Chapter 58: Chapter 58

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Chapter 58: The Uninvited Guest (3)

"Eunho! Eunho!! Are you okay?!"

"Hyuuuung!"

Jieun and Jaehyuk rushed over, checking my body up and down.

Like parents frantically examining their child for injuries.

Normally, I’d have made a joke or two about the scene, but the situation was clearly too serious for that.

Jaehyuk sighed deeply and opened his mouth.

"So, let’s sum this up... You’re saying there was a bomb attack, and the terrorist is in here?"

"Well, something like that."

"Wow, fuck!"

The foul-mouthed guy covered his mouth with a trembling hand and let out a curse that sounded more like an exclamation.

He took off his cap, then ran his hand vigorously through his hair—a clear sign of panic.

And he wasn’t the only one shocked by the sudden situation.

"R-Really? I didn’t hear any explosion… Oppa, did you hear anything?"

"No… not at all. Nothing."

The man shook his head in response to his girlfriend’s question.

She clung even tighter to his arm, staring at him with suspicion.

"That’s strange…."

"Exactly? If there was really a bomb attack, then how is Eunho perfectly fine?"

"Besides, there’s no way it could be one of us. Right?"

The model and the chef both chimed in, opposing the idea.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Only one person believed me.

"Ha… I couldn’t see any of you, so I was looking around."

The foul-mouthed guy.

"Hey! Don’t answer him!"

"Are you seriously believing this nonsense?"

Right?

Even I was surprised when he took my story seriously.

I hadn’t expected them to believe a claim with no evidence.

That’s why I called Jieun, Jaehyuk, Hanul, and Yura for backup in case force was needed.

But then—

"Fuck, if I don’t trust him, there’s not a single person here I can trust."

I didn’t expect the foul-mouthed guy to cooperate so easily.

Not that I’m complaining.

If he sets the tone, the others will naturally follow suit.

"From 10:00 to 10:30. Where were you, and what were you doing?"

"I was in the dining area with people, then I got up and left. I was wondering where you all had disappeared to."

Well, it makes sense.

I had made a show of leaving on my own, and then I dragged Jieun, Jaehyuk, Hanul, and Yura into this mess.

From his perspective, it probably seemed odd that everyone had vanished.

"Alone? Did you see anyone?"

"Yeah. That loud-mouthed woman asked me where I was going so late at night."

Loud-mouthed woman?

"Lee Yeji? What time was that?"

"Just before 10. Like, 9:50? She said she needed to sleep at 10 to avoid ruining her skin."

"So it was right after I left."

That means his last alibi is from before 10.

I was ‘locked’ in the office at 10:20, and now it’s 10:40.

That leaves plenty of time.

"And when I couldn’t find anyone, I went downstairs. I swear I didn’t do anything else!"

So he had time to commit the act and return.

Unfortunately.

"Foul-mouthed guy, no alibi."

"W-What, I don’t have one?"

He stammered in disbelief, but facts are facts.

No alibi means no alibi.

Next suspect.

"Chef?"

"I—I don’t know anything about this. And I have no obligation to answer you."

Hmm.

He’s right; he doesn’t have to answer.

I’m not the police or the prosecution, and the Miranda rights still apply, so he’s not wrong.

"If you don’t cooperate, I’ll consider you the culprit."

"And what are you going to do about it? Call the police?"

"Haha, of course not."

If the law can’t punish someone, it also can’t protect them.

"I’ll simply return the favor."

In other words, if I label him as the culprit and do the same thing to him, there’s no safety net to stop me.

"Isn’t it true that fists are closer than the law now?"

Flinch!

The chef visibly flinched under my cold stare and avoided eye contact.

After a moment of deliberation, he swallowed nervously and opened his mouth.

"I was… with Rina."

"Rina?"

"I— I was with him."

At the unfamiliar name, I frowned.

The model standing next to him raised her hand.

"Yurina. That’s my name. Pretty, right?"

Confident, or maybe shameless, she spoke the line without hesitation.

"Why?"

"Huh? Isn’t it obvious that it’s a pretty name?"

