A Midday Performance
A Midday Performance
Three boats bobbed lazily on the Han River.
Inside them, people were locked in a ferocious debate.
"What are you doing? Press the button, right now!"
"Move it! If you can't press it, I'll!"
"Are you all insane? You don't even know whether the other boats pressed theirs. Why are you acting like this?"
"Exactly! What if they already pressed it? Do you want us all to die? If everyone presses it, everyone lives!"
Three boats.
Three bombs.
Three buttons.
Any boat that presses its button is guaranteed to survive.
But the moment a boat chose not to press it, it could be destroyed.
If you really think about it, no one should push the button.
If nobody pressed it, everyone lived, right? In fact, if I'd never announced the button's existence at all, no one would even have known it was there. Everyone would have sailed on peacefully. Pressing the button was ultimately pointless—all they had to do was pretend it didn't exist and leave it alone.
But here we run into a fundamental human problem.
'Suspicion.'
The suspicion: What if I don't press it, but the others do?
"If even one of those other two boats presses it, we all die!"
Exactly.
The man on the broadcast had given voice to everyone's fears.
The rule I'd set was simple.
In thirty minutes, if even one boat presses its button, all other boats explode.
But any boat that does press its button is guaranteed to survive, even if another boat also pressed it.
That phrasing was more than enough to plant a what-if. What if there's a lunatic on another boat who already pressed the button? Wouldn't we all just die like dogs? Shouldn't we press ours too?
That alone might have been enough to make them press it, but I drove them even harder by adding one more condition.
Paradoxically, if all three boats press the button—each one choosing to blow up the others—then everyone lives.
"The other boats are probably thinking the same way and will press theirs too! If we just press ours, everyone lives. What's the problem?"
Exactly.
Lessening their guilt.
Instead of thinking, "If I press this button, everyone else dies and only I live," I made them think, "If I press it, the others might live too." It made pressing the button feel justified.
No, more than that: pressing it guarantees you survive, and if the others pressed it, they survive too—so wouldn't you be an idiot not to press it? I nudged them straight toward that logic.
And judging by the hidden cameras I'd planted on the three boats, my read was right. Quite a few hardliners were already voicing that exact argument.
But that argument still had one glaring problem.
"What if someone on another boat doesn't press it? Then we'd be the ones killing them!"
A woman's scream finally erupted from one boat.
That was the truth the people arguing to press it had overlooked—or deliberately ignored.
If anyone trusted the others and chose not to press it, the people who did press theirs would effectively be killing them.
Everyone could have survived if they had simply trusted one another and left the buttons alone, but pressing them would drive those people to their deaths.
And once that opinion gained a fair share of support...
The interiors of the three boats were rapidly descending into utter chaos.
Good. This was exactly the scene I'd wanted to stage.
Trust the others, or betray them. Was pressing the button right or wrong? People were arguing fiercely over that choice.
A scene inspired by a similar either-or dilemma aboard boats in a movie I'd once seen.
Granted, unlike that scene, this wasn't nighttime but broad daylight on the Han River... but I was still pretty damn pleased.
Setting it up had been a real pain. Unlike in that movie, this world was full of smartphones, so I had to jam every nearby signal to keep them from hearing what was happening on the other boats. Planting something that looked like a bomb while avoiding the police's watchful eyes had been a chore too. Still, the final product looked good, so maybe it counted as a win.
This attack was something I'd designed to keep casualties to an absolute minimum.
Of course, I had no intention of actually killing anyone. Until recently, I'd been an ordinary civilian myself. I was doing it because I had a plan.
Thinking that, I turned my attention back to the situation inside the cabins.
Boat 1, where a consensus not to press the button had formed from the start, seemed to have settled on that choice despite some argument.
Boat 2, where the pro-button and anti-button factions were fiercely split, was still going at it like mad.
And Boat 3, which had so far appeared to be taking the most "rational" approach, was...
"Okay. Everyone close your eyes. Raise your hand if you think we should press the button."
...holding a vote.
What was this? It was almost dizzying. At least they were quiet and relatively sane, but still.
I'd been watching all this on the image projected across the rooftop wall. I glanced at Stardus, who stood a short distance to my side.
"..."
Her face remained tense, and she bit her lip as she watched the footage.
I'd already warned her: the moment she touched me, I'd order my subordinate to detonate every bomb on every boat. Because of the hostages, she couldn't lay a finger on me. Until she came up with a better idea, all she could do was stand there watching the broadcast and seething.
She was probably thinking that if a boat pressed the button, at most one or two boats would explode, and she could try to rescue the people aboard them afterward. The Association likely had the same plan.
...Obviously the best outcome would be all three boats not pressing the button, or all three pressing it so everyone lives, but from the looks of things right now, that wasn't in the cards.
With that in mind, I studied Stardus's profile.
"..."
Wow.
Still, getting to see her up close for so long made one thing impossible not to notice: she really was stunning.
She was the hero Stardus, protagonist of the manhwa Stardust! Her real name was Shin Ha-ru.
