"This is the fitness training room, and this is the simulation room. You can set up various situations and train in advance here, ah, Mr. Jeong Ho-san must be familiar with this. Since you graduated from Hunter Academy... It's exactly the same as what they have at Hunter Academy!"
The recently built ACID facilities were state-of-the-art, looking quite good even to Jeong Ho-san who graduated from Babel Academy. But unfortunately, there was no one actually using the facilities.
"Why is there no one here?"
"Well, people tend to use these facilities when they have free time, but right now we don't even have enough team members to solve cases."
No matter how good the facilities were built, they were useless if no one was free enough to use them.
"After Teams 3 and 4 ended up like that, everyone went crazy..."
Even before, ACID was famous for its high-intensity work environment. The number of people working at ACID was woefully inadequate compared to the number of criminals.
With the already small number of ACID personnel cut in half due to the villain escape incident, it was natural that there was no time to leisurely train.
"Everyone's giving up their days off and staying here. Ah, I'll show you the on-call room."
Unlike other facilities that had no signs of life, the on-call room definitely smelled of people. To be precise, it smelled too much of people to be a problem.
The room with five or six beds attached was dark even though it was morning. The on-call room with thick blackout curtains drawn was a mess at a glance. Kim Yong-won, who pushed aside clothes scattered here and there with his foot, said with an awkward expression:
"It's not usually this dirty, but there was that emergency dispatch last night..."
"What the..."
A man sleeping in the bed raised his body at Kim Yong-won's voice. Kim Yong-won, who recognized the spiky red hair, quickly shouted with a pale face:
"S-sorry! Please rest comfortably."
Kim Yong-won, who blurted out those words hastily, led Jeong Ho-san out by the hand.
"Who was that?"
"That's Inspector Hyo Chang-rip. He's a prickly person, so we need to be careful."
It was so dark, and they left hurriedly as soon as Hyo Chang-rip raised his head, so he couldn't see his face properly, but his voice was certainly prickly.
Kim Yong-won's explanation continued:
"It's understandable, he was from Team 3."
"Team 3, you mean the one where most team members died in the line of duty during the villain escape incident..."
"Yes, Inspector Hyo Chang-rip happened to be off that day, so he avoided that disaster. I'm not sure if we can say he was lucky. He lost all his teammates he had gone through thick and thin with. It seems he's been living here, refusing to go home since that incident."
"Ah..."
Jeong Ho-san's expression hardened. So there was such a story.
"He doesn't seem to want to mix with the people here. A loner like me. Haha."
Jeong Ho-san tilted his head at Kim Yong-won's words. A loner? As if answering that look, Kim Yong-won opened his mouth:
"Ah, originally Teams 1 and 2 didn't get along very well."
"They didn't get along even though they're both part of ACID?"
"Um, yes. I guess you could say they didn't get along that well since Teams 1 and 2 had different roles. Team 1 mainly handled cases that received media attention, while Team 2 focused on field dispatches."
It means that when an incident occurred, Team 1 was in charge of tracking down and investigating the culprit of that case.
And Team 2 was in charge of responding to simple reports.
"After all, if you talk about the face of ACID, it was our Team 1. From Team 2's perspective, they might have thought they did all the dirty work while we got all the spotlight."
Even though they've become the same team now, Kim Yong-won and Team 2 still didn't seem to get along well. Certainly, the expressions of Team 2 unit leaders looking at Kim Yong-won were cold.
Jeong Ho-san swallowed briefly and asked Kim Yong-won:
"What happened to Team 1?"
Do Chae-hee was originally the leader of Team 1. But he hadn't heard exactly what happened to Team 1 after she stepped down from the team leader position.
"Now it's become a department that exists in name only. The last order I received was to organize what we were investigating and hand it over to Team 2. I guess the remaining members of Team 1 received the same order. Once the remaining work is organized, they'll probably come to Team 2."
"You mean everyone's coming to Team 2?"
"Yes, in fact, the existing ACID teams have already been effectively consolidated into Team 2. We had no choice since Team Leader Song Cheon-gil of Team 2 is the only team leader left."
Do Chae-hee was 'Team Leader', but Song Cheon-gil was just 'team leader'. Jeong Ho-san, who sensed subtle hostility in Kim Yong-won's words, carefully asked:
"What kind of person is Team Leader Song Cheon-gil?"
"Hmm, well. I haven't been in Team 2 for long, so I don't know well..."
Kim Yong-won rolled his eyes and said in a heavy voice:
"To put it nicely, he's passionate about solving cases, and to put it badly, he's someone who would do anything to solve a case. Given the situation, it's not incomprehensible, but..."
Does he mean he's obsessed with performance?
But it was still too early to judge anything based on Kim Yong-won's evaluation alone.
Maybe he found the best way as the person in charge of Team 2 while Teams 1, 3, and 4 collapsed one after another.
"By the way, is it okay to disband a team just because the team leader stepped down?"
Even to Jeong Ho-san, who didn't have much social experience, the current situation didn't make much sense.
The team disappears because the team leader was kicked out? What about all the cases the people under her were investigating? Is it okay to just eliminate the team like this?
"Exactly! What big mistake did Inspector Do Chae-hee make to eliminate the team like this and even remove a place for her to return to! It's not enough to demote a team leader to just a regular team member..."
'Hmm.'
