Chapter 86

Chapter 86.

Looking down at Richard’s corpse, now cold and lifeless, I called Min Ji-hee.

The call connected before the first ring had even finished.

[Yes, Apostle.]

“Richard is dead.”

[…Pardon?]

“I’ll send you the video, so check it.”

I tapped Snowy a few times, and it sent Min Ji-hee a video that had been “properly edited.”

[Transmission complete. Agent, for blockbuster-level tension, I independently added a slight camera shake effect and a fade-out technique.]

‘Good job.’

[…Wh-what is this?]

I brought up the video Snowy had made as well and watched the short film with her.

As soon as the screen turned on, a horrifyingly malformed Degraded Entity appeared, howling with a chilling grinding noise.

The angle shook exquisitely, amplifying the monster’s ferocious momentum.

[Apostle. What is that Demonic Beast on screen?]

“It’s a monster called a Degraded Entity. That bastard Richard even went out of his way to deliver it here, planning to release it right in the middle of Hanam Fortress.”

[…!]

I heard Min Ji-hee suck in a breath.

Then the shot changed.

On screen, Richard, brimming with confidence, could be seen using one ability after another.

A massive golden scale tilted with a heavy RUMBLE, a blinding flash burst, and then came the grand sight of Richard drawing out a heavy golden hammer.

[Is that Golden Arsenal? Richard deployed all the way to his third ability…? Does that mean that Demonic Beast’s threat level was high enough for him to go all out?]

Min Ji-hee’s voice had sunk a shade heavier than usual.

Because to her eyes, Richard would look like “an S-rank Hunter making a desperate, heroic stand to stop a monster.”

The truth was that he’d only slathered himself in buffs because he’d tried to come at me and gotten scared.

Then the shot changed again.

The instant the Degraded Entity on screen unleashed hundreds of pitch-black tentacles with a grotesque scream!

BZZZT— POP!

As if the camera had malfunctioned from a powerful Mana wave, the screen flickered red with heavy analog TV-like noise.

And right after the noise cleared, the zoomed-out shot showed….

Richard’s corpse lying there alone, with a neat ventilation hole punched through his forehead.

[Hah……]

For an instant, heavy silence flowed from the other end of the line.

[…Even after deploying all his abilities, he was taken down in a single blow.]

In truth, that hole had been made by my finger, but the editing was so damn flawless that it looked like nothing except instant death from being pierced by a tentacle.

‘Snowy. Your editing skills are insane. You could win an Oscar.’

[That is because your camera angle was exceptionally excellent, Agent.]

In an infinitely grave and solemn tone, I said, “Yes, it’s a terrible thing. He couldn’t control the bomb he brought himself and ended up getting killed by it instead.”

[Then was that Demonic Beast subjugated by you, Apostle?]

“Yes.”

Naturally, the scene where I cut the sky apart with Wood Severance No. 1 had been completely edited out.

Min Ji-hee let out a long, shallow breath, as if she could not even begin to guess what kind of desperate battle I had fought against that Degraded Entity.

[Being killed by the monster he brought is his own fault. But once the American side finds out about this, they will go berserk…]

“Berserk? They tried to commit terrorism and got their own head blown off. If anything, we should be demanding compensation from the American Association.”

I nudged Richard’s sprawled-out corpse with the tip of my foot and chuckled.

“Besides, right before this bastard died, he shouted that he would donate the exclusive rights to the 40th Floor Mana Stone Mine and their entire S-rank Artifact warehouse to our country.”

[Pardon?! Those prime resources?]

Of course, Snowy had recorded all of that too.

“So tell Team Leader Lee Hyeong-je. Take this video and strip them clean according to Richard’s ‘will.’”

The dead tell no tales.

But when an edited video meets a greedy merchant, the dead man’s wallet opens without limit.

[Understood. On top of that… a ‘reasonable’ level of compensation as well. I will deliver it that way.]

“Mm.”

The call ended, and I stretched while looking up at Incheon’s clear sky.

Today’s farming was very, very sweet.

***

Min Ji-hee could not recover from the shock.

On the terminal screen, the paused video remained.

The composition was a mess. It had the typical “raw” feeling of someone carelessly pointing a camera in the middle of an urgent battle.

