One week later, the new employee training finally ended.
Within the curriculum, the mental education hours were frankly tedious. The hours spent learning the Shinseong Group's history were of little help to Han-eol either. Frankly, Han-eol found it hard to understand why he had to memorize the life story of the Shinseong Group's founder by rote.
But a good number of meaningful lectures were included as well.
<Curriculum>
- The types and characteristics of supernatural abilities identified to date.
- Analysis of the weaknesses of Highland demon beasts.
- Special lectures on survival methods for each Highland environment.
- Methods of using weapons fitted with mana stones.
'Quite useful.'
Han-eol looked at the paper with the curriculum printed on it and assessed it positively.
Of course, he had received similar training during his intern days as well.
But the lectures aimed at full-time employees were of a completely different quality, so Han-eol pricked up his ears and did not miss a single word or a single fragment of a hint that flowed from the lecturer's mouth.
Not only Han-eol but the other recruits also concentrated intensely on the training.
Once the new employee training ended, field assignment began immediately.
First, the leader of the Raid Support Team came into the Complex Center's great auditorium and picked out the new team members to her taste.
The leader of the Raid Support Team was a slender beauty who looked to be in her late thirties, and she introduced herself as Lee Ji-yeon.
She checked over the 311 new employees meticulously and then made her selections centered on employees who had awakened healing-related abilities.
There existed a small number who concealed their abilities like Han-eol, but most of the new employees went around blabbing about what ability they had awakened as if boasting.
Healing ability-holders in particular had a strong tendency toward this.
'It seems like it would be less dangerous if I got into the Raid Support Team. Tch! If I had awakened a healing ability too, I would not have bothered hiding it.'
Han-eol pushed out his lower lip in a sulk.
Following the Raid Support Team, the leader of the Resource Exploration Team appeared in the great auditorium.
This team's leader was a man in his fifties with a shaggy beard.
His name was Lee Jun-u.
"This cohort is no good at all."
He scanned the new employee roster with an indifferent gaze, grumbled loud enough for people to hear, and then selected a mere six.
Mainly those with long-range detection-category abilities were caught in Lee Jun-u's radar net.
Several more selection processes were repeated after that. As a result, exactly two hundred new employees remained in the great auditorium before lunch.
Han-eol was included among these two hundred.
A short while later,
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Along with the weighty sound of shoes, a middle-aged man of sturdy build came up onto the great auditorium's platform.
He had grown his curly hair to a moderate length and tied it into a ponytail, and he was one-eyed, wearing a black patch over one eye.
The one-eyed middle-aged man did not appear alone. When he mounted the platform, five more people appeared behind him and lined up like a folding screen.
***
The one-eyed man opened his mouth in a husky, low-pitched voice.
"I am Lee Seong-u, Shinseong's Pioneer Corps Commander."
This single sentence was enough. The name Pioneer Corps Commander Lee Seong-u was so famous that there was not a single new employee who did not know it.
"That man is the Pioneer Corps Commander?"
"Whoa. This is my first time seeing him."
The new employees buzzed.
But when Lee Seong-u knit his brows, the hall suddenly fell silent.
Having silenced the assembly with nothing more than a simple change of expression, Lee Seong-u pointed over his shoulder with his thumb and introduced the five lined up like a folding screen.
"The people behind me are the Assault Corps Leaders of our Pioneer Corps. From here on, you will be assigned to the 1st through 5th Assault Corps of our Pioneer Corps."
Lee Seong-u did not speak at length.
When the two hundred were lined up in a single row on the basis of employee number, the first forty from the front were all assigned to the 1st Assault Corps.
The next forty were all assigned to the 2nd Assault Corps.
And the next after that were assigned to the 3rd Assault Corps......
It went like that.
Han-eol's employee number was on the early side, so he was assigned to the 1st Assault Corps.
"Discuss the remaining details with your respective Assault Corps Leaders."
With these words as his last, Lee Seong-u left.
Well, it would be stranger for a big shot like Lee Seong-u to trade words at length with new employees.
In the Shinseong Group, the Pioneer Corps Commander is at the level of a division head, that is, a company president.
Furthermore, the Assault Corps Leaders of the 1st through 5th Assault Corps under the Pioneer Corps Commander also held far more formidable authority than other team leaders.
