The Awakener Chip

"You're implanting a chip?"

Gyeol's voice had gone hard, and it rang through the room. The official in charge widened his eyes in surprise, then crooked one corner of his mouth.

"Ah. You didn't know. It's the Awakener Management Act. I realize this may not be pleasant to hear, but Awakeners do lose control, or commit crimes, more often than you'd think. And later the chip in your body has to match the chip in the certificate, or you won't be cleared to enter a dungeon."

That rule applied only to dungeons guarded by the Monster Special Forces. Even so, he wasn't wrong. The accidents and crimes caused by Awakeners since the First Open had been no small matter.

"Even so, putting a chip in a person's body... We're not animals."

The explanation did nothing to thaw Han Gyeol's face. Of course it didn't. Having your freedom stripped away in the name of managing Awakeners was bound to feel unjust.

"It's only an identification chip. It doesn't even operate under ordinary conditions. No tracking function, nothing of the sort. The state is the one managing it—what is there to worry about? It's a precaution for when something goes wrong."

A thread of irritation had crept into the official's voice. There was plenty I could have argued, but I set a light hand on Gyeol's shoulder and settled him.

In any case, this Awakener management chip existed only while Awakeners were still few. It would be gone in less than a year. The backlash over Awakeners' human rights had never let up.

And we weren't ready yet. For now, it was better not to make trouble.

"Normally there'd be Awakener training right away, but with the situation what it is, we're just registering you and sending you home. Wait at your residence and we'll contact you separately. Come back then for the training. You know you can't operate as a Hunter until the Hunter license is issued, yes? Ms. Seo In-hwa, please submit the rest of your documents at that time as well. I'm sorry we can't give you proper attention—we're buried. It's chaos. Absolute chaos."

He delivered it in a thoroughly bureaucratic tone, cleared his desk, and stood first.

"Well then. Best of luck to you."

Certificates in hand, we gathered our things and stepped into the corridor, and the front of the Awakener Management Department office was packed. I watched the official who had issued them fight through the crowd and only just make it back inside.

"Good thing we came early. We'd have been waiting forever."

"That, and we only got pulled aside and issued ours this fast thanks to Second Lieutenant An Eun-young."

Gyeol and I were one thing. Coming in to register as Awakeners today, knowing the risk—these people had to be the ones whose sense of fear had gone briefly numb from awakening. You saw it most often in Awakeners who received high ranks.

Which meant Senior In-hwa, too...

"Hey! Hurry up and register us!"

"Is this really all the staff you've got?"

"I'm scared out of my mind—somebody explain this properly!"

Unstable Awakeners were raising a clamor, and it did look a little dangerous.

The old me hadn't been able to come register right away. I had spent a long time shaking inside the house, so a scene like this felt strange. There had to be plenty of other Awakeners, just like my past self, simply hiding at home.

The three of us clicked our tongues as we pushed past the crowd and headed down the stairs.

"All three of us have to go to Korea University Hospital anyway, so let's go together. It's still dangerous outside."

At that, Senior In-hwa's face brightened again.

"I feel so much safer thanks to you two! I've got a little brother right around your age."

I know. That's why you were especially kind to the two of us. I've heard it from you hundreds of times. I wanted to say it, but I couldn't, so I simply listened.

She even shot us a thumbs-up, unable to contain how pleased she was.

"I brought my car. We'll take it to the hospital."

The whole way there the roads were empty, and people were hardly to be seen. Ambulances, police cars, and military trucks passed often enough.

"I looked it up online and tried out this skill or whatever it was, and the kitchen was completely wrecked the moment I used it. Oh my goodness. The street trees are all down. Something must have happened here. Scary, so scary."

Senior In-hwa said it in a voice that wasn't frightened in the slightest. No doubt about it—the part of her brain in charge of fear had weakened.

"Still, lucky the roads aren't blocked. When I left my house, a few stretches were cut off and I had a terrible time getting back around. Ugh, terrifying. I hope nothing weird jumps out."

Fortunately, just as she'd hoped, we reached the hospital without meeting a monster or stumbling onto some enormous disaster site.

The moment we arrived, we went straight to the Awakener department and had the chips implanted on the inside of our left forearms.

Right up until the chip went in, Han Gyeol looked wound tight, but it was nothing worse than the sting of a shot.

Once the Awakener examination was finished and we were leaving the hospital, Senior In-hwa spoke.

"This feels strange. An Awakener registration certificate is easier to get than a driver's license."

"Well, for now it's only a registration card."

"Hehe. Then maybe we'll do the Hunter license training together? Classmates. We're classmates."

She said it as if the thought reassured her. Right—Senior In-hwa wasn't my senior anymore. She was a classmate.

"Thank you for today."

"We didn't really do anything."

"That's not true. Thanks to you two I got it issued quickly, and we made it to the hospital this safely. Next time I'll treat you to a meal."

"You really don't have to. Truly..."

"Where do you live? I'll give you a ride."

"No, we're fine. We've got somewhere to stop."

The situation felt a little off, so the words came out stiffer than I meant. Senior In-hwa wasn't cowed in the slightest. She only smiled wide.

