Ch.183Chapter 7. He Thinks He’s the Protagonist of a Shonen Manga (1)

Toot toot.

The passenger ship pulls away from the harbor, emitting white smoke.

“Send the criminals to prison! Sejong Island? You’ve got to be kidding!”

“Turn the ship around! How dare you try to sneak them into Sejong Island!”

“Do you think we pay taxes to feed the likes of you? Give me back my tax money!”

The protesters’ voices rang out louder than the ship’s horn, but the vessel departed from the harbor, heading toward Sejong Island.

Several warships followed alongside the massive passenger ship as escorts, and on the deck stood two S-rank heroes in full uniform along with dozens of hero agents.

[This is Busan Harbor! While protesters raise their voices claiming that those who lost their abilities are being sent to a resort rather than a prison, the ship has finally set course for Sejong Island.]

A reporter aboard a helicopter holds a microphone, broadcasting live from above the ship.

Military personnel with tense expressions surround the reporter in the olive-drab helicopter, vigilantly monitoring the surroundings and preparing for any potential incidents.

[Ah! Look there! I see a rubber boat!]

A motorized rubber boat suddenly appears, approaching from the direction of the southern coast.

Smaller than a fishing boat, about the size of a lifeboat, a shirtless man stands on it, waving a flag with something written on it.

-How dare you send them to Sejong Island after killing my child.

The man waves the flag vigorously.

A patrol boat rushes toward the motorized boat, but before it arrives, the man plants the flag on one side of the boat and picks up something from inside.

[Oh no, that’s… oil…?]

Whoosh.

As soon as the man splashes the liquid from the oil container onto his body, flames ignite below, engulfing him in fire.

[A s-self-immolation protest…! It appears to be a family member of someone presumably killed by Zenros, now committing self-immolation!]

The reporter relayed exactly what he was seeing from the helicopter.

The patrol boat quickly approached the rubber boat, but the strong current pushed the smaller vessel away, distancing it from the patrol boat.

[S-someone, water…!]

Though seawater splashed just below, the flames seemed likely to consume the man entirely before they could destroy the boat.

In that moment.

SWOOSH!

Battle God Lee Jun-young, one of the S-rank heroes on the passenger ship’s deck, stepped onto the railing and leaped far.

BOOOOOM!

Lee Jun-young jumped hundreds of meters in a single bound, landing beside the boat and creating a massive splash.

The water column that shot upward was so large it looked as if a torpedo had exploded below.

The splash engulfed the lifeboat, and soon the boat capsized in the sudden wave.

Splash!

Battle God jumped up again.

With the man secured around his waist, he landed on the nearby patrol boat and laid the man down on the deck.

[Did you see that?! Battle God saved the man who tried to commit self-immolation! A heroic act, jumping hundreds of meters to save someone! This is truly exemplary heroism!]

The reporter continued reporting the scene with excitement in his voice.

[Ah, yes. That was our field reporter. Shortly, the President will deliver a special address…]

The entire situation was being broadcast live worldwide through TV and internet streams. Soon, the image of the ship shrank to a small pop-up window as the President appeared.

[Respected citizens. I was informed of the situation that just occurred while preparing this address. First, I offer my sincere apologies.]

The President, after taking the microphone, stepped down from the podium and bowed at a 90-degree angle.

[As a father who has lost a son, I understand well the grief of losing a child. Having lost my own child and their spouse to demons, I know this sorrow better than most. So I implore you. Please stop these extreme actions. Trust your country.]

The small screen showed the patrol boat.

A healing-type ability user approached the man who had set himself on fire, and the man’s reddened skin gradually began to return to normal.

His burns were being healed.

By the power of magic.

[The government is not sending those who lost their abilities to Sejong Island to give them special treatment. Sejong Island is our territory, and we are confining these criminals in the safest place possible. The government will dispatch a special tribunal to Sejong Island to try each one individually and punish them according to strict law and order.]

The President’s address spread across the nation and the world.

[The verdicts will be fair, the process will be just, and the executive branch, judiciary, and National Assembly will all work together to ensure trials free from any external pressure.]

The President returned to the podium.

[…From now on, I will personally explain the sentencing guidelines for those who lost their abilities, which have been prepared by the Ministry of Justice and 100 judges. First, those who have killed will receive at minimum life imprisonment…]

Along with subtitles, the punishment standards for Zenros began to scroll across the screen.

* * *

‘So killing someone doesn’t automatically mean the death penalty.’

Those who kill shall be put to death.

This is even written in the Eight Laws of Ancient Joseon.

It’s also my operating principle as a villain, but even in a world transformed by the ability cataclysm, murder doesn’t immediately result in capital punishment.

‘Am I being too much of a conspiracy theorist to think that the self-immolation incident was a planned show?’

Being involved in the underworld makes me suspicious of the man who came on a lifeboat to stage a self-immolation protest and the President who delivered a perfectly timed address.

If it wasn’t a predetermined scenario, then the President must be incredibly quick-witted.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter.

The “warning message” was clearly delivered to the Zenros members confined on this passenger ship heading to Sejong Island.

“Hmph. Are they showing this to us deliberately?”

