Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 30

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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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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (30)

Surprise Gift

Lee Si-hyeok.

Humanity’s first EX-rank Awakener.

An existence beyond all standards.

At the appearance of a figure no one had anticipated, people doubted their own eyes.

Since the Association’s press conference, this was the first time Lee Si-hyeok had shown himself at an official event.

Even at the press conference, he hadn’t appeared directly—only the three characters of the name ‘Lee Si-hyeok’ had been announced, while all other information remained shrouded in mystery.

But now, that very Lee Si-hyeok had appeared in person.

“Huh.”

“What is this…?”

People stared up at the platform in stunned bewilderment.

Right, Isaac they could understand to some degree.

Black Vein from the same family had appeared in the previous slot.

Whatever reason he had for appearing, at least that shock had stayed within the bounds of what they could accept as reality.

But…

What on earth was this man standing before their eyes?

Though his face seemed indifferent to everything, a sparkling light flashed in his eyes as they swept over the crowd.

Even knowing that countless gazes were fixed on him, his standing posture showed not an inch of disturbance.

…This was someone who had only awakened a few months ago?

Impossible. Everyone present thought the same thing.

No, was that man really Lee Si-hyeok in the first place?

In fact, his face had never been officially revealed.

The people who recognized him now only did so because of personal information that had gradually spread through the internet—no one knew if he was really the EX-rank Lee Si-hyeok.

However, the words that soon emerged made such doubts meaningless.

“Let me introduce myself for the first time.”

A pleasant voice flowed through the speakers, cutting through the confusion.

“I am Lee Si-hyeok, the Pale Artist of the Pale Artist’s Labyrinth.”

At his calm introduction, everyone was momentarily speechless. Shock and amazement continued in succession. By now, they couldn’t grasp what kind of reaction they should show.

‘Good thing I went in reverse order.’

Lee Si-hyeok thought this with a faint smile.

If he had followed the same method as others—giving a presentation and then conquering the corridor—he probably wouldn’t have drawn such a reaction.

Of course, the response would have been tremendous, but it would have ended at just that level.

However, Lee Si-hyeok wasn’t satisfied with just that, so he had chosen a different strategy.

And his judgment had just been proven correct.

“…”

The commotion had somehow subsided.

Earlier, the excitement had reached its peak, with safety personnel deployed to prepare for potential accidents, but now no one could easily speak.

Tension circulated through the spectator seats.

Everyone was staring intently at Lee Si-hyeok’s lips.

What words would come from that mouth?

What kind of story had he prepared?

That curiosity manifested as silence, settling thickly over the grand stadium.

And then, Lee Si-hyeok’s words that followed broke that silence.

“Did you enjoy watching the corridor conquest?”

It was an unexpectedly friendly tone of inquiry.

People who had expected something grandiose showed surprised expressions, yet positive responses burst out from various places.

“I’m glad to hear that. Actually, I was quite nervous too. I kept thinking, what if it’s boring?”

However, contrary to his words, he showed no signs of nervousness at all.

The way he casually shrugged his shoulders.

“Huh. Though I’m not joking.”

At that shameless yet comical gesture, the audience burst into laughter. With just a few words, he had dissolved the tense atmosphere.

Lee Si-hyeok scratched his head sheepishly for a moment, then continued speaking.

“Well now, haha… Anyway, I need to proceed with the artifact presentation from here.”

Lee Si-hyeok operated the remote control.

Each time he pressed a button, the data screens on the display rapidly flipped through.

“I’ve prepared a lot of content. As you can see, quite a lot.”

GateTech Expo. Stage Zero.

Wasn’t this the position he had dreamed of? Since Lee Si-hyeok had reached his target position, he had no intention of doing things half-heartedly.

Therefore, from the functions of 〈Hollow Trace〉 to the long-awaited ‘Spacetime Penetration Technique’—he had prepared the most friendly and detailed presentation possible.

However…

‘…Now that I’m standing in this position, my thoughts are changing.’

The audience members who were still watching Lee Si-hyeok with bright eyes.

And the countless viewers who would be watching this scene through live broadcast.

Were they really waiting for Lee Si-hyeok’s ‘explanation’?

What kind of artifact Hollow Trace was, what technology was applied to it… those kinds of things?

‘No.’

Lee Si-hyeok knew all too well that this absolutely wasn’t the case.

Of course, if it were Lee Si-hyeok, he would be more curious about such things, but that was only his case. It was an extremely ‘magical engineer’-centered perspective.

Hadn’t they already seen it directly through the corridor conquest? That technique close to divine skill that delivered strikes across space.

