"Hey, friend.
Wanna go treasure hunting with me? :-)
Treasure?"
Geuru tapped away at the keyboard, sending the message.
A treasure hunt? Was this another Management Bureau mission?
The reply arrived immediately.
"It's a secret mission only for child agents.
(Map image)
Go to the marked spot! There should be a delivery box.
If you collect everything inside the delivery boxes, another secret agent will trade them for treasure."
The indicated location was a corner of the lobby.
‘Hooooo…!’
A secret mission from the Management Bureau only for child agents!
Geuru’s chubby cheeks flushed red with excitement.
A treasure hunt was a program that sent dopamine surging far more than boring trivia quizzes.
‘Pitter-patter! Treasure hunt!’
While Geuru was so excited, Jurim found it strange that she was staring at her phone for the longest time.
Just as Jurim tried to speak to the child,
Geuru, who had been fidgeting, equipped her Master Detective Magnifying Glass and looked up at him with wide eyes.
- ……What’s that?
“A Master Detective Magnifying Glass.”
For some reason, he had a bad feeling about this.
- So why are you suddenly… No, friend, what are you planning to do with that?
Though he asked in a rather gentle tone, Geuru raised her eyebrows high and said,
“That’s a Grade 1 Secret.”
- Grade 1 is for water.
“Agent Geuru, depoo!”
Without a care, Geuru—having ignored Honghongi’s words—ran out pat-a-pat while still equipped with the magnifying glass.
- ……!
Honghongi, pressing a hand to a forehead as if dizzy, chased after the running Geuru with large strides.
Geuru went down to the lobby via the central staircase and headed straight for the spot marked on the map.
Geuru checked her phone.
‘There!’
Plop!
“Beep!”
As Geuru smacked her head into a trash can, Mephisto fluttered up in alarm, and Honghongi, who had followed belatedly, opened his mouth wide.
He startled and pulled Geuru out.
- Jiji!
Unfazed by whether Honghongi would explode in anger or not, Geuru lifted some delivery box high into the sky with both hands.
“Agent Geuru discovered a Grade 1 Secret!”
- It’s trash!
“It’s treasure.”
Geuru puffed out her cheeks and squirmed, begging to be put down.
With no other choice, he set the child down, and the moment she sat on the floor, Geuru ripped off the tape and tore the delivery box open.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
At the same time, the sound of a clock began to emanate from inside the box.
“Oooooh-!”
With an exclamation of wonder, the child lifted up a square metal case.
The numbers on the red LED display were counting down by the second.
“Beeeeep!”
Mephisto fluttered around Geuru’s head in circles, as if she had discovered something incredible.
“……?”
Of course, it certainly looked incredible. After all, the device was shaped exactly like a time bomb straight out of a movie.
Jurim snatched it away at once, turned it over in his hands, and furrowed his brow.
For a toy, the case looked fairly sturdy?
The toy was even welded shut so the inside couldn’t be seen.
‘Hmm……’
He wanted to tear it open to see what the inside looked like, but the child was flailing her arms, demanding he give it back quickly.
Jurim returned the device to Geuru, who clung to him insisting it was her treasure, and asked,
- Alright, I’ll give it back, I’ll give it back. But was there a program like this?
It was the kind of program you might find in a surprise treasure hunt, but he had heard nothing about it.
Nor did it seem like something they’d keep secret from parents and tell a child to rummage through trash cans.
At Jurim’s puzzled question, Geuru narrowed her eyes and placed her index finger to her lips.
“Shh! Secret!”
- …….
Jurim, now put in his place, closed his mouth.
Weren’t we on the same team? Why does it feel like my daughter thinks I’m a nuisance?
Tick. Tock. Tick.
[00: 59: 11]
Even so, the time continued to dwindle.
Geuru sprang to her feet and tucked the time bomb toy under her armpit.
The next set of instructions had been sent to her phone.
(Map image)
The next delivery box is here! 😉
‘Agent Geuru will collect all the deliveries and trade them for treasure!’
