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Chapter 04
There are countless smells in this world.
The scent of someone’s perfume.
The smell of a rag used to mop a building floor.
The smell of the sandwich that person just ate.
And—
‘The smell of sundae*?’
Yoo Ji… no, Lulu, whom Yoo Ji had possessed, quickly whipped her head around to search her surroundings. But as the scent faded, her ears drooped sadly.
That’s right.
Right now, Yoo Ji was possessing Lulu’s body using her skill!
And where was her real body?
Dog Yoo Ji looked up at her “real body,” who was holding her leash with a somewhat vacant expression.
- During possession time, you can give simple behavioral commands to the “real body.”
The crazy part of this skill was that she could even issue simple commands to her original body.
So Yoo Ji had ordered her “real body” to walk around holding her leash.
Of course, since it couldn’t really do anything else, it looked like a broken doll.
‘Thankfully, nobody in this building knows Yoo Ji’s face, so it doesn’t stand out.’
Besides, because of Senior Lulu’s devastating cuteness, most people passing by only glanced at “dog” Yoo Ji before moving on.
Dog Yoo Ji wagged her tail wildly and crossed the Hunter Investigation Unit building lobby with the most harmless smile she could manage.
Unaware of just how pathetic she looked.
‘Senior Lulu is way more scatterbrained than I expected….’
Now she understood why Lulu was still stuck in Team 5 without making her field debut.
On the way from the backyard to here, Senior Lulu had greeted countless employees and charmed snacks out of their pockets.
‘How many times did I see her roll over for belly rubs?’
What a shameless dog.
‘You even gave me affection points, and that was all fake?!’
For the sake of her dignity, Yoo Ji had wanted to avoid turning into a dog and simply use Senior Lulu to find the bomb, but Lulu was impossible to control.
…And that was how things ended up like this.
Dog Yoo Ji had just reached the corridor and lifted her head to scan the ID hanging from her original body’s neck against the security reader.
That was when she caught a fishy smell from behind.
Yoo Ji turned her head.
And then she saw a pair of jet-black dress shoes.
Above them were perfectly pressed suit pants, then a crisp shirt and jacket, and…
A handsome face perched above shoulders as broad as the Pacific Ocean.
“……!”
The man knelt down in front of Yoo Ji—who was possessing the dog—and gently stroked over the dog’s head and along its back.
A rectangular ID card dangled before Yoo Ji’s eyes.
Hunter Investigation Unit Team 1
Team Leader Kwon Ik-seong
It’s Ik-seong…!
Yoo Ji’s eyes spun from meeting her favorite character.
‘He’s even more handsome than the illustrations. Is this insane? Is this legal? Should a public servant look like this? Isn’t breathing the same oxygen as him a waste of oxygen? Should I hold my breath?’
At that moment, dog Yoo Ji almost rolled over onto her back without realizing it.
‘N-no! My dignity. I have dignity!’
But for some reason, her body wouldn’t listen.
Just then, someone behind Kwon Ik-seong asked:
“Huh? Why is there a dog here?”
At that, Kwon Ik-seong quietly looked down at Lulu’s face and replied in his usual expressionless tone.
“It’s a detection dog from Team 5.”
He casually extended a hand toward Lulu’s face.
Yoo Ji stared blankly for a second before noticing the slight furrow between his brows and realizing—
‘Ah… he wants me to sniff!’
Yoo Ji quickly sniffed Kwon Ik-seong.
The sharp scent of fabric softener. A faint body scent.
And then…
‘A smoky, fishy smell.’
What is this?
Yoo Ji’s nose twitched as she lingered at the cuff of his sleeve, and Kwon Ik-seong smiled faintly.
‘…He’s… too handsome….’
Realizing drool was leaking from the corner of her mouth, Yoo Ji quickly licked it away.
‘So he’s close with Lulu.’
For a moment, she envied Senior Lulu’s extensive social connections.
Kwon Ik-seong stood up.
Naturally, his gaze shifted toward Yoo Ji’s “real body,” who was holding Lulu’s leash. After checking the ID card, he spoke.
“Investigator Lee Yoo Ji?”
Ik-seong said my name…!
No, wait!
Yoo Ji’s thoughts spun rapidly.
Right now, her real body wasn’t capable of answering!
And sure enough, the “real body” merely stared blankly at Kwon Ik-seong instead of responding.
Kwon Ik-seong was an elite investigator with five years of experience and the leader of Team 1.
‘To someone like me, he’s practically heaven itself in rank…!’
This was the kind of situation where she deserved to get absolutely chewed out for failing to answer properly, but—
“You must be the new recruit from Team 5. Keep up the good work.”
As though it didn’t bother him at all, Kwon Ik-seong merely gave a small nod and walked away.
‘…Is he… an angel?’
Possessing Lulu’s body, Yoo Ji stared blankly at Kwon Ik-seong’s broad back as he grew farther away—
Remaining possession time: 00:08:50
The moment she saw the timer, she snapped back to her senses.
