The Passive Hero
The towering building's main entrance slid open as a single three-meter-tall robot stepped out. It was S-Class Hero Athena. She was the Hero Corporation's only human hero, a mysterious figure who piloted a custom-designed walking suit even during everyday life. Since she always concealed her face behind a visual tracker whenever she left the suit, almost no one had ever seen her bare features.
“...”
Athena's posture as she emerged looked noticeably wilted. She had just finished receiving an ear-splitting dressing-down from her boss, Handsome.
The reason Athena had been unable to act on the airship was nothing complicated. Quite simply, no one aboard had given her an order to resolve the situation.
Athena was an extremely passive individual. Thanks to her enigmatic, almost otherworldly image, most people never realized it, but without someone beside her issuing clear instructions, she was incapable of doing anything on her own. In gaming terms, she was like an NPC that required manual control.
To compensate for this, a Vitaloid named Kilos usually accompanied her as a dedicated sidekick… but due to certain circumstances, they had been unable to board the airship together.
“Sigh, that’s why I told you not to ride alone. You’re on a full week of suspension. What are you going to do until then?”
A small Vitaloid about 130 centimeters tall stuck close to Athena’s side and asked the question. This was Kilos, the very sidekick who had just been mentioned. His diminutive size was one thing, but standing next to Athena inside her massive walking suit made him look even smaller.
To soothe Kilos’s obviously sulky mood, Athena reached out with one enormous mechanical arm, gently picked him up, and set him on the suit’s shoulder. Instead of being comforted, however, Kilos took it as mockery and exploded.
The three-meter walking suit drooped even further, as if wilting. Kilos’s soft heart wavered at the sight. He clicked his tongue, muttered “Agh, damn it!” and gave the suit a couple of light taps while still scowling.
“There were… a lot of bad people.”
“…I met… my junior.”
“I want… to meet again.”
Kilos flinched hard at the words that flowed from the suit. Just to reiterate, Athena was an extremely passive person. If this were a game, Kilos was the trainer and Athena was the Pokémon. No matter how strong the Pokémon, it could do nothing without its trainer’s command. Yet here she was, essentially saying on her own, Master, I think using the stat booster instead of Flamethrower would be better there.
The giant three-meter walking suit nodded slowly.
Kilos immediately pulled out a pad and began searching for Last’s place of work.
Heading to Cheongang with sidekick.
Royal Line. The boundary that separated the city from Royal Road. If anyone equipped with an unregistered biochip crossed this line, they were instantly recognized as criminals and pursued by security forces—an archaic remnant of a class-based society. Ironically, because it offered the closest view of Royal Road’s golden splendor, the area was also the most densely populated.
Convenience facilities clustered near the Royal Line in proportion to the population. Among them was the district’s most famous casino, Golden Continue, said to offer the highest returns in the entire area.
And right now, I was standing in front of that very casino.
“Wow! So this is the place big brother called one of the fastest ways to burn through a year’s earnings—the Lose Continue!”
“It’s not Lose Continue, it’s Golden Continue. And where did you even learn that phrase?”
I was here with the Kim siblings, Seokho and Seolhwa. I had originally planned to bring A.G.O, who used to live near the Royal Line, to act as our guide. Unfortunately she was currently back at the hideout with Najja, busy erasing the wanted codes that had been planted in her core. Having our two most competent members absent made me uneasy.
I dramatically removed my sunglasses and looked up at the Golden Continue sign.
A few hours earlier, Director Park Seongtae had called. Using Ark’s channel for our broadcast was fine, he said, but we had to pay the network usage fees. When I asked if he couldn’t just treat it like the last kidnapping and let us use it for free, he replied that there were limits. Something about how if money kept disappearing from strict accounts like that, it could trigger an investigation into either the broadcasting station’s lobbyists or collusion with some organization.
When I asked the brilliant-minded Najja and veteran A.G.O about it, they explained everything in terms even an idiot like me could understand. Simply put, if we paid the network fees honestly while using the channel, the station could claim they were simply providing a paid service. That way there would be nothing to criticize later.
Anyway, the point was that he would handle the rest as long as we at least kept up appearances. Why Park Seongtae was being so cooperative with us was a mystery to everyone.
When I then asked whether we could pay the monthly network fee, the shocking truth emerged: our organization currently had no money to spare. When I asked how we had reached this point, Najja answered, “Oh, did I not mention it? I quit my job.”
Which meant our top priority had suddenly become earning money to survive.
Shut up, you brat.
We each altered our appearances with visual trackers and stepped into the Golden Continue. The moment we entered, an ear-splitting noise assaulted us. I immediately clapped my hands over my ears. The music was loud enough to make the floor vibrate, layered with the clatter of slot machines and the clack of bouncing balls. This place really had zero consideration for enhanced humans!
A glance at Seolhwa showed her covering her ears too, letting out a distressed “Ah-bah-bah.” Knowing I wasn’t the only one suffering brought a small sense of relief. Meanwhile Seokho was casually digging at his ear as if the noise barely bothered him. Was it because lower-tier enhanced humans had dulled senses?
“U-Unnie…! What was our goal here again…!?”
Seolhwa shouted as if she wanted to escape this place as quickly as possible. Seokho answered in my place while I was still wincing in pain.
“Places like this always have guards. Corporate guards tend to overcharge, so they usually hire a lot of guards from the outer districts instead.”
“S-So…!?”
“But that doesn’t mean outer-district guards are all good. Far from it. These bastards run protection rackets. They deliberately bring their own gang members into the casino, cause a scene, then pretend to throw them out and demand even more money for ‘protection.’”
“Wow, they’re total scumbags…!!?”
“Yeah. And the thing we’re about to do is exactly that kind of scumbag move.”
“Huh!?”
“Hey, old man. You’re going to make Seolhwa misunderstand if you say it like that.”
“Am I wrong?”
This guy, seriously.
“You have to explain it properly. When those thugs bring their gang in to cause trouble, we catch the gang and threaten them into paying us protection money instead. That’s the core of this plan.”
“Whoa…!! I don’t really get it, but it’ll work out somehow…!?”
Of course it would. After that we would defeat the revenge-seeking gangs one by one, gathering all the scattered outer-district organizations into one place. Our final goal was for Maker to seize all the money those point organizations were sucking out of their illegal businesses.
“For now let’s head inside. Even I’m getting tired of this noise.”
Following Kim Seokho’s lead, we moved deeper into the Golden Continue. After passing the rows of slot machines we reached the poker rooms. This area felt noticeably quieter and more comfortable since it was where people gambled against each other face to face.
A quick scan of the interior revealed black-suited guards standing with arms crossed at every passageway. Holstered pistols sat ready at their waists. Did no place in this district let people walk around without a gun?
We decided to split up and kill time until the gangs showed up. Since I was already at a casino, I figured I might as well taste some dopamine and headed toward the hold’em poker tables. All the seats were full, but one player looked like he was about to lose his last chip, so it seemed I’d be able to sit down soon.
“Full house.”
“Agh, damn it!! I lost again!!”
The man slammed the table twice with a heavy thud and stood up, now completely broke. I glanced at his face.
Time seemed to slow down.
Wasn’t that man Cheon Taewoo, CEO of the Cheongang Group?
What the hell are you doing here?