That was because the Pioneer Corps took exclusive charge of the core work of pioneering the Highland and subjugating demon beasts.
'So I am completely done for. It means I have been assigned to the most dangerous place with the lowest survival rate. Haaah.'
Han-eol dragged a hand down his face where no one could see.
But he could hardly show his displeasure at his first face-to-face meeting with the 1st Assault Corps Leader, his direct superior. Han-eol quickly smoothed out his expression and looked at the 1st Assault Corps Leader with bright, eager eyes.
On another front, Han-eol's thoughts had fixed on one important point.
Inside the soul of Raid Support Team Leader Lee Ji-yeon a moment ago, there had been a 'medicine bottle' stamped with a + mark.
This medicine bottle was precisely Lee Ji-yeon's Image.
However, the medicine bottle's form was not very distinct, and its color was faint as well.
Next, the Image inside Resource Exploration Team Leader Lee Jun-u's soul was a 'nose.'
'A nose? Could it be that his sense of smell is enormously developed?'
Han-eol stared at Lee Jun-u on the platform and tried out this conjecture.
He could not know precisely, but the nose that was Team Leader Lee Jun-u's Image had a more distinct form than Team Leader Lee Ji-yeon's medicine bottle. Color had been laid over it as well, if only slightly.
Compared with these, Pioneer Corps Commander Lee Seong-u's Image was markedly different.
A ball of cotton bright enough to dazzle the eyes.
This was precisely Lee Seong-u's Image.
'That is no simple ball of cotton. Every single strand of that cotton holds the energy of lightning.'
The ball of cotton Han-eol discovered inside Lee Seong-u's soul gave the feeling not of just any cotton bunched together, but of tens of thousands of strands of hair holding the energy of lightning condensed tightly into one mass.
In fact, around that ball of cotton, charges flew about, CRACK! CRACKLE!
Furthermore, that ball of cotton was shining brilliantly in a golden light.
The shape of the eyeball embedded in the ball of cotton was distinct as well.
'A ball of cotton with one eye attached. This is just like a spirit of lightning.'
Han-eol suddenly had this thought.
Among all the ability-holders Han-eol had met up to now, the figure with the most intense Image was the Head of Human Resources Lee Jae-in.
Lee Jae-in had a single light-scattering blade concealed inside his soul.
Lee Jae-in's Image even gave off a far deeper color and a more intense presence than the Images of Raid Support Team Leader Lee Ji-yeon or Resource Exploration Team Leader Lee Jun-u, who were said to frequent the Highland.
'And yet even that formidable Head of Human Resources cannot compare with the Pioneer Corps Commander's Image.'
Han-eol marveled.
'Then what about the 1st Assault Corps Leader, I wonder?'
Han-eol concentrated his mind on the 1st Assault Corps Leader, who stood before him with his hands clasped arrogantly behind his back, delivering an admonition to the forty fledglings.
Presently the 1st Assault Corps Leader's Image came into Han-eol's field of vision.
'Oh. The 1st Assault Corps Leader's soul is packed with a shield.'
And not just any shield. It was a shield for both offense and defense, with saw teeth sprouting sharply along the rim.
'But what is this?'
The line of Han-eol's mouth stiffened slightly.
It was because the instant the 1st Assault Corps Leader came into contact with the new employees, his soul turned thoroughly achromatic.
'The 1st Assault Corps Leader has no intention whatsoever of exchanging feelings with us. He regards us as nothing but tools, thoroughly.'
Was it because of having lived as an orphan on Old Earth?
Han-eol was affable and personable on the outside, but in truth his insides were drier and more self-serving than one might think.
The 1st Assault Corps Leader as reflected in the eyes of such a Han-eol was a person not to be approached. Just as the 1st Assault Corps Leader regarded the new employees as tools, Han-eol closed the door of his heart to the man as well.
The two were mismatched from the very first button.
The bus carrying Han-eol passed along Gangbyeonbuk-ro and crossed Seongsu Bridge. A sign reading [1st Assault Corps] hung on the bus' front windshield.
Han-eol could not take his eyes off the scenery of the Han River spread out through the bus window.
