Episode 2. Quitting, That Is the Only Answer.
Seeing as I’d possessed him with all four limbs intact, it seemed this was before the protagonist’s younger sibling died….
Even so, that didn’t mean everything Han Chasu had done up until now would disappear.
‘First, I should sort out the house.’
No matter how twisted a villain he was, I hadn’t known whether he had family or not.
Just in case Han Chasu was the head of a household, I needed to contact his family.
But nowhere in the house was there anything about family.
Instead, in a room decorated like a study, I found a diary.
“Gutsy bastard.”
The moment I opened the diary, I was appalled.
This was really the work of a stalker who’d gone insane because he couldn’t torment Jeong Iheun enough.
[23X5, X Month, 12th.
Again. Jeong Iheun showed up at the company cafeteria again. Those empty-headed bastards swarmed him again to fawn over him. What’s so great about a bastard whose only merit is having good parents? They must all be walking around with their eyes as decorations.]
[23X5, X Month, 15th.
Why do I have to make potions for Jeong Iheun to use? Fuck, why do I have to serve S-ranks who don’t do a damn thing!]
[23X6, X Month, 22nd.
That bastard has a stubborn lifeline. Did I reduce the effect too much so it wouldn’t be obvious?
Still, the sight of him covered in blood suited him quite well. It would’ve been better if he’d died where they couldn’t even find his corpse.
Next time, I’ll have to adjust the duration too.]
How had this lunatic caused trouble in every possible direction?
There were even incidents that hadn’t appeared in the original work.
“You’re just an extra. How did you even sell internal information?”
The bold Han Chasu had even sold off Cheonryeong Guild’s internal information.
When I reached the final page, I pressed both eyes hard with my hand.
[23X7, September 3rd.
Damn bastard. They’re only going to hunt one Frost Giant, so why the fuck is he making me prepare so many Ice Resistance Potions?
It’s not like they’ll even drink them all after I bust my ass making them.
They fight wrapped head to toe in support skills anyway, but fuck, they’re still greedy as hell. Cowardly bastards.]
I quietly closed the diary.
Then I opened my phone and checked the date.
23X7, September 4th, Wednesday.
“He wrote this yesterday.”
A hollow laugh escaped me on its own.
Third year at the company. Autumn. Frost Giant dungeon.
And that cursed name, Ice Resistance Potion.
There was only one thing all of these pointed to.
“Fuck, Han Chasu…!”
It hadn’t even been two hours since I possessed the villain, and a limb-severing experience show was already right before my eyes.
***
“Sir, we’ve arrive—”
“Here’s my card! Please process the payment quickly!”
“Uh, uh… It, it’s done!”
“Goodbye!”
Driven solely by my determination not to die, I rushed to Cheonryeong Guild, which was damn huge and curse-inducingly tall.
The one fortunate thing was that Han Chasu was an A-rank Hunter. Though I was slower than usual, running up more than twenty flights of stairs wasn’t difficult.
“Coming through.”
“Huh, uh…?”
Maybe because it was a large guild, or maybe because people simply hated waiting for the elevator, there were quite a few Hunters like me using the stairs.
A few of them looked back at me in surprise, but I had no time to care.
I had to join the raid team right now.
On the way here, I recalled the call I’d had with the team leader in the taxi.
—Huh? Chasu, what’s going on all of a sudden? You never call me… Hm? Ice Resistance Potions? Raid Team 1 took all of those last night. Why, is something wrong?
The moment I heard that, it felt like all the blood drained from my body.
Since the potions had already been handed over to the raid team, I had to give up on retrieving them.
They were potions that the manufacturing team had finished producing and inspecting before sending out. There weren’t even any spares to substitute them with.
Then what should I do?
First, I could make an excuse now and say I’d made them wrong.
‘There’s no way that’ll work.’
I had personally stamped the production report and the inspection seal. Who would believe me if I said I’d made them wrong after that?
Even if I made excuses, the best-case scenario would be disciplinary action. If things went badly, a full-scale investigation would start, and I’d end up behind bars.
The second method was simple. I could pretend not to know anything, submit my resignation, and go into hiding.
But the other party was an eminent S-rank who led a guild ranked in the country’s top ten. No matter where I ran, I was sure to be captured immediately, and a limb-severing human dissection party would begin.
In the end, there was only one choice left to me.
Bang!
The member of Raid Team 1 standing in front of the desk looked up at me with round eyes.
“I’m here… today… haah. For the Frost, Giant raid team! Support team, application, cough…! I came to apply.”
I had no choice but to enter the tiger’s den myself and save them.
***
Baek Seon of Cheonryeong Guild’s Dungeon Raid Team 1 had looked like death since morning.
It wasn’t particularly because the guild leader had announced thirty minutes ago that he wouldn’t be participating in the raid.
What could anyone do when a Grade 1 Gate had suddenly burst open near Jeju Island?
For the sake of his plane ticket to Jeju reserved for a weekend next month, Baek Seon was fully prepared to gladly send the guild leader to Jeju Island.
His dissatisfaction lay solely in the fact that, with the guild leader’s younger brother being dispatched in his place, he himself had ended up going into the dungeon as well.
“Sigh.”
