Chapter 85
We came out for a treasure hunt, and a corpse turned up...!
Of course, the frustration only lasted a moment.
As a cool-headed agent, I immediately suspected that this was a Sejeongge user's corpse. Did they come geocaching, get caught up in an anomaly, all die, and get buried at the spot they were originally aiming for?
"Could this be... a Sejeongge regular?"
"We'll have to confirm the identity. Dig deeper first."
"Yes."
Honestly, by now I'm not even surprised to see a corpse. I skillfully dug the ground and unearthed it. But there was only one. I dug some more, but there were no other bodies.
"Hoo. One body came up. Doesn't look like there's any more."
This is strange.
The people who went to the meetup went missing as a group, and only one corpse turned up?
If one was going to appear, shouldn't they all appear?
"What's more, the corpse's condition is a bit odd."
"It is odd, indeed. No matter how you look at it, this is a corpse that hasn't been dead very long."
There were no signs of decay.
The extent of the damage was very low.
Even to an amateur corpse examiner like me, it only looked like someone who had died not long ago.
"That makes no sense. This happened some time ago, clearly. By now it should have turned to bones. Then that would mean this is an entirely different person... but that doesn't make sense either, does it? Buried right at the geocaching destination? And not long ago, too?"
Highly suspicious.
"Right. Only Sejeongge users know this place's location. It would be strange for it to be someone completely unrelated."
"Or maybe the Sejeongge regulars killed them, buried the body, and then fled in panic, cut off contact, and we all thought they went missing?"
Let's think about this reasonably for now.
The regulars who went out geocaching. They had some kind of problem and ended up killing someone. That would be murder. A jail-worthy offense.
Then someone took the lead and suggested hiding the body; after some discussion, they buried it at the geocaching coordinates. After that, they shut their mouths and went bye-bye forever.
The Sejeongge mods who weren't part of this would have seen them go dark and judged that this wasn't just them going off the grid, but that they'd gone missing, and thinking these coordinates were extremely dangerous, they wouldn't have tried searching any further.
"Basically, they hid it with that sort of calculation. How's that? As for the body's condition, well, let's say environmental factors luckily kept it from decomposing for a long time."
"Not bad. A fairly sensible deduction."
"Yes."
"But we should be thinking in terms of anomalies, not ordinary cases."
That's true.
"What if the target of the geocaching is this corpse in the first place?"
"Pardon?"
"Maybe it's something like a corpse that comes out looking as though it died only recently no matter when you dig it up. This is treasure hunting, after all—you never know what you'll find."
"Oho... understood. We'll know once we inspect the corpse."
Then is this thing the entity called an unrotting corpse?
But then I should be getting a notification.
Ah, come to think of it, the cube didn't trigger a notification either.
I don't know what the difference is.
"Ah, Team Leader. What happens if I throw the cube at this corpse?"
"It'll probably try to hit the cube. Don't waste it."
"You mean it'll try to hit it?!"
Just imagining the corpse suddenly springing to its feet to hit the cube makes my whole body tremble!
"More importantly, Grong. Be careful."
"Yes?"
"I can't reach the Bureau."
"What!"
I checked my phone too.
This is special equipment for agents, so the signal doesn't usually cut out unless something unusual is happening.
"Could it be... we've been caught up in an anomaly because we found this corpse?"
"It's possible."
"Then what about the anomaly detector?"
"...It's not going off."
No, is that detector actually useful or not?!
"Since we can't make contact, we can't call for backup. Let's head back down. I'll return to the car and try contacting them again."
"Should I go check?"
"We don't know what might happen, so no solo action."
"Yes."
Come to think of it.
We were in a situation where we didn't know whether or not we'd been hit by an anomaly. The notification window not popping up wasn't anything new, so I could let that slide.
For now, we were going to put the corpse back in the hole and head down.
ㅡSwish.
Suddenly, I felt someone's presence.
"Team Leader. I sense something."
"Over there... someone's coming up."
What, someone is coming up here?
In a place this remote, all of a sudden?
"Grong. Cover it with some dirt. With your foot. Carefully."
"Yes."
I brushed dirt over it with my foot. If someone saw this scene, they'd really think the organization had buried a person here.
But then.
The outfit of the person coming up.
"Huh?! It's a police officer?!"
It's the police!
They're coming up in police uniforms and vests!
"Team Leader?"
"Calm down. It's not a big deal."
"It kind of is, though."
Encountering police as an agent was a first for me. Anyway, the police coming up spotted us and greeted us.
"Hello, folks. What are you doing up there?"
"Oh, officers, you've got it rough. We were just doing a bit of hiking."
"Hiking, is it."
ㅡThud.
Two police officers stood in front of us.
"Why are people out hiking digging up the ground?"
"..."
Jaldi said nothing.
Is he trying to see what I can do?
"We were doing a kind of treasure hunt."
"Treasure hunt? Grown adults doing a treasure hunt?"
"Please step aside a moment. We need to check."
The police moved closer.
"Hey! What's with this! Can police even do this? Do you know who I am!"
"Wait... huh?! W-what is that!"
The approaching police shouted.
"Hey! That hand! What's with that hand!"
We hadn't covered it with enough dirt, and a hand was sticking out!
"Grab them! Arrest them!"
