There had been a reason why I had not laid a hand on areas beyond violent crimes all this time.
One way or another, what I wielded was violence as well.
While people likely felt less aversion to sanctioning atrocities committed by someone's malice—such as murder, robbery, or rape—with even stronger and overwhelming force, aggressively meddling beyond that realm carried a high risk of provoking a more sensitive reaction than now.
‘Even now, when I only respond to violent crimes, public opinion for and against the vigilante group’s private sanctions is gradually rising its head; if I go further from here, a problem will arise one hundred percent.’
As long as I had not perfectly seized control of everything in Korea, the flow of public opinion could never be ignored.
It was something the state might step in against more aggressively, and if that happened, it was as obvious as fire that things would become troublesome in many ways.
Of course, even now an investigation headquarters related to that had been assembled, but its members were far more inclined to make a show of it formally rather than earnestly cracking down.
After all, the vigilante group’s existence was making an enormous contribution to public security in Korea, and those standing on the front lines knew that fact better than anyone.
‘So I had intended to leave matters related to that side for the people to handle on their own, but…’
My mind had changed.
I had a premonition that if I simply waited for society’s self-correction like this, it would remain impossible even after a lifetime passed.
People around me had already been swept up in it, and letting it slide as I had until now simply did not suit my temperament at all.
‘But even if the verdict is already decided, the execution process needs to be delicate. If I solve it blindly with force as I have until now, things will get complicated.’
There was nothing I couldn’t do if I put my mind to it, but one way or another, they were also companies operating under the guise of normal corporations on the outside.
If I indiscriminately used violence to smash such places, the political and financial circles that had been quiet until now would start rampaging like boars with burning tails.
If I were to do it, I needed to handle matters cleanly, in their own way.
‘Smartly, the way they prefer. So I had intended to start by gathering information reliably, but…’
Cheonjong Construction.
It was the organization pinpointed as the mastermind behind this incident following the Blood Alliance’s investigation.
Outwardly, it was an ordinary small-to-medium-sized enterprise, neither too large nor too small, but their true nature was no different from a corporate-type organized crime syndicate that engaged in all sorts of filthy deeds.
“But this, it doesn’t feel like these guys are the end of it, does it?”
A few hours had passed since meeting Gang Tae-san and Park Mi-yeong.
The center of the Cheonjong Construction headquarters in the middle of the night.
In an office gone quiet as a mouse, where even the employees on night duty—not to mention the guards watching the building—had all fallen asleep as if knocked out, one being sat bold and imposing.
His entire body was wrapped in armor across which blue light flowed like complex electronic circuits over a smooth metallic surface, wires extending from his shoulder area connected to every electronic device in the vicinity.
Displayed on Hesperon’s [Mechanical Eye: Callicas], the work progress rose rapidly, and neatly organized information was outputted on one side for easy reference.
From trivial accounting errors to corruption data that had been thoroughly hidden away.
If it had already been processed and stored digitally, there was nothing that could escape his eyes.
‘I felt it last time too, but this is really no joke. Perhaps on Earth, it might be even more effective than other Transcendent Avatars.’
Linked by the [Chain of the Covenant], the AI of [Mechanical Eye: Callicas] that grew together with Hesperon had long since surpassed its original performance by leaps and bounds.
Thanks to becoming one with him, it received various growth corrections including the [Elixir of Growth], making it a super artificial intelligence that evolved in real-time depending on the surrounding environment.
For modern society—which had encountered various scientific and technological civilizations through the Awakened, yet failed to overcome the dimensional gap between them—it was virtually a calamity.
Having sucked in all information from Cheonjong Construction’s internal intranet, [Mechanical Eye: Callicas] connected to the external internet next and began indiscriminately investigating everything related to this place.
It delved into overseas tax havens following the money flow, and even gathered and restored scraps of data that had been secretly exchanged and deleted.
Vrrrm—
As the operation reached its peak, the circuits flowing across the surface of the full-body suit “Titan” that Hesperon wore glowed even more intensely.
In fact, the smooth progress of the current work was only possible thanks to Titan, the quintessence of this magic engineering created by Dwarf Howard, which was no different from a small cosmic warship.
No matter how excellent the AI’s performance, processing this vast amount of information with only the Mechanical Eye’s power—limited as it was by prosthetic eye size and energy source—would have been impossible.
‘This too is only possible because the two are interlinked through the [Chain of the Covenant].’
At that point, roughly thirty minutes had passed since he had burst into this office at Cheonjong Construction.
“…Found it.”
He had finally uncovered the true mastermind behind this incident.
“Daeryong Group, is it… That’s quite a big fish.”
Together with the secret secrets they had desperately tried to hide.
‘This should be enough. I’ll make them pay dearly for the trouble they’ve caused me.’
His work complete, Hesperon’s steps turned toward the rooftop.
