Chapter 132: Tagger.apk (6)

[6. The case has been tentatively concluded, but because it was stopped immediately before success, there is a possibility that the ghost story has already acquired an extremely small amount of causality. Periodic monitoring is required to ensure that the app is not distributed online again.]

The sixth location, which had looked like an old air-raid shelter.

Long ago, it had been a warehouse where the Japanese military stored piles of pelts after mercilessly hunting Korea’s tigers.

As though severing the energy of the mountain lords and cutting off every spirit tied to them, the lineage of tigers throughout the country disappeared after that.

But the resentment remained, bound there even now, longer-lasting and tougher than the pelts themselves.

“If shamans who knew nothing about ghost stories thought something was wrong with Seoul, what do you think they would assume was causing it?”

What they knew were vengeful spirits and the mischief of ghosts.

Naturally, they would assume that some kind of problem was occurring within the bounds of what they understood.

“They probably thought a resentful mountain lord or a changgwi might wake up, so they put up whatever protections they could.”

The place where Sa-rin was chattering away with her explanation was the Governance office.

Sitting beneath the air conditioner blasting at maximum power, drinking cold beverages and pressing chilled things against his body, Su-myeon furrowed his brow slightly.

“So what’s the conclusion? Are you saying this one isn’t a ghost story, but an actual ghost?”

But this was definitely something that had appeared in the context of the UTG game too, wasn’t it?

Sa-rin seemed confused herself, hesitating instead of easily answering Su-myeon’s question.

Jae-min had deliberately gone around choosing all sorts of suspicious places, but that did not mean they had sensed anything spiritual from him.

His blind fixation had not felt like possession or anything of that sort.

In that case, wouldn’t it make more sense to say he had been bewitched by a ghost story?

At the moment, Jae-min was locked inside the meeting room with handcuffs on.

Though he was shouting about whether they were allowed to do this and how he was going to sue them.

“He should probably be worrying about his own safety first.”

Mi-ae muttered as she shook her head.

At this point, Su-myeon was more concerned about what would happen to Jae-min as well.

Su-myeon had become Chief through sheer connections, so he still did not fully grasp just how much authority the Governance actually possessed.

But more than anyone, he understood that what Jae-min had done was serious enough to potentially endanger hundreds of people.

On top of that, it was also true that by the time they had caught him, Jae-min had looked as though something had bewitched him.

Could they really just release someone like that back into society...?

“.......”

Either way, that was not Su-myeon’s decision to make.

Ignoring Jae-min’s noisy shouting, he checked the man’s phone.

The Tagger app was still open, urging him to head toward the seventh and final location.

“It does look pretty cheap.”

The unpleasant app, made entirely of black with red lettering, had an extremely simple structure.

All you could do was receive a random tag, go to the location, and perform the mission.

That was it, so there was hardly anything to look through.

Then Su-myeon suddenly realized that what he had assumed was merely a pattern in the app’s background was actually a very faint Chinese character.

“Anyone know how to read this character?”

He turned the phone around and showed it to the other agents.

Ju-hee glanced at it, frowned at the unfamiliar character, and shook her head.

When everyone else seemed equally clueless, Sa-rin reached out and examined it.

She wore an uncertain expression, checked something on her own phone, and then spoke.

There was only one character faintly engraved all across the background.

Chang.

“......It’s the character chang.”

Chang, the name of a ghost.

There was only one ghost for which that character was used.

“Yes. It’s the character used for changgwi.”

Thinking about it that way, there was something subtly suspicious about the name Tagger as well.

It almost felt like wordplay, only a hair away from tiger.

“Then maybe this ghost story is based on the changgwi legend.”

“For now, that seems like the most likely possibility.”

Sa-rin agreed with Su-myeon’s speculation.

Considering that ghost stories tended to arise around famous stories, it was certainly plausible.

Recently, changgwi folklore had become a fairly popular subject online and in the media as well.

“Then should I write up the report that way?”

Just as Su-myeon was about to nod at Mi-ae’s words.

Bang―

At the sudden sound of the door, everyone who had been gathered together talking turned their heads.

The person who had roughly thrown open the office door and walked inside was....

“Director?”

Director Jang Bok-eum.

Naturally, they had already reported the incident to him, but it was five in the morning.

They had not expected him to come personally, and certainly not this quickly.

Even at this hour, he was still properly dressed in a suit.

The only difference was that his hair looked slightly more disheveled than usual, making him appear unusually urgent.

“How did you get here....”

Director Jang abruptly questioned Su-myeon as he stood to greet him.

“Where is it?”

If he was asking about someone in this situation, there could only be Jae-min.

Su-myeon pointed toward the meeting room.

Naturally, the office and meeting room were not soundproofed from one another, so Jae-min had heard Director Jang’s arrival as well.

Jae-min, who had been peeking through the glass window, flinched hard when Director Jang’s gaze landed on him.

But Director Jang asked again.

“No. The phone with the app installed on it.”

He wasn’t looking for Jae-min?

Su-myeon found that strange, but there was no reason to hide it, so he immediately handed over Jae-min’s phone.

And the moment Director Jang took the phone.

Bang―

He slammed it straight down against the table and smashed it.

Sa-rin was so startled by the sudden action that she nearly jumped into Hwi-yeon’s arms.

Jae-min’s phone had cracked across the screen, but it was not completely destroyed yet.

Bang― Bang!

So Director Jang smashed it against the table several more times, as though making absolutely certain, until the phone was utterly wrecked.

