Chapter 55.

It was 2 A . M . in Korea, but 7 P . M . in Norway . The two countries were in different time zones, but their skies were equally dark .

Darkness descending on the snowy mountain marked the end of hunting club’s event .

Chae Nayun and I obtained the first place and fourth place flags . The first place flag rewarded a piece of paper with Yun Seung-Ah’s one-time help coupon, and the fourth place flag rewarded a VR gaming set worth 3 million won . All the prizes were fantastic as expected of gifts from active Heroes .

Chae Nayun and I returned to the cabin, where a warm barbeque party was waiting . Other club members who just came back greeted us with smiles .

“Wow, you got the first place flag!? I’m jealous!”

The club leader saw the flag in my hand and exclaimed . Other club members also sent looks of envy, to which I made a bitter smile .

“Now, let’s eat . ”

The barbeque party started . Club members put meat on the grill . The sizzling sound was pleasant to hear, to say the least, but these kids were terrible at grilling . Realizing that they were just teenagers, I stepped up .

“I’ll handle the grilling . You guys can rest . ”

When it came to cooking meat, it was a matter of pride for me . Because my aunt ran a Korean BBQ restaurant, I was quite confident in my grilling technique .

“…You’re different than what the rumors say, huh . ”

A male senior gave me a look of surprise as he handed me the tongs he was holding .

Without talking, I focused on grilling . Knowing when to flip was the most important thing in cooking meat, and it was best to delay cutting them until the end . Of course, even as I devoted my attention to grilling, I kept my ears open . The seniors began to give their juniors valuable advice .

“I know your finals are coming up . Be careful . Finals will be more rigorous than any of the previous exams . Don’t trust anyone, especially during the finals . ”

“Is it that difficult?”

“It’s difficult, but more importantly, I’ve seen friendships dissolve because of it . Because it’s directly connected to the cadet rankings, everyone will be on the edge . Also, you guys know that there’s a separate class for people being held back, right?”

“Ah, yes . ”

“There are about 200 of them per year . You have to be especially careful of those guys . They won’t stop at anything to pass since they’ll be expelled if they don’t pass this time . ”

Cadets held back from the previous year, they would be the source of trouble during the finals . Of the 200 repeaters, close to 20% were contracted to Djinns or were part of high profile organizations . There could be even more if the co-author manipulated the numbers .

“Hey, um… Haejin?”

“It’s Hajin . Kim Hajin . ”

“Ah, Kim Hajin . You’re a great griller! But you should eat some too . ”

“I’ve been eating while grilling, so I’m full . ”

“Really?”

The barbeque party continued for 20 minutes . Because I did a great job on the grilling duty, everyone was seeing me more favorably .

“The original plan was to go out for a night hunt… but let’s just rest since we’re full . ”

The club leader made his decision .

“Team 1 will use Cabin A . Team 2 will use Cabin B . ”

The 18 club members split into two separate cabins . Chae Nayun and I were assigned to Cabin A .

The cabin was surprisingly big . The first floor had three rooms and a large living room, while the second floor had six rooms, with each person having their own room .

After unpacking our belongings, we met in the living room, where we began to play Mafia as a group bonding game .

But every time Chae Nayun became the mafia, she was killed in the first town vote . When she took important citizen roles like the doctor or the cop, the mafia killed her on the first or second night . Even when she was a normal citizen, she was killed relatively fast . It wasn’t anyone’s fault but her own .

She was simply terrible at the game, because she didn’t know how to hide her emotions .

“…Ah, I haven’t laughed that hard in some time . ”

Now, the game had ended and everyone had gone to sleep . I left the cabin and sat down on a bench outside . Chae Nayun’s wronged face kept popping up in my head, and I couldn’t help but laugh . If we pushed her just a bit further, she might have even broken out into tears .

But soon, I stopped my laughter from coming out and turned on my laptop .

Truth Agency had received another request .

[There is a conman called Jerome Müller . He was acting as my asset manager when he took the money and ran . Here are several pictures of his face, his height, and other identifying information . Please tell me where he is . ]

It was the second request I ever received . Judging by his German name, he must have been introduced by the first customer .

Since the conman’s face and identifying information were all present, it wouldn’t be difficult to find his location with the Book of Truth . Without putting it off, I released Stigma’s magic power and opened the Book of Truth .

To find his current location, close to 80% of my current magic power was used . Feeling lightheaded, I staggered slightly .

