“Team Leader Han Sincheol, how is that task I assigned you going?”
Han Sincheol, who had been humming to himself after dumping an obviously bothersome job on Suho, flinched at the department head’s words when they ran into each other in the hallway.
“Ah, of course. It’s going well. I’ll get it handled and send it up quickly.”
“Good. You need to do a good job on that. Pay close attention to it.”
“Is it important?”
“Yes. It came down from Towerpia.”
“Hrk...”
“And that’s not all. It’s a request from an S-rank Admittee. It has to be flawless.”
“......Understood.”
* * *
Suho, his irritation boiling up, drank a cup of coffee and stopped by the restroom before standing in front of the mirror.
“Phew... You damn bastard. So you were the client. Why don’t you do your own work? Instead of making your subordinates pass it down until it reaches me.”
The handsome young man in the mirror did not look pleased either.
“Seriously, so in the end, you put in a request to Manage for something I’m going to end up doing... Ah... There are way too many exhausting, irritating things. Should I just quit everything now...”
It was a thought he had already had several times.
How many people were suffering because Suho stubbornly clung to this lousy agency job?
Administration bodyguards followed him around in droves every day,
Minsu and Minji... Well, those two didn’t matter.
And now even Evans was on the verge of following him around. Tsk.
But he could not quit so easily.
Inyeon Agency was a place he was grateful for, allowing Suho to live as an ordinary Suho, and it was also an important brake holding back his emptiness.
‘...Should I just do an absolutely sloppy job this time, make the results a complete mess, and then reject it from Manage’s side, saying what kind of work is this?’
After thinking about it for a moment, that was no good either.
If things went wrong, he might get fired from work and the company might stagger too.
A vicious cycle.
“Phew... Right. It’s a company I worked hard to get into. I have to adapt. Adapt.”
He tried to pull himself together, but even so, he could not do this.
Thinking of the office environment, which did not even have a proper high-speed scanner, and the incredibly thick stacks of documents, Suho shook his head again.
When he returned to his seat, Han Sincheol was standing in front of Suho’s desk, waiting.
“Got nothing to do? Where have you been wandering around? Why aren’t you hurrying up? This much work is nothing to you, is that it? It’s the department head’s order. Finish it by tomorrow morning and put it on my desk.”
As the team leader tried to turn away after saying only what he wanted to say, Suho stopped him.
“Team Leader, wait a moment.”
The team leader raised his eyebrows and frowned, jerking his chin as if telling him to speak.
“Team Leader, I’m still a new hire, aren’t I? Just looking at it, this seems like an incredibly important job, so how could a rookie like me handle something that important? There are bound to be sloppy holes here and there.”
“Really? Now that you mention it, you’re right. Then I’ll review and check whether you did it properly or not, so finish it by midnight tonight and send it to me.”
“......Fuck.”
“What? Whaaat? What did you just say?”
As the team leader, whose lid was half-blown, raised his voice, all the employees who had been working turned to look this way.
“What’s going on?”
Even the department head stood up and began walking over.
The moment Han Sincheol tried to say something, Suho smoothly beat him to it.
“Huh! Team Leader, you dropped something. What is this?”
The item Suho had quickly taken out of his subspace and materialized inside Han Sincheol’s jacket so that it fell at just the right moment.
It was so natural that it looked as if something Han Sincheol had hidden had accidentally fallen out.
As Suho pointed at the object on the floor with exaggerated gestures, the approaching department head adjusted his glasses.
The gazes of all the other employees were also fixed on the fallen item.
It was none other than a piece of E-grade Etherium.
“Team Leader! Isn’t this Etherium? What grade is something like this?”
Everyone in the office was shocked.
The female employees covered their mouths and widened their eyes.
Only then did Han Sincheol understand the situation and begin to panic.
“Uh... Huh? Wh-what... Why did that come from me... What does that have to do with me...”
Suho kept making an exaggerated fuss.
“Wow! This is so amazing. It’s my first time seeing Etherium, so it’s really fascinating, you know? But Team Leader, I mean, where did you get this? It must be insanely expensive.”
In truth, E-grade Etherium was not that rare. Still, as an otherworldly object with its own unique energy wavelength, its price was not exactly cheap.
At the low end, it traded for around twenty million won per 100 grams, but when supplies dried up, it could soar to one hundred million won.
Of course, it was far below D-grade, whose starting price was around eighty million won, but even E-grade was not something ordinary people and commoners could easily see.
“The price is one thing, but it’s not something you can buy just because you have money...”
One of the employees muttered during the sudden commotion, and those words lit a spark of suspicion in everyone.
The surrounding attention focused entirely on Han Sincheol.
Then came another murmur, carelessly tossed out by someone else.
“Surely... Surely you didn’t touch the Admittees’ privately stored items, did you, Team Leader...?”
At those words, even the department head’s face twisted with anger.
Han Sincheol, who had gone deathly pale, stammered.
“N-no, no, that’s not it. Th-th-this isn’t mine...”
“Team Leader Han...! What is going on here! Submit a written report immediately!”
Employees murmured from all around, and Han Sincheol, his face blue with fear, hurriedly left his place.
Watching him, Suho smiled faintly.
Han Sincheol was called here and there, made to write reports, and thoroughly shaken down.
In the end, only after it was confirmed that Etherium had never been on any Admittee’s list of privately stored items was he finally released.
And amazingly, the E-grade Etherium that everyone had witnessed and that had thrown the office into an uproar vanished once more.
It was enough to make a ghost wail.
