Chapter 113 – Hearing (2)
Woojin exited the Seoul Station’s 1st exit and was greeted by Soonghoon.
“You are back?”
“Yes. Where’s Minchan?”
“He went to the airport to greet her.”
“I guess he’ll be here soon. Let’s head to our office.”
“Yes, I will guide you there.”
He had spent a brief time meeting his family and Jiwon when he wasn’t at his Dimensional Domain. However, the rest of his time was focused on building his Domain. This was why Woojin had never seen the new office yet.
Woojin stopped after following Soonghoon for couple steps.
“What’s going on over there?”
“The people started to gather here and….”
“Huh. Jeez.”
Woojin smirked as he looked at the stalls lined up in front of the Dungeon.
There were fish-shaped buns and oden. A variety of street food stands were lining the street.
“Who purchases all these stuff?”
“The reporters and the civilians who come to see the sights all purchase these foods. It sells since the weather is cold right now.”
“So what’s tasty here?”
“We don’t purchase food from such facilities.”
“Stop lying.”
“The fish-bun bread over there tastes the best.”
“Buy me a couple of them.”
“Yes, sir.”
Soonghoon was the chief secretary. He had brought 6 members to guard Woojin. It was standard to travel with these men now. One of the guards hurriedly ran to a stall and bought some fish-shaped buns.
The reporters who had been on a long stakeout started pressing the shutters on their cameras when Woojin appeared. There were even paparazzis amongst them. The funny thing was half of the reporters were foreigners.
Koreans weren’t the only ones interested in Woojin’s every movement. He was receiving attention from all around the world, as much attention as a Hollywood star. The level of interest made the people of Alandal a little bit uncomfortable, but Woojin didn’t seem to mind it at all.
“Mmm. It’s quite tasty.”
Woojin took a big bite out of the fish-shaped bun, then nodded his head.
“It’s over there.”
“Huh?”
After a brief walk, Woojin stopped to look up.
“It’s here?”
“Yes.”
“It’s really close.”
“We followed president’s order, and we got the closest…”
“You guys did well.”
They had carried out Woojin’s instruction above all else. He was satisfied with how Minchan took care of business. The new office was only a 100 meter away from the 1st exit. The Dungeon Break had created a lot of vacant lots, and this 5 story building was standing by itself.
It was a bit too wide to call it a high rise building. The building was elongated to the side as if it had been a school building. Woojin also liked the sturdy wall that surrounded the site.
“What was it before?”
“It used to house military personnel.”
After the Dungeon Shock, the ruins around the Seoul Station had been left alone, and this building was located in a desolate location. The design was outdated, but it was built sturdy. It was the ideal building to fortify. It used to be a military base, so there were several additional facilities behind the walls.
“I saw the construction going on everytime I came out. So it was our office.”
“…yes.”
He was sure he had given Woojin a report on this very issue, but it seemed Woojin hadn’t paid much attention do it.
“When is my mother moving?”
“It’ll be done by next week.”
“All right. Let’s head in.”
“Yes, sir.”
Woojin went through the door that was placed within the walls, and he walked twice the distance he had to travel coming here to get to the building. There wasn’t much inside the interior of the building. They had basically cleaned and painted the building. The furnitures and items were being stockpiled, since it had to be divided between the divisions depending on their use.
“This is the president’s room.”
They walked past the secretary room and security office in front of the elevator, arriving at the spacious president’s room. It wasn’t much different from his previous room, since both rooms had a simple design. The only thing that changed was the fact that the conference table was a bit longer.
Woojin sat on the sofa. A female secretary employee brought him a beverage, placing it on the table. He glanced at the employee, then he asked Soonghoon a question.
“How many employees do we have?”
“We have almost 400 right now.”
This was the number of employees in the support division excluding the Roused. Of course, Alandal only had 3 Roused: Woojin, Sunggoo and Haesol.
“It’s about time to conduct an interview with the Roused. Set that up soon.”
“Yes. Currently, there are an explosive number of applicants.”
Currently, the Mana on earth was constantly increasing. Of course, the number of Roused would increase. Level 1-9 were civilians. When one reached level 10, one became a Roused possessing the power of the 1st Circle.
