# Chapter 59
“Hyung! Why are you so late?”
Iyeon could see Hyegang and Sano walking from the end of the hallway. He waved happily.
After the test ended, Iyeon had searched the waiting room to meet Young, but she must have left early as he couldn’t find any trace of her. As a result, he had only just trudged out after everyone else had left the waiting room.
“Are you okay where you got hit? It looked painful just watching.”
“I got treatment.”
Though it wasn’t intentional, since he came out last, he was able to receive treatment without any waiting. Fortunately, thanks to the blessing of a healing-type superhuman, his injured side was completely restored. When Iyeon patted his waist, Hyegang sighed in relief.
“To think that after all that careful selection, you ended up with someone who betrayed you at the end. Aren’t you just incredibly unlucky?”
“Is Hyegang verbally attacking me now?”
Iyeon laughed heartily and wrapped his arm around Hyegang’s neck pretending to choke him, but since he wasn’t putting much strength into it, it quickly turned into a side hug. Iyeon whispered as if sharing a secret.
“But still, that person is a Tier 1, and her combat ability was amazing, right?”
“Incredible.”
Hyegang, who had been quietly nestled in the embrace, opened his eyes wide. As a fellow Tier 1, he understood better how difficult that choice was.
“But the end was a bit strange.”
“When she suddenly attacked you?”
“Yeah.”
Iyeon still had an expression of lingering doubt.
“She said something about points, but I had already scored well above what would be considered for reassessment. Yet she said that wasn’t enough.”
Young’s nuance was as if there was a special score threshold that needed to be exceeded. But superpowers were evaluated relatively, and it should be fine as long as the ranking was good regardless of how many points were earned…
“Ah.”
Hyegang lifted his head. His hair rustled inside Iyeon’s arm.
“Could she believe that rumor?”
“What rumor?”
“Ah, I guess you wouldn’t know since you’re Tier 2.”
Among Tier 1s, there had been a rumor going around for quite some time, almost like an urban legend.
“Superpower enhancement experiments?”
Iyeon murmured incredulously. What kind of experiment is that? If it were possible, the Superpower Management Office, which was desperately seeking talent, wouldn’t have just sat by.
“I don’t know, they say there’s a group researching it.”
Since superpowers and variants were things difficult to explain with modern science, all sorts of wild rumors circulating in Chohosi was an everyday occurrence. Hyegang also shook his head, saying he only heard it in passing and knew nothing about its actual existence.
“But according to that rumor, if you participate in the superbattle and achieve good results, you can become an experiment subject.”
“Good results?”
“Like, getting above a certain score.”
Iyeon slowly mulled over the conversation he had with Young. Though he hadn’t spent much time with her, Young didn’t seem like someone who trusted the world easily. It was unlikely she’d naively believe an unsubstantiated rumor.
But if she had obtained evidence about that rumor, and truly participated in the superbattle to become an experimental subject…
“Such experiments would be illegal, right?”
“Of course.”
“No, does this country even have laws or not…”
Iyeon slumped onto Hyegang’s shoulder and grumbled. He wasn’t really in a position to talk about law-abiding, but just knowing it was illegal, it wasn’t hard to guess that the experiment would proceed by sacrificing the subjects’ lives.
You could die, you know. Death is the end. Continuously remembering Young’s desperate face he saw right before the test ended, Iyeon frowned and kept muttering the same words. Hyegang glanced at him.
“I think I understand the feeling.”
“What?”
To hear such words from Hyegang of all people was surprising. Iyeon lowered his gaze in shock, and Hyegang reassured him, saying that he didn’t mean he’d go as far as illegal experiments.
“Being Mugunghwa Tier 1 sounds impressive, but it’s not as great as you’d think.”
Sometimes getting just a taste of something can feel worse than getting nothing at all. Especially in an environment where people blessed with abundance are everywhere, falling into feelings of inferiority was all too easy.
“Not everyone needs to be strong, but there’s also no need for people to remain weak, right?”
Hyegang’s face was too impassive as he spoke, making it impossible to read his feelings. Iyeon was staring at his delicately blinking eyelids, about to say something when someone pulled him from behind.
“Whoa!”
It wasn’t powerful enough to hurt Iyeon, but it was strong enough to drag his body. As a result, his arm around Hyegang’s shoulders naturally came loose.
Startled, Iyeon quickly turned his head to see a stoic face looking at him. As always, Sano’s expression was hard to read.
“How was it for you?”
After moving his lips slightly, Iyeon asked. Even though he knew Sano had nothing to do with the superbattle, somehow he felt like a student submitting a test for grading.
“You were struggling.”
The expression was so… Je Sano-like. What, would he die of some disease the next day if he gave a compliment? While Iyeon pouted inwardly, Sano continued.
“I don’t understand why you go that far.”
“…Are you pitying me right now?”
“I’d like to fight you sometime too.”
“Just keep pitying me.”
Adding a “please,” Iyeon stretched. After running around all morning, he was starting to feel hungry. Let’s have a hearty lunch today. Had there ever been a time when they didn’t eat heartily? Amidst Hyegang’s teasing voice, an unfamiliar voice cut in.
“Jung Iyeon-ssi?”
A man wearing an employee badge was suddenly standing near them. Who is he? Iyeon answered reflexively.
“Ah, yes.”
