Yu Sang-cheol chose a shabu-shabu restaurant for the get-together. It wasn't one of those all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu places you commonly see on the street. You could tell just from the interior design.
"You didn't pick an all-you-can-eat place."
"There should be a law banning Cleaners from going to all-you-can-eat restaurants."
At Yu Sang-cheol's words, I nodded without realizing it. Considering how much we eat, he wasn't wrong. If the four Cleaners gathered here ate their fill, the place would probably have to shut down for the day.
Besides, if Cleaners showed up saying they wanted to eat, there was no way an ordinary restaurant could stop them. Even the police bow their heads to Cleaners, so how could civilians who bow to those police resist?
"We're on break, so I called you to treat my juniors to a meal. Eat as much as you want, don't worry about it."
At that, we checked the prices on the menu. 110,000 won for 150 grams of shabu-shabu.
Isn't shabu-shabu more expensive than Korean beef ribs? And he's saying we can eat as much as we want? It was only natural to feel self-conscious.
Watching us, Yu Sang-cheol gave a slight bitter smile and said, "A week ago, two Cleaners I knew died."
At those words, we didn't know how to respond. Suddenly talking about dead Cleaners.
"I might die like that too. You've all faced contamination zones too, right? Especially ones you can't solve just by overpowering them."
Strictly speaking, it was that we lacked the strength to beat that mountain goat-headed thing into submission, but he wasn't wrong.
"I have plenty of money. The salary is generous, and once you're officially appointed, you'll find out that each Cleaner gets a dedicated operator."
"Oh, I've heard of that. A civil servant who relays information about contamination zones and explains the situation."
At Oh Min-hyeok's words, Yu Sang-cheol nodded.
"That's not all they do. If you ask for anything you need in daily life, they handle it all, and they also manage the Cleaner's assets."
As a result, a Cleaner's wealth keeps growing without much effort. But what about the life of a Cleaner who earns all that money?
A mayfly who might die any day.
"That's why I don't feel bad spending like this. It's not like I can take hoarded money to the grave. So don't worry and stuff yourselves. I hardly ever get a chance to spend money anyway, so it just piles up."
Saying that, he ordered fifty servings of the 110,000 won per 150 grams shabu-shabu. An amount equivalent to the deposit on the officetel you and I once lived in was thrown straight into the boiling broth.
Meat and vegetables were prepared and tossed into the bubbling soup. We started eating.
"But, Senior Yu Sang-cheol, what exactly is your ability?"
In the middle of the meal, Han Se-hee asked. At that, both Oh Min-hyeok and I stopped eating and looked at Yu Sang-cheol. Honestly, we were curious. The title of Grade 7 civil servant couldn't be just for show, so he had to be strong.
But we didn't know what his ability was.
"It's called Day Second. Every day, I can use one second of time as if it were twenty-four hours."
An ability where one second becomes a full day. Hearing that, my mind went blank. That was time manipulation.
"Then, um… can you split that extra time up and use it?"
Oh Min-hyeok also looked at Yu Sang-cheol with a stunned expression.
"Yes."
So that was why Yu Sang-cheol had managed to rescue all the survivors during our first contamination zone cleanup. If you could use one second like twenty-four hours, saving survivors would be trivial.
"But if you move that fast, wouldn't everything around you get destroyed? Like, sonic booms and stuff."
Moving at that speed would also put enormous strain on the body. Yu Sang-cheol answered Han Se-hee's question.
"It seems it's not that I become faster, but that the world is treated as having slowed down."
Actually, there was something else I was curious about in this conversation.
"Senior… are you average for Grade 7?"
At my question, Yu Sang-cheol replied, "If your rank goes any higher than this, you can't be in charge of guiding apprentice Cleaners. You don't need to know the details."
So he was deliberately not raising his rank to escort apprentices. Come to think of it, Yu Sang-cheol had said he'd been dispatched overseas before. It was a bit strange for a Grade 7 Cleaner to be sent abroad.
"You all have a pretty bright future. I'm looking forward to it myself."
Since the topic of abilities had come up, Yu Sang-cheol evaluated ours while tossing meat into the broth.
"Is that so? For me… unlike other Cleaners, using my ability comes with side effects."
At Oh Min-hyeok's words, Yu Sang-cheol pointed at him with his chopsticks.
"Isn't that because you're not using it in its intended direction?"
At that, Oh Min-hyeok flinched.
"As expected, we'll talk about that separately later."
After confirming Oh Min-hyeok's reaction, Yu Sang-cheol let out a small sigh and continued.
"Han Se-hee's ability is extremely rare."
An ability that consumes concentration.
"It's unique, but isn't it kind of ambiguous to say it's good?"
"In contamination zones, Cleaners often lose their minds."
They hear strange sounds and go mad, see a window and lose it, pick up something on the floor and snap. In contamination zones above a certain level, such bizarre things happen.
"For that to happen, you have to concentrate."
You concentrate on the sound, concentrate on looking at the window, concentrate on the object on the floor, and then you lose it. Concentration isn't something you can fully control.
