Chapter 30: Peace and The President

‘...’

‘We’ve stopped now?’

‘...’

‘In that case, get the fuck out.’

‘...’

…

‘It’s somewhere around 11:40 pm right now. I gotta say I’m impressed. If I hadn’t been told about it I wouldn’t have even known I was being transported.’

I opened my eyes to find myself in a completely unfamiliar room. Due to his interference, I was able to realize that I and the rest of the applicants had been transported during our sleep. But where and when the final selection would begin I didn’t know.

‘But, since AGH transported us here before the next day even started and the fact that there are 68 applicants for the tournament, AGH is probably going to start early.’

After coming to this conclusion in my mind I decided to check out the room I was in more closely. I sat up and pinched myself to wake up faster. The room was dimly lit and devoid of any sort of decorum that could cheer up the room. There were some clothes though, 2 sets of black clothing that looked suspiciously large.

I turned over to Roland who was still sleeping nearby. I hadn’t noticed before, since he had always woken up earlier than me, but he was a snorer. It was strangely comforting to hear his voice reverberate around the room though, it gave me a sense of security to know that I wasn’t alone in this dark room.

Silently, I stepped out of bed. I gingerly touched the ground only to find that it was comfortably warm, allowing me to stand without discomfort. I walked over to the set of clothes hanging on the wall and began to examine them.

My previous suspicion of the clothes being large was correct they were even larger than I had thought. I held the pants out in front of me, examining its size. They easily stretched out well beyond my waist. Even Roland wouldn’t have been able to fit in these.

‘It feels nice though.’

The black clothes seemed to be made of silk. It was cool, heavy, and extremely smooth. I couldn’t tell if it was high quality or not, but based only on the smoothness I guessed that it was decently expensive to make. It was so smooth that it felt almost waxy.

“It’s real si-”

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH FUCK!!!” I screamed out in fright.

Instinctively I turned around ready to fight, only to find Roland keeled over, holding his stomach, laughing. He had woken up and walked over to the clothes without me noticing. When he spoke he had nearly given me a heart attack.

“Mark you- haha- need to- ha- see- ahahaha”

‘Well aren’t you amused,’ I thought to myself sarcastically.

Despite my annoyance a smile forcefully occupied my face and soon I was laughing as well. I wanted to hold myself at this moment, this moment of peace because I knew that afterward, I would be in a state of constant stress.

“So,” I began to ask after calming down, “how do you know it’s silk?”

“High society parties often have dress codes,” Roland began to explain, “In East Asia, they are often based on the local culture's traditional clothing, which just so happens to often be made of silk. I can’t tell the difference between regular and high-quality silk, but I know if it’s real or not. I have some silk clothes at home.”

I nodded in understanding. Since Violet was from East Asia she would probably need more silk clothes than Roland, so she might even be able to tell the difference between low and high-quality silk.

‘I’ll have to ask her about that later.’

“Do you think we have to put on these clothes?” I asked Roland.

“Hmm… I mean I don’t see why else they would be here. But that being said…” Roland then brought the shirt up to his chest and, despite his height and muscles, it was too long and too wide for him. “These are massive. A giant could fit in there maybe, but not us.”

I then pulled up the shirt from my set of black clothes. Just like Roland’s, it was massive, almost comedically so. I highly doubted that there was even a single applicant large enough to fit these.

“AAAAAHHHH”

My ears pricked up as I heard someone's voice come out from a nearby wall. It was extremely quiet, approaching the lowest threshold of being audible, but it sounded like someone was in pain. I looked at Roland, who also appeared to have heard it as his face was contorted in concern.

Both of us continued to listen closely but after several seconds not another sound came. It could have just been our imagination but the fact that both of us had heard it at the same time indicated that as an unlikely possibility.

I began to shuffle around nervously somewhat. My mind began to fill with doubts about the third selection and the possibility that it had already started somehow, yet Roland and I were stuck in here. In less than a minute stress built up to an uncomfortable point, causing me to feel the need to shift back and forth constantly.

“Good morning future stars.”

“AAAH… fuck,” I said, startled by the principal's voice. Roland began to snicker again, only stopping when I began to glare at him. I didn’t feel very annoyed by it though. In full honesty, I would have done the same if I were him.

I shook my head, ‘My nerves are gonna kill me at this rate.’ My thoughts were quickly interrupted by the principal's voice though, which seemed to come from every point in the room all at once.

