Super Rookie (2)
Curious about the level perk, Seon Yul immediately opened his status window.
[Stigmata Level: 31 (47.16%) (Stigmata Points: 2)]
[Unique Ability: Absolute Space <EX> (Level 5)]
[Level Perks]
1st Level ―> (Upon entering Absolute Space, you acquire the ability ‘Hyper Regeneration.’ However, once you leave Absolute Space, the Hyper Regeneration ability immediately disappears.)
10th Level ―> (Inside Absolute Space, you can use ‘Powerful Strike.’ The cooldown for Powerful Strike is 5 minutes.)
20th Level ―> (Upon entering Absolute Space, you acquire ‘Wire Master.’ However, once you leave Absolute Space, the Master effect immediately disappears.)
30th Level ―> (You can utilize Absolute Space as a Subspace. You can control all objects that exist within Absolute Space from outside of it. However, more than half of your body must not be inside, and it can only be used as Subspace from outside Absolute Space, not from within.)
[Acquired Abilities: None.]
“Subspace….”
It was a more unexpected level perk than he had imagined.
Seon Yul had assumed that, once again, the perk would grant him some additional ability inside Absolute Space. Instead, he had gained an ability that could be used outside of it.
“But maybe… this might actually be good?”
As he pondered it carefully, Seon Yul realized that this was by no means a bad thing.
First of all, he was well aware of what a Subspace ability was.
He had no choice but to know since there were already several users who possessed Subspace abilities.
The highest-ranked Subspace user he knew of was an American user.
He had chosen the ID ‘DHL’ and was known to possess an S-grade Subspace ability.
In fact, the grade of a Subspace directly represented its storage capacity. Though it had never been officially confirmed, DHL was said to be able to store nearly 10,000 tons by weight inside its Subspace.
However, since Subspace abilities had virtually no combat power, he had used his ability to run a logistics business. And as a result, he had become quite wealthy.
The only inconvenience was that his ability was perfectly suited for smuggling, so whenever he entered a country, that nation’s Management Bureau kept him under close surveillance.
To reduce that surveillance even slightly, he sometimes accepted support missions from Management Bureaus. But most of the time, he traveled around the world transporting large and heavy cargo.
And this was no different for other Subspace users.
Regardless of grade, most Subspace users ran logistics businesses like DHL.
The only difference was the scale of their operations.
Occasionally, some Subspace users worked in support roles for large guilds or major corporations, but in most cases, those individuals had lower-grade Subspaces that were too small to make a logistics business viable.
“But my Subspace seems a bit different….”
Just from the description alone, it clearly seemed somewhat different from the ordinary Subspace that merely stored and retrieved items.
“I should test it.”
In the end, the only way to find an answer was to test it.
***
“This is the highest-quality footage we’ve secured so far.”
On the screen Cha Seong Hyeon had brought up, the video of the Mana Hornets being one-sidedly slaughtered was playing.
It was not the blurry footage filmed by the broadcasting stations from afar, but a somewhat clearer recording taken by the strike team.
What the strike team had used was an emergency-contact smartphone (magic stone device).
The camera function had only been installed for basic video calls, so it did not have a high-resolution lens.
However, at the very least, the image quality was far superior to the telephoto-lens footage shot from an extreme distance by the broadcasters.
“That… something is being fired from midair, right?”
Director Jeong asked Seong Hyeon as he carefully examined the screen.
“Yes, that’s correct. In fact, after conducting a detailed frame analysis, I’ve concluded that… it is highly similar to bullets being discharged from an M134 Minigun.”
“Minigun?”
“Yes. Based on that, I’ve reached a 99% probability that the user known as AbsoluteSafetyFirst possesses some kind of special awakening ability that allows him to use modern firearms within a mana barrier.”
“Is that really possible…?”
“The manifestation method of abilities is difficult to predict, but I am certain of this conclusion.”
“If that’s true, that’s truly remarkable. Then, is it possible he can use other weapons as well?”
“To determine the exact limits of the ability, we would need to know the manifestation mechanism… and he will absolutely never reveal that. However, last time it was a sniper rifle, and this time it’s a Minigun, so at the very least, it appears that he can use most conventional firearms.”
“All right. Let’s assume all of that is true. Then what would be the precise value of this ability?”
In truth, Director Jeong was not a mana user.
Even so, the greatest reason he had become Director of the Gate Management Bureau was his precise judgment.
“I believe it is an awakening ability with the potential to grow to at least on par with the Twelve Heavens.”
“Twelve Heavens? Isn’t that setting the bar too high? Being able to use firearms within the domain of mana is certainly a tremendous advantage… but in the end, there must be limits, no?”
“When you say limits, do you mean against monsters? Or against other users?”
“Against other users, of course.”
“I’m fully aware that no matter how powerful firearms are, they pose no real threat to hyper-ranker-level users who have far surpassed human limits. But Director.”
Seong Hyeon briefly paused the video and rewound it to show the scene of the Mana Hornets being swept away. Then he spoke again.
“Look at this. The limits are clearly visible when facing other users. But when facing monsters, it will likely have greater versatility and efficiency than almost any other ability.”
Click.
He froze the frame and concluded his statement.