The golden retriever’s tail wagged furiously in midair.
Still in Senior Lulu’s body, I returned to Team 5’s office.
But I still couldn’t sense anything that felt like a “special” smell.
Then it happened.
‘The smell of sundae…!’
My body reacted instantly to the scent. My eyes widened, my nose twitched, and most of all—
‘My mouth keeps watering.’
Looks delicious!
And I discovered another important characteristic of this EX-rank skill.
While possessing someone, you gradually take on their personality and traits!
Like how I almost rolled over in front of Kwon Ik-seong earlier….
So right now, I’m basically a dog. Well, only a little.
Just then, the approaching footsteps carrying the smell of sundae stopped.
“Delivery!”
A delivery man in a helmet shouted as he casually walked through the barred gate that normally required an employee ID to pass.
At the sound, Ma Deok-ho and Byun Gu-do—who had apparently been hiding somewhere in the office—crawled out like ghosts.
‘…Are they cockroaches?’
Time kept passing, but I still couldn’t detect any bomb smell.
Instead, my head kept screaming—
‘Sundae! Sundae! Sundae! Sundae! Sundae! Sundae! Sundae!’
Will you shut up already?
To erase the blaring “sundae” siren in my mind, I forced myself to focus on something else.
The Hunter Investigation Unit building had security scanners at the entrance. Nobody could bring outside objects in without passing through them.
Even investigators had to run their belongings through the scanners before entering.
Those scanners were a kind of appraisal item capable of easily detecting magical bombs.
So if a bomb got in, that meant it never passed through the scanner.
But how?
What kind of items could investigators bring in without going through security?
Could someone be storing the bomb elsewhere and bringing it here later at the right time?
Or maybe the accomplice wasn’t even an investigator?
‘Sundae! Sundae! Snack! Sundae! Sundae! Sundae! Snack!’
I said stop!
Panting nonstop, I stared up at the desk where the delivery man had placed the sundae soup.
“Kiing…?”
‘Sundae! Snack! Sundae! Snack! Sundae! Snack! Sundae! Snack!’
Wait.
Wasn’t there another smell mixed in just now?
This smoky, fishy scent.
It’s similar to the smell from Kwon Ik-seong earlier.
I recalled something Kwon Ik-seong and another investigator had said in passing.
“You scored another perfect ten this time, sir.”
Kwon Ik-seong had come from the live-fire training range.
And that meant…
That smell was the scent of magical bullets.
This isn’t a delicious smell, so why does it keep making me think of snacks?
Whenever I—no, whenever Senior Lulu—smelled this scent, she must have gotten snacks afterward…?
‘A detection dog getting snacks means—’
A reward.
The scent I’m smelling now is similar to magical bullets, but at the same time—
It’s the scent Senior Lulu discovered whenever she earned snacks as a reward.
My thoughts started spinning rapidly.
‘Accomplice.’
The word sounded so heavy that I’d been imagining something huge.
But thinking about it, the accomplice didn’t necessarily have to be an investigator.
Nor did they necessarily need to plant the bomb personally.
They just had to let the bomber pass through security.
“If you order late-night delivery, tell me beforehand and I’ll let it through. No need to stress over the security chief being so strict.”
I remembered the security guard saying that while letting delivery workers through the back entrance.
An item that could bypass the scanners without much scrutiny.
An item that wouldn’t attract attention even after reaching the office interior.
An item it wouldn’t be strange for an outsider to carry.
…Delivery food.
‘……!’
“Woof!”
I barked at the sundae soup.
The first to react was Byun Gu-do.
“Ah, damn, you scared me! Since when were you there? And why’d you bring Lulu inside, Lee Yoo Ji? Ugh, this mutt goes crazy whenever she sees sundae.”
There wasn’t much time left.
Byun Gu-do thought I—no, Lulu—was barking because of the sundae and hurried to hide it from me.
The remaining possession time was barely over two minutes.
I quickly climbed onto a nearby flowerpot and launched myself.
My body slammed into Byun Gu-do.
‘Ugh… take a shower once in a while!’
An atrocious smell hit me at the same time Byun Gu-do failed to support Lulu’s weight and toppled over with her.
That was also the moment the opened sundae soup bowl slipped from his hands.
‘Sundae! Snack! Sundae! Snack! Sundae! Snack! Sundae! Snack!’
My head buzzed loudly—
Possession has ended! See you next time, See you!
Along with the obnoxious system message, my body returned to normal.
And the next thing I saw was—
“Gyaaaah!”
Byun Gu-do screaming while drenched in sundae soup.
And—
“Woof! Woof woof!”
Lulu, her mouth stuffed full of sundae, barking at some object lying on the floor.
And Ma Deok-ho watching it all.
What a total dog’s breakfast… no, a sundae disaster.
Pointing at the rectangular object Lulu was barking at, I shouted:
“……It’s a bomb!”
It was admittedly a very staged discovery, but—
I found it.
* Sundae: Korean blood sausage, commonly eaten in soups or street food.