"Whoa, it's the Han River."
"This is my first time seeing the Han River in such detail."
Thirty-nine fellow recruits with heads shaved bald like Han-eol's swarmed and clung to the windows. All of them were from Old Earth, so they had never properly seen the Han River.
In fact, when Han-eol and his fellow recruits had first awakened their abilities, they had taken a subway from Mapo and submerged beneath the Han River.
However, at the time they had traveled only underground by subway, so no one had been able to appreciate the scenery of the Han River. So all of them were thoroughly excited at the sight of the river.
"What country bumpkins."
From the frontmost seat of the bus, the 1st Assault Corps Leader snorted.
"......"
The recruits, feeling needlessly awkward, planted their backsides in their seats and turned their gazes to the front.
'Hah.'
Han-eol felt a needless flare of resentment. The reason Han-eol went on staring pointedly out the window as if to make a show of it was that he was displeased.
In the meantime, the bus passed Dosan Park and turned into the Gangnam Station area.
The 1st Assault Corps' dedicated building was erected right near this Gangnam Station.
In fact, not only the 1st Assault Corps but all the other Assault Corps had built their nests at Gangnam Station.
It was a fact Han-eol came to learn later, but ability-holders who went in and out of the Highland and waged bloody battles with demon beasts were always full of serious stress, so they needed a place to vent it appropriately.
So the Shinseong Group had placed the 1st through 5th Assault Corps in Gangnam, the center of nightlife.
This was the same in other cities.
Mid-Land Tokyo's Pioneer Corps in Shinjuku and Ginza.
Mid-Land New York's Pioneer Corps in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Mid-Land Paris' Pioneer Corps on Rue Oberkampf in the north of the 11th arrondissement.
This was the standard.
"We are here. Everyone gather your things and get off."
"Yes, Assault Corps Leader."
The moment the 1st Assault Corps Leader's words fell, Han-eol and his fellow recruits answered and then took up their backpacks and got off the bus.
Before their eyes spread a fifty-story building, its exterior wrapped in green glass walls, engraved with the name [Shinseong Group Pioneer Corps 1st Assault Corps].
From today, this was the place where Han-eol and his fellow recruits would eat, sleep, and work.
***
"Who would want to lodge at the company? When work hours end, of course you should clock out on the dot. But you lot have to eat and sleep here. You downy little chicks of ours. Heh heh heh."
The 1st Assault Corps senior in charge of the dormitory orientation teased the forty new employees as chicks while assigning them rooms.
From what he said, the only ones lodging in the 1st Assault Corps building were the Rookies.
Six who joined in 2054.
Nineteen who joined in 2055.
And the forty assigned as new employees of the 1st Assault Corps this year, 2056.
These were precisely the 1st Assault Corps' Rookies.
While Han-eol and his fellow recruits lined up in the dormitory corridor on the third basement floor of the building and waited for room assignments, the senior's explanation continued.
"Rooms are assigned one per person. Do not concern yourselves at all with trivial matters like cleaning, laundry, or the supply of bathroom goods. The company handles all that for you. Craving a late-night snack at night? Then just tap your terminal. Every food item displayed on the terminal menu will be provided free as room service."
"Whoaaa."
At the service no less than a five-star hotel's, the new employees' expressions brightened.
The senior showed his teeth in a grin.
"In exchange, all you lot have to do is focus solely on training. That is the only way you will survive as long as possible and shed your chick down. Heh heh heh."
"......"
The new employees' faces, which had gone slack and giddy, hardened again.
The senior bared his teeth all the wider and pointed a finger upward.
"You saw it a moment ago so you know, but this is the third basement floor. And the floor above this one is being used by the seniors one year ahead of you. If you happen to run into them in the elevator, greet them properly."
"We will bear it in mind."
The new employees answered with discipline snapped tight.
The senior snickered.
"Well, you will not have occasion to run into them all that often. They are all busy training and going in and out of the Highland. And the first basement floor, one story above that, is in use by the recruits of '54, your seniors by two years. Their death rate has shot up lately so their nerves are on edge; be careful."
"Un, understood."
At the word that the death rate was high, the new employees' faces paled all the more.
Accordingly, the smile hanging on the senior's mouth deepened as well.