I Became the Cute One in the Problem-Solving Team

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Something felt seriously wrong.

It was like the sensation of the ends of the shapes I was scribbling not matching up.

So, I hurriedly retraced my memories, trying to recall the vague details of the original story.

‘What was the flow of the original’s early part again?’

I first laid out the original in chronological order.

The protagonist of the first episode, as I remembered, was Alice.

She was a police academy prep student and it was the story of how she ended up working at a fixer agency.

Afterward, several side characters, including Alice’s sister Lily, passed through, and this episode was where the regular characters began to increase significantly.

This was dubbed the Nemesis Party Terror Incident.

It was an act of violence that erupted to expose the secrets behind Nemesis’s new product.

Of course, even if it was called a terror incident, it wasn’t something serious where people were dying or victims were piling up.

It was just that a special banquet for VIPs got disrupted, leading to several security robots getting smashed.

Considering that the Bloody Night incident in the original caused numerous victims and nearly killed the protagonist, this incident was rather common in Night Haven.

‘If I think about the timeline a bit…’

The flow of this episode roughly felt like this.

First, Raven and Alice, who received an invitation from Nemesis, enter the hotel where the party is being held.

Second, they come across a suspicious girl wandering around the hotel whom they have some vague familiarity with.

Third, that girl is actually the sister of the mastermind behind the terror incident, and she asks Raven to stop her brother from causing the terror.

And finally, the protagonist’s group discovers that the reason for the terror is because Nemesis is holding his childhood friend captive, and they help him crush the corporation’s nefarious plot.

‘Slowly… no, according to the original, I should have met the client before meeting Lexi.’

Could it be that I remembered something wrong?

Or maybe something got seriously twisted along the way?

Whatever happened, it was quite troubling as it stood.

If the client didn’t show up, the fixer agency would lose a top-notch hacker and mage out of nowhere.

‘Can he finish the task safely without the protagonist’s group’s help? No, that’d be impossible. So long as there are security robots, it’s all over at Lexi’s level.’

I recalled Lexi, the girl in a skull eye patch and bikini, I had encountered earlier.

At first glance, she could be seen as a simple warrior, but she was actually a triple-number fixer.

She was recognized as a formidable opponent with considerable skill in this world.

Even Alice could barely handle her, and Raven would need to go all out to match her level.

It was clear that they wouldn’t be able to fight without the protagonist’s group’s help.

‘Where on earth did things go wrong… No, it’s funny thinking about that. Since the Bloody Night incident was hastened, something must have tangled up in the middle. So now the question is… how do I revert this back to the original?’

However, as I tried to come up with a solution, my mind became increasingly convoluted.

Could I even properly revert this back, I wondered.

Ah, this is why I dreaded getting involved with the protagonist’s group.

Not to mention getting swept up in their incidents, without me, things would have rolled towards a happy ending just fine, and now a hole has been created in the wheels.

…Should I have just left the vampire alone in that alley from the beginning?

No, I didn’t really want to do that.

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, that would be different. But having seen it, I couldn’t just turn a blind eye.

It felt like there would be innocent victims, and I had the power to stop it. How could I just hold back?

If that was the case, then even if I turned back time, I would have done the same thing.

It was bound to happen? Then there was no particular reason to regret it.

‘I definitely need to find the client.’

Alright. My thoughts had been organized.

I would find the client somewhere in this hotel, the sister of the third member.

Then I would get her in touch with Raven to give them a reason to get involved in the case.

After the incident was over, I would pull him into the fixer agency with this connection, and that would be the end.

From then on, they would manage to get to a happy ending all by themselves without me needing to intervene.

‘Phew, alright. For now, I’ll patch this up somehow. After that, I really won’t do anything. And without interfering with the original, I’ll just quietly sneak out of the agency once this side job is done.’

I made that promise and briefly envisioned the future at the agency.

Corporate bounties, artifacts going rogue, sacrifices of rampaging monsters, serial killer targets, old grievances from war times, massive corporate wars, liberation army declarations from other races, hit squads from government assassination organizations, dimensional invaders…

Ah, I certainly couldn’t handle any of that.

