If you're Korean, you know the dread that morning birdsong brings.
When you sleep like a log, miss your alarm, and end up late to school or work.
Or when you miss the right window to fall asleep, and with all-nighter eyes you watch the sunrise through the window, etc., etc.
The birds of the peninsula always chose the worst possible moments to chirp so clearly.
"Seongyakseong-ah… turn off the alarm."
Waving his hand like he was calling out to Siri on an iPhone, Jioh bossed his Constellation around.
The birdsong was one thing, but something kept flashing annoyingly in front of his eyes.
But wait—birdsong?
Do birds these days cry even in broad daylight…?
For three-time college exam taker Gyeon Jioh, average wake-up time was 11 a.m. at the earliest, 2–3 p.m. at the latest.
Come to think of it, for birdsong, this sounded a bit too artificial…
A chill ran up Jioh's spine and his eyes flew open.
Of course.
Babel Network
[Rankings are changing.]
[Your current domestic ranking is 2nd; your overall ranking is 4th.]
...
...?
"…Is this… a dream?"
Yeah. Must be a dream.
A perfectly ridiculous fever dream.
Jioh yanked the blanket back over his head.
Bzzzz, bzzz.
Phone
iPhone Xs Plus
Missed calls (11)
Tap to see more
KakaoTalk
Kakao Talk
Unread messages: 34
Tap to see more
Wow. Even Kakao's blowing up—my dream's realism is killer. Feels like Inception.
Complimenting himself, Jioh just reached out and lazily unlocked the screen.
Mom's Son │ 010-7351-xxxx
━ Month xx ━
Hey
Hey, are you crying?
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ ah
I knew you'd end up like this someday ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
While everyone else was busting their backs working, all you did was lie around ㅋㅋㅋ I told you, to a stranger you look like you're about to be mummified in Egypt; ahhh, this is so refreshing; justice at lastㅎ this is societyㅎㅎ
But you're not thinking anything bad, right
Sister
A person can't live being #1 every day; sometimes you need to breathe the air down below, that's living
You were a little lacking in humanity up to now
Don't you dare go dark
If you don't contact me before this afternoon I'm seriously going to dox you on the world channel and put out a wanted notice
Not a joke, I said it
I'm serious
What the hell, give me back my #1.
Am I really a bean now? Did I get bean-jobbed?
"Unnie, explain."
You said you'd free me from rank stress. You promised to pave me a flower road.
Is this the result of sweet-talking a naive, innocent grade-schooler who knew nothing and devouring his entire life?
'Such a wretched lemon not even worth the scrapyard—what a total trashmobile of a partner.'
[Your Constellation, 'Reader of Fate,' goes "ow, ow" at the personality assault you're firing off since morning.]
[Granted, I did say that, but who could have imagined my baby kitty wouldn't set foot on a single step of the Tower for a full ten years, the Constellation protests.]
Enough.
I don't have time to listen to the sniveling excuses of a petty traitor.
The only reason I'm this calm is because the shock hasn't totally landed yet. In truth, this was quite an event.
No surprise, since this ranking upset was the first since Gyeon Jioh's name ever went up on the Babel Network and he became a ranker.
With a grave expression, Jioh sat up.
Thanks to his rough sleep habits, his bobbed hair was a glorious, tousled magpie's nest.
He pulled up the Ranker Channel to check, and that place was on fire too.
Everyone was giddy, asking what kind of big event was exploding all at once.
From the domestic rankings to the world rankings, to the Hunter intranet, etc.
Only after he'd checked every last one without missing a thing did the stopwatch radiating presence at the edge of his vision catch his eye.
[Tutorial D-DAY]
[Opening Soon….. 00:02:15:49]
"Two hours…"
The 40th Tutorial Work would start today at noon, on the dot.
Twice a year, every year.
The Tutorial Work, which produced new awakeners, was practically a national event.
Not only was Opening Day designated a temporary national holiday, even the Babel Tower temporarily closed all floors except the plaza.
What's more, this Tutorial was the "Accursed 9th Segment."
Since it was taking place with the 39th Floor open, it was obvious that all those who had received "tickets" but hadn't entered the Tower and had been camping it out would pour in en masse.
Just glancing around the Ranker Channel or the intranet, today's talk was nothing but the Tutorial and the ranking shake-ups.
Jioh walked over and read the note stuck on the kitchen fridge. Even the handwriting was neat—pure "Bit Dohyun."
[I made inari sushi; please make sure to have some. If you open the fridge, there's also blended apple juice. For laundry, please leave just the socks separately.
If you need anything, I'll leave a card—go ahead and use it.
I'll be back.]
— P.S. Don't eat all the ice cream in one day
— P.S.2. Before bed, please! brush your teeth :(
Didn't seem like he'd been gone long.
Before he'd even finished reading, the hand already peeling back the plastic wrap from the plate picked up a third inari.
