🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 01
Inside the interrogation room, silence hung heavy in the air.
Kwon Ikseong set the documents down.
At even that tiny sound, Lee Yuji—who had been nervously reading the room the entire time—flinched.
Even after seeing the servile smile on her face, Kwon Ikseong’s stern expression did not soften in the slightest.
“So… you’re saying all of these cases were solved through Investigator Lee Yuji’s possession ability?”
“W-What are you talking about? Ah, it’s almost lunchtime already! I’m actually in charge of meals for our team, so… I don’t know if you know this, but our team doesn’t get meal expenses, so we always play Go-Stop to raise money—”
Yuji awkwardly tried to escape the situation with terrible acting, but the next words out of Kwon Ikseong’s mouth froze her solid.
“The Cheonho-dong illegal fighting ring case.”
With calm eyes, Kwon Ikseong read through the files.
“The Geumho-dong weapons smuggling investigation.”
“……”
“The downtown bus terror attack.”
“……”
“And even the bomb disposal inside the Hunter Investigation Unit building.”
“Excuse me! I wasn’t the one who disposed of the bomb!”
Yuji straightened her previously hunched shoulders and spoke confidently.
But Kwon Ikseong’s response was simple.
“Yes. You only discovered it. Let me correct myself. Bomb discovery.”
There was absolutely no escape route.
The moment Yuji realized that, dark clouds filled her face.
Looking at her crestfallen expression, Kwon Ikseong was suddenly reminded of a retriever with drooping ears and tail.
…Now that he thought about it, they really did resemble each other.
“Well… what happened was…”
“Public officials are punished for failing to report a reawakening.”
“You’re saying you’re going to report me?”
Yuji was so flustered that the end of her voice cracked.
“I’m saying I could.”
Kwon Ikseong’s impassive face gleamed under the dim lights.
‘Ikseong’s face shines even under the lighting of this gloomy interrogation room…’
Without realizing it, Yuji found herself admiring him inwardly.
Back when she had read this “novel,” Kwon Ikseong had been her favorite character.
A hunter public servant.
Rank 3 official.
And, on top of that, an absolute rule-and-principles fanatic.
‘Though now I’m suffering because of it!’
Right now, Kwon Ikseong was threatening to report her.
“But we’ve built up some camaraderie while Team 1 and Team 5 worked joint investigations together, haven’t we…? I helped you out quite a lot too. The Geumho-dong case almost became Team 5’s achievement, but I pushed it toward Team 1!”
An awkward smile spread across Yuji’s face.
Using the kind of secretive voice countless criminals must have used in this interrogation room before her, she continued,
“I’ll keep helping you from behind the scenes in the future too, so if you could just keep this secret once…”
“You mean the fact that Hunter Lee Yuji is a possessor?”
At the word possessor, Yuji’s shoulders jerked.
‘Shit….’
“It’s an interesting skill. From what I can see, Hunter Lee Yuji’s ‘Possession’ skill is at least A-rank… no, perhaps even higher. Am I wrong?”
Cold sweat trickled down Yuji’s back.
And for good reason.
Because her skill was—
Your body is my body, and my body is also my body (EX)
Not A-rank.
Not S-rank.
But EX.
An unclassified rank.
A level that someone publicly known as an F-rank should never possess!
“And you’re asking me to keep such an enormous secret? In exchange for trading achievements?”
“Y-Yeah…?”
Yuji answered weakly, nearly in tears.
The reason her answer lacked confidence was because she knew Kwon Ikseong’s true personality.
In the “novel,” Kwon Ikseong had been a major supporting character and a thoroughgoing man of principles.
Even bad laws are still laws.
The ends do not justify the means.
A person perfectly suited to those sayings.
Someone like that would never agree to an under-the-table deal for performance credits—
“Very well.”
…Wait, he would?
Yuji stared blankly and asked,
“You agree?”
“Instead, let’s change the conditions a little.”
