Even a Saint Would Think Twice
Cheong Ha-rin passed. I could tell that much just from the way he reached out to me.
He must have decided to guard her tightly and instead targeted me directly.
If a big-scale battle broke out, it would look like advertising, so why risk it?
In other words, a new guy, yet somehow not a new guy.
So why come all the way here and not just snatch or attack me right away?
Why bring up the trading talk?
“I see. You really are. A strong one. Cheong Ha-rin. A smokescreen.”
“Oh~?”
“I look. I’ve looked. With a heron’s eyes. You received a Great Fear attack. That’s where it all began.”
Did he see everything from the very start?
Even from the moment Cheong Ha-rin and I were chased by herons outside the barrier?
‘Who would’ve thought he’d see me stripping off my containment suit and disguising myself, too.’
Maybe this chairman has some kind of connection to the herons within a certain range.
No wonder he’s more tightly networked than any bloodline.
“If you knew that, wouldn’t you come for revenge? Why the trading?”
“I wanted you executed. But no. I’ve changed my mind. You need me. I need you.”
Even though the warehouse full of absurd amounts of drugs had blown up, he was willing to swallow the loss just to team up with me.
“So why do I need to be involved~?”
“Fate. Plan. Future. The greater cause. I want you to join.”
“Why can’t you just say it straight….”
“For now. You’ll come with me. My secretary will explain everything. In detail.”
The night breeze swept in under the moonlight, parting the space between us.
Just from the atmosphere, it looked like our opinions were bound to clash….
“Shouldn’t we go somewhere and hear him out first?”
I decided to hear what this ‘greater cause’ nonsense was about.
It was like the time I’d explain a pyramid scheme or a scam cult to you guys on the Gallery—everyone loves a good story.
I wasn’t planning to betray humanity. I just wanted to jump into the forum drama. Plus, if he gave me a chance to cause trouble, I might as well.
“Of course. I’ve prepared. A presentation.”
“This much?”
“For important figures only.”
“Important figures? Feels like I’ve been turned into a potential criminal~.”
“Correct. Isn’t it? Your abilities. Crime-optimized.”
“You seem to know what my abilities are.”
“Bloodline. Concrete evidence.”
It was one thing if humans misjudged me as a bloodline, but this was already an anomaly, and he was treating me like a criminal. That was just ridiculous.
Snatching and controlling herons like a skill? Was that normal?
That sounded even weirder.
Plus, I’d seen it on the Fixer Gallery before.
The reason they didn’t just mass-hunt demonic beasts was supposedly to avoid ecosystem imbalance.
From that angle, was Chairman Changro’s heron control actually ecosystem destruction?
What if it stirred up other demonic beasts and caused chaos?
‘If persuasion doesn’t work, like the Byeoksa-bu head said, removal is the way.’
For now, I’d play along as a bloodline.
It would help me figure out his true intentions.
First, I’d secretly send one message to Woo Cheon-yeob.
[Baek San-a: Meeting with Changro Chairman]
[Baek San-a: He seems to think I’m a bloodline, so I’ll play along as one]
Ping.
A reply came, but sadly the bell had no eyes and I couldn’t read it.
I’d sent the message using the tablet I’d left in the room and the bell earlier.
“For now, let’s move to a safer place to talk. Like his secret base or something~.”
“No. We need the signature on the contract. No signature, no trust.”
“Um… that makes sense.”
He’d handed me a paper contract.
In this era when everything was handled on a tablet, a paper one? He really wanted proof.
Since I didn’t care, I pretended to read it while secretly loosening my fist to release the blood.
“Fast. Why so fast?”
“Because you already know my secret?”
“Hm. Rational.”
“Right? Shall we go now~?”
* * *
[Crime Syndicate Special]
Secret Base Located Near the City (photo)
This was the private gambling den I discovered yesterday.
From the entrance alone, it looked like an ordinary house lol.
Just kick in the door, take all the mark’s money, and claim it was a fixer? They got caught, but every operator was wiped lol.
It was seriously sweet.
How did you find this lol
I did undercover investigation lol
I pretended to be a rich mark so they’d stick to me right away lol
But if you do this too often, won’t they share info and blacklist you?