There was something genuinely menacing about his intensity, so everyone simply stared at him, blinking.

Director Jang tossed the shattered phone straight into Mi-ae’s nearby trash can, then poured the coffee sitting on the desk over it as well.

“......Wow.”

While Mi-ae barely managed that dumbfounded reaction.

Director Jang strode toward Jae-min with long steps, as though the man himself were next.

The glass meeting-room door rattled harshly.

Jae-min, whose handcuffs were fastened to the table, could not even run and awkwardly stood up.

“W-Wait.... What? What are you doing?!”

When Jae-min muttered in a frightened voice at his vicious expression.

Su-myeon stepped forward and blocked the space between them.

“Hold on, Director.”

Seriously, was everyone collectively possessed by something today? What was wrong with them?

Jae-min being insane for dopamine was one thing.

But thinking about it, Cheshire had suddenly joined in despite having been resting perfectly well, then Ha-min, and now Director Jang too.

They were definitely all showing much stronger emotional fluctuations than usual.

Su-myeon even found himself wondering whether he might be a little like that too.

Jae-min, frightened by Director Jang’s presence, hid behind Su-myeon.

But Su-myeon had never intended to shield him, so he casually stepped aside.

“You should calm down before talking. It’ll look a little less ugly that way.”

“How dare he.”

But even after Su-myeon said that, Director Jang was still glaring furiously at Jae-min, clearly worked up.

And yet his usual habit of maintaining an imposing atmosphere had not changed, so he did not say anything more than that.

He only stared at Jae-min with a look that seemed capable of killing him ten times over if looks could actually murder.

“Ah, well, you see. Wait... I mean.”

Receiving that stare in full, Jae-min began making excuses as cold sweat poured down his face.

It was true that a lot of infuriating things had happened during the chase.

Just remembering how they had repeatedly lost him right in front of their eyes, as though he were mocking them, made Su-myeon’s irritation surge again.

Making them do all that in weather this hot.

Even so, what mattered was that they had ultimately brought the situation to a proper close.

The ghost story had not opened yet.

They had stopped it.

That was the conclusion for now.

That did not mean Jae-min’s actions could simply be forgiven.

Escalating the situation and trying to profit from it had been Jae-min’s own choice.

Director Jang suppressed his anger, took out his phone, and summoned agents.

Two agents in stereotypical black suits crossed the office and entered the meeting room, restraining Jae-min from both sides.

“Are you aware that your actions have threatened national security?”

Jae-min nearly jumped when Director Jang began formally informing him of something as though placing him under arrest.

Director Jang took the key to the handcuffs on Jae-min’s wrist from Su-myeon.

“But I—I was just trying to get famous! I never meant to put anyone in danger! You know that! If you watched the stream, then you know!”

“You were already informed after escaping the previous ghost story that such actions could constitute a violation of the National Security Act. Despite that, do you acknowledge that you encountered government agents and fled from them?”

Director Jang mechanically continued the formal notification, as though he had no intention whatsoever of listening to what Jae-min had to say.

“No, that was...!”

“You are hereby informed that you are required to accompany us to an interrogation room so that the exact facts and degree of intent can be determined.”

Whether Jae-min admitted it or not did not matter.

Having finished speaking coldly, Director Jang dragged Jae-min out of the meeting room.

Su-myeon wondered whether he should intervene.

‘......It’s true that I’m °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° still uneasy.’

The device that had completed the sixth tag was destroyed.

But what if Jae-min somehow obtained the Tagger app again on another device by chance?

“We’ll take custody of this man.”

“.......”

Su-myeon remained silent at Director Jang’s words.

Come to think of it, this was the first time he had faced him in person since hearing that strange thing from Sa-rin.

Hadn’t Sa-rin said that, from her perspective, his energy felt similar to Director Jang’s?

Perhaps it was this sort of thing.

The uncompromising attitude that made it impossible to feel any desire to show leniency toward someone like Jae-min in a situation like this.

Maybe that was what they had in common....

“Good work.”

Director Jang spoke in an extremely businesslike and aggressive tone.

Then he simply took Jae-min and left.

The office went quiet, as though a storm had just swept through it.

Du-pal, who had been diligently organizing the report while watching everything unfold, let out a sigh.

“Good grief.......”

Maybe because he himself had once done something reckless, even though the circumstances had been different.

It did not seem completely unrelated to him.

“......They probably aren’t going to let him off easy, are they?”

Ju-hee seemed a little concerned, but Hwi-yeon answered coldly.

“He brought it on himself. Compared to the other victims who were forcibly dragged into ghost stories and lost their minds, I don’t particularly feel like sympathizing with him.”

When a ghost story caused psychological problems, they were already skeptical about whether recovery was even possible.

There had not yet been a single person whose body recovered and whose mind completely returned to normal as well.

Perhaps Jae-min, already bewitched by the Tagger app, would end up confined to a psychiatric hospital for the rest of his life.

Somewhere he could never encounter the Tagger app again.

Perhaps he would have to quietly spend the rest of his life with only limited access to information.

Because if, somehow, that app appeared in reality again and Jae-min managed to complete the final step....

“Then a ghost story really will be born.”

It left a bitter aftertaste, but there was nothing they could do.

This time, it was better to take satisfaction in the fact that they had at least stopped the ghost story before it manifested.

“Everyone should go home. Let’s come back this afternoon and finish sorting everything out.”

Su-myeon just wanted to sleep comfortably now.

He believed the matter was over here.

But this incident would return to them with a result none of them had expected.