Chapter 54
“Th-there are still at least thirty more members left, including the boss and the executives! Our boss is ‘Field Commander Jo Jinhyeon,’ and the only executives besides me are ‘Scissorhands Kang Kaljin’ and ‘Bomb Engineer Bang Hwacheol’! Bang Hwacheol has a hobby of watching his own handiwork, so by now he’s probably near the Ferris wheel… Uh, uhh?!”
“What do Jo Jinhyeon, Kang Kaljin, and Bang Hwacheol look like?”
“Commander Jo Jinhyeon has a black two-block hairstyle, a chin beard, and sunglasses! Kang Kaljin has stiff yellow hair, dark brown skin, and a tall build! Bang Hwacheol has a short buzz cut, is fat, and has a scar beneath his right eye! All of them wear hoods bearing the symbol of the Black Moon, just like me… W-wait…! E-everything I just said was a lie….”
“…Yeah, thanks for the information.”
-Bang!
“Hk…!”
“…Wow.”
“……”
The women each reacted differently to me shooting the man in the head without hesitation as soon as I had extracted the information.
It might have looked somewhat cruel, but it was hardly something that would lower my favorability. From the moment these bastards detonated a bomb on the Ferris wheel, they had become the sort of people who had no grounds to complain even if they were all shot dead on the spot.
To Han Sora, who brimmed with a sense of justice, and Kim Isabel, who hated evildoers, it would probably even look like a good thing. And Cha Eun-joo was always Cha Eun-joo, so showing her a side like this hardly mattered.
“A black two-block hairstyle, a chin beard, and sunglasses. Stiff yellow hair and brown skin. And a buzz cut, a fat build, and a scar beneath the eye….”
I took out my notebook and wrote down their appearances one by one. I already knew their abilities and fighting styles, but the original had never described their exact appearances in much detail.
Reminding myself once again that I had to enter the battle fully prepared now that Seo Woojin wasn’t here, I called out to the three people standing behind me.
“Eun-joo, Sora, and Isabel.”
“…Yeah.”
“Right.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry to bring you all the way here after saying we should run away, only to say something like this, but could you listen to me for a moment?”
“Hmm…?”
“Yes….”
“…Go ahead.”
“…We might be able to help resolve this bombing that just happened.”
I continued with a somewhat forced attempt at persuasion as the three of them listened attentively, looked at me with cautious concern, or simply turned their silent gazes in my direction.
“We’re the only ones who know whether any other terrorists remain inside the amusement park and whether there’s any way to distinguish them from everyone else. I don’t know what the terrorists’ objective is, but if we simply wait for help from outside, there may be even more casualties.
If the man called the Bomb Engineer detonates a bomb in a shelter or somewhere similar, it’ll cause an even greater disaster than the explosion a moment ago. It also seems that their leader and at least one other executive are still here.”
“Th-that’s true….”
“…That’s right. Anywhere with a large crowd could be dangerous, not just a shelter.”
“Mr. Lee Seonho, are you suggesting…?”
“I know we aren’t official Hunters yet. I also know that in a few weeks, we’ll barely earn a title at the level of provisional Hunters.
But we can do more than ordinary civilians, can’t we? At the very least, we can act far more proactively than the people over there who are running without even knowing what’s happening.”
“Well, I understand what you’re saying. You want us to search for the terrorists’ remaining forces ourselves, right?”
“…I know it’s reckless for mere students to attempt something like this. But it feels like now is the time for us to step forward.”
It was a little cringeworthy. I was repeating Seo Woojin’s exact lines from the original, so there was no way to stop my face from feeling hot.
This sort of thing didn’t suit my personality at all. I was only following the original story to gain Han Sora and Kim Isabel’s favorability and create an excuse to get involved with Park Hana.
If I could put up with one embarrassing moment and raise the favorability of three girls, it was a deal profitable enough to leave me with change.
“Yeah. Somehow, I figured you’d say something like that, Lee Seonho.”
“Just as you said, Mr. Lee Seonho, I think we really should step forward to prevent more people from being sacrificed.”
“If anyone’s scared, go back first. The entrance to the amusement park is open now, so no one should be around to stop you.”
“I-I’m definitely going with Seonho…! Wherever Seonho goes, I’m going too….”
“…I feel the same. I think this is precisely when a recovery-type ability user is needed most.”
“What about you, Han Sora?”
“Can’t you tell? I brought a weapon on purpose because I intended to do this. Even if you all ran away, I was planning to go back in.”
Han Sora held up a small toy bow and a few arrows, all of which fit in one hand.
Seeing her hold something like that with such a serious expression, I couldn’t help letting out a laugh.
“Pfft, that’s one adorable weapon.”
“I-I can’t help it! Who comes to an amusement park carrying their own bow?! It’s fortunate I have this much at least…!”
“I’m joking, I’m joking. Still, I confirmed its power earlier, so it should be enough.”
The frightening thing about ‘Piercing Arrow’ was that even a weapon like that could easily pierce a human skull. No other archery-type awakened ability could probably even imitate it.
As we talked, the four of us made our way back inside from the entrance to the amusement park.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“Han Sora, over there! I can see someone!”
“I see her too!”
One of Black Moon’s members was chasing a woman in a black hood while aiming a gun at her.
As soon as she spotted him, Han Sora raised her toy bow, took aim, and fired rapidly.
-Thwack!
“Aaaaaagh!!”
The member collapsed after a plastic arrow pierced his neck.
I didn’t know how many were still left, but we had dealt with about ten of them this way while making our way in from the entrance.
