I was called in to attend an important meeting that would determine Black Cell's next course of action.
There, I ended up in a heated argument with Director Nathan over whether or not to disclose the Awakening Factor to the outside world.
There's a world of difference between an ordinary member saying something is doomed to fail and a genius of the century saying it to your face.
By some stroke of luck, I managed to capture the Director's interest.
And in the end, the decision was made to keep this round of results under wraps.
'Given that none of the key executives or Director Nathan branded me as a problem, I suppose I barely avoided the worst-case scenario.'
For me, this outcome is genuinely the best possible option right now.
If this research were to become public knowledge before I'd even established myself as Black Cell's sole voice of conscience, I'd face a level of scrutiny incomparably worse than anything before.
The likelihood of this place's truth leaking to the outside world would be extremely high.
I'd have no excuses left to offer, and every path forward would be completely cut off.
On top of that, even in the original story, Black Group is severely shaken by the Director going rogue — so I can't exactly trust the parent company either.
'But the moment Director Nathan got hit with a counter-question, he smirked.'
That means the Director had already anticipated what would happen to the Group's future if this research came to light.
So he deliberately brought up some grandiose vision of the future to test me.
Even if I had argued for making the research public, it would have ultimately led to the same conclusion as now.
Anyway — the meeting wasn't over yet, but what was a first-year nobody supposed to accomplish by staying?
I was promptly escorted out with Secretary Min Chae-rin, and the moment we stepped into the hallway, the two of us were overwhelmingly relieved.
"Being out here is certainly far better than sitting on a bed of nails."
"…I couldn't agree more."
Secretary Min Chae-rin let out a sigh of relief, apparently just as unable to hold it in as I was.
The face-to-face with the Director had just drained an enormous amount of mental energy — I was exhausted.
But then the secretary glanced over at me and offered a word of encouragement.
"The Director genuinely admires people with conviction. The fact that your argument was ultimately the one chosen in that meeting room should be proof enough of that."
"I'd be very glad if that were the case. And thank you for the kind words."
"I simply thought it would be better than letting you stew over it alone for no reason."
Thanks to Secretary Min Chae-rin, I walked down the hallway thinking that even an evil organization was still a place where people lived.
Slouching around the office for the rest of the day wouldn't have been a bad option, but I decided to head over to Liberty — both to decompress and to take care of a few things while I was at it.
Perhaps because I arrived earlier than expected?
Liberty greeted me with an explosion of energy.
Wriggle wriggle wriggle!!
"Heh heh heh!! Papa!! Papa!!"
"Ha ha ha ha, you're that happy to see me?"
"Awoooo!!"
By now, I was completely used to Liberty climbing all over me.
But… with each passing day, she was getting heavier.
I didn't know her birthday, but the last time I'd checked she was around eleven — and she'd been eating much better meals than before, so perhaps the time for her second growth spurt was approaching.
'Come to think of it, Gloria seemed to be getting taller too, didn't she?'
In a way, I'd made a game-saving play right at the golden hour.
It was the same when I first met them.
If the children had been in the middle of adolescence when we met…
I would almost certainly have already found my peaceful rest by now.
Breathing a quiet sigh of relief at that thought, I stroked Liberty's head as she nestled against me.
Of course, tired was still tired, so I immediately leaned my back against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor.
"Whimper?"
"Sorry, today was a bit rough."
"Heh heh heh!!"
Lick!!
Liberty lapped at my cheek as if to cheer me up.
My face — and my clothes — were getting thoroughly soaked in drool again, but thanks to her, I felt somewhat revived.
*********************
Three days had passed since Black Cell's important meeting.
But the Director and Dr. Cain, along with the other key executives, all appeared to still be swamped.
Even in the underground research complex, the staff were grinding away trying to unravel the secrets of superhuman abilities — yet somehow:
"M-Maxwell, sir, don't you think you could afford to rest a little?"
"My thoughts exactly."
"Please, leave this to us."
I had become the young man whose thesis had been stolen by his supervising professor, and every researcher was going out of their way to look after me.
As a result, I found myself with considerably more free time than usual.
And that meant I could move forward with the children's meetings sooner than originally planned.
[ Maxwell, sir — the Director has given permission to reduce Victory's restraint level. ]
"Could you tell me how far, exactly?"
[ She said it's fine to remove all restraints entirely. ]
Even if the drug had a limited duration, an Ability Awakening Drug capable of turning ordinary people into ability users would be completed before long.
That meant the Director no longer needed to fixate on Victory — and the restraints on her legs, the most critical part for someone with an Acceleration Ability, were removed.
Was finally being free really that wonderful to her?
She started sprinting around her cell in every direction.
────Ping!!!!
"Maxwell! Maxwell! How does Victory look?! Pretty incredible, right?!"
"Y-yeah… incredible…"
Victory moved so fast she left afterimages.
And on top of that, she could layer physical enhancement over her Acceleration Ability.
There were probably very few things that could withstand a kick from her — nothing short of Gloria or Liberty's caliber.
"But Victory — if you can move this fast, why did you get hurt back then?"
