Ch.246Chapter 10. I’m Not a Dine-and-Dasher (6)

After setting up our base camp at the hotel on Pattaya Island, I arrived at Coral Island with Yoon Hye-ra.

Whoosh.

The coast was deserted, with only silence hanging in the air.

Even though we came at night to move under the cover of darkness, the cold night air and sound of wind made the entire island feel abandoned and desolate.

“Well then. Just a moment. Let me turn off the engine and steer manually.”

“How about approaching along with the waves?”

“Let’s see the situation.”

I was concerned about the motor noise carrying, so from the moment the Succubus Island came into view, I fashioned my bat into an oar and manually steered the boat toward the shore.

“Do you sense anyone around the island?”

“No. I don’t feel anything. That’s what makes it even more chilling.”

I carried Yoon Hye-ra and ran onto the sandy beach.

Sand getting on our shoes wasn’t a big issue.

The real problem was the lack of traces that should be on Succubus Island.

“…There are no signs of anyone trying to escape from the island.”

“I don’t think it’s just this area. We’ve looked around the whole perimeter. Nothing anywhere else either.”

There was nothing.

No traces of anything that could be considered evidence.

Before stepping onto the beach, we circled the entire Coral Island by boat to check the coastline, but found no traces whatsoever.

“They wouldn’t have erased the evidence, right?”

“Yeah. It hasn’t been that long since the incident occurred. Though I suppose two days is enough time…”

“If they used manpower, they would have needed to move in large numbers and would have been caught in The Syndicate’s surveillance. If they used supernatural powers to erase everything, we would have detected residual magical energy.”

It was neither.

Therefore, we needed to check for ourselves.

“Let’s go in.”

I moved forward into the island with Yoon Hye-ra.

“See anything?”

“No. Nothing at all. There’s no sign of anyone. No magical energy response either. At least not on the surface.”

We’d need to search deeper inside, but at least near the shore where we approached by boat, there was no sign of anyone.

“Either there’s someone who can evade our detection, or it’s something else. But wait, I sense something.”

Yoon Hye-ra brushed her hand across the dirt.

“Oppa. Look at this.”

“…It seems this is closer to the truth.”

I couldn’t help but sigh at the wet traces under the dirt.

They were red bloodstains.

Traces of blood that had seeped into the soil, estimated to be from just two days ago.

“It doesn’t seem to be the blood of a powered individual, just an ordinary person’s blood.”

“That’s the problem. We can’t determine which side they were on.”

Who did this blood belong to?

Judging by the amount, they must have suffered a serious injury, but I couldn’t tell more.

“Considering their nature, they’ve probably all escaped by now, right?”

“Yeah. Hyangdan probably gave the orders. Even if not… from the looks of things, the situation was already resolved simultaneously when we attacked the Divine Sanctuary.”

We had planned to attack one location and then check the others sequentially.

With Laplace dead, Hyangdan driven away, and General Jeokrang having committed suicide, we thought we had time.

How could anything major happen in just two days?

While recovering our magical energy to deal with Hyangdan if she appeared, what serious problem could possibly arise?

That’s what I naively expected.

Because without such expectations and hope, what happens on this island would be just like what happens elsewhere.

“Maybe we should have split up and attacked both places.”

“If we had, we would have dragged things out and all died.”

“…True. Because we united to attack the Divine Sanctuary, only one person’s head exploded. Otherwise, they all would have gone off one after another.”

“It’s not right to talk about people’s heads like this, but, you know, like Puyo Puyo?”

“Probably. Even arriving at maximum speed in our united state was barely fast enough. If we had been any later…”

We wouldn’t have been able to deploy a magical barrier to block Laplace’s signal to the Divine Sanctuary.

We wouldn’t have been able to destroy the missiles fired by General Jeokrang.

We wouldn’t have been able to enter the facility, quickly remove the bomb insects from the heads of those in the prison, and then fly at top speed toward Laplace to deal with him.

“Logically, I know it was impossible, but my heart feels differently.”

“Oppa. That’s such a hero-like thought.”

“Sometimes I want to be a hero. Especially when I see things like this.”

Long bloodstains stretched across the ground.

“When I think that these people could one day live happily in the world we’ll rule, it makes me feel sad and bitter.”

“…Still, let’s not give up hope. You never know.”

These weren’t just bloodstains but elongated trails indicating someone had fled from inside. I followed the bloodstains inward with Yoon Hye-ra.

