Rapidly Shifting Situation
Rapidly Shifting Situation
[Breaking news. Brazil has collapsed! The president, vice president, and all senior government officials are now believed dead. The Brazilian Association and its heroes have also been neutralized, and the capital and all major cities have been destroyed.]
[Update. Massive wildfires are raging in the Amazon rainforest and show no signs of dying down. All neighboring South American countries have declared a state of emergency, and survivors are fleeing as refugees.]
A whole nation had been brought down by ability users.
This event sent a staggering shockwave through the international community.
[Governments worldwide are declaring states of emergency, and a palpable tension grips the world. South Korea has also declared a state of emergency...]
[The United Nations and the International Hero Association Oversight Committee issued a joint statement calling the Brazil incident “a shocking and horrific crime against humanity” and promising to take every possible measure to resolve it. They added that they would work with Association heroes and devote all available resources to uncovering the truth and eliminating the villains responsible.]
[The United States has also described the event as a Horrible Disaster, expressing regret at failing to be of help as a member of the international community, and has announced it will immediately dispatch heroes from its own Association to help resolve the situation. Tens of thousands of refugees are still evacuating from Brazil, and the Amazon is reportedly still blazing fiercely.]
[The first joint investigation by the International Hero Association Headquarters and the United States has concluded. According to a report released by UHN, Brazil was destroyed by foreign S-rank villains who planned the attack after the Brazilian government refused their threats.]
[Each of the perpetrators was considered top-tier even among S-rank villains. Brazil had only one A-rank hero as its strongest and was considered a country with a weak hero force relative to its population.]
[The American Association has confirmed it will deploy two of its S-rank heroes and five A-rank heroes to identify the perpetrators, resolve the incident, and provide aid. This is considered an exceptional move for the American Association, which is extremely reluctant to send its heroes abroad, owing to the considerable cost. It is interpreted as meaning the situation is being treated with extreme gravity even in North America...]
[Local media reports have emerged stating that three of the four perpetrators responsible for destroying Brazil were successfully eliminated early this morning. One is reportedly still at large.]
[The Amazon fires are finally out! Local news is reporting they were extinguished by the American S-rank hero Watermel.]
[Citizens worldwide have begun the #pray4brazil movement. News of support messages, relief goods, and donations accompanied by the hashtag... In our country, Yuseong Group is known to have joined the effort.]
[Twenty-seven national branches of the worldwide Hero Association have gathered to issue a joint statement condemning the American Hero Association. The crux of the statement was: 'The United States, despite possessing an overwhelmingly dominant force of ability users on the planet, did not even consider helping its neighbor to the south, Brazil, leading to its eventual destruction. The United States must take responsibility for this.']
[The American Association has reacted fiercely to claims that its defensive policy and reluctance to send heroes abroad allowed Brazil to fall, calling the accusation “preposterous.”]
***
It was a chaotic era.
So much so that an event on the other side of the world had a massive impact on us, a small country in the East.
[The stock market is plummeting day after day. With the global community frozen, it is predicted to be a period of unprecedented hardship. Our government is doing its best, immediately cutting interest rates and negotiating currency swap agreements with various nations.]
[The Korean Hero Association has entered a round-the-clock emergency meeting. This meeting, attended by the Association President, three A-rank heroes, and even B-rank heroes, was convened in response to a recent surge in terrorist attacks driven by amplified public anxiety...]
[A movement to regulate ability users is gaining traction, particularly in South America. Unlike earlier proposals, it calls for investigating every citizen to identify ability users by force, with some extremists even proposing imprisonment for anyone who refuses.]
"Seriously, how does a whole country just... collapse into nothing like that?"
Choi Se-hee muttered in disbelief, watching the news.
These days, turning on the TV meant nothing but news, breaking news, and more of the same. Switching to the internet didn't help. Brazil, territorial recovery deemed impossible, and so on.
The reason for this massive uproar was simple: for the international community, this was the first time villains had ever completely overthrown a nation-state like this.
So no, it wasn't weird that the internet was going crazy.
Even our country, so far from Brazil, talked about nothing else all day—imagine how it was in the neighboring South American nations or the United States. It was absolute bedlam.
"Big bro, there's so much information I can't make sense of it. What exactly happened?"
