* * *
Unit Chief Hong Jaegyeol’s office.
In the place where she had stood with Lee Yuji a few days ago, Pi Sowon was now sitting alone.
“I already submitted the meeting results. If you’re going to make me come and report in person every time, why don’t you just attach the Special Task Force office right next to the Unit Chief’s office?”
At Pi Sowon’s flippant tone, Hong Jaegyeol clicked his tongue.
“You little punk. Watch your mouth. If you get promoted to level 3, I get promoted too. I’ll be at the vice-minister level.”
“Do you really think that’s going to happen?”
Pi Sowon snorted, dumbfounded.
“I acknowledge that you went and struck a deal with the Hunter Administration Bureau. But when have those higher-ups ever done anything good for the HIB? Those bastards will never give us power.”
Pi Sowon spoke in a tone that sounded utterly sick and tired.
And watching such a Pi Sowon quietly, Hong Jaegyeol smiled softly.
“You punk. That all depends on how you do. Huh?”
Pi Sowon furrowed her brow and shook off Hong Jaegyeol’s arm, which was patting her shoulder.
“Aren’t they just planning to use it as an excuse to cut us all off if we can’t produce results in a year? Honestly, I don’t know if we can catch the Gamer within a year. And I don’t understand their ulterior motive in allowing a Special Task Force to be created just to catch a single Gamer either.”
It was an extremely rare case for a Special Task Force to be created because of a single criminal.
Of course, it was unclear whether the Gamer was a single criminal or a criminal syndicate, and their criminal activities were quite diverse, but practically speaking, there wasn’t a clear scope of victims to speak of.
Because they were someone who constantly hacked, targeting either the HIB or criminal syndicates every time.
To create a Special Task Force and provide such massive support just to catch that one Gamer?
From the Hunter Administration Bureau, who was always itching to tear the HIB apart?
She was currently doubting the ulterior motives of the higher-ups.
Honestly, ever since the bus terrorist attack, her trust in the Bureau Director had bypassed rock bottom and was currently digging through the dirt until it hit groundwater.
“Right. That’s the really interesting part, isn’t it?”
At that moment, Hong Jaegyeol slurped the bubble tea that the Team Leader of Team 3 had bought for him and scratched his chin.
“Interesting?”
“Yeah. It’s interesting, isn’t it.”
Pi Sowon frowned as she watched Hong Jaegyeol stealthily lean his head toward her.
This guy…. He seems to be doing something sly again.
Having experienced being played in Hong Jaegyeol’s hands a few times, Pi Sowon began to form a reasonable suspicion.
And sure enough, Hong Jaegyeol said something sly.
“Ever since that incident with that b*stard Cha Jeonhyeok, the Hunter Administration Bureau has been dying to disband Team 5.”
Cha Jeonhyeok—at the mention of that name, Pi Sowon’s face hardened.
“Isn’t that why you sent Baek Sangjin, to disband our team?”
When Pi Sowon questioned him, Hong Jaegyeol set his bubble tea cup down as if asking why someone who knew better was acting like this.
“If I really wanted to disband your team, would I have sent Baek Sangjin? I would have completely dug everything up and scattered you all over the place.”
“…Then are you saying you tried to protect Team 5 by dropping just Byeon Gudo?”
“Is there anything wrong with that?”
Hong Jaegyeol shrugged.
This guy.
Pi Sowon unknowingly gritted her teeth, but she caught her breath for now to wait for what he would say next.
Just one day after the launch of the Special Task Force, Hong Jaegyeol had summoned Pi Sowon up under the pretext of a report.
Specifically, Pi Sowon alone.
‘When I saw him earlier, it looked like Kwon Ikseong didn’t even have a clue.’
Which meant he had something to say to Pi Sowon separately.
Something that Kwon Ikseong, a strict stickler for rules and principles, must not know.
“Anyway, right when your team’s necks were on the line, the Gamer showed up at the perfect time. Ta-da, on all the computers in the HIB.”
Hong Jaegyeol pointed at the monitor that was now displaying a perfectly normal blue screen.
“Actually, if you think about it, that’s not all. When Lee Yuji almost died in the bus terror attack, and in this Cha Jeonhyeok incident too, the Gamer’s intervention has entirely been to our benefit. Not a single thing has been a loss. At least from our perspective.”
By ‘our’ here, he meant the HIB.
“But if you think about it the other way around, there must be people in the Hunter Administration Bureau who find this whole thing dissatisfying. People who find the HIB annoying. I’m talking about people who don’t like the very existence of the HIB.”
At Hong Jaegyeol’s words, the first person to come to mind was the Bureau Director, but Pi Sowon also vaguely knew that there was another entity behind the Bureau Director.
The Hunter Association led by South Korea’s 1st generation Hunter, Choi Jungu.
They were desperately frantic to protect the interests of the guilds, secretly covering up the corruption of Hunters.
From their perspective, there was no way they would welcome the HIB, which monitored Hunters.
