RING-RING-RING—!
A smartwatch ringtone echoed through the conference room, where the atmosphere was grave.
Once, briefly.
As though it were a signal, Kim Cheol-ho, Commissioner of the Hunter Management Agency, sprang to his feet and left the conference room.
“Yes, I have answered the call.”
[It is me, Mugunghwa No. 1.]
A calm but heavy voice rang out from beyond the smartwatch.
[You have probably heard by now, but...]
“...Yes.”
[The United States has sent additional demands.]
“What else do they want?”
[Section Officer Lee. They want his identity.]
For an instant, the Commissioner felt as though he had been struck in the head.
[The American side wants Jack Rich’s identity revealed... or else they want him handed over. Naturally, they prefer the latter.]
“That is an unreasonable demand!”
This was no different from robbery.
If one’s own country was in crisis, and if one sought help from another country, there should at least be some conscience involved.
But what America was doing now was blackmail.
[I will try to prevent that much as best I can. The future of our country depends on it.]
“Yes! That is right!”
[However...]
An uneasy silence settled for a moment.
[I believe we may have to comply with this draft.]
Neither of them wanted to admit it, but this was the reality Korea currently faced.
“......Yes.”
[We also want the Gwanaksan Tower clear, but...]
He did not need to hear the rest.
They had to cast aside their own country’s future and accept the unreasonable demands of a powerful nation.
And this was something that could happen again at any time in the future.
Just thinking about it made his blood feel as though it were boiling backward, but there was only one option they could choose right now.
[I will try to stall for as much time as possible, so... for now, tell him. We have to block any suspicious approaches.]
“Understood! Your Excellency!”
For the first time today, a quiet laugh came from beyond the watch, breaking the ice-thin atmosphere.
[I told you, I am Mugunghwa No. 1.]
“Yes! Mugunghwa No. 1, sir!”
Laughter was heard again.
[You are working hard. I am always grateful to you. Please continue to do your best.]
“I will... I will do my utmost...!”
Resentment, frustration, sorrow, and even the guilt and gratitude he felt toward the president who still believed in him surged up within Kim Cheol-ho, making his throat tighten.
But now was not the time to be swayed by emotion.
It was time to calmly handle the work given to him.
Before disbanding the Gwanaksan Tower clear team, he first had something to say to Section Officer Lee.
That he had given them an opportunity, but that things had unfortunately turned out this way.
That was the proper order.
All of a sudden, the Commissioner remembered the day he had first entered this building.
An empty office with nothing in it.
Interior construction materials scattered everywhere, and nothing that could properly be called presentable in those early days.
It had only been a few weeks, but even then, when it now felt like a distant past, Section Officer Lee had always been the same.
He had always maintained the dignity of a civil servant with an upright posture and an attentive attitude.
“Section Officer Lee, I have something to say to you privately.”
However, when Kim Cheol-ho’s eyes met Section Officer Lee’s, he felt something strange.
Section Officer Lee had the same diligent air as always, but now, something different was mixed into it.
Like a solid boulder.
He seemed somehow filled with certainty.
His deep gaze turned toward Kim Cheol-ho.
At last, the solid boulder rose and took a step outside.
“I am sorry, Section Officer Lee.”
The Commissioner was sincerely apologetic toward me.
His next words followed with a long sigh.
“We are going to cancel the Gwanaksan Tower clear.”
Because I knew what sort of process must have led to those words, I was able to speak calmly.
“There is no need to do that.”
“I fully understand how you feel, Section Officer Lee. America... hm?”
The Commissioner, who had been speaking rapidly as though he had prepared everything in advance, suddenly began hiccupping.
I drew a cup of water from the water dispenser in the hallway and handed it to him.
After downing the cold water in one gulp, the Commissioner stared straight at me.
“What did you just say?”
“There is no need to cancel it.”
“What?”
“There is also no need to comply with America’s draft.”
The Commissioner began hiccupping again.
“No, then...”
I drew a fresh cup of water from the water dispenser and brought it back.
The Commissioner took the cup from my hand and hurriedly gulped it down.
“America must be in a difficult position as well right now.”
“That is true.”
“In truth, they are drafting Hunters from all over the world, but...”
They would not have certainty.
Certainty that this clear would succeed.
World Rank 3, John Howard, had already died.
They could easily guess how difficult that clear would be.
However, they had to at least appear to be doing something.
That was the only way the nation could be maintained.
If they did nothing at all, Washington might lose its function starting today, paralyzed by angry mobs.
Since it was going to collapse in a week anyway, anyone could think it would be better to loot in advance and flee.
