Ch.238Chapter 9. Manufactured Revolution (1)

At that moment, the Phuket command post.

“Th-this…!”

“No, how?!”

Breaking news was coming in from everywhere.

Citizens, gripped by fear and confusion, began searching for the truth.

“Is it true, General!”

“Did you run a slave island with Laplace?!”

“Huh, hahaha.”

The Red Wolf General stroked his mustache at the cries of citizens outside the command post.

“So much doubt. Unnecessary doubt, I might add.”

His voice didn’t waver and exuded confidence, but he couldn’t completely hide the slight displeasure seeping through.

“Association President. Let’s observe the situation for a moment. I need to call the Prime Minister.”

“B-but.”

“Quiet. I’m on the phone right now.”

He plugged his ears with an old-fashioned earphone from his pocket and gently covered the microphone part connected to the earphone cord as he made the call.

“Ah, Prime Minister. It’s me. It seems villains are spreading absurd information to overthrow the country.”

[I-I never thought The Syndicate would do something like this…!]

“Yes. We need martial law, don’t we?”

[Con…constitutional amendment? At this point?!]

“No, not a constitutional amendment!”

Perhaps it was because of all the noise around him.

“Martial law, I said martial law! I’m telling you to impose martial law immediately!”

[Understood, General. I’ll prepare for the constitutional amendment right away…!]

“Damn it, unnecessarily speaking Korean…hey!!”

Despite the Red Wolf General’s shouting, the Prime Minister kept saying “constitutional amendment.”

The call suddenly disconnected, and no call came back.

“Damn it all….”

Even a general couldn’t move freely.

With all eyes on him, it would be difficult to move troops alone when other units were watching for an opportunity.

“Could it be….”

Was the Prime Minister pretending to be deaf while plotting something?

If so, this place was dangerous.

“General! What is the truth! We have the right to know!”

“Did you really capture people and turn them into slaves?! Huh?! What are those unidentified ability users?!”

“…It’s slander and conspiracy. The villains’ scheme! Why don’t you understand that?!”

The Red Wolf General threw his earphone to the floor and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“After all I’ve sacrificed for this country, you dare to—”

“Red Wolf General.”

Click.

The Association President drew his gun.

As the situation became explosive, everyone in the command post began pulling out guns and aiming at each other.

“Association President. What are you doing?”

“That’s what I want to ask you, Red Wolf General.”

The Association President, pale-faced, pointed at his Thai Watch and the large TV screen brought to the situation board.

“Is it true that you fired missiles at the island to drown all the kidnapped people and children there?”

Breaking news kept coming in.

As if by agreement, all kinds of documents and information were being uploaded through unknown internet news agencies.

“That’s the villains’ scheme, I tell you! It’s fabricated information that can’t even be verified immediately! It’s a lie!”

“A-Association President! Now!!”

One of the association employees connected his Thai Watch to the screen.

And then.

“Goblin TV…? What is that.”

They saw it.

[…didn’t you turn children…into mana powder.]

The Goblin, accusing Laplace of his crimes.

“…….”

Tsk.

The Red Wolf General took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

“Damn ability user brats. Tch.”

Bang!

As the gunshot rang out, a bloodbath began in the command post.

* * *

Laplace’s Demon.

Perhaps the one who gave the name “Laplace” to the man whose head had just exploded.

[So you controlled Laplace’s actions while serving right beside him? Interesting.]

“My, you figured it out so quickly. As expected of the Goblin.”

[Isn’t the cliché of the real mastermind posing as a secretary or second-in-command behind a figurehead rather boring?]

“…I actually put some thought into that.”

Laplace’s Demon, who called herself “Hyangdan,” made a shocked and gloomy expression.

“As expected of the Goblin. You know more than I thought.”

[…….]

“Well, you only know what you know. I know quite a bit more about you than you might think. Hehe.”

Hyangdan laughed softly and opened a black fan.

The aura of death permeated the air, and a black aura began to spread throughout the room.

“For example, that your real name is funnier than one might expect.”

[You seem to know more than I thought. But you’re not completely omniscient, it seems.]

“…….”

I pointed to my head.

[I don’t know how you learned my name, but unfortunately, you don’t know everything. If you did, you wouldn’t be calling yourself a mere ‘Laplace’s Demon,’ but rather a ‘god.’]

Or perhaps she would have been devastated upon learning she was merely a villain in a work of fiction.

[The world is wider than you think.]

“…You say that while knowing where we came from.”

[I say it because I know.]

Just riding a comet from within the solar system.

Could she have come from further away than me, who crossed over from another dimension into this fictional world created by some author?

[Hey. Do you know what this is?]

I ignited flames on my Goblin Club.

Qiongqi’s flames blazed proudly, beginning to burn as the number ‘5700’.

[If you know the meaning of this number, I’ll acknowledge you. But if you don’t, you’re just someone who mistakenly thinks they know everything.]

“…….”

Hyangdan’s expression soured.

