Chapter 2: Currently Job Hunting (1)
Kwang!
Soone slamd their fist onto the floor in the eting room.
Deeper wrinkles ford on the already wrinkled face, and dissatisfaction erupted along with a sharpened expression.
“Does this make any sense!”
Kwang!
As the fist slamd down, veins popped on the thick forearm muscles.
The Black Eagle emblem was drawn on the clothes he wore.
“We found where that bastard was, but it was a fake! A fake…!”
“Old man, you’re going to pass out at this rate.”
The woman glanced at the middle-aged man while fiddling with her cell phone.
“Who uses their cell phone during a eting?”
“Old man. As long as your ears work, it’s fine, why are you being such a condescending old man today?”
Chal-kak.
The woman winked with one eye and took a picture.
“What…? That’s because your Team 7 didn’t do their job properly!”
“You should watch your words, old man. You were the one leading this operation to catch Shin Dae-ho. Who knew that place was bait? We just ended up destroying an innocent building.”
A smile spread across the woman’s face, making the middle-aged man tremble.
“Do you even know who gave us that information?”
“Ah, it was our Team 7. Sorry.”
The woman stuck her tongue out slightly at the middle-aged man.
A star pattern sticker was affixed to her face.
“Now, now, both of you calm down. Getting heated won’t bring Shin Dae-ho back, you know.”
A woman with light brown hippie-perm hair smiled with a good-natured face.
“We lost Shin Dae-ho, but we haven’t lost track of his movents yet. It was bait, but didn’t they say they caught Shin Dae-ho’s subordinates who were in the building? This is all the result of Team 7 and Team 2, the two Team Leaders combining efforts.”
The woman tried to change the atmosphere.
Continuing like this would only worsen the relationship between Team 7 and Team 2.
Given the nature of their work, which often required inter-team cooperation, they needed to get along.
However, the two team leaders were always at each other's throats, ready to tear each other apart.
“You heard Hae-ryeon unni, right, old man?”
“I heard. You heard what Hae-ryeon said too, right?”
“Old man. I spoke first.”
“This is why children won’t do. So childish.”
“You want to go at it? Right, old man?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
As the conflict escalated again, Hae-ryeon intervened.
She placed sothing down.
A bottle contained a thick, green liquid.
“If you drink this, you’ll get along for about 3 minutes. Should I force it into your mouths? Or will you stop fighting?”
The corners of Hae-ryeon’s eyes lifted.
Knowing she was soone who would actually do it, the two cleared their throats.
Keum-heum.
“But is it okay for us to decide this amongst ourselves? Not all the teams are gathered, right?”
Team 2, Team 3, Team 7.
These were the teams gathered.
“Unni. Didn’t you hear?”
The woman asked, looking at Hae-ryeon.
“Hear what?”
“Because the old man and I were fighting again, everyone else got fed up and left, telling us to handle it ourselves. They handed over the authority for us to decide whatever amongst ourselves.”
“Tsk. Those youngsters, instead of stopping the fight, they just leave!”
“Isn’t it because you keep acting like a condescending old man that everyone leaves?”
As the woman raised her eyebrows, the middle-aged man glared at her with a displeased face.
Considering the age difference, she was like a granddaughter.
Her constant backtalk was annoying, yet he couldn't bring himself to completely dislike her.
“Is that my fault? It’s the fault of those guys who only say hateful things when assigned a mission.”
The man added the fact the woman had omitted.
“So that ans we can decide anything amongst ourselves, right? Anything at all.”
The corners of Hae-ryeon’s lips curled up.
At that suspicious smile, the woman and the middle-aged man shouted simultaneously.
“That’s not it, unni!”
“That’s right. That’s not it, Hae-ryeon!”
“That’s right. They even handed over all the authority, so what does it matter what we do? We all know how busy we are.”
Hae-ryeon smiled brightly and cracked her knuckles.
She thought about taking this opportunity to loosen so of the tight regulations.
“What should we do first? Should we start with how to fill the already insufficient manpower? While we’re at it, should we try raiding the national treasury……”
Kwang kwang kwang!
Just then, frantic knocking sounded at the door.
The three simultaneously looked towards the door.
“I’ll go see.”
Hae-ryeon got up and opened the door.
“Th, there’s big trouble! Outside, outside, a crazy bastard has arrived!”
“Yes…?”
Hae-ryeon was bewildered.
A crazy bastard?
This was the Nest, where the Black Eagles who hunt down villains resided.
Who would dare act crazy here?
“H, he, he says he brought Shin Dae-ho’s head.”
“……?”
Question marks violently popped up in Hae-ryeon’s mind.
“……My goodness.”
Hae-ryeon couldn’t close her mouth as she looked at the examination report in her hand.
The test results matched Shin Dae-ho.
It was really Shin Dae-ho’s head.
A short while ago, so man reportedly arrived carrying a severed head.
It was enough to be called a crazy bastard.
Puhahahat.
Laughter burst from the middle-aged man beside her.
“Old man. You find this funny right now?”
The Team 7 Leader narrowed her eyes.
