The Wise Cleaning Life Of A Returning Genius Hunter [EN]: Chapter 33

032

Control Team, Operations Command Center.

The Control Team staff were collectively panicking at the news that three uncleared dungeons had appeared.

Of course, the same went for Acting Manager Hwang Dong-hui and Team Leader Pyeon Chang-hyeon.

“W-What do we do? Shouldn’t we stop it now, even if it’s late?”

“Shit…”

Team Leader Pyeon’s fist trembled.

He had to somehow manage the situation, but as long as Seo Min-cheol was involved, he couldn’t independently revoke the permission.

‘Damn it, what are we supposed to do when he goes out like this without any regard for the consequences?’

He had only done as Seo Min-cheol told him to, but he could also make excuses like that…….

In fact, he had been secretly aware that this could happen.

It was only natural.

Since Team 1 had been given priority permission for everything, it was impossible to match the speed of the other teams.

Team Leader Pyeon had also vaguely anticipated that uncleared dungeons might appear.

He had just tried to ignore it.

He had been with the Association for 13 years and had been a team leader for 4 years. While working at the Association, he had never had any problems by listening to his superiors.

He felt that his organizational life hadn’t been too difficult, thanks to that.

Do as you’re told, and don’t do what you’re not supposed to do.

That’s all he had to keep in mind.

But what is this?

Is this the result of doing as he was told?

“Hey, Dong-hui. If we arbitrarily withdraw the operation… what do you think will happen?”

Team Leader Pyeon asked Acting Manager Hwang Dong-hui cautiously.

“We’ll get a mouthful of abuse from the head of headquarters.”

“Besides the head of headquarters?”

“Team Leader, from the moment we gave Team 1 all the clearance permits, we turned all the other teams into enemies. It’s too late to worry about what others think now.”

Team Leader Pyeon let out a long sigh.

He was right.

Even if he tried to fix it now, he had already made too many enemies. But he couldn’t just leave it like this.

A crossroads of choices.

Whether to hold on to the headquarters line as he had always done or to do as Hwang Dong-hui said, even now…….

“T-Team Leader! I don’t think you need to revoke the permission.”

At that moment, one of the employees who was on the phone raised his voice.

“…What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Operation Team 2 and all of the Support Team have been deployed to the cleaning team! They’re catching up with the workload. It doesn’t look like any more uncleared dungeons will appear, so it should be fine to push forward as is.”

“……!”

His heart sank.

Operation Team 2 had dropped out of the performance competition?

Moreover, the Support Team meant Director Lee Doo-shik’s…….

“Wow, this is really a stroke of good luck. Now we don’t have to clean up…….”

“Hey!”

A sharp voice came from Team Leader Pyeon’s mouth.

“Do you think this is a good thing?”

“……Yes?”

He was saying something incredibly stupid.

It wasn’t that they didn’t have to clean up, but that they had lost even the chance to clean up.

“We’re all screwed now…….”

Team Leader Pyeon’s hollow voice echoed in the control room.

***

“Excuse me! Why isn’t this cutting?!”

Lee Ah-young, who had been struggling for a while, raised her hand.

“You can’t just use force like that. You have to make a few scratches along the grain.”

“…Huh?”

Kim Min-joo approached and explained, and Lee Ah-young’s expression turned strange.

“Make sure to wipe off any blood that comes out. Usually, you wipe it off while disassembling it, but there’s not enough time now, so it’s better to disassemble everything first.”

“…….”

“But you have a pretty good sense for it, considering it’s your first time. You’re doing well.”

“…….”

Lee Ah-young’s gaze was directed at Kim Min-joo, not the monster.

“Why, why are you looking at me like that?”

“Kim Min-joo, you’re the operations team leader… right?”

“Yes? W-Well, I am.”

A look of not knowing what was going on.

But Lee Ah-young had an even more puzzled expression.

“No, how can an operations team leader be so knowledgeable about cleaning? Were you originally from the cleaning team?”

“Ah, I helped out with the work for a few days before.”

“…Again, without me?”

“W-Well, I didn’t know you back then, Deputy Manager…….”

“I’m kidding. Just kidding.”

Lee Ah-young laughed playfully.

It seemed she had developed a taste for teasing Kim Min-joo.

“Ah, Jun-woo! How many dungeons are left today?”

At that moment, Team Leader Park, who was working over there, called out to me.

“This is our last assignment for today. Other teams have been deployed to the remaining ones. Well, they’ll be finishing up soon too.”

“[Yeoksam-dong is a neighborhood in Seoul] dungeon cleaning complete!”

The radio crackled to life as soon as I finished speaking.

“[Daechi-dong is a neighborhood in Seoul] 1-dong dungeon also complete!”

“[Nonhyeon-dong is a neighborhood in Seoul], almost complete!”

“[Samsung-dong is a neighborhood in Seoul] has been finished.”

Radios crackled one after another.

“Okay. Good work, everyone.”

Whew, I let out a long sigh.

It took exactly 4 days.

For 4 days, all the members of Kim Min-joo’s team and Lee Ah-young’s team were dedicated to cleaning.

Only now did they finally become roughly similar to Team 1’s subjugation amount.

Well, as expected, the fact that Team 1 gave up on their own after a short while was a big factor. Thanks to that, the amount of subjugation has decreased significantly…….

At this rate, no more uncleared dungeons will appear.

The three that have already appeared… can’t be helped, but.

“Good work, Mr. Instructor.”

At that time, Kim Min-joo said with a bright smile.

Instead of answering, I stared at her.

“Why, why are you doing that?”

“No, just…”

I scratched my head with an awkward expression.

“I encouraged you guys to join the performance competition, and now I’m telling you to back out. I feel like I’ve made you suffer for nothing…….”

“…….”

