No Matter How You Hide
“I’m heading out!”
“Hey, Pecia! You still need to collect the payment! Take this!”
“Okay!”
“Wait, wait! Not all of it! That’s twenty million won! Hey! Pecia!”
The moment I took Kang Jiye’s call, I jumped into a taxi.
Part of me wanted to just run the whole way, but Kang Jiye had ordered me to act like I normally would.
You’re gonna get yourself killed barging in there.
Fortunately, it seemed the Party Bears had already neutralized the intruder.
Yena was in the master bedroom with First Ddori. The immediate crisis had already passed, so there was no reason to do anything reckless.
I know that, but still…!
The problem was that the Party Bears were never going to let an intruder go gently.
Those little “pranksters” might look adorable most of the time, but the second they smelled blood, they turned into pure evil.
I shoved ten fifty-thousand-won bills at the taxi driver.
“Mister! Floor it!”
“What?”
“Floor it!”
“You’re here?”
Kang Jiye had already arrived.
Unlike me, she could freely use her abilities and sprint the whole way without drawing attention. The reason she’d told me to take my time was simply that she would get there much faster herself.
“Is this the one…?”
“Yeah.”
The intruder was a slender man who looked to be in his forties. Judging by the women’s clothes he was wearing, he’d used some kind of magic to disguise his face and voice on the way in.
“Ugh. They turned him into a wooden puppet.”
His condition was pretty grim.
Dozens of steel needles had been driven through him from his fingers all the way down to his toes, and every joint in his arms and legs had been bent the wrong way.
The Party Bears had him by the hair and were slamming his head into the floor over and over — thud! thud! — thick blood streaming from his nose and mouth, what used to be his teeth rolling across the floor.
Even so, Kang Jiye didn’t tell them to stop.
She just stood there with her arms crossed, looking down at the scene with cold eyes, making no gesture at all.
I thought she’d say it was too cruel.
I watched her for a moment, then asked out of curiosity.
“Do you… know him? If he was impersonating a neighbor, that makes him an acquaintance of some kind.”
He’d timed it perfectly for when we were both out. That meant he’d been watching us for a long time before making his move.
Kang Jiye nodded.
“He’s a drug offender I arrested before. E-class ability user, Kim Siwoo. He got out two years ago and even came by to say hello.”
My eyes went wide.
“Huh? A criminal came to greet a hunter cop?”
“He just… said he’d turned his life around thanks to me. That he was actually grateful. That losing everything had finally made him understand. After that he disappeared, and I never heard from him again.”
“……”
Kang Jiye’s eyes narrowed.
“But thinking back on it, Yena was nearby at the time. I was busy playing with her and didn’t pay attention. Now I finally get why he showed up.”
From the circumstances, he’d tried to harm his enemy’s daughter and failed. He’d spent nearly two years hiding and watching just to avoid suspicion.
Two years ago, Yena had been five. Without any adults around, she would have been an easy target to lure away.
Kang Jiye furrowed her brow.
“One thing that bothers me is that this guy was terrible at magic. On top of that, appearance transformation is a spell that burns through a huge amount of mana. I’m curious how he managed to fool Yena.”
Hmm. Good point.
Yena was a child who’d been drilled with a thorough behavioral manual by Kang Jiye. If anything had felt even slightly off, she never would have opened the door. Even when I playfully modulated my voice, she went dead silent like a mouse.
Whoever this Aunt Haram woman was, he must have transformed into a perfect copy of her.
“If you were curious, you could’ve just stopped them and asked. The Party Bears listen to you pretty well, Auntie.”
Kang Jiye’s expression went cold.
“I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“If it hadn’t been for the Ddori, Yena would have died today.”
“……!”
“He’s a beast who went after my daughter. I just couldn’t bring myself to end his suffering with my own hands. I don’t know how to torture someone like that.”
…Well, when it came to torture, the theme park was the expert.
Steel needles under the fingernails, insects in open wounds, living human sashimi. You didn’t even need the details — those keywords alone told you just how evil these things really were.
It was one of the reasons I’d had such a strong aversion to the theme park in the first place.
They even play around with people’s skin… ugh.
Something suddenly occurred to me, and I asked,
“Is that Aunt Haram okay?”
Among the theme park’s monsters, there were ones that flayed people and wore their skins. Other monsters could use similar methods.
Kang Jiye’s expression softened slightly.
“I video-called her earlier to check. Thankfully, she’s fine.”
…So he’d just copied her appearance, then.
I stared down at the man for a moment, then raised my hand. The Party Bears froze mid-motion.
If this kept up, even an ability user wouldn’t last much longer.
If he hadn’t been wearing someone’s skin, that meant high-level illusion magic had been used — and something about that smelled very wrong.
Even if he was going to die, he needed to die after giving up information.
