3 The Top Agent
[Music Recommendation: "Waste It On Me" by BTS & Steve Aoki - instrumental-only version by Paintamelody]
Today was the 1st of May and also the Foundation Day of Mythos. Every year, a special event would be held for us agents to congratulate and thank us for another year of faithful service. We call it the "Mythos Festival." There would be a party for the whole day, lots of delicious food and drink over the pool and jacuzzi, different kinds of entertainment, music, bands, and all the fun you could think of—except for illegal stuff. But what most of us looked forward to was the "Agent Ranking and Awards" also known as ARA, which was usually done at night close to the ending of the festival. And this year, I'm really looking forward to it.
Anyone who becomes the "Top Agent of the Year" would be given anything they wished for, as long as it was something Mythos could provide. There were boundaries, yes, like you couldn't ask them to give you $100 million, though they'd allow up to ten—not that any agents were still poor after completing lots of missions.
But as for me, money, property, or any luxury weren't the things that I wanted. What I badly wanted was information—lots of classified information that only the Chief had access to. That's why, for six consecutive years, I worked relentlessly to improve my skills and complete lots of hard missions so that one day, I would be at the top. And this year, I think I would finally get it. After all, out of all my batchmates and every other colleague I knew, I had the best stat and success rate this year.
And so, the noisy festival started. Everyone enjoyed themselves. When night fell, our Chief, Mr. Seong Eun-sook aka "Chief Zeus", the founder and owner of Mythos, along with his close aides, visited us and sat near the stage. Loud music enveloped the whole place. Bands, dancers, and singers entertained us. Our superiors gave heartwarming speeches—not that my heart was warmed—and so much stuff going on. My colleagues tried to pull me to the dance floor, but I rejected them. I'm just not into parties. I hated noisy places. I have very sensitive hearing, and being in the midst of the noise just made my head ache so bad.
"Ugh. When will they start announcing? That's the only thing I came here for. I should have brought my earplugs."
Irritated, I aggressively stabbed the steak on my table with the fork and slowly chewed it in my mouth.
"And now, for our main event this evening," the emcee at the stage loudly announced, followed by drum rolls and exciting music. "The moment that everyone has been waiting foooor."
"Ah! Finally!" I blurted out from my seat.
I quickly grabbed the goblet filled with grape juice beside me, drank it empty, and wiped my mouth. I fixed the way I sat on the chair and tapped my fingers on the table.
Dun-du-du-duuuun!
"The Agent Ranking and Awards!"
"WOOOOH! YEAAAAH!"
Everyone shouted in excitement the moment they heard those words.
"Yes, I know everyone's looking forward to this, but let me just call on our respectable superiors to give us the awards—Deputy Chief Ares, Assistant Chief Athena, and the mightiest of all, Chief Zeus!"
A storm of claps filled the room. Every agent had a tremendous amount of respect for all our chiefs, especially Chief Zeus. Who wouldn't be? He was the one who made the whole Mythos possible, after all. He was highly skilled in combat, firearms, technology, strategies, and so much more that a puny agent like me wouldn't be able to fathom all.
Most of our chiefs and superiors right now belonged to the first few waves of agents of Mythos. Thus, most of them were around 30 or 40s of age but still very strong, wise, and exceptionally skilled. Mythos started as more of an intel and technology organization rather than an agency before, but a significant change happened 23 years back when Chief Zeus took over his father's legacy. From then on, he started recruiting agents, forming alliances and connections, and managing everything to reach what Mythos had achieved today.
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
When the claps that seemed to have no end started to fade, the emcee finally got his momentum back to talk.
"Phew! That was a really enthusiastic and warm welcome from everyone. Of course, I could understand since we all love our chiefs so much."
"Enough kissing our ass, Captain Hermes," Assistant Chief Athena teased him, and everyone began to laugh.
"What? But I'm only stating facts."
Right. The funny, young-looking emcee, despite his actual age, was Captain Hermes, I finally remembered. He's one of the captains of the Intelligence Department and known for his unbeatable hacking skills, which was one of the main reasons we could quickly get information anywhere around the world. According to others, despite his nerdy coding skills, he was a really funny guy. Though my "funny" and other people's "funny" had an entirely different meanings. Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Athena was one badass strategist, and Deputy Chief Ares was good with anything related to the military.
