Chapter 127
Chapter 127
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Dangjin Lee Clan
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Driving along the road, I took in the scenery.
The date was already June. The time spent inside the World's Center had all been invalidated, so we'd returned to the original timeline, and from there, time had flown by until the sweltering summer arrived.
『I'll turn on the air conditioning. Please close the windows.』
"No, it's fine. I can handle it. Just turn on the radio."
『Understood.』
The sunlight poured down like spears, and the stifling heat pressed in.
The heat haze rising from the asphalt made me feel like an egg dropped onto a frying pan, and even the radio host was broadcasting on the topic.
-This summer is especially hot. The average temperature is expected to exceed 28 degrees. 2024, last year, was the hottest since 2018, but 2025's summer is projected to break that record and become the hottest in just one year.
"Coming back as the hottest summer in a single year... When I was a kid, record-breaking heat waves or cold snaps were said to come once every century at the longest, or every decade or so at the shortest. Now it's down to one year."
『It's a phenomenon caused by global warming.』
"It's a highly controversial topic worldwide. Or is it just chaos in America?"
Caused by greenhouse gases emitted by humans.
A natural temperature rise after the end of the Little Ice Age.
An artificial phenomenon due to human industrialization.
Humans have minimal impact on nature; it's all just ecological changes happening within Earth itself.
『Numerous scholars point to changes in Earth's atmosphere caused by humans as the primary cause. It's strange to look for the cause elsewhere. Could it be the influence of entities?』
"I asked the Foundation. It's purely human activity. Born from human greed without any entity intervention. They're denying it because it's politically and economically devastating."
『Does the Foundation have no intention of stopping it?』
"They'll wait for humanity to develop and implement its own technology. Once it completely crosses the tipping point and disaster strikes, then they'll gradually release new technologies."
No matter how ruined the Foundation was, they had the technology to solve global warming.
Yet they weren't stepping in because they wanted humanity to catch both lessons and progress—two rabbits with one stone.
"Humans grow in crises."
『In my opinion, once the problem is solved, they'll use it as proof that the climate crisis was all a lie.』
"Even the conflicts that arise in that process will be a step forward for humanity."
Lost in conversation with Sarang-i, time flew by unnoticed, and soon we arrived at our destination.
"9th floor, right?"
『Yes, room 930.』
Mystery detective Shin Se-hoon had called me not to his mansion, but to his office in a new commercial building.
Riding the elevator to the 9th floor, I came face-to-face with the semitransparent glass door inscribed with "Shin Se-hoon Detective Agency."
"Excuse me."
The door wasn't locked. The large office TV was on alone, broadcasting the news without viewers, and the computer hummed quietly with its cooler fan running by itself.
'The size of the office and the furnishings suggest he's running it solo, without anyone else.'
Steam rose from a mug of coffee on the desk.
'The coffee hasn't cooled, so he was here just moments ago.'
Judging by the empty cigarette pack beside the mug, he'd probably gone out to buy smokes.
"Shin Se-hoon? This is Lee Seung-hoon. I came after receiving your email."
Just in case, I called out to him, but there was no response.
Tuning my ears, my enhanced hearing picked up a lot.
The breathing of people chatting in other shops.
The footsteps of customers transmitted through the building's framework.
The creak of a tightly pulled string vibrating.
The sounds of customers eating.
A freelancer in late to file comprehensive income tax, complaining.
'But no breathing here.'
The office was definitely empty.
With nothing else to do, I looked around and spotted a whiteboard plastered with various documents and photos.
'He said he was handling a disappearance case. Could those be related materials?'
Among the complexly interconnected lines of data, I read the one at the top.
[Disappearance of 4]
[95% of humans entangled with the entity die within 24 hours. The remaining 3% return to normal lives, and 2% live lives intertwined with the entity.]
[Given the entity's danger, disappearances among those connected to it aren't surprising. Those who arrogantly believe they know the entity well, can handle, deceive, collaborate, or trade with it, usually pay with their lives—or sometimes cease to exist entirely.]
[But one day, investigating disappearances related to the entity out of curiosity revealed suspiciously regular, fixed numbers of people vanishing without fail.]
[Every 4 years, exactly 4 people. Always.]
[My instinct as a detective whispered.]
[This is no coincidence. It's someone's crime.]
"Disappearance of 4."
All the materials on the board were written as essays.
The attached photos were instant Polaroids, thoroughly analog with no digital traces.
'No wonder Sarang-i doesn't know about this. Even with this info, if it's not stored on a computer, she has no way to access it.'
Following the arrow drawn below the first document, I shifted my gaze.
[Disappearance of 4 Victims]
[4 years ago – Andre Belmont, Emilia Gaspar, Ryu Su-jin, Park Hyun-jeong.]
[8 years ago – Ling Xinlu, Li Xiaolang, Joseph Hendricks, Lee Seo-jun.]
