Does this make any sense!
I stood there frozen like a stone, along with everyone else in the Special Task Force who had gone completely stiff.
In that rigid situation, there was only one person who moved.
“That’s my seat.”
It was our proud MZ employee, Ma Deokho.
With an expression of displeasure, he pointed at the desk where Choi Woojin was sitting, even stretching both his legs out on top of it.
At those words, Choi Woojin made a gesture as if saying ‘Oops’ and spun the swivel chair around.
As soon as Choi Woojin got up from the seat, Ma Deokho wiped his desk clean with a wet wipe and adjusted a slightly crooked photo of Ggamang back to its proper place.
“…W-what’s going on.”
Baek Sangjin put on a bewildered expression, and the explanation for that came not from Choi Woojin, but from Ji Wongil.
“Hello. I am Administrative Official Ji Wongil, dispatched from the Hunter Administration Bureau starting today.”
“Ah, you’re the dispatched Administrative Official Ji Wongil. I’m Byeon Gudo. Since I was young, my grandfather told me to always plan my layout (Gudo) well…….”
“Shut up.”
Brushing aside Byeon Gudo, who was trying to break the awkward tension with his high-class humor, Pi Sowon looked back and forth between Ji Wongil and Choi Woojin standing in the Special Task Force office and spoke.
“What is this. The two of you.”
“I think Administrator Ji just explained it well? I’m telling you, we were dispatched here.”
Choi Woojin smiled brightly.
With gauze attached to the bridge of his nose and his forehead.
“What I mean is, how come you are the one dispatched? Since when are you an administrator for the Administration Bureau?”
When Pi Sowon asked with a murderous glare, Ji Wongil calmly replied as if trying to defuse the overheated atmosphere.
“This is an administrator who took the civil service exam a few months ago. He was specially hired short-term due to a vacancy that opened up in an entry-level position a few days ago.”
Special short-term hire.
I tightly held back a dry laugh that was about to burst out.
Saying things like he sat for the appointment examination a few months ago or that a vacancy opened up in the rookie positions are just nice ways to put it; in the end, it’s all just a perfectly tailored excuse to manufacture on paper.
Did they think I, currently in my second life as a civil servant, wouldn’t know that?
No matter how one looked at it, he was a parachute dropped in by Choi Jungu.
What I found puzzling was why Choi Woojin just stood by and allowed this behavior.
In the original work, Choi Woojin wanted to maintain his scoundrel persona within the Daeyoung Guild until the very end.
That damn original work. The original work.
Have I become a transmigrator infected with the ‘Original Work Disease’?
The more things changed from the original work, the more my head hurt.
“Ah, well, it’s true I experienced an unsavory incident here a few days ago, but I’m not the type to hold a grudge…. I volunteered because I wanted to come here myself, see how the HIB team members work, and clear up the misunderstanding.”
Choi Woojin spoke to the completely stiff investigators with his characteristic fox-like smile.
“Wow…. He’s crazy handsome.”
Byeon Gudo muttered from behind.
Honestly, it’s true he looks handsome when he smiles, but is this the time to be saying that?
I grit my teeth while thinking that way.
“As you know, I happen to be quite close with the Commissioner privately as well, and because the Commissioner felt very concerned about the petition being filed……. There was even talk about replacing the special team leader and a salary reduction for the entire special team—”
Choi Woojin continued speaking with a relaxed face.
But behind that relaxed face, a blade was hidden.
At the mention of replacing the Special Task Force Team Leader, everyone looked at Kwon Ikseong, and when the word ‘docking pay’ came out, Baek Sangjin and Byeon Gudo’s shoulders trembled.
‘Wow… look at him threatening people.’
He is utterly playing with us.
I felt the urge to smash Choi Woojin’s nose again.
Choi Woojin, who is insisting that he is a non-awakened person, would have no choice but to submissively take the hit! Now is the opportunity!
It was when I was thinking that and tightly clenching my fists.
Choi Woojin’s gaze landed on me.
He stared at me intently and smiled.
“But I wanted to give you an opportunity. To all of you in the Special Task Force?”
The corners of his thin lips curled up softly and elegantly, like a cat’s tail.
However, his eyes shone brightly like those of a predator that had spotted its prey.
The moment his pupils felt as if they were tightly constricting like a fox discovering a mouse.
Kwon Ikseong opened his mouth.
“So you are saying you have joined the Special Task Force as a team member?”
At those words, Choi Woojin’s head whipped around.
