Ch.147The Second Twilight of the Idols – Atlas of Detroit (5)

That day, Arthur could only hear one song from Polaris. Just one song, filled with praise for heroes, which she had composed for her visit to Detroit.

Normally, Arthur wouldn’t have thought it was a song for himself, but today was a bit different. Polaris had pulled him, who considered himself a supporting character, into the realm of being a protagonist.

Still, she left most of the glory for Ryland, Serena, Chris, and all the DPD officers who weren’t traitors. Just as he had no habit of having his share taken away, he also had no habit of taking others’ shares.

For the traitors, Arthur himself would be the deliverer. He would bring what only Gardner could provide. He would use the voice module, enhanced body, and optical camouflage suit.

He still remembered what Boss Yoon had said. Make your enemies tremble in fear. The traitors would be the same. The target must be narrowly focused. That way, the blade strikes more sharply.

For the other traitors, he didn’t care how they died as long as they did—whether they bit a gun barrel, were sliced by Gardner, or shot with a picked-up gun. But one was different.

For the traitors’ leader, the Commissioner, he would do what he couldn’t do to Walter. Arthur promised himself. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep his promise to beat Walter to death.

The Commissioner wouldn’t have such luck. Now Arthur himself was playing Günter’s role, and there would be no old Ahab to persuade him to use a harpoon instead of his fists.

Polaris sang her final heroic anthem once more after an encore request. After listening quietly, she returned to her bodyguard Theo and made a friendly gesture to Gardner. A farewell.

She was a busy person. People tended to get twice as busy with each excellent quality they possessed. Polaris was excellent as both a singer and a commander, so it would be stranger if she weren’t busy.

After the concert cleanup, Gardner returns to the penthouse, avoiding the path where he had cleared extras and regulars with a machine gun. Despite the late hour, Polaris prepared to leave as soon as she returned.

Gardner didn’t try to stop her. Neither did Arthur. Instead, he personally handed a heavy box to the bodyguard named Theo. The bodyguard, receiving it with his enhanced body, gave a brief nod.

“Not many get recognized by Polaris. Especially not with all limbs intact.”

“Seems that way. I’ve never seen any scandal articles about Polaris. Must mean something more to be offered something I’ve never seen.”

Arthur, wearing Gardner’s mask, quietly thought. Polaris was sentimental, but only when that sentimentality could sell. There must be a reason she allowed the cameras to see and hear.

That reason was probably… to create atmosphere. To shift attention from Serena Vanderbilt’s brilliant highlight to the image of Gardner receiving a kiss from Polaris.

Serena, who had been urgently transported, would probably need to take a real break this time. They couldn’t create a second stand-in character either. Nevertheless, the broadcast had to continue.

The only major series currently running was… Call Sign Gardner, a brutal solution for brutal crimes. They needed to direct attention toward Gardner to maintain ratings while Serena was on hiatus.

Polaris had created a big media exposure event for Gardner at that timing. She must have thought that gathering attention this way was the best option. Then Polaris left.

She acted as if she had no lingering attachments, but she had chosen to believe in the word “fate” that she hadn’t used for a long time, while still letting go of what needed to be released, and soon left Detroit.

This city was a place where reality and fiction overlapped. Gardner was a character, but at least in people’s eyes, he was also a person. If Polaris stayed until tomorrow, the human scandal might intensify.

Therefore, Polaris’s kiss had to be for the character Gardner, not the person Gardner. That’s why Polaris turned off the silent zone at the end. Arthur summarized it simply.

That prediction was laughably accurate. The breaking news was full of stories about Serena Vanderbilt’s series’ brilliant highlight, news of its hiatus, and the kiss scene from Call Sign Gardner.

Could it be called a kiss scene? No, it had to be called that. A kiss is when humans press their lips together. A kiss scene is when characters press their lips together. This had to be the latter term.

Only after Polaris left could Arthur remove his mask in the penthouse. It was dawn in the completely empty penthouse, with neither Serena nor Chris. The city never sleeps. It’s too excited to sleep.

