The Wise Cleaning Life Of A Returning Genius Hunter [EN]: Chapter 218

217

“You son of a bitch! You goddamn son of a bitch!”

Thwack, thwack—!

“What kind of face do you have to show up in front of me with?!”

“W-wait a minute…!”

A scene of indiscriminate violence.

Barely managing to raise my hands to stop her, I opened my mouth.

“Y-you know me… ?”

“Look at this bastard, the way he talks! What?! You thought if you disappeared like that, I’d just think, ‘Oh, well,’ and forget everything?!

Thwack, thwack—!

Fists and feet flew at me again.

As I was getting beaten to the point of losing consciousness, I suddenly realized something.

After regressing, everyone I’ve met so far has been through the Association, but Min Yoojin was someone I met in high school.

‘Shit… relationships from 10 years ago still carry over?’

I couldn’t help but be shocked by this new fact I learned a whole year after regressing.

Well, that’s beside the point for now… I need to survive first.

“F-first, calm down…!”

“Calm down? Calm DOOOOWN?! Would you calm down if you were me?!”

“I, I’ll explain everything…!”

“I don’t need it, you bastard! Just die today!!”

It was then that Min Yoojin raised her fist again.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but that’s enough.”

Lee Ayung, the head of the Support Division, stepped in and grabbed her arm.

“I heard you’re a police officer. I don’t think your boss would be too happy if I told them you were unilaterally assaulting someone like this, would they?”

“Who are you…?”

“I’m the head of the Support Division at Karma Corporation. I also work as Secretary Kim Junwoo’s assistant.”

“…….”

Min Yoojin scanned her up and down once.

“Ahem…”

With a dry cough, she lowered her hand.

Soon, we sat facing each other, trying to calm our excitement.

She was still glaring at me as if she wanted to kill me. I also stared at her silently.

Seeing her face after so long, old memories suddenly came to mind.

***

“Hey, Kim Junwoo.”

Seoul Operations Headquarters, Operations Team 1 office.

Min Yoojin suddenly came to find me without any prior notice.

I was inwardly embarrassed, but I tried to hide it and asked.

“What is it? What brings you here?”

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

“…….”

Min Yoojin’s cold gaze pierced through me, but I shrugged with a nonchalant expression.

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

In response, she threw a document on my desk.

It was none other than a notice of rejection for the Seoul Headquarters Operations Team support.

“Ah, well… things like that can happen. Don’t be too disappointed…”

“Don’t play dumb. I heard you asked the higher-ups to drop me? And you’ve been doing it since last year.”

“…….”

My eyebrows twitched for a moment.

So she noticed and came to find me.

“Is it true? Did you really drop me?”

“…….”

“Why can’t you answer? Tell me. Is it true?!”

I let out a deep sigh.

Then, reluctantly, I nodded.

“Yeah. I dropped you.”

“Why? Why would you do that? We promised to become Hunters together! You know how hard I’ve been working to get into the Operations Team, so why…!”

“What’s the point of working hard?”

I shook my head and continued.

“When you’re still unranked.”

“……!”

Min Yoojin’s face froze.

Unranked.

A person with abilities who doesn’t even meet the minimum qualification for a Hunter, which is E-Rank.

Those with a criminal record or those with abilities so insignificant that subjugation is impossible cannot be registered in the ranking system.

And Min Yoojin was the latter.

She and I met in the second year of high school and have been dating for 10 years.

Since we were both ability users, our goal from high school was naturally to become Hunters, but. We had a big difference from the start.

Unlike me, who received a B-Rank from the first rank test, she received an Unranked.

I entered the Seoul Headquarters as a Hunter as soon as I graduated, but she couldn’t.

Becoming a Hunter as an Unranked was virtually impossible unless your basic physique was at the level of a weapon or you had mastered all subjugation strategies.

So she could have given up, but she didn’t.

Enlisted as a female non-commissioned officer in the military.

After completing four years of military service, she was discharged and supported the police.

