The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

Chapter 314 Cat Pago (27) - Venture Dozens of people were imprisoned in an unidentified alternate space and nearly massacred there. Countless people witnessed the museum that had boldly occupied the middle of the downtown area suddenly turn into a vacant lot, with only an easel and canvas left behind. Naturally, a tremendous uproar... did not occur. The victims naturally reported this incident to the police, but the authorities' reaction was "Did you all see hallucinations together?" They were even suspected of having taken drugs. Some people even filmed what happened inside and posted videos on the internet (Popuri's appearance was missing, probably because the baseball bat was scary), but the reaction in the comments was "Trying to milk views with a fake composite video." Even those who experienced the incident themselves showed reactions of treating what happened that day as just a dream or trying hard to erase it from their memory. Those who had exchanged contact information saying they should help each other scattered in all directions in less than a week. That bizarrely indifferent reaction. That eerily uncaring attitude. An irrationality that seemed to contain some will forcing them not to make a fuss, not to make people vigilant. But if you asked whether what happened that day really brought about no change at all, that wasn't the case. "Wow! This is really Hanamori's office? Amazing!!" Hinosaka exclaimed in admiration as she wandered around every corner of the office with sparkling eyes. The middle of downtown. The top floor of a 5-story building with the best conditions for everything, whether transportation convenience or infrastructure. The interior of the building, which was built less than a year ago, was spacious and comfortable, and all the various furniture like sofas and desks were also top quality. Popuri looked around the office with a reluctant expression. It wasn't that she had complaints about the office's size or interior. No, rather it was a problem because it was too good. "...Is it really okay to just accept something like this?" Chairman Kim Seok-hyung. The person Popuri had saved through the museum incident, who turned out to be someone very high up in the business world. This office was a place he had given them as a form of repayment, saying he owed Popuri and Hinosaka a great debt. Saying it was more stable to create a plausible corporation and transfer funds through there rather than just depositing a large sum into their bank account. Thanks to that, Popuri's bank account was in a state of abundance she had never experienced before. To the point where it felt unsettling in return. What if she gets involved in some kind of fraud at this rate? "If you get scammed, just knock them down with a baseball bat. You worry about everything." Pago, who now didn't seem to even think of hiding his speech in front of Hinosaka, retorted in that manner. Popuri frowned. "Do I look like a woman who just starts hitting people on the head first without thinking when I get angry?" "......" "......" Pago didn't answer. Hinosaka, who was listening from the side, also remained silent. Even Popuri herself, who had spoken, was slightly stung and keeping her mouth shut when Pago, seeming annoyed, waved his front paws and said. "If it's such a burden, you could just handle the 'quests' that chairman guy gave you." Someone who could rise to a high position in the business world couldn't possibly be a pushover who just gives things away recklessly. Since she was his lifesaver, he had certainly repaid her personally, and while he didn't present overly harsh conditions, there were indeed requirements from his side as well. ─Help the victims of anomaly incidents that the chairman connects you with. ─Fixed compensation per case + additional compensation based on case difficulty. ─The chairman's side only presents options and doesn't pressure her to take quests. Whether to accept or not is entirely Popuri's choice. "Hmm." Popuri looked through the quest list on the computer screen. The fixed compensation per case was 50,000 yen. Depending on the quest content, additional compensation ranging from as little as 50,000 to as much as units of millions was recorded. There was even a supplementary explanation that the amounts would increase further as her track record accumulated and people's trust level increased. "There are really so many people asking for help. Oh, this person must be having a really hard time." Hinosaka, who peeked her head over from the side, looked at the quest content and spoke with pity. Popuri, who had been persistently staring at the compensation section, flinched for no reason even though she hadn't heard anything particular. "What are you going to do, Hanamori?" Popuri fell into thought for a moment. The chairman had clearly drawn the line that these quests could be done or not done. Well, if it really didn't matter whether she did them or not, he wouldn't have told her about them in the first place, so he probably secretly hoped she would solve them, but there was also the option of just ignoring them. Dealing with anomalies is dangerous work. Even though Popuri had become stronger, that meant she could now fight on the same level as anomalies, not that she could safely defeat all anomalies. She didn't need to look far - even with this museum anomaly, if she had been just a bit late at the end, wouldn't she have almost met a terrible fate? If she wanted a peaceful life, it would be better not to get involved in such things. "Well, it's about time for vacation. I'll try doing a few as a test." Despite knowing this, for some reason that answer came from Popuri's mouth. Hinosaka cheered saying she had made a good decision, and Pago turned his head as if uninterested but his tail was slightly wagging. Popuri picked up her bat. *** After that, peaceful days continued. "Ghosts torment me in my dreams every night!! Please save me!!" "I keep getting calls from dead people!! They say they're going to take me away!" "I-I saw a woman wearing a red mask! I somehow managed to