CLICK.
CLICK.
CLICK.
That was the sound of the pendulum of his patience ticking away. Whoever was calling him this early in the morning clearly wasn't aware that he was ignoring the ringing on purpose.
"Worthless. Who keeps on calling me?"
Cheon Areum muttered in a drowsy voice. The AI assistant in his phone registered his voice and responded to him correspondingly.
"You have 15 missed calls and one incoming call from Kim Ryung. It must be something important. Should I pick up the call?"
"Yeah, no shit."
Groggily revealing himself from under the blanket, Cheon Areum directly grabbed the phone from the bedside table and stuck it to his ear with his energy seeping out from the blanket.
"Hello?"
Answering the call, Kim Ryung spoke first with urgency. Cheon Areum noted the tone and replied thoughtfully.
"Is the world ending?"
"I guess... no?"
"Why do you keep calling me then? You clearly know I am asleep at this time of the day."
Cheon Areum whined wanting to kick his legs in the air. After bidding farewell to Rian and Yoon Seoyul as they left for school and the office, Cheon Areum had finished his meal and returned to bed. That had been his routine for the past two months he had been carrying this baby that was eagerly eating away his energy. Cheon Areum had to eat eight meals a day just to keep his energy levels stable and provide for their growing baby, and eight meals meant he had to eat during the night too. He had tried to skip a day and ended up getting energy boost drips for the whole day afterwards.
Well...despite everything, he still used his energy if he wanted to.
"I know. I know. Just hear me out, okay? It's about Yoon Seoyul..."
Opening his eyes slowly, Cheon Areum questioned further.
"What is it? Spill it out."
"Just don't panic or anything. It's not that bad... I mean, it depends, but he's fine, not injured at all—"
Kim Ryung rambled on as he was abruptly cut off by another person's shouting that came from afar.
"Tell him already! They won't delay it any longer than this!"
With his phone glued to his ear due to his energy, Cheon Areum perked up and arose from the bed, glancing out the floor-to-ceiling glass window.
"Delay what exactly?"
"Can you come to the central bureau like...right now?"
Choosing to not respond to his question, Kim Ryung posed another question.
"If you're not going to get to the point, I'm going back to sleep."
"It's Yoon Seoyul! He's at the central bureau."
Afraid he would really do that, Kim Ryung didn't hold back at all and spoke out. Now interested, Cheon Areum listened attentively.
"What is he doing at the central bureau?"
If he remembered correctly, Yoon Seoyul had no plans to go there. He was supposed to be back home by now.
"Destroying... he's destroying everything."
"....."
"The last time, it took years for the central bureau to return to its original state, and that halted so many operations. Awakeners couldn't even register for a hunter card for half the year..."
"Is he on the news yet, or were you called specifically by someone from there?"
Speaking out calmly, Cheon Areum checked the time from his phone. It had been two hours since he last ate. He had to eat every three hours, and if he used too much of his energy, he had to eat even more. Tilting his neck from side to side, he thought about it for a moment.
"I was informed. Even after retiring, I'm still the one who gets complains about Yoon Seoyul. Can you please go and stop him? It's not like he listens to me."
"Fine, I'll go."
Only because he was worried about Yoon Seoyul. He had yet to determine if there was a significant decrease in Yoon Seoyul's class. If he rebelled like the old days without being able to fight against them... there was a part of him that felt guilty for taking Yoon Seoyul's pure energy, so he would do anything to not let his main character feel a difference in his power. Cheon Areum was also Yoon Seoyul's power. There was no way he'd leave him alone to handle his disputes.
Ending the call, Cheon Areum stored his phone in his inventory and chose the fastest route to the Central Bureau—flying.
His body dispersed into a thousand black butterflies, their wings beating in silent unison as they poured out through the floor-to-ceiling window and scattered into the open sky, carried away on the wind.
Their house was surprisingly close to the Central Bureau for Awakeners. For Cheon Areum—well, Kim Sangmin—it was his first time visiting the Central Bureau in person, since the guild had always handled everything on his behalf. Landing within the sealed premises, Cheon Areum's feet touched the cold ground. His gaze swept over the countless black vehicles surrounding the building, parked as if in great haste, scattered chaotically across the area.
He instinctively tried to search for Yoon Seoyul inside the building, but his senses hit a wall. A barrier was in place—a shield designed to block the flow of energy both in and out. In other words, he couldn't enter the building using his abilities. There must be other awakeners present within the building, deployed by the central bureau who were responsible for this barrier.
They were definitely far more prepared than they had been during the last incident. As Cheon Areum walked toward the transparent entrance doors of the building, the interior beyond them appeared empty, devoid of movement or presence. He raised his hand and tapped the barrier with four fingers that was blocking him from entering. At once, black energy leaked from his touch, spreading outward like ink in water. It crawled along the surface of the shield, racing toward its limits until it swallowed the barrier whole, overtaking every inch of it.
