Chapter 497 – Pocket Girls
“…Is this really the E-0 Shelter’s gym leader?”
“Senior Kyuhyun? Yes. That’s right. He’s been in charge there for 10 years already.”
‘What the fuck… What’s going on?!’
Seong-il looks at the two men with a firm expression. He quickly starts up augmented reality and opens a document that summarized the strategy of Pocket Girls in the past, quickly examines the contents and asks Soo-yeon.
“…Am I mistaken? I heard that the E-0 Shelter’s gym leader is Stella-sama?”
“Huh? He’s my younger brother?”
“To?”
At Kyuhyun’s words, Seongil looks at him with a blank expression. Perhaps misunderstanding his expression, Kyuhyun smiled and continued.
“Haha! He’s not the gym leader of District E, he’s the gym leader of District D! Well… If I’m away for a long time, he sometimes acts as an agent for me, but…”
“…Acting agent?”
“Yes. Area E is a place you naturally arrive at after passing Area D. There, pilgrims can take the test for Areas D and E at the same time. In the form of taking the test for two days in a row.”
“Aha…”
“Haha! Maybe I checked the information about the gym in Area E when I was away for a while and he doubled as the director instead of me?”
“…”
He never misunderstood in that way, but Seong-il wasn’t such an idiot to the point of blaming that the other person would think positively of him, so he calmly shuts his mouth and listens to Kyu-hyun’s words.
“Hah … !! Wait a minute !! If you have an unusual ancient ruins, you will leave for a few months to explore the ruins !!”
“Haha…”
Soo-yeon’s reaction as if Kyu-hyun’s case was not the first or second. Seong-il realizes that perhaps the reason he didn’t appear in the game is because he went missing while exploring the ruins.
‘In the game I played, Stella wasn’t like the acting director like Kyuhyun said. He was the official director of Sector E. That means…’
Seong-il senses that Kyu-hyeon will probably get caught up in an incident through this exploration.
‘…It’s clear. Otherwise, Stella wouldn’t have the guts to become the gym leader in District E. The justification is also good, right? In order to inherit the inheritance of a missing or deceased older brother, the younger brother who was a gym leader in another area will be appointed as a gym in a new area…’
In this way, Seong-il succeeds in completely grasping how the situation is going, with just a few words of conversation.
“I guess you came here to explore something?”
“That’s right. I think I’ve found the ancient research institute and factory I’m looking for here. I came here to ask for help from Su-yeon, who is good at geography of the sea around here.”
“Aha…”
As soon as he seems to have solved Seong-il’s curiosity to some extent, Kyu-hyun approaches Seong-il with a half-worried, half-curious expression.
“By the way… What kind of guts did you have to undergo the flowering procedure?”
“Ah… I didn’t know if I didn’t get it, I might be killed by the Hyperdan who committed the terror. I had no choice.”
“Hmm…”
Seong-il deceives Kyu-hyeon by mixing facts with lies. Even if the lie is revealed later, he doesn’t feel burdened by telling a lie in the slightest because it’s enough for him to make an excuse that he spewed a lie for security.
As the two men exchange questions that she does not understand, Soo-yeon looks at the two with a puzzled expression.
“What are you two talking about?”
“Oh, there is such a thing.”
“Really…”
After making a fuss with Seong-il and Kyu-hyeon not telling her old friend anything, Su-yeon puts on a slightly dumbfounded expression.
“Anyway… That’s not important! Suyeon! Can you help me with this exploration?”
“Um… That must be a bit difficult, right?”
“No!? Why!?”
“… I investigated the area myself based on the data the senior gave me, but it was too dangerous. It is judged impossible to explore the place with just the two of us and our psychic powers.”
Kyu-hyun hoped for help from Soo-yeon, who was not only fluent in the geography of this place, but also possessed several powerful moisture manipulation psychics. However, when he arrives here and hears a negative answer from her mouth, his expression begins to turn into despair.
“Think again! That undersea lab is safely accessible in my personal submersible!”
‘…An undersea laboratory? Submersible?’
A story I’ve never heard of. As Seong-il plays the game, she feels curious about the appearance of a strange place she has never heard of.
