Chapter 175
Chapter 175
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 175
Chapter Title: 84. Interrogation
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Our old-school hunters' greatest virtue is composure.
Even if a comrade falls right beside you, even if you're reeling from a blow that clouds your mind, you must make the same judgment calls as always, without a flicker of hesitation. That's the number one quality demanded of us old-school hunters.
In that regard, this Park Gyu ranks at the top. My battle record from the front lines and my academy scores prove it with cold, hard numbers and data.
Woo Min-hee had caught the scent.
Judging by my usual unflappable objectivity, stonewalling like I knew nothing wouldn't cut it anymore. With such clear circumstantial evidence, playing dumb would be amateur hour.
I'd have to eat some damage.
But just how much damage? That was something to mull over carefully from here on out.
-Zzzt-
Everyone knew Woo Min-hee was talented, personality aside.
She wasn't giving me time to think, as expected.
Ignoring the call here would be the worst move. She might even come to kill me herself.
I cleared my throat lightly and pressed the receive button on the K-walkie-talkie.
"Hey, Min-hee. What's up?"
No need to overact or suck up more than usual.
"Oh, Senior~"
Time to conjure an imaginary Woo Min-hee.
Just hearing her voice wouldn't let me respond actively in this dire situation.
Assuming a perfect duplicate of her stood right in front of me, reacting to her imagined expression would lead to sharper, wiser countermeasures.
Woo Min-hee was around thirty, with a scar on her face. Tall with long limbs, a striking Western build and a flashy beauty. Her outfits varied, but she preferred full coverage, always draping a white lab coat over it like the institute director she was.
One arm and one leg were prosthetics, but I'd skip those in my mental image.
I knew her well from before she lost those parts.
I summoned that imaginary Woo Min-hee before me.
I hallucinated her lips curling up smugly, like she knew everything. The triumphant grin of a winner.
Still, my face remained utterly calm.
"......"
This was old-school hunter poise.
"Senior, got anything to hide from me?"
"Hide?"
"Yeah~"
"Ah, right."
A brief silence.
"Yeah. Truth is, I do surf the internet."
The confession of truth followed.
"Oh? Finally admitting it? Every time I asked, you denied it flat out."
"......Sorry."
"What for~?"
The eyes of my imagined Woo Min-hee gleamed with her signature madness.
Here we go.
"Spill it from start to finish. When did you start using the internet, and what did you get up to online?"
Explain the matter from A to Z.
I'd defaulted on debts before, but never committed crimes.
I'd never been hauled in by prosecutors, but from what I'd heard, that was a classic question they hit shady criminals with. Keep lying, and you'll slip somewhere—they pry at those cracks. Textbook stuff.
For questions like that, better to base answers on reality than fabricate lies.
At least, I thought I'd handled my internet life pretty well.
If not, guys like that Roca geezer would've sniped me without anyone from my side defending me.
With that pride, I laid out my internet history to Woo Min-hee.
"I joined Viva! Apocalypse! before the war........."
This was the story of Skeleton, another self—neither Professor nor Park Gyu.
A bit quirky and mischievous, but dead serious when it counted. Everyone's fun buddy, Skeleton.
I calmly recounted Skeleton's online life to Woo Min-hee without holding back.
Of course, there was one line I absolutely couldn't cross amid this candor.
Emchang-i.
Even if my internet use was busted, linking this Park Gyu to Emchang-i was off-limits.
Woo Min-hee's obsession started with that PaleNet incident where Emchang-i racked up 10,000 comments.
"Ah, so it was you, Skeleton."
My fantasy Woo Min-hee sneered.
"I suspected as much, honestly. That Skeleton tale, and how many old-school hunters would call Product Ho? Kim Daram's a no-go, Hong Sung-soon went to China, Park Jung-hoon went dark after the nukes hit. Narrow it down, and you're the only one left."
Product Ho story, huh. No helping it.
Back then, the war had just started, and I never imagined boardmates among my juniors or classmates.
"Senior's Skeleton......"
I pictured Woo Min-hee crossing her arms, chuckling.
"Honestly, I didn't buy it."
"Why?"
"No matter how I looked, it seemed like you, but think about it. The cold, sometimes inhuman senior I know, and that no-fun weirdo Skeleton? My heart just couldn't accept they were the same."
"Skeleton comes off that weird?"
"You know those types? Boring people who crave attention anyway."
Woo Min-hee.
Tough customer. She landed a verbal gut punch.
If this were a wuxia world, it'd shake my guts till I spat blood—a brutal fact hammer.
"Anyway, Skeleton's you. Hilarious, even in this mad world."
"Wasn't it 99% certainty?"
"Fifty-fifty, really. But you're vicious too, senior. Ignoring every post with those question-mark hooks? Seeing you grit your teeth and stonewall bumped it to 99%. Yup, this guy's Professor."
"......"
A clue I hadn't considered.
Linking my gritted-teeth ignoring to me? Did I have that trait?
Come to think of it, not entirely absent.
"......Anyway, time for the heavy stuff?"
My imagined Woo Min-hee's hand shifted to a hook prosthetic.
Fingers sharp as blades clenched and unclenched like they had a mind of their own.
"Emchang-i."
Now for the main event.
Time to steel myself.
I am not Emchang-i.
I hammered the self-suggestion fiercely, awaiting her next words.
"You're Emchang-i, right, senior?"
"Me?"
"No?"
How to respond?
Two options popped up: the classic deflection of question-with-question, or flat denial.
Time limit: one second. Even that might fuel her suspicion.
My hand unconsciously stroked the axe handle at my waist as I answered.
"I'm not Emchang-i."
"Not?"
My conjured Woo Min-hee tilted her head with a horrific smile.
