How to Survive as an Extra

Chapter 57

After deducing the whereabouts of the missing persons, we officially began our pursuit at 9 PM.

It was clear that the missing persons would return to the lounge at 10 PM, the time when spectators began leaving the 4th Scholastic District.

However, we couldn’t pursue them for long.

Students were eagerly roaming around, trying to catch the thief, and the validity period for Catch the Thief was from the start of the first match of the day until midnight.

It would have been great if we had found a missing person or the thief within three hours, but quite predictably, we didn’t achieve a positive result.

The reason for that, well, was due to my efforts to remain faithful to the original episode.

I guided our steps to avoid the lounges where the missing persons might be staying.

No matter how twisted the development, not following the original story in a situation where I didn’t know how the 50% intervention rate was being reflected would be a foolish choice.

Especially at this point, before Lee Eunho had even participated in the episode.

“What exactly is the avid reader up to…?”

After the pursuit ended, Do Minyeong and Gwon Chihun returned to their dormitories, consoled by the fact that they were closer to catching the thief than anyone else.

Anyway, by tomorrow, the number of next missing person candidates would be reduced to a handful, and by keeping a close eye on the lounges near those students’ academies, they would surely be able to apprehend the thief before the closing ceremony.

So, it was a little past midnight.

I chose to stay in the empty first-floor lobby instead of going into my dormitory room.

The reason was…

“I didn’t expect to see you wandering around at this hour.”

“…Ji Seokhyeon.”

To greet Lee Eunho, who was entering the dormitory building with a serious expression.

I spoke to him, stopping about 5 meters away.

“Are you, by any chance, also looking for the thief?”

A relatively simple question.

However, Lee Eunho stood still for a long time, as if before a complex Go board, before slowly parting his lips.

“What about you? …Did you also receive that letter?”

I hadn’t received the letter, but I knew very well what he was referring to.

In the original story, it was clearly the letter the thief in Catch the Thief had sent to lure Lee Eunho.

After all, in a development where such a large-scale event was held, there couldn’t possibly be no villain threatening the protagonist.

I feigned ignorance and said.

“Are you talking about a letter that says something like, ‘If you want to know the secret of that day…’ and ‘come find me’?”

“…”

“As expected, that secret must be about the incident in Gangneung, right?”

The card the thief used to lure Lee Eunho was Gangneung.

Having realized he was a survivor of that incident, the thief was offering a plausible temptation.

Anyway, his gaze directed at me never failed to make me uncomfortable, no matter how many times I saw it.

Well, who would welcome the fact of becoming someone’s enemy overnight?

I continued in a nonchalant tone.

“So, how’s the deduction coming along?”

“I don’t think that’s a topic I need to discuss with you.”

“Why? We’re the only two people involved in that matter. Objectively speaking, we’re in the same boat.”

“If we’re in the same boat, then my next goal would be to push you overboard.”

“You know very well that you’re not the kind of person to push me out.”

“Then I’ll prove to you that your thinking is flawed.”

Meaningless bickering.

I thought our relationship might have eased a bit after the Countdown incident, but it was entirely my misconception.

Still, I feel more comfortable with this kind of relationship.

If our objectives aligned, we could engage in mutually beneficial transactions.

What I wanted to gain from this episode was to minimize changes in the development.

What Lee Eunho wanted to gain, on the other hand, was the truth behind the letter sent by the thief.

“I think you’re misunderstanding something. I have absolutely no interest in the letter the thief sent.”

“…Wait, you’re supposed to keep that secret, aren’t you?”

“That’s right, but finding the thief and silencing them won’t change anything, will it? In the end, it’s whether you blab or not.”

It remained an undeniable fact that Lee Eunho could expel me from Hero Prep at any time.

“Of course, it would be a lie to say I’m not interested. It’s just that I don’t necessarily need to step forward and reveal the truth.”

“Even if another person… obtains that information?”

“The thief sent letters only to you and me. Therefore, the possibility of them blabbing to another person is significantly low. Moreover… I already know the thief’s identity.”

“What…?”

Lee Eunho unconsciously took half a step forward.

But he quickly stopped and bit his lower lip.

I said.

