It's not often that an uninvited hunter visits our special forces directly.
Most of the time, we receive a case through the police station and then summon hunters as suspects or witnesses.
Although the special forces' office is located at the association headquarters...
The psychological distance between him and the frontline hunters could not be considered narrow.
However, there was a hunter who boldly ran into the special forces office from the morning.
A man I had never seen before was brought to me before he was chased away by the agents.
"You can't come in here without permission. What's going on?"
"I, I was scammed at work..."
"Are you a fraud?"
The name of the young man with a slightly thin body is Kim Jae-ha.
He was a current C-rank hunter from a guild whose name I had never even heard of.
Alice tried to keep her words to herself, her face slightly trembling.
On the other hand, I wasn't surprised at all.
I had a rough idea from the moment he barged into the office like some kind of thunderbolt.
'It is said that if you do not know anything, you are brave.'
But it doesn't really matter whether the grade is high or low.
I decided to sit him down and listen to his story.
Still, since he was a hunter by name, it wouldn't have been easy to knock on the door of the special forces.
"A job scam? Calm down, tell me the story from the beginning. Jiyu, buy me a cup of coffee."
"Oh, thank you."
Hunter, trembling with fear as if he hadn't expected to be treated like this, begins to explain the whole story.
He was a new employee who had only been with the company for four months.
"At first, I thought everything was going to work out."
These days, the number of gates and dungeons is gradually decreasing, so hunters are also having a hard time finding jobs.
Besides, the guild he joined was a fairly large one.
A mid-sized guild that not only raids dungeons but also engages in other businesses.
As you can see from the way they are hiring new employees in these times, they are not completely unknown.
Thanks to this, Jaeha Kim started his life as a hunter with great refreshment.
"Every time I went into a dungeon with my seniors, we'd find a ton of rare loot. Back then, I thought I'd get rich in no time."
"You're lucky."
"I thought exactly the same thing. I'm lucky."
No, actually, it was a bit more stupid than that.
When Kim Jae-ha received much more income than expected, he began to spend money without hesitation.
Every time I met my friends, I would pay for everything myself, and I would even buy them cars and hunter gear.
However... his 'luck' didn't last long.
About a month ago, the income from rare loot from dungeons suddenly stopped.
Of course, since I've been through the quests, there's some loot, but most of it is reasonably priced... in other words, it's the kind that's being sold at a cheap price.
Kim Jae-ha's seniors tried to console him by saying that he had already used up all his luck...
Actually, his thoughts were different.
"Now that I think about it, I never personally found the rare loot I obtained earlier. The guild's seniors had prepared the loot in advance and tricked me into thinking I'd found it by luck!"
"...For what reason?"
When Alice asked back slightly curtly, Kim Jae-ha trembled and explained diligently.
It might feel a bit strange, but Alice is an S-rank, so there is a world of difference between her and a C-rank.
"Well, you're trying to trick me into joining the guild! I'm still low-ranked, but my hunter abilities are quite rare and useful."
After reading his material, I couldn't deny that fact.
He certainly has promising future prospects and possesses highly versatile hunter abilities.
Still, it would be good to point out one thing at this point.
"So you want to indict the senior hunters on charges of fraud?"
"Rather than indicting everyone out of the blue, let's first investigate..."
Alice clicked her tongue in disbelief at Kim Jae-ha's sudden defensive attitude...
In a way, that was natural.
If he charges him without any reason and it doesn't work out, his life as a hunter could be over.
There are very few guilds that would hire a hunter who would suddenly indict their superiors.
"The Special Forces are the Association's exclusive investigative agency. If you just wanted to investigate, you should have gone to a detective."
"I'm sorry, Detective."
"Still, since you've come all this way, I'll try to find out a little bit. I'll give you a statement, so please write down everything you remember. It's especially important when, where, and what kind of loot you obtained."
"Yes, Detective!"
He moved to another place and began writing his statement.
Alice reacted skeptically, as if she didn't like him at all.
"Isn't this case also an innocent accusation?"
"Well, I don't think so."
"How do you know that?"
I'm sorry to say this, but...
Usually, when it comes to innocent people, you get a feel for it as soon as you see it.
In such cases, the accuser's statement is jumbled and incoherent, and there is a strange sense of intimidation.
