Ahbooboo’s words made sense. To infiltrate and gather information, I had to act inconspicuous. It was better to finish quickly and concisely than to run around in circles.
“Oh, my gosh…”
When I poked his side with my elbow, he fell over with a groan. Because of his large size, I could easily hit his vital point. I was sitting right next to him, so it was even more convenient.
“Eck… Cough… Cough…”
[What’s wrong with him?] Ahbooboo asked when he saw the giant doubling over and crouching in front of the seat.
[He’s in shock. His internal organs are disordered because of that. I told you to be careful. What if he dies?]
He wouldn’t die. If there was no internal bleeding, no bone or muscle damage, then why would he die? It would just hurt a little.
Occasionally, people glanced at the wheezing giant, but for the most part, they ignored him. I focused on sitting in my seat as nonchalantly as I could. No one stepped forward and took care of the giant, so it seemed that he was not only stupid but also unpopular. He was a fool, but he made me worried.
This idiot who had a muscle for a brain was bluffing.
[They say there are many people with supernatural powers here. I thought he might have been powerful since he’s here.] Ahbooboo frowned.
If the giant had been practicing martial arts or learning magic, I could have figured out his strength without having to hit him. However, since he was a superhuman, I had no idea how to measure his ability.
Curiously, I asked Ahbooboo if he knew about superpowers.
[I don’t know either. I only know the basic ideas.]
I asked Ahbooboo to elaborate on his knowledge.
[There aren’t many benefits of superpower, and you just have to be lucky to be born with superpowers.]
“What else?” I probed.
[It’s hard to tell if someone has superpowers or not, and the use of superpowers requires relatively little mana.]
From what Ahbooboo was saying, superpowers sounded perfect. When fighting against a superhuman, it’d be hard to determine what their abilities were.
[There are disadvantages, too. Superhumans have limited capabilities. Take a wizard, for example. If you’re a wizard who can use firewall magic, then you’d be able to use fireball magic since the two types of magic are closely related. However, in the case of superpower, you can’t use certain types of powers if you’re incapable of it; their skill set is limited.]
Indeed, it was a considerable disadvantage. Superpowers were an innate ability, but a superhuman would never be able to improve on abilities that weren’t superpowers.
[I’ve heard that they can improve their skills. It’s just that they can’t practice a new ability.]
This was interesting. In a way, many tutorial challengers were similar to superhumans. Some challengers used magic spells but didn’t fully understand magic, which limited their improvement and development.
Superpowers were innate, so it wasn’t surprising that there was an ID system based on your abilities. However, it created a classist system that categorized people based on how affluent they were with superpowers[1].
“Hey, 1400,” I called out to the giant sprawled out on the floor. His coughing ended, and the pain should have already faded, but he continued to lay on the ground and stare at me. There was a stark difference between his current condition and the time he feigned strength.
“”What?” responded the giant with tears clinging to his eyelashes. Had it hurt that much? I didn’t hit him that hard, though.
I asked the pitiful giant what kind of superpower he had.
Then, the giant looked at me with a puzzled look. Why was he looking at me like that? I was just asking a simple question.
“It’s body strengthening…”
* * * * * *
Body strengthening was the ability to improve strength, agility, sense, and endurance significantly. I was shocked; I was able to beat up a person with such an ability.
“I had no idea.”
[Warrior, a superhuman with body strengthening could hardly withstand your attack. Imagine what would have happened if he was an average person,] Ahbooboo scolded
“… I’ll control my powers,” I assured him.
Perhaps, because I kept looking at him with a look of disbelief, the giant pulled his ID card out and showed it to me as proof. On the back of his identification card, was written:
<014>
“What is that?” I asked, confused.
He quickly answered that the number indicated a measure of physical reinforcement. “If you’re a superhuman, you should know this.”
[Just pretend that you know, why are you asking such a question? You’ll seem suspicious.] Ahbooboo advised, but I didn’t want to do that. Wasn’t this stage meant for information collection?
I pulled out my ID card and checked the back. Just like the giant’s, there was a number code embedded.
<122>
The number was high. Was it a good thing?
[You’re not going to push that big guy and ask him what it means, are you?]
Um.
[If you don’t know what your ID says, you’ll stand out. It’ll become evident that it’s a fake ID or someone else’s ID.]