Seo-eun, who had been staring at her laptop, asked me with a confused look.
"Mm, simply put, a handful of insanely strong villains crushed the government and heroes, torched the forest, and laid waste to the cities."
"How does that make any sense? Just a few villains did all that?"
"...Who knows."
I didn't know the details either, honestly.
In the Original Work, it was glossed over with a brief mention: while Stardus was lost in her wandering phase, this kind of thing happened in the world.
Anyway, what I knew for sure was that from this point on, not just South Korea, but the whole international community would slowly start going to shit.
The power balance was about to break down, and villain after villain with insanely overwhelming power would start to appear.
Still, although Brazil's territory had been devastated, many people survived. They'd eventually establish a new government and keep the country limping along somehow.
The important point was this.
From this incident onward, international-scale terrorist attacks would become more and more frequent.
Until then, a nation's heroes had only needed to deal with their own domestic villains. From then on, they'd also have to fend off invasions by villains from other countries. In a way, it could be called a downside of globalization.
"So international-scale attacks are probably going to keep increasing from now on."
And we would have to stop them.
I swallowed those last words.
I was still hesitant to say that much. I'd never openly laid out my plan to the others, and I didn't want to burden them with responsibility for no reason.
Honestly, it was a little ridiculous for a villain alliance to act this way. It could undermine discipline. Actually, discipline was already gone, but whatever.
Still, seeing everyone watching the TV with such worried eyes, I couldn't help but think that I had to stop some of this at my level.
...Honestly, I couldn't let things spiral into the angsty, grimdark mess of the Original Work. Even putting that aside, if things kept going this way, our country's destruction was practically guaranteed, just like Brazil.
Which meant that, in this coming age of countless international villain alliances vying for power, Ego Stream's role was going to get much, much bigger.
The world would plunge into chaos, and in the end, the only things that would matter were power and information.
International politics could shift dramatically based on how many powerful ability users a country had and the interests of the different villain alliances.
And about that... I seemed to remember a simultaneous global attack on every ocean by an underwater villain organization called Latis.
The reason they were called an underwater terrorist group, for the record, was no metaphor: their actual headquarters was built somewhere deep beneath the sea.
Haah. Guess I had better start preparing for that too.
And so, I began to mull it over.
How should I approach this...
And while I was lost in those thoughts.
Time, quite literally, flew by.
***
[A provisional government has been established in Brazil. With territorial recovery as its primary objective, the new government has declared its ambition to run the country from the ground up once more. People around the world are sending messages of support...]
"Phew... Finally, it seems the situation is settling down."
The Association President wiped the sweat from his brow and murmured.
The weeks-long Brazil upheaval.
The last villain behind Brazil's collapse had finally been eliminated at the hands of the Americans, and a new Brazilian government was in place.
The situation was finally entering a period of relative calm.
"That's a relief. Maybe I can finally get some sleep now. Hey, Icicle... what are you doing?"
"One moment. I have to scoop up as many more stocks as I can before the crash is over."
"...You really do live a busy life."
As the head of a mega-corporation, Lee Seol-ah had earned significant credit by acting as a bridge between various governments and businesses. And so, Shadow Walker simply decided to nod and accept whatever she did.
Ignoring Lee Seol-ah, whose eyes had clearly glazed over at the overseas corporate fire sale beside him, Shadow Walker turned to speak to Stardus.
"Stardus, why don't you go get some shut-eye too? You've barely slept lately."
"Huh? Oh... yeah, I'll."
Shin Ha-ru, who had been sitting there looking exhausted, gave a quiet nod.
The wave of fear that swept the nation after the Brazil incident had made public safety so precarious that Stardus and countless other heroes had been forced to work overnight shifts.
But now that the situation was officially calming down and prices and public order were returning to normal, it was only natural to begin standing down the emergency watch.
The Association President wept with joy at the return to normal. Lee Seol-ah grinned and muttered about buying everything. Shadow Walker had already closed his eyes and fallen peacefully asleep in his chair.
In the now-relaxed Association meeting room, only Stardus—Shin Ha-ru—still felt uneasy.
...Something feels like it's coming. Something even bigger.
...Something felt like it was coming. Something even bigger.