Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 106 : Creeping Shadow (2)

Creeping Shadow (2)

"Well then, I've hidden these metal chopsticks somewhere nearby. Please use your ability to find them."

"...... Here?"

Alencia looked around as she spoke.

Currently, we were at a station where numerous people were coming and going.

Minerva had stopped here as an intermediate stop, but since there was still plenty of time before departure, filming wasn't an issue.

"Don't you think you should be able to use your ability in places like this for it to be actually helpful? What use is an ability that works only in specific locations?"

"Th-that's true, but..."

She wore an expression that seemed to say it was impossible.

After all, she had tried several times already but hadn't succeeded.

"As I said before, Alencia's ability is different from that of an ordinary awakeners. It's not just about charging your magic power with electricity."

She could charge her magic power with electricity.

The gathered magic power could then be used to enhance physical abilities just like any other awakener.

Moreover, Alencia could re-activate that accumulated magic power in the form of 'electricity'.

She didn't simply emit electricity, but made her body itself contain the 'properties' of that electricity to the extreme and utilize it.

Of course, this was impossible both scientifically and magically, but the 'authority' Alencia possessed made it possible.

"To put it simply, you fire electromagnetic waves to find a specific object. Like a metal detector. Or maybe it's more like a radar?"

"That's... that's ridiculous."

"You can definitely do it. I assure you."

"Urgh."

When I urged her to get on with it, Alencia, with a gloomy expression, began to move the magic power inside her body.

Other people might not have noticed, but I could sense the faint changes in Alencia.

'I'm not sure if this is slow or fast.'

The only Saintess I knew was 'her' from the other side, so a proper comparison was difficult.

Besides, when she met me, she had already lived for a thousand years as a Saintess, so they weren't comparable in terms of mastery.

"Oh, by the way, are we also recording a personal broadcast now?"

"Huh? Ah, right. They said it'd be okay... Is it not?"

A bit away, I could see Alencia's phone filming the current situation.

"No, it's fine. It'd be good to promote in America too."

OTT is all the rage these days, isn't it?

We had to keep overseas export in mind, not just domestic broadcast.

Alencia's filming skills had also improved, perhaps thanks to recent lessons from Reporter Pyo Ji-yeol.

Maybe that's why her subscriber count had slightly increased and she'd begun to get feedback.

It seemed that people from Korea were curious about the fact that Alencia was being taught by someone from their country.

"Oh, by the way, when we arrive at the next station, I plan to make you enter the Challengers."

"Ch-challengers? Is the next stop already Denver?"

She'd been so focused on training her powers she hadn't even realized where we were.

"If I enter Challengers, I'm bound to get totally destroyed..."

"Of course, Yeon-ji will be entering with you. Yeon-ji is an A-rank awakener, after all."

Challengers was a competition for awakeners, mostly held in Denver, and similar to a sports event.

It started as an event match and still had its flaws, but since it showcased battles between superhumans, it was popular.

The competition format changed every time.

Sometimes it was a simple tournament to determine the final winner by skill, or games where you completed treasure-hunt style missions to accumulate the highest points.

Given how each awakened had diverse abilities, they experimented with various formats.

Plus, since it was usually done in pairs, Yeon-ji and Alencia were a perfect match to enter together.

"Must be nice. I wish I was that talented too."

'Thank goodness Yeon-ji didn't hearing this.'

She'd certainly mellowed compared to before, but Yeon-ji didn't like being called a genius.

No doubt that was because of 'Ji Yeon-hwa'.

"Anyway, you have to show the results of your training there."

"I can't even find chopsticks right now."

"If you charge yourself enough, your physical abilities will improve a lot, so just with that you should be able to accomplish something."

With about a day's charge, she could barely reach the magic power capacity of a C-rank awakener.

In that case, she should be able to pull her own weight.

Still, with an uneasy look, Alencia pursed her lips, but suddenly—remembering something—she spoke up.

"Oh, by the way, there's someone I need to meet in Denver."

"There'll be about a day of free time, so why don't you meet them then?"

"Really? Then no problem."

After all, once we arrived, we'd have to register for the Challengers and wait until the matches began.

By my rough calculation, there was just over a day of leeway.

"By the way, who is this person you're meeting?"

There was something I had realized about Alencia while observing her.

She didn't have any friends she kept in touch with.

Just from what she said occasionally, it sounded like she'd lived friendless for about ten years.

And now she had someone to meet?

"I—I have people to meet too, you know?!"

As if she'd read my mind, Alencia shouted, her face turning red.

"A friend or acquaintance?"

"Th-that's right."

She answered bravely at first, but then slyly avoided my gaze.

"... She's my mom's friend."

Well, to some degree, I'd expected that.

How sad.

***

Producer Heo Seong-man from KDC was in a foul mood for various reasons recently.

From the start, Eugene Garland had been slammed into the ground by the young girl Hwang Yeon-ji.

In Minerva, there was brief relief seeing HSN, who'd gone quiet after being tied up, but that didn't last, either.

Suddenly, a making-of clip was uploaded to HSN's official channel.

It was there that an unexpected face appeared.

'Where did they find this Alencia Walker anyway?'

As the daughter of James Walker, Alencia was someone even Producer Heo Seong-man knew well.

A scammer's daughter. She had a terrible reputation in America, but to Korean viewers, the impression was different.

To Koreans, Alencia was 'a uniquely talented awakened discovered by Park Jung-woo'.

James Walker was merely a seasoning, a side figure who helped complete Alencia's story.

"Should we try to make an issue out of her being a criminal's daughter?"