[It will cost 5,000,000 points . ]

I held myself back from asking for 50 million . Surprisingly, I immediately received a message saying the money was deposited . I wrote back exactly what the Book of Truth said .

There was no reply .

I closed the Book of Truth and put away my laptop . Then, I looked into the distance .

Norway’s untouched nature entered my sight . In front of this scenic beauty, a thought suddenly popped up in my head .

Cigarette .

“Ah, I stopped smoking… . ”

I had only just realized . Before I came to this world, I smoked half a pack every day because of stress, but after coming to this world, smoking never even crossed my mind .

“You used to smoke?”

“Whoa!”

I jolted at the sudden voice .

“W-What! Where are you!?”

“Above you, idiot . ”

I immediately looked up . Chae Nayun was peeking her head out from the second-floor window . Since when was she there?

“So you used to smoke? A real delinquent, huh . Do you also have tattoos?”

Her stinging, pitying words made me flinch . My eyes fell on my upper arm . Thankfully, the two streaks of Stigma were covered by my clothes .

“What, you really have them? Let me see . ”

“I don’t . ”

“Hmm . ”

Chae Nayun raised her eyebrows as she looked down at me . But soon, she looked back up into the air . It seemed she didn’t see me opening the Book of Truth .

“…By the way, are you confident?”

Chae Nayun asked as she looked out at the horizon .

“Confident? About what?”

“About winning against me . ”

Faced with her straightforward question, I retorted arrogantly .

“What about you, are you confident in being able to give up on your bow if you lose?”

“…That’s something that can’t happen, so it never crossed my mind . ”

“If you end up losing, are you going to cry?”

“Do you want to cry now?”

“You almost cried today because of Mafia . ”

“…Screw off . ”

We exchanged blows . I felt like I was the winner, but then I wondered what I was doing with a kid . Being around them, I felt like I was becoming a kid myself .

In the end, I sat back down on the bench and continued watching the scenery .

Only snow and evergreen trees were within my view, but when I looked up at the sky, a whole new scenery emerged . The sky was full of stars . It was my first time seeing such a scene . I began to understand why Chae Nayun opened her window . She was looking at the stars too .

“Oh right, traveling club is apparently canceled this week . ”

Chae Nayun suddenly mentioned traveling club’s cancelation, which wasn’t particularly surprising . The same thing had happened in the original story . In the original story, Belbet’s plan succeeded, so Natasha broke up with Oh Hanhyun . But now, she broke up with Oh Hanhyun because Belbet was arrested . Oh Hanhyun should be writhing in the pain of breaking up right about now .

“By the way, have you seen the news article from France?”

“News article? Is it about me?”

“Yeah, Yeonha showed me . They’re calling you the Korean Sherlock who captured the conman of the century . ”

“Oh . ”

“I can’t believe a delinquent who smokes and picks fights with me for no reason is Sherlock . ”

“…Just go to sleep . ”

“I was going to even if you didn’t tell me!”

Tak . Chae Nayun closed her window shut . I also got up to leave, but then my smartwatch rang .

Chae Nayun had sent me a link to a news article .

[Conman of the Century Captured by Korean Cadet . ]

So there was an article like this . I laughed in slight embarrassment and read the translated article .

[Belbet was arrested in a large mansion on the outskirts of Paris . Belbet is a conman who had scammed thousands of people over the past 20 years… Belbet tried to bury his wrongdoings by feigning his death, but his clever methods were seen through by a Cube cadet with keen insight and reasoning…]

Tak .

Chae Nayun opened her window again, then asked with a voice full of curiosity .

“Hey, what does a cigarette taste like?”

“…”

**

“Oh, man . ”

Yoo Jinhyuk came back from his journey . During the past two days, he saw 24 hours of a person’s past . The reason his limit was two days was that he could only hold in his bowel and bladder movement for that long . He ran to the bathroom the moment he woke up .

“Did you find anything out?”

His secretary spoke to the bathroom door .

“Yeah, there were a few strange things . ”

“What did you see?”

“The day he entered the orphanage, he spent 23 hours and 55 minutes in front of the orphanage door . ”

Yoo Jinhyuk could move around in a virtual reality of someone’s past . However, because he would be in a spirit body formed with magic power, he used up magic power whenever he moved . As such, it was better to stay still if possible .

“Some kid dropped a kid off . ”

“…Huh? A kid gave birth to a kid?”

