How to Survive as an Extra

Chapter 79

The bus stopped at the entrance to Mount Wol-dal.

The reason was that the road was too rugged to climb all the way to the mountainside lodge.

With no other option, we ended up hiking—something that had not been in the plan.

Since we were all awakened beings, it was not physically taxing, but as we hiked, roughly eighty students kept clustering around me, Lee Eunho, and Cha Yeri, and the sheer attention made me feel mentally carsick.

“I heard that Hero Prep’s Grand Pistachio is higher quality than other branches?”

“What is it like seeing Principal Kim Shinwoo in person? Is he as dignified as he looks when he appears in the media?”

Normally, attention would have centered on Lee Eunho and Cha Yeri, but ironically, most of the students swarmed around me.

More precisely, around the probationary investigator of the Special Affairs Division who possessed a Demonic Eye.

“The way you split a Chimera in two! I was really impressed!”

“If it is all right, could we take a picture together later?”

“How did you get into the Special Affairs Division? No, are Special Affairs Division investigators really all monsters?”

Was this what the life of a social butterfly was like?

I could not properly smooth over the awkward situation and only smiled sheepishly.

Because I had never learned, in my entire life, how to endure this level of attention.

Bitterly so.

After a full hour, we reached the lodge on the mountainside.

Given an awakened being’s physical abilities, it should have been a distance we could reach much faster.

However, due to recent abnormal weather, heavy rain had fallen for several days, and the hiking trail had been restricted until heavy equipment could be brought in.

We had no choice but to climb by winding through mountain paths, but this was, in fact, my intention as the original author.

I needed to create the “isolated scene” that appeared in so many mystery novels.

“All right, thirty minutes! Go to your assigned building, unpack, and then assemble! Once you gather, I will explain the overall plan for this investigation!”

The shout came from someone serving as an advisor for one of the academies.

Worried that if I lingered, students would latch onto me again, I hurried toward the lodge I had been assigned.

There were eleven lodges in total.

All the buildings were two stories, each large enough to comfortably house ten people.

I found my assigned lodge quickly, unpacked simply in a corner, then headed into the nearby woods where there were no eyes on me.

Partly because it felt awkward to spend time inside the lodge until assembly, but more importantly, because Park Chaeshin had contacted me.

“The call is not exploding yet, so it looks like you have not gone into the facility.”

“The trail was blocked, so we only just arrived at the lodging.”

“Still, of all places, why did you have to go investigate Mount Wol-dal?”

“I am suspicious too, but Instructor Yun Jeongseop said it was decided by drawing lots.”

“Wait. Investigator Yun? Are you with Investigator Yun right now?”

“For the moment, yes.”

“Damn it! A full moon is coming soon! Did you forget?”

“There is no way I forgot. The night of the full moon is on the second day anyway. We are descending that morning.”

“It will be fortunate if you can return safely to Seoul…”

I knew exactly what Park Chaeshin was worried about.

After all, I was the original author who had intended this, and I had reviewed Park Chaeshin’s research data as well.

More than anything, since the episode had already surfaced this morning, there was no turning back.

Title: Lodge Battle

Characters: Lee Eunho, Cha Yeri, Yun Jeongseop

Reward: Remake Coins

[In proportion to the amount of Remake Coins used, the difficulty of the main episode will be adjusted.]

[Remake Coins used up to this episode: 16,130]

[Applied setting intervention rate: 23.487%]

An episode with an intervention rate nearing twenty-four percent.

It was not a number I could afford to overlook.

“Anyway, the reason I contacted you is to give an incident progress report regarding the Chimera.”

“Ah, you were waiting to tell me.”

“First, I heard that Dispel plans to form a large-scale investigation team. They were already keeping an eye on the Psychic Mafia, but thanks to this, they are finally rolling up their sleeves for real.”

“Dispel always makes announcements like that, but do they ever produce actual results?”

“That is not wrong. Without help from the Special Affairs Division, it is difficult for Dispel to handle the Psychic Mafia alone. At best, they can only keep them in check. If this continues, it will probably end vaguely, like other cases.”

Dispel, nominally an investigative group that fought crime in Seoul.

But eradicating the Psychic Mafia—deep-rooted for decades—was close to impossible.

So they were limited to suppressing activity as they did now, but in truth, even that was no more than a convenient excuse.

“This is my suspicion, but… might there be someone in Dispel’s upper ranks, or within the Bureau, who is involved with Camellia?”

“You mean an insider deliberately obstructing the investigation into the Psychic Mafia?”

“I need to investigate further to be sure, but given the context, it is likely such a person exists. In the first place… the human experimentation case from five years ago was buried as if by magic, was it not?”

The incident from five years ago.

He meant the case in which Park Chaeshin’s father had been involved.

The case where research into forced awakening was first conducted.

The group that led that research was Camellia as well.

They had carried out human experiments through indiscriminate human trafficking, only to be caught in the end, and rumors of forced awakening spread across all of Seoul.

At the time, the Bureau publicly announced it would strike down unethical research, but regrettably, the investigation barely progressed and, as always, ended inconclusively.

Leaving hatred behind in the hearts of the victims and their families.

“Did you tell the Chief?”

“Yes. But at the time, the Chief was also working as a Superpowered Detective, so he did not know the precise truth. Still, I got his consent to proceed with the investigation.”

“An investigation? Can you even leave District 2?”

“Of course you will have to do the legwork. I am only an informant. How do you expect to investigate without an investigator? When I said I would dig into it with you, the Chief accepted readily.”

“Ha… that man again…”

Even with Park Chaeshin’s research data and the leaked video alone, we could pressure Camellia, but the real problem was the existence of someone secretly backing Camellia.

