Chapter 153
Chapter 153
Chapter 153: Public Opinion (5)
Translation: godtl
June, when summer begins.
Perhaps due to global warming.
This year's heat arrived earlier than usual and felt exceptionally sweltering.
And it was no wonder.
[Kim Si-mun's Controversies and Allegations—Were They All Fabricated?!]
[From Manipulating Public Opinion to Assassination? This Year's Biggest Scandal!]
[Not Just the Scorpion Guild—Multiple Guilds Like Jujak and Sea King Involved?]
All sorts of allegations surrounding Kim Si-mun from before.
Now, rebuttal articles were pouring out about them.
No, they couldn't even be called rebuttals.
[Shocking Revelations from Scorpion Guild's Vice Guild Master Kim Jong-jun!]
[Victims of Corrupt Guilds—More Than One or Two? Night Hunter's Testimony!]
[Association Announces:"Collaborating with the Government to Investigate the Incident"]
[Association President Kim Mu-yeol Declares:"For Korea's Future, We Will Uproot Corrupt Guilds!"]
[Complete List of Traitor Guilds Trying to Expel National Heroes]
Kim Jong-jun, the Vice Guild Master of the Scorpion Guild.
The central figure in this scandal.
A video containing his confession spread not just nationwide but internationally.
Naturally.
-Is this a lie?
-No fucking way! Is this for real?
-Assassination in the 21st century? In Korea? LMAO.
-Those Scorpion bastards were real pieces of shit!
-You think it's just Scorpion? Any Arena player knows all the guilds on that list.
-Deadass, look at this lineup LOL.
-Not a single decent one in the bunch LMAO.
Domestic communities were in an uproar.
The same was true overseas.
-To resort to assassination just to take down their own country's rising star...
-Sasuga Korea! WWWWW.
-What's Masamune doing? Japan needs to step up so we don't fall behind our big bro country.
-But still, that's just... We treat Yuto like gold.
-As expected. Korea's too small a country to harbor such a grand hero.
-Why would Kim Si-mun go to those money-grubbing pigs? We have the Continent Guild!
-What's the Continent Guild doing? American Dream is scooping up talent like this!
International communities were also ablaze with this scandal.
And since the U.S. was directly tied to rumors of Si-mun's transfer...
-Well done, Korea! Keep sending Mr. Kim our way forever.
-The U.S. always welcomes new heroes! XD!!
-Olivia's really pulling off something big.
-She's always recruited only the best players.
-So now, with Andrew, Ron, and Kim, does the U.S. have the three prodigies?
They showed unparalleled enthusiasm and interest.
And at the center of all this...
"Yes, yes. Of course."
"Association President Kim is already doing everything in his power to respond..."
"What about Kim Jong-jun? The prosecution's demanding he be handed over."
"He's being transferred here—what do you mean 'handed over'?!"
"When is the Awakened legal team arriving?!"
The Korean Awakened Association was in the throes of rush hour.
And not just inside the Association.
"Take immediate action, Association!"
"Eradicate the corrupt guilds!"
"Eradicate them!"
At the Association's main gate.
Easily over a thousand people stood under the blazing sun.
Holding up signs and shouting at the top of their lungs.
Protesters chanting slogans through megaphones.
"Isn't that Assemblyman Jung's car?"
"It is Assemblyman Jung!"
"After him!"
Every time cars presumed to belong to government officials, police, or prosecutors passed by.
They sprinted after them, waving signs and shouting slogans.
Of course.
"We don't even expect an official statement!"
"Just one word, please!"
"Where is the Association President right now?"
"Can't you hear the people's voices? How can you wait for a formal press conference?!"
Reporters, smelling blood, had also set up camp.
Straining to break through the Association's guards.
The sheer number of them was overwhelming.
"Take one more step and we'll resort to using our abilities."
"Do not cross that line!"
Had it not been for the fact that most of the Association's personnel were Awakened,
the Association would have descended into utter chaos today.
