Broken Ranker Devours Myths - Chapter 46

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Broken Ranker

Devours Myths

Chapter 46

House Burglary (4)

Lee Hyeon tilted his head.

The Kim Min-jeong he knew wasn’t someone who usually showed such emotional reactions.

“……You did well to keep an eye on Chief Seo Ae-ri. This person was originally someone Team Leader Im was also interested in.”

“Team Leader Im was?”

“Yes. She’s originally a KAIST engineering PhD graduate, but after awakening as a Hunter, she began taking a deep interest in dungeon research.”

Lee Hyeon nodded.

He had also started to feel interested in Chief Seo Ae-ri for that reason.

“I heard the reason she volunteered to join Z Team was also because she was very interested in exploring and researching long-term unsolved dungeons.”

“Yes. Particularly, she believes there are certain specific patterns in the that determine dungeon concepts, and I understand she focuses on researching this.”

“Patterns…….”

For a moment, Lee Hyeon’s eyes lit up slightly.

If that assumption were true, it would be a great help in finding dungeons related to Son Wukong in the future.

“It seems like she’s the type of talent who would normally be in Research Support Headquarters?”

“That’s right. White Burn scouted her for that purpose too, but what can you do? She says she wants to run around the field herself.”

Kim Min-jeong shrugged as she continued speaking.

“Actually, Chief Seo has what you might call strong personal convictions, or her own solid world view. Because of that, she doesn’t get along well with people in Z Team either……. She’s had particularly serious troubles with the team leaders every time.”

Considering the lineup of previous Z Team leaders who had strong disciplinary aspects, it seemed likely they would have clashed while trying to make use of Chief Seo Ae-ri somehow.

“So if you can just secure Chief Seo’s independence, it shouldn’t be difficult to bring her over as an ally.”

“You’re much better at reading people than I am, so that’s probably right. Are you close with Chief Seo?”

“We eat meals together occasionally? But sometimes she disappears without saying anything, so there are many times when we can’t.”

“Then I’ll have to make contact after lunch time later.”

“Yes. Understood. But…….”

Kim Min-jeong nodded, then looked at the words ‘Manager Eom Ki-seon’ with a complicated gaze.

“Do you really need to bring that person in too? If you need other recommended personnel, I can recommend as many as you want…….”

The way she trailed off her words felt like she wanted to keep her distance.

“Is there a reason?”

“Well……. Ugh! That guy is hopeless.”

“……?”

“There’s just something about him. Anyway, it would be better for you to avoid him.”

A reaction of just expressing frustration without telling the actual story.

So Lee Hyeon became even more curious.

‘Could he be an ex-boyfriend or something?’

This made him think he definitely had to meet him, and he chuckled to himself.

In dreary company life, you need at least the pleasure of occasionally teasing a cute(?) junior to make it worth going to work.

Did Lee Hyeon’s thoughts show?

Kim Min-jeong glared at Lee Hyeon with slightly sharp eyes.

* * *

Right after lunch time,

Lee Hyeon headed to the 6th floor of Research Support Headquarters where Chief Seo Ae-ri was said to frequently stay, together with Kim Min-jeong.

‘So none of the team members have come by at all until now.’

Usually when a new team leader is appointed, they would at least show their faces as a courtesy.

The fact that they were showing such blatant ostracism was just absurd.

Because of this, Lee Hyeon had separately submitted personnel evaluations to HR for the team members for ‘unauthorized absence from position’ and ‘work negligence.’

Soon HR would start confirmation and warning measures.

Then they would come running back in a hurry. For corporate employees thirsty for performance evaluations, this would be shocking content.

Moreover, if they were mostly safety-first advocates hoping to just maintain their positions like the Z Team members, even more so.

“Looking at things like this, you’re really vicious, senior.”

“What did I do?”

“You reported them for work negligence and then applied for external duties. You did that to make them sweat a little, didn’t you?”

“Well, that’s right?”

“And then you’ll immediately apply for a mission and not even meet them?”

“They said I just need to receive the items within 3 days. What’s there to drag out after that? I can just go straight to dungeon exploration. We managed fine with just two people, so why would I need to go with a bunch of troublesome heads hanging around?”

“That’s why I’m saying you’re vicious……. In the end, it’s the same as with Team Leader Jeong. Everyone’s going to be struck by lightning.”

“That just shows how lacking humans are in learning ability.”

Kim Min-jeong shook her head.

No matter how much Executive Director Jeong said he would look after them, what would happen if Lee Hyeon took only a small number of people and consecutively conquered long-term unsolved dungeons?

Just as Team Leader Jeong had worried before, they would all become useless surplus personnel.

Not only would their performance scores hit rock bottom, but they would likely become targets for restructuring.

Companies hate idle personnel the most.

Then Executive Director Jeong probably wouldn’t feel the need to protect them either.

‘You guys are really pitiful too. How could you have no one else to pick a fight with except Senior Jang…….’

