Luck-Skinny (1)

The next day.

The moment I opened my eyes, I sensed someone's presence.

Hearing a sound from the office, I peeked through the crack of the hidden door. Someone was standing outside, staring intently at the front door from the hallway.

It was Kim Lokhee.

She looked different from what I remembered, but there was no mistaking the staff she held tightly in her hand.

Was her alias Baba Yaga?

It was her prized possession, decorated with a giant crow skull, which she never let go of.

"Yawn... She's here early."

There were two interesting things about this.

First was her appearance.

Her profile picture at the Bureau showed a thirty-nine-year-old, not twenty-nine, but her current appearance made her look nineteen at most.

She had even curled her hair into bouncy twintails.

Even if she used magic to look younger, wasn't this a bit much for her age?

"Did she get triggered that badly yesterday...?"

And second.

Auntie Lokhee seemed to see me hiding behind the secret door.

Her golden eyes had been tracking my exact position for a while now.

She must be using some kind of life-detection magic...

She won't come all the way in here, right...?

For a fixer, trespassing into another fixer's office was practically a declaration of war.

And if a representative did it?

Well, that was basically asking for a deathmatch.

I want to sleep a bit more...

It was true I dragged her into this to keep some distance from Woo Cheon-yeop, but shouldn't I be the one to decide when we meet?

This was the privilege of the one holding the information.

If she's still there when I wake up, I'll deal with her then...

But the moment I turned around to lie back down on the mattress...

Auntie Lokhee turned her head toward the hallway and spoke.

Was there a chance she ran into someone who saw me or Cheong Harin while gathering information? Absolutely.

And even Woo Cheon-yeop couldn't completely hide the fact that Cheong Harin was hospitalized. Well, he might be able to swap someone's location in real-time... but surely he wouldn't go that far.

Besides, the nurses probably remembered my face.

After all, my appearance was quite unique.

A tiny girl whose hair dragged on the ground had run into the hospital carrying an adult woman on her back.

Even a fool would uncover the truth if they asked around.

Is she baiting me?

But if she was throwing out bait just to drag me out, there was even less reason to go.

Because I had no reason to!

I casually closed my eyes...

"..."

Who did she think she was fooling?

Did she really think I'd fall for that chicken bait and run right out?

AnomalyLivingAGoodLife360 had already secured two boxes of Ssaksak Chicken.

"Huh?"

Wait, right foot, what do you think you're doing right now?

How dare you act on your own, defying the decisions of my cerebrum?

I was trying to lie down, so why are you trying to stand up?

No. Actually, my cerebrum wants chicken too...!

What a cowardly auntie.

Mocking a human—no, an anomaly—with chicken?

Maybe I should just snatch the chicken and run.

Should I go out the back door... No, if she can see my location, I'll only reveal the existence of the back door. Should I just go through the front?

It was a Ghost Office that had never even been registered on the rankings anyway.

I could just shamelessly claim that everyone else left because the office was on the verge of bankruptcy, leaving only me.

I opened the secret door, stepped into the office, and headed toward the front door, deliberately looking around as if I had just woken up.

With thoughts of free chicken filling my head, I flung the front door open, only to be greeted by—

"Who is making all this noise in front of the office ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so early in the—"

Kim Lokhee's empty hands.

No matter how I looked at it, from this angle or that, there was no chicken.

...She lied to me!!

"—morning..." I mumbled, trailing off.

For someone like me who wanted to live among humans, becoming an anomaly didn't offer many advantages.

But one of those few advantages was emotional control.

Even if I was boiling with rage inside, I could appear cold or gentle on the outside.

I could adjust my facial expression with a single click.

After all, expressions were just muscle movements, and I was a blood human—no, a blood anomaly—whose very muscles were made of blood.

I stared blankly at the auntie and asked,

"Who are you?"

"...Ah. You don't know me? Some people said they saw you during Operation Window Da-112, so I thought you were a fixer who came to participate in the raid."

What was with this arrogance, assuming every fixer in the world would know her?

But it was a fact, so I couldn't refute it.

Her name and nickname were constantly brought up on the Fixer Gallery.

At first, the gallery users mocked her for calling herself the 'Tower Master,' calling it cringe, but lately, it seemed to have become a massive inside joke.

