Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Monster Gallery (2)
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A few days later, I headed to that infamous cafe in front of Dongto Corporation first thing in the morning.
According to the information Park Sunja had given me, the woman in the photo was a part-timer at this cafe.
To look as much like an ordinary customer as possible, I ordered an iced chocolate and sat by the window seat that matched the angle in the photo.
When I turned on my phone and compared the saved photo to the view in front of me, it seemed like it had definitely been taken here.
The counter's appearance in the photo and even the table arrangements matched almost perfectly.
But crucially, the part-timer currently working at the counter wasn't the person in the photo.
'...Did she quit or something?'
My heart sank for a moment.
That couldn't happen. The one lead I'd found connecting me to the hacker—or administrator—couldn't just vanish into thin air like this.
I tried to hide my growing anxiety and casually glanced around for any other clues.
"Huh...?"
It was right then.
A woman passing by my side looked at me and let out a tiny voice, almost like she was talking to herself.
I reflexively turned to look at her, and our eyes met head-on.
She immediately averted her gaze and hurried toward the back of the cafe, into the staff area, where she greeted the other part-timers who were already there.
Just in case, I kept my eyes on her without looking away.
A moment later, she reappeared at the counter, now changed into the cafe uniform.
And that woman matched exactly the part-timer I'd been staring at in the photo all night.
In her casual clothes earlier, I hadn't recognized her right away, but with her hair tidied up and in the cafe uniform, her appearance was identical to the one in the photo.
'Found her.'
The relief of finally having a lead lasted only a moment. As soon as she finished her shift handover, she checked the receipt on the counter and called out toward me.
More precisely, she called out the order I'd placed.
"Customer who ordered iced chocolate! Your drink is ready!"
I swallowed dryly and slowly approached the counter at her call.
She handed me the drink with a smile without properly looking at my face, but then she glanced up again, confirmed my face, and her expression stiffened slightly.
Her subtle reaction was odd, but I took the drink anyway and was about to get straight to the point.
Like, asking if she knew about the Monster Gallery.
But before I could even open my mouth, she bowed her head to me first and apologized.
"Um, excuse me, sir. I'm really sorry. Earlier, I was so startled that I just..."
"Ah... It's fine."
Wondering what the situation was, I looked at her, and it seemed she was apologizing for the sound she'd made earlier when our eyes met and she'd hurriedly left the spot.
I wasn't particularly bothered, so I said it was okay, but it must have weighed on her mind because she kindly explained the reason.
"Normally, around this time every day, there's a man in a suit who comes and sits in exactly that seat where you're at. But he... stares at me kind of intently... And today, someone else was sitting there..."
A suit? The moment I heard that, I suddenly thought of the uniforms worn by Dongto's exploration team members.
The black suits they all wore, calling them protective gear.
It was right then.
With a jingle, the cafe door opened, and a man walked in.
The part-timer woman's face turned pale white the instant she saw him.
I turned to look at the man entering the cafe, and everything clicked into place.
Judging by her reaction, this guy who had just come in was the one she was talking about.
And his outfit, as I'd expected, was Dongto's exploration team uniform.
"...Thank you."
I took the iced chocolate and calmly returned to my seat.
The man didn't even glance at the other empty seats around, heading straight for me and stopping right in front of my table.
He sits in this seat every day, huh.
He looked me up and down, then spoke in a pretty arrogant tone.
"Hey. I'm here on business, so give up the seat."
I stirred my straw once and calmly asked him back.
"Pardon? There are plenty of empty seats, so why are you telling me to move?"
"That's none of your business. Just know it's an important mission from Dongto."
A mission from Dongto? That made it even harder to understand.
What kind of mission would there be in this ordinary cafe that's not even a Dongto facility?
And what mission required this specific seat?
So, to test him, I whispered softly.
"Does it have something to do with Monster Gallery work, by any chance?"
In that instant, the man's eyes widened in shock.
He visibly panicked and shouted, "H-How do you know about that...!" as he hurriedly shoved his hand into his pocket.
He was trying to pull something out.
But my hand was faster. I grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard.
