Shia and Menelapie, who had once saved the world from the Demon King, as well as Lirisia, who had continuously faced and opposed the Demon King, still did not truly know the identity of the Demon King.
Of course, they didn’t know everything, but they had come to realize through countless battles with that bizarre creature that the Demon King was not just invading one world but multiple worlds, including Earth, simultaneously. The Demon King was both one and many.
Even though it was both one and many, in the end, those rooted in the Demon King, including the Demon King itself, harbored boundless hatred towards humanity, destined to destroy worlds from the moment of their birth.
No matter how powerful it claimed to be, it was a malevolent and cunning being that slowly infiltrated and sowed discord amongst humans from within. It was an absolute ruler, a malicious entity among living beings.
Bam!
“Ugh!!”
And today, that Demon King was getting beaten up like a dog on a hot day.
“Ugh, hic…! Hey! You have to listen to the Meat Fairy!”
Gulp…
Bam!!
Shia stomped down on the Demon King’s abdomen once again.
“Gah… why…”
“Don’t lie!”
“It’s not a lie…”
“You have no reason to exist!!”
Is it a lie? Don’t make me laugh. The Demon King was a being steeped in lies, malice, deceit, and hypocrisy from birth.
Shia wouldn’t let such a creature beg for its life in a disgraceful manner.
It was the Demon King who would pretend to surrender to lure her into complacency, only to stab her in the back the moment she turned.
The Demon King would certainly believe that as long as it fulfilled its goal of exterminating humanity, the means were unimportant.
Gasp… ah…
“Are you going to be the Demon King or not?!”
“I-I will never do it again… Ugh!”
Bam!
“Ugh…!”
Before the Demon King could finish its sentence, Shia swung her mace towards its precious baby-making area.
Of course, the Demon King didn’t really have a fixed gender, but at least for now, it was using the shell of a human female, so the shock and pain were surely considerable.
There was no need to feel guilty about it. Wang Soyoung had already crossed the point of no return, blinded by revenge and desire, fully offering her body and soul to the Demon King. The Demon King, for being a Demon King, deserved to be utterly annihilated without question.
It wouldn’t matter if Shia beat it mercilessly.
“Don’t lie!”
Thwack!
Bam!
“Lying is bad!”
“What are you going to do about it…?”
The relentless condemnation from the Meat Fairy made the Demon King writhe in pain like a shrimp.
As for Menelapie, she seemed satisfied after thoroughly beating up the Demon King and returned to Lirisia and Yeonhwa’s side.
“…”
“Um, Menelapie…”
However, she strangely averted her gaze as if she didn’t want to explain the humiliating scene she had just shown to the two.
“Let’s not talk about it. Uh, I’m sorry… I’ve shown such an embarrassing sight…”
“Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing.”
“…By the way, Lirisia. Have you figured out what’s going on?”
“What’s going on? It’s not even that complicated.”
Thus, Lirisia began to explain what she had learned from devouring the memories of the awakened ones she had encountered on her way here.
“San Guild, San Guild. Some are freelancers, some are employed, some are Korean, and some are foreigners; there’s quite a mix. In conclusion, all the people here are either commissioned by the San Guild or directly connected to someone who crawled out of it.”
“Hmmm…”
“Really?”
“Absolutely. Memory devouring literally means devouring the memories stored in the brain. Regardless of the truth, that fact is etched in their heads. There must be mind reading or psychometry in this world, right? The results would be the same.”
Yeonhwa nodded while observing the bizarre facilities around them.
According to Lirisia, that green powder was made from grinding sorcerers who possessed Hunter Cells. It was said that if consumed, one would easily fall into hypnosis or brainwashing with just a simple trigger.
It was clearly a dangerous facility. If it was the San Guild, they could well have set up such facilities in Korea for nefarious purposes.
Moreover, Yeonhwa was aware that San Guild had clashed with Shia before.
‘From what my grandmother told me, they had been in a hostile relationship with our family for quite some time…’
While there hadn’t been any outright wars or conflicts, tensions had been rising significantly since Shia’s previous interaction with them.
