Free Web Novel* * *
“Damn it!”
The moment the live broadcast ended, Hwang Yeongcheol exploded in # Nоvеlight # rage and hurled an expensive whiskey bottle. Crash! The bottle shattered with a deafening noise, glass shards flying in every direction. On the desk, where the brightest shard landed, lay a gleaming golden nameplate.
[Minister of the National Rift and Homeland Security Department, Hwang Yeongcheol]
Kim Jongseok, who had been standing stiffly like a punished child watching the broadcast beside him, flinched.
“You bastard! You’re supposed to be Commissioner at the very least, so you should have found out what they were plotting! Or stopped that damn announcement! At the very least, you should’ve made sure even that low-tier Awakener got tied to the government! You’re sitting in that seat thanks to me, so earn your keep, you bastard!”
Another smash, another expensive object shattered into pieces. Yet Kim Jongseok couldn’t say a word, only bowing his head. Truth be told, if not for being cousins, he could never have climbed this far.
Once a temporary offshoot of the Disease Control Agency before gaining independence, the National Rift and Homeland Security Department now wielded the most powerful authority in the government. They not only commanded their own military on the grounds of suppressing contaminated Awakeners and protecting citizens from monsters, but also operated the Special Suppression Division, an Awakener unit directly under the Rift Management Agency. Using this as an excuse, they drew massive budgets.
Through backroom deals and compromises, Hwang Yeongcheol had seized the minister’s seat of this department—and he carried a grand ambition. He wanted to bind every Awakener in Korea under his agency, forging once more a military as mighty as in the past.
But the greatest obstacle in his path was the Sunrise Guild. Exaggerated as it might have been, its high-tier Awakener had been elevated to “national hero.” Every time they babbled about protecting Awakener rights, it tied his hands. So, he coaxed one of the guild executives, Go Jaewon.
‘Tell me, how long will you be satisfied as a nameless member? Lee Hyunmook, fine, he’s a high-tier Awakener, you can’t help that. But someone like Lee Chanha—you should be able to push him aside and secure the deputy leader’s seat. Imagine it, deputy leader of the world’s top guild.’
It hadn’t taken much persuasion before Go Jaewon agreed. They even provided a rare hallucination-type Awakener. The result? The complete disappearance of Lee Hyunmook and the rest of the Sunrise team. At first, it was baffling, but on reflection—not entirely bad.
After all, was Lee Hyunmook the only high-tier Awakener in Korea? No, there was also Jung Siyoung, far more cooperative. As long as Jung Siyoung stayed tied to the Rift Management Agency, the Minister’s own life was safe. He even felt glad he had purchased land near the Agency.
Still, the absence of Lee Hyunmook and the Sunrise team was devastating. Hwang Yeongcheol shifted the blame onto lazy Awakeners slacking about. Whenever a monster appeared that even Jung Siyoung couldn’t handle alone, he spent huge sums to hire foreign mercenaries. Thus he enjoyed three enviable, blissful years—until, shockingly, Lee Hyunmook and the Sunrise team returned from the Abyss!
To Hwang Yeongcheol, this was no welcome news. Even with a press embargo, some reporter ignored it and exposed everything. He couldn’t bury the secret.
Now, with all the nation aware of their return, he desperately searched for proof that the returnees were contaminated and needed to be quarantined. Surely those who had crawled back from the Abyss were infected.
But no—time and again, the returned Awakeners’ bodies proved astonishingly clean and normal. Even more shocking, they had brought back a method to treat contamination.
A way to cure contamination! Hwang Yeongcheol burned with desire to extract it. Yet Lee Hyunmook and the others never opened their mouths, and the low-tier Awakener who had returned with them was just a vacant-faced novice—useless.
‘You must see what times we live in! Countless people are suffering from contamination! I understand you struggled in the Abyss. If you want compensation, ask. For the sake of the nation, I’ll give anything.’
Recalling how in the past invoking national interest and public safety made Lee Hyunmook obey without complaint, Hwang Yeongcheol begged. But this time Lee Hyunmook only smiled faintly, staring at him with pitch-black eyes that chilled him to the core. The Minister felt as if he were facing a monster in human skin, breaking out in a cold sweat. He dismissed it as wounded pride before a young man’s arrogance, forcing down his fear.
‘Anything, you say? Then... promise to hand over the Minister’s seat to Captain Jung Siyoung. If Minister is too much, then give her the Commissioner’s position.’
At that, Hwang Yeongcheol clamped his mouth shut. Hand over the National Rift and Homeland Security Department to Jung Siyoung?! Impossible! The thought of that Awakener, that upstart commoner who lucked into power, sitting in the seat he had clawed his way up to—it made his blood pressure spike. The Commissioner’s seat was no better.
‘Just as I thought.’
Seeing his silence, Lee Hyunmook’s lips curved upward as if he had expected it all along. But his eyes—his eyes were abyssal black, endless.
‘You don’t even know your wrongs. You feel no remorse. There are so many like you... And you’ll keep repeating the same deeds, won’t you?’