"Even if we do, I don't think it'll be that effective now."

Heo Seong-man shook his head at another staff member's suggestion.

Everyone in Korea already knew Alencia was James Walker's daughter.

Still, it didn't have much of an impact.

And all James Walker did was pretend to be a 'returnee' and make huge money.

That money was now gone, and he was properly behind bars.

"It would've been much better if Alencia had tried to defend her father."

That way, they could attack her for defending a criminal.

But as if she knew this, Alencia had never once mentioned James Walker.

"By the way, PD Heo, isn't the next stop Denver?"

"Yes, it's Denver. Why?"

After passing Denver and just over a week's travel, it would finally be Los Angeles.

If there were fewer stops in between, the trip could be made in a day, but there were too many places to go through.

"I overheard something, but apparently HSN plans to enter the Challengers with that Alencia girl."

"What, Challengers?"

A sports event for awakened, the rules were simple.

Within a designated area, awakeners paired up in teams of two and tested their abilities in competition.

"... We could definitely use that."

From what he'd seen in the making-of videos, Challengers would probably be the stage where Alencia showed off her improved abilities. Judging by the overall concept, it was obvious.

'So, if we flip it around...'

With some luck, it'd be a chance to rain on their parade and steal back some of the attention they'd lost.

***

Denver, a city in Colorado.

I don't know what it was like in the past, but after the appearance of awakeners, it had become the safest city in America.

There weren't many monsters near the city to begin with, and after 'Challengers' became popular, many awakened gathered here.

Because of that stability, denver boasted research clusters, including Polaris Research Institute, the country's largest energy lab.

"... We're really getting a lot of attention."

Yeon-ji murmured, scowling in discomfort.

In the past, she would've strutted with pride, but lately, she didn't seem to enjoy this kind of attention.

"We're kind of conspicuous, after all."

I looked between Alencia and Yeon-ji and chuckled.

Arriving in Denver, I immediately took Yeon-ji and Alencia with me.

We had to register for Challengers as soon as possible.

"Alencia is super famous in the US, and you look way too young to be here."

She might have been a pathetic streamer, but in terms of name value, Alencia was second to none. Just from that, she'd gained hundreds of thousands of subscribers on day one. On the other hand, the fact that her channel's viewership had plummeted to the triple digits was something that truly amazed me.

'It was unbelievably boring, to be fair.'

Having watched all her videos before meeting her, I could only explain it that way.

However, after learning various things from Yeon Kyung-ho and Reporter Pyo Ji-yeol on Minerva, her broadcasting skills had recently improved quite a bit.

What was most important was that she'd started occasionally showing her face on stream.

Before, she'd always hidden her face, declaring, 'I want to be recognized for who I am!'

My philosophy was to utilize every advantage, so I was glad to see this change in Alencia.

"We'd like to register for the competition."

I said so in English, and the tired-looking male clerk looked me up and down.

"Please fill this out. Once completed, there will be a few tests, so please wait in that line."

He handed me a registration form.

It seemed he assumed I was one of the competitors.

"Oh, not me. These two will be entering."

"Excuse me?"

Only then did the clerk look past me to see Yeon-ji and Alencia.

He looked shocked when he saw Alencia, then broke into a smirk when he looked at Yeon-ji.

"I'm sorry, but you can't enter alone, and the youth group applications are that way."

Challengers participants basically competed in pairs.

It seemed he had considered Alencia and Yeon-ji as separate entrants.

I showed him Yeon-ji's passport and said,

"If you're sixteen and up, you can enter the unlimited division, correct?"

"Excuse me?"

A quick passport check would show her real age.

Officially, Yeon-ji's age was seventeen.

Her identity had been arranged through Director Jo of Upstream.

"Hmm."

The clerk double-checked the passport, glancing between Yeon-ji and me several times, then frowned.

"She's definitely over sixteen, but..."

Appearing doubtful, he looked at Yeon-ji, then eventually nodded.

"If you submit false information, you'll be banned from participating for three years. Please keep that in mind."

His words brought snickers from those nearby.

"Sometimes you get those guys, you know? They act up just because they lucked into a good rank."

"Isn't that Alencia Walker standing there? The one rumored to be an awakener?"

Alencia's gaze turned sharp at such mockery, glaring at those around her, but none of the other awakeners avoided her stare.

Apparently, they just found her reaction amusing.

"Looks like there are always pests who don't even know their own place, running their mouths."

On the other hand, Yeon-ji chuckled and muttered in English, making sure everyone could hear.

Consequently, the atmosphere instantly turned hostile and people glared at her.

In particular, a tough-looking man, at least two meters tall, jeered down at the young Yeon-ji as he threatened her.

"Kid, how about running along home and playing house before you get hurt?"

SLAP!!

No sooner had he finished than a crisp slap echoed through the air, and the man spun several meters away, tumbling across the crowd. Instantly, all the snickering voices vanished.

A man nearly twice her size had been sent flying by a single slap, right through the crowd and for several meters.

The man seemed to be unconscious, just twitching and unable to get up.

Everyone's eyes locked on Yeon-ji. She covered her mouth bashfully with the same hand that had just slapped him.

"Oops, I was startled and hit him before I realized he was a pest. But he insulted me first, didn't he?"

Yeon-ji spoke like an innocent child.

At her words, everyone was instantly struck dumb. I was left speechless.

'Sheesh.'

Brat specialty: conveniently forgets her own actions.

In Super Hunter K, what Ji Yeon-hwa did to Shin Ah-yeon had been at least as bad as, if not worse than, what that guy experienced just now.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

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