Chapter 32

Siyoon kicked off the ground to head to the next location.

The intel had provided four separate routes for the transport trucks.

He had already struck the first one, leaving three more.

‘By now, the report has probably reached the higher-ups.’

It was a certainty, considering he had watched the truck driver make the call himself.

But they likely wouldn’t be able to respond immediately.

Haind’s internal operations were currently in utter chaos due to Onwol.

They probably wouldn’t have the bandwidth to deal with this while scrambling to placate shareholders over their plummeting stock prices.

‘This is my chance, while their attention is diverted elsewhere.’

And Siyoon had no intention of letting this opportunity slip by.

It was the perfect situation to inflict unilateral damage on Haind with minimal risk.

A truly optimal window of opportunity.

Chak.

Siyoon soared through the night sky and landed softly at his next vantage point.

It was a spot overlooking the road the truck was scheduled to pass.

Sure enough, a truck rolled by shortly after he arrived.

Siyoon smoothly assumed his stance and peered through his scope.

Tung!

The bullet exited the barrel and struck the tire with pinpoint accuracy.

After two consecutive tires were blown out, the vehicle lost its balance and began to swerve wildly.

Before the vehicle could recover its stability, Siyoon delivered the final blow.

Kwaang!

The truck slammed into the ground, skidded for a long stretch, and finally exploded.

Siyoon watched the medicinal ingredients burn amidst the shattered debris.

‘Good.’

He had half-expected it, but it seemed no security detail was tailing the trucks just yet.

However, no matter how overwhelmed they were, they would certainly devise countermeasures after being hit multiple times.

Until then, Siyoon’s job was to inflict as much damage as possible.

* * *

The streets were enveloped in thick darkness as night fell.

In such pitch-black conditions, one’s field of vision became extremely narrow and short.

Even those with exceptional eyesight were no exception.

Yet, a man was sprinting through those very streets.

Tatatak!

He bounded off the ground and vaulted onto a building’s rooftop.

His movements were remarkably light, almost animalistic in nature.

Leaping from the rooftop to another building, the man surveyed his surroundings.

‘Almost at the designated position.’

The man racing through the moonless streets was none other than Siyoon.

To him, the darkness was merely a negligible obstacle.

[ Equipping ‘Half-rim Glasses +5’. ]

[ The surrounding darkness clears from your vision. ]

[ Distant objects can now be observed in detail. ]

The glasses he wore illuminated the darkness with striking clarity.

To be precise, everything appeared in black and white, much like an old film movie.

But that alone was more than enough for moving and sniping.

Jik.

Siyoon finally scaled a rooftop with a clear view of the road.

Just as before, he raised his sniper rifle and peered through the scope.

That was when it happened.

Buuuung.

A single truck appeared, its headlights cutting through the dark road as it sped along.

Siyoon’s eyes narrowed.

‘There it is.’

It was a Haind truck departing from the Smart Farm.

Siyoon pulled the trigger without breaking his aim.

Tuung.

The moment the bullet left the barrel, it accelerated with the wind.

It was a sniping technique utilizing the Wind of Horus, which he had grown quite accustomed to.

The bullet sliced through the wind silently and struck the truck driver perfectly.

Kiiik, kwang—!

Instantly losing its driver, the truck swerved, smashed through the guardrail, and plummeted.

Siyoon lowered his rifle as he watched the flames shoot up.

‘That makes four trucks blown up in total.’

It wasn’t that Haind’s countermeasures were inadequate.

The three Smart Farms were actually located far apart from each other.

As a result, the routes they used were entirely different.

It would have been impossible to pull this off without attacking them simultaneously.

What made this possible were the two pieces of equipment he had acquired from Min Seolah’s mansion.

The Wind of Horus and the Patience of Nature deserved most of the credit.

‘The effects of these two pieces of equipment complement each other perfectly.’

The Wind of Horus made Siyoon even faster.

It originally boosted his movement speed, but carrying the wind amplified that effect exponentially.

Additionally, the Patience of Nature increased his total stamina.

Furthermore, it had the effect of increasing his stamina recovery rate the more exhausted he became.

Thanks to this, sprinting across long distances at high speeds was possible.

‘Haind must have noticed by now and be in an uproar.’

Siyoon rubbed his stiff neck.

The dark surroundings were already giving way to the dim light of dawn.

Once or twice might have been overlooked.

But a whopping four trucks had vanished overnight.

Each one had been loaded with expensive medicinal ingredients, so the damage had to be substantial.

If he was lucky, this might even disrupt their potion production.

However, Siyoon didn’t expect things to go that smoothly.

A mid-sized company wasn’t a mid-sized company for nothing.

Besides the ingredients procured in real-time, they surely had reserves stored away.

Even so, this operation was absolutely necessary.

It was a crucial step to inflict damage on Haind and disperse their focus.

‘The sniping ends here.’

He had finished all of today’s work anyway.

All that remained was to observe their reaction.

Siyoon left the scene, the dawn light at his back.

* * *

The next day, the atmosphere in Haind’s conference room was completely ruined.

It was all due to the dawn attack on the Smart Farm delivery trucks.

“Who the hell is responsible for this?”

The director sitting at the head of the table glared at the employees.

“Manager.”

“…Yes, sir.”

“Tell me what the situation is here.”

Faced with the director’s icy tone, the man couldn’t utter a word.