Telling a lie is not an easy thing to do.
This is especially true if the person involved is someone who investigates criminal cases on a daily basis.
"Besides, this accusation could actually be detrimental to the accuser."
Lee Seo-woo, who was watching him from the side, spoke softly.
As a former police officer, he was used to this kind of thing.
"He speaks eloquently and has a very calm demeanor."
"Calm down? That's it?"
"That's a nobleman."
Alice sticks out her tongue at Lee Seo-woo's explanation.
I agreed with Lee Seo-woo's opinion as I watched Kim Jae-ha write down his statement.
"Did you make a note of it in advance? You've prepared well. Mr. Kim Jae-ha probably had some reason to suspect his colleagues of fraud. Let's at least investigate."
"Well, if you're going to say it like that... But why would the guild bother doing something like that? Giving away rare loot to new recruits..."
"Isn't that similar to encouraging new employees to buy cars? And it probably didn't cost much, either."
"Is that so?"
Yes, that's right.
If we assume that Kim Jae-ha's senior hunters are accomplices, the amount of money involved in the fraud operation is not that much.
As you can see from the previous stalking incidents... the original principle is to distribute the profits from hunter loot fairly among the members of the raid team.
Even if you get a billion won worth of hunter loot, after deducting the sales commission, n-bang, taxes, and special pension insurance premiums, you won't actually get much.
Besides, even though Kim Jae-ha has potential, he is still a C-rank hunter.
Even if you say it's a rare loot item from a dungeon that only C-rank hunters can enter, it's obvious.
"Even if we gave the accomplices a small amount of compensation instead of the spoils of war, it wouldn't have cost much."
"Oh, definitely..."
The question is whether the guild members will willingly cooperate...
It is highly likely that they were not even aware that it was a fraud.
He might have cooperated, thinking it would boost the morale of his new junior.
I soon received his statement and made up my mind.
It was a pretty good statement, with everything fitting together perfectly.
"Thank you for your hard work. Then please wait over there."
"Oh, will it be over soon?"
"It won't take that long. If you have any urgent matters, you can go and come back."
"No, I'll just wait."
I put Kim Jae-ha aside and immediately looked through the association's database.
The loot in question was not included in the strategy report submitted by the guild to the association.
However, in Mr. Kim Jae-ha's bank account, there was a record of a substantial amount being deposited under the pretext of proceeds from the sale of spoils of war.
"As expected... did you deceive the association?"
"No. It's the opposite."
"huh?"
"The guild lied to Kim Jae-ha, claiming they had obtained rare loot. However, they did not report this to the association."
If you make a false report to the association, it becomes a serious crime that prevents you from gambling.
I decided to go through their methods step by step from the beginning.
"The loot that Kim Jae-ha's team discovered wasn't obtained from that dungeon. They temporarily withdrew loot they'd previously obtained, showed it to Kim Jae-ha, and then returned it to the warehouse. You can see this by examining the guild's warehouse withdrawal records."
"Ah... You put a lot of effort into it."
"okay."
In fact, even if this incident were true... it wouldn't be enough to indict the guild for fraud.
Fraud is basically a crime that is committed when someone deceives another person to gain financial gain.
However, instead of receiving money from Kim Jae-ha, the guild paid him sales proceeds that did not exist.
Even if the intention was evil, we don't know yet.
It's a bit embarrassing to say that Mr. Kim Jae-ha actually suffered damage because of it.
Even if it is true that the guild's work has had a negative impact on his spending habits, it is very difficult to prove it.
"Besides, there's one crucial thing."
"What is it?"
"Mr. Kim Jae-ha didn't simply spend his money lavishly. He experienced investment failure."
"Two, if it's an investment..."
Alice's face hardens as if something is already ominous.
Lee Seo-woo has his eyes tightly shut.
I met both of their expectations without hesitation.
"It's a virtual currency."
"What was meant to come out has come out..."
Did Kim Jae-ha's guild gain any financial benefit from this operation? It's unlikely.
So, did Kim Jae-ha suffer a loss because of this? No. He lost it all while trading coins.
In my view, this case did not result in an indictment.
I called Kim Jae-ha back and spoke firmly.
"It is not a case of indictment."
"Oh, no, that's not it..."
Kim Jae-ha's face was distorted.