Chapter 19

Chapter 19 – Criminals

Seo Tae-hyuk had two secrets .

One was that he had lived for 15 years longer than other people his age . Of course, those 15 years weren’t exactly happy .

He was framed and went to jail . He lived in fear of the death penalty . Every day in prison seemed like hell . The memories of those times were still in his head .

However, Seo Tae-hyuk now considered himself a ‘high school student’, rather than a ‘death row inmate . ’ It was good in some ways .

What if it wasn’t just the previous memories that were still in his head, but the previous personality as well? If it were so, he would be in a mental hospital, not a school .

Another secret of his was the fact that he could use his ‘crime skills . ’ Tae-hyuk manipulated the Demon Revealing Mirror to show his current skills .

He had currently acquired three crime skills .

Robbery, his first skill . He could steal the items of anyone that he bumped into . He had used affinity points to upgrade the skill, making it so that he could select which item to steal .

Voice Modulation, his second . A skill that could perfectly imitate the voices of others .

Finally, Spying, his third, which he could use to see the abilities and titles of others .

‘These skills…’

There weren’t just crime skills in existence . As he could see from An Eun-young’s example, there were other skills out there . That alone meant one thing – that the talents and abilities of individuals were shown in the form of skills .

If so, it was odd .

‘Why am I able to use crime skills?’

He only had three at the moment, but he would be able to learn more in the future .

He was suspicious of his title . Tae-hyuk clicked on the title in the Demon Revealing Mirror, and an explanation came up .

[God of Crime]

-You can make use of all criminal skills .

Somehow, it seemed like he could learn and use the skills of other criminals due to his title .

However, the ability was based on his rating . Currently, Tae-hyuk was a Commoner . It was the lowest rating, so there were various of restrictions .

Tae-hyuk confirmed the new upgrade conditions .

[Create a blacklist, 1/1]

[Secured the people on the blacklist, 3/20] [Make all stats over 50 points . ]

If he cleared all three of these conditions, then he could raise his rating . He would be able to do more once he upgraded to a Noble .

Tae-hyuk knew his future . If he did nothing and sat idly, then the same reality that he previously experienced would be repeated . He would be framed again and would go to jail for the second time . His sister Ha-ran and younger brother Tae-min would receive the same tragic ends .

However, if he changed the present, then the future would also change . Tae-hyuk had caught one of the people on the blacklist, Yoo Cheol-ho, and saved the lives of three people .

It was clear that this could also be applied to himself .

“Then first of all, I need to upgrade my personal rating . ’

Currently, he had only secured three people on the blacklist .

However, hundreds of people still remained . Among those on the list were terrorists who killed hundreds of people, as well as the leader of a pseudo-religion cult with thousands of believers .

Confronting them with his current set of skills was impossible .

‘I need the ability to catch people on my blacklist . However, don’t I need to catch people on the blacklist to get an upgrade? It is like employers not hiring inexperienced workers . This is just a painful regression!’

Tae-hyuk decided to do what he could first . There was still one upgrade condition apart from the blacklist, and that was to raise his stats above a certain threshold .

These were Tae-hyuk’s current stats .

Stats: Stamina (63), Intelligence (14), Agility (24), Dexterity (31)

His stats were slightly different from when he first received the Spying skill .

First of all, his stamina had decreased by one, while his agility had gone up by two, and his intelligence by 10 . His rise in intelligence was due to constantly studying with An Eun-young .

By the way, it was strange that his stamina had decreased, while his agility had increased .

Why had such a thing occurred?

Tae-hyuk coughed .

‘Hum hum . I am an energetic high school student . It can’t be helped!’

Anyway, it had been a week since his suspension, and he had already studied and raised his intelligence by 10 points . This increase rate wouldn’t have been possible without An Eun-young’s studying skill . If he kept doing it at this rate, then he would be able to raise it to 50 points during his suspension period .

“Tae-hyuk, are you okay?”

An Eun-young came in holding a bag of ice .

