Chapter 151
Chapter 151
Suddenly, the reality of what we did skyrocketed within me. It would be a problem to be caught and kidnapped by Bae Jaemin's group, but the narrowing scope of the investigation also placed great pressure on me.
Moreover, although it was different from my current situation, there had been a case in the past where a User's summon accidentally killed a person. The case went all the way to the supreme court; it charged the summoner with manslaughter.
To summarize, if my summons or vengeful ghosts inflict damage on others, I'll go to jail. In my case, I would be charged with murder since I participated voluntarily-their death wasn't a mistake.
The funny thing is, though, this wasn't the first time I've committed a crime... 'It's different from the situation with Koo Kyungman.'
Now I realized what line I crossed. With Koo Kyungman, I didn't feel like an active participant, perhaps because Koo Hui-seo had finalized everything. Have I been too complacent?
However, regardless of my inner turmoil, the panelists on TV continued to speak. "So, if the murderer is discovered, what kind of punishment will the User receive? Are Users also imprisoned in ordinary prisons?"
"No. The hub has special facilities for imprisoning Users. The exact location isn't disclosed for security reasons, but vicious criminals who commit murder, assault, rape and such cannot enjoy freedom just because he's a User. Users cannot escape from this special facility and two of our country's L-class Users work as managers there."
"That's a relief. In all honesty, doesn't the general public feel a vague sense of fear of Users? This time, the crime affected another User, but the general public is far more vulnerable than other Users."
"Of course. There's...little chance that they could be a worthy opponent when it comes to pure martial force."
"However, that doesn't mean all Users should be branded as potential criminals. Most Users-most of these supposed people that make the general public uncomfortable-devote their lives to research within the Hub or dungeoneering. Despite the dangers the dungeons provide, haven't they been steadily raiding and clearing them out?"
"Yes. However, it's also true that there's huge rewards involved."
"If you say they do what they do just because of the potential rewards..."
"But, these days Users have far too much extra-legal authority; there are too many provisions made by the Special User Act that violate the constitution. Haven't there been cases where that's been abused?"
There were many different opinions among the panelists, so their voices began to raise gradually. There seemed to be differing stances between those who were on the User's side and those that wanted to shackle Users.
After checking into the conversation this far, I connected to [Ranking Gods], the User community. Park Hoseok's story dominated the top posts when I had checked earlier, but, as I expected, this incident also populated the daily boards as well.
In the end, succumbing to my restlessness, I began to thoroughly read all the new posts on [Ranking Gods]; among those, there was one post that stood out.
**********
Author: ㅇㅇ
Apparently that psycho wrote about 'Red Lotus' something or another, you know 1
Also, the H H guild members are crowding all over the place
Apparently B J M is going to arrive tomorrow
[Like] [Dislike]
Likes: 0
Dislikes: 0
ㅡㅡ
Comments (Expand)
Dodam: Are you on the island too? All the civil servants are in emergency mode, fuck
└Author: Real, what the heck is this...ha....I took a vacation, but was asked to return to organize a list of all the Users that came and went -_-
ㅇㅇ: Saw the body? lolol
└Author: nope, I just went to the scene in the morning and only watched the tape
OTL 2 : What's this about Red Lotus?
└Author: It's what the criminal wrote, you know
└OTL: On the ground??
└Author: I'm not too sure either, but probably??
└OTL: Wow..You think it the murder was maybe committed by someone loyal to the Red Lotus?
Venus: To think that Red Lotus fans would go as far as murder *tremble tremble*. Maybe while arguing HaHae vs Red Lotus they just went and did it.
└ㅇㅇ: Lololololololololol
└Danga: You can laugh at a time like this?
└Venus: This wasn't a joke you no-fun scholar bastard lolol 3. Just how many of those bastards flooded [Ranking Gods] when Red Lotus fell, claiming that Red Lotus was still alive lolol. They even dragged Bae Jaemin, asking why he was the only one alive lolololol. Every day, about 100 times, they constantly doubted him.
└ㅇㅇ: Real, listening to those Red Lotus-fans, you could totally believe they could get angry and stab people.
└Talgat is an Intellectual: Satan would shake his head-they bombarded Bae Jaemin with death threats
<What the criminal wrote on the ground>
Author: Top Notch Hunter
'To my old friends - From Jung Garam'
[Like] [Dislike]
Like: 53
Dislike: 7
Comments (Expand)
Volvara: Crazy kekekekekeke
Sae Geumho: Insane...
Ji-hee: For real?
└Author: Link to the Article
└Ji-hee: holy shit 4
Big Ta: What's Red Lotus? It was mentioned above.
└Author: The most famous Garam among the Users was Red Lotus's Jung Garam.