“Nice shot, Han Sora!”
“…It’s your buff. Normally, I could never hit someone running like that, but with a buff this strong, no wonder Eun-joo would cling to you.”
I had already cast ‘Spirit of Artemis’ on Han Sora on the way here. In a situation where her life was genuinely on the line, she probably couldn’t refuse simply because mental buffs made her uneasy.
Of course, I didn’t try anything funny and only applied the buff obediently. Right now, it was more important to create a situation where Han Sora experienced the power of my Suggestion and came to rely on me.
Besides, I had used Suggestion quite a lot today, leaving my mana almost completely depleted. I had no room left for anything unnecessary.
“Y-you insolent brats!”
“Isabel, straight ahead!”
“Let there be light to bind you!”
-Clang!
“Ngh… d-damn it…!”
-Thwack!
“Graaaagh!!”
“Eun-joo, two black hoods on the right!”
“Dark…Spear!”
“Ngh…!!”
Han Sora handled the left, Cha Eun-joo the right. Enemies that occasionally attacked us by surprise were restrained by Kim Isabel, and I finished them with my knife.
I had to conserve the rifle I’d brought as a backup, along with the remaining ammunition, as much as possible.
I didn’t have the stamina to carry several rifles, nor the time to search through the terrorists’ bodies for magazines one by one. Reality doesn’t give you leisurely time to loot corpses like a game does.
One bullet would be used against Jo Jinhyeon. I wouldn’t hesitate to fire at the others if necessary, but I absolutely had to keep at least one final round in reserve.
Killing the enemy boss was the protagonist’s role, and since I had stolen that role, delivering the conclusion was something I had to do.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
As soon as he got off the Ferris wheel, Park Cheon-ho spotted a suspicious-looking man in a hood.
His sense of justice burned far brighter than his abilities warranted, so he headed toward the suspicious man without hesitation.
“Stop right there! Bomber!”
“Huff, huff, huff….”
Objectively speaking, Park Cheon-ho’s actions were unbelievably foolish.
Chasing someone merely because he wore a black hood and was acting suspiciously went against the presumption of innocence, and if he went so far as to subdue the person with violence only to discover he wasn’t a terrorist, Park Cheon-ho would be the one ending up in handcuffs.
Even if the man really was a terrorist, directly confronting someone whose hidden methods were unknown was dangerous. But as I said, Park Cheon-ho’s sense of justice was far too strong compared to his ability.
…It was incredibly fortunate for Park Cheon-ho that the hooded man really was the bomber who had blown up the Ferris wheel, exactly as he had expected, and that he didn’t particularly enjoy fighting people directly.
“Haa, y-you stupidly chased after me! T-take this!”
-Boom!
“Aaaaaagh!!”
…However, even if he didn’t enjoy fighting people directly, Bang Hwacheol was still an executive of the villain organization ‘Black Moon.’
His ability was to create bombs whose power increased in proportion to the mana he expended, and the bomb Bang Hwacheol created on the spot exploded beneath Park Cheon-ho’s feet, sending a painful scream ringing through the air.
“H-hey, Park Cheon-ho!! Are you okay?!”
“Hahaha, hahahaha…!! You stupid bastard…!!”
Not enjoying direct combat didn’t mean he was incapable of it. He simply wanted to see people die helplessly to secretly planted explosives, unable to do anything in response, rather than fight them one-on-one.
The bomb he had dropped while pretending to flee, clutching his thick belly, exploded and engulfed Park Cheon-ho squarely. Its power was enough to incinerate even a car in a single blast.
“Hek, th-those green little brats are all the same…. H-however, they get drunk on justice just because they’re Hunters or whatever…! If you’re going to cling to such pathetic justice, you should at least protect your own body properly….”
“Huff, stop right there, bomber! Now you’re a criminal caught red-handed!!”
“What?!”
No, how?!
I had timed the detonation precisely to coincide with the moment his body passed through it!
But before Bang Hwacheol could resolve his question, Park Cheon-ho emerged through the thick smoke. Aside from a few scratches and scorch marks on his clothes, his body itself was perfectly unharmed.
“Hey, Park Cheon-ho!! Are you alive?!”
“Yeah! I’m perfectly fine! An explosion this small is nothing!”
“H-how are you unharmed…?! How…?!”
“Just let yourself be caught and take my fist, bomber!!”
What was he, an elephant? He’d endured an explosion with his bare body?! Even a sturdy body had its limits!
Shocked by Park Cheon-ho’s absurd physical abilities, Bang Hwacheol pulled out another bomb and dropped it as he hurriedly fled.
The power had seemed slightly weak a moment ago, so this time he would make absolutely certain. He needed something right on the edge—powerful enough to unleash its maximum force without catching himself in the explosion.
-Kaboom!!
“Aaaaaaaaagh!!!”
“Park Cheon-ho!!!”
An even greater explosion. Even greater force. And gusts of wind and clouds of dust rose around them.
Although this exposed his position, he had surely dealt with that pointlessly hot-blooded brat.
“Hoo, huff, hoo….”
“……”
“…Did I get him?”
“H-how dare you use such a dangerous bomb!! I’ll never forgive you, terrorist!”
“W-what kind of crazy bastard is this?!”
Even after taking a blast powerful enough to create a small crater in the area, Park Cheon-ho charged at him again with only a few scorch marks on his body.
Bang Hwacheol realized that if he didn’t escape properly, there wouldn’t even be enough of him left to collect his bones.