Chapter 207: Episode 207

Episode 207

“Everyone! Make no mistake, the Republic of Korea is changing!”

In front of a large crowd of reporters, Frost was delivering a lengthy speech.

“First and foremost is the process! Our current hunter policies and training systems are flawed. We must tear down these old, outdated evils and reform everything! Let me be perfectly clear: my goal for this term is the completion of that process! No matter who becomes the next Association President, I will build a Korea that will not waver!”

Frost’s powerful, persuasive voice gripped the audience. Some people even began chanting his name.

“Citizens! Think back to the days when you couldn’t even sit comfortably in your own homes, your hearts tight with anxiety! The disasters we face grow more threatening by the day! We must advance to survive! For a stronger Korea, for a new Korea, I will lead the way!”

“Woooooaaah!”

Thunderous cheers erupted.

—This guy really inspires confidence!

—We support you, Frost!

The live-stream chat was also filled with praise.

With a satisfied smile, Frost bowed to the crowd.

When the speech ended, the reporters’ questions began. Frost fielded them smoothly, without a hitch.

In truth, the only reporters allowed into the venue were those with pro-UNIX leanings. But even so, he was inevitably seen as a favorable alternative to the former President, who had spent most of her days fighting and trading insults with the press.

“Now, for the next question…”

With countless reporters raising their hands, the Association President pointed to the one in the very front.

“You have the floor.”

“Ah, thank you!”

The reporter bowed and spoke with shining eyes.

“Mr. President, you’ve emphasized the training process above all else.”

“Haha! That’s right. I will work hard to ensure that a second Hong Yul can emerge.”

“However, judging from recent developments, many non-combat Awakened feel excluded from your plans. A great number of them are voicing their dissatisfaction. What are your thoughts on this?”

For the briefest instant, Frost’s eyes turned icy as he glared at the reporter, but he quickly masked it with a bright smile.

“Excluded? Impossible. Of course, non-combat Awakened are an important part of Korea’s overall strength. I think some people are feeling left out because the process is still under construction. But rest assured! We will soon have a training system tailored specifically for non-combat—”

“By a training system tailored for non-combatants, do you mean reducing their opportunities for Dungeon assignments and making procedures more difficult? I honestly don’t understand how such a system is for them. Are you telling them to just stay in the training centers forever?”

Frost made an irritated gesture, and the reporter’s microphone cut off.

’Who let that piece of trash in here?’

He cursed inwardly, but his smile did not falter.

“Hahaha! The problem these days is all the fake news running rampant. If you look at the data from the Bureau of Statistics, you’ll see that policy satisfaction among non-combat Awakened is over sixty percent. Now then, next question. You, there—the one who raised your hand the fastest.”

The reporter Frost pointed to looked around in surprise, then pointed at himself before breaking into a wide grin.

“Me? You mean me? Hahaha! Thank you! I thought my arm was going to fall off.”

The reporter’s easygoing joke drew a ripple of laughter from the crowd.

“Many citizens say they feel reassured by your large-scale hunter control policy, Mr. President. Is this an effort to move away from the usual image of hunters as threatening and arrogant?”

“Hahaha! Thank you for bringing that up. My intention is…”

Frost launched into his prepared talking points. The reporter listened, nodding along, before cutting in.

“However, quite a few people have raised concerns about this policy. For instance, making hunters memorize a service creed like soldiers, forcing them into standardized uniforms without regard for their individuality, or dragging those with already grueling schedules into what is essentially a military discipline camp under the pretext of training. Many feel it’s excessive. What are your thoughts?”

Frost’s expression hardened as a murmur ran through the audience.

“A military discipline camp? Let me be clear: that is absolutely not true. This is meant to fill the gaps in the current hunter training system…”

“Each guild has already implemented systematic training tailored to individual hunters. I’m curious why you feel the need to impose another layer of training on top of that. What gaps, exactly, are you trying to fill?”

Frost made an irritated gesture, and the reporter’s microphone cut out. In the blink of an eye, Enforcement Bureau agents rushed in and grabbed the man by both arms. The previous reporter who had asked a tough question was already being dragged away.

“This is a matter that has already been agreed upon with the guild masters. If the guilds alone were capable of providing perfect training, then every hunter in Korea would already be at least rank 3. Is that not the case? That will be all the questions I’m taking.”

Frost calmed the restless atmosphere and smoothly steered the conversation back to his own narrative.

As the event’s closing speech began, the murmuring crowd was drawn into his words as if nothing had happened.

“At first, I had no intention of going into politics. I was content as the master of the number one guild. But it was former Association President Hong Yul who pulled me onto this path. I still cannot forget her last words to me. Right before she charged at that Irregular monster, she looked me in the eye and said, I’m leaving the rest to you…”

That was when it happened.

“I never said any bullshit like that.”

A voice rang out, as clear as if it had been whispered directly into everyone’s ear.

The hall fell into an instant, dead silence. Frost’s speech broke off at the sudden interruption.

“…What did you just say?”

“I said I never said that kind of fucked-up line, you little shit.”

With those words, the “Water Curtain” spread over the stage collapsed with a wet SPLASH.

From within it emerged a woman with blood-red hair streaming behind her. Frost’s face twisted in unconcealed shock.

“Wh-what…?”

“Hold on, that person—!”

Every eye in the banquet hall widened in disbelief.

