# 014. The Era of Great Awakening (7)
Jaehee and Jeongwoo had been walking on the silent road for hours. Either the road itself was closed, or there wasn’t a single car passing by. Occasionally, a water deer would dart out and cross the road.
Jaehee tried turning on his phone several times while walking, but perhaps due to the mountains, there was no signal. It seemed they had been lucky to get a signal at the rest area.
“Haah….”
“Why are you sighing like that? Are you very tired? Would you like some water?”
“Huh? No. I’m fine. It’s just frustrating with no phone signal and all this fog.”
“Don’t worry too much. Soon we’ll enter Seoul, and your phone should work.”
Jaehee awkwardly scratched his head and nodded. Since becoming an Awakened One, walking all day wasn’t particularly tiring. It was just tedious to walk along a foggy, deserted road. What was wearing Jaehee out was his mind. The closer they got to Seoul, the more anxious he became. Especially when he recalled the safety alerts that appeared when he turned on his phone.
Were they all safe? Thinking about his father, stepmother, and young sister made his mouth go dry.
“They’re all safe, right?”
“Well… We won’t know for sure until we get there, but from what we briefly checked at the rest area, the situation didn’t seem that bad.”
Hearing Jeongwoo’s gentle reassurance made Jaehee feel somewhat relieved, but also a bit pathetic. Even though Jeongwoo wasn’t Zero who knew everything, Jaehee felt like a child compared to him. Without Jeongwoo, would he have even completed the tutorial properly?
“Oh? Jeongwoo, look at that…!”
“Yes. This is where Seoul begins.”
Seeing the sign that read “From here, Seoul,” which they hadn’t paid attention to until now, a wave of joy surged through him.
It was a strange feeling walking through the toll gate into Seoul. As expected, there wasn’t a single person in sight. Then, with a loud noise, a large barricade and armed soldiers appeared in the distance.
“Halt!”
“Ah…! Jeongwoo, people…!”
Jaehee let out an exclamation of delight as he saw the soldiers busily moving at the appearance of the two.
* * *
“So, you’ve just completed the tutorial and come out? First, please fill out your personal information and details about your awakening here, and then we’ll do a basic medical check. If you have any injuries, please let me know now.”
“Oh, yes, yes. I don’t have any injuries.”
“Excuse me, for the awakening date… should I write the date we came out of the tutorial, or the date we entered the tutorial?”
“Ah, please just write when you entered the tutorial.”
Name, address, occupation, age…
As Jaehee was filling in the blanks one by one and asked a question, the man standing next to him answered. The man was a civil servant who had come down immediately after Jaehee and Jeongwoo identified themselves as Awakened Ones who had completed the tutorial. Jaehee felt strange as he watched the civil servant explaining kindly.
He had prepared himself mentally for the worst scenario but hadn’t expected to receive such friendly treatment.
He had anticipated a zombie apocalypse-like situation where all city systems had collapsed and no people could be found. But surprisingly, the world was functioning without problems. While it was a relief, it also felt somewhat surreal.
Before arriving here, Jeongwoo and Jaehee had discussed how to handle their awakening classifications.
Jeongwoo said that if Jaehee wanted, he could reveal that he was a Royal Road, but Jaehee didn’t want to. He didn’t know how rare Royal Roads were, but he preferred not to attract people’s attention by revealing such a thing.
He had received enough attention during the time his parents were divorcing.
All sorts of curious questions and sympathies. And the gossip behind his back followed Jaehee around in the small countryside village to the point of annoyance.
Since then, Jaehee had tried hard not to stand out among people.
Even his average grades in all subjects were a manifestation of this unconscious desire.
A child who doesn’t catch the eye. That’s what he wanted most.
Through Jeongwoo’s explanations, Jaehee had come to understand quite a bit about awakening classifications.
In a broad sense, all Awakened Ones could be considered candidates for kingship, but not everyone could become a king. There were a total of three ways to become a king: being chosen as a king by the system from the beginning, raising one’s level to qualify as a king, or killing a king.
Jaehee wrote “Whisperer” in the classification field. This was something he had discussed with Jeongwoo beforehand.
Whisperers referred to those who used verbal commands. People in this category were mainly magicians, but also included others like shamans.
Following Jeongwoo’s opinion that since most of Jaehee’s skills as a Royal Road were related to speech, Whisperer would be the most appropriate if he didn’t want to reveal being a Royal Road. Jeongwoo also wrote Whisperer, not revealing that he was Zero.
“Um, I’ve filled everything out. But do phones only work in Seoul? I tried calling several times on the way here, but it didn’t work well.”
“Ah, when monsters suddenly appeared, several base stations were destroyed. It’s fine in areas that have been restored, but not all regions in the provinces have been repaired yet. Haha, but with Awakened Ones like you, everything will be fixed soon. Alright, if you’ve finished writing, please come this way, both of you. You said you don’t have any injuries or pains, right?”
“Yes….”
“Since you say you have no injuries, we’ll just do a basic health check and then go to the interview room.”
