Chapter 56: Bound To Win (3)

The reporters cried out, stunned with disbelief.

“We're all suspects?”

“Silence,” Choi Woo-Jin commanded. His narrowed eyes glinted with chilling authority, burning like those of a beast that had just smelled blood. The weight of his gaze shackled the souls of everyone present.

The reporters flinched and trembled. Most of them were ordinary people and had no chance of enduring the oppressive presence of the Hunting Dog, Choi Woo-Jin.

“I am initiating an emergency investigation with my authority as a special agent,” he declared, holding up his official identification card as he scanned the room.

There are a few Awakeners here, but they aren’t very strong... three-star at best.

But if someone here can deceive my senses...

He shook his head. As an Awakener of Canes Venatici, he had heightened senses that no one could elude. He had activated his Stigma the moment he'd entered the venue—or rather, the moment he shook hands with Kwon Oh-Jin.

I didn’t detect any hint of an ambush.

Yet someone poisoned Kwon Oh-Jin, right under my nose? That’s impossible.

Only a high-ranking Awakener, nine-star or above, could manage such a feat. The odds of someone at that level targeting Kwon Oh-Jin were slim. They wouldn't have a motive, and most of those elite figures were stationed at the Demonic Territory as humanity’s most critical front line.

The man didn’t eat or drink anything either.

This leaves only one plausible conclusion—he was poisoned even before I met him.

It would have occurred sometime between Kwon Oh-Jin leaving his house and arriving at Yeouido.

“Collect the reporters’ personal information and alibis,” Choi Woo-Jin ordered his subordinates.

“Yes, sir!”

As they set about their task, Choi Woo-Jin brought his nose close to the pool of dark blood Kwon Oh-Jin had coughed up.

The Stigma of Canes Venatici on his chest began to glow.

Woong!

His senses sharpened to an extraordinary degree, and a torrent of scents within hundreds to thousands of kilometers flooded his nose.

... It’s the scent of mana.

Beyond the Stigma of Lyra that lingered around Kwon Oh-Jin, he detected another faint, unmistakable scent—a trail left behind by someone else bearing a Stigma.

“It's as I thought.”

The trace was so faint that it would’ve been impossible for anyone except Choi Woo-Jin to notice.

“I’ll leave this scene to you,” he said to the other association members.

“Where are you—”

“I have something else to investigate.”

He followed the trail of mana till he reached Kwon Oh-Jin's car.

So he really was poisoned on his way here.

It was unlikely the poison had been administered during the ride. Choi Woo-Jin crouched low, his hands pressed to the ground and hips raised like a sprinter at the starting line, inhaling deeply.

Normally, he would’ve used a car to get around, but there was no time. If Kwon Oh-Jin was poisoned elsewhere, the culprit could already be working to erase the evidence.

“Beast’s Stride.”

A burst of blue light erupted as mana surged from his Stigma, flooding through him. He stomped hard, propelling himself forward. The cars on the road were like crawling insects as he ran at blinding speed. Razor-sharp wind lashed against his cheeks as he chased the faint trail of mana toward Incheon. After about twenty minutes, he arrived near Kwon Oh-Jin’s home.

“Haa, haa.”

This is where the Thunder Wolf lives?

Given Kwon Oh-Jin’s recent rise to fame, Choi Woo-Jin had assumed he lived in a high-end neighborhood.

“... But this is practically a ruin.”

The area looked like it had been abandoned after a monster attack eight or nine years ago. The buildings were on the verge of collapse, hardly fitting for someone to live in.

After walking through the half-destroyed structures he finally found where the trail of mana was concentrated.

Found it.

“This is where it must have happened.”

It was done so covertly that Kwon Oh-Jin hadn't realized. Surveying the surroundings, Choi Woo-Jin clicked his tongue.

“... I see.”

There’s a reason the poisoning happened here.

There wasn't a single security camera around.

"Kwon Oh-Jin had been recovering at home, unconscious.”

The culprit had likely been waiting around his house for him to come outside.

... But why?

If the goal was to assassinate him, it would’ve made more sense to do it while he was unconscious.

"Unless... there was someone else in the house with him,” he muttered. He remembered hearing that a woman lived with Kwon Oh-Jin.

Song Ha-Eun, was it?

Choi Woo-Jin contacted the association to get her information.

She lost her powers in an accident five years ago but recently recovered.

Records also indicated that she had participated in the recent subjugation mission and delivered remarkable results.

“She’s a seven-star Awakener of Draco.”

That explains why the culprit waited outside. They knew Song Ha-Eun was with him.

“The motive behind the attack is obvious.”

Choi Woo-Jin’s eyes gleamed sharply. Kwon Oh-Jin had evidence regarding the connection between Choi Jong-Cheol and the Pandinus Guild, which he planned to reveal at the press conference.

Which obviously means the culprit is from—No, it’s still too early to jump to conclusions.

