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Chapter 59 – The Puppeteer II

5

To put it bluntly, I had zero respect for the Provisional Government. I respected my eye gunk more and didn’t want to be rude.

The problem was the Fukuoka city government.

The ones who likely leaked the information about my visit to the Provisional Government were probably them.

At this point, unlike the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese archipelago’s government hadn’t completely collapsed.

So they had the luxury of holding onto the Provisional Government coin without throwing it away.

You never know, right? This junk coin might shoot up to Mars’s atmosphere.

It was an extremely irrational decision, but gamblers are not easily swayed by logic. After all, the sweet success story of Yi Wan-yong coin was ingrained in the minds of the Japanese.

The point at which the Japanese government started regaining its senses was when the Eight Million grotesque beings descended. Except for the part where they had to sacrifice their heads, arms, torsos, legs, and organs to gain wisdom, it was a good deal.

I personally took down one of these grotesque beings, Inunaki. But that’s a story for another time.

That future hadn’t yet come to pass.

Therefore, for now, I had to consider the dignity of the Fukuoka authorities.

My mission was to abduct an A-grade Awakened residing in Fukuoka for free. It would be foolish to antagonize the locals.

Of course, if it were the 180th run me, I could ignore all politics and secretly kidnap the Puppeteer. But this was just the 18th run me, still a rookie.

What can you do? Sometimes, you have to do the dirty work.

“Haha. To think that a patriot like you, Doctor Jang, supports our Provisional Government so enthusiastically! It feels like we have a thousand reinforcements!”

“Oh, support is too grand a word. I’m just someone who wants to share in the hardships of our fellow countrymen living abroad during these tough times.”

“Aha, I see. You are truly humble! Here, have a drink, Doctor Jang!”

In the end, I spent the whole night drinking with the officials of the Provisional Government. To Jung Sangguk, it was sweeter to have a friendly chat with a war hero like me than the alcohol itself.

After singing his praises adequately, Jung Sangguk seemed quite pleased.

“By the way… what brings you to Fukuoka?”

“Ah, it’s more of a business trip than official duties.”

“Oh, in these times, what’s the difference? If it’s your business, Doctor Jang, it’s practically national policy. Please, tell me more.”

“Your words put me at ease. I’m here to find an Awakened person known as the Puppeteer living in Fukuoka. Do you know of them?”

“…The Puppeteer?”

This was the first time Jung Sangguk hesitated.

“Yes, the Puppeteer.”

“…Yes, I know them well. But why…?”

“As you know, I run a small academy, a training center for Awakeneds. I would like to meet the Puppeteer and, if they are suitable, invite them to join our academy.”

“I see…”

The Busan mayor stared at me and muttered.

“…Maybe it’s for the best.”

It was an inexplicable mutter. As the silence between us stretched to two seconds, Jung Sangguk broke the awkwardness.

“By the way, do you smoke?”

I was a staunch anti-smoker. But that question was a signal to go outside and talk privately.

So, I could sacrifice my lung health for a bit. Some people abandoned their country, so what?

“Yes. I’m dying for one.”

“Let’s go. I tend to feel the heat easily, so I need some fresh air. Haha.”

We left the bar and stepped into the city’s night air, contributing to the pollution levels.

As Fukuoka’s fine dust levels rose moderately, quite an unusual scene unfolded.

“Oh. A shooting star.”

“Huh? Really.”

A few shooting stars streaked across the night sky. It was more like a few drops of a fox rain than a meteor shower.

Soon, the celestial rain stopped. Jung Sangguk barely glanced at the shooting stars, looking around nervously instead.

“What’s wrong?”

“I envy you, Doctor Jang.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sometimes I imagine how great it would have been if I had become an Awakened too.”

Jung Sangguk, with trembling hands, took out a portable ashtray and stubbed out his cigarette.

From that gesture, I sensed not his neatness but a survival instinct honed by living in a foreign land.

If he carelessly flicked his ashes on the streets of Fukuoka, random Japanese passersby might wonder, “Does this Korean think our land is an ashtray?”

“The Puppeteer is my daughter.”

