The Interview (1)

“Yaaawn—”

I was bored.

After parting ways with Namgung Yoon yesterday, I’d gone to the Awakened Center and signed up for volunteer work.

Reporting unregistered gates and what not… I just wanted something easy and simple.

At the end of the day, contribution points were just a number, so there was no need to suffer through a difficult task.

The job I chose was security at the Awakened Center.

My Elemental Mage trait wasn’t exactly suited for security duty (A guard who breathes fire? I’d be lucky not to burn the building down), but it seemed my rank got me the position.

An A-ranker wants to be a guard? Their thinking must have been, He probably knows how to control his powers, right?

…

There was a time when I saw Yang Geun-tae and thought, Why is an A-ranker working security?

I never thought I’d become that guy.

And I had to do this for a whole week. Volunteer security duty at the Awakened Center was assigned in weekly units.

It felt a bit excessive for the number of contribution points I’d lost, but I was told it’s good to build them up in advance when you have the chance.

Anyway, all I had to do was sit in a suitable spot and wander around every now and then, as if on patrol.

And browse my phone in moderation.

AG: Please introduce yourself.

That was the message I’d sent to the applicants yesterday. I’d changed my nickname to something simple.

When I woke up today, replies were waiting. I was currently comparing their answers to the information ‘B’ had sent me.

Usually, the two sets of information matched, but occasionally they differed. It seemed the applicants didn’t know that ‘B’ was also giving me intel.

When the information didn’t match, I didn’t block them outright, but rather rejected them with a polite excuse.

Since they were people who had received information from ‘B’, there was no need to piss them off.

Of course, there were still some idiots who would cling to my pant legs even after a polite refusal, but I just ignored them.

If they had a problem with it, they should have been honest from the start.

But what was with the people who didn’t even reveal their names? I could pretty much tell who was who from their descriptions.

I ignored them, too.

And the ones who were a bit… incompetent, I put on hold.

I wasn’t sure if my standards were too high, but for now, I’d put anyone below C-rank on the back burner.

Additionally, if their position seemed to overlap with an existing member’s, I moved them down the priority list.

After all that filtering, three people remained.

Setting aside the option of ‘not accepting anyone,’ I had three main choices.

1. Accept them directly into ‘Narak.’
2. Accept them into ‘Blue Forest.’ I could decide later whether to bring them into ‘Narak.’
3. Meet them under the pretense of an interview, seduce them, and drain their Essense and Innate Vital Energy.

To be honest, I was leaning toward option three.

Was I drawn to it because I could drain their Essense and Innate Vital Energy? Maybe. In any case, I had to conduct interviews.

However, if I held interviews, placing them in ‘Blue Forest’ would be difficult.

I wanted to keep my existence a secret from ‘Blue Forest,’ but these applicants already knew a certain amount about me, and meeting them for an interview would confirm it.

I wasn’t quite ready to give up my life as a shadowy puppet master.

If someone betrayed me, the trail had to end with ‘Blue Forest.’

As for ‘Narak,’ I planned to use ‘Seductive Kiss’ or a ‘Verbal Contract’ to ensure their silence.

So, the conclusion was that I had to meet them.

The question was whether to use ‘Seductive Kiss’ or a ‘Verbal Contract’ and accept them into Narak, or just seduce them, take their Essense and Innate Vital Energy, and then reject them.

The latter seemed conscienceless, but from their perspective, they’d probably enjoy it.

I suspected the applicants’ motives were… well, you know.

Anyway, I still had to meet with Park Eun-su and Kim Hee-an.

I hadn’t gone on a date with those two yet. Since they were reward dates, they were a priority no matter what.

…

Ah, whatever.

I’ll just meet them in order of who’s available first.

Out of the three applicants and the other two, I’d just meet whoever was free.

…

Staring at my phone too much was starting to draw attention.

I put my phone away and focused on my guard duty again.

*

Quitting time!

Freedom.

Actually, there was a Flame sub-group meeting today.

Since there were many who wielded the Flame element, they met once every two weeks, unlike the Lightning sub-group which met once every four weeks.

However, I’d heard that people who attended one meeting often skipped the next, and I was no exception.

Because the “three sisters” said they weren’t going, which meant I wouldn’t know many people there.

Han Na-ri had told me that Park Ji-an was coming this time and that I should stick with her if I went, but I decided to skip it.

I planned to start attending after I learned to use my Imagery. Until then, once every four weeks might be fine, but I didn’t see the need to go every two weeks.

It was because I was busy right now, more so than with things I couldn’t even use yet.

…

To be honest, I felt like I’d been too busy lately.

Doing this, doing that… they say everyone is busy when they first Awaken, but I was living the lives of two Awakeners.

One of them had become a team leader in a massive guild with an insane growth rate.

The other was basically building a guild from scratch.

Thankfully, my physically strong sub-character was active, while my frail main character was practically on vacation, so it was manageable.

I needed to get my sub-character on a stable track before my main character got busy…

Could I do that by putting ‘Blue Forest’ on auto-hunt and just logging into ‘Narak’ from time to time?

Honestly, with my main character, I enjoyed the overwhelming rush of success and growth.

And with my sub-character, I enjoyed the pleasure that came with it.

…

I guess I’ll just have to keep living like this.

Sorry to my future team members, but I’ll run the Elemental team at a reasonable level. I did get permission (?) from the Guild Master, after all…

Didn’t she make me a team leader so I could get Essense whenever I wanted? And I needed Innate Vital Energy to raise my spirits.

