episode_0022

“Heh heh. The head of the headquarters said he would send support staff, but someone I really didn’t expect has arrived.”

Hunter Association Headquarters, Basement 1.

Artifact Incinerator.

A man who was quietly looking around the scene of the incident ignored the access control line and spoke to a woman who was approaching.

“…Are you a special ability incident task force?”

“That’s right. Feel free to call me Captain Park.”

“I will check the progress of the investigation. Request a report.”

A dark gray suit and brooch symbolizing membership in the association.

And a pure white mask covering the face.

The model-like outstretched limbs and curvy body were truly attractive, but the sharp eyes visible through the mask were enough to send shivers down the viewer’s spine.

Even if you get stabbed with a knife, it doesn’t seem like a single drop of blood will come out…

A beauty with fatal beauty, like a rose craft made of liquid nitrogen.

The man who felt intimidated by her cold gaze, Captain Park Geum-ho of the ‘Paranormal Incident Task Force’, spoke with a wide smile.

“Hehehe… Yes, I’ve heard of it. Our association has a secret department that isn’t listed on the organization chart. I’ve only heard rumors, but it really exists. You must be a member of that secret department.”

“…….”

“The fact that you revealed your existence like this… does that mean Hunter Kim Song-ah’s death is a serious situation for the association?”

“I will check the progress of the investigation. I will not tell you three times.”

A word that is said openly.

However, the masked woman did not reveal any emotion.

They just ask for the information they want.

Is this what it feels like to talk to a robot in front of you?

Captain Park raised his hands in a sign of surrender at the woman’s dry tone and guided her to the ‘artifact incinerator’ inside the incinerator.

Personnel wearing protective gear were busy moving around the incinerator.

They are all employees of the ‘Paranormal Incident Task Force’.

They showed interest in the masked woman with their boss, but when they realized she was a team leader, they calmly continued their work.

“To be honest, there is nothing to report. The only report is that there is nothing to report. No unusual mana was detected, and there are no traces of anyone using a skill. If we only look at the results of the investigation, it is an incident where Hunter Kim Song-ah threw herself into the incinerator on her own. .”

“Is it possible that it was a simple suicide?”

“If it had been a suicide, the association wouldn’t have been turned upside down like this. Team leaders from each department wouldn’t have been urgently summoned.”

“Is there a possibility that Hunter Kim Song-ah was remotely controlled from outside the association?”

“No, if that were the case, someone else’s mana would have been detected in Hunter Kim Song-ah’s body.”

The two men had a fruitless conversation and looked at the artifact incinerator, which had stopped working.

The incinerator still gives off the smell of burning flesh, and the body of Hunter Kim Song-ah covered in cloth next to it.

The horrors of the incident flash before my eyes.

“Do you have any outside personnel?”

“Huh?… Oh, right. There isn’t one. It’s the association’s business, and it seems like the higher-ups don’t want this incident to be exposed to the outside world.”

Fluttering…

The masked woman removed the cloth covering the body without hesitation.

Kim Song-ah’s charred, burned body was revealed.

Is it closer to charcoal soot that barely maintains the shape of a person?

Because it was a special incinerator for incinerating artifacts, the state of damage to the body was clearly serious.

“Tsk. I guess we can’t even do an autopsy like this. Even a toxicology test would be difficult because the inside and outside were evenly burned.”

“……Hunter Kim Song-ah has not consumed alcohol for at least 48 hours. There are no other signs of taking psychotropic drugs or poisons.”

“What?”

Captain Park, who was clicking his tongue at the terrible state of the body, looked at her without realizing it when he heard a woman’s voice coming from next to him.

Fazizik.

Bright yellow sparks flashed around the woman’s eyes.

Perhaps because she had used a ‘skill’, her eyes visible through the mask had turned golden.

Her golden gaze scanned the charred corpse like a scanner, and she calmly described ‘what she saw’ as if she was reading an organized report.

“After his core body temperature dropped to 25 degrees, he was thrown into an incinerator and heated up rapidly. There are traces of cracked skin all over his body due to the cold, but other than that, no other unusual features are observed.”

“…How did you figure that out? Is it a skill?”

“I just see it.”

“haha…”

The woman accurately analyzed not only the condition of the body, but also the process his body went through to lead to death.

Captain Park burst into laughter at the woman’s attitude of speaking as if it were obvious.

A ‘sensing skill’ that allows you to feel things that others cannot feel.

It is an extremely valuable skill in a hunter society where information is directly linked to survival.

Detection type hunters are rare.

For example, Hunter Kim Song-ah, the victim of this incident.

He originally had an ordinary part-time job as a delivery worker, filming unusual uses of everyday items and uploading them to the internet.

Then one day, just because he possessed a detection skill called [Understand Use], the association came to him and offered to scout him.

A part-time worker became a member of the Hunter Association headquarters overnight.

