# Chapter 81
After that, each day was ordinary. Since his reputation at work had been ruined anyway, he left the office at exactly 6 o’clock every weekday, and on days with field work, he darted home even more quickly as soon as he exited the gate and finished the cleanup.
He gradually became accustomed to the new training. He began using his ability in a more personal and direct manner. However, since he was training roughly before his body had healed, at some point, his losses started outweighing his gains.
As a result, when he decided to refrain from going out to focus on physical recovery for a while, Lee Hwan suddenly felt empty with nothing to do. For the first time since his regression, it felt like he was just loafing around without any tasks.
He rolled around in bed for hours, listened to music, watched movies. And when he had done everything he could think of and still had time left, he fiddled with his new phone and browsed the internet. Even then, time remained. It was maddening.
‘Right, that site… three days have passed, should I apply for an upgrade again?’
While charging his phone, he remembered the fan site he had forgotten about, but somehow he didn’t feel like logging in. It was intentional avoidance. Because he knew all too well whose pictures filled that place.
Since the report blaming Taesung’s interference and crediting himself with the discovery of the attribute mineral was submitted, Lee Hwan could feel a mix of strange emotions whenever he thought of him.
Pride in winning mixed with uncomfortable guilt, gratitude for saving him mixed with resentment towards his attitude, worry, and the strange increase in heart rate that always followed.
Amusingly, the fact that it didn’t feel entirely bad made him even more reluctant. Inexplicable discomfort and strange satisfaction simultaneously rose in his chest. Each time, Lee Hwan would bury his face in his hands with a small groan.
I don’t understand. I want to avoid it. With that mindset, this time too, he flopped onto the bed, buried his face in the pillow, and stayed that way for a while. Until the whirlwind of incomprehensible emotions subsided, just listening to the ticking of the clock.
It was around this time that he began to pay attention to his surroundings, which he had always overlooked.
At the café where he occasionally ate brunch on weekends, someone spoke to him for the first time. In a space furthest from regression or destruction, when someone he had thought of as an NPC opened their mouth, Lee Hwan was inwardly startled as he was scanning the menu.
“Today, I’ve served scones with apricot jam and watermelon jam as a service. It’s the first time I’ve offered these, so please try them and let me know what you think.”
The clean-looking person whom he had assumed was a weekend part-timer turned out to be the owner of the place. Only then, taking an interest in his surroundings, did he notice that this person was wearing an apron of a different color from the others.
Lee Hwan had experienced many unpleasant encounters in his social life, but he had rarely been burned by those who seemed nice, so his guard was low in situations like this. Before the regression, he had been publicly active, so he had encountered plenty of such people.
Though Taesung had shown disapproval without saying anything, probably worried Lee Hwan would care, Lee Hwan honestly enjoyed the attention.
This time too, thinking that someone giving him food must be a good person, he greeted them with a bright smile, and unexpectedly, a cookie was added to his plate. Lee Hwan sat by the window, humming at the sight of the chunky chocolate chips embedded in it.
He had momentarily forgotten while meeting only people like his wary colleagues or humans like Kang Dongha. Sometimes, people were kinder than expected. Giving free snacks, saying nice things even with nothing to gain.
Of course, he didn’t think they were all good people. Just during his part-time job days, how many problematic and crazy customers had he had to deal with? They would have been normal members of society when they returned to their workplaces.
Nevertheless, regardless of his general distrust in people, Lee Hwan remembered that since his awakening, the environment surrounding him had been extremely human-friendly.
Even his relatives, who had grown cold after his parents passed away, suddenly approached him sweetly once he gained fame.
Though he thought it was bullshit and didn’t meet them, anyway, for him, those three years as a Hunter were like a vanilla latte with plenty of cream on top and a large pump of syrup. Moderately sweet and smooth enough to make him smile.
Lee Hwan suddenly felt like he had gotten a slight taste of that flavor he had left behind in the future. So, crunching into the cookie before the scone, he carefully examined the café’s business card tucked under the plate.
‘H.P’. A number was separately written at the bottom of the card. Was this the store number or the owner’s number?
Lee Hwan took a sip of coffee and roughly stuffed it into his pocket. He had already been getting tired of a life spent working alone, going home alone, and killing time alone.
Even if it wasn’t a deeply close relationship like with someone else, it seemed good to have at least one person to talk to.
* * *
The continued tranquility at the company felt like the eye of a storm. According to Kang Dongha, while the attribute mineral incident was quietly buried among regular employees, it seemed to have caused quite a stir internally among the upper management.
Sure enough, Lee Hwan was suddenly requested for an interview with him one afternoon.
