The burly man who lunged first was kicked in the face by Seo Jung-woo’s foot and went sprawling backward.

In that moment, another thug in the corner grabbed an iron pipe. As soon as he held it, he swung it through the air, shouting.

“You bastard! I’ll kill you!”

Seo Jung-woo forcefully kicked the table in front of the sofa. The low table slid across the floor and struck the thug’s shin.

“Aagh!”

The thug tripped over the table and fell forward. Seo Jung-woo kicked the head of the fallen man, knocking him out.

In an instant, two out of the three were down.

Seo Jung-woo turned to the leader of the Badger Gang and asked, “Where is So Sang-hyeon right now?”

The gang leader was instantly filled with fear. His subordinates had been taken down too easily.

Still, as the leader, he felt the need to resist.

“You bastard! I’ll find out who you are and—”

As he tried to issue a threat, his eyes landed on his fallen subordinates.

‘This guy won’t be intimidated by words. He’s a real fighter!’

He quickly changed his approach.

“I’ll sue you! You bastard, I’ll press charges for assault!”

Seo Jung-woo wasn’t worried about lawsuits.

One has to be alive to file a lawsuit.

Although he had only come here for information, if the Badger Gang found out who he was, he could easily change his approach.

His gaze sharpened. “Sue me?”

The leader swallowed hard. He might not have been the smartest thug, but his survival instincts were sharper than the Knife Gang’s.

‘What kind of eyes does this guy have…?’

The leader immediately bowed his head.

“Ah, no, no! It’s just a figure of speech. Would I really press charges? We have too many skeletons in our closet. We absolutely won’t sue you.”

“You’re making me ask the same question three times. Where is So Sang-hyeon right now?”

“We don’t kn—”

Seo Jung-woo walked over to the window and threw it wide open.

The leader asked nervously, “W-why did you open the window…?”

“To throw you out.”

“What?”

“If you really don’t know where that bastard is, I’ll throw you out of here.”

“B-but this is the third floor!”

“It’s fine. If you land on your legs, you won’t die.”

“Still, if I’m unlucky—”

“Take this chance to test your luck. If you survive, go buy a lottery ticket. So, do you really not know?”

The leader immediately grovelled.

“I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know who might know.”

“Who?”

“Sang-hyeon only gives us the small deals. He has a separate partner for the big transactions. Seeing as you’re going this far, I assume you’re after a big deal. Wouldn’t it be better to check with that guy?”

“Name.”

The leader hesitated, rubbing his thumb and index finger together.

“Uh… I found out this name with great difficulty, so giving it away for free is a bit…”

“Want me to throw you out headfirst?”

“It’s Kim Jung-deuk! That bastard! Sang-hyeon borrowed money from him, saying he’d be getting a big payout soon. So he’s definitely dealing with him!”

“Kim Jung-deuk? Is he a fence?”

“No. He runs a company that exports goods overseas.”

Seo Jung-woo’s expression hardened as he realized what was happening.

‘That insane bastard. He’s planning to smuggle sacred relics out of the country.’

Seo Jung-woo went to Kim Jung-deuk’s house.

It was a two-story house built on a plot of over 100 pyeong, surrounded by high walls like a fortress. CCTV cameras were mounted on the walls.

He approached the blind spot just behind the CCTV camera.

However, the wall in that area was too high for an ordinary person to climb.

Pushing off the ground, he leaped upward, using a small protrusion on the wall to propel himself even higher. His fingers caught the edge of the high wall, and he smoothly pulled himself up and over, landing silently on the other side.

Inside, he noticed that a second-floor window was slightly open. Scaling the wall, he climbed up and entered through the window.

What he was doing wasn’t legal, whether he was a cop or just an ordinary person.

But Seo Jung-woo never cared much about such things.

He had entered a study on the second floor.

‘If he’s already acquired the relics, would they be here?’

It was possible. He began searching the study. He rifled through the desk and drawers, but found no useful clues.

‘Where would he have hidden them?’

His heightened senses from his detection skills gave him a keen eye. His gaze landed on a framed picture on the wall.

‘Something about this feels off.’

He gently pulled at the frame, revealing a hidden safe behind it.

‘There it is.’

He had found the secret safe.

The problem was how to open it. If it had a dial lock, he could try to crack it, but this was an electronic safe requiring a numerical code.

‘Should I break it?’

He immediately dismissed the thought.

