Ch.100The Origin of Abilities

# Enhanced Translation

I sniffed more carefully, trying to catch more details of the scent coming from Yeo Un-jae’s body.

However, the smell disappeared shortly after.

“What a shame, if your ability had been energy manipulation rather than physical enhancement, I could have taught you other techniques… Oh, I was in the middle of class.”

Yeo Un-jae expressed genuine regret before collecting himself and returning to the other students.

Now that he had calmed down, the scent had subsided.

Still, having smelled it up close, I felt I understood its nature a bit better.

“Everyone, I believe you’ve learned many things from the recent sparring match. As you’ve seen, even the strongest power can be redirected simply by changing its direction…”

All animals—monsters, beasts, humans—emit a distinctive scent when excited.

That scent, mixed with Yeo Un-jae’s body odor and the laboratory’s stimulant smell, was what I detected.

It’s quite strange for a body to secrete pharmaceuticals.

The pills I found on Meister—could Yeo Un-jae be regularly taking an improved version?

If only I could bite off a piece of him, I’d know for certain.

I widened my eyes and lowered my posture slightly.

“Park Deun-deun, the sparring is over.”

“I understand you enjoyed the match, but let’s be reasonable—you’re not a beast.”

“Hmm.”

Being an A-rank hero means noticing the signs before an attack.

Stopped by Yeo Un-jae’s two disciples, I crossed my arms to indicate I was done.

Perhaps because I enjoyed our little game earlier, my instincts had gotten ahead of me.

It’s still too early to act wildly.

I can’t even be certain that Yeo Un-jae is definitely connected to the laboratory.

There’s no need to cause a commotion that would put the laboratory on alert.

For now, I should investigate why Yeo Un-jae’s body smells like the laboratory—like a cat stalking its prey.

“From now on, everyone must use only their physical bodies.”

The class continued tediously after that.

Demonstrations of techniques for students, efforts to use techniques without relying on special abilities.

“If you only depend on your ability without knowing how to move your body, you’ll lose power when it matters most. Ultimately, when both your ability and body reach their limits, you’ll suffer irreversible injuries like this.”

Yeo Un-jae, who had removed his prosthetic arm damaged during our sparring, raised his severed arm.

The students moved their bodies like ordinary humans, completely suppressing their abilities.

“This technique is called ‘Balgyeong.’ Once you master this method, you’ll learn to instantly increase your output only when necessary, using your power efficiently even when using your ability.”

In other words, this was training to increase overall stamina for both ability and body.

For me, who could already control not just my ability but even the movement of my core to conceal my presence, this was pointless information.

“How did he do that right away…?”

“What exactly are we supposed to do?”

“Is it like this?”

“It’s normal not to be able to draw any power at first.”

The superhumans continued practicing while glancing at me, and I yawned and stretched.

After the boring session passed, the most tedious time came at the end.

“Meditation for self-reflection is always important.”

As the sweat-soaked superhumans sat down to catch their breath, Yeo Un-jae walked among them.

“What if I had done this differently? What was lacking in this body movement? By looking at yourself objectively, you can gradually feel your way through pitch-black darkness to discover what you’re capable of.”

With his deep, dignified voice and evenly paced footsteps,

I lay comfortably on my side, nodding off.

“Also, contemplating oneself is important in firmly shaping the form of your ability.”

By the time I was half-asleep, Yeo Un-jae began talking about human abilities.

“This has become common knowledge now. According to Meister’s analysis, human abilities are related to fear and trauma.”

“Hmm…?”

Information about human abilities that I couldn’t learn at the laboratory, which only dealt with monsters.

I listened carefully while lying down, hearing this for the first time.

“At the moment of greatest fear, recalling the strongest power, and obtaining what is most needed—that is the nature of human abilities.”

Monsters evolve by devouring the strongest fears and despair that humans experience just before death.

“Someone you all know, in the midst of questioning this situation, wanted the power to know everything; someone wanted speed faster than anything else; someone wanted a wall that could block anything; someone wanted bullets to chase hidden monsters… someone wanted the strongest power they knew.”