Then Lee Si-hyeok could sufficiently infer what people’s emotions would be following that amazement.

The emotion clearly revealed in their pupils.

‘Anticipation.’

The principles weren’t important.

They were just waiting for a single word that would serve as a fuse for their pounding hearts.

Realizing this, Lee Si-hyeok immediately discarded his established plan.

It wasn’t difficult. His rapidly spinning thoughts meshed with the situation to find the optimal direction.

—And then, click.

Lee Si-hyeok simply turned off the data screens that had been flipping through continuously.

“I won’t do it.”

People’s faces were colored with bewilderment.

“There’s no need to drag out words unnecessarily. Instead.”

Lee Si-hyeok spoke clearly.

“Please look forward to the future.”

A gentle breeze made his research coat flutter.

“I will return with even better results.”

A declaration that today was not the end.

A proclamation that this was merely the beginning.

In that moment, heat began to slowly boil up again from beneath the quiet spectator seats.

Hushed murmurs spread like ripples. The venue stirred and the space vibrated.

At the center of it all, Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes grew calm.

‘It’s still too early to be surprised.’

The gift he had prepared for Chronos had not yet appeared.

It was time for the surprise gift he had been preparing since before the expo started to provide the grand finale.

‘It should be about time now.’

It was the moment Lee Si-hyeok checked his smart watch.

“Huh…?”

One spectator in the nearby seats who had been checking internet reactions on his smartphone muttered.

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“No, look at this.”

“Why are they acting like… huh? What’s this?”

Another spectator who saw the news displayed on the smartphone gaped in shock.

 

[Evidence has emerged that Chronos Industry has been conducting unauthorized surveillance activities, namely stalking, on a specific individual.]

 

“The surveillance target is EX-rank awakener Lee Si-hyeok… Oh, oh no, this is crazy…!”

That’s right.

This was exactly the gift that Lee Si-hyeok had prepared.

While pondering how to bring down Chronos more effectively, he remembered the stalking incident that had been the root cause of all this trouble.

When releasing those guys from the so-called ‘External Cooperation Management Team’, Isaac had secretly activated his tracking skill, allowing them to locate where those bastards had been hiding.

And about a week ago, Lee Si-hyeok had visited them to obtain testimony about the stalking incident.

From the circumstances that led to the stalking to their relationship with Chronos… He had worried they might keep their mouths shut, but fortunately they spilled everything when he showed up with Isaac in tow.

He handed the recording file he secured to Vice President Lim A-yeon, asking her to leak it to the media outlets.

A recording file that laid bare Chronos’s true nature.

It had been timed to explode right as Lee Si-hyeok’s turn ended.

The entire world was probably in an uproar by now.

Lee Si-hyeok slowly surveyed the noisy crowd.

Thanks to his ‘Eyes that Pierce the Essence’, he could see everything in detail as if it were right in front of him despite the considerable distance.

‘The Snow Flame Empress is there too.’

She was blinking her large eyes rapidly, seemingly quite shocked as her pointed hat was about to slip off and fall without her noticing.

But was she really an A-rank Hunter?

Perhaps sensing Lee Si-hyeok’s gaze from this distance, she suddenly raised both arms in celebration and began stretching them out repeatedly.

…Why is she doing that? Lee Si-hyeok looked at her with bewildered eyes, then gestured for her to properly wear her hat.

Around her, he could see Yoon Seo-jin.

Though Yoon Seo-jin didn’t sense Lee Si-hyeok’s gaze, she kept muttering something continuously with her lips.

‘What is she saying?’

It looked like four syllables. The first syllable seemed to be ‘mi’, and the second was ‘chin’, so, hmm.

…’Crazy person’. And here I was wondering what she was saying.

It was something she would casually say like an everyday phrase when she was with Lee Si-hyeok. Still, there was a subtle smile spreading across her lips, suggesting she found the current situation quite amusing.

Next to Yoon Seo-jin were.

Pyo Jae-hwan and Black Vein.

But then, his eyes met with Pyo Jae-hwan’s.

‘Can he see me?’

Yoon Seo-jin didn’t notice though?

At first he thought it might be his imagination, but seeing how Pyo Jae-hwan stared directly at Lee Si-hyeok with wide eyes, their gazes had definitely met.

Lee Si-hyeok didn’t look away either. Without looking away, he quietly met his gaze and raised the corner of his mouth.

Then he moved his lips slightly, just as he had learned from Yoon Seo-jin moments ago.

‘Gift.’

Grind. Such a sound seemed to come from Pyo Jae-hwan’s molars.

He abruptly stood up and left the VIP viewing section together with Black Vein.

