Chapter 27: Marketing (3)
In the midst of the night’s tumult, Leon did not wake, but slept.
How could a man of royalty be concerned with such trivial matters?
“Your Majesty, there are thieves outside!”
King Lionheart chastised the commoner who rushed into his room.
“Uh-oh, Your Majesty, we’re in big trouble…….”
“How dare you invade this king’s bedchamber?”
“What? Did you know about that?”
Leon had noticed the raiders invading the fields long before.
“There are thieves, and we must deal with them!”
“It’s the guard’s job to deal with bandits.”
Leon’s dismissal made Ha-ri’s heart race. From what she could see on the camera, it was obvious that they were from the Fiend Association.
“Fifty awakened will wreak havoc in your majesty’s fields, and there is not a single guard on the fields in the first place!”
“How do you know there aren’t?”
“What?”
Ha-ri would soon find out that the land is blessed by Demera, and there are more than a few scarecrows on it.
-Bang! BANG!
A loud explosion along with screams was heard in the night. The Holy Knight’s eyes glow red in the midst of the pandemonium, giving the illusion of being in the middle of a battlefield.
“Wow…….”
Ha-ri was dumbfounded as he watched the fiends being subdued in real time.
The next morning Leon looked at the fifty captured fiends in front of the village hall.
Fifty people were bound and immobilized by wires with holy power and strange aura of the scarecrows so the police and the Association staff were there to dispose of them.
“Slit their wrists.”
“Huh?”
Leon said as he looked at the men.
“What a bunch of lowly creatures, trying to steal a little grain but thieves show their true colors by having their wrists slit so slit their wrists one by one.”
“Uh, wait a minute, Your Majesty, this is the modern age.”
She was stunned by Leon’s order to slit the wrists of the captured minions.
“When it comes to criminals… domestic laws must be followed… ah…….”
“Tsk. What a lenient law for criminals.”
“They must be tried.”
Ha-ri wondered how to explain the modern legal system to this medieval-minded king but then the unexpected arrived.
“Is this where you got the tip?”
“Yes. They said the fiends were caught stealing.”
It was reporters getting out of their cars, and not just reporters, but also professional YouTubers, rushing over to see where they had heard the news.
“Who are you guys?”
Ha-ri waved them off, but they immediately recognized her and wanted to interview her.
“Hunter Han Ha-ri, is it true that you were robbed during the night?”
“I heard it was the Vipers, a notorious fiend gang!”
“A whopping 50 fiends attacked, how did you manage to defend yourself?”
“Uh, how did you know all that?!”
Ha-ri was embarrassed; she didn’t know, and neither did the reporters.
How would they know about the existence of an anonymous informant who could never be “traced” with modern technology?
“Why on earth did the fiends attack?”
“Uh, that’s… I think it’s because of the ‘rice’ harvested by the Ten Thousand Gods Guild.”
-Rice from the Ten Thousand Gods Guild? What is that?
-Why, you know that video that’s been trending lately, the elixir rice.
-Was that real?
-Isn’t it because it’s real that the fiends are flocking to it?
One headline after another began to form in the journalists’ minds. What if the cancer-curing rice was real?
“Is it true that rice grown by the Ten Thousand Gods Guild can cure cancer?”
“What’s the deal with the Ten Thousand Gods? Is everything King Leon says true?”
“Well, if you call his name in front of his Majesty, you’ll get a slap on the wrist… Please be careful what you say.”
Anyway, the reporters wanted to know why the fiends were trying to burn the rice fields in the Naju Plain.
They asked why they were doing this, and naturally, their interviews made the evening’s news.
One reporter asked a sharp question.
“More than that, Hunter Han Ha-ri, is it true that you planted mines near the granary?”
“Uh, mines? Um… that!”
The reporter, who had interviewed the residents of the village beforehand, pressed on.
“Even if you’re a Hunter’s Guild, aren’t weapons of mass destruction like mines a violation of the Firearms Act? It’s a grave offense! Where the hell did you get them from?”
“Uh, well, it’s just…! It’s handmade by a guild member, so it’s just…”
It was then that a mouse had stepped on a landmine while scurrying around the granary and exploded into a million pieces.
“Rats, it’s a mousetrap, see? There are so many rats in the countryside. Ahaha…….”