The police tried to grab us, but.
"Let's subdue them."
Jaldi stepped in.
ㅡWhoosh!
"Huh?!"
Before I knew it, Jaldi had casually subdued one cop with jujitsu and knocked him out with a chokehold!
"Hey!"
Before the other cop could even react, he was grabbed too and choked out in an instant.
Chief Jaldi's chokehold attack...!
For some reason, I want that too.
To think he'd wrap someone up that tightly from behind.
"No, is it really okay to do that to police?"
"You may run into them sometimes. If the situation isn't favorable, subdue them first and use the hypnosis device."
"That does sound like it would solve everything..."
"More importantly. Don't you notice anything strange?"
Something strange?
"These police officers. Where did they suddenly come from? The timing is a little too abrupt."
"That's certainly true."
We didn't exactly advertise that we were coming here to look for a corpse, so how did they pinpoint us and come straight here?
This isn't a normal location. We came here using GPS too. Didn't we come here to geocache?
We didn't even notice anyone tailing us, so the fact that some random cops showed up all of a sudden is extremely strange.
"Looks like we've gotten caught up in something strange."
Jaldi reached into the inside of his suit jacket near his chest, rummaged around furiously, and pulled out a hypnosis pen.
Then he woke the unconscious police officer and pressed the button on the pen.
"State your rank and name."
"No, sir... why are you asking that..."
The police officer answered blankly.
Even in that dazed state, he seemed to have a strong aversion to giving his rank and name.
"Why did you come up here?"
"We received a report that a corpse had been found..."
"Who reported it?"
"I don't know..."
A report.
"Someone reported it, you say. Could this be a mod's trap? Did they deliberately leave the corpse there to lure us in?"
"That would be far too stupid. Besides, it's cumbersome and weird. Hm... could it be a ghost story about being investigated by a police officer?"
"Ah. Yeah, that could be."
That did seem possible.
"Maybe it's one of those ghost stories where you suddenly get framed and locked in jail."
"Yeah."
But.
Even so, the notification still wasn't popping up.
"You didn't find the corpse. After a failed search, you're heading back empty-handed. What's your impression?"
"Ah... this is going to be a real pain again..."
Jaldi, who had expertly manipulated the police's perceptions, said.
"Cover it back up. Let's hide the corpse for now."
"Yes."
This really did make us look like body dumpers.
Hiding a corpse.
Anyway.
After covering the corpse, we left the police officers whose perceptions had been manipulated behind and headed back down. Even on the way down, we still couldn't contact the Bureau. And it was the same even after we'd fully descended and reached the car.
"It's completely dead. Grong. I can't tell exactly, but it looks like something's gone wrong. Be careful."
"Yes."
I quickly took stock of the situation.
We came here at a mod's request to look into the whereabouts of the regulars who'd gone missing while geocaching. But then a corpse turned up when we dug, and police suddenly appeared on top of that. And to top it off, we lost contact with the Bureau?
"Could we have really entered an anomalous space?"
"Hard to say. But this does seem to be our car. Get in for now. I'll head back to the Bureau."
"Yes."
Jaldi got into the driver's seat. I got into the passenger seat as well and fiddled with my phone. I tried contacting not only the Bureau but also Mr. Spangdal and Mr. Jamtree, but the calls rang through and nobody answered.
"This is starting to get my heart pounding for a different reason."
"Why are weird things happening so often lately?"
"Let's head to the Bureau for now."
* * *
We didn't spot anything special on the way there.
The world was perfectly normal, and so was the rest stop we pulled into halfway.
It was so normal that Jaldi and I even ate butter-grilled baby potatoes and tteok-so-tteok together.
"Delicious."
A faint smile appeared on Jaldi's lips.
"This is really good. Ah, should we buy coffee too?"
"Let's buy it on the way back after we're done eating."
"Yes. Ah, Team Leader. Why don't you get some ice cream too?"
"Hmm... I'm a little tempted. Get me a Melona."
"Heh-heh-heh, then I'll get marble ice cream."
"Huh? What kind of indulgence is that, you brat..."
"You've gotta eat that kind of thing at a rest area."
"Forget the Melona. Buy me two marble ice creams."
"Yes."
As expected, marble ice cream eaten at a rest area is something special.
"Does that make any sense? They were charging four thousand won for one."
"Rest areas are all expensive."
"Still... it's so good you'd never even notice if one of us died while the two of us were eating it."
After finishing, we bought two cans of coffee and got back into the car.
"At least there's no problem. I thought we'd fallen into an anomalous space, but no matter how I look at it, this seems to be reality."
"I'll bet it's an illusion. The potatoes and tteok-so-tteok were truly fantastic."
"Enough with the weird jokes."
In that sort of mood, we arrived near the Bureau building, our beloved old home.
"Huh."
Something.
Something's off.
"Hey... Team Leader?"
"..."
Jaldi's expression stiffened.
ㅡScreech.
The car came to a stop.
We got out of the car and cautiously approached the Bureau building.
"...What is this."
Even Jaldi sounded shocked as he said it.
I, too, said, still dazed.
"Uh... where did it go? Our Bureau building?"
The Bureau building is gone.
In the place where the Bureau building used to stand...
there was a huge building I'd never seen before.
As if the building had been replaced.