After working for several years, she was assigned to the Violent Crimes Unit of the Criminal Affairs Division.

It was a course like a dream to someone, but to her, all of that experience was just a stepping stone to becoming a Hunter.

After a few years, she really became skilled enough to enter the Operations Team as an Unranked.

And from last year, she started applying to become a Hunter again.

In the meantime, I started as a promising prospect and continued to rise through the ranks, and before I knew it, I was the leader of Operations Team 1.

As she said, I asked the higher-ups to block her support.

“You’re doing well in your current position. Why do you need to become a Hunter now?”

I opened my mouth cautiously.

“What nonsense are you talking about? You know why I came all this way!”

“What’s so important about a promise we made when we were students?”

“Is it about the promise? It’s been 10 years, 10 years. I’ve been pouring 10 years into getting into the Operations Team! But how could you…”

“Haa…”

I cut her off and let out a sigh.

Then, after looking at her for a while, I opened my mouth calmly.

“What does it matter if it’s 10 or 20 years when you’re unranked?”

“…What?”

“Do you think the Operations Team is that easy? Know your place. What are you doing being presumptuous?”

“Y-you, what are you saying…”

Her eyes started to tremble.

But I was firm.

“I’m a team leader now. There’s never been an unranked ability user in the Operations Team before, and if you, who I’ve been dating for 10 years, come in, of course people will talk, right?”

“So… you’re doing this because of your position…”

“It’s not just because of that. In the first place, everyone has a role that suits them. So just give up and do your job…”

“Why are you deciding that?”

“What?”

“Who are you to decide my role? Who are you to block my future?!”

Her voice started to get louder and louder.

“How could you do this? You said you’d support me! You said I could get into the Operations Team!! But now you’re saying I’m being presumptuous and you dropped me? That it’s not my role?!”

“Yeah. This isn’t the place for you. If you want to come in that badly, go get at least an E-Rank, or…”

“Hey, you son of a bitch! Are you even human?!”

Thwack—.

At that moment, Min Yoojin threw the document in my face.

Immediately, she turned her back and said in a firm voice.

“Don’t ever show up in front of me again.”

“…….”

“Because I’ll really kill you then.”

With those words, Min Yoojin disappeared from my sight.

I stared silently at the spot where she had been for a long time.

Along with that, the incident at the Regen Dungeon that appeared in Seoul two years ago lingered in my mind.

***

Well, whether she was greatly shocked or even sympathized with my words, Min Yoojin no longer applied to the Operations Team after that.

We broke up like that, and our news was cut off.

Then, a long time later, I happened to hear on TV that she had become the youngest female team leader in the Violent Crimes Unit.

I didn’t feel anything when I saw that.

No regrets or anything.

Anyway, I thought I would never run into her again in my life….

‘I never thought I’d meet her here…’

Of course, the situation is completely different from before the regression, so I wouldn’t have deliberately dropped her from the Operations Team here.

If so, I was suddenly curious about what had happened to her before….

But it wasn’t something I could ask in this situation, so I tried to keep my mouth shut.

In the meantime.

“You’re doing well, aren’t you?”

Min Yoojin, who was sitting across from me and glaring at me, opened her mouth first.

“You disappeared without a word and succeeded, so you must be happy?”

“Ah, well…”

“Yeah, you must be happy. I’m so jealous. You even made a new girlfriend… she’s pretty.”

Min Yoojin glanced at Lee Ayung.

Then Lee Ayung’s shoulders tensed up. Her expression was as if her nose was piercing the sky.

‘Please just stay still…’

I lowered my head and muttered.

“So… what brings you here?”

When I asked, Min Yoojin scoffed and replied.

“A detective came to investigate, what else would it be? Why did you come here?”

“There’s someone we’re looking for… and that person seems to be related to the CEO’s disappearance.”

“What…?”

At that moment, Min Yoojin jumped up and asked.

“Do you know something?!”

“Be quiet. It’s just a guess.”

