Above Your Head

Vol 2. 9: Talent Identification (2)

Vol 2. Chapter 9: Talent Identification (2)

'What exactly are you, dad?' I still did not know anything about Kwan Il-han, my father, despite discovering the secret of my mysterious birth and my father, who had the scale of a Great Universe. Of course, I did not think that he had an identity great enough to surpass my biological father. No matter how excellent he was, he was still just a human being. There was no way that there would exist an identity that was greater than the God of Civilization and Information, Machine God, Dekarma. However...

'But, in that case... Why did he disappear? And why did the house disappear too? What the hell happened?' I wondered. It might be a foolish idea, but this piteous situation was comparable to the time when I threw the power of All-knowing away. I had asked the Primordial God, just in case, but she just smiled and did not give me an answer. 'I think he is still alive, since the Primordial God did not say anything…’

However, if that was the case, then I had no idea why was he not showing up in front of me right now. No, why on earth did he not show up? Was he staying hidden for some reason? My thoughts then brought me to question… 'Did he leave Earth?' Then again, that didn't make sense. If he had to leave Earth, he would have accompanied me when I went to the Leonhardt Empire. With my father's ability, it would've been good enough for him to adapt, even to the Empire.

'If not, did the Primordial God kidnap him?' It was a possibility, since the Primordial God confessed to father and was rejected! She might have taken advantage of my absence and kidnapped my father to fulfill her own desire...

Sighhh… I let out a deep sigh. As I couldn't think straight, it felt as if I was automatically saying ridiculous nonsense.

"Something's going on, huh? What is it?"

"I don't know either." I let out a sigh and walked down the road, where the sun was blazing down. As it was time to go to school, dozens of students were seen running in front or behind, and they were moving like flowing waves.

'Is that so? Will he come back...'

Even though it had only been half a year since the last time I was here, everything felt foreign. They obviously looked like how they were half a year ago, and their daily lives were the same as what my daily life was back then. However, my current perspective of them was completely different from the past. For example, the school uniform I haven’t worn in a long time felt so awkward. It felt as if I would be more familiar with the pilot suits that I had only worn a few times before.

"Now now, he's a transfer student, but he is not a new face. Everyone remembers this familiar face, right?”

"I was out of the country for a while. Long time no see guys." Once again, I introduced myself to the students whom I shared a greeting with half a year ago, and sat back down. There was no change in the progression of the classes. Even if a new transfer student joined, the high school lessons were not flexible enough to have changes.

"Now, the important part of this chapter is..."

I attended the class quietly, and I was surprised. 'It's easy.' Even though I missed out on quite a lot of the progress, I had no difficulty in attending the classes. As I once again awakened the Bloodline of God, in other words, the Godly bloodline, I knew for a fact that there would be a rise in my physical abilities. However, I did not expect it to also have this much of an effect on my intelligence.

"Great job students!"

I stood up from my seat after class. Since I was abroad (to be exact, I was at the Outer Realm) for half a year, I glanced around at my still friends. I then striked up a conversation with a student, "Long time no see."

A short and chubby female student, whose appearance was too lacking to be considered beautiful, had a fairly friendly expression. She answered hesitantly, "Oh, yes. It's nice to see you again." She was Lee Seon-ae, my partner in the first semester.

"How have you been?"

"Well, just the usual... Hey, I have to go back home."

"Ah, yeah, okay."

"Bye."

I was flustered at the sight of Seon-ae, who hesitantly turned around and left the classroom just like that. "No, I mean, what the? Did she hear some bad rumors about me?" If I wasn’t mistaken, I think she had a more friendly and bashful reaction in the first semester. However, she was blatantly avoiding me right now. Nonetheless, it would be strange to follow behind her since she avoided me. I got rid of any lingering feelings and left the classroom.

"Lesson's over. Re-Hi[1]."

"Ah, Bae Jae-seok,” I greeted. Although he was dressed in a school uniform, Jae-seok looked like some sort of gangster with his close to 190 centimeters height, broad shoulders, and square-ish hairstyle. He waved while carrying a backpack. I then pointed out, “You came to school with me, but you are now going back home from school with me too? I’m sure you have quite a few friends that hang out with you, though.”

"Well, that's true. However, isn't it up to me to save you? You’ve just come back after a long time, and you tend to be indifferent with others.”

"What do you mean ‘save me’?" I scoffed as I walked down the stairs with Jae-seok. There was an elevator in the middle, but the stairs were more convenient due to the classroom’s location. I felt momentarily sentimental, and could hear the strong opening of a classroom door from far away.

"Hey Dae-ha! Let's go together!"

"Huh?" Jae-seok, who was chattering next to me, stood rooted to the ground. He slowly turned his head with an expression of disbelief. It was as if he was a broken mannequin, moving creakily. "Lee Kyung-eun?"

"Ah, Bae Jae-seok." After that greeting, Jae-seok and Kyung-eun made eye contact very awkwardly. Then, they looked elsewhere again.

Jae-seok suddenly stuck close to my back, like a cockroach that faced a sudden bright ray of sunlight. He then whispered into my ear, "What the, what's going on? Why is Kyung-eun calling for someone like you?"

"Hey, no matter how bad it is, isn't that too much? What do you mean someone like me?"