“There are sure to be many ancient AI machines that haven’t been broken yet! If we can retrieve them, it will be of great help to Shelter and humanity!!”
‘…Uh?’
As he listens to Kyuhyun’s explanation, he feels a strange sensation flood Seongil’s head.
‘This… If I can participate, I might benefit…?’
A positive causal rate that is clearly felt. Because of this, Seong-il cuts off Kyu-hyun’s words and raises his hand.
“That… Can’t I participate?”
“…What?!”
Soo-yeon and Kyu-hyeon answer Seong-il’s words by glaring at Seong-il. In particular, Soo-yeon shouts at Seong-il with a voice mixed with absurdity and anger.
“Aren’t you being too arrogant to say that you went through a real battle a while ago and won against me today? Exploring dangerous ruins is another matter!!”
A clear worry felt within the anger. Seong-il could feel that the only reason Su-yeon was angry was because she was afraid that she would get hurt.
“…”
Sensing her warm consideration, Seong-il decides to show her skills rather than raise her and her voice to gain her recognition.
“Would you like to see this?”
“What are we going to do… Huh?”
When Seong-il raised her hand and spoke out of nowhere, Su-yeon frowned and tried to say one more word. Before long, however, she feels a strange pressure envelop her entire body.
“Look at this too.”
Seongil’s metal cups and bowls for camping begin to float in the air. In the meantime, Seong-il gets her metal cup into her hand with her telekinesis, and then she shows her superpowers by crumpling it like a sheet of paper.
“!!!!!”
After seeing her, Soo-yeon realizes the truth about her and calls out to Seong-il in amazement.
“You… You… Were a psychic!? A psychic with complete intelligence that is extremely rare as well?!”
“Well… Half of it.”
“…Ban? What do you mean by that?
“That I will explain.”
Kyu-hyeon cautiously opens his mouth to Seong-il’s unexpected behavior and Su-yeon, who is astonished at it.
“He’s a person who has undergone up to two stages of artificial psychic flowering.”
“Yes? Artificial psychic flowering procedure? Step 2? What the hell are you talking about?”
When Kyuhyun spits out words that he can’t understand at the moment, Suhyeon looks even more confused.
‘Seeing that there was no reaction when I talked about the flower treatment earlier, I guess I didn’t know about the flower procedure even though I was the gym leader?’
Despite being a high-ranking official at Shelter as well as having a fellow gymnasium head in District A who had undergone the Gaehwa procedure, Suhyeon seemed to know nothing about the Gaehwa procedure.
“It’s a procedure developed by mankind right before extinction. It was a machine and technology that we had secretly possessed from the beginning… But due to the loss of certain core technologies, related research has not been able to proceed for a long time.”
“So what?”
“Seven years ago, while analyzing data from the project, I came across a research site where backup data was stored. Me and a few colleagues explored the research site and handed over the relevant data to Dr. Lowe. Thanks to that, the research and machine are now considerably restored. It’s a situation.”
‘Ah… This person was practically the same as restoring the psychic flowering procedure?’
Seong-il sees Kyu-hyun again. Without his hard work, he would not have been able to use his telekinesis, so Seong-il wants to help him by participating in his exploration all the more.
“Hehe… Was that so? So now we can awaken our psychic powers? Without side effects?”
“…Isn’t that right?”
With those words, Kyuhyun begins to calmly recite the success rate of the psychic procedure and the side effects in case of failure. Upon hearing all of this, Soo-yeon looks at Seong-il with an expression of absurdity and exclaims.
“Are you crazy?! You volunteered for such a risky procedure?! What the hell is this young guy thinking!!”
Soo-yeon’s words really made me feel angry. However, the sincerity of her words was her concern for the younger generation, so Seong-il answers her in the softest possible way.
“Ah, of course I also had a basis, so I volunteered for the experiment~! This time, Dr. Jun made a drug that can suppress the side effects. I trusted the drug and received the procedure.”
“However, it is…!!”
“Ah! Someone has to do it, isn’t it? And if you awaken your superpowers when you’re young, then you don’t have to worry about your brain melting due to sudden awakening when you’re older, which is good. It’s not like that.”
“Ha…”
Perhaps speechless at Seong-il’s words, Soo-yeon nods her head with a troubled expression.