Meister, Electris, Cage, Baskerville, and the last one… Starlight or Yeo Un-jae?

“And someone… wanted to be free.”

Now I’m not sure who he’s talking about.

I found myself interested in the awakening process of abilities that Yeo Un-jae described.

If human abilities truly awaken by devouring one’s own fear and despair,

Then the power of superhumans is no different from monsters.

“Face your own fears and ask yourself: What strength did I think of? What was I trying to overcome? What did I most strongly desire just before awakening my ability?”

Perhaps because I was half-asleep, Yeo Un-jae’s voice automatically stirred my unguarded mind.

Like in a dream, I recalled the fear I felt as a child.

“What did I fear most?”

I… feared someone close to me dying right before my eyes…

“Hmm…”

Awakened by the unpleasant memory, I frowned and got up.

Just then, as if meditation had ended, Yeo Un-jae clapped his hands once to wake the students.

“That concludes today’s class.”

“Thank you!”

“Trauma… Come to think of it, it’s so fundamental, but I haven’t thought about it for a while.”

“Well, it’s not something I want to remember.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of it. So heroes take classes like this…”

“No wonder there are more and more B-rank and A-rank superhumans on the hero side these days.”

All the students, superhumans, and heroes stood up, bowed to Yeo Un-jae, and left the hall.

As everyone chatted and murmured while leaving, Yeo Un-jae approached me, who remained standing still.

“Park Deun-deun, could I have a word with you?”

“What is it?”

“You didn’t know about the relationship between trauma and abilities, I see. It’s not surprising since until recently, this information was only disclosed to heroes.”

When I responded with obvious displeasure, Yeo Un-jae smiled as if he had expected it.

“Yet you’ve reached A-rank, which suggests you’ve lived a rough life. Always needing greater strength to overcome challenges.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“How rude! Show some respect!”

Yeo Un-jae raised his arm without the prosthetic to stop his disciple who was getting angry at me.

“Seeing how you’ve grown this far on your own, I believe with just a little more knowledge, you could easily reach S-rank. I can teach you techniques to compensate for the peculiarities of your ability, and methods to increase your ability’s output.”

“Are you asking me to become your disciple?”

“Yes, I am.”

“No thanks.”

“You don’t even realize what an opportunity this is…!”

At my immediate rejection, Yeo Un-jae smiled as if he had expected it, while his two disciples frowned and intensified their aura toward me.

As I walked out following the other students, I flicked each of the two women once on the forehead.

“Eek!”

“Hik!”

The two superhumans who had been hit on their bare foreheads with the same flick that construction workers feared even while wearing safety helmets, made strange sounds and clutched their foreheads.

Advice about human abilities is useless to me.

The ability of monsters, of CXI, is to devour other abilities.

It has nothing to do with the fears I had when I was human.

“Feel free to come back anytime.”

I turned my head slightly at Yeo Un-jae’s voice and met his gaze with one eye.

I do plan to return.

But for a different purpose than what Yeo Un-jae expects.

#

After returning to the empty hotel, I slept briefly before waking to the presence of a monster approaching.

Gu Seo-ryong entered through the door with both hands full of what she called flounder sashimi.

She said she carried it herself because Sa Gu-gu would secretly eat it if she put it in her space.

“Mmnyamnyamnya!”

“This flounder sashimi, as you called it, is delicious.”

“A City has so many delicious things!”

“Can’t you eat more slowly? No one’s going to take it… though we are taking from each other.”

This flounder sashimi was incredibly delicious.

Sa Gu-gu seemed to think so too, as she grabbed handfuls with her bare hands and stuffed her mouth full, just like me.

“Sa Gu-gu is so happy… I have big brother, I have mommy, I have delicious…”

After filling her stomach, Sa Gu-gu rested her head on Gu Seo-ryong’s lap and began to doze off.

Once Sa Gu-gu quieted down, Gu Seo-ryong asked me about what happened today.

I told her everything about my encounter with Yeo Un-jae.

