Volume 1 - CH 19

"Ally?"

Cheon Gunam responded in surprise.

Dok Gojun still had a cheerful smile on his face.

"Yeah. You seem close to being a protagonist."

Protagonist. At those words, Cheon Gunam's expression changed to confusion.

'Dok Gojun, his personality may be strange, but he's a strong Awakened individual. He's the second one to clear the first stage.'

Although Cheon Gunam didn't understand what Dok Gojun meant, he could tell that Dok Gojun held him in high regard which was why he unintentionally responded with a slightly proud tone, "Well, it's not entirely wrong."

"Then, shall we have a chat? Since we're allies now, we should get to know each other."

"Sounds good. First, let me check my rewards for a moment..."

Cheon Gunam checked the rewards with an excited face. However, his face soon stiffened as he determined the contents. The item he received was the 'Destiny Appraisal.' An item that awakened one's Destiny window.

'This item is not particularly useful for me.'

The 'Destiny Appraisal' was an item that allowed awakened individuals to continue their activities as awakened even outside this place. It had no effect on Cheon Gunam, who possessed 'Palmistry.' He could sell it outside, but this item had no benefits for now.

Seeing Cheon Gunam’s stiff face, Dok Gojun asked, "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Ah, no. It's nothing."

"Then let's have a talk. I want to know about your past and your skills as well."

Dok Gojun dragged him away with an excited look.

***

Seo Gangrim watched the two from the second floor. Things were going smoothly as planned.

'Is Cheon Gunam the protagonist this time?'

He had no intention of winning or losing in the bet with Dok Gojun. Since, if he had won, Dok Gojun might become even more persistent.

‘Even if Dok Gojun had won, he would still pester me.’

That's why there was a need for a third party to clear the stage first, and the person he intended for such a role was Cheon Gunam.

Seo Gangrim accomplished this by placing the crystal ice inside the frog's abdomen. He also placed them in the abdomens of several frogs in case one was not discovered to guide Cheon Gunam to become the first person to clear the Second Stage.

'Dok Gojun's expression was priceless.'

When Cheon Gunam became the first Awakaned to clear the second stage, Dok Gojun was extremely bewildered. And then, when he saw the injured Seo Gangrim disappointment flashed in his eyes.

'Cheon Gunam is now unaware of some of my abilities. It's fortunate that the Destiny Guardian appeared."

There was a talisman attached inside Seo Gangrim's clothes.

═══════════════

[Item] Destiny Guardian

[Rank] Spirit First Class

[Description] Protects a portion of the user's Destiny window, making it unreadable by others.

═══════════════

Now, Cheon Gunam wouldn't be able to peek into Seo Gangrim's Destiny window. And Dok Gojun would take over the task of dealing with Cheon Gunam.

[Checking the compatibility of the Destiny of 'Cheon Gunam' and 'Dok Gojun'.]

[They are incompatible, and severe conflict is expected in their relationship. Dok Gojun's aura overwhelms Cheon Gunam, causing adverse effects on Cheon Gunam.]

[Cheon Gunam and Dok Gojun are entangled in a negative Destiny.]

Just as Shin Sooah fuels Seo Ganrim’s Destiny, there was also a relationship that was the polar opposite, like Cheon Gunam and Dok Gojun.

'For the time being, Dok Gojun will probably lose interest in me while taking care of Cheon Gunam.'

While Seo Gangrim was thinking that, Cheon Gunam felt an inexplicable sense of creepiness. He turned around, but he saw no one.

* * *

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***

Annaby was sitting in the office of the Second District, dealing with pouring messages. There was already a lot of work to be done before the Awakening Day, but it became even busier after the awakened individuals appeared.

"The work never ends."

Annaby, the youngest member of Team 2, was responsible for all kinds of miscellaneous tasks, along with the education of newly Awakened individuals.

Once the demon extermination order was issued, they were deployed, and there were also additional instructions from Team Leader Gong Ju.

[Keep an eye on Seo Gangrim and report immediately if you notice anything suspicious.]

Because of this, Annaby had no time to relax to constantly keep an eye on Seo Gangrim. Fortunately, Seo Gangrim had been going through the training without any special incidents after clearing the First stage.

The problem lied elsewhere, however.

‘Today was the emergency meeting.’

Yesterday, the Fire Hell Stage was cleared. It was cleared much faster than anticipated which prompted an emergency meeting.

While Annaby was walking towards the meeting room, she saw someone banging their head against the wall. It was Joo Sungtae. Annaby cautiously spoke to him, "Um, Senior Joo Sungtae...?"

In response, Joo Sungtae turned his head and looked at Annaby. His face had changed overnight, looking exhausted.

"Are you okay?"

"Not really."

Among those who would receive the most blame for this incident was Joo Sungtae, the planning member for the training. Of course, if Joo Sungtae received blame, it would also affect Annaby. In the previous incident, Annaby worked until dawn to get the armor of the warlords that Joo Sungtae was supposed to get.

Joo Sungtae yelled with a frustrated expression, "This is why I hate Koreans! If I build something to be cleared in a week, they clear it in a day!"

"You're also Korean, senior."

"I hate them anyway!"

To some extent, Annaby understood why Joo Sungtae was acting out like this. With the Team Leader's permission, Joo Sungtae had spent the whole night redesigning the second stage. But now it was still cleared in a day.

"For now, let's go to the meeting."

Annaby calmed down the agitated Joo Sungtae and headed to the meeting room. The only two people called for the meeting today were Annaby, in charge of training, and Joo Sungtae, in charge of planning. A moment later, as the clock pointed to the scheduled time, the door opened automatically.

Gong Ju, the team leader, went inside, and without saying a word, he walked slowly and took a seat at the head of the table. The atmosphere became heavy. No words have been spoken, but one could tell from his expression how angry he was, which made the meeting room feel more like a funeral parlor.

