OMH Chapter 4

Oh My Hero – Episode 4

4. Cha Woojin (3)

I went to the Central Center Desk and met Seunghwan from the administration department. Seunghwan is an A-grade Enhancement-Type Esper with clairvoyance, but he mainly does administrative work rather than going out on field missions.

I don’t know exactly, but he says his ability is quite helpful for administrative work. Many have said that it would be more rewarding and enjoyable for an Esper who is A-grade to be dispatched to the field, but Seunghwan is a pacifist who hates fighting, so he said he prefers to stay put and do administrative work rather than go on dispatch missions like us.

‘Ah, since I met Seunghwan, I should ask how the missing person report that Woojin filed is being processed.’

I’d been busy weeding out missing person report team members, so my report being filed must have earned me the administration team’s hatred.

‘I need to find out who is the most upset. That way, I can properly try to cheer them up.’

After submitting the application, I immediately asked about the progress of the missing person report. Seunghwan checked briefly and then replied to me.

According to Seunghwan, Woojin’s report hasn’t been accepted yet, so no administrative staff have been harmed, and they are rather grateful because I took care of everything myself. Seunghwan went even further and asked if I had any intention of resolving other missing person cases as well.

‘These lazy administration department guys.’

Each missing person report contains a person’s life and the grief of their family.

However, they probably get dozens of missing person reports every day, so they must be busy too.

I understand that they want to pass it on to someone else.

It’s already tight dealing with the monsters that are reported and cleaning up after them, and there aren’t enough people to go around looking for each and every civilian.

Strictly speaking, dealing with monsters is more important than finding missing people. Because monsters continuously cause casualties.

The life-saving team that Kim Sanghyuk belongs to was also initially formed to save civilians one by one, but due to lack of personnel and supplies, they started prioritizing monster damage sites.

Therefore, these minor civilian reports don’t have a dedicated team, and they fill the gaps by roughly forming teams with Espers who have available time slots.

There aren’t that many Espers like me who can handle monster disposal alone, so it’s a rule to form a team.

Therefore, you can assume that there are no Espers who will resolve minor missing person cases before they are even accepted, as the administration team hopes.

Anyway, I’m glad the administration team doesn’t hate me. I asked for this report incident to be reflected in a positive staff evaluation and went to receive afternoon training.

*

Around the end of the afternoon schedule, I received a call from Lee Hwayoung about Woojin. Woojin said he couldn’t afford to pay the hospital bill and wanted to be discharged.

‘No, that’s ridiculous. How can someone who can’t even get up on their own be discharged?’

I was so dumbfounded that I immediately ran to see Woojin.

When I arrived at Woojin’s hospital room, Lee Hwayoung and the medical team were holding Woojin back, who was struggling to be discharged.

Perhaps because Woojin was having difficulty moving, the medical team wasn’t suppressing him. They were just calming him down and persuading him, as Woojin kept insisting on being discharged.

From the start, Woojin couldn’t sit up on his own, so he was leaning against the raised bed, and he couldn’t even speak loudly because of the pain.

“What is he talking about, trying to get discharged in that state?”

I joined the medical team to stop Woojin.

“Woojin! Don’t worry about the hospital bill. I paid for the treatment as your guardian.”

The EGA Association Medical Center provides free treatment to monster disposal team Espers and Guides. Free treatment is provided to up to two companions.

‘Woojin received free treatment as my companion, so it’s right that I paid for it, right?’

And now, there is no such thing as medical insurance, so treatment costs are enormous. If you get sick, you’re screwed.

After hearing my words, Woojin looked at me with a pale face and tried to refuse my kindness, saying that he was fine and sorry.

“But Woojin, if you don’t accept my kindness, you’ll die. Do you think you can survive after being discharged? Your rectus abdominis muscle is damaged, so you can’t walk for a while!”

I shouted urgently to stop Woojin as soon as possible.

But Woojin’s eyes were unusual. What should I say, it looked a bit unpleasant? I flinched and adjusted my tone again.

“H-How are you going to take care of Wooreen, with that body?”

I desperately brought up Wooreen to make an excuse.

Woojin paused for a moment when Wooreen’s story came up. Then he started looking for where Wooreen was. I barely succeeded in turning Woojin’s attention. Now I have to soothe him with Wooreen’s story.

“Wooreen is safely in the Civilian Protection Shelter right now. There are no children’s educational facilities yet, but it also serves as an orphanage, so she’ll be doing well at the shelter.”

When I brought up Wooreen’s story, Woojin stopped struggling and became docile. Now I think I can calmly explain to Woojin that he doesn’t need to worry about treatment costs.

And before I could explain, taking advantage of that brief moment of peace that I felt, Lee Hwayoung injected Woojin.

