Chapter 246 – Tutorial 57th Floor (5)
Editor: Tide
Once the fighting had halted, the parents of the children who had been fighting, arrived. Surprisingly, none of the parents were angry with me.
Instead, one of them quickly bent in gratitude to me and apologized. Both the kids were superhumans, but one of the parents was not. One child’s father was a superhuman, but the other child’s father was not.
Although the dispute ended, it didn’t have a good ending. The father with superpowers treated the other one coldly. Rather than two equals, the pair looked more like the way a nobleman in the Joseon Dynasty treated slaves. Which father would want to bend to others in front of his son? It certainly wasn’t a pleasant sight.
“Can’t you do anything?” I asked 1400, unable to hold back.
“No,” He answered bitterly, disappointment evident in his features. I thought all citizens had the privilege of universal equality, but it turns out this world was too classist for that.
“Then why do you keep watching?”
“You never know.” There could be room for intervention. It was such a vain answer.
Fortunately, the father with superpowers never crossed the line. As soon as the situation was about to heat up, 1400 stealthily approached, and the father chose to close the case properly. He must have been satisfied with showing off his power. That gentleman seemed to think this was an extension of his child’s quarrel.
When things were over, we went out of the school and visited a small restaurant. While ordering drinks and simple food, Chun said he should wait for the next dispatch request. Sadly, the meal wasn’t very appealing after what had just happened.
“I’ve solved one thing, but will I get paid?”
“Yeah. This was originally a request from the police, but the police asked me to act as a mediator. You’ll get paid depending on the number of fights you resolve.”
I had a strong hunch that I wouldn’t receive much. How much money would I earn for breaking up a fight between children?
One surprising thing was that the status of B-grade people was higher than I had thought. At first, I hadn’t immediately noticed it.
I’d noticed the way the father looked at 1400. He probably thought something along the lines of “Why do people with B-grade superpowers get involved in this kind of thing?” His expression said it all.
Even while walking down the street, several people whispered to each other, saying, “He’s a B-grade” and “I’m sure he’ll make a lot of money out of this. Why did he have to come here?”
“Why are you doing this? Surely, you have better jobs to do,” I asked 1400, purely out of curiosity.
Anyone who had a high enough status could make a lot of money regardless of their profession. Why did 1400 insist on doing work where he’d have to listen to such outrageous things from people?
“What’s a better job?”
1400’s words made me choke.
[Don’t say anything more, Warrior.] Ahbooboo warned, his voice gloomy. He hated things like this.
I didn’t bother to reply, and the atmosphere soon became awkward. Fortunately, 1400’s device rang once more.
* * * * * *
I was worried that we would have to go to a school again to stop another fight, but fortunately, it was a proper fight this time. Two superhumans were fighting in the middle of the street.
“Oh.”
“What happened? It looks pretty tense.”
One superhuman was blasting fire from his hand, and the other was creating an ice wall in the air; it was a showdown between ice and fire.
I wanted to see their fight, but 1400 didn’t give me time to spectate the match. Instead, 1400 immediately rushed toward the man who was spewing out fire.
“Take care of the other one!” 1400 quickly jumped forward and shouted at me. He wanted me to stop the man using ice while he was overpowering the weaker one. It was easy to see why 1400 rushed to intercept this fight rather than waiting it out like he did at the school. This battle took place on the street, and bypassers would get injured as collateral during the clash. While the ice wall wouldn’t harm the people around it, the flames fired at the ice wall would.
I could see the store owner trying to put out the fire that had spread to his store. The owner was powerless, but he still tried to put out the flames on the store building. Usually, the first thing to do would be to stop the man who was continually releasing flames, but such an option wasn’t possible for the weaker store owner.
1400 attacked the flame-thrower. The flame-flower reflexively belted out a flame towards 1400, but 1400 dodged it and sent his fist flying into the flame-thrower’s face, who fainted and fell back in one blow. The fires flickered and began to die down.
I had to do my job, too. “Ahbooboo. Knock him out.”
[Yes, Warrior.]
Ahbooboo put the ice-wielder to sleep using magic, and he collapsed in a deep slumber almost immediately. 1400 didn’t stop after knocking out the flame-thrower and continued to put out the flames that had spread to the streets.
“I need your help,” I told Ahbooboo.
[Why are you making me do all these little things?] Ahbooboo grumbled but still listened to me, and water poured down on the flames.
As the water kept pouring down, 1400 looked around in surprise. Was he looking for a person with a water superpower? Then, his eyes fell on me. It wasn’t just him, though. The eyes of multiple bypassers also shifted toward me.
I felt like something similar had taken place before. 1400’s bewildered eyes seemed to be asking, “Did you do this, too?”
I quietly put my hands behind my back and took out the ring.
“Invisible frog.”
