# Chapter 31
Taesung brushed off the ash that had settled on his body as he exited the gate. The day laborers he had contracted in advance rushed in, collecting moss and indigenous plants from the walls.
Though not mana-sensitive, these people who needed money were willing to risk intoxication for hard labor. Since Taesung couldn’t use Naru’s personnel, he hired these workers instead.
If they were Hunters, they could have just bypassed cleaning the gate and nimbly avoided monsters while gathering only the plants, but he couldn’t expect such abilities from civilians.
Actually, he had used them precisely because they had no connections to the Awakened society.
“Does your eye still ache?”
Jade didn’t answer Taesung’s question. He just wore his habitual bitter smile and changed his sunglasses.
“I think those bastards should stop getting medical examinations. Kang Dongha went that way.”
“They weren’t exactly friendly even before that.”
A solemn silence followed, as if neither knew what to say.
“Still, today I’m feeling alright since I barely used my ability.”
At Jade’s eventual response, Taesung recalled their recent battle and absently looked down at his own hand.
The eyes from earlier were still vivid in his mind.
A face mostly covered with only the eyes and mouth barely visible. Those brown eyes within the mask had been wide with excitement and fear.
The redness around the eyes suggested that beneath the mask, the entire face was likely flushed.
Taesung had seen such people before. Sometimes it was those who had been seriously injured in gates, other times it was those who had returned to the country worn out after performing military operations in civilian areas.
If someone had experienced war, wearing a mask wasn’t strange. They might have suffered severe facial injuries. Or perhaps they simply disliked showing their face.
A new branch had sprouted from his hypothesis that the person was a mere criminal.
He couldn’t deny that the glimpse of a jawline and the graceful, nimble body lines had slightly increased his interest.
From the moment he realized the usefulness of that ability, other things became noticeable alongside it.
Like the small, pale nape visible between the round back of the head and the black suit. Or the gaze that blankly traced his back whenever they turned around.
Yet when addressed sharply, the person would snap back like a stretched rubber band, which was intriguing.
“How did Kang Dongha manage to get such a skilled person on his side?”
Kang Dongha is cowardly, selfish, and incompetent. Though he cowers under his brother, he’s always aiming for everyone’s blind spots.
Unable to stand up to his brother, and destined to lose whatever he holds, it was almost comical how he kept poking around only to return later to pick up treasures again.
Would Kang Dongying really be unaware of his antics? He’s simply letting him loose because there’s no need to strangle a golden goblin that keeps gathering treasures.
White Mask, or rather, Kim… Jeongshik. He’s too valuable a talent to be under Kang Dongha. Especially when he’s an Awakened whose offense and defense harmonized so fantastically with Taesung’s.
Taesung shivered slightly at the memory of their battle, which had fit together like puzzle pieces, and glanced away. By then, Jade had somehow changed his glasses and was putting on clothes over his suit.
“Should I bring him over?”
“…That won’t work.”
Jade watched Taesung silently through his sunglasses and shook his head.
Taesung briefly wore a puzzled expression at the almost assertive tone, but soon he too packed up his things and left the gate entrance.
Strange connections kept forming, whether positive or negative. Taesung clenched and unclenched his fist, experiencing a feeling that wasn’t unfamiliar.
* * *
Time truly flowed as it pleased. Lee Hwan was amazed at how days disappeared with just a blink of an eye.
Perhaps because it was time he had already lived through, if nothing new happened and if he didn’t keep his mind focused, it felt like entire days simply melted away before his eyes.
As if forgetting when he had worried about Taesung and Jade’s attacks, Lee Hwan was already looking forward to their second meeting. The recent joint combat had evoked nostalgia, and it had also faintly reconnected his seemingly severed relationship with Taesung.
His dazed state had persisted. Without the energy to even pay attention to his surroundings, Lee Hwan no longer deliberately dragged out time. He just worked continuously, his mind elsewhere.
As a result, his paperwork speed was astonishing. Though he delayed reports with his last bit of consciousness, just by carefully examining the monitor, one could see gate lists and terrain check files being organized with incredible speed.
Even though he worked in ways no one had taught him, none of his team members expressed any disapproval. They just thought, “There he goes again.” They didn’t know what his purpose was for coming down here, but they accepted it as “just his way.”
It had gone so far that once, when he went to the bathroom, he overheard from inside a stall that Mr. Joo didn’t even pretend to hide it anymore, but Lee Hwan couldn’t care less.
Hehe.
He just occasionally giggled. He had no idea that fulfilling that bastard Kang Dongha’s demands would turn out to be such a blessing.
On the outside, Lee Hwan appeared to be troubled these days, but in reality, his heart was pounding with excitement.
Maybe that’s why.
