Laborer Mr. Kim Reaps Sweet Rewards with Auto-Hunting - Chapter 43

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 43

A new feature.

[Worker Dispatch]
– Office (Truth’s Eye)

Even without using it, I can feel exactly what this is.
It says “Worker Dispatch” right there.

“The destination is Truth’s Eye’s office.”

Why did this suddenly appear?
I don’t know the reason, but it’s good news.
New features are always a blessing.
The problem is.

“I have to accept them as a Subcontractor.”

Well.
I need to know who’s requesting first.

[Truth’s Eye]

What in the world is this?
I ask on a whim, just in case.

“Truth’s Eye? Seriously, you don’t know?”
“I’m hearing about it for the first time too!”

Our two ever-innocent Workers just tilt their heads in confusion.
Yeah….
That’s exactly what I’d expect from them.
And Todd?
He’s already got the pad up, tapping away.
There’s your work ethic.
But what’s going to come up?

“Truth’s Eye is a private detective guild.”

Huh.
It exists?
I wondered when I heard the name.
But it really is just a guild, plain and simple.
And moreover.

“A private detective guild? But why would they send a subcontract request….”

I tilt my head, then it hits me.
Don’t tell me.

“Did Yun-jang do something?”

A new feature doesn’t just appear in the Personnel Management Office.
There’s usually something that needs to happen first to unlock it.

What Yun Ha-jun did today.
Workers, escape room, cafe, barbecue.
Even that?
We didn’t go to any dungeons or towers.
Today we promised ourselves to spend the whole day just goofing around.
If something changed,
it’s likely someone was off doing their own thing.

“I’ll ask about it tomorrow.”
“Yes, we should.”

[Subcontractor registration request received.]
[Accepting will unlock new features.]

As for this,
hmm.
Whether to accept or not.
I’ll put that decision on hold for now.
It does come up if I search for it.
But I can’t just accept without knowing what’s going on.

“A private detective guild would have fast information—. Heh heh, if used well….”

Why is Todd doing that again?
The way he’s laughing….
It’s like when we first met.
What’s he latched onto this time?
Really….
These guys, I swear I understand them and then I don’t.
It’s difficult. So difficult.

* * *

The next morning.

“Ugh….”

Did we have way too much fun yesterday?
My whole body aches the moment I wake up.
My eyes don’t want to open.
I’d like to sleep more.
But I can’t just sleep in whenever I want when there’s no work.
That’s how sleeping late becomes a habit.
I have to force myself up somehow.
In times like these, a little commotion is best.

[Summoning fixed team]

Just call the workers over and—

“Boss, come on, let’s have some morning coffee!”
“Rani too! Rani wants some!”
“Rani, the children shouldn’t have coffee.”
“Good morning to you, Chief.”

Yeah.
This is it.
Whew, I’m wide awake now.

“Gramps, gramps! That meat yesterday was so delicious—where did you take us!”
“Heh heh.”
“It’s fine! The boss is treating us? Let’s go. Even the newbies can eat!”
“Yeah! I love beef!”

What?
Why are you all looking at me like that?

“Boss, are you calling the orc guys and we’re all eating together?”
“We’re eating?”
“This early in the morning?”

Swallow.
Ahem.
Robin, swallow your drool.
We’re not eating now.
First, let’s hear this.
What our Grand Magician did yesterday.
Starting with a question.

“Yun-jang, do you happen to know a place called Truth’s Eye? A subcontractor registration request suddenly came in yesterday.”

I show him the message as I’m talking, and he nods.

“Hah, word travels fast. I was planning to tell you about this today anyway.”

Right.
So it was them after all.
I had a feeling about it.
But how did it lead to a subcontractor registration?
I listen expectantly.

“What? Surveillance…? Around the clock, twenty-four seven?”

The contents were quite shocking.
To summarize the key points:
Some outfit called the Chinese Special Operations Bureau had placed someone to monitor my every move and action.
Even before I quit my job as a worker…?

“Indeed.”
“Wow….”

Good thing I moved.
If they’d seen me gathering workers on the rooftop….
I’d be caught red-handed, wouldn’t I?

