The relentless cold wave only grew harsher with each passing day. Not a single day passed without snow. Disaster alert texts warning of heavy snowfall had become just another part of my daily routine.
I slowly scrolled through the community posts. The forums were completely flooded with discussions about Red Apple. Especially on SNS platforms where posts came in real time, the topic had even made it to the trending list.
***
[Title: Is this for real?]
Posted by: MasterOverHere
Views: 65,311 | Upvotes: 43 | Bookmarks: 56
Is this breaking news actually true? LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO???????? This isn’t like some nationwide hidden camera prank to mess with me, right? lolololololol…..?? Yoo Jin-woo got arrested? Red Apple is heading to jail??
[Comments]
I’m seriously doubting my own eyes right now
┖What the hell is going on
Did Santa grant my wish or what??
┖If so, he was awfully generous this year
┖Highly regressed adults are hard to tell apart from kids
***
[Title: They really left this as a Christmas gift]
Posted by: Need3.2BilToBuyAHome
Views: 34,223 | Upvotes: 56 | Bookmarks: 32
Shouldn’t we throw a celebration party for this? LMAO
[Comments]
Celebrate my ass, every other guild’s about to get wrecked too
┖Okay, next Rotten Apple~
┖What, still crying? lololol go whine to your own guild master~
┖Why would you think this kind of thing would hurt other guilds too? Red Apple was evil to its core, you insane bastard
Honestly, the stuff being revealed is so insane that it’s a wonder they weren’t arrested sooner
┖Yoo Jin-woo’s face is plastered everywhere now
┖Finally get to see that asshole in cuffs
Wow… the world’s gone completely mad. They did all that in the shadows?
┖My jaw literally won’t close right now
┖We kept calling them Rotten Apple, but turns out they were a seriously messed up criminal syndicate. I knew about the illegal hunter detention thing, but not to this extent
Anyone who tried to compare Red Apple to Hansung, go slam your heads into a wall. But seriously, hasn’t this gone way beyond just being immoral? Don’t they deserve the death penalty at this point?
┖sorry but I’m outside—someone fill me in, please ㅠㅠㅠ
┖[Link] <<< Check this out
***
[Title: Guild Leader of Red Apple Has Lost His Damn Mind – Latest Update]
Posted by: HiddenFriedRice
Views: 128,962 | Upvotes: 532 | Bookmarks: 423
Got anonymous tips about Red Apple’s atrocities – police and Hunter Association launched a massive investigation – turns out it was all true – Guild Leader arrested (currently here)
Summary: Red Apple was actually a human trafficking ring
[Comments]
All this blew up over a single anonymous tip?
┖Apparently the evidence was way too detailed for it to just be anonymous. Sounds like an insider whistleblower, the warrant was issued immediately
┖What do you mean by human trafficking??
┖Sounds like they were abducting kids. Details haven’t been fully disclosed yet
They kidnapped kids????;;;;; What the hell is this;;;;;
┖I thought they were just leeches pushing people around and stealing Mana Stones, but turns out they were a historic-level scumbag group
┖What the hell did they do to the kids? Fucking psychopaths
This kind of news at year’s end? Are they really getting arrested for this?
┖(photo)
┖Whoa, shit;; that’s an aerial view
┖Tried to run and got caught in the scuffle
Can’t believe the Association’s actually doing something for once. I always thought Hunter Association = Red Apple, but I might have to rethink that now. So what happens to the guild?
┖The Guild Leader got arrested—of course it’s getting disbanded, lmaoooo
┖But honestly, I didn’t even know that building was Red Apple’s HQ. Thought it was just some regular pharmaceutical company
***
[Title: And It’s Not Just the Human Trafficking]
Posted by: KkyuBoy73
Views: 54,788 | Upvotes: 77 | Bookmarks: 53
Isn’t the rest of this stuff just as insane…? Are we even talking about the same person…
All my faith in humanity is just gone now.
[Comments]
When I saw the gambling, fraud, and tax evasion charges, I just went “ah, f*cking lunatics” and kept scrolling—but the later charges? I couldn’t believe my eyes.
┖From what I hear, they were linked to several other guilds. No matter how big they were, there’s no way they did this alone.
┖Knowing Yoo Jin-woo’s personality, he’ll spill everything in a matter of days anyway, so I’m not worried about who else is involved.
I even heard rumors about Gongmyeong being connected.
┖Yeah, that’s too far.
┖LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you brainless or what?
┖How do you even connect Gongmyeong and Rotten Apple lolololololol
┖If Gongmyeong’s involved, I’ll twerk naked in front of Gwanghwamun in this weather.
Damn… if we keep digging, won’t more dirt come out?
┖Baek Tae-beom, who used to beat the hell out of anyone from Red Apple… he was the real ‘god’.
┖Did he maybe know about this in secret all along?
┖┖Nah, bullshit. If he did, with his personality, he’d have blown up their HQ first thing.
