Ability Wielders

Meanwhile, his social media accounts were steadily gaining followers, it grew to the point of needing him to be verified so as to not have any impostors. On Sat.u.r.day, Hayden"s cla.s.smates were bragging how they were cla.s.smates with him, and those that took pictures with him during the School Festival were posting the pictures with captions such as "With Supremacy," and all that.

As he expected, his basketball skills started to go back in the spotlight, with clips of him doing all those "sick" plays that awed people in the trending list. With that, he made headlines in the news, articles were written about him, and the Global Gaming Channel had their attention focused on him.

Hayden was absolutely stupefied by the events. As aforementioned, he underestimated the impact of this revelation, and was now facing the consequences. Overnight, he became an instant celebrity. Luckily, his address was still kept a secret.

However, his Chatbox was blowing up, with Daniel, some of his relatives, and his cla.s.smates being interrogative, which made Hayden"s head ache.

"Ahh…" Hayden shook his head. He knew that he heavily miscalculated for this one. "Tsk, how am I going to be able to reject those interviews…"

If anybody were able to hear what Hayden said, they would"ve beat him up. Most people want to become celebrities, and you"re here, trying to avoid interviews? f.u.c.k off!

…..

Sunday night, Hayden prepared his bags for their trip. His bag contained winter clothing mostly as it was winter in South Korea. The next day, Monday, 4:00 AM, Hayden took a shower, and checked to see if he forgot anything.

He also checked his s.p.a.ce Rings if the contents were complete, along with the uploads he made on Streamlink. At 7:00, their family set out to the airport. They arrived at the airport at 7:50.

The second they alighted the taxi, Hayden attracted the attention of many people. Women were admiring him, men had a glint of admiration in their eyes, it was a new feeling for Hayden, one that he didn"t like. While waiting, a few people started to come up with him and asked to take a picture with him, surprising him. It was fortunate that there were not that much people from the press, making Hayden"s trip in the airport still relatively peaceful.

Well, to be honest, even if he was annoyed with all this attention, he couldn"t afford to be rude to any of those that wanted to take a picture with him as this would destroy his reputation. All he could do was suck it up, activating Divine Perception to not let his annoyance get to him.

Finishing eating their breakfast in a nearby fast food chain, at 9:00, they boarded the plane. It was a convenient thing that when the World Government was formed, visa was unrequired when going on an international flight. As long as one"s Ident.i.ty Number had criminal clearance, or at least 10 years of not committing any crime, then one is eligible to go to any country if they had the money.

As Hayden didn"t get much sleep during the weekends, he slept in the entire three hours they were traveling from Manila to Seoul. Landing, Hayden"s family ate at a restaurant nearby.

In the restaurant, his parents were stunned of Hayden"s fluent Korean, with him translating the menu to them.

"When did you learn Korean?" His mother asked while they were eating their lunch. They have never seen their son display his talents in front of them, thus, they didn"t know that, on top of being able to speak Korean, he was able to speak a total of 27 languages, and that he could play almost anything on a keyboard.

"Well, I started learning when I got into k-pop music when I was in seventh grade," Hayden felt a little awkward, coming up with a small lie. He couldn"t possibly divulge this secret of his, can he now? "The site for learning languages created by the World Government was really handy."

His parents dropped the matter as they have seen Hayden"s inclination to listen to k-pop themselves. His phone was literally riddled with k-pop music; in which they were able to witness Hayden muttering strange Korean words as if singing to the song when he"s listening to it, when in fact he"s not.

"By the way, son," his father was the one who spoke this time. "Are you planning on to continue on studying, or not?"

"Well…" Hayden scratched his temple. Honestly? He was simply trying to live day by day, trying not to get killed by a.s.sa.s.sins sent by Kamay ng Lagim. Consequently, he hasn"t thought that far into the future. "I guess I can balance my education, my gaming career, and basketball career… So, my answer is yes."

Ultimately, Hayden decided, at this moment, to go through with going in college. As his father used to say, knowledge is power. Also, he understood full well how high his father held education in regard. His father literally threw a party, inviting all of his relatives, when Hayden got into the Scholar Academy, the first of such occurrence in the history of their entire family.

Needless to say, he found studying kind of bland and unexciting, contrary to his other lifestyle of being a wielder. In all honesty, if Hayden merely possessed Indestructible Devil, he would"ve dropped out of school for a long time, it was all Divine Perception that kept him from doing so.