“He brought Shin Dae-ho’s head, how could I not laugh?”
“How is this even possible? We tried so hard to catch him.”
The Team 7 Leader’s thumb moved rapidly on her phone.
How could that man have killed Shin Dae-ho, whom everyone else failed to kill?
With an incredulous expression, she took a picture of herself.
Chal-kak.
“Did you just take a picture of ?”
The voice of the man, bound and seated in the interrogation room, ca through the speaker.
Even in this situation, he seed rather indifferent.
“Nope? I took a picture of myself. Oh, was it okay to take one?”
The Team 7 Leader welcod it instead.
Except for the unusually nurous scars, he was quite her type.
The unkempt black hair covering his face and the naturally tied-down ponytail suited him well, she thought.
“I don’t like it.”
The man stated flatly and shook his head.
The hair that had been pushed up fell back down.
“But you can hear ?”
The Team 7 Leader asked out of curiosity.
The microphone hadn’t been turned on yet.
As Hae-ryeon went outside, the Team 7 Leader watched with surprised eyes.
“Unni, where are you going?”
“To see him myself.”
Hae-ryeon entered the interrogation room and sat down.
“I am Oh Hae-ryeon, Team Leader of Black Eagle Team 2.”
Hae-ryeon introduced herself first.
That ca first.
“I am Seo Hyeon-yul, currently job hunting.”
When Hyeon-yul replied, Hae-ryeon chuckled lightly.
Whether it was a joke or not, she knew he was being very cooperative for now.
“First of all, I apologize for the inconvenience. You are temporarily detained according to procedure, but do your wrists hurt?”
Whatever Hyeon-yul’s intentions were, he was an outsider.
Regardless of the reason, outsiders arriving without an appointnt could be temporarily detained.
“It’s fine. I believe it’s reasonable treatnt.”
Hyeon-yul was calm.
Bringing a head could certainly lead to this.
“Have Shin Dae-ho’s and my identities been confird?”
He cooperated as much as possible for them.
“Yes. The check is complete.”
Hae-ryeon nodded.
Seo Hyeon-yul, it was indeed him.
He had no criminal record.
What was unusual was the fact that he hadn’t even received basic education and his excessively nurous hospital visit records.
She didn’t know why he went to the hospital almost every other day.
‘Unlike his appearance, is he a sickly person?’
Hae-ryeon thought lightly.
“First, I’d like to ask if you, Mr. Seo Hyeon-yul, killed Shin Dae-ho.”
“I killed him alone.”
“Alone? Alone…?”
Hae-ryeon’s eyes twitched ever so slightly.
Did that make any sense?
Shin Dae-ho was, broadly speaking, a major villain.
“Yes.”
“…How were you able to kill him?”
“I cut his throat instantly with a dagger. Did you see his stunned expression?”
“…I saw it.”
“Looks like he didn’t expect to die.”
Hyeon-yul smiled faintly, and Hae-ryeon paid attention to that expression.
It was quite bloodcurdling.
“Then, why did you kill him?”
Hae-ryeon asked, simultaneously recalling what she heard monts ago.
—H, he said it was Shin Dae-ho’s head. What… 4 Major Insurances? Yes. He asked if they offer that. He’s a crazy bastard.
“I brought that bastard’s head for my job search activities.”
“…….”
Hae-ryeon blinked.
She couldn’t grasp the correlation between job hunting and Shin Dae-ho’s head.
“I saw the special recruitnt notice.”
“…Are you talking about the Black Eagle recruitnt notice?”
Hae-ryeon’s pupils began to tremble.
“Yes. What else would there be?”
“I’m sure the notice specified arrest, not killing the target?”
Hae-ryeon’s voice rose slightly.
“Aren’t they the sa thing? Since the Black Eagle exceptionally possesses the authority to kill villains, you were going to kill him anyway, weren’t you?”
That much information was readily available online.
The authority to kill people in modern society.
It showed just how serious the Empire was about eliminating villains.
Villains weren't organized into one large group but were closer to individuals.
Deploying the army would surely cause greater chaos, yet leaving them alone would allow them to grow, so the Black Eagle was created to prevent this.
“Mr. Seo Hyeon-yul, you are a civilian.”
“I know. However, I also know that the law overlooks instances where individuals kill villains. So there shouldn't be a problem.”
Hyeon-yul ntioned the legal loophole.
Having briefly looked up past rulings, he found them to be quite biased.
Since he was right, Hae-ryeon couldn't easily open her mouth.
It didn't matter anyway.
“In any case, there was no ntion of not killing, so I have t the condition. Isn’t that right?”
“That is correct.”
Hae-ryeon hesitated for a mont before answering.
Broadly speaking, he could be said to have t the condition.
“The eligibility requirents said ‘no restrictions’, so it doesn’t matter what I did in the past, correct?”
Hyeon-yul asked just in case.
Conditions often changed during the actual interview.
“Yes. There are no restrictions on eligibility requirents.”
Hae-ryeon stated firmly.
Currently suffering from a manpower shortage, they couldn't raise the conditions further.
“Are the benefits and welfare also exactly as stated?”
