REAPER SCANS
“S-Suspects?” exclaimed the dumbfounded reporters.
“Silence,” said Choi Woojin in a low voice as he fiercely widened his eyes.
—A gaze that seemed to stifle the soul.
The eyes of the beast who caught the scent of blood flared up.
“H-Hik!”
“Urgh!”
The reporters trembled from the immense pressure.
Most of the reporters were ordinary people who hadn’t awakened; they wouldn’t be able to endure the pressure of Choi Woojin, who was named ‘The Hound’ and picked as one of the top three in the Association.
“Using the Special Officer’s authority, I will conduct an emergency investigation.”
Choi Woojin held out his Special Officer license that was issued from the Association.
He observed each and every reporter with his sharp eyes.
‘There are a couple Awakeners, but… their levels aren’t that high.’
At most, they were mere 2~3-Star Awakeners.
And even that was the minority.
‘If it’s an Awakener that can fool even my senses…’
Choi Woojin shook his head.
When he possessed the stigma of the ‘Hunting Dogs’, It wouldn’t make sense for his senses to be fooled.
“……”
Choi Woojin narrowed his eyes.
After he entered the press conference, no, ever since had he met Ohjin and shared handshakes, he had made sure to keep his stigma activated and had been on constant alert.
‘I couldn’t feel the presence of any sneak attacks.’
Being able to inject poison into Ohjin while avoiding his senses when he was right next to him?
‘Impossible.’
Without being one of those high-rank Awakeners that exceeded 9-Star, it was impossible to approach them while being able to fool the senses of the Hunting Dogs.
Even so, it was highly unlikely that a high-rank Awakener was actually aiming for Ohjin. Not only was there no reason or justification, but most of them were also currently at the ‘Demon Realm’, which could be said to be humanity's front line.
‘He didn’t eat or drink anything, either.’
If that was the case—
‘He was… already in a poisoned state before he met me.’
The only possibility remaining was that Ohjin had been poisoned during the trip from his house to Yeouido.
“Investigate the personal information and alibis of all the reporters.”
“Understood!”
After handing down work to his subordinates, Choi Woojin brought his nose near Ohjin’s blood/
Owoooong!—
The stigma of the Hunting Dogs engraved on his left chest radiantly shone out.
His senses amplified explosively.
The smells in a radius of several hundreds of kilometers rushed into his nose. Despite the smell being so strong, it wasn’t one that was exuded in daily life.
‘The smell of mana.’
He chased after the smell that those who possessed a stigma couldn’t help but release.
“…As expected.”
A smell that wasn’t from Ohjin’s ‘Stigma of Lyra’ stimulated his nose.
It was the odor of very faint traces of mana.
He moved his feet, following the traces of mana which were so faint it would be impossible to find if it wasn’t Choi Woojin.
“I’ll leave the site to you all.”
“What will Sir Special Officer…”
“There’s something else I need to investigate.”
Leaving the site to his subordinates, he chased after the traces.
The faint traces that were on the verge of cutting off connected all the way to the car Ohjin exited from.
‘He was poisoned in the middle of his trip here as per my predictions.’
There was no way he had been poisoned inside a vehicle that was in the middle of transportation.
And that meant…
“Fuu.”
Taking in a deep breath…
Choi Woojin placed his hands on the ground and lifted his back like a track athlete on a race track.
He would usually travel using cars, but…
‘There’s no time.’
If Ohjin got poisoned before they met, he needed to move as fast as possible since the culprit would be erasing their traces even at that moment.
“Beast Movement.”
Blue light scattered out explosively.
As the stigma’s mana wrapped around his body—
Bang!—
—He roughly launched himself forwards.
Tutututututututu!!!!—
He sprinted across the road at a speed that made the nearby cars feel like snails.
Sharp wind brushed past his face like knives.
Following the faintly connected traces of mana, he sprinted towards Incheon, where Ohjin’s house was located.
“Haa, haa.”
