Chapter 232: Episode 232

At my threat, Executive Director Max nodded frantically, his face a mask of terror.

“P-please, please, please spare me! I did nothing wrong! I only did what I was told!”

I snorted. “On whose orders?”

“I-it was all the vice chairman’s orders! He said the infected drug was brought in under secret government orders to develop an antidote…! I swear I had no idea demons were involved! I really didn’t!”

“Thank you for telling me.”

Smiling faintly, I had Max take off his cleanroom suit and his shirt.

Then I made him put both hands behind his head and turn around.

“Don’t move.”

I began tracing a magic circle on his back with my finger.

Every time my hand touched him, I could feel him flinch in fear.

“When I raised questions about demons, they were the ones who revealed themselves and attacked me first. Correct?”

“Y-y-y-yes, that’s right.”

“I hope you will continue to show good judgment during the upcoming investigation.”

“Of course!”

“Other than the vice chairman, what else do you know? Who is behind this?”

“I don’t know! I really don’t! I’ve told you everything I know!”

I lifted my hand and nodded.

“You may go.”

At that, Max bolted for the stairs as if fleeing for his life. Jeong Seojin gave a wry smile.

“Wasn’t that a bit much?”

“It was just a formulaic circle. Completely harmless.”

I brushed my hands together lightly and pulled out my smartphone.

“Hello, is this Alliance Headquarters? This is rank 2, Kim Yusin.”

—“This is the Alliance Communications Department. What is the matter, hunter Kim Yusin?”

I curled my lips into a smile.

“I think I just landed a big one.”

* * *

My team and I took control of GreenCare’s research facility.

Over a hundred demons had come crawling out of this place alone. We fought until the snow-white floors were stained red, and a short while later, the situation was brought under control with the arrival of the police and a hunter team from the German Association.

As soon as the battle ended, I was questioned by the German police.

A foreigner attacking a domestic company was the kind of incident that could easily escalate into a diplomatic issue, but thanks to my status as a certified rank 2 and the urgency of the demon situation, I was cleared of all charges.

Max, desperate to save his own skin, actively defended me as well.

In the end, the true culprit, GreenCare’s vice chairman, and the related executives were all arrested and handed over to the police.

The vice chairman attempted to transform into a demon and escape while being transported in a police car, but he was shot dead on the spot.

I thought that meant the incident had been wrapped up nicely. However—

We were far too late.

GreenCare had already infused its products with the monsterification drug and distributed them worldwide.

The Alliance immediately informed the governments of each country, and the governments ordered an immediate halt to the sale of GreenCare products.

But in the meantime, far too many GreenCare products had already been sold. How many people had been affected?

My team and I returned to the Magic Tower.

“There are more GreenCare products than I expected.”

Samia, the Fourth-Floor Team, and I were gathered around Jeong Seojin’s laptop, talking.

“Oh, this lip balm! I used this all the time!”

“There are a lot of beauty products, too. I didn’t use them much because German brands are expensive, but… they’re really famous.”

GreenCare operated three independent brands of its own. The number of victims was likely to be enormous.

“So which products did the demons lace with the drug?” I asked.

Jeong Seojin answered, “The infected drug is known to take effect when ingested. So we can rule out bandages, adhesives, and beauty products. As for their pharmaceuticals… in fact, GreenCare had been steadily losing market share both domestically and abroad, pushed out by leading companies.”

“That’s a small blessing, at least.”

“However, there is one product that has held the undisputed number one spot worldwide for decades.”

“What is it?”

With a grim expression, Jeong Seojin looked at me.

“Cold medicine.”

The moment I heard that, every hair on my body stood on end.

“Bora! Where is Jin Bora right now?”

I rushed to the first-floor bedroom where Jin Bora was staying.

Crash, bang!

I had come down so fast I almost tripped, barely catching myself on the armrest of a nearby chair before pushing myself upright.

“Oh, Sunbae?”

She was lying on the bed, wearing a mask and holding a smartphone in one hand.

When not only I but the rest of the team, all wearing grave expressions, suddenly crowded into the room, she blinked in surprise.

“What is it? Did something happen?”

I strode straight over to her desk. There was an empty cup with a little water left in it and an opened blister pack of cold medicine.

I checked the name of the pharmaceutical company printed on the packaging.

“…Damn it.”

My teeth ground together.

* * *

The governments of each country ordered an immediate halt to sales and a full recall of GreenCare products, but they didn’t state the exact reason.

They were afraid of the fallout.

And understandably so. If they suddenly announced, “You are all going to turn into monsters soon, so please prepare yourselves,” it would cause utter chaos.

For now, they only said that seriously harmful substances had been found in the company’s drugs. That was it.

But rumors spread fast. The story that GreenCare’s cold medicine contained a drug that turned people into monsters was already circulating wildly around the world.

In effect, all that remained was for the Global Hunter Alliance and the various governments to officially acknowledge that the rumor was true.

However, a group moved faster than the Alliance’s announcement.

“We are GOT.”

Men wearing hoods with only two eyeholes cut out uploaded a video to YouTube, claiming responsibility for the incident.

“We are the ones who put the monsterification drug into GreenCare’s products. It is dormant for now, but soon the veins all over your body will darken and bulge. After that, you will slowly transform into monsters.”

“But do not be afraid. We have the antidote. This is only a means to an end. We do not want innocent people to lose their lives. If the international community complies with our demands, we will gladly provide the antidote and disclose its ingredients so that no more victims are created.”

