Chapter 182

How much time had passed, I couldn't say.

"Direektuh! Direektuh, wake up!"

Small hands patting my cheeks jolted my eyes open.

The first thing that came into view was three little ones, eyes brimming with tears.

Behind them, an ashen-faced Number One, Kang Taemin with beads of sweat on his brow, and Dokgomin quietly watching me — one after the other.

"Director! Do you have any idea how startled we were when you suddenly vanished!"

"Direektuh, you okay? You not hurt?"

The frightened little voices were trembling.

"Ah — huh? I'm fine. Sorry I disappeared out of nowhere and worried you all—"

Just as I was trying to reassure them, Suho's eyes went huge as he peered into my face.

"Director! Your eyes — the focus is back!"

"You can see us?!"

At the kids' shocked cries, only then did I register the strange feeling I'd been having.

"Huh? I can see!"

My optic nerves, cooped up in the long dark, were drinking in light fit to burst.

A flood of color, crashing without warning into a pitch-dark world.

The colors of the kids' clothes, their round eyes, the whole lab around them — every last thing was piercingly vivid.

I was about to blink at this recovered sense — when.

"Ngh…!"

The clear vision smeared — like a watercolor caught in the rain.

"Director?!"

"Direektuh, what'sh wrong?!"

A horrific burning like red-hot skewers being driven into my eyeballs slammed down on me.

Every time I blinked, my vision either bleached to white or filled with weird static.

Visual input more than my brain could handle.

"This isn't going to work! Number Three, get the Director on your back!"

Along with Number One's urgent shout, my body was hoisted up.

Slung on Number Three's broad shoulders like luggage, I clutched at my searing eyes and just poured cold sweat.

Nobody said anything about it hurting like my eyeballs were about to pop out!

I clenched my teeth, cursing the robot who'd promised I'd see again — but the pain was so massive not even a groan would come out.

"Direektuh… hnngh!"

The kids' tearful voices and pounding footsteps rang out, loud.

Soon cool night air brushed my cheek, and I was hurriedly laid down in the back seat of the car outside the institute.

"Heading back right away."

The car took off, rough.

The kids on either side clung to my clothes and sniffled, and I bit down hard against the pain.

That was when it happened. A warm heat layered over the two hands I had pressed to my eyes, and a deep green light rippled.

And in that moment.

Huh?

The horrific burning that had felt like it was scorching my eyeballs slowly ebbed.

When I barely forced my trembling eyelids open, I saw Suho's face — both hands stretched toward me, pouring green energy into me.

"Director! Your eyes — how are they…? Are you okay?"

A voice desperate enough to break into tears any second.

I nodded, dazed.

"Yeah… I'm okay. Much better."

Only then did relief spread across Suho's chalk-white face.

As his expression eased and he pushed the ability harder, the twins — who'd been holding their breath beside him — jumped up cheering.

"Woohoo! Shuho-oppa fixed the Direektuh!"

Listening to the kids' rowdy cheering, I slowly blinked.

As the pain settled, my stalled thinking started back up.

At the same time, a strange sense of wrongness lifted its head.

Wait. Why is Suho's ability working on my eyes?

Suho's healing didn't work on 'mana damage' or 'curses.'

It hadn't taken on my ruined right arm at all.

But… maybe it helped with pain relief?

Come to think of it, when stress or a rough patch made the arm ache, I'd never once asked Suho to treat it.

Maybe Suho's ability, beyond simple wound repair, was also effective for overall recovery or calming the nerves?

I wondered if all healing abilities worked this way, but healing potions alone had no such function.

I'll need to run proper tests on Suho's ability again.

Either way, thanks to Suho, the horrific pain drilling into my eyes had eased considerably.

"Haah…"

I let out a sigh of relief and sagged into the seat.

Blind from stress, arm giving out from stress — I was made of glass, no question.

How on earth did I end up like this…

As I swallowed a bitter sigh at how feeble a body I'd ended up in, Lee Jinwoo — up front — asked, cautious.

"What on earth happened back there?"

I hesitated a moment.

Should I be straight-up about all of it — Chae Junhyeok's past, the robot in the basement, the mystery injection?

I shook my head inwardly.