“Anything you want, I’ll—”
“Come to Team 1.”
Oh. That sounded amazing.
Was he scouting her?
Could she really escape this hellhole called Team 5…?!
“……Ah, that’s something I could do anytime—”
But for some reason, the faces of Team 5 suddenly flashed through her mind.
The idiots of Team 5, always mocked for being dead last in performance rankings.
‘Why am I suddenly having this kind of life-flashing-before-my-eyes moment…?’
Just as Yuji fell into confusion—
Both of their phones began ringing at the same time.
Then someone violently flung open the interrogation room door.
“Team Leader! The computers in the Hunter Investigation Unit building are—”
Both of them rose to their feet.
Kwon Ikseong reacted faster.
As Yuji hurried after him while he strode out like lightning, she saw countless monitors throughout the building displaying the exact same screen.
Kwon Ikseong asked the team member who had burst into the interrogation room,
“What happened?”
“It’s a message from ‘Gamer.’ We’re decrypting the code now, but it’s probably…”
The team member glanced toward Investigator Lee Yuji.
“…related to Investigator Lee Yuji.”
What the hell is that…?
With a hollow laugh, Yuji read the identical message plastered across all the monitors.
Lee Yuji, you are the reason for my life♡
…Damn it.
Was that rhyme for real?
If you raise Hunter Lee Yuji’s salary, I’ll give you one hint about my identity.
“The higher-ups are currently discussing ways to increase Hunter Lee Yuji’s salary…”
Hearing those words, Yuji furiously ruffled her hair.
How did this even make sense?
As far as she knew, the true identity of this hacker called “Gamer” was—
‘The original protagonist, and the only criminal Kwon Ikseong never managed to catch.’
…Choi Woojin.
Looking over Kwon Ikseong’s shoulder, Yuji made a miserable face.
“I told you already. ‘Gamer’ is targeting you.”
You meant that kind of targeting?!
How had she somehow ended up getting recruited by an elite investigator from a novel,
and receiving dad-joke-level messages from the original protagonist?
Status Effect Activated: “A nameless extra in a crime novel is destined to die.”
‘I just wanted to stop this damn status effect….’
And to make matters worse, according to Chief Hong of the Violent Crimes Division—no, the Hunter Investigation Unit—
“The higher-ups said that if Investigator Lee Yuji captures Gamer, they’ll promote her to Rank 3.”
…A Rank 3 public official?
In my previous life I was only Rank 9, and now I’d jump six whole levels?!
Well, hunters were treated as special public servants, so they couldn’t really be compared to ordinary civil servants by the same pay-grade system, but still…!
The civil servant soul inside Yuji couldn’t help but light up.
‘Rank 3…!’
Now she felt like she was losing her mind over promotions.
All the achievements she had accumulated so far flashed before her eyes, along with all the suffering she endured to earn them.
“I’ll! Work hard to catch him! Gamer, I mean! I absolutely! Have to personally! Throw him behind bars!”
…And so, before she knew it, Lee Yuji had started spouting nonsense about personally capturing and handing over the original protagonist.
The beginning of all this went back to her very first day at work.
* * *
An old building with worn-out windows that creaked every time they were opened.
A Hunter Investigation Unit office filled with the stale smell of exhausted investigators, with discarded cup noodle containers sticking out between stacks of paperwork.
I inhaled that smell with all my might and spoke in a clear, energetic voice.
“Hello! I’m Lee Yuji, the rookie investigator newly assigned to Hunter Investigation Team 5!”
And the moment I bowed my head—
A lightning-like realization struck my mind.
I’d heard the term “Hunter Investigation Unit” somewhere many times before.
And I had a feeling it was from… a novel.
Those Hunter Investigation bastards… failed again, huh.
If that was true, then this was the world of the novel I had read in my previous life.
But the fact that I had possessed and reincarnated into a character in that world—
I only realized it now, at the age of twenty-four as Lee Yuji!