“Where’s Sunggoo at?”
“He’s currently clearing a Dungeon.”
“What star?”
“It’s a 6 star.”
“Ho-oh?”
Sunggoo had grown enough to be able to solo clear a 6 star Dungeon.
“What about Haesol?”
“She should be at the quarantine zone. Would you like to see it?”
“Huh? From here?”
Soonghoon smiled as he opened the blinders to the window of president’s office. Woojin approached the window, and he grinned when he looked below.
“You guys made a zoo.”
A quarantine zone wasn’t something very grandiose. It was just a place set aside for the Tamers, so the tamed monsters didn’t cause trouble for the civilians.
The open lot had been made into a safari. He could see the saber toothed tiger Jackson, and the Knife-beak Crows. There were also several monsters he had never seen before.
‘It’ll be great if she could tame a Wyvern.’
He had been right. She was someone who had a lot of growth potential, and her ability was developing at a rapid pace. He would more or less pick Roused that was exactly like Haesol.
“Would you like to see the other rooms?”
“It’s all right. Just turn on the tv.”
It had been around 1 hour since Woojin started to watch the TV.
“The vice president is here.”
“Tell him to come immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
After a brief wait, Jung-minchan, Melody, and the Holy Knights showed up.
When Melody saw Woojin, she immediately tried to get on floor, but he stopped her.
“To the Immortal, I….”
“Hey. Hey. That’s enough. Just sit here.”
“Yes.”
When she sat down, Woojin brought up the main topic.
“Did you bring what I had asked for?”
“I have it ready here..”
The Holy Maiden pushed forward the document bag she had brought as if it was a great treasure. Woojin skimmed through the thick file, when the Holy Knight James tried to slip in his two cents.
“This data was handed over to you as a gift of friendship by the US government, and it was to strengthen ties with the Titan Guild…”
“Ah. I already know, dude.”
“Yes.”
James replied sullenly. He was the bridge that tied the US and the Titan guild together. They didn’t consider Woojin to be the Roused of the Korean government. They viewed Woojin as a military force that was on par with a nation.
Minchan wondered what the documents contained were as he kept glancing at it from besides Woojin. He wondered what could elicit such a reaction from the Holy Maiden and the Holy Knight.
“President. What is that?”
“It’s a hit list.”
“Oh, a hit list… What?”
Minchan’s eyes became round. Why was president being like this again?
“M…mind if I look at it?”
“Uh. You can look at it.”
Minchan picked up the documents and started reading it. His eyes became round.
“This. This is…”
These were the corporate executives who had enlisted the help of terrorists in the Middle East.
“Huh.”
There were information about politicians enlisting terrorist help to engineer Dungeon Breaks for redevelopment. The politicians used it to threaten the people’s livelihood and wealth.
“This is….”
Evidence and money trails were listed neatly in the document for each figure. The source of the data was from the various US intelligence agencies, so their credibility was second to none.
No, it was information gathered by a foreign government instead of the Korean government, so it was probably more accurate.
Minchan’s face turned black as his face wilted.
There were several dozen pages of documents.
Almost half of them were politicians.
“A…are you planning on killing them all?”
“Of course. These bastards tried to killed me.”
This was connected to the terrorist attack on the US soil. This was why the US government had thoroughly investigated this matter.
“W…were you perhaps waiting for this?”
“Waiting for what?”
“You kept delaying going in front of the National Assembly.”
The National Assembly had sent requests for a meetup several dozen times a day. Woojin was immovable, so they had to turned down all the requests. This put the employees in tough spot. He had wondered why Woojin wasn’t going, and now he found out he had been waiting for these documents.
“Uh. Of course. It’ll be easier to get rid of them all when they are gathered in one place.”
“…….”
Wow. It felt as if he he was losing his mind.
It felt as if Minchan’s hair was standing on its end.
How could this guy think so efficiently? He let out a false laugh.
Woojin’s thought revolved solely around himself. He did this while ignoring the public opinions.
A Roused with Woojin’s level of ability was needed for Dungeon Defense, but no one would tolerate him committing a crime.
The world wanted a hero. They didn’t want a villain.