escape last time, but the distance where I encounter her seems to be getting closer each day!!" She exorcised ghosts that took 1/100 damage because they were spirits by hitting them 99 times more than usual, attacked monsters that had been revived with resurrection cards and sent them back to the graveyard, and just beat up hygiene violators wearing blood-stained masks. Later, when she thought about it calmly, the question arose whether spirits had physical damage immunity rather than physical damage reduction. But anyway, she beat them up, so wasn't it solved? Thanks to this, the exorcism diary became more substantial day by day, but some problems arose in the process. "Hey Hanamori. This is written for other people to read and use too, right? But with content like this, wouldn't no one except Hanamori be able to use it?" Hearing Hinosaka's point, Popuri let out a groan. Because it was actually something she had been secretly thinking about too. Popuri was already aware that her own body had far exceeded normal human levels. If ordinary people could hit ghosts with baseball bats, why would beings like vengeful spirits and grudging souls have become objects of fear? They could just shoot them with cannons and be done with it. In other words, Popuri's exorcism methods cannot be used by other people. But if she were to use other methods, finding and executing customized exorcism methods for each anomaly during battle, as she had done before, was also no ordinary task. While she was wondering what and how she should do things, it was her convenience store part-time colleague Sato-san who gave her an unexpected hint. He had recently started openly showing that he was an otaku without any thought of hiding it, and he answered Popuri's concerns as if they were nothing. "The problem is that you don't have time to experiment during battle, right? Then couldn't you just capture them first and then experiment?" This was advice that came from Sato never having experienced physical struggles with anomalies. If he had ever engaged in survival struggles with anomalies even once, he couldn't possibly not know how absurd it was to suggest capturing anomalies. Honestly, it sounded pretty crazy to Popuri too. "Oh." But at the same time, it was also true that it sounded quite plausible. Even if big shots that would be risky for Popuri herself to face were too much, couldn't she capture a few that she could subdue relatively easily, imprison them, and experiment? "Sato-san. Are you interested in trying it yourself? The salary would probably be better than here." "What about the convenience store part-time job? If I quit, my uncle would be shocked." "Then you could ask the manager to move the convenience store to our building too. With permanently free rent. The building is 5 stories anyway, and floors 1 through 4 are empty." "Would that really happen so easily?" It happened easily. The store manager, who had been worrying about Popuri's Kaioken-level salary, increased labor costs as the staff expanded from 3 to 4 people, and pressure from the building owner, initially took Popuri's proposal as a joke, but after meeting the actual building site and Chairman Kim Seokhyung who served as guarantor, quickly signed the contract. After that, everything went smoothly. "Delivery's here. It's the vengeful spirit that kept making people jump off rooftops." Popuri would capture and bring back suitable ones during quest execution. Originally, there was the disadvantage of only being able to capture spirits by using things like dolls tied with sacred ropes as containers, but after beating up a Santa Claus-related anomaly and obtaining its red bag, she could capture any anomalies with physical substance. "Hmm. Things like red beans or salt that have the image of 'things ghosts hate' among people really work well. When I fill the room densely with them, they can't use their power properly." Then Sato would conduct various experiments on those anomalies. At first, the anomalies would frequently try to attack Sato or escape, so Popuri had to beat them up one by one and threaten them while conducting the experiments, but once Sato mastered the technique to some degree, that became unnecessary. "Everyone please have some of this while you work." Hinosaka's role was to provide miscellaneous support for the members and manage various documents and computer systems. She was still at the level of learning from experts sent by the chairman's side, but she was evaluated as rapidly improving her skills. "But this is a company after all. Shouldn't we divide into departments or something?" "There are only three members, so is it really necessary to do that?" "It might grow bigger later. The number of clients keeps increasing, and if anomaly extermination methods become standardized, people other than Hanamori might be able to attempt exorcism too." When Popuri nodded at Sato's suggestion, Hinosaka began organizing things on the whiteboard. "Then what should we call the role Hanamori is doing now? Capture department? Combat department?" "Well. If I had to choose, Executive Department seems fitting. I'll be Research Department, and what Hinosaka does could be Administrative Department." -Clang!! Clang clang!! When the bells and wind chime alarms for anomaly escape rang out, Popuri picked up her baseball bat and stood up. "I'll go catch it." "Ah, you don't need to rush. I experimented last time and found that while healthy ones are one thing, weakened ones can't even get close to the first floor and just wander around the building. Seeing how they can't get out through the rooftop or windows either, the main entrance on the first floor seems to have quite significant meaning." "It was worth deliberately making the entire first floor into a convenience store and employing all the staff, including the manager, as bald middle-aged men." Hinosaka, who was listening to Popuri and Sato's conversation, wrote in a fourth department next to Executive Department, Research Department, and Administrative Department. Security Department: Personnel must be composed exclusively of bald middle-aged men. (E/N: NO WAY)