Probably because she was a likable representative who, despite her high self-esteem and pride, genuinely enjoyed helping people.

For a Na-grade, she often takes on difficult missions that Na-grades shouldn't even touch and resolves them. Sometimes she even works for free if she feels like it. She really is a good auntie.

But right now, since she didn't bring chicken, she was a bad auntie.

Boo, trash. Trash must be eliminated.

But I need to get the chicken first, so I'll eliminate her after I get it.

"Actually, I know who you are, Auntie Kim Lokhee. I'm Baek San-a."

"I told you, I'm not an auntie..."

"But everyone on the gallery calls you auntie."

"Ugh, those damn gallery bastards. Honestly, almost none of the people calling me auntie are actually kids. They're all middle-aged men or grandpas. Who knows? Maybe those users acting all cute and typing 'uwu~' are actually bearded old men."

"I know that. The internet is always full of middle-aged men who want to be high school girls."

"Saying it with such a bright face makes me feel guilty...!"

Sighing softly, Kim Lokhee asked again.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"So, San-a. Are you the... representative of this office?"

"I'm the pet."

"The... what?"

"The pet."

"? You're a human. What do you mean, pet?"

"I was the former representative's pet."

"Does that mean they doted on you that much...? But why the past tense? ...Oh, don't tell me."

With just a few sentences, Auntie Lokhee began to weave a story in her head.

"Did... the representative go on a mission and never return...?"

Was it true that this auntie sometimes turned on her stream, watched anime, made a huge fuss, and cried her eyes out? I thought it was just for the camera.

Anyway, since I had to deceive her, I'd keep lying.

Time to spin the ultimate lie, mixed with a tiny grain of truth.

"Their status is unknown. They left me in charge as the acting representative and disappeared."

"So that's why the office has been closed all this time..."

"Yes. Even if someone came, we couldn't accept requests."

"How do you... pay for the office maintenance and things like that?"

"I manage somehow with the money the representative left behind."

"Thank goodness... Oh, I'm so sorry. I brought up a painful memory."

Before I knew it, Kim Lokhee was tearing up.

Is it because of her age that she's so sentimental?

You know how middle-aged women cry, laugh, and curse at every single scene while watching morning dramas.

...I felt a bit bad, so I decided not to call her auntie for the rest of the day.

"It's fine. It's already been a few years. More importantly, why did you come here?"

"Ah. That... I came looking for someone. I heard a rumor that the person I'm looking for occasionally appears here."

"Here? No one has visited this place in years."

I was subtly telling her not to get swayed by my lies and to give up looking after a bit.

It was easy to play around, tease, and trigger people on the gallery.

But doing it face-to-face was a bit... different.

"Are you sure? They might have visited while you were asleep."

"That's possible, but there's really no reason for anyone to come."

"No. I'll see and decide for myself. In that sense, let me stay here for about two months."

"Two months?"

"I need to stay at least that long to get something out of this. Should we make it an official dispatch? That way, if any work comes in around here, I can handle it. How about a 50-50 split on the commission?"

A 50-50 split?

These days, fixers went independent if the agency took even twenty percent.

Yet she was offering to give half to the office. What was this about?

Why is she so obsessed with me...?

If she resolved requests through our office, I would receive half the contribution points.

Even without doing any work, I would get closer to securing a downtown pass.

At that moment, a realization struck me like lightning.

So that's why Woo Cheon-yeop made me the representative!

Since I had become the demon of laziness, he did this to drag me to the city center somehow.

Wow, I guess you need that kind of brain to be a Byeoksabusa.

It would be foolish of me to pass up this opportunity.

As long as Representative Kim Lokhee stayed here, I could gather contribution points for free whenever an anomaly incident occurred.

Plus, unlike the office terminal, I can spend the money however I want. Letting her stay for a few months is a total win, isn't it?

But once my thoughts reached this point, I became curious about her true intentions.

What could possibly be the reason?

"Do you really have to go this far for someone who might not even show up?"

"Of course. I want to work with that person."

Taking a short breath, Kim Lokhee suddenly started praising me.

"Look. It was a Window that, at best, was Na-grade. It was protected by barriers, and there were plenty of fixers inside. Whoever did it could have just walked past, regardless of what chaos broke out inside.

