“I don’t care who came first. I’m going in.”
Choi Yeonseung took the lead. He didn’t care if a lunatic had arrived there first and acted outside the law. He would just do what he had to do.
But...
“...”
Choi Yeonseung frowned and looked up at the building. It wasn’t just the hunters waiting behind him; the dignitaries from the government were also nervous.
‘Don’t tell me he’s changed his mind...?’
‘Hunter Choi Yeonseung isn’t the type of person to do that.’
‘But everyone has their limits. If he’s outraged by our proposal...’
‘We can’t make a higher offer because there’s a fixed budget! If we spend a year’s budget on this, what should we do with the other departments?’
“They’re gone.”“Huh?”
“They ran away,” said Choi Yeonseung as he pointed at the towering Parker Group building, which seemed to pierce the skies.
Hunters, executives, and various employees had been here six hours ago, but now only the traces of fighting remained, not a single person in sight.
Everyone had fled.
***
“Huh? Is this a joke?!” Chairman Parker snapped.
Tardus showed his true abilities when Isabella Meyer invaded with her subordinates. He proved to be an overwhelming force, toying with and effortlessly suppressing the A-grade hunters. His outstanding performance was a testament to the sheer power of the Master of Slowness and Silence.
Seeing him in action, Alex Parker had looked forward to seeing Tardus defeat Choi Yeonseung, an S-grade hunter!
However, Tardus did something completely unexpected after defeating Isabella Meyer. He fled with the members of the group, including the chairman.
Chairman Parker, who had been expecting a heated fight, couldn’t help being shocked.
“I didn’t join you to watch you run away!”
“I saved… your life…and I heard... that humans can still work... even in places like this...”
At the moment, the chairman and the executives were in a huge airship that Tardus had summoned. The airship, which was slowly flying over the North Atlantic, had a bizarre and unique design, but it was enough to hold a large number of people.
“Stupid!” Chairman Parker shouted. But then he was taken aback. His voice suddenly became quieter.
Tardus warned, “Speak... as quietly as possible... Master doesn’t like noise...”
“Do you know what it means for the chairman of a company to go missing? Those who have only been watching until now will attack!”
The clans under Parker Group, which never would’ve left despite being afraid of the chairman, would likely change sides and shout, “Everything is over!” as soon as they realized that Alex Parker was gone.
Tardus wasn’t aware of the obvious repercussions, which was why he had decided to flee without thinking twice.
“Don’t worry... That doesn’t matter.”
“...?!”
“You will soon... understand...”
***
-Alex Parker, allegedly colluding with the Master of Slowness and Silence...Seeking asylum?
-Alex Parker’s statement of his position... ‘I am upset with these baseless accusations… The truth will soon come out’...Where are the whereabouts of the chairman?
-The Parker Group’s stock price has fallen drastically. The shareholders are shouting!
Following Alex Parker’s disappearance, the head office of Parker Group was being investigated on the pretext of various charges. It definitely wasn’t looking good for Parker Group. All the subsidiaries were as noisy as beehives.
At this rate, there was a good chance that the affiliates that hadn’t been performing well would soon go bankrupt…
…Or rather, that was what everyone expected, but the situation was actually the opposite!
-The stock price of Parker Energy has soared! Parker Energy has become the leader of the core supply business! Their supply is enough to light up the entire South American continent...
-Parker Artifacts has signed additional contracts with forty-four clans. A new tempest in the industry!
Experts were stunned by this ridiculous turn of events. The chairman had fled along with the executives, and yet such a large-scale project had succeeded?
Choi Yeonseung knew right away.
“That coward! A constellation is meddling in human affairs!”
“That’s so despicable,” Aine agreed.
The goddess of sloth looked at Choi Yeonseung like he was pathetic.
“This is the core that Parker Energy is supplying at a much lower price than the original one. Experts have analyzed it time and time again, and their conclusion is that there are no big issues with the core.”
Oil and shale gas companies used to dominate the energy market prior to the raid era, but now, cores reigned supreme. After all, it was a natural source of immense energy that didn’t pollute the environment!
Only certain companies could secure cores and extract energy from them. However, Parker Energy suddenly released a core at a much lower price than the original one.
Naturally, many companies and countries found it suspicious, and they paid close attention to its performance. Parker Energy’s cores seemed incredibly efficient, and after thorough research, no one managed to find any flaws with them.
With that, everyone was naturally inclined to use them.
Moreover, the Parker Group’s artifact company was releasing artifacts into the market at similarly low prices. Choi Yeonseung had done a similar thing before, so he had a hunch about it.
The Master of Slowness and Silence had come forward.
‘It sucks to have my own strategy used against me.’
Up to this point, no constellations had participated in human projects and strategized for them. Humans were ants in the eyes of the constellations, and no one expected transcended beings to concern themselves with the trifles of ants. Above all, constellations were too proud for such things.
And yet, the Master of Slowness and Silence was getting involved in these projects, as if he had made up his mind.
Maybe the disappearance of Chairman Parker and the other executives...
‘I guess he took them away to prevent them from doing anything stupid.’
