The B-Rank Civil Servant and the Squishy Emergency Ration Chapter 1

Prologue

Chapter 1

A few days earlier, at the Seodaemun Branch of the Awakened Management Bureau.

As soon as he arrived at work, Tae-geon turned on his computer, logged into the company messenger, and habitually opened his internet browser.

The first things that appeared were various news articles and advertisements currently making headlines.

• Myth Guild Successfully Clears a Time-Limited A-Rank Gate
• Gate Material Prices Soar… Related Stocks Rise Across the Board
• Beloved National Actress Han Seo-yoon Confirms Relationship with an Overseas S-Rank Hunter
• Europe Struggles with Rising Crime Rates Among Awakened Individuals
• U.S. Gate Environment Replication Project Still Facing Difficulties
• The Secrets of Awakened Bodies… Differences in Basal Metabolic Rates Under the Spotlight

Tae-geon casually skimmed the list of articles, then opened the news homepage and clicked on the “Gate” category. The top of the screen was filled with articles about famous guilds, but he scrolled past them.

Rattle, rattle, click, rattle, rattle, click.

In the empty office, the sound of the mouse wheel turning and the clicking continued for quite some time.

• Body of Hunter Who Went Missing During Search Discovered

The noise stopped only when Tae-geon came across the article he’d seen the previous night.

“……..”

As if he could erase what he’d seen, Tae-geon deliberately closed the browser window. Just then, his coworkers began arriving one by one.

He greeted each of them, glanced at the time, and headed toward the break room. This was his only chance to enjoy his morning jelly.

Just as he was about to open the break room door—

“Officer Tae, come here for a moment.”

Manager Kang, who had arrived early for some reason, called out to him. Tae-geon hadn’t done anything wrong, but he still felt a little nervous as he followed him.

“Have you checked the trainee assignment list for this session?”

Manager Kang had gone out to the smoking area as soon as he arrived at work. He took out a cigarette and spoke. Tae-geon hadn’t received the list yet, but he naturally lit Manager Kang’s cigarette for him before answering.

“Officer Seo should be printing it out around now.”

The classroom assignments were announced on the morning of the session. If they were announced in advance, complaints would come in asking for a different instructor.

And, unfortunately, he was the main reason for that.

Manager Kang exhaled a cloud of smoke and continued.

“Even if you haven’t seen the list yet, you should have a rough idea of how many trainees you’ll get. You know how many you’ve been assigned in the past.”

Tae-geon hid his troubled feelings and did his best to answer calmly.

“…I’m expecting somewhere between three and six.”

“Of those, how many do you think will have specifically requested to take your class?”

“……..I… don’t know.”

Manager Kang let out a deep sigh before answering.

“Right. Sometimes, not knowing is a blessing.”

“……..”

“The Gate Management Division has requested additional staff.”

“…I’d like to stay here.”

If he couldn’t stay here, there would have been no point in becoming a civil servant in the first place.

“I know. I understand that, too. But the higher-ups don’t see it that way.”

“……..”

“Honestly, the other officers fill their classes to the brim with twelve trainees each, while you get six at most. And most of those are people who were pushed out because the other classrooms were already full.”

“…But I believe practical training is better with fewer people.”

“That may be true for practical training. But most of our classes are theoretical. At most, the trainees spend two or three hours experiencing a Gate before coming back.”

“But we need to prepare for any unexpected dangers—”

At that moment, Manager Kang’s voice suddenly rose.

“Officer Tae! I didn’t call you here to hear your opinion! The problem is that the higher-ups see this situation as a waste of manpower!”

“……..”

“They think it’s better to assign those three or four trainees to another officer and increase that officer’s class size instead of assigning them to you!”

“……..”

Tae-geon wanted to argue that, when it came to handling unexpected situations, they should actually hire more instructors and reduce the number of trainees per class. But given the circumstances, he simply lowered his head.

“Do you think you’re a private academy instructor? You’re a civil servant, so act like one. Why do you think the trainees avoid your classes?”

“…I’ll correct my behavior.”

“Anyway, the higher-ups want to reduce the number of instructors. If things keep going like this, there’s a good chance you’ll be transferred, so keep that in mind.”

“…Yes, sir.”

Tae-geon returned to the break room and tried to calm his troubled mind by eating Chubijubi. If things continued this way, he would be the one transferred.

…I really did work hard, though…

Why wasn’t he popular? He was still thinking about it when someone entered the break room.

It was Officer Seo Jae-hyeon from the Awakened Registration and Management Division. He had a rather sensitive-looking face, which he concealed behind a pair of large, round glasses.

He gave Tae-geon a quiet nod and made himself a morning coffee. The office didn’t provide paper cups for civil servants, but he bought his own with his personal money because he couldn’t be bothered to wash dishes.

