Ch.262Chapter 10. Tactical Nuclear Strike (1)

A nickname can be chosen casually.

If it’s not an important matter, you could even use a name like “AnyNickname.”

But a hero nickname is entirely different.

For heroes, a nickname is like their life, and if they get stuck with a strange title, they’ll do everything possible to change it.

Even the most benevolent powered individual would file lawsuits for defamation and slander against whoever gave them a nickname like “Cliff Rider.”

This isn’t limited to heroes alone.

Even villains, if called by some bizarre nickname, would hunt down whoever named them and stab them in the back.

Above all, giving someone a weird nickname is a surefire way to create a “demon.”

“Teacher! Did I get my nickname from the Hero Association? It must be something cool, right?”

“Well, about that…”

“Why are you hesitating? Is there a problem?”

“Stay calm and listen. Your hero name is… ‘Bald Knight.'”

“……ARGH! I feel like becoming a demon!!”

Giving someone a strange name can easily turn a perfectly normal powered individual into a demon.

To protect the mental health of powered individuals, nicknames are carefully chosen to reflect their personality, tendencies, abilities, and other considerations.

Most importantly, the individual’s preference is taken into account.

If someone chooses their own nickname, it’s natural they would become attached to it, unless there’s a reason they can’t use it.

In that sense.

I decided to thoroughly investigate why Laplace’s demon, who called herself “Hyangdan,” chose that name.

Hypothesis one: Was there previously someone who used the name Hyangdan?

“Tavern Owner. What did your investigation find?”

“Zero results. Nothing at all.”

Tavern Owner-Celestia, who was summoned to the Ulleungdo pension, quickly researched and organized the information I requested.

“There were no powered individuals using the name Hyangdan. I searched not just Korea but all countries with Chinese character cultures, and found nothing.”

“What about different Chinese characters or pronunciations that would sound like Hyangdan in Korean?”

“Nothing. I checked Japan, China, everything. I even searched North Korean expatriate communities just in case. No powered individual named Hyangdan existed.”

According to the Tavern Owner’s investigation and my own separate searches through wikis and communities:

“There’s absolutely no one. No powered individual.”

There had never been any powered individual with the nickname Hyangdan before.

It wasn’t someone who had died, nor someone with different Chinese characters.

The person simply didn’t exist.

“First hypothesis is wrong. Then the second: what about people whose actual name is ‘Hyangdan’? Either real name or alias.”

“Aliases would be practically impossible to track, but there were some people with the real name Hyangdan. However, they were all ordinary people. Not powered individuals, not Pandemonium.”

Second hypothesis: What if Hyangdan was not a nickname but a real name?

It might seem strange for a Pandemonium demon to use their real name, but considering Dueoksini’s case, expecting common sense from them would be our mistake.

We shouldn’t approach this with common sense.

We need to approach it in a way that matches the sensibilities of these aliens steeped in Korean nationalism.

“Really no one at all?”

“Nope. No one.”

“Then the next hypothesis.”

Third:

“…What if it’s related to Chunhyang?”

Now I needed to explore the “motif” from which the name Hyangdan originated.

Where did the name Hyangdan come from?

Obviously, from “Chunhyangga.”

In one of our traditional pansori narratives, the romance story of Seong Chunhyang and Lee Mongryong, Hyangdan is the name of Chunhyang’s maid.

“What about pansori performers, researchers of Chunhyangga traditions, or Namwon City in North Jeolla Province where Chunhyangga is set? Anyone there who might use the name Hyangdan…?”

“None.”

According to statistics, the population of Namwon in North Jeolla Province in this world is about 100,000.

It would be too time-consuming to search for someone suspicious or with unusual behavior among those 100,000 people, but all of Qiongqi’s tavern owners had investigated and found nothing.

It wasn’t a matter of time; there simply was nothing to find.

“Then… I have no choice but to consider the final possibility.”

All three hypotheses had missed the mark.

“The remaining one is…”

“I also looked for Chunhyangga enthusiasts but found nothing unusual.”

“Damn.”

The fourth hypothesis also collapsed.

There were hardly any people who loved Chunhyangga enough to take a character’s name from the story as their nickname.

“I guess Hyangdan isn’t the same type as Dueoksini. Dueoksini was an attention-seeker who stirred up trouble with his alt accounts.”

“It would have been easier to catch her if she was like him. Tsk.”

Now all that remained was to use the last resort.

“I didn’t want to use this method.”

Finding a specific fish in the vast ocean is difficult, but I had no choice but to throw bait everywhere and wait for the fish to bite.

