Chapter 294: Chapter 294

“You... don’t want anything? We find that hard to believe,” said a dwarf cautiously. All of them were wary of Choi Yeonseung because of his previous display of brute force.

“It’s understandable. After all, you dwarves aren’t familiar with Earth. Now, look.”

Choi Yeonseung pulled out the map he had prepared, and the dwarves stared at it with bewildered eyes.

“Here, this is the country that these bastards are from.

“I... I see. I think we’ve seen it.”

“Meanwhile, this is my tribe’s country.”

“It’s a long way off.”

“Yes. Exactly. There are also several tribes in this country. They don’t get along.”

“Sounds plausible.”

“I’m from a tribe that doesn’t get along with these guys. Why do you think I don’t get along with them?”

At Choi Yeonseung’s question, the dwarves thought about it for a bit and replied, “Because they’re greedy liars who don’t know honor?”

“...It’s more because they insulted and ignored me, but that’s also probably one of the reasons. In any case, do you understand that we don’t get along?”

“I think we understand.” The dwarves nodded. They didn’t understand perfectly because it was difficult to explain, but Choi Yeonseung’s words had a certain degree of honesty that convinced them. On top of that, he was scary.

“...So the enemy of our enemy is our friend.”

“You also don’t seem to get along with them, so can’t we cooperate for now?” suggested Choi Yeonseung.

The dwarves finally made a decision after thinking about it for a bit.

“Okay, we accept your offer, but we’ll keep the leaders of the hostages! We’ll never return them!”

“Ah, these guys? I don’t care whether you kill them or not.”

“N-No… We’re not going to kill them! Do you really think we have no honor?”

“Really? You’re not going to?”

The dwarves were horrified by Choi Yeonseung’s response. He was much scarier than the rest of the humans.

***

“So they said they would provide construction equipment for free. Then later, it was found that there was an arbitrary contract written in it. That is how the dwarves got into debt.”

“I see.”

“Isn’t that quite clever?”

“Haha…”

“...”

“...”

The dwarves looked bewildered as they heard the conversation between Choi Yeonseung and the employees. They didn’t understand what these humans were doing.

“Why is that human confiding in the boss’ subordinates?”

“They’re not from the same tribe. They’re like mercenaries.”

“Oh, yeah. They must be mercenaries!”

“Even though they’re mercenaries, they didn’t receive proper payment and were betrayed.”

“This...!”

The dwarves were convinced. If that was the case, it was natural for these humans to turn on their leaders. The employees who worked for Alland exposed the company’s wrongdoings one by one out of fear that they would be considered accomplices.

“The prices of the artifacts were unilaterally discounted and the dwarves didn’t know about it?”

“That’s right. I love this type of accusation. I’ll give you a reward.”

“The dwarves didn’t give them the mining rights, so those at Alland added it to the contract and forced them...”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Great. They did something like that too. Let’s add this as well.”

The dwarf tribe, namely the Skyhammer Tribe, wasn’t familiar with how humans did contracts, so they were the perfect prey for companies like Alland.

The dwarves had been fascinated by the equipment of the strange humans and had offered extremely valuable cores and artifacts at bargain prices. Then they had been tricked into signing confusing contracts and led into debt.

Alland had used those contracts as weapons to drive out the dwarf tribe and take over the nearby mines. Just like any other corrupt corporation that had done countless shady things on Earth, those at Alland had been cunning in their scheme.

...However, the dwarf tribe was different from the humans on Earth. The dwarves actually realized that they had been deceived and became furious. They didn’t take it to court or anything like that, but took up weapons and smashed their opponent!

“Well, almost everything is sorted out. I’ll go down and report this.”

“Report?”

“Uh, the reporters are waiting for me below.”

“...!!!”

The executives were already exhausted from the ordeal they had been through, and now that they heard this, they felt absolutely miserable.

The dwarves asked curiously, “Do reporters use magic spells?”

“Well, it’s similar. By the way, those ropes are a bit loose. Why don’t you make them tighter?”

“Ah, yes. We’ll do that.”

The dwarves tightened the ropes around the executives, who were at this point so distressed that they couldn’t even groan.

***

By the time Choi Yeonseung walked out the front door, the number of reporters had nearly tripled. People from other cities had also heard the news and rushed to the scene.

“All of you, pay attention now. I will proceed to convey the accusations stated by the dwarves.”

“???”

Choi Yeonseung recited in detail each and every one of the accusations that the dwarves had for Alland. For the people on Earth watching this live, it was almost more shocking than seeing a building get bombed.

“...According to the testimony of an anonymous employee, the executive director of Alland has said that, ‘Most French people are trash who don’t even know what’s important.’ And what else? ‘The president who stands in our way is a traitor.’ Oh, he also said that, ‘The president quickly needs to be replaced…’”

Following the accusations, Choi Yeonseung kindly exposed even the words of the executives themselves.

The reporters at the scene could barely contain their excitement. What a scoop!

“Did they really say that?”

“In fact, it was worse than this. I left out some things that I couldn’t share publicly,” added Choi Yeonseung.

Of course, it was actually the opposite. Some of the actual testimonies were rather boring and uninteresting, so Choi Yeonseung took some liberties to make them sound more radical.

As they listened to the testimonies about what Alland had done, boos erupted from the reporters.

“Those shameless bastards!”

“What if we got attacked because of what those guys did?”

“Allands’ right to be in the Abyss must be revoked!”