In truth, if it had been any other state in America, they might have issued an evacuation order to all residents in advance.
That would have been the far easier and safer method.
However, what a nation’s capital symbolized sometimes overpowered all such considerations.
“The best outcome America is probably thinking of is delaying things as much as possible. That is all.”
It was exactly the action America was currently taking.
Giving the people hope that the clear might succeed a week later, thereby reassuring the citizens.
Delaying civil unrest by one week.
Protecting the capital of a nation at least until then.
However, this was not a true solution.
It merely delayed the time of destruction.
The true solution was to build the strength needed to clear the 50th floor.
And for that, time was needed.
Perhaps that was the miracle America now desperately wanted.
“I know that method.”
<This Operation Roundup is as follows!>
Ms. Su-a displayed an operation chart on the monitor.
<In other words, it is a Double Benefit, Two Birds with One Stone Operation.>
The current time was 8:00 a.m.
The Commissioner and I were in Ms. Su-a’s office.
After confirming my item, the Commissioner had hurriedly established a new plan.
“Section Officer Lee! You truly are...”
The Commissioner stopped speaking for a moment as though his throat had tightened.
“Here you are.”
He drank the bottled water I handed him once more with refreshing vigor.
“Yes. Since the cards have come to us, let us arrange the board splendidly.”
And so the plan began.
Its name was Operation Roundup.
For this operation, Ms. Su-a and a black operative I had never seen before would join us as well.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Eric.”
He was tall, perhaps of mixed Northern European heritage, with light brown eyes.
And a sharply defined face like a sculpture.
His appearance was striking enough to draw the eye even from a distance.
Spies generally fell into two categories.
Those who naturally blended into a world with an ordinary impression, and those who approached important figures and extracted information with beautiful appearances.
Eric seemed to belong to the latter category.
“Eric is an expert in operations like this, so I called him specially. He is also an Awakened person.”
“For the time being, I also belong to the Hunter Management Agency.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you.”
I naturally extended my hand for a handshake.
“Ah...”
But Eric looked troubled.
Perhaps a trained black operative received education even for something like this?
“It is all right.”
Just as I was about to withdraw my hand, the Commissioner chuckled and opened his mouth.
“It is because Eric is barehanded right now. Is that right? Your ability activates immediately if you make contact with bare hands, does it not?”
“An ability, you say...”
“Eric is an enhancement-type ability user. If you shake hands with him as you are now, Section Officer Lee, your memory will probably improve a little.”
“Yes. I am an ability user specialized in this field. Anyone who comes into contact with me can temporarily recall past events accurately. There is no issue if I wear gloves.”
This field?
Could it be that he was not a spy, but a torture specialist who supplemented the target’s memory before torturing them to extract information...?
“......”
Spies generally fell into three categories.
Those who blended into that world ordinarily, those who extracted information with exceptional appearance, and those who used torture to...
“Section Officer Lee, have you perhaps lost something?”
Come to think of it, I had recently lost a USB drive in the office.
It was a handover supplement USB containing materials I had organized to pass along to the civil servant who had taken over after me at the district office, because they kept asking the same work-related questions over OnTalk.
I had been rather troubled because it had disappeared.
“You will probably remember it.”
“Ah, yes. People around me usually use my ability that way.”
“It is more convenient than one might think.”
I extended my hand again.
“It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Yes, I am Eric. It is a pleasure for me as well.”
The moment I held his hand, I felt as though a refreshing wind had passed through my brain.
And then.
The USB drive placed on top of the monitor shelf.
The draft plan I had written a month ago.
The car key that had disappeared several years ago.
The English exam questions I had answered in middle school.
As such specific memories passed through my mind...
Perhaps something had been stimulated.
Something faint came to mind.
I was underwater.
Small hands and feet.
It was a memory from when I was seven.
I opened my eyes there.
I saw the deep, deep sea, so deep it felt black.
‘Come here.’
A voice.
Yes, I heard a voice.
It was a voice I had heard several times before.
And then.
SPLASH—!
My mother entered, cutting through the water.
Bright light seeped through the bubbles rising around her.
‘Ji-hu!’
“Section Officer Lee!”
The Commissioner grabbed my arm and shook it.
“Are you all right?”
“Section Officer Lee! I apologize. This happened because of me. Are you all right?”
“I am fine.”
It was something I could say because I truly felt nothing was wrong.
If anything, I even had this thought.
That I seemed to have found a clue.
I had forgotten something important.
“I saw something from when I was young.”
The Commissioner looked somewhat puzzled.
“Eric’s ability usually only reaches back about a week.”
At that moment, Eric opened his mouth with a defeated expression.