"Son…" His father stared at him with a solemn expression. "You don"t have to force yourself to our standards if you don"t want to continue on your education. I mean, sure, it would be a waste of your intelligence, but, you don"t have to do it if you don"t want to do it, okay?"

"Well…" Hayden seriously considered not applying for college at this moment. He found studying a waste of time as he could literally acquire any knowledge as long as it"s in a book, and with the current standards of education in the world, almost everything has been published into a book. "Well, I still want to do it. It will be a back-up for my future, plus, knowledge is power, right?"

"Right." His father showed a sincere smile, one that Hayden has never seen. He even saw his father"s eyes wetting. "Just, you take care of your health, okay?"

"Okay," Hayden smiled, continuing on with his lunch. When the trio finished eating their lunch, they hired a cab and went to the hotel that Hayden has booked, the Summer Dawn Hotel, a 5-star hotel in Myeongil-dong at Gangdong-gu (1). Hayden went to the room he reserved for himself, while his parents went to the room beside his.

Putting on winter clothes, Hayden ventured outside. Prior to that, he sought his parents to inform them of this venture of his. Hayden had three purpose in doing this, one was to reserve seats for a restaurant he saw online called Nanlo, or Fireplace in English, a 2 Michelin-star restaurant. The second was to find a mall nearby, planning to give his parents a little gift of shopping. Lastly, and the most important reason, was to familiarize himself with the geography of Seoul.

With this in mind, Hayden wandered around Seoul, sightseeing by himself.

…..

Meanwhile, in Gimpo International Airport, there was a large commotion. The place was filled with people holding cameras, with others on the side holding up signs.

Exiting a plane was eleven women. It was CHORUS returning from their tour in j.a.pan! The eleven women were smiling here and there while talking to each other. Clearly, they were used to the attention they get whenever they"re at an airport.

Exiting the airport, they boarded executive vans. Inside one van was Kim Eun-ha, Makio Mieko, Miyazato Sayuri, and Sung Chung-hee. The four were simply chatting as Mieko was watching something on her screen.

Unpredictably, it was one of Hayden"s videos of War of Honor! A few moments, silence ensued. Eun-ha, who was beside her, peeked a little bit, her curiosity being whetted.

"Who"s that guy?" Eun-ha asked when she saw Hayden. "Isn"t that the guy from the Global Gaming Channel"s headline?"

"Oh, you watch the Global Gaming Channel?" Mieko turned to Eun-ha"s direction. "Well, yeah. Can you believe this guy"s 16 years old?"

"Really?" Taking a look at Hayden"s face on his face cam, Eun-ha was confused. "Well, he does look young, why is that surprising?"

"No, I mean, he is this good, and he"s only 16 years old!" Mieko explained as to why Hayden being a 16-year-old was astonishing. "His skills are amazing. Plus, look at this. Since you don"t play games, well, at least not War of Honor, I"m sure you don"t understand this, so…"

Mieko exited out of the video that she was watching, typed something on the search, and tapped on a video. It was a basketball video.

"How is this exactly going to enlighten me?" Eun-ha asked, bewildered. "How is gaming related to basketball?"

"Wait for it…" When the video loaded, Eun-ha saw a person. When the camera zoomed in, she saw Hayden. The video was of Hayden"s National Youth Compet.i.tion"s championship highlights. "Oh, so this is what you mean…"

The video contained of Hayden"s amazing basketball skills. Doing feints, shooting three pointers without missing, dunking, pa.s.sing, blocking, stealing, and performing thought to be impossible plays. From this, she finally understood what Mieko meant of "can you believe this guy"s 16 years old?"

"He is good." Eun-ha nodded, fully agreeing with Mieko"s statement. She chanced upon basketball matches during her days as a high school student and could fathom just how impressive Hayden"s plays were. The so-called high-leveled standards of her high school can be considered as dogs.h.i.t when compared to Hayden"s!

"Plus, he"s pretty cute." Mieko added, changing to Hayden"s social media. Pictures of Hayden, wearing clothes outlining the golden ratio of his body popped up. "He can definitely pa.s.s as an idol."

"What you doing back there?" At this moment, Sayuri rotated her head. Then, she squeezed herself between the two. "Oh, he"s cute. Who is he?"

"Hayden Emperador." Mieko said, changing her phone back to the video she was watching beforehand.

