The Main Characters That Only I Know

Chapter 3:

Chapter 3

I was outside the atmosphere when I arrived at the sky above Seoul.

I felt a sense of relief as I saw the skyscrapers standing tall and the cars running noisily on the roads.

‘How long has it been since I saw such a normal Earth?’

I had to run like crazy to survive after the apocalypse began.

I don’t even remember how many years I lived like that. 

I only knew that it was a very long time.

During that period, the planet I knew was completely destroyed and ruined.

It was beyond recovery.

‘Here… everything is still the same.’

I landed on the ground, avoiding people’s eyes as much as possible. 

Thanks to [Genesis’s Protection], I could move beyond the laws of physics. 

I could fly in the sky and teleport to any place I wanted.

‘I can see why those Tellers treated the contractors so harshly.’

They were confident. 

They were sure that humans could never touch them.

The source of their confidence was this [Genesis System].

It was thanks to this system that I could breathe in space.

‘First, I need to find the Collectors.’

No matter what, my priority was the mission.

Before the apocalypse, only the chosen ones could become Collectors.

Even so, there were quite a lot of them, so finding them wouldn’t be hard. 

But finding a Collector who hadn’t made a contract with any Teller would be difficult.

‘Moreover, there’s no way to know how talented they are.’

Most of the Collectors who hadn’t made a contract were novices. 

And they were unverified beings.

They were often compared to lottery tickets that no one scratched. 

And that was an apt analogy.

Just like the probability of winning a lottery was extremely low, so was the chance of finding a successful Collector among these novices.

‘The only good thing is, I can easily locate the Collectors through this system’s support.’

On the map displayed on the system window, there were red dots shining brightly.

These dots represented the Collectors who had joined the system. 

They inevitably had to register in [Genesis System] as they earned points and collected [Stories].

And among the countless red dots, there were some blue dots shining faintly.

‘Maybe red means contracted Collectors and blue means uncontracted Collectors.’

I immediately selected the area where most of the blue dots were concentrated. 

My body moved instantly to that zone with the help of the system’s power.

I felt a strange sensation when I first teleported, but I got used to it after a few times.

‘Is this it?’

The place where I arrived was a national public institution, the Collector Association.

It was still intact here. 

It had turned into dust and disappeared as soon as the apocalypse started.

There were various Collectors walking around in the park outside and in the huge hall inside.

‘Hmm. Is this how you use it?’

I quickly moved the system window to capture their faces. 

It was like using a camera. 

Above their heads, there were red and blue lights floating.

Along with that, their names and simple personal information came along.

But no matter how much I looked, it was hard to tell what abilities they had.

‘This is not enough.’

There was no way to know their abilities from their names, genders, ages and residential areas.

As I continued to scan around with the system window for a while, someone approached me.

“Who are you? Are you a Collector?”

He seemed suspicious of me because I was just standing and looking around. 

He looked like a security guard who protected this association.

“I’m just looking for someone. Don’t bother me.”

“No, bother or not. Don’t you know this is not a place where you can come freely?”

He seemed to think I was an outsider. 

He tried to push me away with his hand, but I just stood still.

The moment his hand touched my body, Genesis’s Protection activated.

Zap!

“Huh?”

He saw his hand bounce back with a weak current and widened his eyes. 

There was only one reason why he could react like this.

“Co, could you be a Teller?”

“Yes.”

“I, I’m sorry. I thought you were just an ordinary person.”

He quickly changed his attitude and apologized to me. 

Seeing him act like that, I felt a bit of alienation and realized that I really came back to the past.

Before the apocalypse, Tellers were treated almost like nobles. 

Of course, they were indispensable for Collectors and they always had an upper hand in contracts.

But after the apocalypse, Tellers were regarded as harbingers of disaster.

They always brought down apocalyptic trials whenever they appeared, and people died in droves.

But they couldn’t touch them because they were protected, so they only hated them with clenched teeth.

Now was the time when Tellers were treated well. 

It didn’t matter that I was an intern. 

The fact that I was a Teller, the fact that I might make a contract with them, was the only thing that mattered.

“I’m sorry.”

The guard bowed his head repeatedly and ran away as if he was fleeing. 

Seeing his servile attitude, I felt more uncomfortable.

‘Let’s ignore him.’

I thought so and closed the system window for a moment.

‘What is this?’

There was something floating above the heads of the people walking in the artificial park.

‘Books?’

There were books floating above their heads. 

I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but they were real.

‘What is this?’

I had been looking at them through the system window, so I didn’t notice it. 

I opened and closed the window repeatedly.

This was not something that Genesis System showed me, but something that only I could see.

They didn’t even realize that there were books floating above their heads.

“…”

I checked the time. 

There were about 37 minutes left until the mission ended. 

I had enough time.

I reached out to a book above the head of a person passing by. 

I wondered if it would work, but the book followed my will and came to me.

‘It really works.’

The cover of the book was made of leather, and the book itself was brown. 

And there was a faint light coming out of the book, but it was also nothing more than brown.

I looked at the simple information of this book owner through the system window and opened the book.

Name: Kim Sang-doo

Race: Human (Collector)

Description: A Collector who awakened five years ago. His rank is 8th class, which is one of the most common skills among humans. He is cowardly and timid, and he doesn’t want to fight, but he has to fight against the phantoms to make a living.

[History]

The book contained a brief description of the person, along with his past.

‘This is…’

I checked the books of other people as well.

The books had detailed information about each book owner.

Who they were, how they lived, and what abilities they had.

The books had different colors depending on the person. 

Some books had silver covers, and some had brown covers but silver lights coming out of them.

I narrowed my eyes.

‘The color of the book itself indicates how valuable their lives are. The light coming out of the book shows their potential and possibility.’

In other words, if the cover and the light were both bronze, it meant that the person had the possibility to reach silver.

If both the cover and the light were bronze, it meant that the person was just ordinary.

And if there were silver or bronze, there was also gold.

‘Is this all I can know?’

I returned my book to its original place and opened the system window.

‘If I knew more about this book’s ability, it would be easy.’

The book showed me the future possibilities of the person who owned it.

That meant I could tell in advance whether some of the Collectors who hadn’t made a contract yet were lucky or not.

Now I only had one thing to do.

‘I’ll go around where there are more blue dots, and find someone with potential.’

I immediately moved to another place using my protection.

***

Sasramdor crossed his arms and looked at the timer that had less than three minutes left. 

He tapped his fingers with his gloved hand and touched his arm lightly.

The time given for the mission was one hour. 

And most of the new Tellers had succeeded in their mission.

‘Well. This mission is almost 100% success rate unless you’re stupid.’

There were some who were really unlucky or really dumb who couldn’t even do this, but that was not his concern.

What caught Sasramdor’s attention most was Kang Yu-hyun, who showed his transformation as soon as he appeared.

‘The others found their contractors after that. But he hasn’t found one yet.’

He checked Kang Yu-hyun’s status, who was still not showing success in his mission, and narrowed his red eyes inside his black pupils.

“He appeared and changed right away, so I thought he was amazing, but was I wrong?”

He felt disappointed by his actions that betrayed his expectations.

He thought he would bring more impressive results than the others.

‘The time left is one minute. Practically, it’s over.’

The numbers on the timer decreased at a regular speed.

And when there were about three seconds left.

Beep.

[All Tellers have completed their mission.]

A notification window popped up in front of Sasramdor’s eyes.

Kang Yu-hyun passed it with three seconds left before the deadline.