The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 284

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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 284
[Have you confirmed it?]
Kwon Ik-seong spoke through the communication equipment that Choi Woo-jin had brought.
Pee So-won and I had just climbed to the top of a high-rise building.
We’d confirmed that the black tentacle monster couldn’t collapse the high-rise building itself.
However, the tentacles moved so rapidly that descending again was impossible.
“I’ve confirmed it, but this thing has taken control of nearly half the city.”
Standing atop the reinforced steel of a newly constructed building’s highest floor, I surveyed the landscape below as I spoke.
[Yes, it seems so. What is your current location?]
Pee So-won answered Kwon Ik-seong’s question.
“The mooring mast of the Empire State Building’s airship. For now, we should be able to hold out here, but….”
Pee So-won gazed into the empty air.
She was definitely looking at the same thing I was.
!Error!
The story has been interrupted….
!Error!
Cannot find the lower 50% ranking….
!Error!
The story has not been completed….
The story had not been completed.
That sentence bothered me.
I knew that the world outside this Dungeon was also a ‘world with a protagonist.’
So was this Dungeon’s system something similar to the system I’d seen in my original world?
Or—
‘Was it the same thing?’
“I have no idea what this is.”
[It seems you’re seeing the same message I am.]
“Looks like it. Anyway, that’s not important right now—where are you?”
[I’m….]
A loud rumbling sound erupted.
Soon Choi Woo-jin’s voice cut through the communication.
[You could say I’m preparing to take flight.]
“What?”
Pee So-won furrowed her brow.
I spoke up.
“Don’t tell me you’re trying to fly an airplane. Did you actually buy a plane?”
To my words, Choi Woo-jin replied in his characteristic smooth tone.
“Just in case, I bought a biplane. You know, a light aircraft?”
…This guy’s absolutely insane with money, seriously.
“…So it really is about money, huh.”
To think he was planning to buy a biplane before the currency economy collapsed—he truly is a remarkable human being.
[I’ll head in that direction. Please wait.]
At that moment, Kwon Ik-seong’s voice came through before the communication cut off.
I shifted my gaze from the disconnected device to Pee So-won.
“Do you think this will be alright?”
“A biplane? Well, who knows. If that tentacled monster reaches up and touches it, it’ll just plummet, right?”
“…haha.”
She spoke as if it were someone else’s problem entirely.
“But if that were going to happen, I think it would have already reached upward by now. From what I can tell, that tentacled monster seems to have its own behavioral pattern.”
“What pattern?”
Pee So-won pointed toward the boundary line the tentacled monster hadn’t yet reached.
There, humans bundled with money were fighting each other—some trying to keep their possessions, others trying to steal them.
“It devours humans who possess desire.”
The moment Pee So-won finished speaking, the tentacled monster touched those humans.
In an instant, the bundles of money were torn from them, black liquid sprayed from their heads, and they became part of the tentacled monster.
I saw it too.
The tentacled monster continuously consuming those money-bundled humans.
“So the tentacled monster needs human greed to grow—whether it’s about money or something else.”
“That could be it….”
I shared only part of the thought forming in my mind.
“Or it could be trying to write a new story.”
“A story?”
“Yes. If the system window created the tentacled monster, it must be related to a ‘story.’ And it’s probably deliberating what this ‘story’ should be—while cleaning up the money-bundled ones first.”
“So this is the process of eliminating the money-bundled ones except for the players?”
“It’s a hypothesis.”
Having experienced ‘unnamed extras always die,’ I found it a plausible hypothesis.
If this dungeon’s system is the one I know, then it treats everything except the protagonist as supplementary tools for the protagonist.
And if we assume the protagonist in this world is the Player—
‘If the story is discarded, everything else here would be discarded too.’
“So the players stay alive, the money-bundled bastards get eliminated, and then they’ll introduce a new ranking system?”
“Exactly.”
Just as I said that.
A massive wind blew from above our heads.
We looked up.
A massive object, like the belly of a whale, passed directly over us.
Very slowly.
It was an airship.
I belatedly realized what it was and furrowed my brow.
‘Choi Woo-jin said he was using a biplane?’
This wasn’t a biplane.
And soon, the hull of the massive airship split open, and a ladder descended.
Two faces I recognized climbed down that ladder.
“…It’s the President.”
Pee So-won pointed at one of them with an incredulous expression.
That was right.
Descending from the airship were Baek Hee-ryeong and Lieutenant Cheon.
And the two of them—
Player 201
Player 202
…bore those numbers.
Considering that player numbers were assigned in the order of entry—
“You entered after the Dungeon was created?”
Baek Hee-ryeong didn’t answer my question.
She simply grasped my hand with a deathly pale face.
“Let’s get out of here first.”
“Excuse me?”
I furrowed my brow.
I gently pulled my hand away from hers.
But Baek Hee-ryeong wouldn’t release my hand, and Pee So-won wedged herself between us.
“Hold on. You need to explain the situation.”
Pee So-won forcibly separated our hands and turned her back to me, facing Baek Hee-ryeong.
“The President is just a civil servant who happens to earn more money, right? I don’t think you can be this high-handed with another civil servant?”
At those words, Baek Hee-ryeong let out a hollow laugh.
“An EX-rank Dungeon just appeared in New York City.”
EX-rank….
That meant unranked.
I’d figured it out when Pee So-won’s S-rank rifle proved ineffective—that thing was an EX-rank Monster.
Damn it.
“Is an explanation really necessary in a situation like this?”
“It is necessary. Precisely because of this situation. You need to explain whether external entry is possible, how we’re supposed to evacuate the people inside, things like that, so we can get everyone trapped here out….”
“There’s no way out of here.”
Baek Hee-ryeong spoke with finality.
At those words, Pee So-won furrowed her brow.
“But you just told Lee Yu-ji—”
“You cannot leave this Dungeon without clearing the EX-rank Dungeon. There is only one way.”
Baek Hee-ryeong withdrew something like a jade seal from her pocket.
A haetae was carved upon it.
“Using this royal seal.”
“What is this?”
Lieutenant Cheon, standing beside me, answered in my stead.
“It’s an EX-grade item. A relic left behind after South Korea’s first Dungeon Break. It was discovered near Gyeongbokgung Palace, and as an EX-grade artifact, it possesses the ability to warp people to Geunjeongjeon Hall under any circumstances whatsoever.”
“‘Under any circumstances’… you mean….”
Baek Hee-ryeong answered my question.
“We can escape from here too.”
My eyes widened at those words.
“Then we can get out of here?”
My face lit up brilliantly in that moment.
Baek Hee-ryeong turned her head toward Lieutenant Cheon.
Lieutenant Cheon lunged at Pee So-won.
Pee So-won drew a pistol from her waistband, but it was already too late.
Lieutenant Cheon kicked Pee So-won in the chest, sending her sprawling.
Pee So-won was hurled to the ground.
All of this happened in an instant—faster than my eyes could even follow.
Pee So-won was already bound by Lieutenant Cheon’s item, kneeling on the ground.
Her face twisted in pain from the impact of the kick.
As I tried to rush toward Pee So-won, Lieutenant Cheon aimed a gun at her.
Precisely at her temple.
My face contorted at the sight.
I turned back to Baek Hee-ryeong.
“Surely not….”
Baek Hee-ryeong’s eyes were calm.
More than calm—they appeared utterly indifferent.
As if all of this were perfectly natural, my mother opened her mouth.
“The item can only send one person out.”
Without a shred of guilt, my mother continued.
“You get to choose. Either you survive alone here, or—”
My mother looked at Pee So-won as she spoke.
“You definitively kill that person.”

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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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