Chapter 101

“Did you want to see that man’s body?”

“What? No, I didn’t!?”

At my question, Ryu Dan-a shrieked.

Even through the earpiece, I heard the sound of Cha Si-eon starting to speak and then stopping.

When I glanced to the side, Kwak Jae-gyeom and Oh Tae-o only had startled-rabbit eyes.

But I ignored them all equally and asked back.

“Then?”

“What do you mean, ‘then’? I was just offended, that’s why. He treated me roughly!”

“So did you really intend to make him take his clothes off?”

“Why are you even asking that?”

“There is something I need to confirm.”

Ryu Dan-a stared at me with eyes that could not understand.

They were almost eyes looking at a thug, but I paid no mind and asked again with focus.

“How far were you going to make him undress? Outerwear? Top? Or both top and bottom?”

“Are you a pervert?”

“No. Please answer.”

“Hah…….”

Ryu Dan-a looked dumbfounded for a moment, then soon snorted and answered.

“Just, you know, moderately?”

“If you made him undress moderately, and he was more worth looking at than expected, would you have stripped him all the way?”

“Why do you keep saying stuff like that? I would not do that!”

“Why not?”

“What do you mean, why not? Do you think I’m a pervert like you?”

Ryu Dan-a grew angry again and huffed.

She even stamped her foot on the floor.

But the one who had abruptly staged a scene of undressing was Ryu Dan-a herself.

The one who told the person who stopped that to undress and apologize was also Ryu Dan-a.

Yet I was the pervert, and she was not?

Living this confidently was admirable in some ways.

“It was just a prank in the first place! I wasn’t even seriously ordering him to do it!”

-Most of what she just said is true. Resentment at the level of 4 points. She has considerable will to prove her innocence.

Ryu Dan-a protested again, and at Cha Si-eon’s following analysis, I nodded.

Then I said to Ryu Dan-a again,

“I heard from Acting Team Leader Oh Tae-o. He said your pranks are a bit severe, Ms. Ryu Dan-a, but that you still stop yourself at an appropriate line.”

“So what?”

“It seems that is really true.”

“……?”

When I understood on my own, Ryu Dan-a stared at me like a displeased cat.

“And you said it yourself earlier. That you are good at lying.”

“You are just saying random things because you have nothing to say right now, are you not?”

Ryu Dan-a narrowed her eyes and asked.

It seemed she wanted to understand it that way, but no.

I was asking important questions right now.

I had kept thinking about it since before coming here.

What kind of person is the one I am meeting this time?

From what I had been told, she was a contaminated person who cooperated with the Bureau, was frightened by the recording sound, was sensitive but played severe pranks, and had harmed more than 20 people.

And the Ryu Dan-a I saw with my own eyes was a person who was slightly vain, smiled with cat eyes, flared up easily but calmed down easily, and was particularly enraged by being called by a number. A seemingly simple yet complicated person.

She was hard to pin down, so it was not easy to grasp her character either.

But now I think I know a little, so I asked again.

“Ms. Ryu Dan-a, you are currently debating which side to attach yourself to, correct?”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

At my question, Ryu Dan-a smiled and frowned.

As if to say, what kind of absurd question is this?

Cha Si-eon’s analysis overlapped with Ryu Dan-a’s perfect facial performance.

-Tension at the level of 2 points, confusion at the level of 4 points. A reaction doubting whether what she just heard is true.

Indeed.

I nodded inwardly and continued my questions.

“But you have not the slightest intention of siding with the Bureau.”

“Yeah, I hate them. You saw earlier.”

-False admission to blur the point. Tension 4 points, confusion 5 points. Suspicion strengthening.

“So you are choosing between the ‘three creatures’ in the first part of the recording and ‘the thing that made me’ in the latter part of the recording? Over which side would be more advantageous to attach yourself to.”

“What is this, all of a sudden…… Are you writing some novel?”

-A counterquestion to buy time. Tension 5 points. Confusion 8 points. She is searching for the reason within certainty.

Ryu Dan-a, sitting in front of me, was smiling brightly.

A relaxed face entirely different from the analysis Cha Si-eon relayed.

She said she was good at lying, and that really was true.

But I too was someone accustomed to lies.

Because what an editor looks at all day is authors’ meticulous lies.

On top of that, earlier, Cha Si-eon had given me advance warning.

“No. 71 has a meticulous side, unlike how she appears. She is also skilled at subtly manipulating other people.”

“There must be a reason she asked to meet Mr. Seo Do-un directly this time as well. If we listen only to No. 71’s words without knowing that, there is a risk of falling into a trap.”

“So in this interview, understand No. 71’s intent first. That is the first objective.”

From the beginning, our goal had been to understand Ryu Dan-a’s inner motive, not the content of the recording.

And as expected.

If I had naively only requested the interpretation, I would have been played beautifully.

In fact, I was somewhat flustered in the middle.

So I focused only on Ryu Dan-a’s objective and reached one conclusion.

“Ms. Ryu Dan-a, you have a rough idea of what those ‘three creatures’ who said they would tear me to death are like, do you not? Even if you do not know their exact identity.”

-Confusion holding at 8 points. Tension eliminated, converted to excitement at the level of 5 points. Anger at the level of 4 points. Her current emotions are interpreted as unpleasantness, hostility, and a defensive reaction toward an unknown threat.

As if proving that analysis, the smile disappeared from Ryu Dan-a’s face.

Ryu Dan-a looked at me with a cold expression, then swept her gaze once around the room.

Then she met my eyes again and asked,

“How did you know?”

At words no different from a confession, I smiled in Ryu Dan-a’s place.

“I guessed.”

At my answer, Ryu Dan-a’s expression turned even colder.