Stardust! was one of the few Korean superhero comics drawn by a Korean artist. As its protagonist, she had been portrayed as quite beautiful even in the comic.
...In reality, she was even more so.
Gleaming blonde hair that seemed to hold starlight.
A red latex suit clinging to her entire body.
And a face so beautiful it was almost absurd.
Maybe my bias was showing because I was seeing my favorite character in the flesh, but even accounting for that, she was ridiculously beautiful. Seeing my favorite in real life... I could die happy.
Of course, now was not the time for dying.
Maybe because I'd been so blatantly staring, she flicked a glance my way and scowled.
"...Do you honestly think you'll walk away unscathed after pulling something like this?"
Even her voice was beautiful.
...Right. Not the time for this. Stick to the plan. The plan.
I cleared my throat, then spoke to her with studied cheerfulness.
"What a hurtful thing to say. Honestly, did I board those boats and force people to press the buttons and kill one another? Whatever happens is their choice. I merely gave them a little push."
Before Stardus could curse at me again, I quickly continued.
Less than ten minutes remained on the timer. Time to move to the next phase.
Thinking that, I continued.
"The truth is, Stardus, as I said before, I personally respect you. An unyielding sense of justice, even in this cruel world. That interview where you said everyone has the courage to sacrifice themselves... Now that was a legendary quote."
"And your point is...?"
"And so! I would like to give you an opportunity."
I snapped my fingers.
At the same moment, the lights I'd set up around us earlier flared on with a flash.
As the beams converged on Stardus where she stood, making her wince at the sudden brightness...
I threw my arms wide and shouted.
"Can someone as righteous as you make those selfish people act just as righteously? Can you persuade everyone to choose not to press the button? I am giving you that chance."
"And if you try anything unheroic, like telling everyone to press their buttons, I'll detonate them immediately."
The moment I finished speaking, the camera beside us whirred back to life.
"There are less than ten minutes left! With ten minutes remaining, our hero Stardus has something to say."
"Will her speech be able to sway them?"
"This video is now being broadcast live to the passengers on the boats! Passengers, please pay close attention!"
Every camera around me swung toward Stardus.
She seemed flustered by the sudden turn of events.
Of course she was. Anyone would be flustered if a camera were suddenly shoved in their face and they were told to give a speech.
But.
"...Ahem."
That was a professional hero for you, I supposed. She quickly assessed what was happening and looked straight into the camera.
After a moment's thought, she began to speak clearly.
"Hello, everyone. I am A-rank hero Stardus."
Yes.
That was the "opportunity" I'd given her.
With one boat refusing to press the button and the other two trying to hold back, could her speech show them a path where everyone survived? Could she persuade them? Could you?
And as if to answer my question...
She began to speak, calm and steady.
"They say every person carries a single belief within their heart."
And so...
In broad daylight, a hero's impromptu speech began to ring across South Korea—to the passengers aboard the boats and to everyone across the country watching the broadcast.
***
"...So everyone, please take your hands off the buttons. Believe in me. Believe in the people beside you. Believe in all of us who share this life together. Please. So that you can stand proudly before your friends and family. So that, when you look back on today, you can be proud of the choice you made. Let's show this villain. Show him that we're strong. Show him that something like this can never shake our faith in one another."
"...Thank you."
How much time had passed?
At last, with the countdown nearly gone, Stardus finished her speech. She'd spoken plainly to the camera, earnestly, appealing to everyone.
For a moment, the passengers on the broadcast seemed to stare blankly at the screen.
[...Fine. Let's trust each other.]
[She's right! If we all just don't press this stupid button from the start, the whole problem goes away, doesn't it?]
[Hear, hear!]
[Hmm... reasoning it out rationally, if this video was transmitted to everyone simultaneously, then unless it's a trap, there's no need to press it.]
At last, after quite a long debate among themselves...
When time ran out, no one—not a single person—had pressed the button.
The passengers on Boat 2, who had been the most aggressive, even made a show of throwing their detonator overboard.
Then a voice echoed through the cabins, announcing that time was up.
The passengers had been bracing themselves for the worst, but when a mechanical voice announced that no one had pressed a button, they erupted in cheers, hugging one another and dancing for joy.
"...Phew."
Beside me, Stardus also let out a breath of relief that everyone was alive.
This is definitely going up on YouTube tomorrow. Something like: [Japan Amazed, Europe Horrified, America Jealous of K-Hero! Passengers Brought to Tears and Unity by Her Words?]
Anyway, as all this unfolded...
Standing beside Stardus and watching it all, I...
"Wh-what? Ha ha... This can't be happening! Humans—those selfish humans—changed completely because of a few words?"
I staggered around clutching my head, looking utterly shocked.
I carefully adjusted my angle to make absolutely sure the cameras got a good look at me, putting my all into it.
"This is impossible..."
I muttered loudly, my face rigid with disbelief.
Inside, I was laughing quietly, brimming with delight.
'...Exactly as planned.'
Exactly as planned—it had all played out perfectly.
Even better than I'd imagined.