Chapter 71
Thud.
The severed necklace dropped to the floor.
"Haa..."
Only then did I let out the breath I'd been holding and relax my stiff shoulders.
It probably looked as if I'd just casually snapped the necklace in two, but in truth I'd concentrated so hard on that one motion that my body was already tiring from it.
To be honest, it was a bit of a gamble.
That necklace's durability—said to be unbreakable even if run over by a car—and my spear, forged by sacrificing the spearhead the Lizardman had given me and a high-grade mana stone.
I couldn't be sure which of the two was stronger.
Fortunately, my spear's piercing power was a little stronger.
Breathing hard, I casually turned my gaze out the window.
If I'd known this would happen, I should've brought a combat drone or two.
Out there beyond the window, my drones were circling in the sky and carrying out their respective roles.
Right near the window, the reconnaissance drone was pressed close, faithfully recording this whole commotion in vivid high-definition video and audio.
Farther out in the sky, the combat drone and sniper drone were circling at set distances, perfectly cutting off the enemy's escape routes.
If I'd brought even one of the combat drones I left outside into this cramped room.
I wouldn't have needed to leap in and swing my spear; I could've just pointed a gun at them and cleanly suppressed them.
Since I misjudged the situation, there was nothing I could do about my body suffering first.
"This is insane...! These awakeners were the result of all the hardship I went through to gather them...!"
"Hardship? You probably just said a few words to the agents."
"..."
Representative Choi, kneeling on the floor, shouted with a dazed look as he clawed at the ground.
At that dramatic outcry, the elder answered flatly.
Unable to deny it, Representative Choi shut his mouth.
"What am I supposed to do...!"
No matter how much Representative Choi thrashed about, the outcome had already been completely decided.
Most of it had already played out exactly as the elder had predicted.
"Then I suppose it's time to wrap this up."
At that moment, Elder Lee Han-yeon strode forward.
His voice was calm, but his face was burning with rage.
An expression unlike his usual one.
It was the same expression he had worn when facing the bastards who had once threatened the Suwon safe zone.
"Ugh...!"
Startled by that pressure, Representative Choi raised both hands and shouted.
An obvious act of surrender.
"I-I'll cooperate. I'll cooperate, so please just spare my life!"
The sight of him begging to live, sprawled on the floor, was truly pathetic—nothing like his earlier shouting that the awakeners should all be killed.
The elder looked down at Representative Choi.
Then, after giving my reconnaissance drone, which was secretly filming from outside the window, a sidelong glance, he suppressed his anger and asked in a low, oppressive voice.
"Candidate No. 1, is that bastard plotting something similar to you?"
The moment he asked that, Representative Choi began spilling the secrets he'd kept hidden.
"Th-that bastard is the same as me! He only took one of the five necklaces!"
"He took one? Why?"
"Because he was planning to wait and see how the election played out, then put the necklace on Lee Han-yeon or that Awakener Union bastard!"
At Representative Choi's confession, a heavy silence settled over the office for a moment.
Then someone clicked their tongue, and someone else let out a hollow laugh.
But Elder Lee Han-yeon wasn't surprised at all; instead, he nodded as if it were only natural and murmured,
"I knew it."
"...You knew?"
"I knew about the necklaces and figured that, if there were bastards who could put a necklace around someone's neck and control them, there'd be no reason they couldn't do the same to a competing candidate. In that case, I thought they might well be aiming for my neck too."
After answering calmly, the elder gave me a subtle nod.
That was his signal that we'd gotten all the footage we needed from Representative Choi's confession just now.
I gestured toward the reconnaissance drone circling in the air.
As soon as I gave the order, the reconnaissance drone moved its mechanical arm, pressed the stop-recording button on the smartphone, and turned off the screen.
Representative Choi, who happened to notice my gesture, looked out the window.
"...What? What's that? A drone?"
"Thanks to you, we've got some excellent footage. The drone's video from just outside the window will soon be uploaded to the gallery, and this whole incident will be laid bare to everyone in the Yeouido safe zone."
"...Huh?"
At the elder's words, Representative Choi, who had been lying face-down on the floor, groped at the floor with his hands and got to his feet.
"W-what are you saying! Filming...? That wasn't the deal! You said if I surrendered obediently and cooperated...!"
"Heh. Different from the deal, you say..."
The elder let out a faint chuckle.
"Have you ever seen a politician who doesn't break a promise once or twice?"
"No...!"
"Honestly, do you have to treat someone like a bad person just because they told one lie? You were the ones trying to kill us."
"..."
At that single remark, Representative Choi shut his mouth and couldn't say another word.
Leaving the silent Representative Choi behind, the elder turned to me and gave a gentle smile.
