Rising Airplane
Rising Airplane
"Alright! Time's up for the second question. The hottest fruit in the world is... a thousand-degree peach! At one thousand degrees, of course it's the hottest! Hahahahaha!"
"Now, straight to the third question. What does a subject say when bidding farewell to the king?"
"The answer was Viking—bye, King! Hahahahaha!"
"Fourth question! What do you call a country with no beef?"
"The answer is a no-cow-ntry! No cow in the country! Hahahahaha!"
As the questions continued, the passengers' expressions grew steadily darker.
Even those who had answered well at first began getting one wrong here and there as the questions went on.
In this game, one wrong answer meant immediate elimination.
By the later rounds, only a few contestants remained.
Even that was more than expected.
Egostic had honestly expected no one to remain by around the eighth question.
Yet, surprisingly, three people were still in the running.
A little boy who must have read a lot of joke books, nailing every answer as it came.
A high school girl chewing bubble gum, looking completely unbothered.
A middle-aged man who looked as though he had inflicted plenty of dad jokes on his subordinates at company dinners back in the day.
Every eye in the cabin focused on the three people still holding their phones.
These three were their last hope, so everyone watched them with desperate intensity.
Desperate stares flew at them from every direction, suffocating beneath the tension.
The balding man glanced around and poured sweat.
The little boy, still too young to understand the situation, simply waited for the next question. He probably thought it was only a game. Beside him, only his mother watched with an anguished expression.
And then there was the high school girl in a red varsity jacket, chewing bubble gum.
Why she was flying alone in her school uniform at this hour was a mystery, but she rested her chin on one hand and watched the video with complete indifference.
At the same time, someone on the ground was looking up toward the sky where they flew.
[...Stardus. Have you arrived?]
"Yes. I've arrived, at least."
The Hero Association's Jeju branch.
Deep in the building's basement, Stardus answered the call.
"Urrp... ugh. Urrrrghhh."
"Kim Ja-hyun. Are you alright?"
"Does this look alright to you—urrgh."
The person retching beside her was Kim Ja-hyun, the hero known as Shadow Walker.
Along with Stardus, he was one of South Korea's three A-rank heroes and, under certain conditions, the strongest of the three.
Yes, the strongest only in "certain situations."
Shadow Walker—a hero whose strength existed only at night.
At night, he could melt into shadows and travel anywhere without strain.
He was entirely different from Egostic, who would probably die of a heart attack after traveling more than a hundred kilometers, or Teleporter, who had barely managed jumps of a hundred meters after taking a single bullet.
If his current location was dark enough, and his destination was equally dark,
Theoretically, he could even move to the other side of the earth. Though, since the other side would be daytime, that particular trick was off the table.
Most importantly, half his body effectively became shadow at night, making him invincible.
In other words, he could not be killed. Physical attacks and biochemical weapons alike were virtually useless against him.
He could also pull other people into his shadow and carry them anywhere.
He truly was the King of the Night. This was why criminals in South Korea avoided committing crimes after dark and villains never launched attacks at night.
People had nicknamed the technique "Shadow Kidnapping."
The moment a report came in, he traveled there and sent the criminal straight to prison.
Restrict the comparison to nighttime, and he ranked among the world's top heroes.
He was effectively the Korean hero who had come closest to S-rank.
But because of that weakness, he could rise no higher than A-rank.
He was simply far too weak during the day.
His teleportation. His immortality.
With any light at all, they were useless.
His body, so athletic at night, became strangely and drastically weaker during the day.
No, it went beyond weakness. Merely staying awake was difficult, so he spent every day asleep.
That didn't mean he was utterly useless during the day, of course.
As long as there was enough "darkness," he could use both shadow travel and his invulnerability to some extent even during the day—though the side effects were severe.
That was why the Hero Association had built basements beneath its three branches in Seoul, Busan, and Jeju.
They created artificially dark environments so he could use shadow travel to transport other heroes.
For that reason, Shadow Walker Kim Ja-hyun had been awakened not in the dead of night, but in the dead of noon, and carried Stardus through the shadows from Seoul to Jeju.
He seemed very, very unhappy about it.
"Urrgh... haa... Did we really have to do this? I feel like I'm dying..."
"Yes, it was necessary. Still, I'm sorry. Get some rest."
"Haa... I'm dying here..."
