Instant Kill, Time-Stop Spellcaster - Chapter 31

The public opinion began criticizing the Top 10 guilds

 

Except for Palan.

 

For some unknown reason, no one in Palan had encountered dungeon anomalies.

 

And the media clung to this.

 

<The average dungeon anomaly encounter rate of 10th-grade guilds, about 3 times a week….>

 

<Palan was unaffected. A difference born from preparation.>

<The reality of 10th-grade guilds killing awakeners with complacency.>

 

The media particularly latched onto Seonghwa.

 

Under the media’s attacks, the people from Seonghwa had no choice but to remain silent.

 

Who was paying the media, one might wonder.

 

Those who knew, knew.

 

But the general public is easily swayed.

 

Especially in a time of growing fear.

 

<Seonghwa fails another raid. Elite small-team wiped out.>

 

It wasn’t an elite team; it was a training session for new recruits.

 

And the team had 8 members, double the usual roster.

 

<Seonghwa’s dungeon collapse leads to civilian casualties, almost 100 people? Estimated to be more….>

 

In reality, it was 61.

 

It was a play on words, rounding it up to “around 100.”

 

A class F dungeon anomaly had turned into a class C incident.

 

It was just an unfortunate natural disaster.

 

However, the general public had no idea of the details.

 

└Damn, not Seonghwa again? This is the third time!

 

└Why are they doing this in such a dangerous time?

 

└A guild that fails even an F-class dungeon is ranked 3rd? This country’s situation is legendary lol.

 

└Did you not know? It’s always been a one-trick pony guild.

 

└Seonghwa’s been controversial for a while. I bet they bribed the ranking board for their 3rd place.

 

└Ban Seonghwa from dungeon raids! Stop the murderous rampage of their death machines!

 

Ahn Seong-min , who had been broken by Kang Hyun, picked up a bottle of drink and threw it as he scrolled through internet comments in his hospital room.

 

“Ahhh! Damn bastards!”

 

Crash!

 

A nurse came in after hearing the commotion.

 

Normally, she would have scolded him for making noise.

 

But she just quietly cleaned up the glass.

 

She understood Seong-min’s anger.

 

The nurse, also from Seonghwa, had a grim expression on her face.

 

“Please, don’t. You’re not the only one upset, Seong-min.”

 

“…Sorry.”

 

“Please try to rest. You need to recover quickly.”

 

It was harder for him to hold back after hearing bad news.

 

He’d heard that this morning, Mar had been hit with a raw egg as she arrived at work.

 

Mar, an agility-type awakener.

 

She probably could have avoided it.

 

But she had been too stunned to react.

 

It made sense.

 

Out of nowhere, a raw egg.

 

‘Why throw an egg at another awakened victim, not even a guild executive?’

 

It was an incomprehensible mindset.

 

Perhaps it was a relative of the victims from the dungeon collapse.

 

They likely needed an outlet for their extreme sadness, fear, and anger.

 

In such a state, they’d be easy to manipulate.

 

But Mar was just another victim too.

 

‘Damn it…’

 

At that moment, another commotion erupted outside.

 

“What the hell is going on!”

 

“Stop it, Senior!”

 

The nurse sighed and left the room.

 

What happened?

 

Did they read the news comments?

 

Or did they get hit with an egg too?

 

Life was hard for the people of Seonghwa, especially in South Korea.

 

Then, a news article came up.

 

<Guild of Traitors Colluding with the Demon Tribe, Palan Denounced.>

 

###

 

Mar rested her chin on the cafe table and kicked her feet.

 

“…So frustrating.”

 

She seemed really pissed off.

 

Apparently, Parang had been pulling these kinds of tricks more than once.

 

“Ugh! This is so annoying! I’m going to eat sweets and gain weight!”

 

“Half- harpies never gain weight, even if they try.”

 

It was a trait of half-blooded harpies, a species that was half-human, half-bird.

 

“You know, the Mister is totally T and inexperienced.”

 

(Tl Note: “T” might refer to a specific trait, like “thick-headed” or something else depending on the context.)

 

“Tiramisu…? What? Cake?”

 

“I mean, empathize with me!”

 

Kids nowadays, using weird alien languages.

 

‘She looks like she’s having a hard time.’

 

Though she was speaking brightly, her eyes were moist.

 

She had seen several guild members’ corpses recently.

 

That’s why she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the internet comments bashing the guild members.

 

It wasn’t just the live guild members getting criticized.

 

The sacrificed guild members were in a much worse situation.

 

They were being insulted as the cause of the dungeon collapse.

 

The Seonghwa guild members were losing their minds.

 

Mar was no different.

 

She kept scrolling through her phone, frantically.

 

“Look at this, the way they’re subtly inciting people.”

 

“This feels off.”

 

“Right, right, it’s really suspicious!”

 

To claim that dungeon anomalies happen due to negligence?

 

It was blatant incitement.

 

“Ugh, those sneaky bastards! They’re so obvious!”

 

Mar’s voice trembled.

 

The incitement of public opinion.

 

Who benefits and who loses?

 

The connection was obvious.

 

But the truly strange thing wasn’t the public opinion, it was something else.

 

‘Dungeon anomalies. Palan’s collusion with the Demon Tribe. Is this just a coincidence?’

 

At this point, it was clear that the anomalous dungeons were part of the Legion Commander’s scheme.

 

He could feel his presence in every strange dungeon he found.

 

But Palan hadn’t been affected?

 

Only the guild that had Oh Hyuk jun, a member colluding with the Demon Tribe?

 

‘It smells fishy.’

 

He decided to investigate.

 

Just then, the phone rang.

 

“I need to take this call.”

 

He moved away from the table and answered the phone.

 

“Yes, Chief Choi.”