“I must say I’m in a rather good mood, I only had to use the shock bed function on two applicants. I hope you’ve all had a pleasant sleep. It’s now 12 am, and we’ll begin the final selection in 10 minutes.”

I immediately realized what the noise next door must have been. An applicant hadn’t woken up and so they had been shocked to force it. A part of me began to giggle silently as I thought about how they and their roommate must have reacted. I could imagine one of them leaping back in fright and the other groaning in pain as they crawled out of bed.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why we’re starting so early. As heroes you will be expected to also perform night shifts and, on occasion, you may even be forced to work continuously for over 48 hours. You won’t get the privilege of choosing when you have to perform your duties as a hero, so you won’t be getting it during this application either.”

‘That explains why they decided to move us so early while sleeping. They still haven’t explained the clothes though.’

“More details about the final selection will be given to you later. For now, please put on the clothes in your room. A doorway will open up in your room in just a few moments.”

With that the principal's voice clicked off with some static and the room was left in silence again. I raised the clothes again and looked at them suspiciously, attempting to find any potential things I might have missed that would make them fit better. To my dismay, I found nothing.

“Well,” I said, “you wanna go first or me?”

“I’ll go first,” Roland responded to me after a few moments of thought, “I’m bigger so it’ll fit me at least a little more.”

I nodded, expressing my approval, and Roland took off his shirt. He then pulled the giant black shirt over his head and slid it down. It immediately proved too large for him; the tip of his fingers were about three inches away from the end of the sleeve and the bottom of the shirt reached nearly to his knees.

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“Well,” Roland said sarcastically, “call me crazy but I think we may have a problem.”

“Whaaaaaaat,” I responded in the same tone, “No it fits great.”

Both of us began to snicker, something which nearly burst into full-out laughter only to be stopped by Roland suddenly grabbing his shirt awkwardly.

“Hold up, this shirt fee-”

Roland’s sentence was suddenly cut off by a series of sparks flying out of the shirt. With each spark that came out, the shirt began to shrink more and more. It wasn’t all even either, some spots shrank more than others until, in just a second and a half, the shirt fit perfectly on Roland’s body.

‘Holy shit…’

For a few moments, both Roland and I stood in shocked silence. I even had my mouth agape at what I had just seen. Clothes moving like they were alive, done through psychic powers, seemingly on autopilot. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it before, not to mention, it fit perfectly. Not “very well”, not “great,” but perfect.

“Well damn…” I said. “LET ME GET IN ON THIS SHIT!!!”

Both Roland and I scrambled for the clothes, rushing to put them on. In a few moments, both of us watched in amazement as the clothes merged and shrank down to our size. Then the clothes merged together, turning the pants and shirt into a single piece of clothing. The clothes even changed design as dark blue lines suddenly appeared on them. After all the changes occurred Roland and I examined our clothes, searching to find any imperfections.

“It’s incredible,” Roland said, “I can’t find a single thing wrong. It’s like it was designed this way from the start.”

“The amount of money you could make from high-quality clothes that fit anyone and change design…” I responded. I was from a well-off family but there was a massive difference between us and the insanely wealthy like Roland and Violet. A product like this wouldn’t take us to that level, but we would be far closer.

Unfortunately, my enjoyment of the high-quality clothing was soon interrupted by a computerized voice.

“Please make your way to the two doors at the end of the passageway applicants, the final selection will begin momentarily.”

I turned towards Roland and we both nodded. Side by side we walked to the end of the passageway to find ourselves in front of two doors. On the floor, there were two pairs of black slip-on shoes for us to put on, both pairs though, were too large.

“Yo another one,” I said excitedly, eager to see the shoes shrink again.

As expected, when I put them on the shoes began to shoot out sparks until they had merged completely into my pants. I felt around the area where the two items had joined together but couldn’t find a single imperfection.

I looked back towards the doors. In between the two doors, there was a clock counting downwards. It was 5 minutes now, so I likely still had another 5 minutes before the start of the final selection.

“You ready?” Roland asked me.

I shook my head, “Hah… nope.”

“Yeah me neither,” he responded to me.

“So, do you still have a plan for how to get Violet away from her family?” I asked, it had been several days since we had last discussed it. I wasn’t able to come up with a solution but Roland had, although even he only gave the plan a 50% chance of working.

