Chapter 19 - Free

Free

The plane landed in the middle of the building, and Lee Su-yeon entrusted Ghost with the supervision of offloading protocol of the rest of the team and then headed for the analysis team.

Ghost tried to look around using his abilities, but Il-hyun didn’t allow him to and refused.

He was not so thrilled about that, he walked quietly and dragged him towards the inside of the building. It was his first time to see it properly.

Ghost said there wasn’t much to see upstairs, so he went downstairs using the elevator on the left side of the building.

The upper floor had an open visitors’ lounge while the basement was a high-security area where only authorized personnel were allowed to enter.

“You know, there are a lot of different teams in this big company besides the Awakening, Il-hyun said.

“Before going out into battle, I always pass by the Analysis Research Team. They are the ones that made my defensive coat. The coat I’m wearing was tasted halfway, so let’s go see them.”

After going down a few floors, the elevator stopped on the underground floor. Once the doors opened, huge facilities came into view.

Ghost looked around the grounds with admiration and told Il-hyun that he is not allowed to access that floor unless he was a Team Leader or Repairer or Equipment Trainer.

There were too many employees, and the grounds were vast, so the awakened people didn’t like it.

After walking around for a while, they went to Research Team’s office. The door had a plaque with ‘The Team Leader’s Office’ inscribed on it.

“Hello!”

When the door flung open, the woman sitting behind the desk looked at her visitors with surprise.

“Ah! This is a surprise! Ghost you shouldn’t come to my office like that! What if I wasn’t here? Is this a member of the new team?”

Ghost laughed happily and grabbed Il-hyun.

Suddenly, a woman itin a white gown, jumped from her seat and approached him.

“Oh, I heard rumors. I heard that this Team Leader brought a lot of good this time. It’s nice to meet you.”

“This is Choi Eun-chae, the Head of the Research Team.”

“This is Kang Il-hyun.”

The two shook hands lightly.

Choi Eun-chae, who seemed to be in her early 30s, was a prominent celebrity in the scientific world, so Il-hyun was familiar with her.

In particular, as the authority of Ether Utilization Technology, she was responsible for the development of all technologies within Ages.

Choi Eun-chae also stared at him and asked, “what kind of abilities do you have in your eyes? You should be able to see the team leader well in the future. He’s the one who breaks the core with his bare hands.”

“Fuhaha, you like kidding too much!”

Choi Eun-chae laughed.

It was ridiculous to think that someone could smash the core with their bare hands.

However, Ghost spoke only the truth and did not step back.

“Oh, you don’t believe it? Would you like to bet on it after a long time?”

“Bet? Okay Cole. If you stick out flippers this time. And don’t even think about using equipment from the Research Team.”

“Well, excuse me?”

Suddenly, the environment in the room became a bit awkward, and Il-hyun felt a little embarrassed.

But the situation soon passed.

“I would like a pair of defense coats made of A-rank cores that were prototyped a while ago.”

“Isn’t it too strong? That hasn’t been done for any of the team leaders yet.”

“Are you already afraid you’ll lose the bet?”

“Hey! I know I will win anyway. Are you saving this time for the next study?”

“Of course.”

They often bet on all kinds of topics, but always ended with Choi Eun-chae’s victory.

However, Ghost who was wearing a cheeky smile behind his mask, tried to use this opportunity to reverse the results.

“Sometimes, I bet you don’t really understand.”

Choi Eun-chae, shook her head and immediately walked to the table that was placed at one corner of the office.

Then, she climbed on top of it and took the ether core that was shining white and passed it to Il-hyun.

“This is Clarke’s B-rank core that came in from Australia last week. I know it’s stupid, but please just listen for a second.”

“B rank?”

His ears perked up with curiosity on hearing the word ‘B rank.’

Suddenly, a grateful heart began to spring up in Ghost’s chest.

“You have to try!”

* * *

Crack!

The ether shattered, and the debris fell on the floor.

It had a different dimension from the E-rank cores that he had previously absorbed.

It felt like his stomach was getting pierced somewhere and absorbed it slowly.

Last time, he couldn’t take it into his body because he was in a hurry, but this time, he completely absorbed it.

Choi Eun-chae, who was confident in herself, didn’t move from her spot. Her face hardened.

It seemed like she was having a hard time accepting the unfolding reality in front of her.

Il-hyun, saw the look on her face and got worried. He was concerned about post-processing.

Aside from his first encounter with Aegis, he had already broken two B-rank cores.

Even though she was the Head of the Research Team, she thought the situation might be difficult since one of them was broken.

“Haha! Had you eaten one before? I had never seen you like that before!”

Ghost laughed happily and smiled.

“No!  What happened? This is one of your abilities right?” Choi Eun-chae asked.

She approached him with weak steps and held onto him. She was shocked just like the collapse of an absolute formula no one would have suspected.

“Uh! Yes, this is correct.”

“Okay. You can’t break it with pure strength. So where did the ether in this go? What amount of energy does it have?”

“I don’t know, but maybe it will be in my stomach.”

Il-hyun smiled awkwardly.

Choi Eun Chae nodded when he understood what she meant.

“I stayed here and saw all the stellar intellect… It’s definitely a unique feature among them.”

She bent down on one knee and picked up one of the debris that had fallen on the floor.

Fragments that looked like ordinary pieces of glass were slowly losing light.

“Is transformation possible?”

While holding the piece with her finger, Choi Eun-chae, applied pressure on it, it was easily bent with her strength.She murmured.

“Maybe it could be used as new material. There’s a long way to go, but it’s completely amazing.”

Choi Eun-chae, spoke spontaneously, and then after calming herself down for a moment, continued her speech, while the gaze towards the core piece still remained.

“It’s a new way.”

Her face held a mixture of excitement and curiosity.