"Thank you so much for protecting us. We'll handle the rest on our side, so go inside and get some rest."
"Is it really okay for you to stay here without me?"
I pointed my chin at the awakeners who, perhaps because of the aftereffects of the necklace being removed, were still slumped on the floor, blinking dazedly.
Even if the brainwashing had been lifted, they were the ones who had just been attacking us.
But the elder shook his head with a smile.
"Don't worry. Those guys will be our most dependable allies."
"Ah..."
Come to think of it, that made sense.
Up to now, the people controlled by the necklaces would, once they came to their senses, direct their fury first and foremost toward—
Probably Representative Choi, sitting over there.
The elder took one step closer to me, then, after glancing around to check whether anyone was listening, whispered in a very low voice.
"To be frank with you, I plan to take care of most of the agents who carried out the dirty work here today, along with the two candidates and their lackeys."
Deal with them.
I could tell what that meant.
"It won't end with just exposing the video. Even if they're driven out of the safe zone, they're the type who'd set up a new safe zone or group and come back to attack."
Lee Han-yeon added that, since those troublesome bastards were more capable than expected, leaving them alive would only let them come back for revenge.
"...Since you're deeply involved in this too, and because I want us to keep working together in the future, I didn't want to deceive you. So I'm telling you beforehand."
At those words, I quietly nodded.
"I know it's unavoidable."
They were people who had already crossed every moral and ethical line.
The first time is hard; the second time is easy.
If you don't cut off the source of trouble in advance, they might do something even worse later.
Especially now, with some malicious constellations even handing out necklaces to tempt people into evil.
"Let's go."
I led the golem and stepped out through the shattered doorframe.
After leaving the hallway, I got my phone back from the drone that had flown in through the window.
I sent the saved video to one of the elder's associates, who had already been waiting as planned.
Soon they'd edit the video and upload it to the Survival Gallery along with a write-up.
The gallery was probably going to be in an uproar.
I headed for the train, anticipating the reaction.
Ha-seon was probably going to be quite busy for the next few hours.
***
The uploaded video had been up for less than an hour, but it already had the most views and comments of any post so far.
Even though it was just two videos uploaded without any particular explanation, the response was enormous.
---
[Title : Exposé Video of Yeouido Candidates No. 1 and 2.]
(Video)
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ : What the hell, why isn't this clickbait?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Seriously, why isn't it a gross-out image...
Busan Flame Fist : So you're saying that's the slave collar from fantasy comics, and they actually used it on nonhuman races and humans?
Sweet : I always thought Representative Choi was shady when it came to ordering people around... I knew this would happen.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : If you'd known, you should've stopped him, you bastard.
I Want a Burger : I thought something was up when Candidate No. 1's agents went somewhere by car earlier—were they going to catch elves and dwarves?
ㅇㅇ : The issue isn't whether the candidates should step down; shouldn't those bastards be kicked out of the safe zone? They're seriously trash...
ㄴ Survivor Gallery User : What the hell, this ridiculous trash-bashing;
---
The expected reaction dominated the gallery.
Candidates No. 1 and 2 were basically finished with just this one video.
In fact, word spread that the two candidates had resigned, and it probably wasn't a lie.
...More like something close to a forced resignation.
As the discussion about the video continued, people other than the candidates began to be mentioned as well.
The gallery users' attention had started to focus on the combat scenes captured in the video.
ASDF : But what the hell is that drake.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Re-ceiving.
Café Part-Timer : Oh, I saw that spear-wielding girl and that four-legged thing...
ㅇㅇ : What's with the gallery outsider? That's our green mod, you know—our unpaid-slave drone mage, permanent green mod, gallery's top beauty, Lord Thomas. Don't you know him?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : LOL, that way of addressing him is savage LOL
ㄴ Elf Noona : Didn't you know the gallery's top beauty has been changed to Lady Elf;
ㅇㅇ : But why is she so good with a spear? Did she get ten skills all to herself?
ㄴ Survivor Gallery User : Probably because she saved up credits and pulled skills.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Combat skills barely ever show up...
Before I knew it, I was being mentioned on the gallery for the fight at the end of the video.
Maybe because the impact was strong, posts about me also had surprisingly high view counts.
"Good grief..."
I scratched my chin and turned off the screen.
My mentions had unintentionally blown up.
Well, sure... I'd even become an assistant manager, so I was used to this much attention.
Still, the overwhelming majority of the talk was about the candidates.
Then the discussion moved on to who was left as a candidate.
And then to whether the remaining two were normal.
Ha-seon and I spent the time keeping an eye on the gallery's trends and the exchange, continuously checking the gallery for any other strange posts.