How to Survive as an Extra Chapter 84 : Chapter 84

Chapter 84

The year was 2034, seventy-five years after the Great Rift.

Five years before Ji Seokhyeon entered Hero Prep.

At the ti, Yun Jeongseop, a probationary investigator of Dispel's 3rd Branch, had been summoned to the branch chief’s office together with his senior investigator, Gwon Seongjun.

“So drop this case.”

“B-Branch Chief? We have not even found the kidnapped children yet. Telling us to close it like this is simply…”

“What else can we do? It is an order from above. Just accept it quietly.”

“……”

“Tsk. I know how you feel. But Gwon Seongjun, you are on the verge of a promotion. There is no point in getting on their bad side.”

“But…”

Gwon Seongjun and Yun Jeongseop were currently in charge of a minor kidnapping case that had beco a major issue.

It was happening not only in the outskirts but in the inner districts as well, so they had poured themselves into the investigation—only for an utterly unexpected directive to co down from the Bureau.

Close the investigation.

“And you, probationary. You are interning here because your evaluation scores are good, but in this line of work, the mont you fall out of favor, you get shipped to the outskirts. If you do not want to be found murdered by mafia scum in Outroad, you had better watch how you carry yourself.”

“…Yes, understood.”

“Then get out. I have piles of things to deal with.”

With that, Gwon Seongjun and Yun Jeongseop left the office.

They walked down the empty corridor without a word, until Yun Jeongseop finally asked belatedly,

“When you say ‘above’… who exactly do you an?”

“Soone higher than the branch chief.”

“The Commissioner General?”

“Probably higher than that.”

“Then perhaps the Bureau’s division heads?”

“Who knows. In my experience, it is likely soone even higher. At the very least, the Special Affairs Division Chief. Or it could be an external figure with comparable standing. More importantly… do you want coffee?”

Gwon Seongjun had already stopped in front of the coffee vending machine and was taking out coins.

Yun Jeongseop answered, “Ah, black coffee. Thank you,” then imdiately continued,

“But what do you plan to do, Senior?”

With his hand on the paper cup that had dropped into the dispenser, Gwon Seongjun asked back,

“About what?”

“The investigation.”

“Obviously, we do what the branch chief said.”

Yun Jeongseop blinked quickly and asked again,

“B-But the children’s parents are still trusting us and waiting.”

“Haa… Listen, Probationary Investigator Yun. As your senior, I am advising you not to waste your emotions. There are far more tragic things in this world than this. We just do what we can, in the positions we have.”

“…What we can,” Yun Jeongseop murmured.

At the sa ti, Gwon Seongjun lifted the cup from the dispenser.

“Ah, I drew milk by mistake. Just drink this.”

“I do not drink anything but black.”

“Drink it.”

“……”

“Now.”

“…Yes.”

***

The municipal library in Seoul's District 2.

The library stood near Dispel's 3rd Branch, and because the grounds were spacious and it offered a variety of public facilities for citizens, it remained crowded even late into the evening.

Naturally, District 2 residents called it a eting place, and for personnel from the nearby 3rd Branch, it also functioned as a cafeteria where they could eat decent als at low prices.

There was only one place in the library that people did not set foot in.

The building’s rooftop.

Access had been restricted for one simple reason: from there, one could closely observe the Dispel branch.

Of course, that restriction did not apply to Dispel investigators, and it made the rooftop an excellent place to make contact with soone away from prying eyes.

“The branch chief told you to drop the case…?”

“I am ashad, Instructor.”

“N-No… I trusted only you, and yet you are going to give up like this?”

“There is nothing I can do…”

Earlier that morning, after being summoned to the branch chief’s office, Yun Jeongseop now stood on the rooftop facing Park Cheolyeong, Hero Prep’s Investigation Instructor.

The purpose of the eting was the kidnapping case Yun Jeongseop had been pursuing.

It violated protocol to speak of internal Dispel decisions to an outsider, but Yun Jeongseop had taken the case in the first place because Park Cheolyeong had asked him to.

Because Park Cheolyeong’s only son, Park Seopmin, was one of the victims.

“Seopmin… Seopmin called you ‘big brother’ and followed you so well. Do you rember?”

“……”

“You told Seopmin to enter Hero Prep, and you even gifted him a practice pistol. The day he received it, he was so happy…”

“I am sorry.”

