[What on earth did you do with my body? Ugh, bleaaargh, it tastes awful, f*ck!]
Inside the car returning to the HIB.
Kang Sibang lived up to its name by cursing up a storm, and I caught the neurotoxins it endlessly spat out with thick tissues.
“….”
“….”
All while reading the mood of the silent Kwon Ikseong in the driver’s seat.
Say something, anything, please!
Kwon Ikseong quietly hid Kang Sibang behind him, handed me some completely irrelevant documents claiming they were the ones I had left behind, and rescued me from the floor where the Bureau Director’s office was located.
Although I ended up building an image of someone suffering from constipation, this was still a huge save.
The Commissioner said that apples were good for constipation and offered to send a box of apples next time, but since there was no telling what might be inside it, I politely declined, left, and got into this car.
Ji Wongil had remaining business at the Bureau, so we left him behind.
‘It’s a good thing Kwon Ikseong showed up when he did.’
It was really dangerous. If things went wrong, Kang Sibang might have been trapped there.
‘Well, of course, I would have somehow resolved it using the inner-thoughts earphones, but still.’
Anyway.
I quickly wrapped the tissue melted by Kang Sibang’s neurotoxin in plastic and threw it away, then subtly unfolded the edges of the crumpled wad of paper under my butt with my hand.
“So you are saying you used the possession ability to access classified documents?”
Kwon Ikseong asked with an impassive face, but I felt like he was suppressing a slight amount of anger deep down.
An angry Ikseong.
This is rare.
‘…Wait, no.’
I just got on my boss’s bad side.
And to a boss who knows my biggest weakness, no less.
Ikseong said he found it suspicious that I specifically brought a slime with me when entering the Bureau, and that the slime hadn’t shown any signs of health issues normally, so he followed me to the Bureau.
Honestly, it’s surprising how he predicted I would possess a slime with just those two things, but—
‘Though given my past record, maybe it was only natural.’
I recalled the moment when, after consuming Choi Woojin and ‘Lee Yuji’, I emerged from the subspace and faced Ikseong.
“…I thought it might help with the investigation into Go Cheolwon.”
I answered looking as meek as possible.
[What a great thing for an investigator to do! If you get caught, clink clink!]
Kang Sibang shouted like that.
Fortunately, Kang Sibang had promised not to leak my possession ability to anyone.
In exchange, I agreed to offer it 1++ grade food.
‘My blood-like money…!’
Even with the money I earned, Kang Ilyeon spending materials like water is already enough to break my back!
“The Go Cheolwon case hasn’t even had a summons investigation yet, so what is the reason for you independently… taking such risks to investigate it?”
I knew this kind of question would come up.
I pulled out the answer I had prepared in advance.
“Mayor Go worked in the Dungeon Management Division of Incheon City Hall starting 20 years ago.”
Ikseong remained unresponsive to my words. As expected, it seemed he had already done that much research.
“At that time, Incheon had a lot of problems because large and small dungeon break incidents were frequent. Of course, considering that there were difficulties in detecting signs of dungeon rifts due to the limitations of the era, Incheon still had a lot of accidents compared to other regions.”
I recited the data I had looked up beforehand.
Compared to other regions, Incheon had up to 8 times more accidents.
“So I came up with a hypothesis.”
“That they have been systematically ignoring dungeon rift signals internally within Incheon City.”
Kwon Ikseong calmly opened his mouth.
As expected.
Kwon Ikseong had deduced it.
Reason, intuition, and insight beyond that.
Because that’s Ikseong’s ‘Focus’ skill.
It was when I was recalling the ‘Focus’ skill I had experienced myself.
[What’s Incheon? Incheon?]
Kang Sibang broke the mood through the inner-thoughts earphones only I could hear.
Um… could you please shut your mouth for a moment.
Thinking that, I continued speaking.
“Yes. If so, couldn’t there be a place among those concealed dungeons that was used for illegal transactions like the Sorghum Field….”
It was then. Kang Sibang spoke again, only for me to hear.
[Isn’t that a place where you can see the Incheon sea?]
Um…… Your mouth….
I brought my hand to my ear to take out the inner-thoughts earphone.
