The Thief Who Stole My Secrets
We arrived at the Association. I never thought I'd be back here so soon.
"Did you do something wrong again?"
"Wrong? They were the ones who begged me for help first."
"Begged you? That's ridiculous."
I completely agreed. Why the hell were they asking me for help when national secrets had been leaked?
And that last thing they said…
I can't go into detail over the phone, but you might regret it if you don't come!
I couldn't just ignore that. If it turned out to be nothing important, I'd curse them so their white shirts would forever be stained with kimchi soup.
The moment we stepped into the Association, men in black suits and sunglasses approached us immediately.
"Nice to meet you. The Vice President is waiting."
"...Right. Let's get this over with."
The Vice President was waiting? Had they betrayed me after all?
When we reached the conference room, an elderly man was already there.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Vice President Yoon Cheol-su. It's an honor to meet the Returnee, Seong-a."
"...Yes, nice to meet you too."
We shook hands like civilized people. Honestly, it felt a little awkward. The Vice President showing up in person...
If you've really betrayed me, I'll curse your entire bloodline for three generations!
The Vice President turned to my little sister beside me and gave her a warm smile.
"It's been a while, Ha-im."
"Ah, yes."
"I heard you took down a 2nd-class monster all by yourself. At this point, no one in A-Class can stand against you."
"...Thank you for the compliment."
Ha-im turned her head away with an awkward expression. We sat down and got to the point.
"Why did you call me here?"
"Haha, straight to business. Let me ask you something first, just to test the waters. How far exactly do your fortune-telling abilities go, Seong-a?"
"......"
The first thing I felt when I heard that was relief.
So they didn't betray me after all.
If they truly knew the limits of my fortune-telling, they wouldn't be asking such a basic question. The Vice President looked relaxed, but he couldn't fool my eyes.
He's clearly desperate.
That meant I held the upper hand.
"I heard before I came. Some documents were stolen, right?"
"Yes. We keep important materials as physical documents instead of digital files to avoid hacking risks."
In short, they wanted me to use my fortune-telling to catch the thief who stole those documents.
How unpleasant.
I was genuinely annoyed that they'd called me in for something so trivial. Without saying another word, I pushed my chair back and stood up.
"I'm sorry, but my fortune-telling can only read general luck and fate. I don't think I can help you."
"......"
"Hey, let's go. Staying in a place like this will just bring bad energy."
At my words, Ha-im panicked, quickly grabbed our things, and followed me out.
"W-wait, sis! Where are you going?"
"Where else? To where those bastards are."
"......?"
"There they are."
As we walked down the hallway, I spotted the team leader and Lee Ji-woo. They came running toward me.
"S-Seong-a! It's terrible!"
"Sigh, calm down. What exactly did you call me for?"
The way she was panicking made me wonder how she ever became a civil servant.
"Y-you won't get mad... right?"
"......?"
Now I was genuinely curious. What could possibly make her think I'd get angry?
"Stop shaking. I'll explain," the team leader said, calming the trembling Lee Ji-woo before getting to the point.
"You've already heard that classified information was leaked, correct?"
"Yes."
"The problem is that those documents contain information on every Korean Awakener."
According to the team leader, the files held everything—abilities, weaknesses, strategies, the works—for at least all the A-Class Awakeners in Korea.
"Then isn't this a huge disaster?!" Ha-im suddenly cut in.
Well, her own information was probably in there too, so her reaction was understandable.
"Yes, it's a disaster."
The moment that information reached another country, it was game over. That was why the Association was desperately trying to find the culprit. But I was different.
What does that have to do with me?
Information about Awakeners had nothing to do with me. I was a Returnee. I couldn't care less about Awakeners.
"The real problem is that the documents also contain information on Returnees."
"......!"
Wait, what?
"That means my information..."
"Yes. It's going to another country."
It didn't seem like they'd stolen it specifically to target Korea's strong Returnees, since there weren't many of us here anyway.
"T-they didn't write down anything weird, right? Like how I predicted stocks or won the lottery?"
The team leader gave me a small smile at that. What did that smile mean? I suddenly felt uneasy.
"Seong-a, what exactly was in our contract again?"
"That you wouldn't report me to your superiors?"
"Correct. We never said anything about not writing things down."
"......"
These bastards? How dare they handle things so sloppily? This called for a curse that would make them step on gum everywhere they went!
...Calm down.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"Huu... Huu..."
Getting angry wouldn't change anything. I needed to find a solution quickly.
"What kind of person is the thief?"
"I thought you'd ask that, so I came prepared."
The team leader handed me a profile he'd prepared in advance. It pissed me off that they'd half-assed our agreement but prepared something like this so thoroughly.
Name: Unknown
Nationality: Unknown
Ability: Spy
The basic details like face and nationality were all listed as unknown. Even the ability name was strange.
"Spy?"
"There should be a more detailed description below."
I scrolled down and read the ability explanation.
Transformation
Invisibility
High-Speed Movement
No wonder they came to me.
