Chapter 331: Seoul (2) Part 2

TTITH IS BACK

“Three rolls of cheese kimbap, please.”

On his way back to the association, Park Min stopped by a kimbap restaurant and ordered cheese kimbap. There was no particular reason. He was just a little hungry, and kimbap had been his favorite dish in the Tutorial.

Park Min was from the first batch of Awakened. As soon as the Tutorial and monsters appeared in this world, he was summoned to the Tutorial’s first floor. Even now, the early stages of the Tutorial were the talk of the town.

At that time, there were various problems, but he clearly remembered the food problem. The only free meal offered in the Tutorial was beef jerky, and only on the first floor. From the moment the challengers cleared the first floor and went up to the second floor, they had to purchase all meals with points.

Park Min didn’t know what it was like now, but when he was in the Tutorial, he had to save more points to buy a potion. Most of the challengers had to get through with beef jerky or biscuits.

On rare occasions, such as his birthday, he collected presents from other challengers and bought Kimchi stew, the only luxury he could obtain.

Of course, Park Min was quite rich in the Tutorial. After all, he was a member of the Order of Vigilance. Although he had more points than others, Park Min did not invest lots of points into food.

Buying a roll of kimbap every time he cleared a stage was the only luxury he could have afforded. Kimbap was also the first food that Park Min searched for when he returned to Earth after clearing the Tutorial.

He didn’t know why either. He ate it every time he cleared a stage, so maybe his subconsciousness thought that he had to eat it, even after he’d cleared the Tutorial. It was like a reminder of his achievements.

Funnily enough, Park Min often bought and ate kimbap since then, and every time, he had an odd feeling. He had the impression that no matter how expensive the food he eats, he couldn’t quite taste it.

In those difficult times, he wasn’t aware that such food became his reward. He hadn’t even thought about it.

Park Min took the wrapped kimbap and asked, “If I’m not mistaken, I only ordered three. Am I wrong?”

There were more than five or six rolls of kimbap in the plastic bag. The lady who handed over the bag smiled and told him that she added more as a bonus. She had such a warm smile.

She didn’t even charge for the extra kimbap, so Park Min ended up returning to the association with free kimbap.

My uniform looks good. Park Min looked down at his costume to check.

In the past, Awakened were supposed to wear costumes that would be worn by Batman or Superman. As time passed, the regulations relaxed, and they didn’t have to wear them anymore. What Park Min was wearing right now was not a costume but a jumper reminiscent of a subway public service worker. But people still recognized him in those clothes, even though it was dull and unseemly.

Park Min felt good for the first time in a while. It wasn’t because he got free Kimbap. The moment he faced people with good intentions and kindness like the kimbap lady, his mood brightened.

When Park Min cleared the Tutorial and appeared at Seoul Station, he was treated like a hero. It felt amazing because he was the first Awakened in Korea.

Back then, it had been such a hectic day. He spent years like that.

In fact, he had spent more time in front of a camera and microphone rather than monsters. However, it wasn’t pointless. Through the interviews and broadcasts, Park Min reassured people and inspired them.

At that time, Park Min was a hero, but those glory days were over for him.

He used a private elevator and headed for the president’s office. After accepting the greetings from the people he encountered on the way to the office, he arrived at the office and opened a kimbap wrap.

* * * * *

“Is that Kimbap?”

Park Min nodded. “Try it. It’s too much to eat alone.”

“Okay then, if you insist.”

The team leader, Lee Song-eun, nodded and reached out for the kimbap. But it seemed like he had to wait for a while to put kimbap in his mouth. His mouth had other things to do.

“With everything going on, the association will crumble apart, President. The foundation of this association is the Awakened, after all. It would be nice if this odd phenomenon were to end as soon as possible.”

Lee Song-eun talked about the possibility of the association’s influence decreasing.

“If this situation, in which the Awakened are not returning, lasts for more than a few months, it will be fatal to the association. And if the Awakened never arrive at Earth, we will face the worst situation ever.”

“I think differently.” Park Min disagreed with Lee Song-eun’s opinion.

“This situation might bring favor to us.”

“Pardon?”

Park Min had always thought about this. There were too many Awakened.

“The Awakened’s influence cannot be diminished easily unless the monsters in this world are gone instantly. No, even if they do, the status of the Awakened will remain unchanged.”

It was rather the opposite. The status of the Awakened would soar if the monsters disappeared. The government would likely try to take the Awakened’s privileges by saying they were useless, but it wouldn’t happen.

The Awakened were already at the top of society. The Awakened who had worked under a company or government now owned the company and sat in government positions in each country and had extensive connections.

Only then, when Awakened showed up, the land value increased, and people began to gather. Because of them, the flow of money became smooth and people were guaranteed safety.

A powerful Awakened could even snatch the role of the state. If the monsters were gone, the Awakened’s position of the hero would ascend to the ruler.

Of course, it was a different matter whether the Awakened have the qualifications and abilities to do so. But the Awakened wouldn’t give a damn.

No one can stop them. They would do anything in their power to satisfy their greed. “The problem is not of the probability of the Awakened’s influence decreasing.”

Instead, the other Awakened who were not part of the association were the problem. Korea’s Awakened were originally divided into two groups: the association and the government.

Both sides did not dominate the other side because of the extreme outflow of Awakened. But a few years ago, things changed.

When Kim Min-hyuk came out of the Tutorial, he established a guild: a guild that resembled one from an online game. It brought together the Korean Awakened that were scattered all over the world.

Since then, it has become the largest Awakened community in East Asia. In Korea, most of the A-class or higher Awakened from the Hard difficulty level were in Kim Min-hyuk’s guild.

In Park Min’s eyes, it was hard to figure out how Kim Min-hyuk had coaxed so many Awakened.

When Park Min exited the Tutorial, many hard-level challengers could not pass the 50th floor. Park Min knew little about the bond between Kim Min-hyuk and the hard difficulty level challengers. One thing was for sure, Kim Min-hyuk’s guild posed a threat to both the association and the government.

Even if all the Awakened members of the association and the government were put together, it could not match the guild’s size.

If the Tutorial was closed and the Awakened’s status increased just like how Park Min predicted, the credit would fall to the guild, not the association. And that was the problem.

“We need to create a bigger issue. I need to change how things are going.”

“You already have something on your mind?” the team leader asked as she set her eyes on him. It was the team leader’s job to come up with such a plan. Park Min looked at the team leader, who was worried about being criticized as incompetent, and pointed to a place on the map.

Where he pointed to was near Pyongyang, North Korea, which had quickly fallen to ruin after the monsters’ invasion. They were no longer maintaining a country. It was more like a warlord’s area than a country.

The military units near the border were all that remained from North Korea. Beyond that, it collapsed from the invasion of monsters and was practically treated like a wasteland.

Pyongyang, which Park Min pointed out, used to be the capital of North Korea, but now it was just a wasteland occupied by monsters.

Pointing to it, Park Min questioned Lee Song-eun. “What if there were G-class monsters here?”

Seoul (2) Finished