I’ll Retire After Saving the World

Translator: FenrirTL
Editor: KYSOIWDI
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[ Chapter 20: Basement 5th Floor (3) ]

It was a bit awkward to say it myself, but during that period… when I was ten years old, I was a bit… How should I put it?

I was an unpleasant kid.

No, I wasn’t gloomy or excessively violent. I was just… perceptive.

The kidnapped children whimpered for their mothers, but those from the orphanage did not. I wasn’t one of those either.

Those kids quickly grasped the situation and acted accordingly. They tried their best not to provoke the researchers, who always kept a watchful eye on them. Even the most defiant children got scared when thrown into a basement with no windows.

But I wasn’t like that.

I took it a step further.

The researchers, constantly observing and noting down the children’s play, were unsettling enough. Sometimes, they yelled at kids who refused to take their medicine or snatched away their toys. But if you watched closely, you’d notice one thing.

They never used violence against the children.

They might make them sit quietly during playtime or write letters of reflection, but they never deprived them of meals, sleep, or inflicted physical punishment.

Why?

It seemed they couldn’t afford to have the children hurt.

The reason didn’t matter. The fact they didn’t hit us was what mattered.

A few other kids noticed this too.

I gathered those kids… and what I did was,

I incited them.

Calling it incitement sounds odd, but it wasn’t anything grand. We simply demanded new toys or snacks. Eventually, unable to resist, they even put a TV in the room and showed us movies.

Of course, under 24-hour surveillance, they quickly figured out I was behind it.

But what could they do? The precious samples were making demands. They just had to give us more snacks.

So the Lab Director hated me. If he could have, he would have hit me. Fortunately, someone else punched him before he could hit me.

Seeing this room brings back so many old memories.

“What are you looking for?”

As I wandered around the room, Kim Chae-min approached, stepping over the shattered glass.

“I think… there might be something here.”

Evidence that little me was here.

“What is it?”

“Here….”

Among the kidnapped children overwhelmed by emotional instability, there were a few peculiar ones. One of them claimed their father was a lawyer.

Saying evidence was important in situations like this, she took some paper the girls used for coloring and started writing a diary. She said it would come in handy during a trial later.

The researchers didn’t bother with that. They were more concerned with keeping the kids healthy, compliant, and taking their medication.

The diary she wrote was hidden under the mattress. Honestly, I can’t even remember her face now, and back then I thought she was just another oddball. But sometimes, it was fun to give her tips on what to write.

Write this. Write that.

I’ll Testify That the Lab Director Hit the Kids

“I’ll testify, so write that the Lab Director hit the kids.”

‘Dad said a witness shouldn’t lie.’

‘Then just write that he hit them.’

‘But we don’t get hit.’

‘Sometimes the other researchers kick us and stuff.’

‘Yeah… that’s true.’

‘Just write that the Lab Director keeps hitting people and it’s scary. That way, it’s not a lie.’

I wasn’t sure if that diary actually helped in the trial later. I just hated the Lab Director, so I was happy if I could get him in trouble even a little.

I digressed a bit, but anyway, most of the diary was written by that kid, though I added a few lines sometimes. This was important.

‘…The Lab Director is annoyed. He says something went wrong in the dungeon. Why write this?’

‘So if the Lab Director runs away later, we have this information to catch him.’

I’ll repeat, I really hated the Lab Director….

Among the kids in the lab, there were only a few who had been there as long as I had. Thanks to that, I knew more information than the others.

So if little Woo Hee-jae had been here, he must have written it down. What the Lab Director did on the day he left the lab.

I walked toward the bunk bed against the wall. It was only then that I realized I was moving too naturally.

Should I have hesitated a bit?

No. It was too late to turn back now. I had to push forward confidently.

I searched under the mattress. It was easy to find because it was obvious where the kids would hide things.

Why did the researchers just leave this alone? They probably thought that whatever the kids did, it wouldn’t matter. Fools.

Kim Chae-min quietly approached beside me.

“Did the kids write this?”

“What did the kids write?”

Hong Seok-young, who had been looking around disapprovingly, finally came over.

I spread the papers on the floor and said,

“There was a kid who kept a diary.”

“A sibling?”

“No.”

Where is it? Where could it be? It must be here. It has to be.

……

“Here it is.”

“What?”

My childhood handwriting.

Back then, I was confident I had good handwriting, but now it looked crooked and messy.

I was here too.

That was enough.

“What do you mean, here it is? Wait, this….”

“What is it?”

“Hong Hunter. Look at this.”

Kim Chae-min pointed to a page in the diary. I belatedly looked at the page he pointed at.

The text written by the lawyer’s kid was useless. That wasn’t what Kim Chae-min was pointing at. He was pointing to the small writing in the corner, written by young me.

Hong Seok-young frowned.

“…The Lab Director smashed the TV. He can’t break the computer because it’s expensive, but he always comes here to smash the TV. He’s so unlucky. The kids are scared. I barely managed to calm them down. He says the dungeon failed. What does that have to do with us?”

Dungeon?

I didn’t write that.

When was this? What day was this diary entry?

“Who cares what happened to the dungeon in Myeong-dong? I just want them to bring back the TV soon.”

Date Written on the Paper

April 5th.

…The day I crossed into the past. The day the Myeong-dong dungeon break occurred.

