Chapter 20….
The Civil Servant Who Hid His Power Is Too Good at Possessing Bodies
How many days has it been since I last left work on time…?
The moment I got home I didn’t even wash — I just slept.
Come to think of it, the part-time dungeon raid job I did between studying for employment was way happier than now.
Aren’t I actually losing out by the hour now…?
—Completion reward: 7,000 gold
…No.
It’s true you get a lot of money when you complete quests.
On my rare day off I slept for twenty hours straight. On waking up I reflexively checked my smartwatch.
No calls.
Then my phone.
The first thing that caught my eye was an enormous pile of missed calls.
Hae (56)
“Hae” is Kang Il-yeon’s nickname.
I’d changed the contact name because I didn’t want a phone number tied to a minor who’d been a suspect in a crime showing up under my personal number.
What could it be?
I jumped up and checked the messages first.
Hae:
I made this! (video)
Should I post this on a site? What do you think?
Hello?
What are you doing?
Are you sick?
Investigator, I made an alarm device that wakes people up — if they don’t get up it twists people…
…There was a photo of a weird torture device.
‘He really churns out items at an insane rate.’
For reference, the “site” he talked about was the item trading site Kang Il-yeon had made in three days.
But because items made by hunters need permission from the Hunter Management Agency to be traded, it required legal review.
So the official opening was delayed, but—
‘If he keeps making items like this, it’ll turn into a gore site…!’
I shuddered and sent him a reply.
How about making something more mainstream and easier to use? ^^ I just woke up. Good morning.
Remember he’s a minor. Ease him along.
A reply came back quickly.
Hae:
I’ll try. Oh, that slime came to me — can I use it for experiments?
Right, instead of sending the slime I’d rescued from that pocket-space back to a dungeon, I’d sent it to the apartment I’d gotten for Kang Il-yeon.
Although it was a high-grade slime, it was so non-aggressive that instead of binding it with collar-like restraints you’d put on dogs, I could designate it as Kang Il-yeon’s property.
I replied:
I don’t think that’s a good idea ^^ How about feeding it the food I sent and raising it for a while?
No answer.
Well, he’s not going to kill it, right?
There wasn’t time to worry. Other important messages had come in besides the ones from Kang Il-yeon.
Ham Na:
This is the Group Chat for the 57th class ^^
…I’d been invited into a group chat with about a dozen people with that message.
Were there this many in the 57th class? It looked like it included not only new investigators in Team 5 but also new people from various support departments and some rehires who looked new.
And the last message in that chat was this:
(article link)
Wow, Team Leader Kwon is really taking on the Daeyoung Guild?
The face plastered over the article link was Kwon Ik-seong’s stern expression.
In the characteristic font of short YouTube news clips it read:
mark
Daeyoung’s Kevin Choi travel ban requested — Team Leader Kwon targets Daeyoung Guild!
So it had come to this.
As expected, after hearing the conversation Choi Woo-jin and I had in the interrogation room yesterday, Kwon Ik-seong decided to summon and interrogate Choi Min-cheol.
“Is this okay…?”
“We are just doing our job.”
“…Didn’t you tell me to take it easy?”
“I said I’d handle not taking it easy.”
Of course.
Cool. But—
In the original story, Kwon Ik-seong discovering Choi Min-cheol’s crimes happened much later. Choi Min-cheol’s crimes were too clever.
‘We caught him by a different route this time, so apart from buying illegal items, it’s not certain we can tie him to other crimes.’
Also, concentrating an investigation on Choi Min-cheol at the Hunter Investigation Unit was a completely different issue from summoning Choi Woo-jin.
‘This will directly hit Daeyoung and Choi Jun-gu.’
There was a high probability the Daeyoung Guild would act directly.
And getting tangled with the Daeyoung Guild — which even influenced politics in Korea — was something a lowly civil servant must avoid.
It’s like a municipal worker avoiding issuing a formal notice to a construction company run by the mayor’s cousin.