Anyway, I sorted out my thoughts.

Right now, I had to conduct an interview.

Park Eun-su was busy as the Guild Master of ‘Blue Forest,’ and Kim Hee-an was apparently busy making potions.

I’d take care of those two later.

Neither of them seemed to have any major complaints about their current situation.

Anyway, today’s interview was with David Han.

He supposedly created and shot arrows made of mana.

Since I didn’t know what state Lee Jin-ho was in, I’d chosen an Awakener who could potentially replace him.

I had called him to a restaurant with a private room.

“Hello.”

After transforming, I waited in my usual outfit. I’d been worried this fashion choice might seem suspicious, but my counterpart was dressed similarly, so it didn’t matter.

“Hello.”

“Yes. Mr. David Han?”

“Yes. You can just call me David.”

“Alright. David. Why did you want to join our guild? I’d appreciate it if you were honest.”

I was too lazy to beat around the bush, so I got straight to the point. If you don’t like it, become the guild master yourself.

David, who was Korean, looked taken aback by my directness, but he quickly composed himself and spoke.

“Honestly… I heard the guild master was beautiful, so I wanted to join the guild.”

“Uh… is that all? Frankly, someone of your caliber could get into plenty of other guilds. I’m curious why you’d want to join a bottom-tier… a startup guild like this.”

“To be honest, I’m not that interested in guild activities or what other Awakeners do. But I can’t just play around all the time, so I was planning to join any guild. And if I’m going to be active in a guild, it might as well be one with a beautiful woman.”

…He’s honest, isn’t he?

But the problem was whether or not David knew I was a succubus.

According to the special notes ‘B’ had given me, he was quite wealthy, which meant there was a high probability he’d bought the information from ‘B’.

But then, what was the downside for me if he knew I was a succubus?

1. He could go around telling everyone I’m a succubus.
> Does David have a reason to do that? Awakeners don’t normally share this kind of information. If he knows, he probably bought the intel from ‘B’, and I doubt he’d go around sharing information he paid his own money for.
2. He might refuse to have sex with me for fear of having his Essense drained.
> If that were the case, he wouldn’t have applied in the first place. If he applied knowing what I was, wasn’t it because he wanted to try it with a succubus?

…

“Can you be more honest? I’ve been busy lately, and my head is killing me. I’d appreciate it if you were as frank as possible. It’s fine, whatever you say.”

I pushed him again.

Silence.

David crossed his arms and leaned back against his chair. Then he smiled.

Why did he look so arrogant? It was kind of pissing me off.

“You’re a succubus, aren’t you? You.”

“…”

“I wanted to try being in a guild with a succubus for once. Is that good enough?”

Yes. That was good enough.

His annoying attitude aside, it was so much better when he was just honest like this.

“Why do you want to be with a succubus?”

“Just because it seems fun. I’m not planning on living as an Awakener to make money. Anyway, is there a specific answer you’re looking for?”

David leaned his body toward me.

“A succubus, so… are you looking for an answer about that kind of thing?”

My annoyance level skyrocketed.

“No. I was just wondering if you were worried about a succubus stealing your Essense.”

“Haha, that’s nothing. I can just drink a recovery potion. Besides, I’m thinking of investing in the guild.”

Investment? What investment?

As I was wondering what was with this bastard, David continued.

“It’s nothing that grand. If it seems like the guild needs something during our activities, I’ll chip in. Is that not enough?”

“It’s not a matter of being enough. The guild is pretty laid-back. We just get together and clear gates when we have time. It’s not some grand enterprise that needs investment.”

Honestly, I hadn’t created a hardcore guild. I’d made it for my own ulterior motives, so I didn’t need any investment.

And more importantly—

“And if you were to invest, you’d expect something in return, wouldn’t you?”

There was no such thing as a free lunch.

Especially not in the society of Awakeners.

The opportunity to turn one’s life around was completely random, but the gap between the rich and the poor was only getting wider.

Ultimately, resources gathered where resources already existed, so people didn’t give them away carelessly.

David fell silent. Then, he spoke with a smile.

“…You’re sharp.”

“Not particularly. Weren’t you going to propose something anyway?”

“Not this quickly. Alright. Since you like honesty, I’ll do the same. However, you must not divulge this information to anyone.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry, but please sign this contract. It’s simply a non-disclosure agreement.”

“A non-disclosure agreement? Do we really need to go that far?”

What a pain.

I was busy enough as it was; I didn’t want to get tangled up in something weird.

“You’ll be rewarded just for accepting this mission, and if you succeed, you’ll receive a reward beyond your imagination. I promise you that.”

“…Fine, let me see the NDA.”

The contents of a contract for Awakeners were different from those for non-Awakeners.

They were created by the effects of skills, so they were filled with all sorts of clauses.

The content was simple.

‘Party B’ cannot leak any information related to the secret.

There were other things attached, like the contract automatically expiring after six months and ‘Party A’ being an exception, but that was the gist of it.

Party A: David Han

Party B:

“I guarantee it. This is an opportunity.”

“Could you be quiet for a second?”

“My apologies.”

“…Separate from signing this, I can still refuse the mission, right?”

“Yes. This is just to ensure you don’t leak the details even if you refuse the mission.”

Party A: David Han

Party B: Seo A-gyeol

“Done.”

David picked up the contract and stared at it intently for a moment.

“Thank you. Then I will explain the mission.”

Bowing his head in thanks, David fumbled with something before pulling it out and placing it on the table.

The thing David took out was—

Huh?