“I’m from the Superbattle Examination Committee. We need to discuss something about the test. Do you have a moment?”
Iyeon nodded with a dazed expression. As he followed the committee member walking ahead, he gestured to Sano and Hyegang to go on without him. Hyegang lightly waved his phone. It was a sign that he’d contact Iyeon once they reached the restaurant. Hyegang’s choice was trustworthy. Now that the superbattle had ended well, Iyeon’s steps quickened with ambitions of enjoying excellent day drinking.
The place the committee member took Iyeon to was a small room. Seeing the boxes of documents and laptops carelessly placed on the desk, it seemed like a temporary office created with terrain-setting abilities.
The member rifled through a thin report that was bound like a file. It appeared to be a document related to Iyeon.
“We’ve done a preliminary check, and you survived until the end. Congratulations on your good results.”
“Thank you…”
No matter how good the results are, they don’t normally call someone right after the test to have this kind of meeting. Did something go wrong? As Iyeon’s eyes rolled with wariness, the member put down the paper and got to the point.
“Jung Iyeon-ssi, when did you receive your Mugunghwa Tier 2 assessment?”
“Since I was evaluated right when I turned twenty… about 4 years ago.”
“And after that, you’ve received regular examinations every two years, correct?”
“Yes. I had one this year too.”
“And you didn’t hear anything unusual at that time either.”
“No. Is there a problem…”
Throughout the meaningless Q&A, the member observed Iyeon as if scrutinizing him, but not finding any significant anomalies, he soon turned away and operated the laptop.
“Look at this.”
The member rotated the laptop halfway to face the screen toward Iyeon. What was on the screen was a paused video, and it wasn’t difficult to recognize what it was.
“Isn’t this the video of the test we just took?”
Iyeon could see himself from less than an hour ago on the screen. Judging by the background, it was when he was with Young in the open space.
“Yes. This is the test video that will be sent to Jung Iyeon-ssi’s company.”
The member manipulated the mouse. With a clicking sound, the video played. While there was no sound of voices, the movements were quite clear.
Very naturally, the video showed what Iyeon already knew. He and Young facing Yu Jeongheon, taking one of Yu Jeongheon’s marks, and just before the test ended, Young attacked him, and Iyeon blocked it and safely completed the test.
While it was rare for Yu Jeongheon to lose a mark, since it was Young who directly took it, there was no reason to call Iyeon for that, and the only other special situation was Young’s betrayal. Of course, it was an unexpected event for Iyeon, but in the superbattle where all kinds of variables were abundant, it wasn’t a particularly special development.
When the video ended, the member rewound the screen a bit. The scenes they had just watched rapidly went backward.
He stopped at the moment when Young was about to attack him.
“As Jung Iyeon-ssi knows, the bracelet worn during the test has a gi-ryeok meter attached. It records the gi-ryeok emitted every time an ability is used throughout the test. Humans tend to exert their true strength in emergencies, and often even the individuals themselves don’t know how much power they have.”
With the explanation, the situation played again. Young, who had been standing with her back turned, attacked Iyeon, Iyeon lost one mark, and while he was staggering in pain, her attempt to attack was caught in his trap instead.
“But here.”
The screen paused again at the scene where Young was caught in Iyeon’s trap.
“When you used your ability here, the gi-ryeok reading was much higher than Jung Iyeon-ssi’s standard gi-ryeok.”
The member’s speech quickened. The rapid-fire tone seemed more from excitement than anger.
“We speculate that because your body reacted automatically to the threat, you operated more urgently than your usual control. But the fact that this much gi-ryeok was emitted means that there’s that much gi-ryeok existing inside your body. After all, you can’t draw what doesn’t exist.”
“R-really?”
Iyeon asked with a dumbfounded expression. Seeing his blank face that seemed to not understand the situation yet, the member summarized what he had just said.
“There’s a possibility that Jung Iyeon-ssi’s superpower grade has been measured too low. You might be Tier 3, or maybe even higher.”
The laptop screen reflected transparently in his light-colored eyes. The scene where Iyeon activated a trap reflexively before Young attacked him was clearly captured.
“Um… Have you heard about my ability by any chance?”
“What?”
The member blinked at the sudden question. Iyeon smiled awkwardly.
“As you probably know, my ability is drawing materialization. The reason I’m Mugunghwa Tier 2 is probably not because of gi-ryeok issues, but because the utility of the ability had a deep impact.”
“But… watching you in the test, you seem proficient in utilizing your ability.”
“Well, that’s because I have experience as a hunter. And when I had my ability assessed, they told me that the method used to measure my tier was a bit different from typical superhumans.”
It’s not that using more gi-ryeok means creating something more complex? Having a lot of gi-ryeok doesn’t mean the ability is strong? I heard some explanation like that, but since I’m not an expert, I didn’t understand exactly. The member slightly furrowed his brow at Iyeon’s words. He seemed to be thinking deeply.
“So even if I’m reassessed now, the superpower itself probably won’t change. I just had a superpower check this year, and it remained the same.”
Iyeon’s attitude as he spoke had a somewhat detached air. It was the opposite of other superhumans who were desperate to raise their tier. Instead, it was the member who was anxious with a sense of wasted potential.
“But… if reassessed, it could go up. It’s an opportunity.”
Iyeon smiled brightly. It was an extremely carefree smile.
“I’m perfectly fine as I am now.”