And then—
The middle-aged man who had been observing this entire situation while descending in the transparent elevator,
Ding.
"Hmph. What a circus."
Upon reaching the underground level, he let out a derisive snort and strode toward the parking lot.
Following him was a towering two-meter-tall man.
"The confession video of Kim Jong-jun was quite shocking, wasn't it?"
Choi Chang-wook spoke as he opened the rear door of a luxury sedan.
"Yeah. Shocking, indeed."
Kim Mu-yeol, settling into the car, immediately rummaged through his coat pocket and pulled out a cigarette, clamping it between his lips.
As Choi Chang-wook, seated in the driver's seat, hastily reached for a lighter—
"Don't bother."
Kim Mu-yeol waved him off briefly before bringing the tip of the cigarette to his fingertip.
Snap.
As if recalling someone else's habit—
A spark ignited between his fingers with a crisp sound.
Ssshh—
Taking a deep drag, Kim Mu-yeol exhaled the smoke slowly.
After repeating this two or three times—
"Honestly, I still can't believe it."
Choi Chang-wook, glancing at Kim Mu-yeol through the rearview mirror, spoke up.
"Who would've thought Kim Jong-jun would confess so blatantly like that..."
"Same here."
Kim Jong-jun.
A First Generation player who served as the Vice Guild Master of the Scorpion Guild.
Naturally, as fellow First Generation players, Kim Mu-yeol and Choi Chang-wook knew exactly what kind of man Kim Jong-jun was.
Which was why they were baffled.
"Just how did they manage to break him like that?"
Kim Jong-jun was the kind of man who would rank second to none in sheer viciousness—
precisely why he had been appointed Vice Guild Master of the Scorpion Guild.
Yet, for such a man to confess every last detail of the incident so readily...
Even though it was an unexpected boon for their side—
"It couldn't have been a normal negotiation."
Kim Mu-yeol's expression remained grim.
Choi Chang-wook, gauging his mood, ventured a question.
"But didn't Kim Si-mun also reach an agreement with Olivia Denson?"
"Yeah. That was shocking too. But this is different."
Kim Mu-yeol rested his chin on his hand and gazed out the window.
"There must have been a deal we don't know about. One so substantial that even the Winter Queen couldn't refuse."
"Couldn't the same be true for Kim Jong-jun? Threat or torture wouldn't explain why his body and voice appeared completely unharmed."
"Exactly."
Kim Mu-yeol took another drag before continuing.
"Maybe it's because he was born a thug, but Kim Jong-jun has a certain venom in him. Yet, in that video, it was gone."
"Now that you mention it, he did seem oddly compliant."
"That's what I mean. Too compliant. Why do you think Kang Deok-man put that bastard in the Vice Guild Master position?"
Whoosh.
A cloud of white smoke billowed out.
Kim Mu-yeol narrowed his brows, staring at the smoke.
"That venom. The kind that would make him bite back even if his limbs were torn off—that's why he was put in that position."
But what about the Kim Jong-jun in the confession video?
"And yet that bastard spilled everything like some trained mutt? There's got to be something else going on."
As if replaying the video in his mind—
"You're right. Now that I think about it, it is strange."
Choi Chang-wook's brow furrowed as well.
"If it was just a deal, there's no reason for Kim Jong-jun to be that obedient."
"Exactly. Which means this is different from the Olivia Denson situation."
Kim Mu-yeol nodded and turned his gaze back outside.
Just as the scandal was setting the nation ablaze, the streets outside teemed with pedestrians and cars, buzzing with life.
"But I just can't figure it out. No matter how brilliant that bastard Kim Si-mun is, there's no way he has the ability to make a Diamond player cooperate that willingly..."
If he had that kind of ability, he would have used it on me long ago.
Muttering to himself, Kim Mu-yeol stroked his chin.
"Could he have used some kind of truth serum from the Arena? Don't they occasionally circulate in the Black Market?"
