The Full Story of the Physiognomy Incident
The whole story of the physiognomy incident went like this.
“Team Leader, do you think that guy dropped anything?”
“Dropped something? Does the type matter?”
“Nope.”
Booger or whatever, it didn’t matter. I just needed a medium to connect to him.
Soon after, the team leader brought me what I’d asked for. The item he handed over was a strand of hair sealed inside a transparent plastic bag.
“If you have hair, couldn’t you just run a DNA test?”
“We already did. The culprit turned out to be a seventy-eight-year-old ordinary civilian.”
“……”
It was impressive that a transformation ability could even fool DNA analysis. So that’s why he’d asked if the type mattered.
“Well, it’s fine. My curses aren’t affected by DNA anyway.”
I pulled out a talisman and tore open the skin on my fingertip. Ha-im immediately panicked and snatched my hand.
“What are you doing! Why are you suddenly bleeding…”
“What do you mean, why? I’m obviously casting a curse.”
“……?”
I used the blood flowing from my finger to draw a character, then pressed the hair against the talisman. The paper instantly absorbed it.
“…You need blood when you curse someone?”
“Of course. The caster’s blood and a medium are essential.”
I checked the character I’d written on the talisman. It was the hanja for ‘haze’—霞. This was a curse that dragged the target into an unidentified fog and showed them illusions.
Riiiiip.
The moment I tore the talisman, it spontaneously combusted and vanished. That meant it had worked properly.
“So he’s coming toward us now?”
“Give me a hand mirror so I can check.”
Ha-im handed me the compact mirror she used for makeup. I tilted it sideways with my hand for a quick look.
Haze Curse — Target successfully linked. Illusory fog deployed.
“Aaaargh!! What the hell is this?!”
The man reflected in the mirror was sprinting at full speed, desperately fleeing from ghosts and monstrous birds.
“Looks like he’ll get here in about two hours.”
“Whoa… Unni, you really look like a prophet.”
Crack!
She probably meant it as a compliment, but it was incredibly unpleasant. I grabbed her mouth as a warning.
“……!”
Lee Ha-im was startled. What is this oppa doing?
“Mmph mmph!!!? (What the hell are you doing?!)”
“If you call me a prophet one more time, I’ll rip that mouth of yours off. Consider yourself warned.”
“Mmph mmph!!! (Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?!)”
I couldn’t make out the words beyond the muffled sounds, but her expression and tone told me everything.
“Because you keep comparing me to those bastards.”
A prophet? When I thought about the ones from the church, it was an incredibly rude thing to say. I needed to hammer this lesson in properly this time.
“Those guys have to look into the future to get it right, but I get it right without even looking. Obviously I’m superior.”
Actually, they weren’t even seeing the future. After investigating, I found out they just spouted random nonsense while their church subordinates manipulated things from behind the scenes. The stress that caused me was enough to make destroying an entire empire feel insufficient.
And so we waited. Until the thief arrived.
When he fainted, the man’s transformation came undone. His true appearance was a sight to behold.
“She was a woman?”
And not just any woman—a tall one who looked over 170 centimeters. I’d had no idea.
“Oh, congratulations.”
“Good thing we caught her.”
Right after, the team leader and Lee Ji-woo appeared. They were taking credit when they hadn’t done anything, which made my stomach churn, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Handle the culprit yourselves.”
Whether they claimed they caught her or said she was found collapsed on the roadside, as long as it didn’t involve me, I didn’t care. The only thing I was interested in was that briefcase.
I quickly opened it and rummaged through the documents containing my information.
Found it!
NAME: Lee Sung-a
Special Notes: Occupation — Fortune Teller. Initially believed to be an ordinary diviner, but possesses god-like divination abilities. Accurately predicts lottery numbers, stocks, real estate, and more. Judged capable of manipulating the global economic market.
“……”
They really wrote it in ridiculous detail. Just looking at it made me furious. I needed to tear it up—no, burn it immediately.
“Hey, lighter.”
“Here.”
Thud.
Ha-im tossed me the lighter. I flicked it on and set the documents ablaze. Everything, including all the information on other Awakeners.
“……!”
The team leader and Lee Ji-woo looked quite shocked by my actions.
“I worked for free, so consider this my compensation. Hey, let’s go.”
“Huh? Okay.”
Ha-im followed behind me in a daze, but she didn’t look upset. Well, since her own information had been destroyed too, it was probably a win for her.
A week later, while I was streaming as usual, a text suddenly arrived.
About the broadcast?
By now I was starting to get seriously annoyed.
Why do they keep calling me so often?!
Still, since it was about the broadcast, I figured I should go. Since my sister had gone to a lecture, I had no choice but to head there alone.
Creeeeak.
“……!”
The moment I opened the conference room door, a familiar face was waiting for me. A woman who looked over 170 centimeters tall stood up and greeted me.