"No, I’m asking why you were together."

"Oh, that?"

When I asked flatly, Yurina raised and lowered her eyebrows.

Instead of answering, she just stared at the chef.

"We… had something to talk about privately."

The meaningless answer came from the chef.

Hmm.

"When exactly did you meet?"

"I was coming out of the bathroom, and he was there… so we ran into each other and talked for a bit. Is that a problem?"

"You met outside the bathroom, and what time was that?"

"Around ten o'clock? We talked on the landing for a while, then it felt stifling, so we came downstairs."

So, the landing after the restroom, huh.

It seemed like they only picked secluded places, so I pressed a bit further.

"What did you two talk about, alone?"

"Seriously, do I have to tell you what a grown man and woman talked about? Huh?"

The chef bristled.

"You sure have a lot of questions."

The model blinked and shrugged.

Although the woman was right—there were still plenty of unanswered questions…

"…Let's move on for now. Next, this couple?"

A man glaring with laser eyes while wrapping his arm around his girlfriend's shoulder was waiting.

"The second-floor café. My girlfriend wasn’t feeling well, so she was lying down the whole time."

The man started talking even though no one had asked yet, his expression and tone clearly showing he wanted this to end quickly.

He looked absolutely fed up with the situation.

"So you two were on the second floor, where no one else was, is that right?"

"Well, her head hurt, and it’s noisy when there are people around…!"

"Got it. And since when?"

"Since nine o'clock. We were there the whole time."

The sharp response to my follow-up question was brimming with thorns.

"Oppa… my head hurts."

"When is this going to end? She needs to rest."

It did seem like the girlfriend wasn’t feeling well.

‘I’ll need to confirm it, though.’

As I mentally arranged the timeline of the five people’s movements, the chef spoke up.

"So that means there’s only one person without an alibi. Right?"

He blatantly stared at the foul-mouthed guy.

That set off the others, and everyone started chiming in.

"Yeah, there’s only one person left."

"So we’re done here, right? Can we go now?"

"What, what? Fuck, are you talking about me?"

Chilly stares were directed at the foul-mouthed man.

"You’re the only one who was alone."

"Ugh, we were dragged into suspicion for no reason."

"No, no, I didn’t do it! Seriously! Why would I kill that guy? That doesn’t even make sense!"

The foul-mouthed man turned pale and started waving his hands frantically.

"Fuck, I’m telling you, I didn’t do it! I swear I didn’t!"

"Calm down."

Well, at least for now, we had our answer.

"Give me five minutes. Just wait a little longer."

Time to wrap this up.

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* * *

[You’ve sent a gift to 'Yoon Sola'!]

While I called for reinforcements to help wrap up my deduction, the foul-mouthed man was already being treated like the confirmed culprit.

"No way… it’s not true, right? Eunho saved our lives so many times…."

"If he really tried to kill Hyung, we won’t let it slide!"

Jieun and Jaehyuk shook their heads, their eyes trembling like they didn’t want to believe it.

Seeing their reaction, the foul-mouthed man clutched his head and pounded his chest.

"Ah, damn it, I’m telling you, it’s not me…!"

"Foul-mouthed guy."

I stepped forward.

"Uh, huh? I swear it’s not me! Believe me!"

"How many welfare points did you receive as donations during this mission?"

"Huh?"

The sudden question caught him off guard, and he blinked in confusion.

"Welfare points?"

"It’s important, so please answer."

He looked at me as if wondering what this had to do with anything.

Without explaining, I asked again.

After hesitating, he answered.

"…I didn’t get any."

As expected.

I knew it.

He probably just showed them Marvel movies and only talked about how great the heroes were, so it made sense he wouldn’t have earned a single point.

"No sense, man. No sense. I showed them a masterpiece of humanity…."

"Wait, what the hell are you talking about? Why are we suddenly discussing welfare points?"

…There was so much to explain, but for now, the important thing was—

"So he’s not the culprit."

The foul-mouthed guy wasn’t the killer.

"Huh? Why not?"

"Why did the story suddenly take this turn?"

