Ch.251Chapter 10. Manufactured Hero (3)

The streets are filled with madness.

Violence, screams, and death run rampant.

“Hahaha!”

Villains are using their abilities to commit all sorts of crimes.

The fact that these aren’t just ordinary crimes, but ones that harm innocent civilians, is the main cause of the chaos currently engulfing the streets of Phuket.

The only word that can describe this devastation is “indiscriminate.”

The villains’ attacks spare no one—regardless of age or gender, not even animals or buildings.

They simply destroy and kill whatever they want without restraint.

“Aaaagh!”

Slash.

An arm of a middle-aged man hiding in a café was severed.

Red blood spurted up, and the man collapsed to the floor, unconscious from the shock of losing his limb.

“Kihihit!”

The one who cut off the man’s arm with a sword was a young man who appeared to be not even 20 years old.

“I’ll slice you like butter, so just stay still!!”

The young man, who looked so young he could pass for a high school student if put in a uniform, wielded his sharp sword with ease and swung it toward the middle-aged man’s remaining arm.

“Die!”

“Stop!!”

Ratatatatat!

Bullets flew toward the young man’s sword.

“Ugh, my sword?!”

The magical bullets, not regular ones, instantly shattered the young man’s sword, and soon a group of soldiers in bulletproof vests rushed in.

“You bastard!!”

“Aaaagh!!”

The soldiers subdued the young man with their guns.

Despite being an ability user, the young man was easily overpowered by the soldiers.

“This crazy bastard…!”

“How could someone so young do something so cruel…!”

The young man was an ability user, but so were the soldiers.

They were probably only a year or two older than him.

The soldiers were furious that someone just slightly younger than them had committed such atrocities.

“Ki, hihihit…!”

“Why did you do this…!”

“Whyyy?”

With his face pushed to the floor and both arms restrained, the young man just kept laughing.

“Dunno?”

“What…?”

“Think I’ll tell you? Hehehe. This country is doomed anyway. Before going somewhere else… I just wanted to do what I wanted. Kuheheh…!”

The soldiers couldn’t understand what the young man was saying.

“When you were kids, didn’t you all kill ants? It’s the same thing, kuheheh…! Since everything’s about to end, I’m just doing what I want…!”

The country is doomed?

Going somewhere else?

“What are you plotting?!”

“Just, let’s all die and perish! Because this country is rotten! Since it’s going to rot and crumble anyway, let’s all perish together!”

“You’re insane…! Who’s behind this?!”

“Who, you ask?”

Snicker.

The young man opened his mouth as if he had been waiting for that question.

“The culprit is… your mom!”

WHACK.

“This crazy bastard, till the end!!”

The soldier knocked the young man unconscious with the butt of his gun.

It was partly due to his sudden emotional outburst, but also because the young man had tried to free his restrained hands and swing something at the soldiers.

“Urgh…!”

“Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine. It just grazed me.”

The soldier whose ankle was grazed by the young man’s outstretched hand gritted his teeth while touching his ankle.

Fortunately, the young man’s reach was shallow, and it only brushed against the uniform without causing any wounds.

“Damn…. This is Falcon 2! We’ve subdued a villain attacking civilians! There’s a civilian with a severed arm….”

[No time for rescue! Subdue as many as you can see!]

“What…?”

The soldiers’ hearts sank at the shocking order from headquarters.

“Communication error, communication error. This is Falcon 2. Requesting immediate support-“

[Instead of talking, subdue one more! That’s how you save one more person right now!!]

An angry scream came through the radio.

[We don’t have anyone to send as reinforcements!]

The soldiers realized the situation was getting even more serious, quickly applied first aid to the fallen man’s arm, and rushed outside.

“Wahahahaha!!”

Someone had their upper body sticking out of a car’s sunroof and was firing a gun in all directions.

Ratatatatat.

“Fireeeeee!”

“These crazy bastards!”

A quick-footed soldier ran forward to block the car from the front, and soon another soldier jumped up and subdued the man who was “enjoying” his shooting spree.

“This isn’t an ability user?!”

“…Kuhehe.”

“Hyung! This guy is that serial killer!”

“Ah, damn.”

The man subdued by the soldiers wasn’t an ability user.

He was an ordinary person without any magical power.

He had just obtained a rifle from somewhere and was firing it indiscriminately.

“Damn. I used to be the one subduing cops back in the day… shit.”

“What were you thinking, doing something like this?!”

“What was I thinking? Well.”

The man answered with an innocent smile.

“Before I die, I just wanted to kill at least one more person.”

“…What?”

“Don’t you know? We have chips implanted in our bodies. Very small, microscopic chips.”

He licked the car window and bowed his head deeply.

“…Those are set to explode in a few hours, right?”

“……!!”

The two soldiers jumped back in shock.

The man trembled with excitement at their reaction.

“Kuhehe! Even ability users are nothing when it comes to bomb threats! Well, that’s natural. Right? We’re all going to die! Wahahahaha!”

