FBI, OPEN UP!
FBI, OPEN UP!
Late at night, in Busan's finest hotel.
Screams rang out from every corner.
"Ugh... what the hell? Who are you people?!"
"Shut up and come out if you don't wanna die!! Move it, move it!!!"
Masked intruders who had slipped in under cover of darkness.
They took the elevators to every floor, smashing down the doors of sleeping guests and seizing them as hostages.
People jolted awake, startled to find guns pointed at their faces.
The intruders forced them all to their feet, herding them down to the ground floor.
"This the last floor?"
"Yeah, let's wrap it up fast. Or the boss'll be furious."
The hallways were already utter chaos.
Cutting through the pandemonium—armed thugs shouting orders and hostages screaming as they were dragged away—two terrorists headed off to do their job.
Their job was to take hostages from the remaining rooms.
As one terrorist moved to kick down a door, the other grabbed his arm and stopped him.
"Hold up, there's something I've always wanted to try. Every time we smash a door, I've been dying to yell this."
"What is it?"
"Listen up..."
Hearing him out, the other terrorist laughed in disbelief, but still said:
"That is ridiculous... but fine. I suppose it is a man's dream in its own way. I'll join you."
"Thanks. Alright, on three. One, two... three!"
And with that, they kicked the door open together and shouted in unison.
"FBI, OPEN UP!!!"
Storming into the room through the shattered door, they found a groggy man lying in bed who, with a lazy flick of his hand, sent their own guns flying up—the butts smashing into their heads and knocking them out.
It was an anticlimactic defeat.
***
"Who the hell are these bastards...?"
Roused from sleep, I muttered, rubbing my bleary eyes.
I mean, suddenly there was noise everywhere, and when I opened my eyes, two masked guys were pointing guns at me.
Startled, I used my telekinesis to swat them both in the head with their own guns.
Caught completely off guard, they lay sprawled beneath the bed. Who were these guys?
"Mmmnn... what's going on?"
Beside me, Soo-bin and Seo-eun finally woke up. Seriously, what were we doing while all this was unfolding...
Judging from the sounds around us after I woke up, the place was nothing short of hell. Screams, crying, shouting, things shattering and breaking, gunshots, the works...
I had no choice but to say it.
"It looks like... there's a terrorist attack underway."
I mean, really.
I was genuinely not the kind of man who swore very often.
But wasn't this fuuuuucking too much?
What had I ever done wrong to deserve this...?
I had taken exactly two trips, and both times some disaster had suddenly broken out.
There are so many hotels in Busan!
Why did it have to be the hotel where I was staying?
No matter how I thought about it, the universe had it out for me.
I felt wronged. Sure, I wasn't exactly a saint, but I was proud to say I'd lived diligently.
Why would Heaven create me, Dain, only to create vicious villains like them?
Oh Lord, please let me be a righteous villain again today...
"Yaaawn... Big bro, what on earth is happening?"
Seo-eun, only just awake, glanced around with tired eyes. As if wondering what fresh nonsense had brewed while she slept, she merely looked annoyed. She didn't even seem frightened anymore. Had she already gotten used to terrorist attacks?
"Hang on. I'll go check the parking garage."
With that, I swiftly teleported down to my car in the garage.
"Move it, move it!!"
"Haul the supplies! Grab the weapons!"
The underground parking lot was already a total shitshow.
There were dozens of military trucks packed with masked people.
Rookie, stop. This place is hell.
If it looked safe, I had planned to bring Seo-eun and Soo-bin down here, but that looked impossible. Veeeeery impossible.
Rustle, rustle.
First, I grabbed what I needed from the basket I'd brought.
A yellow mask that covers the whole face, check.
A wireless earpiece and connector. I had to bring them so I could stay in touch with Seo-eun if we were separated. Check.
The guns... A machine gun would be overkill for my plan, so I took only the smaller pistols. For now.
Having quickly gathered the essentials, I glanced outside the hotel, then teleported right back to the room.
I moved fast and returned in less than a minute. I handed the items to a worried-looking Seo-eun and Soo-bin, who was quietly assessing the situation.
"Here, take these pistols... Soo-bin already knows how to use one, and Seo-eun, I taught you last time, right?"
Outside, the chaos and shouting still raged.
We could be discovered if we stayed long, so I kept it brief.
"Looking outside, it's bad—armed trucks cruising the streets, helicopters in the air. So for now, your best bet is to stick right by me. Let's head downstairs and blend in with the hostages."
They both nodded in agreement.
I did not know who they were, but who dared wake me up?
This is unforgivable.
The bastard behind this would be on the first floor.
Hah, I just wanted to live a normal life.