‘If it had been the guild leader, it wouldn’t have mattered even if we cut the number of people here in half.’
With the S-rank gone and his spot replaced by an A-rank, they naturally needed to reinforce their combat power.
Baek Seon sighed heavily as he wrote an email to Potion Manufacturing Team 3, asking them to send over any remaining potions they had.
That was when it happened.
With urgent footsteps, someone slammed into the partition.
“Aaagh!”
“Haah, haah….”
The man, who nearly toppled onto the floor, grabbed the partition and barely managed to pull himself up.
He looked so exhausted that Baek Seon forgot the timing to get angry.
The nape of the man’s neck was wet with sweat as he breathed harshly.
‘Did we have someone like this in our company?’
Sensing a strangely dangerous atmosphere, Baek Seon unconsciously craned his neck, and the man raised his head.
White skin flushed with heat and hazy gray eyes.
His sweat-damp black hair precariously obscured his eyes.
“Hoo, haah….”
He was a handsome man who exuded a precarious air just by quietly catching his breath. Just as Baek Seon was quickly looking him over—
“I’m here… today… haah. For the Frost, Giant raid team! Support team application, cough…! I came to apply.”
The man called out to him in a cracked voice.
Only then did Baek Seon come to his senses.
“Huh? Pardon? You’re applying for support? Ah!”
Last night, he had sent an email to every employee asking whether they wished to volunteer for the support team.
It was an email they were required to send every time the raid team went out to the field, but almost no one actually participated.
At the long-awaited arrival of extra hands, Baek Seon’s face instantly brightened.
“But where are you from…?”
“Ah.”
The man stopped catching his breath and held out his employee ID to him.
“I’m from Potion Manufacturing Team 1.”
Toward the startled Baek Seon, Han Chasu used all his strength to put on a harmless smile.
***
“Thank you for helping.”
“No! It’s fine. I’m the one who should be grateful. To be honest, not many people personally come over after getting the support team volunteer email.”
“Is that so?”
Han Chasu lifted the box in his arms and looked at Baek Seon with puzzled eyes.
Beneath his light beige hair, gentle yellow-tinted eyes were staring intently at him.
“You didn’t know?”
“Mm… I knew there weren’t many support team volunteers, but I didn’t realize it was to that extent.”
Han Chasu shrugged.
He was currently walking with Baek Seon toward Cheonryeong Guild’s Northeast Training Hall.
“The raid team already has a separate support team attached to it, so there’s no reason for people to come to the auxiliary support team on purpose.”
Baek Seon whispered as if telling him a secret. Han Chasu played along and quietly nodded.
‘It’s nice that he talks a lot.’
His conversation with Baek Seon was quite useful.
“That’s why the Equipment Management Team and the Production Team had a whole fight last time, you know? It’s not like they’re teenagers in some youth drama.”
“Oh.”
Baek Seon didn’t stop talking even when he briefly followed him to Potion Manufacturing Team 1.
Thanks to that, Han Chasu was able to roughly understand how things worked inside Cheonryeong Guild.
‘I’ll have to meet him often until I quit.’
It was much better than this damned novel, which had put him in danger of dying only a few hours after possessing the villain without giving him a single scrap of the original body’s memories.
‘It’s not as bad a start as I thought.’
Looking down at Baek Seon chattering beside him, Han Chasu thought.
‘No, if you think about it, maybe I’m lucky.’
The fact that they recruited support personnel every time the raid team went into the field was something he had only realized after ending the call with the team leader and rummaging through Han Chasu’s phone, wondering if there was anything else that might help.
It had been mentioned in passing several times in the original work too, but it hadn’t been particularly important, so he’d forgotten.
‘Thank goodness.’
If they hadn’t been recruiting volunteers, he had intended to force his way along somehow.
That was how badly he wanted to avoid the live torture show of having his limbs dismantled.
“Actually, I’m a healer too, though I’m not as good as my older brother. I didn’t know I’d get dragged out like this, though.”
At Baek Seon’s sulky voice, Han Chasu tilted his head.
“I thought you were an office worker. Were you not?”
“Ah, I’m usually an office worker. Today’s the weird day. Field duty, seriously.”
Watching Baek Seon sigh over and over, Han Chasu rubbed his chin.
‘A healer suddenly drafted in.’
Something felt like it was about to come to mind, but then Baek Seon raised his hand high and pointed to one side.
“It’s over there. The Northeast Training Hall. Most of Raid Team 1 should be gathered there right now.”
He could already sense a bustling atmosphere from nearby.
When he entered through the open door, hot air greeted him. The energetic scene felt a little unfamiliar.
Han Chasu was cautiously looking around the training hall when a low voice pierced his ear.
“What business does someone from the Potion Manufacturing Team have here?”
It was a calm but powerful voice. Han Chasu slowly raised his head.
A man who had appeared without a sound was looking at him with a firm gaze.
His surprise lasted only a moment before Han Chasu quickly scanned the other man.
He was a handsome man with a gentle impression, notable for his neat black hair and scarlet eyes.
“Guild leader!”
Baek Seon shouted beside him.
Only then did Han Chasu realize who the man standing in front of him, blocking his way, was.
Jeong Iheun. The protagonist of this novel, and the man who would tear off his limbs in the future if things went wrong.
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