[I came from a place where you can see the sea. Is that my hometown?]
Right before Kang Sibang said this, my hand dropped from my ear.
[I want to go back! F*ck!]
Kang Sibang came from an Incheon dungeon?
* * *
When I returned to the HIB, a ton of today’s tasks were piled up on my desk.
‘Hmm. The sweet taste of outside work.’
…Is over.
Tch.
And Pi Sowon was stuck in the Team Leader’s seat looking at documents today as well.
‘A hardworking Team Leader Pi. This is so unfamiliar.’
Ever since she became the Special Task Force Team Leader, she was always either working in that exact same posture, making us work, or grilling Baek Sangjin—one of those three.
However, when Kwon Ikseong and I walked in together, she unusually raised her head and glared back and forth between Kwon Ikseong and me.
“Why are you two going around together?”
“I came together with her after delivering documents Investigator Lee Yuji left behind.”
“Documents she left behind? Investigator Lee Yuji contacted Team Leader Kwon Ikseong for that? When I’m here too?”
“…Why would I ask Team Leader Pi for that?”
Logically speaking, would that even make sense? A team member asking their team leader?
“Of course you should ask me. I’m your partner.”
“If I ask, would you bring it?”
“No.”
Pi Sowon’s answer was firm.
As expected of a psychopath. That one, seriously.
“I’d make Byeon Gudo or Ma Deokho do it. Because we are Team 5?”
Pi Sowon said the words ‘Team 5’ while looking at Kwon Ikseong.
However, Kwon Ikseong didn’t particularly react to those words and sat down in his seat.
Embarrassing. So embarrassing….
Thinking that, I handed Pi Sowon the summons I received from the Bureau Director.
“I brought the summons for Go Cheolwon.”
“…? This fast?”
Pi Sowon raised her eyebrows.
“I thought he’d make you run around in circles and then hand it over after threatening you and making you lose your mind?”
Did you send me to a place where you thought that would happen?
I suppressed my surging irritation and answered.
“I did receive an offer to appear in a Hunter Administration Bureau promotional video next time.”
“Oho…. As expected of the Taekwondo Girl.”
Next to us, Byeon Gudo snapped his fingers and said.
“It seems a talented person has joined our team, hasn’t she?”
Byeon Gudo grinned and said to Pi Sowon.
Pi Sowon nodded with a displeased face.
“Well, got it. Good work.”
“Yes.”
“Then Investigator Ham Ina will notify the Mayor’s office of the summons for investigation, and we’ll run through the rest of the list, focusing on summons investigations for the time being.”
As Pi Sowon said that, everyone answered with listless voices.
“Yeees…”
A summons investigation. As always, looking at documents was painful, and dealing with people meant dealing with total headaches.
“Anything else to say?”
Pi Sowon raised her eyes and looked at me.
At those words, I subtly looked towards Kwon Ikseong, but Kwon Ikseong remained silent.
Kwon Ikseong had instructed me to keep quiet about the fact that I was independently investigating Go Cheolwon’s case records.
‘In a situation where a support team from the Hunter Administration Bureau is present, it would be better not to reveal that we brought documents from there. Even to Team Leader Pi Sowon.’
It was what I wanted to say, so I liked it very much, but aren’t the principles of Ikseong—a strict rule-follower—getting broken a bit too often?
…Because of me.
‘Is this what you call a strategic lie……?’ ‘Rather than a lie, it’s an embargo.’
Ah.
If that’s the case.
‘I worried for nothing.’
I answered without any pangs of conscience.
“Yes. There are no other reports.”
And returning to my seat, I quietly opened Go Cheolwon’s materials from 18 years ago, which I had secretly slipped into another file folder earlier.
Everyone was busy with contacting people for summons investigations, so they didn’t seem interested in what I was doing.
So I could focus on those documents.
Especially this part.
3 civilian casualties. Two of them died instantly on the spot, and one casualty was rescued by passing Police Corporal Han Seongye. Han Seongye’s testimony is attached below.
…This part, I mean.
The part about Han Seongye.
This name, Han Seongye. It’s a name I know.
‘Because she’s my mom.’
I held my breath without anyone noticing.
My fists clenched tightly under the desk.
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