Cha Yu-gyeong arrived at seven in the morning.
It was before anyone had started lining up. Team Leader Kim wasn't with her, and there was no car either. She wore a hoodie instead of her coat, which made the gold Hunter ID around her neck stand out even more.
"I'm first today, right?"
"You're first."
"I woke up at six just to make sure you kept that promise from yesterday."
I unfolded the chair in the parking lot and had her sit down.
"Before the inspection, I'd like to ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"You underwent three enhancement procedures. When exactly did you receive each one?"
"Once in the spring two years ago, once last spring, and once last autumn."
"Were they all performed on the same area?"
"My right arm. All three."
Cha Yu-gyeong's skill was [Black Wolf]. The Guild had been named after her skill. It belonged to a category of abilities that manifested Mana in the form of a beast and sent it forward to attack.
There were only three people in the country with skills of that type, and one of them was an A-rank Hunter.
"One last question."
"You certainly ask a lot."
"What did they tell you the procedures would do?"
Cha Yu-gyeong thought for a moment.
"They said they would improve my circuit efficiency. That they were refining what was already there."
"Refining it."
"That's what they told me."
I knew that expression.
It was written under Item Three of the report template.
'Improvement of Existing Circuit Efficiency.'
I'd written that phrase hundreds of times over seven years.
But under Item Four, something else was written.
'Transplant Source Specimen Number.'
＊
[Structure Inspection].
The colors drained away.
A structure appeared over Cha Yu-gyeong's right arm.
Its density was unlike anything I'd seen before. If the D-rank and C-rank structures I'd examined so far resembled a handful of pipes, this was an entire electrical distribution panel.
Three seconds.
The Activation Unit. The Circuit Unit. The Conversion Unit.
There were still three layers, just as there should have been.
But something was wrong with the Circuit Unit.
Its basic structure was familiar enough, with smaller branches extending from a thick central line.
Yet something had been added on top of it.
And it wasn't just one layer.
Four seconds.
There were three.
Another circuit had been laid over the original, then another over that, and a third over that.
The thickness of the lines differed from layer to layer.
That meant different hands had drawn them.
Five seconds.
Then I recognized the shape of the first added layer.
It was the way the branching points had been handled.
At every junction, the line looped once to the left before straightening out again. That reduced the amount of Mana turbulence when the flow divided.
It made no practical difference in actual use. It was simply a technique that made the blueprints look neater.
For seven years, I'd drawn them that way.
I'd always thought it was a habit of mine.
I opened my eyes.
My breathing was shallow.
The pressure wasn't against my temples this time. It was at the back of my head.
"What's wrong?"
Cha Yu-gyeong asked.
"……."
"Mr. Yoon Jae-ha."
"Three layers."
"What do you mean?"
"There are three additional circuits layered over the original circuit in your right arm. Exactly the same number as the procedures you underwent."
"So they added extra layers. Like reinforcement."
"It's not reinforcement."
I tried to choose my words, then stopped.
The more carefully I phrased it, the worse it would probably sound.
"They belong to someone else."
Cha Yu-gyeong stared at me.
"What does?"
"Those three layers. They weren't formed from your Mana, Ms. Cha Yu-gyeong. They're circuits taken from other people and attached to yours."
The parking lot was silent.
It was still early, and there weren't even any cars around.
"……What are you talking about?"
"That's what the Skill Enhancement Procedure actually does. It doesn't improve the structure you already have. It takes a functioning part from someone who already has a superior structure and transplants it into another person."
"Takes it?"
"Yes."
"From another person?"
"Yes."
Cha Yu-gyeong looked down at her right arm.
She rolled up the sleeve of her hoodie.
There was nothing there.
Her skin was simply skin.
"Do you have proof?"
"What you told me yesterday is the proof."
I repeated her exact words.
"You said it felt like you were borrowing someone else's hand."
Cha Yu-gyeong remained silent for a long time.
Then she asked,
"Can you remove them? Put everything back the way it was?"
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"There are two reasons."
I raised one finger.
"First, all I can do is show you where the components are. You have to move them using your own Mana. But your Mana doesn't recognize those three layers as belonging to you. Even if you try to push them, there's nothing for your Mana to grip."
"And the second reason?"
"If we remove them, your original circuit will come away with them."
I raised a second finger.
"You've been channeling Mana through those layers for three years. They've fused with your original circuit by now. If we forcibly separate them, I don't know whether you'd even retain your skill, much less your A-rank abilities."
Cha Yu-gyeong laughed.
It was the same sort of laugh she'd given when dismissing Team Leader Kim yesterday, but this time there was something hollow about it.
"So you're saying I……"
"Yes."
"I have to live the rest of my life with someone else's arm attached to me."
I didn't answer.
In my previous life, I'd only encountered conversations like this through paperwork.
'Patient reports a foreign-body sensation following the procedure. Symptoms assessed as psychological in origin. Counseling recommended.'
I hadn't been the one to write those words.
But I'd drawn the blueprints used as the basis for that assessment.
"There's one more thing I need to tell you."
"There's more?"
"You said the foreign sensation became worse last autumn."
"Yes."
"The third layer is the thickest."
As I spoke, I recalled the thickness of the lines in that layer.
"That means the person it was taken from was exceptionally proficient at using that part of their skill. Because it came from someone who used it so well, its performance is excellent. But the better it performs, the more strongly your body recognizes it as something that doesn't belong to you."
"……What about that person?"
Cha Yu-gyeong asked.
"What happened to the person you took it from?"
I didn't answer.
Item Four of the report didn't contain names.
Only specimen numbers.
