How to Survive as an Extra

Chapter 120

Seoul’s District 2.

The underground lounge of the White Bottle building.

By the time I arrived, two people were already there, waiting.

One was Park Chaeshin, wearing a human skin mask.

The other was an old man with a bizarre beard, hunched in a chair.

I had never seen the old man’s face before, but it was not difficult to guess who he was.

After all, there was only one person in the world who went around in disguises like that.

“Chief…”

“Ha. To think you saw through this perfect disguise. As expected, your eye for detail is excellent.”

“…”

All of a sudden, I felt ashamed that I, of all people, had written a setting where Baek Dojun disguised himself.

Who would have thought that “liking unusual disguises” would look like that in practice?

“I told you, Chief, did I not? You can fool everyone else, but you cannot fool Seokhyeon’s eyes. Those eyes are not ordinary. So keep your promise, all right?”

“Hmph. Very well. A promise is a promise.”

A gift envelope came out of Baek Dojun’s chest pocket.

It looked like they had made a bet.

I stared at Park Chaeshin, who was counting the bills one by one, with a pitiful look and dropped into a nearby chair.

What was a man with no official identity going to do with money, anyway?

Well, it was not as though anyone disliked money.

After glancing around the lounge, I asked.

“Then where is Kim Seyeon?”

Baek Dojun stroked his beard repeatedly, as though satisfied with his own disguise, and replied.

“I came alone. I suppose you could say I escaped. There is a mountain of complaints in my office, so I had no choice if I wanted to meet you.”

“Ah… I see.”

In other words, he slipped away without Kim Seyeon knowing and planned to use me as an excuse later.

It was a childish excuse, but since I knew the original setting, I simply went along without comment.

Because there was no way Baek Dojun, the greatest mind in this world, was wandering around for a reason like that.

In this case, he was clearly wary of Kim Seyeon.

Which meant the reason he had called me here was also because he needed to discuss something she must not hear.

“More importantly, how has life at Hero Prep been lately?”

“It has been comfortable. I did not realize how nice it would be not to get entangled with cadets.”

“Hm. Do not live too cynically. There are things you can only do at that age.”

Youth, was it?

Judging by everything I had done so far, it was a word utterly incompatible with me.

I forced a faint smile.

“I will try.”

“Then I will get straight to the point, since Kim Seyeon will find us quickly.”

Baek Dojun glanced at Park Chaeshin.

Park Chaeshin placed a terminal on the table, and a screen projected above it.

On it was a record of a recent murder case.

The electrocution death in District 26, supposedly committed by the Phantom Thief.

Baek Dojun watched my reaction for a moment before continuing.

“You are sharing the information lines as well, so you do not need an explanation.”

“Yes.”

“Then I will ask bluntly. Who do you think is under that ragged cloak?”

Was he telling me to deduce it on the spot?

No, he was guiding me to a specific answer.

He must have assumed I already knew it was Lee Eunho.

And Baek Dojun likely suspected that the previous Phantom Thief had been me, too.

It was Baek Dojun. There was no way he did not.

I answered calmly.

“That is something we will only know once we catch him.”

“Hm. So you intend to capture the Phantom Thief. Good. Then you will handle this case.”

“What?”

“I am delegating all incidents related to the Phantom Thief to you. The senior investigators of the Special Affairs Division are all busy. So you, who can remain stationed in Seoul, are the right person for this.”

For a moment, I almost asked why the Special Affairs Division was involved when this was not related to Demonic Beings.

But Lee Eunho had become a wanted fugitive because of contact with a Demonic Being.

Baek Dojun was proposing this with that in mind.

I had already thought things were escalating quickly the moment I heard the Phantom Thief had committed murder.

No matter how closely Lee Eunho had allied with Gen, murder did not fit his nature.

Unless it was the regressed Lee Eunho from the original story.

In this case, something was likely influencing him.

What, exactly, was interfering with him?

No matter how I thought, I could not find a clear reason.

The Ring of Illusions bothered me, but in the original setting it had no harmful effect on the wearer, aside from being impossible to remove.

…No. It would be foolish to predict the Avid Reader’s intent too hastily.

I nodded.

“Understood. I will catch him.”

Even if I had to break his legs to do it.

“Good. Park Chaeshin will support you as he has been. Ah, and there is one more person who will cooperate with the investigation.”

At that moment, a man opened the lounge door and walked in.

Judging by the fact that neither Baek Dojun nor Park Chaeshin looked surprised, this was a scheduled visit.

Sure enough, the man approached Baek Dojun with dignified steps.

“You called for me, Chief.”

“You came at the right time, Fredo. I was just about to introduce you to the probationary investigator.”

Fredo.

Maxi Fredo, the Special Affairs Division investigator.

By the setting, he had the highest Intelligence stat among the Special Affairs Division investigators, a top-tier mage.

There was no need to elaborate on his skill.

He was “Lee Eunho, but with ice.”

It was an exaggeration, but only slightly.

