Chapter 352: The dismantling of the strongholds (1)
Translator: miraclerifle
He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Take Pandora down!”
“They are worse than dogs! Drag them out! Kill them all!”
“Hey, you sons of bitches! If I think about how much pain my child had been in because of you bastards!”
John was running toward Pandora’s HQ while having an angel by his side. That was the only place where he could safely escape Seo Ju-Heon’s wrath.
It would not take long for him to get to the Druid’s Clocktower as long as he could find a cab.
However...
‘!’
Once he headed to a big street to grab a cab...
'That’s definitely one of Pandora’s branches.’
John could see people causing chaos outside the building.
“Kill them all! They are all trash!”
“You guys aren’t even human!”
Angry people were breaking the facility, complaining to employees, and causing quite the fuss.
John couldn't help but be flustered.
‘What the hell?’
He urgently looked at his phone. He had not had the time to look at his phone because Ju-Heon’s group had been right on his tail.
He had been relieved after seeing the earlier message that things were okay, but...
‘What is going on?’
His hands were quickly moving out of anxiety.
Actually, John knew what it must be. There was only one reason for people to be acting this way.
He was right.
[Unidentified corpses have poured out of Pandora’s R&D facility...the reason behind it?]
[Currently looking into the identities of the bodies, “They seem to have been used as ingredients for experiments.”]
[Grave Company claims that, “Pandora used people suffering from tomb syndrome to create artifacts.”]
[Shocking Revelation! “Pandora was actually the one to spread the artifact disease.]
[People all around the world are in uproar. “You lied about being there to protect the people!”]
[Countries that are not a part of Pandora along with the C-R Alliance: “This is a terrible story that should have never happened.]
[Forensic Investigator have entered the destroyed R&D facility]
The information they were most worried about was being broadcast around the world.
John’s left arm was shaking in anger after hearing the news that was going viral everywhere.
‘What the fuck happened?’
It was like deja vu.
This reminded him of when Ju-Heon had buried Keira, the Monarch of War, in the past.
‘Pandora was able to cut Keira off as if she was a lizard's tail to prevent the negative press, but...’
The same thing that had happened to her was happening to them.
It was as if they were being told, ‘did you really think this wouldn't happen to you?’
It was as if they were being sneered at for cutting off their tail like that last time.
Of course, this was much worse than Keira’s brainwashing incident.
People were so riled up that they were rioting and destroying property.
“Is this news true?!”
“Did you fucking bastards really spread the artifact disease on purpose?! You weren’t satisfied with selling us medicine and ripping us off?! You turned people into fucking artifacts?!”
"Even if this is an era where you can use artifacts for anything, this is wrong!”
“Give me back my father! Fuck, the rumors about corpses disappearing from Pandora’s hospitals was true!”
“This is blasphemous!”
“They tricked us! Why the hell have I been paying taxes to support you guys until now?!”
It didn't seem to take long for the news to spread.
It had only been about two hours since it had released.
It had happened while he was being chased by Ju-Heon's group. The people who had seen the news had come to a nearby branch to riot.
It was understandable since Pandora was a public entity that had been given all authority over artifact-related issues by the top leaders of the world.
They received money from different countries for ‘administration of artifacts and tombs around the world as well as safety of the people’ and even acted as the police.
How could people not feel betrayed?
“Is it true?! Is this news true?!”
‘Damn it. It’s going to be a major headache.’
Of course, they just needed to find a suitable scapegoat and send them off to the firing squad.
They could always say that the reports were lies. His fellow knights were already doing that.
[Seo Ju-Heon infiltrated our R&D facility and set us up.]
[Pandora Executive Board: “You should be holding Seo Ju-Heon responsible.”]
[“You cannot be foolish and believe the instigations of the devil...”]
However...
“You sons of bitches! Who are you trying to blame?! Think about everything Grave Company has done until now!”
“They were much better than you fuckers so many times!”