* * *
“Suho, we’re heading out first...”
“You’ve got a lot of work today, right? Seriously, why does that crazy team leader keep picking on only you?”
“Yeah, go on home. I don’t know what it is, but he must be jealous of me. Don’t worry about it and head out first. See you tomorrow.”
His fellow new hires left work first, leaving him alone in the office.
When he flipped through the thick file, he found transaction records densely packed in tiny writing.
“Wow, now that I look at it, Towerpia Management is impressive. Where did they get something like this?”
Just how far did their connections go? The records were incredibly detailed.
However, compared to the massive volume, there was not much useful content.
That was because eighty to ninety percent of the records were transactions for very low-end items, low-grade Etherium, and the lowest-grade potions.
There were quite a few items like weapons and armor too, but again, most of them were low-grade.
Since there were not many high-ranking Admittees in the first place, and high-floor towers did not appear often, perhaps it was only natural.
“Sigh... What did they expect when they made this request?”
Suho closed the file, tossed it onto the desk, and leaned his chair all the way back.
But had he leaned the old chair back too far? It lost balance and tipped backward.
“Uwaagh.”
Thud.
He had expected to tumble all over the place, but something caught the chair and set it upright again.
“Eek?”
“Are you all right?”
None other than Joshua Evans was standing behind Suho.
Good heavens.
“Whoa, h-how did you get in here? Since when...?”
“I was checking and patrolling around the building, and it seemed everyone was leaving work, but you alone did not come out, so I came to see. I entered with invisibility magic.”
Right, this guy was a mage.
Invisibility. That seemed convenient...
“That’s amazing...”
“Seeing that you’re left here alone, it seems you have a lot of work.”
“Uh... Mm, I did, but it’s pointless work, so I’m not going to do it.”
“Oh?”
“I just need to make one phone call. Let’s leave together right after.”
From the start, Suho had no intention of doing that insane job.
And by tonight, no less? Absolutely impossible.
Suho took out his phone and called somewhere.
The ringtone had not even gone twice before the other party picked up.
— Hello. This is Manager Jang Narae of the Premium Customer Management Department! Suho Admittee, it’s good to speak with you. Have you eaten?
“Ah, hello.”
That manager was always so spirited. She worked very hard at her job, and it was nice to see.
He was not trying to throw cold water on that, but... it could not be helped.
“About the request I made last time...”
— Yes! We are actively investigating the transaction records of the OnTower auction house. Many personnel from several departments and companies have been mobilized for the investigation, so I believe we will be able to provide you with good results soon!
“Ah, I see. But the thing is, that’s no longer necessary.”
— .....Pardooon?? Ah! I-I’m sorry.
“It’s fine. So I’d like to cancel the request. I’m sorry. Oh, and if the Administration or anywhere else contacts me for a customer satisfaction survey or something, I’ll say it was handled well. Don’t worry about that.”
— Ah... C-could it be that our handling of the matter was too slow... No, um, was there some aspect you felt was lacking... perhaps...
“Oh, no. Manage didn’t mishandle anything at all. It’s entirely due to my personal circumstances. I’m the one who should apologize. If anything, I was grateful that you looked into it and proceeded so quickly.”
— Ah...... I-is that so...
“Yes, really. So please don’t worry too much about it. Please cancel all the work currently in progress. I’m sorry for canceling because of my personal circumstances, and thank you. Don’t worry. If I have anything else to ask for, I’ll contact you.”
— Yes, yes. Understood. Thank you! Then if there is ever anything you need, please contact us right away! We will handle it immediately!
“Sure, thank you. Have a good evening.”
— Yes! Suho Admittee, please have a good day as well!
After ending the call, Suho let out a long sigh.
Done.
He had deleted one bout of overtime.
* * *
“Yangwon...”
After getting off work late because he had been subjected to all kinds of scrutiny, Han Sincheol rushed to the area in front of Hongdae as soon as he left.
There, on the bustling street late at night, he met his girlfriend, Cheon Yangwon.
“What’s this, Oppa? This late?”
“Ah... Today was no joke... I’m so exhausted.”
Pouting her lips, Cheon Yangwon spoke as if she were barely listening to him.
“What? You called me out this late just to whine that work was hard? Seriously. I thought it was something else.”
“What else...?”
“Tch, I thought you called me because it’s been eighty days since we started dating and you were going to give me a present.”
“Eig... ty... You keep track of things like that too?”
Glare.
At Cheon Yangwon’s cold gaze, Han Sincheol avoided her eyes.
“No, I, I mean... I thought people only kept track of things like one hundred days, one year...”
“Oppa, I told you. I keep track in twenty-day units. Did you forget already? Then I guess you didn’t prepare a proper present either?”
“Ha... I didn’t. Fine. I’m sorry.”
“Hmph.”
“Cut me some slack. Too many strange things have been happening lately, so I’m having a hard time.”
“Strange things? What things?”
“I don’t know... Recently, too much... That’s right. Yeah, ever since that Suho or whatever that bastard showed up, it feels like too many strange things have been happening around me. My perfectly fine car got wrecked... And today too... Ah, fuck.”
“Honestly, what does that have to do with him? He’s a total jobless, pathetic loser. What power would he have? I’ve known him for so long.”
“Phew, even so, he’s different from what I heard from you. That guy says everything he wants to say and talks back whenever he wants... There’s something about that bastard.”
“Seriously. You call that an excuse for not preparing a present... Blaming all sorts of things. How pathetic...”
Cheon Yangwon glared at Han Sincheol with a look of contempt.