Even with Enhanced Senses—
pinpointing Hyeon Chae-rin’s voice in this vast underground space would be difficult.
Well, perhaps the original ability could manage it.
But based on my experience using the borrowed version, it was impossible.
Then what should I do?
The answer was simple.
I just had to concentrate the amplification into one sense.
Was something like that even possible?
Surprisingly, yes.
When using Enhanced Senses, if I excluded senses I did not need—
such as smell or taste—
the remaining senses became even more powerful.
I had discovered that while experimenting with the ability before.
If I completely shut off sight, smell, touch, and taste and focused everything on hearing—
the result was agonizing enough to make me wish I were dead, but even a dolphin would have to admit defeat before my hearing.
“Whew…….”
I had already explained this to Baek Yulheon, who knew about my second ability.
Since he agreed that this was probably the only way to find Hyeon Chae-rin, he immediately accepted the plan.
Fortunately—
the two people with me possessed physical abilities far beyond mine.
Unless something unexpected happened, there was no way they would lose track of me.
While using Enhanced Senses, I would be unable to perceive anything except Hyeon Chae-rin’s voice.
I might suddenly run in any direction.
I might collide with someone.
For us, who wanted to leave this place without causing any trouble—
that would be fatal.
If anything dangerous happened, they would forcibly stop me.
That was the plan.
I had simply told my sister to follow me.
“I’m ready.”
Status Window.
The list of abilities I could borrow appeared.
“Borrow, Enhanced Senses.”
The instant I finished speaking—
an excruciating pain struck my ears as though someone were hammering nails into them.
“Urgh……!”
First came the EDM.
Then the cheering.
Crying.
Angry footsteps.
Different sounds invaded my ears one after another, as though someone were gradually turning up the volume.
The hardest part was the voices.
Dozens—
hundreds—
of voices whispered beside my ears.
Each one so precise that I could distinguish them individually.
I recalled my memories.
The time I had spoken directly with Hyeon Chae-rin.
Her distinctive voice remained clearly preserved in my memory.
Slightly cold.
Laced with strong curiosity and playfulness.
Yet still firm.
“……!”
Found her.
She was not very far away.
There were three people around her.
Two men.
One woman.
The sound of someone tapping a table.
The clicking of shoes.
I gathered those fragments of noise together and gradually gave them shape.
And before the vague form created from those sounds could scatter—
I started running.
‘Three hundred meters. Two hundred.’
Tap, bump.
Something brushed against my shoulders.
Probably people nearby.
I was not worried.
If anything happened, Baek Yulheon and my sister would stop me.
‘One hundred meters.’
Her voice was unmistakably closer now.
She should have been close enough to see with the naked eye.
‘Then why aren’t they stopping me?’
Was there an obstacle ahead?
Were there too many people for them to tell what was happening?
‘Should I stop?’
If I stopped now, I would lose Hyeon Chae-rin’s voice.
And if some obstacle forced us to make a large detour—
I would have no choice but to activate Enhanced Senses again.
“…….”
No.
That was impossible.
Using this ability twice in one day was absurd.
The hardest period came immediately after deactivating Enhanced Senses.
If I used it twice—
I might collapse on the spot.
Or worse, something could happen to my brain.
‘Once I turn it off, that’s it.’
Did Baek Yulheon lose me?
No.
That was impossible.
Unless something happened, there was no way he would lose track of me.
Which meant—
‘Something happened……?’
To my sister or Baek Yulheon.
Had something gone wrong?
“……Cancel.”
The ringing in my ears began fading.
It felt as though arrows piercing every part of my body were melting away one by one.
My mind gradually calmed like the surface of still water.
Slowly—
my vision returned.
“……Guild Master?”
No one was around me.
And then—
“Hyeon Chae-rin.”
I could clearly see her.
There was a famous rumor among Awakened.
A certain organization possessed a method of enhancing other people’s Awakening Abilities.
Low-floor Awakened laughed it off as nothing more than a rumor.
But eventually—
Some of them learned the truth.
It was no rumor.
The underworld.
The Black Market.
The organization appeared frequently throughout such places.
Their methods were trade secrets, and their prices were anything but cheap.
Yet there were enough Awakened who repeatedly used their services to form a line.
Why?
Because it worked.
“That concludes the explanation. Do you have any questions?”
“……Excuse me?”
Hyeon Chae-rin asked back with a dazed expression.
A man in a suit sat before her, smiling pleasantly.
“Questions. Though I suppose I explained everything thoroughly enough that there isn’t much left to ask.”
“Ah…… No.”
She could not stop her legs from trembling.
It had been some time since the surrounding music became drowned out by the pounding of her own heart.
She had missed most of what the man said as well.
‘Why…… am I here again?’
Her mind felt as though it had gone blank.
Fear.
Anxiety.
All kinds of emotions tangled together and tore at her thoughts.
Under normal circumstances—
she would never have even set foot somewhere like this.
