novelraw Chapter 82 : Chapter 82
Chapter 82 : Chapter 82
Chapter 82: Prelude (1)
Colorful flags filled the street.
In the center far away, a giant castle reminiscent of Cinderella Castle soared.
On the towers and walls, decorations modeled after legendary heroes' weapons were embedded, and at the tip of the highest spire, a giant sword was stuck.
Around the fountain, staff in mascot doll costumes took pictures with children and shared laughter.
In the goods shop, hero costumes and props were displayed.
Children wearing headbands and masks ran around excitedly nearby.
[We are all heroes! Hero Land for all of us!]
Cheers and laughter were ceaseless under the large banner fluttering in the wind.
And in the middle of that lively street, two people dressed in instructor uniforms were walking.
They were Zero's instructors, Hojin and Miyu.
Hojin, with his white hair slicked back, scanned the surroundings ceaselessly with his eyes.
Children who made eye contact with him, who had no whites in his eyes, sometimes burst into tears.
“Hojin-nim, it would be better not to make eye contact with kids, you know? It's a bit awkward to say this, but honestly, I'm a bit scared too.”
Instructor Miyu sticking a dagger without hesitation while saying it's a bit awkward to say.
Hojin looked back at Miyu.
Instructor Miyu, grinning while holding an ice cream in each hand, entered his view.
Hair mixed with pink, yellow, and light green shone more colorfully receiving the sunlight.
In her hands, ice creams as colorful as her hair color were piled up like towers on cones.
“And you don't have to act so stiffly. It's Hero Land, so you can relax a bit, right? Kids are playing happily too.”
“As long as they are wearing uniforms, each one represents the face of Zero.”
“If someone saw, they would think you are the founder of Zero, Hojin-nim!”
Whether Miyu said something or not, Hojin moved his feet.
His eyes still observed children wearing Zero uniforms one by one.
Everywhere that gaze passed, the liveliness seemed to dampen a bit.
“We have a duty to correct cadets' conduct. The moment even a single person loses face, the entire Zero becomes a laughing stock.”
“Ay, you're doing it again. Instructor Kang Mooseong already went to ride the Mega Viking. Let's enjoy ourselves a bit too!”
It was when Miyu chattered playfully and laughed.
Bump-
Her shoulder bumped into someone.
“Ah, sorry.”
After speaking briefly, a figure pressing down a black hat quickly left the place.
“It's fine! Since the ice cream is safe!”
Miyu turned back and answered brightly, but Hojin watching from the side narrowed his brow.
“…….”
His gaze followed the man who bumped shoulders.
The man was hurriedly heading somewhere.
“Do you want to eat one too, Hojin-nim?”
Miyu, who took a bite of ice cream nonchalantly, smiled and offered the ice cream held in the opposite hand.
“Well, I'm good.”
Hojin shook his head.
“You really have no mood. Really. Such men aren't popular!”
“That's fortunate. I hate receiving attention.”
“Aha, is that so?”
At Hojin's stiff answer, Miyu grumbled and took a big bite of ice cream.
They continued moving their steps.
Turning the corner in the Extreme Zone, the sight of several cadets wearing Zero uniforms cutting in line and standing in front of the jet coaster entrance entered Hojin's eyes.
Spectators waiting behind let out voices of complaint.
“What, they're cutting in line.”
“Isn't that Zero Academy? The uniform looks like it?”
“Then they are aspiring heroes. Look at that character. Is that allowed?”
Spectators complained, but the cadets ignored it as if it was trivial.
Behind the backs of such cadets, Hojin's cold voice dug in.
“Stand in line from the back.”
As Hojin's single remark dug in sharply, the cadets flinched and lowered their heads.
“S-Sorry.”
The shoulders of cadets hurriedly returning to the back of the line shrank significantly.
“Everyone, I recorded all your names. There will be guidance from Instructor Kang Mooseong later.”
Miyu said smiling.
Kang Mooseong, at that name, the cadets' expressions froze pale.
There were cadets who knelt immediately, but Miyu restrained them right away. Because there's no way they would be let off with that.
“Those kids, they really are a nuisance.”
