He steps through the Gate and appears back in his room. He then takes his phone to check his phone and it's only been an hour since he enters.
"As I expected— time moves differently in there. I remember being in there for 6 hours and here on earth it's been an hour," he says as he checks his phone.
While looking at his notifications, he sees the notifications from Han-yue and the missed call. "She called me, huh? I guess she called me when I was still in the dungeon. I should call her back,"
He opens his phone and calls Han-yue. "I hope I'm not bothering her or something…."
On her side, her phone rings while she's teaching Seo-yeon's sister.
"I'm going to answer the phone real quick, okay? You do what I asked you to do for now okay, Ji-woo?" she says to Ji-woo.
"Alright!" Ji-woo replies to her and does the work Han-yue gave her.
Han-yue takes out her phone and looks at who's calling and smiles before answering.
"Mornin', sleepyhead~" she says with a flirty tone.
"Hey, Hana. Why did you call me? And why are you calling me 'sleepyhead'....?" He says about why she called him out of the blue and about the sleepyhead nickname.
"Oh I just want to call you and hear your voice. I missed you already~" she says with a needy tone. "Oh, and I call you 'sleepyhead' because you didn't answer my call this morning. At least text me or something," she says with a clear pouty tone.
"I'm sorry, Hana. I was doing-" he stops in his tracks. "I was really tired so I overslept. I'm sorry," he says, lying to her about doing the daily quest penalty.
"I see. Can't stop thinking about me, eh~? You know you can meet me everyday if you want, right? Just schedule the time and we can meet up anytime," she says, telling Jae-hoon they can meet everyday if he schedules the time to meet up.
"I'll take notes of that. Well, I'm going to take a shower. Talk later, Hana. Love you," he says, telling her he's going to take a shower.
"Alright! Love you too, Jae!" she replies before hanging up.
Ji-woo looks up at Han-yue and asks her "Who is that, unnie?"
"The guy I was talking with on the phone? It's my boyfriend," she answers Ji-woo's question.
"You got a boyfriend!? You didn't talk about it with my sister!" Ji-woo raises her voice in shock at Han-yue's revelation.
"Haven't really had the time to talk to your sister about it since she's busy with her work all the time. I mean, she's working and I'm a university student. So it's kind of…. Hard to set a time to meet. Sometimes when she's free and I'm busy…. Stuff like that." Han-yue answers Ji-woo and explains the situation between her and Ji-woo's sister.
"I see…" Ji-woo nodded and said.
Meanwhile, back at Jae-hoon's place, he's just entering the shower and turning the shower on. While showering, he thinks, "Maybe I should get a reassessment. No one would believe an E-rank like me to be as strong as an S-rank,"
After he finishes showering, he goes ahead to brush his teeth and get ready. He put on his turtleneck shirt and sweatpants.
"I think that's fine. I don't need to dress up too heavily. It's just a reassessment, nothing big," he says to himself as he does his hair.
After he finishes getting ready, he grabs his phone and puts on his brown coat before looking at the time on his phone and leaving the dorm to head to the South Korean Irregular Hunter Association headquarter.
After a while, he arrives at the headquarter and walks up to the front desk to apply for a reassessment.
The lady at the front desk looks up at him before asking, "Hello there sir! What can I help you with today?"
"I'm here for a reassessment. Is that possible?" he answers and asks the lady if it's possible for him to get a reassessment.
"Totally! Can I see your Irregular Hunter license first?" she answers before asking Jae-hoon to give her his Irregular Hunter license.
"Oh sure," he says before reaching into his pocket to grab his Irregular Hunter license and hand it to her. "Here you go."
She takes the license and checks it before checking it on the computer. "So your name is Lee Jae-hoon, right? You're 21 and you've been an Irregular Hunter for about a week.," she says before looking up at him.
"It says that you've been an Irregular Hunter for not more than a month. Why do you want to take a reassessment?" she asks, asking him why he wants to get a reassessment despite being an Irregular Hunter for not so long.
"I want to just…. Make sure that my current rank is true or not…." Jae-hoon answers her.
"Alright. I understand that. Sometimes people just want to make sure if their rank is true or not. Alright. You can wait here while I prepare your reassessment appointment," she says before turning to her computer and types something.
After a while, she finishes typing and looks at Jae-hoon before giving him a ticket.
"Since you already went to the normal assessment, you can't go to the same assessment room as the first time you went to get assessed. You need to go to the reassessment room on floor 4. You can find the location of the reassessment room by scanning this ticket on the elevator and the screen in the elevator will show you where to go," she says, explaining everything Jae-hoon needs to do.
"Alright. I understand," he says as he takes the ticket and turns around, heading for the elevator.
When he arrives in front of the elevator, he presses the button to call the elevator down. After a while of waiting, the elevator arrives and opens the door for him. He steps in before checking again what floor he needs to go.
