A test subject? Cha Eui-jae slightly furrowed his brow at the unfamiliar term. No matter how suspicious the plan might be, the very fact that they chose awakened individuals as test subjects was puzzling.
It was obvious that it was much harder to attract or forcibly kidnap an awakened individual compared to a regular person. This meant there had to be something obtainable only from awakened individuals to make them worth the trouble of being used as test subjects. But even so, it seemed like an excessively laborious experiment. What were they trying to gain by going to such lengths?
Lee Sa-young, observing Cha Eui-jae's pensive face, spoke in a casual tone.
"Do you know how people awaken?"
"Being chosen by the system, right?"
Cha Eui-jae recalled the day the system appeared. Some scenes bring back other senses along with them. It could be the sounds heard, the smells, or the tactile sensations felt at the time. For Cha Eui-jae, the Day of the Rift was a memory that encompassed all of these.
In the chaos where everything was breaking and collapsing, Cha Eui-jae was crouched in the ruins of a building, clutching the bodies of his parents. The acrid smell of gunpowder and the stench of blood mixed into a foul odor. The cold, lifeless bodies. The sound of a monster's footsteps echoing through the ruins.
Lee Sa-young nodded.
"That's right. So, what criteria does the system use to choose the awakened?"
As Lee Sa-young touched the glass with his finger, the black blood pooled and formed into shapes of a person and a monster. The black monster pounced on the small black person.
"The system,"
A square window appeared above the small black person's head.
"responds to a desperate wish."
'I want to live.'
'I don't want to die.'
The small black person also lunged at the monster without dodging. After a long struggle, the monster returned to black blood.
"When a human has a desperate wish, the system is drawn to that energy and finds the human."
"…"
"This is common knowledge. That's why people caught in the rift have a higher chance of awakening than regular people. Because praying not to die is also a form of a wish."
Cha Eui-jae silently watched the lone black figure. Lee Sa-young moved his finger, and the black person turned into a small puddle.
"But there are people dissatisfied with this fact."
Cha Eui-jae slowly raised his head to meet Lee Sa-young's gaze.
"Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Currently, the system is an absolute, omnipotent entity. Most people live by accepting this, but those who feel the system's selection is unfair would think differently. Perhaps they believe humans should be able to awaken their abilities on their own.
Reading the increasingly serious expression on Cha Eui-jae's face, Lee Sa-young propped his chin up and asked,
"Do you think it's possible that said-people are the same group as the drug dealers?"
"Well, think more about it."
Lee Sa-young spoke with a hint of playful mischief in his voice.
"Do you think I told you all this just to ask that?"
For a moment, Cha Eui-jae contemplated grabbing the nearby table and teaching this guy some manners, but he restrained himself given the situation. Lee Sa-young, despite his questioning, didn't seem impatient, allowing Cha Eui-jae to delve deeper into thought.
"You mentioned dissatisfaction with the system's choice."
If, as he suspected, there were unknown individuals who wanted humans to awaken their abilities independently and were selling drugs to achieve this, and if they were using the drugs as bait to gather awakened individuals as test subjects…
"They're doing all this to create artificial awakened beings?"
"Correct."
This time, Lee Sa-young answered straightforwardly. Cha Eui-jae felt his skin prickling as if his hair was standing on end.
Creating awakened beings not subject to the system's whims, solely through human effort. It seemed like a plausible claim on the surface, but Cha Eui-jae had a gut feeling that there was a darker motive behind it.
And it was drugs. Drugs that, when addicted, explosively increased aggression, caused loss of reason, and ultimately led to death with human dignity desecrated. The purpose of those feeding such drugs to the awakened for experimentation couldn't be normal.
"Assuming they create artificial awakened beings, what then?"
What would they do with these awakened individuals? When Cha Eui-jae asked this while crossing his arms, Lee Sa-young shrugged.
"I don't remember well. Something about preventing the apocalypse, I think."
"The apocalypse?"
"I didn't listen to their nonsense in detail."
The term 'apocalypse' brought back memories of people claiming the end was near right after the Day of the Rift. But that was already 11 years ago. In this era, where people could predict when and where a gate would open, were there still such people left?
It seemed Lee Sa-young wasn't lying about not listening carefully, as he looked uninterested.
"Anyway, there's nothing to ask of you right now."
Lee Sa-young put the forlorn dagger and the empty holy water bottle into his inventory. He then stood up, fiddling with his clothes as if he were about to leave.
"Let's first take care of the Awakened registration. I'll send someone over to you tomorrow."
"Alright. Oh, and one more thing."
Raising an eyebrow as if to ask what else, Cha Eui-jae pointed to the blackened table.
"Take care of the table before you go."
"…"
He couldn't very well seat customers at a table that had been melted by poison. Lee Sa-young's purple eyes looked at Cha Eui-jae as if to ask, "Are you serious?" but Cha Eui-jae stubbornly pointed at the table, wearing an expression that said, "What's taking you so long?"
They say beautiful people leave behind beautiful spaces, but with Lee Sa-young's temperament being anything but beautiful, he should at least live up to his handsome face. In the end, Lee Sa-young grudgingly put the damaged table into his inventory before leaving.
Even after Lee Sa-young left, the hangover soup restaurant bustled with customers having their early morning meals before heading to work. Among them was Bae Won-woo.
Yawning loudly as he arrived at his second job, the hangover soup restaurant, Bae Won-woo blinked for a moment, standing by the entrance. The place seemed emptier than usual.
"Huh? Isn't there one less table?"
"Oh? You're right."
Another Hunter, passing by, glanced around and nodded in agreement, noting Bae Won-woo's sharp observation.
"No wonder it looks a bit empty. Hey, where did the table that was here go?"
"…"
'They only have sharp eyes for these things. If only they were like this all the time.'
Hunters were usually slow on the uptake when needed but had sharp eyes for trivial matters. Cha Eui-jae, looking wistfully at the empty center of the restaurant, replied,
"The table legs seemed about to break… so I put it away for now."
Working at a hangover soup restaurant honed one's skill at lying. But the Hunters saw Cha Eui-jae's wistful face and sensed there was more to the story. As they began to speculate, one Hunter cautiously asked,
"Did some bastard Hunter break the table?"
Yes, the former ranking No. 1 did. Though Cha Eui-jae didn't answer, his melancholic face was as good as an affirmation. Enraged, the Hunter almost slammed the table but quickly diverted his hand to his thigh, not wanting to stoop to the level of the suspected table-breaking bastard.
"Damn it, that's why Hunter abuse is a societal problem."
"Who did it? Do they know how fragile our hangover soup tables are?"
"We're already short on tables!"
"Just give us the initials, and we'll take care of it."
A barrage of criticism rained down on whoever had dared to mess with their beloved hangover soup restaurant. The last remark came from Bae Won-woo.
'How could you handle Lee Sa-young?'
Instead of retaliating, Lee Sa-young would likely strip Bae Won-woo down to his bones. Cha Eui-jae's sorrow deepened. While Bae Won-woo's gallant attempt to cheer him up was appreciated, it only made things worse. Especially today, having coughed up blood earlier, Cha Eui-jae's complexion was paler, and his sadness was doubled.
The Hunters, noticing this, began to comfort Cha Eui-jae.
"Don't be sad, part-timer."
"We'll ask our guild artisan to make a damn sturdy table."
"Let's replace all the tables and chairs while we're at it. We'll pool the money."
Their concern for the restaurant was touching. Or perhaps it was fear of fiercer seat competition. Cha Eui-jae smiled and declined their generous offers.
"Haha… it's not necessary."