“Well, loaches that lower the dignity of the pond always exist.”
“Even though we consistently do character education.”
After exchanging small complaints, they continued moving their steps.
It was while they were consistently patrolling moving through zones.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, strength drained from Miyu's toes.
The ice cream held in her hand fell to the floor making a splat sound.
Her face flushed, and soon began to boil vigorously as if heat was soaring.
“Instructor Miyu?”
As Hojin called her name, her eyes became round and shook.
Rough breath flowed out.
“Hojin-nim……. My eyes, are spinning…….”
Hojin immediately grabbed her wrist.
Abnormally fast pulse, skin hot as if boiling.
Soon purple spots rose spreading along the nape of her neck.
Hojin's eyebrows raised.
“Poison? When were you hit?”
His coldly subsided eyes pierced Miyu's condition.
Suddenly he recalled.
The man in the black hat who brushed past her shoulder earlier.
Did he do something to Miyu the moment they bumped?
‘No, that's not it.’
Hojin was already watching him even before they bumped.
Even if he looked suspicious, there was no particularly strange action.
If that man had put something in or pulled a trick, he couldn't have missed it.
Then the cause lies elsewhere.
Hojin soon began examining Miyu's hand.
Fingertips were subtly shiny.
‘This is…….’
Silver powder twinkled faintly on the palm.
Hojin brought a little of it to his tongue with his fingertip.
Instantly, magic power inside the body flared up abruptly.
Heat spread along the blood vessels stimulating nerves.
There is only one thing that causes this reaction.
“How is this here?”
The identity of this substance is ‘Galaxy Grass’.
A substance classified as transdermal poison.
It reacts with internal magic power, forcibly overactivating it and causing high fever.
As a result, hallucinations and nerve abnormalities accompany, and in case of excessive exposure, it can even cause cardiac arrest.
A substance harmless to those without magic power but causing fatal adverse reactions to Awakened.
Because of that, it is thoroughly controlled at the government level.
Except for designated research institutes, even bringing it in would not be allowed.
But that was now smeared on Miyu's hand.
“Uh-uh.”
And at that moment, someone groaned and slumped down next to them.
“Oppa, are you okay? What's wrong?”
“My head, feels like it's going to break……. Ugh.”
A man staggered and collapsed.
And he too had dropped a cone ice cream on the floor.
[Super Sweet Ice Cream]
That too was an ice cream bought from the same shop as Miyu.
Hojin immediately began examining the cone wrapper of the ice cream Miyu was holding.
The inner part where the cone folds was coated with silver aluminum.
Touching that spot, silver powder smeared out.
“So it was like this.”
The situation was drawn immediately.
Hot weather and heat in the crowd, plus sugar in the ice cream increasing calories.
Miyu's body temperature would have risen, and naturally sweat formed on her hands.
Powder melts into sweat through the gaps where the wrapper is folded and flows into the skin.
Transdermal poison permeating the body quietly like that.
If it were short-term contact, it wouldn't have been a problem.
But if it's while finishing the ice cream, it was enough time to affect.
And what this implied was one thing.
“……Terror.”
Poison intentionally smeared by someone.
That intention couldn't simply be to ruin people's day.
In the middle of Hero Land full of joyful voices.
Chilly pressure was tightening the breath.
***
Inside a dark room, sunlight was entering through a window in the square stone wall.
Top room of the main castle spire in Hero Land.
Usually, it was a space where access was not allowed.
Inside, a long-haired man sitting on stacked boxes was looking into a telescope while mixing cup rice.
The scar crossing his face was quite threatening.
“Hey Edward. That thing made with Galaxy Grass, is it really being supplied properly?”
Lowering the telescope, the man said.
To the white-haired man next to him.
“Of course. I have set everything up. We just need to wait here.”
Edward, who neatly arranged his pure white hair, answered Jack's question lightly and was tearing open some packaging.
On the stick-type wrapper, the name [Geo Churu] was written.
New poison ‘CID-4’ made by processing Galaxy Grass.
The Alliance wanted to proceed with the effectiveness experiment of the new drug ahead of full-scale terror.
So as part of terror preparation, the supply of the new drug was also undertaken by Bremen and Edward's side.