It was a shameful thing to do. To know everything but still try to sneak away.

But I’m just a mere part-timer, can’t I be forgiven for this much?

“Hmm? Why? Going to the bathroom? Should I come along?”

“…”

“Alice, let her go alone to the bathroom. Take your time. Just don’t get lost and turn into a missing person.”

“…”

I slipped out of the banquet hall, saying I would go to the bathroom, to Alice and Raven, who looked bored watching the opening ceremony.

And when I was far enough from the entrance, I dashed off in the opposite direction of the bathroom.

‘A girl with green braids. I need to find her quickly before the terror happens.’

One hour until the terror breaks out.

There wasn’t that much time left.

*

“Phew… refreshing. W-who are you…!”

“Stun.”

“Ah!”

Thud!

Blue electric currents burst from a man’s gloves, silencing a guard in one blow.

The incantation inscribed on the gloves seemed like scribbles at first glance.

Yet contained within it was the essence of magic interpreted through modern mathematics and programming methods.

It was a form of pseudoscientific modern magic, sacrificing the intense power unique to ancient magic for maximum efficiency through minimal magical power.

“I’m sorry. Just a moment.”

The man apologized to the unconscious guard, stripped him of his clothes, and changed into the security uniform.

Then, he hid the guard in a restroom stall to avoid detection and smoothly walked out.

According to his investigation, the guard’s shift changed every hour.

This meant he had to finish all the preparations in just one hour before the operation could start.

Was it impossible? No, it wasn’t.

It was certainly difficult, but for him, who had every movement mapped out in his mind, it was entirely feasible.

‘There’s only one chance. I must reclaim Raine with just that single opportunity.’

Crunch.

David, the man who had stolen the security outfit, bit down hard on his teeth.

Recalling the image of his precious childhood friend, who had disappeared six months prior, made his anger boil hot.

‘Nemesis…!’

A bear-human hybrid from the underworld with no parents and no magical talent.

Yet, with excellent intuition and unique creativity, David managed to become a scholarship student at the world-renowned university, Ocullia.

He had a childhood friend, Raine, who had provided him with mental support since he was young.

-David. Did you get into another fight? Why do you keep acting tough when you’re so weak?

-Those guys treated Raine like a fool. They called her a harlot who only relied on her looks.

-Eh, just ignore that nonsense. I hate it even more to see you get hurt, David, who will become someone great.

-I can’t be that kind of person. What does it even mean to be someone great?

-Uhm… a p-professor? Haha, actually, I don’t really know either…

-A professor, huh? Then when I become a real professor someday, I’ll definitely make Raine happy.

-Oh, really? That’d be great. It’s tough, but you should do your best!

Someday, if he became a wonderful person like a professor, he would definitely make her happy.

His great dream that started in the innocent days of not knowing the world never came true.

While David entered the university to become a professor, someone noticed the special blood flowing through Raine and kidnapped her without leaving a trace.

Naturally, upon hearing the news too late, he became extremely enraged.

The reason he, a mere disposable from the underworld, had become an excellent student recognized by everyone, was solely because of Raine.

-Big brother! You dropped out of college?! What’s going on?

-Raine has disappeared. Until I find her, I can’t go to a carefree place like university.

-Raine…?

-You won’t hear from me for a while. Goodbye.

-Wait! Big brother! Please wait!

So he immediately dropped out of school, using all the money he had earned and the knowledge he learned from the university to relentlessly track Raine’s whereabouts.

And after about six months, he discovered that the illness Raine was suffering from and the group that needed it was Nemesis.

David planned to seize the rare opportunity for her to come outside, reclaim her, and destroy Nemesis.

‘Phew, calm down. Raine is still alive. The Hexahemia syndrome she has is a very rare disease. So she isn’t at immediate risk of dying. I know that, but…’

He tried to maintain rational thoughts, but he couldn’t calm the raging emotions within.

But perhaps that was only natural.

To David, Raine was like a mother, a sister, and a lover.

She was as precious a being as his actual sister, Sabrina.

But what if she got kidnapped and faced terrible things while he wasn’t around?