And a few months later, those numbers would disappear from other records.
There were two ways they could disappear, but nobody had told me which one had happened.
No.
It wasn't that nobody had told me.
I'd never asked.
"Mr. Yoon Jae-ha."
"I don't know."
It wasn't an entirely honest answer.
But it wasn't a lie either.
"Let's report this to the Association."
Cha Yu-gyeong stood up.
"I'm A-rank. If I speak out, it'll make the news. I could arrange a press conference this afternoon."
"You can't."
"Why not?"
"Let me ask you a few questions."
I looked up at her from my chair.
"Do you know what percentage of the Association's total budget goes to the Skill Research Institute?"
"……No. Why would I know something like that?"
"Eighteen percent. Two hundred researchers and four regional branches across the country."
"What's your point?"
"Do you know how many enhancement procedures they performed last year?"
"……How would I know that?"
"The figures have never been made public. But I can estimate them from the length of the waiting list. A hundred procedures would bring in thirty billion won."
"That one institute has exclusive authority to collect skill data from Awakened Individuals. It's also the only place authorized to perform enhancement procedures. Anyone else who performs them is breaking the law."
Cha Yu-gyeong sat down again.
"So?"
"Who receives these procedures?"
"High-ranking Hunters."
"There are eleven A-rank Hunters in this country. How many of them do you think have undergone the procedures?"
Cha Yu-gyeong closed her mouth.
I waited.
"……I know of at least three."
"You've probably seen the Association's executive roster."
"Of course."
"Some of the people on that list have undergone the procedures too."
Our conversation stopped.
A street sweeper passed the entrance to the parking lot.
Neither of us spoke until the sound had faded into the distance.
"The people who would receive your complaint are the same people who've undergone the procedures."
I continued.
"If you hold a press conference, your contract will be terminated that evening. The next day, the Association will launch an investigation. But the subject won't be the research institute. It'll be you, Ms. Cha Yu-gyeong. You have a history of undergoing enhancement procedures, after all. All they'll have to do is classify you as someone reporting adverse effects, and that'll be the end of it."
"……."
"After that, your Guild will cut ties with you. Even if Black Wolf was named after you, it won't make a difference."
After a long silence, Cha Yu-gyeong asked,
"Then how do you know all this?"
It was the question I'd known would come.
I'd prepared a lie, but when the moment arrived, I couldn't bring myself to say it.
"I've seen those blueprints."
"Where?"
"I can't tell you."
"Mr. Yoon Jae-ha."
"If people find out what I can do……"
I pressed a hand against the pocket where I'd folded away the A4 notice.
"The person who'll want me most is the Director of that research institute. And he won't offer me a job."
"He'll take me."
"What's his name?"
"Han Do-gyeong."
It was the first time I'd spoken that name aloud since regressing.
My tongue still remembered those three syllables.
For seven years, I'd said that name several times a day.
Usually in a pleading tone.
"That's why we can't do this."
I continued.
"Part of the reason is that you'll suffer for it, Ms. Cha Yu-gyeong. But to be frank, I'm afraid. That's the bigger reason."
Cha Yu-gyeong looked at me.
This time, she wasn't assessing my value.
"……Why would an F-rank know someone like him?"
"You're better off not knowing."
Cha Yu-gyeong stood and took out her wallet.
"How much?"
"I'm not charging you."
"But you inspected my skill."
"I couldn't do anything for you."
"You told me what was wrong."
They were the same words Yoo Ji-su had said to me yesterday.
But they carried a different weight.
I'd told Yoo Ji-su that I didn't know how many years she had left.
I'd just told this woman that she'd have to live like this for the rest of her life.
"If you agree to three things, I'll consider that payment enough."
I spoke.
"First, don't undergo a fourth procedure. If they add another layer, there won't be any of your original circuit left."
"……."
"Second, start counting how many times you use your right arm each day. You probably don't even know how often you use it now. Once you start counting, you'll naturally begin using it less."
"And the third?"
"Don't tell anyone what you heard today. Not even Team Leader Kim."
Cha Yu-gyeong put her wallet away.
"Mr. Yoon Jae-ha."
"Yes?"
"Did you refuse me today, or did you protect me?"
I didn't know the answer.
"I refused you."
That was what I said.
"Because I can't win against them right now."
Cha Yu-gyeong nodded.
She didn't get angry.
Somehow, that troubled me even more.
"Then what happens when you can win?"
"You can come back then."
"How many years will that take?"
"I don't know."
"……That's your answer to everything, isn't it?"
Cha Yu-gyeong left the parking lot.
When she pulled up her hood, the gold Hunter ID disappeared from sight.
＊
I returned to my gosiwon room and opened my notebook.
On the second page was the line I'd written yesterday.
Two per day. A third is too much.
Beneath it, I wrote what I'd learned today.
Five seconds. Cha Yu-gyeong. Three layers. Back of the head.
My pen stopped.
Then I turned to the third page.
I wrote down the number from the first page again.
004.
My number.
The numbers were assigned according to the order in which people entered.
Cha Yu-gyeong had undergone her first procedure in the spring two years ago.
At the time, I was twenty years old and hadn't even awakened.
I'd never been anywhere near the research institute.
Yet the first additional layer inside her arm had been drawn using a technique I recognized.
That method of handling the branching points, which I'd thought was my own habit, hadn't originated with me.
I'd learned it.
I'd merely drawn the blueprints according to the templates the research institute had provided.
Above 004, I wrote three lines.
001.
002.
003.
For seven years, I'd believed I was the first source of raw material.
I was wrong.
I was the fourth.