There is a specific experience that very powerful people have very rarely.
It is the experience of following someone considerably less powerful than themselves to a location they did not choose for reasons they did not generate and finding, upon reflection, that they have no better options and are going to keep following.
Six S-Rank Hunters were currently having this experience.
They were following Han-Ho and the oldest entity in the world to the river bank west of Yeouido on a Friday evening because Han-Ho was going there and the thing was going where Han-Ho was going and nobody had suggested anything better and the alternative was standing in the financial district doing things that were not working and watching the thing ignore them.
The following was done at a distance.
A respectful distance.
The kind of distance that allowed each of them to process privately.
Baek Sung-Il walked in silence for approximately two minutes.
Then he said, to nobody specific: "My full output."
Oh Kyung-Soo, walking beside him, said: "Yes."
"I hit it with everything."
"Yes."
"Full output. Everything I have. Re-Awakened once. Twenty years."
"Yes."
"It made a sound."
"Yes."
"The sound you make when you hear something but you're busy."
"Yes."
Baek Sung-Il walked in silence for another moment.
"I destroyed a dam in the Gangwon incident," he said.
"I know," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
"The whole dam. One strike."
"I know."
"Fourteen meters of reinforced concrete."
"I know Sung-Il."
"It made the sound you make when you're busy."
"Yes."
Baek Sung-Il looked at the thing moving ahead of them alongside Han-Ho.
Looked at his hands.
Looked at the thing again.
"Is that," said Baek Sung-Il. "Is that going to be a thing I think about now."
"Probably for the rest of your career yes," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
Baek Sung-Il nodded slowly.
"Okay," he said.
"It helped me," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
"Did it."
"Perspective is useful. I spent twenty years thinking I understood the scale of what was out there." He looked at the thing. "I was measuring the wrong things."
"What were you measuring."
"Power. Combat capability. Mana output." He paused. "I should have been measuring clean."
Baek Sung-Il looked at him.
Oh Kyung-Soo walked with the settled composure of a man who has done extensive internal processing and has arrived somewhere useful.
"That thing moved," said Oh Kyung-Soo, "because a man in a janitor uniform has been cleaning this city for ten years with enough thoroughness to reach through bedrock." He paused. "Not because anyone fought it. Not because anyone threatened it. Because something clean was here and it woke up to find out what clean felt like."
Baek Sung-Il thought about this.
"That's," he said.
"Yes," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
"That's either very profound or very annoying."
"Both," said Oh Kyung-Soo. "That's been my experience with him generally."
Jin Tae-Yang was walking with Song Mi-Rae.
Song Mi-Rae whose shadow energy was so refined it was invisible had deactivated it because there was clearly no tactical application here and maintaining it was effortful.
"Four buildings," said Jin Tae-Yang.
"I know," said Song Mi-Rae.
"Simultaneously."
"I know Tae-Yang."
"In Busan."
"I was there."
"You were there."
"I was there yes."
"You saw the four buildings."
"I saw four buildings yes."
"And today—"
"Today was different," said Song Mi-Rae, with the patient tone of someone who has been managing Jin Tae-Yang's processing for twelve years of professional partnership and has developed a very efficient system for it.
"It made the ceiling fan sound."
"I know."
"At Baek's full output."
"I know."
"Baek destroyed a DAM—"
"Tae-Yang."
"A FOURTEEN METER DAM—"
"I know about the dam."
"And it made the—"
"Tae-Yang." Song Mi-Rae stopped walking briefly. Looked at him. "The four buildings were real. The dam was real. What Baek did was real. None of that is negated by the fact that there is something in this world so old that our power is background noise to it."
Jin Tae-Yang looked at her.
"You're saying our credentials are still valid," he said.
"I'm saying our credentials exist on a scale that has nothing to do with that scale." She pointed at the thing. "We are very powerful. It is incomparably old. Those are different axes. One does not negate the other."
Jin Tae-Yang considered this.
"That's actually helpful," he said.
"I know it is."
"How are you so calm."
"I went invisible. It didn't help. I accepted that and moved on." She started walking again. "The acceptance is the key part. Skip to the acceptance."
Jin Tae-Yang walked beside her.
"Four buildings," he said quietly, to himself.
"Yes," said Song Mi-Rae patiently. "Four buildings."
Lee Soo-Bin had come out from behind the structural column.
