Chapter 177

After the large-scale takedown of the human trafficking ring, every eye in the world locked onto exactly one person — Chae Junhyeok.

But cruelly, the man himself hadn't so much as poked his nose outside the guild, using recuperation as his excuse.

Demand was through the roof, and supply was a flat zero.

With the guild moved in secret and not a soul knowing where it was based, the press was going out of its mind.

In the end, the reporters — a starving pack of hyenas by now — descended on the only remaining thread: the Awakened Management Bureau, where Bureau Chief Chae Ganghyeon sat.

From morning on, the front of the Bureau was chaos with reporters camping out.

Amid a downpour of flashes, sharp questions came flying.

"Give us a one-on-one with the Deputy Guild Master! Where on earth is he hiding?!"

"Is the rumor that the Deputy Guild Master is angling for the next Bureau Chief seat true?! Word is that's what's behind all this maneuvering!"

That was when one reporter pushed through the pack and shoved a microphone right up close.

"Truth is, Bureau Chief, you can't reach the Deputy Guild Master either right now, can you?! Be straight with us!"

For a split second, the genial smile on Chae Ganghyeon's face went cold and stiff.

But almost at once, as if nothing had happened, the corners of his eyes crinkled and a soft smile spread across his face.

"Ha, come now. Father and son by blood — how could we possibly be out of contact."

In that same unruffled voice, he let his eyes redden slightly.

"Our Junhyeok is under absolute rest, recovering from injuries he took in this last operation. A hero who saved civilians deserves his rest, does he not?"

As the murmuring among the reporters grew louder, he slid in the kill shot, smooth as an old fox.

"The Bureau will arrange a formal interview in due course — I'd ask that our friends in the press wait until then. That will be all."

Leaving that closing line behind, Chae Ganghyeon turned his back on the flood of questions and, escorted by his security detail, slipped calmly away.

Soon, the anchor's voice on screen took over.

"Interest in Deputy Guild Master Chae Junhyeok and Nest Guild is exploding overseas as well. Footage from the battle in particular is lighting up communities worldwide."

Right on cue, the broadcast cut to file footage — a massive ship, split cleanly in two, sinking.

Even through the grainy quality, the overwhelming destructive power came through.

"Experts, citing that overwhelming firepower, are unanimous that Nest Guild must have an extremely capable, high-rank Awakened in its ranks!"

The instant those words landed, every eye of the guild members gathered around the TV swung as one to a single spot.

Cha Yul, the man of the hour, made a show of looking elsewhere — but there wasn't a soul in the room who didn't know exactly who had split that ship in half.

"Even 'Julia Morgan,' the current world's number-one ranked hunter, has announced she'll be visiting Korea soon to push for a one-on-one meeting with Deputy Guild Master Chae Junhyeok—!"

Click!

Lee Jinwoo cut the power with the remote, and troubled faces reflected back at them off the dark screen.

Heavy sighs went up all around.

Not a single person in the room was happy about the Director getting famous.

The more the world's attention concentrated on him, the more enemies he'd rack up — and more than anything, they didn't want the Director's own attention pulled away from them and scattered outward.

"…You're blocking all this news from reaching the Director's ears, right?"

At Han Soeun's question, Lee Jinwoo nodded, firm.

"Of course. TV and radio, and the internet on top of that — every information channel is shut down tight."

"On top of that…"

Sea-ah whispered, more conspiratorially still.

"The fact that the Director's an Awakened, and that he's lost his sight — those absolutely cannot leak outside."

Under the heavy silence, everyone agreed.

The kidnapping threats already never let up; if his upgraded value and his weakness got out on top of that, he'd become a target for the entire world overnight.

"But there's one huge problem."

Lee Jinwoo let out a groaning sigh and knit his brow.

"For now, we're blocking visits under the pretense of recuperation, but Bureau Chief Chae Ganghyeon is hard to brush off. Feels like he'll come storming in any second."

The moment the name 'Chae Ganghyeon' came up, every child's face hardened, savage, in unison.

In the kids' heads, he was firmly branded as the awful man who'd threatened the Director at that last press conference.

"Abshoolutely not! If we let that grandpa near, our Direektuh will get shtressed!"

"Right, right! Don't let him come, ever!"

At the kids leaping up and railing away in one indignant chorus, Han Soeun clapped her hands sharply and pulled everyone's focus back.