I installed a jammer beforehand and went in lol
Sephirah are nice~
Just like the Gallery post I saw the other day, Chairman Changro’s main base was closer than expected.
Closer than close. To the point my neck was tingling.
“Surprised? Unpredictable. I can’t predict, can’t predict.”
“The basement of Haengbok Convenience Store…. How did the Management Bureau miss this?”
“Thorough security. They couldn’t detect it. Couldn’t detect it. I swear.”
“Changro’s tech is impressive~.”
Was he disguising his personality as a new guy? How risky, yet if I could just go along, it was the perfect camouflage.
‘Normally you don’t investigate the same place twice….’
That made my thoughts expand inside my head.
The convenience store owner had learned the Ddudda source was Changro’s lower organization when Ganghwa Island base was discovered.
It was the exact words the kidnappers used to take Cheong Ha-rin.
‘So the blood donation van had been part of their plan all along?’
During the investigation, the store owner said, “The blood donation van has been sitting here for years.”
He went in to look for something, only to come out alive after planning the Ddudda crime.
‘Then the blood donation van was replaced by me as a superior model.’
Since I knew about blood donation vans well, I guessed his identity through the convenience store incident.
No wonder.
I’d thought it was hard to pin me as a bloodline just from heron info, but there was a secret like this.
“The blood donation van is just a parasitic anomaly that sucks blood, but what does the chairman plan to use it for~?”
“That’s. Pre. sen. ta. tion. Words. Hard. I’ll show you.”
“Ah. Of course. I’ll wait quietly~.”
It took forever to squeeze myself into a tiny box that didn’t even deserve to be called an elevator and descend.
The Changro main base deep underground revealed itself.
I couldn’t figure out why the criminals’ hideout was deeper than the Containment Facility, but I figured it was fine. The basement of Haengbok Convenience Store had already been weird.
‘Anyone who wandered in would just think it was the chairman’s house.’
The atmosphere felt like a fancy corporation.
Neatly dressed staff, spotless partitions, transparent meeting rooms with clear glass walls.
Why put it underground when a surface building would have been better? I couldn’t read the chairman’s mind.
I wasn’t even a criminal, so prediction was impossible.
“This way. Enter.”
“Oh~.”
The place we reached a moment later wasn’t really an office.
It was clearly separated by walls, not partitions, and inside the door was a space that reminded me of a hotel penthouse.
A woman in her thirties who had been following me explained to the chairman.
“Park secretary. Explain.”
“Ah, yes! Welcome, Bloodline-nim. This will be your living quarters from now on. We’ve prepared everything for your comfortable life. A perfect sealed space with no sunlight…….”
A massive screen on the wall displayed the presentation.
This was the presentation the chairman had been talking about.
“…and twenty-four hours a day, maids will treat the Bloodline-nim like a master. If you need anything, just say so. Maids are disposable staff. You can treat them like snacks.”
Soon the maids swarmed in, faces full of fear as they stared at me and trembled.
Disposable maids as snacks?
That was a crazy idea.
Would he really do something like this?
Hosting was usually about making guests feel at home.
‘If I were a bloodline, I might have been scared.’
But I’m just a blood insurance saleswoman.
He must have miscalculated.
“How nice. What about the business talk~?”
“All yours.”
“Yes, sir! Maids, everyone out!”
The secretary and maids left, leaving only me and the chairman in the underground penthouse.
I flopped onto the long sofa and the presentation screen changed.
In the center was a large heron icon.
Below it: “Human Evolution Plan.”
“My. Dream. Ideal.”
The page turned.
[Why must humanity evolve?]
1. Current bodies are too weak and inefficient.
2. In a world where every other animal has evolved, humans alone lag behind.
3. To reclaim the stolen sky, humans too must enjoy the freedom of flight.
→ To stand at the pinnacle of all things, humans must also evolve into Demonic Humans.
Next page.
[Changro’s Efforts for Evolution]
- Collaborate with the world’s largest organizations to run clinical trials on tens of millions of people.
→ Endless research by top-quality drug teams for the best medicine.
*Results*
Through continuous improvement, a single dose gives a high probability of becoming a demonic beast!
The next page featured the chairman’s face.
