Chapter 56
Chapter 56
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: A Game I Can't Lose (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“A-A suspect?”
The reporters exclaimed with dumbfounded expressions.
“Quiet.”
Choi Woo-jin said lowly, his eyes flashing fiercely.
—A gaze that seemed to throttle the soul.
The eyes of a beast that had scented blood burned coldly.
“H-Hieeek!”
“Ugh!”
The reporters trembled at his overwhelming presence.
Most of them were ordinary people who hadn't even Awakened.
There was no way they could withstand the presence of Choi Woo-jin, a man called the 'War Dog' and ranked among the top three within the Association.
“I will be conducting an emergency investigation under the authority of a Special Agent.”
Choi Woo-jin presented the Special Agent identification issued by the Association.
He scanned the reporters one by one with sharp eyes.
‘There are a few Awakeners, but… they're not of a particularly high level.’
Awakeners of 2 or 3 stars at most.
And even they were few and far between.
‘An Awakener capable of deceiving my senses…’
Choi Woo-jin shook his head.
It might be possible for someone else, but deceiving his senses, which were backed by the Stigma of 'Canes Venatici,' was out of the question.
“……”
Choi Woo-jin narrowed his eyes.
Ever since entering the press conference hall—no, from the moment he met Oh-jin and shook his hand, he had activated his Stigma and been on high alert.
‘I didn't feel any sign of an ambush.’
To think someone could inject poison into Oh-jin while avoiding the senses of the man providing close protection?
‘Impossible.’
Unless it was a high-ranking Awakener of 9 stars or higher, it made no sense that someone could deceive the senses of Canes Venatici and approach him.
The possibility that a truly high-ranking Awakener had targeted Oh-jin was slim.
There was no reason or justification, and besides, most of them were currently in the 'Demon Realm,' what could be called humanity's front line.
‘He didn't drink or eat anything either.’
In that case.
‘Before he met me… he was already poisoned.’
The only possibility was that Oh-jin had been poisoned sometime between leaving his house and arriving in Yeouido.
“Investigate the personal details and alibis of all the reporters.”
“Understood!”
After assigning the task to his subordinate, Choi Woo-jin brought his nose close to the blood Oh-jin had coughed up.
*Vwoooom!*
The Stigma of Canes Venatici, carved on his left chest, blazed brightly.
His senses amplified explosively.
Scents from a radius of hundreds of meters, even kilometers, flooded into his nostrils.
They weren't the ordinary smells of daily life.
‘The scent of mana.’
He pursued the scent that anyone bearing a Stigma was bound to emit.
“…As I thought.”
Besides the scent of the 'Lyra Stigma' emanating from Oh-jin, another smell stimulated his nose.
A very faint trace of mana.
He followed the trace of mana, so faint that no one but him could have found it.
“I'm leaving the scene to you.”
“Special Agent, you’re…”
“I have something else to investigate.”
Leaving his subordinates at the scene, he followed the trail of mana.
The faint, almost-broken trace of mana led to the car Oh-jin had arrived in.
‘Just as I thought. He was poisoned on the way here.’
It was unlikely he was poisoned inside a moving car.
Which means.
“Haaa.”
He took a deep breath.
Like a sprinter at the starting line, he placed his hands on the ground and raised his hips.
Normally, he would have taken a car.
‘There’s no time.’
If Oh-jin was attacked before meeting him, he had to move as fast as possible.
Even now, the culprit was likely erasing their tracks.
“Beast's Gait.”
A burst of blue light erupted.
The mana of his Stigma enveloped his entire body, and—
*KABOOM!*
He kicked off the ground violently.
*Thud-dud-dud-dud-dud!!!!*
He tore down the road at a speed that made the surrounding cars look like slugs.
A blade-like wind grazed his cheek.
Following the faint trail of mana, he ran toward Incheon, where Oh-jin’s house was located.
“Hah, hah.”
After running for about twenty minutes.
He arrived near Oh-jin’s house, catching his slightly ragged breath.
‘Noerang lived in a place like this?’
He had assumed that a recently famous and rapidly rising Awakener would naturally live in a nice place.
“…This place is practically a ruin.”
I wonder if it was attacked by monsters 8 years ago—no, with the new year, it's been 9 years now.
The neighborhood was so run-down it was hard to believe anyone lived there.
As he walked between the half-destroyed buildings.
‘Found it.’
He discovered a spot where the trace of mana grew stronger.
“He was attacked here.”
And so stealthily that he wasn't even aware he had been poisoned.
“…I see.”
Surveying the area, Choi Woo-jin clicked his tongue.
‘So there was a reason they attacked here.’
It was a place without a single one of those ubiquitous CCTVs.
A place optimized for an ambush.
“…Mr. Oh-jin was supposedly unconscious and recuperating at home.”
That meant the culprit had been lying in wait near his house from the start, waiting for him to come out.
“……”
A planned ambush.
But the questions didn't completely disappear.
‘Why did they wait for him to leave the house?’
If they were going to ambush him, it would have been wiser to do it during the past week when he was unconscious.
“…What if someone was in the house?”
Come to think of it, he had heard something.
That there was a woman living with him.
‘Was her name Song Ha-eun?’
Choi Woo-jin contacted the Association to check her information.
‘Lost her powers in an accident five years ago but recently recovered them, huh.’
There was also a record of her making significant contributions in a recent monster subjugation.
“A 7-star Awakener of the Draco constellation.”
Indeed.
There was a reason the culprit had waited outside.
‘They knew Song Ha-eun was with him.’
That's why they waited for Oh-jin to leave the house alone.
All to stealthily eliminate Oh-jin, who had just regained consciousness and hadn't even fully recovered.