-No. 71 wants to hit Mr. Seo Do-un.

Indeed, it was that sort of expression.

The look Ryu Dan-a gave me was menacing.

Her expression was full of irritation, as if she did not even know what had just been done to her.

She looked ready to kick back her seat and charge at me at any moment.

In the midst of that, Cha Si-eon said,

-Mr. Seo Do-un. If there is a basis for the guess you just made, explain it. If you simply guessed, bluff as you are.

I did have a basis.

But explaining it all would be too long…….

Still, I have to do it.

If I let it pass like this, Ryu Dan-a might headbutt me or roll around on the floor.

“I inferred it from Ms. Ryu Dan-a’s answers and a few clues.”

“So I’m asking how you knew what.”

“Ms. Ryu Dan-a, you said you would meet me after hearing the recording. But if you think about it, that itself was dangerous for you.”

“Why?”

“There is no way Ms. Ryu Dan-a, who knows Acting Team Leader Oh Tae-o, would not know about the brainwave analysis device.”

“Hah, funny. Did you not think I might be confident?”

“So I also left open the possibility that it was a simple prank. In fact, Ms. Ryu Dan-a played an absurd prank from the start, and until the end, you only said things that would fluster me.”

“I only said what I heard.”

“You edited what you heard and conveyed it.”

“…….”

“The content and the method of delivery were both editing full of intent to confuse me, a kind of wordplay. But Ms. Ryu Dan-a did not stop midway. So I judged that it was not a prank. That is not your style of prank, Ms. Ryu Dan-a.”

As if she had nothing to refute, Ryu Dan-a pouted.

If Ryu Dan-a was the type to stop her own pranks, she should have done so with me too.

But I was left alone after taking damage.

Ryu Dan-a merely watched me as if pitying me.

So this was not a simple prank.

“So I thought about Ms. Ryu Dan-a’s intent, and only one thing came to mind.”

“What is it?”

“Exploration.”

-Surprise at the level of 5 points. Excitement and anger reduced by about half. A reaction acknowledging that her inner motive was exposed.

At Cha Si-eon’s analysis, I nodded inwardly.

To understand Ryu Dan-a’s intent, I thought from Ryu Dan-a’s position.

Ryu Dan-a was a contaminated person quarantined by the Bureau.

Then the Bureau played a suspicious recording for her.

As it happened, Ryu Dan-a could understand that sound, and Oh Tae-o requested an interpretation.

This was the situation given to Ryu Dan-a.

Now Ryu Dan-a had to choose.

If Ryu Dan-a were merely a vain person, she would have simply interpreted it and demanded material compensation.

But for some reason, Ryu Dan-a said she would meet me directly.

What could Ryu Dan-a gain from making such a choice?

Ryu Dan-a, who was unexpectedly intelligent.

Even while taking the risk of brainwave analysis.

Even while doing things that would make the Bureau that imprisoned her dislike her.

The reason she insisted on meeting me.

“My conclusion is that Ms. Ryu Dan-a also needed to grasp the situation. You heard a strange recording, and its contents were unusual, so you wanted to confirm who exactly this conversation was about.”

-Surprise 6 points, confusion 5 points. Hostility has disappeared, and now it is a reaction of pure fascination.

“Unbelievable…… You pieced it together like that?”

Ryu Dan-a murmured as if dumbfounded.

Then she openly challenged me with a question.

“Fine, I understand that much. But what comes next? What has to happen for you to reach the conclusion that I’m deciding where to attach myself and that I know the ‘three creatures’?”

“That is because Ms. Ryu Dan-a is too good at lying.”

“What?”

“When I asked the identity of the ‘three creatures’ side, Ms. Ryu Dan-a said you did not know. That was true.”

“And?”

“But when I asked how many there were, you said, ‘For now, three are making sound.’”

“Because there were three kinds of sounds. You people can distinguish that much too, can’t you?”

“If so, when I asked how many were on the side of ‘the thing that made me,’ why did you immediately say you did not know?”

“…….”

“If Ms. Ryu Dan-a truly had the logic that ‘the number of sounds equals the number of individuals,’ then when I asked the number of ‘the thing that made me,’ you should have counted how many sounds there were. But Ms. Ryu Dan-a simply said you did not know.”

Because there were three sounds, there were three creatures.

That logic was too sloppy for someone called clever to use.

Modern people were familiar with smart devices that made all kinds of sounds by themselves.

On top of that, Special Zones were spaces even more bizarre than that.

The contaminated person I had seen in 「National Museum of Korea」 had stretched their head like a cord, then spoke alone through holes in it as if singing in chorus.

So the natural answer to this question was to stay consistent with “I do not know.”

Whether there were three sounds or thirteen, one could not know from the recording alone where or how that sound was being made.

But Ryu Dan-a could not say that.

Because if she answered “I do not know” when she clearly knew how many creatures they were, a lie response would have appeared.

“This means Ms. Ryu Dan-a has a certain outline of the ‘three creatures.’ But you know nothing about ‘the thing that made me.’”

“……Unbelievable.”

Ryu Dan-a’s hollow voice.

-Confusion at the level of 2 points. Anger at the level of 4 points. She has accepted it and is irritated.

And Cha Si-eon’s calm analysis that followed.

At that obvious reaction, I spoke with certainty.

“That is why Ms. Ryu Dan-a needed more information.”

“…….”

“Because through the recording, you came to know that the ‘three creatures,’ whom you find frightening enough that even hearing their voices scares you, are in opposition to some unknown existence.”

Ryu Dan-a’s gaze toward me narrowed further.

So I felt relieved inwardly.

It seemed my aptitude as an editor was still intact.