If the National Assembly was massacred… The aftermath would be horrible.
“Please reconsider.”
“Why?”
What kind of answer would he need to give regarding Woojin’s question? What did he have to say to change his mind?
“It’ll become complicated.”
“It is already complicated. I’m trying to simplify things before it gets more complicated.”
“…….”
It seemed Woojin had already made up his mind. What would it take to change his mind? Minchan was thinking hard, when Holy Maiden shook her head as she looked at him.
“Are you perhaps thinking about immigrating to the US?”
Minchan ventured a guess. Unless Woojin was prepared to leave Korea, the plan he proposed wasn’t feasible. No, it didn’t make any sense at all.
“I’m not immigrating.”
Woojin looked at Melody as he asked her a question.
“What’s Alandal?”
“It’s the monarch’s land.”
“Where are we right now?”
“We are at Alandal.”
“You heard her.”
“…….”
Minchan couldn’t come up with words to even respond to Woojin.
Woojin smirked.
“They dared to take a shot at my life, so I need them to fuck off from my land.”
He had his Dungeon here, and he had even moved to a new office, so why would he go to the US? He just had to drive those bastards out.
Minchan’s head started to spin. This was how the democracy in Korea would fall.
Minchan felt frustrated, and he spoke as if he was pleading.
“The people around you won’t be able to take it. You can survive it, but we can’t.”
“Huh?”
“Please have a look around your surrounding.”
Woojin’s gaze moved on from Minchan, who looked as if he wanted to cry. He looked at Soonghoon next, and to Woojin’s surprise, Soonghoon’s face had hardened. He looked to the side to observe the secretaries. They were looking at him with fear in their eyes.
“Hmmm..”
Woojin put the documents down on the table, and he leaned his body back into his chair.
“The king has to look over those that are still alive.”
Kiba’s words circled around inside his head.
‘Maybe I’ve been living by myself for too long?’
He had always been surrounded only by dead beings… Woojin shook his head, then he put away the documents.
“Contact the National Assembly. I’ll be going to them right now.”
“Please reconsider….”
“The National Assembly won’t see any blood today. Don’t worry about it. Call them.”
Minchan’s face brightened. Woojin, who was like a bulldog general, had changed his mind…. Even the Holy Maiden had a surprised expression on her face as she checked Woojin’s face. Did the Immortal really change his mind?
Something unthinkable had just happened.
*
“Aigo, assemblyman Choi.”
“Ah-yooh, hyung-nim. Please don’t call me assemblyman. You can drop the formality.”
“Huh huh huh. You’ve held public office for a very long time, so I should act accordingly.”
“Uh-huh huh. Assemblyman Park’s words are correct. Not everyone can be elected as a member of the National Assembly for the 4th time.”
Lines decorated Choi-taeoh and Park-sohgook’s face as they laughed heartily. Afterwards, Park-sohgook spoke in a serious manner.
“So Kahng-woojin is finally coming here?”
“Haha. Of course. Does he think he can do any better?”
“Chet. He’s a young man, so he owes his country. Of course, he has to serve his country.”
“Of course. He isn’t taking the sacred obligation of national defense too seriously. Since we are on that topic, is the offer we are going to give sweet enough? He even turned down the offer on making his organization be on equal standing with the Ministry of National Defense. Eh-eeng.”
Che-taeoh and Park-sahngho never served in the military for the purpose of national defense, since they received an exception, yet they spoke in a very serious manner.
“We have secure a collar around his neck this time.”
“If he wants to continue to live in Korean, then does he have a choice? He’s just using cheap tactics to raise the price of his body.”
“Well, isn’t assemblyman Choi currently best at interrogating people coming at a hearing??”
“Oh-huh huh. You are too much, assmblyman Park. I’ll do my best to grind that bastard down.”
That bastard was basically a bubble. The price on him had gone up sharply. They just had to undercut the bastard’s value to bring down the price of his service.
They’ll be able to decrease the burden placed on the country, and at the same time, the would strengthen the Korea’s defense. Weren’t they true patriots?
Choi-taeoh and Park-sohgook looked at each other as they laughed. They shared a gaze full of meaning.