[12 years ago – Roy Sandman, Kimura Shintaro, Baek Seok-ho, Yamamoto Kunji.]
[16 years ago...]
[Omitted]
[Confirmed back to 800 years ago, but no further]
[Estimated at least a thousand years.]
[Investigation period – 4 years. Self-investigation result: not coincidence.]
Shin Se-hoon seemed to possess an entity suited for detective work.
Otherwise, tracking down missing persons from 800 years ago would be impossible.
[Disappearance of 4 Victim Evidence]
[1. The kanji for "祭" (offering) left at the last sighted location.]
[2. Common traits of all missing persons: exceptional mental strength, survived encountering the entity alone, possessed great luck and skill, famous in their era (at least among those who know entities).]
[3. Last location of disappearance: ordinary places like their own living room, a friend's house, or office.]
[4. Past of the last location unviewable from 4 hours before disappearance to 4 hours after.]
Did he possess an entity that views the past?
His email to me had mentioned learning 15 minutes prior via the entity that I'd be helpful for the disappearance case, so he probably owned multiple.
[Did the missing persons contact someone?]
[Testimony 1: Multiple missing persons bragged to those around about eating unusual cuisine.]
[Testimony 2: Multiple missing persons talked about appointments to meet someone.]
[Testimony 3: Multiple missing persons spoke of building rapport with experts in specific fields.]
[Successfully tracked down some of the people they had worked hard to meet.]
[Intensive investigation revealed one clue.]
Below that, a photo stamped there: a circle formed by snakes biting each other's tails, enclosing the character for "福" (fortune).
[Most experts unknowingly tied by blood to the Dangjin Lee Clan.]
[Investigated direct and collateral lines, blood relations.]
[Notable point: All blood kin of Dangjin Lee Clan have above-average talent—not geniuses, but certainly gifted scholars.]
[Scattered worldwide. During investigation, they shook me off.]
[Potentially dangerous.]
[Current percentage: 77%. 3% to 80%.]
[Visited Dangjin Lee Clan directly.]
[Served bizarre feast. Tasty, but physiological disgust led to quitting at the third dish.]
[During process, checked garden, overall house layout, placements with ritual significance.]
[Interpretation result: Suspected seal. Explanations for the served dishes highly suspicious too.]
I moved my gaze to the final document.
[Percentage reached 80%, entity activated]
[Result: Accompanying fixer Lee Seung-hoon may solve the case?]
[Famous in both sunny and shadowy worlds. Email address public on Sarang Trading homepage.]
[Email sent. Will the Disappearance of 4 end tomorrow?]
The office remained silent.
Amid the TV and cooler sounds in the eerily quiet space, the noise of a tightly pulled string twisting arose again.
'Already 30 minutes have passed. But he hasn't returned.'
On the desk, I checked the business card.
Dialing the number below Shin Se-hoon's beaming face, a ringtone sounded from beyond the door in the office corner.
"Hmm."
I opened the door.
A hanged corpse swayed back and forth.
Each time, the taut rope screamed.
'He's already done for.'
I reached to touch his body, but faster than that, it crumbled like sand.
His flesh became dust on the floor, forming a small mound, and the rope that hanged him, along with his clothes, piled up the mound in the same way.
'The sand is gradually disappearing. Even on concrete, it's being absorbed.'
That's why he was a missing person.
No matter where they died, they turned to sand before the coffee cooled and got absorbed into the surroundings, vanishing.
'Entity's doing.'
The work of the entity held by the Dangjin Lee Clan.
Before that, staring piercingly at the piled sand gave me a strange feeling.
'A weird sensation in my left eye.'
My left eye was open, yet it felt like it needed to open.
'This is just like with my right eye...'
I focused my mind on my left eye.
Attempting to open it once more, a nonexistent eye opened, showing me something.
'What was that just now...'
For an instant, I saw Shin Se-hoon.
Pouring mix coffee into a mug—the recent past.
'Unlike the right eye, the left eye shows the past?'
It hadn't activated when viewing living people.
So, it only triggers upon seeing the dead.
'An eye that shows the past of the dead, not the future.'
The world has no effects without causes. In a world with entities, that saying loses a bit of shine, but there must be a reason for gaining such an ability like this.
'What I'm guessing now... Yeah, the reserve King of Hell exists.'
Viewing the past of the dead is seeing their lifetime deeds.
It evoked the Eastern hell's Karma Mirror, where sinners' pasts are viewed.
I also recalled them calling me the reserve King of Hell, which connected here.
'I'll ask about it later. For now, time to check what happened.'
I fully opened my left eye and confirmed the events here before the sand vanished.
Fortunately, unlike the right eye's real-time view, the info flooded in at once and was understood, so it didn't take long.
"......You went through something truly horrific."
And probably still are.
'Dangjin Lee Clan, what entity have they allied with?'
I'd vaguely known they were using an entity's power.
'Didn't expect it to be this powerful.'