Chapter: 05
Newcomer to the Hunter Management Agency
The female ghost nodded her head firmly.
[I’m certain. Please believe me.]
An unwavering gaze.
A face filled with conviction.
[I don’t lie.]
On top of that, she spoke in the calm, matter-of-fact tone characteristic of someone telling the truth.
“……”
It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight.
When I was young, I had once seen a god who told the future while I was beside my maternal grandmother.
The moment my eyes met the god’s, my mother had quickly stepped in front of me.
After that, I had never seen another ghost.
In any case, it was a fact that there were gods who could see the future.
If those really were the lottery numbers….
Even if I only won 1 billion won every week, if that happened for four weeks, could I buy a decent apartment along the Han River within a month?
…This wasn’t the time to waste time in Gangwon Province.
“Get in the car. We’re going straight to Seoul for now.”
[Am I going with you, too?]
[Oh! Looks like you’re going to our house, too!]
It wasn’t our house. It was my house.
The female ghost spoke while tears dripped down her face.
[Thank you…! Thank you! I’ll never forget this favor, even in death!]
[Wow~! As expected of state power! You struck gold!]
She was already dead, so how was she planning to die again?
Ghosts seemed to have a tendency to make excessive promises.
In any case, I had intended to take her with me from the beginning.
There was no reason to leave behind a spirit that I had made affiliated with me.
[Thank you. The car is really nice!]
[Landlord, step on it!]
Leaving behind the rare sight of two ghosts enjoying a drive, I sped down the highway and made it back to Seoul before noon.
[Is this going to be my home from now on? I love it!]
[Hey~! Welcome!]
[I can do lots of things well. Just tell me what to do!]
[At least you’ve got a conscience!]
“Let’s eat Korean beef first.”
[Go, go!]
[Thank you!]
“There’s a good place right in front of here.”
It was a Korean beef restaurant at the intersection.
It was a famous restaurant in the neighborhood.
And while I was there, I also planned to buy some lottery tickets.
Sizzle! Sizzle-sizzle.
The gazes of the two ghosts were fixed in one place.
Their target was the Korean beef grilling over the charcoal fire.
“You can eat now.”
I placed a piece of well-grilled skirt steak onto each of their rice bowls.
[Ohhh!]
[Meat! Korean beef!]
I deliberately reserved a private room.
It would have looked strange if there was only one person, but there were bowls of rice placed in all the empty seats.
On top of that, two of the bowls of rice even had metal chopsticks stuck into them.
“Eat as much as you want. You’ve both worked hard.”
[Thanks, Landlord!]
[Thank you. I’ll enjoy the meal!]
Ratatatatatat!
The two ate the meat as if they were competing against each other.
They were moving so quickly that their hands were almost invisible.
I had no idea how a ghost’s digestive system worked, but I could see the remaining meat rapidly losing its vitality.
It was like watching a photograph whose colors had initially been vivid, only for a faint black-and-white filter to gradually settle over it as the image aged and faded.
I bought three lottery tickets.
I bought them at a famous lottery shop in the neighboring district, one so popular that people even lined up to buy tickets from other areas.
It was a historic place that had produced no fewer than thirty first-prize winners.
If I added myself to that list, it would become thirty-three.
[Landlord! Buy 100!]
[Yes! These numbers are definitely correct!]
The two ghosts pushed me hard, but I resisted.
If I bought 100 tickets, even using a rough estimate, that would mean 100 billion won. At that point, I might even end up on the news.
If my name started circulating and a controversy broke out, my stable life as a civil servant would be over just like that.
I wanted to live a peaceful and uneventful life as a civil servant for a very, very long time.
Preferably quietly and steadily, for as long as possible.
If so, a controversy like this would be fatal. Besides, I could just buy lottery tickets every week.
Should I just buy one ticket starting next week? So I wouldn’t stand out as much?
Yes, that would be better.
Having made up my mind, I continued grilling the meat.
“Eat some more.”
