Part 45: A Boy with a Baseball Cap

_{content warning: violence, limb trauma}

[BGM: Broken Dream 1]


Man, even as an Archivist you still can't catch a break, huh Chang? Interesting to see these characters in a different context, though- Mun-Jin is still alive, as this takes place presumably sometime before his murder, and we still don't know exactly if Kim is connected to it... In any case. Let's see if we can prevent that fire! There's only one rule to keep an eye out for in this puzzle, and it's that Chang won't enter the record room until after Kim asks him for the specified case file- which makes sense, he has no reason to go in there during lunch otherwise.



There's only one other Bad Ending here, so let's get that first.



Worried about Nana, I rushed out of the room.
By the candlelight in the outer office I could see that there were two more people besides me: Nana, and Min-Jun from Unit 4, who would often come and hang out with us here.
However, Lieutenant Kim was not there.

Min-Jun picked up something from the desk, dropped it on the floor, and then stomped on it with his foot.
He pulled out a napkin from his pocket, wrapped up the thing on the floor, and threw it in the trash can.

“Thank you, Min-Jun. That was so scary.”

“What just happened?”
I closed the door to the record room behind me, still confused.

Later I learned that Nana had freaked out when she saw the fried silkworm cocoons I made earlier this morning. She had thought it was a bug in her lunch.
Sigh. Fried cocoons are delicious! Why can't people understand that?



“Where is Lieutenant Kim?”
“When the power went out he got a call. He said that there was some emergency and he would come back later,” Nana responded, still upset.

“I'll wait for him to come back then.”
I set the bag of evidence for Case C-0795 on the desk next to the door. I then went back to my seat, opened my lunch box, and refueled myself for the rest of the afternoon.

“C-0795...”

I heard someone mumble behind me.
I turned around and saw that Min-Jun had not left. He was staring intently at the record Lieutenant Kim had requested.



“Don't touch it. Case files starting with C are classified material, only accessible by lieutenants and above.”

I told Min-Jun with my mouth still full of food.
Technically, Nana and I were not allowed to read the classified documents either.
However, having to sit in the archive room day in and day out, I knew exactly what was in that bag.

I was chewing my fried silkworm cocoon when I smelled burning. Hmm? But I didn't overcook the cocoons.
I sniffed again, and followed the smell back to the record room. The record room was already engulfed in flames...
Then I realized that when I had run out of the room because of Nana's scream, I had forgotten to take out the candle.



With Min-Jun's help the fire was quickly put out.
During the chaos, however, somebody had taken the bag of evidence regarding Case C-0795.

Although Lieutenant Kim was really angry when he yelled at me, nobody had the time or energy to follow up on where the bag had gone or who had taken it.
Because of the fire that I had caused, the station had lost 34 pieces of evidence relevant to open cases that we were still working on.
I was, naturally, expelled.



Lets get to a non-Bad ending now. (Shellception's guess results in this ending.)





I went back to the outer office. By the candlelight I could see that Min-Jun from Unit 4, who would often come and hang out with us, was also there.
He might have come in when he had heard Nana's scream on his way to the armory.
Nana was mad about the fried silkworm cocoons I had put in her lunch.
However, Lieutenant Kim was not there.

“Where is the Lieutenant?”
“When the power went out he got a call. He said that there was some emergency and he would come back later,” Nana responded, still upset.

“I'll wait for him to come back then.”
I set the bag of evidence to Case C-0795 on the desk next to the door.
I went back to my seat, opened my lunch box and refueled myself for the rest of the afternoon.



“C-0795...”

I heard someone mumble behind me.
I turned around and saw that Min-Jun had not left yet. He was staring intently at the record Lieutenant Kim had requested.

“Don't touch it. Case files starting with C are classified material, only accessible by lieutenants and above.”

I told Min-Jun with my mouth still full of food.
Technically, Nana and I were not allowed to read the classified documents either.
However, having to sit in the archive room day in and day out, I knew exactly what was in that bag.



C-0795 was a fatal shooting that had happened on White Goat Hill.
An old man living nearby was shot and killed by a rifle with only one shot.
The case had been under investigation by Unit 3.
However, since there was no bullet at the crime scene, not much useful evidence had been found.

Cases like this, that lacked evidence and in which the victim was an unidentifiable civilian, were not unusual.
What did make it unusual, however, was that it was labeled “Classified”.
That was why I remembered this case so well.