‘No. If Kim Jung-deuk hasn’t met So Sang-hyeon yet, seeing the broken safe will make him wary. It’d be a problem if I carelessly tampered with it and only heightened his caution.’

The reason he hadn’t taken down Kim Jung-deuk right away was that he didn’t know where the relic was. If he attacked Kim Jung-deuk and So Sang-hyeon got wind of it and fled, things would become complicated.

Three hours passed. The study door opened, and Kim Jung-deuk entered.

He opened the safe hidden behind the painting. The code was four digits. Inside the safe, along with other items, was a burner phone.

Kim Jung-deuk turned on the burner phone, checked the received messages, and made a call.

“The goods are legit, right?”

– When have I ever deceived you about the goods? If you pay five thousand, the relic is yours, boss.

“Alright. Let’s meet tomorrow night.”

After setting the time and place, Kim Jung-deuk ended the call.

He turned off the burner phone, stuffed it into his pocket, and muttered irritably.

“That damn thief who used to grovel at first has really grown. Now he even dares to raise the price. What should I do with this bastard?”

As he closed the safe door, he spoke again.

“I’ve been dealing with this guy for a long time. His tail must be pretty long by now. This will be our last deal. After this, I need to take care of him.”

Kim Jung-deuk left the room.

Seo Jung-woo quietly emerged from behind an ornament in the corner.

He had waited there for three hours for Kim Jung-deuk to appear.

“Time confirmed. Location confirmed. They’re meeting tomorrow at 9 PM.”

If the relic was already in Kim Jung-deuk’s hands, he would have taken action immediately, but now that he confirmed it was still with So Sang-hyeon, he couldn’t.

“Tomorrow, I should meet Seon-hwa first.”

Seo Jung-woo didn’t leave right away.

“I wonder what’s inside the safe.”

He knew the safe’s code. When Kim Jung-deuk entered the code earlier, he had observed the slight movements of his shoulder and pinpointed which numbers his fingers pressed.

He input the code in that order. The safe opened.

“No money…”

Instead of cash, two thick notebooks were inside.

He flipped one open. It was a bribery ledger.

“In this world, politicians, police, and public officials aren’t supposed to take bribes, huh.”

Even in that world, bribery was a problem. But since so many people were involved, minor amounts were usually overlooked with just a warning.

The reason that world was so lenient with bribery laws was that there were far too many corrupt officials enforcing the laws.

There was one more ledger in the safe. Seo Jung-woo opened the second one.

It wasn’t a bribery ledger.

“So this guy really is smuggling cultural artifacts. And he’s hiding them among his company’s export goods.”

Seo Jung-woo left the place.

When he returned home, Seo Sora was waiting for him.

“Oppa. You didn’t send our song evaluation email today?”

“I was busy.”

A spell disruption had occurred near the gate defense line, causing the recorded files on his USB to be erased. Because of that, he couldn’t get Park Cheol-woo’s feedback.

“Were you really busy?”

“Huh? Yeah. Why?”

Seo Sora immediately wrote in the group chat.

– It’s not because we’re hopeless; he was just busy.

Yoon Nana’s message popped up instantly.

– There was a rumor that Lee Seon-hwa appeared in our neighborhood today. Maybe…?

Seo Sora asked, “Why were you busy?”

“Catching a thief.”

She typed again.

– He was busy catching an enormous villain. And why would Lee Seon-hwa even meet someone like my oppa? It was proven that she was just acting to lure out a stalker.

The twins joined in.

– I thought my song was so perfect that there was nothing to fix.

– Unnies, start worshiping us now!

Seo Sora showed him the messages.

“The twins are acting all high and mighty while singing ‘Little Baby Kittens.’”

“They’re allowed to do that.”

That song was made by Park Cheol-woo specifically for the twins.

“Oppa, aren’t you favoring the twins too much? Next time, make a song for me! My solo song, and they’ll just be backup vocals!”

“Sora.”

“Yeah!”

“You’re gulping down kimchi soup, but I don’t have any rice cakes to give you.”

“Ugh!”

The next day, Seo Jung-woo reported to work at the police station and spent the day as usual. That evening, he deliberately stayed behind instead of leaving after work.

Baek Sung-min looked at him in surprise.

“Jung-woo, what’s going on? I’ve seen you leave early many times, but I’ve never seen you stay past six.”

“I’m not working.”

“You’re just playing on the internet? Yeah, that sounds more like you. Wow, I’ve got so much work. I still need to get a confession from that thief.”