The reason why Yeonseo, who had recently retired, had been so busy and had not been seen frequently was that she had vanished to strike at San Guild’s illegal research facilities.
‘Hah, now they are blatantly testing us?’
Yeonhwa didn’t know what purpose the Chinese guild had in continuously sneaking into the country and causing such nonsense, but she was already thoroughly irritated with the San Guild.
The various things they had done were alarming enough.
They had attempted to abduct Shia’s mother, Yoonjeong, committed large and small battles and murders within Korea without permission, and now they were even grinding people to make brainwashing powder to hypnotize the elves who were on poor terms with them.
Just what kind of chaos they had actually caused was unimaginable even for Yeonhwa, based on what she already knew.
“Hmmm…”
However, as she listened to Lirisia, Menelapie seemed to get lost in thought, wearing a puzzled expression.
“This doesn’t quite add up,” she said.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s just too straightforward.”
“Straightforward?”
At Menelapie’s words, Yeonhwa and Lirisia turned their heads.
“Lirisia, if what you said about their memories being the truth is accurate, then San Guild is indeed the main perpetrator of the current situation, right? They created this facility and tried to brainwash the elves to do their bidding… it’s all undoubtedly their plan.”
“Yeah, they pulled the memories.”
Lirisia shrugged.
“However, from what I know, San Guild is said to be the largest collective of awakened ones in the world.”
“So what if they are the largest? Their actions are still petty and trashy, aren’t they?”
“Regardless, it raises questions about how these so-called largest guilds could be so foolish. Openly infringing on sovereignty and producing dangerous substances like brainwashing powder in Korea isn’t something that a truly cunning and sinister plan should do. Typically, the more evil and sinister the person, the more discreet, quiet, and cunning their maneuvers are. It wouldn’t make sense to act so brazenly.”
“Then what do you consider smart handling?”
“Smart handling, huh…”
Menelapie started imagining her time back in the Royal Palace.
Though Menelapie didn’t have extensive knowledge of the current Earth, she suddenly came up with a rough plan.
“If I were the head of San Guild giving these orders, I would have started brainwashing the elves not in this chaotic time, but when they had completed their terraforming and began to integrate into Korean society. Since the brainwashing powder can easily be consumed through food or water, as soon as the elves mixed into human society, they would be exposed to various environments where it could be used. The optimal timing for using that powder would be whenever it was convenient.
Even if there was a sense of discomfort, the elves adapting to human society wouldn’t notice it. They wouldn’t even need to take risks by disguising themselves as a subcontractor supplying ingredients to the dungeon.
In fact, it was due to the subcontractor using the brainwashing powder that they were openly identified as suspects, ultimately leading you, Lirisia, to easily trace them to this situation.”
“Could it be an experiment? To see if the brainwashing powder works on elves…”
As Yeonhwa spoke, Menelapie shook her head.
“That experiment would have been efficient to conduct after the elves had settled in. It was too risky to do just to run a single experiment. Moreover, since the elves’ home was the newly terraformed Daesanrim, once they settled, each individual would engage in socio-economic activities. Rather than trying to brainwash a concentrated group of elves, it would be much easier to gradually approach those who had split off as individuals, letting them be exposed to the brainwashing powder like an infection one by one, making them puppets in the end.”
“Ah… does that really work?”
By nature, brainwashing—or group hypnosis—is more effectively done by targeting individuals one by one rather than attempting it on a large number simultaneously.
Doing such a reckless thing as sprinkling powder on food and risking exposure is a foolish move among fools.
“And if this brainwashing powder incident rises to the surface, it wouldn’t just be a matter for a single guild, but a national issue. After all, it’s a huge event aimed at turning a race that has almost established diplomatic ties with Korea into puppets. To exaggerate a little, it could develop into a level of issue that might warrant the dissolution of San Guild itself.”