“What?! A potion was developed!?”
Another voice bursts out from the side when Soo-yeon is solved. Seong-il swallows her embarrassment and looks at her Kyu-hyeon and replies.
“…Still, it’s not a perfect potion. I need a lot of clinical trial data. I was lucky enough to say that it might be a case without side effects.”
“Umm… Yes…”
“Anyway!! I am a psychic capable of telekinesis and physical enhancement! Isn’t it reasonable enough for me to participate in what Director Kyuhyun is trying to do? You know how much a psychic with full intelligence can do in an emergency.”
“Ummm… Sure…”
As Seong-il said, a psychic with perfect intelligence would be 20 times more helpful than a well-trained soldier, so Kyu-hyeon begins to think with a serious expression.
“Haa… Are you going to continue talking here?”
“Yes why?”
“This isn’t a good place to talk about sensitive things like that. Let’s go to the director’s office and talk about the rest.”
“Ah, then.”
At Soo-yeon’s words, the party quietly nodded their heads in agreement.
“…Uh?’
Then, Seong-il feels a cool sensation pass through his head and asks Su-yeon, who is walking ahead.
“…Is this place where there is a security problem?”
“Anyway…? This is a place where I fight with trainers who come to challenge me. Security equipment is often broken because machines are often exposed to psionic energy as well as physical shock.”
‘Oh shit…’
Seong-il realizes why Gam-eung gave him a chilling warning.
‘…This time I might have been caught in a hyper group or shelter because I used telekinesis or psychic transfer.’
However, since it was Seong-il, who had the heart to confront the Hyperdan head-on someday, he decided to shake off his feelings.
‘If you play tricks, you’ll be screwed. If you want, you can run away as much as you like. In the worst case, I can give up clearing and get Patricia’s skills and leave for another world.’
‘If you mistakenly thought that I used a new ability in Shelter… I’ll just be honest. After receiving the procedure, he accidentally awakened a new ability.’
After making up his mind like that, Seong-il feels at ease.
“Now! Let’s talk again.”
Soo-yeon sneaks away under the pretext of going to get drinks so Seong-il and Kyu-hyun can talk. Seong-il looks at him and asks.
“What do you think?”
“…Certainly, if you help me, it might be of great help.”
‘Oh.’
Kyuhyun’s attitude has definitely changed more positively than before. Seong-il tries to ask questions about the research institute that he wants to attack quickly.
“By the way, what kind of place are you trying to target? Are you really trying to get help from Director Soo-yeon instead of using Shelter’s expert expedition team?”
“Oh, you mean that?”
Seongil’s rapid-fire questions. Kyuhyun smiles and starts answering his words calmly.
“It’s simple! As I said before, the place I’m trying to explore is on the submerged seabed. To get there, I need a special cloaked probe.”
“…A cover-up probe?”
“Yes. It’s a small submersible that can seat up to 3-4 people, but it’s a submersible with a special ability to stealthily and silently in deep areas.”
“…Isn’t that something that should be donated to the shelter?”
Seong-il is even more puzzled by Kyu-hyun’s answer. He responded with a smile on his face.
“It’s okay. I took the submersible as well as the blueprint while attacking the ancient factory where I found the submersible. And by donating it to Shelter, I’ve been granted the right to use the submersible.”
“…But I still don’t understand. If the blueprints are secured, you can ask the Shelter to use multiple probes at once to enter the research facility. Why do you want to go there with only a small number of people? Director Soo-yeon. Sounds like a pretty dangerous place.”
“Ah, it’s because it’s not easy to mass-produce it apart from having blueprints. Making it as designed is sufficient with the current technology, but mass-producing the ultra-high-performance shape memory alloy that makes up the special submersible is very troublesome. “
“Ah…”
“You can make it if you want to make it, but… They say it’s a waste to make an alloy by consuming a lot of money just to produce a few submersibles, so they don’t mass-produce them.”
“Okay…”
Kyuhyun’s explanation is clearly understandable. When all the questions are resolved, Seong-il looks at him with a more relaxed expression.
“Let’s do this.”
“…?”
“If you help me, I’ll personally reward you.”
“…Reward?”
“Yes, compensation. It will never be a condition for you to lose money.”