“Yeah, well. I suppose so?”
And simultaneously with Choi Woojin’s answer, Kwon Ikseong dumped an extremely thick stack of documents onto Choi Woojin.
“…?”
“Then read all of these before the 4:30 PM meeting. These are the investigation files up until now.”
“Th-that…….”
It was the moment Choi Woojin’s eyes narrowed, showing a hint of panic.
Kwon Ikseong delivered the finishing blow with an impassive face.
“I will send the remaining materials via email.”
…!
Team Leader Kwon, nice shot!
Thinking that inwardly, I looked at Choi Woojin.
Seeing Choi Woojin’s face contort couldn’t have been more satisfying.
You, how dare you look down on civil servants?
Welcome. To paperwork hell.
* * *
Though he said that, the meeting with Choi Woojin was like hell.
The reason was—
“There are over 300 contacts found on the Loach and the Joker’s phones. The majority are individual consumers, and we plan to summon and investigate each of them. I’ve highlighted the numbers suspected to be liaisons, transporters, and crafters.”
“Then are you saying the Gamer might be among them?”
After listening to Kwon Ikseong’s presentation, Pi Sowon asked.
At the word ‘Gamer’, I unconsciously flinched my shoulders.
The guy who should actually be panicking had such a nonchalant face, yet I was the one needlessly anxious.
That’s right.
Choi Woojin was in the ‘Catch the Gamer Project Meeting’, shaking his leg with a nonchalant expression… no, an expression that looked like he was bored to death.
“I don’t know about that yet, but it seems we can at least catch clues to narrow down the people producing crafted items similar to the Gamer’s.”
As Kwon Ikseong finished speaking, Ham Ina added.
“However, there are many points to note regarding the numbers of the individual consumers. There are quite a few well-known Hunters, chairmen of small and medium-sized enterprises, and even a head of a local government.”
“….”
At Ham Ina’s words, a fleeting tension swept through the air.
The head of a local government refers to—
The Mayor of Incheon, Go Cheolwon.
I quietly looked at the list and furrowed my brow.
This guy is a massive mastermind and a power-type villain in the original work.
Incheon City, where a large naval base is stationed, borders China and North Korea by sea.
Unlike the real-world Incheon, the setting in this Hunter novel was that Incheon was being actively utilized as a military base.
Using those geographical characteristics, Go Cheolwon had been routinely smuggling using an illegal underwater dungeon.
And of course, that was possible because he had the Daeyoung Guild and the Hunter Association as his solid backers.
Therefore, this guy’s corruption is inevitably connected to the most dangerous villain of the original work, Choi Jungu.
‘Ugh…. If we touch this, we’re gonna be f*cked.’
I thought as I looked toward Choi Woojin.
In a situation where we don’t even know Choi Woojin’s ulterior motive for coming here, touching this case introduces too many variables.
However—
“We will summon all of them.”
We had Kwon Ikseong.
My favorite character, who knows absolutely nothing but principles and rules! Ikseong!
…I like it, but I hate it, really.
I looked at Kwon Ikseong with a sad face.
“Please inform them that refusal to comply with the summons for investigation could lead to an investigation under arrest.”
With that, the meeting was concluded.
And the welcome time for overtime work.
Once again, I ended up facing Ikseong in the interrogation room.
“…It’s a handmade hamburger this time…?”
With a puzzled face, I looked at the handmade burger, french fries, and milkshake laid out in the interrogation room.
It looks very delicious.
But is this a plan to fatten me up before eating me?
“Yes. It was a menu item that ranked high among women’s preferences.”
“…Wow….”
I answered with an enervated voice and looked at Kwon Ikseong.
Then Kwon Ikseong looked up at me as if asking what was wrong.
He had already neatly cut my portion of the burger to make it easy to eat.
Cleanly slicing right through the cross-section of that thick handmade burger.
“Why did you do it?”
“What do you mean?”
“You covered for me. Taking all the blame for no reason. Is that also part of the fake relationship? Building it up?”
When I asked, Kwon Ikseong seemed to think about something for a moment before setting down the plastic knife he was holding.
“No.”
“Then….”
“Didn’t you step forward and hit him first because it seemed obvious that I was going to hit him in the first place?”
Kwon Ikseong stared at me intently.
“It seemed like you beat me to the punch, so I tried beating you to the punch as well.”
It was a simple answer, but it was hard to understand.
It seemed to be because the person saying it was Ikseong.
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