The Wise Cleaning Life Of A Returning Genius Hunter [EN]: Chapter 91

090

French Paris, PB Corporation Headquarters.

“Chief Kim has resigned.”

Team Leader Marc received unexpected news.

“Huh? Suddenly?”

“Yes. The article says it’s for personal reasons, so they don’t seem to want to give a specific reason… Well, anyway…”

“Pfft, hahaha!”

He burst into laughter.

“Looks like the warning worked.”

Then he said with a very satisfied expression.

Luring the branches in was risky, but it had an effect.

Team Leader Marc thought so and crossed his arms.

Well, the Southeast Asian branches weren’t that important anyway. Even if they wanted to withdraw from the association because of this, they wouldn’t be able to, considering their position.

‘Everything is good in the end,’ he mused.

Except for the branches.

At that moment, an employee opened his mouth with a smile.

“Still, it’s a relief that the thorn in our side is gone.”

“I know. I feel relieved now…”

At that moment, Team Leader Marc trailed off, feeling a strange sense of unease.

‘Wait a minute…’

Come to think of it, doesn’t it seem odd that a mere janitor from the East was a thorn in PB Corporation’s side?

Moreover, the fact that he, the so-called balance adjustment team leader, was not able to eliminate that thorn himself but was relieved that he had walked out of the association on his own accord, was already a blow to his pride and a deep sense of defeat.

“…I feel like shit.”

“Well, he wasn’t an ordinary guy. Haha.”

“I know. That’s what I don’t understand the most.”

Team Leader Marc clicked his tongue.

Even ability users who have been called geniuses since childhood can’t last more than five years in this industry.

In such an industry, in just five months, he became the head of the operations headquarters, took over the Korean Association, blocked our hostile M&A [Mergers and Acquisitions], and acquired the Vietnam Association on his own.

‘Does this even make sense?’ he wondered.

‘Unless he’s living his life twice.’

“…That’s it. He’s already gone, why keep thinking about him.”

He sighed.

But the employee didn’t seem to think it was time to rest assured.

“You’re not thinking of letting him go, are you? He knows about our existence, so letting him go is a bit…”

“Who said I’m letting him go?”

Team Leader Marc snapped.

“You can’t face a guy like him who risks his life for his colleagues head-on. No, he wants that. He’s the kind of guy who thinks it’s better to be in danger alone than to put his colleagues in danger.”

“So that’s why he resigned in such a hurry. To protect his colleagues.”

“I guess so.”

However—Team Leader Marc continued.

“You know, that much integrity is ultimately his weakness. If you keep clinging to his surroundings, he’ll eventually give up his life.”

“Ah…”

The employee made an exaggeratedly admiring expression.

“Any news from headquarters?”

“They say they’re starting to push for the integration of subjugation rights. I think Cain, the team leader of the recovery team, will be working with them.”

“They’re busy too.”

“Will it affect our team?”

“It’s not a completely separate project, and there will definitely be times when our team is needed as they proceed with their work. Let’s just keep doing what we’re doing for now. We’ll hear from them eventually. By the way, what is Yang doing?”

“I told him to hide for a while. He’s living like he’s dead.”

“Tell him to get ready. We don’t know when we’ll have to move again. Oh, and tell him straight: if he fails again, he’ll be found dead in the Han River [a major river in South Korea, often associated with suicide in popular culture].”

“…I understand.”

“While you’re at it, contact the Bank Item Management Team and have them prepare some anti-ability stones.”

“…Yes?”

The employee’s eyebrows twitched at the word anti-ability stone.

That item was used when working with hunters of S-rank or higher.

But as far as the employee remembered, there was no S-rank or higher work for the time being.

‘Then why suddenly…’

“You’re not thinking of using it on Kim…”

“That’s right.”

“Isn’t that too much? Even if he’s an irregular, I don’t think we need to use an anti-ability stone.”

“Well…”

Team Leader Marc leaned back in his chair and continued.

“You never know.”

***

A small studio apartment.

The room was quite messy because I had been working from home since I became the head of the headquarters.

I roughly cleaned up the documents containing the subjugation plan and dungeon information and sat facing Director Lee Ah-young.

‘Tsk, the more I think about it, the more absurd it is,’ I thought.

How can a person who is supposed to be the director of the support team think of stealing association information to participate in someone else’s business?

Well, other associations’ information was essential for the construction of the branch, apart from my business, so I had no reason to refuse.

But before that.

Before getting to the main point, I said.

“What about the time stone research you were doing?”

“Um…”

She looked obviously embarrassed.

“Well, the lab isn’t finished yet, and some of the equipment hasn’t arrived…”

“You’re saying you quit without making any progress.”

“…”

“Sigh…”

Director Lee Ah-young scratched her head awkwardly.

After a while.

“But why are you so concerned about that? You didn’t care when you were the head of headquarters, and now it’s not really relevant.”

Well, it might look strange to others.

It’s an item that can’t be processed into a weapon or other item, and not many people would bother to spend time and money researching it unless they were in a related field.

I didn’t really care about it either until I had a hypothesis.

‘Should I tell her this…’

I hesitated for a moment, but decided that I could tell her now.

