Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Civil Servant Hunter’s S-class Resignation Log – Chapter 23
"Power-hiding civil servant, power-hiding civil servant. Civil servant, huh. Considering your job, does that mean you're a civil servant who hides their strength?"
Se-ra clicked her tongue inwardly. This is why I hate sharp guys. She resolved never to let any dangerous words slip out again.
"So it really was you who killed the boss magical beast. Hiding your strength and all."
"Me, killing a magical beast? What are you talking about?"
Se-ra tried denying it first. When they'd met at the Association, he'd given her that suspicious look, so she'd assumed he knew her identity. But listening now, he didn't seem entirely sure.
Sure enough, Kang Se-jun frowned faintly.
"I saw you, and you're going to play dumb?"
"I did go to the gate that day, but I left right away. My rank is low, so I couldn't handle the mana pouring out from a Rank-2 gate. Plenty of witnesses."
"Jacket of Revival is L-rank. So its stealth effect doesn't work on me. In other words, I clearly saw some woman blow the magical beast's head off. Even if I couldn't see her face through the gas mask."
"If you couldn't see my face, why are you so sure it was me?"
"What good does hiding your face do? Your build was plain as day."
Kang Se-jun shot her a pitiful look, as if to say even an L-rank could tell that much.
Se-ra was at a loss for words. I see. High-rank Awakeners can identify people like that. It had only been a few days since becoming S-rank, and she still couldn't get used to it.
"Besides, you're the only one with an aura I can't even detect with my eyes."
Kang Se-jun's gaze scanned around Se-ra, as if trying to gauge something invisible.
Se-ra realized one thing.
Ah, the Blessing 'Silver Veil' works even on L-ranks.
If I'd hidden my build properly, I could've fooled his eyes completely. Darn. Gotta watch that from now on.
"You're clearly strong enough to take down a boss magical beast, but your power isn't visible at all. That means you're under the protection of a top-tier entity. Like Song Han-na, who's famous for her overprotective one."
'The Association President's entity is overprotective, huh.'
That was new information.
"Even I, Song Han-na, and Joo Eun can't properly grasp you, so your entity must be even more overprotective than hers."
Ahem. Well, not many entities hand out an 800 million coin jacket or craft custom gloves.
Se-ra's ear tips flushed red with sudden embarrassment.
'Ah, seriously. Stay out of it.'
Her ears grew even redder.
"So, in conclusion, you're that unknown S-rank. You are, right?"
His talent for leaving her speechless was top-notch. Se-ra looked at the ground, then the sky, then the Administrator's emoticon.
As if telling her to do as she pleased, she finally let out a deep sigh.
"Ah, seriously. Of all people, you're the first to figure me out. As an off-spec powerhouse, denying it won't work anyway."
Se-ra crossed her arms and tapped her foot irritably. The facade of the clueless civil servant vanished in an instant. Kang Se-jun let out a hollow chuckle.
"Your denial act was too good. If you'd kept it up, even I might've fallen for it."
"You?"
Se-ra snorted, and Kang Se-jun shut his mouth.
The person before him now wasn't some nameless Association drone, but a powerhouse who could dispatch a Rank-2 dungeon boss in one shot.
Kang Se-jun could clearly feel that only her attitude had changed.
"If you really thought that, you wouldn't have come looking. Come to think of it, that's weird. How'd you know I live here? Do Team Leader Do or the Association President wouldn't have told you."
"What do you take L-rank abilities for?"
Se-ra scanned him up and down with a startled look.
"Whoa, Korea's one and only L-rank stalker..."
"No!"
Kang Se-jun shouted. In every sense, he was realizing this woman was no pushover.
"Whew, sorry for showing up out of nowhere and prying into your identity. But I came wanting to talk, not to harm you."
Se-jun raised both hands to show he meant no attack. Se-ra hadn't thought that anyway. If he meant to kill or threaten, he'd have snuck up, knocked her out, and dragged her off.
Of course, that would've earned the Administrator's terrifying wrath. A wise choice.
"That depends on what you say."
