The Savior Appears

“This is heavier than it looks.”

“Right? Farming must take quite a bit of strength. It doesn’t matter for us Awakened, but I honestly find it amazing how the elders in the village manage to farm so well.”

Oh Hyeonseong and Choi Jeongil chatted amicably as they lifted the boxes together.

They were in the middle of carrying the boxes filled with crop samples, one by one, to the roadside outside the barrier.

A research institute employee would soon come in person to pick up the goods.

Since the contents were extremely important, Choi Jeongil had insisted that they couldn’t be entrusted to a delivery service or anyone else.

“I’ll let you know as soon as we get any analysis results.”

“Yeah. Hopefully we’ll be able to find something useful.”

Oh Hyeonseong nodded.

The problem of tainted energy accumulating inside Hunters was research that Choi Jeongil had desperately devoted himself to for a long time, but Oh Hyeonseong was practically one of the people directly affected by it himself.

Although his physical condition had noticeably improved thanks to continuously consuming crops grown by the Spirits, he still hadn’t completely shaken off the aftereffects.

I used to have five rings of magical power. Now I’ve only managed to restore one.

He placed a hand over his lower abdomen for a moment.

Even the mere presence of Albern made him feel as though his current capacity was already completely filled.

That was proof of just how powerful Albern was, but it also meant that the amount of magical power his body could contain had shrunk drastically compared to his prime.

His old partners.

In order to summon the higher Spirits of each element again, he needed to raise his magical power back to its former level.

More precisely, he needed to restore his physical condition enough to release the seals on his magical power and reactivate all five rings.

I’m gradually getting better even now, but honestly, I’m still not satisfied with the current rate.

That was why Oh Hyeonseong wanted crops with even more powerful effects.

It was also why he’d recently been conducting several experiments on the crops.

He suspected that the tastier and higher-quality a crop was, the better it would be at neutralizing tainted energy.

If he could only figure out the method, he might be able to recover much faster than he was now.

If that happens, I’ll be able to see Priya again.

The first Spirit he’d ever contracted with, and the most powerful of the higher Spirits.

She was also the one who had shared his entire journey from beginning to end after he became a Hunter.

If he could somehow pull her back out of that pitch-black darkness, he was willing to endure whatever method was necessary.

Perhaps Choi Jeongil had been thinking along similar lines, because he spoke up.

“The fact that Albern has returned means… your other Spirits can all come back too, right, Senior?”

“Yeah. And that’s all the more reason why I need to completely get rid of these aftereffects.”

He nodded.

“Perhaps the Spirit crops might even restore your eye.”

Oh Hyeonseong looked at him as he said this.

Of course, comparing his own leg with Choi Jeongil’s eye was unreasonable.

Alleviating aftereffects and restoring a body part that had completely lost its function were matters on entirely different levels.

Choi Jeongil thought the same way.

“…I’m not expecting anything like that. I know better than anyone whether this is an injury that can actually be healed.”

For the past week, Choi Jeongil had been eating various dishes made with Spirit crops, including fish from the reservoir, but the condition of his left eye hadn’t changed at all.

But now that even a vanished Spirit, something he’d believed could never be summoned again, had returned…

Oh Hyeonseong no longer believed there was anything that was simply impossible.

“Anyway, why don’t you go inside first? I can hand the goods over myself.”

“What would I do inside an empty house anyway? I’ll wait with you and leave afterward.”

After moving all the boxes, Oh Hyeonseong plopped himself down.

The only thing that seemed to increase during his life as a farmer was his laid-back attitude.

That was why he tried not to become too impatient about the problem of his aftereffects either.

He had plenty of time anyway.

There was no need to feel as though he were being chased by something.

In the past, he would have searched the entire world himself if that was what it took to find the fastest possible solution.

But the Oh Hyeonseong of the past and the Oh Hyeonseong of today were different people in many ways.

DING!

At that moment, his phone rang.

Wondering what it was, he turned on the screen and saw a message from Joo Jihye.

The content, however, was brief yet incredibly perplexing.

“Help… me?”

What the hell is this?

The Disaster Management Bureau led by Han Suyeon was the organization responsible for overseeing and managing all Gates and Hunters within Korea.

It was also an organization that had inherited the Special Operations Unit, where Oh Hyeonseong had once served, as its predecessor.

Of course, officially, the Special Operations Unit had been a completely secret unit whose very existence was unknown to the outside world, and there had also been a separate organization called the Management Bureau even back then.

However, the Disaster Management Bureau only became the full-fledged, massive organization it was today after the unit was disbanded.

That said, the Disaster Management Bureau wasn’t the only successor to the Special Operations Unit.

The National Security Bureau.

It was an intelligence agency responsible for intelligence gathering, counterintelligence, national security, counterterrorism, overseas operations, and other such duties.

It had been one of the three special agencies newly established after the unit was disbanded, and in terms of actually inheriting the character and methods of the Special Operations Unit, it was arguably the closest successor.

Given the nature of its duties, it was an organization that inevitably had to set foot deep into the shadows.

Yet in a world like this, its presence was inevitably enormous, so it was frequently the subject of public gossip and media coverage.

The problem was that one of the responsibilities under its category of “national security management” included managing unstable Hunters.

Hunters suffering from Awakened psychosis, commonly known as “psychosis.”

“Psychosis? Does that still happen these days?”