At this moment, Tae-hyuk felt dizzy . Come to think of it, he was currently alone in a room with a girl . Of course, this wasn’t his purpose, as he was here to study with An Eun-young . Still, he couldn’t help being nervous .

“Just how much did you study? You suddenly got a nosebleed . ”

Tae-hyuk pulled out the tissue blocking his nose and said .

“No, I don’t think I got the nosebleed from that . The meal…”

Tae-hyuk recalled the dinner that An Eun-young had prepared .

Turtle soup, grilled eel, fried pork liver, bokbunja juice . They were energetic and were really good . Eating such things had caused his blood to overflow .

An Eun-young’s expression darkened .

“Um… Do you not like the taste?”

“That isn’t it . I-It is just a little much . ’

“Stamina is important for studying! I made these dishes because they are good for your stamina…”

“Ah, no! It is delicious!”

“R-really? I’m glad! How is your stamina? Isn’t it going up?”

It didn’t seem to have a good effect on his stamina .

Tae-hyuk couldn’t tell the truth to An Eun-young who was smiling so innocently .

The ice pack was placed on his head to cool down his hot body .

An Eun-young declared with a smile .

“Then, let’s start learning!”

An Eun-young had taken off her uniform and was only wearing a thin dress . Now that the test had ended, her dark circles were almost gone . The hidden innocent and cute appearance of hers was revealed .

Tae-hyuk swallowed his saliva .

‘H-help me . ’

* * *

An Eun-young’s private lesson ended at 10 p . m . Tae-hyuk exerted great patience and studied well until the end .

‘Well, since I am getting help from her studying skill…’

His other stats weren’t rising this quickly . Intelligence had increased by 10 and his score on the mock test rose by nearly 20 points . He really might be able to reach the high rankings in the whole school in just a month .

‘By the way, I never thought that Park Sung-kwang would actually drop out . ’

Today was the day that Park Sung-kwang’s disciplinary committee would be held . Obviously, the result would be similar to Tae-hyuk’s .

However, Park Sung-kwang hadn’t come to school since a week ago, and today he had suddenly dropped out .

‘Well . He did trust in his father too much . ’

Park Seong-ho and his secretary, Lee Ki-hwan, were both criminals on the blacklist . It was lucky that he could secure two people at once .

However, there was a bitter taste in his mouth .

Lee Ki-hwan was different from other criminals, as he only followed the orders of Park Seong-ho . However, the end result was still a crime . In the end, he acted according to his conscience . Despite the handcuffs, his face looked satisfied, because he no longer needed to get his hands dirty .

Originally, it would have taken a few more years for Lee Ki-hwan to do this . His hands would have become even dirtier .

Tae-hyuk was able to finish matters before all of that even happened .

The series of events started with cheating, and ended with a politician and his secretary being arrested .

Tae-hyuk had watched the TV as Park Seong-ho and Lee Ki-hwan were handcuffed . He then received two affinity points . He thought back to Yoo Cheol-ho, and recalled the two people killed by Lee Ki-hwan that were saved .

‘Currently I only caught three people? What about the hippo and the clown?’

They were people on the blacklist that he would meet soon . This wasn’t a game, and the criminals didn’t appear in order from weakest to strongest .

‘There is a chance I might meet the final boss at the beginning . ’

There would be no way for him to deal with them with his current abilities .

His head hurt . If he had a colleague who he could share everything with…

‘Should I tell Kang-suk hyung?’

Tae-hyuk shook his head . Kang-suk had to be the guardian of Ha-ran and Tae-min, so Tae-hyuk couldn’t drag them into the middle of an incident .

‘Is there anyone on the blacklist that I can cooperate with?’

No apparent name came to mind .

His mind was filled with complicated thoughts . Tae-hyuk became lost in his thoughts as he walked the streets at night .

There were luxury homes around him . An Eun-young’s house was one of them . Her father was the director of a general hospital . She was good at studying and lived well . Her face was also cute when it wasn’t covered in dark circles . Another bonus was that she cooked well .

‘I don’t know who she will marry, but they must’ve saved a country in their past life . ’

Tae-hyuk licked his lips .