This time, I piled a generous amount of beef brisket into each of their rice bowls.
[Beef brisket!]
[Thank you!]
After two hours of eating like that, the ghosts finally raised both hands in surrender.
[My stomach’s going to burst.]
[I can’t breathe!]
“……”
I packed up all the remaining meat and brought it home.
The restaurant owner initially looked surprised at the mountain of grilled meat piled up on the table.
“Um… Did the food perhaps not suit your taste?”
He probably asked because there was such a huge amount of meat that had been grilled but left uneaten.
“No. We ate very well.”
Beside me, the ghosts nodded with satisfied expressions.
“Then would you like me to pack up all the remaining meat? Even the grilled meat?”
“Yes, please.”
The meat had already lost its vitality, but I figured it would be fine if I took it home and made soup with it.
Beef brisket doenjang stew, perhaps… or beef radish soup would be good too.
“Thank you! Please come again!”
Since I’d bought the lottery tickets and had our company dinner, my tasks for the day were finished.
When I returned home, the fatigue suddenly hit me all at once, perhaps because I had been driving all morning.
Even while sitting still, my eyes simply kept closing.
This wouldn’t do.
I should wash up and go to sleep today.
I made up my mind and was about to climb into bed when the female ghost asked from beside me.
[Where do I sleep?]
Did ghosts even sleep?
[Sleep anywhere!]
[I want a room, too…]
In the end, the storage room that I had intended to give to Cha Junhyuk became the female ghost’s room.
[I like it. Thank you!]
The female ghost hung upside down from the clothes rack, dangling there as she expressed her gratitude.
Her long, straight brown hair spilled downward and fluttered wildly like a living curtain, completely black.
“……”
I quietly closed the door, resolving to avoid entering this room as much as possible from now on.
Monday morning on the way to work.
There were some unfamiliar people in the first-floor lobby of the Hunter Management Agency.
Judging by the civil servant IDs hanging around their necks, they seemed to be newly hired employees.
Four of them were talking while drinking beverages from the vending machine.
Everyone working in this building belonged to the Hunter Management Agency anyway. I was about to approach them to say hello when I heard their conversation.
“Where did they say we’re supposed to go on Friday?”
“You know that place. Where the Tower collapsed.”
“An uninhabited island? How are we supposed to get there?”
“They say we’re taking a helicopter.”
“This is such a hassle. Did I really have to volunteer for this?”
“Why should we care about dead people anyway? They should take proper care of the living. Or at least give us a higher pay grade.”
“Exactly!”
“……”
I stopped dead in my tracks.
It seemed I didn’t need to go all the way there.
Then my eyes met those of one of them.
He was the person who had been standing quietly without saying anything until then.
He looked at me for a moment with an expression of surprise, then bowed his head slightly.
I also lowered my head a little in greeting, and the other three were startled and quickly greeted me as well.
I gave them a rough greeting in return, then passed through the security checkpoint and went straight up to the fifth floor.
“Officer Lee!”
The Director approached me as soon as I arrived at work, as if he had been waiting for me.
He was holding a bag that somehow reminded me of a 007 briefcase.
“You’ve worked hard!”
“Thank you.”
“I have high expectations for you going forward!”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Ah, and this is…”
Someone who had been hiding behind the Director stepped forward.
It was a woman wearing large black-rimmed glasses that covered nearly half her face.
“Hello. I, I’m…”
Then she didn’t say anything for quite some time.
When she lowered her head deeply, her long, flowing brown hair slid forward, covering half her face once again.
“Our newcomer is a little like this. She’s very shy around strangers.”
At the Director’s words, the woman nodded vigorously as if agreeing.
“Her name is Sua. Right?”
“Y-yes…”
“She’s a white hacker working for the government, and she awakened two days ago. As you can see, she doesn’t talk much.”
Nod, nod.
“But her skills are definitely the real deal. What was her class again?”
“Communications Soldier.”
Communications Soldier?