Seo Jung-woo glanced at the thief sitting in handcuffs.

“Should I shake him up for you instead?”

Baek Sung-min quickly nodded.

“Yes! Shake him up!”

Seo Jung-woo stood up.

“Then let’s drag him somewhere quiet and…”

As soon as the thief heard that, he shouted.

“I stole the wallet!”

Baek Sung-min was dumbfounded.

“What? You were holding out so stubbornly, and now you confess so easily?”

Jo Min-seok chimed in.

“Huh? Why is he confessing so easily? Could it be that he's afraid Jung-woo might uncover even more crimes?”

Baek Sung-min slammed the desk.

“That’s it! This bastard has committed more crimes! You saw the news about what kind of ability Jung-woo has, right? If he investigates, he’ll dig up every single crime you’ve committed in no time. Then you'll get hit with the full sentence. Wouldn't it be better to just confess now?”

The thief glanced at Seo Jung-woo, then lowered his head.

“I also… robbed the jewelry store in front…”

“Huh? What? You were the culprit for that? Wow, this bastard. What else?”

“T-That’s all!”

Baek Sung-min pointed two fingers at the thief’s eyes.

“Who do you think you’re fooling? You little…! Spill everything already!”

Baek Sung-min and Jo Min-seok coaxed and pressured the thief until he kept confessing. Meanwhile, Seo Jung-woo did nothing but stare at him.

In the end, the thief admitted to five separate thefts. By the time the reports were written up, it was already 8 PM.

Seo Jung-woo stalled for another 55 minutes before finally speaking at exactly 8:55 PM.

“I’m heading out first.”

Baek Sung-min got up.

“I’m leaving too. Me too!”

Team Leader Kwon Byeong-cheol spoke up.

“Let’s all just leave. Time to go!”

Seo Jung-woo left the police station and parted ways with the others.

Because everyone else left at the same time, he wasn’t able to be alone until 9:03 PM. He immediately entered an alley without any CCTV cameras.

“I’m three minutes behind schedule.”

He used his parallel dimension teleportation skill.

The scenery before him changed.

He headed towards a modified container serving as a mobile medical ward.

Such mobile hospitals were originally meant to be deployed just behind the gate defense lines. Their facilities were advanced enough to treat soldiers with stomachs pierced by monster claws.

But the demand for such facilities was high. The enemy gate in northern Gyeonggi wasn’t the only one—every defense line wanted one.

And that was just one enemy gate. Across the country, there were multiple large-scale gates where battles frequently broke out.

Moreover, once caught in combat, these mobile hospitals were destroyed in an instant, requiring new ones to be produced and deployed.

Supply was severely lacking compared to demand.

Yet, one of these facilities had been stationed here—because the government had deemed the curse a serious problem.

Seo Jung-woo entered the container hospital.

Lee Seon-hwa, who had been sitting upright on the first day, was now lying down. Her face was even paler than yesterday.

She looked at Seo Jung-woo and said,

“Oppa. You feel a little different from earlier.”

Seo Jung-woo had spent an entire day in the other world, but to Lee Seon-hwa, it seemed like he had only been gone for an hour or two.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m really thirsty.”

“Want some water?”

“I already drank some, but I’m still thirsty. They said it’s because of the curse.”

“Damn it.”

Thirst was one of the symptoms of a vampiric curse.

Seo Jung-woo felt a pang of sympathy.

The Lee Seon-hwa from the other world lived freely, enjoying both wealth and fame.

But the Lee Seon-hwa here had neither fame nor money. As if that weren’t enough, she had now been cursed after fighting monsters.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Instead of staring, why don’t you go find a way to save me?”

Seo Jung-woo chuckled.

“That’s the Lee Seon-hwa I know.”

He sat on the chair beside her bed.

She looked out the small container window at the blue sky.

“Ah… I want to drink cola. The cola I had as a kid was so good.”

“Wait here. I’ll go get some.”

This time, she let out a small laugh.

All cola factories had been destroyed—every single one, taken down by insect-type monsters. Even if they were rebuilt, those monsters would just destroy them again. As a result, cola was no longer produced.

Even the recipe had been lost. Some individuals occasionally attempted to make homemade versions, but no one had been able to perfectly recreate the original taste.

She didn’t believe his words. She assumed he was just trying to cheer her up.

Still, she played along.

“Oppa, cola has to be cold to taste good. Make sure it’s ice-cold when you bring it.”

“Yeah. I’ll get you one as cold as ice.”