Emblem of the Sun (1)

Drr— Triing!

"Uh, ah!?"

I was startled awake by a certain ring. When I came to, I realized someone was calling me. 

'What time is it?'

It was still dark outside with no sun in sight. Clearly, it was quite early. Groggily, I sat up and reached for my phone. 

"Which motherfuc...!"

A string of curses flew out my mouth when I realized that it was 4:00 a.m.

Who in their right mind would call me at this hour?

The call also came from an unknown number. If this is a scam... 

"Hello? Who is this?"

I still answered.

—Hello? Is this Liam Marken I'm speaking to?

"Yes, who is this?"

He knows my name? Unknowingly, my back straightened, and my voice turned more polite. 

—Ah, great. It looks like I got the right number. Let me introduce myself, I'm Dean Osmos. Assistant Director of Unit 2.

Ah? Assistant Director?

My mind quickly sobered up.

"Emblem of the Sun?"

—It looks like you've caught on. Then I'll be direct. Can you come to work?

"Now?"

At this time!?

I double-checked my watch to make sure I wasn't seeing it wrong. You're kidding, right? 

—Yes, now. There's been a bit of a problem and we're lacking manpower. If possible, we'd like for you to come now.

"Uh… Wasn't I supposed to start next week?"

That was what they told me on the call just yesterday.

—You were, but since we're lacking staff we decided to call you. It's not obligatory of course, but we'd really appreciate the help. There will also be added pay.

I looked around me.

Shit, my clothes aren't ironed. 

I rushed towards my clothes which were sprawled all over the floor. Grabbing my shirt, I took a small whiff. Fuck, I can still smell the coffee. 

—Don't worry. We've already taken into account the time it would take for you to reach here, hence why we called you this early. I know it's abrupt, but we'd really appreciate your help. So, will you be able to come?

"I can."

My hand was already in the sleeve of my shirt. 

Even though it was quite early and I was unprepared, there was no better way to instill a good impression than to help in these types of situations. I also had nothing else going for me, so it wasn't a big problem. Rather, I was looking forward to working. 

Despite having given up on my dream, I was someone who religiously trained every single day without a break. Simply put, I couldn't sit still and do nothing at home. I needed to do something. 

—That's great. We'll see you in an hour. We'll be waiting outside of the building. You'll be able to know where we are the moment you arrive. For now, I'll send you the files of the group you will manage. You can look at it on the way here.

Du. Du.

The call ended abruptly like that.

"Huaam."

Letting out a yawn, I moved to the mirror and fixed my suit. It was all crinkled up and I could still see lingering traces of the drinks I spilled the day prior, but I could only make do with what I had.

Given the abruptness of the situation and the fact that I had no spare suits, I could only go out like this.

Who told me to be so unprepared? 

Tracing my finger over my lips, I stared at my smile. It was somewhat stiff.

'They'll focus on my smile instead of my clothes, right?'

For some reason, I doubted it. But as I stared in the mirror, I kept murmuring to myself...you've got the brightest smile in the world... you've got the brightest smile in the world... you've got...

***

—We are departing for Sun Island. 

A crisp voice echoed from the speakers of the train as it gently hovered into the air. 

"Blue Daisy, huh?" 

As I sat on my seat, I sorted the files sent to me regarding the group I was going to manage. Having already learned my lesson, I asked the Vice Director for all the necessary files in advance. Massaging my still slightly sour jaw, I carefully looked through the files. 

Unlike the previous group I managed, they were rather unknown. They were also a girl group instead of a male group, and skimming through the files, similarly to [Elypsis] the members all had great visuals. 

'Uh...? What is an eight-year-old doing here?' 

My hand paused on a certain profile. 

﹂Lyla Madeline. Eight years old. Frost-type caster. 

Why would they have an eight-year-old on their team? 'Ah, right. Maybe she's there for the experience.' It wasn't uncommon for particularly talented individuals to be placed in lower-ranked groups to gain experience. 

Judging from the information, Blue Daisy was one such team. Stuck at one star for the past three years, and without a proper fan base, their situation wasn't very good. 

Blue Daisy wasn't a bad starting point for someone who was being carefully nurtured by the guild. 

"But their clips aren't bad." 

Looking at the videos, I noticed that the girls were rather impressive. They coordinated well together and fought monsters extremely efficiently. There were a couple of flaws in their system, but they were clearly above the norm in the One-Star League. 

