Chapter 31

It was an ordinary day.

Onwol, a pharmaceutical company.

A package arrived at an hour when even the chill of the dawn wind had yet to fade.

“What in the world is this?”

The recipient voiced their confusion.

There was no sender’s name; only the destination, Onwol, was written on the label.

Inside was a potion bearing the name of their rival company, Haind.

“Is this spam?”

“It doesn’t say who sent it, sir.”

At first, the staff didn’t think much of it.

Or rather, they dismissed it as malicious spam.

Onwol was a pharmaceutical company that stood on equal footing with Haind, making them direct competitors.

Naturally, the relationship between the two corporations was far from amicable.

Both specialized in the manufacturing and sale of potions and doping agents targeted at hunters.

Not only were their product lines similar, but their market standing was virtually identical.

It was a situation where either side was essentially stealing food from the other’s plate.

A package containing a competitor’s product?

It was suspicious no matter how one looked at it.

It had been delivered at dawn, and the person who dropped it off was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh?”

Just then, one of the employees tilted his head in curiosity.

“What is it?”

“I don’t think this is poison.”

“On what grounds? Jumping to conclusions could get us into serious trouble.”

“But the color is exactly that of a potion.”

“Color is something that can easily be disguised during the manufacturing process.”

“We need to investigate this regardless, so everyone calm down.”

As the debate dragged on, the person in charge immediately ordered an investigation.

It was an item that had entered the company, after all.

They were obligated to analyze it.

If they left it alone and something happened, the blame would fall squarely on their shoulders.

Thanks to the swift procedure, the results were out in no time.

“This is a normal potion. There are no toxic components, nor is it the type that explodes upon opening.”

“Hmm…”

With that settled, things were simple.

All they had to do was send it to the researchers for a thorough examination.

The potion was secretly transferred to the research lab.

The results of the component analysis were published promptly.

“T-this… It’s a new doping agent!”

“What did you say?”

The unexpected finding threw the Onwol research lab into an uproar.

It wasn’t just a potion, but a doping agent.

Just then, a researcher sharply inhaled.

“Don’t tell me this is that drug Haind staged a whole charade over a while back?”

“……!”

“The one from the rumors?”

“Ha!”

A stir rippled through the room.

Since Haind was their competitor, Onwol possessed a fair amount of intel on them.

Specifically, before launching a new product, Haind would leak it to mercenaries to accumulate real-combat data.

In fact, they had acquired similar intelligence a few months ago.

The researchers conducted another round of tests.

The results confirmed that this potion was different from the doping agents currently on the market.

In other words, it was an unreleased product.

There was only one unreleased new drug from Haind that they knew of.

“Was it called… Filester?”

“I heard back then that it had no effects.”

“That’s incorrect. It seems they hid it because they didn’t want to deal with the aftermath. Both our measurements and the separately gathered intelligence clearly indicate physical enhancement effects.” “Is that so?”

“Huh…”

If that were true, they couldn’t just sit idle.

Onwol’s researchers immediately began replicating the drug.

Developing a drug from scratch was the hard part.

This was a world with Awakened individuals.

Replicating something that already existed was relatively easy.

Especially since they had researchers with relevant skills.

There were some components that were difficult to observe, as if they were locked behind a safeguard, but…

That much was easily covered by the technology the lab had built up over the years.

In short, while an individual might fail, a corporation could reverse-engineer and manufacture something like this with ease.

If the other party hadn’t even properly launched it or filed a patent due to some incident, the job was even easier.

Of course, they couldn’t perfectly replicate the exact same drug.

It was a limitation of their abilities.

But even if the performance was slightly inferior, they could still create a close approximation.

That alone was enough for them.

They hadn’t spent a single dime on research and development.

Nor did they intend to mass-produce and sell an exact copy.

“With this, we can send Haind’s stock price crashing into the abyss.”

A researcher smiled as he looked at the replicated doping agent, Filester.

The fact that they had perfectly recreated the same thing wasn’t what mattered.

The crux of the matter was Haind’s new drug, which should have been handled in strict secrecy.

The fact that a drug with efficacy similar to Filester had been released first.

This would undoubtedly have a massive impact on Haind’s stock price.

* * *

A few days later, Onwol abruptly announced a new doping agent.

Under the name of the new drug, ‘Embertic’.

It was named for its beautiful crimson hue.

Naturally, it was merely Haind’s new drug, Filester, released under a different name.

Unsurprisingly, Haind immediately recognized Embertic as an inferior knockoff of Filester.

“How… how did this happen!! That thing was still around?”

“It appears so, sir.”

“I told you to dispose of it all…! What about that bastard?”

“Since he never used the Filester until the very end, we assumed he had no more of the drug…”

“Assumed? Asssuuumed? Are you out of your mind?”

“…I apologize, sir.”

“If you’re sorry, why are you still standing there? Get out of my sight.”

The moment the announcement went live, the entirety of Haind was flipped upside down.

This was a matter of that much severity.

Filester had finished testing and was on the verge of being announced.

Yet their competitor had gotten their hands on it first and stolen the march.

A state of emergency was declared across the entire company.

“Director, the stock price is dropping in real time!”

“The CEO is absolutely furious! He demands you send the person in charge immediately…”

From the executive offices down to the lowest-ranking employees.

The relentless barrage of calls had practically paralyzed their operations.

For Haind, it was a catastrophic incident.

Releasing Filester as planned would be a headache.

They could somehow ignore the ensuing scandals and malicious rumors.

They just had to respond in kind, and that would be that.

But as things stood, a drop in Filester’s sales was inevitable.

It would be one thing if it were the only product of its kind.