He was twenty six years old. He had Awakened at nineteen and Re-Awakened once at twenty two and had been the youngest S-Rank in Registry history since then and had forty three million followers across his social media platforms which was slightly more than Min-Seo and which Min-Seo was aware of and had feelings about.
He was currently walking next to Yoo Chae-Won.
"I'm twenty six," said Lee Soo-Bin.
"I know," said Yoo Chae-Won.
"He's twenty six."
"I know."
"We're the same age."
"I know."
"I have the second highest mana output in Korea."
"I know."
"He has—" Lee Soo-Bin gestured at Han-Ho walking alongside the oldest entity in the world with his hands in his pockets. "That."
"The stars that broke the display system yes."
"How."
"Ms. Yoon's presentation covered this—"
"I know what the presentation said. I'm asking HOW. How does someone clean storm drains for ten years and end up—" He gestured again. "Like that."
Yoo Chae-Won thought about this.
"I think," she said carefully, "that cleaning storm drains for ten years and ending up like that are not separate things. I think they are the same thing."
Lee Soo-Bin looked at her.
"The cleaning IS the power," said Yoo Chae-Won. "He didn't get strong and then start cleaning. He cleaned. Consistently. Thoroughly. For ten years. Without recognition or support or anyone paying attention." She looked at Han-Ho. "And that is why the oldest thing in the world woke up and came looking for him."
Lee Soo-Bin was quiet for a moment.
"I have forty three million followers," he said.
"I know."
"Min-Seo has forty."
"I know."
"I'm mentioned that to him."
"I know you have."
"He doesn't seem to care."
"He doesn't."
Lee Soo-Bin walked in silence.
"I'm going to clean something," he said.
Yoo Chae-Won looked at him.
"Not like him," said Lee Soo-Bin quickly. "I can't do what he does. But I'm going to. Something. Tomorrow." He paused. "Maybe a Gate residue site. Something that needs doing."
Yoo Chae-Won looked at him.
The youngest S-Rank in Registry history.
Twenty six years old.
Walking to the Han River bank in the early Friday evening because the oldest entity in the world had woken up and the F-Rank Mana-Janitor who had caused it to wake up was going to need help with the cleanup.
"Okay," said Yoo Chae-Won.
"Don't tell Min-Seo," said Lee Soo-Bin.
"Why not."
"He'll make it a thing."
"It is a thing."
"I don't want it to be a thing. I just want to clean something."
"That," said Yoo Chae-Won, "is exactly how he thinks about it."
Lee Soo-Bin walked in silence.
Then: "Don't tell him I said that either."
Min-Seo was walking slightly apart from the others.
He had been sending messages to Ara since the alert. Factual messages. Status updates. The kind of messages you send when you need someone to know what is happening without having to explain what is happening because explaining would require words you don't have yet.
Ara had been responding with the measured professional patience of an A-Rank Hunter who had been Han-Ho adjacent for over a week through Min-Seo and had developed a tolerance for the inexplicable.
How bad, Ara had asked when the alert first came through.
Different, Min-Seo had written back.
Different how.
Different like the scale is wrong. Not wrong-bad. Wrong-large. Like measuring temperature with a ruler.
A pause.
Is Han-Ho there.
Walking toward it with his hands in his pockets.
Did he finish what he was doing first.
Storm drain. Eighty percent.
Of course he did, Ara had written. Is anyone hurt.
No. It's not attacking. It woke up. It came up. It's looking for something.
Han-Ho.
Yes.
And Han-Ho.
Is planning the cleanup route.
Another pause. Longer.
Min-Seo.
Yes.
Are you okay.
Min-Seo had looked at that message for a long time.
Was he okay.
He had activated everything he had at the thing and the thing had looked at him with genuine attention and he had felt that attention in places he did not know existed and had held his stance through an act of will that had cost him more than he would admit.
He had Re-Awakened twice.
He was following an F-Rank Janitor to the river bank.
The oldest entity in the world was moving alongside them because the janitor had suggested the logistics were better from there.
Was he okay.
Yes, he had written back. I think so. Different kind of okay than usual but okay.
That's Han-Ho's effect, Ara had written.
What do you mean.
A week ago you were a dramatically wounded S-Rank Hunter behind a police vehicle waiting for the Holy Sword team. Now you're okay following the oldest entity in the world to a river bank because the logistics are better from there. A pause. That's growth Min-Seo.