There is such a saying among hunters.

If the combat hunter is a commoner,

Sensing type hunters are nobles,

The recovery hunter is king.

The reason why the association is now turned upside down is probably the biggest reason why the deceased was Kim Song-ah, a detection hunter.

And, this woman who analyzed the charcoal body at once must also have ‘detection skills’.

Even though we complained to the human resources department that our department absolutely needed the detection hunter, they would not send us to them due to lack of talent.

I never would have guessed that it was hidden in a secret department whose name I don’t know.

Captain Park savored his appetite while imagining the woman’s face under the white mask.

I’m jealous.

“……What are you looking at?”

Captain Park looked at the masked woman with greedy eyes.

However, the woman who sensed his gaze quickly turned her head to look at him, and had to swallow a sigh of relief due to the intimidating feeling pressing down on her shoulders.

Pajik. Pajijikㅡ.

Sharp, shining golden eyes begin to ‘observe’ the man’s every move.

A woman’s gaze passes by as if scanning from head to toe.

It felt like someone was cutting the top of his head in half and looking into his head.

Sensing a horrifying sensation that he experienced for the first time in his life, Captain Park Geum-ho of the ‘Paranormal Incident Task Force’ unconsciously took a step back and took a defensive stance.

An emotionless voice. Eyes as cold as ice.

I can’t breathe due to the embarrassing feeling of intimidation.

It’s definitely true.

This woman is at least a class A hunter.

They are not office workers selected because of their skills or abilities, but real combat personnel of the Hunter Association.

“I asked what you were looking at.”

“Oh, no… it’s nothing…”

Although she still doesn’t show any emotion, she can clearly see that she is very upset with him.

Closer to a machine than a person. Is this really a person?

Perhaps my judgment has been clouded because I have been class president for so long? Captain Park readily admitted that his eyes were wrong and took a breath.

If you covet a woman like that, your stomach will be torn open and you will die.

Sarah…

And now I realized, there was no sound from the woman in front of me.

Every normal person should naturally hear the sound of footsteps, the rustling of clothes, even the slightest sound of breathing…

Just quiet.

Like a ghost.

‘… … The association was raising monsters.’

An A-class hunter capable of this level of covert action has detection skills specialized in collecting information…

It’s scary to even imagine.

Captain Park forced himself to change the subject to the woman in front of him, pledging that he would never entertain such foolish thoughts again.

“Hmm… I guess we have to find out the cause of the ‘cold’ in the end… Do you have any guesses?”

“…It is possible to use the ice barrier skill in a way that does not detect mana.”

“You mean breathing without oxygen. How is this…”

“……Have you seen the CCTV footage of the incident?”

“Hehehe, are you talking about the staff in the control room having a panic attack? I don’t know who it was, but they deleted the video.”

For the first time, the woman showed interest in Captain Park’s words.

If it had been just a few minutes ago, I would have been happy about the beauty’s attention, but now that I realized that she was a monster-like A-class hunter, I was scared.

Please don’t pay any attention.

“…Are you saying the video was deleted?”

“It was already mentioned at the meeting. No one came forward to check the video, right? When we received the news that the video had been deleted, everyone thought it was a good thing.”

“…….”

“Even if you somehow restore the video, wouldn’t that be something you would just have to order from someone below and receive a report? So don’t worry about it.”

Captain Park, who did not want to make eye contact with the woman in front of him, quickly explained only what he knew and ended the conversation.

He turned his head to avoid the woman’s gaze staring at him.

… … .

“Ah, we happened to be gathered here. Did you find anything?”

“Huh…! Director!”

“…….”

At that time, a woman wearing a pure white mask was quietly ‘observing’ Captain Park, and the surrounding employees were only watching in a bloody atmosphere.

A middle-aged man with a sturdy physique came trotting into the scene.

A neatly trimmed beard and square horn-rimmed glasses.

A big guy who looks better with dumbbells and a barbell than with papers.

Captain Park, who noticed the approaching man, quickly adjusted his posture and stood.

Other employees also stop what they are doing and greet him with stern faces.

“Don’t worry about it, just do your work. I came here because I had some business to attend to that woman… I guess you’ll be okay, right? Captain Park Geum-ho.”

“Yes, yes! Of course! Director!”

“…….”

The man roughly waved his hand to tell her to relax… Go Young-in, head of the Hunter Association, approached the woman with a bright smile.

The woman who was silently looking at Director Go Young-in stops using the skill and returns to her original black eyes.

“……Director Go Young-in.”

“They say the CCTV footage from the day of the incident has been restored. We need your help with the best eyes in the association. Would you like to come with us?”

“All right.”

In his words of casual encouragement,

A woman wearing a pure white mask… [Rare Hunter Protection – Kill Section] Team 1 leader, Class A Hunter Ban Harin quietly nodded.