Chapter 6 - Eldest Brother is Back
“The first to discover was the section chief, don’t be nervous.”
The staff explained in a friendly voice.
They were a very kind person with a smile on their face and a friendly tone.
Park Mano looked at the documents on the table and asked a question.
“How is it? Is he really your family?”
“Pardon?”
“Do you think he’s Lee Gwihan-
ssi
? First of all, the photographic record matches the apparent characteristics.”
“I think he’s my eldest brother. The age is not right, but that’s it.”
“Yes, that is common.”
Park Mano nodded her head and pressed the button connected to the table. Then a strange laughter came from the speaker.
“Ukhukhukhukhu. Cough.”
“Ah, why are you laughing like that? Do you think we’re shooting horror movie?”
Park Mano said rude words without hesitation and handed the microphone to Lee Bobae.
“You can talk with the microphone on.”
“Can’t I go in there?”
“Yeah, no. Fuck, is he looking here? Does he want to scare us to death or what?”
“Ah, Section Chief might not know this. But recalling what you said, Lee Bobae arrived at the management office about 20 minutes ago.”
“That’s when he started laughing.”
Park Mano looked uncomfortable from the beginning, and the friendly staff didn’t look very good either.
Lee Bobae, who was about to speak with her eldest brother for the first time in six years, felt uncomfortable and chewed on her lips. But the reason wasn’t because of the conversation between the nameless staff and Park Mano.
It was just that, if you heard a laughter that went on and on so endlessly in the middle of the night, you might mistake it for the laughter of a ghost or a maniac killer.
The sound of her eldest brother’s laughter amplified her unpleasant feelings.
‘What are you thinking about your eldest brother?’
No matter where she looked, that man was her eldest brother.
Her heart pounded ominously, but he was still her eldest brother. The eldest brother who was as strong as two parents combined.
Lee Bobae turned on the microphone and called the man.
“Eldest Brother! Eldest Brother?”
Then the man stopped laughing. He threw away his twisted, bizarre smile and smiled broadly. Tears streamed from his smiling eyes. Lee Bobae asked again with a choked heart.
“You’re Eldest Brother, aren’t you? This is Bobae!”
“Bobae, our youngest. You’ve grown up so much, but why do you look so down? What’s with your hair and clothes? You must have had a hard time without this big brother, but luckily you’re still alive. Thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God,, thank God.”
Like a broken machine, Lee Gwihan repeated the words of ‘thank God’ and shed tears.
When this happened, Lee Bobae became impatient.
It didn’t matter whether her eldest brother felt a little out of his mind. What was important was that her eldest brother returned safely without dying. This was enough.
“Please let me meet him!”
“I’m sorry, Lee Bobae-
ssi
. We can’t—”
“Open the door.”
“Chief!”
The friendly staff was about to decline Lee Bobae’s request, but Park Mano pressed the button. Then the door opened where it used to be an ordinary wall. Because it seemed like it would connect to the other side of the window, Lee Bobae ran towards it.
Park Mano and the staff seemed to be arguing behind her, but she didn’t hear anything.
Lee Bobae was focused on her eldest brother.
When Lee Bobae opened the door, Lee Gwihan, who was lowering his upper body and sobbing, looked up.
Her eldest brother’s tear-stained face was the same as the 22-year-old boy Lee Bobae remembered.
Lee Bobae had turned 24, so perhaps that was why she thought he looked so young. Lee Gwihan had jumped into the rift to save his younger siblings starting at the age of 20.
He had risked his life. And then he disappeared.
Thinking about it, the tears did not stop in Lee Bobae’s eyes. Lee Bobae cried. She reached out and hugged her eldest brother whom she had missed so much.
“Eldest Brother! Where did you go? Where did you go before?! Where did you go without us?”
“I’m glad. I missed you. I missed you so much. I really missed you. So I came back to see you at all costs.”
“Why come now?! It’s been six years!”
“Six years? Six years? That’s why you’ve grown so much. What about the Second? Why didn’t he come with you?”
“Kugh, hicc. Second Brother works as a porter. He’s going through a rift today and we won’t be able to contact him for a while.”
“Then.”
Perhaps it was difficult to ask this question, but Lee Gwihan soon muttered.
“How is Hansaeng?”
Lee Gwihan’s hesitation was justified.
The third sibling, Lee Hansaeng’s hospital expenses was unaffordable were it not for Lee Gwihan, who worked as a Hunter.
So how much did he want to come back?
It would be the pure truth that he wanted to come back at any cost. He must have wanted to come back for his third brother, whose life would end as soon as their bank account balance reached zero.
But six years have passed. Lee Bobae spoke quickly to prevent her eldest brother from blaming himself.
“Third Brother isn’t dead, he’s alive. I was awakened after you disappeared. I’m a producer, but the guild welfare is good, so I changed the hospital to a better one, and the hospital expenses is supported.”
As if he was relieved by those words, the words of ‘thank God’ came out of Lee Gwihan’s mouth again.
Lee Gwihan’s arm, which hugged Lee Bobae, was strengthened.
“Let’s go to the hospital. I can see the Third right away, right?”
Lee Gwihan pulled Lee Bobae toward the door. Lee Bobae also wanted to go to the hospital and show the third brother to him.
How worried he must have been? How nervous he must have been? Eldest Brother is back.
