Chapter 54 - Official Statement

The attack on the Blue House. Limon Aspelder had stormed it alone, crushed its guards, and taken the president hostage. It was no exaggeration to say that this one story had dominated the news across the country for days. The incident was enormous, and there were plenty of angles to dig into.

The culprit was a hero who had saved the nation. No one knew why he had done it. No one had managed to stop him. The Blue House had been devastated. Then there was Limon's relationship with Lee Cheon-gi. Every detail raised questions or had consequences worthy of front-page coverage. There were even programs devoted entirely to discussing the affair.

"Hey, Reporter Kim. Got any good leads?"

"Plenty. Business is booming thanks to His Lordship, humanity's guardian deity, isn't it?"

"Come on, not the usual stuff. I mean something like why humanity's guardian deity committed treason."

"If I knew that, would I be standing here? I'd already be off writing the article."

Media workers were no exception when it came to wanting the truth. If anything, they were more curious. Their access to information gave them all the more reason to find the situation confusing or difficult to understand.

"I'm starting to doubt it even happened."

"What are you talking about?"

"Think about it. Does it make sense that he stormed the Blue House alone? There are several high-level players among the president's bodyguards alone."

"He is humanity's guardian deity, after all."

"That was back before players existed. Isn't he just an ordinary guy who's good with a sword?"

"Well, true..."

They had heard testimony from people who'd fought Limon at the Blue House. The problem was that none of it sounded remotely believable.

He'd caught an artillery shell on the tip of his sword. Bullets had veered away from him on their own. He'd cut through skills with his blade. Every account sounded like that, enough to make them wonder if all the witnesses had taken hallucinogens together. Of course, they unanimously agreed it was more likely the government had fabricated the testimony. To people who took it as common sense that an ordinary person could never do what even players couldn't, the suspicion was only natural.

"And what about the claim he came through the main gate?"

"Hmm. They don't want to reveal how he got in, so they made that up, right?"

"Obviously. What lunatic would do that unless he had noodles for brains?"

Unfortunately for them, there were two things they didn't know. Limon wasn't bound by common sense. And while he didn't have noodles for brains, he'd been called a mad dog all his life.

"I looked up some old records about Limon Aspelder, and they're ridiculous."

"That bad?"

"Yeah. It's all stuff about splitting the sea with one swing or circling the Earth thirty-seven times in a day. There's a limit to how much you can make up."

"Tsk. People back then sure loved to exaggerate..."

"Exaggerations like that probably worked back then. Made for good propaganda, too."

"That was back when people would believe Hong Gil-dong was real. Who'd believe stories like that now?"

That was why the media workers were racking their brains. They were experts at turning one thing into ten and inventing stories to generate gossip and buzz. But even they had limits. With so much attention already on the incident, they couldn't present such outlandish testimony and records as fact. Forget the public—their bosses would kick their shins for bringing in garbage like that and calling it reporting.

"Damn it. The Blue House could at least make a statement so we know what we can publish. What's with telling us nothing and putting restrictions on the coverage?"

"Exactly. Normally they'd at least offer some platitudes."

There was another reason the reporters couldn't publish freely: the government's strange response. Normally, after an incident like this, the first thing the government did was issue a statement along the lines of, 'The crisis is over. There's no cause for alarm.' It didn't matter if everyone knew it was a bluff. The very fact that the government was telling an obvious lie would reassure some people that everything was business as usual. A surprising number would even believe it.

Yet this time, the government was delaying its statement for a strangely long time. Worse, it had quietly told news outlets to keep their mouths shut. It was almost as if it feared that saying the wrong thing too soon might get on someone's nerves. All sorts of rumors had spread as a result.

The president was already dead. Limon had fled overseas. It was all a government conspiracy. Normally, media workers would have led the charge in spreading or debunking such rumors. Instead, they were so busy watching the silent government's every move that they couldn't even make proper use of this rich material. It was driving them up the wall.

"Let's wait and see. Surely we'll get something worth reporting today."

"We'd better. It's the first press conference since it happened."

That was why they were looking forward to it. Depending on what was announced at the upcoming press conference, they might finally be able to write their articles. A few reporters had even resolved to ask pointed questions. Blue House spokesperson or not, they'd show anyone who dared ignore the public's right to know the mighty power of the press.

CREEEAK

But moments later, the press conference room door opened, and a man appeared. From the cameraman filming the room with little interest to the reporter passionately delivering a piece to camera, everyone inside froze, eyes nearly popping out of their heads.

STEP, STEP

Ignoring the dumbfounded reporters' stares, as though they couldn't believe they weren't dreaming, the man calmly stepped up to the podium. Dressed in a white suit, with half his hair falling over one eye, he lightly adjusted his new monocle.

"What are you doing?"

His expression was impassive and his voice calm, yet those few words made the frozen reporters jump. The Infinite Monarch, Lee Cheon-gi, looked at the broadcast camera and continued quietly.

"Begin the press conference."

* * *

It was chaos. It was shock. It was bewilderment. Nearly everyone watching the broadcast felt it, not just the reporters in the room. The sight was that unexpected.

["Um, Infinite Monarch? I understand this conference is for an official statement from the Blue House..."]

["That's correct."]

["... Then why are you here?" ]

Unable to contain his bewilderment, one reporter hesitantly voiced the question on everyone's mind.