At first I didn't understand why they'd ask me for help. After all, among so many Awakeners, wasn't there at least one with detection abilities? Of course there were. But they clearly couldn't find the thief, and in desperation they'd come crawling to a Returnee like me as a last resort.
"...Please prepare a map and some darts."
"A map and darts? We can get a map easily, but darts..."
"Oh, don't we have those darts from the drinking game we played?"
"That's right, we do."
The two of them hurried off to get the map and darts. Ha-im tilted her head and asked,
"But what if they've already escaped abroad?"
"Tsk, then we'll just have to go abroad too."
"Me too?"
"Obviously. I don't speak English."
My sister might be a total meathead, but since she went to S University, she should at least be fluent in English.
"Over here! We're ready!"
The team leader's voice called from afar. Since everything was prepared, we headed to an unused conference room.
"Does an online map work too?"
"Doesn't matter."
Whether it was an online map or a paper one, my fortune-telling would never miss. Lee Ji-woo immediately turned on the beam projector and displayed a world map on the screen.
I sat down, closed my eyes, and threw a dart toward the screen.
"Which country did it hit?"
"S-South Korea!"
Good. It looked like the thief hadn't left the country yet. We zoomed in on the map and I threw the second dart.
"Where did it land this time?"
"S-Seoul!"
Hmm, Seoul. I thought it'd be Incheon...
I threw the third dart right after.
"This time it's in Mapo District!"
Mapo wasn't that far away. We zoomed out to the entire capital region, and I rapidly threw the remaining darts at the screen before opening my eyes.
"Mark the spots where the darts landed with a red pen."
"Yes."
Lee Ji-woo started from the dart on the right and drew red lines all the way to the one on the far left, connecting all fifteen darts.
"What is this?"
"The thief's movement route."
"......!"
Since the final destination seemed to be Incheon, it looked like they were heading for the airport. Ha-im, who was standing next to me, burned with enthusiasm.
"I'll go catch them right now!"
"Don't be ridiculous. That guy's an expert at hiding. You'll never find him."
His abilities were literally built for espionage. How was she supposed to catch someone who could change their face at will? It was impossible for Ha-im.
"Then what do we do?! My information is in there too!"
Our little gorilla protested, saying we had to catch the thief immediately. I let out a long sigh. This idiot really didn't get it.
"It's simple. We just have to make him come to us."
This is so fucking persistent...!
A man walked down the street carrying a briefcase, pretending to be an office worker. Just look at all those people on the rooftops. They must have gathered every search-type Awakener in Korea. This was getting really annoying.
Tsk, I need to take the photos and send them quickly...!
But if I did anything suspicious here on the street, they'd catch me. He checked his watch.
Ten minutes until the meeting time...
He was going to be late. There was no choice but to use his ability.
The man turned invisible and sprinted at full speed.
"Found him! Chase!"
The Awakeners with sharp senses had detected the activation, but he was already far away. They had no way of finding him while he was invisible.
Heh, with that slow speed, you'll never catch me.
Thinking about how this successful mission would let him sit on a pile of money, he ran without looking back. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, an hour passed. His stamina finally ran out and he began to tire.
He bent over for a moment to catch his breath.
"Huff, huff... Why isn't the distance shrinking? And this fog..."
He looked around. Thick fog had covered the entire city.
Even my phone...!
Because of the fog, he couldn't see more than a few feet ahead, and both his watch and phone had stopped working. On top of that, the streets that should have been full of people were now completely empty. It seemed like he'd been trapped.
Inside this fog.
"Kiiiiiiyak!"
An unknown monstrous cry echoed from the sky. When he looked up, dozens of bizarre birds were flying overhead, and on the ground, hundreds of ghost-type monsters were wandering around.
Where the hell am I...!
No matter how he thought about it, this didn't feel like South Korea. But he didn't have time to think. The ghost monsters were climbing up toward the rooftop, and the monstrous birds were descending toward him.
"......!"
The man ran. Faster than before. Fortunately, after running for about five minutes, the monsters stopped chasing him.
I need to get out of here fast!
Otherwise he'd either have his soul sucked out by a wraith or become food for those monstrous birds. After wandering around desperately for two hours, he finally saw a human-shaped shadow through the fog.
Is that...?
He didn't know who it was, but he ran toward it. Getting out of here was the priority.
"Excuse me! Over h—!"
"So it's you. The bastard who stole my information?"
"......!"
The seductive black-haired woman who appeared before him slowly approached. She gently pressed a finger to his forehead.
My body...!
He couldn't move. Not even a single finger. It felt like his nerves had been paralyzed.
"I'll teach you. The knowledge of another world."
An incomprehensible language that could never be understood flooded his mind.
New knowledge poured in while old memories were erased. It was a horrifying sensation.
What would happen if an ordinary person had waves of alien knowledge forcibly injected into their brain?
Bang!
The man looked up at the sky as blood gushed from both nostrils. In the end, he collapsed. No matter how strong an Awakener's mental fortitude was, this was the result.