The sight was so surreal that even the sound of the radio failed to register properly in his mind.
Min Dong-u immediately began running at full speed toward the second-floor railing. He kept colliding with people, but he had no presence of mind left to apologize.
‘Where the hell is he going?!’
Panting hard, he looked around the second floor.
‘I can’t see him……?’
He rubbed the space between his brows and lowered his head.
Think.
With a child’s stride, he couldn’t have gone far.
What if that child was trying to interfere with us for some reason?
Then where would he go next?
Here.
Bang!
He threw open the door to an empty office.
The child with a time bomb perched on his head was using a fork as a lever to pry out the piton (a gold-colored nail used in rock climbing, driven into a crack in the rock as an intermediate anchor) lodged in the window.
It was a special piton marking where the rope would be attached the moment the time bomb exploded.
It was all part of the plan—and now that plan was being undone by the child’s fork.
Pop!
“I got it!”
Gru proudly held up the piton he had pulled free.
“What are you doing?!”
When he burst out in anger, the child and the mascot turned toward him at the same time.
As if to block his glare at the child, the mascot stepped forward.
—What is it?
“Th-that’s going to cause a problem if you do that…….”
Min Dong-u looked the mascot up and down.
“An intern? A part-timer?”
The mascot tilted his head to one side, then silently nodded.
—Part-timer.
He had no idea how a part-timer and a child had joined forces to interfere with him.
‘Looks like I’ll have to deal with both of them at once.’
He subtly checked behind the mascot.
The child was hugging the time bomb tightly and keeping watch, like a cat with its fur standing on end.
The way he clutched it, as though the bomb were some kind of treasure, was enough to make Min Dong-u’s head spin.
Keeping his right hand hidden behind his back in case he needed to pull a weapon from his inventory, Min Dong-u asked,
“Who told you to do this?”
—……?
The mascot tilted his head in confusion.
—Wasn’t it that Management Bureau of yours?
At that reaction, Min Dong-u blinked blankly.
If the Management Bureau knew about this, an emergency announcement would be blaring right now. The child wouldn’t be running around with a time bomb.
While he was wondering about it, Gru peeked his head out from behind the mascot.
“Are you the agent who’ll trade this fer treasure?”
“Treasure?”
“Yep! I gathered it all up!”
Gru lifted the bomb.
Ah. Only then did a plausible scenario capable of explaining the situation flash through his mind.
‘Did someone tell the child that if he collected bombs, they would trade them for treasure?’
A Management Bureau employee?
No. If it had been Jin Siwon or some other Management Bureau employee, they would never have gone to such trouble.
Presumably, this was the work of someone who couldn’t freely walk around the Management Bureau.
Then what was the other party’s objective?
‘……To interfere with Alex Bourne’s rescue. But without being discovered by the Management Bureau employees…….’
“Ain’t you a secret agent?”
The child blinked as he asked that.
The mascot still had his head tilted to one side, his gaze fixed on Min Dong-u.
Did he suspect him? Quickly sorting through the thoughts flooding his head, Min Dong-u said,
“No, no! I’m the secret agent. I was only testing you for a moment to see whether you were really on our side.”
“Ooh! Then what about the treasure?”
“Of course I’ll trade it for treasure. Want to come with me?”
“Yep.”
Gru moved along with a little skipping rhythm, and the mascot Honghong silently followed behind him.
Min Dong-u gave them a brief glance before heading toward the quiet rooftop.
First, he would subdue the two of them somewhere empty, take their phones, and find out who had ordered them to do this.
—Wait.
However, the mascot Honghong, who had been obediently following, suddenly raised a hand.
—Password.
“……What?”
—You have to give the password. Secret agent.
“P-password?”
Was there even a password?
Flustered, Min Dong-u opened and closed his mouth.
Gru, apparently unaware of any such thing either, opened his mouth into a round O and looked between them.
Honghong suddenly let out a derisive chuckle.
How would he know whether there was a password or not?
Jurim had only asked for one as a probe, because Min Dong-u’s attempt to lead them somewhere secluded had seemed highly suspicious.
His sun-darkened skin and gait belonged to someone who had seen a great deal of combat.
Rather than a Management Bureau employee, he looked more like a mercenary.
—Looks like you don’t know the password?
“No, I just forgot for a moment because I was flustered…….”
—What a shame.
Judging by how flustered he was, there was no way he was the secret agent Gru had mentioned.