This was the turning point.
Eyes locked on the imaginary her, hand caressing the axe handle, I calmly countered.
"How could I pull off jokes that creative?"
All battles and situations have a narrative flow if assumed as one story.
Choices against the flow, or with it.
My question rode the flow of her seeing Skeleton as a joke.
"......Hmm."
Woo Min-hee, on the verge of exploding, reined in her killing intent and crossed her arms.
"Fair. That humorless, uncreative Skeleton plotting something like that? Nah."
"......"
"I really thought you were Emchang-i. Used language just like the creeps I deal with."
"I saw it on PaleNet too. Sorry, but it was kinda funny."
"Then why 'Dr. Emchang'?"
"?"
The briefly softened imaginary Woo Min-hee sharpened again.
"If you're scamming anyway, tons of names out there. Why pick something like Emchang?"
"......That."
I hadn't thought about it.
Just rolled off the tongue. Emchang.
"You're Emchang-i, senior?"
"?"
"Emchang-i, right? Why keep lying?"
"No, why would I be Emchang-i?"
"Emchang-i~"
"On Park Gyu's name, I'm not Emchang-i. Believe me."
"Our Emchang-i~ Should teacher make a house call~?"
"......"
Situation's turning sour.
Her dogged pressure broke my tempo.
How does she jump to Emchang-i from there?
Psycho logic, but pure Woo Min-hee style.
Then.
"Why write stuff like that?"
Flow shifted suddenly.
The Woo Min-hee ready to devour me softened back to friendly.
"That Dr. Emchang post felt purposeful."
"Oh, that."
I told the truth.
About King's underlings at the U.S. base, and my relentless ops to drive them out.
"Classic senior. Smart. Using the board to flush out that gang? And it worked."
"You'd gone dark, I was solo. Needed options."
"So what'd King say?"
I showed her King's message.
Sans that damn doll mask pic, of course.
"Won King's heart?"
"Who is he? King."
"Rumors say Awakened. Sejong's gang boss vanished suddenly, King took over. No backlash suggests similar caliber."
"Awakened gang boss......"
"Had other tasks, but this works better."
Woo Min-hee smiled.
"Can you swing by King's turf?"
"What?"
"Rough neighborhood, but you're buddy-buddy with King. Better than the front lines, no? Dr. Emchang?"
"Not Emchang-i."
"I'm in Paju now."
"Paju?"
The moment Paju hit, Woo Min-hee's image vanished.
With it, the bunker darkness I'd forgotten rushed back—cold, damp, silent, lonely.
From that darkness, her voice echoed.
"Blocking an eruption."
"......"
A forgotten fact seized my mind.
Right. My true enemy wasn't Woo Min-hee or gangs.
Just one: monsters.
"Dodged the shelling for that?"
"Kim Daram's doing, obviously. She ignored me when she was hot stuff, but now I'm shining, I'm a thorn."
"Others? My disciple?"
"Her? Lucky."
Alive.
My disciple. Knew she wouldn't die, but still.
I sighed in relief, but unease lingered as I spoke into the radio.
"How big's the eruption?"
"Not huge yet. But the resonance... It's ominous enough to swallow this land whole."
"......Doomsday March?"
"Probably. That scale."
China's definitive fall was monsters' work.
Untold hordes poured from rifts for a week, maybe more.
No exact date— all observers and gear wiped.
Monsters beyond numbers, described only as unprecedented, immeasurable.
Chinese dubbed the endless horde the Doomsday March in terror.
War started after witnessing that despair.
Same here? Outcome's obvious.
We won't survive.
"Sejong's got a Level 10 Awakened. Ex-facility guy, left National Crisis Committee for Sejong. If he joins us, big boost. Delay the inevitable doom."
"Know him?"
"Nah, young kid. You wouldn't."
"Doubt I can fetch him."
"Just meet and relay the message. If he won't budge, oh well."
"......"
Maybe I overhyped Emchang-i's risk.
Her real goal seemed to be tasking me, not confirming identities.
Front lines are dire. Incheon uprising and government hits? Small potatoes to her.
"What's the play, senior?"
The old Woo Min-hee reappeared vividly—standout junior with that pretty smile, scar gone.
Gazing at my scarless junior, I replied quietly.
"Fine. For my junior's request."
Mood thing.
Risky. Might lose my life.
But so might she.
"No guarantee I snag that Awakened."
"You can, senior."
"Not kid-friendly."
"You're Emchang-i?"
"Not."
"He worships Emchang-i. Kept singing about meeting him."
No way that was her sole reason for hunting Emchang-i.
Anyway, promise made.
Head to Sejong, find that Awakened.
Conversation winding down.
Prepping to end comms, she blurted.
"Senior seems pretty lonely these days?"
Her voice softened.
"Me?"
"That Dr. Emchang post."
"Yeah."
"Edmond K. Park dubbing, all that weirdness. Felt like you screaming in agony."
"Me screaming?"
"Like, your cry for me to notice? Desperate."
"Yeah?"
"Practically begging to get caught?"
"......"
"Alright, sending his profile and message. To Skeleton account?"
"Yeah."
Last exchange today.
Thus ended Park Gyu's life biggest crisis, unexpectedly.
Half-victory?
Moments later, message arrived.
Message from gijayangban: (attachment)
Opened the file.
"......Tch."
No picnic.
But.
Message from gijayangban: ?
The familiar symbol in the follow-up eased my mind.
Staring into the bunker darkness where imaginary Woo Min-hee had faded, I murmured softly.
"Wanted to get caught......"
Might be true.
In this fading world, fewer knowing faces— not so bad.
The smile creeping on my lips vouched for it.
(Various other comments praising the back-and-forth, Skeleton's personalities merging, etc.)