The moment the reporters from other countries started rebuking the company, the French reporters noticed the atmosphere and quietly joined in.

“Reflect on it! Reflect on it!”

***

[Angry dwarves occupied Alland’s headquarters... A terrorist attack occurred in the Abyss. Does this mark the beginning of an invasion from the Abyssal races?]

[The crazy dwarves attack France!]

[Cultural differences between the two races cause misunderstandings...]

The response to the incident was wild. Articles poured out like crazy the moment the live broadcast ended.

Alland was frightened and tried its best to defuse the situation. The media that was on Alland’s side released stories one after another.

...However, this kind of scandal wouldn’t go away easily.

-Alland, those crazy guys did it again! Those lunatics did in the Abyss the same things they did in Africa!

-It’s a disgrace to France!

-Hey, friends. No matter how problematic Alland is, isn’t there something wrong with the dwarves for taking over the building through force without even trying to talk it out?

-What are you saying? Did you get shot in the head?

-The dwarves wanted to negotiate but Alland ignored them!

-I’m not surprised. Alland was responsible for the tremendous damage resulting from raids, and they refused to pay compensation.

-The dwarves are not the problem. Didn’t you see? Hunter Choi Yeonseung clearly warned Alland, but they ignored him! They’re crazy! How can they ignore the warning of an A-grade hunter? I would’ve listened to him from the get-go!

During the siege of Paris, Choi Yeonseung and the hunters led by him helped hundreds of citizens. Thus, the French people wholeheartedly supported him. It was quite unusual for a hunter to have so many supporters from a different country!

-President Georges has announced an emergency speech!

-I guess he wants to show something!

-I heard he swore at Alland? He’d wondered why he couldn’t do his job and it turned out that the Alland guys were holding him back. How greedy those corporate bastards are!

-Isn’t it too much to say something like that? But I think he told the people who lost their homes from the dungeon exploding the other day to think of it as camping.

-Wasn’t that a false rumor? Who would actually say something like that??

***

“Mr. President, this is an opportunity,” said one of the president’s staff members firmly.

President Georges’ popularity was declining by the day. Originally, Georges Montand had become popular and gained many supporters thanks to his controversial remarks and bluster.

Recently, he had been involved in many scandals, and there were many negative rumors and gossip about him, so it was only natural for his popularity to decrease.

However, the current situation was different. This was an opportunity to turn things around by using Alland as a springboard.

...But that didn’t mean he could be overly arrogant.

“Yes! I know that. Those bastards at Alland… How dare they ignore me like that?”

Georges huffed and cursed. He was still as hot-headed as ever. If people didn’t listen to him, he usually lost his cool, forgetting about his status and his reputation.

When he came up with the idea of creating a French city with foreign hunters, including Choi Yeonseung, he had expected everyone to instantly be on board with him. However, Alland called him crazy and insisted that they would manage the city themselves. Therefore, President Georges couldn’t help holding a grudge.

Now that such outrageous remarks about Alland had been made public, Georges was ready to run straight to Alland and spit on them.

However, it was better for him to not do that.

“Mr. President, I understand that you are upset.”

“What do you mean, you understand? Were you criticized? I was the only one who got criticized! You didn’t have to listen to the swearing. Don’t pretend like you understand!”

“I-I’m sorry, but please listen. Don’t attack Alland too much.”

“What type of crazy nonsense are you saying? Are you crazy? Were you bribed?”

“No, that’s not it!”

The staff member had a reason for trying to stop President Georges from attacking Alland. There were other French companies besides Alland that had entered the Abyss. Those companies were also committing various illegal and exploitative acts, so if the president attacked Alland too badly, he would unwittingly target the other companies as well.

Big companies had a lot of power when it came to politics. If Georges formed bad relationships with such companies, they would immediately use the media to tear him apart…

“I see…”

“Do you understand? Tell the public that you are deeply saddened by the actions of Alland and act as cautiously as possible. That would be enough! People will sympathize with you and support you.

“Yes, yes. I understand.”

Georges made a firm promise before going to the speech hall. Upon arriving there, he shouted at the top of his lungs, “My fellow citizens! Those Alland bastards are the traitors who are destroying France!”

“!??!?”

“Mr. President!”

The staff members, who were spectating, panicked and tried to step back. What was the president planning?

“It’s my fault that I didn’t wipe them all out! My fellow citizens, I want to hire reliable hunters to ensure your safety. Why does nationality matter? It doesn’t matter as long as they’re reliable! But those Alland bastards are disturbing all of us! My fellow citizens! Let’s all take action together! Let’s run to Alland and show them how strong our resolve is!”

***

After watching the show, Choi Yeonseung curiously asked Aine, “Have the qualifications of the French president changed so much while I was away?”

“...He truly is one of a kind...!”

In Aine’s eyes, the current actions of President Georges were verging on madness. Wasn’t he trying to get the people to destroy Alland through his speech?

“I myself wanted to deal a blow to Alland, but I didn’t expect this...” Aine murmured. Georges’ behavior was so unusual that she couldn’t guess how things would turn out.

Aine checked the live broadcast on the French side.

-Revenge for Hunter Choi Yeonseung!

-Let’s get revenge on the enemies of Hunter Choi Yeonseung!

A video of angry citizens entering Alland’s building while holding signs with Choi Yeonseung’s face caught their eye.

‘...What revenge do they want? I’m still alive…’