The white-haired Zenros girl smirked while watching the TV monitor.

“Life imprisonment for killing one person? So is it hanging for two people, beheading for three, and what—drawn and quartered for four?”

“……”

“Then what happens to me? Will I die? I didn’t kill anyone, but I did hurt people.”

“The judges will decide.”

“Oh, really? Which judges? Korean judges? Are they trustworthy?”

“You’ll find out when you’re on trial.”

Disguised as an E-rank agent, I positioned myself next to the girl to monitor her—or at least pretend to—and prevent her from causing trouble.

“Hmm. Is that so? I wonder. With our abilities possibly returning, would they dare kill us?”

The girl showed a very relaxed attitude as she lay down on the bed.

She acted as if she were deliberately speaking for the CCTV cameras, with an attitude that would make citizens scream for her execution if they saw this footage.

Of course, it wasn’t really her.

The white-haired girl wasn’t visible on the CCTV screen, but her eyes were glowing red.

That’s right.

We had already made the switch on the day the ship departed.

How?

With a spatial teleportation mage, an astral projection ability user, and two others who could even possess the astral projector, finding a way wasn’t difficult.

Even with 24-hour surveillance, they didn’t monitor the bathroom with cameras, and we made contact with Zenros there, successfully making the switch in an instant.

And so.

Currently, Ymir and I are disguised as agents—the original agents are asleep somewhere—while Qiongqi and Taowu are pretending to be the Zenros girls, with white hair, confined in the cabin.

“Hey, you. How long are you going to stay here?”

“I’ll be here until my shift change.”

“Sending a man into a girl’s room. Are you crazy? I’m reporting this to the Human Rights Commission.”

“We’re not leisurely enough to worry about gender considerations.”

Qiongqi was improvising, trying to sound like a 15-year-old girl throwing a tantrum, but no matter how you looked at it, he exuded the energy of a 25-year-old rather than a teenager.

I gave him a look.

Rather than making unnecessary small talk for the CCTV’s benefit, just cursing once would be more convincing.

“This sucks.”

Perfect.

He perfectly captured the essence of a 15-year-old Zenros kid who had been a demon before becoming human.

Now we just needed to wait quietly for time to pass.

“…It’s almost shift change time. Don’t try anything stupid. You’ll undergo a physical examination on Sejong Island before standing trial.”

“……”

After saying what an agent would typically say, I left according to the protocol I’d learned from the real agent.

[Ah. Shift change. All agents get a 15-minute break, then return to your posts.]

The signal came through the Taegeuk Watch.

Not my watch, of course, but the one I took from the agent whose uniform I stole.

…As for biometric data, I feel a bit sorry for him, but I scraped off a bit of his wrist while he was sleeping.

Taowu healed it immediately with magic, so new skin grew without any pain.

‘I wonder if Ymir is doing well.’

Since we were assigned to completely different areas, I couldn’t contact Ymir freely.

We could only briefly check in with each other during the agents’ break times.

‘I’m nervous.’

I’m not worried about infiltrating in disguise.

I’m not concerned that this is Ymir’s first undercover mission.

I just want everything to go according to my plan—for this passenger ship to safely reach Sejong Island, for a couple of Zenros members to be taken to the demon research facility without incident, and for us to follow their trail.

If the Zenros members that Qiongqi and Taowu are impersonating simply go to the research facility and receive fair trials in a relatively safe place, we can switch them back to their original places.

‘I’d prefer if it happened that way.’

What I’m worried about is if Ymir’s plan is “realized”—

BEEEEEEP!!

The Taegeuk Watch sounded.

Simultaneously, emergency alarms began blaring throughout the ship.

“Wh-what…!”

“Look at that!”

Agents heading to the break room pointed toward the southeastern sea.

I looked through the ship’s window at the ocean, and I felt a sinking feeling that Ymir’s plan was about to be realized.

“Is that…no way…!”

“It’s [Susanoo]!!”

S-rank.

Hero.

Susanoo.

“…Why is he here?”

A purple-glowing giant, tens of meters tall, was walking across the sea surface.

Running toward us.

I turned on the translation app on the Taegeuk Watch.

“What is the Japanese Hero Association doing?! An S-rank has invaded another country’s waters without permission!!”

“Hey. They say he’s only 15 years old.”

“…He doesn’t have a friend on board or something, does he?”

Why.

[ORENO—]

-My

Why do my sad premonitions.

[TOMODACHI O KAESE—!!]

-Give me back my friend.

Always come true?

“Even if he’s 15, doesn’t he realize this could become an international incident?”

Well.

“Hey, the Japanese Hero Association has responded!”

“What are they saying?!”

“…They say ‘We did our best’?”

If he knew that, he wouldn’t be doing this in the first place.

“Wow, this is insane.”

One agent let out a hollow laugh as he pointed at the approaching purple giant.

“If he can’t save his friend, doesn’t that mean he might become a demon?”

“That’s blackmail…!”

Exactly.

I deeply agree.

“Shonen manga is cool because it’s fiction, but in reality, it’s just a nuisance!”

“Kids don’t understand that.”

I unconsciously responded to the angry agent.

“He thinks he’s the protagonist of a shonen manga.”