I gripped the pistol in my hand.
Ah, this cold, weighty sensation.
It had been two months.
It was time to return as the 'villain' Egostic.
"Big bro... why are you striking a pose at a time like this?"
At Seo-eun's incredulous stare, I got awkwardly self-conscious and shoved the gun deep into my pocket.
Fortunately, I'd gone to bed in a plain black tracksuit, so fitting the gun into a pocket wasn't a problem. Imagine if I'd been wearing sky-blue fleece pajamas covered in clouds. How embarrassing would that have been?
Pistols ready, earpiece in, mask shoved deep into my pants pocket... Good. I was fully prepared.
"Okay, let's get going."
When I looked back at them, the two nodded and followed behind me.
Stepping into the hallway, it was total chaos.
There was broken porcelain everywhere, the sprinklers were going off, and the place was a complete mess.
"What are you doing? Why aren't you moving faster?!"
A thug growled, shoving his gun in our faces.
"Alright, alright. Yes, yes. We're going, we're going."
I pretended to smile obsequiously and slipped past him.
"If you don't move faster... Urgh!"
I manipulated the loudmouth's gun with telekinesis and slammed its stock into his nose.
The thug collapsed with a cry of pain.
You talked way too much.
Thankfully, the place was such a wreck that nobody noticed.
The hostages who'd been dragged out all looked shell-shocked.
Of course they would. Who'd expect to be yanked from their hotel bed in the middle of the night and marched outside in their underwear.
Men, women, families, a balding middle-aged man—all kinds of people were being dragged along.
This was the very definition of a bolt from the blue.
Mingling with the other hostages, I shuffled and shambled my way down the corridor until we arrived at the elevators.
"Alright, get down the stairs! Fast, fast!"
These jerks were cramming people into the narrow stairwell.
...We were on the twenty-seventh floor, and they wanted us to take the stairs?
Seriously?
I ground my teeth at the cruelty of these heartless bastards.
It was not enough to wake people who had been sleeping peacefully; now they wanted to make us practically go mountaineering?
You're all dead.
There was no way I was walking all the way down.
I whispered to the two beside me.
"Hold on tight."
And then, as casually as could be, I teleported us smoothly.
It would be a little... no, very exhausting, but there was no choice.
We'd be there forever climbing down step by step.
Probably no one saw us vanish with a pop.
And if they did? Eh, they'd just think they were seeing things.
***
The hotel's ground-floor lobby.
Just a few hours ago, soft classical music had filled this place while people conversed elegantly. Now it had suddenly taken on the atmosphere of Jagalchi Market.
In this almost cathedral-like expanse, people were packed together like sardines, with no breathing room. Masked thugs armed with guns patrolled the gaps between them—a truly brutal scene.
Late at night. The hotel, which should have been the pleasant conclusion to a peaceful day, had transformed into a chaotic, horrendous finale.
Near the main entrance stood a tower of chairs, mindlessly piled from seats scattered around the lobby.
With that barricade blocking entry through the main doors, a single ornate chair stood upright amid the heap.
A man sat in that chair at the center of the tower, legs crossed.
He was Monkey Spanner, an A-rank villain.
He sat with a cigar clenched between his teeth, stroking the mustache curled out to either side as though he were the Pirate King.
"...Are all the hostages gathered?"
When he asked the lieutenant below the chair pile, chewing on his cigar, the lieutenant answered in a sharply disciplined voice.
"Yes, sir! Everyone from all thirty floors has been secured down here!"
"...Right, got it."
Having sat there fiddling with his whiskers for a good while, the man soon rose to his feet.
His enormous muscles rippled as he rose.
As he started to get up, a masked cameraman frantically began setting up the filming equipment.
The lobby was enormous and packed with people.
Yet not a single breath could be heard; the only sound was that man rising to his feet.
Once his massive bulk was fully upright, he roared forward, right at the camera.
"A message to the Hero Association and the government."
After speaking in a heavy voice, he drew in a sharp breath and bellowed.
"We're holding thousands of hostages here!!! If you don't immediately deposit cash into the account we name!!! We'll slaughter them all!!! The account number is one! zero! zero! two!—"
As he shouted at the top of his lungs,
the sound of applause suddenly began to rise from among the breathless hostages.
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
In a space silent except for his shouting,
the sudden applause sounded utterly out of place.
Even Monkey Spanner, who was broadcasting live, faltered mid-sentence.
In the space that had suddenly fallen silent, the applause continued as the only sound.
As the nearby civilians turned in shock and terror, searching for the madman who was applauding,
I quietly rose from my seat beneath their stares.
I kept clapping as I did.
If you were going to draw attention, you had to go this far.