“How did you find out? I was pretty careful about it.”

I really did try my best.
I deliberately didn’t swap Magic Stones all at once, right?
Sometimes, little by little.
Just a few at a time….
So even though they accumulated, I couldn’t use them.
And now I feel cheated, honestly.

“Ah, we didn’t pinpoint you specifically. We were simply monitoring all recently awakened Awakeners.”

What is the Awakener Management Bureau even doing?
Letting personal information like that leak everywhere.
Wait.
That can’t be right!
Anyway, the information is already out there.

“How am I supposed to move houses?”
“Well… wouldn’t any change of residence still get logged in the records anyway? Perhaps it would be better to use that subcontractor instead.”
“You mean Truth’s Eye? How would we use them?”
“Since they deal in information and are all Awakeners themselves, wouldn’t they be useful for money laundering?”

Our little bear Todd.
He rests his chin in that small hand of his, offering counsel.
Hmm.
Not bad, actually.
I’d need to verify they’re trustworthy first, of course.
But if they check out…
That method might work.
Okay.
Let’s start by approaching them.
I’m turning the idea over in my head when—

“It should be fine for now. The Grand Magician took care of it.”
“Oh….”

That’s a relief.
I let out a breath of relief, then pause.

“Took care of it…?”

What does that mean?
Surely not…
It can’t be, right?
I look at Todd cautiously.
Huh.
He nods slowly.

“Why hide it? The method you were thinking of is the right one.”

The right one?
The method that flickered through my mind at the word “took care of it”—
There’s no way to handle it except by killing.
And that’s the right way?

“It is.”

* * *

A shocking revelation.
The Worker I summoned killed people.
And not just one or two, either.

“How many…?”
“Eleven, sir.”

Right.
Eleven.
No…

“You good, boss?”
“Your face just went pale….”
“Sir, are you alright? Your complexion has turned quite ashen.”
“Uh, yeah. I’m fine….”

But I’m really not.
I’m being honest—I’m in shock.
Murder.
Eleven people?
And why does he look so calm about it?

The Workers’ values are different from mine.
I knew that already.
But…
Even so, this is too much.

“Sigh…”

I was confused, but managed to keep my composure barely intact.
Right.
Yun-jang is a Worker.
So are they.
All the Workers I’ve seen so far.
Even if I’ve sensed their values differ from mine at times, they’ve never acted excessively strangely.
There must be some reason for this.

“I’d like to hear the details of what happened, if I may.”

Let me hear them out first…

“You said you had a list of Awakeners, right? They determined that the director wasn’t on it, so they decided to handle all of them.”

What?
Handle? That too?
Why does everyone love that word so much?

“Good thinking, kid. Well done.”
“Yes, Director. If Yun-jang hadn’t stepped in back there, the damage would have been much worse.”
“Sigh… Fair enough.”

Yun Ha-jun. Twenty-three years old.
A young man who understands reality.
Murder.
A word far removed from an ordinary life.
And yet?
It’s better than it happening to me.
Besides, it’s not just me at risk either.
All the recently registered Awakeners would have been killed.
The problem is…

“But will it end here?”

Now that things have come to this, I feel it anew.
The power of being a Personnel Management Office Director.
It’s convenient, but not invincible.
I’m just an ordinary person in my own right.
The immediate threat is handled, sure.
But if China moves again?
It could get dangerous fast.
While I was thinking…
Todd, our brains, raised his hand again.

“Director, what do you think of this approach?”

* * *

Korea.
Eleven deaths in a shadowed corner of Chinatown.
Before the Korean police could even identify them,
China already knew.

“The agents’ communications have gone silent?”

The man receiving the report was Liu Hao, head of the Chinese Special Operations Bureau.
He furrowed his brow at what followed.

“Yes, sir. We’ve passed the scheduled check-in time with no word from them. Most likely….”
“They’re dead.”

If they were alive, they would have found some way to report in.
Ten trained agents.
All of them men Liu Hao had raised himself.
Men he’d forged through training that pushed far beyond human limits, hurling them into the crucible again and again.