Even though she knew how Awakened who relied on things like this ultimately ended up.
Hyeon Chae-rin suddenly recalled the past.
Why had she come here?
Right.
It had begun with a single invitation.
One day, a black envelope had been left outside her door.
There was no sender written on it.
Only a short sentence—
and an address.
She had known that ignoring it was obviously the correct choice.
[If you wish to climb higher, then surely you require the appropriate tools.]
At first—
it had been nothing more than curiosity.
She had simply wanted to see the face of whoever had sent something like that.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
When she arrived at the location—
she met the sender’s Contact.
The man already knew everything about her.
Her worries.
Her limits.
Her crisis.
And a way to overcome all three.
Even then—
it had still been curiosity.
There was no way something like that actually existed.
It was probably a scam.
She still possessed pride in her own abilities—
and believed that even if it was a trap, she would be capable of escaping.
Until she was shown this underground world.
Doubt crept in.
But little by little—
she found herself becoming fascinated.
She learned that it was not a scam.
Then she saw the proof with her own eyes.
With this—
She could climb again.
The Tower.
The rankings.
Both of them.
But—
‘That isn’t you.’
The things she had pursued until now.
Would she still climb the Tower even if all of them disappeared?
Her convictions held her back.
“……rin.”
“…….”
“Ms. Hyeon Chae-rin.”
“……Ah, yes?”
“You haven’t been paying attention for a while. Is something wrong?”
Damn it.
She had been lost in her memories for too long.
But now she remembered.
She had come here to become stronger.
And she had already made her decision.
She would discard those flimsy convictions—
and choose her future.
An Awakened’s value existed only in climbing the Tower.
An Awakened who could no longer climb was nothing more than an unusually strong ordinary person.
Worse—
an ordinary person burdened by countless restrictions, with even trivial parts of their life controlled by the Management Bureau.
“……There’s no problem. And I don’t have any questions.”
“Hehe. Excellent. Then shall we begin immediately?”
“Immediately……?”
“The thing I showed you last time.”
That.
A kind of demonstration they had performed to prove that this was not some scam.
She had made her decision after witnessing it.
“Now, prepare yourself.”
The man rummaged through his bag.
Clunk.
He pulled out a glass vial.
Inside it—
“Urgh…….”
SCRITCH, SCRITCH―.
Something alive crawled around inside the bottle.
Calling it an insect would not be accurate.
It was closer to a Monster from the Tower.
The body of a centipede.
Jaws shaped like a drill.
She was about to allow that thing into her body.
Just as she had seen before.
‘……I’m scared.’
For several minutes after it entered—
she would suffer excruciating pain.
The person she had watched during the demonstration had writhed so violently that they had nearly lost consciousness.
After some time passed and the pain subsided—
the Monster’s poison would spread throughout her body.
Paralysis of the limbs.
Hallucinations.
The effects of the poison would gradually emerge—
along with side effects.
And those side effects—
were precisely what she wanted.
She had not been told the exact mechanism.
But she had seen the results herself, so it did not matter.
An Awakening Ability several times stronger than before.
MP that showed no sign of running dry.
With those things—
she could definitely smash through the monster waiting on the 40th Floor.
“Now, give me your hand.”
“…….”
Click.
The cap came off the glass vial.
The revolting scratching sound became even clearer.
The creature crawling along the inside of the bottle slowly poked out its head.
“Easy now. Approach it slowly, as though you’re communicating with it.”
Still smiling—
the man grabbed her wrist and slowly guided her hand toward the vial.
The creature, which had only been peeking out before—
slowly raised its body as it sensed her presence.
It had no visible eyes.
No nose.
No ears.
Nothing that looked capable of perceiving its surroundings.
Yet as though driven purely by instinct—
it brought its cone-shaped jaws closer, seeking to drill them into human flesh.
“……Hup.”
Hyeon Chae-rin squeezed her eyes shut.
A brief moment of pain.
After that—
she could return to her old life.
Who could she blame?
In a world belonging to the Awakened—
the only person she could trust was herself.
She had merely made the choice necessary to survive.
And the responsibility for that choice was entirely hers.
She could not wait for someone to extend a helping hand.
“Now, a new horizon will open before you.”
With her eyes closed—
the man’s voice sounded sickeningly viscous.
She could not see him.
And yet—
she could easily imagine just how grotesquely the corners of his mouth must have twisted upward.
The hand gripping her wrist felt like an enormous boulder weighing her down.
‘It hurts…….’
Had she chosen wrong?
Regret rushed over her.
But it was already too late.
As though being sucked in by some enormous force—
the strength drained from her wrist.
The only person she could trust was herself.
And so—
inside her heart, she cried out.
I want to go back.
Her choice.
Her responsibility.
She could not ask anyone for help.
“Wait a moment.”
Tap.
‘……Huh?’
Her wrist suddenly became light.
The man had merely released his grip.
So why—
did this strangely unfamiliar voice—
feel so incredibly welcome?