"Uwaahhh... This is an unbelievable situation..."

"She's my classmate, you punk." I shook my head and felt dumbfounded. By then, Kyung-eun had approached me, ignoring Jae-seok as if he was invisible. Jae-seok then slipped away without greeting her, just like a cockroach that was avoiding the sunlight. I didn't even have the time to greet her yet, wondering, ‘No, why is Jae-seok so scared of Kyung-eun? He usually sang songs about how much of a beautiful girl she was…?’

"How can you go alone? You don't even know the way home."

Individual dimensions could be created and accessed at any time, as long as there were suitable resources. However, unlike the individual dimensions, the parallel world which was perfectly the same size as the Earth, could only be accessed through the doors installed in a particular location.

'Well, if it was the Albatross ship, it could always cross over whenever.'

That's only expected, Captain-nim. You can't compare Astral Drives with the primitive spells that put cracks in the dimensions.

Hmph! I can always cross over that paper-thin dimension wall anytime without needing to use Astral Drive, alright?

As I listened to the conversation between the two control personas who were showing off, I said to Kyung-eun, "Well, wouldn't it be fine if I just go to the house we went to before?"

Needless to say, dimension doors were disguised so that they did not look out of place to the people from the surface world. Furthermore, I had already entered the parallel world once before when I was previously dragged over by Kyung-eun. Hence, I knew the location of the door. 'I think it was a multi-purpose complex building.'

Other than that, there are many doors scattered all over the world, including Korea. The number of doors that can be detected already exceeds 3,000 doors, and the hidden ones are expected to be twice that amount.

“You fool. That's a place that only the direct descendent of the Lee Family can use. You'll cause a huge mess if you go there alone." Kyung-eun, who tucked and grabbed my arm, started walking just like that. Her slender fingers looked elegant at first glance, but the power contained in them was no different from that of a giant. I had no choice but to be dragged along. "Let's quickly go. We've called a Selection Master."

"Selection Master?"

"It refers to wizards specialized in reading other people's talents. In fact, it’s a faction that didn't originally exist, but it was said that the Great Wizard created this spell for the purpose of finding more talent. That’s how this faction is raised. They are bound by as many commandments as the protector, so they are trustable people in terms of security."

We left school just like that, and walked to the school gate. A massive black sedan was waiting for us in front of the school gates.

The man who was standing by, and waiting for us next to the car, had such an overwhelming build that it was difficult to not notice him from far away. Despite the fact that he had a height of more than 3.2 meters at a glance, he had perfect proportions. Unless he was mentally ill, he was certainly an abnormal human.

'Is there a spell activated?'

Genie, who received my thoughts, answered, It's a simple Cognitive Impairment Spell. It's such a low-quality basic spell that it can be seen through with just a little bit of spiritual sense.

This time, Ares butted in. It was a voice that sounded as if he found this absurd. No, even if so, no one felt it? They have used a spell like this without care… I've been thinking about this, but I really can't figure out the social structure of Earth-34. If they didn't have any superpowers, or if only very few people can handle superpower, then it would be understandable. However, there are more than 10 million ability users, yet the other humans know nothing at all?

The surface world and the parallel world are completely separated. As long as it doesn't have a material effect, even if they used superpowers among the ordinary populace, it wouldn't matter... At this point, it is rather surprising that the surface world has yet to turn into a mess. It’s even more so considering that the ability users generally have a high ego and are hard to control.

The desire of humans was endless, and they would always repeat the same mistakes. If someone could break the rules of society in an extremely simple manner, with just a little bit of power, would they be able to resist the temptation to do so? If someone had teleportation abilities, robbing a bank would be as simple as breathing. If someone had mental-type abilities, they could control hundreds and thousands of ordinary people who had no ability to resist.

To those that possessed superpowers, something like shattering the rules of reality was an extremely simple thing to do. If there were only a few ability users, then perhaps that would be hard to accomplish. However, according to Genie's investigation, weren't there around 10 million ability users living on Earth?

'No, even if so, I can't believe those ability users would live their lives quietly and calmly here. It isn't just a hundred or a thousand ability users, but 10 million ability users.' While I was living on Earth, I have never seen or heard any news of a superhuman causing an incident. In other words, either all the Earth's superhumans voluntarily obeyed the rules of the parallel world, or they took complete control of the media and press. If that still wasn't the case… 'They must have some sort of means to control them.'

As I was thinking about such matters, the man standing next to the car bowed."Are you done with classes, Princess-nim?"

"Hahhhh... Mountain Sword. There are no kings or royal princesses, so what do you mean Princess? I told you to just call me 'milady'."

"How can I..."

"Aghh, it's fine it's fine. This is really frustrating."

Kyung-eun got into the sedan in a fit of annoyance, and I also got in the car. Then, without realizing it, I gaped at the sight that appeared before my eyes. "Oooh."

"Isn't it cool? There are only three cars like this in our country!"

There was a wide space inside the car. Aside from its large size, it looked like a double-story structure that was easily 30 pyeong. There was also a marvelous bar in the center, with a fluffy sofa behind it. Furthermore, there was a spacious bedroom beyond that.

1. Re-Hi is a Korean slang that young students use nowadays. It just means Hi again.