Chapter 64 : You’ve got talent.

Yui Seul pulled up in a sports car so expensive it practically screamed money at first glance.

It was obvious—this wasn’t the same car she gave me a ride in last time on Namsan.

With me in the passenger seat, Yui Seul stepped on the gas and began heading toward her home.

But for some reason, watching her behind the wheel felt… unfamiliar.

She had always acted so casually around me—like a cool older sister from the neighborhood.

But seeing her driving multiple high-end sports cars like it was nothing reminded me.

She wasn’t just any Awakened.

She was the Awakened, often called the strongest of them all.

Cars like this must’ve been pocket change to her.

Eventually, we arrived at her home, and the words just slipped out of my mouth.

“Holy shit.”

There are lots of reasons someone might cuss.

In my case, it was pure, mind-numbing shock.

Calling Yui Seul’s house “fancy” didn’t even begin to cut it.

No, this wasn’t a house—it was a full-on mansion.

A yard.

A pool.

A gym.

A movie theater.

A training ground.

It was the kind of place that made you think, isn’t this way too much for just one person to live in?

It was that extravagant.

“Whoa.”

That was the only way I could express my speechless awe.

Not that I felt envious or discouraged or anything.

After all, this was Yui Seul.

She’d spent ten whole years putting her life on the line dealing with Anomalous Phenomena.

If anyone deserved to live in a mansion like this, it was her.

At the entrance to the mansion, I stopped in my tracks.

Yui Seul glanced back at me with a puzzled look and asked,“What?”

“I’m scared to go in.”

“And why, exactly?”

“If I accidentally bring down the Price of Blasphemy and put a hole in your expensive floor, that’d be a real disaster, wouldn’t it?”

“If you don’t want to pay the price of blasphemy or whatever, then don’t blaspheme in the first place.”

“That’s not really something I can control… You get mad too when someone insults someone you care about, right?”

“I just insult them to their face.”

“…”

Wow, must be nice.

“So… if I do end up putting a hole in the floor, are you going to kill me?”

“Yeah.”

“…Seriously?”

“Yup. So don’t piss me off. We don’t have time—just get inside already.”

Normally, when people joke like that, the other person says, “Come on, I wouldn’t actually do that,” and they laugh it off.

I didn’t expect her to just straight-up agree.

Oh, Beachy Mutbyeol.

If you truly care about your loyal devotee, please, just let me get through today alive.

Just like you did during that half-cam stream.

Mut-men.

***

Yui Seul’s one-on-one training on Anomalous Phenomena was way more professional than I’d expected.

Because of how casual she usually acts, I thought the training would be kind of half-assed too.

But now I realized—there was a real reason she brought me all the way to her house.

Her training started with the absolute basics about Anomalous Phenomena and Items and moved into advanced material.

Of course, the basics weren’t things you could just absorb in one lesson.

They were the kind of things I’d have to go home and study the old-fashioned way.

Ugh… memorizing stuff is a pain.

But wait—this is exactly what my ability is for, right?

If I just scan and store the info using my power, I can look it up on the Wiki later whenever I need it.

Why didn’t I think of that sooner?

If I’d awakened my ability back in school… I probably could’ve gotten into a top university as valedictorian.

No doubt.

After the basics came the advanced training.

“I’m going to ask you a question. Don’t even think about it—just answer immediately.”

Ah, so like… respond without hesitation?

“Got it.”

Spitting out answers without thinking is actually one of my specialties.

Then Yui Seul hit me with a question.

“Let’s say you use your ability to analyze an Anomalous Phenomenon and find out it completely nullifies other abilities. What do you do?”

“There are Phenomena like that?!”

“Did you sleep through the last lesson? I told you—if you’re an Awakened, you have to be prepared for every possible variable.”

“…”

“And I’ll be the one asking the questions.

You just answer.

Alright, this Anomalous Phenomenon has launched a physical attack on you, and it’s way too late to dodge.

If you get hit, you’ll either die for sure or be permanently disabled.

In that situation, what would you do?”

Right.

She told me to answer immediately without a second’s hesitation.

So I had no choice.

“I’ll block it with my body. I’ll just close my eyes and pray.”

“…You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“This Phenomenon nullifies powers, remember.

Your tough skin won’t help you.

As for your so-called god’s help… well, I’ve seen some things, so I can’t call it total nonsense, but let’s rule out divine intervention here.

Even so—are you still sure? You’ll block it with your body?”

“Yes.”

“Good. That’s all I needed. Next question—”

“W-Wait! Aren’t you going to explain it?”

If there’s a question, there should be an explanation too, right?

Yui Seul shrugged and replied.

“There’s no right answer to begin with, so there’s nothing to explain. What matters is whether, when you make a decision—right or wrong—you act on it with certainty.”

“Uh… but if it’s the wrong decision, won’t I die?”

“You’ll also die if you hesitate to make the right one. From experience, when dealing with Phenomena, acting immediately on the wrong decision works out better than hesitating on the right one.”

“So… does that mean I pass?”

“By my standards, yeah. By the Association’s? You’d fail. But hey, since we’re on the topic, let’s hear your reasoning.”

The reasoning was simple.

“I didn’t think I’d die from the hit, so I figured I’d just take it with my body.”

“…Even though it nullifies powers?”

“Yep.”

“Even though your ridiculously tough skin won’t work on this Phenomenon?”

“No, I think it’ll still work. Because the ability I have… to be precise, it’s not really a ‘power,’ it’s more like a racial trait.”

Yeah.

The ability I have is just called a “power” for convenience.

In truth, it’s more like a racial trait called “Devout Follower of Beachy Mutbyeol.”

I expected Yui Seul to push back after that answer.

After all, there was no Kim Jung-hwan here who could confirm whether I was telling the truth.

It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing someone would believe easily.

But surprisingly,Yui Seul looked like she believed me—at least a little.

She muttered to herself,“Quick instincts, guts, crazy streak for sure, and a solid backer…”

And finally,She came to a conclusion about me.

“You’ve got talent.”

***

And with that, the Anomalous Phenomenon training was postponed.

To begin with, trying to fully educate someone about Anomalous Phenomena—a literal disaster—in just one day was impossible.

Yui Seul once again drove me home herself.

She seemed to understand my situation—that I needed to get back quickly to stream.

“By the way, are you really going to keep living in that rundown place?”

“No. Actually, I was planning to check out some real estate starting today.”

At this rate, thanks to the price of Divine Retribution for Blasphemy, I might end up smashing my entire floor.

So moving out needed to happen as soon as possible.

If only Yui Seul hadn’t come to my place, I’d probably already be deep in a consultation with a realtor.

“Real estate? Why real estate?”

“To find a place to live.”

“No, I mean—why would you go to a real estate agent to find a place?”

“…Huh?”

I couldn’t make sense of the question.

If you’re going to move, of course you go to a real estate agency.

Where else would you go?

Seeing my confused expression, Yui Seul looked at me like why are you so puzzled? and asked again:

“Just ask the Association.”

“The Association? I’m just trying to find a place to live. Why would the Association get involved…”

Oh.

Wait a sec.

Come to think of it, I did hear Kim Jung-hwan mention something about ‘housing support for Awakened’ once.

At the time, though, I’d been too busy adjusting to my changed body and keeping up with streaming, and honestly didn’t really want any handouts, so I just half-listened and let it slide.

But yeah, now that I think about it, he definitely said something along those lines.

Instead of giving me a direct answer, Yui Seul gave me a cold smile that could freeze the air and asked again,

“Your handler’s Kim Jung-hwan, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought that bastard was at least competent at his job. Guess I was wrong.”

“…Huh?”

“We’re going to the Association.”

Her tone was colder than I’d ever heard before.

Startled by her 180-degree change in demeanor, I asked carefully,“W-Why are we going to the Association all of a sudden?”

“To rip into Kim Jung-hwan and Ye Jeong-hwan. These morons only work properly after they’ve been chewed out with some colorful profanity.”

“W-Wait! It’s not like that…”

“Oh, don’t worry.

I’ll throw a proper fit so this kind of crap never happens again.

Since when did the Association’s management of Awakened become such a damn joke?

What the hell are they doing not even informing rookie Awakened about their support options?”

I was flustered by her sudden aggression.

I mean, sure, I appreciated her getting mad on my behalf and all, but…Thing is, it wasn’t really the Association’s fault.

“I’m the one who said I didn’t need housing support in the first place.”

When I offered that sort-of explanation, Yui Seul looked at me like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Just a bit ago you gave a pretty solid answer, and I didn’t think you were that dumb.”

“How is that dumb?”

I had my reasons too.

Housing isn’t exactly cheap, and I figured the conditions for receiving support would be crazy strict.

And, as with most company-provided housing, I assumed it wouldn’t be anything great.

At best, it’d probably be a tiny 10-pyeong (about 33 square meters) one-room officetel.

Sure, that would still be a hundred times better than the place I’m living in now, but still.

Even if they gave me a slightly nicer officetel—or hell, even a 30-pyeong apartment—it wouldn’t really solve my problem.

What I needed was a house that could withstand the Price of Blasphemy.

A detached home with zero worries about noise between floors.

And then, Yui Seul looked at me like I was hopeless and said,“Are you hearing yourself right now? Choosing to live in a rundown dump while a brand-new 70-pyeong house is sitting there waiting for you—if that’s not dumb, then what the hell is?”

“…Wait. What did you just say? 70 pyeong?”

“Yeah, 70 pyeong. Brand-new, completed just last year. Detached  house.”

“A detached house? Are you kidding me—why the hell are you telling me this just now?!”

Seventy pyeong?!

That’s over ten times the size of my current place!

I thought they’d only support something like a 10-pyeong one-room studio.

I had no idea they were offering houses that big!

And it’s a detached house, meaning no upstairs neighbors to worry about—perfect for my Price of Blasphemy.

It was entirely my fault for cutting off Kim Jung-hwan mid-sentence because I wasn’t even considering accepting Association support.

Goddamn it.

Just how much of my life have I been screwing over by being like this?

Yui Seul’s final words—“Why are you getting dumber by the day?”…stabbed me right in the chest.