5. Three ways to kill your boss (2)
The smell of shit and urine stung my nose.
Minjun looked at the body hanging motionless under the shadow of the tree. The tightly-tied rope and the swollen face were so bad that he wondered how the spirit could have recognized the person as the same person in the photo. Judging from the condition, it seemed like it had been a day or two.
The fingerprint was verified.
‘It matches.’
The place that the spirit confirmed and Lakefield told us was in a small mountain near Seoul.
Here, Minjun came face to face with a corpse hanging from a tree.
There was a neatly folded piece of paper stuck in his back pocket. He opened it and read it quickly. The letter, which began with an apology to those around him, said that President Jang Tae-jun had suffered from depression for a long time and had been receiving treatment and prescriptions without telling anyone, but when he felt he could no longer endure it, he made an extreme choice.
He did not forget the main point that he had consulted with a lawyer while he was alive about matters such as how to conduct the funeral and how to proceed with the inheritance, and that he had kept a ‘formal will with legal effect’ in a separate location, so he asked people to follow it.
‘The company’s largest shareholder and CEO took his own life for personal reasons…’
Minjun looks up at the body once again.
“really···.”
A soft muttering.
“Well made.”
Lakefield gave the spirit a simple order to find something that looked exactly like the picture. Now, the gruesome face is hard to find in the picture, but the spirit seems to have the ability to infer the state before it was damaged. It also has the ability to detect subtle energies that ordinary people cannot notice.
The old spirit master said, ‘That kind of thing’ cannot be called human. He, who had become one with spirit and sense, could quickly understand.
This corpse appears to be human, but it is not human.
“Homunculus.”
A human cultured in a flask.
Since they probably used the same information registered as CEO Jang Tae-jun’s DNA, if they autopsy him, the results will be that he is the one. The homunculus body itself is no different from a real human.
Meanwhile, the spirits were unable to find the real Jang Tae-jun even after repeated attempts. This suggests many things. Min-jun listed the questions that came to his mind.
‘Why did you wait a week after the disappearance was reported before you hung the fake body? And why did you choose this remote mountain instead of your home?
To figure this out, we had to address a more fundamental issue.
‘Why in the first place, and who would do something like this?’
Minjun decided to start by assuming that Jang Taejun was an alien.
So who would benefit most if his death… or more precisely, his ‘human’ death, were revealed at this point?
‘His non-blood heirs, presumably mentioned in the will.’
On the other hand, who is the victim?
It is a country where the property of aliens who illegally pretended to be human cannot be recovered from the national treasury.
‘So then who did it?’
Whether or not it reflects Jang Tae-jun’s intentions, this is not something that a company with a market cap of 300 billion can do. These days, there is no case of cultivating a homunculus in a flask. It requires enormous resources, and only the top 7 conglomerates in Korea can put it into practice.
‘The board is getting too big?’
Another question is whether the company’s stocks have any value beyond their face value, which is why they are even doing something like this. Minjun hesitated for a moment about whether he should continue doing this.
And soon a tentative decision was made.
‘Let’s dig a little more, and if it seems difficult to find evidence of aliens, we’ll back out.’
The reason I don’t give up at this stage is simple: high risk, high return.
If you can prove that aliens are involved in something this big, you can not only get a pretty hefty fee from the immigration office, but you can also get a big debt. Of course, you can also get talent from your real employer.
Minjun looked at his watch. It was 5 p.m. It was close, but he decided to make a few phone calls.
“Uh, Suyeong-ah. Just send me a coffin. ······It’s almost time to get up. The sun’s almost set, so stop whining. Yeah. Right. I’ll take a picture of the location and send it to you. No, it’s clean. It’s not that rotten. No, it’s not undead. I said no! I guarantee it. The coffin won’t break. Oh, okay. Please.”
Next up for Cash.
“Immigration office hasn’t secured CEO Jang Tae-jun’s will yet?”
“Yes, it seemed difficult.”
If the body of the homunculus is handed over to the police, his death will be confirmed and his will will be made public, but that is not what Min-jun’s employer wants.
However, if we can check the contents in advance before they are made public, we may get a clue. Of course, strictly speaking, it is an illegal act.
“Where is the will kept?”
The immigration office may be trying to use somewhat irregular means, but Minjun can also use radically irregular means. So, if there was a chance, I was thinking of taking action myself······.
“This is the VIP safe at the main branch of Changcheon Bank.”
As soon as he heard that, Minjun erased the plan from his mind.