The model and chef widened their eyes in confusion.

The couple narrowed their eyes suspiciously, as if wondering what I was up to.

"Because he couldn’t afford the bomb."

"The bomb…? You mean the one with the toxic gas?"

"Yeah. That bomb is sold in the intermediate shop."

I kindly explained why there was no way he could be the culprit.

"You got an F in your first evaluation at MS Tower. Then a C at Seoul Station, right?"

"!!"

"So even if you added up all the incentives you’ve received so far, it wouldn’t even total 1,000 points. And you spent what little you had during the hunting mission, right? Barely scraping by."

Because he couldn’t afford the bomb.

…A very practical reason.

"Wait, you memorized all that?!"

Upgrading to the intermediate shop costs 10,000 points.

And the bomb itself costs another 5,000 points.

So at minimum, you need 15,000 points.

"See? There’s no way he could’ve bought it."

The others stared in disbelief as I finished my reasoning.

"…"

"If he had received more than 15,000 points in donations, well, he could’ve scraped it together and bought it. But since he wasn’t even on the top donor list, that didn’t happen."

“Wow... That’s seriously terrifying…”

The foul-mouthed one stumbled backward, rubbing their forearm incessantly.

Even though I’d cleared him of suspicion, I wasn’t sure why he was backing away more and more.

“But… then who’s the culprit?”

“We all have alibis!”

“No.”

Anyway, there were four suspects left.

“None of us have a solid alibi.”

“What?! We explained everything! We were together!”

“How can we believe that? The two of you could be accomplices.”

“Hah! What do you take us for?!”

Just as the chef clenched his fist, looking ready to throw a punch—

─ Ding!

The elevator came to a stop.

“Who is it?”

Sola stepped out of the open doors, nodded at me, and approached.

She walked up to the couple’s woman without a word, then raised her palm.

And, as we had planned—

─ Fwoosh!

“What, what the? Suddenly?!”

“Why are you… healing?”

The pale light emanating from her palm seeped into the woman.

Her startled boyfriend belatedly pulled his partner behind him, but the objective had already been achieved.

Sola lowered her hand and spoke.

“It’s a cold.”

“...?!”

“What are you doing! What was that all about!”

Then, the culprit is…

“!!”

It’s you!

Wham!

As soon as Sola’s words ended, I bolted.

Behind the culprit.

I grabbed both of their wrists as if embracing them from behind and twisted, applying pressure.

“What the hell?! What are you doing!”

The shocked voice escaped, but I had no intention of answering with words.

Thud!

I kicked behind their knees while holding their wrists.

The culprit crumpled to the ground.

I immediately pinned them against the wall and quickly called Sola.

“Sola! Now!”

“Yes!”

Our precious healer and status anomaly detector.

─ Fwoosh!

As Sola’s blue light flared out, she shouted like an arrow.

“Poisoning! It’s true!”

“!!”

It’s this one.

Fshhhhhhh!

I activated the gas bomb.

Wham!

They were the only one who entered a space before the poisonous gas had fully cleared, falling into a poisoned state.

“You were the only one alone.”

And yet, to avoid suspicion, they pretended ignorance.

“You got too greedy.”

“What? What nonsense are you saying right now?!”

“You could’ve waited for the gas to clear, then searched slowly. Were you afraid someone else might take it first?”

“...!”

If X had been just a little less greedy…

If they had waited just a day, or even a few hours, before acting, it could’ve been difficult to catch them.

But.

“Poisoning?! That’s impossible…”

They didn’t know.

They probably didn’t even realize they’d inhaled the gas.

「99.94%」

No one tracks their health to the 0.01 percent level.

▣ The Omniscient Observer’s Eye

-When activated, it displays the remaining health of those within your sight.When activated, they allow you to see the remaining health of individuals within your field of view.

But only as a percentage.

Unless you’re wearing lenses that show remaining health in percentages.

“No wonder you seemed suspicious.”

The tall, lanky figure looked familiar, too.

So…

“You’re X, aren’t you?”

You’re the culprit.

“…Yurina.”

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