“If you want, I’ll tell you the trick of this incident. And the reason why Catch the Thief became distorted.”

“The reason it became distorted…”

Whether the thief’s information about Gangneung was true or not, he had only one option: to verify it himself.

Little was publicly known about the Gangneung incident, and he had been too young to clearly remember what happened at the time.

This was in the same vein as why he didn’t expose my identity.

He wouldn’t act rashly until he was certain, until he confronted the truth he was missing.

Truly a choice characteristic of him.

I was about to speak to hasten Lee Eunho’s deliberation.

But the vibration from my wrist came first.

“…”

Without checking, I could guess who sent it and what the content was.

It would be news about a fourth missing person, who had suddenly disappeared after midnight.

The sender was, of course, Gwon Chihun, who would have been checking Incrystal in real time.

Sure enough, a THUMP THUMP sound came from the emergency stairwell, and soon Gwon Chihun, not even fully changed, burst out from there.

“What?! When did you come out?! No, that’s not important! Shin Ujae…! They say Shin Ujae has disappeared!”

***

The park in front of the dormitory.

“So, what exactly went wrong?”

Do Minyeong, Gwon Chihun, and Lee Eunho were all focused on me.

I lightly nodded at Gwon Chihun’s urgent question.

“You could say you fell for an obvious trick.”

“What?”

“As deduced this morning, the player number and whether a match was scheduled for the day have no correlation with the thief’s actions.”

Gwon Chihun asked again, looking surprised.

“Wait! Then what about the lounge? Are you saying what we did earlier was pointless?”

The answer to his question came from Do Minyeong, who sighed.

“Isn’t that a completely different context? We deduced the missing person’s location.”

“Ah… Th-that’s right…”

I suppressed a chuckle and continued.

“If you think about it, the clue the thief left is very simple and clear. They merely listed the missing persons according to a certain rule.”

I paused briefly.

I did so, expecting someone to ask a question, but the three merely waited for my next words in silence.

Like baby birds waiting for their food.

“The rule I deduced is based on double consonants.”

“Double consonants…? Now that you mention it, the first victim was Golden Meister Kim Cheolsu… wasn’t it…?”

Lee Eunho’s murmur.

I quietly continued his words.

“That’s right, a combination of the academy’s first consonant and the surname’s consonant. In the order of double consonants, Dazai Ryosuke from Oriental Superpowered Comprehensive School, Franz Bell from Bloody Espers Academy, and just now, the fourth missing person, Shin Ujae from Saint Sienna Magic School.”

The order of double consonants is ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ.

Therefore, the next missing person would be a student with a surname starting with ‘ㅈ’ from an academy also starting with ‘ㅈ’.

“Also, there’s one more rule that has just been proven. That there’s only one missing person per day. Since Shin Ujae’s disappearance also happened after midnight, the rule has been proven, as a result.”

“Wait.”

Lee Eunho said.

“According to the rules of Catch the Thief, the validity period is from the first match of the day until midnight. Wouldn’t it be problematic to have that student, Shin Ujae, as a missing person?”

A sharp question, unlike some others.

However, his distinctly changed tone couldn’t help but be annoying.

It was almost like Cha Yeri.

“I don’t know why the thief made such a move. However, I can guess. All the missing persons until now have been students with player numbers, but Shin Ujae, being an executive committee member, wasn’t assigned a number. In other words…”

“…Paradoxically, it means he’s not included in the game rules.”

I nodded at Do Minyeong’s elaboration.

“Yes, it can be seen that contrary to the rules, he could only disappear from midnight until the start of the first match of the day. This is purely a unilateral deduction, though.”

After my words, the three fell silent as if by prior arrangement.

As if processing forcibly injected data.

Do Minyeong was the first to speak.

“In the end, the last double consonant will be the thief, not a missing person. Unless the Spring Scholastic War continues for one more day.”

“At present, that’s the most likely possibility.”

Do Minyeong checked her smartphone and spoke again.

“There’s only one student who meets all the conditions. Jeong Soyun from General Ability Academy. …It would be best to quickly search the lounges near Sienna, Shin Ujae’s affiliation.”

She skillfully picked out exactly what I wanted to say.

Is this what they call clever?