Honghong stacked the bombs Gru was holding neatly in his own hand.
Then he crushed them.
“Ah!”
“……!”
Gru cried out, and Min Dong-u threw himself away.
But unlike what he had expected—the explosions engulfing them—the office remained utterly silent.
With his arms still covering his head, Min Dong-u cautiously raised his eyes.
The explosions were swirling inside the palm of the mascot Honghong’s hand.
It seemed he had formed a small spherical shield so the threat of the bombs would not spread to the surroundings.
Each of those bombs had enough power to blow an entire office apart with ease.
And he had casually controlled and crushed them inside his palm?
Meanwhile, the monster who had lightly detonated the bombs in his hand murmured lazily,
—These are the real thing?
Gulp.
Swallowing dryly, Min Dong-u rose to his feet and opened his inventory.
Without realizing it, a combat knife had appeared in his hand.
‘I have to strike first.’
He was standing before a monster that seemed to have surpassed humanity. Instinct carved into him through countless battles set his body in motion.
But the wrist of the lunging Min Dong-u was seized at once.
“……!”
Could someone really grab the wrist of an A-rank mercenary as easily as this?
Killing intent seeped through the ugly tiger mask. Cold sweat ran down his back.
‘This is a Management Bureau part-timer……?’
That was his last thought before Min Dong-u’s eyes closed.
His consciousness vanished in an instant, as if the power had been cut.
Min Dong-u’s body crumpled to the floor.
—Hmm…….
Crouching down to examine the fallen Min Dong-u, Jurim tilted his head after confirming that the name tag was fake.
Meanwhile, Gru was looking down at him with an expression full of betrayal.
The child mouthed the words with a shocked expression.
“Honghong…….”
—What?
Gru hurriedly took a couple of steps back and covered his mouth with both hands.
“Honghong killed the secret agent because he wanted Gru’s treasure!”
“Piiit!”
Mephisto was shocked as well and covered his mouth with his wings.
Jurim shouted at the absurd assumption.
—No!
But Gru had already taken a fork from his inventory and gripped it in his hand.
“Then what?”
—This man was a bad guy pretending to be a secret agent. Look. It’s fake, right?
He quickly lifted Min Dong-u’s name tag.
When he peeled away the portion bearing Min Dong-u’s photograph, another person’s photograph was revealed beneath it.
He had probably stolen this person’s name tag and pasted his own photo over it.
After confirming this, Gru inhaled sharply.
“Gasp! A bad guy?!”
—That’s right. A bad guy.
Something suddenly occurring to Jurim, he asked,
—Now, what are you supposed to do in a situation like this?
“In a situation like this?”
Gru opened his mouth.
Looking at that vacant expression, Jurim spoke again.
—When you’re in danger. When you’re scared.
Gru shook his head from side to side.
—You’re not scared?
“Nope.”
The child’s face had already flushed bright red.
With the ends of both eyebrows raised high, Gru answered with a triangular mouth,
“It’s more fun.”
—…….
While Jurim was rendered speechless, Gru tightened his grip on the fork.
“Mephi, let’s go catch the bad guy.”
“Piiit!”
Mephisto answered, spreading both wings wide.
Jurim rubbed his face dryly, looking dizzy as he stared at that tiny dopamine addict.
It seemed that nothing was getting through to the child at all.
As if he had no regard for Jurim’s worries, Gru poked Min Dong-u with the fork, rolling him halfway over.
Rattle—
“Hm?”
Gru picked up something that had fallen out of him.
*
On the rooftop of the building across the way, Stacy was watching the inside of the Management Bureau through binoculars. She spoke teasingly to her colleague, who was once again using the radio beside her.
“Looks like Plan One is a bust?”
She pressed the remote switch several times.
If the bomb had still been intact, it would have exploded the moment she pressed the switch, regardless of the timer.
“What happened?”
“As you can see, nothing happens even when I press the switch. And Min is nowhere to be seen.”
“That stupid bastard…… Did he get caught?”
Stacy folded her arms and muttered while sitting on the rooftop railing.
“But it’s strangely quiet inside the Management Bureau. As if nothing happened.”
“……How long until Alex Bourne is transferred?”
“Thirty minutes.”
After pondering for a moment, Brady put on a gorilla mask that covered his entire head and spoke into the radio.
—Switch to Operation Two.
Stacy likewise donned a cheetah mask and shook the key.
—Okay.