“No, the kid was too young to give birth, but I don’t know too much more . That’s where it ended . His past is strangely dense, so I’ll have to maintain my peak condition if I want to look into it more . ”

Pffft, pfft . Unpleasant sounds rang out from the bathroom . The secretary furrowed her brows .

“Anyways, this is looking like it will take a while . I don’t know if I can do it for free . ”

“You have to because another request came in . ”

The secretary sent a message to his smartwatch . On the screen was a familiar picture .

“What, it’s Kim Hajin again?”

It was the same picture of Kim Hajin as the one his niece sent .

“Yes, but look at the purchaser’s rank . ”

“Rank? …Red, Red Diamond?”

Red Diamond was Violet Banquet’s highest rank . At the same time, it was the same rank Yoo Jinhyuk had .

Red Diamond members were able to see the ranks of purchasers and sellers . Furthermore, because only a few Red Diamond members existed, they could recognize each other . Naturally, Yoo Jinhyuk knew who this account belongs to .

[Requesting for this person’s background information . You are not allowed to hurt him . We will deposit 100 million points as a security deposit, then an additional 500 million points when the job is done . (Contract will be canceled if the target finds out or is hurt)]

The brief and succinct sentences and the amount of money they offered immediately hinted at their identity .

“This… . ”

Short and to-the-point sentences, the extravagant use of money, using 600 million won to investigate a person’s background… .

He was certain .

This was Chameleon Troupe’s account .

Yoo Jinhyuk stared fixedly at the picture of Kim Hajin .

“…There might really be something about him . ”

At the first interesting request in some time, Yoo Jinhyuk made a deep smile .

Currently, he was sitting on a toilet .

**

A week passed by in a breeze and the long-awaited day finally arrived .

Today was the day of my archery duel with Chae Nayun . I had to prove that I wasn’t lying when I said I could beat her in archery with just a month of practice .

As soon as classes ended, I headed to the archery range . Chae Nayun and her group of friends followed after me . Even with a glance, I could see that she brought quite a entourage of people . There had to be at least 70 people, and among them were well-known cadets like Kim Suho, Yoo Yeonha, and Shin Jonghak .

After walking for about 15 minutes, we arrived at an archery range built on an artificial mountain .

The archery range looked similar to a skeet shooting range, but unlike in a shooting range, the lanes were huge . Chae Nayun was standing in a lane about 50 meters away, warming up .

“We’ll be doing the same thing . You practiced archery for the past month, right?”

I retorted lightly .

“No . ”

“What?”

“I didn’t do it this way . Explain . ”

“…”

Chae Nayun furrowed her brows .

“Huu . You see that in the distance? The maximum range is 1km . We’ll start from the 100m mark, and the distance will increase by 50m every time we succeed . . . . Here, let me show you . ”

Chae Nayun held up her bow . After clearing her throat, she shouted .

“Shot!”

Immediately, a target shot up from the 100m mark . It moved here and there, seemingly trying to dodge Chae Nayun’s arrow . When the target reached its highest point, Chae Nayun fired a wooden arrow . The arrow then pierced through the target cleanly .

She had a textbook posture, and her arrow followed a textbook trajectory .

The spectators cheered . To be honest, my jaws also dropped slightly .

“Why? Is it more difficult than you thought?”

At Chae Nayun’s confident question, I responded with a slight smile .

“No, I was just thinking it was too easy . ”

Then, I held out my hand to Chae Nayun .

“…What . ”

“Give me your bow and arrow . I don’t have them . ”

“…I thought you’d do something like this and prepared them for you . ”

Chae Nayun revealed her teeth and growled before looking behind her . Immediately, some guy ran up to her with a bow and a quiver full of arrows .

“Take it . ”

“Thanks . ”

I put the quiver down and examined the bow first .

“You ready?”

“Wait . ”

This was the first time I was touching a bow . Because a bow was considered a main weapon, I couldn’t rent one from Cube without paying money . Thankfully, the bow in my hand was a traditional bow, so I at least knew how to use it .

I tried pulling on the bowstring and knocking an arrow .

“Is this how you shoot?”

It seemed my Gift couldn’t do anything about my posture .

“… . ”

Chae Nayun glared at me dumbfoundedly . I laughed meekly and muttered .

“I’m kidding . I’m ready, let’s go . Start . ”

In any case, I could just copy Chae Nayun’s posture .

Chae Nayun clicked her tongue and looked at her target . She shouted loudly .

“Start!”

Her voice echoed out .

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