Chapter 442
The clan leaders were flustered but tried to explain.
“Uh... There are practical ways to take control without resorting to such drastic measures.”
Launching a coup like overseas people wasn’t the only method. In practice, there were several ways to take control of the clans.
“I’m not sure if you know this, but there was once talk about establishing a Clan Review Committee. However, there was fierce backlash from various clans and companies, so the whole idea was scrapped...”
Ever since the gate was opened and hunters and clans were formed, South Korea had been arguing over how much power should be given to hunters and clans.
Proponents argued that “a large number of highly skilled first-generation hunters left South Korea because the government and the National Assembly didn’t provide adequate support,” while those in opposition argued, “All they do with their authority is drugs, drive while drinking, and use magic to cover up their purchases and falsify records.”
The confrontation had been fierce and various ideas had been proposed, the Clan Review Committee being one of them.
Rather than increasing support for hunters and clans, people wanted to establish a committee that would make sure hunters were doing their job properly and didn’t cause any problems. That committee would also have the ability to impose sanctions!
...Of course, clans and companies didn't like that idea at all.
-This is an insult to the hunters who dedicate themselves to the country and its people!
-Our country will no longer be competitive in the international community if you start scrutinizing clans like that!
Clans and hunters essentially operated as a single entity. For example, if a hunter got into a huge scandal, the clan as a whole would officially take responsibility and banish them.
However, clans would pardon their highest-ranked hunters even if they screwed up badly because they brought the most amount of money.
The same principle was true for companies that joined forces with clans. Companies could earn enormous amounts of money only when clans targeted dungeons, killed monsters, and supplied cores, materials, and artifacts.
Besides that, companies could benefit from that process by having the clans assist them in various illegal activities, such as tax evasion and creating slush funds.
If people in power suddenly started scrutinizing the clans, a few areas would be affected.
“However, the atmosphere is different now. It’s better to bring up the Clan Review Committee again. If you take charge, Hunter Choi Yeonseung, the politicians won’t dare to oppose you and the clans won’t be able to do anything besides watching.”
From a clan’s perspective, the committees that could disband clans or impose various sanctions were like the Grim Reaper.
Just like powerful companies were afraid of the Fair Trade Commission, clans were afraid of the Clan Review Committee.
If that committee was actually created, Choi Yeonseung would hold the leash of Korean clans in one hand.
“I get it, but how come you guys are so radical? I didn’t expect you to come up with something so clever.”
“...”
“...”
The clan leaders were stunned. Wasn’t Choi Yeonseung the one who had proposed a coup?
***
Several luxury foreign cars stopped in front of the mansion of Han Seonggu, the chairman of Hanseong Group.
The guests invited that day were some of the group executives that Han Seonggu trusted, as well as those who held senior positions in the group.
“Hey... Hyung-nim. You seem quite excited today! There’s a lot of talk about the factory line of Hanseong Electronics. How come you’re so relaxed?”
‘This son of a bitch.’
“There’s nothing to worry about. We already have enough supplies. It doesn’t matter if we lose imports. What about the heavy industry? Some people are saying that poor construction is the main reason hunters can’t withstand monster attacks and collapse.
“Hahaha! Who would believe such false rumors?!”
‘Bastard.’
The children of Han Seonggu, the current chairman, were all ambitious people. They had grown their respective companies while vowing to crush each other at all costs and eventually take over everything in the group.
South Korea and its society had collapsed because of the ongoing great invasion... Well, it hadn’t actually gotten to that point, but there was still a lot of chaos.
South Korea was holding on, but all imports from abroad had stopped, and all types of bad news were popping up.
From a manager’s perspective, every day felt like walking on a very brittle tightrope.
“Fighting again? How pathetic. You should just be content with what you have. Why are you so greedy?” Han Seha cut in as she was walking through the door, joining the meeting late.
Han Hyeokrim and Han Kiyeong stopped glaring at each other and stared at the back of their brilliant niece.
‘She’s more dangerous.’
‘She’s pretending not to care, but she’s fawning over the chairman!’
Han Seha was an A-grade hunter, so she couldn’t be bothered with the conflict of interests within the group.
Whenever she was bored, she would say things like “Is this about Hanseong Group’s flush fund case? If it were up to me, I’d throw the one who created it at a press conference.” Thus, how could she seriously aim for management rights?
In addition, she was known as a crazy hunter who constantly shouted abuse at reporters and broke the teeth of hunters who started fights. That meant that Han Seha’s uncles and aunts weren’t too wary of her when it came to Hanseong Group.
But lately, the atmosphere had become strange.
Han Seha had been making significant contributions in the Abyss raids and built up impressive achievements. She had also secured several rare seeds while in charge of Hanseong Bio, which was the exile company within the group, and managed to make profit out of it.
Moreover, during the invasion, the public opinion had turned around because she had taken the lead in stopping the monsters and protecting citizens.
-The media should reflect on themselves! The media’s shamelessness in almost driving away another A-grade hunter...
-Hunter Han Seha is so good that she didn’t file charges or take legal action against them, even though she has suffered a lot from false articles...
?What nonsense! I was the one hit by her!
?Such a shameless guy! You still haven’t come to your senses, and you’re still spreading misinformation!
?Everyone! Make sure to never forgive this guy!
From the perspective of the relatives who knew how hot-tempered Han Seha was, her sudden surge in popularity was absurd. Despite her scandals and bad behavior, everyone saw Han Seha as a hero who endured the attacks of the media and devoted herself to the people!
At this point, nobody could tell how the chairman would react to this absurd atmosphere.
‘Don’t tell me... No, he’s not the type of person to make an unreasonable move in a chaotic situation.’