“Now that you mention it, that makes sense…”
“Then Yeonhwa, let me ask you this. If you were the head of San Guild, would you have your members protecting the facility where brainwashing powder is produced?”
“…….”
“And now that the existence of this brainwashing powder has been revealed, the opportunity to brainwash the elves is forever gone. The elves are not just long-lived beings for nothing. With years of experience and powerful spirit power, even with only 30,000 numbers, they could be a match for a nation with billions of populations. Now that they are aware of the brainwashing powder, the elves will find a way to resist it in no time. It might even be in a week… or perhaps even in a day or two, the elves could become permanently immune to hypnosis or brainwashing.”
In fact, Shia’s report indicated that both Big Olgania and Small Olgania had begun developing defenses against mental corruption, including brainwashing and hypnosis.
What they would develop was unimaginable, but it wouldn’t be too difficult for Small Olga, who had previously created something called a Spirit Nuke, to create a means of preventing mental corruption.
“…..”
Menelapie’s words caused Yeonhwa to deep in thought seriously.
It was evident that, as Menelapie said, this subcontractor producing the brainwashing powder was tremendously sloppy and easy to detect.
The main reason was the people guarding this whole place. In other words, it was those who said they were ordered by or commissioned by San Guild, leading directly back to that shallow upper layer.
“And if this place were a secret base in the middle of the ocean, or somewhere with no human interaction, maybe it would make sense, but these facilities are located on the outskirts of the city. The methods used were so clumsy that it seemed like even a guild boasting the world’s largest power was too cheap and poorly funded.”
“But the devoured memories don’t lie.”
“Memories don’t lie, yes. But what if they were deliberately exposed?”
“Deliberately… Ah, are you saying they anticipated that the memories would be read? That makes sense.”
As if she had seen through something, Lirisia seemed to have caught on, and Menelapie nodded.
Despite being a being like Shia, she had considerable wisdom from long experience.
“I heard that the police in this world have mind readers assigned to maintain order. Could your memory devouring be seen in a similar light?”
“The principles are different, but the end result of reading minds or memories is similar.”
“Then, what if they planned from the start to have their minds read by a mind reader?”
“Is it really possible to manage anticipating that? I mean, memories… ah?!”
In that instant, Yeonhwa’s eyes widened as she seemed to realize something.
If the awakened ones that Lirisia had downed earlier were merely bait.
“Exactly! If those brainwashing powders had already been used on the fallen awakened ones above, it would make sense. Those guys weren’t cooperating of their own volition; they might have been brainwashed and hypnotized before the elves even got involved, forced to guard this facility. No wonder the memories I devoured were unsatisfactory and vague.”
If Menelapie was correct, then the awakened ones that Lirisia had defeated and devoured memories from were not in their right minds at all, neither were they under hypnosis state and possessed false memories and perceptions.
Regardless of truth or falsehood, the awakened ones believed they had those memories for real, which is why Lirisia wouldn’t have felt any sense of discomfort upon devouring those memories.
“Hah… So, the one manufacturing this brainwashing powder isn’t just San Guild or those associated with them. They are likely trying to redirect blame towards San Guild while concealing their own identities…?”
“Exactly. If we had fallen for it, we would have wasted our time and feelings on the innocent San Guild without any results or evidence.”
“…That’s pretty scary.”
“But I don’t know who did it. Piecing together clues, it has to be someone who knows about the elves. Someone who had enough resources and methods to brainwash such a mass of awakened ones and induced them to pivot towards San Guild… Perhaps along with Shia and Yeonseo could be a person who should know of the San guild’s hostile relationship.”
Could it be a politician?
Or some huge organization…?
It’s also possible it was the National Assembly and the members who had negotiated with the elves…
“Ugh, please, just stop… Ugh…”
“Ah, okay? No more Demon King for now, okay?”
Well, that’s it.
The Demon King was momentarily subdued physically by Shia.
“By the way, I can just ask that thing.”
I’m not sure if the piece of the Demon King will give a proper answer or not, though.
Ding!