People say that if you're told not to think of an elephant, you end up thinking of it even more. Once you've focused on something, it's extremely difficult to break that focus by sheer will.
"But you can stop that."
If concentrating makes you go mad, then conversely, not concentrating prevents madness. And Han Se-hee's ability disrupts concentration, which is the core of the process of going insane.
"If you notice abnormalities in the Cleaners accompanying you and drain their concentration."
The process of losing one's mind stops. It's meaningless if they've already completely gone mad, but if you intervene at the moment it's about to happen, you can bring them back to their senses.
"It's a precious ability. If someone understands its value, they'd be willing to spend a fortune to have you accompany them. And also."
Yu Sang-cheol quietly looked at Han Se-hee.
"Where do you think the concentration you absorb goes?"
At that, Han Se-hee made a small, uncertain sound. Thinking about it, that was true. Her ability doesn't remove concentration.
It absorbs it. So where does it all go?
"I've never really thought about it."
At Han Se-hee's words, Yu Sang-cheol replied, "Then think about it. The more you analyze and understand the abilities of Stigma Manifestors, the more possibilities they reveal. And…"
Lastly, Yu Sang-cheol's gaze turned to me.
"I said Han Se-hee's ability is precious, but… it doesn't compare to yours."
Inventory. It's not just the ability to store and take out items. It's the power to bring something out of a contamination zone.
"I think just using military equipment in exchange for contamination substances is far from enough."
"Is that so."
I actually agreed with that. Military equipment was, at best, a basic starting point obtained through trading contamination substances.
"Honestly, it would be more accurate to say there's a clear limit to that."
Saying that, he pointed to himself.
"Tell me, if you used modern weapons, do you think you could beat me in a fight?"
No way. Modern weapons wouldn't properly work against Yu Sang-cheol, who could use one second like a full day. Bullets? Grenades?
Even if you launched a nuclear missile, he could just escape beyond the blast radius.
"There are plenty of Cleaners and Stigma Manifestors stronger than me."
Immediately, Raelin came to mind. Would modern weapons work on her? Likewise, not a chance.
Modern weaponry, in the end, can't deal proper damage to Cleaners above a certain level. That was exactly Yu Sang-cheol's point.
"…I understand. I'll think of my own methods."
The modern weapons I use… I should think of them as self-defense tools for emergencies.
The real deal is things like the menu I secured from the butcher shop. All the bizarre phenomena and grotesque powers created by contamination zones. I need to fill my inventory with things like that.
It was something I'd vaguely thought about before. And listening to Yu Sang-cheol's advice, I was able to firmly decide the direction of my ability's development.
"But is this kind of advice something most Cleaners who escort apprentices give?"
Oh Min-hyeok asked Yu Sang-cheol. Immediately, Yu Sang-cheol shook his head.
"No way. I'm the odd one. Ah, you've finished the meat. Let's order more."
After ordering more meat from the server, Yu Sang-cheol looked at us.
"I don't like most of the Stigma Manifestors who are in high positions right now."
"..."
At those words, we made awkward expressions. Stigma Manifestors in high positions.
"Um, why is that?"
To Han Se-hee's cautious question, Yu Sang-cheol answered, "They're all desperately avoiding contamination zone cleanups. People who are considered among the strongest in the world."
That was new to me. Stigma Manifestors avoiding contamination zone cleanups.
"They climb to high positions and wield immense power, and they don't want to ruin that pleasant life by entering contamination zones."
If things go wrong, even a Cleaner acknowledged as world-class strong could die or end up in a fate worse than death.
"There's a famous Stigma Manifestor in Europe. If he really wanted to, he could freeze the entire Mediterranean Sea in a few hours."
Freezing the entire Mediterranean in a matter of hours. That was practically a natural disaster in human form.
"But he entered a contamination zone once and messed up. His head and his left leg swapped places."
A form that could hardly be called human anymore. His head attached where his left leg should be, and his left leg attached where his head should be, turning him into a monster.
"What do you think other famous Stigma Manifestors would think after seeing that?"
They'd naturally think, I don't want to enter contamination zones. No matter how strong you are, if you're unlucky, you either end up in a horrific state or just die.
"A lot of high-contamination zones are like that."
There are internal rules that govern them, and the moment you violate those rules, irreversible disasters occur. No matter how powerful you are, it becomes meaningless. That's why most Cleaners above a certain level become passive about cleaning contamination zones.
"I hope you don't become like that. I'm not forcing you. It's just my personal wish."
Having said that, Yu Sang-cheol looked at the boiling broth in front of him with a complicated expression.
Listening to him, my thoughts actually went elsewhere.
What if, in those bizarre contamination zones, I could completely analyze whatever it was that created those strange phenomena, find a way to counter or survive it, and then put it into my inventory?
It would be on a completely different level from modern weapons. A grotesque power that could instantly turn a Stigma Manifestor capable of freezing the Mediterranean into a horrific form.
If I could get something like that into my hands, wouldn't I be able to fight even transcendent powerhouses like Raelin?
Well, those were the thoughts running through my head.