The Main Characters That Only I Know

Chapter 4

“Ugh. Phew.”

I checked the remaining time and let out a sigh of relief.

‘That was close.’

There were only about 3 seconds left until the mission failure.

I almost died again after resurrecting an hour ago.

No, it was said that it would be the extinction of existence in case of failure, so maybe it would be worse than death?

‘But still.’

I got a satisfying result.

I looked at the collector who was still making a nervous expression in front of me and thought so.

I recalled the situation 5 minutes before the mission ended.

***

“I’ve been looking for more than 25 minutes, but there’s not a single decent person.”

I felt like I had everything when I first awakened my ability related to books.

I had confidence that I could do anything with this ability.

But I overlooked one big fact.

‘No matter how I have the ability to see the potential, it doesn’t mean that such people will appear out of nowhere.’

I ran around the outskirts of Seoul at a tremendous speed and looked for collectors who had not yet signed a contract.

But they all had dull books, and the best ones were only silver.

‘I wondered if silver was the limit, but the gold one I found was already a contracted collector.’

I was more desperate because I knew there was gold.

Maybe next time, or maybe next time, I might really find gold.

As I had such expectations, I couldn’t give up even as I saw the time dwindling.

‘More than anything, there was a cooldown for this movement through the patronage.’

I couldn’t move for a minute after moving once.

If it wasn’t for that, I would have checked them all quickly.

‘Should I just… compromise here?’

Not all silvers were the same.

Some books emitted a faint light, but some books emitted a rather intense light.

Of course, there were some people who had strong silver books.

And they were definitely potential candidates for the strong ones.

I remembered some people I had marked.

‘Should I spend all the remaining time looking for a gold book, or should I choose from the upper ranks of silver books?’

Usually in this situation, it would be right to compromise, but I thought I shouldn’t do that.

Silver might be in the top 10 percent, but it felt insufficient to me.

The first contractor for a teller was more important than anything else, wasn’t that something even I knew when I wasn’t a teller?

‘Think. You have to use your past knowledge as much as possible.’

I have memories of my previous life.

Who are the named ones among the collectors?

Who are the collectors who have the qualifications to succeed in the future?

I knew them all.

‘Remember. Who are the collectors who are not yet recognized at this time?’

Various collectors’ nicknames bubbled up and disappeared in my head like bubbles.

This time period is five years before the end.

Most of the named collectors had already started their activities, and each had their own tellers.

‘There are a few that come to mind, but the timing is wrong.’

Quite a few rookies came to mind, but they didn’t match the time period.

They hadn’t even awakened as collectors yet.

To clear this mission now, I had to find someone who had awakened as a collector at least.

It was a rather tricky condition.

‘Now there are only 5 minutes left.’

5 minutes was definitely not a long time.

No matter how fast I could run around, there was no guarantee that I would find a suitable contract partner in the remaining time.

I knew there was a pearl buried in the mud, but finding it was another matter.

I thought of the conditions.

This time period is five years before the end.

And what I needed was someone who had awakened as a collector but had not fully realized their talent yet.

Then how about narrowing down the time period and narrowing down the range?

‘I have to select collectors who will be active within half a year.’

Dozens of candidates were erased in an instant, and the selection range narrowed down.

The candidates that remained after filtering and filtering were three.

‘Gweseon Bang Sang-si. Flame Knight Kwon In-beom. Sword Empress Kang Hye-rim.’

People used to call these three miracle trio in the past.

After 99 days of integration for Earth to join Mixed-worldafter the end came, various collectors appeared, but at some point no more talented people appeared.

For several years, only one gem popped out among mediocre collectors per year.

The miracle trio were three who came down like a blessing in the drought of talent.

Of course, they were called a trio, but they were not close to each other.

They were just grouped together because they had similar activity periods and awakening periods.

The current candidate I had marked was these three.

‘Gweseon Bang Sang-si was literally a weirdo who used strange magic.

But no one knew his identity.

Even the name Bang Sang-si was a pseudonym.’

He wore a mask on his face and wore flashy clothes that made it impossible to tell his gender.

Of course, Bang Sang-si was excluded.

I couldn’t even identify him by his pseudonym and nickname.

If I had enough time, I would have looked for Bang Sang-si, but I couldn’t help it because I had a time limit.

‘Next is Flame Knight Kwon In-beom. He is a US citizen, so he won’t be in Korea at this time.’

