Chapter 70: Matching Test

“Team Leader Seon Jaeyul-nim…? I think you’re home, could we perhaps talk for a moment?”

Bang, bang.

The loud voice shouting while pounding on the front door could be faintly heard all the way in the living room.

The door must be expensive; it’s quite soundproof.

Looking through the security camera, I saw five or six people in suits had come to visit.

They had been guarding the entrance and trying to initiate a conversation for over an hour now.

“They’re persistent. Should I chase them all away?”

Jaeyul, too, seemed annoyed by their refusal to give up.

“Just leave them. It looks like they’re from various Centers. They probably think I’m unaffiliated and that you had trouble at the 2nd Center, so they’re trying to recruit us somehow.”

By tomorrow morning, even more people will likely flock here.

On the surface, the various Centers across the country seem to gather amicably under the large umbrella of the Special Abilities Support Agency, but in reality, their internal relations weren’t so great.

The regional centers felt discriminated against by the provinces, while the metropolitan areas felt they were being reverse-discriminated against.

They were all hell-bent on securing even one more skilled special ability user.

“Uh… hyung, look at this.”

It was when we had finished one bottle of wine and were starting on the second.

Jaeyul showed me his phone, which was playing a video.

[Breaking news. This afternoon at the Seoul Special Abilities Support Agency, two SS-rank special ability users were confirmed during an awakening examination….]

In the end, the story leaked.

It was inevitable, no matter how much they tried to keep it quiet.

There were countless people inside the examination facility, so it would have been impossible to shut everyone’s mouth.

This was something I had anticipated to some extent.

“…It’s complete chaos….”

“It would be. There are only a few S-ranks, so for not one, but two SS-ranks to be born at the same time, it’s impossible for there not to be chaos.”

It was like Korea’s sole weakness.

Despite investing enormous amounts of money into conducting awakening examinations, no SS-rank ability user had appeared.

This was while other nearby countries had at least one.

Whenever a large-scale gate that was difficult to handle on their own appeared, they were in a position where they had to pay astronomical fees to neighboring countries to borrow an SS-rank esper.

The media and the public, believing that such a time of humiliation was now over, must be incredibly excited.

“Should we turn in? We’ll be busy starting tomorrow, so it would be good to get plenty of rest.”

It was late, so I stood up to clear the table.

Jaeyul, who stood up with me, grabbed my shoulder tightly and opened his mouth.

“Hyung.”

What is this….

The look in his eyes as he suddenly spoke with such gravity was unusually serious.

“…Why…?”

A moment of silence.

Jaeyul stared intently into my eyes.

It probably wasn’t a long time in reality, but looking at his unusually playful-free face, the time felt long.

“Should we sleep together?”

“……”

…What did he say?

I was momentarily dazed, unable to properly understand the meaning of the words that came out of Jaeyul’s mouth.

“I feel like I’m going to have a nightmare today.”

Ah, that kind of sleep.

Smack!

The tension broke at the sudden, silly joke, and I slapped his forearm.

For a moment, I felt a surge of anger at my own pathetic, strange misunderstanding.

“Sleep with Poppy.”

I placed Poppy, who was fast asleep with his belly up after eating a ton of snacks, into Jaeyul’s arms and went into the bathroom.

I tried hard to act nonchalant, but my inner feelings weren’t the same.

…Why did my heart drop when I heard him ask to sleep together?

I must have… drunk too much.

***

“The Agency Head gave a very interesting interview. Did he say something like, ‘We will work with the two SS-rank agents to create a safer Republic of Korea’?”

I always thought Jaeyul’s living room was too big.

So vast that you could even walk Poppy in it.

But today, that space felt exceptionally small.

The reason was the crowd of people from the Support Agency and the Center filling the room.

Only after a full day had passed did we allow those who had been protesting outside the house to come in.

“Th-that was, well… he was just expressing his hope for it to be that way, so you don’t have to be too upset! Ha, haha….”

The person who just spoke was the Branch Director of the Seoul 1st Center.

He could be said to be the one competing with the 2nd Center for the position of the next Special Abilities Support Agency Head.

For reference, the person we met at the awakening examination site yesterday was the Branch Director of the Seoul 2nd Center, who was in the unfortunate position of always being overshadowed by this man.

In fact, this man does become the Agency Head.

Though that’s a few years in the future.

“What’s past is past. But I hope our faces never, ever appear in the media.”

This wasn’t me speaking.

It was a threat that came from Jaeyul’s mouth.

There was no need to become famous, as it only brought responsibility without authority.

The more public attention was focused on them, the easier it was for the Center to work special ability users to the bone.

All they had to do was leak to the media that some esper lacked patriotism and was uncooperative with their duties, and the angry public would rise up.