 

<Did you see the article?>

 

“Another collapse happened?”

 

<I’ll send you the link.>

 

She immediately checked.

 

It was a freshly posted article.

 

“Collusion with the Demon Tribe, Dungeon Anomalies Caused by Palan? Is this your doing, Chief Choi? Did you already crack open the loan shark’s ledger?”

 

<No, this is from an internal whistleblower within Palan.>

 

“Good.”

 

<But strangely, it’s not being publicized.>

 

Usually, this would have been a major issue.

 

Everyone was suffering from dungeon anomalies.

 

This exposure should have shaken South Korea to its core.

 

And then…

 

“Wait, the article just got deleted!”

 

<It’s being buried really quickly.>

 

He had seen the article before it was taken down.

 

It was a whistleblower, but there was no physical evidence.

 

That made it easier to bury.

 

“Is this Palan’s doing too? Wow, their control over the media is impressive.”

 

Do big guilds all operate this way?

 

But Seonghwa is still getting hit.

 

They rank higher too.

 

<The guild leader of Palan is quite capable.>

“Ah, the S-rank person.”

 

<And this is just my personal opinion, but… I suspect some members of the National Assembly might be involved in this issue.>

 

“Tsk.”

 

<If Palan is serious about it, they probably made a big deal with the Demon Tribe. Getting a few congress members on their side wouldn’t be that hard.>

 

Even after a hundred years, the top dogs never change.

 

<Dirty traitors…!>

 

You could feel the anger in his words.

 

No, this wasn’t even about traitors anymore.

 

They were selling out humanity.

 

“Send me the list of names.”

 

<…Looks like an A-rank villain is about to make a move.>

 

“Quietly anticipating, huh?”

 

<Hahaha!>

 

The guy was a radical.

 

<Anyway, back to the point.>

 

“Are we cracking open the ledger now?”

 

<I’m all set.>

 

“Okay.”

 

The reason the whistleblower was buried was because there was no evidence.

 

But what if they found evidence?

 

They had obtained the ledger from a hired agency.

 

It contained detailed records of the transactions between Palan and the Demon Tribe.

 

Even Oh Hyuk jun’s name was in there.

If that gets exposed, the game is over.

 

“I’ll be waiting.”

 

<Leave it to me.>

He hung up the phone and returned to the cafe.

 

But something seemed off about the expressions of Aden and Mar, who were looking at their phones.

 

“Hey, Uncle! Look at the guild chat right now! Quick!”

 

“Huh? The article got deleted!”

 

Looks like they had already read the same exposé article.

 

A screenshot and link were posted in the guild chat.

 

A guild member at the opposite table suddenly stood up.

 

“Th-these damn bastard scum!”

 

Then he stormed out.

 

Out of the building.

 

“Hey! He’s going to cause trouble! Catch him!”

 

“Let go! I’ll kill them!”

 

“You crazy bastard, that’s a crime!”

 

“Crime? Fuck that, Parang are the criminals!”

 

The office building erupted into chaos.

 

This was about to turn into a big issue.

 

She lowered her mask and loosened her neck.

 

“Ugh, ugh. Aah.”

 

He expanded her vocal resonance as much as possible.

 

“【Silence】【Forget】”

 

His voice spread throughout the building.

 

In an instant, the noise quieted down.

 

Mar’s previously trembling face went blank for a moment.

 

It stopped the madness by silencing the rage.

 

The memory of hearing “Silence” faded briefly.

 

“Cough, cough! Ugh, my throat.”

 

Mana exhaustion.

 

He had pushed herself a bit too hard.

 

He probably wouldn’t be able to raid dungeons today.

 

Since all B-class and higher members of the building were gone, it was only possible now.

 

Except for Aden.

 

“What did you just do?”

 

“Yeah, your mana pool is huge.”

 

“Excuse me? What’s with the sexual harassment!? No, actually, that was pretty cool…!”

 

“Shut up.”

 

Thankfully, no one else tried to rush to Palan.

 

Mar regained her composure, but she was still upset.

 

“Those bastards, really! Our guild members keep getting hurt!”

 

“Hang in there a bit. No one else is going to get hurt.”

 

It would take some time for Palan to be exposed and for things to calm down.

 

But in the meantime, Seonghwa would be safe.

 

“Huh? What do you mean, Mister?”

 

He had sent the list to Yoo Chae-young.

 

Was there something taking longer than expected?

 

Just then, hid phone rang.

 

It was Yoo Chae-young.

 

“Hey, why?”

 

<Why haven’t you been answering your phone!?>

 

He looked at her phone.

 

He had several missed calls and texts from the previous day.

 

“I don’t check my phone much. If it’s urgent, keep calling.”

 

<…I didn’t want to bother you. Since it’s after work hours.>

 

“Don’t worry so much. It’s fine.”

 

<Thank you for saying that.>

They had built a rapport of helping each other.

 

Kang Hyun wasn’t one to put too much importance on formalities.

 

<By the way! What is this? The list of dungeon anomalies!?>

 

“I just sent it to you. I’ve been seeing a lot of damage lately, so I thought I should send it over. Hopefully, you can keep the guild members safe.”

 

<You always say such incredible things so casually.>

Yoo Chae-young was touched by his words, as she had been troubled.

 

<Thank you so much… I’ve been worried about this.>

 

“Yeah. Anyway… huh?”

 

Mar tugged at his sleeve.

 

Her face showed a mix of surprise and curiosity.

 

“Hey, what’s going on? You’re talking about dungeon anomalies? That’s Chae-young’s voice, right? What’s happening? Huh?”

 

“I told you. You’ll find out soon.”

 

“Sis! Are you listening? Tell me too!”

 

“Sis! Is everything okay with the dungeon anomalies? No one’s going to die anymore, right? Sis!”