He started his full-fledged activity half a year later.

And that was when he had just moved to Korea from the US.

I only knew that he came from the US, but I couldn’t choose him without knowing which city he lived in.

‘Then inevitably only one remains.’

Sword Empress Kang Hye-rim.

Actually, even if I knew the locations of the two above, I would have chosen Sword Empress.

They were called the miracle trio, but there was a hierarchy among them.

And if you had to choose the best among them, Sword Empress was the most overwhelming.

The timing was not bad either.

Sword Empress started her full-fledged activity half a year later.

Moreover, I had seen an interview where she said that she had been active for quite a long time as an unknown in the early days.

That meant that she hadn’t fully realized her talent yet.

I immediately entered the name Kang Hye-rim into the search.

‘I found her.’

It was easy to find when I decided on one person.

The location was a goshiwon(1) village on the outskirts of Seoul.

I didn’t know why someone like her was here, but I immediately moved to the place.

Flash!

The view changed and the space changed.

From the outdoors where many people were walking around to a narrow goshiwon.

The sound of cars passing by, the sound of people talking disappeared and only the silence of the indoor remained.

The air that touched my skin was somehow stuffy, and the room smelled musty.

In such a terrible space, I was able to find one person without difficulty.

And.

As soon as I saw the book floating above her head, I clenched my fist tightly.

What was reflected in my eyes was a dazzling golden book.

It was so brilliant that it couldn’t be compared to the dull or silver ones.

‘It’s a success.’

I suppressed my ecstatic heart and coughed lightly.

“Ahem.”

“Wh-who are you?!”

The woman who was boiling ramen in a shabby goshiwon room looked at me and was startled.

Seeing her, I thought for a moment, isn’t this trespassing?

‘No, does that law apply to tellers in the first place?’

Anyway, there wasn’t much time left, so I got straight to the point.

“Hello. Are you Kang Hye-rim, the collector?”

“Ye-yes?”

“I’m Kang Yu-hyun, a teller from Celestial Corporation who was dispatched to Earth.”

I said the lines I had prepared beforehand.

Actually, I didn’t know my situation either.

I was thrown into the field and moved quickly to clear the mission, where did I have time to check?

But I had to say this to avoid making her suspicious.

“I saw that you don’t have a contracted teller. I came here to sign a contract with you.”

“Re-really?”

“Yes. Of course.”

I looked closely at the woman in front of me.

She was wearing a pink tracksuit.

Even that was worn out enough that the neck and sleeves were stretched.

She wore glasses on her eyes, and her hair was not tidy.

She tied it back casually as if she was bothered.

She looked like she couldn’t believe the reality right now, and asked in a dazed tone.

“Are you really a teller who came to sign a contract with me?”

“Yes. That’s right. I’m a teller. The one who shows stories to the Divine Spirits. Don’t you trust my eyes?”

“Th-that’s not it, but…”

“It’s okay. I’ll help you unleash your talent. As long as you sign here.”

There were only 30 seconds left.

I handed her the contract.

She took it with an ecstatic expression.

“I’m… a collector.”

“Yes. You have the right to be one.”

15 seconds left.

“Wait a minute. Where did I put my pen?”

“Here.”

I quickly grabbed a pen rolling on the floor and handed it to her.

There were only about 5 seconds left.

I felt my blood dry up and watched her sign the contract with cold sweat.

“I’m done.”

At the same time as her happy voice, a brilliant light burst out of the contract.

Seeing that sight, I smiled faintly and checked the remaining time.

[00:00:03]

‘Phew. That was really close.’

It was a moment when my blood dried up and cold sweat came out.

But in the end, my choice was right.

And I signed a contract with none other than the future Sword Empress.

[You have succeeded in the mission-The First Step.]

[You will be promoted to a regular employee as a reward.]

As a reward for the mission, I became a regular employee from an intern.

It’s barely an employee after being thrown into the field and moving quickly from the start.

There were still many steps left for me to become a practical teller.

‘Let’s not be impatient. Just take one step at a time.’

I had knowledge of the future.

And I vowed before I died.

I won’t live like this again.

‘Although I didn’t expect to be reborn as a teller, since it happened, I’ll do my best.’

So, my primary goal was to succeed as a teller.

For that, recruiting collectors with excellent qualities was essential.

Kang Hye-rim was the monumental first contractor.

Goshiwon a type of building