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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: A Returnee's Revelation
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‘What? What’s going on? My protection should be working perfectly fine, though?’
Wh-what in the world is happening?
“Pardon? An administrator?”
But contrary to her churning stomach, Seora put on a calm act as usual. It was practically a reflex at this point.
“A System… Administrator? Is there such a thing?”
Seora intentionally hardened her expression. As a civil servant, it would be stranger for her to be merely curious.
But Seong Jarim was a monster of a different breed than the naive Do Junyeong.
“You’re a really good actress. If I truly knew nothing, I would’ve been completely fooled.”
Jarim smiled brightly, tapping her eye.
“Sorry, but I have eyes that can see information about others. Even your excellent acting won’t work on…”
Her words stopped there. Seora, who had been feigning surprise, shot to her feet at the mention of her eyes.
“I hate perceptive people like you.”
A gun had appeared in her hand. Faced with the ominous aura radiating from the grim black Colt, Jarim threw her hands up.
“W-wait! Wait! Calm down! Calm down! I feel like I’m saying that a lot today!”
“Do you think I can calm down after you’ve dropped a nuclear bomb on me?”
Seora shook her head and touched her forehead as if she really had no other choice.
“I really didn’t want to do this either. But if you’re going to threaten my safety and peace like this, I can’t just stand by.”
Seora smiled affectionately and raised the gun.
“Now, then. How should I shut that mouth of yours…?”
Jarim was terrified.
How can she threaten me with a smile like cherry blossoms in spring?! Are all civil servants like this these days?! Am I behind the times because I’ve only just returned after five years?!
“Why did they assign such a dangerous woman to me! Is it okay for a public official to act like this?!”
“It’s fine. I’m confident I can take care of it without anyone knowing. Where are you going? There’s nowhere to run anyway!”
As Jarim scrambled over the sofa to flee, Seora immediately gave chase.
Goosebumps rose on Jarim’s neck. She’s just casually chasing me, so why is it so terrifying! The Association President definitely said she was F-rank! Is she hiding her rank? Could she actually be on the same level as me?!
“I have, I have no grudge against you! I was just curious, I wasn’t going to do anything!”
“That’s not important. The problem is more people knowing the secret. I let Mr. Mage go since he found out by my mistake, but you’re different. With those eyes, you’re more dangerous.”
“Who’s Mr. Mage?! Lucky him, surviving! So lucky! Argh! Calm down, I said calm down! It’s no use anyway! Don’t you know I’m a healer?!”
Seora, who had been cornering Jarim while swinging the gun like a blunt weapon, froze at her shout.
Right, now that she mentioned it. The esteemed L-rank healer.
‘Tsk, what a pain.’
Then I have no choice.
“Field Deployment, Zone Designation.”
A red cube formed around Seong Jarim, who was backed against the wall. Huddling with her arms over her head, she gasped.
“Y-you’re even using a skill! You villain!”
“Now, then, how should I deal with this little blabbermouth puppy.”
Seora's figure, approaching step by step with a chilling smile, was truly demonic. It was even scarier because a crimson light was radiating from her left eye!
Is she some kind of F-rank Overlord or something?!
“I-I really have no intention of revealing your identity. If you’re hiding it, I’ll keep my mouth shut! I swear! Look! I waited quietly until we were alone without saying a word! Plus, I made the situation seem natural, so no one will find it strange! I really, truly have no desire whatsoever to be on bad terms with the System Administrator’s contractor! I’m innocent!”
A terrified Jarim blurted out a torrent of words.
Seora, the F-rank in name only who was threatening an L-rank, finally stopped walking. The sight of Jarim, her tall frame crumpled inside the cube as she shivered, was so…
‘Pathetic.’
Of course, she'd had no intention of killing her in the first place, only to threaten her a bit, but Jarim had willingly gotten scared on her own. It seemed there was no need to threaten her further.
“So? Do your eyes clearly show me as the System Administrator’s contractor?”
Seora asked, putting the gun back into her inventory with an indifferent expression.
“This is a problem.”
It seemed the Veil of Protection, while capable of hiding an S-rank's aura, was vulnerable to skills that could peek at a target's information.
‘Administrator, can’t you block that?’
However, the answer came not from the Administrator, but from Jarim.
“It’s not that I can see it. It’s that I *can’t* see it.”
“It’s the same as not being able to check the information of an Awakened with a mental barrier skill.”
Jarim shook her head.
“If that were the case, a message would have popped up saying it was blocked by a mental barrier. But for you…”
【Unable to view the information of the corresponding Awakened.】
“My eyes are a bit special, so I can see most people’s information, you see? But in my entire life, I’ve only seen that message pop up once.”
“…The System Administrator’s contractor?”
Jarim smiled brightly. Her expression was a stark contrast to her terrified appearance from moments ago.
It was like that sometimes. This person walked around with an incredibly bright smile, but occasionally, her entire aura would change in an instant, as if a switch had been flipped. It was as if she were wearing a mask over her true self.