After sprinting for 20 minutes, he caught his breath that had become slightly ragged and stopped near Ohjin’s house.
‘The Lightning Wolf lived in a place like this?’
As Ohjin had received a lot of fame recently, he thought that he would obviously live in a nice house fitting that of an Awakener on a rapid rise.
“…This place is no different from the slums.”
The neighborhood was in such a state of disrepair that it was hard to believe that people lived there.
While he was walking between buildings that were half-destroyed—
‘Found it.’
—he discovered the location where the traces of mana became thick.
“He was attacked here; the attacker was so stealthy that he wasn’t even aware of the fact he was poisoned.”
“…I wonder.”
Choi Woojin looked around the surroundings and clicked his tongue.
‘There’s a reason why they attacked him here.’
Not a single commonplace CCTV could be found.
It was a location optimized for assassination.
“…It was said that Ohjin was recuperating in his house after losing consciousness.”
If so, it would mean that the culprit was hiding near his house in the first place, waiting for him to come out.
“……”
* * *
* * *
A planned assassination.
However, one question still remained:
‘Why did they wait for him to exit the house?’
If they were performing an assassination, it was sensible to perform it during the past week while he was unconscious.
“…What if someone else was in the house?”
Now that he thought of it, he had heard that there was a female who lived together with him before.
‘Was it Song Ha-eun?’
Choi Woojin contacted the Association and confirmed her information.
‘So she lost her power 5 years ago and recovered it recently…’
There were also significant contributions to the recent demon beast subjugation on her record.
“7-Star Awakener of Draco.”
Indeed.
There was a reason the culprit waited outside.
‘They knew he was with Song Ha-eun.’
And that was why they waited until Ohjin exited the house alone to secretly take out Ohjin, who hadn’t been able to recover completely after regaining consciousness.
“The reason… I don’t even have to think about it.”
Choi Woojin’s eyes shone.
It was what Ohjin had wanted to convey through the press conference, the hidden relation between Choi Jungchul and the Pandinus guild.
‘Since that evidence is in Gwon Ohjin’s possession…’
Then the culprit was obviously…
“No. I shouldn’t make a rash judgment yet.”
He was a Special Officer who had put numerous criminals behind bars. Using deduction alone without accurate physical evidence wasn’t enough to mark one as the culprit.
‘I need evidence.’
Even more mana boiled up in Choi Woojin’s stigma.
Perfect physical evidence that was undeniable.
He was the Awakener who was the most specialized in finding that.
‘The culprit’s trace… it leads over there.’
Passing by where the two of them crossed paths, he chased after the traces of mana.
It appeared that they tried to hide their mana as much as they could, but it couldn’t fool Choi Woojin’s senses—who was a 7-Star Awakener of the Hunting Dogs.
Thud, thud—
Choi Woojin moved his feet along the traces.
An eco-bag was thrown away in the middle of an alley where the trace passed through. Looking more closely, he could see there was green liquid stained on the tip of the bag.
The same smell as the one from Ohjin’s blood stimulated his nose.
“Did they carry the bag and poison him by acting like they bumped into him by coincidence?”
Then, it was understandable that Ohjin wasn't even aware of the fact he was ‘poisoned’. You wouldn’t expect a random person you bumped into along the road to carry a poisoned bag, after all.
“…There are no traces from here on out.”
Choi Woojin furrowed his brow as he observed the surroundings.
With the thrown-away eco-bag at the end of the trail, not a single trace of mana could be felt nearby.
There was no smell nor footprints either.
The culprit disappeared from the spot as if they had evaporated.
‘What method did they use?’
He had no way to figure that out, but…
Touch—
Choi Woojin carefully stretched out his hand towards the green liquid stained at the edge of the eco-bag.
Focusing his mind, he analyzed the mana of the stigma contained inside the poison.
It seemed that they tried to hide it, but he could feel it.
—The faint mana of Scorpio that was left behind.
“Indeed. There was no plot twist.”