Even if their limbs were severed, as long as breath remained, they would have established a means to send word.
No word at all?
There was only one possibility.
Ten agents, all deceased.
And perhaps….
simultaneously.

“Unbelievable.”

Who could the culprit be?
There was no need to wonder.
It had to be the Director of the Personnel Management Office.
Without him, it would have been impossible.

Those ten agents.
All of them were men you’d call monsters.
Combined, he’d stake his reputation they could even kill Wei Jin, the former number-one ranked Awakener.
The current top, Chen Wei?
He’d heard Chen Wei was climbing toward the sixtieth floor soon.
Liu Hao was certain of it.
Chen Wei could be handled by five of his agents, being generous with the estimate.
They were weapons honed specifically for dealing with humans….
And all of them had vanished?
Without even a chance to send word.

“Two conclusions, then.”

The odds were high that the Director of the Personnel Management Office was involved.
And….

“His abilities are more formidable than anticipated.”

Beyond mere Dungeon conquest—now human hunting as well.

“A true monster….”

The scenario where all ten died.
He hadn’t placed the probability at zero.
But now that it had become reality, vertigo swept through him.

“All right. Draft a report and send it through.”

An order from above.
Locating the Personnel Management Office director.
Once found, they’d handle naturalization or whatever else they saw fit on their end.
That’s how it should have gone.
But it didn’t.
The result: failure.
I need to report it first.
After that?
I follow whatever order comes next.
That’s the mission given to Liu Hao, the head of the Chinese Special Operations Bureau.

“Even if that order leads to death.”

What kind of order will come down.
I can predict it with perfect accuracy without even seeing it.

[It’s quite likely that the Personnel Management Office director is on that list. Send operatives again and pinpoint him exactly.]

The lives of operatives in the first place?
Expendable.
We’ve got a lead on the Personnel Management Office director’s location. That’s fine.
They’ll probably think that’s enough.
Not that I have any affection for those men.
They’re nameless grunts, after all.
But still.

“A monster strong enough to dispatch them so easily… how can I possibly…”

Of course, there are still plenty of operatives.
But what this kind of operation needs is quality, not quantity.
Ten elite operatives, dead?
That’s nearly irreplaceable.
I’ll do as I’m ordered, of course.
I just hope a reasonable order comes back….

* * *

The same news.
Reached the China Central Awakener Management Bureau as well.

“Director, what do you make of this?”
“Hmm. I had a bad feeling about them from the start… didn’t think even they’d fail.”

The Chinese Special Operations Bureau and the China Central Awakener Management Bureau.
Rivals.
When one side suffers repeated failures, the other gains leverage.
Just as control shifted to the Bureau after Wei Jin’s death.
But.
That’s not what matters right now.

“Something tells me this won’t end here.”

Truth is, the situation has already become considerably irregular.
The original objective.
Obtaining weapons from the Personnel Management Office director.
Now?
It’s already gone completely off the rails.
If we go to his front gate asking for weapons when we’re practically dead already, will he give them?
Not unless he’s insane.
The problem is.

“Still, I don’t think the higher-ups will just give up like this….”
“No, that’s the problem.”

The Premier and the other supreme powers.
Those who still believed China was the center of the world.
Would they abandon their plans after a single failure?
Absolutely not.
They faced no real danger.
No matter how capable the director of the Personnel Management Office was.
No sane person would dare make an enemy of China.
That’s right.
Surely….

* * *

Truth’s Eye.
Once an ordinary private detective guild.
Now?

“You want me to open a branch in China?”

She was receiving an unexpected order.
From whom?
From a peculiar teddy bear.

“Yes. Just open one under the pretext of expanding the Truth’s Eye guild network.”
“But… why China…?”

The teddy bear who’d turned Truth’s Eye upside down.
Todd chuckled softly.
Why, you ask?
If we open a branch in Beijing, our Workers can go there whenever we need them to.
China?
Let them try pulling off one clever scheme.
A top-tier Worker planted right in the heart of the mainland.
They’d get bombed by someone like Yun-jang.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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