After lunch, I took my usual walk and went to the bathroom on the first floor.
While I was walking past my colleagues coming and going, I couldn't help but feel a little dispirited.
No matter how much interest I had in these cases, or what kind of theories I had, I couldn't help anyone out.

I used to be so ambitious, how did I end up here, in an archive room?
Sigh... I need to work harder and hope for a transfer, or even a promotion.



When I came back to the archive room the power had been restored.
Min-Jun was already gone, while Lieutenant Kim had been waiting for me.

“Excuse me, sir. Sorry about the wait. Here is everything on Case C-0795...”

I looked over at the desk near the door. It was spotless and there was nothing on it.

“Where is the bag I put on the desk?”

Nana looked away from the computer screen.
“You mean the evidence from the expired cases? The janitor just took all of them away earlier.”

”What?!”

I sprinted outside, asking everyone if they had seen the janitor.
I ran all the way to the garbage processing center.
But there must be millions of tons of garbage here!

The center would burn thousands of tons of garbage every day.
I threw myself onto the piles of garbage and started digging. I didn't stop until the sun had come out again the next day. Still, I couldn't find the bag.



It was already time for work.
I walked into the station defeated, and smelled like hot garbage.
Lieutenant Kim was chatting with Lieutenant Kang in Unit 4's office wing.

I stood up straight and gave them a salute, while loudly and clearly telling them that I had just lost all of the files regarding Case C-0795.
Everyone in Unit 4 stared at me with a strange look.
Lieutenant Kim was even more outraged. He grabbed my collar and dragged me into the hallway.

Miraculously, I had not received any serious repercussions afterwards.
I had also tried to access the electronic case file for Case C-0795, to see if I could help out with anything else.
It turned out that the case did not have any electronic record at all.



Interesting. This case seems pretty important... though why it is has yet to be determined. Let's get the S ending, now. (Both PepperedMoth and Regallion's guesses result in this ending!)



We want the power to go out first, before anyone else enters the Archives, because this will prevent Kim from being called away when it happens. Additionally, we want Nana's scream to be before Chang goes into the Record Room, so that he doesn't leave a candle behind from hearing it, either- but we also want it to be after Kim enters, so that he's there if Min-Jun hears the scream...



I went back to the outer office. By the candlelight I could see that Min-Jun from Unit 4, who would often come and hang out with us, was also there.
He might have come in when he heard Nana's scream on his way to the armory.
Nana was mad about the fried silkworm cocoons I had put in her lunch.

“These are the files and evidence you gathered for Case C-0795.”
I grabbed the heavy bag of materials with both of my hands and handed it over to Lieutenant Kim.

The lieutenant said nothing. He took a glance at Min-Jun, and left.
Min-Jun watched as he walked away and left for his own business.

The power was soon restored.
Nana and I went back to our usual routine that had nothing to do with justice, but it was so peaceful.



This case clearly has some importance to both Kim and Min-Jun; it might even be relevant to the events that are currently happening for Cop Chang. Either way, we'll have to put a pin in that for later.

…

[BGM: Lost Memories]


Well, even with that letter solved, there's nothing else for us here with this iteration of Chang- at least, for now. We got some more information shed on some of the other people involved with both him and Kang, but we're going to have to switch him back to Cop mode if we want to continue. Before we do, though, here's what Archivist Chang's profile looks like, for posterity:



As you can see, everything that has to do with his life after becoming a proper police officer is no longer here, but some of his formative details remain as-is, as they happened when he was younger or are just an innate part of him, like being skilled at cooking or being unskilled at using a gun.



In any case, back you go, Chang.



And the Archivist letter now never happened- at least, events didn't happen the way they did in the letter itself. There's nothing that stops Kim from going there on that day if it's just Nana (or Nana and someone else), Chang's connection to the events is indirect enough that it's entirely possible that the events still happened in some manner, just without him there.



Now, let's get back to Alicia and Cop Chang, and see if we can unravel things so some of the other letters unlock...

…

[BGM: My Mexican Guitar Gently Weeps]


A Boy with a Baseball Cap

Zucco had an exclusive and secretive business app for himself.
Returning guests, and people who had a referral, would contact him directly on the app, instead of texting some ridiculous Morse code to the number on his card.

He was good.
Even if the targets had somehow learned that Zucco was after them, they would never be able to guess how they would be eliminated, nor when or where it would happen.

He was like a magician.



Business was good.
But he always referred most of the jobs to his associates.
He rarely got his own hands dirty, and he never asked for a cut of the proceedings.
He told me that he wasn't doing this for the money, but for information.

