The Civil Servant Who Concealed Their True Strength Turns Out to be a Master of Possession - Chapter 72

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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 072

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Captain Hong’s Office.
A few days ago, I had stood there with Lee Yu-ji, but now Pee So-won sat alone in that space.
“I’ve already submitted the meeting results. If you’re going to keep summoning me to report every time, why don’t you just attach the Special Team office right next to the Captain’s office?”
At Pee So-won’s flippant tone, Captain Hong clicked his tongue.
“You brat. Watch your mouth. When you get promoted to Grade 3, I get promoted too. Vice-Chief rank, you know.”
“Do you really think that’s actually going to happen?”
Pee So-won snorted dismissively.
“I’ll give you credit for going head-to-head with the Hunter Management Office. But when have those higher-ups ever done anything good for the Investigation Unit? They’ll never give us real power.”
Pee So-won spoke with a tone of exasperation.
Captain Hong watched her quietly and smiled gently.
“That depends on what you do, doesn’t it? Hmm?”
Pee So-won furrowed her brow and shrugged off Captain Hong’s arm as he patted her shoulder.
“If we don’t produce results within a year, you’re going to use that as an excuse to dismantle everything, aren’t you? Honestly, I don’t know if we can catch the Gamer within a year. I don’t even understand why they approved creating a Special Team just to catch one criminal.”
It was extremely rare for a Special Team to be created just to pursue a single criminal.
Of course, it was unclear whether the Gamer was a criminal or a criminal organization, and while their criminal activities were quite diverse, there wasn’t really a clear range of victims to speak of.
After all, they consistently targeted the Investigation Unit or criminal organizations with their hacking.
They were creating a Special Team and providing such lavish support just to catch one Gamer?
From the Hunter Management Office, which had been desperate to devour the Investigation Unit?
She was growing suspicious of the higher-ups’ true intentions.
Ever since the bus terror incident, her trust in the Chief had plummeted so far that it had dug underground and struck groundwater.
“Right. That’s the interesting part, you know?”
Just then, Captain Hong sipped the bubble tea that Team Leader had brought and scratched his chin.
“Interesting?”
“Yeah. Isn’t it interesting?”
Pee So-won furrowed her brow as she watched Captain Hong lean in slightly toward her.
This guy… he’s up to something suspicious again.
Having been played by Captain Hong’s hand several times before, Pee So-won began to form a reasonable suspicion.
And sure enough, Captain Hong said something suspicious.
“Ever since that incident with Cha Jeon-hyeok, the Hunter Management Office has been desperate to dismantle Team 5.”
The moment the name Cha Jeon-hyeok came up, Pee So-won’s expression hardened.
“So you sent Baek Sang-jin to dismantle our team, didn’t you?”
When Pee So-won asked, Captain Hong set down his bubble tea cup as if to say, “Why would someone like you not understand?”
“If I really wanted to dismantle your team, would I have sent Baek Sang-jin? I’d shake everything loose and scatter you all over the place.”
“…So you were trying to protect Team 5 by sacrificing Byeon Gu-do?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Captain Hong shrugged.
This guy.
Pee So-won clenched her teeth without realizing it, but she steadied her breathing to wait for what Captain Hong would say next.
Captain Hong had summoned Pee So-won under the pretext of checking on her just one day after the Special Team’s establishment.
Specifically, only Pee So-won.
‘I noticed earlier that Kwon Ik-seong didn’t seem to know anything about this.’
Which meant Captain Hong had something separate to discuss with Pee So-won.
Something that the principled Kwon Ik-seong shouldn’t know about.
“Anyway, when your team was on its last legs, the Gamer showed up at just the right moment. Bam, right on every computer in the Investigation Unit.”
Captain Hong pointed to the monitors now displaying a normal blue screen.
“Actually, if you think about it, that’s not all. When Lee Yu-ji nearly died in the bus terror attack, and this Cha Jeon-hyeok incident too—the Gamer’s involvement benefited us every single time. Not a single drawback. At least not from our perspective.”
By “us,” he meant the Investigation Unit.
“But looking at it from the other side, there are people at the Hunter Management Office who’d be unhappy about this. People who find the Investigation Unit uncomfortable. People who can’t stand the very existence of the Investigation Unit.”
The first person who came to Pee So-won’s mind was the Chief, but she vaguely understood that there were other forces behind him.
The Hunter Association led by Choi Jun-gu, the first-generation hunter of South Korea.
