004 – Concept Holder
In order to kidnap Seugal, a point of contact was needed first.
You know, we had to run into her somewhere, right?
While contemplating various methods, my eyes fell upon the enrollment papers for Yeongsagao.
Yeongsagao is an institution that educates and trains adolescent Awakened Ones.
Thus, it was highly probable that Seugal also attended this school during this time.
It seemed that Baek Yeo-ul, standing before me, also attended this school, so I figured I could easily get an answer by asking her.
So when I asked, “Does Seugal attend this school?” the expression of Baek Yeo-ul, who had just been looking at me with pity as if I was some Unicef malnourished child, immediately turned cold.
“Seugal?”
Her facial muscles twitched, and it was easy to deduce that the relationship between Seugal and Baek Yeo-ul wasn’t good.
After all, I’m exceptionally good at reading people.
People who are intelligent usually have good social awareness.
“Am I leaving?”
Baek Yeo-ul sharply turned her head and exited my house.
Following her, the men in suits hurriedly left as well. The loan sharks I had planned to bury in my yard quickly left the house with them.
“What? I still needed to ask about the kidnapping.”
But then again, it didn’t really matter.
The loan sharks would surely return to my house again to extort money from me.
Most importantly, the amount of pork belly I had purchased was insufficient even for myself. It was such a relief that everyone left on their own.
They say if you can’t share, you shouldn’t even release smoke through the chimney.
Sizzle-sizzle.
The pork belly I had grilled after several years was so delicious that it brought tears to my eyes.
# # #
Three days had passed since I returned to the past.
“Victims Mr. Kim Tae-yang and two others were involved in loan sharking and were under investigation for charges of assault and m*rder.”
“Huh, those guys are dead?”
Early in the morning, I was startled awake by the news on TV.
It seemed someone had taken them out.
I was supposed to ask them about ‘kidnapping methods that leave no trouble afterward,’ and I couldn’t help but feel angry that someone had interfered with my plan.
I vowed to myself that if I ever met the person responsible, I’d kick them in the crotch.
d*mn it!
With this turn of events, I had to come up with a plan for kidnapping all by myself, from ‘A’ to ‘ㅎ.’ But there was no need to worry. Who am I? I’m Hanamjin, the smartest among high school dropouts.
“Plans are meant to be changed as we go along.”
Slurp, slurp.
After eating my fill of jjajang ramen, it was already 7:30 in the morning.
I believe the school start time at Yeongsagao was 8 o’clock, right?
Creak.
I closed the rusty iron gate and stepped outside. The weather was quite pleasant and warm.
The only inconvenience was that the school uniform I carelessly hung on the hanger since my freshman year now felt tight and uncomfortable, even though it had felt somewhat loose when I was a freshman in high school.
“I guess I’ll need to get a new school uniform.”
I glanced at the students passing by on the street.
My peers were heading in the same direction, wearing outfits similar to uniforms. According to what I knew, those Nazi-like uniforms belonged to Yeongsagao students.
The design, which seems to prioritize aesthetics over functionality, is quite striking.
Am I supposed to wear clothes like that once I become a student?
I shivered as if I was becoming a supporter of imperialism, but I quickly calmed myself down.
After all, I was entering Yeongsagao just to get close to Seugal.
Once I succeed in kidnapping Seugal, I won’t have to attend school anymore.
In a world that’s going to end in a year, diplomas will only be good for wiping poop, if even that.
Honestly, they’re even too rough to be used as toilet paper; the certificates and diplomas are about the size of A4 paper, so the texture is terrible.
While thinking about all this, I arrived at the gates of Yeongsagao.
“It’s pretty spacious.”
Is it closer to a university campus than a high school?
I had heard it was built on the grounds of a university that went bankrupt due to a lack of students.
Upon a quick investigation, it appeared that they also had a university program of some sort.
“What are you doing here?”
“Your uniform is different.”
“Are you a transfer student?”
It seemed my presence was quite noticeable in this strange place.
Of course, it was unavoidable since I was the only one without a proper uniform.
The Yeongsagao uniform costs over 1 million won, so I wasn’t able to get one immediately and had to wear the uniform from the high school I used to attend.
My gray uniform was embarrassingly outdated even to my own eyes.
I headed to the main building with my admission papers in hand.
The main building looked like the former presidential residence, the Blue House, making it easy to find.
It was 8 o’clock in the morning.
The employees were already busily at work, so I approached the counter where the most friendly-looking sister was standing and asked.
“Excuse me, I’d like to go through the enrollment process.”
“Huh? Oh, let me see your documents.”
Shwooosh. Flap-flap.
The female employee began reviewing the papers I handed her.
I stared at her face intently for a while.
I was trying to use the “Emotion Sense” I received from Seugal.
But no particular words came to mind.
There must be some rules about using this “Emotion Sense,” and I could only vaguely guess them after three days since I returned to the past.
“Student Hanamjin, right? It’s been about a month since your Awakening test, right? Haven’t you had another test since then?”
“Of course not. It costs 2 million won every time you get tested.”
Apparently, they use cutting-edge machines for those tests.
