The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 162

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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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A Civil Servant Who Hides His Strength Is Exceptionally Good at Possession – Episode 162

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‘I need a subspace item. Something like a magical pouch that lets the user summon whatever’s inside whenever they want.’
A woman in tattered clothes kneels before a monster.
I can immediately recognize who she is.
I have eyes.
For now.
And through my eyes, I see Yulia Kim wearing an eye patch on one side.
At the same time, I hear Yulia Kim’s voice with my ears.
‘You could make it, couldn’t you? I brought you a hand, Fabergé. Take a look.’
Yulia Kim’s Russian flows directly into my ears and embeds itself.
Now I understand.
The one connected to me through this neural network is Russian.
I love vodka with a marine animal engraved on it, swimming through water, and after drinking that vodka, I love forging blades in a smithy with my heated body.
It’s been ten years since I awakened as a Hunter, and even after awakening, I’ve crafted fine blades for local hunters.
Before that, I spent twenty years learning blacksmithing from my father and inherited his smithy.
My father’s smithy was located near a deep forest in Russia.
In the gray forest where he lived, monsters frequently appeared, and hunters often sought me out to escape such dangers.
Then one day, my daughter, with whom I’d lost contact for a long time, came and asked for medical expenses.
‘My son is sick.’
‘A son? You have a son? But why didn’t you invite me to your wedding?’
My daughter fell silent.
She didn’t speak about her husband.
I thought her stubborn nature, and yet her sense of responsibility to protect the son she had left, resembled me.
‘Walking a difficult path, aren’t you…’
I wanted to share with her the words my father once told me.
And so, I decided to take on a job I’d received long ago but shelved.
Kuznetsov
I pulled out that very business card they’d told me to contact if I ever felt like working, and I began crafting the weapons they wanted.
Enormous sums of money came in, and I was able to give my daughter the money she needed.
But the work didn’t end there.
I thought there would be only one job, but the work didn’t stop.
I knew what those damn bastards were making.
They were dangerous people.
I packed my things and fled to escape them.
But I was discovered in two days.
‘I can’t make such filthy things anymore.’
‘Is that so? But your hands seem to be saying otherwise, don’t they?’
A man with a prosthetic leg grinned and spoke.
And soon I was forcibly dragged onto a ship and thrown into this place.
Before that monster, whose entire body was as tattered as the clothes it wore.
‘What perfectly exquisite hands!’
Yulia Kim approached me.
She lifted my bound hands for display.
‘Look at this. The stats are formidable, but more importantly, these hands are specialized for crafting objects!’
The monster tilted its head at her words.
In a low voice, the monster spoke.
And I understood.
The monster’s voice was different from what I had known.
Perhaps… its vocal cords were different.
‘But your hands appear far more beautiful to me.’
At those words, Yulia Kim’s face drained of all color.
Observing her reaction, the monster slowly turned its head and looked at me, speaking.
‘Yes. That one is imperfect as well, but serviceable enough… though the fingers are somewhat lacking.’
The monster drew closer.
Growing larger and larger.
The monster’s enormous hand covered my face.
I separated from my body.
Neural connections severed—
My eyes vanished, my ears vanished.
My emotions disappeared, my memories disappeared.

