“I still have many shortcomings.”
“Shortcomings, what shortcomings! That’s more than enough. So for this Gate, it’d be good for Hae-il to take the lead.”
“…Me?”
“This is all experience and assets. Hae-il, you’ll have to become a Team Leader later too, won’t you? Where else can you easily get experience as a strategy operation leader for promotion? You’ll also get close to the team members quickly, killing two birds with one stone.”
An incompetent, lazy, typical leader busy passing off work. He, who had even passed the Team Leader role onto Hae-il, somehow didn’t even enter the Gates.
Fortunately, directing regular Gate strategy wasn’t difficult for Hae-il. Although the team members he was meeting for the first time weren’t objectively excellent in their abilities, he could lead them more smoothly than expected.
‘…Still, if there are only regular Gates like this, there won’t be any tricky unexpected situations.’
However, the last advantage he’d scraped together shattered to pieces as soon as he finished his first Gate after the transfer and came out.
“…Right away, you’re saying I have to go in.”
“Yes, a Special Gate was detected, so there’s no choice.”
“…You said the probability of a Special Gate appearing was low.”
“Yeeees, it just happened to be a coincidence like this.”
What coincidence. It was obvious that the probability of it really being a coincidence was lower than the probability that the talk about Special Gate occurrence possibility being low was bullshit.
After grinding his teeth internally and handling the Special Gate and coming out, the shift change time that didn’t take any such special circumstances into account came around. He was dragged straight to another regular Gate, and when he came out of that, a new Special Gate had burst open.
With almost no sleep or rest, receiving only minimal guiding of briefly holding hands, he rolled and tumbled inside Gates for five days straight. He hadn’t been this tired even as a college student or as a new employee just after joining.
Right after finally handling all the Gates and returning to the office, the Team Leader, whose complexion had brightened from wherever he’d been doing whatever alone, announced with a good-natured face and a smile.
“Alright, good work everyone. You all know that Gate post-reports must be written and submitted within a week after strategy completion, right? Since it must have been hard going in repeatedly this time, I’ll specially apply for an extension of one more day. Rest well for today!”
After rolling around going in and out of Gates until his limit, barely receiving a sip of guiding, he couldn’t even properly process in his head what nonsense that shameless bastard was spouting.
Two weeks were deleted like that. It was the longest time among the three years since joining the Special Abilities Agency.
Hae-il, who barely returned to his lodging, lay down on the bed. No, it was closer to throwing his body down. He felt like the bed was sinking endlessly downward and his body was descending to the very bottom.
After experiencing all the environmental changes in just one month, curses came out naturally.
“Fuck….”
This lesson was very clear.
‘Let’s secure a position where I can afford to make a fuss first.’
As expected, advancement was the answer to life. You only take care of your conscience when you can afford to.
The deed was already done, and there was no way to reverse it even if he regretted it. So the important thing was what to do from now on—that was all.
‘Whatever it takes, I’ll return to the Main Bureau as soon as possible. Absolutely.’
Hae-il began to burn with ambition again, setting aside conscience or personal feelings.
***
Around that time, Hae-il became close to a new person.
“Esper Seo Hae-il? Nice to meet you. I’m Bae Jin-seong. I’ve been busy with work lately, so I’m only greeting you now.”
It was while he was chain-smoking, pondering ways to return to the Main Bureau.
As soon as he confirmed who had spoken to him, Hae-il quickly threw his cigarette into the ashtray, clasped hands, and bowed in greeting.
“Hello, Team Leader Bae Jin-seong. I’m Seo Hae-il.”
He’d memorized the faces, names, and positions of the few employees at the Namhae Regional Office on the first day. It was very basic work for smooth advancement.
This person, who had a completely different impression from the Gate Strategy Team 1 Team Leader that Hae-il belonged to, was Team 2 Team Leader Bae Jin-seong. Unlike his somewhat rough appearance, his attitude in naturally approaching and greeting was gentle.
A long scar crossing his face, firm and rough hands, a solid body despite being in his 40s. He definitely seemed to have quite a bit of field experience.
Unlike the Team 1 Leader who stayed outside Gates alone, Team 2 Team Leader Bae Jin-seong kept running into him every shift change. He seemed like someone who properly performed his Team Leader role, at least.
“You’ve had a hard time right after coming here.”
“Not at all.”
After offering a few ordinary words of encouragement, he gripped Hae-il’s shoulder firmly.
After that too, whenever they rarely had spare time, the two met on the rooftop.
What he learned from their conversations was that Bae Jin-seong was a rare, respectable superior.
“Team Leader, why do you stay here? You’re an A-rank Esper, so you could easily transfer to a civilian residential area.”
“You’ve seen the environment here. Someone has to hold down the fort.”
People who stayed in such harsh places solely out of professional spirit were really not common.
Within just a few weeks, Bae Jin-seong became the only person Hae-il acknowledged here as a colleague and as a superior.
Not many days after getting close like that, he heard a tempting proposal from him.
“Esper Seo Hae-il seems to want to return to the Main Bureau?”
“To be honest, yes. I can’t move up any higher here.”
“Young people can feel that way. Then are you interested in intelligence work by any chance?”
“…Intelligence?”
It was work he’d never done directly or even thought about.
“Actually, the Regional Director recently proposed it to me. But I’m past the age to carry out such missions. I decided long ago to devote the rest of my life as an Esper here. So I came looking for someone to replace me, and from what I’ve observed, Esper Seo Hae-il seems like the right person, so I’m proposing it to you.”
“What exactly is the mission?”
“That’s top secret, so I can’t tell you now. Let me know when you’ve decided. The compensation will be certain.”
Since it was a mission directly ordered by the Regional Director and even a Team Leader-level superior said the compensation would be certain, it meant returning to the Main Bureau was sufficiently possible.
His deliberation wasn’t long.
“I’ll do it.”
He’d been pondering ways to return to the Main Bureau the whole time, but the more he deliberated, the more hopeless it felt.
In this situation, it was ambiguous to pull strings with higher-ups again, and if he just stayed still, he didn’t know how many years he’d rot here. They were already making dying sounds about being short-staffed, so there was no way they’d nicely send away an S-rank Esper who’d rolled in on his own.
With the situation like this, that mission felt like the only method. Seeing as they called it top secret, it couldn’t have just come from the Regional Director level. Higher-ups must be involved.
So he just had to succeed.
Hae-il accepted the proposal with determination to succeed no matter what.
***
The mission’s objective was clear. Since the recent movements of the domestic largest criminal organization ‘Ban’ were unusual, infiltrate the organization undercover, dig out their Gate seizure plan to disrupt it, and ultimately round them all up in one fell swoop.
The problem was the method to execute that.
“How you infiltrate and how you gather information is up to your discretion. Request anything you need during the mission separately from Team Leader Bae. I’ll review it and provide support.”
“Understood.”
It wasn’t very reliable, but anyway, Hae-il, who received the mission directly from the Regional Director, immediately changed his affiliation. He became an Esper belonging to Strategy Team 2 led by Team Leader Bae Jin-seong, and officially, a person who didn’t exist in the Special Abilities Agency database.
After packing up and leaving immediately, he entered full-scale preparation for natural infiltration.
First, he received an item made with magic stones and artificially greatly reduced his wavelength.
“There was such a small item?”
“I heard it was recently developed. I’m an E-rank Guide so I don’t know well, but apparently ability users of a certain rank can get a general sense when they detect each other’s wavelengths? This can only make you appear lower than your actual rank.”
The office worker Choi Ji-yeon, who came to deliver the item, held out the item he’d requested. The ring, made with a very small magic stone embedded inside, looked ordinary on the outside.