“What nonsense….”

“Nonsense? Of course it makes sense!! It’s your failure for planting bombs in the heads of villains and evil people! Wahahahaha!!”

“There’s no way such a thing exists!!”

“That’s what you’d think! I thought so too! But, what can you do! I saw people’s heads exploding in prison!”

The killer looked at the villains rampaging elsewhere and snickered.

“If we’re all going to die anyway, I should take at least one more person with me before I die. That way we won’t feel so wronged…!”

The streets of Phuket are…

simply filled with chaos.

* * *

-Damn it, send heroes to the villain prison!

-Make sure the villains don’t escape! Some heroes will go to the regular prison where ordinary criminals are held!

-Don’t let the prisoners escape and throw citizens into panic!

Intelligence is coming in from everywhere.

The information hastily gathered by the Tavern Owner and the Nines was being transmitted to our Taegeuk Watch in real-time.

“…It really is chaotic.”

[Qiongqi. Do you understand the situation?]

“It’s just as oppa said. They’re causing trouble with the mindset that everything will collapse, wanting to see this country burn. The villains who aren’t ability users.”

Qiongqi bit her fingernails.

“…Just like how mafia members go on a rampage for revenge when their boss dies, they’re now rampaging to avenge the deaths of General Jeokrang and Laplace.”

“That’s exactly it. Destroying the country that killed our boss.”

Releasing criminals from prison and causing chaos through them.

-Hahaha! Before I die, I wanted to meet you and [censored]!

-Mmm, what a killer back you’ve got!

-Ah, what! It’s okay to [censored] once before we go!!

Just one thing.

-Damn it! We’re all going to die with our heads exploding anyway, I can’t be the only one to die! Everyone, we may be born differently, but we all die the same! Wahahahaha!

-Humans die eventually anyway! Dying now or later, we all die the same!

-Someone, someone take it out of my head! I don’t want to die!!

The reason it’s not just a riot but a massacre and rebellion causing chaos is because “lies and incitement” are mixed in.

“…They’ve done something terrible. Those Royal Guards of General Jeokrang.”

“Found it. This is footage from three hours ago.”

Qiongqi displayed a video on her tablet.

In the video, just like when I was speaking to the slaves and children trapped in God’s Sanctuary before, armed soldiers with guns were saying something to prisoners in a prison.

[…so, you have about 12 hours left to live.]

A terminal declaration.

[I’ll say it again. Chips have been implanted in your bodies. Thanks to a bill prepared by the higher-ups of this country to manage criminals. And those chips… will soon explode.]

The beginning of the video was cut off, so I don’t know why they’re suddenly talking about the prisoners’ lifespan, but fortunately, the man mentioned the basis for the terminal illness once more, perhaps to drive the point home for those who hadn’t heard.

[All three triggers for your chips to explode have been activated. The death of the Hero Association President, the death of Laplace, and the death of General Jeokrang. Congratulations. In about 12 hours, your heads will explode and you’ll die.]

The prisoners’ expressions hardened.

They might want to shout that it’s nonsense, but those who had already shouted such things were now cold corpses lying in pools of blood on the floor.

[So I’ll give you freedom. It’s only 12 hours of freedom, but you should do something before you die, right? Meet your parents, find your family, commit another crime. Go ahead, do whatever your heart desires. You may not be ability users, but what can’t you do before you die?]

The video ended with those words.

“…….”

What the soldier in the video said.

[People believe that.]

It’s obviously a lie.

“I think it’s because the time is so ambiguous. That time, when you can really do anything.”

[…That’s true.]

The riots and disturbances within Phuket are getting more serious.

And what’s even more serious is that there’s an absolute shortage of hero manpower to properly suppress the riots in Phuket right now.

[Where are Nguyen Ong Bac and Red Brassard now?]

“…Coral Island. Even in a straight line, it’s almost like going from Seoul to Busan.”

[The house was properly emptied.]

From a hero’s perspective.

This kind of chaos.

It’s obviously not what The Syndicate wants.

[Qiongqi. What about our agents now?]

“They seem to have already entered. …Are you going?”

[If necessary… I should step in. Even if I’m not the Goblin.]

It’s always heroes who quell chaos.

[For now….]

Beep beep beep.

The phone rang again.

I answered it immediately.

“…Madam President?”

[Oh my. You should rest while being patriotic, why are you trying to step in again?]

“…….Did you deliberately not inform us? About the intelligence?”

[Hmph. If I told you, you’d work overtime and night shifts again, you both need some rest.]

The President’s proud voice.

[Don’t worry. No one has died yet. As you know, our kids are quite swift.]

While Goblin and Qiongqi had finished their job…

The Syndicate’s agents deployed here were already moving on the ground.

[You two should stop fighting and just be patriotic at a leisurely pace, okay?]

Before the news even reached us, The Syndicate’s agents were already in motion.

“…Madam President.”

I lightly flicked my Taegeuk Watch with my finger.

“I’ll work overtime and be patriotic.”