The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

If anything, it felt like his knotted-up shoulder muscles were getting worked loose.

The researchers who had been pounding on him for a while ran themselves out and shuffled off, still huffing.

Seo Jihyeok patted himself down as he stood up, then held out a hand to Kim Minjung, who had been curled up beneath him.

"You okay, senior?"

Face slightly flushed, Kim Minjung dodged his hand and got up on her own.

"You — you...! Who told you to save me?!"

She snapped at him and shoved him off, then stomped off down the corridor and disappeared.

Seo Jihyeok thought, You save someone and this is what you get, but he would never, ever learn that this very incident would go on to make an enormous contribution toward producing the institute's official couple.

...More importantly.

Seo Jihyeok's head filled up again with cold analysis.

Public evaluation, huh... any way to sneak in?

He was turning things over in his head as he made his way back toward the Director's office.

Right on cue, the Director's office door was opening and Han Jewoon was coming out.

But there was something off about the way he looked.

"...That's actually possible?"

He was staring blankly into the air with unfocused eyes, muttering to himself as if his soul had left his body.

"Guild Master?"

At the sound of his name, Han Jewoon snapped out of it and turned around.

"Ah... it's you, Jihyeok."

Seo Jihyeok glanced around for a moment, then headed for the supply closet.

A little while later, back in his own face and clothes, he came back out and asked Han Jewoon:

"Did something happen?"

Instead of answering, Han Jewoon let out a very deep sigh.

"Something happened, yeah..."

He seemed to be thinking something else over, then gave his Deputy Guild Master an order.

"Find me an A-rank Gate we can clear in the near future."

"...I'm sorry?"

For a moment Seo Jihyeok doubted his own ears.

A Gate was a thing you had zero way of knowing when or where it would show up.

And an A-rank Gate was rare enough that maybe one or two appeared in a whole year.

And now he was being told to find one.

One that could be cleared in the near future, no less!

But the moment he opened his mouth to object, the sight of the Guild Master's grim, deadly serious face shut it right back up for him.

"...Understood."

What on earth did the Director say to him?

Han Jewoon turned first.

"We're heading back."

The two of them, without a word, vanished into the deep, dark corridors of the institute.

The day of the public evaluation.

I was seated in a chair in the middle of the empty, cavernous virtual reality training room.

In front of me, a huge black mirror stood tall as a wall.

From this side, it reflected only my own image, but it was special one-way glass — from the observation room on the other side, you could see clear through into the whole training room.

The fact that countless eyes were watching me from the other side had goosebumps rising on my skin.

My heart's about to explode.

As expected, Kim Sihyeok's public evaluation was a virtual monster response drill.

The effect of the bond between guardian and test subject on awakening energy.

This evaluation was the proving ground for exactly that hypothesis.

Which was why I, as the guardian, was in the training room together with the test subject Sihyeok in person.

Body strapped to the chair, I ran back through the briefing Park Wonjin had given just before the experiment started.

The experiment is simple. Once it begins, a virtual monster will pretend to attack the Director. At that moment, we'll measure the waveform and volume of awakening energy the test subject releases in order to protect the Director.

He'd particularly stressed one part.

Just in case, we've set the physical force of the virtual data to zero. Even if the monster hits you directly, it'll just pass through your body like an illusion — there's absolutely no way you'll be hurt.

The experiment sounded more benign than I'd expected, and it surprised me a little.

The Deputy Director's not the type to leave things at this... playing it safe because the Bureau Chief's watching?

Just then, a voice came booming through the training room's speakers.

Bureau Chief Chae Ganghyeon's hearty voice.

[Hahaha! My son! I have high expectations of you today! I know you can do it!]

Right after him, Park Wonjin's slick, snakelike voice followed.

[Not to worry, Director. As I explained, this experiment was designed with your safety as the top priority — there's not the slightest chance you'll be injured.]

"Obviously. If so much as a hair on my head gets damaged, your neck's the first thing coming off."

As I said it, I rolled the little candy I'd been sucking on since morning around on my tongue.

The Candy of Calm.

Without it, I might already have suffocated under the pressure.

That was the exact moment.

With a clank, the door on the far side of the training room opened.

The one who stepped through it was Kim Sihyeok.

The instant he saw me, the child's face lit up with pure relief.

But that lasted only a moment — the second he noticed I was tied to the chair, his face went bone-white.

"Director!"

He tried to run to me right then and there, but a metallic clank! dropped him to the ground on the spot.

Around his ankle was a shackle bolted to the floor by a thick iron chain — both a restraint and an energy meter.

Park Wonjin's explanation of the experiment came back to me.

The moment I get attacked, we'll measure just how strong an energy the child releases trying to break that shackle.

Panicked, Sihyeok started frantically trying to yank his ankle out of the shackle.

But the chain only pulled taut without giving way, digging into his thin ankle instead.

At exactly that moment, the Bureau Chief's amused voice came through the speaker.

[Ohhh... they've built up that deep a bond already, have they. That's my son. That kind of loyalty — I like it a lot.]

But I ignored his commentary entirely and focused only on Sihyeok.

I could see blood beading up at the boy's ankle.

At that sight, I shouted quickly:

"Kim Sihyeok! Hold still! I told you not to go hurting yourself! I'm fine — calm down!"

At my shout, his movements stopped for a moment.

Sihyeok looked at me with slightly frightened eyes.

"...Wh-what... is all this..."

I flashed him a grin, as if to say it's fine.