His eyes shone fiercely.
Different from other stigmas, almost without exception, Awakeners with the stigma of Scorpio were in the Pandinus guild. If it was a skilled individual that could perform an assassin this discretely, no place other than the Pandinus guild came to mind.
With both suspicion and evidence, he could no longer hold off his judgment.
“The culprit… is the Pandinus guild,” he said, his voice full of conviction.
* * *
Intensive care unit at a hospital located in Yeouido…
With expensive medical equipment made using starstones surrounding him, Ohjin slowly opened his eyes.
‘Fuck. That hurt.’
As he had used poison powerful enough to melt parts of internal organs, he felt a horrifying amount of pain.
‘Well, I'll need to do this much to fool them.’
With a respirator over his mouth, he put on a slight smile.
Ohjin stretched out his hand and picked up his phone that was on the table.
Entering the news tab, he confirmed the latest news.
[Lightning Wolf, Gwon Ohjin, throws up blood in the middle of a press conference… ‘Shocking’]
[Is Pandinus the culprit? ‘Traces of the stigma of Scorpio’ left on the scene.]
[Throwing up blood, Lightning Wolf escorted to Hyesung Hospital… Doctor’s testimony ‘would have lost his life if it was a little later’.]
[What is the relation between Choi Jungchul and Pandinus that the Lightning Wolf was trying to say?]
Starting from the headlines, all articles were filled with stories about the incident.
“It seems that he found the traces.”
Ohjin smiled deeply as he looked at the articles.
‘I was honestly a bit worried he wouldn’t be able to find it.’
Choi Woojin.
The rumors said that he was an Awakener that possessed exceptional investigation skills.
‘Let’s see how people are reacting.’
As he had done before, he entered a famous community site.
[Ro Yu-jin : Breaking News))) ‘that’ guild attempts to poison the Lightning Wolf]
They’re trying to say that they don’t have any connection to this incident either lol
⌞JerryM: lmaaaaaaaaao crazy bastards
⌞DirtSpoon: ???: The stigma of Scorpio was found at the scene, but it doesn’t have anything to do with us.
⌞WoofWoofKim : ffs being that shameless must also be a talent;
⌞Venti is a Female : Then is the previous incident also what Pandinus did?
⌞WoofWoofKim : Do you think they tried to poison him for no reason? It’s obvious that something pricked them lol
⌞JerryM : The Starlight Lake guild must have felt so mistreated, they got dumped the blame from those crazy bastards
Seething public opinion.
All the arrows of criticisms that were pointed at the Starlight Lake guild were now pointed at the Pandinus guild.
‘They won’t be able to make excuses anymore.’
The public had already recognized them as the enemy.
Checkmate.
There wasn’t a word more fitting for the current predicament the Pandinus guild was faced with.
Naturally, they would try to deny the accusations and say they weren’t related in any way to the incident, but…
‘Struggle to your heart’s content.’
Without knowing about the ‘Black Heaven’, they wouldn’t be able to make a rebuttal.
What could they do when traces of Scorpio were actually left at the crime scene?
The Pandinus guild would receive suspicion for poisoning along with what happened during the subjugation.
‘Now all I have to do is chill here while receiving free food.’
There wasn’t a real reason to step up any longer…
The top ten guilds that were receiving criticism until then would personally step up and shred them to pieces.
‘I’ll send some messages to Ha-eun since she might be worried.’
Although she didn’t know about the Black Heaven, she was most likely aware he fabricated the situation.
“Yawn.”
Ohjin stretched out as he yawned.
Placing his phone back on top of the table, he relaxed as he lay down on the bed.
“You shouldn’t have scammed so carelessly.”
‘Like I said… it’s an unlosable game for me.’
T/N: Another easter egg in the community comments
Ro Yu-jin (로유진): Author of ‘The Second Coming of Gluttony’ and ‘M E M O R I Z E’
‘Venti’ is once again from Genshin like Ningguang.