[There’s no one easier to deal with than someone who thinks they’re a great being. Now that you’ve appeared before me, consider yourself dead.]

“Oh my. I’m sorry, but the method you used to kill Dueoksini won’t work on me.”

Hyangdan folded her fan and stabbed her own abdomen.

[!!]

“What’s here is fake. The real me isn’t here. Too bad. You can’t kill me right now.”

[……Tch.]

Does she know about the “Room of Truth” method I used to kill Dueoksini?

“What? Did you think I would confront you without any preparation? How unfortunate. Hehe.”

[Truly unfortunate.]

At least she hasn’t discovered that using the Room of Truth requires “using it in an unmerged state.”

At this point, extracting as much information as possible is the best course of action.

[Talking to Laplace was meaningless. But talking to Laplace’s Demon might be somewhat beneficial.]

“Alright. In return, tell me? The meaning of that 5700 you mentioned.”

[Fine.]

Combat is meaningless.

If that woman didn’t come to fight.

Instead, I need to gather clues to draw her out, just like with Dueoksini.

Like how I provoked Dueoksini, I need to understand her tendencies and extract information to make her appear in her true form later.

[Let me ask. Why did you control Laplace from below, using the name Hyangdan?]

“Because I wanted to spread the Korean Wave.”

[……?]

For a moment, my brain froze.

How was anything Laplace did related to the Korean Wave?

“Korean things are good things. Therefore, I wanted to spread Korean things to this country too. Not just this country, I’ve set up similar operations in other countries as well.”

Hyangdan tapped her shoulder with her fan and approached Laplace’s corpse, nudging it with her foot.

“I approached heroes with suitably good names, provided them with the luxury and pleasure they desired, connected them with those in power to create a political foundation, and then made it so that no entity in the country would dare touch that foundation.”

[You killed everyone who pursued the truth, you mean.]

“I didn’t kill everyone? They’re all human resources too. There’s no better worker than someone who gives up resistance and complies. This clothing, the magical power that created this avatar—it’s all made from such people. Hehehe.”

She’s insane.

I already know she’s not human but a demon-like entity from outer space, but the more I talk to her, the more I realize she’s a demon devoid of human sensibility.

“I was just trying to follow the original model.”

[What?]

“Oh my, was that too sensitive for a Korean person? Or did it hit a nerve? Hehehe.”

[……You can’t mean.]

One possibility flashed through my mind.

It was absurd, yet it revealed the underlying structure of everything that had happened in Phuket.

“Even a bad law is a law. That’s what Socrates said.”

One thing I realized when dealing with demons of Pandemonium:

When they quote famous people, it’s not because they deeply empathize with those words, but because they arbitrarily use them to rationalize and justify their own ideology, to sound “impressive.”

“I think it’s a good saying. Even a bad law is a law. Even a bad human is still human. And…even bad history is history, even bad culture is culture. The dark shadow cast behind history during Korea’s brightest moments is also Korean.”

Hyangdan clasped her hands together and smiled broadly.

“Trials make humans stronger. It’s the same. Behind Korea’s current brilliance on the world stage lies a dark and painful history.”

[And you’re trying to implement that same thing in other countries?]

“That’s right! As expected of the Goblin. The reason you uncovered this country’s darkness so quickly is because you were thinking the same thing!”

I did think about it.

I just thought it was “insanity.”

“From being one of the poorest countries after the Korean War to becoming one of the world’s greatest nations. If they experience that process in a compressed form, all countries could develop like Korea.”

[Don’t you think about the blood that will be shed in the process?]

“My goodness. Is The Syndicate’s Goblin saying such things? Sacrificing the few for the many is nothing, isn’t it? If the blood flowing now will be converted into this country’s development in the future. Just as the Miracle of Seoul happened, something like…the Miracle of Bangkok could happen too. Hehehe.”

This woman actually carried out that insane plan.

“Although it’s a shame that heroes weren’t the starting point, it doesn’t matter. Hehe. Thanks to you, the flame has already been ignited.”

Hyangdan.

“The flame of revolution. Blazing.”

She simply smiled with pure innocence.

“What do you think?”

[That’s unfortunate.]

I aimed my Goblin Club at Hyangdan.

[You seem to be hoping that citizens will start a revolution, but this isn’t Korea. It’s not post-liberation Korea either.]

Bang!

“…Huh?”

[Even if it’s an avatar, you should still feel some sensation.]

“Uh, uhhh….”

I swung my club full force at Hyangdan’s body.

“Ah, it hurts…! H-how…?!”

[To finish what I was saying.]

I raised my club high toward Hyangdan’s collapsing head.

[In the age of abilities, revolutions are no longer led by citizens.]

“W-wait…! Before my avatar disappears, that 5700—”

[Go to hell.]

I told her.

I don’t lie.

[I will find you. And then.]

Smash!

[I’ll send you to join Dueoksini.]

Hyangdan exploded in an even more horrific manner than Laplace.