So why weren't they popular? 

They had all the right tools to be extremely popular, from their skills to their visuals. They didn't even have any scandals. So what exactly is their problem?

"They certainly are a lot better than Elypsis." 

'Hmm, thinking about them, I wonder how they're doing?'

Would they really fail like the vision that I saw... or was I did I finally lose it after giving up on my dream? 

Grabbing my phone, I launched the browser app and swiftly entered the name of the group into the search bar. There was a certain nervousness eating up at me as I pressed the search key and waited for the blue line to fill the top bar. 

[Breaking News. Elypsis, a group that was set to be the next Tier 1 team to be promoted to Tier 2 suddenly dropped in the ranking! Will their collective popularity remain in the E-list?] 

[Elypsis from Knight's Crest has failed to keep their audience entertained, dropping several ranks in their popularity ranking which has seen a decrease for quite some time. Will the group disband?] 

[Knight's Crest group Elypsis once again disappointed their fans. What will their future be?] 

As if a large boulder had been removed from my shoulders, I felt my shoulders slowly relax. 

I couldn't believe it. They really did fail. Exactly as said in my visions. 

Did this mean that the visions were real? If I wasn't certain of it before, I was becoming more certain of it. 

...but fuck, what kind of power was this? This type of power is completely unheard of. Even in this age where superhumans exist. Especially since I still couldn't feel mana at all. 

'A superpower that doesn't require the usage of mana?' 

I'd probably be made fun of if other people heard me. 

"Huuuuh." 

I took a deep breath. I needed more time to understand exactly what this was before coming to a complete conclusion as to what this power was. I didn't even bother searching for anything related to what I was experiencing. If such a case truly had appeared before, I'd have already heard it on the news by now. 

'Let me check the comments on Elypsis for now.' 

I needed something to distract my mind from these matters. I still had work to do. 

﹂What fucking trash. I saw the entire stream. These jackasses suck ass. 

﹂They failed really? I can't believe I even spent money on them… I want my money back. 

﹂The stream was dogshit. 

﹂Derrick XOXOXO. Don't worry! This is not the end! 

﹂I love you! You will all come back stronger! 

Mixed with the hate were several supportive comments from what I presumed were the die-hard fans, but those were mostly in the minority. Most of them were hateful comments directed toward the team, and honestly, reading through them, I couldn't help but feel a certain sense of satisfaction. 

'I wonder if they regret not listening to me?'

In all honesty, they probably didn't. From a logical standpoint, their decision wasn't wrong. I was indeed a newbie, and their choice was safer. Nonetheless, I still felt this thrill coursing through me as I read the titles on the screen. 

But I was quick to stop myself. 

'Is this how haters feel when they see the group they hate fail?'

I never understood them before, but now I do. The thrill of seeing those I dislike fail… It's like nothing I've ever experienced before. 

Fuck, I'm getting goosebumps. 

"Ah, right." 

I suddenly recalled something. Thinking about the vision, there was a certain name that stood out to me. 

Director Lawrence, and Dungeon Seekers. 

Now that I was more certain on the matters regarding the credibility of my newfound power, I spent no time thinking about all the important points that I saw in the vision, and the thing that stood out to me the most was those two things. 

I did a quick search and as a result, found a certain image of a bulky man with ginger hair and a long ginger mustache. Alongside it was his name Emanuel D. Lawrence. 

'He must be Director Lawrence.'

I was more certain of it when I saw a link next to his name which redirected me to a site called DungeonSeekers.com.

I didn't hesitate to check out the site. The more I knew about it, the more advantageous things would be for me later. Well, if the situation arose. 

"Interesting." 

The overall layout of the site was extremely simplistic and clean. It wasn't convoluted like some other sites I'd seen in the past, and there were pages for each Star League. From One Star to Five Star. 

'The One Star page seems pretty empty compared to the other ones, but I can now see why this would be a hit.' 

The site was really promising. It was still in its infant stages, but it had a lot of potential. As someone who spent all of his free time watching Star Chasers, I was more or less confident in my judgment. 

For now, I decided to keep tabs on the site. From the looks of it, not just anyone could upload here. One needed to make a certain agreement with the admin of the site before being able to upload any clips. 

"Haa." 

Turning off my phone, I rubbed my head. Looking up and seeing that there were still thirty minutes before my arrival, I continued studying the girls' profiles. 

The more I knew about them, the better.