Concert Hall Terror (2)
A short while later, five men with their heads hung low followed 42 onto the stage.
“Kyaaaaah!!”
“Oppa!!”
“Save us! Oppas!”
The hostages broke into cheers and hopeful smiles the moment they saw them.
So these are the Red Heroes guys.
The way they kept their heads down like they didn’t want to be here made them look exactly like pigs being dragged to the slaughterhouse.
“I didn’t expect the heroes to already be here.”
“We-we are the five flames that protect justice and punish villains!”
They struck awkward poses and glared at me.
“...We, the Red Heroes, will put an end to your evil deeds…!”
“Kyaaaaah!!”
The hostages cheered while the Red Heroes forced smiles onto their faces. If you’re going to deliver lines, at least stop your legs from shaking first.
The script was pure B-class cringe and the poses were tacky. It felt exactly like watching those old sentai heroes from decades ago.
“...My whole body feels like it’s cringing.”
Polia shivered and clung tightly to me.
“H-hurry up and release the hostages, w-won’t you?!”
“Hostages, huh…”
I spent a moment stroking the hair of the girl clinging to me, then looked at them and let out a soft laugh.
“With your bare mouth? Are you ordering me?”
“What?”
“A-are you going back on your promise?”
I walked straight toward the flustered Red Heroes. They seemed to be under a serious misunderstanding.
“I never once said I would release the hostages just because you gentlemen showed up.”
“But in the last terror you clearly—!”
“Last time I was being considerate. I wanted to build some trust between the heroes and me—Maker.”
“That’s—!”
“Let me be perfectly clear. In this terror, I never set the same conditions as last time. You simply assumed I did.”
Or rather.
I stopped in my tracks and stared at the Red Heroes. The men looked back at me, panic written across their faces.
“Even though the conditions I set are different, are you prepared to abandon the hostages here?”
“......”
An awkward silence fell over the stage for a moment.
“T-that’s impossible!!”
The man who seemed to be the leader of the Red Heroes shouted, waving his arms wildly.
“...Our Red Heroes will never tolerate injustice, no matter the situation!”
“Is that so.”
The man was dripping cold sweat. The way his eyes darted around didn’t inspire the slightest trust, but if he insisted, I’d play along.
“Then you may now participate in my game.”
“...Game?”
“Yes. A very simple one.”
Truth is, what I prepared this time was exclusively for female heroes…
Most of the useful data I’d taken from the lab were things that freely expressed dark, twisted desires.
After several reviews, I had selected the ones that could create suitably painful situations.
Ice Queen would have been perfect. At the very least, I’d hoped for a female hero…
Instead, what showed up were male heroes. Using those materials on men was truly out of the question.
Then there’s only one answer.
“Ten minutes. Attack, defend, use your abilities—any means are allowed. Endure attacks from both me and Lady Polia for ten minutes. If you manage it, I’ll withdraw cleanly.”
Yeah. Let’s change the rules.
I’d sweep these guys aside and wait for other heroes to arrive.
“Is this all you amount to?”
“Damn it…!”
“It hasn’t even been five minutes yet. You can’t be exhausted already.”
A short while after the fight between the Red Heroes and the villains began, the Red Heroes were completely on the defensive and no match for us.
“Oppa…”
The bespectacled woman who had called out to them watched the scene with trembling eyes.
Is the skill gap really that big…?
Just the small girl called Polia and the one known as Maker. Could those two really handle five people alone?
The woman, who normally paid no attention to heroes or villains, knew nothing. She didn’t know that Maker had fought an A-class hero in the previous terror, nor the massive power difference between ranks.
No, my oppas will win!
So the woman could only believe.
That her heroes would coolly defeat those villains…! That they would save us and continue their victorious streak as heroes…!!
“Oppa! Hang in th—!!”
Fwoosh!
Boom!
“Kyaaak!!”
The moment she cheered for the Red Heroes, a fireball shot right in front of her eyes and slammed into the bars.
“A-are you okay?!”
“......”
She had nearly died. If not for those bars, she would have been roasted alive without a chance to move.
“Die!!”
When she calmed her trembling heart and looked down, she saw one of the Red Heroes recklessly hurling fireballs with his ability. It was the man fans knew as Eun-chan.
Fwoosh!
Fwoooosh!
The more Maker dodged Eun-chan’s attacks, the harder he pushed his power.
“Kyaaaak!!”
His attacks began flying toward the hostages trapped inside the prison.
“If you attack so recklessly, the hostages will get hurt, you know?”
“...Shut up! There aren’t any injured yet, so stop making a fuss!”
“Right now no one is hurt, but from the way you’re acting, it won’t stay that way for long.”
The enraged Eun-chan lost what little reason he had left and began spamming attacks indiscriminately.