Hmph, hmph!
Geuru snorted forcefully and began to run off, clutching the time bomb.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
*
Management Bureau, 1st Floor.
The door to the janitor’s closet, where cleaning tools and such were stored, opened.
Min Dong-u, having stepped out, checked his left and right and turned the Management Bureau employee lanyard hanging around his neck to the front. This was so his photo on the ID badge would be clearly visible.
Before closing the door, Min Dong-u checked the delivery box he had placed under the table and looked at his watch.
‘One hour left.’
When that hour passed, the bombs he had planted everywhere while disguised as an employee would all explode, drawing everyone’s attention.
Furthermore, that time coincided with when Alex Bon would be transferred from the Management Bureau to a special prison.
The objective of the group, including Min Dong-u, was singular.
To break Alex Bon out of prison.
Once the time bombs went off, his comrades were scheduled to rappel in from the outer wall, retrieve Alex Bon, and escape the Management Bureau.
He passed through the hallway naturally, smiling and greeting employees as he went.
As expected of a massive organization with over a thousand employees, the staff returned his greetings without wondering who he was.
‘Yes, as long as I avoid Jin Si-won like this…….’
Avoiding one person’s eyes for roughly an hour in this sprawling building was no difficult feat.
It was just as he was passing through the lobby to prepare for the next step.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
‘What’s that clock sound?’
At the end of his turned gaze, a small platinum-blonde child came into view.
The child, who had placed a very familiar case on top of her head, was running off somewhere in a flash.
“……?”
Behind the stumbling child, a mascot wearing a doll costume was following with large yet sluggish strides.
Min Dong-u stopped short.
‘No way.’
Soon, he burst into a snicker.
A child running around with the time bomb he had installed? There were limits to delusions.
Just then, perhaps having heard his laughter through the earpiece, a colleague asked over the comms,
- Is it going well?
“Yeah. It’s going so well I might be getting a nervous breakdown. I saw some little kid running around the lobby holding a time bomb.”
- What kind of bullshit is that?
“Right? Maybe it’s because I’m moving after so long?”
- Geez, I told you to cut back on the drinking.
Well, having received a hefty reward, he had drunk way too much last night.
Min Dong-u shook his head but sauntered toward the lobby trash can.
For some reason, he wanted to verify once more with his own eyes that things were going smoothly.
He glanced at the trash can, then looked around and rummaged through the trash with his hand.
However, there was no sign of the delivery box, let alone anything similar.
An unbelieving voice leaked from Min Dong-u’s mouth.
“……It’s gone?”
- What?
“Yeah, I said it’s gone…….”
- What are you talking about?
Damn it! Had he been found out?
Giving no reply, Min Dong-u clamped his mouth shut and quickly moved to the next location.
Maybe someone had stumbled upon just one of them. Since it had been disguised as a delivery box, perhaps it hadn’t been opened yet.
Thinking so, Min Dong-u arrived at the curtains of the 2nd-floor seminar room.
“……Gone.”
Having confirmed that there was no delivery box here either, his steps gradually quickened until he soon broke into a run.
He entered the 1st-floor janitor’s closet where he had left the last delivery box.
Before long, he discovered an empty box and tossed it aside irritably.
“They’re gone?!”
The box in his hands burst into flames with a whoosh and disappeared into ashes.
“Damn it!”
Was it Jin Si-won?!
But if he had been found out, why wasn’t there an emergency broadcast?
It was just as Min Dong-u was quickly moving back toward the lobby.
The sound of a child running caught his sharpened hearing.
And following it, the sound of a clock.
He immediately raised his head.
Thud-thud-thud-
Tick. Tock. Tick.
Tick. Tock. Tick.
Tick. Tock. Tick.
Looking up at the 2nd-floor railing, he saw the child running with three time bombs stacked on top of her head.
“……?!”
Min Dong-u rubbed his eyes.
“Seriously…… the kid had them.”
- What the hell is this guy saying? Can’t you speak properly?
“Crazy! Some little brat is holding all of our bombs!”