"Here's my number. When I call, you have to come out with me, all right? Stay safe until then. See you next time, classmates!"

With that she clenched a fist, turned on a light step, and was gone.

"Get home safe!"

"..."

I dipped a bow in her direction and looked at Gyeol.

"I don't like her."

"What?"

I stared at him, dumbfounded.

How can you say that about our senior?! I wanted to snap it at him, but to the Gyeol standing here, Seo In-hwa was simply someone he had met for the first time today.

And if I considered Gyeol's social skills...

"You too. Since we awakened, you might be in worse shape than I am. Aren't you far too easy with people you don't know?"

Hard to say. Even if I told him it came naturally, that I had the years behind me, the Gyeol of now wouldn't understand.

On the outside I was twenty-one. Inside, a thoroughly old man had taken the seat.

...No. Even so, your thirties didn't make you an old man. A young man. A young man.

I scratched at my brow and smoothed my expression into something unbothered.

"You sulking?"

"Sulking? Who's sulking."

"You do this every time I make a new friend."

I let out a shameless little laugh, and Gyeol's brow crumpled all at once.

Our Gyeol was acting so much more like a kid than I remembered that I nearly laughed. It felt exactly like being back in our days at the facility.

"What? A friend? What do you even know about her, already calling her a friend—"

My pants pocket buzzed. The screen showed the name I had saved that morning. Gyeol peered over from beside me and scowled.

"Captain Seong Hyeon-jun."

I answered at once.

A voice I could already imagine growing fond of came through the phone.

"Word travels fast."

"Even with the Awakener guilds, is it really that bad?"

Excuse me—how would I know all of that? Of course I do know, but only because I regressed. How is a complete ordinary person supposed to grasp the situation? I wanted to throw it back at him... Fine. The situation was the situation.

They were desperate enough to want even the hands of people who had awakened yesterday. For them, it might even be a wretched place to stand.

We had managed to stop by the Awakener Management Department and come and go from the hospital in one piece, but the streets told the truth.

The whole country might as well have been under lockdown. No—this had happened across the world. The entire planet locked down. A truly awful state of things.

"Well. More or less."

"Sorry? Uh—starting when?"

"Right now? As you know, we don't even have our Hunter licenses yet."

Honestly, I thought it was completely absurd. Right now? That was ridiculous. Our Gyeol had only awakened yesterday. S-Rank or not.

Looked at another way, though, it could be a good opportunity. Calling a disaster like this a good opportunity pricked at my conscience.

I would be stuck to his side anyway. If we were careful, both Gyeol and I could raise our levels and pick up items. And, same as before, we could probably collect compensation from the state.

Until we earned our Hunter licenses, we couldn't just walk into a dungeon anyway.

It would also leave a good impression on the Monster Special Forces we would keep running into once we started moving through dungeons.

Personal wants were boiling up; that much was true. But what moved me most was simpler. If I helped now, I could save more people.

Even a small contribution could make things far better than before. Far better than holing up in a room and shaking.

"All right."

"Ha-jun."

Captain Seong Hyeon-jun's voice jumped a tone, as if he had expected nothing when he asked. Beside me, Gyeol's stare was hot enough to burn a hole through my face.

"Yes. So—where should we go?"

"Yes. We'll wait at the main gate."

"Send it before I change my mind. We only just awakened yesterday. We're scared to death."

I whined on purpose. He seemed to trust our ability too much, and I had the uneasy feeling he would see that I was a regressor.

Then again, Captain Seong's word wasn't entirely unbelievable. If he was in his right mind, he wouldn't simply throw Gyeol and me into a real fight. At best, escorting people out of a danger zone.

Even that was work for trained people. But right now they were short-handed—far too short.

All of it was that bastard's fault, the one who had filmed the internet broadcast. Irritation surged, but I decided to take it well. If you can't avoid it, enjoy it.

"Ha-jun."

Gyeol's voice was dark. Not so much from fear as from worry soaked all the way through.

"Hm? It's fine. Just trust me."

"No, I... I'm worried about you."

"Hm?"

"Sometimes you just swallow it and push yourself too hard."

Gyeol's burning eyes held steady on me. Making a Gyeol more than ten years my junior worry—guilt jabbed at my heart.

"It's fine. A hyung is allowed to overdo it a little."

"There you go again. I told you, please don't."

"Gyeol, I—"

"..."

"...What."

"Swallowing things and digesting them clean is my specialty. So there's nothing to worry about."

"What kind of logic is that."

Gyeol dropped his head. Then, for no reason at all, he kicked at the ground with his shoe.

"Hey. Thanks, hyung! That's more like it."

"I'm doing it because I can't believe you. And you're an early-year birthday, young for the class. Count it properly and I'm the older brother, but you keep— And... you really were something this time, sure. But I'm the one who's been protecting you until now."

"Oh, come on. You're going to nitpick that in a situation like this? Cheap."

"And who started this whole older-brother, younger-brother thing?"

I ruffled grumbling Han Gyeol's hair hard enough to leave it a mess. While we bickered lightly, a familiar SUV drew up.