Kim Min-jeong had been convinced from the moment she heard that Lee Hyeon had requested the team leader position that this entire fight was already over.

“I think it’s around here……. There she is.”

Kim Min-jeong and Lee Hyeon were able to find Chief Seo Ae-ri staring at a flask at an experimental table set up separately inside the research floor.

She seemed to be researching potions. Various large and small flasks containing different liquids were bubbling or emitting unknown smoke.

Kim Min-jeong was about to call out to Chief Seo Ae-ri, who hadn’t noticed them even though they had approached very close.

But Lee Hyeon slightly raised his hand to stop her.

While doing so, he smiled slightly…… his expression was somehow subtle.

Surprise?

Fondness?

He seemed quite pleased with Chief Seo Ae-ri.

‘Does he know what kind of experiment this is?’

As Kim Min-jeong stared intently at Lee Hyeon, Lee Hyeon casually threw out a comment.

“That thing, if you keep trying to just raise the muscle fiber ratio, you’ll hit the saturation point quickly. Wouldn’t it be better to add a mutation genetic element and redesign the cell structure itself?”

“……!?”

Kim Min-jeong’s eyes widened slightly at the string of incomprehensible vocabulary.

Chief Seo Ae-ri also finally noticed the two people’s appearance and slowly turned her gaze toward Lee Hyeon.

An inscrutable look.

Lee Hyeon pretended not to see that gaze and approached the notebook that seemed to contain Chief Seo Ae-ri’s sketches, adding something with a pencil.

“Like this, the tissue won’t be able to handle it. If you only increase muscle density, the ligaments will give out first. So rather than Vampire CW-K Blood, the RD genetic element from the lycanthrope side would be better. So if you change this chemical formula structure from this form to this form,”

Lee Hyeon added an even more incomprehensible model sketch on top of the existing sketch.

“You can temporarily make the entire body structure flexible. This way, you could get a form that’s much safer while easily producing double the enhancement values, don’t you think?”

Suddenly, Chief Seo Ae-ri seemed to realize something, snatched the pencil from Lee Hyeon, and became lost in thought while writing formulas made of incomprehensible characters and numbers on the sketch.

Then she carefully mixed the flask solutions this way and that. The color changed little by little in unknown ways.

Each time, Lee Hyeon continued to add advice from the side.

“No. Here, you should rather use a Mutation Accelerator to drastically increase efficiency.”

“…….”

“It’s good that you added mutant substances to the enhancement potion composition, but the cellular settlement rate isn’t even 60%?”

“…….”

“This way, side effects will come first. If you just add one mana stabilizer as a medium, the mutation would be absorbed more naturally, wouldn’t it?”

Kim Min-jeong felt like her eyes were spinning round and round.

‘Wh-what on earth is he talking about? I don’t understand a single word!’

Kim Min-jeong was confident that she had sufficient basic knowledge as a graduate of the Awakening Military Academy,

but with terms like genetic elements and mutant substances being thrown around, she was completely overwhelmed.

However, there was one thing she could clearly understand.

Through Lee Hyeon’s advice, Chief Seo Ae-ri’s stalled experiment had gained momentum.

Indeed, Chief Seo Ae-ri’s hands moving the flasks without saying a word had become very busy.

Around them, other researchers had gathered and were watching the situation with interest.

“What, was that actually working?”

“Really, how interesting… The focus of enhancement isn’t on output but on buffering as the core, right?”

“It looks like they completely changed the muscle fibers to an elasticity-based system using mutation elements?”

“Wait. Couldn’t you use even the recoil as a weapon that way? That’s insane.”

“Usually when mutation stages applied to the genome are this large, they quickly exceed the critical point and self-restoration becomes difficult, but with this method, it wouldn’t be difficult at all, would it?”

“To solve that problem in such a way… We all gave up on it, so how did he figure it out?”

Kim Min-jeong wondered if she had fallen into another world.

“Chief Seo Ae-ri aside, have you seen that man before? Was there someone like that on the research floor?”

“Even wearing a lab coat, with that build and face, there’s no way we wouldn’t know him, right?”

“I don’t know about other things, but can’t we bring him to our team? With that level of imagination and intuition, something good would definitely come out, hmm!”

There were even speculations about Lee Hyeon’s true identity.

‘…Did my senior have knowledge in that area? As far as I know, he didn’t. Did he study separately for 4 years?’

A thought that arose because she didn’t know that Lee Hyeon possessed the Golden Eyes of Truth, which allowed him to glimpse the hidden side of the world and greatly enhance his thinking abilities.

Instead, Kim Min-jeong could think of another senior from that sight.

‘It’s just like watching Senior Su-chan.’

The one who closed his eyes in place of Lee Hyeon at the Ice Palace…

Hiss!

Only purple liquid remained in the flask. It was still bubbling, but it boasted an iridescent color.

Only then could Chief Seo Ae-ri put down the flask and wipe the sweat that had formed on her forehead.

