I’ll Retire After Saving the World - Chapter 20

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Chapter 20 – Basement Level 5 (3)

It’s a bit awkward to say this about myself, but during this period… when I was ten years old, I was, how should I put it?

A creepy kid.

No, I wasn’t sinister or uncontrollably violent. It’s just that I was… perceptive.

While the kidnapped kids whimpered for their mothers, those from orphanages didn’t. Neither did I, of course.

Those kids quickly grasped the situation and acted accordingly. They watched the researchers’ moods and tried their best not to provoke them.

No matter how bold a child might be, being thrown into a windowless underground space would scare them.

But I was different.

I went one step further.

It was unsettling to watch researchers scribbling incessantly while observing the kids playing.

Occasionally, they would curse at children who refused to take their medicine or snatch away their toys and yell at them. But if you watched closely, you would notice one crucial fact.

They didn’t inflict physical violence on the children.

They might make the kids sit quietly in a chair during playtime or write a letter of reflection, but they never deprived them of food, sleep, or used corporal punishment.

Why?

Perhaps the kids weren’t supposed to get hurt.

The reason wasn’t important. The fact that they didn’t hit us was what mattered.

There were a few other kids who noticed this too.

I gathered those kids and… what I did was,

I instigated them.

Calling it instigation sounds strange, but I didn’t do anything grand. We just demanded new toys or snacks.

Eventually, they couldn’t handle the kids anymore and ended up putting a TV in the room and showing us movies.

Of course, they quickly realized it was my doing since we were under 24-hour surveillance.

But what could they do? Precious samples like us demanding things—snacks were a small price to pay.

That’s why the head researcher hated me immensely. If he could, he would have hit me. Thankfully, before he could, the man hit the head researcher.

Seeing this room brings back old memories.

“What are you looking for?”

As I walked around the room, Kim Chaemin approached, stepping on the shattered glass.

“I think… there should be something.”

Evidence that young me was here.

“What?”

“There was a…”

Among the anxious kidnapped children, there were a few peculiar ones. One of them said her dad was a lawyer.

She started writing a diary on coloring paper, claiming that evidence was crucial for these things and it would be useful in court later.

The researchers didn’t bother about it. They were more concerned with keeping the kids healthy, not whining, and taking their medicine.

She hid the diary under the mattress. Honestly, I don’t remember her face clearly now, and back then I just thought she was a strange kid. But sometimes, it was fun to give her tips.

Write this. Write that.

I’ll testify, so write that the head researcher hit the kids.

‘Dad said witnesses shouldn’t lie.’

‘Then just write that he hit them.’

‘But they don’t hit us.’

‘Sometimes other researchers would kick us and stuff.’

‘Well, yeah, but…’

‘Just write that the head researcher often hits people, and it scares you. That’s not a lie, right?’

I don’t know if that diary actually helped in court later. I just hated the head researcher and wanted to mess with him any way I could.

Anyway, although she wrote most of the diary, I added a few lines occasionally. This is important.

‘…The head researcher is annoyed. There’s some problem in the dungeon, he says. Why write this?’

‘In case the head researcher runs away, such information is needed to catch him.’

I really hated the head researcher….

Among the kids in the lab, few were there as long as I was. So I knew more than the others.

If little Woo Hwijae was here, he would’ve definitely written it down. Whatever trouble the head researcher caused on the day the lab was emptied.

I walked towards the bunk bed against the wall. It dawned on me that I was moving too naturally.

Should I have hesitated a bit?

No. It’s too late to turn back now. Let’s brazen it out.

I searched under the mattress. The kids’ hiding spots were obvious, so I found it immediately.

Why did the researchers just leave it here? Probably thought it was useless since it was just written by kids. Idiots.

Kim Chaemin cautiously approached me.

“Did the kids write this?”

“What did the kids write?”

Hong Seokyoung, who had been inspecting the room with a disapproving look, came over belatedly.

As I spread the paper on the floor, I said,

“There was a kid who wrote a diary.”

“Your sister?”

“No.”

Where is it? Where is it? It should be here. It better be here.

“……”

“Found it.”

“What?”

My childhood handwriting.

Back then, I was confident that I wrote neatly, but now I see that it’s a mess of crooked letters.

I exist here, too.

That’s enough.

“What is it? Wait, uh, this…”

“What is it?”

“Hunter Hong, please take a look at this.”

Kim Chaemin pointed to a page of the diary. Belatedly, I also looked at the diary Kim Chaemin was indicating.

The lawyer’s daughter’s writing was useless. That’s not what Kim Chaemin was pointing to. What he pointed out was the small writing in the corner, written by my younger self.

Hong Seokyoung frowned.

“…The head researcher smashed the TV. He couldn’t smash the computer because it was expensive, but he came all the way here to break the TV. What a jerk. The kids got scared. I had just managed to calm them down. He said the dungeon failed. What does that have to do with us?”

Dungeon?

I never wrote anything like that.

When was this? What’s the date on this entry?

“Who cares if the Myeong-dong dungeon fails? Just put the TV back soon.”

The date on the paper.

April 5th.

…The day I traveled back in time. The day of the Myeong-dong dungeon break.