If we could not secure evidence identifying that person, then no matter how clear our evidence was, it would be smothered inconclusively again, as it always had been.

“Anyway, once you enter the facility today, scrape up whatever you can. They have probably burned most of it, but… you never know. Just like how I stole research data, someone might have left something behind in the facility.”

Here, the “facility” Park Chaeshin referred to was the research facility where forced awakening experiments had been conducted.

Coincidentally, that facility was hidden here on Mount Wol-dal.

To add one more detail, Mount Wol-dal’s facility was where the first phase of research had been carried out, while Park Chaeshin participated in the second phase conducted on the outskirts of Seoul.

Somehow, it felt like I was only being used by Park Chaeshin…

Still, since this matter was intertwined with the Main Episode, I intended to get involved personally.

That would benefit Yun Jeongseop as well.

“All right. I will do what I can.”

***

After a simple lunch, the united Mystery Club moved to a nearby investigation site.

The reason this investigation site had been set at Mount Wol-dal was…

“They say a ghost that looks like a monster appears in this area. Hikers have testified to it multiple times, so it is not entirely baseless.”

Because a ghost appeared in the mountains.

The significance of the grand name “mystery” had always begun with an obsession over things that lacked realism.

The students nodded repeatedly, saying it was a fairly credible topic.

Of course, Lee Eunho and Cha Yeri maintained their expressions with effort, holding an awkward posture.

“The instructor is late.”

Cha Yeri approached me as I yawned with my arms crossed behind the group of students.

“He said he would follow, but it seems his condition is not good.”

“His condition? An awakened being?”

It was absurd to speak of an awakened being—who was not exposed to illness—having a “condition.”

So I corrected myself.

“He probably cannot be bothered.”

“Hm. That makes sense.”

Cha Yeri, now beside me, crossed her arms as well and watched the group of students.

After one or two minutes of silence, she suddenly asked,

“What do you think?”

By context, she was asking about this place where a ghost supposedly appeared.

For Cha Yeri, who was usually practical, it must have been a ridiculous situation.

In an indifferent tone, I answered.

“Well, being able to be passionate about any hobby is a blessing, if you think about it.”

“No. I asked because with Cadet Ji Seokhyeon’s special ability, I thought you might even see through a ghost.”

A mischievous question, heavy with intent.

And perhaps because her voice was slightly loud, nearby students began to shift their gazes toward me.

“Ah…!”

It did not stop there. Like dominoes, other students turned their heads as well.

Even the advisor who had been explaining the site turned to look at me.

“Come to think of it, we do have a Special Affairs Division investigator with us. What do you think, from an investigator’s perspective? Is the story about a ghost appearing around here truly nothing more than a rumor?”

The situation became thoroughly troublesome.

Cha Yeri gave a sheepish smile, as if she had not intended it to go this far, but there was no way I, the original author, would be fooled by that expression.

The students had already parted the way around me.

With no choice, I was pushed forward.

At a glance, this “ghost” site was nothing more than an unremarkable clearing.

On a clear day, a place where hikers might stop briefly to wet their throats.

But there was an alien sense here that could not be easily dismissed.

The dry dirt on the ground.

Considering that a violent downpour had fallen due to abnormal weather until yesterday, it was an environment that made no sense.

Moreover, the soil on the hiking trail had not yet dried, and there was no room for sunlight to reach this clearing where greenery was thick.

Some of the students must have noticed this incongruity as well.

Unlike us, they were interested in mysteries with pure intent.

After examining the surroundings thoroughly, I turned to the students and said,

“Personally, I do not believe in such beings, but if the ghost is a monster, I cannot dismiss it outright.”

“Most testimonies described a monster ghost. Do you think it is the influence of mana as well?”

I nodded without hesitation.

“Some of you with sharper senses may have already noticed, but environmental mana exists around here. Environmental mana existing somewhere that is not even Seoul is certainly not ordinary. Because in cases like this… if you are unlucky, a Rift can occur.”

“A-a Rift… I see.”

Environmental mana existed in Seoul because traces of the Great Rift remained overhead.

Conversely, environmental mana existing here, far from Seoul, meant a small Rift could form.

“Therefore, the current hypothesis is that what hikers saw could have been a real monster. It is an absurd possibility, but a small Rift in this area might be repeatedly forming and disappearing.”

Of course, it was a lie.

To satisfy the roughly eighty mystery enthusiasts gathered here, I needed to dress it up convincingly.

“Of course, it might simply be hikers’ imagination. You all saw it on the way up to the lodge, did you not? Liquor bottles tossed chaotically in the forest. Knowing the local government does not properly manage the trails, hikers might have gotten thoroughly drunk and then seen hallucinations.”

“Well, that could be.”

The students’ mood abruptly sank.

I looked back at the clearing.

“Still, just in case, we should confirm it.”

When I activated the Demonic Eye, the students cautiously clustered in again, as if the gloom had never existed, trying to stare at it.

“Oh, so that is the Demonic Eye.”

“It is even more beautiful than it looked in the video…”

“What does the world look like through those eyes?”

All kinds of impressions came openly.

From the beginning, what they wanted from me was the Demonic Eye.

If environmental mana was influencing this mystery, there was no method more direct than the Demonic Eye.

Ignoring their reactions, I examined the clearing.

As expected, environmental mana had settled around this area.

Mana so dense that it would not have been strange for a Rift to occur at any moment.

“How is it? What do you see?”

A student asked, unable to wait.

I shrugged and answered.

“…Well, nothing special seems to be there.”