Stardus ran off somewhere the moment she arrived.
Left alone, Shadow Walker caught his breath while waiting for staff to come down and help him.
"Haa... Please, you villain bastards. Please commit crimes at night for once..."
His monologue merely settled into the darkness deep within the basement.
Villains these days seemed determined to operate only during daylight.
***
[The answer to the ninth question was Deoksugung Palace!]
"Ah, shit."
[Oh! Did someone just make a sound? Now, now. I'll just cut one wire~ Oh my! Now there are only two left!]
The high school girl's reflexive curse at the answer caused one of the bomb's wires to be cut. One of the three was gone, leaving two.
Every passenger nearby glared at her, but she ignored them and muttered quietly.
'...I shouldn't have trusted that brat.'
Fortunately, she had muttered almost entirely under her breath, so neither the other passengers nor even Egostic noticed.
Of course, nothing about the passengers' situation was fortunate. Both the girl and the little boy had now answered incorrectly.
The boy's mother quietly hugged him as he looked ready to cry with disappointment.
That left only one person.
A single balding middle-aged man seated in the center, sweating like a waterfall.
Egostic's jovial laughter crackled through the speakers.
[Oh dear! Only one person remains. Is this the famous last man standing? Let's see... Mr. Kim Deok-bae! Yes, Mr. Kim Deok-bae is now the only person who has answered all nine questions correctly.]
The man jumped at the sound of his name.
[That makes you the only person who can attempt the tenth question! Imagine knowing that the lives of all eighty people aboard this plane rest on Mr. Kim Deok-bae's fingertip. What a weight on your shoulders. Mr. Kim Deok-bae, how do you feel? Give us a word.]
Telling a man who was already dying of nerves to speak made the unfortunate middle-aged Kim Deok-bae look ready to faint.
His face blazing red beneath everyone's stare, Kim Deok-bae opened his mouth and stammered.
"Ah, er. I-I feel a t-tremendous weight of responsibility—"
[What's this! Didn't I clearly say that if anyone made a sound, I would cut another wire? Why did you open your mouth? I'll cut one more.]
Then, with a soft snip, another wire attached somewhere on the plane was severed.
The passengers watched it happen live on the screens in front of them.
"!!!...!"
For a moment, they were too stunned to react. Then fury surged through them.
But with only one wire truly remaining, they could not even open their mouths. Their expressions were the only way to show their rage.
[Holy crap, he's actually a demon]
[Isn't this like yelling "Freeze! Hands up!" and then shooting someone because they moved their hands? lol]
[This is... Egostic? Where did the Mangostic I knew go?]
[???: Feeling awake now?]
Even the chat, normally favorable toward Egostic, recoiled at his viciousness.
Egostic alone raised his voice as though his logic were self-evident.
[Why say a word with your voice? Use body language. Sign language, for example. Honestly, no sense at all.]
At Egostic's incredulous tone, the passengers boiled with rage, then abruptly calmed.
They had all realized something while seething.
The single remaining wire no longer mattered.
If the last question was answered incorrectly, the bomb would explode anyway.
A suffocating chill filled the cabin.
Only the voice from the speakers remained bright as it delivered the final question.
[Now! At last, the tenth and final question! Get this right and everyone can leave the plane safely. Get it wrong and... you know. Here it is. What oil do children love the most? Start the countdown!]
[3:00]
[2:59]
[2:58]
...
The final question had been posed.
Every eye focused on the sweating middle-aged man.
Those who had no idea what the answer might be,
those who had a rough idea,
and those who were completely certain all remained silent.
They could only stare at the middle-aged man, desperate—more desperate than ever before.
"...."
The red-faced man agonized over the question for a long time.
[0:03]
[0:02]
[0:01]
At the final instant, he entered an answer.
[Three, two, one. Time's up! Now, let's check the answer. Let's see... You wrote IU. Alright, let's look. Yes! The correct answer is...]
Breathless tension filled the air.
The passengers aboard the plane.
The people watching the broadcast from the ground.
Everyone swallowed and waited until the answer was announced.
[The oil children love the most is... May Oil—the fifth of May! IU was not the answer!!! Too bad. Well then, tsk.]
Egostic thought for a moment, then continued.
[Well then, goodbye!]
Boom.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Along with the sound of something exploding,
the plane began to fall.