"Everyone, calm down. First off, let's block him at our level as best we can. Number One, keep the iron wall up like you have been."

Every face nodded, solemn.

"Next item. How we get the Director's eyes fixed."

The moment those words dropped, the room went dead quiet, as if you could have heard a mouse.

The heat of last-stand defiance from a moment ago was nowhere to be found; a strangely composed silence settled in.

"But… do we actually have to get them fixed for him?"

Someone let it out in a whisper, like it had slipped free without permission.

"…"

Amazingly, not a soul in the room pushed back.

If anything, a thick flicker of shared sympathy crossed everyone's eyes.

The truth was, deep down, everyone was perfectly satisfied with the current situation.

With the Director unable to see, he couldn't casually run around outside and get hurt, and any impulse to work himself to the bone day and night was cut off at the source.

Unable to see a thing and quietly protected — wasn't right now, paradoxically, the very safest he'd ever been?

Best of all, they could stick to the Director's side and — perfectly legally (?) — have him all to themselves.

"Every day we feed him with a shpoonn…"

"And we take him to the bathroom by the hand, tight!"

"He's always getting hurt outside — isn't it actually safer this way?"

Faced with that miracle of a logical chain, even the adults — Han Soeun and Lee Jinwoo — were caught mid-dangerous internal debate, thinking actually, they've got a point… — when.

"Even so, we can't."

Sea-ah, the last person in the room clinging to reason, stepped in.

"He looks fine on the outside, but he lost his sight overnight — inside, imagine how frustrated and scared he must be."

"Nnh… but if he goes around he'll jusht get hurt again…"

Sea-ah gently patted the deflated kids and soothed them.

"I don't want the Director getting hurt either. But him being scared in the dark — I hate that even more, right? So — we fix his eyes first, and after that we just protect him way better than we did before. That's all."

Under Sea-ah's coaxing, the kids looked unmistakably reluctant, but nodded, faintly resigned.

After that, a fierce round of shift-schedule negotiations over who'd stay by the Director's side today, plus a few more small but confidential intel drops — his most comfortable clothing preferences and so on — and only then was today's agenda finally wrapped.

"All right! Everything on this week's agenda has been shared, so the general meeting is adjourned! Same time next week!"

At Han Soeun's declaration, the members of the ⟨CJPC⟩ nodded, solemn, and scattered in crisp formation.

I was rolling things over in my head while Number Three ran through his briefing — when it happened.

Thump-thump-thump-thump!

From the far end of the corridor, a racket of footsteps like a pack of wild animals barreling toward us.

Don't tell me — training's over already?!

"Hide all the paperwork! Fast!"

Kang Taemin snatched every document off the desk at lightning speed, and just as fast I threw myself onto the couch.

Then, clutching a teddy bear that had somehow materialized on hand from god knew when, I closed both eyes with the most serene face in the world.

"Director. Coming in."

"Come in."

The words were barely out when the door flew open and hard breathing spilled inside.

"Teacher Kim Sunja, Number One, and the twins."

At Number Three's dry announcement, I was just about to greet them when Lee Jinwoo's excited voice burst out first.

"Haah, haah! The hypothesis was right! Hajun's ability… it's an A-rank enhancer!"

Lee Jinwoo's voice was trembling with shock and joy.

"What? A-rank?!"

At the higher-than-expected classification, I couldn't hide my surprise, and Lee Jinwoo tore through his answer at rapid-fire pace.

"Yes! Precision testing confirmed it — through touch alone, he explosively pulls up another person's ability! Paired with any other top-tier Awakened, we're talking a level that can flip the whole tide of a fight in a single beat!"

An overpowered ability that could turn the tide of a battle!

At Hajun's ability exceeding all expectations, I inwardly cheered.

But the elation lasted only a moment — my heart cooled abruptly and an unsettling wrongness lifted its head.

Wait. If it's an ability that huge… why was there no mention of it in the original?

I dug through my memory of the original.

The twins, who'd go on later to serve as core combat power in Cha Yul's guild, had always stuck close together and had used a massive telekinetic force to sweep through enemy lines.

But…

Lightning-strike realization ripped through my head.

The original was strictly in Cha Yul's first person, as the protagonist.

What if the twins had, right to the end, kept even Cha Yul in the dark about their real abilities?