‘Those shitheads.’
It was at that moment.
“Aigoo, I'm so sorry about this.”
“!”
“I guess my company is highly trusted.”
“!”
He heard a familiar voice and something flew over and stabbed into him.
Puuk!
The item had stabbed into his back.
John’s pupils were shaking after suddenly being ambushed.
“Ugh.”
The thing in his back was Gungnir.
But he did not die right away.
Ju-Heon had grabbed it before Gungnir could stab deep.
Gungnir seemed as if it was desperate to stab farther and started shaking its butt.
[#$&#!]
Please! Please let me stab him! Pleeeeeeeease!
Ju-Heon started laughing.
“Oh my oh my. I guess people unexpectedly have very good opinions about my company.”
“Ugh.”
Actually, people trusted Ju-Heon's company a lot. There was some brand loyalty there as well but most of it was because of something else they had done.
They kept doing things to earn them points from people in this Era of Artifacts.
For example, they would go rescue people from places Pandora had given up on. Creation of shelters, handing out survival and medicine-type artifacts for free, conducting practical artifact seminars, supporting people in need, they had done hundreds of things that people appreciated.
How could they not have a favorable impression compared to Pandora who just tried to control everything and allowed only special people to use artifacts?
Of course, Grave Company’s representative was a trashy thug(?) known throughout the world.
Some people talked about how Grave Company was doing all of the things they did to boost their image because of Ju-Heon's actions, but they couldn't help that they liked this brand.
Ju-Heon slightly loosened his grip on Gungnir.
Gungnir became excited and stabbed a bit deeper into John's body.
“Ugh......!”
John was grinding his teeth.
“How the hell...?!”
His allies had said that they had stopped the press.
He checked his phone again and the message was still there.
[Are you blocking the media?]
[Yes. Currently in the process.]
[Completed getting rid of the evidence.]
It did say that they were in the process...did they fail? Ju-Heon peeked and started to laugh.
"Aigoo, it looks like our guy worked hard.”
“?!”
“Didn’t you realize that someone from our team was missing?”
John’s pupils shook while looking at the message.
‘Then these messages...?!’
He would be correct.
Something terrible had happened on the streets two hours ago.
“U, ugh...!”
"W, we can't let them take that...!”
Julian had brought some of the corpses inside the Gourd-shaped bottle. He left a nationally accredited agency in charge to hear a proper response.
Of course, he had sent the bodies to the police in order to prevent any suspicions of tampering. The police decided to send the evidence to the National Forensic Investigators.
They needed their help because this required artifact-based appraisal.
They had used a Quick Service to avoid anyone from Pandora, finding out, but...
That ended up being an opportunity for Pandora.
[Go steal the evidence.]
[Lead it astray before it reaches the Forensic Investigators!]
Unfortunately, it didn't matter.
“Ugh......y, you are?!”
“My goodness, gentleman... Please don’t hinder the delivery.”
That Quick Service delivery guy was actually Dan. Both Dan's knife and eyes flashed.
They felt as if their lives would be delivered to hell if they tried to take the evidence.
John’s ally who was there tried to make an emergency call for help.
However, his phone was taken away and...
“Eek!”
Dan had read John's message.
That was why Dan calmly pretended to be John’s ally and sent those responses. It had been so hard trying to copy a tone he was not familiar with.
Dan then pummeled all of Pandora’s soldiers who were trying to attack the press as well.
Nobody could stop this delivery man known as the Monarch of Asura.
Returning back to the present...
“It’s already over. The list of the 150 on the Executive Board is being spread around and there are riots at all Pandora branches around the world. It’ll be useless to try to stop it.”
John sneered at Ju-Heon.
“It’ll just end as a rumor that quickly disappears.”
Ju-Heon smirked back.
“You dumbass, why do you think that I am the only one here?”
“!”
“The rest of them have gone to another Pandora facility.”
“.........!”