“Kea-ek!”
“What nonsense…”
1400 muttered, showing a dumbfounded face. It looked like that excuse didn’t work this time.
“Then is this frog saliva?” 1400 raised his arms that were wet with water.
How could a frog have so much saliva? This guy sure had strange thoughts.
“This frog can use magic too,” I told 1400.
“Kea-ek!” Next to me, the frog croaked and answered no. It was fortunate that I was the only one who could understand that.
“Oh, what a frog. Wait, is it even a frog? It’s so furry.” 1400 raised his brows.
“It’s a frog,” I reassured him.
“Kea-ek!”
* * * * * *
I solved five fights today. There had been cases where we prevented superhumans from clashing, and situations where we took care of the aftermath of a battle. We also pursued criminals who used superpowers. Ahbooboo did most of the work, but the frog took all the credit.
[This is so unfair! I want to get credit for my work!] exclaimed Ahbooboo.
The frog was lying in the living room, getting a massage by 1400. It was quietly waiting to see if the massage given 1400 felt pleasant. It was fortunate that the frog, who had been a little sulky due to the repeated summons and reverse summons, quickly became cheerful.
[What am I going to do with that big guy?] I asked Ahbooboo.
Today, I had learned a lot about this world. Superhumans were divided into authorized and unauthorized groups. Those who were authorized could use their abilities in public, and those who weren’t, couldn’t. It was a requirement for everyone grade-B or above to be certified. To become a certified public figure, a person below C-grade had to work in public office or wield an exceptional ability. A person with an unauthorized ability was no different from a person without powers.
Nevertheless, I saw that the gap between the two classes was clear. I talked to Ahbooboo about this.
[It’s stupid. It’s better to have universal equality, but they split everyone into classes and gave them differential treatment.]
“That’s discrimination,” I agreed.
In worlds like Ahbooboo and Seregia’s, where there were emergencies, it made sense why people with abilities would be given preferential treatment. But this place was similar to Earth and hadn’t been invaded by monsters yet. All in all, it was peaceful, and superpowers didn’t do any good.
[It’s so stupid. There are so many idiots who want to show off their power in this peaceful period. The only thing that makes them better than others is that they are born with superpowers. If they don’t have exceptional superpowers, they’re no different from ordinary people. Even if they have minuscule powers, they’ll still try to show them off.]
It certainly was stupid. Most superpowers wouldn’t be of much aid to the nation’s defense capabilities; they were just convenient for everyday life. It was pitiful that the two children from the school were the most powerful out of all the people I had seen today.
It was better to let them enjoy their superiority while shackling their ankles.
[What? Like a noble sacrifice?] Ahbooboo questioned.
A noble sacrifice? I was skeptical.
I was wondering about what Ahbooboo had said about a noble sacrifice when I remembered a similar saying from Ahbooboo’s world.
[The class system is likely used as encouragement for people to raise their position. It’s their way of forcing superhumans to save people.]
It’s a fresh idea except for one problem.
“Then what about the ordinary people? You have to think about them too.”
[What about them? Will they die because of this? An inferiority complex is an improvement and a desire to improve oneself by seeing better people. Without it, people become powerless.] Ahbooboo reasoned.
Ahbooboo was also a man who had started as an ordinary person and rose in God’s eyes. He had achieved the result with his own efforts.
“The problem is that underlying sense of inferiority,” I said. Supernatural powers were something that couldn’t be gained by sheer effort.
[Oh, that’s true.]
It wasn’t even a sure if powers would be passed down to the next generation. What an interesting world.
I had a long conversation with Ahbooboo because I thought the situation here would be similar to that of the Earth in the future. Could challengers who had cleared the tutorial and returned to Earth without causing trouble? I didn’t think so.
Since I went through a process called a tutorial, I was likely to be more powerful than superhumans. Challengers didn’t need much discipline to be strong, and would have a different mindset after passing the tutorial.
[Yes, it’s very likely.] Ahbooboo agreed. We continued to talk about this problem. It didn’t seem like something we could solve right away, but it was not wise to ignore it either.
* * * * * * *
It wasn’t until two weeks later that an official letter of reconsideration came from the Supernatural People’s Association. For nearly 15 days, I stayed at 1400’s house and helped him with his work. I had been through a lot of things and gotten used to this world. In addition to 1400, I came to know a lot of people, so many came to know of me.
Was that why it was so noisy? I listened to the crowd whispering around me while I was walking down the street to the conference hall.
“That’s the invisible frog, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. That’s the invisible frog.”
“Hey… but does it make sense? In this crowded street, an invisible frog as big as a house is hiding.”
“Someone said there are wings on the frog’s back.”
Before I knew it, my nickname had already become the ‘Invisible frog’.
Tutorial 57th Floor (5)