Jaehee and Jeongwoo had their blood drawn twice each and underwent several tests. It was somewhat surprising that such a systematic process had been established, even though Awakened Ones had only emerged about two months ago.
After completing all the tests, they had to have individual interviews with a civil servant from the Awakened Management Bureau.
Since the interviews were conducted one-on-one, Jaehee and Jeongwoo went into separate rooms.
“Thank you for your hard work. Welcome. Please sit down here.”
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
“It must have been tough with all the various tests, right? I’m Yong-tae Lim, a section chief at the Awakened Management Bureau.”
The person who greeted Jaehee was a middle-aged man with a pleasant expression. The man with a generous physique reminiscent of Santa Claus smiled and pointed to the chair in front of him.
“Well, it’s an emergency situation. I understand. It must be hard for the Management Bureau too.”
“Ahaha. If everyone were like you, Jaehee-ssi, there wouldn’t be any difficulties. Now, I’d like to ask you a few questions. Everyone is very interested because you and Jeongwoo-ssi are the last Awakened Ones to have entered and come out of the tutorial.”
Jaehee flinched at the mention of people being interested. It seemed that only Jaehee and Jeongwoo had taken two months.
“Are we the very last ones?”
“It’s not exact, but it seems so for now. By the way, you must be eager to get back to your family, so thank you for cooperating like this. The Management Bureau has already contacted your family. You’ll probably be able to meet them in a few days. I’m conducting this interview not for any special reason, but to explain how the Management Bureau operates and to provide you with some information.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Ah! You said you came out of the tutorial near Namyangju, did you encounter any monsters there?”
Jaehee hesitated momentarily but then shook his head.
He had already discussed the matter of Cheonsan-jiju with Jeongwoo. Jeongwoo had suggested not to reveal that they had killed Cheonsan-jiju. Since Cheonsan-jiju was a named monster class, revealing that they had killed it would attract people’s attention, which could lead to dangerous situations.
“No. At first, I thought it was strange that there were no people in the village, but I didn’t see anything unusual.”
“Hmm. You were very lucky. The Namyangju area has a gate, oh, we’ve decided to call those black holes ‘gates.’ Not simply holes, but doors connecting somewhere. The first monster that came out of that gate was a giant spider, and it was so strong that we had to close off the entire area. That’s why we were surprised when people came out from that area.”
Jaehee didn’t show it, but he was quite shocked by the interviewer’s words. Though he couldn’t say it was easy to kill, the Cheonsan-jiju that he and Jeongwoo had managed to defeat was considered so strong by the Management Bureau that they had given up on the entire area.
“Couldn’t Awakened Ones go and catch it? I heard Awakened Ones are catching monsters.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right. Thanks to the help of Awakened Ones, society is rapidly stabilizing. But the number of Awakened Ones is still small, and there’s a lot to do. We’re reclaiming areas one by one. Therefore, I would really like Jaehee-ssi and Jeongwoo-ssi to help the country as well.”
“Ah…, yes. But I’m not sure what I can do. As you can see, I don’t have any exceptional abilities.”
Since he wasn’t really a Whisperer anyway, he had coordinated with Jeongwoo to minimize his abilities. Jeongwoo had said that there was no way to know abilities that weren’t declared unless there were special skills.
“I understand that Awakened Ones’ abilities can continue to level up. Even if no prominent abilities are visible now, who knows what will happen in the future. Currently, there are several groups of Awakened Ones in Korea, and joining one would help you with information and adaptation in various ways.”
“…Groups?”
“Yes. There are Awakened One groups under the Management Bureau operated by the government, and there are private guilds established by individuals. Representative ones include Guild Sahae or Dongbang, but since they’re still in the early stages of establishment, they’re not that large. So, in my opinion, it would be better to join an Awakened One group under the Management Bureau rather than such private groups. Above all, if you join a group under the Management Bureau, you become a civil servant.”
Yong-tae Lim shrugged once and grinned.
“In such an unstable situation, isn’t being a civil servant the best? There’s a reason people say civil servants have a ‘rice bowl’ or ‘iron rice bowl.’ You’re still young, and as an Awakened One, you don’t have to worry about promotions. Hahaha. I don’t mean to pressure you.”
“Yes….”
Still mentally a high school student, it was difficult to easily respond to what an adult was saying, so he just nodded. Yong-tae Lim seemed pleased with Jaehee’s response and smiled.
“I’m saying this as if you were my son, so take your time to think about it. In times like these, a secure job is the best. Oh, and this is an emergency contact pager. If there’s an urgent matter, you’ll be contacted through this. For now, the basic principle is that all Awakened Ones cooperate in national crisis situations. I ask this of you as well, Jaehee-ssi.”
“Yes, yes.”
After that, Yong-tae Lim asked a few more questions about family relationships, school, and then ended the interview. Although it hadn’t taken much time, it felt tiring. Jeongwoo was still not visible, perhaps because his interview wasn’t over yet.
It was while he was wandering around, looking around.