[Successful Cases]
“Chairman”
- Eyes that see far and still see clearly at night
- Strong body and survival ability that overwhelms demonic beasts
- Harmonizes with herons within a wide range, exercises sky dominance through them, secures overwhelming information, and forms safe zones.
In short….
All the drugs he’d released into the world had just been preparation?
‘He must have deliberately distributed them like drugs because internal experiments alone wouldn’t give enough data.’
Anyone who wanted power would buy illegal things and take them?
Then why bother with clinical trials?
Even though distribution inside Korea was small, it was already spread worldwide.
But the more I looked at the chairman’s photo, the more I wanted to laugh.
‘He thinks eating this will turn him into that?’
I’d lived outside the barrier for years. I knew what becoming a demonic beast was like.
It was basically a zombie. A zombie.
Not a single word, thought, or action you could control.
So the chairman’s presentation was exaggerated advertising.
The chairman couldn’t possibly become like the chairman who awakened through a sephirah by eating drugs.
Another page turned.
[Invest]
Tamma Drink
- Release for the suppressed you
A convincing investment pitch poster.
The packaging was completely different from the drugs already on the market.
It seemed he planned to push it as a plain orange-flavored drink.
I deliberately raised the corner of my mouth as if tempted and asked.
“You need money?”
“Negative. What I need. A massive army. Power.”
“…Is the reason addicted people become demonic beasts because of herons?”
“Chaos in Korea. Opportunity. The Council of Five’s destruction. Reorganization of the privileged class.”
He was already selling this drug behind the scenes worldwide and now wanted to rebrand it as a drink.
Addicted humans would become slaves to Chairman Changro, like the herons I’d been attacked by.
“Can you cause simultaneous chaos across all of Korea? If you can control herons over such a wide range…”
But was the range really that wide?
I’d thought the whole of Seoul was the limit.
Gahahaha, gahahaha!
Chairman Changro burst out laughing.
Then, with a confident—though not completely new-guy—expression, he told me:
“Every Demonic Human has a role. Relay station. The completion of the Changro-Korea link is near. 95% complete.”
A businessman who once had the idea of linking the world with satellites that covered the sky even when I was human.
The chairman had turned that idea into herons.
He planned to use addicted humans through the Tamma Drink made from heron blood and extracted components.
Probably most people addicted to Tamma Drink would be outside the city, trying to survive and gain temporary strength.
Once the heron network was formed and the new drink spread inside the city at the same time?
He’d become a being too powerful to dismiss as just Ga-rank.
The entire population of Korea going crazy simultaneously?
That was basically a zombie apocalypse.
‘Even said he was distributing more overseas.’
The probability seemed low, but if the whole world ended up in his hands, it would be dangerous.
He might even have to worry about it becoming a level-8 Qlippoth civilization collapse.
But?
Fortunately?
I’d found it first.
As expected, humanity thinks like Baek San-a.
Humans should thank Baek San-a.
“If I help you, there’ll be something for me too~?”
“Of course. Seize the Council of Five’s assets. One-third. Your share. Reasonable.”
“So what do I have to do?”
“Blood. Purification.”
The Tamma Drink manufacturing process soon appeared on screen.
There were complicated steps, but the only thing I understood was this:
“Only separate the component that detects anomaly wavelength from demonic beast blood~.”
“Correct.”
“What if the leftover blood is mine~?”
“Of course. We want the separated anomaly component.”
So the blood donation van had been responsible for this process.
And since I’d come in, he thought I could never escape?
He was giving me a crucial process too easily.
Then I had an idea too.
‘They probably won’t fully trust me yet….’
To earn real trust, I’d first expand my influence over Tamma Drink.
I’d show off my sales skills honed over six months on the Gallery.
It’ll be to your taste, Chairman.
“Could you provide just one tablet? Even if it has monitoring software.”
“Purpose. Reason.”
I punched my chest and said, “Money is money, but I want a spot in Chairman-nim’s New World too. But that requires results, right? I’m a rolling stone~ and I haven’t earned your trust yet~.”
“Affirmative.”
“So, if I can supply more people with Tamma Drink, what do you think? I have one good idea~.”
The chairman smirked.
“Expected. Anticipated. Interesting. Tablet provided.”