On the way, Sayuri pestered Mieko and Eun-ha. Naturally, as all three of them were friends, they didn"t really mind. In addition, they were already pretty used to Sayuri"s att.i.tude. Half an hour pa.s.sed, and they arrived at the building of KTM entertainment.

…..

"Girls, you did well." Kim Taehyung applauded with a beaming smile. "You eleven have done well. Rest for tonight, tomorrow we celebrate at Nanlo!"

"Really?" The eleven of them became excited. Nanlo was, after all, one of the most famous restaurants in South Korea. "Thank you for the treat!"

"Okay, okay, go back to your dorm for now." Kim Taehyung"s amiable att.i.tude has always been popular with the employees and idols alike. This was his "off-work" att.i.tude. "Rest well, all eleven of you. Again, you did well."

With that, the eleven of them boarded the executive vans once more and returned to their dorm, which was a big mansion somewhere in Gangnam-dong.

…..

At the same time as the eleven members of CHORUS exited the airport, Hayden was at the airport. Why was he there? Running around in Seoul, being your friendly neighborhood fast streak, while Divine Perception was on, he stumbled upon an airport that had unusually dense crowd.

Interested, Hayden stopped in an alley and walked out, joining the crowd. Asking a nearby bystander, he learnt that CHORUS was there.

"Holy s.h.i.t!" With that, Hayden waited for a few minutes, and there they were, the eleven members of CHORUS. "…."

He couldn"t muster any words for the life of him. This was the first time he saw CHORUS, and he was immediately sucked into their individual unique beauties. Especially Kim Eun-ha, that porcelain skin, that smile, "Just… wow."

When they boarded the executive vans, Hayden was still in a daze. Only when the two vans left did Hayden wake up from his daze. Chuckling a little at his luck, he returned to running all around in Seoul.

...

The rest of the day, Hayden went with his family to a mall, shopping with and for them. His mom bought jewelries, designer clothes, a new phone, and all that. Meanwhile, his dad did the same thing.

Of course, this was not before he tried to persuade Hayden that he didn"t need to buy them anything. As a response, Hayden showed his dad his bank account that had a 5.5 million-credit balance. Stupefied, his father shook his head in disbelief.

This 5.5 million credits were earned all in the span of the two days. It was not like Hayden"s viewers were limited to his supporters, right? In fact, the view count of his videos surpa.s.sed the amount of supporters he had by quite a margin, more so with the reveal of his ident.i.ty.

Presently, every time he released, or, well, published, a video, within an hour, the views would gather more or less five million views, and within 24 hours, it would peak at approximately 19 million views. A number that Hayden was confounded of.

As for himself, Hayden bought a top-of-the-line gaming laptop, a new phone, and a few clothes. In total, Hayden spent about 600,000 credits, a measly sum to pay to see his mother"s and father"s huge smile, and an extremely paltry sum compared to his current daily income.

The next day, Hayden his parents went all around Seoul, visiting tourist attractions, eating Korean delicacies all over the place, enjoying themselves.

At night, at 8:00 PM, Hayden and his family went to Nanlo, a block away from Summer Dawn Hotel. This was the first time the three of them would eat at a high-cla.s.s restaurant, and Hayden specifically picked clothes for them for this occasion alone. The three were dressed elegantly, with Hayden emitting an icy pressure akin to that of the ice queen-type of women.

Upon entering, many women"s gazes lingered towards Hayden. Ignoring these, Hayden went on to sit. When presented with the menu, he didn"t need to explain it as there were English words written on it.

Calling in the waiter, Hayden spoke their orders. The three chatted whilst waiting for their meal.

…..

"What are you going to wear?" Sayuri snuck behind Eun-ha, hugged her, and tickled her. Eun-ha wheezed as she tried to get Sayuri off. "Aww, why are you so ticklish?"

Eun-ha pouted as she returned to checking her wardrobe on their dorm. Her expression changed as she finally found one that suited the event, it was a white fancy dress that would make her complexion, that was comparable to a lightbulb, even brighter.

"You"re going to wear that?" Sayuri smiled, sitting on Eun-ha"s bed. "Why are you going to dress this fanciful? You"re going to make me look bad!"

"Psh, shut up," Eun-ha laughed as she laid the dress down on the bed. "I"m going to take a shower."

"Okay," Sayuri shrugged, getting out of the room of Eun-ha. Taking a shower for about an hour, Eun-ha dried off her hair and put-on eyeliner and lipstick, which were the only two make-ups she always wore.