Occasionally, he would bring up some stories from the days when he had been working for Ray. A lot of them reminded me of my old days.
He'd eventually made too many enemies as well, and had struggled for a while after leaving Ray.

Once he was already too deep into the assassin-for-pay business, he realized that he had to give it his all to survive. He had also learned that “information is more important than your kill count.”



Thanks to his connections, I was able to learn the identities of the people who had been after me.
They were exactly who I had thought they would be.
Yet it was practically pointless at this point.
Right now, my head was worth quite a fortune. If I ever showed up on the street without a disguise, someone would be gunning for me in no time.

I had to move to a new place every three months. All of the locations were scouted in advance for me by Zucco.
He was the only one who always knew where I lived.

Currently, my hiding place was at Pitt Street 96.
Funnily enough, it was only 20 meters away from Pitt Street 99----- the home base of the Black Dragon Gang.
Once I had even spotted Ray from the window.
I heard that he had become the new Big Boss of the gang.



Zucco not only helped with covering my tracks, he would also take care of me when something else went wrong.
Like today.

I was lying in my bed, with bandages on my legs and an ice bag on my head.
Zucco put a bowl of hot porridge on the nightstand. I could smell a hint of overcooked rice.
Then he sank into the couch and began to peruse the three-month-old adult magazine that he had brought over.

Four days ago, he gave me three big envelopes.
He wasn't the kind of person who would lecture me about “justice”, but he had his “moral” preferences, and he would put his “preferred” target on top of the pile.

The first target was a greedy boss who had been stifling his workers for three years.
The second target was a pralyzed rich man who had been depending on his children.
The third target was the boss of the newest gang recently established in the Bay Road area.



I picked the last one.
And I'd gotten into an epic battle, which had led to this.

Don't get me wrong. I was never some kind of vigilante assassin who had the moral high ground either.
I had no right to be, nor did I want to.

I was merely someone who had no family, no friends, and no reason to live.
And... being on the edge of life and death was the only thing that could still make me feel alive...

I tasted the porridge and fell asleep again.

[BGM: Silence]


Ring ring----
I seemed to have heard the doorbell ringing.
And then I heard the door open, then close.
It seemed to be a package delivery.

Package? Who would send me a package?
I sprinted from my bed and yelled out Zucco's name. There was no response.

[BGM: The Darkness]


I walked to the door of my arsenal.
Every time I moved I would turn the smallest room into a mini-arsenal, enhancing it with a security door with a key pad lock.
Since I was moving in a few days, I had already packed all of my weapons and ammo.
There was supposed to be nothing inside the room.

But I saw an open delivery box just outside the security door.

I entered the passcode.
I didn't notice that there was someone behind me.

Someone grabbed my neck from behind and choked me.
I raised my left hand and stabbed my finger towards the throat of my attacker.



He did a back flip and got away from me, landing precisely on the window ledge.
His lowered baseball cap covered most of his face, so I could only tell that it was a slim, fit young man.

“You are indeed as good as they say... Hehe, no matter. My mission is done anyway. See you never.”

The weird-sounding boy left me with this final word, jumped off the ledge and disappeared.
I had more important matters at hand than going after him.

I went back to the security door.
It didn't open, even though I had entered the passcode.
The only explanation was that Zucco had locked the door from the inside. He must still be in there.
Why would he do that?



BOOM!
An enormous force blew the door off of its hinges, twisted it and tore it into a million burning pieces that were flying towards me.
Zucco was flying in the air along with all of the debris.
His neck was bent at an inconceivable angle due to the explosion...

When I finally woke up in the ICU, I realized that my left arm and both of my legs were gone.
I knew that I probably didn't have much time left. Yet the doctor still bluntly told me the other piece of news.
The man that had been found at the scene with me was already dead when the ambulance arrived.

Strangely enough, when the doctor said, “I'm sorry for your loss”, I wasn't really feeling too much loss...

Alicia



[BGM: Whispered Feeling]


Unit 4: Gone

I sat in my seat opposite the bathroom. The office felt empty.
Officer Ji-Yeon was still in the hospital.
Lieutenant Kang had been sent to a detention center; I couldn't find out where.
And Officer Min-Jun... I would never be able to see him again.

So I was the only one left in Unit 4.

Officer Min-Jun had been murdered.
This case had been turned over to the superior investigation agency, with Unit 3 assisting.
Yesterday, people from Unit 3 had come over and taken everything that belonged to Lieutenant Kang.