He decided to blend into the city’s atmosphere. A gloomy dawn in a gloomy city where it neither rains nor shines. Arthur headed toward one of the secret exits prepared by Heroism & Hope. Toward the city.

The city was in a festive mood. Although it didn’t reach the inner city, the news that criminals had been swept away from the established lawless zone was welcome news for everyone.

Arthur turned on his computational assist device and browsed the net. He saw someone who had posted a picture of Gardner clearing out extras and regulars on the street with the caption “Gardner’s Red Carpet” before being blocked.

At least Call Sign Gardner was for adults, but the site where that picture was posted was accessible to everyone. The world was full of people who didn’t want to see blood and entrails on the net. A proper measure.

Looking at times like this, they were all mentally deranged broadcast addicts. At other times, they seemed like ordinary people, so he decided not to worry about it too much and walked down the street.

On the net, there was a debate about whether Serena’s original manner of speaking was better or her broadcast manner. Either way, it seemed to be just a matter of preference.

The person hadn’t changed. Serena Vanderbilt herself, who followed proper procedures and caught criminals with regulations rather than swords, hadn’t been deceived, so it could end as just an online debate.

The streets were peaceful. Around the hospital where Serena had been taken, crowds had gathered to the point that the security team had to clear a path for patients to enter. Fortunately, no citizens volunteered to become patients just to see her.

Just as Arthur, who had come here with his bare face hoping to perhaps see Serena, was about to turn away, the hospital windows began to close. The hologram projector at the hospital entrance started projecting.

Serena’s image was displayed on it. Her severed arm and shoulder had been temporarily treated. Blood transfusion was still ongoing. Her expression was incomparably brighter than before.

The camera panned over her in a hospital gown, showing her right leg severed with only a bit of thigh remaining, before focusing on her face again. She spoke in her broadcast voice.

“As Gardner said, the plan was quite… stupid. Me holding them off while Gardner goes to deal with them. It would have failed if the opponent hadn’t been paparazzi.”

She patted her intact thigh to make a sound similar to applause, then said:

“Anyway! It succeeded. But my body is quite damaged, so I think I’ll need to get a completely new one. For those few weeks, the Serena Vanderbilt series…”

At that point, someone indistinguishable from the ordinary crowd shouted out. It was a statement representing about half the people in this city.

“Use your original voice!”

Serena in the screen gave a short laugh, and the gathered crowd, regardless of which aspect of Serena they liked, burst into laughter. Serena’s voice asking for permission from her handler leaked faintly from the hologram.

Serena, who had easily used her original voice when dealing with the paparazzi, scratched her cheek as if embarrassed to use it in front of citizens, then spoke. Arthur heard the voice of the Serena he knew.

“I’ll take a few weeks off to rest properly and get a new body… I’ll come back in perfect condition. Until then, watch Call Sign Gardner and wait. This is for criticism purposes only, so I’m only doing this today.”

“Good thing the arm I salute with wasn’t cut off,” she joked, before giving a brief salute to the crowd. Those who could salute returned it, while others cheered briefly.

Perhaps the city had found a real hero. Not someone marketed, but someone who shared the same values as the people of this city. What lucky people they were.

As Arthur was about to turn back toward the penthouse, a communication arrived. It was the executive producer of H-Enter’s Call Sign Gardner series. The person in charge of Serena as well.

“Are you at the penthouse right now? If so, please prepare to deploy… Damn, you’re outside. I’ve confirmed you’re in front of Serena’s hospital. Are you armed right now?”

The unmanned camera that had been filming Serena’s hologram interview above Arthur’s head turned to look at his face. The handler could see that Arthur was here.

He lightly tapped the small Evil Deed he always carried. The H-Enter handler looked a bit flustered seeing this through the camera.

“Just one pistol? Then perhaps…”

“No. It’s an enhanced-suit pistol with twenty-one rounds. I didn’t bring spare magazines, but it’s enough for a brief fight. Why?”

“Traitors. When there’s a good day, it’s natural for those bastards to show up. Due to manpower issues, we couldn’t send many—just two. Perhaps…”

“Don’t think of it as a contract killing. It’s routine security maintenance. You think I’d just do bodyguard work when I came here to be a bodyguard?”

Additionally, revealing that Arthur Murphy was here also created an alibi. While Gardner was resting in the penthouse, Arthur Murphy was here. They were different people.

Of course, he couldn’t show Gardner-like movements. Gardner often used rifles, but pistols were just his secondary weapons. The weapon wasn’t a problem, but acrobatic movements were out. A short deep breath followed.

“I can set up a no-filming zone for you…”

Arthur said this one only in his mind. This wasn’t something Arthur Murphy could say aloud.

‘No, rather let me be exposed appropriately. It would be strange for Heroism & Hope to hide the face of a mercenary with no connections to them. What about location information?’

“They failed in their attack on Lobringer and are currently retreating. They’ll pass by your location soon. They’re still armed, and knowing their character, they’ll harm citizens. You don’t need to kill them.”

It seemed like they wanted him to buy time to evacuate citizens into the hospital, and soon sirens began to sound in the area. The security team that had been blocking the road now began evacuating citizens.

“When you hire a freelancer, you should assign the most difficult task. I’ll kill them. Add it as an extra charge.”

Feeling refreshed, Arthur shared his freelancer license with the nearby security team. He located the traitors by the sound of motorcycles running at full speed. There wasn’t time for everyone to evacuate.

Arthur headed toward the road, against the crowd fleeing into the hospital. He wasn’t wearing bulletproof armor, but he still needed to draw attention. It would probably just be submachine gun bullets.

The small Evil Deed was drawn from Arthur’s waist. The selector switched to three-round burst, and he aimed at the motorcycles making a wide turn around the corner. One bike overturned, sending its rider rolling on the ground.

Is this all the manpower you have left now? The second traitor also drew a submachine gun, but naturally, he was slower than Arthur who already had his gun drawn. The trigger was pulled.

Not pulling, but being pulled. They had acted, and this was simply the reaction following the action. The small Evil Deed spat out three enhanced-armor piercing rounds in succession. They pierced the helmet.

Arthur avoided the sliding motorcycle by simply moving to the side rather than jumping over it, then gestured to a nearby H-Enter security team instead of running to where the bike had overturned.

Eventually, that security team employee ran to where the bike had overturned and put two bullets into the neck of the traitor pinned under the burning motorcycle, destroying his life support system, then watched.

He didn’t confirm the kill. From the perspective of security teams protecting a city owned by corporations, traitors were humans who deserved to die like that. The traitor eventually died from shock.

The security team member who had been watching returned and extended his hand to Arthur. Though slightly smaller in build than Gardner, he expressed gratitude to the reliable freelancer.

“Thank you for your support, freelancer. I see you came to guard that person’s family members… but guarding three people suddenly became guarding three hundred. Right?”

He nodded toward the crowd receiving notifications that the emergency was over as they were evacuating into the hospital. Arthur could speak as Arthur Murphy for the first time in a while.

“Guarding three hundred people… If I work about a thousand times harder, H-Enter might make a personal series for me too.”

“Ha! Of course they would. They’re a company that will make anyone a hero if it makes money. We create what people want. Whatever that may be.”

“You don’t need to salute me… Still, for the sake of the corporations and their shareholders.”

With those words, Arthur returned the salute to the H-Enter security team with three fingers raised in the Belwether style, or more precisely, the Belwether headquarters style.

The hope and heroes that Heroism & Hope sought to create were something with an undisclosed formula. They were somehow creating and providing something whose creation method was unknown.

Arthur’s story was published as a small segment in the sea of breaking news. Of the dozens of net newspapers in Detroit, only one wrote a proper article, while the rest published it as a brief note.

Still, it was more than enough to return to Los Angeles and joke, “I was in the newspaper too.” Any suspicion that Gardner and Arthur were the same person would fade.

The freelance mercenary, whose only involvement in this incident was killing a traitor passing by the hospital, moved somewhere into the city. He disappeared somewhere. That was enough.