└Big Ta: Ahh...Then the criminal pretended to be Jung Garam and wrote something??
└Author: yup
ㅇㅇ: Was it really a Red Lotus stan 5...
ㅇㅇ: But, I heard they used the same skills as Jung Garam?? According to the article, the skill analysis concluded that it's about 98% consistent.
└Slight Salty: Assassin skills are all the same-the culprit must be from the same assassin subclass
└ㅇㅇ: Aha, ty ty 6
May: Red Lotus stans are so excruciatingly tiresome.
Yogurt: Wow, they really stabbed someone
└Yogurt: Honestly, doesn't this just sour Red Lotus's image even more? To be honest, after their death, public opinion has turned to shit because of these fans.
Writer: Park Hoseok's fingers were detected in the corpse's stomach, separated a ways away from the crime scene, and ripped into a few pieces here and there. Judging by the estimated time of death, he was still alive for a few minutes after being cut apart.
└Face: *vomit*
└ㅇㅇ: Disgusting
└Czech: Wow, fuck
Salape: Aren't there Witches who can divine a User's past?
└Writer: A few may pop up here eventually
ㅇㅇ: lolol well done. Fuckers, pretending like they've done nothing, swallowing Red Lotus's businesses little by little at a dirt cheap price.. Whenever the community or the media says that they're acting a bit suspicious, they'll sue and keep their mouths shut lololol. It was also fishy how suddenly Red Lotus's image became arrogant lololol. Park Hoseok must have died because he's done something worth killing him *tremble tremble* kekekekeke
└ㅇㅇ : Red Lotus stan-arrest him
└Face: *siren noise*
└Makya: I guess you really have this level of intelligence in order to be a Red Lotus fan.
ㅇㅇ: Wow, then is [Gae Bolg] going up on Auction soon? T_T I wanted it~
└ㅇㅇ: Are you insane? lolololol
└Sarge: lololol how fucking funny lolol
└Light and Shadow: Honestly, I thought the same...
└Calling: lololol Honestly, if you didn't think this way for at least 1 second, then you're not a User.
└ㅇㅇ: All of Satan's teachers are gathering here
└Author: [Gae Bolg] was destroyed...
******
Most of the articles had little substances, but a few had accurate details about the situation and photos of the scene. In particular, the last article I read had information on what Jung Garam had written.
I read all the comments, feeling a bit bewildered, '...Was it really okay for Garam to say all that?'
Of course, the public already knew that Jung Garam was dead, so it'll be difficult to connect those messages to me and perhaps confuse the investigation, but...But Bae Jaemin or the other targets of revenge may notice.
However, as if he had noticed my worries, Jung Garam, who had gone away for a while, entered the living room and approached me immediately, "What's up?"
"It's the...News...I've just been watching it a little."
"Hmmm." Jung Garam leaned on the sofa, showing little signs of agitation, and grabbed the remote control, flipping through the channels. He started watching variety show reruns...
I glanced at Jung Garam and asked, "By the way... Was it okay for you to leave your name?"
"Yeah? Hyung also gave me permission."
I didn't think that he would have gotten permission from Seo Dawon... Now that I think about it, Jung Garam was the type to persuade me at all costs if he thinks he's toe-ing the line, rather than recklessly enforcing his will.
So, I was slightly relieved, but suddenly a red alarm notice floated across the show that Jung Garam was watching. Breaking news slowly followed.
[Jeju corpse-scattering murder suspect arrested...34 year-old male User (Assassin)...Arrested while on the run.]
...What?
Startled, I stood up; Jung Garam turned to look at me. He must have seen the breaking news as well. However, Jung Garam's expression was bland, as if he was not surprised.
"N-no way, did we frame...?" Look at Jung Garam's sassy face, I asked if we had prepared a scapegoat in advance, but he shook his head.
"It's just...if you're an Assassin with a criminal record, they'll just pin everything on you. I guess we might as well thank them for making such wild guesses." As if he expected such a situation-as if he expected no difficulty in getting away-he sounded relaxed.
TL: We're definitely in the calm before the storm. BTW, ㅇㅇ, as you guys have probably guessed, isn't exactly a name. It's used as a placeholder, or 'anonymous' username in this novel.
Thanks for being patient you guys! Once again, schoolwork is piling up (got to grade so many students T_T) and I've been trying to both turbo this novel and another one (also BL! It's still early, but check it out if you'd like! It's called Show me your Stats! MC, after learning his estranged family had died and must now become the new lord of the region, wakes up to an ability that shows others' stats (including their affection for him). There's only about a year left till everything is ruined, and he has to learn to run his fiefdom well as well as find out who murdered his family!)
Footnotes