Truth serums—items so rare they were almost mythical even within the Arena.
If it was one of those legendary items that had once swept across the world, then even that footage would make sense.
But.
"That's a possibility, but..."
Uncharacteristically, Kim Mu-yeol trailed off.
The reason was simple.
'No matter what I say, my nephew would have no choice but to listen.'
A phrase his damned nephew had once uttered resurfaced in his mind.
'Why is that coming back to me now?'
It felt as if something thin and imperceptible had lodged itself in his throat.
An irritating sensation that prickled every time he breathed or swallowed.
That damned feeling had nagged at him while watching Kim Jong-jun's confession video.
And now, as they discussed it, it kept needling at his nerves.
'If you don't believe me, you can test it right now.'
At first, he had dismissed it as either nonsense or sheer audacity—something his nephew had bluffed about after upgrading his trait to SSS-rank.
'Ruler of Plants'—a trait that could supposedly render his own completely powerless.
Wasn't that absurd?
Even if he was a 1st Generation Ranker, having his trait blocked would impose severe limitations.
Especially for someone like him, a Magic Class player whose combat style heavily relied on his trait.
And so,
'I thought that brat was just being arrogantly reckless,'
When that rookie, not even half a year into his debut, had claimed he could defeat the Iron Wood King—a Ranker—
He had assumed it was nothing but empty arrogance.
'But what if he wasn't being arrogant? What if I really have no choice but to listen to him?'
He didn't know why.
Apart from the DS he had received from Jong-ri Chu, there was no conceivable connection between him and that damned nephew.
Yet, an inexplicable unease continued to hammer at his chest.
Perhaps sensing Kim Mu-yeol's turmoil,
"......Should we head to the Ranker Palace?"
Choi Chang-wook, who had been silent until now, glanced at him through the rearview mirror and cautiously suggested.
Naturally,
"What kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden?"
Kim Mu-yeol scowled and glared at Choi Chang-wook's reflection.
But that was all.
He never actually refused to go.
"......."
Choi Chang-wook quietly pressed his lips together
And turned the wheel toward the Ranker Palace.
In a penthouse within the Ranker Palace.
There,
"Hyung! You're really not going to tell me?"
A Ranker who had even skipped his beloved Arena matches to rush through interviews—
Kim Si-hyeok was pleading with desperate urgency.
"He's right. Oppa, I'm too curious myself."
Surprisingly, Lee Yu-jeong also chimed in, backing up Kim Si-hyeok's plea.
But despite the earnest appeals of these two Rankers,
"What more is there to teach you?"
The strikingly handsome man with sharp features—
Si-mun merely shrugged his shoulders.
"It's just as Jin-uk said. I only demanded a confession, and Kim Jong-jun complied. That's all."
"That's exactly what I'm curious about! Hyung!"
"Oppa, you might not know this well since you haven't been active for long, but Kim Jong-jun isn't the type to spill everything just because he's told to."
Even after Si-mun's answer, the two siblings pressed him again.
And the reason was clear.
"Hyung. We're not idiots. There's something else you're hiding besides the ability to force confessions, right?"
"Exactly. Otherwise, there'd be no reason for you to hide your abilities like this."
"Hyung. You don't... not trust us, do you?"
These two brilliant siblings.
Having heard the full story from Park Jin-uk, these two exceptional siblings
Had already sensed that Si-mun was concealing more than just the ability to extract confessions.
And—
'Tch. I guess sneaking past them was too sloppy after all.'
Si-mun was well aware of that fact himself.
Yet the reason he stubbornly refused to speak was simple.
'Yu-jeong.......'
His gaze, which had lingered on Yu-jeong for a moment,
"......"
"......"
shifted silently toward Park Jin-uk and Go Mal-suk, who sat quietly.
The two of them met Si-mun's eyes and gave a slight, solemn nod.
"Well, I can't fool you guys."
Si-mun sighed briefly and shook his head.