“Sua can break through any information and communications network. Without leaving a trace online, either.”
Once again, she nodded.
“She’s the only person in the world with the Communications Soldier class, right?”
“Probably…”
“As for her rank, let’s see… She’s a civil servant just like Officer Lee, so should we call her Officer Yoo from now on?”
The moment he said that, Sua was startled and shook her head vigorously.
“Th-that… N-no!”
Unlike before, her expression of refusal was quite firm.
“Why? You don’t like being called a civil servant?”
“It’s… w-weird.”
Sua clenched her fists as she showed how firmly she felt about it.
“Officer Yoo…”
I roughly understood what she meant.
She meant that it sounded strange when her surname was attached.
If you said it quickly, “You, Officer,” could also be how it sounded.
But if we didn’t use her surname at all, it would be difficult to distinguish her from me.
Or perhaps the position of civil servant itself felt burdensome to her.
“Then should we just keep calling you Sua?”
“Y-yes… Y-yes! Director.”
In any case, the matter of what to call Sua was peacefully settled through mutual agreement.
“So Sua has a lot of work to do now.”
She nodded resolutely and went to sit at her desk.
Come to think of it, the office had changed quite a bit while I was away on my business trip.
There was a large multifunction printer, a water purifier, and a mobile whiteboard, as well as a refrigerator and, over in the corner…
There was a glass pyramid large enough for one person to fit inside.
What was that?
What on earth was it for?
But I didn’t think I needed to know what it was for. No matter how I thought about it, I felt it was probably better that way.
And, as could be considered essential to any office, ten large L-shaped desks and a conference table had also been brought in.
Of those, the largest desk, made by joining two desks together, belonged to Sua.
It was in the far back corner, almost completely enclosed on all sides by tall partitions.
The moment she sat down, eight monitors turned on simultaneously.
Then came the sound of rapid typing.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.
The Director, standing beside Sua, asked,
“Where is the Japanese S-rank Hunter right now?”
Tap.
An answer appeared on one of the monitors.
<Hunter Hanamiz 렌 is currently at Osaka Universal Studios.>
“Exactly!”
The Director looked extremely satisfied.
Then the serious questioning began.
“What is the highest floor the United States has conquered so far?”
<Floor 49.>
The answer came even faster than speech.
“How many times has the United States failed to conquer Floor 50?”
Tap-tap-tap.
An image of an eagle appeared on the screen once before disappearing, and the letters rapidly rearranged themselves.
<23 times.>
…She’s really a white hacker, right?
Isn’t this just hacking?
The question-and-answer session continued in this manner.
“How many times has China failed to conquer its highest floor?”
<37 times.>
“What is China’s next conquest plan?”
<The Beijing 798 Dungeon in two days. And a conquest of the Oriental Pearl Tower is scheduled one week from now.>
I already knew about China’s Oriental Pearl Tower.
Overnight, the real-life Shanghai landmark, the Oriental Pearl, had completely disappeared except for its first floor.
Footage of the Tower disappearing in real time had been recorded, and images of citizens standing in front of it in shock had appeared several times as international news.
“Where is China’s Weixin Hunter staying?”
Weixin? Liu Weixin?
Liu Weixin was one of the highest-level Hunter criminals captured through international cooperation.
As expected, he was inside a protective detention facility.
The Director nodded and asked his next question.
“Were there any Towers previously conquered with an S rank?”
Tap.
“See that, Officer Lee? You’re the first person in the entire world!”
I hadn’t known that until now.
“Which countries currently know Officer Lee’s identity?”
<None yet. However, the United States, China, Japan, Thailand, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and others are gathering information.>
“Delete all of it!”
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
<…3, 2, 1. Deletion complete.>
“Good work! How long will it take the other countries to recover?”
<I’ll delay them as much as possible. I will also plant traps to interfere with future information gathering.>
“Good job! We’re protecting Officer Lee!”
Nod, nod, nod.
Sua nodded vigorously again.