"Anyway, going back to our awarding ceremony, let us now present the list of our Top 100 agents all over Mythos!"
And so, on the massive screen at the stage flashed the codenames of those that made it into the "Top 100 Agents", blacking out the names of the Top 10. I immediately scanned my name from the list, but it was not there, thankfully. With this, surely, I'm one of those in the Top 10, and hopefully, the Top 1 agent, so that I can receive that precious reward.
Everyone clapped their hands again, and those that made it into the Top 100 jumped in joy. It was indeed an outstanding achievement, especially with Mythos' tens of thousands of employees around the globe. Just being in the Top 100 was already hard to achieve.
"For those who made it to the Top 100, you will receive your rewards and bonuses right now as we speak, so do enjoy them. You all deserve it so much. To those who didn't make it, don't worry. You still have bonuses because you all worked hard as well, and you all deserve it just as much."
Most of the crowd started checking their smartwatches which served like smartphones, only more secure and held all the apps we needed on a daily basis.
"Now, without further ado, I'll start revealing our agents that made it on the Top 10 list! In tenth place, we have… Agent Persephone!"
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
And so, he mentioned the agents that made it into the ninth up to the fourth place. The agents went up the stage to receive the trophy, badge, certificates, and awards as their code names were called. Out of them, still, my name wasn't called. My heartbeat grew louder in anticipation. Only three spots left.
"In third place, we have… Agent Hades!"
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
Yes! Last two spots left! Ahh… please let me be Top 1. Over the previous two years, I've managed to secure second place since Top 1 competitors, Agent Odin and Agent Freya, were so amazing and worked way better than me. But this year, they both accepted a promotion as our Captains, so I no longer had any competitors I should watch out for. Please, I badly need it.
"And down to our last two… give it up fooooor"
Dun-du-du-duuuun!
The drum rolls just heightened my anticipation.
"Agent Selene for second place!"
…
…
…
Huh?! What? Second place… again?
"And for our first place… congratulations, Agent Helios!"
"WOOOOAAAAH!"
"That's right, folks! Our newbie who joined us just two years ago managed to jump from 300th place to 50th, and now, to the one and only first place! Agent Helios!"
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
Not many knew who he was, but everyone cheered for him. Truly, being able to do that was awesome.
"Agent Selene," Captain Hermes continued, "great job as usual! We expected no less for our now, three times second place! Come here and receive your award!"
I walked towards the stage, and everyone clapped their hands—some of the girls were even squealing for I don't know what reason.
Amidst their merry disposition, I felt my whole world get crushed. And my heart felt like it was literally breaking into pieces.
Agent Helios? Who in the world was that? From 50th place to 1st place? How did that—no wonder I didn't pay attention to him. He wasn't even in the Top 10 last year!
Trying my best to put on my usual poker face, I ascended the stairs to the stage and walked to the spot beside him—the wretched agent who appeared out of nowhere and stole my spot. Now, I need to work hard again for another year, trying to aim for Top 1. I'm already 22. I won't stay in good condition all the time. How many more years do I need to achieve that spot? And now, with him as my competition, will I even accomplish that?
Honestly, I felt like shit inside. I'm angry, frustrated, and sad, and I don't know. I breathed in deeply, doing my best not to show my emotions like how we usually do during missions—a perfect and cold poker face.
As I lifted my head and gazed up, there he was, smiling so happily as he received his award. He was taller than me, with broad shoulders and a lean physique. He had natural black hair that shined purple against the stage lights in contrast to my brown. Probably noticing me staring at him, he turned to me and stared back. He looked young. We're probably around the same age.
I stared at him with not even an inch of friendliness in my face—my amber eyes to his bluish gray ones. None of us blinked for a moment, like how two predators look at each other. Then, he smirked at me. And not just any smirk. It was a provocative, rude, and very arrogant smirk!
But I wasn't one to be provoked by such childishness. Instead, I walked toward Captain Hermes to receive my trophy and certificates and shake hands with our superiors. I put on a professional smile towards the three chiefs.
While doing so, I heard him whisper from beside me, enough for me to hear despite the noisy crowd. His voice was deep and very confident, teasing even.
"Congratulations, Ms. Third Time Second-Placer."
The moment I heard that, my thin line of patience snapped.