"This is all nothing. It's just... a new game. That's all."

Then, dropping my voice as low as I could, I said discreetly:

"And you. You haven't forgotten what I told you over this past week, have you?"

The past week.

To wear the kids' fear of virtual reality monsters down, I'd drilled it into them over and over that those things were nothing but illusions, just scraps of data.

Sihyeok in particular I'd hammered on about the upcoming evaluation, again and again.

The monsters that would come out in the training room could never hurt him. There was no need to be afraid.

He seemed to remember my words — Sihyeok finally seemed to steady a little, bit his lip, and nodded.

Then Park Wonjin's voice rang out through the speaker.

[We'll begin the experiment now.]

An ominous warning tone — beep — rang out, filling the whole training room.

At the same time, one wall of the room split apart to either side like a huge steel gate, with a hiss of shhhhk.

And out of the darkness beyond, two red points of eyeshine flashed.

"Grwaaaaargh—!"

Along with an eardrum-shredding roar, a massive shadow revealed itself.

Rearing up on two legs, easily over three meters tall — a huge black bear.

The B-rank monster Black Grizzly.

Its entire body was covered in black fur like steel wool, and thick forepaws bristled with dagger-long, razor-sharp claws.

Those red eyes fixed on me, and it let out another roar.

Then it slammed its fist... down into the floor.

Krooom—!!!

The whole training room floor shook violently, as if an earthquake had hit.

"Sihyeok! It's okay! That thing's fake!"

As Sihyeok's face went pale again, I shouted, urgent:

"I told you before, didn't I? This is just a game! Whatever pops out over there and comes at me — it can't lay a finger on me. It's just like a shadow. Got it?"

That was when—

Grroooar—!

The huge monster roared and came charging straight at me.

Thoom, thoom, thoom.

Even knowing it was virtual data, the tremors shaking the training room floor felt too real.

...Even knowing it's fake, this is terrifying.

I forced a face like it was nothing, but my heart was pounding on its own.

That was the exact moment.

A thoom! — a shockwave hitting the floor — rocked my body sideways.

...And in that instant. An ice-water-cold wrongness flashed through my head.

Wait. Tremors?

Park Wonjin had clearly said physical force was set to zero.

Realizing the contradiction and the giant shadow lunging at me — those happened almost simultaneously.

I had no time to think! I threw my body sideways on pure reflex.

Whoom—!

The very spot I'd been sitting in a moment ago.

Its razor claws ripped through the empty air where I'd been.

And a searingly clear real pain hit my shoulder.

Red blood was spreading across my lab coat.

I stared down, dazed, at the blood running from my shoulder.

How is there a wound...!

I wanted to believe I was seeing it wrong, but the tearing pain in my shoulder and the sticky feel of the blood running down were dreadfully, sickeningly real.

Park Wonjin...!

Inside, I screamed his name.

Is he trying to kill me here? No, more importantly, the Bureau Chief? He's got to be watching — why isn't he doing anything?

Before the thought could go any further—

"Grwaaargh—!"

The Grizzly roared and hoisted the chair I was tied to, whole, into the air.

Wait—!

My body, still lashed to the chair, went up with it.

Then it was hurled mercilessly toward the far wall.

Kraaash—!

An awful impact that felt like my back was caving in.

A kuh! burst out of my mouth along with red blood — and even the candy popped out.

The moment the candy's sweetness was gone—

Every sensation the artifact had been suppressing up till now came flooding back at once.

The tearing pain in my shoulder. The stabbing agony in my back. And the raw, primal terror of dying.

At my ears, a sharp ringing — beeee — started up and wouldn't stop.

Ungh...!

The one saving grace was that the impact just now had smashed the chair and restraints holding me.

"Grwaaargh!"

The moment the Grizzly came charging at me again, I rolled my shaking body to one side.

Kraaash! — with a huge crashing sound, its enormous fist demolished the exact spot I'd just been in.

Bits of floor shrapnel flew everywhere.

It just... shattered the floor?

I all but rolled across the entire floor, desperately opening up distance from it.

But its attacks didn't stop.

Those huge forepaws came raining down on me without pause.

I rolled, fell, crawled, dodging every one of those attacks in a frantic, ugly scramble.

My heart was hammering, and cold sweat poured off me in sheets.

After a few more misses, the thing finally started to huff, plainly getting fed up.

Its red eyes gave up on the annoying bug it couldn't catch and moved on, hunting for something easier, softer.

Sihyeok.

From the moment I'd first been attacked, he hadn't moved. He'd stayed curled up, muttering something to himself.

That was when—

The Grizzly's red eyes locked onto the gleaming suppression device around the boy's ankle.

"Grwoooarrgh—!"

It lost its mind and charged... straight at Sihyeok.

"No—!!!"

I screamed and threw myself after it.

But my body — I'd lost too much blood — was as heavy as if I'd been dragged down into a swamp.

Too late. Hopelessly, hopelessly too late.

The thing was already standing right over Sihyeok, one enormous forepaw with its razor claws raised.

Every thought in my head, every calculation — gone.

I can't dodge both of us out of this—!

For a split second, a past I'd forgotten flashed in front of me like lightning.

Just like that one day, when I'd thrown myself in the path of Minjun running out into the road.

I didn't hesitate anymore.

The single instinct — I have to protect this child — drove my shattered body.

I wrung out every last bit of strength I had left and hurled myself into the space beneath those razor claws.

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