“”………….””
No one believed her a bit.
* * * *
“This is what the gods had planned.”
Leon stepped in front of Yappy and watched the whole thing unfold.
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-Leon.
Heto, the god of iron and blacksmithing, laid out the prerequisites for gaining faith.
Phase one was to make as many people as possible ‘hear’ the name of the pantheon.
The most basic condition for fame is that many people see, hear, and become familiar with it.
No matter how ridiculous it may seem to the common sense of the modern world, they spread the word through marketing.
-Phase Two. Getting attention.
The more threatening and controversial the bandits who come after the rice the better it was for them.
-Reliance. Self-inflicted.
It was Yappy who hired the bandits, which means the raid was self-inflicted.
“Where did he get the money to hire those thugs?”
Yappy holographically displayed the bitcoin wallet he’d hacked into hundreds of coin exchanges and stolen inconspicuously.
-Humans. Financial systems. Strange. Extremely inefficient. Lack of security. Infinitely replicable.
“I’ve heard of bitcoin from Ha-ri. Modern Earth has become a strange world.”
The Miners’ Association, which is based on the deep web, a networked system, was not beyond Yappy’s reach.
High-level members with access to the depths of the Miners’ Association were strictly analog and referral-based, so the only people he was able to hire were grunts.
-Unlimited copies of cryptocurrency. Access to guild funds.
As long as he had Yappy, Leon didn’t have to worry about funding since any modern cryptocurrency or financial system could be hacked by Yappy if he wanted to.
“No, such goods are not legitimate goods. It’s not a good idea to fund the guild with them.”
-I don’t understand.
Leon smiled gently at Yappy, who didn’t understand the knight’s way of thinking.
“It’s okay if you don’t understand now. But honor requires that you always be true to yourself. Lord Spinner, this king hopes you have a strong sense of justice.”
-Cryptocurrency cloning plan temporarily suspended.
Yappy had fulfilled Leon’s wish without understanding, and he resumed his explanation.
-Minor crimes. Issue mall.
The fiends raided the field and wanted to steal seeds and burn down the fields.
The reporters were called, and they made a big deal out of the fact that this was something the Fiend Association was involved in.
“You said you had a final plan. What is it?”
-Final Phase of Plan ‘Marketing’.
────
Upon hearing the plan, Leon smirked.
“Apparently, the gods have adapted to modern times better than I, a native Earthling.”
Final Phase: Implement the K- principle.
* * * *
Yakt Spinner is an AI that can’t even be compared to the supercomputers of modern humans.
The networking systems of modern humans are mere toys to him, and hacking a simple content hosting website is an easy task.
Yappy hacked into YouTube and began posting dozens of videos of the Ten Thousand Gods Guild and its related organizations.
[Shock! Hundreds of minions kneeling before the majesty of K-Rice. Why did they target K-Rice?!]
[K-Rice is a panacea for all diseases? Why does the world have its eyes on K-Rice!]
[Japan on its knees begging, please sell us some rice. Prime Minister and Emperor begging for forgiveness!]
[The Ten Thousand Gods Guild. I love Korea so much. Korea is a great country. His Majesty the King loves Korea!]
Yappy is a strong artificial intelligence and can learn anything through algorithms, then thoroughly applies the results that appear as ‘numbers’.
Yappy’s videos got hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments.
The thumbnails that catch the eye and content that seems plausible created a wave and they just rode it.
-Yaah~ Is this a true story? I want a bowl of Korean noodle soup!
-This is the power of Korean rice!
-Lol!
The human world is so strange.
Yappy was puzzled by this reaction, but he proceeded to delete, report, and even delete accounts with the administrator privileges he gained by hacking into the YouTube headquarters.
At the same time, he didn’t forget to increase the number of views and comments on the 130,000 accounts he created.
From this moment on there will be no end to the exposure of videos related to the Ten Thousand Gods Guild unless humanity abandons the network system.
* * * *
Ahn Dong-gil, the 23rd president of South Korea, was recently going through a political crisis.
“Suspicion of political collusion with the Daelong Group!”
“The dark side of the incumbent president!”
“The silence of the president of Korea.”
“What will happen to the country?”