Enraged, the director hurled a stack of documents at his face.

“Read it.”

“…Early this morning, four trucks transporting medicinal ingredients from the Smart Farm to headquarters were destroyed in an unprovoked attack.”

“Why the hell are you showing me this garbage?”

The manager’s face grew gaunt.

“I-I’m sorry…”

“The word ‘sorry’ has been coming out of your mouth quite a lot lately. Isn’t that right?”

Ppadeuk.

The director ground his teeth.

The bulging veins on his forehead betrayed the depth of his fury.

“Four trucks’ worth of medicinal ingredients were caught in explosions and lost their efficacy. Do you understand what this means?”

“……”

No one said a word.

This was an incredibly serious matter.

The loss of these ingredients was a massive blow to Haind.

The ingredients in those trucks had all been cultivated at the Smart Farms.

They were high-quality ingredients produced through significant investments of manpower and capital.

And they were essential materials for potion production.

Yet the most crucial materials for potion crafting had vanished.

In the blink of an eye, overnight.

“Alright, have you identified the culprit?”

“…After examining the scene, it appears the crime was carried out via long-range sniping.”

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you found the culprit or not.”

“I apologize, sir. There was so little evidence left at the scene…”

“Did I call this meeting to listen to your excuses?”

Pak!

The director threw the documents at him again.

Then he clutched his head.

“Haa…”

Haind was currently on high alert due to Onwol’s new drug announcement.

They simply didn’t have the capacity to worry about anything else.

But he never expected it to result in such a devastating blow.

‘To think they’d be hit the moment they took their eyes off the ball…’

They were already busy enough trying to pacify the shareholders.

And yet, of all times, someone had to target them now.

But even so, they couldn’t just ignore this incident.

After all, potions and doping agents couldn’t be made without ingredients.

A shortage of medicinal ingredients naturally meant reduced production.

And this had to be avoided at all costs.

Their stock price was already in a freefall.

If their supply dropped on top of that, they could lose their distribution networks.

If that happened, the damage would be irreversible.

‘Who the hell is doing this?’

Was it Onwol? Or some other faction?

There was no way to know.

There were simply too many suspects.

‘No, I need to solve this problem first.’

Lashing out blindly wouldn’t help anything.

Now was the time to devise practical countermeasures and resolve the issue.

‘First, I need to assign additional transport personnel to the Smart Farms and strengthen security.’

The director’s mind raced.

There was no guarantee something like today wouldn’t happen again.

‘Taking away manpower in a situation like this is a burden, but it can’t be helped.’

The medicinal ingredients transported from the Smart Farms were extremely important.

As such, it was only right to invest some manpower to ensure their safe transport.

Reaching this conclusion, the director addressed the employees.

“Add more personnel to the Smart Farms.”

“Understood.”

“Instruct them to ensure proper security escorts so this doesn’t happen again.”

Ppudeuk.

Just thinking about the lost ingredients still made him grind his teeth.

But for now, putting out the immediate fire took priority.

* * *

Siyoon didn’t touch their logistics routes anymore after that.

He merely observed the situation.

‘Knowing them, they’ll attach security details to try and catch the culprit’

He had simply predicted their actions.

Siyoon knew Haind’s tenacity all too well.

Hadn’t he already experienced it twice?

They were the ones who tracked him down and tried again after their first assassination attempt through Min Seolah failed.

They were that ruthless and meticulous in their operations.

As such, he had no intention of revealing himself using the same method.

His identity would be exposed eventually, but not now.

‘There’s a better way, so there’s no need to bother’

He could already anticipate how they would respond.

In that case, it was wiser to land a more devastating blow somewhere else.

‘Keep pouring all your attention over there. Without even realizing the dagger aimed at your back.’

Siyoon grinned as he looked toward Haind.

* * *

The leak of the new drug Filester and the Smart Farm delivery truck incident.

These two overlapping events completely demoralized Haind’s internal atmosphere.

However, only the atmosphere was depressed.

Work was busier than ever.

They had to recover their plummeting stock price and pacify the shareholders.

On top of that, they had to procure replacements for the four trucks’ worth of lost ingredients.

Perhaps thanks to their swift internal response.

The urgent matters seemed to be sorting themselves out.

The missing ingredients were resolved using the storage warehouses prepared for unexpected accidents.

However, the delayed procurement of materials pushed back potion production.

Naturally, it was impossible to meet the original quota by the deadline.

“Don’t we have leftover stock from the potions we made previously in the warehouses and branches?”

“Yes, sir. According to our checks, there are still unsold products.”

“Use the warehouse stock to cover most of it, and make up for the shortfall by recalling the potions.”

Normally, products delivered to a branch were not recalled unless there was an issue.

But now was not the time to be picky.

Haind was in a state of full emergency.

‘There will be complaints, but it’s better than delivering short right now.’

They couldn’t keep the recall a complete secret.

Malicious articles would certainly be published as a result.

But for now, maintaining supply was more important.

They couldn’t give anyone an excuse to drive the stock price down further.

That was when it happened.

The company was thrown into an uproar once more.

“D-Director! We have a major problem!”

“What is it? We’re already busy enough as it is.”

“Look at this article!”

At those words, the director checked the article.

At first, he assumed it was about the potion recall.

But it wasn’t.

It was something far more serious.