They were obsessed with secretly covering up hunters’ misconduct and protecting the guilds’ interests.
From their perspective, an Investigation Unit that monitored hunters could never be welcome.
“With all these incidents, once Investigator Lee Yu-ji rises to stardom, the movement to abolish the Investigation Unit just vanishes, doesn’t it?”
Among them, Investigator Lee Yu-ji must have particularly caught their attention.
As her thoughts reached that point, Pee So-won’s eyes narrowed.
“So the higher-ups wanted to eliminate Investigator Lee Yu-ji, not Team 5?”
“That’s right. So we initially tried to shift the issue toward Byeon Gu-do.”
“…Ha.”
Then you should have explained it that way from the start, you bastard!
Pee So-won felt her resentment transform into anger for a moment, but Captain Hong merely shrugged.
“But there was no need for that, was there? The Gamer suddenly popped up and consumed all the attention. Thanks to that, the higher-ups started focusing on the Gamer instead of Investigator Lee Yu-ji. Isn’t that amusing? The Gamer essentially saved Lee Yu-ji’s life.”
Life.
In this context, it meant her job, but Pee So-won had witnessed the Gamer actually save Lee Yu-ji’s life.
Or rather, she’d heard about it.
Either way.
Pee So-won recalled how the Gamer had sent her a car to help Lee Yu-ji escape, and had only shown her the method for Lee Yu-ji to get away.
At the time, she’d thought the Gamer was just playing at being a vigilante, but now her thoughts had shifted slightly.
The Gamer knew everything—that there were insiders within the Investigation Unit.
And for some reason, the Gamer was only taking actions that benefited the Investigation Unit.
So why had the Gamer tried to save Lee Yu-ji?
To make her a hero?
Or—
‘For some other reason?’
Pee So-won’s mind grew complicated.
She recalled Lee Yu-ji’s face as she stared at the countless monitors in the Investigation Unit displaying the Gamer’s message.
A face that looked not just bewildered, but genuinely unsettled.
There was no one like Lee Yu-ji whose every emotion showed so transparently on her face.
So saving Lee Yu-ji was purely the Gamer’s personal choice—
‘Why on earth?’
That’s when it happened.
Captain Hong brought up the main point.
“Anyway, regardless of why he did it, thanks to the Gamer pushing himself to save Lee Yu-ji, we managed to obtain something about the Gamer.”
“…?”
Captain Hong slid a pouch containing black powder across the table.
“What is this?”
“The analysis came back as mana stone, but apparently it’s unclassifiable. The thing is, this was caught on our internal CCTV. Because of that damned server crash, I had to go through thousands of hours of footage.”
Captain Hong flipped the pouch over. On the back, a black spider-shaped object was attached.
“This.”
“…So this is an item the Gamer manufactured?”
“It could be, or it might not be.”
Captain Hong spoke meaningfully.
“We need to reconsider from the beginning whether the Gamer is really a production-type hunter.”
“Ha….”
Pee So-won exhaled heavily. So the investigation would start from scratch—
“You do it alone. Digging into the Gamer’s background.”
“Pardon?”
That’s when Captain Hong said something cryptic.
“Keep telling the rest of the team and Kwon Ik-seong that the Gamer is a production-type hunter. And dig deeper into the black markets, especially the sorghum field connections related to illegal weapons trafficking. From what I’ve seen, because that director is covering everything up, there’s probably quite a list of things we couldn’t properly investigate—things that could really upset the higher-ups.”
“…!”
This was Captain Hong’s real objective.
Create a special team to keep the Hunter Management Office from interfering with the investigation for a while, then properly investigate the higher-ups.
To do that, the Gamer continues to be portrayed as a ‘production-type hunter.’
That’s why he didn’t call Kwon Ik-seong, a man of principle.
Pee So-won realized this fact and her expression became subtle.
“And I believe there’s also a clue to the incident from eight years ago in this.”
Captain Hong spoke with a hint of anger in his voice.
Her eyes gleamed at those words.
“How would Cha Jeon-hyeok have selectively dealt with only weapon dealers committing crimes? There’s definitely a higher power protecting both of them.”
Captain Hong spoke thus, watching Pee So-won’s face come alive for the first time in a long while.
It was definitely after her dead eyes came back to life.
After Team 5’s newcomer—Pee So-won’s partner, who had been vacant for so long—arrived.
After that, the instinct sleeping within her, that ‘crazy bastard’ from eight years ago, was awakening.
“And the ones who tried to bury Lee Yu-ji are probably them too.”
Pee So-won spoke in a cold voice.
Hearing that voice, Captain Hong smiled inwardly.
Lee Yu-ji.
‘I thought he’d make a good long-term partner for you.’

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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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