Ahbooboo was right. As I was thinking of the meaning of the number code 122, my eyes fell on something
“Work is a Beast Summoner.”
Oh, so I was a summoner. If I had to have a fake ID, I should have gotten a reinforcement power that would make it easier to disguise myself. Just why was I a summoner?
[Why don’t you comfort that giant? It’s embarrassing for him to be beaten by a summoner.]
Instead of saying anything, I simply activated the ring to summon the frog.
“Kea-ek!” As soon as the frog appeared, it complained about being summoned so late.
“Wait, what’s that?”
“Is that a frog? Or a dog?”
Chatter broke out in the crowd as a massive frog appeared in the conference room. Man, our frog’s presence was dope.
“It’s an invisible frog,” I explained to the giant, who had a dazed expression.
[That’s a very insincere explanation.]
* * * * * *
Using the frog, I was able to convince the giant that I was not the one who hit him; it was the invisible frog. When the giant growled at me, the owner, asking why I didn’t stop it, I weakly said that the silent frog had attacked before I could notice anything.
Surprisingly, the giant seemed to believe this lie. I supposed it was better for his ego if he believed that I wasn’t the one who had beaten him.
“So it was the frog’s killer move,” he said. “It’s great that I endured it. It was excruciatingly painful.” After apologizing to each other, the tense atmosphere finally lightened.
“Thank you, 1400,” I said, accepting the snacks and drinks he had bought. In commemoration of his apology and our reconciliation, the giant bought food from the snack bar.
“Why don’t you stop calling me 1400?” 1400 grumbled.
I heard from the giant that the score of 1400 is the highest in grade B. If he had 100 more points, he would have received an A grade. With those extra 100 points, his life could have been different.
It made sense. At the meeting, those that were B-level or lower were strictly excluded and were no more than spectators. Most of the meetings were led by S-levels, while the A-levels sometimes contributed their views.
Me? I just watched the meeting while eating snacks. There was evident differential treatment by grade. I couldn’t even share my opinion even though I was called to a meeting. If you were going to treat me like that, I would have rather not come.
“By the way, this is delicious,” I complimented.
“Right?” The giant grinned. I felt he was a good guy. Or maybe just a pushover.
Be it me being a summoner, an unexpected accident, a quarrel he had started, bluffing because he didn’t want to get beaten, people ignoring him, his buying food.
You could tell he was a pushover. Since it’s a stage where we need to gather information, I decided to be kind to this pushover and extract information from him in a comfortable way. Fortunately, 1400 was very talkative.
He worked for the Defense Agency. In a significant accident or crime, they were dispatched to settle the situation and had to mediate disputes in case of conflicts. It was what police should do, but due to the limitations of non-superhumans, people with abilities such as 1,400 were often dispatched.
He was a good friend, and it was nice listening to his daily life. Suddenly, there was a big commotion in the conference room, and a bill was stuck on the front panel of the conference room.
<SSS-class Supercaptain Archiden Rescue and Extraterrestrial Asteroid Disappearance Operations>
“Are they really doing that?” 1,400 muttered, dumbfounded. Looking around, those with B-grade and A-grade abilities seemed visibly puzzled.
The agenda posted on the panel included the mobilization of all capable people above grade B. In other words, I was being forced to go regardless of my own wishes.
[How many of the people in the Supernatural People’s Association are capable of ordering that?] I asked.
[Well, didn’t you say this was a planet with many superpowers? Perhaps the king or emperor doesn’t have power over superhuman affairs. A person with supernatural powers, not a king or an emperor, may be the head of state. Maybe one of them over there is the ruler.] Ahbooboo replied.
Our thoughts differed from each other, but we agreed that the power structure of this society favorably treated superhumans.
The meeting adjourned with that. The agenda was approved, but details of the operation seemed to have not been decided. It would take some time for details to be decided and the operation to be drawn up, according to 1400.
I followed the crowd out of the conference room and asked 1400, “Where are you going?”
“I’m going home. I need to go to work early tomorrow morning.”
I was thinking of drinking or having a late-night snack with him, but I did need a place to rest.
“Then I’ll come along with you.”
“Huh?”
“I’m going to your house.”
____________________