But most special ability users don’t know that.

It’s normal for someone with great talent at a young age to want to show it off somewhere, but he’s a strange kid.

Does he know something I only realized after dying once?

I should ask him later what he meant by that.

“Phew! You don’t have to worry about that! I will take responsibility and control the media, so for now, how about we discuss the terms with our Seoul 1st Center?”

“Wait a minute! Esper Seon Jaeyul is strictly a member of the Seoul 2nd Center! Where are you sticking your nose in, you!”

“You? I let you talk and now you have no sense of hierarchy! How old are you, punk!”

Hmm… why couldn’t I see the true nature of these trashy people back then?

I just thought they were amazing people sitting in high positions, but now I see they’re not much different from neighborhood thugs.

So undignified, tsk.

“You can do your fighting when you get back. For now… shall we at least hear the conditions?

Oh, and as you know, don’t forget that Agent Seon Jaeyul has completed his two-year service period at the 2nd Center and can move to another center.

And if he spits out the paltry penalty fee, resigning is also perfectly possible.”

Was it because I offered a hopeful word?

Greed filled the old men’s faces.

How delicious a prey must Jaeyul and I look in their eyes.

They would want us no matter what.

“Show me your sincerity, on that paper.”

I handed them the paper and pen I had prepared in advance.

I’m telling them to write it down.

How much money are you willing to spend?

Who would have imagined?

That I would be gathering the Branch Directors who hold sway over each city and bargaining with them.

This is a power trip made possible only because we are SS-rank.

“Hmm… you’ve colluded, haven’t you?”

Looking at the proposals they wrote, I couldn’t even laugh.

It was utterly ridiculous how they had all written similar maximum annual salaries.

This must have been an order from above.

To absolutely not cross a certain line.

As expected, at my question, the face of the employee from the Support Agency stiffened awkwardly.

“Jaeyul-ah, let’s pack our bags. Should we go to America?”

“No, hyung. Germany had slightly better conditions.”

Was that true?

Of course, it was a lie.

We hadn’t been contacted from anywhere.

They probably hadn’t released our personal information to the media to prevent contact from other countries’ intelligence agencies.

Still, since these people had no way of immediately verifying it, I decided to put on a bluff.

“I-I’m sorry! We are also a state institution, so we have a budget limit… you have to understand…!”

The Branch Director of the Seoul 2nd Center is a bit quicker on the uptake.

It seems to be thanks to his experience with us yesterday.

He was the first to confess and apologize.

This person is not someone who remains clearly in my memory, which means that at least in the past, he did not remain as a bad connection.

And anyway, as the world becomes more chaotic, the value of money is bound to fall.

No matter how much money one has, it will be meaningless.

As long as we have enough money to live without immediate worries, that’s sufficient.

“Haah… if you put it that way, I guess we have no choice. Since you’re speaking so sincerely… maybe joining the Center wouldn’t be so bad.”

“Then…!”

For a moment, the Branch Directors’ faces lit up.

“However, I’d like to propose a different condition.”

Of course, I’m not going to go to the Center as easily as they want.

I have to get as much as I can.

I subtly nudged Jaeyul in the side.

“…If there is anything I need from the gates I subjugate, I will take it.”

Murmur, murmur.

Their reaction was as if Jaeyul’s proposal had no meaning.

As it was, the byproducts from subjugated gates were already being handed over to private companies.

Whether it was monster meat or ore.

The fees earned from that were astronomical, but it was money they couldn’t get their hands on if they couldn’t subjugate the gates in the first place.

“Let’s do that. That’s fine.”

Foolish bastards.

What we actually want are not things like that.

All we need to get is Petra.

Soon enough, its use will be revealed, and they will regret this contract, beating the ground in frustration.

“We will not participate in media interviews or other events. Even if we belong to the Center, we do not want our identities to be exposed to the media.”

“Ah… that’s, a bit….”

It would be difficult for them.

They need to use us by exposing us to the media to raise their policies or prestige, but now that good opportunity is being blocked.

“No. We will report that to the higher-ups and try to accommodate it! This is the Busan Center, haha!”

They will find a way to solve it.

Even if it means changing their words after they have us in their grasp, for now, they have to follow our will.

“And finally… we will go to one Center.”

“Wait! Th-that’s not possible! For the only two SS-rank ability users in the country to go to the same place! That’s absolutely out of the question!”

Ah, as expected.

These greedy bastards want to split me and Jaeyul up somehow.

It’s going to take quite an effort to calm down these angry old men.

In that case, I can just pass that troublesome task on to someone else.

“We will go to the Seoul 2nd Center. Please take good care of us, Branch Director-nim.”

This person will take care of the rest.

I don’t know, and I don’t care.