Executive Director Kim Seokwon. Following Kang Dongha, Lee Hwan met a man in his late 50s, like any you might see in a typical company. He didn’t particularly look young or old, but his hair color, whether dyed or not, was completely free of gray, making him appear healthy.
“You’ve done quite a useful job. I hear it’s not the first time this friend has discovered something in a gate?”
Lee Hwan had completely figured out his style within five minutes of entering the office. Though he himself could best answer that curiosity, the director was asking Dongha as if it were natural.
Moreover, he was a person with enough money and status that even Kang Dongying couldn’t treat him carelessly, and rumor had it he wasn’t even a self-made man.
After a brief bow as a greeting, Lee Hwan neither made himself noticeable nor opened his mouth. He was sandwiched between a corporate executive who didn’t view people as people and a member of the royal family. Judging by the office owner’s attitude, it seemed that here, both flattery and answers should all be received and given by Kang Dongha.
“It was all thanks to your foresight, Director, haha.”
“Always hiding behind your brother, but lately, there’s a lot of talk about how well you’re doing. Well, you would have been the head of a household in the old days, so it’s about time you came to your senses.”
The bear does the work, but someone else takes the money. Lee Hwan was about to furrow his brow as if he had seen something unpleasant but deliberately regained his poker face.
“Oh my, you’re too kind. I need to work harder. There have been many frustrating issues lately…”
His face, which had been frozen in irritation and sarcasm lately, looked unbelievably cheerful and bright in front of the director. When had he ever seen Kang Dongha smile so purely, and thus more unpleasantly?
Even he, before the regression, when in the Support Team, had exchanged daggers while smiling with his competitors. Lee Hwan once again felt that this side of life was also truly difficult.
“I know you had a hard time with Kang’s work. However, since the law clearly states that gate entry must be with two or more people, and this rule isn’t kept to harm anyone… right?”
The person most likely to have committed illegal acts in this room was talking about the law. Hearing that and still answering with “Yes, I know,” while maintaining an upturned corner of his mouth, Kang Dongha seemed to have a strong stomach, only choosing not to manage his expressions around Lee Hwan.
Especially if that statement was followed by “I can look the other way about the two-person thing, but because of that, I might not be able to listen to all your requests in the future.”
“That guy takes after the Chairman’s personality exactly, so he doesn’t have any bend to him…”
It was fascinating, in a way, how he deliberately involved the Chairman and shifted responsibility to Taesung, even with the Chairman’s grandson sitting right in front of him. How could Kang Taesung resemble the Chairman when he wasn’t even part of that family?
Moreover, referring to a grown employee as “that guy” or “this guy” when they weren’t even his children.
Lee Hwan suppressed his twitching eyebrow while internally picking apart their conversation. The only consolation was that this irritating meeting was almost over, and the director’s business card that was handed to him through Dongha’s hand.
It was quite pleasing to see his smile momentarily falter, perhaps worried that Lee Hwan might bypass him to grab a new connection.
Anyway, just a few days after that seemingly useless meeting, a second gate fell into his grasp. Lee Hwan packed his things to prepare for a new battle, even before the aftermath of the previous gate had fully subsided.
He included an unusually large amount of emergency food. He even stuffed a portable kit for lighting fires into a small bag. He was still looking for hidden rooms, but this time, Taesung wouldn’t be by his side.
While waiting for the entry date, Lee Hwan racked his brains, trying to revive past memories.
For gates famous for their special hidden rooms, he had memorized both their locations and the methods to open them. But in comparison, for gates that were either deliberately concealed or didn’t receive much attention, he was hazy on whether they had hidden rooms and how they were discovered.
If the suspicious aspect of this gate originated from a hidden room, he had to examine the buried memories, even if it meant breaking his head.
The Exploration Team didn’t visit very often, but the Support Team regularly checked it once every 8 weeks. Being assigned roughly once every couple of months, it was quite frequent.
He could guess that it was being monitored for any potential changes, though there was no risk of monsters suddenly appearing.
Was there such a gate in his memory…?
So Lee Hwan had fallen into contemplation, methodically writing down the information he knew in a notebook. He wanted to try writing on the tablet PC since he had it, but he was wary, not knowing what measures might have been set up on it.
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the camera suddenly turned on and started filming me.’
If he really wanted to find out, he could write false information in the tablet’s note app to lure Kang Dongha. However, because he neither felt the need to provoke him nor had the energy for it, Lee Hwan just used it to watch movies.
He could certainly share his movie and drama viewing history. It would be even better if they paid the site usage fee for him after seeing it.