Though his lips never moved, a voice reached Hwang Yeongcheol. Was it a trick of his eyes? His ears? Startled, he widened his eyes, but Lee Hyunmook only walked away without reply. Only after some time passed did Hwang Yeongcheol recover his senses. He forced himself to believe the terror had been mere wounded pride. Then came the anger.
Worse, if Lee Hyunmook publicized their “negotiation,” it would only backfire on him. Public opinion favored Lee Hyunmook and Jung Siyoung overwhelmingly.
“Lee Hyunmook, you arrogant bastard...”
Grinding his teeth, he heard Kim Jongseok timidly stammer,
“S-sorry. I tried to stop the press conference, but it had already spread to every outlet...”
“You call that an excuse?!”
His incompetent cousin’s excuse only enraged him more. Today’s press conference had been filled with disastrous announcements. Thanks to their withdrawal from the Sunrise Guild, the guild the government had purchased at great cost plummeted in value. In a live broadcast watched by the entire nation, they openly cured contaminated victims. And now, despite all his efforts, an Awakener Alliance had formed. Already the higher-ups were hounding him relentlessly. Grabbing a heavy flower vase this time, he raised it—making Kim Jongseok scream.
“Get out there and negotiate for the Eternal Stone! If you come back with nothing, that’ll be your death day, understand?!”
“Y-yes! Just put that down, please—ahhh!”
The moment Kim Jongseok dashed out and slammed the door, the vase went flying into it, shattering with a crash. Panting with fury, Hwang Yeongcheol collapsed into a chair, clutching his thinning hair. What now? Something must be done, but how...
* * *
[Starting a guild today]
So I need to get borrowing rights for the Eternal Stone
Gonna cure my mom
Recruiting guild members (1/n)
└ Me me me (2/n)
└ Count me in (3/n)
└ Move aside, I’m first (4/n)
[Only treating Awakeners first?]
Then what about civilians...
So we’re supposed to live with untreatable bodies like this?
Unbelievable, unfair as hell
Guess Lee Hyunmook’s just another power-abusing bastard Awakener lol
└ Dude, check this link (link)
It’s the application for treatment centers, civilians can apply too, it’s just categorized differently
└ Lol what good is that, they only take severe cases
└ Of course they prioritize severe cases, mild ones can still function in society, but the severe ones can’t even leave home
└ Not my problem, I want treatment for mild too
└ lmaoooo knew some whiny post like this would pop up “treat the mi-i-ild toooo~~”
[Shouldn’t this be the government’s job?]
Why is Lee Hyunmook’s guild handling this?
Something this important should be run by the government, not monopolized by him
└ lmaoooooo this is the dumbest take I’ve ever seen
└ If you risked your life to bring back the cure, would you hand it to the government? Not even for 10 billion
└ Who trusts the government lol, when monsters show up it’s faster to report to a nearby guild than wait for army deployment fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
└ Same, I’ve been saved more times by guilds than by the government
└ The government even fines you if you misreport monster levels
└ ????? Don’t lie
└ I’m a civilian, reported a monster as grade 7 because it looked like it, turned out grade 5, they fined me huge for false reporting. With how hard life already is, I thought maybe I should’ve just died instead
└ lmaooo what bastards, who has time to measure monster grades when lives are on the line
└ Know why? Because grade 7 or higher means the Special Suppression Division is dispatched. They don’t want to waste them on a grade 5
└ Meanwhile, all the politicians live right near the Rift Management Agency, lol
[Does treatment really work?]
The reporter was mild case, took 27 minutes
Even if it’s only mild cases, that’s just 48 people a day
At that rate, when will it ever be done
└ Please, use spacing lol
└ The press conference said they have multiple stones, so they can treat more
└ The stone used was small—bigger ones must work even better
└ I’d wait 10 years if I had to
└ As long as they don’t export it abroad, eventually everyone will get their turn
[Shouldn’t we be exploring the Abyss?]
If the cure came from inside there
Then we need expeditions to bring more back
Can’t just sit around like this
└ Sir, did you miss the part where even Lee Hyunmook said he nearly died countless times?
└ Exactly. Send mid-tier Awakeners and they’re 100% dead. High-tier might come back alive. Who would volunteer?
└ Then send Lee Hyunmook again
└ lmaooo with takes like this no wonder he might defect abroad
└ If he says he’s defecting, we have to stop him
└ And how? You can’t stop a high-tier Awakener. Why do you think they’re tax-exempt? The government basically begs them not to leave
└ Just have the Special Suppression Division stop him
└ They’re already overworked. And you think they could restrain a re-Awakened high-tier by force? Get out of your fantasy
[But why “Big Sheep”?]
Why is the guild named Big Sheep? I don’t get it
└ Typo? Sunrise, so next should’ve been Sun, right?
└ As if they’d make a typo at such an important press conference
└ Not a typo, I just saw the guild logo— it’s a sheep
└ Logo’s cute tho
└ But seriously, why sheep??? Why??? I’m dying to know