"I haven't told a soul that you're that unknown S-rank. Not even Song Han-na. If you don't want your identity exposed, I'll gladly keep quiet. Is that answer enough?"
That was unexpected.
"What do you want to talk about with me? I'll warn you, I don't know much. Even as an S-rank, I'm still just an Association civil servant."
"Doesn't matter. I just have one question for you."
"For me? What is it?"
"I'm a regressor. I've lived through lives no one else remembers, time and again."
Se-ra's eyes widened. She already knew, but she never expected Kang Se-jun to reveal it himself.
Can he really just tell anyone something this huge?
"...Regress, what? Re-Regress? Did I hear that right?"
Was it her panic? Her clueless act came out even more naturally than usual.
"You, a reg-regressor?"
"Believe it or not, up to you. But since I've shared my secret, I'd appreciate a straight answer from you if possible."
"Reg, wow, seriously? The world's changed, sure, but spouting off like some webnovel protagonist?"
Se-ra looked him up and down in disbelief. Her suspicious glare made Se-jun frown.
"What? Calling me an L-rank con artist this time?"
"Whoa! Mind-reading too!"
"..."
Kang Se-jun dragged his hands down his face like he was going insane.
Se-ra, who already knew the truth, found him hilarious but played dumb. Ah, even Korea's strongest, regressing five times, is still human. This guy's funny.
"Ahem. Anyway, reg-reg-regressor. Wow. Never knew that was possible. Though the world's flipping reality is shocking enough."
Se-ra looked him straight in the eye again.
"But is it okay to tell me? In novels, regressors can't reveal it for some reason. Causality this, divine punishment that."
"No idea what you read, but don't map everything to novels. Novels are novels, reality is reality."
"Really? So you can tell just anyone?"
Kang Se-jun furrowed his brow. His face darkened, but no denial came.
Thought so.
"Then why tell me? Gasp! Don't tell me I have to pay some price now?"
Se-ra glared as if he'd done something to her, and he waved his hands frantically.
"If that were the case, I wouldn't have said anything. It's true I can't tell just anyone. My actions differing from the past would change the future accordingly. I've regressed solely for one goal. I don't want to risk that."
"What? Then why tell me? Did you mention it to me in a past life or something?"
She thought it likely, but he shook his head firmly.
"No, not once."
"You're unpredictable. So what's the reason? I'll warn you, I've never been through anything special like you."
"Really?"
Kang Se-jun stared at her with eyes brimming with certainty that she hadn't.
It flustered her instead.
"I've lived several lives, but aside from this moment, I've never seen you once?"
"...What?"
"Why tell only you? Because this is the first time I've seen you. Your existence alone, which didn't exist before, has changed the future. I figured knowing my secret wouldn't matter."
Se-ra fell silent. Regressed multiple times, but never saw me. That means...
"Why are you only here now? Have you really never been through anything special? Then what is your contract entity? What are you?"
Se-ra unwittingly looked into empty space. Probably at the Administrator watching her.
No response came from him.
"...How should I know? I don't know anything."
She had no memories of the now-vanished timelines. She was just an utterly ordinary lowest-rank Awakener.
Until she got the once-in-a-lifetime chance of contracting with the System Administrator.
'So in the past, I either died early or never contracted with the Administrator.'
The fact that she wasn't just alive but an S-rank now meant something extraordinarily special had happened, leaving Se-ra with a very strange feeling.
* * *
These past few days, Se-ra kept glancing into empty space whenever she got the chance. On her way to work, in the middle of tasks, while eating, and so on. As if the Administrator would give her an answer.
But.
The Administrator just responded like that, fully aware why she was looking.
'Well. Can't really explain it with an emoticon.'
It started that day. The day regressor Kang Se-jun visited and questioned her existence.
'I've lived several lives, but aside from this moment, I've never seen you once.'
The words weren't particularly shocking. Se-ra would've died the day Park Jin-yong threw her into that Rank-3 dungeon without the miracle called the Administrator. And miracles didn't happen often.
She had just one question.
Why did the Administrator grant her a miracle this time?