“…Mr. Woo.”

Hong Seokyoung called me softly.

“Do you know what it means that the Myeong-dong dungeon failed?”

“No, I want to know that too.”

“Are you unaware of this?”

I couldn’t hide my confusion as I spoke.

“We don’t know about incidents from other institutions…. I don’t know.”

“Really? Who wrote this diary?”

“The diary itself…”

I blinked.

“The diary itself was written by a kidnapped child.”

“And this part? It seems like a different child wrote it.”

“Yes…”

The decision was quick.

“I instructed them to write down any unusual occurrences.”

“…Your sibling?”

“I just wanted to give them something to focus on…”

Hong Seokyoung’s eyes softened a bit.

“I couldn’t stay with them all the time, so it was also to leave me information in case we got separated, like now.”

“Your sibling seems quite smart.”

“What?”

Kim Chaemin shuffled through the papers and spoke.

“This looks like the last diary entry. It’s from a week ago.”

The lawyer’s daughter didn’t write on that day.

But my younger self did.

[May 7th]

[Lab moving]

[Reason unknown. Overheard the head researcher talking about a dungeon in Songpa-gu]

And there was an urgent added note.

[Someone seems to have escaped]

* * *

Click. Click.

“So… it’s a wild goose chase, right?”

Click.

The woman, who was chewing gum and making annoying noises, tilted her head from side to side while standing at an angle.

Wearing only a black cloth suit, she contrasted sharply with the armed hunters standing on either side of her.

She extended her hand to the side. One of the hunters naturally took out a handkerchief from his pocket and placed it on her hand. She spat the gum into the handkerchief and handed it back to the hunter.

Seeing her treat the hunters like her personal servants, even without recognizing her, there was only one name that could come to mind from such an arrogant demeanor.

In hindsight, it was obvious. There’s only one person in South Korea who treats hunters like their private soldiers.

Lee Miseon.

Master of the guild Daseon and the youngest daughter of Daeyeon Group’s owner. Lee Seungyeon’s aunt.

She was the same in her youth. She only started to restrain herself as she aged.

“Well, strictly speaking, it’s not a wild goose chase.”

Hong Seokyoung answered with a sly smile.

“The information is accurate.”

“But there’s no substance, no substance at all.”

Lee Miseon crossed her arms with a dissatisfied look.

“This is problematic, Hunter Hong. It’s not what we agreed upon.”

“If this place wasn’t their lab, then yes. But look around. Does this place look like just a closed training center to you? This is the real deal. The real Ark’s lab.”

Even Lee Miseon couldn’t deny that. I don’t know what deal she had with Hong Seokyoung, but not wanting to back down, she frowned.

“If there was something left here, I wouldn’t be saying this.”

“So…”

“Master. All the bombs have been removed.”

“Really? Good job.”

Lee Miseon lightly tapped her foot. Then she pulled a plastic container from her pocket and tapped it on her palm. It was gum.

Lee Miseon began to chew the gum vigorously.

“This guy keeps beating around the bush… there’s still something you haven’t told me. What is it?”

“Hmm.”

Hong Seokyoung smirked and looked at me. Naturally, Lee Miseon’s gaze also turned to me.

No, I wanted to be introduced through Lee Seungyeon. She would have been more favorable toward me.

Lee Miseon gestured to the hunters standing around her.

“We have things to discuss among adults, so go and see if there’s anything worth finding.”

“Yes, Master.”

The hunters quietly withdrew.

“……”

How should I put it?

How old is Lee Miseon twenty years from now? Over fifty, right? Even then, she had the impression of bossing her guild members around, but not to this extent.

I’ve seen many hunters at the Management Office.

Hunters are a shorthand for beings who think they’re something special despite having nothing in their heads. Every year, a few hunters refuse to listen to the headquarters director… enough said.

Sometimes, we even receive reports of guild members stabbing each other. That’s what hunters are like.

So how did Lee Miseon manage to stay guild master for twenty years without getting stabbed even once? Even Oh Hyunwook got stabbed twice.

The headquarters director always dealt with her, so I didn’t know much about her. I never thought deeply about it.

But now, looking at her… could Lee Miseon be a truly remarkable talent? Born as the youngest daughter of a chaebol family, with decent abilities of her own… and having minions to handle all the troublesome tasks.

“Okay. Are we ready now?”

“It’s a sensitive matter.”

“Sensitive? How much?”

“Well…”

Hong Seokyoung looked at me and Kim Chaemin.

“Have you finished sorting?”

I shrugged and shook the stack of papers. Kim Chaemin did the same.

“We finished a while ago.”

We handed the sorted diaries to Hong Seokyoung. It was the page with the entry written by my younger self.

Lee Miseon frowned.

“You said there was nothing?”

“The researchers didn’t leave anything.”

“What’s that then?”

“It’s something left by a kidnapped child. Specifically, here, Mr. Woo’s younger sibling.”

“Younger sibling?”

Hong Seokyoung handed the problematic diary to Lee Miseon.

The one mentioning the Myeong-dong dungeon.

Lee Miseon read the diary with a puzzled expression.

Her face quickly twisted.

“Myeong-dong dungeon? Failed? What on earth does this mean?”

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