That alone was enough; the man let out a "Gah!" and grimaced in pain.
People's attention focused on us.
The fact that he tried to pull something out just because I mentioned Monster Gallery meant this wasn't your average mission.
I leaned in close to his ear and said quietly but threateningly.
"Come outside with me. If you refuse, I can't guarantee what'll happen to this wrist."
"O-Okay! Okay, just...!"
As I grabbed the man's arm and stood from my seat, the woman from earlier at the counter and the other part-timer next to her watched us with small gasps of admiration.
"Whoa... No way. That creepy regular finally..."
"Phew... You think it'll be okay?"
The reality was a bit different, but in the end, the outcome was similar enough.
Now it was time to get everything out of this guy.
He must have been pretty hated.
Even as I dragged him out of the cafe by twisting his wrist in this awkward scene, none of the other customers or part-timers pointed at us or tried to stop us.
Some even gave me a thumbs-up like they were saying good riddance.
I dragged the man into a nearby deserted alley and started interrogating him in earnest about his identity and the hacker.
"Who's the hacker managing the Monster Gallery?"
The man either hadn't grasped the situation yet or despite the pain in his twisted wrist, he put on a defiant front. "You think I'm gonna tell you that?!"
Instead of answering, I put a little more pressure on his wrist.
With a crunch, the sound of bone twisting echoed, and the man immediately changed his tune, spilling everything.
"Argh! O-Okay! Okay, I'll talk! Just let go, please! ...Which monster are you even talking about?!"
"Monster...?"
"Urk... All the admins or hackers for Dongto-related sites... are monsters...!"
Monsters? The hacker I was looking for wasn't human, but a monster?
As I made a puzzled face, the man saw it as his chance and desperately poured out his words.
"Yeah, monsters! I'm with Dongto's Exploration Team 3. Right now, in the basement of that cafe, there are three monsters imprisoned—ones with the ability to hack sites including the Monster Gallery and manipulate public opinion! And my mission was to watch them so they don't escape, or so idiots like you who get tricked by monsters don't set them free!"
The man rambled on.
He tried to convince me as if I were someone who'd been duped by a monster.
"You're totally being fooled by those monsters right now!"
But his words didn't really resonate with me.
I wasn't here because of a monster; I'd come after seeing the quest given by the system.
That quest had clearly stated the hacker could be persuaded.
Even if there really were monsters in the cafe basement, it meant persuasion was possible.
In fact, I'd negotiated with monsters before.
Honestly—
'Monsters might be easier to convince.'
That thought crossed my mind.
After all, a fist can sometimes be more persuasive than words.
And what if what they had locked up wasn't a monster to begin with?
What if it was just someone with special abilities who was really good with computers?
For a company like Dongto, with all its dirty deeds, it was entirely plausible.
I twisted his wrist once more and asked.
"Tell me how to get to the cafe basement."
"I-I'll tell you! I'm telling you, stop twisting it!"
The man confessed that behind the counter where that part-timer had been, opening the door marked [STAFF ONLY] led to stairs going down to the basement.
Come to think of it, that door in the photo came to mind.
The man hadn't been staring at the part-timer, but at the door behind her.
"...Why manage them in the basement of an ordinary cafe like this, instead of a Dongto facility?"
"What?... Well..."
As I asked, I noticed the man's eyes suddenly glaze over.
Those unfocused eyes were exactly like Hanbit's and Shun's back at the cathedral, when they'd been entranced by the choir's song.
With those hazy eyes, he said.
"Well, that's... because the team leader ordered it...?"
This guy might have been mentally controlled by Dongto in some way too.
There was nothing more to ask.
I drove a hard punch into the man's abdomen.
Thud!
"Urk!" He groaned in pain but didn't pass out.
Thwack.
Belatedly, I struck the back of his neck with the side of my hand to knock him out.
Ah, should I have just gone for the neck first? Now he'd be clutching his sore stomach for no reason.
Sorry about that.
I hid the unconscious man in the corner of the alley and turned my steps back toward the cafe.
Now it was time to check out the basement of this cafe.