Her gaze turned to Il-hyun, with an intense desire.

“Can I get more samples? The research cores that are out there are already set up for use, so I can’t give them more.”

“It’s piled up inside the house, but isn’t it a little old but useful?”

Choi Eun-chae grabbed Il-hyun’s hand.

“Please!”

* * *

“Wow, starting from the first day, is it really comfortable?”

After leaving the ruined defense coat to the Research Team, Ghost walked out of the area.

It was obviously not a good thing to behave this way with a Research Team Leader. This last asked him to call them in case he needed additional debris while preparing the core there.

“Isn’t this too rough?”

It felt like something was going on already.

Besides, Ghost was satisfied because he had won the bet and got new equipment.

While walking, a friend discussion ensued, and Lee Soo-yeon, who was in the gap between the staff, found them and approached the hallway across the street.

“Oh, I was just about to go and look for it. It is good that after the on-site processing, the extracted cores arrived.”

“What does the analysis team say?”

“There is no way it can be used right now. I hear that he said it was not only happening here but around the world. Since it is completely different from the case where the pattern has changed little by little, it will take time, so I have to be careful for the time being.”

“Hmm… I’m anxious that strange things continue to happen before the cycle,” Ghost said.

It was familiar to see signs little by little as the original cycle approached, but this cycle was quite different from usual cycles.

Surprisingly, the frequency of gates that did not appear increased significantly, and the results of occasionally missed analysis and high-rank gates also increased slightly compared to the previous period.

“There are rumors that the third cycle will be harder.”

In only 20 years humanity had only experienced four cycles, and yet it was impossible to predict exactly what would happen next.

“Anyway, please follow the settlement.”

“Settlement? Wasn’t I just supposed to put it in your account?”

“No, not you.”

Soo-yeon Lee was looking on the other side.

“Aha, then I will go up first.”

Ghost, who had heard of the distribution method in advance, left without a word.

But Il-hyun followed him.

A few paces ahead, they came into the Treatment Group area.

There were several corpses of different monsters with white powder on them, many people around, moving large extractions from one point to the other.

An employee approached and guided him to one side.

“It’s all yours,” Soo-yeon Lee said.

There were dozens of cores in a large bag on the desk.

All of them were ether cores of D-rank monsters that appeared in Ulsan today.

“How much is my share?” a surprised Il-hyun asked.

He was still a C-ranked bib and had no experience whatsoever so he didn’t expect much.

However, the ether in front of his eyes exceeded his expectations.

“This time, there was a mistake on the part of the company, and all D-rank monsters from the 17th floor were turned to your share. Half of the company is missing. Did you decide to set the cash rate at 10 percent? The money will be deposited the day after tomorrow.”

As a global conglomerate, the work was fast.

Il-hyun took the bag with pleasure and looked around.

There were too many people.

“Well, it will be kind if you didn’t absorb it here”

“Oh, yes.”

The two moved out of the area.

He entered the empty conference room, Il-hyun opened the bag on a long desk and sprinkled the ether core.

With a pleasant sound and a stretched core, he smiled. He began absorbing the ether, one by one.

With the B-ranked core that he had absorbed earlier and now, he considered it to generally have a strong impact.

Sitting on the chair, Lee Soo-yeon was staring at Il-hyun absorbing the core, then asked :

“How was your first impression of this place?”

“It’s very good except for a few other people. I thought it would be full of famous awakens,” Il-hyun responded.

To be honest, he had been excited about meeting the Awakens from Aegis during the coming year. He thought celebrities such as Ryu Jin-tae, Han Sang-jin, and Cho Yun would all be there but he never saw anyone he expected.

“It is because almost all of them have gone abroad, so we are waiting. Of course, it’s hard to see them here. It would be better to explain in the words that came out.”

Lee Soo-yeon laughed and talked about how to work in the future.

As the world took over and blocked the gate, Aegis worked in two different ways.

First was the Dispatch Team. It was a team that was dispatched to each continent or country, in advance; to prepare for emergencies as it was a bit too late for Korea. It was mainly handled by a high-rank gate with a short activation time.

The second was the Waiting Team.

It was a team that did not go out in advance like the dispatch team and stayed in Korea taking charge of high-ranking gates in other countries.

Although the time was spared, the country was unable to handle it and took over the gates that needed help.

Currently, Team A had only been in Korea for a while and has been resting halfway, but from next week, it will be put on standby again.

“The waiting team doesn’t have to gather and wait anywhere; they just need to start when they are called. The dispatch team is out to take care of the very tight time.”

“The dispatch team will be a little difficult.”

“Well, it is. It’s okay to go abroad, but I don’t know when I’m going to be in operation 24 hours a day.”

Of course, the gates of the high grades that Aegis had to go out were not frequent.

Even so, they couldn’t get away from each other because they didn’t know when the gates would appear. It was indeed harder for them than for the waiting team who gathered together only when there were several tasks.

“Oh yeah, have you seen the article? The picture came out well. haha.”

“Yeah? Knight?”

“You haven’t seen it? Please go on the internet at once.”

In the end, with Lee Soo-yeon, Il-hyun picked up the cell phone that he puts in his pocket.

“What is this?”

Il-hyun frowned when he looked at the screen of his cell phone.

There were ten missed calls and received texts.

When he entered the portal site, his face appeared on the front page of the news.

“Right. Meat restaurant.”

Il-hyun realized how zealously he had gone to work.

The internet was already in a turbulent state about a new member of the Aegis A team.

There were all sorts of speculative articles about his unknown identity and how the first awakened man entered Aegis.

From Aegis, to the story of a prospective leader, the article was placed at one corner of the site.

“It’s already been celebrated. Congratulations.”

Lee Soo-yeon laughed at Il-hyun, who looked stern.