W-what do I do…
The woman was terrified. Terrified that the person she had admired until now might truly be like this, and terrified of being burned to death by him.
Boom!!
“Urgh…”
“L-leader oppa!”
While the woman panicked, something flew toward the bars where she stood. It was the leader of the Red Heroes.
He was popular for his gentle personality and mature way of leading the team. Maybe he could stop Eun-chan…?
“O-oppa! Please stop Eun-chan oppa! At this rate we’re all going to burn to death…!!”
The woman spoke to him immediately. Surely he would help them.
He had always said he loved the fans. So surely…
“Fuck… is it you?”
“Huh…?”
That he would save them…
“It’s you, you fucking bitch!!!”
“......”
“You sold us out, you damn whore?!”
“......”
“If it wasn’t for you we could have lived! Is this how a so-called fan behaves?”
“What are you…”
“Why the hell did you have to drag us into this?! If we could have lived, that would’ve been enough—we wouldn’t have to die here!”
“......”
“Fucking bitch! Ugly face and a rotten personality—you’re dragging us down with you!!!”
…She had believed he would save them.
“...Mister, you suck.”
Grab—
“What? You little brat! Let go! Let go of me?!”
Polia approached and immediately dragged the leader away.
“......”
But the fans’ already wounded hearts did not heal.
A short while later.
“Urgh…”
“Ugh…”
The Red Heroes were subdued in no time. I had considered simply eliminating them, but at Polia’s request I had her surround them with bars, creating another prison.
“Now we have another set of hostages.”
““......””
The hostages hung their heads in a noticeably depressed atmosphere. It wasn’t simply because the heroes had lost—it was because their illusions about these men had been completely shattered.
From the guy who couldn’t control his own power and hurled fireballs at his fans, to the one who tried to run away saying he couldn’t fight, to the one who blamed the fans and lashed out at them.
Since everything had been broadcast live, the situation would become quite amusing once the terror ended.
“Then, what should we do with these hostages…”
It wouldn’t matter if I simply detonated them all under the pretense of game over and fled. However.
It’s too boring.
This terror felt far too dull for that. What was the point of tormenting a few C-class heroes and leaving? I’d be lucky if people didn’t call it a pathetic escape.
Besides, my ultimate goal was to make every hero stronger. These men were clearly hopeless, but leaving now would mean I accomplished nothing.
Therefore.
I turned to look at the camera Polia had floating in the air and smiled brightly.
“I’ll give you one more chance. I’ll allow thirty minutes. Let’s have some other heroes come, shall we?”
“Hoo.”
After spending thirty minutes fooling around with Polia while we waited, a familiar face appeared.
“Ice Queen. It feels like we meet quite often, doesn’t it?”
“...Maker.”
She stared at me with her usual cold eyes. After a sigh, she spoke as though making an excuse, as if she had read something into my smile.
“...Huu. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t misunderstand. Since you’re A-class, I had to be the one to come.”
“A-class?”
“Yes. That’s the villain rank the Association assigned to you.”
“Hmm.”
A-class. A respectable high rank considered powerful whether as a hero or a villain. Of course, villain ranks were based on overall danger level rather than pure strength…
Even so, they had rated me higher than expected. I had thought B+ would be appropriate.
I smiled with satisfaction.
“Then are you my ‘dedicated hero’?”
“...It has been temporarily arranged that way.”
The dedicated hero system had been created to capture high-ranking villains.
No matter how strong someone is, everyone has a counter.
It could be called a hero specialized in countering a specific target. In my case, since they still hadn’t fully grasped my abilities or personality, they must have temporarily assigned Ice Queen.
Anyway, this is lucky.
Thanks to becoming A-class, the person I wanted had come.
“Then since the player has arrived, shall we create a masterpiece?”
“What are you trying to do this time…”
She flinched at my words. But perhaps because she had suffered badly before, she only glanced at the hostages and took no specific action.
You’ll definitely enjoy it too.
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t worried, but if it was Ice Queen, she should endure it well.
“It’s similar to what I did with the heroes over there earlier.”
“It was about enduring your attacks for ten minutes, right? Counterattacking or using abilities is allowed.”
She smiled with an expression that said it was doable if that was the case.
The context was similar. But that wasn’t all.
“Overall it’s similar. However, unlike them, you need a few additional conditions.”
“Conditions…?”
“The time is fifteen minutes. And for the first five minutes, you must do absolutely nothing.”
“...Pardon?”
“I said you must do nothing.”
Her expression gradually hardened. It was the face of someone asking what kind of nonsense that was.
“What do you think this is?”
But she had no choice but to follow my instructions.
“......”
I took a switch from my inner pocket and waved it in front of her eyes.
Don’t want to? Then who knows what will happen to all the hostages?
The anxious Ice Queen. I gave her a bright smile.