“Of course. Just last month, a high-level Awakened went berserk in Incheon. Fortunately, we subdued him before he could cause an accident, so there were no casualties. I suppose you didn’t know because the incident wasn’t reported in the media.”

“Ah… The world really is a frightening place…”

Joo Jihye’s pupils trembled from side to side.

She knew well enough that the National Security Bureau was responsible for disposing of Awakened suffering from psychosis.

Officially, the Bureau always claimed that it did everything possible to treat those who went berserk, and that it had actually treated and returned more than half of the patients.

But no one was unaware that this was a lie.

Psychosis was a disease that could never be completely cured.

In reality, it meant that every single one of them had been disposed of.

“Have you ever experienced anything like your memory cutting out intermittently, being unable to control your emotions, or suffering from extreme anxiety?”

“M-Me? Why?”

“You suffered a serious injury in Busan last year. I was simply asking whether you might have developed any similar problems. It’s our job to identify people like that early and help them recover.”

“Uh… Haha! Of course not! I’m completely fine!”

Joo Jihye tightly gripped her trembling legs.

But there was no way to hide the beads of sweat running down her forehead, and becoming conscious of them only made things worse.

She had been performing as though possessed by a god on set, so why was she completely at a loss for what to do in front of Baek Jisu?

Calm down! All I have to do is keep my mouth shut.

After her injury, the fact that she was suffering from psychological aftereffects had been kept completely secret.

Of course, it would have been impossible for her alone to prevent the information from leaking, but Choi Jeongil himself had stepped in to handle it.

They minimized the number of people who knew about it, conducted her treatment exclusively at a medical facility owned by him, and made sure everyone involved kept their mouths shut.

It was thanks to that that not a single article had been published about it despite her fame.

Choi Jeongil was highly skilled at handling matters of this sort, and the influence possessed by the CEO of Aegis was considerable.

But for some reason, Baek Jisu was looking at her with eyes that seemed to see straight through everything.

“Perhaps it’s because I encounter so many people who lie in this line of work. Maybe that’s why I can tell when people are lying. It almost feels like they give off a distinct smell that they simply can’t hide.”

Baek Jisu stepped closer and whispered.

“Jihye, if you lie, we can’t help you either.”

All the color drained from Joo Jihye’s face.

I’m going to be disposed of…! I’m really going to be disposed of…!

Her mind had already descended into complete chaos.

But at that very moment, the front gate opened.

CREEEAK!

“What are you two doing there?”

Oh Hyeonseong appeared.

He stared at the two women sitting together on the porch with an utterly bewildered expression.

But to someone else, it was the arrival of a savior, as though a halo of light had appeared behind him.

Joo Jihye immediately sprang to her feet and ran over with tears welling up in her eyes before hiding directly behind Oh Hyeonseong.

“Ugh… Master… I almost died…”

“…I haven’t even done anything yet.”

Baek Jisu slowly rose from her seat.

Joo Jihye flinched behind him and tightly grabbed the back of his clothes, but Oh Hyeonseong didn’t make any particular gesture.

“Senior, long time no see.”

“Yeah. It really has been a long time.”

“More importantly, ‘Master’? Did you take on a new disciple while I was gone?”

“That’s irrelevant, so ignore it. More importantly, what brings you here all of a sudden?”

“I was watching the news, and you suddenly came to mind. So I thought I’d come see you. How have you been?”

Baek Jisu asked about his well-being with surprising warmth.

But precisely because of that, Oh Hyeonseong looked at her with even greater suspicion.

She wasn’t the sort of person who would come all the way here without a reason.

He had come because of Joo Jihye’s message, of course, but he had never expected to encounter this particular person.

“You know that girl is suffering from psychological aftereffects, right? They’re typical early symptoms of psychosis.”

“Yeah, I know. There’s no way I wouldn’t.”

“Then why are you keeping her around? It’s been about a year. She’s about due to break down soon.”

“B-But I’m cured now! I don’t have any of those symptoms at all!”

“Cured…”

Baek Jisu didn’t even feel the need to respond.

Once the early symptoms of psychosis began appearing in a Hunter, they didn’t stop.

Either they succumbed to themselves after entering a state of psychosis, or they died before that happened and left the track of life altogether.

There were only two possible endings.

If anything, someone reaching the stage where they denied reality enough to believe they were cured was considered to have a worse prognosis.

Yet, surprisingly, Oh Hyeonseong added his own words.

“She isn’t completely cured yet, but she’s right.”

“…She’s right?”

“She barely has any symptoms of the aftereffects now. And they aren’t getting worse anymore.”

“It’s a little surprising to hear that from you, Senior.”

Baek Jisu tilted her head.

But facts were facts.

“You might find it hard to believe, but it’s true. So take her off the disposal list.”

“Haha. Who uses an inhumane word like ‘disposal’ for people in this day and age? We simply handle the disposition of problematic Hunters.”

“What difference is there?”

“Don’t worry. You know that too, Senior. Besides, disposition only happens when there are signs that a problem is about to occur. And more importantly, I didn’t come here to threaten anyone.”

If her purpose had been to dispose of a Hunter, she wouldn’t have come here herself.

She could simply have sent agents from the National Security Bureau.

For someone as important as her to personally travel all the way to a place like this, there could only be one reason.

Oh Hyeonseong.

“I came because I need your help, Senior.”