“Come to think of it, the trainees are coming in today, aren’t they?”

At the sudden question, Tae-geon looked up while opening his second bag of Chubijubi.

He paused to think. Officer Seo was the one who sent him the trainee list after registering the Awakened, so he wouldn’t have brought this up because he didn’t know the trainees were arriving. In fact, the list he’d just delivered should already be sitting on Tae-geon’s desk.

He must have mentioned it because he wanted Tae-geon to check the list, or because he wanted to pass along some information related to it.

Having finished his brief deduction, Tae-geon opened the rest of his Chubijubi bag, popped one into his mouth, and asked,

“Who’s coming?”

At the question, Seo Jae-hyeon lowered the paper cup he’d been bringing to his lips and asked with a slightly uneasy expression,

“I’ve been thinking this for a while, but you’re surprisingly sharp for someone with your build. I didn’t think becoming Awakened made people smarter… Did you receive some kind of special training? Or is there something in that jelly you always eat…?”

“Yes.”

“……..?”

“It contains vitamins.”

Tae-geon picked out his favorite lemon-flavored Chubijubi and held it out to Seo Jae-hyeon. Seo looked uncertain, but popped one into his mouth anyway. His face immediately twisted into a grimace.

“It’s too sour.”

“That’s the best part.”

“Are your taste buds numb or something?”

Tae-geon shrugged and continued.

“Is there anyone among today’s trainees I should watch out for?”

“Oh, right. We had an A-rank Awakened individual appear recently.”

For a moment, Tae-geon’s fingertips trembled. Even at his previous post, whenever trouble broke out, it was always with A-rank Hunters.

Especially the male ones.

He couldn’t tell whether it was a characteristic of males or simply the arrogance typical of young people, but there were always some who looked down on others by flaunting their rank. The kind of people who couldn’t stand not establishing a pecking order.

If he left such people alone, the atmosphere in class would become a complete mess, and he would lose the trainees’ trust as an instructor. So Tae-geon always made sure to put them in their place before anything happened.

Of course, this sort of thing didn’t happen often. Fewer than twenty people awakened as A-rank individuals each year, except during the early days of awakening. If you narrowed those odds down to the Seodaemun Branch alone, they became even slimmer. Some rural branches with smaller populations hadn’t seen a single A-rank or higher Awakened individual since Gates first appeared.

But perhaps because they knew how rare and valuable they were, people who awakened as A-rank individuals almost always acted superior and looked down on lower-ranked Awakened individuals.

Suppressing a sigh, Tae-geon asked,

“Is there a problem with this Awakened individual?”

“Unfortunately, he’s the son of our division chief. Everyone’s already heard the rumors, but I figured you wouldn’t know because you don’t pay attention to this sort of thing.”

“I only teach the training required to obtain a Hunter license.”

“That’s exactly why I’m telling you. You’ll obviously stick to the rules. But this time, please humor him. Who knows what kind of trouble he might cause? If you clash with him, you could get hurt…”

As he spoke, Officer Seo watched Tae-geon’s reaction. Apparently, he thought that because Tae-geon was B-rank, he wouldn’t be able to stop an A-rank trainee if the latter went on a rampage.

Of course, no matter how high someone’s rank was, an A-rank trainee who didn’t know how to control their mana was little more than a sturdy human being to Tae-geon.

Still, he didn’t dislike Officer Seo’s meddling. The fact that someone who generally disliked people was taking the time to worry about him meant that he was genuinely concerned.

Besides, Manager Kang had already warned him. If something went wrong this time, Tae-geon would almost certainly be transferred before he even had a chance to do anything about it.

“Of course, I know your adjusted rank is A-rank, Officer Tae… but that’s only inside a Gate, isn’t it? If you ended up fighting outside one, you could… well…”

“Thank you for worrying about me.”

As he spoke, Tae-geon handed Seo a bag of lemon-cola-flavored Chubijubi as a token of appreciation. Seo’s face briefly showed an uncertain expression, but he didn’t refuse it.

If Tae-geon kept giving him Chubijubi like this, sooner or later Officer Seo would fall in love with the jelly’s charms.

And perhaps Tae-geon’s plan was working, because Seo tore open the bag and asked,

“By the way, there’s something I’ve been curious about for a while…”

“Go ahead.”

“Your adjusted rank means you have a Guardian Star, doesn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

A Guardian Star.

The term referred to a constellation that had formed a contract with a Hunter, but the truth was that no one knew exactly what these beings were. People simply believed they were some kind of transcendent entities that occasionally chose humans and shared their power with them for reasons unknown.

Like ordinary skills, the blessings and skills granted by these beings were only effective inside Gates. However, skills directly bestowed by a constellation belonged to a different category from ordinary skills obtained through skill stones.