The person everyone had believed to be dead was standing proudly on the stage.

“H-H-Hong Yul…!”

“It’s her! It’s definitely President Hong Yul!”

“What is this? What the hell is going on?”

The crowd and the reporters erupted into a frenzy.

Frost stumbled backward, his face drained of all color.

“This can’t be happening…”

The woman looked at Frost, the corners of her mouth curling up as she raised a hand in a lazy wave.

“Well, hello there.”

Frost was too stunned to speak.

Goosebumps raced over Frost’s entire body, and his limbs began to tremble beyond his control.

Cold sweat poured down his neck as if from a faucet. It felt as if his very soul were being sucked out of him.

“What’s wrong? That mouth of yours was running so fast a moment ago. Cat got your tongue now that it counts?”

Frost finally snapped back to his senses.

And he realized it.

Everything he had built up with so much effort was on the verge of collapsing in an instant.

He could not let that happen. He had to do something—anything.

“She’s a fake! That’s a fake!” Frost screamed, almost hysterical. “Get that thing off the stage right now!”

“Heh.”

Hong Yul strode forward, her blood-red hair whipping behind her.

Two massive hunters who had been standing by below the stage leaped up to block her path.

“Stand back!” one of them barked, grabbing her shoulder.

Hong Yul’s eyebrow twitched.

“Hurry up and kill her! Erase that fake from my sight!” Frost shrieked.

Hong Yul clicked her tongue, as if the whole thing was too ridiculous to even laugh at.

“Do I look like a fake to you?”

“Of course you’re a fake! You piece-of-trash demonkin! Of all people, you dare impersonate the Great Hero? That is an unforgivable crime!”

At Frost’s words, the reporters buzzed anxiously.

All of the Immortal Calamity Dungeons around the world had already closed. By all reasonable logic, there was no way she could have escaped.

“Is she really a demonkin?”

“She does look a bit different, though.”

“Prove you’re Hong Yul!”

As demands poured from the audience, Hong Yul smiled, looking utterly unimpressed.

“Why should I?”

Red mana began to rise from her body.

“G-GYAAAAAAAH!”

The hand of the hunter gripping her shoulder disintegrated into chunks, like meat run through a blender. He dropped to his knees, his mangled hand trembling violently.

“Damn it!”

The other guard stumbled back, yanked a gun from his holster, and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The bullet flew toward her in slow motion.

However, the moment it brushed against a wisp of red mana billowing around her like smoke, the bullet split apart with a soft crackle and fell to the floor like melted butter.

The guard stared, jaw hanging open, and dropped his gun at the sheer impossibility of what he had just witnessed.

“…Scarlet Flare!”

“It’s her! It has to be President Hong Yul!”

The place exploded into chaos.

Faces flushed with excitement, reporters shoved one another aside as they rushed the stage.

“Everyone, stop!”

The Enforcement Bureau agents tried to intervene, but the situation was beyond their control. Reporters were practically climbing over each other to thrust their cameras at Hong Yul.

“Proof? What proof?” she asked, giving the reporters a cold, mocking smile. “You want me to stand in front of the cameras and sell you some long, sob story again? Screw that. I don’t give a damn whether you lot decide I’m a demonkin or not. But here’s the thing.”

The corners of her mouth stretched into a demonic grin.

“Can you actually handle me?”

The reporters shuddered. More than Scarlet Flare, it was Hong Yul’s unique, crushing presence that convinced them.

The strongest hunter in the country, someone who could turn all of Korea into her enemy without a second thought, was standing right in front of them.

And Frost, watching this unfold, had a face that had gone completely rigid.

“Cut the broadcast and kill every mic! Now!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

“Hurry! I said hurry! We’re ruined!”

Frost barked orders at his subordinates, then clenched his teeth and glared at the reporters.

“President Hong! We just want to know the truth! What on earth is going on?”

’What are they talking about? I’m the President. Me. Frost.’

“Please tell us the truth!”

“President!”

As the reporters clamored, Hong Yul finally tossed out a reply, sounding bored.

“The truth? The truth is you all let yourselves get played by that piece of trash over there.”

The crowd fell silent.

Almost the instant those words left her mouth, the microphones and broadcast feeds went dead.

Sparks crackled from the cameras with a sharp SNAP!

Reporters screamed and dropped their equipment.

“It’s Thunder Emperor Han Jeonwoo!”

They could see a certified rank 2 hunter from Unix with his arm outstretched. Electricity, the same current that had just fried the cameras, crackled around his hand.

Frost shouted, “Hey! Erase that fake completely! I don’t want a single trace left!”

“Yes, sir!”

Led by the new Unix guild master, Han Jeonwoo, Unix hunters stormed the stage.

Frost retreated with his security team, shouting into his radio.

“This is the President! Block every exit the reporters might use! Confiscate every camera and phone and detain them all! If they resist, kill a few as an example!”

“Yes, sir.”

“And right now—!”

“Hey, Jeong Hajin.”

A voice cut sharply into his ear. Frost flinched, turning on instinct.

While Han Jeonwoo and the Unix hunters blocked the way ahead, a pair of golden eyes glowed ominously in the darkness behind him. Hong Yul’s gaze was impossible to miss.

“You’re supposed to be playing with me. Where do you think you’re going?”

The devil had returned.

* * *

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep