Chapter 102. New Employee, Lee Eun-Ho (2)
It was just like the award ceremony where Eun-Ho was rewarded with the Almighty Observer’s Eye. He remembered how a balloon-like screen floated in the sky, showing his face across the whole of Yongsan District.
And here I thought THAT was excessive. Turns out they were being modest at the time.
No one had imagined they’d dim the very sun just to present him with an award. Darkness swept in without warning. The cries of startled people echoed through the void.
“W–what? Did it just become night?!”
“I can’t see anything!”
Then, a blinding spotlight cut through the darkness. Like a stage play, it erased the audience to illuminate the lone star and the towering platform. A glowing path stretched from his feet all the way to the podium.
“Hah... So it really was you, Young Man!” the security guard gruffly murmured.
“But isn’t it strange? They said he was first out of a hundred thousand people, yet it doesn’t feel surprising at all,” Ye-Ji remarked doubtfully.
“Even if it were a million, it would’ve still been him. Who else could’ve taken first place?” said the Swear-Master.
“Hyungnim! We’re proud of you!” said Jae-Hyuk warmly.
Their voices carried pride as he left them behind and walked toward the podium.
Thump. Thump.
Had the crowd been waiting for him to turn around? The moment he did, the murmurs surged louder.
“That guy is Lee Eun-Ho? No way, that’s impossible!”
“O–Oppa! He doesn’t look intimidating at all! No wonder he seemed different when he used the sword earlier...”
“What? Are you defending him now?”
Eun-Ho sighed wearily. The stares on the back of his head stung like needles, almost numbing.
“So you stole all my points and still lost to that guy?”
“When did I ever steal from you? Watch your mouth!”
“But you did!”
As the quarrel swelled, one man clenched his teeth and growled. “Can’t you people keep it down?”
“Come with me. We need to talk.” With that, Myung Seung-Tae vanished.
The whispers that followed only deepened the tension.
“So that’s the guy?”
“Then what kind of ability does he have?”
Never before had Eun-Ho faced the gaze of so many at once. He had never cared much for other people’s eyes, but there were hundreds of thousands of them this time!
[Subject Lee Eun-Ho, please proceed quickly!]
Countless stares clung to each of his steps, as if sinking his feet into the turf with their weight. Still, he’d once run even with legs like heavy logs. This much weight wouldn’t stop him.
[Subject Lee Eun-Ho, please proceed quickly!]
“I’m going,” Eun-Ho said.
He walked on, the lone protagonist beneath the flood of light in the center of darkness. After cutting across the field, his feet finally touched the red carpet leading up to the podium. It was so plush, stretching upward like a staircase into the sky. Eun-Ho had to crane his neck just to glimpse the top of the stage.
As he walked along this carpet laid out for him alone, the crowd’s voices pierced his ears.
“Aaah! Is that the strongest one?!” squealed a girl with a playful charm.
“He’s so handsome!” another cried.
Others also whispered among themselves.
“Wow, that Asian guy’s impressive...”
“Right? Don’t you think so?”
“Is he a student? He looks so young, but still incredible.”
Their admiration, low and rich like background chorus, carried him up the steps.
Clack!
At the top, a massive man awaited him. Behind that figure, rows of others sat in strict formation, like teachers lined behind a principal giving a speech at an assembly.
The only difference was that each of these “teachers” bore terrifying weapons across their laps.
Clack! Shhk! Clang!
It seemed like there were at least a hundred of them. Among that sea of faces, he recognized more than a few.
“Huh?”
He recognized Administrator Harona. Her familiar twin braids were neatly tied as she sat among the officials. Somehow, just seeing her there put Eun-Ho a little at ease. Perhaps the fact they had bargained and spoken a few times made her feel somewhat familiar.
[For this ceremony, the award will be presented by the Director of the Management Bureau!]
[Aren’t you all surprised? It’s my first time seeing this as well!]
[This is a historic moment!]
Following Sarah’s exaggerated commentary, Eun-Ho stepped before the massive man.
So this is the Director...
The man’s sheer bulk cast a shadow that seemed to blot out the sun. For an instant, it felt as though the very air had grown colder. The Director wore a straining suit, his black hair slicked neatly back. A scar cutting across his face lent him the look of a battle-worn general.
Scarlet armor would suit him better than that suit.
Just as he was thinking, before he even realized it, his breath caught and his head dropped low. He hadn’t meant to bow. He simply folded in half, as if crushed. All the man did was look at him. Yet the pressure bore down, seeping into his lungs.
Was it shock at the sheer size of him? Or the weight of that statue-like presence?
It felt as though invisible hands pressed down on the back of his head. Then, somehow, it was as if there was a voice echoing in his mind.
Bow and kneel. Don’t you dare look at me.
The weight of his very existence forced submission.
My body... It won’t listen to me!
Driven by stubborn resistance, Eun-Ho finally managed to raise his chin and meet the man’s eyes. Their gazes locked.
Beast-like eyes, filled with the darkness of the deep earth, stared back. A coarse darkness poured out, flooding toward him. It pierced through his corneas, searing into his whole body. A primal terror welled up, as though he were staring into a bottomless void.
His throat grew parched, splitting from dryness. He felt entirely drained of moisture.
“Guuk!” he choked.
In that suffocating moment, thrashing with fingers and toes for escape, his eyes darted toward the twin-braided girl.
Harona!
Their gazes met, but Harona turned away as if she hadn’t seen him.
That little brat!
As absurd as it sounded, heat rose in him, and he glared at her for just a heartbeat.
In that instant, messages burst forth like floodgates breaking open.
[Your new perks of Resurrection have been activated.]
[You have conquered the fear of death. You are now resistant to most mental domination.]
[Your purified energy blocks the invasion of sinister auras.]
[Remaining duration: 8 hours.]
Suddenly, air filled his lungs again.
Eun-Ho sucked in breath after breath. “Haaah...”
Above him, a heavy rumble vibrated the air.
“Hmmm.”
The Director’s voice rolled out, weighty as a sunken island.
“Subject Lee Eun-Ho.” The voice was both deeper than the earth and lofty as the heavens. “The one who continues to defy my expectations.”
“Yes,” Eun-Ho answered simply.
“You always pass my trials and yet you never truly pass them.”
“What trials have I passed, and which have I failed?” he asked.
The man offered no answer. “I admit your excellence, but even if the order does not please you, abide by it. Do so, and I will shield you from every storm.”
“Umm...”
“One thing, though.”
An order that does not please me? He probably means the rules of the company. The system’s so-called righteous path, the very thing I’ve defied at every crucial turn.
“The path walked alone will have no breakwater.”
Eun-Ho lowered his head out of his own volition. He knew that he was going to walk his own path, no matter what came.
“Take this. This is for you.”
***
[Next, we will proceed with the New Employee Representative Award Ceremony!]
With Sarah’s proclamation, the award ceremony began. Among the assembled administrators, tension rippled like static in the air.
“What now, Harona. Don’t tell me you’re expecting something?”
“Shut up.”
Being chosen as the representative meant far more than just a title. If a recruit under one’s charge took first place, that achievement became the administrator’s merit as well. Hence why most administrators selected promising seedlings early on and poured their resources into them.
“I’m just saying why waste investment on a rock you picked off the road? There are plenty of proven gems lying around.”
“Would you mind your own business?”
“You’re too sentimental, Harona. Like you’re living in a flower field or something.”
“Do you want me to turn your head into a flowerbed? Then keep talking.”
Ju Gwang, that scrawny bastard, never missed a chance to dig at her. Promising recruits rarely appeared out of nowhere. They were usually people who had stood out before restructuring began. Typically, administrators would choose historical figures or well-known achievers from their own world.
“So why did you pick someone from the average tier? That was such a foolish move.”
“Haaa...”
“Well, I suppose it’s tough pulling talent from a zone with only fifty million. I get it.”
Ju Gwang had claimed the CN district with its staggering 1.4 billion population, the richest pool of candidates on Earth. While Harona sifted through a mere fifty million, Ju Gwang had the luxury of picking from over a billion. The gap was overwhelming.
“How is it you still haven’t produced a single first-place recruit?”
That was how it always went. Ju Gwang’s smug tone grated on her nerves every time.
“Stop being stubborn and come under me. I’ll need a deputy once I’m promoted.”
“Shut it. This time is different.”
Harona was certain because her selection had scored high in every area, including the Aptitude Assessment and Character Evaluation. He wasn’t lacking in anything.
Well, there had been an issue during the Physical Examination, but the Center had intervened for some reason, and it passed without consequence.