As an excuse, they extract your bl**d and your hard-earned money too, but hospitals these days are nothing but thieves.
“Then we need to give you a brief test. You likely haven’t been fully Awakened for long, so you’re probably a primary Awakened One. Still, we need to confirm it to assign you to the right class.”
“Just do it quickly.”
“Then, follow me.”
I followed the female employee into a white lab-like room.
A huge machine resembling an MRI greeted me. It was round and cylindrical, looking quite majestic.
“Lie down here.”
Shwooosh.
The device I lay down on was incredibly uncomfortable. A large cylindrical machine moved over my body with a loud whirring noise.
After lying there for about five minutes?
I started to get bored.
“Sister, how much longer do I have to stay like this?”
“Stop talking. This machine is a national treasure imbued with the concept of inspection. There are only two of them in the whole world, so if you mess with it and break it, we’ll have a big problem.”
“Sister, do you have a boyfriend? What do you think about younger guys?”
“Shut up, I said!”
Anyway, the test ended like that, and I was back at the admission office, sitting idly in a chair when the employee sister spoke to me.
“It’s a simple concept test, so the results will be out in ten minutes, so just wait quietly.”
“Concepts?”
“Don’t you know? Gaining the concept of ‘muscles’ makes you stronger, and a kid with the concept of ‘lizard’ can regrow an arm like a lizard’s tail if it gets cut off. Don’t you know how Awakened Ones’ abilities come about?”
I think I’ve heard this question from someone else recently.
It was Seugal. I didn’t expect to reminisce about our fated encounter like this.
“Abilities arise from strong desire, right?”
“Yeah. When the waves of teenagers during adolescence meet with a strong desire, they can sometimes become secondary Awakened Ones who possess a particular ‘concept.’ About 30 percent of Awakened Ones become Concept Holders this way.”
Holders of ‘concepts’ are the top 30 percent among Awakened Ones.
In other words, the test I just took was to determine whether I was in the top 30 percent or the bottom 70 percent.
“Many newly Awakened students don’t have any concepts, so don’t be too disappointed with the test result. If you continue education and training, you’ll eventually discover your talent. Oh! Here are the results!”
The cheerful female employee checked the printed paper.
She seemed greatly surprised, trembling and scratching the back of her head.
“What’s this? Two ‘concepts’…? Manager! Manager!”
The sister ran off somewhere.
Soon a bunch of uncles gathered.
“Leaping. Judgment. Whoa, it’s real. A student who’s only been Awakened for a short time holding two concepts? Director, did you ever see anything like this? You’re from the National Defense Science Research Institute, right?”
“This is what we call a Multiple Ability Holder. Usually, about one out of ten Awakened Ones is like this, but this guy is especially unusual among the students I’ve seen.”
The uncles gathered around and marveled at my test results, which seemed to have exceeded everyone’s expectations.
“Test Results
Name: Hanamjin
Concepts: Leaping, Judgment”
A half-bald uncle in a white coat kept reviewing the documents.
He touched my head and made me open my mouth and say “ah,” checking me.
“Wow, this is amazing. I’ve seen plenty of multiple concept holders, but this kid is just out of the ordinary.”
“Director! Stop telling your special stories and explain it in a way we can understand. What’s so special about this student?”
“What I mean is, a ‘concept’ has an affinity. Everyone knows that Awakened Ones’ abilities are awakened from strong desires, right? This kid, the ‘Leaping’ concept is exactly that.”
Shwooosh.
The half-bald research lab uncle started squeezing my thigh with his hand.
It felt quite awkward, so I stroked his bald forehead in return.
“…What are you doing?”
“Since you touched my leg, it’s only fair for me to touch your forehead, right?”
“Name: Ydae-ryong
Condition: 《Surprise》 – I was greatly shocked by the audacity of the younger generation.”
“Hmm, anyway, this kid must have had an incredibly strong desire to run incredibly fast. Thus, the concept of Leaping resonated within his body. How fast can you run 100 meters?”
“3 seconds? 2 seconds? About that.”
Everyone was greatly impressed by my honest answer.
“Truly remarkable. You’re like a sports car!”
“This is why the Olympics lose their excitement every year.”
“In our day, something like this was unimaginable.”
Just the middle-aged man called Director remained calm.
He calmed everyone down who were murmuring excitedly and continued his explanation composedly.
“The concept of Leaping alone seems to be an excellent Physical Enhancement concept. Therefore, it’s strange that this second concept of Judgment doesn’t seem to have any connection to the first one.”
“The Judgment concept? You mean, discernment? Doesn’t it have any connection to the first ability, Leaping?”
“Section Manager, let’s take an example. Look at Yeon-he this year’s graduating class. She possesses the rare concept of ‘light,’ right? By the way, the second concept she manifested was ‘photosynthesis.'”
“Light and photosynthesis… Indeed, they’re clearly connected!”
“Exactly. The concepts of multiple ability holders always develop and evolve from mutual connections that complement each other. Our curriculum is also structured based on this fundamental principle.”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward me.
Leaping and Judgment.
There seemed to be a natural curiosity about me because I possessed two concepts that had no apparent connection.
“What in the world has happened to you?”