* * *
Pee So-won knew this was all madness.
But when she met Cha Jeon-hyeok at the Hunter Special Detention Center, her mind changed.
‘Cha Jeon-hyeok.’
The moment she saw him in his prison uniform, it would have been a lie to say she felt no pity whatsoever.
Even knowing that Cha Jeon-hyeok might be connected to Lee Yu-ji’s parents’ deaths.
They’d worked together for eight years, after all.
‘Team Leader Pee. You know, right? I’m not that bad of a guy. I just had no choice because the higher-ups ordered me to do it.’
‘By higher-ups, you mean the Chief, correct?’
‘….’
Cha Jeon-hyeok fell silent.
Then he glanced around with eyes that seemed unstable.
‘There are eyes everywhere here. Ears too. Crazy bastards, I’m telling you!’
What ears, what eyes—she didn’t want to know.
Pee So-won had no desire to understand.
‘Cha Jeon-hyeok. I came because I have questions. Answer them. Then….’
She clenched her teeth.
‘You won’t be wearing that outfit much longer.’
‘…!’
At those words, Cha Jeon-hyeok’s eyes widened.
A plea bargain.
Criminals always made that expression the moment a way to cover up their crimes through a ‘deal’ or ‘bargain’ appeared.
The instant she recognized that typical criminal expression on Cha Jeon-hyeok’s face, all pity vanished from within her.
‘I, I’ll do anything….’
‘Do you know anything about Detective Lee Do-young, who died four years ago, and Officer Han Seong-ye?’
‘….’
The glimmer in Cha Jeon-hyeok’s eyes sank back into fear.
Her long-honed instincts as an investigator kicked in.
He knew something.
And this was Cha Jeon-hyeok’s reverse scale.
‘Did you alone steal equipment from the Equipment Support Division all this time? Four years ago and now—were there others involved with you?’
‘…So-won.’
Cha Jeon-hyeok swallowed hard, his throat parched, as he looked around.
As if someone might be hiding in the empty room even after she’d sent out the guard.
Pee So-won let out a hollow laugh.
‘Yes. That answered my question.’
‘So-won!’
Pee So-won kicked the massive table in front of her with all her strength.
The handcuffed Cha Jeon-hyeok instinctively covered his face, but the table narrowly missed him and crashed into the wall instead.
‘Let me ask one last thing.’
‘….’
‘Eight years ago at the Busan Port, when a certain investigator passed away, their gun misfired in reverse. It wasn’t just a simple misfire—the equipment exploded. That investigator was Grade A, and the ammunition inside was powerful enough to cause serious damage to an A-grade body. Right?’
‘…That’s….’
Cha Jeon-hyeok clenched his teeth.
He stared at the table embedded in the wall, shattered into pieces, his eyes filled with fear, and then dropped to his knees before Pee So-won.
‘That’s a matter Captain Hong also inquired about before leaving.’
In that instant, she doubted her own ears.
‘What?’
‘The guy who terminated that investigation early was Captain Hong. Captain Hong… no, how do you think Captain Hong went straight from captain to director?’
Pee So-won’s face contorted.
‘Captain Hong is also part of the “line.” So-won, join us too.’
Cha Jeon-hyeok’s eyes looking up at her shone brightly.
‘You don’t know because you’re unaware. There’s already a massive presence in this world.’
What is he saying.
This insane bastard.
This lunatic bastard.
Such words should have tumbled from her lips, but they didn’t.
She merely pushed away Cha Jeon-hyeok’s hands grasping at her legs and stepped backward.
‘You just need to give up. So-won….’
Cha Jeon-hyeok’s eyes gleamed.
Those words didn’t seem to strike her eardrums from the outside.
It was as if the sound was spreading from within.
Give up here.
Everything.
Such helplessness enveloped her.
So she made her decision.
‘Listen. We’re infiltrating today. The rest of the Public Investigation Division will provide backup.’
‘Backup? Wouldn’t it be better if we just went together….’
Ham I-na and Park Min-bae, as well as Kwon Ik-seong’s expression, all hardened.
‘And wouldn’t it be better to request support? Since it’s a Russian port, there might be diplomatic issues involved.’
Pee So-won shook her head.
‘No. Just the four of us go. Even though they say Grade S, the Craftsman isn’t dangerous, and we’ll arrest them by confining them in subspace, so there’s no major problem. If there really is a problem, I’ll contact Kwon Ik-seong separately.’
No one could be trusted.
Pee So-won grasped this fact with absolute clarity.
Not even Captain Hong, whom she’d worked with for eight years.
Pee So-won called Kwon Ik-seong aside to speak privately.
‘Don’t report this investigation to the Chief.’
‘…What’s the reason.’
There was only one way to persuade this stickler for rules.
‘The Chief can’t be excluded as a suspect in this case. That’s my conclusion. You know the principles of internal investigations, right?’
It was about establishing principles. And having everyone be honest about it.
Kwon Ik-seong answered without the slightest hesitation.
‘Yes.’
As expected, this bastard was insane too.
Thanks to him, whatever the cost, I could attempt this mad gambit.
And the results of that madness were far more devastating than anticipated.
“Ugh, cough….”
Watching Lee Yu-ji’s face turn ashen as she was lifted by the monster’s grip, I felt the world spin before my eyes.
‘Don’t worry. You won’t die. I’ll protect you.’
Han Su-eop’s words from my first deployment, when I was trembling with anxiety, came flooding back.
With desperate determination, I fired at the monster.
No matter how many times I shot, no matter how perfectly I aimed, the creature had no weak points.
If there was a weakness, it was only—
‘The egg.’
But how could I possibly reach it now—
It was at that moment.
The light drained from Lee Yu-ji’s eyes.
As the monster loosened its grip, she collapsed to the ground.
Then it placed its hand on her leg.
I could see it applying force as if to tear the limb clean off.
My breath caught in my throat.
For the first time, I threw my gun to the ground.
I violated the Coach’s strict warning never to do such a thing.
‘Think of this gun as a time bomb that could sever your lifeline. A misfire? You die, someone else dies, the barrel jams? What a headache!’
I didn’t care anymore.
At this point, it didn’t matter if everyone died.
The moment I gripped the short blade and moved toward the monster.

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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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