Then—
"It's true I haven't told you everything, but I can't say it yet."
He drew a firm line.
At that—
"Hyung!"
"B-Brother!"
Kim Si-hyeok and Lee Yu-jeong looked as if they'd been wounded, their faces stricken with shock as they opened and closed their mouths wordlessly.
"Let me make one thing clear. It's not that I don't trust you."
Si-mun waved his hands hastily, trying to placate them.
"It's just not the right time to tell you yet."
"......So you'll tell us later?"
"Of course. Why would I hide anything from you?"
"If you say so, Brother...... I'll wait, even though I'm curious."
Fortunately, it seemed some of their old obedience remained.
The two of them didn't press further and simply nodded meekly.
'Whew. Thank goodness they trust me.'
Si-mun let out a sigh of relief internally.
'If I explain the Death Eye, I'd have to mention Dragon Power. And then I'd have to explain how Kim Jong-jun obtained it......'
Which would inevitably lead to discussing the edited portions of the confession video.
And ultimately, the part that had been cut from the footage—
The fact that the Continent Guild had even supplied Kim Jong-jun with DS, and the mastermind who had backed this entire operation.
'I'd have no choice but to bring up Chairman Lee Sun-cheol.'
Mentioning Chairman Lee Sun-cheol was unavoidable.
'The Continent Guild is shocking enough, but Chairman Lee Sun-cheol being involved too?'
An unimaginable figure.
Even after reforging Dragon Power multiple times using Achievement Points and pressing Kim Jong-jun for answers,
he had consistently named 'Chairman Lee Sun-cheol.'
Given that none of his previous confessions had malfunctioned under the Death Eye's influence,
Si-mun had no choice but to accept it as the truth.
Therefore—
'Let's wait until we've gathered a little more information before telling them.'
Until he could figure out exactly how Chairman Lee Sun-cheol was connected to this incident,
he couldn't casually bring it up to his siblings—especially when reflecting on what Lee Yu-jeong had done in his past life.
'Besides, someone as powerful as Chairman Lee Sun-cheol would be nearly impossible to pin down without solid evidence.'
And more importantly—
'If word gets out about DS, we'll have no way to predict Jong-ri Chu's next move.'
Though the current timeline had already diverged significantly from his past life,
Jong-ri Chu and the Continent Guild hadn't undergone any major changes yet.
Which meant DS must still be circulating overseas like this.
'It's not like the original footage is going anywhere.'
Once they had concrete evidence in the future,
it wouldn't be too late to bring it up then.
Having steeled his resolve, Si-mun rose from his seat.
"Hey, where are you going? The job's done. Let's grab a drink."
"To the Arena."
"The Arena? Now?"
"Yeah."
Go Mal-suk and the others blinked in surprise.
Si-mun grinned in response.
"After all this, Uncle will handle the cleanup, but there's always that 'just in case,' you know?"
"Ahh, so you're going to make a public statement by broadcasting your entrance?"
"Not just a statement. The controversy's settled anyway—I'm just showing my face as a courtesy."
"Honestly."
Go Mal-suk shook her head in exasperation.
"You'd have made a killing as a politician or celebrity."
"Huh? That's what I once told Uncle."
"Exactly."
For some reason, she—
"I'm saying you and that razor-blade of a man are cut from the same cloth, dumbass."
—landed a critical hit on Si-mun.
"......Mal-suk. Keep this up, and you're getting a Tyrant Emperor Break......"
"Ahh! Stop yapping and get your ass to the Arena. Si-yeon's gonna wake up soon."
Using Si-yeon as a shield, she cleanly blocked any counterattack from Si-mun.
"Tch!"
Muttering under his breath, Si-mun clenched his fists and turned away.
"Pfft."
"Kgh!"
"C-Cough!"
With the stifled laughter of his two siblings and Park Jin-uk serving as background music—
'Go Mal-suk. Just you wait!'
Vowing revenge, he headed toward the Arena terminal in the lab.