“We simply need to use the blade appropriately for its intended purpose.”
“Hmm….”
“If you grant me full authority to negotiate with AbsoluteSafetyFirst, I will try to establish a cooperative relationship with the Bureau.”
“He seems extremely reluctant to reveal his identity… do you think that’s possible?”
“We’ll have to negotiate in a way that makes it possible. If we take our time and build trust, perhaps later we could even get his assistance with Project R… that’s what I’m hoping.”
“If that happens, it would be excellent.”
“Judging by his disposition, we absolutely must not rush. I’ll proceed calmly.”
“Good. I’ll grant you full authority. We were planning to handle this as a secret project between just the two of us anyway, so there shouldn’t be any issues.”
“The fewer people who know this kind of information, the better.”
“These days, talent outflow is getting worse and worse. At this rate, the Bureau could end up being nothing more than a hollow scarecrow.”
“In the end, isn’t the only solution to improve treatment for mana-user employees and implement welfare policies that support their growth as much as possible?”
“As a matter of fact, we’re preparing legislation for exactly that. If nothing unusual happens, both the National Assembly and the government have promised to pass it quickly.”
“That’s a relief.”
The Republic of Korea Gate Management Bureau was an organization directly under the President.
And it even received support from the World Gate Management Bureau, giving it more power than any other government agency.
Some even said that the Director of the Gate Management Bureau was the true Prime Minister of South Korea.
Of course, Director Jeong himself had no interest in such political matters.
He had only one goal.
To eliminate all Gates that existed and would come to exist in South Korea as quickly as possible, while simultaneously managing all users residing in the country to prevent incidents.
It was an extremely complex and difficult goal for a single objective… but nevertheless, he was burning his entire life for that purpose.
***
A room with nothing but a small desk.
Dim lighting, countless smartphones scattered across the desk. And a woman sitting in front of it, deep in thought.
After a short time passed, one of the many smartphones scattered before her lit up.
A single line of chat appeared on the screen.
[Where is the location?]
The language displayed was English, but since she was a mana user, it appeared in her primary language to her eyes.
One of the privileges of users who could access the community was this automatic language translation ability.
After silently staring at the chat, the woman finally seemed to reach a decision and placed her hands on the smartphone’s keyboard.
Then she slowly typed a reply.
[Republic of Korea. Seoul.]
As soon as she sent the reply, another message appeared.
[Can you specify the timing?]
[Impossible.]
[Are there any notable details?]
[Scale. Considerable.]
[Please provide any additional information.]
[None.]
With that final response, the chat ended. The moment it did, she split the smartphone in half without hesitation, destroying it.
“Of all places….”
Frowning as she tossed the broken phone into the trash can.
This premonition had been somewhat unstable.
That was inevitable… her precognitive ability provided unstable information whenever the premonition was related to herself.
And this time… the location had been Seoul.
The very Seoul where she lived.
That was the reason for the instability of the information.
“Should I avoid it?”
Her precognition ability was not omnipotent.
She couldn’t even choose what she wanted to foresee.
Thus, it was best to avoid danger as much as possible.
“No… If I avoid it, the prophecy will get distorted again.”
Once she had seen a prophecy, she absolutely must not interfere with it.
If she foresaw the winning lottery numbers and bought the ticket herself, the winning numbers would change.
Even if she instructed someone else to buy it for her to collect the winnings, the result was the same.
In other words, she could not intervene in any way.
She called this ‘the karmic burden of revealing heavenly secrets.’ If she relayed her prophecy to someone without any personal intent, the future would not change.
Thus, if she avoided the situation herself, there was a high probability that the future would change.
“Haah… damned precognition….”
In truth, she did not like her precognitive ability.
Its activation was entirely random, and it only allowed her to glimpse a few scenes of the future briefly, making precise prediction impossible.
And strictly speaking, her true ability was not precognition.
Her awakening ability was ‘Divine Eye.’
Its grade was SSS.
And its effect was the ability to see through what others could not see… but occasionally, it would arbitrarily pierce through to the future, and that was the true nature of her precognition.
Sometimes, the scenes she saw when her precognition activated randomly were related to events that could cause harm to people.
In such cases, she reported them to institutions that might be connected to the event.
At first, of course, most institutions ignored her reports.
But after this process was repeated for about ten years, there was no longer any place that ignored her warnings.
On the contrary, the UG worked to protect her identity, and as a result, only a very small number of people knew who she truly was.
Most simply referred to her as ‘Oracle.’
She had no intention of revealing her identity either, so she merely used the equipment provided by UG to deliver only the essential contents of her prophecies.
Oracle rose from her chair and went into the living room, almost collapsing onto the sofa.
She tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling.
No… she pierced through the ceiling, past the distant sky, and directly gazed at the stars in outer space.
Though it was broad daylight, she could easily see the stars of the universe.
This was the true ‘Divine Eye’ ability she could consciously control.
“For now, I’ll cancel all my schedules… and just stay home quietly while composing music.”
Recently, she had barely engaged in public activities anyway, so she didn’t have many scheduled commitments.
She couldn’t specify the timing, but most of these kinds of prophecies involved events that would occur within about a month.
So she decided to lie low for roughly a month.
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