Even the normally extremely rational David couldn’t possibly hold back his rage.

‘…Let’s reassess the plan. The party happening on the 32nd to 34th floors is merely a diversion. The real event is a VIP gathering on the 41st floor, seven floors above that.’

What David hacked into Nemesis revealed a special briefing targeting hidden VIPs.

It was designed to reveal that prosthetics usable by other races were made from hexahamia serum, which responds to magical blood, aiming to attract new investors.

While Nemesis could reproduce Raine’s serum and immediately begin mass production, the serum was essentially living blood, and it faced the problem of losing efficacy over time.

Particularly, the reproduced serum had its duration and effectiveness notably reduced, only about 30% as effective as the original.

Ultimately, Nemesis sought to find a second and third Raine to secure a more powerful and stable serum. They were planning unprecedented large-scale human experiments for that purpose.

‘If we reach that stage, we can’t guarantee Raine’s life anymore. In other words, this might be the only and last chance. It absolutely must succeed.’

Ding.

As he reflected on his plan, the elevator doors opened before him.

And he realized that once he stepped into this elevator, there would be no turning back.

Everything could go wrong, and he might end up rotting in prison for the rest of his life.

Nemesis was a rapidly growing, legitimate corporation, and he was just a pitiful bear hybrid with no substantial backing.

But what did that matter?

The scariest thing in this world wasn’t rotting in prison for life, but the regret of not being able to grasp the hand he could have held onto.

Even if he died, there would be no regrets.

Just as David made that resolution and was about to step into the elevator, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him.

“Foolish brother!”

“…Sabrina?”

When David turned around, there stood a little girl with green hair, just like him.

Sabrina Grayroad. His only sister who shared the same blood and surname.

“Why are you here? It’s dangerous if you get caught up in this. Hurry home.”

David spoke with a stern voice, pushing his security cap down deeply.

He didn’t know how she followed him all the way here, but he hoped she wouldn’t get involved in the trouble he was about to cause.

“Then what are you going to do! You’re about to do something reckless to save Raine!”

“Exactly. Are you planning to stop me?”

“Ugh… but that’s impossible! How do you expect to fight against Nemesis all by yourself! You’ll die for nothing! Raine wouldn’t want that either!”

Die for nothing. That was something he didn’t wish for himself.

David shut his eyes for a moment, hearing Sabrina’s words.

He tried to act rationally, but he couldn’t suppress the emotions boiling deep within.

And so, David screamed as if the suppressed anger burst out.

“…Shut up! I’m not doing this because I want to! It’s because I have to!”

“Brother! Stop…!”

“Go home. I will bring Raine back with me.”

David said that and took a step into the elevator.

Sabrina rushed forward desperately to stop him. Yet, the elevator doors cruelly closed before her.

The ship had set sail.

She thought she could no longer stop David, and tears welled up in her eyes.

“What do I do… what should I do…?”

Sabrina despaired at the flow of fate she felt utterly powerless against.

What could a mere ten-year-old girl do?

Even if she wanted to ask for help, there was no one willing to lend a hand to Sabrina.

In fact, having learned of David’s plan from the materials he left behind, she had been running around trying to find a fixer to stop it.

But all the adults Sabrina could meet turned her down coldly, treating her vague and profitless request like nonsense.

‘…I can’t do anything.’

Sabrina sat down, clenching her fists in powerlessness, and tears fell from her eyes.

It was a tragic turn of events.

If only a certain office hadn’t closed early in search of a ghost, she might have met a nonsensical man who would accept her request for a mere coin.

Perhaps at this moment, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that twisted fate had abandoned her.

David’s plan would fail, and everything would return to nothing. Fate whispered just that.

A little lamb hoped for a miracle. With no other choice, she could only wish and wait desperately.

But sometimes, miracles might reach out to the pitiful little lamb first.

“…”

“Wahh! W-what is happening…!”

Someone fell down from the ceiling right in front of Sabrina.

The identity of that person was Yuria, wearing a child’s suit and quietly observing the situation.

‘So this is where I fix it?’

The appearance of a premium watchmaker to turn the broken gears back to their original state.