Fortunately I had been prepared in advance. I had made copies of some of Lieutenant Kang's case files and reports.
I also kept the red folder with files on Unit 2.



The files and reports were mostly about the cases that Unit 4 had solved. Nothing too important in there.
Although I did read a lot of familiar words in his reports, my words.

I finally understood why he had always told me to write longer reports.
He probably had not just copied my reports. It looked like he had also done the same to reports written by Officer Min-Jun and Officer Ji-Yeon.
I shook my head, put them away, and opened the red folder.

After they had taken Lieutenant Kang into custody, I had read everything in the folder multiple times.
I had learned that Lieutenant Kang had been the only surviving member of the old Unit 2.
The files in the folder had records of the details of Operation White Bay, which had been initiated by the previous police major. They also included every mission that Unit 2 had been involved with.



Every mission had been a success, except the last one, codenamed W620.
It was during that mission that almost the entire unit had been taken out.
Lieutenant Kang must have been reading these files as a memorial to his former colleagues.

I could still remember him crying when I saw him looking at the documents.
I could also remember Officer Min-Jun telling me awkward military jokes while he was reading an encyclopedia of firearms.
It almost felt like everything had only happened just yesterday.

I had fought so hard to be a proud member of Unit 4.
I thought I would have a chance to spar with Lieutenant Kang every once in a while.
I thought I would be listening to Officer Min-Jun's war stories, telling me of events that had happened a long time ago on some distant islands.
I thought that one day I would be fighting side by side with the three of them, all in the name of justice.
It had never occurred to me that that day would never come.



It had been three days since Officer Min-Jun was murdered.
I heard that they had found an unregistered Glock 43 in Lieutenant Kang's home.
They had also found his fingerprints on the gun, and the barrel matched with the rifling twist patterns they had found on the bullet inside Officer Min-Jun's body.

The time of death had been determined to be noon of the day that we found his body.
It happened to be the time when we had finished taking a drug dealer's statements, and Lieutenant Kang had just left the station a little while earlier.
However, Lieutenant Kang had offered no alibi for himself.

How could Lieutenant Kang have possibly done something like this?
There must have been something he couldn't reveal. If only I could find out where he had been during that time.



So far, that was all of the information that I had learned about the case.
I had tried seeking out Lieutenant Kim multiple times, expressing my wish to help out as much as I could with the case.
Although I knew that being a member of Lieutenant Kang's unit, as well as a teammate of Officer Min-Jun, I didn't have any right to be included. But as long as I could help Lieutenant Kang, I was willing to do anything, no matter what.

However, Lieutenant Kim had only handed me all of the inconsequential chores of Unit 3.
He wouldn't even tell me where Lieutenant Kang was being held.
I was afraid that as far as they were concerned, still allowing me to come to the station was already special treatment for me.



I couldn't wait any longer.
I had made a decision.

I was typing on the keyboard while peeking at the makeup mirror on Officer Ji-Yeon's desk.
I saw through the mirror that someone from Unit 3 had just entered a 4-digit passcode to open their safe.

In the Criminal Investigation Division, every unit had their own safe to temporarily keep classified documents.
As Lieutenant Kang's case was still under investigation, there must be relevant documents inside Unit 3's safe.

[BGM: Silence]


Stealing classified documents would be something that was way beyond “rule breaking”.
If I got caught, I didn't even know what kind of punishment would be waiting for me.
But as soon as I remembered Officer Min-Jun's death, and Lieutenant Kang being framed, I knew it was something that I had to do.
This would be my justice.

[BGM: Pensive Moments]


7PM. The last person in Unit 3's office wing, Lieutenant Kim, had finally left.
I stayed in my seat and kept tying on my keyboard for another five minutes.
I didn't stop until I made sure the entire floor had no other people, and then I walked over to the safe of Unit 3.
There was a basket of candies on top of the safe.

I opened the door.
There was nothing inside.
There was nothing in the safe.

Lieutenant Kim had opened the safe earlier before he left.
Maybe he had taken everything inside with him?



I went back to my seat, defeated.
What else could I do to help Lieutenant Kang? Who else could help me now?
…
Oh right, I should go and see Officer Ji-Yeon!

I hurried to the hospital, but I didn't get to see her.
A nurse told me that she had checked out and left the hospital earlier that day.
But I didn't have a phone number to contact her.

Damn it, was there nothing else I could do?
Please Buddha. Please guide me. What should I do?

Chang Gyeong-Min