“Hey, what are you doing? Is that a sedative?”

While I was bewildered and questioning wildly, Woojin, who had been given the sedative, became limp and very docile.

The medical team, as if having completed their mission, left the hospital room. I followed Lee Hwayoung out of the hospital room.

Because I couldn’t hear the details when I talked on the phone earlier.

“Okay, Lee Hwayoung, tell me. Why is Woojin like that?”

I deliberately used honorifics and asked coldly. I wanted to know why Woojin was suddenly talking about being discharged. I didn’t think he would suddenly say he was going to be discharged in such a seriously injured state.

I think the hospital bill story is also an excuse. Lee Hwayoung, who was here before me, will know.

However, our Lee Hwayoung said that she doesn’t know either.

Woojin hadn’t been awake for long after being drugged and sleeping, but he suddenly called the medical staff and told them to discharge him.

“What… then why is he suddenly like that? I want to talk to Woojin, but Lee Hwayoung put Woojin to sleep. What are we going to do about this.”

While I was grumbling, Lee Hwayoung said.

“Gang Hana, do you want to grab a drink?”

“Hmm, I was going to go to martial arts training, but okay! Lee Hwayoung is buying. Let’s go eat free private food for the first time in a while!”

We took Lee Hwayoung’s car and went to Downtown, which is 5km away from the Central Center. Downtown, near the EGA Association Center, is a place where rescued civilians gather and created a community. In other words, this is a civilian village influenced by the Association.

Seven years ago, the world was destroyed by the Gate Break. The banks in the ruined world collapsed a long time ago, and the currency also became vague, but the EGA Association is issuing its own currency for Association members to use.

And the EGA Association required even civilians who received treatment at the EGA Association to use this currency.

Of course, civilians don’t have this money, so they incur debt to the Association after receiving treatment. People who suddenly became debtors take on odd jobs at the Central Center and pay off their debts to the EGA Association.

In this way, people who unintentionally became attached to the Central Center even though they were not Association members formed a village near the Central Center and lived there.

People who paid off their debts started opening stores in the village one by one. As the number of stores gradually increased, a small market was created in the village, and it gradually prospered and became the Downtown of today.

Before the Gate Break, it wasn’t as good as a downtown area, but it had everything you needed. There are plenty of things to do, such as restaurants, bars, cafes, arcades, and movie theaters. Recently, they said a bowling alley was also built. Lee Hwayoung and I went into a hamburger restaurant famous for its french fries.

“Oh, hello!”

When I went inside the store, Kim Heewon, our Great Monster Extermination Team Leader, was there? Seeing Song Jooha next to her, it must be an S-grade Psychokinetic team dinner. Since I happened to meet them, I happily came forward and greeted them. Please continue to take good care of our attack team members. Lee Hwayoung also knew them, so she greeted them along with me.

Well, S-grade Espers have an inseparable relationship with the Medical Bureau. They can’t not know them. Those two are among the oldest S-grades in the Korean branch of the Association.

S-grades have a large output of ability, so they have difficulty controlling their ability. Controlling ability is similar to controlling water pressure with a faucet. Just like a sink faucet is easier to open, get a glass of water, and close again than a dam’s floodgates.

S-grades, who have very large abilities, often cause accidents with their ability. Also, they often overuse their ability with that huge output and overload their ability.

In this case, the Esper himself becomes dangerous. Overloading ability raises the intracranial pressure and can cause brain damage.

In the event of an ability overload, brain damage must be prevented by the Guide’s Guiding. Therefore, the Association recommends that Espers and Guides form a pair and work together.

And this pair is formed with a combination that can achieve the best efficiency of Guiding… but that’s not as easy as it sounds.

Espers and Guides have grades. The grades go up in the order of F, E, D, C, B, A, and S, and the higher the grade, the greater the ability output that can be produced.

And to fill the output of an Esper, a Guiding output higher than the Esper’s output is required.

Not only that, but there is also something called a Matching Rate, and it is said that the higher the Matching Rate between an Esper and a Guide, the more stable the Guiding is. There is talk that the efficiency of Guiding increases or decreases depending on the Matching Rate, but still, the higher the Guide’s output is, the better.

Therefore, there is a tendency to prefer high-grade Guides.

But the problem is that the higher the grade, the fewer the number of people.

Moreover, there are fewer Guides than Espers. This means that the higher the grade of Esper, the more insufficient the number of people to fill in with Guiding.

Therefore, the Medical Bureau is working hard to manage high-grade Espers so that their brains don’t explode and they die.

So, if you’re a Medical Bureau person, you’ll naturally know S-grades. Besides, Team Leader Kim Heewon is someone who lost an eye due to insufficient Guiding raising her intracranial pressure and intraocular pressure. There’s no way they wouldn’t know her.

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