It was extremely rare, but some Hunters who had contracted with Guardian Stars could rise one rank higher while inside a Gate.

And Tae-geon was one of those rare cases. His innate rank was B, but his adjusted rank inside a Gate was A.

Apart from his dislike of Awakened individuals, Seo Jae-hyeon was quite curious about constellations. He asked with a serious expression,

“What kind of guy is your Guardian Star… I mean, what kind of being are they?”

“…What? Even if you ask me that…”

Tae-geon’s voice trailed off. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much to say about his Guardian Star.

Perhaps misunderstanding his reaction, Officer Seo flinched and hurriedly waved his hands.

“I-if it’s uncomfortable, you don’t have to answer. Maybe it’s because I’m a non-Awakened person, but sometimes I get curious about your world. Haha. What’s it like talking to a constellation?”

“Talking…?”

Tae-geon looked even more bewildered by the cautious question. The thing was…

“…Do constellations… talk?”

He had never spoken to his own constellation.

“…Pardon? I mean… What?”

“……..”

After Seo’s confused response, silence fell over the break room. Only after a long moment did he manage to speak again, still visibly bewildered.

“Well… as far as I know, they do… Officer Tae, have you really never spoken to your constellation?”

“I… no. I haven’t.”

“But surely you talked when you first made the contract? I heard the Hunter has to agree to it for the contract to be completed.”

“…Is that so?”

“What? Then how did you make the contract…?”

“I just found myself under contract at some point.”

“???”

Seo Jae-hyeon’s thoughts immediately became tangled.

…Did I gather the wrong information?

It was strange for the results to be this far off. Hunters who had contracted with constellations were rare, but there were still hundreds of them worldwide. His conclusions had been based on an enormous amount of data.

Seeing Seo’s reaction, Tae-geon spoke with a slightly dejected expression.

“…I haven’t really socialized with other Hunters, so I didn’t know.”

He didn’t have any contracted Hunters around him in the first place. And because he disliked interacting with Hunters, he had deliberately kept his distance instead of seeking them out. One reason he’d become a civil servant was that he wouldn’t have to get involved with Hunters who worked in the field professionally.

Still, he’d never imagined that other contractors could actually communicate with their Guardian Stars.

Of course, Hunters who had contracts were extremely rare, and most of those few were S-rank or A-rank Hunters. The fact that a B-rank like him had a Guardian Star at all was already an unusual case…

…Could it be that I can’t communicate with mine because I’m B-rank?

“N-no, it’s fine. I might have gotten it wrong. I’ve only picked up bits and pieces of information and rumors… Besides, contracted Hunters are rare to begin with.”

As Tae-gean quietly grew depressed, Officer Seo hurried to reassure him. Tae-geon thought he had a good poker face, but apparently, he was more perceptive than he looked.

Of course, Jae-hyeon hadn’t actually noticed any change in Tae-geon’s expression. Tae-geon’s shoulders were simply so broad that even the slightest slump was noticeable.

…The more I think about it, the more it seems Officer Tae is the unusual one…

With that thought in mind, Seo cautiously asked,

“What kind of skill do you have…? Ah, of course, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. That’s sensitive information.”

“Hmm… If Officer Seo tells me about constellations first, I’ll tell you about mine.”

“…I’m only familiar with publicly known information. Is that okay?”

“Yes. I don’t even know the publicly available information, so that’s fine.”

“…! Excellent!”

Thinking this was a good opportunity to learn more about constellations, Seo decided to share the information he’d collected. Contracted Hunters were so rare that non-Awakened people rarely had a chance to meet one. Most of the information came from unverified sources and rumors.

“Hmm, now that I have to explain it, I’m not sure where to start. Since you haven’t spoken to your constellation, let’s skip the part about the trials for now… I heard that contracted Hunters each receive a related title. Do you have one, Officer Tae?”

“I have several titles, so I’m not sure.”

“What? Officer Tae, you’re more of a big shot than I thought…”

Seo Jae-hyeon looked at Tae-geon with renewed respect. Hunters didn’t earn titles without spending a great deal of time fighting inside Gates.

Hunters often compared titles to achievements and overflowing experience points. They said that titles appeared when someone accomplished something that should have been impossible according to the data, or when they accumulated so much experience in a particular activity that they had reached the maximum level and overflowed it.

Repeatedly accomplishing similar feats could even upgrade a title.

In other words, titles were a visible sign of overflowing mastery. Hunters with titles were different from those without them, both in experience and in market value.

Tae-geon answered awkwardly,

“It’s not that impressive. I just… have about as many as other people.”

“And you don’t know which one is your constellation title?”

“I think I have one with the word ‘star’ in it, but I’m not sure whether it’s related to my Guardian Star.”