I was so distracted by the portable ashtray that I responded a bit late.

“…What?”

“The Puppeteer. Yul. Lee Hayul. She’s my daughter. If you take her, please take good care of her.”

Unbelievable.

As I was about to ponder the mysteries of life and the subtlety of fate, I quickly came up with a question.

“Wait a minute. Aren’t you Mr. Jung? Excuse me if this is rude, but if your daughter is a Lee…”

“Oh. She took her mother’s surname.”

Could he be one of those people who believe that children should carry both their father’s and mother’s surnames?

But my imagination was too limited.

The former Busan mayor smiled. It seemed a bit forced.

“Second. She’s my hidden daughter.”

What the hell.

6

The first day’s schedule was over.

After that, I had two days and three nights to myself. The Provisional Government had arranged my accommodation.

“He’s quite something.”

Even as the country was collapsing, he managed to take care of his second family and flee abroad. A hero who uses teleportation is indeed different.

Long ago, Han Gaozu Liu Bang, when fleeing from the Heavenly Demon Xiang Yu, had no choice but to board a chariot.

At that time, Liu Bang threw his children off the chariot, claiming it was overloaded. Any RPG player would understand that having a full inventory is an unforgivable sin.

But in the game of Chu-Han Contention, children were designated as essential items, and a warning window popped up saying, [Abandoning them is impossible!]. In the end, he failed to abandon them.

This is why one should learn martial arts. If Liu Bang had mastered Jung Sangguk’s teleportation technique, he wouldn’t have needed to rely on a weak chariot and could have committed his filial betrayal proudly.

“Doctor Jang, are you there?”

Knock, knock.

Just as I was testing the boundary between meditation and delusion, a martial arts master arrived. It was a reunion after two days.

Jung Sangguk handed me a piece of paper with the Puppeteer’s address on it.

However, his appearance was somewhat odd. Despite the warm spring day, he wore gloves, and his cologne was quite strong.

Moreover, Jung Sangguk refused to accompany me to the Puppeteer’s house.

“Why not? Why won’t you come with me?”

“Sorry about this.”

Jung Sangguk gave an awkward smile. It was a smile uncharacteristic of a politician, and his expression was stiffer than it had been at the drinking party.

“My daughter’s been going through a pretty rough phase lately….”

“Still, aren’t you worried about me meeting her alone?”

“Oh, not at all. There’s a housekeeper at Hayul’s place, so it’s fine.”

“Hmm.”

“Besides, I stopped by Hayul’s place yesterday and told her about it. There’s no need to worry.”

“Alright. I’ll see you this evening.”

In truth.

I should have noticed something suspicious at this point.

If Jung Sangguk’s second family was functioning normally, the ‘housekeeper’ at Hayul’s place should have been her biological mother.

More importantly, it was odd that someone who had been so desperate to win my favor would suddenly refuse to accompany me.

But what could I do?

I followed the address, asking locals for directions until I finally arrived at Lee Hayul’s mansion.

Knock-knock. I tapped on the door knocker attached to the front door (few people used electric doorbells because they were considered a waste of electricity).

“Is anyone there?”

Knock-knock.

“Hello. I’m someone named Doctor Jang. I’ve been introduced by Mayor Jung Sangguk. Is anyone there?”

Knock-knock.

“…….”

If I felt a sense of foreboding by then, it was purely due to my experiences as someone who had gone through countless regressions.

I turned the doorknob. It was unlocked.

“…….”

Step.

As soon as I stepped into the foyer, cobwebs came into view.

There were huge cobwebs strung across the hallway, the living room, and the staircase to the first floor. The place looked abandoned.

No matter how tough life was abroad, or how illegitimate her status, this was too bizarre a living condition for the daughter of the head of the Provisional Government.

‘Are these even cobwebs? They’re too big.’

Rustle-

Something crunched under my shoe. It was a doll.

I had been so distracted by the cobwebs that I hadn’t noticed the dolls scattered throughout the house.

“Lee Hayul?”

Carefully avoiding the dolls, I moved further into the house.

Figurines, Russian matryoshka dolls, Japanese Ichimatsu dolls, Barbie dolls, ball-jointed dolls, stuffed animals, paper flower dolls.

It was literally a house of dolls.

Or a spider’s nest.

The woman I assumed to be the housekeeper, in her 40s, was hanging by a cobweb in an upstairs bedroom, dead.

“…….”

I was used to corpses. I didn’t panic. But seeing thirteen dolls arranged around the corpse as if in worship was a first.

And it wasn’t the only strange sight.

Click, click, click.

Dolls hung from strings, moving up and down around the corpse.

Like kids playing on a seesaw.

I had no idea what kind of mechanism was set up, but the strings wrapped around the dolls’ wrists extended to the corpse’s ‘jaw’ and ‘hands.’

So, as the dolls moved up and down on the seesaw, the corpse’s jaw clicked and its fingers twitched into strange shapes. Like a Nutcracker doll.

“What the hell….”

The stench was overwhelming.

Judging by the degree of rigor mortis, the time of death seemed to be over 30 hours ago. At least 30 hours, but it somehow felt much older.

This was strange.

Thirty hours ago would have been the day before yesterday, not even yesterday.

Moreover, Jung Sangguk had testified that he met his daughter yesterday and told her about me. So, was the housekeeper already dead at that point?

‘Something’s off.’

I instinctively felt that Jung Sangguk had lied to me.

Especially the gloves. The out-of-season gloves were strangely bothering me.

I left the ‘Doll House’ and returned to my lodging. I intended to gather my belongings and go look for Jung Sangguk.

Soon, it turned out that wouldn’t be necessary.

In the middle of my lodging, Jung Sangguk’s body was hanging from a spider web.

“…….”

How?

Something was off. No, it was dangerous. Regardless of Jung Sangguk being a powerless traitor, the fact that his corpse was found in my room was bad news.

One part of my brain cooled rapidly.

A familiar sensation.

My decision was swift.

‘I need to deal with this.’

Whoosh-!

Without investigating further, I immediately incinerated the corpse. Completely. Using my aura to burn every trace, including my own.

It was a skill not easily seen unless one had accumulated internal energy over many runs like me.

’59 seconds.’

I casually grabbed a book and walked out of the lodging. I made a point of cheerfully greeting the staff.

From their perspective, I was a guest who had ‘just briefly entered the room and then came out.’ It would be difficult for them to imagine that a body was incinerated in such a short time.

The only thing I needed to worry about now were witnesses. Those who might have seen Jung Sangguk visit my room.

CCTV was not a concern. These days, places with CCTV were rare. Not because of electricity, but because CCTVs were prone to being infected by the strange creatures, so people avoided them.

I asked the staff, “Have you seen Mr. Jung Sangguk?”

They shook their heads, thus saving their lives.

Four minutes had passed by this point.

While it wasn’t a perfect alibi, it was good enough to clear me.

After all, I hadn’t committed the murder.

This was the truth.

And I was strong.

The power of truth, when in the hands of the weak, can still be sharp. But when in the hands of the strong, what more can be said?

‘Principal Scho, I’m going to make sure I get paid well for this trip.’

I headed back to the Doll House.

This time, secretly. Making sure no one saw me.

――Circumstances pointed to ‘the culprit’ being Jung Sangguk’s illegitimate child, Lee Hayul.

Evidence was unnecessary. I was neither a detective nor a police officer. I was a regressor. I could verify the evidence in other runs.

What mattered now was observing as many traces of the culprit, Lee Hayul, as possible, to gain an advantageous position in future runs.

Soon, it became clear why this was necessary.

In front of the entrance, the presumed Lee Hayul, an Awakened with light brown hair, lay dead.

“……”

Lee Hayul had died in a wheelchair, stabbed in the chest by a knife held by a doll.

This was the first time I realized that the ‘Puppeteer’ was a girl with no legs.

I had never heard her voice, nor would I ever in this 18th run. Standing before her corpse, I covered my forehead with my left hand.

“You crazy old man……”

Really.

I was going to need a hefty fee for this mission.