– Destruction King Rookie is adapting smoothly ^^
– so ur in this chat now too, huh?
Thanks to my persona being a kind of funny, approachable, and positive character, it made adjusting easier.
And this characterization just kept getting reinforced. At this rate, it wouldn’t even be strange to read about myself on the wiki.
‘Me, being a named character of the Disaster Management Bureau…’
Honestly, it didn’t feel bad.
And maybe because what I went through before was like an exorcism, for three weeks there were no unexpected incidents in the ghost stories.
All that was left was to follow the already established rescue manuals and bring people out.
If you could just put up with the terrifying stuff, it’s doable!
To the extent they can embed a number into the ghost story.
Now I can understand why there are so many solo missions.
‘At this rate, I can handle it…!’
Besides, since I’m still a rookie, I was always in a pair.
Less scary! A lot safer!
So, at one point I tried bringing this up to Agent Bronze, but he looked at me seriously.
– No, it’s not safe.
– ……
– Your standards are a bit warped.
Once you’ve spent just half a year in Daydream Inc. like me, you’ll be the same, Agent-nim…
‘I could almost cry.’
Since I ended up in Black Tortoise Team 1, Agent Bronze had been looking after me a bit excessively, while also subtly avoiding small talk. He must have an awkward sense of indebtedness. I get it…
Anyway, for the past three weeks, it was something I could endure even while tense.
I naturally blended into Black Tortoise Team 1, and now I didn’t even have to introduce myself as part of the team whenever I met people at headquarters.
I’d blended in so well that everyone already knew.
‘…It’s fine.’
I couldn’t deny the sense of security that came from belonging.
…The problem was, it was about time for me to get my first solo mission.
Ha.
‘Alone… It’ll be scary.’
Having to experience a ghost story alone every three days… that’s the real problem.
But before that, I got this suggestion.
.
.
“Grapes-ie. Do you want to take a little break?”
It was when I was getting ready to leave in the waiting room, having finished transferring duties to the Site Cleanup Unit.
“You haven’t really taken a break these past three weeks, and you kept helping out with support duty too. Someone who was hospitalized just a month ago shouldn’t be overdoing it. You need to rest now, to clear your head and recover your strength.”
Agent Choi made the suggestion.
And…
To be honest, I kind of planned for this.
‘It’s hard for a rookie to just use up their annual leave all at once…’
So I purposely overworked and maxed out my hours, hoping a senior would eventually urge me to take a few days off.
‘Success.’
Agent Bronze caught my eye and quickly nodded in agreement.
Good.
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, make sure to use your two days off together, and don’t forget to tack them onto your regular days off!”
That way, I managed to take four consecutive days of leave.
If you add the two regular days off per week, that makes six days total.
Of course, I definitely needed this time off for a reason.
[Sir Kim Soleum, your psychological stability test results are in. Please book a counseling session and pick them up when you’re free ^^]
Last week, Director Ho texted me.
…Soon, I’d be able to enter Cheerful Theme Park.
‘I need to prepare.’
And I need to handle the schedules I’d put off because of work.
[Arent you going to trade, sir?]
[its info youll definitely want to hear]
Baek Saheon seemed to be ready.
And that evening—
I met him at a secluded room café[1] in Seoul.
“Hurry up and talk.”
Baek Saheon, pressed as soon as we met, had veins standing out on his temple.
“……Hey, this is a trade, you know. If you talk like that, it doesn’t exactly feel good.”
“You like efficiency, don’t you? Isn’t it better to talk fast and get your item? Try thinking things through for once.”
“~!”
Baek Saheon’s face twisted in anger for a moment, but he quickly hid it and smiled.
“…Then fine. Let’s just get on with it!”
Oh. He must be feeling pretty confident.
I focused, ready to listen closely.
“So, first…”
Baek Saheon began in a very meaningful tone, about to reveal something special…
“Two people from our batch have disappeared.”
“……”
“Remember? Go Yeongeun and—”
“Jang Heowoon.”
“…!”
Ugh.
“I know, already so skip that part.”
“W-Wait a second. But even you don’t know where they went, right, Supervisor?”
Nah, I actually do.
I looked at Baek Saheon with dead fish eyes, and he broke into a cold sweat as he hurried to continue.
“They got reassigned to a branch office!”
Nope.
“You know about the branch offices, right? Out in the countryside. These days there are a lot of people being assigned to headquarters from the branches, but honestly, the place feels pretty suspicious? I mean, they’ve cut off all contact…”
“Uh-huh. Next.”
I told you, that’s not it.
I’m pretty sure Baek Saheon was swearing at me internally right now.
‘Whatever…’
But I should give him a bit of hope if I want more info to come out. So I changed tack.
“Tell me something else. There’s no point going on about stuff I already know. You’ll just tire yourself out.”
“……”
“No other rumors?”
Baek Saheon gave me a look that basically screamed, ‘How do you even know this?!’ but eventually coughed up the next bit of information.
And that was…
“I saw people from the Research Team and the Security Team fighting not long ago.”
Hmm.
‘Did a researcher get his head bashed in or something…?’
Maybe my face looked disgusted, because Baek Saheon hurriedly explained.
“No, listen. You know that researcher too. Section Chief Kwak Jaekang from Research Team 1—”
“…!”
What?
I almost lost my composure right then.
I barely managed to just widen my eyes, but it was already too late.
“Looks like you’re really interested.”
Baek Saheon grinned with satisfaction.
“I want to tell you quickly, too, but… Well, let me see the item first, just in case. If you hear everything and then say you don’t have it, that would be a problem.”
“……”
“I’m not saying you’d do that, Supervisor… It’s just, mutual trust, you know? Speed is important, but so is trust when you’re making a deal.”
Hmm. Cheeky.
“Is that so?”
“…!”
Fine.
Like a magic trick, I pulled out the Necronomicon from my wrist.
Seeing the intimidating book-shaped item, encased in a creepy book case, Baek Saheon’s eyes sparkled with greed.
He reached out his hand…
Smack!
“You said you were just going to look.”
“……”
For a second, Baek Saheon gave me a hostile glare, but then started spilling more information.
“I heard that Security Team member picked a fight with the researcher. Apparently, he asked the researcher something but didn’t get a straight answer, so he tried to hit him?”
And the ‘rumor’ goes like this:
A Security Team member ran into a researcher while on duty and asked him something about the facility. Then the researcher’s superior showed up.
That’s Kwak Jaekang.
And he said something to him.
“What did he say?”
“No idea. Doesn’t sound like it was anything special. But suddenly, the guard attacked.”
“……”
A scene came to mind.
The sergeant talking to Kwak Jaekang on the phone.
– Just to let you know… I may not be able to enter Darknesses, but… I can still kill people.
Wait.
‘Could that Security Team member be… Jay-ssi?’
Note/s:
[1] Room café – cafés that provide small private spaces, with books, manhwas, board games or other varieties available for customers to use. (There have been controversy sparking around some room cafés being no different than love motels, but that’s beside the point lol) ↩