This whole uproar was just over me collapsing briefly; if I laid it all out, I might spend the rest of my life locked up in the guild.

"Nothing much. My eyes… guess it was just time for them to come back."

I tried to brush it off, but no way that flimsy excuse would fly.

The little ones on either side pushed their lips out a mile, sulking, and the others stared at me with a look that said you expect us to buy that?

Unable to bear the suffocating stares any longer, I hurriedly changed the subject.

"Speaking of which, what happened with the Subject Zero-Zero folder?"

Lee Jinwoo's suspicious glare darkened in a flash.

"About that… I cracked the encryption and got in, but the folder was empty. Looks like someone already wiped every record of Subject Zero-Zero clean."

The records were gone?

A cold shiver crawled down my spine.

Maybe… Subject Zero-Zero was Chae Junhyeok in the past.

It defied common sense, but with young Chae Junhyeok's diary and the original's Chae Ganghyeon in mind, it was more than plausible.

"Haah… let's just head back for now."

Pressing my throbbing temples, I leaned my head against the window.

Once we arrived at the guild and I sent the kids in first, I called Dokgomin and Number Three into the Director's office separately.

"What happened in the basement — please keep it from everyone for the time being."

Dokgomin knit his brow and answered back, grave.

"Benefactor. I don't know the whole of it, but wouldn't it be better to share it with the others? However heavy the burden, when it's shouldered together, it grows lighter."

Upright advice, but I shook my head.

"The kids will worry. Once I've got the situation fully sorted in my head, I'll tell them then."

"Hmm…"

Dokgomin stroked his chin briefly and then nodded, weighty.

"If your will is set on it, benefactor, I'll keep my mouth shut tight. But do not try to carry it all alone."

Leaving that short admonition behind, he left the room, and soon only Kang Taemin and I remained.

"You too — don't breathe a word to anyone. That's an order."

A faint spark of resistance passed through his eyes, but under my firm stance, Kang Taemin soon nodded, silent.

"You got the diary?"

At my question, Kang Taemin pulled the worn, faded diary from his coat and held it out.

"Director. Also…"

"Yeah?"

"There was a photograph tucked inside the diary."

I took the photo he passed over along with the diary.

In the faded picture, a group of what looked like researchers stood together.

Just as I was leaning in to make out who they were —

Guh!

The moment I tried to focus on something, that sharp stabbing pain hit my eyes again.

I yanked my gaze away and pressed my brow. Checking it right now was out of the question.

I'll look at it later. Until then… absolutely no one else can find out.

I tucked the photo back inside the diary and shoved it deep into the safe behind my desk.

Click—

The heavy sound of the safe closing rang unusually cold.

"I want to rest alone for a bit. You go too."

Kang Taemin gave a short bow and left the room.

Perfect silence settled over the Director's office.

I sank into the plush sofa and pressed my throbbing temples.

All right — let's work through this one thing at a time.

First. Young Chae Junhyeok had lived in the basement of the Nest Research Institute as a child.

The only ones looking after him at the time were his mother — a researcher — and the robot, Myu.

Chae Ganghyeon, the institute Director and his father, had been neglecting his own son…

And… one more figure.

The person who screamed and cried.

The unknown figure recorded in the diary.

Going by the diary, that person had to have been an Awakened. And young Chae Junhyeok had comforted them well. Then the 'fun times' started…

As I turned the situation over again and again, a hypothesis flashed through my head.

Don't tell me… that person had gone into overload back then? And young Chae Junhyeok awakened while stopping it?

It felt like the gears were meshing.

Chae Ganghyeon, seeing his son had awakened, would have made him a test subject.

From May 20 in the diary through May 15 the following year — at least a full year.

Maybe he'd been used as a subject even longer after that.

At the end of the diary was rage about killing them all, but the Chae Ganghyeon of the present was still alive and breathing just fine.

Did that mean young Chae Junhyeok's revenge had ended in failure?

But why on earth did the current Chae Junhyeok end up as a non-Awakened? Was his ability stripped out somewhere in the middle of those horrific experiments? And why is mana showing up in him again now?

My head snarled up in a mess again.

"Haah…"

With every question dragging another behind it, it felt like my head might burst any second.