“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Maxi Fredo. I will be relying on you in this matter. I look forward to working with you.”

Despite the fact that I was far younger, Maxi greeted me with deep courtesy.

Reflexively, I bowed in return.

“Ah, yes. I am Ji Seokhyeon. I will be relying on you as well.”

How should I describe Maxi’s impression?

If his eyesight were poor, he would have been the type to wear gold-rimmed glasses.

He would lift his chin and adjust them with a flick at every opportunity.

If he had to touch dust, he would certainly wear gloves, and he would keep every button fastened.

No, he already did.

I could tell from the moment he walked in: even his natural posture radiated refinement.

In other words…

“You are still as cloying as ever. Formality like that is poison for those of us who roam the outskirts. Learn a thing or two from Bayliss.”

He looked cloying.

“Bayliss… I believe I understand what you mean. I will try.”

Maxi seemed faintly displeased at Monica being brought up, but he still complied politely with Baek Dojun’s words.

“Then the three of you should decide the rules for cooperation going forward. I should be heading back soon.”

As Baek Dojun rose from his seat, I spoke quickly.

“Chief.”

“What is it?”

“Did you not say the other investigators were busy? I would not mind working with a senior investigator, but…”

“Ah, that is worth clarifying. Yes, the three of you will cooperate. However, Fredo has a slightly special mission. You rode the same carriage, but your destinations differ, so to speak. Since you both have to pursue the Phantom Thief, cooperate without burden.”

Different destinations…

Baek Dojun was deliberately avoiding a direct answer, but that was enough for me to infer what role Fredo had been given.

Nine times out of ten, he was hunting the Demonic Being, Gen.

***

Baek Dojun returned to his office.

Without any disguise, of course.

Kim Seyeon stood before his desk with an irritated expression.

Because of rank, she was not crossing her arms, but she clearly disliked the fact that he had fled from the mountain of complaints.

Kim Seyeon asked, restraining her anger.

“Where have you been?”

Baek Dojun did not answer immediately. Only after sitting in his chair and leaning back did he speak.

“And where have you been?”

“I searched everywhere for you, Chief.”

“You searched everywhere?”

“Yes. There is a mountain of work.”

A torrential rain had continued until late morning today.

Seoul had little sunlight to speak of, so the ground had not fully dried.

Yet Kim Seyeon’s shoes were spotless, without a trace of moisture.

Of course, they might have dried quickly, but the office floor, marked with black footprints, showed no sign of her passage.

Which meant she had not gone outside.

Even if she had “searched,” it would have been within the building…

Trying to find Baek Dojun inside the building, when he rarely interacted with other departments at the Bureau, was absurd.

Lifting a file, Baek Dojun said.

“I too was exhausted by the mountain, so I went out for a breath of air. I am back now, so that is enough.”

“So I may take that to mean you will finish everything before you leave for the day.”

“If I say that, will you believe me?”

“It would reassure me.”

“So you are asking me to disappoint you.”

Kim Seyeon gathered a stack of documents from her desk and wedged them onto Baek Dojun’s desk, which was already short on space.

“I trust in your competence, Chief.”

With that, she returned to her seat.

Baek Dojun also looked down at the file in silence.

But instead of handling the complaints, he sank into other thoughts.

So far: old man, 340 times. woman, 356 times. free mercenary, 369 times…

As he checked various documents, he retraced meaningless numbers in his head.

Outskirts even-numbered districts, 789 times. outskirts odd-numbered districts, 782 times. inner districts odd-numbered districts, 732 times…

Strangely, when he added together the categories of certain words mentioned in the complaints, they all produced results that were nearly the same.

People, places, times, and descriptions such as sightings of Demonic Beings and Ghouls.

As if the words were being recorded with equal probability according to a fixed rule.

This pattern was only discovered three days ago. Most likely, the genuine complaints had dropped sharply, so someone started creating fake complaints from three days ago onward.

The purpose was obvious: to steal the time of the Special Affairs Division Chief.

Because complaints were condensed after passing through Dispel, it was easy to manipulate if one could handle even a simple program.

A crude scheme that anyone could attempt, if they could access the office.

Then who, exactly, was trying to bother Baek Dojun…?

In truth, he already knew the answer.

The one bringing in the complaints was Kim Seyeon herself.

And the method to verify his suspicion was simple.

If he casually strung together words from the complaints and described an incident that did not exist…

“A complaint says that at around 9 p.m. two days ago, a seventy-something non-awakened old man saw two Ghouls dressed like free mercenaries at a dye factory site in Seoul’s Outskirts District 25.”

“Ah, that one, you mean?”

“…Yes. Could you check the opinion of the Dispel personnel who received that complaint?”

At Baek Dojun’s request, Kim Seyeon looked at her monitor.

After a brief moment, she spoke without blinking.

“According to the branch’s assessment, they went to the dye factory after receiving the report but found nothing, and since the old man was intoxicated when he testified, it is likely false. I believe you may discard it.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“…”