“You must be researching dungeons with gothic novels or urban fantasy as concepts.”

Chief Seo Ae-ri turned her head toward Lee Hyeon again.

Lee Hyeon smiled.

“Certainly, vampires and lycanthropes are the best in enhancement systems, but they’re difficult to handle easily due to side effects. However, if you approach using witch specter systems as catalysts like now, you could reduce side effects, so I think it’s a good approach.”

“…Thank you, Team Leader. Thanks to you, I’ve overcome a hurdle.”

Chief Seo Ae-ri bowed her head politely.

Lee Hyeon’s smile grew wider at the word “Team Leader.”

With his earlier help, he had definitely won her favor.

“Not at all. It’s still a prototype, so please research it more. The direction isn’t wrong, so I think you’ll see good results soon.”

“Does that mean… I can focus more on research?”

“Of course. It’s something that helps the team’s strength, so there’s no need for me to stop it, is there?”

“Then,”

“Though it may be insufficient, please come find me if you need my opinion again.”

That was enough. It was what Chief Seo Ae-ri had always wanted to hear whenever she met a new team leader.

And,

Chief Seo Ae-ri’s joining was also appreciated by Lee Hyeon.

‘Enhancement and mutation… It’s too good a subject for me, who plans to enhance the Snow Queen’s narrative. I think I can also find ways to go beyond neutralization to fusion for lightning and ice attributes.’

He could receive a lot of help from Lee Gun-san, who was an alchemist, but his main field was elemental systems. It was quite different from Chief Seo Ae-ri’s direction.

So Lee Hyeon planned to add Chief Seo Ae-ri’s research results based on the Snow Queen investigation report he received from Lee Gun-san.

‘Above all, this person isn’t just a researcher. She has considerable knowledge in martial arts too.’

Looking at Chief Seo Ae-ri’s bone structure and arm muscles, she seemed to have trained quite a lot compared to her delicate build.

He suspected the enhancement and mutation potions were probably for herself.

She would be a great help in future dungeon explorations too.

Lee Hyeon shook hands with Chief Seo Ae-ri.

Thus, the second team member was decided.

A smooth start.

His smile deepened.

* * *

“Really, how on earth did you know that? Senior, chemistry wasn’t even your main subject in history department, was it?”

“It wasn’t my main subject, but I was very interested in it.”

“Just from interest, you give advice to someone with a doctorate in engineering…?”

Kim Min-jeong looked at Lee Hyeon with an incredulous expression, but as usual, only laughter came back.

Knowing well that he would brush it off vaguely at times like this, she didn’t probe deeper.

Instead, when the sparring room prepared on the company building’s basement level 1 came into view, her steps gradually slowed.

“…But do you really need to meet Manager Eom Ki-seon too? Wouldn’t Chief Seo alone be sufficient?”

“I haven’t had a proper conversation with him yet. And I quite like his background too.”

Manager Eom Ki-seon’s background was somewhat, no, very special.

‘He was from the American awakener special task force, ‘ASTRA.”

Advanced Superhuman Tactical Response Agency. Commonly known as A.S.T.R.A.

The places where they, the world’s most famous awakener unit, were deployed were always battlefields where supranational events occurred.

Even the Cheongroe unit couldn’t surpass their supremacy. No, to be precise, it was disbanded just before that.

Therefore, ASTRA’s reputation is ongoing.

Since Eom Ki-seon was from such a place, Lee Hyeon couldn’t help but be interested.

‘Moreover, the operation areas he ran around were all famous places. I need to check why someone with this career is stuck in Z-Team.’

There were evaluations left by the HR team and previous team leaders.

In just one word,

—Troublemaker.

On that subject, there was also someone among the board of directors who left this evaluation.

—Knight.

A person with two keywords that seemed completely incompatible.

Perhaps because of that, he, who was known to have ignored Executive Director Jeong’s summons, was confirmed to be currently in the sparring room.

“Haah…!”

While Kim Min-jeong sighed deeply enough to make the ground cave in,

Lee Hyeon was about to open the door to the sparring room when he coldly narrowed his eyes.

Swish!

Two slightly curved swords drew sharp trajectories, aiming for his neck and knee respectively.

Clang!

Lee Hyeon pulled out Iron Devourer and Flesh Thirster from his inventory and deflected the trajectories.

At the same time, he threw the Iron Devourer he was holding straight at them.

Whooom, crash!

Rumble…!!

“…Damn, I almost went to the afterlife after attacking carelessly.”

There was Manager Eom Ki-seon, barely turning his head to the side and narrowly avoiding the axe, breaking out in cold sweat.

Cut hair fluttered down.

However,

despite his shocked tone, the corners of his mouth were smiling with excitement.

“Is it because you’re the man who took down Mukesh in one blow? Your moves are incredibly bold too?”

In the gleaming eyes of that guy,

Lee Hyeon’s expressionless face was reflected.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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