I slapped my cheeks with both hands hard enough to make noise, forcing myself back to focus.

Calmly — one thing at a time.

The first thing I had to figure out was why Chae Junhyeok's ability had been sealed.

Only by pinning down the cause could I find a way to break the seal completely.

Besides — the robot said if I don't keep using the ability, I'll go blind again.

The warning that using the ability would leave me hurting nagged at me, but there was no way I could be locked back inside that horrific darkness.

Before my sight went completely, I had to get the ability back and use it, one way or another.

I went back to the desk and pressed the intercom button.

A little while later, Teacher Kim Sunja — having gotten the call — came into the office.

"Teacher, does an Awakened ever lose their own ability? Or have it sealed?"

At my question, she seemed to fall into thought a moment, stroked her chin, and then slowly spoke.

"Losing an ability, huh… Well, dying, or having your mana bottom out completely, or…"

Trailing off, she suddenly clamped her mouth shut.

"What is it? Is there another case?"

"…No. A long time back, there was a nasty rumor going around. About a special kind of Awakened that steals other Awakeneds' abilities."

"Steals abilities?"

"Nothing to be shocked over. Just an urban legend making the rounds. Complete nonsense, really."

"Why is it nonsense?"

At my counter, Teacher Kim Sunja answered calmly.

"When two or more abilities settle into one body, the body can't take it and breaks down. So stealing is just suicide by another name."

"!"

Two abilities in one body means death…

Come to think of it, the original had featured countless power-users, but not once did a multi-ability user appear among them.

"About thirty years ago. The precursor to the Bureau tried to artificially create second-awakeneds — secretly researching whether one person could hold two abilities."

She clicked her tongue.

"Now we know that a second awakening isn't a matter of one body holding two abilities, but back then, we didn't. Endless human experimentation went on, and nine times out of ten, the participants in it died."

Goosebumps crawled up my skin. Secret research institute, ruthless human experimentation, attempts to strip or inject abilities.

Don't tell me Chae Junhyeok too—?

I started to shake my head, then stopped.

There was no way Chae Ganghyeon would specifically retry an experiment that had already ended in failure thirty years back on his own son.

Besides, if he had, Chae Junhyeok would already be dead.

If Chae Junhyeok has never died and never had his ability stolen… had his mana bottomed out completely at some point? And is it only now that it's slowly coming back?

For now, it was the most plausible hypothesis I had.

"Hmm… I see. Thank you for the valuable insight."

As I feigned composure, Teacher Kim Sunja asked.

"By the way — looks like your eyes are back to normal?"

"Ah, yes. I, uh, just sat still, and they came back on their own."

"Is that so? Well, let me have a look, then…"

A mysterious light gathered in her eyes, and her brow furrowed deep.

"Hmm… those black lumps have moved. What was covering your eyes has slipped off to both temples."

Cold sweat broke out at the sharp observation.

It had to be from the mystery injection Myu had given me.

"Ha ha… maybe it just shifted on its own, by pure luck?"

At my awkward laugh, she snorted.

"Not a chance. Well — if you don't want to say, I won't pry. It's your body — take care of it yourself."

"Ah, yes. Take care on your way."

Once she left, I slumped over the desk and tore at my hair.

"Ugh, my head hurts…"

The very moment my brain felt about to burst with unanswered questions —

Bzzzz—!

Slicing through the quiet, my device rang loud.

It was Number Two, Han Soeun — who'd gone to pick up the older kids sent into the Gate.

"Hey, Number Two. Did you meet up with the kids?"

[Yes! We linked up safely! Oh, no — that's not the point right now! Something huge just happened!]

Rough, urgent breathing came through the receiver.

"What is it?! Are the kids hurt?!"

[No! The kids are totally fine! It's — huff, gasp, phew—!]

The sound of her hyperventilating came through clear as day.

"What on earth is going on!"

[Th-th-that person showed up!!]

"That person? Who?"

Gulp.

The sound of her dry-swallowing came through, heavy.

A silence stretched taut, bowstring-tight.

And the next moment, Han Soeun's scream slammed into my eardrums.

[J-Julia Morgan just showed up!!!]