Chewing slowly, Jioh began to sort out the situation.
Immediate mission list to take care of:
Get to the bottom of the ranking change Contact Gyeon Riok before afternoon
The one saving grace was that the heinous, heaven-offending usurper who'd conquered his priceless ranking—and Mom's Son—were both obvious as to where they'd be right about now.
Mm. So that really is the only route?
[Your Constellation, 'Reader of Fate,' comes sprinting in, saying yes, that seems to be the only route.]
[Anxious you might change your mind, they start praying with a bowl of water set out, begging you to execute exactly what you're thinking right now.]
"Yeah, yeah, I got it."
Wearing a wilted-greens face, Jioh set down the inari plate. Then he trudged off toward the bathroom.
["Excuse me, Vice President. Do you have a separately scheduled visitor to your residence today?"]
"The Tutorial starts soon—don't talk nonsense."
["I'm sorry. We haven't heard anything either, but the residence security requested that we confirm, so we had no choice but to ask."]
"At my home?"
["Yes. Then I'll relay that there is no such appointment immediately."]
"Secretary team's probably busy too—forget it. I'll hear it myself. Put them through."
Click. The call transferred while he lit his cigarette.
[V-Vice President! I'm truly ashamed to trouble you when you're so busy. I apolo—"]
"You're busy, so skip the preface and get to the point."
["Ah, y-yes, yes! It's just that, there's a visitor here in the lobby asking for you, Vice President. They're not on our list, but they keep insisting we at least say their name to you, that you'll know immediately when you hear it."]
["We tried to handle it on our end, but, well, she's a young civilian woman, so it's hard for us to…."]
'We'll need to replace security.'
"So the name?"
There was a brief murmur on the other end, and then the security guard hesitantly spoke.
["Gyeoni… is what she says."]
"Never heard it. Send her away."
The ember at the end of the cigarette died without a sound. Rising from his seat, the man's face was bored to death.
Late morning.
Pleasant sunlight suffused the spacious penthouse.
And the steps heading across that sunlight toward the bathroom halted for a moment.
Gyeoni, Gyeon… Wait. Gyeon?
"Wait."
["Sir?"]
"Have her hold. I'm coming down."
And when he stepped out of the elevator, the lobby was still in the middle of a commotion.
"You can't be doing this here. If you keep forcing it, we'll have no choice but to lay hands on you and drag you out."
A small girl in a hoodie crouched down, and in front of her a bunch of burly blocks pleading and cajoling.
It was so absurd it was almost funny; he folded his arms and leaned against a pillar.
He'd watch for a bit.
"Ajusshi awakener?"
"Yes, miss. So, listen—"
"Oh, I'm a civilian."
"..."
"If you use force, it's straight to jail. Clink-clank."
"This is driving me crazy…"
Due to various unsavory incidents, standards and severity for punishing awakeners had long since been made extremely strict.
Even so, awakeners carried a unique pressure, so under most circumstances people backed off on their own.
This time they had grabbed the wrong one.
Small of build, and not a speck of fear to be found.
Security's expressions said they suddenly wanted to go home.
The youngest, unable to bear it, stepped up with youthful bravado.
"That's enough, senior. This is never going to end at this rate! I'll just grit my teeth and take responsibility. We can't let this continue in the lobby where residents are coming and going. Hey! Excuse me!"
Uh, yes.
Excuse me…?
The rookie who had rolled up his sleeves so boldly stumbled back.
Like a lion carrying its cub by the scruff—
The hoodie that had been crouched right there was dangling midair, pinched in someone's hand.
Gasp…!
Breaths sucked in around them.
The lobby had gone quiet before they knew it.
Behind the frozen rookie, the security team hastily straightened up.
Tense staff called out in unison.
"V-Vice President!"
"Go back to work. I'll handle this one. He was raised with bad habits… he's skittish about people putting hands on him."
A light white tee, one hand tucked in his pocket—casual attire.
At a glance he looked like he'd just stepped out for a convenience-store run, but there wasn't a soul who could look down on him.
Korea's unshakable top guild,
the #2 of , ranked 7th.
His epithet: Guiju (鬼主).
Proxy of ghostly beings who bends ten thousand spirits to his will.
Beom tilted his head slightly down, peering in, and grinned.
"That right, 'Jio'?"
Gyeon Jioh had two cards he could whip out and use however he pleased at any time.
One: the second card of his younger brother Gyeon Riok, secretly slipped to him behind Mom's back out of pity for how he lived. (Currently deceased.)
The other: a limitless-limit black card he received as a surprise gift to celebrate getting his ID.
Unlike Riok's card, which he scraped and swiped to the bone, the VVIP card that made every ordinary person's guts clench whenever he saw it, the one he would stealth-swipe only at a convenience store, or to buy fried chicken, or in dire emergencies.
Beom was the owner of that very card.