“There seems to have been some error in my output.”
In any case, it was an ability extremely suited to a spy.
“How fascinating.”
That was my honest impression.
“In any case, Eric will help us. He has made many friends in America with this ability. Ms. Su-a, bring up the operation chart again.”
<Yes! Should I display the photos too?>
When the Commissioner nodded, CCTV captures of the Hunter special recruitment trio appeared on the monitor.
All of them had been taken in front of Gwangjin Chemical.
“We confirmed that these three had previously worked as Magic Stone couriers.”
When the Commissioner gestured, the next photo appeared.
This time, it was a photo of Administrative Officer Choi, who had joined at the same time as them.
“Administrative Officer Choi Hyeong-woo is clean. However, since the timing of his entry is what it is...”
<We filtered out all Hunters who joined afterward!>
“In the end, that means only these four need to be verified.”
Now, only one thing remained on the monitor.
<Operation Roundup>
1. Stop America’s unreasonable demands.
2. Proceed with Gwanaksan Tower’s 36th floor clear as scheduled.
3. Identify the subversive elements who have infiltrated the Hunter Management Agency.
“The Association may actually think this is an opportunity. An opportunity to prove the Hunter Management Agency’s incompetence. We will use that against them.”
“When you say use it against them...”
“We will leak clues suggesting that our side can resolve this. Then the Association will probably try to interfere. First, we will set separate negotiation sites with America. About three of them.”
At the Commissioner’s words, Eric nodded.
“You will leak different pieces of information? Saying each is the true negotiation site?”
“That is right! One will be real, and two will be smokescreens. I plan to feed the information to Administrative Officer Choi and the three others separately, while they are isolated, at the same time. We can probably send them to different Dungeons as assignments.”
<Location Information>
1. JW Marriott Washington DC: Actual negotiation site, 14:00
2. The Graham Georgetown: Three special recruits, 15:00
3. Washington Hilton: Administrative Officer Choi, 15:00
“I deliberately set the actual negotiation time one hour earlier. We will handle everything all at once after the situation ends. I am not certain about Administrative Officer Choi, but I think the special recruitment trio is one hundred percent compromised. In any case, it is basically the final verification procedure.”
<All three locations have been reserved!>
“Our black operatives will already be waiting at the sites where the three and Administrative Officer Choi will be. We will also deploy some employees there for misdirection. If they are spies for the Association, there will be some sort of movement before then.”
<That is why all the reserved places are hotels with convention halls.>
“If Administrative Officer Choi passes this verification, I plan to promote him directly to Section Officer.”
It seemed the operation meeting was about to conclude like that.
RING-RING-RING—!
“I have answered the call!”
The Commissioner, who had been about to leave the office, came back inside.
“Yes, yes. Section Officer Lee and Eric, yes, Ms. Su-a is also here with us.”
The call continued for a moment before the Commissioner switched it to speakerphone.
Seeing that, Ms. Su-a typed rapidly on the keyboard.
CLATTER-RATTLE!
Something like a thick soundproof wall descended along the walls and wrapped around the entire office in another layer.
Then a voice flowed from the smartwatch.
[I am currently on a call with the American working-level officials. Ah, I am Mugunghwa No. 1.]
“How are things progressing?”
[The same. Nothing has changed. They are still insisting on 200% tariffs. Otherwise, they want us to send Hunter Jeong Eun-seo.]
“Do they say they are willing to negotiate?”
[No. They say it is an order, not a request. They have no intention of negotiating at all. That is America’s current position.]
The Commissioner raised his voice in a somewhat agitated tone.
“An order?! Is that something one says to an ally? Considering their situation, even begging us to come would not be enough...!”
As expected.
When a person’s feet were on fire, their field of vision tended to narrow.
A nation was no different.
Even if another path existed, they would not believe it easily.
I stepped closer to the smartwatch and spoke.
“Are you connected to the American side right now?”
[That is correct.]
“Then please tell them we will resume the conversation in ten seconds.”
“Section Officer Lee, ten seconds?”
The Commissioner and Eric looked at me with puzzled eyes.
But ten seconds was enough.
More precisely, it was the time I needed to use the item. (It was enough time to use the item.)
<Time Delay Tickets x115>
Extends the Tower’s deadline.
The currently applicable Towers are Gwanaksan Tower, Hwanseon Cave Tower, and Seopjikoji Tower.
Applicable Towers can be added using Magic Stones.>
I inserted Magic Stones into the item description.
<Would you like to add an applicable Tower?>
“Add. America’s Washington Tower.”
<The Tower has been added.>
Then only one task remained.
“Use Time Delay Ticket.”