“Do not say that. I did not an to pressure you. It is just… just that I cannot believe what has happened. I only want reassurance that I am not the only one who rembers that child…”

Park Cheolyeong stared down at the rooftop floor with a hollow face.

Yun Jeongseop turned his head as if to look away from him, but then he noticed a few drops of tears falling to the ground and, without thinking, clenched both fists.

Powerlessness.

A puppet who was not even freely permitted to sweat for justice.

Park Cheolyeong did not say it, but Yun Jeongseop could sense that he had not slept for days.

Because the mana he felt from Park Cheolyeong was markedly lower than usual.

“……”

When Yun Jeongseop was a cadet, Park Cheolyeong had been a man held in high esteem by all cadets.

He had been kindly, like sunlight, to the facility staff who were treated with contempt. He had been a sturdy pillar to fellow instructors. And to Yun Jeongseop, who had lost his parents early, he had been like a father.

Even though they had not t often after graduation, seeing tears in the eyes of Park Cheolyeong—who had always worn a smile—was enough to drag Yun Jeongseop’s nightmares to the surface.

“Instructor.”

The nightmare of that day, when he had struggled with everything he had to avoid losing soone precious.

“I will push a little more… I will push a little harder.”

***

Dispel's 3rd Branch, Records Analysis Room.

Yun Jeongseop rummaged through mountains of materials until nearly midnight.

“All of the abductions happened after sunset, and there does not seem to be any pattern in the dates recorded on CCTV… What still bothers is that they are all in their early to mid-teens…”

Yun Jeongseop was so absorbed in combing through information that he might not have noticed if the room caught fire.

As expected, a voice soon ca from the analysis room entrance.

“Why are you still here?”

“……!”

“Well, obviously you are lingering around the case like a restless ghost because you cannot let it go.”

The owner of that mocking, contemptuous voice was none other than Gwon Seongjun.

“Haa. You startled , Senior.”

“So you do realize you are doing sothing you should not.”

Gwon Seongjun walked up to Yun Jeongseop’s table, glanced over one of the scattered docunts, and continued.

“You were still playing at puzzles? You looked like you had been glued to this since early evening. In the first place, it is hard to believe this case was the work of a lone individual. If we infer from the thods so far, a group on the scale of the Psychic Mafia fits better.”

“……”

“So instead of asking how they kidnapped them, you should be asking why. Why would they abduct more than a dozen children in such a short ti? We cannot know the purpose precisely, but we have to assu they are doing sothing that requires children of that age. For example… human experintation.”

“H-Human experintation…”

“It would be better if they were demanding ransom, but you have guessed it too, have you not? The mont soone ‘above’ got involved, it stopped being ordinary.”

Gwon Seongjun tossed the docunt onto the table and continued.

“So stop. I am saying this because I do not want to lose a capable junior like you.”

“But…”

Yun Jeongseop dragged out the word and avoided his gaze.

Gwon Seongjun let out a slow sigh.

This was a junior he could not persuade.

Though, to be honest, that very stubbornness appealed to him.

“You are hardheaded. I do not misunderstand you. I have a nephew around that age myself. Have I ever told you? Whenever he has the chance, he boasts that he will beco an investigator and beat up the bad guys. I always scold him to study instead, but… perhaps I am the one who envies him. I used to believe I would protect justice like that, too.”

“T-Then let us investigate together…”

“No. I am carrying too much to turn back now. But what about you? How about it, you?”

“…Pardon?”

“I am asking whether your convictions are heavy enough. Whether, no matter what your actions lead to, you can be confident you will not be left with regret.”

“……”

Yun Jeongseop hesitated briefly, then nodded in affirmation.

“Good. Then go to these places.”

Gwon Seongjun pulled out a mo from his pocket, densely packed with addresses, and handed it over.

“What is this?”

“Abduction sites I have been quietly asking around about for days. The children will probably be at one of them.”

“H-How did you…!”

“What are you so surprised about? Of course I did. I was the lead investigator on this case in the first place.”

“…Thank you, Senior.”

“Well. From here on, it is your part. Find the location and secure clear evidence. If you cannot find evidence strong enough to pressure soone ‘above’…”

“……”

The atmosphere sank in an instant.