Just as the atmosphere was about to shift towards immediately starting the pursuit, Gwon Chihun posed an unexpected question.

“But isn’t something a bit strange?”

“What?”

“Weren’t the missing persons supposed to receive prior notification of their disappearance? That would mean Shin Ujae also received notification…”

A useless question, but one that showed a surprising flash of insight.

It was indeed true that missing persons received prior notification.

According to the settings in my original story, they would be contacted by the thief at least a day in advance that they would disappear.

However, Shin Ujae had shown no indication of being aware that he was a target for disappearance, even during his argument with Gwon Chihun that morning.

Had the thief forgotten the next missing person?

No, this was a clue used in the original plot’s development.

A clue that the protagonist, Lee Eunho, used to solve the incident.

Before answering the question, I observed Lee Eunho’s reaction.

Sure enough, he was managing his expression with a meaningful gaze.

He had clearly realized the anomaly in Shin Ujae’s actions.

That is, the fact that the thief had changed at that very point.

I pretended not to know and deflected.

“Perhaps he was just a good actor?”

“Is that so…”

Gwon Chihun reluctantly acquiesced.

He probably didn’t have any counterarguments either.

Anyway, the stage was set as I intended.

It was time for the extraneous characters to leave.

“The time to exclusively apprehend the thief is now, with Shin Ujae’s disappearance. If we think tightly, we need to apprehend them before the first match starts today.”

Do Minyeong quickly agreed.

“First, it would be good to check the lounges we didn’t get to earlier. Since there are four of us, dividing into two and moving wouldn’t be bad, what do you think?”

Do Minyeong finished speaking, looking at me.

But I firmly shook my head.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not going.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I’ve lost interest in this game.”

Gwon Chihun interjected.

“Then why did you apply to be an executive committee member in the first place?”

“Because I was interested.”

“This bastard… Speak clearly so I can understand you at once. What are you trying to do, after having deduced everything?”

“Haa…”

A sigh escaped me.

I began to speak calmly.

“The reason I was interested in Catch the Thief was because I didn’t know the thief’s identity.”

“And?”

“But now I know, clearly enough that I don’t even need to verify it.”

“No, that’s what I don’t understand!”

“I don’t expect your understanding. Since when have you lived by understanding others?”

“What exactly…!”

“You’re being tiresome. Gwon Chihun, do you really not know what would happen if a social care beneficiary caught the thief?”

“Th-that…”

Gwon Chihun was flustered.

I looked at Lee Eunho and Do Minyeong together and continued.

“Do you think the esteemed children of prestigious families would simply tolerate being outdone by a social care beneficiary? It would probably lead straight to bullying. …The thing is, I’m already struggling just to keep up with my studies. Why else would I be getting private tutoring every dawn? If simply performing well in the Spring Scholastic War would change my image, I wouldn’t have shared my deductions with you and would have already pulled out the victory flag. So… please… I beg you, don’t interfere with my role. Well, unless you’re going to hire me as a guard later, that is.”

I felt self-loathing throughout my speech.

To have to express myself like this.

But I had no choice but to be faithful to the role given to an extra, no, a sub-character, Ji Seokhyeon.

“If you hesitate, you’ll miss your chance. The guys who were with Shin Ujae might have caught on.”

“…”

I subtly glanced at Lee Eunho.

Then, as if he had already made up his mind, he spoke calmly.

“As Ji Seokhyeon said, among ourselves…”

“Wait a moment.”

Do Minyeong’s voice suddenly blurted out.

“I’ll hire you.”

“…What?”

“As a mercenary to move with us right now. How many points will it take? I’ll give you as much as you want. I can explain to the cadets that I brought you along.”

Do Minyeong…

What on earth was she saying?

What could her intention possibly be…?

She should undoubtedly be in a desperate position to run off and apprehend the thief by herself right now.

Apart from everything else, the mention of paying points was incomprehensible.

Do Minyeong spending points, huh…

“…”

I checked the time.

12:34 AM.

It was too late to drag this out any further.

I didn’t have the luxury of hesitating with meaningless inferences.

I put on a deliberately cold expression.

“Do Minyeong.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t need such repulsive consideration, so don’t make me say it twice.”

“…….”