But to Min Ji-hee’s sharp eyes, she could see what lay behind it.

The “truths” that must have been edited out between the moment the tentacles stretched out and Richard’s fallen corpse…

‘I don’t know about the filming, but the editing is the work of a professional.’

To other people’s eyes, it would only look like disaster footage, but to her eyes, trained to the extreme in information and deception, it showed a tidiness that was far too clean—in other words, an “artificial perfection.”

The meticulous way the Apostle usually handled work.

The evidence video he had produced instantly, as if he had been waiting for this.

And even the existence of “Snow White,” the ultra-advanced AI by his side that controlled every electronic device and piece of information.

The moment all the clues came together, Min Ji-hee saw through the Apostle’s true intention.

‘Richard wasn’t taken down by the monster.’

The Degraded Entity, and Richard Sterling.

Both of them had been subjugated by the Apostle’s hand.

Why?

The puzzle came together easily.

It must have been a clear fact that Richard had smuggled in the Degraded Entity and intended to carry out an act of terrorism right in the middle of Hanam Fortress.

To the Apostle, whose goal was the revival of the Republic of Korea and a perfect clear, that terror attack, an attempt to throw a bomb into his own house, was an act that had crossed an absolutely unforgivable line.

Therefore, uproot the weed and make an example of him.

He had erased not only the monster that was the terror weapon, but also Richard, the root cause, without mercy.

‘The donation conditions Richard mentioned to the Apostle were…….’

They must have been the settlement money Richard had offered himself after being caught attempting terrorism, desperate to save his own life somehow.

But the Apostle had sucked out only the value of his life without mercy and executed Richard.

Then he had cleverly edited the video, disguised Richard’s death as an “unfortunate accident,” and even handed them justification to legally fleece the United States.

‘Human morals, justice, tolerance……. To him, those are nothing but cumbersome ornaments.’

Only overwhelming power and efficiency.

An icy chill ran down Min Ji-hee’s spine.

Because he was such a merciless and meticulous predator to his enemies.

After checking even the will Richard had sent to the Apostle, Min Ji-hee summoned Lee Hyeong-je without a moment’s hesitation.

“Team Leader, please suspend negotiations with the Association Presidents for now and come to my room immediately.”

[Hm? But this is just getting fun. The standby ticket prices are soaring through the roof.]

“Richard is dead.”

[……Hup.]

From the other end of the receiver came the sound of Lee Hyeong-je inhaling in shock.

But his surprise lasted only a moment.

As if Golden Mine had instantly calculated the “estimate” of the situation, he let out a low, viscous laugh.

[Heh, heh, heh. That table will be a hundred times more profitable than robbing small fries’ wallets. I will come at once.]

***

BEEP, BEEPBEEPBEEP—!

In one corner of the commander’s office, the largest monitor among the direct hotlines to each nation’s Hunter Association began ringing while emitting a red light.

The mark that appeared in the center of the screen was the Stars and Stripes.

It was the headquarters of the U.S. Hunter Association.

“They have come. It seems they detected the loss of his life signals.”

Min Ji-hee calmly adjusted her posture and sat up straight.

Lee Hyeong-je also wiped the deep greed from his face and set his facial muscles into a solemn, grief-stricken expression, as if he had never shown it at all.

“I have connected them.”

The screen turned on, and the face of James Sterling, the Vice President of the U.S. Hunter Association, appeared.

Richard Sterling’s younger brother.

An incompetent piece of trash who was useless, yet had been seated in the key post of Vice President for the sole reason that he was Richard’s blood relative.

[……Min Ji-hee. Just moments ago, our Association President’s life signals vanished. What in the world happened at Hanam Fortress?]

His voice and attitude dripped with arrogance.

But without wavering in the slightest, Min Ji-hee opened her mouth in an infinitely mournful voice.

“Vice President. I am truly sorry to deliver such regrettable and sorrowful news.”

[Sorrowful news?]

“Association President Richard was protecting us from an ‘unidentified Demonic Beast’ that suddenly appeared in Hanam Fortress…… and met a heroic death in battle.”

[……What?]

James shot up from his seat on the other side of the screen.