[First, let me emphasize that the new employee representative was chosen with complete fairness. They were selected from the subjects who passed the Entrance Exam of sector 13 with the highest score!]
[The one called should immediately come up to the stage!]
“Fair and square, of course. Let’s all accept the result, shall we?” Ju Gwang said to Harona.
[The representative of sector 13’s new employees is...]
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Harona’s heart pounded against her ribs.
[Congratulations!]
[Eun-Ho from the ROK-SEO District!]
[Please come forward!]
The moment Sarah declared the name, fortunes split.
“Kyaaah!” Harona shrieked.
“H-how! How is that possible?!” Ju Gwang shouted.
Harona burst into a grin so wide her eyes and nose and mouth all crinkled together. Ju Gwang’s face, on the other hand, hardened like stone.
He raised his voice, unable to accept the result more than anyone else. “What trickery is this?! How did you pull that off?!”
Just then, a heavy hand clapped down on his shoulder. “You’re too noisy.”
Crack!
His bone crunched.
Ju Gwang howled, but no sound escaped. The thick hand pressing into his shoulder trapped the cry in his throat, a prison of silence.
“C-Chief!” Harona gasped, trembling.
The one casting that massive shadow was none other than Guk Ryang, the Chief of Administration Bureau. Though pushed from power in recent years, he had once ruled the Bureau itself. He wasn’t someone whose temper could be trifled with, as any further commotion could prove dangerous.
Ju-Gwang finally bowed his head. “M-my apologies.”
However, when Harona looked back toward the stage, a horrifying sight awaited.
“W-what?! Why is the Director doing that?!”
The Director’s killing intent—an invisible force known as the Unseen Hand—was bearing down on Eun-Ho alone.
It was a catastrophe. She thought something was definitely going wrong.
Harona sprang to her feet and cried out, “No human body can endure that kind of pressure! We must stop him!”
“Just watch.”
Following the Chief’s steady gaze, she saw Eun-Ho, choking, spitting breath like blood. “Guuk!”
H-he withstood it?! Harona thought.
Thud!
Harona collapsed back into her seat. She’d just seen the impossible. The Director’s Unseen Hand was an overwhelming ability, utterly irresistible to anyone beneath his level. Even she could scarcely endure it.
Could it be that he got stronger than me? Harona thought.
It was something unthinkable, beyond even the edges of thought. Yet she found it conceivable. The impact was just that great. The moment Harona felt her strength draining from her body, her eyes met Eun-Ho’s.
Even under that crushing weight, he still had the presence of mind to glance toward the audience. With that look in his eyes, Harona flinched. Flustered, she lost her words and instinctively averted her gaze.
At once, a thick hand rested lightly on her small shoulder. “Steady yourself”
“M-my apologies! I showed you a shameful sight,” Harona whispered, biting her lower lip as she regained her composure.
In response, the Bureau Chief shook his head, wearing an expression of understanding. Yet even he, who had remained unshaken until now, faltered when he saw the Director had handed over in that box. His jaw dropped open.
The other administrators reacted the same.
“That is!”
“No way!”
“That’s impossible!”
“W-why would the Director do that?!”
Inside the antique case lay a snow globe. However, instead of snow, it held a silent desert within.
“That’s the Sand Swamp!”
It was the artifact that summoned the Director’s unique ability, his dreaded Sand Hell. Whether it was single-use or multi-use couldn’t be told, but the meaning was clear enough.
“I can’t believe the Director is sharing his own power...!”
For centuries, no one had seen such a thing. To hold one’s authority in an artifact was rare enough, but to bestow it upon another was unthinkable. It was a privilege beyond privilege, proof of the Director’s extraordinary expectations.
Yet Eun-Ho seemed so indifferent.
“What’s up with that blank, unshaken face!”
“Is he serious?”
Harona pounded her chest in frustration, seething at his lack of reaction. “Ugh, that boy...”
Meanwhile, beside her, the Chief studied the unruffled Eun-Ho with gleaming eyes. Then, without another word, he rose from his seat.
“Where are you going, Chief?”
“I’m going to step out for a moment.”
“But, sir, the ceremony isn’t over yet...”
The aide hurried after him, but received no reply.
“Where’s he off to?”
“I don’t know.”
All they could do was watch the brilliance in the Chief’s eyes and his hurried stride, which was uncharacteristic of his usual weight.
Their guess? He was off to find himself some amusement.