“There was a reason why the immigration office was having a hard time.”
If it was a bank of the same level as the one where the robbery happened last time, Minjun wouldn’t know how to crack it. But no matter what he did, he couldn’t get through there. He couldn’t even wake up from his death.
“Okay, I’ll give up on the will for now. Instead, I’ll take a look at President Jang Tae-jun’s house.”
***
His request was relayed to the company that manages his home through the immigration office. The next day, Min-jun, who was heading to the luxury residential area on time for the appointment, met an unexpected person.
“Huh? Why are you there, hyung?”
“What is it, Jeongpal?”
The opponent was Detective Park Jeong-pal, who had been involved in a bank robbery a few days ago.
When two agencies said they wanted to see the house at the same time, the management company employee who didn’t understand the situation looked embarrassed, but when they told him to go out and do some work and that they would take care of it themselves, he happily left.
Jeongpal seemed to immediately notice the situation.
“What is this? Is this a table booking?”
The disappearance of CEO Jeong Pal-do and Jang Tae-jun was being investigated. The Immigration Office and the National Police Agency each began their investigations through different routes.
“Just wait a minute. I’ll sort things out.”
“What is there to organize? He’ll tell me to help him out. ······Ah! That’s why Team Leader 2 is that guy!”
Jeong-pal bursts into a hollow laugh as if he noticed something. In the meantime, Min-jun put a phone call to Cassie and waited calmly. Then.
“···Yes, yes. I understand.”
Jeongpal said with a slightly dark expression after receiving the call.
“From now on, I will follow you around and cooperate fully.”
The traffic control between the immigration office and the police station was over. Jeong-pal realized why Team 2 Chief had tricked the chief into passing the case to him. He had smelled it in advance.
‘Even if the case is solved, there is a high risk that the public opinion will be passed on to the immigration office, so they just gave up. They said they didn’t want to do anything dirty.’
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The section chief listened to all that complaining and passed it on to Jeong-pal. He didn’t even explain why.
Actually, cooperating with the immigration office wasn’t a big deal. They weren’t strangers, and Minjun had been indebted to them several times. However, his feelings toward the section chief and team leader couldn’t have been good.
‘Those fucking bastards.’
Is this the only thing that makes you sad while working as an Orc police officer? Jeong-pal tried to calm his emotions. Min-jun also seemed to have noticed the situation.
“It may sound sad, but from my perspective, I’m glad you’re on my side. It’s better to work with a pro like you than hang out with those ignorant guys. If this goes well, let’s split the reward money.”
“Hey, that’s fine. Let’s have a drink or something. What’s between us?”
After finishing their conversation, the two began to search the house. Minjun mainly searched for magical traces, while Jeongpal extracted the data left on various electronic devices.
“Brother, I will share the contents of the hard disk copy with you tomorrow.”
“Yes, please.”
Then, when I entered the room next to the kitchen.
“What is this sound?”
“What?”
Minjun searched every corner of the room following the sound, but there was nothing special.
“Didn’t you hear that? Something buzzing.”
“I didn’t hear it.”
But Minjun clearly heard a soft sound.
“Well, that’s over now. Did I mishear you? That can’t be right… Oh, wait!”
Minjun quickly put his finger to his lips and said.
“Shh, be quiet.”
The sound had become a little louder than before, and a humming vibration of air was lingering somewhere in the house. Jeong-pal, who was listening with a puzzled expression, seemed to have noticed it too.
Woohoo!
“Huh? Brother, is this similar to the sound of a sword?”
I heard he used to handle knives before he started working as a police officer, so it sounded familiar.
“Really? Looks like there’s an Ego Sword in the house. As expected, you have a lot of money.”
‘Oh, wait a minute!’ It was as if a lightbulb went on in Minjun’s head.
“This might be a clue?”
Jeong-pal’s eyes also filled with anticipation. He focused all his attention on his hearing and began to move quietly. Jeong-pal’s gaze, which followed the sound, stopped at one place.
“······Could that be it?”
What he was looking at was not the sword he had expected, but a single-handed frying pan hanging over the kitchen sink.
“Hmm.”
When he approached and observed, it was indeed true. The frying pan surface, which had not been touched by anyone, was vibrating slightly, creating a gentle sound. Jeong-pal carefully grabbed the only handle.
“Ugh!”
And then, in a second, I let go in shock. I pulled away so hastily, as if I had been burned by fire, that the frying pan fell to the tile floor with a jarring metallic crash.
“Surprise! What’s wrong?!”
“Tongue, bro!”
“Why? Did you even say anything?”
“Yes! I told you!”
“······.”
Minjun muttered to himself. Was it the Ego Frying Pan or the Ego Sword?
It’s not that hard to give a low-level ego similar to that of a rice cooker that plays a recorded voice when you press a button.
However, there is a high probability that Minjun will not be able to testify as he wants.
“If you say so, why are you throwing it away?”
“Hey, that kid… Hey, that frying pan is making a weird noise!”
Minjun approached Jeongpal, who was wiping his arm as if goosebumps were rising, and picked up the frying pan that had fallen on the ground.
And then he immediately threw it back.
“Ow, shit!”
I started swearing without realizing it.
“What the heck, you little punk!”
I could fully understand why Jeongpal reacted that way, and he had no choice but to do the same. The moment he grabbed the handle, a strangely warm telepathy flowed into his head.
=Ahhh!=
It was a mental wave that could not help but naturally conjure up something. Minjun suppressed the urge to wash his hands thoroughly with soap and picked up the frying pan again.
Then, similar telepathy happened again.
=Ahh!=
If translated into spoken language, it was a mixture of a nasal groan and a mournful moan. This time, Minjun barely managed to avoid throwing it, and asked the frying pan in a very unpleasant tone.
“You, what are you?”
Whether it was because he had learned Korean or because he had telepathic abilities, the frying pan answered the question.
=Ah, sob! I’m sorry. It’s been so long since I’ve felt someone’s skin…=
“······what?”
=I’ve been gathering dust here for so long that I can’t control myself. I’m sorry!
Minjun thought quietly. Should I just throw it away?
However, if the frying pan had been left in this house, it might have witnessed the incident that occurred here. Also, with just a few words of conversation, Minjun realized that the ego contained here was quite complete. Apart from the unpleasantness, that is.
It was a level of completion that was almost comparable to that of an ego sword.
‘With this, the probability of Jang Tae-jun being an ordinary human has become even slimmer. This is… not something that can be easily obtained on Earth!’
What crazy Earthling would put this much effort into a frying pan, let alone a sword?
So Minjun suppressed his psychological resistance and continued to try to talk.
“I ask again. What are you?”
=Thank you for asking! Sob sob… Who am I? I am an AI-equipped cooking tool that has copied some of the consciousness and memories of Dignob Alcha-Teikyuu, the famous chef representing the Elidom dimension!=
At that moment, Minjun’s mind visualized telepathy and drew the facial features of a certain chef. It was a furry middle-aged troll holding a frying pan and smiling. He was covered in solid muscles all over his body, showing off his horns, a symbol of masculinity, and smiling. It looked like an advertisement profile picture.
‘The guy talking now is an artificial intelligence that copied that chef’s ego and memories.’
The frying pan kept pouring out its spirit waves without ever getting tired.
=Not only do I have 1.92 million recipes representing 245 dimensions, but I can also create a perfect and exquisite masterpiece dish by shaking me with my ultra-fine vibration wave emission function… I am the secret weapon of housewives and the magician of the kitchen! That’s not all. I can see and record objects within a 3-meter radius, so I can give you advice while looking at them to make the best choice when choosing ingredients. Also, I can understand and interpret any language through non-contact mental communication, so don’t worry about communication! Ahhh!=
Couldn’t he finish his sentence without making that weird groan? Minjun felt a deep sense of irritation welling up in him.
“Did Jang Tae-jun use you himself?”
=Yes! You used it often··· Hehehe!=
Whether human or alien, I got the feeling that Jang Tae-jun wasn’t normal either.
“I have something I want to ask you about Jang Tae-jun.”
=Yes! Of course. But before that… Can I ask you one favor?=
Minjun asks bluntly.
“What is it?”
=Uh···.=
The bastard’s mind was filled with shy emotions. Minjun felt an ominous premonition.
=Can you throw me on the floor one more time, like you two did just a moment ago? It feels so thrilling after such a long time… I’m so happy and grateful for such merciless and scornful treatment.=
“······.”
=For your information, my main body is made of cast iron, so don’t worry, it won’t bend or break even if you throw it with all your might. Oh, but just in case, should we decide on our safe word first?=
“······.”
=Yes? Please, just once···. Please. Idle play isn’t bad, but this time it was too long. I need some stimulation.=
It seems that when the artificial intelligence was created, the secret tastes of the famous chef Dignob Alcha-Teiku were copied as well. Minjun thought about it seriously again.
Should I just throw this kid away?