“This is just a hypothesis, but if some bad guys process that time stone…”

“That’s illegal, you know?”

“No, I said it’s a hypothesis. Are you going to keep interrupting me?”

“…Okay. Keep talking.”

Ahem.

After clearing my throat, I continued.

“If they process the time stone into bullets and shoot them at someone… Is there a possibility that a loop will occur to that person?”

“…?”

She looked like I was talking nonsense.

‘I knew it,’ I thought.

I immediately waved my hand, thinking I had said something unnecessary.

“That’s it. Just forget I said anything…”

“It might work.”

“…Yes?”

An unexpected answer came back.

“I told you before, the time stone’s loop doesn’t only apply to dungeons. It’s like a skill.”

“…”

“So, wouldn’t it work? I don’t know what form the loop would take, but…”

Director Lee Ah-young shrugged.

She looked like it was no big deal, but I couldn’t.

She probably doesn’t know how huge her statement is.

“But that’s just theoretically possible. It’s difficult in reality.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course. First of all, processing a bank item like a time stone requires a lot of capital and technology. Even if you did process it, you couldn’t fire it with just any gun. Maybe a Titan [Likely referring to a powerful, specialized weapon].”

That statement gave me even more confidence.

The International Association has capital and technology, not to mention.

What was embedded in my head was definitely a Titan.

And at the same time, the regression began.

Everything fits.

Then the only question left is one.

“But… why would they bother to shoot someone with a time stone?”

At that time, Director Lee Ah-young suddenly asked a question, as if she had the same question.

“…Well, I told you. It’s just a hypothesis.”

Lee Ah-young pointed out exactly that.

At the time, those guys were determined to kill me.

But if they simply wanted to kill me, there would have been plenty of other ways.

At least if they had used an anti-ability stone to disable all of my abilities, they could have killed me with ordinary bullets.

But if the bullet that hit my head was really a processed time stone…

Was there a reason to do that?

“Well… I think I understand. Let’s get to the main point now.”

I changed the subject to work.

There was no point in thinking about it now.

I picked up the documents that Director Lee Ah-young had brought and said.

“By the way, is domestic branch information really necessary? Frankly, I want to focus more on overseas associations than domestic ones.”

“If you’re going to do business with overseas associations, you need to build recognition in the domestic association first.”

As if she had been waiting for this, she began to explain.

“As you can see in the documents, branches with a certain size, such as the Suwon Branch, Daejeon Branch, and Busan Branch, have at least 10 cleaning teams.”

“That’s more than I thought. I don’t think there were that many…”

“Well, it was a big deal when you became the head of headquarters. They saw with their own eyes that the cleaning team had a big impact on performance, so branches with some leeway established new ones, thinking this was their chance.”

It must have been when there was a ‘cleaning team raising’ craze among the branches.

“But well, we’re not targeting those branches anyway, are we? Just skip that and the next chapter is a list of branches with 5 or fewer cleaning teams.”

“Hmm.”

I began to scan the documents carefully.

“As you can see, most of them are not in good financial condition. They also have a severe shortage of hunters, so they generally rely heavily on private guilds.”

“Tsk, shouldn’t the headquarters issue an order for this level?”

“Hunters don’t want to go. First of all, it’s too rural…”

She lowered her voice for no reason and continued.

“Also, I heard that they’re so isolated that there are a lot of strange territorial disputes and irrationalities.”

“I can see why they wouldn’t want to go.”

“Right?”

She shrugged.

“Anyway, the lack of cleaning teams limits the amount of subjugation they can do per day, and they don’t have the budget to increase the number of cleaning teams. It’s the perfect condition for us to dig in.”

“I guess so. Okay. Let’s focus on that for now… Let’s start with business registration. We need to find a suitable office too.”

“It’s going to be busy. We need to hire employees, get contracts while touring the branches… Oh, and we need to make connections with the byproduct processing facilities.”

“Yes, well…”

“Section Chief Park Geun-tae knows someone in this area, so I’ll contact him. Oh, and I’ll take care of the necessary documents…”

“…”

As I silently watched her pour out words without a break, she noticed my gaze and looked at me.

“…What are you looking at? Is there something you don’t like?”

“It’s nothing.”

I shook my head.

It was because I felt a strange sense of reassurance, though I didn’t say it.

‘To think that such a passionate person is the same person as that machine-like person from my past life…’ I mused.

I couldn’t believe it.

If I had known she was like this, I should have treated her as a friend instead of a subordinate back then. It would have been much more helpful, I thought for a moment.

“…Hey, hey! Are you listening?”

“Yes, yes? What did you say?”

I suddenly came to my senses.

“I asked if you had a company name in mind.”

“Ah. Well… I do.”

“What is it?”

I hesitated for a moment, feeling embarrassed, and then slowly opened my mouth.

“Korea Agency of Reset-a-dungeon Management Association.”

“…?”

She looked puzzled.

“Korean Association Dungeon Cleaning Management Organization…? It’s straightforward, but… it’s too long.”

“Well, we can just take the acronym.”

“The acronym is…”

“KARMA.”

I answered immediately.

“It’s Karma Corporation.”