The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 288

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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 288
Barely gripping her arm, I glared at Baek Hee-ryeong, whose feet precariously balanced on the steel reinforcement.
‘Mother.’
I had no idea what nonsense this “mother” business was, or why this woman was crying.
All I knew was—
“Damn it, I can’t let you die here. I don’t care about anything else—I can’t let someone die right in front of me.”
“Why… why…”
Baek Hee-ryeong looked up at me.
Why?
“Why? Because I’m an investigator, damn it!”
I lifted Baek Hee-ryeong with my right hand.
Why was this woman so strong?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, Lieutenant Cheon seized Baek Hee-ryeong.
He wrenched her arm behind her back and forced her to her knees.
“Wow. You can do that? To Number One?”
At my question, Lieutenant Cheon raised his eyebrows.
“The head of state is the state itself. It’s the first principle of Special Forces. We serve the nation—we can’t let the nation fall.”
That was rather amusing.
I watched Baek Hee-ryeong, kneeling with eyes blazing red, glaring at me.
“You’re… an Awakened One, aren’t you?”
Baek Hee-ryeong didn’t answer my question.
But I could tell for certain.
That overwhelming strength I felt in my right hand.
This person was an Awakened One.
The same person who had clashed with the Hunter Association and argued for restricting the rights of Awakened Ones was herself an Awakened One.
What in the world was going on?
“I don’t care if you’re Awakened or whatever—just tell me what you mean by being Lee Yu-ji’s mother. And about the—”
I gazed at the city, nearly consumed by the black liquid monster.
So that thing was regenerating the monsters inside…
If that was the case, Lee Yu-ji was—
‘Still in there.’
And considering her abilities—
‘She might be doing something.’
Because she was that kind of person.
Whether she overestimated her own power or simply didn’t know how to preserve herself, she always burned through her body to solve problems.
She could never abandon anyone.
Because she was my partner… I had no choice but to believe.
That Lee Yu-ji was still alive in there.
“Give me that. I need to use it.”
Lieutenant Cheon let out a hollow laugh at those words.
“You’re planning to escape alone?”
“No. I have somewhere else I need to be. Why? Are you planning to go alone?”
At my words, Lieutenant Cheon shook his head.
Both of us knew it.
Neither of us had any intention of escaping this place alone.
Whether for personal reasons or public ones.
Damn it.
Living as a civil servant is really exhausting.
That’s when it happened.
A loud noise came from above.
The sound of something like a propeller spinning.
At the same moment, a biplane passed near the steel reinforcement.
It was Choi Woo-jin and Kwon Ik-seong.
I furrowed my brow.
What am I supposed to explain to those bastards now.

* * *
Choi Woo-jin’s eyes opened.
The biplane had already disappeared below, into the black liquid.
It was inevitable since no one was holding the controls.
I looked down at Baek Hee-ryeong, who was kneeling, and spoke.
“Wow. You actually captured the head of an entire nation? So what now? Are you going to put a bullet hole in this bastard’s head and tell all the hunters of South Korea to come rescue Lee Yu-ji?”
As I spoke, I turned to look at Pee So-won, and she sighed as if reading my anger.
“When Lee Yu-ji jumped, I had a gun to her head. Right now, there’s no one here who doesn’t want to rescue Lee Yu-ji…”
“Then damn it, you should have caught her somehow.”
Heat rose to the top of my head.
That woman, the foolish and careless woman I knew, the woman who had no interest in her own life and only cared about others’ lives—
The woman who had already experienced one fall—
I couldn’t bear that I let her fall down there of her own accord.
“Let’s stop this.”
What was with this bastard with his calm face in the middle of all this.
I looked at Kwon Ik-seong.
His expression was so serene it was doubtful whether he even heard that a person had fallen below.
And he claimed to like Lee Yu-ji.
I knew it too.
How Kwon Ik-seong’s expression looked when he saw Lee Yu-ji and how Lee Yu-ji’s expression looked when she saw Kwon Ik-seong were mirror images of each other.
So his attitude made even less sense to me.
Why was he so composed.
What exactly made you so composed.
He gazed at the black liquid below the steel reinforcement and asked Pee So-won.
“So what you’re saying is that thing is a monster that regenerates money bundles on its own?”
“According to Lee Yu-ji’s theory, yes.”
I spoke irritably at how matter-of-factly they were discussing this.
“Then what happens if a person goes in there?”
Kwon Ik-seong looked at me quietly before answering.
“One of two things. Either that person gets recognized as part of the dungeon’s composition and gets regenerated—”
The moment I saw the look in his eyes, I understood.
“Or it’s also an EX-rank monster, which means there’s a way to kill it.”
That wasn’t the look of someone detached at all.
He was simply surrounded by too thick a shell to let his emotions show through.
“Gamer.”
He called out to me.
“Let’s use your ability. If Player 1 is Seol Ok-gyun, let’s see what he’s doing. If neither option works—”
Kwon Ik-seong fingered the gun at his waist.
“We’ll have to solve it physically.”
This was absurd.
Was he really calling that a plan?
Even as I thought that, I had no choice but to follow Kwon Ik-seong’s words.
Because there was no other way.
Because I had to save you.
Because I could never let you die in front of me again.
And that was when it happened.
“Seol Ok-gyun might have some kind of strange artifact.”
Baek Hee-ryeong spoke from behind me.
That insane civil servant who was about to jump down after Lee Yu-ji.
“A strange artifact, you say?”
I smiled bitterly and knelt on one knee to match Baek Hee-ryeong’s height.
Then Baek Hee-ryeong answered.
“A power that reverses the causality of the world.”
The moment I heard those words, my brow furrowed involuntarily.
“What?”
“…Woo-jin.”
The instant Baek Hee-ryeong spoke, something flashed through my mind.
[　　]
And then it vanishes in an instant.
Just like when I was slicing through ants.
A memory that shouldn’t exist appears and disappears.
[　Steel rebar　]
It fades too quickly for me to grasp what that memory was.
[Han-seong　Brachino　daughter　]
I pressed my hand to my forehead.
So cold.
I thought for a moment.
Even though this place wasn’t cold at all.
Cold.
The acrid smell of iron resembled the scent of blood.
An air I’d felt before, a smell I’d sensed once—it returned to me.
A memory from childhood.
From very early childhood—
“This world has a protagonist.”
Even as Baek Hee-ryeong’s mouth moved, I couldn’t regain my senses.
Incomprehensible memories flickered past and faded, leaving me unable to distinguish what was real.
Was that memory genuine?
Am I real now?
Or does reality not exist at all?
This is clearly the world I’m living in, yet it feels like I’m watching a world inside a book.
PTSD.
Someone had said something like that.
It sounded like something my childhood psychiatrist had told me.
When a person experiences severe psychological trauma, everything can feel unreal.
So is this it?
After losing Lee Yu-ji, am I experiencing PTSD now…?
Through those thoughts, someone’s voice pushed through.
“Because you’re the protagonist.”
In the wavering reality, I heard the words of Baek Hee-ryeong, Han Seong-ye, and [　　].
I furrowed my brow.
What?
“If you die, the world resets. Then I can give the protagonist role to Lee Yu-ji.”
Eyes gleaming with madness stared at me.
Those eyes glinted.
“It doesn’t matter anyway. We can just start over. It’s nothing. You know that already. You’ve experienced it once.”
Gradually, my sense of reality returned.
At the same time, I realized something.
That Baek Hee-ryeong knew about my regression.
“No, actually, you’ve experienced regression twice, Woo-jin.”
Baek Hee-ryeong laughed.

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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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