***
[Title: It’s Cold As Hell But…]
Posted by: ThunderousOolongTea
Views: 36,444 | Upvotes: 76 | Bookmarks: 43
Image: da1444.jpg
Holy shit, to think they were up to this kind of stuff…
I was literally getting ready for a Christmas party in a festive sweater…
But seeing Yoo Jin-woo dragged away through a raging snowstorm? Delicious.
[Comments]
What’s gonna happen to the guild members?
┖You think only a couple of them were involved? They’ll get pulled out like fish on a string, one after another.
┖Whoever had the guts to blow the whistle on something this big must’ve been pretty high up in Red Apple;; Any word on who it was?
┖There are whispers it was Kim Seong-jae.
┖As if, lololol
We thought the truth would drift in like flotsam, but what floated over was just their head on a pike.
┖If they get some ridiculous light sentence again, I swear I’m camping out in front of the courthouse with my skill on blast.
┖Same here. I’ll go behead the judge too—use him as dragon chow for our Yong-yong.
***
We had gathered all the data we could on Red Apple and made our move before the group had a chance to react. The catalyst had been an anonymous tip-off—an internal whistleblower. And once I was holding the winning hand, of course I had to play it right. Especially when the opponent was outright evil—there was no reason to hesitate.
Since we already had solid evidence tracing Red Apple’s long string of crimes, persuading Kim Seong-jae hadn’t been difficult. Though to be honest, calling it persuasion was a bit of a stretch—it was more like coercion. He had already given up on resisting anyway, so he complied without a word. Thanks to that, I managed to slip through some legal loopholes for the time being, but the consequences? They’d definitely come—from Gongmyeong.
“F*cking file…”
I’d yanked the USB out before confirming the transfer was complete, which meant the documents tying Gongmyeong to the whole mess hadn’t made it in. I couldn’t just sit around waiting for the perfect chance to trap Gongmyeong—not with Red Apple still out there, running wild. Once the human trafficking came to light, doing nothing was no longer an option.
Hansung’s pressure had helped speed up the investigation, even dragging out the most sluggish bureaucrats and forcing them to move. If the legal system handled things properly now, Red Apple would collapse on its own. We’d hit them too hard and too fast for any cover-up to work.
What I was waiting on now was Gongmyeong Guild’s attempt to bury the whole thing. They’d move—no doubt about it. And whether their move was smart or stupid didn’t matter. All I had to do was toss out the bait and wait for the float to twitch.
I tapped my fingers and launched my personal streaming app. Yoo Ji-won was broadcasting a segment, analyzing the Red Apple incident in his own style.
[Kidnapping children? That’s just… beyond horrifying. But there’s something even more suspicious here.]
[You think Red Apple did this alone? No way. The real question is—where did the kidnapped children go?]
[Holy crap… that’s terrifying…]
[ㅠㅠ This is seriously messed up. How do you even think of kidnapping kidsㅠㅠ]
[At first, I was just happy Yoo Jin-woo got arrested, but this… this isn’t something to cheer for.]
[What did those kids ever do to deserve this…]
[What if they were used in human experimentation or something??]
As one of the world’s most popular streamers picked up the issue, others quickly followed suit, each offering their own take. Reaching out to Yoo Ji-won to cover the story had paid off.
I stared at one comment floating up the chat box:
‘Human experimentation, huh…’
As unbelievable as it sounded, there was one thing I couldn’t shake off.
It was what the Constellation of the Blue Star, First of the Seven Brothers Who Became Stars, had said during the battle against Kang Si-hoo in the final chamber of the Tower of Hellnest.
[CH.#fdl990/First of the Seven Brothers Who Became Stars]: What is this horrifying energy?
[CH.#fdl990/First of the Seven Brothers Who Became Stars]: Did this one… actually use a human as a sacrifice?!
That was exactly what he’d said.
“This is really bothering me.”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: What is?
“What Seven Star God said when he saw Kang Si-hoo back then. That question about whether he used a human as a sacrifice. I can’t get it out of my head.”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: Hm. Might just be that old fool getting senile and imagining things.
“Why are you saying such nonsense again? Are you throwing a tantrum ‘cause I’m not playing with you right now?”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: Hmph.
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: Besides, it’s not like an ordinary human could even harness power by using another human as a sacrifice….
“Kang Si-hoo isn’t an ordinary human. His body was practically on the verge of merging with Angrboda, remember?”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: …That’s a fair point.
“I know you tend to look down on humans, Apollo, but you still need to acknowledge how dangerous this situation is. It’s not just Constellations like Angrboda we should be worried about—Kang Si-hoo himself is a threat too.”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: You think I don’t know that? It’s honestly laughable hearing you talk about danger. Aren’t you the one going around throwing yourself into risky shit constantly?
I glared at the chat window for no reason.
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: Got a problem?
[CH.Private/One Who Seeks to Prevent Destruction]: Ye
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: ?
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: Not gonna type out a full sentence?
[CH.Private/One Who Seeks to Prevent Destruction]: Ye
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun]: You disrespectful little brat!
“And who do you think raised me to be this way?”