GOT’s demands were absurd.

First and foremost: the dissolution of the Global Hunter Alliance.

GOT claimed that the Alliance, which supposedly protected the Earth, was actually the source of all evil—a scarecrow that only protected the powerful nations who paid the most.

They had a long list of other demands as well.

The abolition of all nuclear weapons worldwide, the removal of tax breaks for large corporations, drastically harsher sentences for hate crimes, the abolition of mandatory hijab laws, the legalization of homosexuality, and so on.

By mixing in highly sensitive issues of race, religion, gender discrimination, and wealth inequality, they attempted to obscure their primary goal—the dissolution of the Global Hunter Alliance—and make their overall platform seem more reasonable.

“We want freedom. We want peace.”

That was GOT’s stated cause.

They positioned the world’s vested interests as their enemies to justify their own demands. With those words, the video ended.

’Unbelievable.’

This was why I hated demons. It made my skin crawl to see them hold hundreds of millions of people hostage and then spout off about freedom and peace.

When I went online, I saw that public opinion was largely in line with my own feelings. Everyone was condemning GOT.

From behind me, Samia, who had been watching the laptop screen, spoke.

“The public isn’t stupid. I doubt we’ll see a split in public opinion.”

“I’m not so sure.”

I was skeptical.

For now, it made sense that people would react with immediate rejection to the shocking stunt GOT had pulled.

But what would happen once time passed, and the symptoms they described—those dark, bulging veins—started to appear, and people’s anxiety spiked to the extreme?

And what if it was you, your family, or your friends who were caught up in this nightmare?

The anger currently directed at GOT would, little by little, start to shift toward the Alliance and the global powers that refused to negotiate with them. That much was painfully obvious.

The conditions GOT had put forward were not trivial controversies that humanity, despite surviving for millennia, had simply failed to resolve by chance.

The more humanity fractured, the more advantageous things became for the demons. That was why they had chosen not to reveal their true identities, instead stepping onto the stage under the strange banner of “GOT.”

They really were clever.

“For now, it seems we have no choice but to wait for an antidote,” Jeong Seojin said.

“I suppose so.”

Of all things, it had to be cold medicine.

GreenCare’s formula held the number one market share and was distributed all over the world. While previous cold medicines had been little more than painkillers with some added vitamins, GreenCare’s directly treated the symptoms, which was why it had become a global bestseller.

And right now, it was winter, with the disaster-induced abnormal weather raging out of control. How many people must have taken GreenCare’s cold medicine by now?

I turned my head and looked at Jin Bora. The only victim among us was laughing brightly as she played with Eunsol.

“Tada! It was here all along!”

“Wow, that’s amazing! How did you do that?”

’Is she seriously not worried at all? She has nerves of steel.’

Just then, our eyes met.

“I’m fine,” she said, her voice gentle. “Please don’t worry too much about me.”

She smiled as she clutched the charm bracelet on her wrist.

“…”

My fist clenched. A surge of determination washed over me—I had to do something, no matter what.

Samia and I went back up to the ninth floor.

“Ea.”

“Yes, Tower Master.”

She appeared out of thin air in response to my call.

“Was there an antidote of any kind at GreenCare?”

“There was not. GreenCare’s only role was to develop the infectious compound and mix it into the cold medicine.”

“…Hmm.”

I had confirmed the existence of an antidote even before this incident. Back when we raided the demons’ Arctic research facility, Ea had attempted to hack into their main computer. The hack had been cut off midway when the EMP device went off, but she had personally memorized several key data sets. The existence of an antidote was one of them.

Of course, even if the demons had developed an antidote, there was no way they would have just handed it over. Just like GOT was doing now, they would have used it as leverage to shake humanity to its core.

Killing a few hundred million people wouldn’t be enough to wipe out the human race. However, the existence of an antidote allowed the demons to employ a wide variety of strategies. They could provide it to some, withhold it from others, and simply let them die. And if they could inflame conflicts among humans, incite wars, and stir up controversies to tear apart humanity’s unity?

Exactly. That was probably the demons’ true objective.

Anyway, back to the main point: the three demon research facilities we had destroyed. Two of them had vanished without a trace, and the last one, the facility discovered in Iceland, had been successfully recovered intact by the Sky Castle Lord.

The antidote data I wanted should still be there.

“Ea. What happened to the data from the Iceland research facility?”

As if she had already looked into it, Ea answered without hesitation.

“Ownership of the materials belonged to the French government, which secured the site. I understand that the Alliance later obtained permission from the French government and made copies of the data. The originals should still be at the research facility.”

Should I just do what everyone else was doing and trust the Alliance to develop an antidote while I waited?

Or—

“Let’s move.”

I stood up as I spoke.

“The drug was made from the components of an infectious monster. With the Magic Tower’s alchemical technology, we might be able to develop our own antidote.”

“That sounds feasible.” Jeong Seojin adjusted his glasses. “I’ll begin researching the relevant materials immediately. We’ll also establish a task force at Alchemia and start antidote development.”

“Good. I’m counting on you. Samia, we still have some charges left on the warp gate, right?”

“You truly do intend to bankrupt the fifth floor.”

“I—I’m sorry. I have been using warps a bit recklessly lately.”

Samia laughed, assuring me she was only joking. “Still, it’s better than sitting on our hands. Where are you planning to go next?”

* * *

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep