Han-eol was soothing his stomach with fresh vegetables and button mushroom soup when one of the colleagues from his hiring class pulled out the chair across from him and sat down.
‘?’
With one cheek bulging with food, Han-eol looked at the other man.
The fellow new hire tugged up one corner of his mouth.
“You're Han-eol, right?”
“…….”
Han-eol only nodded, without a word.
As he did, he examined the man's soul first.
‘No hostility toward me, and not much jealousy either. Just a slight bit of goodwill.’
Indeed, an extremely faint pastel tone drifted across the new hire's soul as he faced Han-eol.
“You know Jeong Min-jun, right?”
Han-eol nodded once.
Jeong Min-jun stood out by far among the class that had just been made permanent employees. He had the leadership to guide his peers, and a glimpse of charisma about him.
Above all, Jeong Min-jun's swordsmanship was outstanding, and it had earned him praise from the instructors since his intern days.
Han-eol's selection as Outstanding Intern had dimmed Jeong Min-jun's brilliance slightly, but unlike Han-eol, who lived like a loner among their class, Jeong Min-jun was always surrounded by a crowd.
After the internship ended and they became permanent employees, Jeong Min-jun was assigned to the 1st Assault Corps along with Han-eol.
‘Even so, I have never exchanged a single word with Jeong Min-jun…….’
Han-eol found the situation slightly uncomfortable.
The new hire across from him lifted his chin a little and spoke in a commanding tone.
“Min-jun says the 1st Assault Corps class should get together. We're thinking of hitting a club tonight, so you're joining too, Han-eol.”
“A club?”
Han-eol blinked once.
The fellow grinned.
“You don't know clubs? Clubs. They say there's a really prime spot at the intersection up ahead.”
Excited at the mere thought, the new hire bounced his shoulders to a beat.
Han-eol snorted a laugh.
‘If I beg off, it'll turn into a hassle, won't it?’
Han-eol had run into situations like this often, going back to his orphanage days.
Jeong Min-jun = the bully boss.
The fellow new hire = the flunky who follows the bully boss.
That was the parallel Han-eol drew in his head.
What happened if the bully boss told his flunky, “Go call Han-eol over,” and Han-eol did not go?
First, the flunky nursed a grudge against Han-eol.
And once that flunky whispered something to the bully boss, the boss came to resent Han-eol too.
Han-eol had seen this story unfold many times.
‘Haa~. For now, let's go along with it just this once.’
Han-eol hid his sigh inside and gave a positive answer.
“All right. What time and where should I go?”
“Oh. Good. Come out to the lobby by nine, after dinner. Everyone's meeting there and heading out together.”
Having accomplished his purpose, the new hire vanished elsewhere without even waiting to hear Han-eol's reply.
“Hoo.”
Han-eol scratched the side of his head lightly with his index fingernail.
A long line of people waiting to get in stretched outside the club at the Gangnam intersection.
Young women in racy outfits and men swaying their bodies here and there wore expressions of impatience to get into the club.
This place was certainly different from Old Earth. If Old Earth had a gloomy, dangerous atmosphere, this was bright, lively, and alluring.
Just then, the new recruits of Shinseong Group's 1st Assault Corps came swarming up.
At the very center of the recruits stood Jeong Min-jun, tall and striking.
The rest of their class followed behind him with swaggering expressions.
They ignored the line stretching nearly a hundred meters and walked straight into the club.
In Mid-Land Seoul, an ability-holder was both a power holder and a sports star.
Sports like soccer, baseball, and basketball had collapsed long ago.
Games had lost their popularity too.
That was because footage of ability-holders in action in the Highland was far more thrilling than any sport or game.
So when an ability-holder showed up at a place like a club, entry was possible immediately, without waiting in line.
As Jeong Min-jun descended the red-carpeted stairs to the basement, eardrum-splitting music poured out.
‘Too loud.’
Han-eol narrowed his eyes slightly at the back of the group.
Meanwhile, Jeong Min-jun led their class toward a room on the first floor.
While a few with club experience ordered drinks, Jeong Min-jun jerked his chin at Han-eol.
“Me?”
“Yeah. You. Follow me a moment.”
Over the past year Han-eol's height had grown to 173 centimeters, barely reaching the neighborhood of average, while Jeong Min-jun was a good 16 centimeters taller.
When a man like that spoke while looking down at him from above, an air of intimidation arose all on its own.
“Where to?”
Han-eol asked back while examining the other man's soul.
Like the new hire he had met at the buffet restaurant that morning, Jeong Min-jun had not yet condensed an Image within his soul.
‘A soul that powerless would come right out with a single tap from the fingers of my Image.’
Han-eol swallowed the chilling thought and kept it to himself.
Unaware that he had nearly died and lived, Jeong Min-jun went on arrogantly jerking his chin.
“Come with me to a room on the second floor.”
“The second floor?”
“Yeah. Senior Kim Hyu-in of our corps is holding his birthday party up there tonight. So we've got to go and pay our respects.”
Senior Kim Hyu-in.
Han-eol had heard the name as well.
Kim Hyu-in was a permanent employee of the 1st Assault Corps who had awakened an ability of the flame line, and he was currently building up fairly high results in the Eighth Continent pioneer grounds of the Highland.
When Jeong Min-jun announced that he was taking only Han-eol to greet Kim Hyu-in, a change came over the souls of their class. Not all of them, but a few of those souls were stained a pale purple.
The emotion that purple signified was jealousy.
‘Haa.’
Han-eol swallowed his sigh and fell into step with Jeong Min-jun.
Compared to the unbearably noisy first floor, the club's second floor was far calmer. The interior was far more luxurious as well.
Jeong Min-jun straightened his collar in front of the largest room there.
‘Cute,’
Seeing Jeong Min-jun so tightly strung made Han-eol want to laugh.
Presently Jeong Min-jun and Han-eol knocked and entered the room.
Young men and women were mingled inside, and it was not a pleasant scene to look at. At a table on one side of the room, people who had drunk themselves senseless lay sprawled about, while on the other side a drunken man had pressed himself close to a heavily made-up woman and was making a pass at her.
Jeong Min-jun approached the red-haired young man sitting at the center with his legs crossed and bent into a ninety-degree bow.
“Esteemed Senior Kim Hyu-in, this is Jeong Min-jun, the greenest of the new recruits. I have brought my classmate Han-eol, as you instructed.”
‘Hm?’
Han-eol's eyes opened slightly.
‘What? So this is why they called me out to the club? Because Senior Kim Hyu-in ordered them to bring me?’
While Han-eol blinked, the red-haired Kim Hyu-in uncrossed his legs, rose, and extended a hand to him.
“Ohh. So you're Han-eol. I heard the Assault Corps Leader and the Deputy Assault Corps Leader praising you, and it's good to see your face in person.”
Jeong Min-jun's gaze snapped to Han-eol at once.
‘Damn.’
Han-eol saw Jeong Min-jun's soul burning purple and clicked his tongue bitterly.
Then he examined Kim Hyu-in's soul as well.
‘I knew it. Ahhh.’
Kim Hyu-in's soul, as he faced Han-eol, was a color mixed from half a spoonful of the pastel tone of mild curiosity and nine and a half spoonfuls of the purple of jealousy.
‘This is getting more and more annoying.’
Han-eol was uncomfortable with the situation, but he hid his true feelings with practiced ease, bent at a right angle from the waist, and reached out with both hands to take Kim Hyu-in's hand respectfully.
“Senior, it is an honor. I am Han-eol, a new employee of the 1st Assault Corps.”
The voice of a thoroughly disciplined new recruit came out of Han-eol's mouth.
“Hahaha. Why so tense? Relax. Relax.”
Kim Hyu-in put on a show of magnanimity.
With Han-eol groveling of his own accord, the jealousy Kim Hyu-in had aimed at him softened considerably.
Han-eol confirmed as much through the shift in the colors the man's soul gave off.
GLUG, GLUG, GLUG~.
Kim Hyu-in seated Han-eol beside him, then poured liquor until the glass overflowed.
Even to Han-eol, who knew nothing about alcohol, it looked terribly expensive.
Han-eol accepted the straight glass with both hands and tossed it back in one gulp.
“Kuh—.”
Bitterness surged up.
His throat burned as though a ball of fire had been shoved down it.
‘Why on earth do people drink this stuff?’
Han-eol could not understand why people drank at all.
“The greenhorn drinks well. Now take a glass from me too.”
This time a senior seated beside Kim Hyu-in poured Han-eol a drink.
“Yes, Senior.”
Han-eol felt like death, but he endured it and accepted the drink.
It was only thanks to a Vitality of 24 that he could keep downing the strong liquor in one shot and hold out. Before his awakening, Han-eol would already have been drunk out of his senses.
Even in the middle of it, Han-eol watched his surroundings closely.
Kim Hyu-in's jealousy toward Han-eol had died down considerably.
The other seniors were either indifferent to Han-eol or showed only mild curiosity.
Jeong Min-jun's soul, on the other hand, had turned a deep purple before he knew it.
‘At that shade, it's hard to settle through conversation…….’
A slight irritation rose in Han-eol.
In his experience, purple that deep was bound to turn dark red before long.
A dark red soul meant the person had come to bear hostility toward Han-eol.
‘Should I watch for an opening and get rid of him?’
Han-eol was a self-preservation-first man. If anyone tried to threaten his body and put it in danger, Han-eol never simply stood by and watched.
Back at the orphanage, too, the kids who had borne hostility toward Han-eol were beaten half to death by bully bosses whose eyes rolled over at Han-eol's whispering.
But now Han-eol himself was the one with power.
Even as he readily drank down the liquor the seniors poured one after another, Han-eol did not take his eyes off Jeong Min-jun for a moment.
It was right then.
The door of the room flew open with a BANG.
“Who is it?”
A senior who had been gulping down a drink beside the door shot to his feet.
But that senior sat back down faster than he had risen.
A pure white hand had seized his face and pressed it down.
Astonishingly, the owner of that hand was a tall woman standing over 180 centimeters.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Would you look at this. You lot really party like a pack of dogs. I will give you exactly five minutes. Clean this room up and get out within it.”
The tall woman surveyed the disorderly room with narrowed eyes and jerked her chin arrogantly.
At that, Jeong Min-jun, who had been crouching in a corner of the room, sprang up and shouted.
“Oh, shit. Who the hell are you, wench, to bitch at us about whether we clear out this room? Do you even know who the people here are? This place is booked tonight for the birthday party of Senior Kim Hyu-in, the prodigy of Shinseong Group's 1st Assault Corps.”
Jeong Min-jun seemed to think this was his chance to make an impression on Kim Hyu-in.
“Wench? Ha.”
The tall woman snorted.
Before that laugh had even ended, she vanished from where she stood, appeared right in front of Jeong Min-jun, seized his throat with one hand, and hoisted him into the air.
Her speed was such that no one present had properly seen the tall woman move.
And her strength was such that Jeong Min-jun's 189-centimeter body shot upward like a straw and slammed crown-first into the ceiling of the room.