‘If he makes such a statement now, the group will be torn apart.’
“Now, before we start, let’s applaud Seha for her dedication to the country.”
“...”
Clap clap clap clap clap!
It was certainly bizarre to see a bunch of middle-aged men and women, all with luxurious outfits, clapping with the most dejected expressions ever.
Han Seha was disgusted. She wasn’t happy at all despite receiving such praise.
“Now, each of you will report on the current situation,” Han Seonggu continued.
“!”
Han Hyeokrim sighed with relief. He had been worried about the sudden gathering and unconventional remarks, but it seemed that the chairman had just called them here to discuss the ongoing crisis.
Everyone present proceeded to report and answer questions about their respective tasks, and once everything was more or less settled, Han Seonggu said, “There’s talk that the Clan Review Committee will actually be established this time. What do you think?”
“Huh?”
Everyone in the room reacted like it was ridiculous.
“Isn’t that ridiculous? Who would try to put a bell on a cat’s neck?”
“Clans and companies will hate this. It seems that some politicians are struggling to gain popularity because they’re cornered. Doing something like that is essentially political suicide. Those people will just go through the motions to convince the public and then stop at the last minute.”
The politicians who had claimed that there wouldn’t be any invasion were being backed into a corner.
-My fellow citizens, when I said that there would be no major invasion, it was a prediction based on the opinions of experts. I apologize for the error...
-My fellow citizens, I also have a lot of respect for Hunter Choi Yeonseung. The accusations that I denied the possibility of an invasion because I am jealous of Hunter Choi Yeonseung are completely baseless...
-My fellow citizens, I will thoroughly reflect on everything that has happened in regards to this invasion. Once again, I apologize for not being able to help the hunters running around the field and only interfering with them.
Initially, all the prominent politicians had been certain that those apologies would be enough to protect their reputations and that the masses would quickly calm down.
However, given how tense the atmosphere was, their apologies had just fallen flat, and public opinion hadn’t improved at all.
The politicians were desperate to find a way to survive.
-It will be impossible to fix the situation unless Hunter Choi Yeonseung comes forward and speaks in person.
-Can you contact him somehow?
-His side is completely ignoring us!
-Damn it! I can’t believe he’s acting like this without a care in the world...!
The best move was to coax Choi Yeonseung into coming to a press conference and use him to finally put an end to this scandal.
However, Choi Yeonseung was a bigshot among bigshots, and nobody would be able to pressure him!
As such, it wasn’t surprising that some politicians were desperate and coming up with unreasonable methods to save their careers, like establishing the Clan Review Committee.
They were most likely doing this to somehow improve public opinion...
‘But who would like this?’
‘Even the clans helping Choi Yeonseung wouldn’t want this.’
But no one in the room saw this idea as realistic. First of all, the three major clans who helped Choi Yeonseung would clearly oppose the idea.
“Is that so? You mean it’s absolutely impossible, right?”
“Yes.”
“That’s correct.”
“I see. I understand.”
Han Seonggu nodded without saying anything. He immediately moved onto another topic, and everyone in the room already forgot about this clan committee nonsense.
***
“Huh? Me?”
Han Seha, who had just been about to leave, looked nervous when her grandfather stopped her. Nothing good ever happened when he wanted to speak to her in private.
“What is it?”
“I just wanted to say that I’m proud of you. You’re finally starting to care about your image.”
“Huh?! That’s not the case?!” blurted Han Seha as she jumped out.
She had done all of that at the last press conference only because Kwon Yeongseung and the rest of the Six-Eyed Turtle clan had persuaded her, arguing that it was necessary in order for Hunter Choi Yeonseung to gain more power.
She couldn’t believe that her grandfather misunderstood the whole situation as her growing up.
“I really think you’ve grown up.”
At that, Han Seha frowned and said, “If you think so, I’ll go to a press conference tomorrow and destroy it. Wasn’t there a media company that laughed at us last time?”
“Do whatever you want. Given the current situation, people would still cheer for you even if you did that.”
“...!”
Han Seha couldn’t argue with that. She was so popular that the public would be impressed by anything she did.
That was exactly how things currently were.
“Those idiots from earlier have quickly disregarded the news about the Clan Review Committee, but I think they’re mistaken. The atmosphere is strange.”
“Aren’t the clans against it?”
“It doesn’t matter if they are. The only thing that matters is who has the power. The way I see it, one side has all the power. If Choi Yeonseung wants to do it, he can do it.”
From Han Seonggu’s perspective, all the plays made after the start of the invasion seemed smart and purposeful.
“Earlier, those idiots said that the big clans like Golden Blood Fish, Six-Eyed Turtle, and Bulgae wouldn’t agree, but... There’s an exception to this. Hunters are all selfish and greedy, but sometimes, they can be other things as well.”
The leader of the Six-Eyed Turtle clan had been active since the first generation and insisted that the clans should step up more. His son, Kwon Yeongseung, was also very close to Choi Yeonseung.
On top of that, the leader of Bulgae was very close to Iron-Blooded Ice Emperor Lee Changsik. The leader of the Golden Blood Fish was a comrade of Choi Yeonseung, having fought together since they were low-ranking hunters.
People were usually selfish and greedy, but they could sometimes act altruistically if they had a reason.
If Choi Yeonseung really wanted to do something, he could persuade or intimidate them to cooperate with him.
“I think there’s a good chance that this committee thing will go through.”
“Wow, isn't that amazing?? Then if Hunter Choi Yeonseung doesn’t like anyone, he can just kick them out of South Korea, right?!”
“...”
Han Seonggu heaved a deep sigh at his granddaughter’s reaction.
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