If Choi Yeonseung built trust with his subordinates, evil god constellations controlled their subordinates with fear. It was even more so if they were holding them on a leash to make sure they didn’t do anything wrong.
-There is no way the Master of Slowness and Silence would do something like that without thinking...
-I guess.
Choi Yeonseung was sure there was something wrong with those products. A human-born constellation like him would give away quality products without any problems in order to make a bit of extra profit, but an evil god constellation wouldn’t do something like that.
The problem was...
‘I don’t know how to stop it.’
If he went up to the people buying cores from Parker Group and warned, “The Master of Slowness and Silence is plotting something evil! Don’t buy it!”, only a few people would believe him. If anything, they would pretend to listen out of fear, given Choi Yeonseung’s status as an S-grade hunter, but most people would definitely disregard his advice.
-Isn’t that despicable of him?
-Don’t buy cores at such a price…?
...Wouldn’t such reactions come out?
“I have to tell them about it. I can’t stay still and do nothing.”
“You might convince them. You’ve saved so many people…”
“I’m not there yet.” Choi Yeonseung shook his head and looked at Aine. “People are quick to forget the grace they’ve received.”
‘I feel like punching him…’ Aine was a bit upset hearing Choi Yeonseung speak like that.
***
‘Did I... pick wrong...?’ Tardus thought to himself as he watched the humans on the airship.
The household members of the Master of Slowness and Silence had been regarding Choi Yeonseung as a dangerous figure for quite some time.
Not only had he succeeded in the Abyss raid, which had been considered impossible to complete, but he was even going for another kingdom. He was like an unstoppable assassin, cutting down evil god constellations left and right.
Normally, the best way to deal with such human heroes was to take them down on the battlefield. Striking down a mortal wasn’t that difficult.
...And yet Choi Yeonseung wouldn’t fall.
Seeing that the efforts of various evil god constellations were fruitless, Tardus decided to change his strategy. He would let Choi Yeonseung be and focus on the goal at hand!
Humans were generally swayed more by power and money rather than by personal strength, so Tardus reached out to them. He had occupied nearly half of China, so he roughly understood how the human system worked.
Greed and riches.
He figured that if he could get his hands on the right human, he could use them to wreak havoc on Earth. At first, he tried to obtain a large Chinese company...
-They are pretty useful...No...Wait...Isn’t this facility different from what is written in the ledger...?
-I-I’m sorry.I was going to fill it up soon, but since we’ve received investment...!
-This place...It’s okay...No...Why do you owe so much?
-It’s okay!Debt is also an asset in a way...!
-...This place will be useful...Wait...?Your artifacts...Aren’t they... artifacts from other companies...?
-We got them from Europe, but you don’t have to worry! They won’t come all the way here to protest!
...There was something wrong with them.
They either produced inferior technology, or tried to manipulate things, or had various administrative issues, or they were being so shady that no other country would conduct business with them later on.
That was why Tardus had chosen Parker Group. They had all kinds of facilities all over the world, had a lot of land in China, they were credible, and most of all, they had recently found themselves in a ditch.
...But things weren’t going as well as Tardus had expected.
-I’m sorry.We have decided not to sign a contract with Parker Energy this time.
-What…? You’ll regret it! Do you know how many people are lining up to buy our cores?
-Yes, but our decision is final… Sorry…
Surprisingly, quite a few countries and companies were reluctant to make a contract with Parker Group.
It made no sense to Tardus. Humans were greedy creatures that would even buy goods from their enemies if they were cheaper than normal. And yet many people were unwilling to buy the cores…?
‘Is it… because of him?’ Tardus thought as he looked at Chairman Parker.
Otherwise, it made no sense for things to progress this slowly.
“We need to increase the working hours at the factory,” Chairman Parker declared firmly.
The facilities around the world were still available, but the production facilities in the US couldn’t do anything openly because all eyes were on them.
The Master of Slowness and Silence had given them extra land in China, but there was no way that those hastily-built facilities could operate at a good capacity already. They were still working with trial and error.
Various elements, from the facilities themselves to the technicians, had to be perfect in order to ensure smooth production at a factory. If any one of them didn’t work, the workers had to compensate with something else.
“No... even now... humans are moving too fast...” Tardus argued sternly. As a household member of the Master of Slowness and Silence, humans who moved too much couldn’t be tolerated.
‘This son of a bitch is driving me up the wall!’
Parker was outraged by Tardus’ remarks. He had never expected the household member of a constellation to hold him back like this. Those at the factory were only working sixteen hours a day, and yet Tardus reacted in such a ridiculous manner…
‘As expected... he might be incompetent...’
Tardus changed his mind about Chairman Parker. He was just asking for more time because he couldn’t do his job properly.
-Breaking news! Jacob Parker, the eldest son of the Parker family, has caused a stir by becoming a whistleblower about Parker Energy. He declares that Parker Energy is currently producing cores through an unstable and dangerous process… He warns that the cores are at the risk of explosion!
“...??”
Tardus blinked in disbelief. He had been under the impression that he fully comprehended how human affairs worked, but it turned out that the human world was much darker and more complex than he had thought.
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