“…Mr. Woo.”

Hong Seok-young called me in a low voice.

“Do you know what it means that the Myeong-dong dungeon… failed?”

“No, I’d like to know that too.”

“Is this something you’re unaware of?”

I couldn’t hide my confusion as I spoke.

“We don’t know about events in other institutions…. I don’t know.”

“Really? Who wrote this diary?”

“The diary itself….”

I blinked.

“The diary itself was written by one of the kidnapped kids.”

“And this part? It seems like it was written by a different child.”

“Yes….”

The hesitation was brief.

“I told them to write down anything unusual.”

“…Who, a sibling?”

“I just wanted to give them something to focus on….”

Hong Seok-young’s eyes softened slightly.

“Since I couldn’t always be there with them, I wanted them to leave me information in situations like this.”

“Your sibling seems to be quite smart.”

“Sorry?”

Kim Chae-min said while flipping through the papers.

“This looks like the last diary entry. It’s from a week ago.”

The lawyer’s kid didn’t write a diary on that day.

But young me did.

[May 7th]

[Laboratory Move]

[Reason Unknown. Heard the director talking about a dungeon incident in Songpa District.]

And hastily added.

[It looks like someone escaped.]

* * *

Tap. Tap.

“So… it’s a dead end, right?”

Tap.

The woman, chewing gum noisily, tilted her head from side to side, standing at an angle.

Wearing only a black cloth suit, she stood in stark contrast to the armed hunters on either side of her.

She extended her hand to the side. One of the hunters next to her naturally placed a handkerchief in her hand. She spat the gum into the handkerchief and handed it back to the hunter.

The sight of her treating hunters like her personal servants—there was only one name that came to mind even without recognizing her face.

Come to think of it, it was obvious. There’s only one person in South Korea who treats hunters like private soldiers.

Lee Mi-sun.

Master of Guild Dasun, youngest daughter of the owner of Dayeon Group, and Lee Seung-yeon’s aunt.

She was the same when she was young. If anything, she became more restrained with age.

“Hey, technically, it’s not a dead end.”

Hong Seok-young replied with a sly smile.

“The information is accurate.”

“There’s no substance, no substance.”

Lee Mi-sun crossed her arms with a dissatisfied expression.

“This is troublesome, Hunter Hong. This isn’t what we agreed on.”

“If this wasn’t their laboratory, yes, you’d be right. But look around. Does this look like a mere closed training center to you? This is the real deal. The real lab of Bangju.”

Lee Mi-sun couldn’t deny that. Whatever deal she had with Hong Seok-young, she seemed unwilling to back down, frowning as she thought.

“If there were anything left here, I wouldn’t be saying this.”

“So….”

“Master. All bombs have been removed.”

“Really? Good job.”

Lee Mi-sun lightly tapped her foot. Then she took a plastic container out of her pocket and tapped it on her palm. It was gum.

Lee Mi-sun started to chew the gum vigorously.

“This guy is beating around the bush… Seems like there’s something he hasn’t told me yet. What is it?”

“Hmm.”

Hong Seok-young smirked as he looked at me. Naturally, Lee Mi-sun’s gaze turned to me as well.

No, I wanted to be introduced through Lee Seung-yeon. He would have been more favorable towards me.

Lee Mi-sun gestured to the Hunters standing around.

“We have things to discuss among the adults, so go on and do your tasks. Check if there’s anything worth salvaging.”

“Yes, Master.”

The Hunters quietly withdrew.

“……”

What should I say?

How old would Lee Mi-sun be twenty years from now? Over fifty, right? Even back then, she had the impression of someone who wielded the guild members as she pleased, but she wasn’t this blunt.

I’ve seen many Hunters at the Bureau. Hunters are beings who think they’re something great while having nothing in their heads. Every year, there are a few Hunters who don’t listen to the Chief… I’ve said it all.

Sometimes we even get reports of guild members stabbing each other. That’s the kind of people Hunters are.

But how did Lee Mi-sun manage to maintain her position as Guild Master for twenty years without being stabbed even once? Even Oh Hyun-wook was stabbed twice.

I didn’t know much about Lee Mi-sun because the Chief always dealt with her. So I never thought deeply about it.

But seeing her now… Could it be that Lee Mi-sun is truly an extraordinary talent? She was born the youngest daughter of a chaebol family, had decent talent herself… and had people to push all the troublesome tasks onto.

“Alright. Are we done now?”

“There’s a sensitive issue.”

“Sensitive? How much?”

“Well…”

Hong Seok-young looked at me and Kim Chae-min.

“Have you finished the classification?”

I shrugged and waved a stack of papers. Kim Chae-min did the same.

“We finished a long time ago.”

We handed over the selected diaries to Hong Seok-young. It was the section with the diary written by the younger me.

Lee Mi-sun frowned.

“You said there was nothing?”

“There was nothing left by the researchers.”

“Then what’s this?”

“It’s something left by the kidnapped child. To be precise, here, Woo teacher’s younger brother.”

“Younger brother?”

Hong Seok-young handed the problematic diary to Lee Mi-sun.

It mentioned the Myeong-dong Dungeon.

Lee Mi-sun read the diary with a puzzled expression.

Her face quickly contorted.

“Myeong-dong Dungeon? Failure? What on earth is this about?”