“Mind if I take a look at this guy?”
“You sensing something?”
“I can feel demonic energy.”
Kang Jiye’s eyes widened.
“Demonic energy?”
“That unique wave monsters give off.”
“You’re saying he’s not human? That can’t be right.”
“No, he is human. More precisely, it feels like some kind of power has been layered over him.”
I crouched down and placed my hand on the man’s head.
Mind control?
There was a spell on him.
The power I was sensing was closer to low C-class than E-class.
That was an absurdly fast growth rate for just two years of training.
Between the strange reverse-use magic and everything else, no matter how I looked at it…
A high-ranking monster. Whoever it is, they’re at the boss level.
“Something definitely intervened. I’ll try breaking through with hypnosis first.”
Kang Jiye hastily reached out with both hands.
“W-wait — if a monster is involved, if you touch it carelessly—”
“Come on. What do you take me for?”
“No, I’m serious. It’s actually dangerous.”
Of course — if you clumsily messed with a dominated subject, the monster would lash out unpredictably.
Situations just like this one could start erupting all over the place.
This guy wouldn’t be the only one who’d sold his soul to a monster.
But I just smiled faintly.
“Let me show you why I’m Triple S.”
“Hey, wait—”
“I’m not going to dispel the monster’s spell. I’m going to apply mine right on top of it.”
“That’s not even possib—”
Hypnosis
Same-type skill detected on target.
Skill Name: Illusion Mask
Remove?
No.
Overlaying Hypnosis onto Illusion Mask.
Skill succeeded.
The moment hypnosis took hold, the unconscious man’s eyes snapped open.
If two sources of demonic energy collided, his body would start breaking down fast — but that wasn’t my problem. I just needed the information.
I spoke to him.
“You have successfully eliminated the target. Answer the questions of the boss standing before you.”
The man’s pupils dilated, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.
“…Heh heh.”
“…?”
“Fihally showin’ yerslf, huh. Izit my turn tuh be chosn now?”
Hold on.
…Finally showing yourself, huh. Is it my turn to be chosen now.
Same meaning.
I let out a sigh.
Apparently the guy had never actually seen the “boss” properly. That meant this was a high-intelligence monster that operated with the possibility of being tracked in mind.
At that, Kang Jiye spoke in a heated tone.
“What? How is this even possible?”
“……”
“You didn’t dispel the original spell?”
“Nope.”
If I had, his mana would have weakened. The power the monster gave him would have vanished.
Kang Jiye stared at me like she couldn’t believe it.
“……”
As a rule, when a higher-tier same-type skill was applied, the lower one naturally disappeared. That was common knowledge in this world.
But that was only true before Pecia showed up.
I looked at Kang Jiye blankly.
“Kyuu?”
Kang Jiye’s face filled with irritation. She grabbed my cheek.
“Don’t you ‘kyuu’ me. What the hell even are you?”
“I already told you. Triple S.”
“……”
“Let me ask again. Who am I?”
Kang Jiye snorted, then sighed.
“A Gate Boss. Fair enough — when weird little teddy bears are out here saving people, I overreacted. Sorry.”
“Mm… I think you should go to Yena, Auntie.”
“No, I’m sorry. I won’t get in the way.”
I shook my head.
“It’s not that you’re in the way. It’s that Yena needs you right now. Honestly, the reason you’re still standing here is because you’re angry, isn’t it? Not because you’re trying to solve the problem.”
“That’s—”
“I can handle the rest. I’ll record everything, so leave it to me.”
Kang Jiye looked toward the master bedroom where Yena was, her eyes full of conflict.
Eventually, a moment later, she seemed to make up her mind and nodded.
“…Alright. Let’s do that. Thank you.”
I gave her a push on the back.
Honestly, interrogation was her specialty, so having her here would have been better.
The problem was that the second Yena was involved, her rationality short-circuited a little.
How did I know? The fact that I was living here was proof enough.
In a world where Gates had been part of history for so long, treating a monster this warmly wasn’t easy — even if that monster had saved her daughter.
Leaving a kid who’d almost been in serious danger alone would be pretty ridiculous anyway.
So I sent Kang Jiye off and continued the interrogation alone.
“…So basically, people like you have latched onto hunters centered around the Hunter Administration. You don’t know how many.”
“Thass wha’ I’m sayin’—”
“Then… hey. Hey, lift your head.”
The man who’d been answering my questions suddenly stopped breathing mid-sentence.
I clicked my tongue in disappointment, but I’d already gotten everything worth getting.
He’d spilled it all so freely it almost felt too easy.
Having confirmed the monster’s identity, I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.
Psychology Hagweed.
The Queen of Plants.
Looks like I’m going to kill her a lot earlier than in the original story.
Originally, that was an item Pecia was never supposed to get her hands on — but this time, I’d claim it myself.