Bzzz…
Genre Hunter Gallery was still bustling today with numerous wicked individuals and net runners.
Although Shia was the Gallery Master, people still discussed various topics other than her, commenting on their favorite hunters or someone they had seen passing by.
However, when a post resembling a rant was uploaded by one user, the wicked individuals, despite the presence of the formidable response team composed of Menelapie and Yeonseo behind Shia, began their mischief.
“Honestly, shouldn’t we pull down the Gallery Master?”
291 likes
“It’s already been a few weeks since her last broadcast. If it were someone else’s channel, they would have been dragged down ages ago, haha!”
“Seriously, lol.”
“I feel like it’s getting too inflated.”
“Is something wrong? The Gallery Master used to be a hunter.”
“Aren’t other hunters busy?”
In truth, it was nearly impossible for hunter streamers to broadcast daily.
Though it was not known to civilians, A-grade awakened individuals and up were extremely busy.
They fought to protect people in hidden locations and battled monsters and creatures lurking under the beds of sleeping children.
So did hunter streamers.
A streamer broadcasting every three days is seen as diligent, and even the most relaxed hunters were few in number, often only streaming once a day.
Thanks to Shia, who often broadcasted daily… sometimes even three or four times a day, the standard of hunter streamers became taxing to maintain daily broadcasts.
“Doesn’t every hunter streamer have to be diligent about streaming at this point? Cheon Ah-Young has been broadcasting almost every day lately.”
“Ever since the Gallery Master appeared, the other streamers have been forced into overdrive, honestly hilarious.”
“Seriously, before, everyone claimed they were too busy with dungeon clearing or the hunters’ association or personal matters. ”
“If you don’t stream at this level, it’s about time to step down.”
“Honestly, isn’t it getting old just watching hunters munch monsters?”
“Are you heading out to see the Spirit Pouch too, haha?”
“Then who’s next after the current Gallery Master?”
“No clue? Maybe Yeonhwa, the ‘Noona’?”
“Oh, that’s possible.”
“Being Yeonseo’s granddaughter is enough for her to draw attention.”
It was at this moment that the wicked individuals were brewing various topics while wasting their lives that…
Ding!
[Isia Hunter’s broadcast has started!]
Breaking news: Gallery Master is streaming!
“Shut up, everyone!”
“Seriously?!”
“Going right now!”
“All in!”
“Open the door!!”
“Get the door open, lol.”
“Wait, you idiots! Just now you said the Gallery Master was boring and should step down, didn’t you?!”
“Uh, no.”
“Just one last look at the Spirit Pouch before I go…”
As the wicked individuals who had been ranting earlier rushed into Shia’s streaming room as soon as the streaming light turned on, it became clear that the most crucial thing for the wicked individuals was the Gallery Master’s broadcast.
“Hey, how long has it been since you came back, lol!”
“Oh, I nearly suffocated waiting.”
“Down, down, down, down, down, down, down!”
“Why isn’t the streamer talking?”
“? Why isn’t the screen showing?”
“What’s going on?”
“??”
“What on earth?”
Screaming ‘?’ and ‘???’, the numerous wicked viewers entering the stream soon realized that the person on screen wasn’t Shia.
“? Who are you?”
“What’s this? Isn’t this Shia’s broadcast?”
“Eh? This is the right title…”
“Who is that…?”
“Wow, she looks like the Gallery Master…”
“Is she from the mutation series??”
“Isn’t she already registered in the Mutation Awakened Ones Wiki? I’ve never seen her before…”
“? Are you memorizing those?”
“It’s not that hard to memorize…”
“Freaky, lol.”
“Uh, wait a minute, just a sec…”
Then, Yane seemed to attempt something as she circled near a drone, but perhaps it didn’t go as smoothly as she hoped, as she tilted her head for some time.
She tried touching things and poking the drone as her master had done, but there seemed to be no sharp results, and something must have happened.
For reference, every time Yane shook her head, her ample maternal figure swayed impressively.
“Creak…?”
