Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Here It Is, the Evidence
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"It's poison!"
"You White Tiger bastards! You sold that crap as medicine?!"
Shouts and curses erupted from all directions. The sight of the lab rat vomiting blood and dying in agony was that shocking—and straightforward.
Camera flashes exploded wildly. Some enraged hunters tried to charge the stage, but they were roughly restrained by White Tiger Guild security.
"Let me go! Those con artist fuckers!"
"The Association's just as bad! They approved that shit?!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The committee chairman slammed the gavel neurotically at center stage. He was already in bed with White Tiger. He had to somehow contain this mess.
"Quiet! Everyone, be silent!"
His voice brimmed with bewilderment and anxiety.
"This is incitement based on unverified data! There's not even solid evidence! We can't conclude everything based on one possibly manipulated video!"
He planned to crush the chaos through force. With a glance at the proceedings officer, Seo Ihyeon's mic was forcibly shut off.
"We've heard enough from the Rabbitfoot Company side! Further discussion is deemed unnecessary!"
The chairman figured he couldn't drag this out any longer. Before public opinion fully flipped, he had to at least push it through the standing committee. He rattled off the prepared script.
"Therefore, I hereby exercise my authority to conclude this public hearing!"
He caught his breath, then shouted.
"And immediately convene the full standing committee meeting to table the 'Strategic Materials Management Special Act' draft by authority and proceed to vote!"
At that declaration, the hearing hall froze.
"What did he just say?"
"Skipping debate altogether...?"
Even from the press section, incredulous murmurs leaked out. It was an outrageous push, ignoring all procedures through sheer power.
The chairman raised the trembling gavel high. Every eye in the room locked onto that wooden hammer.
That instant.
Bang—!
The massive doors of the hearing hall burst open violently. The crash of them slamming against the wall sent hundreds of camera lenses swiveling toward the entrance.
A bizarre silence fell over the chaotic hall.
And there stood.
"Haa... haa..."
Choi Yuna, covered in blood and dirt. She was supporting a gaunt man in patient garb, his frame reduced to skin and bones.
The man's ragged breathing made him look like he might collapse any second.
Choi Yuna steadied her breath for a moment, then spoke toward the center of the hall—straight at the chairman on stage.
"Here it is. The evidence."
Her rough, low voice echoed through the mic-less room.
The hall began to stir again. The chairman, gavel still raised, went pale as a ghost.
Seo Ihyeon immediately stood and approached Choi Yuna. A faint smile finally crossed his face.
"Well done, Guild Leader Choi."
Choi Yuna silently pulled a small USB from her pocket and placed it in his hand. The crucial evidence, risked everything to secure by the victim.
Seo Ihyeon didn't hesitate. He returned to the podium, shoving past the officer trying to stop him, and plugged the USB into the main system.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
"Stop him now!"
White Tiger hunters rushed in, but Choi Yuna blocked their path. They were no match for her.
The massive central screen switched.
And what unfolded there was hell itself.
The screen showed what looked like a lab. Dozens of people lay bound to beds by magic.
Tubes snaked into their bodies by the dozens, and machines beside them forcibly extracted their mana and blood simultaneously.
"Kaaaaah! Sp-spare me! Please!"
People screaming in agony. Collapsing while spewing blood. Withering to mummies as life drained away.
And the full process of that forcibly extracted blood and mana being transferred, concentrated, and turned into a transparent potion called White Cell—it was all captured there.
"...!"
Atrocities beyond imagination. Making drugs from humans as ingredients.
Everyone in the hearing hall was horrified. Some clamped hands over mouths, dry-heaving; reporters hammered their shutters.
Then, the man Choi Yuna had been supporting staggered toward the podium. Seo Ihyeon carefully steadied him.
The man spat out words in a cracked voice, wailing. Even without a mic, his cries rang clear to all.
"I... was a senior researcher at White Tiger Bio. Part of the White Cell development team."
The hall murmured at his confession.
"That footage... I secured it myself. I wanted to expose White Tiger's horrific crimes to the world... but... ugh... they found out, and I was dragged to the lab too."
He broke down sobbing, unable to continue.
"They forcibly... the dissenting researchers and powerless low-rank healers...! I watched my colleagues die right in front of me every day...!"
A whistleblower's exposé. And the decisive footage he'd secured himself.
All of it was broadcasting live nationwide.
Even ordinary citizens were swept in shock and rage at the horrors, but the hunters' fury ran far deeper.
[Title: Drinking White Cell Causes Organ Damage + Mana Addiction lol]
(Public hearing live clip. Webm)
They made poison from healers' blood and mana. Fuck.
Anyone who drank that shit is screwed lol
Ah fuck, I drank it
They made that from human blood???
Oh
No wonder my stomach felt so fucking queasy after drinking that.
Our guild got strong-armed into buying that stuff?
Ours too, fuck
They were giving us side-eye to drink it. Almost died from that shit?
Tons of victims it seems. Hunters rising up everywhere.
Assembling at White Tiger HQ. Come on.
Public outrage boiled over uncontrollably.
The remaining White Tiger affiliates in the hall were surrounded by furious hunters.
Condemnation, contempt, and physical threats.
White Tiger had crossed an irreversible river.
Outskirts of the capital, en route from White Tiger Guild HQ to the shuttered research hospital.
The surrounding terrain looked like it'd been shelled. Roads cratered, street trees uprooted and scattered. Traces of colossal forces clashing.
Yoon Hyun gave a hollow laugh as he eyed the man ahead.
"Looks like they're calling you. Not going? Your prey's already reached the destination safely, it seems."
"...Shut up, old timer."
The man slung his spear over his shoulder, clicking his tongue irritably at Yoon Hyun.
He glared at Yoon Hyun with regret. Just a bit more, and he could've broken through. He considered ignoring the summons but gave up.
"...What the hell are you even up to."
The man finally turned. His figure vanished toward White Tiger HQ in an instant.
Yoon Hyun silently watched his back. His gaze deepened darkly.
"Tch. Storm's brewing."
White Tiger Guild HQ, top-floor office.
On the TV, the anchor breathlessly reported White Tiger's atrocities. Outside the window, furious hunters and police swarmed like clouds.
"Powerless worms trying to judge us."
White Tiger's guild leader, Cheon Hyuk-jin, murmured lowly.
"Right, Director Kim?"
He addressed the strategy planning director. No reply came.
Splat.
The office's luxury carpet was soaked in dark red blood. At Cheon Hyuk-jin's feet lay Director Kim's corpse, eyes bulging wide. This was the price for the fiasco.
Returning hunters' mana pulsed from HQ.
"Clear it out."
The guild leader casually shook blood from his hands, ordering the entering executives.
"Seal the entire HQ. Lock all entrances."
His icy, emotionless voice prompted a cautious question from one executive.
"Hunker down like this? Until when, Guild Leader?"
Cheon Hyuk-jin peered at the mob outside instead of answering. People pointing and yelling at him. Bug-like scum.
"Until they grovel at our feet again."
His lips curled sneerily.
"Gates are opening even now."
"......"
"If we stop, who fills the gap?"
No one answered. That was this damned world's reality.
"They've forgotten, so remind them. Who truly holds the power."
Cheon Hyuk-jin quietly regarded his reflection in the window.