“Nice to meet you. You’re Sung-a, right? I’m Choi Ha-yul, the new intern assigned to the Returnee Team!”
The woman who introduced herself as Choi Ha-yul greeted me brightly and cheerfully, but I wasn’t feeling it.
She doesn’t remember me?
From her expression alone, I didn’t sense any negative emotions like displeasure.
“You’re already here.”
“Ugh, I really don’t want to go to work.”
“……!”
The team leader and Lee Ji-woo arrived shortly after. I quickly closed the door and asked what was going on out in the hallway.
“Why is she here? Wasn’t she supposed to be in prison?”
“Ah, you mean Ha-yul?”
The team leader answered as if it were no big deal.
“She’s the new hire.”
“She’s also my junior.”
Wait, was that what I was asking? What I wanted to know was why she was here.
“Wasn’t she sent to prison?”
“We originally planned to just throw her in a cell.”
The problem was that she had been admitted to the ICU for three days after suddenly going into shock. And five days later, the first thing she said when she saw Kim Kwon-ho and Lee Ji-woo was…
“Where am I? And who am I?”
She had amnesia. It was probably because the sudden flood of knowledge had overwritten her existing memories.
The team leader and Lee Ji-woo had debated whether to tell her the truth. That was when Lee Ji-woo made a suggestion.
The team leader thought about it.
The Returnee Team was a recently established department that was always short on manpower. Lee Ji-woo had been managing it well with her abilities so far, but they had reached their limit. They needed new talent.
And that was how Choi Ha-yul ended up joining the Returnee Team.
“This friend turned out to have surprisingly good abilities. She has amnesia, yet she somehow passed the civil service exam I gave her as a joke. I still don’t understand how.”
“Yeah, I failed it twice myself.”
At those words, one hypothesis flashed through my mind.
Could it be because of the knowledge I injected?
It was the only explanation. How else could someone with amnesia pass the civil service exam in just a week?
Damn it, I should have held back…!
I had kept pouring information into her until she passed out. It looked like I’d given her way too much.
After that, they ran a background check and brought her into the Association.
…Fine. I’ll let this one slide.
Since part of it was my fault, I could overlook it. What I was curious about came next.
“So didn’t you say you called me here because of the broadcast? Hurry up and tell me.”
“Well, sure. Do you happen to need a broadcast manager or anything like that?”
“……?”
A broadcast manager all of a sudden? Why were they asking that?
Well, I do need one.
My viewer count was approaching three thousand, and managing the chat by myself was getting difficult. Ha-im helped sometimes, but it was impossible when she had lectures.
“We’ve been monitoring your streams constantly.”
Monitoring?
I hadn’t known that. I’d have to ban them later.
“We occasionally see chats asking for stock or lottery information. If this continues, couldn’t the same problem flare up again?”
“……”
I had to admit it. Those kinds of messages did pop up sometimes, and similar posts had appeared on the fan cafe I made yesterday. I was definitely feeling the need for a manager these days.
“So you’re telling me to use her as my manager?”
“Yes. We’re short on staff too, so we probably can’t handle managing your stream ourselves. We thought it would be better to assign someone separately, which is why we’re making this suggestion.”
Hmm. I wasn’t sure what to do.
“Do I have to pay her salary?”
“No. This is part of the Association’s duties, so you don’t need to pay her.”
We shook hands. Contract sealed.
“Oh, right. We actually met today to give you this.”
The team leader handed me something. It was an Awakener license. The rank was C.
“You lied about being an Awakener on your stream. We made this in case you ever come under suspicion.”
They really are monitoring me.
Don’t they have anything better to do?
Then a question suddenly occurred to me.
“Is it okay to just make something like this?”
The team leader shrugged.
“Yes. Thanks to the stocks you told me about, I hit it big. I can just pay the bail and get released.”
What was I supposed to do with this team leader? Even if things went wrong, I really hoped he wouldn’t drag me down with him.
“Ha-yul, we’re done talking. You can come out now.”
“Yeees!”
Choi Ha-yul came out of the conference room and bowed to me again.
“I’m Choi Ha-yul, and I’ll be working as your dedicated manager from now on. Please take good care of me!”
Her greeting was incredibly bright. I hoped that cheerful personality would last.
“Same here. I’ll send you the broadcast rules and my ID via text.”
After that, I went home and turned on my stream. I had promised the viewers a special segment today.
As soon as I started the stream, viewers began pouring in. At this point, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call me a proper streamer.
“No. Today I’m doing the content I prepared. Did you guys upload your photos to the fan cafe like I asked?”
I’d even created the fan cafe for this and told viewers to upload ID-style photos. I wondered if they’d done it properly.
“The content for today is reading all of your physiognomy.”
Whether it’s a murderer’s face, a drug dealer’s face, an arsonist’s face, or a sex offender’s face—bring it on. I’ll read them all perfectly!