"I heard a report that the Second stage was cleared in the first attempt. Was Seo Gangrim the one who cleared it?"

In response to his question, Annaby quickly pulled up a file and said, "No, it was Cheon Gunam."

Cheon Gunam's profile appeared in the air, but Gong Ju only glanced at it briefly and didn't pay any more attention. His gaze was fixed on Joo Sungtae.

"If Seo Gangrim had cleared it, I would have thought he had some outstanding abilities."

Joo Sungtae remained silent as if he had committed a grave offense.

Gong Ju asked Annaby, "Is Cheon Gunam at least a Spirit-rank?"

"No, he is Human-rank."

In the suffocating atmosphere, Joo Sungtae was watching their reactions. It felt like walking on thin ice.

"What about his attribute and ability?"

"He has a water attribute and uses an ability called 'Water Bullet,' which is a water-based offensive ability."

"He must have had the conditions to easily clear the Fire Hell then."

There was a possibility that Cheon Gunam cleared it with his own strength. Joo Sungtae's face brightened a bit at the possibility.

Princess continued his questioning, "Did you ask how Cheon Gunam cleared the stage?"

"Yes. But... he said something strange."

"Strange?"

Annaby nodded in agreement and replied, "He seemed to be misunderstanding something. He mentioned that while killing fire toads, he encountered one that had swallowed a piece of crystal ice."

"What?"

Both Gong Ju and Joo Sungtae had expressions of confusion at the statement. Fire toads could swallow crystal ice. After all, the fire toads were designed to target and chase crystal ice in the first place.

"Fire toads won't be able to access the ice cave, right? We set up the barrier."

Due to the protection effect of the barriers, the fire toads wouldn't have been able to find and eat the ice crystals in the cave.

The team leader murmured in confusion, "In that case, it means that someone other than Cheon Gunam found and took the ice crystals from the fire toads..."

He pondered for a moment and asked Annaby, "Who else accompanied Cheon Gunam?"

"Well, it was Seo Gangrim."

"Seo Gangrim...?"

At the mention of Seo Gangrim's name, Gong Ju's eyebrows twitchedJu Sungtae expected Gong Ju to get angry again, but he only had a worried expression on his face.

"Did Seo Gangrim discover the ice crystal cave? If he has an ability related to predicting the future..."

The Gong Ju's eyes gleamed fiercely. After all, abilities related to future prediction were extremely rare. If Seo Gangrim indeed had an ability like it, he had to be recruited by the Destiny Protection Bureau no matter what.

Ju Sungtae cautiously asked, observing his reactions, "Should we request the Cheif's confirmation of his Destiny?"

"No, not now. If Seo Gangrim is not a seer, it will only complicate things further."

Seon Gakja was the Chief of the Destiny Protection Bureau.

"Even now, the Chief had no free time as he was secretly holding talks with the government."

In the midst of that, if they called the Seon Gakja to confirm Seo Gangrim’s Destiny and found out that it was insignificant, what would happen then? It was clear that the Team Leader's position would only worsen.

Annaby cautiously spoke, sensing the atmosphere, "It doesn't seem to be the case. Upon verification, it was revealed that the barriers were damaged, allowing the demons to approach the entrance."

If the barriers were damaged, it meant there was a mistake in the planning department. The team leader sighed, as if she had expected it.

Ju Sungtae exclaimed, feeling the injustice, "No, it's not true! The barriers were perfectly fine."

"First, repair the barriers, and then write a report."

"Team Leader! The fact that the stage was completed faster than expected is because we have many competent trainees..."

-Thud!

Gong Ju slammed the table forcefully, making Ju Sungtae  flinch and fall silent. The injustice Ju Sungtae felt was still shown on his face, however.

Gong Ju glared at him and said, "Ju Sungtae, can you take responsibility for your statement? Is there really no problem with the planning, and do we really have enough competent trainees to proceed to the Third stage like this?"

"Well, um..."

"If we proceed like this and all the trainees perish, will you take responsibility then?"

His voice was piercing, as if he was stabbing with a knife. The sharpness of Gong Ju's eyes sparkled through his glasses.

"Now, starting from the third one, we're truly entering the real Demon World. Can you take responsibility if they enter the stage with insufficient skills and end up dying?"

The First and Second stages were artificially created training grounds by the Destiny Protection Bureau. There were plenty of resting places and safety measures in place. However, from the third one onwards, the trainees have to rely solely on their abilities.

"Moreover, it could also affect my career."

For the Team Leader, he was more concerned about his evaluation going down rather than the Awakened dying.

"While our side loses insufficiently skilled individuals, other teams are diligently nurturing their trainees. If we fall behind Team 1..."

In addition to Team 2 currently assigned to Gong Ju, there were other teams responsible for training the trainees. The team leaders of each team had a kind of competitive relationship, where producing excellent results would raise their evaluations. As a result, they couldn't send under-prepared trainees to the next stage for various reasons.

He pressed his temples as if his head was throbbing, trying to alleviate the pressure.

"If we continue like this, the dropout rate will be high. First, let's extend the waiting period for the Third stage."

"Are you okay with that?"

"We have no choice. I'll talk to the superiors about it."

The Team Leader stood up from his seat as if the discussion had come to an end. As he was leaving towards the exit, he turned back and said, "And keep a close eye on Seo Gangrim."

After leaving that command, he finally left the conference room.

Ju Sungtae  clenched his teeth in frustration, saying, "There's definitely no problem with the barriers. I've checked multiple times...!"

With a gaze full of resentment, he opened the file. Staring at Seo Gangrim's photo, Ju Sungtae  meticulously scanned through the profile.

"Seo Gangrim, he's suspicious...!"