“Now that Sua has joined us, if you ever need any information, Officer Lee, tell her anytime.”
<I’ll do my best to find it for you!>
Oh, then.
“Would information about the Tower be all right, too?”
“The Tower? Of course.”
There was something I needed to confirm about what Cha Junhyuk had told me before.
“I heard information that if you climb the Tower all the way to the 100th floor, it will grant you a wish. Apparently, it will grant anything you ask for. I want to know whether it can bring dead people back to life as well.”
The Director looked somewhat puzzled by my words.
“You heard that information? Did you learn about it because of your class?”
I had heard it from a spirit, so technically, it was indeed thanks to my class.
“Yes. Can we find out whether this information is true and whether it’s actually possible? I was told that I could learn something related to it after reaching Floor 40.”
“Floor 40. Then we’ll have to find out from the United States or China.”
Sua nodded a couple of times and immediately accessed the CIA network.
<Obtaining information access authorization… This document is classified as Top Secret. Please wait a moment.>
“TS level? That won’t be easy to get into all at once.”
<Unlike ordinary TS-level documents, this document has five layers of security. Still, I’ll give it a try.>
Just like before, a white eagle appeared on the screen.
Complex lines of code flew rapidly across the monitor window.
I thought a new window was about to appear, but then…
“…Ah!”
Along with a warning sound, red warning signs appeared on every monitor.
Seeing the situation, Sua immediately began taking action to contain it.
A dazzling flurry of typing filled the room, and the warning windows disappeared one by one.
And just as she was finally about to access a meaningful page…
Sizzle─!
Blackout.
Every screen went dark at once.
“T-the computer…”
Sua stared blankly at the computer tower, which was giving off wisps of smoke.
“Tsk. It crashed.”
The Director clicked his tongue briefly.
“…W-what do we do?”
“Was a standard workstation not powerful enough?”
At those words, Sua’s eyes began to sparkle.
“Th-then?”
“We’ll have to bring in some more equipment.”
“……!!!”
She didn’t say anything, but her bright expression said everything.
Was this what they called turning a misfortune into a blessing?
“I’ll let Officer Lee know later if we obtain the information. For now… Right. Officer Lee, here.”
The Director placed the 007-style briefcase on the conference table.
A moment later, a crisp sound rang out.
Click! Click!
The briefcase locks came undone, and its contents finally revealed themselves.
That was…
An airplane ticket?
And there was nothing else.
The Director pulled out the ticket and handed it to me with a serious expression.
“It’s a ticket to Jeju Island.”
The departure time was five o’clock tomorrow afternoon.
And the return date was three days later.
“Since you’re going anyway, take the opportunity to get plenty of rest.”
I wondered if this was really okay, but there was no reason to refuse.
Low workload, an overwhelming amount of rest, and more than adequate pay.
The Hunter Management Agency was gradually becoming closer and closer to a dream workplace.
“Officer Lee needs to manage his condition! Make sure you enter the Tower whenever you’re in peak condition.”
“F-fighting…!”
“Oh, and Officer Lee, your desk is over here.”
It was the desk right beside the window, with partitions blocking the front and side.
“Just like Sua, once things are organized a little, we’ll give each of you a separate office. For now, use this.”
“Thank you.”
“The person sitting in front of you is… Ah, here they come. Officer Park!”
“Yes! Director!”
“This is Officer Lee. Introduce yourselves.”
“Hello!”
“…Nice to meet you.”
He was one of the people who had been in the lobby earlier.
However, remembering their conversation from before, I couldn’t bring myself to smile back at him when he smiled at me so warmly.
“I look forward to working with you!”
“This guy is quite sociable. He stood out from the interview onward.”
“Haha, I guess I am.”
“And behind him are Officer Kim, Officer Lee, and Officer Choi, who is a candidate for civil servant.”
The group bowed in greeting.
All the people from the lobby earlier were gathered here.
Seeing them, I simply wanted to ask.