"Floor 4…." he mumbles as he finds the button to the fourth floor and presses it.
The elevator door closed and the elevator started ascending to the fourth floor. Jae-hoon looks at the ticket that the receptionist gave him and remembers she told him to scan the ticket while he's in the elevator. He searched for the ticket scanner in the elevator and found one near the screen next to the door. He scans the ticket and the screen starts showing directions he needs to follow to get to the reassessment room.
"Once I'm out, go straight to hallway 2…. Turn right and then straight…. Then take a left…. That's it," he mumbles to himself as he memorizes the directions he needs to follow.
The elevator then stops at the fourth floor and the door opens. Jae-hoon steps out of the elevator and goes to the reassessment room. While walking down the hallways, he sees that some people that walked past him are having a disappointed face.
"Probably got hit by the truth about their rank being the same despite getting a reassessment…" he thinks in his mind as he continues down the hallways.
He then arrives in front of the reassessment room door. He looks at the door before finding a ticket scanner. He scans his ticket on the scanner before the door is unlocked and he opens the door before stepping in.
Once inside, there are several people waiting for their turn to get reassessed. Jae-hoon takes a seat at an empty seat, waiting for his turn.
After a while of waiting, it's finally his turn to get reassessed. He stands up and goes to the testing room. Once he steps in, there is an instructor waiting for him.
"So, you're Lee Jae-hoon. 21 years old. You're a college student. Your current rank before reassessment is E-rank. Is all the information correct?" he says while looking through the tablet and asks Jae-hoon if everything he said is true or not.
"Yes. That's correct," Jae-hoon confirms the information is correct.
"Alright. Good. Now, just place your hand on the machine right there and we'll get started," the instructor says as he points at the machine in the middle of the room.
Jae-hoon walks up to the machine and places his hand on the machine.
The machine then starts to scan his body to evaluate his current mana. Meanwhile, the instructor is on a control panel, making sure that there are no miscalculations or the machine breaking down.
After a while, the machine chimes and the instructor looks at the control panel for the results.
"Your mana value…. They're off the charts! Even the machine can't detect it! How did you get considered an E-rank with this much mana?" he says, perplexed at the fact the machine can't even calculate Jae-hoon's mana and show a proper result. "Is there a malfunction? The machine is displaying random numbers instead of specific numbers. This shouldn't be happening…. We did a maintenance checkup yesterday," he mumbles as he wonders if there's a malfunction.
The instructor then takes out his phone and calls his supervisor to come over.
Meanwhile, Jae-hoon is standing there, waiting for his results. He pulls back his hand from the machine since he knew the test was over.
"What's taking him so long? I'm waiting for the results here," he mumbles to himself as he wonders what is taking the instructor so long.
After a while, the instructor's supervisor came to the room and went up to the control panel to check the machine's condition.
"You called me here saying that the machine might have a malfunction when you did a maintenance checkup yesterday, correct? I didn't see any problem with the machine. If there's any problem with the machine, it should've been shown in the control panel but there's none," the instructor says as she examines the control panel.
She then looks up at Jae-hoon before saying, "Can you please put your hand back on the machine? We're going to test you one more time to check if there's any issues with the machine or you're just exceptionally strong," she says, asking Jae-hoon to place his hand on the machine again.
Jae-hoon follows the instructions and places his hand on the machine again. The machine then once again scans his body to check his mana value.
After a while, the value is shown on the control panel and the instructor looks shocked at the number displaying randomly instead of an exact number.
"No way…. It can't be…. It's the same as that day when Woo Yoon-jin got his rank assessed 3 years ago. The machine displays random numbers instead of a specific one. After that he was considered an S-rank. That means this guy…. He's a new S-rank," the instructor says, remembering the incident with Woo Yoon-jin assessment 3 years ago.
Jae-hoon pulls back his hand from the machine and looks at the instructor and his supervisor.
"So…. What's my rank?" he asks.
"We'll talk about it. Please step away from the machine and go to the chairman's office. He will talk to you about your new rank for the time being," the supervisor says as she asks Jae-hoon to go to the chairman's office.
"Alright. Before that, where is the chairman's office?" he replied before stepping away from the machine and asking the supervisor where the chairman's office is.
"The chairman's office is on the 8th floor. You can go now. In the meantime, I will inform your arrival to the chairman," she replies, telling Jae-hoon where the chairman's office is and he can go now.
"Alright. Thanks," he says before turning around and leaving to head to the elevator.
The supervisor lets out a sigh of relief.
"That was really hard to hold…. His aura…. It's strong," she says as she puts her hand on her chest.
"What? His aura is that string to the point you can't hold it? I can't sense anything from him, though?" the instructor asks
The supervisor smacked his head before answering, "Of course you can't. You're a C-rank. I'm an A-rank. I can sense it because I'm at a higher ranking than you," she explains.