“So Yeo Un-jae even asked you to become his disciple?”

“Mm.”

“Really, you never move in the direction I predict… Anyway, you’re saying the laboratory smell briefly intensified when Yeo Un-jae got excited, right?”

Gu Seo-ryong was about to clap her hands but stopped and gently tapped the bed instead, while stroking Sa Gu-gu’s head to keep her asleep.

She seemed to be reducing the noise to avoid waking Sa Gu-gu.

“What could it be? Could drug components accumulated in the body be released during excitement…? I’ve never heard of medication triggered that way. Unless, conversely, he momentarily lost control of suppressing the drug when excited.”

“Hmm.”

At Gu Seo-ryong’s muttering, I recalled suppressing the laboratory drugs injected into my own body.

Forcibly calming emotions can help ignore drug-induced excitement, but when emotions run high, control can be momentarily lost.

If that’s the case, Yeo Un-jae’s body must already be saturated with drugs.

“In such a state, he couldn’t help but notice something was wrong.”

“Exactly, so that means Yeo Un-jae knows exactly what effect the drug has on his body and is taking it deliberately while controlling it? I really don’t understand what he’s doing. If you’re going to take it, take it; if not, don’t. Why take it and then control it?”

“Just get to the conclusion.”

“Considering the drug’s components, Yeo Un-jae is maintaining a constant state of alertness at a moderate level. Direct control, you might say? Hmm… the control itself might be the goal. When I build immunity to unfamiliar poisons, I sometimes deliberately spend time in a poisoned state.”

“Gu Seo-ryong, that’s not a conclusion.”

“Since we still don’t know anything, investigate more. Focus less on the drugs or smells and more on whether Yeo Un-jae knows about the laboratory.”

I frowned at Gu Seo-ryong’s conclusion.

“That’s not helpful.”

“Oh my? It’s because you didn’t investigate properly and just played around that we lack information. When he asked you to be his disciple, you should have said ‘Yes, thank you’ and wagged your tail a little to gently probe for information about the laboratory.”

“I have no intention of becoming Yeo Un-jae’s disciple.”

“Who said to actually become one? Just say nice things to get him talking. Really, you’re too much. After all my hard work today, you say I’m not being helpful.”

“What did you do?”

“I made contact with a government official. Quite a pervert. As soon as Sa Gu-gu called me mommy, he asked if the two of us would like to come to his mansion… I pretended to be timid and followed along. With this, after just two more meetings, he’ll answer anything I ask.”

Wiggling her fingers as she spoke, Gu Seo-ryong paused and made a complicated expression.

“…In the process, I heard some suspicious things.”

“What?”

“It seems Cage isn’t just acting up in the usual way? On the surface it’s quiet, but behind the scenes, he’s trying to replace all the government officials. Among the evidence he plans to use as justification, there seems to be documents showing the government sold orphans somewhere.”

“To the laboratory?”

“Probably, right? In this era, conducting experiments on hundreds of children over such a long period would be impossible without involvement from high-ranking government officials.”

“Cage has those documents…”

There are people in the government connected to the laboratory.

Despite making significant progress, Gu Seo-ryong sighed instead of rejoicing.

“The problem is… I can’t approach Cage to investigate.”

“You don’t think you can beat Cage?”

“That’s not it. Cage probably knows me. Even if I use an ability to change my appearance, superhumans can identify others by their ability’s wavelength. The chance of revealing my identity is too high.”

“Have you met Cage before?”

“After escaping the laboratory, I had nowhere to go, right? A City was the first place I remembered.”

“So you were defeated by Cage and fled to W City.”

“Do we need to continue this conversation?”

Gu Seo-ryong showed her displeasure with a smile.

She’s upset.

I maturely changed the subject to accommodate the childish Gu Seo-ryong.

“So, are you going to investigate those documents further through the government official?”

“You should get close to Yeo Un-jae, become his disciple or whatever, and find out if he knows anything about the laboratory.”

“Sounds boring.”

“Investigation is always boring.”

Already bored at the thought, I sighed.