But with two products offering similar performance, there was no reason for consumers to stick exclusively to Haind’s.

But discarding the new drug was not an option either.

A staggering five years and several months.

That was how much time and capital they had poured into developing this drug.

Scrapping it now would mean handing their new drug over to their competitor on a silver platter.

In the end, either choice would result in catastrophic losses.

But the ones taking the hardest hit were the shareholders.

“First… calm down the shareholders!”

The shareholders had invested an astronomical sum into Haind’s new drug, Filester.

That investment wasn’t just for the magic beast corpses and rare medicinal ingredients needed for research.

It also covered the system established for mass production.

The groundwork for promotional campaigns to coincide with the launch.

And the distribution channels to supply the product afterward.

Every single facet had their fingerprints on it.

That was how much effort had been poured into this new product.

It absolutely could not fail.

But the plan had already fallen apart.

Through some route, Filester had already fallen into the competitor’s hands.

As a result, Haind’s stock price was crashing into the ground.

The shareholders were not going to sit still.

They had to stabilize the situation to plug the leak somehow.

Thus, the entirety of Haind threw itself into handling this crisis.

So much so that they didn’t even have the bandwidth to care about a failed assassin.

Naturally, Siyoon—their target for elimination—was pushed entirely out of their focus.

* * *

Meanwhile, Siyoon was watching all of this unfold in real time.

Onwol’s new drug announcement and Haind’s response.

What stood out in particular was Haind’s plummeting stock price.

Indeed, the news articles were flooded with Haind-related content.

Toku.

Siyoon swiped the screen.

Haind and Onwol fighting each other was none of his concern.

What mattered to him right now was this very situation.

The intelligence that Haind was too busy to focus on anything else.

It was then.

Ttirirng.

A text message arrived on Siyoon’s phone.

The message included an attachment.

The attachment contained several photos, a road location, and a schedule.

“Right on time.”

It was one of the distribution routes for Haind’s Smart Farm.

Siyoon planned to strike their distribution route in the midst of the chaos.

“Onwol played their part better than expected.”

It was Siyoon who had handed the original Filester over to Onwol.

To launch his raid, he needed to completely divert Haind’s attention.

Under normal circumstances, the moment Siyoon attacked, a swift response would follow.

Because they would have the bandwidth to spare.

If that happened, it would be worse than throwing an egg at a rock—utterly futile.

But now, things were different.

Haind was in disarray because Filester had been handed over to Onwol.

The relentless influx of urgent tasks had paralyzed their operations.

With their minds in chaos, they naturally wouldn’t be able to focus on other matters.

Siyoon had been aiming for exactly this kind of opening, with Haind’s guard down.

Of course, that didn’t mean destroying the Smart Farm would be an easy task.

‘That won’t be easy.’

A Smart Farm was no ordinary farm.

It was a facility built by a pharmaceutical company to cultivate medicinal ingredients.

Not only did it provide optimized humidity, temperature, and climate for each ingredient’s growth…

But it also doubled as a research center for cultivating higher-quality medicinal herbs.

It was safe to assume that all medicinal ingredients used by Haind were sourced from there.

Given its importance, there were bound to be security personnel guarding the perimeter.

Naturally, destroying the Smart Farm wasn’t impossible.

He just had to blow it up.

But doing so would completely expose his identity.

At this point, taking on that level of risk wasn’t worth it.

Furthermore, there wasn’t just one Smart Farm.

Haind was known to possess three such facilities in total.

Destroying a Smart Farm was too risky.

However, a slightly smaller scale operation was feasible.

For instance, a transport truck passing by from the Smart Farm.

Tatad.

Siyoon moved swiftly.

He enhanced his legs and feet, manipulating the wind to accelerate his speed.

He ran, and before long…

A road that matched the photo in the provided intel came into view.

Cheolkeok.

Siyoon took up a position with a clear vantage point of the road.

As he waited, a truck came barreling down from the far end of the road.

It was a truck stamped with Haind’s logo.

That truck was transporting medicinal ingredients from the Smart Farm to headquarters.

Since they used those sourced ingredients to craft potions, losing them would deal a significant blow.

Siyoon held his breath and waited patiently.

Then, the moment the truck passed by, he pulled the trigger.

Tung—

There was no sound.

However, the bullet, accelerated by the wind, shot toward the truck at blistering speed.

Kakang!!

The bullet struck the tire dead center.

The impact sent the truck swerving, but it wasn’t enough yet.

Siyoon fired consecutively, aiming only for its vulnerable points.

Kwaaaang!!

Having lost several tires, the staggering truck finally flipped over on the road.

In that instant, perhaps due to the impact on the engine, an explosion erupted alongside it.

The explosion was as powerful as the truck was large.

Powerful enough that nothing inside could possibly be salvaged.

* * *

After the truck exploded.

Siyoon didn’t leave the scene immediately.

He observed the wreckage through his scope.

“God damn it…”

He watched for a little while.

Soon, a man stumbled out of the driver’s seat.

It was the truck’s driver.

“Which son of a bitch did this?”

He clutched his bleeding head.

He seemed to have been caught in the explosion.

Seeing the truck completely collapsed and engulfed in flames, he let out a sigh and flipped open his phone.

Then, he made a call somewhere.

‘Looks like he’s making a report.’

Siyoon watched the entire situation unfold.

Since the man had reported to his superiors, word of the situation would have reached their ears by now.

But an immediate response would be impossible.

‘Confirmed he made the call. That’s enough.’

Leaving the man be, Siyoon rose from his position.

If he wanted to take down the rest, he had to move faster than anyone else.