A story running strictly in the protagonist's POV had no way of narrating a secret the kids were keeping.

Insane…

My head reeled as if it had been hit with a blunt object.

The original… wasn't necessarily gospel after all.

A chilling awareness sank deep into my bones — that I couldn't blindly trust the original I'd taken for gospel.

While I was alone with my shock at the unexpected truth, Teacher Kim Sunja's stern bark yanked me back.

"To the training hall, right now. Let's put your ability and this little one's together and see how it plays out."

Steadied by Kang Taemin, I made my way to the newly expanded underground training hall.

[Director! We've been waiting for you!]

The instant I opened the door and stepped in, Number Two's voice rang out to greet me over the speaker.

[I sent the staff home! And I moved the guild members doing night training out too. Just focus on your training, Director.]

At that, I caught myself.

Right. It can't get out casually inside the guild, either, that I've lost my sight.

The Awakened world runs on absolute might-makes-right.

If the fact that the Deputy Guild Master had gone blind overnight spread, the guild's internal cohesion was bound to shake.

"Good work."

[Of course! All right — starting setup now!]

Soon Teacher Kim Sunja's weighty instruction came through.

"I'll be summoning virtual monsters. You hold that little one and try to pull the same sensation you had when you triggered the explosion on that ship."

"Got it."

At my answer, Hayun — clutching my hand tight — called out, worried:

"Direektuh! Be careful! Don't get hurt!"

Then, turning to her little brother Hajun, she pressed him in a deliberately stern voice.

"Hajun! Protect the Direektuh, ok?! Got it?!"

"Nn, got it…"

Tap-tap-tap-tap.

Hayun's and Kang Taemin's footsteps faded toward the control room.

In the center of the huge training hall, I carefully lifted Hajun — clinging tight to the leg of my pants — into my arms.

Beep—

Then Han Soeun's excited voice came through the speaker.

[Director, we'll set it to a D-rank monster first. Physical force is locked at 5%.]

"5%? Can I trigger the ability with that?"

At my doubtful comeback, Number Two and Hayun over the speaker rained down all-out opposition.

The two of them ran so wild worrying I'd get hurt that I had no choice but to nod.

Vwooong—!

Along with a mechanical hum, the wavelength of a virtual monster materializing rippled through the air.

Soon, a bizarre, wet slurping sound came from around my feet.

"Squelch? Squeeelch?"

[D-rank slime! All right, incoming attack!]

Han Soeun's briefing had barely finished when I felt something lunge at my feet.

I swallowed hard and worked to bring back the memory of that day.

The despair, the fear, and the sensation of that alien explosion pouring into me through Hajun, held tight in my arms!

But.

"Boing!"

…That was a hit?

Not an explosion — I couldn't even work up any tension.

"Number Two! This isn't going to work! Push the physical force up to 30%!"

[No way! At 30% that seriously hurts a non-Awakened adult man!]

Number Two nearly leapt through the speaker in protest, but I was firm.

"With a joke of a hit like that, I don't even feel like using my ability. Push it up. Now."

[He's right. You need to raise his combat spirit at least a little. Surely he's not going to die from it.]

With Teacher Kim Sunja backing me up too, the deep sigh came through, followed by the clack-clack of keys.

Vwoong—!

And the next moment.

Whack—!

"Ngh."

At the solid impact flying into my calf, a groan slipped out before I could stop it.

Definitely different from before.

Terrified Hajun might get hurt, I pulled him tighter into my chest and put every nerve I had into focusing.

Explosion… Explosion! Come on — burst!

Whack! Thump!

But no miracle happened.

Blow after blow kept landing on my thighs and ribs, dull.

Not hard enough to break bone, but at this rate my whole body would be a mass of dark bruises by morning.

[Stop! Ending the training! Director, brute force clearly isn't going to work!]

The presence of the slime vanished, and quiet settled back over the training hall.

"Haah…"

With no sight to begin with, I couldn't read the enemy's attacks, so focus itself was impossible.

With my field of view cut off, bewilderment came first, and I couldn't even get a handle on where to focus my power to make it burst.

If I could at least feel where my opponent is, focusing would be so much easier…

Just as I brushed sweat-damp bangs off my forehead and sighed inwardly — that was when.

"Benefactor, have you lost your sight?"