Seeing the tangled emotions in his senior’s eyes, Yun Jeongseop swallowed unconsciously.

“Death will be your only freedom.”

***

Yun Jeongseop took leave and left Seoul.

For three days, he traveled through the addresses Gwon Seongjun had given him, and at last, on Mount Wol-dal, he witnessed sothing suspicious.

“What in the world are they doing?”

In front of an abandoned bunker halfway up Mount Wol-dal.

Two n with their faces covered loaded a heavy sack onto a small handcart and pushed it into the bunker.

The contents were hidden beneath the sack, but the vivid, multicolored bloodstains sared across the surface revealed that a monster’s corpse lay inside.

“They are moving… monsters?”

Yun Jeongseop considered ambushing the two n as they pushed the cart in, but decided not to make contact until they had left.

He could not rashly move in a situation where he could not guarantee the children were still alive.

Once the two n descended the mountain, Yun Jeongseop cautiously examined the bunker entrance.

“No caras. Well, there is only one entrance, so there would be no need.”

And there was no reason to record such an illicit experint on video anyway.

“First, I should check whether there is another passage.”

Yun Jeongseop began circling the area around the bunker.

If the monsters from the cart were being brought in regularly, there would need to be a place to dispose of them after the experints.

They could have retrieved them through the sa entrance, but suspiciously, the two n had descended empty-handed.

“Are they burying them nearby? It would be impossible to stack monsters inside the bunker forever…”

Yun Jeongseop’s suspicion proved correct.

Not far from the bunker, he found a small passage that had clearly been made by human hands.

Yun Jeongseop hurriedly dug into the ground around it.

From beneath the soil, monster flesh coated in mud erged.

Flesh so pulverized that its original form was unrecognizable.

“…They ground up the bodies, discharged them here, and buried them.”

Yun Jeongseop dug more around the area, then finally let out a breath he had been holding.

Fortunately, there were no signs of the kidnapped children.

After photographing the evidence, he hid the supplies he had brought in the nearby forest.

Then, after taking one deep breath, he squeezed his body into the passage.

As he crawled through, a stench stabbed at his nose, and sticky liquid clung to his skin as if it might lt it away, but thankfully, the passage did not continue for long.

“This is…”

When he erged, a pitch-black cent space greeted him.

As expected, monster corpses used in the experints were stacked all the way to the ceiling.

Each ti he took a step, pooled blood splashed underfoot as if from a leak, and when he moved closer to a door, he heard screams—raw, unfiltered, and coming from a considerable distance away.

“……”

There was no doubt the experints were still ongoing.

With that judgnt, Yun Jeongseop carefully opened the door. Following murmured voices in a broad corridor, he reached an iron door.

Perhaps sensing his approach, the voices inside fell silent for a mont.

The iron door was locked with an absurdly large padlock.

Fortunately, it was crude enough to open easily. After a few jabs with the lockpick he had brought, the latch shifted without difficulty.

Yun Jeongseop carefully opened the door and stepped inside.

The room’s structure was not much different from the place he had co from.

With one crucial difference.

The children he had been searching for were there.

“…Who are you, mister?”

A child who looked like a middle schooler appeared beneath the dimly glowing lantern.

But before Yun Jeongseop could answer, a familiar voice ca from the darkness.

“B-Big Brother Jeongseop?”

“Seopmin…!”

It was Park Seopmin, the only son of Investigation Instructor Park Cheolyeong.

“Dad… Dad sent you! I knew you would co to save us, big brother!”

“Yes. Do not worry anymore. I will get you out of here, no matter what.”

After that brief reunion, Yun Jeongseop told the other children that he was an investigator.

The children gathered beneath the lantern, and Yun Jeongseop checked their faces one by one.

As expected, they were the children counted as victims in this case.

But among them, one child stood out as far too young.

He looked young enough to be in the lower grades of elentary school.

Considering that the target ages in this case were all middle schoolers, it was an incongruous detail.

Moreover, it was a face Yun Jeongseop had never seen in the case records.

Was there an unreported victim?

He could not be certain, but strangely, he felt no fear in the child’s expression.

In stark contrast to the other children, who were trembling with terror.

“…What is your na?”

At last, Yun Jeongseop spoke.

The child’s lips curved into an eerie smile, as if he had been waiting.

“My na is Gen.”