…That looks exactly like Baek Yeo-ul when she was in elementary school.”
―It appeared to be human-like and exactly resembled Baek Yeo-ul from elementary school.
Mini Baek Yeo-ul.
How strange.
“Nam Jin, do you know why our foundation is called the ‘Witch’s Sect’?”
