Chapter 247
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 247
Chapter Title: It's Not a Drug.
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It was only a brief moment of stiffness.
Yuna Kyung slowly turned her head.
And she asked Rimon, who had been sitting across the table with his arms crossed, silently listening to the story.
"...Team Leader, is all of this true?"
"Yeah."
"Then why did you just sit back and watch this country fall apart?"
Why hadn't Rimon, the sworn enemy of the Seven Dragon Society, stopped drugs from spreading across the South American continent?
Yuna Kyung asked as if she simply couldn't comprehend it, and Rimon replied indifferently.
"What if I hadn't just watched?"
"Pardon?"
"Are you saying I should've gone and killed all the addicts?"
"That's not what I meant. You could've stopped them from doing more drugs without killing them..."
"And how exactly?"
"Well..."
Even back when the population was smaller, there had been millions of them. Now, there were hundreds of millions of addicts. If there was a way to get them all clean, he'd love to hear it.
If there was a good method, he was willing to try it even now, he said lazily.
Watching Rimon, Yuna Kyung finally realized her mistake.
"...It wasn't that you chose not to stop it. You couldn't."
"To be precise, I didn't stop it. If I'd cut down every human on the South American continent, I could've stopped it."
He would've laughed off a million enemies charging at him and fought without a second thought.
But saving a million addicts?
He would've had no choice but to kill them.
In the end, he was just a swordsman.
A man who solved problems by swinging his blade—not a god who performed miracles or a legendary pharmacist.
Besides, the drugs refined by the Green Dragon Clan had minimal side effects aside from the addiction itself.
So killing them just for being addicts would've been no different from executing people for enjoying alcohol or cigarettes.
For Rimon, there had been no choice but to leave the addicts alone.
"Even the Sword Duke couldn't do anything about it. Nectar is a drug that corrupted even gods."
"Gods became addicts?"
"It got an entire intact church excommunicated from the Holy Alliance."
Yuna Kyung was at a loss for words.
The viciousness that could corrupt even gods.
The terror of the Green Dragon Clan that created such a drug.
And a visceral sense of just how monumental Rimon's feats were, battling the Seven Dragon Society—including that clan—for centuries.
All of it mixed together, leaving her unable to continue.
As if sensing her feelings,
Rimon changed the subject.
"Anyway, the important thing now isn't what kind of scum the Green Dragon Clan are."
"The key is that a knockoff version of Nectar has appeared."
"Right."
Not liking that fact,
Li Chingwei let out a soft sigh as she watched Rimon furrow his brow.
"I never imagined something like this would happen."
"Just to confirm—it's certain the Seven Dragon Society doesn't have Nectar's recipe anymore, right?"
"As far as I know."
In the past, the Green Dragon Clan had completely discarded even the recipe when they halted Nectar production.
Considering Nectar's dangers, they feared addicts might even emerge within the Seven Dragon Society itself.
That's why all records of Nectar had been erased from history entirely.
Even the Green Dragon Clan would need over a decade of research to recreate it.
Yet suddenly, a replica of that Nectar had appeared. It was bewildering.
"If the Seven Dragon Society has no leads, it makes sense for my master to investigate this Ambrosia herself."
"Yeah. Even if it's a knockoff, letting a Nectar-based drug spread unchecked would make cleanup impossible."
"Especially from the Green Dragon Clan's perspective."
Rimon furrowed his brow.
The Green Dragon Clan's absolute dominance over the South American continent came from controlling the drug cartels, which had become practically essential to daily life.
But if a terrifying competitor like Ambrosia entered the picture?
No matter that Quetzalcoatl was the world's top pharmaceutical company, they'd lose their current influence.
"In the worst case, it could spark a civil war."
"You think a drug war will break out?"
"Drugs drive even sane people mad. And if it's a Nectar replica, that's even more reason."
"A river of blood."
"Exactly."
Rimon, who had witnessed the South American continent during the Nectar outbreak long ago, was certain.
Back then, over a hundred thousand residents had charged at him with farming tools and kitchen knives just to get their hands on Nectar.
How much worse if those armed with firearms became puppets of the drug lords?
It could rival the devastation of a world war or the Demon God War.
"What bothers me even more is this faint, ominous vibe from the drug itself."
"Isn't it obvious for a drug to feel creepy?"
"Does it seem obvious that this knockoff feels more sinister than the original Nectar?"
"Huh? Does that even make sense?"
Yuna Kyung's eyes widened round.
To her question, Li Chingwei opened her mouth with a troubled expression.
"Cheap drugs mixed with impurities can be more harmful than pure ones, so it's not impossible..."
"If it were just that, I wouldn't call it ominous."
Rimon furrowed his brow.
Nectar alone—a drug that addicted gods—was hard to top for creepiness.
The fact that this new drug gave off an even worse vibe was absurd.
There was one other unpleasant thing.
'And this ominous feeling... it feels vaguely familiar somehow.'
Familiar enough not to be alien.
Alien enough not to be familiar.
Like meeting a three-year-old child again after they've turned sixty—you know them but can't quite place who.
The hazy familiarity gnawed at Rimon even more.
He was seriously considering tracking down and beating the crap out of whoever made this drug, slave contract or not.
Li Chingwei watched him with a complicated expression and let out a soft sigh.
"...Is this another variable?"
"What?"
"No, I just can't fathom who would pull off something this insane."