“They are. Otherwise, why would we write them down?”
“Conditions and benefits often change during interviews.”
“Yes…? Who would do such a wicked thing?”
Hae-ryeon stopped talking, aghast.
Posting a recruitnt notice with the intention to deceive from the start.
“There are quite many.”
Hyeon-yul chose his words carefully.
This was practically an interview now.
“I will accept the will of the Black Eagle and eradicate the villains to their roots.”
Hyeon-yul emphasized his words.
They promised the 4 Major Insurances but didn’t deliver.
They prevented him from taking vacations and sick leave.
They made him work overti constantly and didn't pay overti allowances.
Such trash needed to disappear.
“I thought it better to show my abilities rather than just talk.”
“What kind of work did you do until now?”
Hae-ryeon played along with Hyeon-yul’s perception of this being an interview and asked.
There was no record of him attending school or working for a company.
“I worked at a company run by a villain.”
“Was it voluntary? Were you forced to work there?”
Hae-ryeon was inwardly shocked but painstakingly maintained her composure.
“There were few companies with salaries that could cover my hospital bills, and they scouted .”
“…What did you say?”
Not Hae-ryeon, but the Team 7 Leader asked in surprise.
Scouted?
“It’s the truth. You can think of as a villain, but my desire to beco a Black Eagle is genuine.”
Hyeon-yul handed over the decision.
Now, the choice was theirs.
‘I hope they don’t refuse.’
This was the only job where killing villains was the work itself, and he could even get paid for it.
If they refused, he was planning to ask if he could at least receive the bounty money.
“First, I will ask.”
Hae-ryeon spoke calmly.
This was likely an unprecedented issue, perhaps never to occur again.
Because it was such a troubleso problem, her heart pounded even more.
“If you are hired here, you may face unfair treatnt because you were a villain in the past. Is that okay?”
“What specifically does that unfairness entail? Does it affect things like salary, sick leave, or annual leave?”
Hyeon-yul’s eyebrow rose slightly.
Surely, they wouldn’t be like the villains?
“No. I an the attitude people will have towards you, Mr. Seo Hyeon-yul.”
“Ah, if it’s sothing like that, it’s fine. I can just ignore them.”
Hyeon-yul felt relieved.
Is that all?
“Good! That’s the kind of straightforwardness we need! I approve!”
A deep male voice was heard.
Hyeon-yul didn’t miss that fact.
‘One more person.’
There were a total of three people here besides him.
“No, old man! This isn’t a matter to be decided so easily!”
A startled female voice was heard.
“No, old man! Where are you……”
Kwang.
The door opened.
A middle-aged man, but one with considerable muscle, entered.
He was laughing heartily.
“We have a total of 7 teams. Luckily, today, only the leaders of 3 teams remain. We’ve been given the authority to accept any outco. I don’t care if you were a villain or whatever. I approve.”
The Team 2 Leader spoke firmly.
At the pleasant start, Hyeon-yul’s lips naturally curled up slightly.
Tak.
The door opened urgently.
The Team 7 Leader ca out.
“I object. I don’t see the need to accept him just because he has no past record and the head he brought belongs to Shin Dae-ho.”
“Well said. It is Shin Dae-ho. He handled that bastard alone. What more do we need to see? We are the Black Eagle.”
The Team 2 Leader brought up reality, looking at the Team 7 Leader.
From their argunt, Hyeon-yul learned sothing he didn’t know.
‘Looks like that Shin Dae-ho bastard was more prominent than I thought?’
To think he’d be helpful even in death.
“I know what you an. Being strong is good. But the fact that he did it alone feels suspicious.”
The Team 7 Leader put down her cell phone.
What kind of power did he possess to make that possible?
What would happen if that power was turned towards them?
The Team 7 Leader found that unsettling.
Hyeon-yul naturally looked at Hae-ryeon.
Only she remained.
As Hae-ryeon pondered and was about to open her mouth, sothing rang.
Wiiiiing.
Light simultaneously swirled from the smartwatches worn by Hae-ryeon and the Team 2 and Team 7 Leaders.
“What’s going on?”
Hae-ryeon asked, fiddling with her watch.
The ssage was relayed through the wireless earphone connected to her smartwatch.
Ggrd-deuk.
Hae-ryeon gritted her teeth at those words.
The timing was just perfect, as if orchestrated.
“…Understood.”
She imdiately cut off the communication and looked at the team leaders.
“Please contact the Bomb Disposal Team. I will check if there are any teams dispatched to that location.”
“……Unni.”
The Team 7 Leader spoke up.
“Why?”
“The Bomb Disposal Team, they’re not available right now.”
“……?”
“She’s right. A bomber just showed up.”
Even the Team 2 Leader’s face hardened.
The timing was truly awful.
But since the opponent was a bomber, it couldn’t be helped.
A whole city could be blown up if things went wrong.
“Are you in trouble?”
As Hyeon-yul spoke, all eyes turned to him.
Satisfied, he continued.
“I can do that.”
You?
That was the look on everyone’s faces.
“Do you need help?”
The corners of Hyeon-yul’s lips lifted slightly.
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