I destroyed a mountain, Min-Seo had written.
I know, Ara had written back.
Twice awakened.
I know.
Forty million views.
Forty three for Lee Soo-Bin.
I KNOW ARA.
Go to the river bank, Ara had written. Tell me what happens.
Min-Seo put his phone in his pocket.
Looked at Han-Ho ahead of him.
The thing moving alongside Han-Ho with the slow enormous gravity of a geological feature in motion.
Han-Ho's hands in his pockets.
The soft shape of Moru on his left shoulder. Kjor on his right. The small telltale eyes of River in the bag pocket catching the evening light.
Min-Seo walked.
They reached the river bank as the sun was beginning its consideration of the horizon.
The thing stopped at the bank.
Han-Ho stopped next to it.
Looked at the river. Looked at the bank. Looked at the access points for the subsurface work. Took out his notebook. Made several notes.
The six S-Rank Hunters fanned out along the bank at various distances.
Not tactical distances. Not formation distances.
Just the distances of six people who have arrived somewhere and need a moment and are taking it in the way that works best for each of them.
Oh Kyung-Soo stood near the water and looked at the river.
Baek Sung-Il sat on the bank and looked at his hands for the third time since Yeouido.
Jin Tae-Yang stood next to Song Mi-Rae.
"Four buildings," he said, very quietly.
"Yes," said Song Mi-Rae, very patiently.
Lee Soo-Bin stood slightly apart and looked at Han-Ho with the expression of a twenty six year old recalibrating something fundamental.
Yoo Chae-Won looked at her phone. Seventeen new messages. Three from brand partners asking about the footage. One from the Registry communications department asking if she could not activate her full combat capability in a financial district next time as it was creating insurance complications.
She put her phone away.
Min-Seo stood at the bank.
Looked at Han-Ho.
Han-Ho was writing in his notebook.
The thing was settled.
The river flowed.
The city behind them was beginning its slow careful process of figuring out what had just happened.
The evening light was doing something with the water and the thing's presence and Han-Ho's unremarkable work uniform that made everything look slightly more significant than it normally looked.
"Min-Seo," said Yoo Chae-Won, quietly.
"Yes."
"How long has he been doing this."
"Ten years."
"Alone."
"Until eight days ago."
"And nobody knew."
"Ms. Yoon knew. For four years. Nobody listened."
Yoo Chae-Won looked at Han-Ho.
"Clean Unknown Dangerous," she said.
"In that order," said Min-Seo.
"Clean first."
"He cleaned a storm drain at four thirty seven PM on a Friday with a FULL NATIONAL RESPONSE alert on his phone."
"Because it was eighty percent done."
"Because it was eighty percent done," said Min-Seo. "And leaving something eighty percent done is worse than not starting."
Yoo Chae-Won was quiet for a moment.
"I have a brand deal with a cleaning product company," she said.
"I know," said Min-Seo.
"It's called HUNTER CLEAN. Premium household solutions. I have never personally cleaned anything with it."
Min-Seo looked at her.
She looked at the river.
"I'm going to clean something," she said.
Min-Seo looked at her.
"Don't tell Lee Soo-Bin," she said. "He'll make it a thing."
Min-Seo pressed his lips together.
Looked at the sky.
"Noted," he said.
At the far end of the bank Oh Kyung-Soo stood alone.
He was fifty three years old. He had been a Hunter for thirty years. He had seen many things. He had revised his definition of many things upward twice tonight already.
He looked at the thing settled on the bank.
Looked at Han-Ho writing in his notebook.
Looked at the river.
He had been a Hunter because he was powerful. Because Awakening had given him something significant and he had trained it and refined it and used it in service of the country for thirty years and he had been proud of that and he should be proud of that and he was.
And also.
He had just watched the oldest entity in the world move to a more convenient location because an F-Rank Mana-Janitor had asked it to for logistical reasons.
He had watched Baek Sung-Il's full output register as background noise.
He had watched his own power, which was not nothing, which was thirty years of genuine dedication to genuine craft, exist on the completely wrong axis.
He had watched a man finish a storm drain before responding to a full national emergency because the storm drain was eighty percent done.
Oh Kyung-Soo stood on the river bank in the early Friday evening.
And he laughed.
Not the polite controlled sound from the Wednesday briefing.