Choi Woo-Jin was a special agent who had put countless criminals behind bars. He couldn’t pin the crime on anyone solely on suspicion.

I need solid evidence.

Choi Woo-Jin, who specialized in finding indisputable evidence, drew more mana from his Stigma.

The culprit’s traces... There they are.

Passing the spot where Kwon Oh-Jin had crossed paths with the culprit, he continued following the trail of mana. It seemed the culprit had tried to conceal their mana as much as possible, but there was no fooling Choi Woo-Jin’s senses—not as a seven-star Awakener of Canes Venatici.

Choi Woo-Jin walked till he reached an alley where an abandoned bag lay on the ground. What caught his attention was a smear of green liquid on its edge; the scent matched the poison he had detected in Kwon Oh-Jin’s blood.

“Did they brush against him with this bag to apply the poison?” Choi Woo-Jin muttered. It explained why Kwon Oh-Jin hadn’t realized he had been poisoned. Who would suspect that someone casually bumping into them on the street was an attempt to poison them?

“... The trail ends here.”

Choi Woo-Jin frowned as he scanned the area.

There was no further scent or footprints around the bag, almost as if the culprit had vanished into thin air.

How did they pull this off?

He carefully reached toward the green liquid and focused, analyzing the mana within the poison. Despite the culprit’s attempt to hide it, he could feel the Stigma of Scorpio.

“No surprises there,” he remarked, his eyes gleaming intensely.

Unlike other Stigmas, the Stigma of Scorpio was almost exclusively affiliated with the Pandinus Guild. No other guild was capable of stealthy ploys of this level.

With both circumstantial and material evidence, there was no longer a need to hesitate.

“The culprit... was the Pandinus Guild,” Choi Woo-Jin said with unwavering certainty.

***

Kwon Oh-Jin slowly opened his eyes inside the ICU of a hospital. He had an oxygen mask strapped to his face and was surrounded by other expensive medical equipment made with Starstones.

Shit, it hurts like hell.

The poison he used was potent enough to corrode his internal organs, leaving him in excruciating pain.

Well, I had to make it look convincing.

Smiling, he grabbed his phone from the bedside table to check the latest news.

[Thunder Wolf Kwon Oh-Jin Vomits Blood and Collapses During Press Conference—Shocking Development]

[Is the Pandinus Guild Responsible? Trace of Stigma of Scorpio Found at the Scene.]

[Thunder Wolf Rushed to Hye Seong Hospital in Yeouido: ‘A Few Minutes Later and He Would Have Died,’ Doctor Says.]

[What was the Thunder Wolf about to Reveal about Choi Jong-Cheol and the Pandinus Guild?]

All the articles covered his recent incident.

“Looks like that guy followed the trace well,” Kwon Oh-Jin said, grinning widely. Choi Woo-Jin was truly a highly skilled investigator among Awakeners.

I was honestly worried that he might not find it. Let’s see how people are reacting.

He navigated to a popular community post he had visited previously.

[Ro Yoo-Jin: Breaking News! The guild behind the attempt on Thunder Wolf's life... is still denying involvement lol]

┗JerryM: Lmao, crazy bastards.

┗DirtSpoon: ???: It's true that traces of the Stigma of Scorpio were found at the scene, but we have nothing tying them to the incident.

┗WolfWolfKim: BFFR. you gotta have some shame, man.

┗VentiIIsAFemale: Does that mean Pandinus was behind that subjugation incident too?

┗WolfWolfKim: Why else would they try poisoning him? Clearly, they’ve got something to hide lol.

┗JerryM: Imagine getting tangled with lunatics like them. The Starlight Lake Guild must be fuming.

The masses were in an uproar. The arrows of criticism that had targeted the Starlight Lake Guild were now flying directly at the Pandinus Guild.

They won’t be able to talk their way out of this.

The public had already turned against them. If there were a word to describe the Pandinus Guild's position, it would be

checkmate

. Naturally, they were still scrambling to deny their involvement.

Go ahead, try all you want.

Without knowkedge of the Black Heaven, their efforts were futile. What could they possibly say when traces of the Stigma of Scorpio had been uncovered at the crime scene?

Now, the Pandinus Guild fell under suspicion for not just the poisoning attempt but

every

incident tied to their name, including the subjugation mission.

Now I can just lie back and enjoy free meals here.

Kwon Oh-Jin didn't need to step in any further. The top ten guilds, having been implicated earlier in the matter, would take care of shredding the Pandinus Guild apart for him.

Maybe I should send a few texts to Ha-Eun in case she’s worried.

Even though she didn’t know about the Black Heaven, she would have suspected that he had orchestrated the entire situation.

“Pfft, hahaha!”

Kwon Oh-Jin’s shoulders trembled as he chuckled.

He placed his phone on the bedside table and lay back on the bed.

“That’s why you shouldn’t go around trying to scam people so recklessly.”

I said so, didn’t I? This was a game I was bound to win.