Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 57

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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 (57)

Blatant interference

“Haha. You were amazing earlier, hyung-nim.”

“….”

Song Hyeon-gyu.

To think I’d see this guy again here, after meeting him at the GateTech Expo not long ago. Lee Si-hyeok blinked as he watched Song Hyeon-gyu actively greeting him.

‘…He was a student at Eterion?’

And a member of the Ether Society too?

This was completely unexpected.

From what he heard back then, he had naturally entered magical engineering following his older sister since childhood, and his awakening timing was quite early too.

Thinking about it, it wasn’t that unreasonable.

It was just bewildering due to the unexpected connection.

Lee Si-hyeok tried not to show it as he watched Song Hyeon-gyu chattering excitedly.

“That Ray Wen guy or whatever, our club members didn’t react well to him either. Just do what you’re told, why so much talk, really.”

“….”

“But then suddenly hyung-nim appeared there, and wow! You were the second coolest hyung I’ve seen in my entire life, really.”

“Song Hyeon-gyu.”

Another team member who had been listening quietly, Ryu Se-eun, interjected with a voice full of laughter.

But even though they must have been in the same club originally, Song Hyeon-gyu clearly looked uncomfortable.

“Huh, yeah? Why, why…?”

“Then who’s first?”

“F-first?”

“Yeah. You said our team leader was second coolest.”

“Ah, right. That, that’s right? You were curious about that… haha. It’s someone you know too. The first one.”

Song Hyeon-gyu, who had been scratching the back of his neck the whole time, suddenly had a spark in his eyes.

“Lee Si-hyeok hyung-nim.”

Lee Si-hyeok involuntarily flinched.

“…What?”

“You know, there’s this EX-rank awakener… I actually know that hyung-nim. Actually, I haven’t had a chance to tell the club members until now, but what happened was….”

—Clap clap! Lee Si-hyeok clapped his hands twice.

Then all eyes focused on him at once.

Song Hyeon-gyu seemed disappointed that his words were cut off, smacking his lips. On the other hand, Ryu Se-eun looked at Lee Si-hyeok with an expression of newfound interest.

“We don’t have much time now. The opposing team will be decided soon, so I think we should start preparing.”

It was exactly as he said. They couldn’t waste time just chatting like this.

Since both of them had asked to be treated casually due to their young age, Lee Si-hyeok continued without concern.

“Then let’s quickly decide on a team leader first. Anyone who wants to do it, raise your hand.”

“Hyeok-ssi should do it.”

But Ryu Se-eun suddenly pointed her finger at the name tag attached to Lee Si-hyeok’s research coat.

‘Come to think of it….’

Earlier, she had also called him ‘our team leader.’ He thought he might have misheard and didn’t point it out.

“Why? Is there a particular reason?”

When he asked that, she immediately turned to look at Song Hyeon-gyu.

“Are you going to be team leader?”

“Huh? No, no? I’m not good at that kind of thing….”

“What about you?”

Finally, she directed her gaze to Park Sang-min from Chronos Industry, who had been watching the situation from a corner of the research lab the whole time.

This time too, he answered with silence. Ryu Se-eun raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

“Do I need to explain further?”

“…Then what about you? Don’t you want to do it?”

“No.”

A coldly resolute answer. At the attitude that completely contrasted with the smile on her face, Lee Si-hyeok narrowed his eyes.

‘I heard she’s the president of the Ether Society.’

Since she was already leading a club, he thought she might show some ambition. Instead, she handed it over so readily that he couldn’t help but be bewildered.

“Well then, I won’t refuse.”

Still, he had no intention of questioning it further.

Lee Si-hyeok’s team members had a relatively weak lineup compared to other teams.

Objectively speaking, that was true.

No matter how they participated as South Korea’s representatives, the Ether Society was ultimately just a ‘club.’ While there was certainly a difference in that it was Korea’s top club, it couldn’t compare to other world-class research teams.

The fact that the venue was Eterion Magical Engineering Academy probably played a part in their participation.

But this wasn’t the end of it.

That guy in the corner of the research lab who kept his mouth shut. Even that guy who seemed to be Pyo Jae-hwan’s right hand had ended up on the same team.

Couldn’t you tell just from how he hadn’t said a word while Song Hyeon-gyu and Ryu Se-eun were chattering?

So Lee Si-hyeok had also been secretly hoping he would take on the team leader role, which is why he had no particular reason to refuse Ryu Se-eun’s proposal.

And so the team leader was decided.

A while later, staff members came to take Ryu Se-eun away.

“I’ll be back.”

“Uh, yeah. See you later, president.”

“….”

It was to share the project with the opposing team.

There were a total of 4 projects prepared by Korea this time, with each research team preparing one.

Among them, since Ryu Se-eun, who was Lee Si-hyeok’s team member, was the president of the Ether Society, they decided to share the project that her side had prepared with the opposing team.

‘Even though I’m participating in the seminar under Professor Hong Yong-jin, I can’t just hand over the professor’s project carelessly. It’s the same principle.’

After waiting for a while, Ryu Se-eun returned after handing over the research reports.

“Did you deliver it well? Were there any problems?”

“Yes. The opposing team will like it too.”

…They’ll like it? What does that mean?

“That aside. Who are our opponents?”

This was the most important part.

Since only she knew who they would be facing.

But she didn’t answer right away.

“You’ll find out when you see them directly, won’t you?”

* * *

10 minutes later.