“We got new information so they are all headed over. We have the special key my sister made me so it shouldn't be hard for them to get inside.”
John’s pupils started shaking.
‘New information? What now?!’
John became anxious because Pandora had quite a lot of secrets.
Ju-Heon chuckled after hearing that response.
“I always thought it was weird. How could Pandora pop up so quickly after artifacts started appearing? The organization seemed quite complete for something that was quickly put together to deal with a sudden disaster.
It was as if they had known about the existences of artifacts for a very long time.”
“......!”
“I don't know how long you guys knew about artifacts in advance, but this fact would also be quite destructive if people found out about it.”
John snorted.
‘It doesn't matter if they don’t know where the evidence is...’
“I heard that the evidence should be in the eastern storage building at the headquarters.”
‘Fuck, who the hell told them?!’
Only the original members of the Round Table would know about that.
John didn't show his true emotions and just smiled.
“I'll let you know that we had no ideas about artifacts at all. And even if we did, artifacts are dangerous resources. Don’t you think that talking about them before they appeared would have just caused chaos?”
“Oh, so that’s why you guys feigned ignorance and claimed that you guys had no idea about them when people first got wrapped up in these disasters?”
“.........!”
“You all just needed sacrificial lambs. You just wanted ways to make sure that you guys got the benefits you wanted.”
Ju-Heon's team, his sister, and Irene's parents were all part of those sacrificial lambs.
Most of them were exploited while Irene’s parents were used as tomb syndrome experiments.
Irene’s parents had a large network of connections and influence but had not sided with Pandora.
They would have ended up as headaches if left alone, so they had used them as an example for tomb syndrome and Un-known.
They also used her parents as leverage once Irene became the Monarch of Destitution. They claimed they would heal her parents or whatever.
‘These motherfuckers lied from the beginning because all they care about is themselves and their benefits.’
Ju-Heon’s eyes flashed.
“That is why Pandora, this organization that lied about how they were for the people, will now be disbanded. No, I will make it happen.”
John urgently tried to run away. The pain from Gungnir cutting away at his flesh didn't matter.
However...
“Ugh!”
"Where do you think you're going? You need to answer the rest of my questions.”
“......!”
What did Ju-Heon want to ask?
“How did you get your memories back?”
John’s pupils started shaking intensely. It was because he knew that the future would be bleak now that Ju-Heon was curious about that.
Ju-Heon’s gaze quickly changed.
“You know where the Akashic records is, don’t you?”
‘Damn it!’
The sharp Ju-Heon started choking John.
“My artifacts said that they can smell the scent of a Treasure on you.”
John gulped.
"Alright, tell me where it is. I can probably get rid of the Round Table or whatever if I have it.”
‘Do you really think I would tell you that, you son of a bitch?!’
“Kill me.”
John would rather die than tell Ju-Heon that the Majesty's Library was inside the Vatican library.
His death would not be in vain.
As long as he didn't talk, this bastard would never find out.
‘Don’t look down on the security of the Vatican library. Let’s just die while keeping this secret to myself.’
John smiled.
While that was going on...
“A devil, a devil has appeared!”
“The demons are attacking!”
Vatican City was currently in chaos. The Vatican warehouses storing the Christian artifacts were all being destroyed.
Ilya, who was extremely angry after getting attacked by John’s artifacts, was responsible for it.
Well, it was also because Ju-Heon ordered him to do so.
‘The Vatican might have some connections with the Executive Board as well. Go quietly investigate.’
But forget quietly investigating...
“Fuck, who cares?! Let’s just destroy all holy artifacts in the world!”
He led his army of devils and charged into Vatican City on his own.
The Vatican had about 90% of the world's Christian artifacts. That was why their warehouses with artifacts were perfect targets.
He was basically taking out his anger on them because he couldn't take it out on the person responsible for making him angry.
And then...
“Mm, there seems to be a lot of artifacts over there for some reason.”
Ilya focused on the Vatican library.