The remaining traces would be taken care of by the high-ranking vampires of the Blood Alliance, who had greatly helped in covertly occupying this place.
All he needed to worry about was finishing this matter as quickly and decisively as possible.
‘I told her beforehand, but if I’m away from my seat too long, Riley will say something.’
Perhaps because the stress was severe now that she had officially begun her duties as the Imperial Crown Princess, her small daily routine was to visit him from time to time and chat about trivial matters.
Considering Riley’s personality, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that brief moment was her only rest time.
‘Well, if I can build intimacy with the future Emperor and provide mental care through such trivial things, it’s a far more profitable business.’
Arriving at the rooftop, Hesperon shrugged his shoulders lightly.
And immediately after.
The metallic suit, having activated stealth mode to conceal its form, cut across the night sky.
Leaving behind the Cheonjong Construction office, which was being quietly cleaned up as if nothing had happened.
***
Noon, when bright sunlight poured down. The break room of the Crime Investigation Division of the Supernatural Ability Management Bureau.
“Goodness, it’s been noisy since morning today. Well, with something like that happening, what can you expect.”
Gang Tae-san, who had stepped out to take a brief rest from administrative work in the office, sipped warm coffee and glanced at the TV screen.
There, the news that had started in the morning was still being noisily discussed.
—Korea has received considerable praise regarding public safety, correct? Of course, it faded quite a bit after the Seoul terror incident, but the subsequent response of the agencies and the excellent civic consciousness were incomparable to other countries.
—Yes, which is why this incident seems to be such a great shock. Surely no one knew that criminal acts committed behind the mask of corporations would be this serious.
—Moreover, the corporations involved are not just one or two. Just those revealed so far…
“Sigh, what’s the point of us catching villains when the country’s full of thieves like that.”
“Indeed. And then they whine at us about it.”
Clicking his tongue together with a colleague who had come to the break room first, Gang Tae-san quietly shook his head.
The breaking news that had started at the crack of dawn.
Its beginning was a single small-to-medium-sized enterprise called “Cheonjong Construction.”
“The nerve of these guys. Daring to do such things to government agencies.”
Naturally approaching public officials to extract internal information and exploit their weaknesses, as well as bribing or threatening them. Every one of the criminal acts revealed through the press was jaw-dropping.
No, not just public officials—they had meddled with every powerful institution, including the Returnees Association, so you could say they were even more incredible.
‘In the end, this is how they get their tails stepped on. It’s all karmic retribution.’
The criminal acts of other corporations revealed afterward were no less significant.
Especially the circumstances of gathering dormant villains to employ them as mercenaries were enough to make even the upper echelons flip out.
It was only natural that the news which had started in the morning continued until now, when lunch was nearly over.
‘Of course, the current flow of public opinion is just as suspicious.’
Sitting on the break room sofa, watching TV and sipping coffee, Gang Tae-san’s eyes sharply flashed.
His intuition, honed through experiencing and analyzing numerous crimes, was telling him.
That what was happening now was not something that occurred naturally, but the result of some external force being applied.
‘Various websites, small online newspapers, and even well-known media outlets. They started talking about related content as if they had made a promise.’
It wasn’t simply just that.
The evidence revealed in the process was so perfect that denial was impossible, and the tax investigations and search warrants that followed immediately afterward—as if they had been waiting—drove the nail into his suspicion.
‘And Guardians of the Association moved to sweep up the places where villains were hiding. For things to be orchestrated to this extent, an enormously large force must have moved.’
The press, the political sphere, the legal world, and even the Returnees Association had all moved at once.
Naturally, the Crime Investigation Division where he was located was no exception.
His team had not yet finished work related to the Seoul terror incident, so other teams had moved on this case, but he had roughly heard about the situation.
—Breaking news! A new fact has been revealed in the investigation. Chairman Bang Jun-yong of Daeryong Group is reported to be involved behind the recent incidents.
—Huh… if this is true, the repercussions will be enormous. Isn’t Daeryong Group one of the major corporations supporting Korea?
At that moment, along with the commotion of those delivering the news on TV, a major bombshell of a different dimension than anything before exploded.
“Daeryong Group?”
“What? Isn’t that a major corporation?”
“…This is a mess. Looks like Awakened are involved too; overtime for the next few days is a certainty.”
The news that the mastermind behind the uproarious events until now was one of the country’s major corporations.
Given the scale of what was happening now, its ripple effect would undoubtedly be no joke.
Hearing the noisy chatter around him, Gang Tae-san hurriedly pulled out his smartphone and checked the internet.
As expected, the place was utter chaos.
—Hold on tight! It’s going down!
—Argh!! I put in my entire fortune! Bang Jun-yong, you son of a bitch!!
—But is this really confirmed? If this turns out to be false report bullshit, I’m suing. Not kidding.