"W-well, that's……"
Her face turned beet red with embarrassment, and all she would say was that she'd let her guard down.
She wouldn't give me the details.
Either way, Victory's restraints were now completely removed.
I immediately arranged for her to meet Gloria.
I'd gotten permission from both of them this time, and since Gloria and Liberty hadn't come to blows during their previous meeting, I brought the two of them to the meeting room without much worry.
The black curtain began to slowly rise.
After Gloria and Victory met, I'd move straight into the three-way meeting—
CRASH!!
"Hm?"
Suddenly, the sound of something shattering came from inside the meeting room.
Caught off guard, I quickly moved to check the interior.
As the black curtain had just finished rising, the two had gotten their first look at each other.
Since this was essentially the first time either of them had met the other, they were sizing each other up from head to toe — and in that moment:
Gloria punched straight through the reinforced glass.
And immediately launched herself at Victory.
W-wait, why?!
Was this a case of "why are you looking at me like that"?!
I moved to activate the emergency dispersal device for the sedative gas to break up the fight — but something about the battle unfolding inside the meeting room struck me as odd, and I stopped.
Just like when Gloria and Liberty fought and the danger zone was half-demolished, this room could easily be reduced to rubble by a fight between them.
Yet the outer walls weren't taking any damage. The room itself was completely intact.
And Gloria had already learned to control her abilities to some degree through all the experiments we'd done together.
The fact that she was holding back this much meant…
'This is a test.'
In the original story, the future Gloria acknowledged anyone who could hold their own against her to a reasonable degree.
True to that nature, she was clearly testing Victory right now.
Soon Gloria threw a rapid series of punches — but since she was pulling her strength, Victory dodged them with ease.
"Die!!!"
Furious at being ambushed, Victory actually started fighting back.
And so, once again, the grand battle of ten-year-old girls commenced.
**************
The moment they came face to face, Gloria attacked Victory.
But since she was clearly holding back as she fought, it was something of a relief.
Still, the two of them were very young.
Which meant what started as a test could easily turn into a real fight.
The problem was that telling them to stop verbally would obviously do nothing, so I activated the emergency call device stationed outside the lab.
Beep!!
Special agents would be arriving shortly.
Once the fight had gone on long enough, I'd have them step in to separate the two.
As Victory used the walls to ricochet around the room at blinding speed, and Gloria calmly deflected Victory's attacks like a rubber ball bouncing off every surface — the special agents arrived faster than expected.
"But why is the Security Director here personally…"
"This incident happened at a critical time. It needs to be resolved quickly."
Security Director Yoon Carter had come himself, leading the special agents.
Deciding to take the good with the good, I briefed the Director on the situation, and his expression became one of keen interest.
"That little brat is actually holding back… Remarkable."
"You seem to know Gloria, Director — am I right?"
"Of course. I'm the one who brought her in."
Certainly, with the Security Director's ability, subduing a younger Gloria would have been easy enough.
In any case, as expected, Gloria's attacks were growing sharper by the moment.
Victory was also pushing her ability to its limits.
Now was the right time to break up the fight.
At my signal, the Security Director walked into the meeting room without bothering to grab any equipment.
Naturally, neither girl paid him any attention.
But then the Director suddenly drew the blade at his hip — and drove it into his own hand——————
─────Thunk!!
"Ugh?!"
"Hk?!"
The Director was clearly the one who'd cut himself, yet Gloria and Victory were the ones grimacing in pain.
This was the Security Director's ability: Damage Transfer.
Specifically, the ability to offload damage and pain onto others.
And since he also possessed physical enhancement — a Superhuman-type ability — it was virtually impossible to defeat him unless you could land a one-hit kill.
'If I remember right, he was basically designed so that only the protagonist could beat him.'
It was fair to say the ability was practically engineered to be countered only by the protagonist's Ability Seal.
The Security Director drove the blade into his hand a few more times, and I rushed in alongside the special agents to calm the staggering girls.
But come to think of it — had Gloria been on the receiving end of the Security Director's ability before?
The moment she saw me and the Director, she clicked her tongue and immediately dropped to the floor.
It looked like the situation was wrapping up.
I was genuinely relieved that the confrontation was ending without any real damage — but then Victory, still being held by the Director, looked over at me, and her face crumpled.
The Security Director barely had time to realize what was coming.
"Waaaaaaaaah!"
Victory started thrashing and wailing, clearly desperate to get to me.
She was crying so pitifully that I rushed straight over to her, and the Director, who'd been holding her, was left standing there looking thoroughly awkward.
"M-Maxwell, siiiir! That girl!! That giiiirl!!"
"There, there, Victory… calm down."
"*sniff!!* Like this!! Like this, she just—!!"
Victory was currently the youngest of the children.
And she'd just been forced to feel the pain of a blade piercing her hand multiple times — on top of being attacked by Gloria completely out of nowhere.
Honestly, from Victory's perspective, it was completely unfair.
Afterward, I did my best to soothe the white rabbit sobbing her heart out in my arms, and glanced over at Gloria.
She had the look of someone thinking, 'Did I… seriously try to fight that thing for real?' — a full-blown moment of post-battle clarity had clearly set in.