Tae-geon was fairly certain of the answer, but he vaguely brushed it aside. The title [Loved by the Stars] felt too embarrassing to say out loud.

“Then you must have received your title before the system window appeared?”

“Ah, yes. I started working in the early days.”

When Gates first began appearing, there were no system windows, nor was there any information about the Awakened. People had to learn everything through firsthand experience.

And naturally, the expeditions organized to gather this early information had low survival rates.

The system windows began appearing two years after Gates first emerged. By then, rank-measuring devices had been invented, and the expedition teams had managed to organize a reasonable amount of information about Gates.

Although Gates and system windows had appeared at different times, system windows could only be seen inside Gates or in areas flooded by them. As a result, people didn’t really distinguish between Gates and the system.

However, the information provided by the system windows didn’t differ much from what the expedition teams had already discovered and organized. Because of this, some people cautiously speculated that the system might simply be a program that organized and displayed information humans had already defined.

Then Jae-hyeon continued fishing for information under the pretense of sharing what he knew.

“It seems constellations usually give their contractors two or three skills. How about you, Officer Tae?”

“…It’s possible to have multiple constellation skills?”

“……..”

“……..”

Another awkward silence followed. Jae-hyeon cleared his throat and hurriedly changed the subject.

“I guess it varies from one constellation to another. I’ve also heard that they reveal the locations of hidden items and secret strategies for clearing Gates…”

“……..”

But once again, Tae-geon couldn’t bring himself to answer. His Guardian Star had never told him the location of an item or a hidden strategy. He’d never even had a conversation with it.

Reading his expression, Jae-hyeon asked hesitantly,

“…Are you sure you got the right Guardian Star? You said you don’t even know when you made the contract. What if you’ve fallen into some kind of trap…?”

“N-no, that’s not it. I… well… I’m very… grateful to my Guardian Star. Maybe I can’t communicate with it simply because I’m B-rank…”

Or perhaps it was just the quiet type.

Tae-geon consoled himself by remembering the times his Guardian Star’s skills had saved his life and the lives of his comrades. Without those skills, he would have died long ago.

Right. Maybe there are Guardian Stars who are like quiet, middle-aged men.

As he thought this and popped another Chubijubi into his mouth, he finally noticed the time.

“Oh, no. It’s almost time for class.”

“?!? I haven’t learned much at all!”

“We can continue our conversation next time. I’m curious about a lot of things, too.”

“…I suppose I have no choice. You have to tell me next time, all right?”

“Yes.”

Tae-geon readily nodded, left the break room, picked up the trainee assignment list from his desk, and headed to the classroom. He resolved to earn better evaluations from the trainees this time and somehow fill all the seats in his next class.

“Officer Tae, are you heading to class?”

“Oh, Officer Cha.”

As he walked down the hallway, he ran into Officer Cha Yu-jin from the same division, who used the classroom next door.

Cha hurried over, checked to see if anyone was nearby, and fluttered his hand as if asking Tae-geon to lend him an ear.

Tae-geon bent forward slightly, and a rapid-fire whisper reached him.

“Have you seen the trainee list for this session?”

“Ah… if you’re talking about the son of the chief of the Awakened Registration Division, Officer Seo already warned me about him.”

“Oh, good. That brat is a real troublemaker, so be careful. If things get too difficult, send him over to my class. I’m good at handling that kind of person, you know. Keeping them happy.”

Cha gave him a playful wink, as if telling him to trust him.

With his easygoing personality, Cha had been a great help to Tae-geon since the day they were appointed. He had always looked out for Tae-geon, who wasn’t very good at socializing.

But despite his gratitude, Tae-geon couldn’t keep relying on him. Cha was always a popular instructor whose classes were over capacity, while Tae-geon was the unpopular instructor who took in the overflow.

Besides, unlike Officer Choi, who would simply put on some YouTube videos and call it a day, Cha actually put effort into his lessons.

Thinking that he should ask Cha for teaching tips sometime, Tae-geon bowed his head and thanked him. Cha wiggled his fingers in farewell and walked into his classroom, his long, silky hair swaying behind him.

Tae-geon thought that, at least, he hadn’t been unlucky when it came to coworkers, and continued on his way.

Every month, around 220 people visited the Seodaemun Branch to have their ranks measured. Most were young adults who had just turned twenty and were hoping to turn their lives around. They stepped onto the measuring device with big dreams, but half of them received E- or F-ranks, making them practically no different from non-Awakened people.

Only those ranked D or higher qualified to become Hunters, and they had to complete a short mandatory training course lasting five days, with three hours of instruction each day.

And the person in charge of that training was none other than—

Tap, tap—tap-tap-tap.

“I’m Tae Tae-geon from the Hunter Education and Training Division.”