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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.

“Well, let’s postpone the mediating request to the evening.”

The main culprit of all this was the sincere 1400, who had to go to work in the morning. Even though the Superhumans’ Association summoned him, he dragged me out early in the morning, saying that it was just the right time to leave for lunch.

“I knew the meeting would last for hours,” 1400 said sheepishly.

“Kea-ek!”

I lifted a child onto my back and saw the frog croaking. It suited me better than I thought. Even the frog agreed.

Since it resembled Earth, I got used to living here in just 15 days. There were no bloody wars, but the lack of violence wasn’t dull. It was fun to see and learn about a world with new capabilities and abilities. If I stayed for a long time, maybe I would get bored.

I picked up the newspaper again.

<Invisible frog. Is it really a B-grade superpower?>

<The invisible frog of Ho, a B-grade summoner who has recently become the talk of the town, with too many powerful and diverse abilities.>

It was an analytical article at the corner of the newspaper. The report questioned the performance of the invisible frog and analyzed whether the frog was really all-powerful. Finally, the talk of the invisible frog ended with a guess that it might be the work of some background force.

[When the landslide happened, there had been too much dirt for an ordinary being to hold up. This article probably came about because of that suspicious incident.] Ahbooboo said.

It did seem so. I had confidently used my convenient excuse of summoning an invisible frog. I should’ve made it such that no one would have noticed.

[And when you used those wide-area heals in the arena? Some people said it wasn’t just a wound-patcher, but a miracle healing effect that works for various diseases.] Ahbooboo pointed out.

I hadn’t seen that kind of news.

[It was mentioned briefly on a health program last night. Warrior, if we get investigated, will we get caught for having a fake ID?]

“Well...”

First of all, there was no method to detect abilities that weren’t superpowers in this world. The superpower numerical analyzer could be deceived with the pills from the vaccine wars. I was a little nervous as I had become famous with these newspaper articles.

[Wouldn’t it be better to be quiet from now on?]

“I think it’s too late.”

I looked at the frog that was scampering around with the kids. The frog had become famous, too. I had displayed fluency in a variety of abilities, which was an anomaly in this world where people were usually limited to one or two skills. For people in this world, who were accustomed to superpowers, this was very shocking. The frog and I’s image had improved dramatically since I was helping civilians with 1400.

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