“The reason… is obvious.”
Choi Woo-jin’s eyes glinted sharply.
The secret relationship between the Pandinus Guild and Choi Jong-cheol that Oh-jin was about to reveal at the press conference.
‘Because Kwon Oh-jin had the evidence.’
Then the culprit was, of course.
“No. I can't make a judgment just yet.”
He was a Special Agent who had thrown countless criminals in prison.
He couldn't confirm the culprit based on suspicion alone, without concrete proof.
‘I need evidence.’
Choi Woo-jin drew on his Stigma's mana even more strongly.
Irrefutable, perfect evidence.
He was the Awakener most specialized in finding it.
‘The culprit's trail… is over there.’
He passed the spot where the two had crossed paths and followed the trace of mana.
It seemed they had tried to conceal their mana as much as possible, but they couldn't fool the senses of Choi Woo-jin, a 7-star Awakener of Canes Venatici.
*Thump, thump.*
Choi Woo-jin followed the trace of mana.
The trail led to an eco-bag abandoned in the middle of the alley.
To be precise, it led to a green liquid smeared on the edge of the bag.
The same scent he had smelled from Oh-jin’s blood stimulated his nose.
“They bumped into him casually while holding the bag and applied the poison.”
That would explain why Oh-jin hadn't even realized he'd been 'poisoned.'
He would never have suspected that a person he bumped into on the street was carrying a poison-laced bag.
“…The trail completely disappears from here.”
Choi Woo-jin frowned and looked around.
After the abandoned eco-bag, he couldn't feel any trace of mana in the vicinity.
No scent, no footprints.
The culprit had vanished from this spot as if they had evaporated.
‘What trick did they use?’
He couldn't figure that out, but.
*Tuk.*
Choi Woo-jin cautiously reached for the green liquid on the edge of the eco-bag.
He focused his mind and read the mana of the Stigma contained within the poison.
It seemed they had tried to hide it.
But he could feel it.
—The faint, lingering mana of a Scorpius Stigma.
“As I thought. No plot twists.”
His eyes gleamed ferociously.
Unlike other Stigmas, Awakeners with the Scorpius Stigma almost invariably belonged to the Pandinus Guild.
Especially someone skilled enough to carry out such a stealthy ambush; he couldn't think of anyone outside the Pandinus Guild.
With both suspicion and physical evidence.
He could no longer reserve his judgment.
“The culprit was—the Pandinus Guild.”
Choi Woo-jin said with a voice full of conviction.
* * *
In the intensive care unit of a hospital in Yeouido.
Surrounded by expensive medical equipment utilizing Sacred Stones, Oh-jin slowly opened his eyes.
‘Shit. This hurts like hell.’
The poison was powerful enough to dissolve some of his internal organs, so the pain was excruciating.
‘Well, I had to go this far to fool them.’
He smiled faintly, an oxygen mask over his face.
Oh-jin reached out and picked up the smartphone on the table.
He went to the news tab and checked the latest articles.
[Noerang Kwon Oh-jin Collapses, Vomiting Blood During Press Conference… ‘Shocking’]
[Is the Pandinus Guild the Culprit? ‘Traces of a Scorpius Stigma’ Left at the Scene]
[Noerang Rushed to Hyesung Hospital After Vomiting Blood… ‘He Would Have Died If He Were Any Later,’ Doctor Testifies.]
[What Was the Relationship Between the Pandinus Guild and Choi Jong-cheol That Noerang Was About to Reveal?]
From the headlines down, every article was about the incident.
“Looks like he found the traces just fine.”
He grinned as he looked at the articles.
‘Honestly, I was a little worried he might not find it.’
Choi Woo-jin.
Just as the rumors said, he was an Awakener with outstanding investigative skills.
‘Let's see how people are reacting.’
He went to the famous community site he had checked before.
[Royujin: Breaking))) Update on 'That' Guild That Tried to Poison Noerang]
They're denying any involvement again lol
┗JerryM: LMAO fucking bastards
┗HeukheukSpoon: ???: 'Traces of a Scorpius Stigma were found at the scene, but we have no connection to this incident.'
┗MeongMeongKim: Fck, being that shameless must be a talent;
┗VentiIsFemale: So Pandinus was behind the last incident too?
┗MeongMeongKim: Why else would they try to poison him? They obviously have something to hide lol
┗JerryM: The Starlight Lake Guild must feel so wronged fr. Getting caught up with psychos like that.
Public opinion was boiling over.
The arrows of blame that had been aimed at Starlight Lake were now all pointing toward the Pandinus Guild.
‘They won't be able to deny it now.’
Public opinion had already turned against them.
Checkmate.
Was there a more fitting word to describe the Pandinus Guild's current situation?
Of course, it seemed they were still trying to squirm their way out, claiming they had nothing to do with it.
‘Go ahead and struggle all you want.’
After all, this was something they couldn't refute without knowing about 'Heukcheon.'
What could they do when traces of a Scorpius Stigma were found at the actual crime scene?
The Pandinus Guild would be suspected not only of attempted murder but also of everything that happened during the subjugation incident.
‘Now I just have to lie here comfortably and get some free meals.’
There was no need for him to step up and do anything more.
The top 10 guilds, who had been taking the heat of public opinion until now, would personally step forward and tear them to shreds.
‘My sister might be worried, so I should send her a few texts.’
She doesn't know about Heukcheon, but.
She could probably guess that he had orchestrated this situation.
“Phuhuhuhu!!”
Oh-jin’s shoulders shook with laughter.
He placed his smartphone on the table and leaned back comfortably in bed.
“You shouldn't have tried to pull a scam so recklessly.”
I told you.
This is a game I can't lose.