Lee Si-hyeok and his team members went down to the research lab on the lower floor upon hearing that the opposing team’s project sharing was complete.

On the desk, a completed artifact was displayed along with a laptop containing organized research reports.

That must be the final finished product.

However, there was no indication of which country the opposing team was from. Lee Si-hyeok tilted his head and moved closer to the desk.

“Huh? Hyung-nim, this….”

“….”

But Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes suddenly darkened.

Something strange was apparent.

‘What is this?’

What they received from the opposing team was a portable laser-type healing artifact.

It was an artifact created to prepare for hunters’ injuries, where energy pulses would burst out when mana was channeled into it, helping to heal wounded areas.

But now it was different.

“The mana flow is… completely twisted?”

The design was so complexly tangled that even Song Hyeon-gyu could notice it at once. The mana circuits that should have extended in straight lines were completely twisted into several complex branches.

“Crazy bastards.”

That voice came from behind.

When Lee Si-hyeok, who had been maintaining an expressionless face, turned his head, there was Park Sang-min from Chronos, who hadn’t said a word until now, wearing a bitter smile.

“They did it on purpose.”

“….”

“They’re telling us to fail and go eat shit. Whoever they are, they’ve got some nerve.”

“H-how could they do such a thing…!”

Song Hyeon-gyu clenched his fists in anger, but Lee Si-hyeok inwardly agreed with Park Sang-min’s words.

It was within the expected range.

In fact, he had somewhat anticipated this from when the session’s format was announced. He had thought that if things went wrong, something like this could happen.

Simply put, there were no precise ‘rules’ for this session.

While there was a rough framework of how things would proceed, there were no restrictions on what couldn’t be done.

“N-no. Anyone can see they deliberately sabotaged it! Can’t something be done about this?!”

“There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“That’s completely unreasonable… Ah, this is driving me crazy!”

The organizer’s response to Song Hyeon-gyu’s protest was proof of that.

Lee Si-hyeok examined the artifact once more.

‘It wasn’t designed wrong from the beginning.’

No matter how much they brought a project under new research, deviating this much from existing design methods would be difficult. Even considering all his experience in Orbes, it was a completely incomprehensible design.

It was blatant. They didn’t even try to hide it. The mockery and ridicule were contained in full, as if displayed openly for all to see.

“Hyung-nim… Who on earth would do such a thing.”

Who indeed.

The answer was obvious.

The country that had consistently expressed dissatisfaction with the Association’s proceedings and had once clashed with Lee Si-hyeok.

“It must be China.”

Lee Si-hyeok’s lips twisted.

“Ray Wen, right?”

“That’s right.

Ryu Se-eun nodded as if amused, leaning her back against the wall. Song Hyeon-gyu raised his voice as if he couldn’t understand her reaction.

“Why didn’t you tell us beforehand?”

“Huh?”

“You, no, the department head must have known earlier when sharing the project. That the opposing team was Ray Wen. If you had at least told us in advance, we could have prepared some countermeasure!”

Then Ryu Se-eun burst into laughter.

“Song Hyeon-gyu. You’re talking as if I should have done the same thing as those guys?”

“What?”

“You say countermeasure. What kind of countermeasure could we have taken?”

“Well, that is, we could have done the same thing as them….”

“Stop. That’s enough.”

Lee Si-hyeok, who had been watching, intervened.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand Song Hyeon-gyu’s anger, but there were lines that needed to be maintained. At least he didn’t want to become the same kind of person.

“Those guys did something dirty, that’s true. It’s petty. Cowardly and despicable. But so what?”

Thud, Lee Si-hyeok closed his laptop.

“Everyone has their own way of doing things. Those guys used a petty method, so we just need to pay them back in a different way. Don’t you think?”

Song Hyeon-gyu hesitantly nodded.

Lee Si-hyeok smiled with satisfaction and looked around at everyone.

“Let’s do well, everyone.”

“….”

“….”

No response came back.

…Seriously, what terrible team luck.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Chinese team’s research lab.

Ray Wen, who had naturally become the team leader, smiled with satisfaction.

“They must have confirmed it by now.”

A bear-like build. A menacing appearance.

With looks that seemed more suited to illegal activities rather than engineering, his team members couldn’t easily speak up.

Only another team member who had worked under Ray Wen for a long time could barely manage to respond.

“Yes. They must have been shocked. They’re probably all at a loss for what to do.”

“Kha! How lucky. How very lucky.”

What good fortune it was to face that arrogant fool who didn’t know his place as the opposing team.

This would be a good opportunity to teach him to know his place properly.

Ray Wen ground his teeth, recalling the humiliation he had suffered earlier due to his carelessness.

‘Someone might call it petty, but….’

It didn’t matter to Ray Wen.

There could never be anyone who could object to his words, as he operated the world’s largest Magical Industry Complex.

At most, it would be other countries’ prominent researchers, but they wouldn’t care much about this matter.

‘…That damn bastard was just strange.’

How long had it been since he got caught up in such a trivial dispute? That’s why he had been even more flustered.

Ray Wen clicked his tongue and asked the team member who kept bowing beside him.

“What I instructed you to do? Did you handle it properly?”

“Yes. I secretly hid it in the artifact. Probably no one will notice until this session ends.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to three days from now.”

If everything went according to plan, the fatal error planted in the artifact would completely ruin that guy’s session.

“Keu, keuhahaha! Hahahaha!”

Anticipating the despair of that small country’s brat that he would soon witness, Ray Wen burst into laughter that shook the entire research lab.

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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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