“I do. I’ve gotten approval from all people involved except for one, they’ll be the deciding factor on this.”

‘Interesting, his plan involves multiple people.’

I nodded in understanding before turning my attention back to the doors in front of us. Roland and I entered into silence as nervousness began to infect us. We had no idea what could be in front of us. AGH said that it was a tournament battle between applicants but they had also said that the second selection was just an obstacle course.

‘Please be a regular tournament,’ I begged inwardly.

Out of the corner of my vision, I saw Roland lace his hands into the prayer position, close his eyes, and enter a state of reverent silence. I decided to mimic him and I began to say prayers in my head. Despite it being only in my head the divine power of the gods still made itself present and my thoughts boomed loudly.

‘Gods, your son prays to you. Give him strength, give him knowledge, give him help. I am your humble servant, your loving son, your flawed child, allow me to approach your perfection for this moment. You are the creators of all, the knowers of all, the rulers of all. All things that are have come after you and all will end before you. Grant me a portion of such authority so that I may approach the path ahead of me without hesitation. To you, I pray.’

I opened my eyes and noticed my entire body felt tingly like tiny bolts of lightning were shooting throughout me. Strangely enough, while in prayer I had somehow spent over two minutes with my eyes closed, leaving only 2 minutes and 40 seconds left.

I felt my heart begin to beat harder and faster, anticipating the battles I was about to face. As the tingling protection of the gods left me I felt my stomach drop and squeamish. Everything seemed to grow inhumanly large as my stress continued to increase.

‘Breathe.’

I took a deep breath in, held it, and slowly released it. This process I repeated multiple times until I felt myself regain partial control of myself. My heart still raced and my stomach still felt sick, but my head was clear. Looking toward the timer again I found that it was at 20 remaining seconds.

“Gods be with us,” Roland said. He opened his eyes and finally released his hands from the laced prayer position. I could feel the energy in the air change as he spoke for a moment, filled with the divine strength of the gods.

15 seconds…

“Good luck Roland.”

10 seconds…

“You too Mark.”

5 seconds…

4 seconds…

3… 2… 1…

The clock screen shut off and was replaced by Principal Sever, smiling with a slightly unhinged look on his face and a tone in his voice.

“Well future stars, let’s begin the final selection.”

…

The head of the Woo family walked down the hall of the Sagyon Building in the capital city of Rokea, Losue. Surrounding him were bodyguards, each one an S-Rank, closely observing his every move. If he made even one threatening move then the S-Ranks would attack instantly.

But the man was unafraid, his status as the head of the Woo family would place pressure on any individual in Rokea, regardless of the power they wielded. The S-Ranks were well aware of this and were further aware that there were undoubtedly the Woo family’s S-Rank psychics in hiding, watching to ensure the safety of the family head. Even if the head attacked the man he was about to meet, it was unsure whether or not the current S-Rank bodyguards present could fend him off enough to ensure the survival of their client.

Eventually, they came to the end of the hall. In front of them was a beautifully crafted door, the entrance to the office of the most important man in the country. After patting down the Woo family head the bodyguards allowed him to enter.

‘Such a waste of time,’ the man thought as he opened the door.

Inside was the President of Rokea, taking notes on a piece of paper. His name was Sejoon Yoon and he was in the 3rd year of his 5-year term. He and the head of the Woo family had met in the past before, considering the head of the Woo was effectively the second most powerful man in the country, but it had always seemed like the president was the weaker one in their conversations.

“Mr. Yoon,” the head stated.

Sejoon shook his head, “Mr. Byung-hi Woo, you must call me President Yoon.”

Sejoon knew that Byung would never do such a thing. As far as Byung was concerned, the two of them were equals in power at best. Byung didn’t have any political power, but numerous members of the Woo family branches were politicians and each of them would follow Byung to the ends of the earth. Not to mention, he was exceptionally wealthy, all of the Woo family funds came largely to the head family.

“Mr. Yoon I asked for this meeting today because I need permission from the government to bring one of my S-Ranks overseas,” Byung said, ignoring Sejoon’s weak demand to address him as president.

“Why exactly do you want that?” Sejoon asked suspiciously.

S-Rank’s were wildly powerful psychics, each one was a major factor in a country's military strength. While Rokea was at peace right now, having an S-Rank leave without any early warnings could leave Rokea open to attack. Even if the S-Rank was under the Woo family, having them inside the country of Rokea gave Rokea significant strength.