Jack narrowed his eyes at Edward's carefree answer.
“Seems the amount received isn't much. Is there meaning? At best, won't it incapacitate a few Awakened bastards? That much won't really become data.”
As Jack said narrowing his brow.
“If distributed randomly, that would be so. The important thing is injecting it in the right place at the right time. According to my calculation, at least about a hundred people will fall into poisoning.”
Edward shrugged his shoulders and received.
“That many? Isn't that virtually the entire amount? Wasn't it said to be effective only on Awakened?”
“Yes, I used tricks so it only goes into the hands of Awakened. Especially heroes.”
Edward finished speaking nonchalantly and offered the Churu to the calico cat standing in front of him.
The creature wary of Edward soon forgot that feeling and approached the Churu.
Soon the creature flicked its tongue and began licking the Churu frantically.
“It's quite fascinating really. Just moments ago it was wary of me, but now it's distracted by eating.”
“Of course. It's an animal. Brain structure is simple.”
“Right. Since it's an animal…….”
Edward extended his opposite hand and stroked the cat's head.
At the same time, the corners of Edward's mouth curved up strangely.
“What's really fascinating is, humans aren't much different.”
“What?”
“Do you know when humans are most off guard?”
He squeezed out more Churu for the cat and smiled.
“It's when eating. The moment they put something in their mouth and taste it, they mistake themselves as being inside a safe capsule.”
Jack, who stopped the hand picking up cup rice, glared at Edward.
“…….”
“It's a side effect of reigning as top predators. Hunting, cooking, and eating arranged food. That process is so familiar they forgot tension.”
Edward shook his head from side to side.
“So if given just a little variation, they don't notice at all. Even those called superhumans. They say playing with food gets you punished, but it's troublesome. Since it works well.”
“Asking just in case, is this safe?”
Jack asked tapping his cup rice.
“Of course. Since I adjusted it to give fine food to Jack. I lent my ‘eyes’ to suppliers. So they can distinguish targets certainly. Well, cup rice is safe in the first place though.”
“Tsk, I have to be able to trust your words.”
Jack, resuming his meal, brought up words as if spilling them.
“There are guys who don't let their guard down. Guys like Balzac. Ah, wasn't he not human?”
Instantly, the gaze revealed between Edward's narrowed eyes sharpened faintly.
“Please call him Ryu Jinwoo from now on. Just in case you might make a mistake calling the name wrong in front of others.”
“Hmph. Do you think I'd make such a mistake.”
Jack snorted and put down the spoon with a clack.
“Even once is fatal. It is troublesome.”
“Tsk, acting annoyingly. Anyway Bal…… that guy Ryu Jinwoo must be here too. What happens to him?”
At Jack's question, Edward continued speaking without losing his smile.
“They say Gonta of the Alliance targets Ryu Jinwoo.”
“Him?”
“Original target was Lee Junhyeok. But that boy didn't come. So he said he's changing targets.”
“Tsk, what did he say the reason was?”
“Said his looks are annoying.”
At Edward's answer, Jack let out a smirk.
“A reason I can empathize with. So? The Alliance doesn't know that bastard is Balzac. Will you even help him?”
Edward slowly folded the Churu wrapper stained on his hand and grinned.
“No. As always, take care of one's own business oneself.”
“Then it's done.”
Jack covered the cup rice lid and let out a yawn.
“I'll take a nap. Tell me when work is done.”
“Then I will send a message to the Alliance side. Saying preparation is almost finished.”
Jack left and Edward kept his seat for a moment.
Meow-
The cat making a small cry and rubbing its cheek on his leg.
Edward picked up the cat and stroked its soft fur leisurely.
Sunlight brushed the window casting a slender shadow on the stone wall.
The moment the cat closed its eyes satisfactorily, a shadow was cast on Edward's smiling mouth corner too.
Handling innocent ones was always this simple.
‘……However, sometimes there are cats that don't listen.’
What floated beyond Edward's gaze fallen into thought suddenly was Ryu Jinwoo's appearance.
New Terms:
은하수풀 Galaxy Grass (Item/Material)
CID-4 CID-4 (Item/Poison)