episode_0025

Suspicion

(Whoosh!!)

Snow Flower was flying rapidly through the sky, splitting it.

“Manager!”

[What, why?]

“Can you open the gate?”

[From sector C? Where to?]

“To sector F.”

Mad Hatter instantly concealed his appearance. However, his ability clearly isn’t teleportation. Even if it were, long-distance teleportation from sector C to sector F is impossible. There’s no way I could arrive faster by going through the gate to sector F than Mad Hatter flying in a plane or missile.

As always, Arthur will be going to the casino and if he’s not there at the casino…

Arthur is the villain, Mad Hatter.

(Whoosh!)

With such conviction, Snow Flower swiftly flew away.

(Thud!)

Snow Flower arrived at the management office of sector C.

“I’ll take it from here.”

The agent waiting outside guided Snow Flower underground.

“Do you know how much mana stone it takes to activate the gate once? It’s just a waste of space.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank Luna for that.”

Gate

A word referring to a spatial rift connected to another dimension after the great disaster, and simultaneously a device capable of teleportation.

It wasn’t scientific teleportation but rather magical teleportation, hence it required mana. Spatial magic itself consumed an enormous amount of mana. Therefore, a tremendous amount of mana stones were needed for using the gate once.

However, such mana stones couldn’t be obtained in the Union City. The only way was to discover mana stones in external areas, including colonies, or directly enter the gate for mining. Of course, they could also be purchased from Black Enterprise, which dealt with everything in the world, but the price was very high.

Even though Snow Flower, Yi Seol-ha, was an A-class hero, using the gate wasn’t something anyone could do. However, with the help of the management office’s senior official and S-class hero Luna, she was able to use it.

“We’re moving.”

(Zing!!)

* * * * * * * *

Sector F, Arthur’s Casino

(Vroom!)

A vehicle quickly arrived in front of the casino.

“Hmm?”

As the vehicle rapidly approached the casino, the security guards looked towards it.

(Creak!)

“Oh, Secretary.”

The guard greeted Isolha as she opened the door and dashed out.

“Please park for me!”

(Tadadak!!)

Isolha ran to Arthur’s office, carefully controlling her speed so as not to reveal her superhuman abilities.

“…”

Arriving at Arthur’s office, Isolha stopped in front of it.

(Squeak)

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Isolha opened the office door, looking for something.

“!!”

“Hmm? Miss Seolha?”

As the door opened, Arthur, who had been sitting and reading documents, appeared.

“You’re here already? Weren’t you supposed to come tomorrow or something?”

“Oh… the work finished quickly.”

“I saw the news. They said Mad Hatter appeared in Zone C?”

“Yes…”

Physically impossible. It’s physically impossible to arrive from Zone C to here faster than oneself. Even if it was through teleportation, it doesn’t make sense.

Only one person in the world can use spatial magic. And even for a teleporting superhuman, there is no one who can arrive faster than oneself over such a long distance.

“…”

“?”

Looking at Seolha, Arthur smirked.

“Miss Seolha, are you okay?”

“Oh, no, I’m fine.”

“Have a cup of coffee for now.”

Arthur got up and poured coffee.

“…”

‘He’s right. The way he talks, moves, and his expressions, everything matches Arthur… Am I mistaken?’

“Are you okay?”

Arthur asked, handing her the coffee.

‘No, there’s more to confirm.’

But Snow Flower still had one more thing to confirm.

“Well, the work for today is done. Shall we leave for the day?”

“…Yes.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

(Swish)

“Then, Miss Seolha, please leave early as well.”

Arthur opened the office door and said.

“Yes, sir.”

Hearing Seolha’s response, Arthur walked out of the office.

“…”

Seolha left the room after Arthur and, as time passed, sat down at her desk.

(Thud, tap)

Then she took out her laptop.

(Zing)

The laptop screen showed various views of the office.

Seol-ha had secretly installed a small camera in the home office. If Arthur could confirm that he had been there since the appearance of the B-grade villain Mad Hatter, it would be confirmed.

“…!!”

In the video, Arthur’s exact arrival at work during working hours was shown.

“…….”

Arthur, who arrived at the home office, was working as usual.

“There is news that B-grade villain Mad Hatter is holding a hostage drama at the C-district bank…”

Even the sight of Arthur hearing the news of the villain Mad Hatter’s appearance on the news could be seen.

“…”

It couldn’t be manipulated. It was a camera he had installed himself, and the recorded content was secure due to the software used by the management department, making manipulation impossible.

Furthermore, the appearance of Arthur in the video was exactly the same person he had seen so far.

“…Am I mistaken?”

…

“…”

As Arthur drove away, he looked at the casino getting farther away through the rearview mirror.

“…”

(Swish)

As the distance grew, Arthur raised his hand to his face.

(Crackle! Ziiing!)