“Villains, you know, are more thorough and cruel than we imagine. While we might be labeled as villains by the government, these people are truly ‘evil’ incarnate, wouldn’t you say?”

The bloodstains became more abundant as we moved deeper into the island.

And beside the bloodstains, something like powder was scattered.

Traces of humans, you could say.

If there were corpses, even headless ones like those at the Divine Sanctuary, that would make sense.

But there were no bodies, only bloodstains everywhere.

You’d expect to find at least some human remains or body parts, but there was nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

“Oppa, there’s a hotel over there.”

“…Befitting a place directly managed by Laplace and General Jeokrang, it’s a massive facility. Almost like a casino?”

While Coral Island isn’t particularly large, it’s adequate for building a single structure.

Though the island is smaller than the Divine Sanctuary, considering that only VIPs selected by Laplace’s group could enter, this place was likely no less terrible than the Divine Sanctuary—if not worse.

“It was Nguyen who decided which island to hit first, but it was our decision to respect and follow that choice. The fortunate thing is… it seems the worst-case scenario I was thinking of didn’t happen.”

“What was your worst-case scenario?”

“Total annihilation.”

Yoon Hye-ra said casually.

“Killing everyone on Succubus Island to prevent their true nature from being exposed, then burning or sinking the island.”

“…I thought they would do that.”

I expected them to act just like other villains typically do.

“I thought they would kill everyone on the island, destroy all the documents, blow it up, and then escape safely. …But it seems cutting off their heads was more effective than I expected.”

An ant with its head cut off will just twitch according to the pheromones and instincts ingrained in its body before dying.

With all the thinking heads gone, whoever was in charge of Succubus Island had to make a decision.

“Considering their actions so far, immediate execution would be appropriate, but I should see the situation inside before deciding how to carry it out.”

“…Hey, don’t you feel something now?”

“Yes.”

The moment we approached the main entrance of the casino-like hotel, the lens of a CCTV camera moved toward us.

[Caught red-handed.]

[So there are still people here?]

Transformation doesn’t take time.

We were already transformed except for our masks, and no one had seen our faces.

But now we put on our masks?

It meant others were inside.

CRASH!

I immediately ran toward the main entrance and kicked the door.

The thick metal door flew inward along with its hinges.

The hotel lobby was dark and eerie without a single light.

It was like looking at an abandoned haunted house. Yoon Hye-ra—Qiongqi—who had entered behind me, pointed to the central staircase directly in front of the entrance.

[Now I can feel it. There must be a barrier mage? It seems they built the building with materials that block magical energy?]

[Bold ones. To hide their magical energy so thoroughly that even two S-class individuals have to enter the building to sense it.]

I extended my bat forward.

Holding it upside down with the handle in my grip, I infused it with magical energy.

[Thousand Pound Hammer.]

BOOM!!

The bat fell to the floor as if it weighed several tons.

It didn’t just fall and roll aside—it instantly shattered the marble floor and continued falling.

The bat kept dropping downward.

Toward the basement level beneath the hotel lobby.

Rumble.

After a brief vibration.

CRACK!!

The hotel lobby where Qiongqi and I were standing collapsed downward.

Both of us jumped up lightly before the collapse, and gently landed inside, pushing away the dust with our magical energy.

[Connecting Thousand Pound Hammer.]

I stood with both feet on the bat that had fallen below.

Pressing down strongly with magical energy throughout my body, the bat drove deeper, crushing the ceiling of the basement level.

[Add a feather.]

[Oh my, what are you saying?]

BOOM!

The moment I reached out to Qiongqi and she grasped my hand, the space below caved in so deeply it was almost like descending to the fourth basement level.

And then we saw them.

At the end of a corridor extending forward beyond the vertical cavity, as if we had taken an elevator down, was a group of people.

[I’m not sure if I should be glad they’re alive.]

I could see them.

People terrified.

Women more frightened by the fact they were facing goblins than by being discovered by humans.

They all appeared to be in their early twenties.

No one else was visible.

That makes sense, since everyone here is a “powered individual.”

[…Yes. This is reality.]

A dirty, sordid reality.

Their own version of patriotism, created in utmost secrecy by the strongest in the Hero Association and the military’s top brass, to exploit powered individuals and those who wanted to serve their country.

Succubus Island.

The “succubi” here is a code word for female powered individuals with E-class magical energy or lower.

…When everyone was told to walk the path of a HERO, those who chose the H and ERO path ended up here.