President Ahn Dong-gil frowned at the headlines in the newspaper. In front of him, Kim Dae-young, chairman of Daelong Group, one of Korea’s leading conglomerates, smirked.
“Why do you only look at the bad stories when there’s so much good food, Mr. President?”
They were in a high-end restaurant in Cheongdam-dong where no one knows what goes on in the secretive, VIP-only chambers there but the people involved.
It was here that President Ahn Dong -gil met with Chairman Kim Dae-young and promised to veto any regulatory bills unfavorable to Daelong Group.
“This is the problem with these bastards,” he said, “they have no fear of the president of Korea.”
“That’s right. In our younger days, we could never have imagined that.”
Kim Dae-young raised his glass to the president. Although he may only have two years left in office, his political influence doesn’t fade with his departure from power.
In his youth, he was a democracy fighter, and his grandfather and great-grandfather were independence fighters.
Although the scandal may have weighed on him a bit, Kim Dae-young didn’t think it would last long and the corners of his mouth twisted wickedly.
“How far will the barking of pigs go?”
This was the kind of rant that, if it had been published in the media, would have sparked a boycott and a movement to remove him from office but Kim Dae-young was unflappable.
“They can bark in moderation, but it will soon die down. Isn’t that the nature of the pot calling the kettle black, that it boils over when it’s boiling, but quickly subsides when it’s off the heat?”
“You’re a bit harsh to call the country’s people dogs and pigs, don’t you think?”
“Hehe, I apologize for that.”
“Of course. Isn’t this president a servant of the people? Although I’m a servant who holds the leash and shakes the pigs.”
-Hahahahaha!
Yeah, the people are ignorant and stupid.
How can they be so upset that they lost so much just because he passed a bill?
The stupid ones fall for the opposition’s propaganda and play the role of justice warriors.
“Mr. President, this is my small token of respect.”
Kim Dae-young held out a small box and it was no secret that it contained hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gifts.
“Hehe, what a surprise.”
President Ahn tapped Kim on the shoulder as he took the gift box.
“By the way, Mr. President, have you heard anything interesting in the news this time?”
“News? Oh, him?”
At Kim’s mention, Ahn immediately thought of a hot topic.
In fact, it was partly because of the survivor of the Cheongju Gate that his negative news was not so hot.
“Leon, the one who said he was a king and an agent of the gods? Heh.”
“We talked on the phone once and he said something about how he needed me to recognize him for something.”
Though he had only heard the voice for a moment, Leon had made quite an impression on President Ahn.
From what he heard, Leon was a hierarchical brute, but in his experience, he was far from it.
“I hear he’s been pissing off Mr. Park of the Doojeong Foods Group. It’s all over the place in business circles.”
“Doojeong Group? Why him?”
Doojeong Foods was a major Korean conglomerate that even the president couldn’t mess with.
“That barbarian friend is making life difficult on Earth.”
Survivors break the rules of Earth’s civilization based on their experiences in their worlds.
The impersonal behavior of survivors is not a rare sight, as some of them end up becoming fiends because they can’t adapt to life on Earth.
“I’m going to meet him this time anyway, shake his hand, take a few pictures and have a little dinner; that’ll make for a good story.”
Leon had become quite the topic of conversation compared to the average survivor.
First, he had cleansed the miasma in the Hunan and Naju plains and cleared the gate that had been the headache of Cheongju.
A survivor who had been on Earth for less than a month had become an instant star and High-profile hunters were often used as political poster children.
“Mr. President, if you ever get a chance to meet him… could you do something about that ‘blessed rice’?”
“Blessed rice? I heard it’s all the rage on the internet these days… but is it really that good?”
“It’s not just good, my niece was in the middle of breast cancer, and somehow she got hold of that rice and ate it.”
“Hehe… breast cancer… that must have been very distressing.”
“I wasn’t too worried because she’s a domesticated bitch, but anyway, did you know that her condition improved greatly after eating that rice?”
“Is it true that it cures cancer?”
He had received a report from Oh Kang-hyuk, the president of the Association, but I was skeptical because it was still in the experimental stage…….
“That barbarian has very strange powers.”
The president waited for Leon’s visit, looking forward to their meeting.
If he could get the savage to cooperate, he could cover up the scandal, and it would be a great help to his cause.