Lee Cheon-gi was a Monarch who appeared on broadcasts only when necessary. Even at Infinity Guild press conferences, he sent a spokesperson; he very rarely dealt with reporters himself. For him to show up at a Blue House press conference was bizarre. Some reporters even looked around to check whether they'd come to the wrong room.

But when Lee Cheon-gi spoke, they found themselves confused for an entirely different reason.

["Today, I speak on behalf of the Blue House."]

["...???"]

Question marks seemed to appear above every reporter's head. For a long moment they stood there blankly, as if doubting their ears—or as if their brains refused to process his words. They looked like they'd all been struck by 【Status Effect: Confusion】. At last, they broke free of their paralysis and spoke up in disbelief.

["What? That's absurd!"]

Absurd was exactly the word. Lee Cheon-gi might be a Monarch and the head of Infinity Guild, but he wasn't a government official. He had no qualifications, no right, and no reason to speak for the Blue House. It was like a movie star, an athlete, or the chairman of a major corporation suddenly appearing as its spokesperson. The objection was entirely reasonable. Of course the reporters were stunned.

But Lee Cheon-gi ended their confusion with a brief question. ["Is there a problem?"]

In an instant, every reporter who'd looked ready to speak fell silent. As though willing to hear any complaint, Lee Cheon-gi slowly looked around at them. The moment they met his utterly calm gaze, they all realized that, unlike a mere celebrity, he was not someone whose qualifications they could presume to question.

Few noticed that skills such as 『Intimidation』, 『Overwhelm』, and 『Threat』 had subtly contributed to that realization. It would have made no difference if they had. Before them stood the Infinite Monarch, one of the ten absolute beings who ruled this era.

["If no one has anything else to say, I'll take that to mean there is no problem."]

It was a simple announcement. He wasn't accepting silence as agreement; he was using silence to force agreement. Yet no one objected. In the quiet he'd secured so easily, Lee Cheon-gi adjusted his monocle and continued.

["First, as you all know, I'll give the official statement on the minor incident at the Blue House a few days ago."]

'Minor incident?'

'The president being taken hostage?'

'In what possible way?'

The statement hadn't even begun, but that opening alone left every reporter wide-eyed or wearing a strange expression. If the president's spokesperson—or the president himself—had said it, they would have bombarded him with questions.

["I'll start with the conclusion."]

But they didn't know that really had been only the opening. It was nothing compared to the shock of what Lee Cheon-gi said next.

["The whole thing was a 'show.'"]

["... Pardon?"]

["It was part of an emergency response drill simulating an attempted coup by a high-level player and an intrusion into the Blue House."]

The reporters' jaws dropped. Lee Cheon-gi paid no attention. With his usual impassive expression, he simply continued his explanation.

["Concerned by public indifference to the growing number of crimes committed by high-level players, the government arranged this exercise with special cooperation from PAB..."]

It had all been a planned drill. The hostage-taking itself had been staged. The exercise had exposed numerous problems with Blue House security and emergency response. PAB would be reformed to address those problems, enabling a smoother response to high-level players running amok in the future. Infinity Guild would take responsibility for rebuilding the parts of the Blue House destroyed during the exercise, and so on... There was some long-winded detail mixed in, but the point was simple: the whole thing had been a staged 'show,' so everyone should act as if it had never happened and forget it.

In a way, it was an official statement entirely typical of the Blue House, which only made it more outrageous. At last, the reporters erupted.

["You expect us to believe that?"]

["What will you do if you don't?"]

["What is that supposed to—!"]

["Will you stake your careers as journalists on claiming that Sir Limon Aspelder suddenly committed treason and the government failed to stop him, letting the president be taken hostage?"]

At those words, the reporters fell silent again. That version sounded even less believable. More importantly, his challenge to stake their careers didn't sound like a joke. Taking responsibility for what they published was unfamiliar and difficult for them.

To people who had worked solely to generate gossip and buzz without the slightest interest in the truth, Lee Cheon-gi said calmly, ["If you won't, shut up."] If they couldn't take responsibility, they should at least be prepared to. If they weren't even prepared to do that, they shouldn't speak so carelessly. And if anyone ignored his warning, he would hold them personally accountable. Lee Cheon-gi had condensed all of that into a few words.

One reporter could stand it no longer and shouted, ["Th-this is suppression of the press!"]

["Suppression... What an interesting word."]

Lee Cheon-gi didn't bat an eye. Looking at the reporter with the same impassive expression, he continued, ["I merely told you to take responsibility for your articles. If that's suppression, are you saying you intend to write nothing but baseless rumors you can't stand behind?"]

["..."]

Having gained nothing by speaking up, the reporter fell silent, his face turning an ugly shade. Lee Cheon-gi looked away from him and surveyed the room.

["Does anyone have any more questions?"]

It was a final check. The last chance he would give them. But no one asked to speak. Instead, they flinched or averted their eyes, intent only on avoiding responsibility.

As though he'd expected nothing else, Lee Cheon-gi turned his calm gaze from the reporters to the camera and concluded, ["That concludes the press conference."]

Perhaps that excessively curt ending had stunned everyone, from the cameramen to the studio staff and anchors. Even after Lee Cheon-gi left and murmurs began rising among the reporters in the once-quiet room, the television screen continued to show nothing but the empty podium.

A white-haired man watched it steadily. Only after a long while did Limon offer his opinion of the press conference. "... Wow."