And then he clenched his hand and tore the skin off.

“Phew, it’s been a while, I thought I’d have a hard time dying.”

The man who tore off the artificial skin. Hector said as he tore the remaining leather off his face through the rearview mirror.

“How did it feel? Did I fool you well?”

Through the earphones, Arthur’s voice, still flying towards Zone F, was heard.

“Who do you think I am? Of course, I disguised myself perfectly.”

(Swish)

Hector said as he removed the white wig.

“It didn’t really look like that, but you had six surveillance cameras. Thanks to those damn displays on these glasses, I thought I was going to die trying to see the situation.”

“You’ve been through a lot. But your skills haven’t died.”

“The guy who used to hear genius even when looking at me like this.”

(Swish)

When Hector looked at the rearview mirror, his blue eyes turned back into his own black eyes.

“See you later.”

“Yeah.”

…

“Oh wow.”

“Wow.”

“My goodness.”

“Good grief.”

Inside a warehouse, Arthur, Hector, Seo-hyun, and Jim each uttered very short exclamations as they looked at bags piled up in the warehouse, or more precisely, bags filled with 100-won bills.

“I didn’t know we’d move all this.”

At first, the bank robbery was not focused on robbery because the goal was to assassinate the villain Monkey Spanner. Still, they were able to grab several bags full of money.

But now, things were different.

It seemed that there was money being kept for relocation, or the amount of money stolen this time was enormous.

“All thanks to Greenda.”

Even with a stealth helicopter, it was impossible to take such a huge amount of money. The magic circle created by Greenda was used to move the money, making it very easy to rob.

The carpet with the magic circle was taken when they escaped, and they collected the paper used for banknotes in the vault and burned it. Naturally, since there was no way to move this huge amount of money, the police would think that a significant portion was burned. To make it look that way, they deliberately left traces of real cash and fake paper in the corners of the space.

In reality, they had completely robbed everything.

“…Should we do this professionally?”

Hector said, looking at the piled money bags.

“Well…”

“Hey, think about it, if we do this only once every few months, or even once a year, we’ll be walking unicorns (startups with a market cap of over $1 billion). This is amazing.”

Hector stuck close to Arthur and started to persuade him.

“If we do this for a few years, we can buy some remote island, build a palace there, and live like kings. No, we could immigrate to a republic.”

“…That sounds tempting.”

To define a republic in one word, it could be called the “only heaven in hell”.

A world teeming with monsters, especially superpowered individuals tainted by crime, a world lacking food and living space—yet a utopia without any shortage in any aspect, that’s the republic.

It’s even said that civilians are always escorted by military robots when they go outside the republic.

Think about it, just an ordinary person. Even Citizen 1, if they go abroad, they are escorted by a military robot stronger than a platoon.

They are not the same as us. They are just nobles.

Thanks to this appearance, the citizens of the republic call themselves nobles, the republic is an empire, and those who rule the republic are nicknamed emperors.

“No, that’s not it.”

“Hmm? Why?”

“You know, there’s something I have to do.”

“?”

Hector made a puzzled expression at what Arthur was saying.

“……!!”

And then something came to mind, and his pupils dilated.

“You!”

“A lot of people are listening.”

“…”

Hector was about to say something, but upon hearing Arthur’s words, he looked around at the people nearby and closed his mouth.

“…Damn it.”

Hector sighed and grabbed his head.

“Let’s just become a Class A villain for now. What’s wrong with being Class B?”

“Well, that part seems to be making some progress.”

“Oh?”

(Swish)

Jim, who had been looking at his phone, turned it around to show the screen to the others.

[Today, the management agency has upgraded the villain Mad Hatter’s grade from Class B to Class A. The villain’s promotion to Class A is the first in 5 years, and he is also known to be associated with the fellow A-class villain Red Queen. This is believed to be largely due to his killing of the resident hero, A-class hero Green Shield, and once again evading pursuit by the hero Flower……]

“Oh”

“Congratulations, now you’re also Class A.”

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[So it’s not true?]

“It seems like that. I’m sorry, unnie.”

Iseol said to Luna, an S-class hero visible on the screen.

[I’m not sorry to me?]

Manager Park Jong-hoon said on one side of the screen.

“Anyway, Luna unnie probably handled everything.”

[Hey! I put in so much effort too. Oh, and I saw the video you sent, no tampering, and iris recognition passed, and other minor habits, movements, even footprints all matched. It’s the same person.]

“……”

[It’s okay, people can make mistakes. Honestly, it was understandable.]

[Okay, then come back.]

“…No. I’ll stay here.”

[What?]

[What?]

“If I’m not here, who will protect the people in Zone F?”

[There’s a hero in Zone F too.]

“There’s no A-class hero.”

[…Fine, do whatever you want.]

Manager Park Jong-hoon no longer had the strength to hold back his tears.