Chapter 2 …
My first recorded death was probably due to a concussion.
Probably.
That day, I—well, my past-life self—was rushing around doing home visits because of orders from the higher-ups.
‘Why is the usage rate of the book-delivery service so low? If this keeps up, our community center will rank last in XX district, and when our budget gets cut, what do you think will happen? Will that be good? Will that be bad? Officer Lee?’
…Obviously bad.
Why ask a question that has only one possible answer?
Even while thinking that, I dragged a stack of brochures and large-print books up the hills of a shantytown, explaining services for the elderly.
What choice did I have? If they say do it, I do it.
That’s how tasks get created for low-level civil servants like me.
Grumbling, I climbed a steep hill when—
“Huh…?”
A senior citizen lost control of a handcart, it hit me, I fell backward, and my skull cracked open.
I died.
What was more ridiculous than the death itself was that after dying… I reincarnated—
And possessed a character inside one of my favorite Hunter novels.
And I only remembered all of this at the exact moment when 24-year-old ‘Lee Yu-ji’ was reporting for her first day of work as an investigator of the Hunter Investigation Bureau.
The historic day when, after awakening as an F-rank hunter and suffering like a dog, I had finally landed a job.
‘Why am I only remembering this now?’
And Team 5?
I didn’t remember anything about the Investigation Bureau’s Team 5.
The name Lee Yu-ji didn’t ring a bell either.
What kind of insane possession was this?
The name of the novel I possessed into:
<The Hidden Ranker Saves the World>
Nickname: Hid.Ran.World
Just as the title said, the protagonist Choi Woo-jin hides his power and fights the great evil that will destroy the world—the Daeyoung Guild.
Choi Woo-jin often committed borderline crimes during the process, so he was constantly pursued by the Hunter Investigation Bureau.
The Hunter Investigation Bureau.
An independent investigative agency formed 30 years ago that handled crimes committed by Hunters.
Choi Woo-jin always called them:
“Useless idiots.”
Because while the higher-ups made a fancy agency, they never gave enough manpower or budget, so problems constantly occurred.
‘100% accurate depiction of the civil service.’
Even so, there was an elite investigator with a 99% arrest rate: Kwon Ik-seong.
Ahhh, Ik-seong.
My savior. My hope. The shining star of the civil service.
While reading the novel, I fell head-over-heels for Kwon Ik-seong, my favorite character.
Not only because the illustrations showed him as disgustingly handsome—but also because of this line:
“It’s quitting time. Today’s investigation ends here.”
…A man who respects quitting time.
Even while being toyed with by Choi Woo-jin, he never gave up and kept chasing his identity.
Give my Ik-seong a raise NOW!
Maybe this is punishment for badmouthing the Investigation Bureau…
A window appeared before my eyes.
Status Effect Activated: “Unnamed Extras in Crime Novels Always Die.”
Quest: “Find the bomb installed in the Investigation Bureau building! (A)”
– Reward: 5,000 gold
– Failure: Death by explosion
Oh. Right.
This was why my name and Team 5 didn’t exist in my memory.
In the early part of the novel… Team 5 disappears.
Because every single one of them died in the explosion.
No wonder none of the team members seemed familiar!
02:59:59
A red timer hovered in the upper right of my vision.
So that was the time remaining until detonation…?
If it was going to blow up anyway, could I just walk out and survive?
Time until explosion: 02:57:45
…Obviously not.
The numbers practically mocked me.
There was no way a supernatural quest would let me escape by simply leaving the room.
It would drag me back like some divine curse—or physically teleport me.
I died stupidly once already, and now I’m supposed to explode?
Cold sweat ran down my back.
“Whoa. Another recruit, huh? Another one…”
Someone slumped onto the desk in front of me with a discouraged voice.
A man with a slick face and long hair tied back smirked and flicked his hand casually.
“Hey, rookie. Name’s Byun Gu-do. My grandpa named me because he wanted me to become someone good at logical structure—gu-do.”
His tone sounded friendly, but his expression was far from it.
But even less friendly than him was the man sitting next to him.
Thick black-rimmed glasses, hoodie pulled low, and a headset around his neck.
Wearing a headset in the office…
So this is MZ generation?
Gu-do tapped the headset guy’s shoulder and smirked.
“This is my partner… but you don’t have to care about him.”
Don’t have to care?
He’d been staring at me through the reflection of his monitor this whole time.
“Your partner is our team leader, actually. Lucky you, right?”
“…Sorry?”
My partner is the team leader?
Meaning I’m a brand new hire paired with a department manager on my first project?
Gu-do grinned at my bewildered face.
“What? You don’t like it?”
Ah. I know that face.
I saw it a lot in my past life.
My supervisor at the community center used that exact expression whenever they gave nonsense orders.
And the expression meant one thing:
‘If I say do it, just do it.’
“Of course not. I’m very happy.”
I forced a smile as sweat trickled down my back.
Happy?
My life is on the line.
Okay, think.
I’m a possessor in this world. Would the story really kill me with the first quest?
Surely…
Surely not… right?
Chapters of Hid.Ran.World involving the bomb incident appear in Chapter 51.
Thanks to possession, I remembered the chapter number perfectly.
In Chapter 50, protagonist Choi Woo-jin uncovers a crime tied to the Daeyoung Guild:
The Black Market.
A hunter capable of spatial manipulation distributed illegal weapons and “Funny Powder”—a hallucinogen created from monster by-products.
And all of those goods came from the Daeyoung Guild.
Choi Woo-jin then deliberately tipped off the Investigation Bureau about this crime—and even handed over a witness.
“I served everything on a silver platter. If they still can’t catch them, they’re idiots.”
…Yes.
The Investigation Bureau were idiots.
But they had an excuse!
The witness blew up.
Along with the entire Team 5 Investigation Office.
Meaning Daeyoung Guild planted the bomb to silence the witness.
I looked toward the detention room connected to Team 5’s office.
‘The Black Market owner is locked up there. They targeted him, so the bomb had to be placed here.’
The original novel never said where the bomb was planted, but it described how:
It wouldn’t be surprising if Daeyoung had a mole inside the Bureau. The Guild Master had the power, and the Bureau didn’t have the ability to root out a mole.
A mole.
Choi Woo-jin believed there was a traitor in the Bureau.
I looked at Byun Gu-do tapping on his computer, and Ma Deok-ho, who kept glaring at me through the reflection on his monitor.
One of them a mole?
Or maybe the team leader?
“When does our team leader arrive?”
I asked, but neither replied.
Gu-do kept staring into his monitor.
Ma Deok-ho answered by raising his headphone volume.
With no choice, I walked toward Gu-do.
What was he so busy with?
Was he really the mole?
When I got closer, I saw his screen.
A bright red board with cards laid out—
…He was playing Go-Stop.