“Because of these recent events, Investigator Lee Yuji rose to stardom and the talks of abolishing the HIB completely died down, right?”
Among them, Investigator Lee Yuji in particular must have caught their eye.
As her thoughts reached that point, Pi Sowon’s eyes narrowed.
“Then, the higher-ups didn’t want to get rid of Team 5, but Investigator Lee Yuji?”
“Of course they did. That’s why I tried to shift the issue to Byeon Gudo first.”
“…Hah.”
Then you should have just said that from the beginning, this guy!
Pi Sowon felt her briefly resentful heart turn into anger, but Hong Jaegyeol only shrugged his shoulders.
“But as it turns out, there was no need for that? The Gamer suddenly popped out and swallowed up all the attention. Thanks to that, the higher-ups started focusing on the Gamer instead of Investigator Lee Yuji. Now isn’t this really interesting? It’s no different than the Gamer saving Lee Yuji’s life.”
Life.
Here he was referring to her job, but Pi Sowon had seen the sight of the Gamer actually saving Lee Yuji’s life.
No, was it more accurate to say she heard it?
Anyway,
Pi Sowon recalled how the Gamer had sent her a car to save Lee Yuji, and how he had told them a way to let only Lee Yuji escape.
At the time, she had let it slide, thinking The Gamer just wanted to play the role of a righteous thief, but her thoughts were a bit different now.
The Gamer was someone who even knew everything about there being a mole inside the HIB.
And, though she didn’t know why, he was selectively doing things that only benefited the HIB.
In such a situation, why did he try to save Lee Yuji?
To make Lee Yuji a hero?
Or—
‘Because of another reason?’
Pi Sowon’s mind became complicated.
She recalled Lee Yuji’s face as she stared at the countless monitors in the HIB that were uniformly displaying the Gamer’s message.
A face that looked beyond dumbfounded, as if she were getting goosebumps.
There was no one like Lee Yuji whose face so transparently revealed every emotion.
Which meant saving Lee Yuji was purely The Gamer’s personal choice—
‘But why on earth?’
It was then.
Hong Jaegyeol brought up the main point.
“Anyway, regardless of why he did it, thanks to the Gamer overextending himself a bit to save Lee Yuji, we’ve managed to obtain a slight clue about the Gamer.”
“…?”
Hong Jaegyeol held out an envelope containing pitch-black powder onto the table.
“What is this?”
“The analysis results came out as magic stone, but they said it’s something that can’t even be classified. But this was caught on the HIB’s internal CCTV. Because of this damn server shutdown, we reviewed thousands of hours of CCTV footage.”
Hong Jaegyeol flipped the envelope over. When he did, a pitch-black spider shape was stuck to the back of the envelope.
“This.”
“…Then is this an item crafted by the ‘Gamer’?”
“It could be, or it might not be.”
Hong Jaegyeol spoke meaningfully.
“We’re going to have to reconsider the suspicion that the Gamer belongs to a production class from square one.”
“Hah….”
Pi Sowon let out a sigh. Then the investigation from square one—
“Do it by yourself. Digging into The Gamer’s back.”
“Pardon?”
At that moment, Hong Jaegyeol said something incomprehensible.
“Keep leading the rest of the team and Kwon Ikseong to believe that The Gamer is a production-class hunter. And dig deeper into the black markets, specifically regarding the Susubat that engaged in the illegal weapon trafficking. From what I can see, because that board chairman took the fall for everything, there’s a good chance the uninvestigated list contains quite a few names that would upset those folks up there.”
“…!”
This was precisely Hong Jaegyeol’s main point.
Create a Special Task Force to prevent the Hunter Administration Bureau from interfering with their investigations for the time being, and then properly investigate the higher-ups.
To do that, they would continue to drive the narrative that The Gamer was a ‘production-class hunter.’
they would continue to drive the narrative that The Gamer was a ‘production-class hunter.’
Realizing this fact, Pi Sowon made a subtle expression.
“And I believe there’s also a clue to the case from 8 years ago in there.”
Hong Jaegyeol spoke with a voice that carried a hint of anger.
At those words, a spark flashed in her eyes.
“How could Cha Jeonhyeok have cherry-picked and traded only with arms dealers who would commit such crimes? There is definitely an entity higher up acting as a bridge between the two.”
Hong Jaegyeol said so, watching Pi Sowon’s face come back to life for the first time in a long while.
It was definitely after that that Pi Sowon’s dead eyes had come back to life.
After the new recruit of Team 5, who filled the long-vacant position of Pi Sowon’s partner, had joined.
Since then, the instinct of the ‘Crazy B*tch’ from 8 years ago, which had been dormant inside Pi Sowon, was awakening.
“And the b*stards who tried to bury Lee Yuji are probably them as well.”
Pi Sowon said with a cold voice.
Hearing that voice, Hong Jaegyeol smiled inwardly.
Lee Yuji.
‘I figured that kid would last a long time as your partner.’
Hi! Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Please continue to support this novel by giving it a good rating on Novel Updates. Thank you! ^^ ❤︎
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