I said, bringing my index finger to my lips.

“How’s the police investigation going? Are you still searching?”

“No. The investigation is over.”

“…What?”

“It’s an order from above. There are no clues and no progress, so don’t waste manpower and focus on other cases.”

My eyebrows twitched for a moment.

The CEO of a small and medium-sized company disappeared, and they’re ending the investigation after only a month because there’s no progress?

Does that make sense?

“Well, everyone’s being quiet about it, so it doesn’t seem like it’s an internal order, it’s probably an order from an external person. Tsk, I wonder how high up they are…”

“…….”

“So, what do you mean that it seems to be related to this case?”

I paused to organize my thoughts and opened my mouth.

“There’s a member of the Future Democratic Party who’s raising a former Hunter organization. We’re looking for that member.”

“…Wh-what?!”

“In the meantime, I saw the Pohang Resort project… and it’s suspicious in many ways.”

“So you think this is all the work of that member you’re looking for? Even so, that’s a bit…”

“You just said it. How high up is the person who ordered the investigation to be terminated in just one month?”

“…….”

“If someone of that level directly ordered the police station, wouldn’t it make sense?”

Min Yoojin listened intently with a serious expression.

“Besides, it’s suspicious that the district members are from the same party. I’m just asking in case, but what benefits does the member here get if the resort is built?”

“Member Kang Jonggu? What benefits doesn’t he get is a faster question. Tourism business, VIP attraction, and so on. What better business is there to gather votes?”

“Hmm…”

Then the motive is clear.

“Okay. Let’s summarize.”

I looked back and forth between Lee Ayung and Min Yoojin and opened my mouth.

“Member Kang Jonggu, a district member, wanted to implement a project to gather votes ahead of his re-election. After much deliberation, he thought of the resort project, but the right site had already been transferred to Sehun Chemical. Do you understand so far?”

I stopped there and checked their reactions to see if they were following. Then I continued.

“He wanted to get rid of Sehun Chemical somehow, but Kang Jonggu was a first-term member, so he didn’t have the power to do so. So he asked for help from a member of the same Future Democratic Party. The very guy we’re looking for.”

I shifted my gaze to Lee Ayung and said.

She also nodded as if she understood.

“After that, the member used his power to drive out Sehun Chemical and brought in GT Construction to promote the resort project. But a problem arose here…”

“CEO Joo Sehun came out more strongly than expected?”

“That’s right.”

I answered, snapping my fingers.

“After that, citizens gradually started to pay attention, so they urgently controlled the media, but that wasn’t enough. So…”

“They used a former Hunter organization to deal with CEO Joo Sehun?”

I nodded at Min Yoojin’s answer.

“And… we speculate that the guy who kidnapped CEO Joo Sehun is likely to be Choi Jonghyuk, who recently resigned from the Seoul Headquarters.”

“What?! Are you sure? What’s the information on that guy?! Do you know where he is now?”

“That’s now…”

The moment I opened my mouth, my cell phone rang.

Sure enough, it was a call from the support team.

I quickly checked the text message and then got up from my seat.

“Did you find him?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

It was then that I was about to leave the office with Lee Ayung.

“W-wait a minute…!”

Min Yoojin called me urgently.

“What are you talking about? The investigation is over.”

“…….”

She just stared at me silently without answering.

I wondered why she was doing that for a moment, but I realized the meaning of her gaze and let out a faint sigh.

“Head of Support Division Lee Ayung.”

“Yes?”

“Please wait here. Contact me as soon as you receive additional information.”

“Y-yes?! Me too…!”

I shook my head and glanced at Min Yoojin.

“It seems like she has something to say to me.”

“…….”

Then Lee Ayung’s expression hardened coldly.

“…Okay. Go and come back.”

Then she turned her gaze away and sat back down.

I don’t know what part she was angry about, but I didn’t have time to care, so I immediately gestured to Min Yoojin.

“Let’s go.”

“…O-okay.”

And so, we left the office.