She said it half-seriously.
Replicating Nectar, which the Green Dragon Clan had discarded, and making it even more sinister was outrageous enough.
And selling it in South America? That was suicidal madness.
She really wanted to see the face of the lunatic behind it.
"I have a rough idea who it is."
"Same here."
"Huh?"
Yuna Kyung's eyes widened again.
They'd only just learned Ambrosia was a Nectar knockoff. How could they already know the source?
As she blinked with a dumbfounded look like a pigeon hit by a pebble, Rimon and Li Chingwei took turns explaining.
"I told you before. The gang boss who got grilled by our master about Ambrosia's origins committed suicide."
"It felt off from then."
"Why would a guy who knows failure means worse than death take that risk?"
"Because someone as terrifying as Maya was behind it."
"Right. And there aren't many who a reckless gang boss would fear as much as our master."
"Especially here in South America—just one."
As if worried she'd doubt they were a soon-to-be-married couple,
Yuna Kyung rolled her eyes, piecing together their rapid-fire explanations in her head for a moment.
Then, belatedly realizing something, her eyes nearly bulged out.
"W-wait. So, you're saying the ones making and distributing Ambrosia are...?"
"Yeah."
Rimon nodded.
And with a cold voice, he named the only force in South America that could rival the Green Dragon Clan.
One of the Ten Great Guilds of the current era, distinguished by its peculiar traits.
"The master of the Forest Guild."
"The lord made this drug?!"
Crunch, crunch.
"Nature truly is magnificent."
A massively obese man strolling through the jungle.
Gula muttered to himself.
He tossed aside the beef shank, reduced to bare bone, and grinned.
"Just a little tending, and it gives me this gorgeous money-maker."
A sticky mud swamp.
Gula chuckled as he watched hollow-eyed, ragged people paddling dugouts atop it, harvesting golden lotuses.
To him, each lotus they gathered was a treasure.
Not just money-makers, but the ultimate weapons granting him hegemony over this South American continent.
Thud!
"Urk!"
Right then.
One dugout snagged on a tree root and lurched, dumping a person into the swamp.
"Gasp! H-help!"
Whether due to the mud sucking him in,
Gula's face hardened as the thrashing man sank faster.
He stretched out one arm.
Far beyond normal reach, but it extended like rubber, snatching the man from the swamp.
"Hah, huff. Thank you! Truly, thank you, Lord!"
Resurrected from death,
Gula spoke as the man bowed repeatedly, eyes gleaming with gratitude.
"Save your thanks for shit."
Crack!
The man's neck snapped, eyes half-bulging, as if he never understood what hit him.
Gula tossed the corpse into the swamp and growled.
"If you fall in, just die quietly. Why thrash and ruin a perfectly good flower? You ignorant punk!"
He eyed the golden lotus where the man had fallen—its petal slightly damaged—with regret, but only briefly.
Then he bellowed at the others, frozen in their dugouts.
"Damage even one of my flowers, and you lose your fix—and your life that day! Got it?!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
"Then move, you bastards! Quit slacking!"
"Yes!"
Terrified of catching his eye and becoming the next victim, they sprang into swift action with their replies.
Only then did Gula relax his grim scowl.
He fiddled habitually with his left cheek, then asked abruptly.
"Old man Diego, how's the gift?"
"It arrived safely..."
"Sure?"
"Yes. I confirmed it reached Quetzalcoatl HQ myself... And got to see something amusing because of it."
"Amusing?"
"Someone who'll be a huge help to your plan, Lord..."
"Heh heh, really?"
Nodding in satisfaction once,
Gula snatched an apple from the tray his maid held beside him, chomped it whole, and murmured lowly.
"Can't wait to see that bitch's face when she gets the gift."
The master of Forest Guild.
The most grotesque among the Nine Lords in skill.
Until a few years ago, when he suddenly secluded himself, he'd been suspected of secretly ruling all South American gangs.
Monster Lord Gula grinned sinisterly, thinking of the events soon to unfold.
Quetzalcoatl HQ.
In that lab, Maya picked up a golden needle.
She methodically inserted twenty or so into the restrained test subject's key acupoints: Qimen, Yumun, Qihai, and others.
'...No pain response, as expected.'
Several points that should've caused fainting from a mere prick.
Yet the subject thrashed on, oblivious even to the needles embedded. Maya furrowed her brow.
'No—its nervous system is already breaking down entirely.'
No need for X-rays or MRI.
As a Green Dragon Clan member at the pinnacle, wielding biotic manipulation psionics, she could see the subject's state crystal clear.
The brain, riddled like worm-eaten wood.
The spine, grotesquely mutating.
The peripheral nerves, half-melted.
Beyond wrecked—miraculous it was still alive.
Yet it writhed vigorously. Maya spoke lowly.
"How much Ambrosia did this one consume?"
"Apologies, no testimony. But blood tests show over five times the amount in typical addicts."
"Duration?"
"Estimated less than ten days since starting Ambrosia."
"Ten days..."
Maya's eyes darkened ominously.
Ambrosia hadn't been around long, and circulation had been limited, so symptoms were mild until now.
She'd assumed it was a Nectar replica.
Sloppily recreated without the full recipe, causing minor side effects.
'This isn't a drug.'
But at this moment.
The state of this heavily dosed gangster gave Maya one firm conviction.
'It was made for a different purpose from the start.'