“Let me make a call.”

In the end, I had to use my last resort.

I knew there were risks involved, but I had to do it.

“Hello?”

[…Uh, h-hello…?]

A voice so quiet an ant could crawl into it.

[Um, what’s going on…? I hope our people haven’t done anything wrong or, or anything like that…?]

An extremely introverted voice, afraid of talking to me on the phone, reluctant to converse with people in general.

“Not at all. I called to ask for a favor.”

[A-a favor?! You…? From me?]

“Yes. I need your team under the director to produce some ‘content’ as quickly as possible.”

[What kind of content…?]

“Bait content to lure out Laplace’s demon, Hyangdan.”

[…So propaganda, you mean?]

Her voice changed.

[How do you want to attract this demon’s attention? Just tell me the approach, and I’ll have it produced as quickly as possible.]

“It can be hastily made. Let’s start with text since that’s fastest, then follow up with secondary creations like illustrations or comics.”

[You already have a plan, Manager Do? Tell me.]

The moment work-related topics came up, this woman became a different person.

“Are you familiar with Chunhyangga?”

[…I’ll look into it. It’s a Korean folktale, right?]

“Yes. One of the pansori narratives. We need to adapt its content in a new way that will trigger Laplace’s demon.”

If the name Hyangdan came from Chunhyangga, then she might respond to a modern reinterpretation of the work.

Whether it elicits a positive response, or she comes looking for the creator after writing a 5,700-character rant like Dueoksini did, I just hope Hyangdan shows some reaction.

If it fails, we’ll simply have created a new piece of content for this world.

Content that might be somewhat risky and inappropriate, potentially making some readers cough up blood.

[Alright. Give me a brief outline of the story.]

“I’ll start with the title, Director Hundun.”

One of the four executives of the Syndicate.

A woman directly appointed by the head of the Syndicate to oversee the field of “culture.”

Hundun.

“The title is ‘The Tale of Bangja.'”

I commissioned her to create bait to draw out Laplace’s demon, Hyangdan.

* * *

In the darkness.

A red-haired woman lay on a bed, scrolling through her smartphone with her thumb, looking for something.

“Aren’t there any interesting new works?”

The woman had candy in her mouth and was rolling around on the bed wearing only a white tank top and dolphin shorts.

Her hair was braided like an apple, and there was a bag of snacks by her bedside.

“Yaaawn. Where’s something interesting new to read… oh.”

The woman’s eyes sparkled as she spotted a new work.

“My goodness, this person has a new work…? I can’t miss this.”

The woman adopted a reverent posture as she examined the new content.

“Ah, indeed. Romance is the best.”

She licked her lips as she clicked on the cover.

“…Tsk. Was this drawn using powers? There’s no soul in this drawing, no soul.”

Technically, the cover illustration was well-drawn, but there was a subtly disturbing uncanny valley effect.

Whether it was drawn using powers as the woman suggested was unknown, but she shook her head at the cover that didn’t appeal to her.

“The cover is really… huh?”

Thump.

Her heart suddenly started pounding.

The cover of the newly uploaded work showed a young man in white clothes, opening his garment to show off his chest muscles and abs.

“Whoa, whoa. What is this…?”

Her attention was drawn to his chest, but when she regained her composure and looked down, there was a bold typography scrawled below:

The Tale of Bangja -Namwon Fire Pillar Virgin Bomber-

“…What is this garbage title? W-wait. This…!”

The woman finally noticed.

In the upper right corner of the cover, a red flashing “19” mark.

“Oh, it’s an adult novel!!”

The woman resumed her reverent posture.

She wiped the snack powder from her hands with a wet wipe, gripped the smartphone with one hand, and placed the other on her stomach in a show of respect.

“Bangja is Mongryong’s servant… what has this author written based on Chunhyangga? Who is it? …NightFlowerLatte?”

Click.

She pressed on the prologue.

“Oh, damn.”

And the woman cursed.

“Chunhyang has her first experience with Bangja, never even holds hands with Mongryong, and when Mongryong goes to Hanyang, she not only doesn’t refuse the new magistrate’s advances but actually enjoys them, and Hyangdan seduces the NTR’d Mongryong with her body…?”

She sat up abruptly.

“Has this author lost their mind?!”

The woman, “Hyangdan,” turned bright red.

“How dare they add NTR and adultery to a pure love story!!”

Even if it’s just fiction.

Even if it’s just a novel.

There are some things that simply cannot be tolerated.