At the end of the street, there was a two-storey house that seemed like it would appear in a drama .

‘One day, I will move into a house like that . ’

A smile formed on Tae-hyuk’s face as he imagined his family living together in a two-storey house with a yard .

But then he saw something strange .

‘Are they trying to climb over the wall because they lost their house key?’

Tae-hyuk decided to quietly watch the situation .

It was a woman who looked suspicious . She was wearing leather clothes that clung to her body and had various tools .

There was something else that stood out, however . She couldn’t climb the fence and kept slipping down . Every time it happened, she would kick the stones on the street . She seemed strangely familiar .

‘Uh, isn’t that the person from last time?’

An Eun-young had lost her spirit after being threatened . He had seen the woman when he took An Eun-young home, and didn’t think it was a big deal at the time .

When he thought about it again, he felt suspicious . He didn’t think she would lose her key twice . There seemed to be a different purpose .

‘… A thief?

Why else would she be standing in front of a rich home?

In the end, the novice thief turned her head to look for another way .

Tae-hyuk shook his head

It felt like watching a toddler trying to climb a wall so he walked away . He wanted to get far away .

* * *

“What’s going on?”

It was past 10 o’clock at night .

Tae-hyuk was surprised when he arrived home . The house was in a mess, as if a thief had gone through it . The closet and drawers were pulled open and all the contents emptied .

Tae-min was attending a private cram school and wasn’t back yet . Ha-ran was sitting on the floor and crying alone .

“T-Tae-hyuk… W-waaaah!”

Tae-hyuk bit his lip .

It felt like meeting the thief on his way home had foreshadowed the current situation .

First, he had to make sure that Ha-ran wasn’t hurt .

“Noona . Are you okay?”

“U, eung…”

Ha-ran stammered as she explained the situation .

She had went out for a while and came back to this . The house was a mess .

Tae-hyuk inwardly sighed with relief . The most important thing was that Ha-ran hadn’t been at home .

“Then what did they steal?”

Tae-hyuk’s house didn’t have any valuables . The money they had was used to pay back all the debts . It covered everything . The rest went into the furniture .

Most of this was due to the bounty received for catching Yoo Cheol-ho . However, there was less profit to be gained compared to the effort to move the furniture .

“First of all, we still have all the furniture but…”

All of the furniture was still here .

Then Ha-ran pointed to her treasure chest with a trembling hand .

‘Surely not my bankbook? Even if they steal it, they won’t be able to withdraw anything . ’

After the voice phishing incident, Tae-hyuk had set a password on his account and all the seals were kept separately . Three family members were in charge of them . They couldn’t do anything with just one seal .

“M-Mother’s keepsake is gone . ”

Tae-hyuk trembled as he heard Ha-ran’s words .

It was the silver Rosario . It wasn’t a cheap item . It was worth approximately 200,000 won? It was an ornament that was difficult to determine the value because it was worn .

However, it was the only remaining memento of his parents . No matter how difficult life was, they couldn’t sell it .

But alas, it was now stolen . No matter how much it was worth, it was a precious memory that they couldn’t live without .

Tae-hyuk’s hands trembled .

Perhaps the culprit wasn’t listed on his blacklist . However, they had stolen something precious in Tae-hyuk’s family .

Tae-hyuk gritted his teeth .

He burned with fighting spirit as he thought of the thief .

“Noona . Don’t worry, I’ll surely find Rosario . ”

“Kuheom . Sniffle!”

Tae-hyuk grabbed some tissues for the crying Ha-ran . Ha-ran sniffled and blew her nose .

From what Tae-hyuk remembered, Rosario had been safe for the entirety of those 15 years . However, it was now stolen .

The cause was Tae-hyuk moving to this house .

It was like a butterfly effect, since a thief wouldn’t bother with a semi-basement rented room .

Tae-hyuk felt a heavy sense of responsibility .

Changing the present changed the future . But it wasn’t always in a good way .

“Yes . Let’s start catching a thief . ”