She then takes out her phone and calls the chairman. After a while, the chairman answers the phone.
"Hello? What is it, Sae-in?" the chairman says through the phone.
"Someone is coming to your office. He's a new S-rank. I leave him to you, chairman," Sae-in says as she informs the chairman about Jae-hoon's arrival at his office.
"I understand that. I'll handle it. Don't worry, Sae-in," the chairman says as he hangs up the phone.
Meanwhile in the elevator, Jae-hoon is wondering about his rank.
"They didn't even say what my rank is…. I want to know my rank but they didn't even say it. Also, why do I need to meet the chairman after a reassessment? Is it that important?" he mumbles to himself.
After a while, the elevator reaches the 8th floor and the elevator door opens. Jae-hoon steps out and walks down the hallways, following the signs pointing to the chairman's office.
After a bit of walking, he finally arrives in front of the chairman's office and he knocks on the door.
"Please, come in," the chairman says through the door.
Jae-hoon opens the door and enters before bowing and saying, "Pardon me for the intrusion,"
"Please, take a seat," the chairman says, inviting Jae-hoon to sit at the chair in front of his desk.
Jae-hoon walks up to the chair and sits down.
"So you're the one who got sent here by Sae-in? I'm guessing you don't know what's going on. You're maybe wondering why you're here. I'll explain it shortly. First of all, my name is Nam Gyeong-ho. Nice to meet you," the chairman says as he introduces himself and extends his hand for a handshake.
Jae-hoon shakes his hand before introducing himself. "I'm Lee Jae-hoon. Nice to meet you, hoejang-nim,"
"You don't need to be so formal. Just call me Gyeong-ho." the chairman says, telling Jae-hoon to drop the casual.
"With all due respect, sir… I'd prefer to address you properly," Jae-hoon says with all respect.
"I understand, Jae-hoon-ssi. You're a very respectful young man," Gyeong-ho said with a nod of approval.
"Thank you for your kind words, hoejang-nim," Jae-hoon replied, bowing his head respectfully.
"You're welcome. Now then, shall we return to our discussion?" Gyeong-ho said, his voice calm and composed.
"Ah, yes. Let's continue," Jae-hoon replied, straightening up slightly.
"Sae-in told me that your reassessment result is out of machine knowledge. That could only mean two things. First, the machine is having a malfunction or two, your rank is higher than what you expected," Gyeong-ho explains the situation to Jae-hoon.
"And mine is…?" Jae-hoon asks.
"Yours is the second option. Congratulations on become an S-rank, Jae-hoon-ssi," Gyeong-ho says, revealing Jae-hoon's current rank and congratulates him.
"Wait, really? I'm an S-rank?" Jae-hoon asks, surprised at the revelation of his new rank.
"Since you just became an S-rank, I would say this early for you. Since the South Korean government has decided for us to help Russia in the Vladivostok Gate break raid, we will be sending teams of international ranked Irregular Hunters and S-rank Irregular Hunters. Do you want to join the raid, Jae-hoon-ssi?" Gyeong-ho says, asking Jae-hoon if he wants to join the Vladivostok Gate break raid.
"Vladivostok Gate break raid? I… I would think about it. Give me some time to think, hoejang-nim," Jae-hoon replies, telling Gyeong-ho he needs some time to think for it.
"Take your time. I'll be waiting for your answers," Gyeong-ho says before handing him a card with his number on it. "Call me if you want to ask about something or you want to state your answer to the invitation. That's all for now, Jae-hoon-ssi. You're dismissed,"
Jae-hoon stands up and bows down in respect. He the says, "I would be leaving now, hoejang-nim. Pardon me for taking some of your time for the day,"
"No, it's fine. It's been a while since South Korea had a new S-rank since Yoon Da-eun," Gyeong-ho says with a satisfied tone.
"I see…. Ah, may I leave now?" Jae-hoon nods and straighten up again before asking if he's allowed to leave yet or not.
"You're allowed to leave, Jae-hoon-ssi. Be safe on your way home," Gyeong-ho says, dismissing Jae-hoon.
Jae-hoon bows for one more time before turning around and leaving the office.
He walks back to the elevator and press the button and wait for the elevator to arrive. When the elevator arrives, the door opens and he steps in. He presses the button to the ground floor and the door closes before the elevator descend.
When the elevator reach the ground floor, the door opens and he steps out of the elevator. While walking through the lobby, Jae-hoon accidentally bumped into Han-yue.
"Oh. I'm so sorry! Wait…. Hana? What are you doing here?" Jae-hoon looks down at Han-yue.
Han-yue looks up at Jae-hoon and says, "Huh? Jae?! What are you doing here?" she asks.
They both looks at each other, wondering why both of them are here at the same time.