However—
“Detective Lee Yuji, it’s best if this cooperation stops here. Thank you for your help in the investigation. We’ll tell Team Leader Pi about the Geumhodong illegal weapons trafficking case and file the report on our side….”
“I also… want to be involved!”
The problem was that I was at risk of getting dismembered to death!
—If failed: limbs will be cut off and you die
I should have been reborn into a fantasy romance novel.
How did I get possessed into a hunter story… and a crime story at that!
“Detective Lee Yuji, this case is not something you can handle with just a sense of duty. I understand your intention but…”
Kwon Ik-seong looked troubled.
It made sense. This investigation wasn’t the right size for a newcomer like me to step into.
At times like this, I had to appeal to Ik-seong’s sense of mission.
“My younger-brother-aged boy was abused and used to make items. I want to know what they were planning to do with such items.”
Kwon’s eyebrows twitched.
Of course.
Ik-seong’s weakness was his sense of justice.
…At that moment—
“I heard Detective Lee Yuji put a lot of effort into the transfer case of the Kang Il-yeon and Kang Wol-yeon brothers. So it bothered you.”
“Yes… it did.”
“I will find out for certain. Don’t worry.”
Ik-seong brushed past me!
When I returned to Team 5, of course I was told by Team Leader Pi to “leave that case alone.”
“Anyway, you got dragged into someone else’s team’s case by bad luck. Think yourself lucky you can get out now.”
She casually erased the number 2 from the performance whiteboard and made it 1.
There was no trace of enthusiasm in her eyes.
If that person was a real psychopath, he wouldn’t even have had the diligence to carry out a murder.
Anyway, more important than my involvement in the investigation was, of course, exposing Choi Min-cheol’s crimes.
But—
Would Kevin Choi peacefully agree to be questioned by the Hunter Investigation Unit? At this rate, will the Hunter Investigation Unit be abolished first… The press is in an uproar. They say the unit uses coercive interrogation methods.
ㅠㅠㅠㅠWill we lose our jobs? I got into Taebaek Guild first round and then switched hereㅠㅠㅠ
The problem was that the backlash was fierce.
The moment Ik-seong notified Choi Min-cheol of the summons for illegal weapons trafficking, a flood of yellow-press outlets attacked the Hunter Investigation Unit.
There were plenty of angles to attack.
They took the Unit to task for things like accidentally letting a captured criminal go, failing to prevent civilian casualties when an illegal gate opened, or partially destroying a building in the process of arresting a villain.
In truth, dealing with criminals who possess transcendent power meant the Hunter Investigation Unit inevitably accumulated mistakes and controversy.
The press was using those to argue that the Unit was conducting reckless investigations just to show off to the grandson of Daeyoung.
‘It’s obvious who made this situation…’
If things continued like this, not only would we fail to catch Choi Min-cheol’s crimes within a week, but Ik-seong would be fired before Choi’s crimes were revealed — and at the same time my arms and legs would be cut off…
‘That can’t happen!’
I tapped search in my phone contacts.
Then I called the number I found—
“Hey, what’s up, Miss Lee? I was actually looking for an F-rank grunt. You have timing.” The leader of the illegal raid group I used to work for answered.
I lowered my voice and said, “My brother was in a traffic accident. Boss. We’re short on surgery money.”
I’m sorry, little brother.
…
A heavy silence.
Then the boss spoke.
“How many big ones do you need?”
“Two big ones.”
“Haa…”
The boss sighed deeply, then spoke with determination.
“I really… was going to quit this stuff. But when it’s Miss Lee’s brother, I get soft.”
The next morning, which was another holiday in a row.
I was standing in front of a illegally modified dungeon.
“If you survive ten minutes inside that ring with a C-rank monster, two big ones deposited immediately! If you last thirty minutes, I’ll spare your life and deposit an extra big one!”
The boss pointed excitedly at the lamia in the cage, baring his teeth and hissing.
What on earth looked like a soft-hearted person?