“Two reasons,” Byung said, “the first is that his ability could be useful for someone I’m looking into. The second is that I’ve heard rumors of an event going on with Fukumuga in Panaj while I’m supposed to be traveling there.”

“And when do you plan to take this S-Rank out of the country?”

“In a week.”

Byung smiled patiently as he noticed Sejoon begin to grip the table tightly. On the other hand, Sejoon was becoming enraged. A mere week was a ridiculously small amount of time. It was almost as if Byung was doing this merely to annoy Sejoon.

“And why,” Sejoon said through gritted teeth, “did you not just use the usual channels?”

Byung shrugged his shoulders, “It’s faster this way. Since I only just decided to go I needed quick confirmation.”

‘Why you little…’ Sejoon began to think to himself. Byung could have used the immigration department to get permission. Considering his status the request would have been filled out within 2 weeks or less. But instead, he called in a meeting with the president just to get it filled out a little bit faster.

Sejoon sighed, struggling to keep his growing annoyance and anger under control. He waved his hand at Byung, nodding his approval.

“I’ll fill out the paperwork within the next hour, now leave my office,” Sejoon said. Again Byung had been the one leading the conversation, completely calm and in control.

Byung smiled and put out his hand for a handshake, which Sejoon reluctantly took. Byung then performed a slight bow before they separated hands, smiling smugly the entire time.

“Well Sejoon, I’ll be off now,” Byung said, seemingly almost laughing from the joy he was feeling.

Sejoon on the other hand felt blood begin to rush into his face. He hadn’t even used “Mr.” that time. Byung had always been disrespectful towards authority, but recently he had been growing more and more cocky. Sejoon slammed his hands onto the table and leaped up from his chair, ready to shout at Byung for his disrespect.

“Now listen here y-”

“You little piece of…?”

Sejoon’s eyes widened as Byung was able to complete the sentence he was about to say. It was like Byung had read his thoughts effortlessly, but how? Meanwhile, Byung’s smile quickly vanished from his face and he took a step towards Sejoon again.

“Little piece of what Mr. Yoon?” Byung asked, this time clear malic emanate from his voice and a sickly green aura began to coat his body.

Instantly a group of S-Rank’s appeared surrounding Byung, all of them holding artifacts at Byung’s vital points. His organs, heart, neck, and brain all were targeted. Even an inch of movement in any direction would result in his death.

Byung eyed each one of them carefully, he himself was an S-Rank but he was aware that the experience of these bodyguards was far greater than his own. Any one of them would likely be able to defeat them in a fight, although not before Sejoon, a C-Rank, would be killed in the crossfire.

‘And you all have artifacts,’ Byung acknowledged.

Artifacts were specially crafted items made by psychics who were called artificers. Depending on the skill of the artificer an artifact could be extremely weak, offering practically no benefits, or massively powerful, capable of turning a battle between equals into a one-sided beatdown. An S-Rank artifact could give an A-Rank the ability or strength required to kill an S-Rank psychic. Perhaps thankfully for society though, there has never been an SS-Rank artifact and the S-Rank artifacts were extremely few.

‘But an A-Rank artifact would be enough for you to turn the tide of battle against me,’ Byung admitted.

Byung stopped releasing his aura and forced a smile back onto his face. To any normal bystander, he would appear to be an amiable man, but anyone who knew him well would feel nothing but mistrust at this face of his.

“I would like to leave now,” he said to the S-Rank’s still holding their positions.

They nodded but did not separate from him as he left, still holding him at death's door. As soon as Byung closed the door behind him he could almost imagine seeing Sejoonfall back into his chair in relief.

Now outside the office of the president, Byung allowed his fake smile to disappear from his face. He began his long walk to leave the Sagyon Building.

‘Presidents, always the same,’ he thought as he walked down the halls of the building.

Byung had been the head of the Woo family for years, he was well accustomed to dealing with presidents. But they were always B-Rank at most, A-Ranks and above were rarely if ever politicians. The side effect was that all presidents ended up fearful of Byung, after all, he was an S-Rank.

Byung shook his head in disappointment. His face continued to enter into a deeper and deeper frown.

‘Hmm, I’ll pay Jewon a visit while investigating that Mark boy,’ he thought to himself. This brought a little bit of joy back into his step as he left the building.

End of Chapter 30