Cheon Areum reached out and seized the barrier with his bare hand, his fingers sinking into it as if it were nothing more than fragile paper. The shield buckled instantly under his grip. With a sharp pull, he tore it apart, ripping the barrier straight out of the air in a single, decisive motion, leaving the sky and space before him bare once more. The barrier had been erected by an S-Class awakener, but that hardly mattered. Corruption was his strong suit. He was confident he could do the same to a barrier reinforced by an S+ Class all the same.
Black trails of energy coiled out from his feet as he stepped into the building barefoot, with his soft soles meeting the broken glass shards on the ground, but he remained untouched by them. The moment he crossed the threshold, sharp gunshots echoed through the halls, followed by a crushing distortion of gravity born from unleashed wild energy swings. Yoon Seoyul's energy. He was using his skill frenzy mode. Cheon Areum clicked his tongue in irritation. Of all skills, this one was the most troublesome to restrain. True to its name, Frenzy was volatile and violent, often spiraling beyond control—sometimes even Yoon Seoyul himself couldn't rein it in.
The closer he got to Yoon Seoyul's energy, the sharper the ache in his head became. This troublesome skill radiated outward enough to even affect him slightly. Holding his head, Cheon Areum stepped into the scene: a throng of people kneeling aimed their guns at Yoon Seoyul. They wore the black-and-white uniforms of the renowned Emergency Suppression Protocol team, known throughout the country. Each held specialized bullets designed to suppress an awakener's abilities, disrupting the flow of energy with precision.
Using a Long-Range Acoustic Device, the person leading the ESP team addressed Yoon Seoyul from the frontline, his voice amplified and distorted as it cut through the air with a final warning.
"Mr. Yoon Seoyul, you are hereby ordered to surrender by immediately deactivating your skill. Failure to comply will leave us with no choice but to open fire. It is illegal to activate abilities within the Central Bureau premises. I repeat—"
"What a nuisance."
Cheon Areum mumbled out in a low voice. The members of the ESP team who heard it instinctively stepped aside, whispering his name among themselves in awe. As the strongest awakener in the country, hardly anyone didn't know of him. Even as they straightened, lowering their weapons in deference, Cheon Areum wasn't satisfied. Without a visible motion, he compelled each of them to release their firearms. The guns clattered to the ground, suddenly impossibly heavy, as if each one now weighed ten times its normal weight—utterly immovable.
The backline broke apart, but the frontlines—too slow to notice Cheon Areum's presence—opened fire on Yoon Seoyul, expecting him to surrender. Yoon Seoyul, however, would never deactivate his skill for such a flimsy warning. Bullets sliced through the air, but they never reached their target; they froze mid-flight, suspended as if time itself had stalled. Finally sensing the anomaly, the team leader's eyes snapped toward Cheon Areum—by now, the frontier was already paralyzed, their movements restrained completely by Cheon Areum's energy. Even if there were awakeners in the team, no one held a class of S+ Class.
The team leader opened his mouth to speak, but Cheon Areum ignored him, his gaze fixed solely on Yoon Seoyul. Yoon Seoyul's hands were suspended in the air, bound by glowing yellow threads that looped around his wrists and arms. Dark red, rustic energy clashed violently with Cheon Areum's black energy as he stepped closer. Catching sight of Cheon Areum, Yoon Seoyul's eyes momentarily flashed with the crimson streak of his energy from the end—but that flash was abruptly cut off. With a sharp exhale, he deactivated his ability, tearing his hands free from the glowing restraints as the energy around him dissipated.
"What are you doing here?"
Yoon Seoyul spoke out to him. Cheon Areum quietly wrapped his arms around Yoon Seoyul's torso, standing on the tiptoes of Yoon Seoyul's shoes to press himself fully against him. He nuzzled into Yoon Seoyul's chest, inhaling the faint trace of pheromones lingering there. Yoon Seoyul hugged him back, holding him with a firm, comforting embrace.
"Go home, Areum. You have nothing to do with them."
"I'm not convinced. As long as you're here, I'm not leaving."
"We have matters to discuss with you, Mr. Cheon Areum. Since Yoon Seoyul is opposed to the idea and won't allow us to reach you directly, we request a private audience with just you alone."
They were still exchanging words when a voice carried to them through the long-range speaker aimed directly at Yoon Seoyul. Cheon Areum turned to see who had spoken. It was a different man—impeccably dressed in an expensive three-piece suit—who had taken control of the device from the leader of the ESP team. The suspended bullets in the air silently shifted, now aimed at him as Yoon Seoyul forcibly turned Cheon Areum back to himself.
"Areum."
"What?"
Feigning innocence, Cheon Areum murmured softly, leaning into Yoon Seoyul's arms coyly. Holding him close, Yoon Seoyul whispered for only him to hear.
"Don't kill anyone."