He was probably going to try to manage the situation, but it seemed doubtful whether any ordinary response could handle this.

Lee Si-hyeok smiled with satisfaction and surveyed the spectator seats a bit longer before quietly stepping down from the platform.

 

* * *

 

The second day of the Expo ended well.

The results were much better than the first day, and above all, he was satisfied that the plans from Stage Zero had gone smoothly.

Some unexpected things did happen… but thanks to those, the results turned out even more successful, so whatever.

“I’m really exhausted.”

Still, there was no helping how tired his body felt. Lee Si-hyeok flopped down on his bed after returning home.

He thought he had built up decent stamina while working as a Transport Driver, but who knew it would be this tough. He must have been pushing himself too hard lately. He needed time to recover, but he’d been moving non-stop without a break…

After quickly showering and returning, Lee Si-hyeok picked up his mobile phone.

It was to assess how the situation was unfolding.

But as soon as he turned on the phone he had kept off, tremendous vibrations began.

“What, what’s this.”

An enormous amount of messages had piled up.

 

[Research Department Head Yoon Seo-jin – 271 messages have arrived.]

 

Lee Si-hyeok swallowed nervously as he checked the messages.

Things like why didn’t you tell me, I’m disappointed, and so on. Looking at the timestamps, it seemed she had been continuously talking to herself in the chat room since Lee Si-hyeok revealed his identity.

Apparently Termion had achieved quite good results at this Expo too, so she seemed to be in quite an upbeat mood.

Lee Si-hyeok scrolled down through the accumulated messages, down and down and down again, before finally giving up on replying.

‘I can just talk to her when we meet in person.’

Then he went to a portal site and checked the news articles one by one.

 

[Chronos Hit by ‘Stalking Scandal’ Direct Blow… Stock Price Plummets, Emergency Management Initiated]

[‘Who Were They Surveilling?’ Chronos Internal Documents Also Leaked]

 

As expected, Chronos faced an enormous crisis.

Their stock price had fallen like crazy, and reading the articles, there were even internal whistleblowers exposing the corporation’s unethical experiments.

On top of this, Lee Si-hyeok had completely stolen away the attention for artifacts they had been preparing for five years, so it was truly a crisis like no other.

However, there wasn’t much information about the connection between Black Vein and Pyo Jae-hwan that Lee Si-hyeok was curious about.

All there was were reports that the Reynolds Family had drawn a line saying it was unrelated to them.

‘Well, I can look into that gradually.’

In any case, wasn’t the important point that he had achieved his intended purpose?

Chronos was an example.

A kind of sacrificial lamb to show what would happen if anyone dared to mess with him carelessly.

Those who witnessed that fate would never dare to have foolish thoughts.

It was a contingency plan that Lee Si-hyeok had prepared for his own safety, along with Termion Security.

Besides Chronos-related news, there was also a lot of news about the ‘Corridor of Selection’.

Since it had literally disappeared without a trace, investigations were still facing difficulties.

While reading that article, Lee Si-hyeok opened a popup window.

 

[The ‘Obsidian Mining Site’ Gate is currently reopened.]

[You can check the Gate’s location.]

 

Obsidian Mining Site.

It was the Gate where the original Hollow Trace had been discovered.

‘…Originally, once a Gate closes, it never appears again.’

There were many questionable points in various ways.

The collapse of the Corridor of Selection was probably connected to that place somehow.

He checked the Gate’s location, which he hadn’t been able to confirm earlier due to being busy.

Then some numbers were listed in a long sequence.

Immediately recognizing that they were latitude and longitude coordinates, Lee Si-hyeok searched them directly in a map app.

‘Inje County, Gangwon Province?’

It was a deep mountain valley in the foothills of Seoraksan Mountain, with no villages or buildings anywhere around.

Checking through street view, there was only one enormously large mansion that seemed completely out of place.

And the place where that mansion was located was exactly the spot the address indicated.

However, as Lee Si-hyeok examined the street view, his head tilted in confusion.

There was some kind of emblem carved into the mansion’s gate, and for some reason, it felt strangely familiar.

‘I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before…’

However, since he couldn’t quite remember, Lee Si-hyeok roughly memorized the surrounding geography before turning off the screen.

Tomorrow would be the last day of the Expo, so he could finish things off nicely and pay a visit then.

 

* * *

 

The next morning.

“….”

Lee Si-hyeok, who had been preparing for the event, widened his eyes at the unexpected news.

 

[Chronos Industry withdraws from Expo after just two days… Schedule ends early]

 

Chronos’s end was more miserable than expected.

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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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