Jeong Ho-san blinked at Kim Yong-won's intense reaction. What Jeong Ho-san said was that the decision to eliminate the team was strange regardless of Do Chae-hee, but he decided to just nod along to Kim Yong-won's words for now.
"I think it's nonsense to drive out Inspector Do Chae-hee like this."
"I see."
It was a time when Jeong Ho-san learned that Kim Yong-won greatly respected Do Chae-hee.
Kim Yong-won, whose cheeks reddened as if belatedly embarrassed by his sudden outburst, said to Jeong Ho-san:
"It's lunchtime now. I'll guide you to the cafeteria."
The cafeteria inside ACID was high quality, not inferior even compared to Crimson Hound Guild. The only difference was that unlike the guild, everyone here was eating with gloomy faces as if they were dying.
"You can take as much as you want to eat. It's all free. The downside is that there aren't many days we can use the cafeteria because of all the field work..."
It was then that Kim Yong-won was speaking.
"Hey, new guy! Let's eat together here?"
Someone waved at them from a far table. Kim Yong-won's face turned pale at that voice.
It was one of the people they met earlier in Team 2. The woman with her hair tied back in a ponytail kept waving at Jeong Ho-san. Kim Yong-won reluctantly nodded to Jeong Ho-san at that intense gesture that was impossible to ignore.
"L-let's go over there for now."
Kim Yong-won and Jeong Ho-san, with their trays filled, headed to the table where the Team 2 members were waiting.
Jeong Ho-san sat across from the ponytailed woman who had called him.
"Now we can finally see your face and greet properly."
The ponytailed woman who said that opened her mouth:
"My name is Choi Jun-hee, I'm the leader of Unit 1 in Team 2. I'm 28 this year. From what I know, Jeong Ho-san is a few years younger than me..."
"Are you crudely trying to pull rank with age?"
The one who retorted to Choi Jun-hee's words was the man sitting next to her. The man with black piercings stuck all over his ears and rings on all ten fingers snickered and said:
"He's on a different level from Jun-hee who's just 4-circle, you know."
"Unbelievable? How are you any different from me?"
Hwang Ho-jin, ignoring Choi Jun-hee's words, smiled at Jeong Ho-san and greeted him:
"Hello, I'm Hwang Ho-jin. I'm the leader of Unit 2."
The two people who had been bickering about putting Jeong Ho-san on their team were still squabbling even now in front of Jeong Ho-san. Jeong Ho-san bowed his head to that greeting.
"Yes, I look forward to working with you."
"We should be the ones saying that. You're an amazing 6-circle hunter."
Choi Jun-hee, who muttered that, turned her gaze slightly to Kim Yong-won sitting next to Jeong Ho-san.
Unlike her gaze towards Jeong Ho-san, her gaze towards Kim Yong-won was as cold as ice.
"We were thinking of helping with the new recruit's education from the afternoon?"
"What? But new recruit education is my job..."
Kim Yong-won opened his mouth as if resisting Choi Jun-hee's words, but Choi Jun-hee didn't listen.
"Don't you have more urgent work? The Oh Jun-ho case report hasn't come in yet, has it?"
"That's due tomorrow..."
"Tomorrow? The culprit will all escape at this rate. I told you, you can't work so sloppily here."
Kim Yong-won's face darkened at Choi Jun-hee's words.
"Give it to me by today. We need to go catch that bastard, don't we?"
Kim Yong-won's face turned pale at those words.
"But the team leader assigned this task to me..."
"People need to be flexible. What's more important now, educating the new recruit or the report on a case with actual victims?"
Kim Yong-won lowered his head at those words. Choi Jun-hee casually threw words at Jeong Ho-san's gaze:
"That report is really urgent, that's why. We can only dispatch once Kim Yong-won here narrows down that guy's range of activity."
"...I see?"
It seemed like they were pushing Kim Yong-won too hard for that reason alone, but Jeong Ho-san kept his mouth shut while reading the atmosphere.
In the end, Kim Yong-won had no choice but to nod as Choi Jun-hee wanted.
"F-from the afternoon, you can go around with these people."
Watching Kim Yong-won hurriedly leave as if escaping after the meal, Jeong Ho-san inwardly clicked his tongue in bitterness.
What on earth was this about?
"You don't need to feel sorry for him. Well, we must look heartless from your perspective."
Jeong Ho-san turned his head at the voice from behind. He saw Choi Jun-hee standing crookedly.
"Well, I don't know the circumstances, so I shouldn't say, but I wonder if you really needed to speak to him like that."
At Jeong Ho-san's words, Hwang Ho-jin smiled and said:
"What, are you perhaps acquainted with Kim Yong-won from before?"
"Well, I was once a person of interest in a case Inspector Do Chae-hee was investigating. I didn't meet him, but he remembered me."
"Whatever that person said, it's better to forget it all."
Jeong Ho-san blinked at Choi Jun-hee's words.
"That person is from Team 1 and a Do Chae-hee fanboy."
"What?"
Jeong Ho-san acted like someone who knew nothing. As previously agreed with Do Chae-hee, he planned to just go along with the existing team here.
"Was there some problem with Team 1?"
"Ah, it was a team with so many problems, I don't even know where to start."
Choi Jun-hee, who patted Jeong Ho-san's back, said:
"How about we get an iced Americano after lunch?"
"...Alright."
Jeong Ho-san nodded for now.