At 7:20, going out of her room, she saw that four of their members were already similarly ready. Sitting down, she chatted with them, joking here and there.

At about 8:05, the eleven members of CHORUS exited their dormitory and was amazed of the sight outside of their dorm. It was actually a limousine!

"PDnim didn"t go easy on treating us, huh?" Bang Jin-ae, their leader, muttered unconsciously.

On that note, all eleven of them boarded the car. Bang Jin-ae got a text that Kim Taehyung would meet them there on 8:30.

…..

Arriving at 8:25, the eleven alighted the car and entered the lobby. The people who were waiting on the lobby was star-struck when the members came in. Some sneakily took pictures, while some stole glances in their direction. Some of the men even put their focus entirely on CHORUS, seemingly abandoning their dates.

At exactly 8:30, Kim Taehyung went inside the lobby, talked to the one behind the counter, and let them in.

…..

Receiving the first of their full-course meal, Hayden wanted to eat the hors d"oeuvre they were served with. As he was going to eat a mouthful, twelve people entered the restaurant.

Stunned, the food in his hand nearly fell off in his daze. What the h.e.l.l are they doing here? What kind of luck do I have today? "I"m never this f.u.c.king lucky, what the h.e.l.l is going on?"

First, he accidentally stumbles upon the arrival of their flight. Subsequently, he encounters them inside a restaurant? No matter how he thought about it, there was something wrong with the universe. This kind of luck, no, he doesn"t dare believe it.

Moreover, when the twelve sat near their table, about five meters away from them, Hayden really thought the whole universe was going to kill him off. He even had a f.u.c.king clear direct view of Kim Eun-ha!

What the h.e.l.l, what the h.e.l.l, what the f.u.c.k! Activating his Divine Perception, Hayden calmed down immediately, silently eating his hors d"oeuvre. Taking in a deep breath and steeling himself, he looked up and made direct eye contact with Kim Eun-ha.

He stared for what felt like centuries before the effects of Divine Perception took over. d.a.m.n, even Divine Perception couldn"t keep his calm in this situation! Smiling, he nodded towards Kim Eun-ha, who smiled back at him, destroying the composure he painstakingly put up. Stiffly, he returned to eating.

Putting in the food in his mouth then gazing to the side, he snorted. How f.u.c.king pathetic! "Is this really the impression you"re going to make on her? f.u.c.king h.e.l.l, regain your composure you son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

Cursing internally, which he strangely considered as pep talk, the effects of Divine Perception shined through. Even then, he can"t forget the smile Kim Eun-ha flashed him. It was too beautiful!

...

Sitting down, the eleven members, plus Kim Taehyung, chatted each other wearing joyful faces. Sitting to Eun-ha"s right side was Sayuri, and sitting on her left was Mieko.

As she was preparing to order, Eun-ha noticed a youth directly in front of her, not blocked by anyone or anything at all. "Isn"t that Hayden?"

She remembered Hayden"s face from the videos she watched with Mieko. Hayden had an attractive face, making it memorable, thus, she easily recognized him.

Precipitously, the youth looked up and stared at her. For a moment, she was put in a daze from the youth"s "intense" stare.

When he smiled, the intensity toned down a lot and she smiled back, nodding at him politely. Turning to Mieko, she whispered a few words and pointed towards Hayden. She went wide-eyed when she saw the direction that Eun-ha was pointing towards in.

Needless to say, this didn"t escape Hayden"s eyes, and since he was using Divine Perception, he saw this clearly despite talking with his parents. He almost shuddered when he saw this. He didn"t dare listen to the contents of their talk at all.

"Woah, he"s cuter in real life." To her right, Sayuri muttered, startling Eun-ha and Mieko. "Whispering without me, you"re disconnecting yourselves from the rest of us!"

On that note, Eun-ha flushed with embarra.s.sment and kept this matter with Hayden to herself. That was when the two made eye contact once more, this time, the eye contact went on for more than a few seconds, putting them both in a daze.

Eun-ha was the one who broke the eye contact first as she rotated her head to Kim Taehyung when he imposed a question on her.

The night was pretty long for the two, stealthily stealing glances with each other. There were a few times Hayden"s composure was not far from being broken. If not for his Divine Perception, he would have noped out the first time he made eye contact with her.

Again, what kind of f.u.c.king luck does he possess of this moment!? Looks like the G.o.ddess of luck is finally smiling on him!