I stirred up a fight by getting those guys who weren’t even interested in the first place involved… and even dragged in the support team. Besides, I even boasted that I wasn’t interested in anything but first place…….

In the end, it was like I abandoned everything because I didn’t want to work on the uncleared dungeons.

‘Embarrassing.’

I lowered my head.

“Wow, I can’t believe you’re worried about that.”

“……?”

“Don’t worry. Even if you had pushed forward with the operation, we wouldn’t have done it.”
A rather serious expression.

“And… if everyone was really only focused on first place, would our team and the support team have rushed over at the word that we were being deployed to the cleaning team?”

Indeed, it was quite a sight.

The hunters brought A+ weapons that they had only received support for. The support team tore off all three plasma cutters that they said they only had.

Suddenly, only crazy people were gathered.

“The performance must be far behind, right?”

While finishing the work and leaving the dungeon, Kim Min-joo asked cautiously.

“Of course. Well, we’ve been all-in on cleaning for 4 days.”

“But there are still 3 weeks left, so if we start again now, we might be able to catch up.”

“Hmm…… it’s going to be close.”

I quickly calculated in my head.

The current difference with Team 1 is almost double.

But considering that Team 1’s strength is currently quite depleted…….

“It’s not impossible… but I can’t be sure.”

“Well, we’ll work overtime.”

Lee Ah-young suddenly jumped in.

“Our team seems to still be able to do it.”

Kim Min-joo added.

I turned my head and looked at the state of my team members.

They all had expressions that said they were just waiting to be ordered.

A burst of laughter came out at the sight.

“Then, even now…….”

“No. I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”

As soon as we came out of the dungeon, a voice that poured cold water on us was heard.

Wondering who it was, I quickly turned my head.

“The settlement is over.”

Director Lee Doo-shik, who was standing in front of the dungeon, came into view.

It seemed he had been waiting for us.

“The settlement is over? The season is a month long. There are still 3 weeks left.”

“You know why… the situation has become like this because of one idiot who is blinded by performance right now, so we can’t do any more here.”

Director Lee Doo-shik shrugged his shoulders.

“Anyway, the Control Team has withdrawn all operation permits after today. You probably won’t be able to do any more subjugation until the cleaning team situation calms down.”

“T-Then…….”

“Operation Team 3, 24. Team 1, 55. And Team 2, 25. This is the final settlement.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Kim Min-joo’s expression brightened.

“2nd, 2nd place?!”

At the same time, the eyes of the team members widened in an instant.

“Wow! 2nd place even after resting for 4 days?!”

“Kuhahaha! What the hell were the other teams doing?”

“It’s just 2nd place, but who cleaned up Team 1’s mess! If you think about that, we’re in 1st place!”

The team members celebrated loudly.

But my reaction was quite different.

“……I see.”

Naturally, my voice became calm.

Of course, 2nd place was a satisfactory result, but it was meaningless to me.

Because the condition that Director Lee Doo-shik had presented was to beat Team 1.

“You’re not expecting me to be generous and say you won, are you?”

“If I was going to have such expectations in the first place, I would have pushed forward. Losing is losing.”

“Hahaha! That’s right. You’re right. Losing is losing. But that’s just you…….”

Lee Doo-shik’s gaze shifted from me to the team members.

“You guys won. Perfectly.”

Everyone had awkward expressions.

I don’t know why Gu Sang-chan was scratching his head there.

“Thank you. If it weren’t for you guys, it would have been a real disaster. Well… I can’t call it a reward, but I’m going to hold Seo Min-cheol strictly accountable for this. The same goes for Team 1 and the Control Team.”

“It won’t be easy. He’s such a bastard that he’s probably created loopholes to escape.”

“…….”

Director Lee Doo-shik’s eyebrows twitched for a moment.

“You talk like you’ve worked with him for a long time.”

“……It’s just a hunch. A hunch.”

I made excuses in a hurry, but he still had a puzzled expression.

“Planning ability, command ability, leadership, information gathering ability, and a hunch. Whatever you put on it, it’s all about you.”

“Yes?”

“What the hell is your identity? I’m not at a level to evaluate, but it seems like you’re not comparable to the Team 1 guys who call themselves elites. I haven’t heard of any young talent like you in the private guilds either.”

“…….”

I was wondering if I should give the same answer, but.

“Well, what your identity is isn’t really that important… do you have any thoughts on working with me on something?”

Lee Doo-shik brought up a sudden story.

“What kind of work is it?”

“Hmm… it’s a bit much to say here. If you have any thoughts, come to my office when you have time.”

“……I understand.”

It was obvious without saying.

It must be about the headquarters reform, just like in my past life.

I should never go.

“Okay, then… oh dear. It’s already this late. Then I’ll go first, so take it easy for a few days. Ah, and there will be good news soon. Thanks to you, things have become a little easier.”

Director Lee Doo-shik moved his steps, still letting out a hearty laugh until the end.

Good news, huh.

Is it just my imagination that I feel uneasy?

A big shot who only says what he wants to say and disappears.

The team members all had expressions that wondered what was going on… but only Lee Ah-young was different.

“Let’s have a company dinner, right?”

……She’s also the type of person who only says what she wants to say.

“That’s great! Call all the friends who have finished working!”

“It’s been a long time since we had a company dinner. You’re going too, right, Unnie?”

“Ah… yes.”

“Hyungnim [Korean honorific for older brother or respected male]! Can I join too?! I know how to eat meat too!”

The atmosphere quickly became noisy.

In the meantime, Kim Min-joo and Moon So-yeon’s gazes flew in.

“Mr. Instructor, you’re going too, right?”

“Jun-woo, you’re going this time too, right?!”

Silence came at the same time.

“Sigh…….”

With a faint sigh, I nodded my head.