—Anyone wanna go burn down the broadcasting station together?
—But isn’t this a bit strange? No matter how I look at it, someone seems to be manipulating Daeryong.
—I’m an insider, and there have been suspicious rumors about Daeryong for a while. I just didn’t think it was this bad.
—I’m holding. Daeryong is no joke; it won’t collapse just like this.
Countless posts blazing fiercely and updating in real-time.
Gang Tae-san clicked his tongue and shook his head.
He wasn’t particularly interested in stocks, but for some people, this was a matter of life and death.
As such, they must be watching the progress of this incident with anxious hearts.
‘Come to think of it, I think Seong-hyeon said he makes some money from stocks. Will he be alright?’
His expression turning serious, he sent a short text to his friend with a worried heart.
That was the extent of the impact this incident had on him.
A relationship where he wasn’t entirely unrelated, but not directly entangled either.
Ding—
Or so it was, until that text arrived.
“Huh? A reply already… no?”
The sender of that text was a senior from another team in the Crime Investigation Division, a team currently investigating the case on the news.
He wanted to talk, asking him to come for a moment.
It was a sudden summons, considering he should be extremely busy with a case that had become the talk of the town.
‘Is he calling me for backup because he’s too busy?’
If that were the case, the contact would have come through his own team leader.
After a moment’s deliberation, Gang Tae-san shrugged and moved his steps toward the investigation room where that senior was.
Since he would find out what it was about once he went anyway.
They were in the same building on the same floor, so it wasn’t far.
“…Huh? What did you just say…”
But the words he heard from that senior after arriving there.
It was something he had never expected when he had come here so casually.
“Ahem— er, so. How should I put this…”
After clearing his throat several times and letting out a deep sigh, his senior dropped a bolt from the blue.
“Jo Hyeonjin… No, maybe the name Park Miyeong is more familiar to you.”
“Pardon? Who?”
A single sentence that turned him from an observer one step removed from the incident into a direct party involved.
Kang Taesan, who had recently gotten his first girlfriend and had been spending his days in high spirits.
It was the day he unintentionally returned to being single.
***
“It’s over.”
A low voice drifted through a deserted place.
It belonged to Hesperon, the man in the metal suit, who had been connected to the internet with stealth mode activated.
‘Now that things have grown this big, they won’t be able to settle it easily. Not that I have any intention of letting them. And if that happens…’
Even if misfortune were to coincidentally befall Daeryong’s leadership after they stepped down later, no one would go out of their way to help them.
This was not a punishment that simply relied on force, but a perfect blow delivered within the framework of society.
‘If I hadn’t had hacking abilities, I would’ve had to go through a more bothersome process.’
The fact that he had not attacked the Daeryong Group from the very beginning had also been intentional.
They, too, were one of the major corporations that formed a pillar of Korea’s business world, at least in name.
Naturally, they would have strings attached throughout every field, including the media.
But the companies they had handled like their own hands and feet, including Cheonjong Construction, were a different story.
Since they had thoroughly severed any trace of connection so that those ties could be cut off at any time, they could not bring themselves to step forward actively even when that side came under attack.
‘Just as expected, the moment that side blew up, they were busy cutting their tails off and erasing traces.’
But that only lasted a short while.
As news about the other companies began to break one after another, they must have realized something had gone wrong.
They had thought only Cheonjong Construction had been exposed, but their other underlings were also being dragged up to the surface by the hair.
‘Only then would they have hurriedly started responding, but…’
By then, it was already far too late.
While they had been busily erasing their connections, he had already mobilized every means at his disposal and fanned the flames to their fullest!
It had not been very difficult to make the matter grow.
He had not particularly anticipated a situation like this, but the enormous funds scattered as the Blood Alliance devoured Korea’s underworld and established Howard Industries were tremendous enough for this much.
Enough that shedding light on a case with solid evidence, not even a false accusation, was nothing at all.
‘Once it gets that far, it’s game over.’
If things had grown to that extent, it was useless for them to belatedly mobilize their connections and struggle.
The evidence they thought they had hastily erased had already been backed up and even neatly organized by Hesperon, who had been busy moving the previous night.
With even the small clues they themselves had overlooked laid out in perfect order, what more could they possibly do?
‘…It does seem like this got bigger than I expected.’
Would anyone believe that this massive scandal shaking Korea had been exposed all because of one woman who had tried to pull something on his friend?
It had been a while since he had replied to Kang Taesan’s text worrying about him, but no particular answer had come from him.
By now, he had probably learned the true identity of the woman who had been his lover and had mentally checked out.
‘Still, if it’s Taesan, he’ll recover quickly. That’s just the kind of guy he is.’
I quietly closed my eyes and prayed for his recovery.
‘Welcome back to being single, my friend.’
For some reason, I felt refreshed, but that was probably just my imagination.
Probably.