—I’ve been pushing for it, but since it’s being assigned secretly, A-08 will take some time…
“But it will be transferred within this month, right?”
—Absolutely.
He had even become lenient toward Kang Dongha, despite the upcoming skill stone acquisition.
—Oh, and the atmosphere in Building D won’t be good from now on. You should show your face more often.
“What?”
—I think you need to show that you’re not an outsider.
“Aren’t you in management? Can’t you just tell them?”
—Well, that’s true, but…
Of course, a manager in his twenties without any relevant degrees. And a Kang at that.
He definitely gave off puppet CEO vibes. He might be getting good treatment, but when things really matter, he probably had no actual power. Lee Hwan understood easily.
Besides, the research institute was fundamentally under Kang Dongying’s grip. Enough that Kang Dongha, who had been interested in abilities all along, was only now creeping in.
‘…Hmm.’
The atmosphere isn’t good? In the research building?
That didn’t mean there would be a fight as he went in and out, but rather that he could become a target of surveillance. For whatever reason, security might tighten, or it might become awkward to move around.
Only then did Lee Hwan recall an important objective he had forgotten while being preoccupied with other thoughts.
Research. Research Building D. Suspicious structure. Semi-awakening.
—Got it.
“…What a pain.”
Lee Hwan hung up the phone, grumbling as usual and pretending to be calm, then glanced at the monitor. He had made substantial progress, so today’s work was done. It was time to start thinking clearly.
Now, it was time to fill his thoughts with what he truly needed to focus on.
‘The upper floors of Building D… had more administrative offices and halls rather than research labs.’
Moreover, the proper research laboratories were located above the second floor. As if it were some kind of townhouse layout, the first floor didn’t have many useful rooms.
‘Besides, it’s inconvenient to move between floors without using the elevator.’
That’s not a problem under normal circumstances. Even those with mobility issues can easily go up and down using the elevator. But what if there’s a fire? Or if some kind of accident occurs?
‘The elevator would stop…’
That’s when chaos would begin. With the already steep stairs and doors so heavy they were difficult to open. The folding fire barriers hanging from the ceiling at each landing.
If the circuit breakers go down, those fire barriers would probably block each stairwell.
Building D was designed to isolate each floor. Basically, it wasn’t meant to prevent people inside the building from reaching the stairs, but rather to make it difficult for those in the stairwell to exit.
However, the upper floors looked normal without anything suspicious, and the empty first floor also had no particular rooms. Then what about below?
‘…Basement. That building only had one basement floor.’
Could there be another basement level designed to be difficult to access?
“Haa… There’s really so damn much to think about…”
After thinking that far, Lee Hwan rose as if in a trance. He felt like he would get a headache if he kept focusing on the bizarre building design.
He needed something to relieve his fatigue. Something that could instantly lift his mood and calm his complicated thoughts.
Lee Hwan’s steps were quite serious as he set out with a solemn expression.
Lee Hwan took out a long tumbler he had brought from home, dumped in four company coffee sticks, and methodically dissolved them with hot water.
The sweet coffee aroma rose and calmed his complicated thoughts. Even before bringing it to his lips, he could almost taste the sweet, slightly bitter flavor spreading on his tongue.
Gulp-
‘Mmm… the taste of company money…’
Thankfully he was an Awakened. Otherwise, his heart might have raced so much that he’d only be able to consume two coffee sticks a day.
Slurp-
Three in the morning, four in the evening. Or four in the morning, three in the evening. Only when he balanced a total of seven in a yin-yang style did his mind feel at peace.
The warm coffee, more like sugar and creamer water, soothed his frayed nerves as it went down his throat.
‘I should also print one page on the color printer later…’
As it happened, he hadn’t slept well for the past few days. Lee Hwan intended to take care of that issue as well.
‘The bastard who keeps singing flower songs at midnight will literally become a flower if I catch him.’
He would put it up in the elevator. He would decorate it with a crooked handwriting style written with his left hand.
[Due to long-term Hunn, ter life, my mental health has become un, stable and I have de, veloped a dis, ease where I break, down doors when I hear sin, ging at mid, night…]
Zzzzzzing-
As the printer spat out the bright red Gungsuh font and Lee Hwan finished his coffee.
“I’m leaving for the day.”
It was exactly 6 o’clock. Without even checking a separate clock, Lee Hwan’s biological clock, honed over 4 years before the regression, moved almost instinctively.
In truth, unless they had fieldwork, the support team tended to hang around the office to collect overtime pay even when they didn’t have much to do, but since Lee Hwan was planning to make a long scratch on Kang Dongha’s card anyway, he saw no need to waste time.
‘Still, might as well use up the office supplies since it’s a shame to waste them.’
That was roughly his thinking.