[Do not make me laugh! The Richard Sterling died in some puny Korean fortress? This is clearly an assassination! Do you think you can lay a hand on the Association President of the most powerful nation in the world and get away with it?! I will mobilize every elite Hunter team at once and turn Korea into a wasteland……!]

“An assassination?”

Even amid his fierce backlash and threats, Min Ji-hee’s voice was as cold as frost.

“Are you ignoring our goodwill, when we are trying to cover up the dreadful truth and preserve his honor?”

With one gesture of her hand, the “edited version” Snowy had carefully polished, along with Richard’s “will” file, was immediately transmitted to the American monitor.

On screen, the vicious monster roared, and Richard fell after facing it while covering himself in all kinds of buffs.

A corpse with a neat hole punched through its forehead.

And then came Richard’s vivid voice.

—I will hand over America’s exclusive rights to the 40th Floor mine and the Artifacts to Korea!

[Th-this is fabricated! It is a deepfake! I will dispatch an international investigation team immediately and uncover the truth……!]

“An international investigation team would be wonderful.”

As if she had been waiting for that, Min Ji-hee twisted up the corner of her mouth.

She lightly tapped the keyboard with her fingers.

DING!

This time, what poured onto the American monitor was not a video, but an enormous volume of confidential documents, cascading like a waterfall.

“The drug ledgers for President Richard’s illegal dealings with Mexican cartels, evidence that he was behind the deliberate closure incident on the 15th Floor, and even…… data on illegal human experiments conducted on underage Awakened.”

[……!!]

“If this is made public to the world… you should know better than anyone what will happen to you, Vice President James.”

A rough gasp burst from James’s mouth.

“Choose.”

Min Ji-hee stared straight at James beyond the screen and drove in the final nail.

“Will you have Richard’s dog’s death broadcast live to the global media along with all this ugly truth? Or will you accept the ‘will’ we have presented and allow us to package him as a hero who sacrificed himself for humanity?”

[Grrrr……!]

Cold sweat poured like rain from James’s forehead.

His small, greedy head began to spin as if it would burst.

He could not refute it….

Because James himself, who had helped clean up his brother’s filthy messes from the side, knew better than anyone that those materials were real.

At that moment, Lee Hyeong-je, who had been silently watching the situation, smoothly cut into the conversation.

“Vice President James. No, the next ‘Association President.’”

Flinch.

At the words Association President, James’s shoulders twitched.

“Your brother, who was a problem anyway, is dead. We will quietly bury the dirty shit your predecessor left behind. All you need to do is stamp that heroic will. Then the American Association, which nearly collapsed, will be saved, and you will become the noble next head of the most powerful nation in the world.”

[…….]

“For the 40th Floor mine shares and some Artifacts…… is that not a fairly cheap price to pay for the Association’s survival and your throne?”

Lee Hyeong-je’s tongue burrowed into James’s ear like a snake.

James’s eyes, which had been shaking with shock and fear, soon began to glimmer with the vicious light of greed.

‘Cleaning up the shit my brother left behind, and I become Association President…….’

James pulled the microphone toward himself with a trembling hand.

The fury that had sent him into a frenzy only moments ago, shouting that he would wipe Korea off the map, had vanished as if washed clean.

[……It is truly regrettable, sad news, but our Association President always used to say that he was willing to give his life to prove “the greatness of humanity.”]

James solemnly declared it while forcing out grief.

[In honor of our great predecessor’s will, I will actively accept his last wishes. Send the documents for executing the will by fax immediately.]

“A wise decision, Association President.”

Click.

The video conference ended.

“…….”

“…….”

Min Ji-hee and Lee Hyeong-je looked at the blacked-out monitor, then at each other.

Against the United States, the world’s most powerful nation that had always held the upper hand and jerked the Republic of Korea around, they had won a perfect victory.

“Gahahaha! As expected, negotiations are best when you grab them by the collar and shake them!”

Lee Hyeong-je clutched his stomach and began cackling.

The bomb that could have threatened the Republic of Korea had disappeared, and America’s prime resources and weaknesses were about to fall completely into their hands.

‘To think we would seize the initiative against America this cleanly…….’

As Min Ji-hee tapped the documents on the table into order, she did not hide the smile that slipped out.

The Apostle had created the perfect stage, and they had taken every practical benefit on it without a single regret.

‘Did the Apostle plan this far ahead?’