“Were all of you special recruits?”
“That’s right. All of them were specially recruited as Hunters. Today is their first day.”
Ah, so that’s why they didn’t know?
That there was currently only us working in this building?
“Hello.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“We look forward to working with you.”
“For the time being, this is the civil service aptitude evaluation period, so Officer Lee, please teach them whenever you have the chance. And you four, learn well.”
“Yes! Understood!”
“We look forward to your guidance.”
“Please take good care of us.”
“I look forward to working with you as well.”
The Director looked at them seriously and said,
“You’d better watch carefully and learn well. Officer Lee’s opinion will also be included in your evaluations. Officer Lee will be in charge of the Audit Office of the Hunter Management Agency going forward.”
As he said that, the Director hurriedly winked at me.
Apparently, that was going to be my official public position going forward.
In any case, if that was how things were going to be, I could relax.
The three of them seemed to flinch for some reason, but I didn’t particularly care.
“Officer Lee, take your seat. You four, follow me. I’ll assign your duties.”
“Yes!”
Even in the middle of all this, the moment I submitted an out-of-area business trip application through the Hunter Management Agency’s dedicated system that Sua had created, it was approved immediately.
After filling out the travel expense settlement application and report for the Gangwon Province Tower business trip and taking care of some overdue work, quitting time quickly approached.
<Have a good business trip!>
With the Director and Sua cheering me on, I left work right at six o’clock today from the Hunter Management Agency.
[Ladies and gentlemen, we will be taking off shortly. For your safety, please check your seat belts once again.]
Two ghosts had boarded the plane bound for Jeju Island with me.
The two took seats in the locations they each wanted.
Cha Junhyuk went over and sat in an empty seat, while the female ghost…
[Look over here!]
She floated around in midair, completely absorbed in looking out the airplane window.
“…Why do I suddenly feel cold?”
“Do you feel it too?”
Thanks to them, passengers with sensitive spiritual senses sometimes felt a chill.
[Wow! Wow! Clouds! Look, look at that land down there!]
[Is this your first time on a plane? Why are you so excited?]
[Yes! It’s my first time!]
[First time? Aren’t you suffering from amnesia?]
[I can still know things like this.]
[You’re such a plane newbie. Thank the Landlord.]
[Thank you! Landlord!]
They say domestic flights take off and land before you know it, and it really was exactly like that.
I had closed my eyes for a moment because I was tired, but when I opened them, we were already in Jeju Island.
[It’s my first time in Jeju Island!]
The female ghost was excited once again.
She flew all over the ceiling, completely absorbed in sightseeing around the airport.
“Come down, Chae Seonhwa.”
[Yes! I’m coming!]
I had learned the female ghost’s name from our conversation the night before.
[How long were you homeless?]
Cha Junhyuk, who had been targeting the cork of a wine bottle all evening, casually asked the female ghost.
[Well…]
[Why?]
[Actually… I don’t remember.]
[What? Then you have amnesia?]
[Yes. I think so.]
“What about the Gangwon Province Tower? How did you get there?”
[I was just there. When I came to my senses, I was already there.]
[What? Then what about your memories from when you died?]
[I don’t have those either. But…]
[But what?]
[I didn’t die at the Gangwon Province Tower.]
[Really? I died in a Tower.]
Apparently, this was the difference between the two.
The reason Cha Junhyuk became human when he entered a Tower.
And the reason the female ghost remained a ghost.
[But you…]
[Yes? Why?]
[You seem familiar somehow.]
[What? Do you… know me?]
[No? I’m seeing you for the first time.]
[…]
“……”
What exactly was he trying to do?
But Cha Junhyuk frowned deeply and sank into his own thoughts.
[You’re familiar. Something about you… your atmosphere? No, no. Your smell? No, that’s not it…]
[Why? Do you remember me?]
[You, your voice!]
[My voice?]
[Yeah, your voice sounds similar!]
[Similar to what…?]
[You told me to go to the Tower!]