A real laugh. The laugh of a man who has spent thirty years being very serious about very serious things and has just been shown something that is both the most serious thing he has ever encountered and the funniest thing he has ever encountered simultaneously and his body has chosen to resolve the tension by laughing.
The other S-Ranks looked at him.
Oh Kyung-Soo laughed for approximately ten seconds.
Then stopped.
Composed himself.
"Sorry," he said.
"What was that," said Baek Sung-Il.
"I've been a Hunter for thirty years," said Oh Kyung-Soo. "In thirty years I have never once considered finishing a storm drain before responding to a full national emergency."
"That's not funny," said Baek Sung-Il.
"It's a little funny," said Jin Tae-Yang.
"It's extremely funny," said Song Mi-Rae, who almost never said anything was funny and therefore when she did it was considered significant.
Baek Sung-Il looked at them.
Looked at the storm drain comment from that angle.
His expression moved through several phases.
Then he laughed too.
Brief. Reluctant. The laugh of a man who has found something funny against his will.
Jin Tae-Yang laughed.
Lee Soo-Bin laughed.
Yoo Chae-Won laughed.
Song Mi-Rae smiled, which for Song Mi-Rae was equivalent to anyone else laughing for thirty seconds.
Min-Seo had been laughing quietly for eight days and had a head start on all of them.
Han-Ho looked up from his notebook.
Looked at six S-Rank Hunters laughing on a river bank.
Looked at his notebook.
Looked back at them.
"What," he said.
"Nothing," said six voices.
"You're all laughing."
"We're not laughing," said Baek Sung-Il, laughing.
"You are literally—"
"We're processing," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
"By laughing."
"It's a valid processing mechanism."
Han-Ho looked at them.
Looked at his notebook.
"The subsurface fracture assessment starts tomorrow morning," he said. "Seven AM. Bank access point east side. Anyone who wants to help can come."
Six S-Rank Hunters stopped laughing.
Looked at Han-Ho.
He had said it completely casually. The way you mention a work schedule to people who happen to be nearby. Without expectation. Without recruitment energy. Without the awareness that he had just casually invited six S-Rank Hunters to his cleanup project the way you mention to neighbors that you're having a moving day.
"I'll be there," said Oh Kyung-Soo.
"I'll be there," said Baek Sung-Il, with the energy of a man who has processed the ceiling fan situation and arrived at a decision about it.
"Same," said Jin Tae-Yang.
"Same," said Song Mi-Rae.
"I'll be there," said Lee Soo-Bin.
"I'll be there," said Yoo Chae-Won. "And we are talking about branding for the cleanup."
"No branding," said Han-Ho.
"Small branding."
"No."
"Tasteful—"
"No logos on anything."
"Han-Ho—"
"Seven AM," said Han-Ho, and looked back at his notebook.
Yoo Chae-Won looked at Min-Seo.
Min-Seo looked back with the serenity of a man who has had this exact conversation already and knows exactly how it ends.
"He's not going to agree to the logos," said Min-Seo.
"I'll get him eventually," said Yoo Chae-Won.
"You won't."
"Everyone agrees to logos eventually."
"He has eight notebooks full of red entries and paid for industrial grade solution out of his own salary for four years and filed forty three reports in a year and kept personal copies of every single one." Min-Seo looked at Han-Ho. "He is the most stubborn person in South Korea. He will never agree to logos."
Yoo Chae-Won looked at Han-Ho.
Considered this.
"Embroidery," she said. "Small. On the work bag strap."
"NO," said Han-Ho, without looking up.
The river bank was quiet.
The thing breathed.
The river flowed.
Somewhere in the city the media blackout was holding but would not hold forever and the footage of an F-Rank Mana-Janitor walking the oldest entity in the world to a more convenient cleanup location was sitting on several camera drones and several phones and would be everywhere by Saturday morning.
But that was Saturday's problem.
Tonight the river bank was just a river bank.
With six S-Rank Hunters and a Mana-Janitor and a former Demon King and a former Frost Giant and a former contamination entity and the oldest thing in the world.
All of them being, in their own particular ways, exactly where they were supposed to be.
"Seven AM," said Min-Seo, to the group.
"Seven AM," said the group.
Han-Ho nodded.
Closed his notebook.
Looked at the thing.
"Tomorrow," he said.
The thing made the small quiet sound.
Han-Ho nodded.
Stood up.
"GS25," he said.
Everyone stood up.
Some Fridays were just like this.