"But they went out of their way to help. To me, they're a savior. A savior who helped us overcome a crisis where bugs could have spread everywhere and ruined my office's reputation.

"And their skill was incredible. Unleashing such a wide-area attack while keeping allies completely unharmed!"

"Was it really that big of a deal...?"

"What do you mean 'that big of a deal'? They're a good person! And they're skilled. Do you think it's easy to find a good person in this day and age? If you don't screen for personality when interviewing fixers, your office gets robbed and people end up dead!"

A good person, a kind person, a person of character, a trustworthy person.

Nowadays, the default response upon meeting someone was to suspect if they were acting.

That was because such people were extremely rare.

So Kim Lokhee's words weren't entirely strange.

Even though, in reality, I only did it because I had to save Cheong Harin and the bugs kept getting in my way.

"Anyway, if you want, I'll even act as the representative, so just say the word. Ah, of course, I don't mean I'll abuse power or take away your authority. I just mean I'll handle all the annoying chores a representative has to do."

I needed to prepare to hire Cheong Harin at the office anyway, and searching the gallery had revealed that the process was ridiculously complicated.

Seriously, why was protecting a single meal mate so troublesome?

I wanted someone to do the work for me anyway, so is this a good thing?

"But if you come here, Representative, is your own office going to be okay?"

"The Vice Tower Master will handle it. I've always traveled a lot for business, so I trained them Spartan-style from the beginning."

"Sounds tough over there too..."

"Still, I tend to teach everything step-by-step. They might suffer from my micromanagement, but they won't suffer from neglect."

"I think that's a good approach too."

"Really? We might actually get along. By the way, do you like mint chocolate?"

I grinned and replied,

"In this day and age, any crazy bastard who skips mint chocolate or pineapple pizza deserves to starve to death."

"Ha! San-a, I really like you. Is this why the former representative doted on you like a pet?"

"Probably."

I shrugged and said to her,

"Well, then I'll leave it to you. When will you start the dispatch?"

"I can start today. If I ask the Vice Tower Master to process the paperwork, it'll be done in no time."

"And the chicken?"

"Chicken? Ah."

Since she lied about bringing chicken earlier, she had to pay the price, right?

If the amount wasn't satisfactory, I would reject her on the spot—

"If you promise to keep an eye out for any unusual people on weekends when I can't make it, I'll order you a box of Ssaksak Chicken every week. How about it? I'll send the order here, so just receive it and eat."

"Really?"

"It's not like it costs nothing, but for some reason, I feel like doing this for you. Why, you don't want it?"

We get along so well it's almost crazy.

Were you perhaps my family in a past life?

...But even I would feel a bit guilty freeloading chicken while keeping up this lie.

A weekly Ssaksak Chicken was too much. I should settle for once a month.

"Once a month is enough. I don't want to burden you."

"Oh, really? Well, I won't decline such consideration."

Never forget that Ssaksak Chicken, made exclusively from specially raised chickens, is absolute.

I quickly ran up behind her as she sat arrogantly on the old sofa and began massaging her shoulders.

"From now on, anyone who calls the representative an 'auntie' will be considered my mortal enemy."

"W-what's this all of a sudden? You don't have to go that far."

"Understood!!!"

Two days later.

Cheong Harin, who had been discharged from the hospital, came to the Ghost Office...

"Oh, Miss Cheong Harin! Are you fully recovered? I'm glad you look well!"

Cheong Harin fell into a state of shock at the sight of Kim Lokhee, who was busy doing paperwork at the dusty representative's desk.

"Have a seat for now. You came to see San-a, right? She stepped out to go to the convenience store nearby, but she'll be back ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠soon."

After all, Harin had planned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to beg San-a for even a low-level assistant position.

But it looked like Kim Lokhee had somehow taken over that role.

"What... are you doing here?"

"Ah. I made a deal with San-a. We both had things we needed, so I decided to help out with the chores and paperwork."

Cheong Harin's jaw dropped.

An agency representative who could easily promote to Ga-grade if a slot opened up was doing chores here. She wondered if there was even any work left for a mere Ra-grade like herself.

"This... this isn't good...?"