“What’s your real identity?”
“Why are you asking me? You’re the one with the all-seeing eyes.”
【The title ‘Contractor of the System Administrator’ is activated. You can now view the information of the desired target.】
As if on cue, information about the person whose freedom was stolen by the cube filled her vision.
【Awakened Information】
Name: Seong Jarim (L-rank)
Title: Returnee of Planet—Vaskar (L-rank), Slaughterer of the Great Battlefield (S-rank), Eyes Drenched in Madness (S-rank)
Trait: Combat — Healer
Contracted Constellation: None
Special Notes: A returnee who survived and came back from another planet. Actual age: 129.
“…”
A shock as powerful as the one she felt when she saw the regressor, Kang Sejun, washed over her.
Another planet, not a dungeon? A returnee? And her actual age is, what?
“You said you were in a dungeon for five years. But what is all this?”
“That’s one way to put it. Gates are doors that connect to other planets, and dungeons are the connected planets themselves.”
“Planet…? Like an alien planet?”
“Yeah, like that. When the gate closed, I was thrown onto that planet, and I lived there for 108 years. I had no idea only five years would pass on Earth.”
Ah. Only then could Seora understand why Jarim’s demeanor changed as easily as flipping her palm. And how she, once an A-rank Hunter, could have reached L-rank without a contracted Constellation.
The long passage of a hundred years must have forcibly made her stronger.
“Each planet has an administrator who manages its system. The one I saw was someone who had contracted with that planet’s administrator.”
Jarim beamed at the stiffly frozen Seora.
“So don’t worry, Contractor of Earth’s Administrator. It’s only because I have experience that I recognized you. Otherwise, no one would know about the being behind you.”
The successive shocks were too great, making it impossible to think straight. The red cube surrounding Seong Jarim vanished.
Seora covered her eyes and collapsed onto the sofa.
“…Administrator, is this why you were comforting me?”
Now that she knew everything, there was no point in hiding it. The Administrator responded to Seora’s open muttering.
【Administrator: o(╥﹏╥)o】
“Oh, good grief.”
You should have told me sooner. Seora pressed a hand to her chest, where her heart was pounding from the string of events. Her heart really couldn’t take much more of this.
* * *
Her heart had taken quite a shock, so it needed some gentle soothing.
So, Seora started by digging into the chicken and beer that had been delivered.
Ahh, this is the taste. The returnee, having her first chicken and beer in 100 years, was savoring the taste of her tear-soaked chicken.
【Administrator: Ψ｡ﾟ(*´□`)ﾟ｡Ψ】
Unlike the two women who were happily feasting, the Administrator was crying with forks in both hands. Still, Seora resolutely ignored it.
“Hmph. Elizabeth, go stand in the corner with your hands up. This is your punishment for not telling me anything.”
【Administrator: ٩(｡ﾟ´□`ﾟ｡)۶】
It’s actually raising its hands… Seora bit her lip to keep from spitting out her precious beer.
“Kh, cough, keck!”
But the one who actually spat out her chicken was none other than Jarim. As Seora shot her a glare to protect her own chicken, Jarim wiped her mouth.
“Keuh, heh, sorry. That… you were just talking to the Administrator, right?”
“That’s right.”
“So that ‘Elizabeth’ is…?”
“A nickname for the Administrator. It’d be a disaster if I called it ‘Administrator’ outside and got caught. There’s also the alternate version, Liza.”
【Administrator: ｡ﾟ(*´□`)ﾟ｡】
“What are you crying about again? Shouldn’t you be used to it by now? Oh, if you don’t like it, should I call you Eliza? That’s pretty too.”
Jarim’s face turned peculiar at the words Seora shouted while expertly tearing into a chicken leg.
“I’ve never seen anyone treat an administrator like that. People are usually intimidated.”
“You said you’ve only ever seen one other contractor, right? If there are people like that, then there are people like me, too. Besides.”
Seora wrinkled her nose as she looked at the pathetically crying Administrator.
“Looking at those emoticons makes any respect I might have had disappear.”
【Administrator: (._, )】
Look at that. The way it sheds a single tear. It’s so cute I could die.
“Oh, so the administrator here communicates with emoticons? The administrator on Vaskar, where I was, communicated with pebbles.”
“…What kind of pebbles?”
“It’s a mining region, so there are a lot of rocks. If you threw a rock and it didn’t break, that was ‘Yes’. If it split in two, ‘No’. That’s how it communicated.”
“…”
【Administrator: ꒪⌓꒪ 】
Seora was speechless. So was the Administrator.
Communicating by throwing rocks. It wasn’t like they were telling fortunes.
‘Administrator, I won’t complain about you using emoticons anymore. Cute is much better than that…’
【Administrator: ꒪⌓꒪ 】
The Administrator still hadn’t recovered from the shock. It seemed that even if they were both administrators, they didn’t know much about each other.