Lee Gwihan, who was the support of Lee Bobae in the time of her helplessness, has returned.
“Calm down.”
Park Mano blocked the brother and sister in front.
“Congratulations on your reunion,
and let’s keep what we have to keep.”
Park Mano stood and took a glance at Lee Gwihan. Park Mano quickly explained the reason for blocking the two.
“I explained that a returnee who just came out of the rift had unstable mana in their body that affected the outside world, right? Please hold off your visit to the hospital until your mana stabilize because it can give a negative impact on your brother, who is in a vegetative state. Let’s see… Did I give you all the necessary explanations? Thanks to your cooperation in the examination, we have completed the basic exam… There are no major health problems… Congratulations.”
Park Mano smiled. The staff next to her smiled kindly. Lee Bobae smiled along with them.
“But.”
Park Mano’s words were not over.
“You are uncooperative in measuring abilities. This is the problem. There have been more than 10,000 returnees so far, but there are only 30 Hunters. The actual percentage of Awakened is higher than that, and it should be about 50 people among the 10,000. And so!”
Park Mano said to Lee Gwihan.
“We will let you go once you measure your ability.”
Lee Gwihan politely put his hands together.
“I’m not hiding my strength!”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone said. Unfortunately, this has become the basics of the manual thanks to the big incident that involved the Swordmaster.”
Lee Bobae did not know if it was because of her mod, but Park Mano’s attitude toward Lee Gwihan was more gentle. Park Mano looked at Lee Bobae and Lee Gwihan alternately.
“I will let you go because you seem really happy to meet your younger sibling, but as I said before, 10,000 people in similar situations cooperated with the ability test, so let’s do well, Lee Gwihan-
ssi
. This is only possible because I’m the one in charge, if it were others, you won’t be able to go home in a day. You’ll be under supervision for at least a month.”
“I’m not hiding my strength!”
“If you play the protagonist who hides his power, you will be fined. Do you want me to tell you how much it is?”
The amount of fine Park Mano said was enormous. At the amount beyond their imagination, the brother and sister opened their mouths.
“This is the amount that was set to prevent recurrence after the Swordmaster, so please file your complaints to Banya Guild.”
Lee Gwihan put his hands together more politely than before because of the astronomical sum. He said in a trembling voice.
“I’m not hiding my strength… Mm!”
Lee Bobae also supported her eldest brother’s words.
“That’s right, my eldest brother is not someone who lies and hides his abilities. He’s very responsible and nice.”
“I want to believe it if possible,
but I’m going to say something that makes sense.
I understand if there was no improvement in your abilities while in another world, but this is the first time I’ve heard of abilities resetting.”
‘Abilities resetting?’
Likewise, Lee Bobae was puzzled by the word she heard for the first time.
The eldest brother Lee Gwihan had good skills as an early Awakened.
He had plenty of hands-on experience by jumping in rifts regardless of dangerous things to earn living and hospital expenses.
Now he couldn’t even brag about his level anywhere, but at the time of his disappearanc, his level had been higher than the average.
Eldest Brother’s abilities have been resetted? I mean, could the abilities initialized by the system be resetted?
Curses, traps, and various debuff skills might lower the ability, but this was only a temporary drop. This was the first time she had ever heard of ability reset, as much as healing skills.
“It was the first a rift within a rift case. Well, there may be a number of cases that we haven’t been able to find. But in any case, this is also the first case of ability reset.
In other words, if two things that others have never experienced overlap, we should be humanely cautious.
It’s impossible to leave unexploded bombs in the middle of the square. So let’s get to know the performance of unexploded bombs.”
“Normally, you should stay here for a month when your mana is stable and get tested. We ask for your cooperation in making this convenience.”
It was as Park Mano and the smiling staff said. According to the original regulations, Lee Gwihan must stay at the management office for at least a month and undergo monitoring and inspection. It was unconventional consideration to release it in a day.
But Lee Bobae trusted her eldest brother.
It was her first time hearing about abilities resetting, but could it have been that her eldest brother’s ability was really weakened or his ability was lowered due to the aftereffects of being swept into a rift?
Besides, what did they mean that he doesn’t have any major problems with his body? He seems mentally unstable.
Immediately after the reunion, he repeated ‘thank God’ and this time, he repeated ‘I’m not hiding my strength’. Lee Gwihan bowed his head as if avoiding the gaze of Park Mano and the staff, and covered his head with his hands.
He looked down at the floor and repeated the same words.
“I’m not hiding my strength, I’m not hiding my strength, I’m really not hiding my strength.”
“Eldest Brother, calm down. These people are not blaming you, they are concerned.”
“My senses exclaim that is a 100% reaction from one who hides their strength.”
“I’m not hiding my strength.”
“How can a powerless man see his sister through that glass?! I know that you’ve been spying on the entire bureaucracy!”
“I’m not hiding my strength!”
“Is this a match of who shouts the loudest? Shall I give it a try? What? Do you think you can beat me? I’m a law enforcer!”
“Chief, calm down. And you’re more a district magistrate than a law enforcer.”
“Eldest Brother, calm down. Look at me. Inhale, exhale.”
As Park Mano’s voice grew louder, Lee Gwihan trembled. In the end, Lee Bobae intruded between Park Mano and Lee Gwihan.
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