Chapter 247 - Tutorial 57th Floor (6)
“Show me the frog!”
“Frog! Frog!”
The tiny children grabbed onto my shirt and hung on. What on Earth had I done wrong?
“Why don’t you just show it to them?” 1400, who was standing a few steps away from me, asked with a huge smile on his face. The children screamed in approval, calling ‘frog’ again and again.
“No. The frog hates attention.” Actually, the frog liked it. Whenever someone took an interest in it, it would become elated. But if I summoned the frog, it would be a challenge to separate it from the children.
“Hey, how much time do we have before the meeting starts? Shall we go ahead and wait?” I asked.
“We still have a lot of time. The conference room wouldn’t even be open right now, so what do you plan to do?” Since a while ago, 1400 had sided with the children. The kids didn’t like him because he looked scary, but he seemed to love them. He was too kind.
I slipped my hand into my pocket and fiddled with the ring. Exasperatedly, I summoned the frog because I couldn’t tolerate the clingy children.
“Kea-ek!”
The children flocked around the frog, who appeared croaking as usual. It was only then that the children, who had been sticking to me, got off.
The discord between the superhumans and the ordinary people was one of the big social problems here, and the frog that appeared in the midst of this seemed to be very impressive to the people. After a few incidents, citizens whom we met on the street often recognized me and talked to me.
On top of that, the frog was cute, so my popularity was going through the roof. Of course, some superhumans treated us harshly, and there were articles and news reports that attempted to slander us.
I didn’t know how to deal with this. We had become more popular than expected, and I felt that it could be problematic.
This ominous feeling soon became a reality. Due to the nature of my work, I spent most of my time with ordinary people and didn’t notice that the frog was making headlines.
* * * * * *
“That’s the invisible frog, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. That’s the invisible frog.”
“Hey… but does that make sense? In this crowded street, an invisible frog as big as a house is hiding.”
“Someone says there are wings attached to the frog’s back.”
No. I never put wings on the frog for this stage. There was constant chattering about the frog. Somehow, I felt like I was being called a frog. Was it because they thought that the frog was a spirit that I summoned with superpowers?
People’s eyes continued to follow me even after I sat in the conference room. There was also a rumor that I was a superhuman who the media purposely made famous. Some people approached me stealthily and tried to poke into what I was doing, and some openly expressed their displeasure.
“This is too much pressure,” said 1400, who had to take a detour to reach the conference room.
“Why do I have to be the only one dealing with it?” I spoke in a brisk tone, but I could understand his feelings.
The guy didn’t like superhumans much, especially the people who had a luxurious taste. And as soon as those high-grade superhumans entered the room, he got nervous. Besides, he didn’t get along very well with other superhumans. His work and attitude toward them made it easy to see why.
1400 took out a transparent bag of sweet-smelling crumbly cookies.
“Are we just going to eat snacks and chat while they’re having a meeting over there again?” I asked, taking a bite out of a cookie, the chocolate chips melting in my mouth.
“Yes, there’s really no reason we were invited anyway.”
It was just as 1,400 said. Superhumans of Grade A and above led the meeting, and they were likely indifferent to our opinions.
The meeting topics included the rescue of the previously mentioned SSS-class superhuman and the destruction of the sealed asteroid. I looked at the meeting and talked with 1400 as if I were looking at a match. 1400 said that he felt the plan would not succeed. His opinion was that if the superhuman had the power to destroy the asteroid in the first place, he would not have tried to stop the asteroid alone, even at his own expense.
I tried to pry more into the superpowers of Grade S or higher. He admitted embarrassedly that he didn’t know much about them.
“Then what the hell do you know?” I grumbled.
“Do you know any better?” He argued back.
I kept my mouth shut at his rebuttal. Of course, I didn’t know. It had only been 15 days since I came to this stage.
When he saw me like that, he smiled and explained. The difference between A and S grades was more significant than the difference between B and A. Even if all S-grade superhumans gathered, there wouldn’t be more than 20.
1400 didn’t explain what S-grade superpower really was. In this world, S-grades were treated as aristocrats, who stood at the pinnacle, rather than a national resource. It was sporadic for them to come forward and do something. As a result, people did not know what kind of power S-grade superhumans had.
That explained what happened the day I arrived here. A black sphere had been floating in the sky. They were all looking up to an SSS-grade superhuman who sealed himself inside an asteroid; he was like a god. They prayed to it at a particular time every day. It was during this prayer time that I was summoned to this stage.
There must be a good reason for sending me on this stage at that point.
Otherwise, it would not be unusual if the stage started during the meeting or in front of the association building.
I was anxious. All I knew was that this stage was related to the black sphere. However, it was related to people’s prayers. Before I came to this stage, I realized what kind of power people’s faith could give me.
While I was organizing my thoughts and ideas, the meeting came to an end. There was no change in the rescue operation, and the date and entry list were made public.
I checked the list on the massive billboard in front of the conference room. There were a lot of unfamiliar names who were probably S-grade or A-grade people. There was only one name I knew. At the very end of the list:
╔═══════════════╗
…
– AII Yours (A)
– Inamona (A)
– Ho (B)
– Zirzi Cantabia (B)
╚═══════════════╝
It was my name. My alias, to be exact. I was one of two B-grade superhumans who had been selected. My thoughts became muddled. It was questionable whether it would be appropriate to include me in that rescue operation in this stage. The reason I was on the list was probably because I had become too famous. If so, I would not have been included in the list. How would I find a way out?
On the contrary, the fake status may have a reason to include me on that list. Maybe it was meant for me to be up there.
“Eight A-grade officials, and rest all are S-grade and above. It’s simple. Grade S is the main power, and Grade A, the bonus.”
Next to me, 1400 mumbled while checking the list. “There are two B-grade superhumans… Wait a minute. Both our names are there, right?”
“Your name’s there too?” I asked.
“Yes, at the end.”
I rechecked the list when I was told that.
╔═══════════════╗
– Ho (B)
– Zirzi Cantabia (B)
╚═══════════════╝
“I don’t see 1400 written there.”
It was only after seeing 1400 look at me coldly that I remembered that 1400 was not his real name but his nickname.
Tutorial 57th Floor (6) Finished