Aftermath of the Eve Heist
A showcase of the government's power and technology. A promotional blitz for the next generation of artificial heroes. A brazen display of force and intimidation aimed squarely at the villains.
The public unveiling of the Hero Technology Innovation Center was supposed to be the stage that proved just how thoroughly the government outclassed the Villain Alliance. The fallout from that ceremony was catastrophic.
The unexpected reveal of a prototype artificial hero!
The successive raids by S-class, A-class, and B-class villains!
The battle involving Dimension Walker, one of the government's top-tier S-class heroes from the Hero Union!
And the ending...
Front pages of every newspaper, the nine o'clock news, and every major internet portal were plastered with scathing criticism of the ceremony that had ended in catastrophe. The coverage was wall-to-wall.
The one who took the heaviest hit from this entire affair was, without question, the government.
They had confidently staged a public unveiling, stationed Dimension Walker — one of the Hero Union's absolute top assets — for security, and still failed to stop the prototype Eve from being stolen right out from under them. The backlash was only natural.
Ordinarily, when critical public opinion started to build like this, the government's method was to bury the articles or flood the feeds with meaningless, irrelevant fluff until the noise died down. But this time the entire event had been broadcast live across every network, and the number of people who had been there in person was enormous. There was simply no way to cover it up.
In the end, roughly half a day after the flood of condemnatory articles began, the government seeded the entertainment dailies with a story about a secret romance between a member of a famous girl idol group and a member of a famous boy idol group. Public attention swung in that direction almost instantly, and every critical article about the government was replaced by idol dating-scandal coverage.
On top of that, they mobilized every disposable SNS account they had to aggressively spread unverified but highly sensational rumors, successfully redirecting the public's focus and putting out the immediate fire.
But that only diverted the public's eyes. It did not make what had been done to the government simply go away.
In the days following the ceremony, the government and the Union held marathon meetings without a single day of rest. Voices were raised; the atmosphere grew more heated than it had ever been.
"Disciplining Valkyrie? What on earth are you talking about, Councilor!"
Kim Seyeol, Chairman of the Korean Hero Union, slammed his fist down on the table and shouted. In a meeting attended only by a handful of S-class heroes including himself, this was the first time he had ever raised his voice.
"Valkyrie neglected her protection of government personnel on-site and forgot the priority of her escort duties. If we do not discipline her for that, other rookie heroes will start treating the government with contempt, and that will ultimately become a serious matter that undermines the government's authority."
"That young woman took flying debris with her own body until she was in that condition! And it wasn't ordinary debris — it was the aftermath of the fight between Dimension Walker and the prototype Eve! Even A-class heroes would have struggled to endure that situation, and yet Valkyrie put civilian safety above her own body. Disciplining her for that? What kind of logic is this?!"
"Exactly that."
The government councilors clicked their tongues.
"Protecting the councilors should have been the absolute top priority. When did anyone ever tell her to prioritize civilian protection? Be grateful the personnel who went to the site came away relatively unharmed — she's getting off with a demotion. If any of the councilors on-site had been injured or, God forbid, killed, Valkyrie would have been looking at a correctional facility sentence or the death penalty."
"So you're saying you refuse to acknowledge the achievement of preventing civilian deaths at all, and you're going to demote her over nothing but nitpicking?!"
"It seems the Chairman is dissatisfied with the government's decision."
"She protected the lives of all those countless civilians and, in the end, protected you councilors as well — and you're going to demote her for it? Of course I'm dissatisfied."
"The fault of neglecting a single government figure far outweighs the merit of protecting a hundred worthless civilians."
"......"
Chairman Kim Seyeol drew several deep breaths, as if forcing his anger down, then made his decision and spoke.
"...The Union side cannot accept that demand."
"You cannot accept it?"
"If you insist on issuing disciplinary action against Valkyrie, then I will step down from the Chairman's seat immediately."
"......"
"You went to considerable trouble redirecting public attention onto an idol dating scandal. If I resign here, the whole affair will reignite. If you are determined to force a disciplinary measure on Valkyrie no matter what, then the government side will have to accept that risk as well."
"In that case, I will also withdraw from the Hero Union."
Nightingale threw her weight behind Chairman Kim Seyeol's position.
"Our junior demonstrated what a hero ought to be and showed a spirit of self-sacrifice without sparing her own body — and instead of rewarding her for it, you want to demote her? When the councilors themselves weren't even injured? Did you not see how many civilians were hurt? Without Valkyrie, the number of injured would have been far higher, and several people might even have died. If Valkyrie had truly paid no attention to the councilors at all, you would have been injured yourselves."
"If anything, the one who should have been paying more attention was Dimension Walker, who was officially deployed for the operation at the government's request, was he not? According to the operator in charge, he cut his communications, dozed off, and was so focused on the fight that he provided zero protection for the councilors."
Perhaps because Dimension Walker was absent from the meeting, Nightingale spoke more forcefully than usual.
"And if you still refuse to withdraw the disciplinary action against Valkyrie, then when the Chairman steps down, I will leave the Hero Union with him and operate as an independent. If both the Chairman and I leave the Union, you councilors will find yourselves in a rather awkward position. Liberator will almost certainly make contact. Are you all right with that?"
Faced with the open defiance of Chairman Kim Seyeol and Nightingale, the government councilors clicked their tongues and lowered their voices.
"You know what happens if you talk about joining Liberator, Nightingale."
"It is something that will not happen if you councilors withdraw the disciplinary action against Valkyrie."
"Honestly... I never expected defiance of this magnitude. Over some B-class kid... Fine. You win. We will back down on the Valkyrie disciplinary matter alone. The discipline is rescinded."
Only then did the expressions of Chairman Kim Seyeol and Nightingale ease a little.
Having withdrawn the Valkyrie disciplinary proposal, the councilors brought up the next topic.
"Since we have made a concession on the Valkyrie matter, the Union side will need to show some sincerity of its own. We have one more demand. From this moment forward, the government will elevate its response measures against Kid G to the highest level and issue an extermination order on him. The Union will actively cooperate and do everything in its power to eliminate Kid G."
"......An extermination order?"
Chairman Kim Seyeol repeated the words.
This time the government councilors showed no intention of yielding, continuing in a thoroughly hardline tone.
"That is correct. An extermination order. At first we thought he was just a skilled petty thief, but after this incident, our side has completely changed its assessment of him. On paper he is classified as B-class, but he is no ordinary opponent. He successfully stole his target and escaped from an event venue that Dimension Walker himself was guarding with both eyes wide open."
"And that target was none other than the prototype JD Eve. You all understand what it means that he managed to wake Eve."
"...Are you suggesting Kid G is a former government agent?"
"We cannot rule out that possibility. If one of our own former personnel has turned and pointed a blade at us, that is a serious problem. And if he is not even a former government agent, that is an even more serious problem. The fact that he knows Eve's control codes means his threat level is in no way inferior to any other S-class villain."
Another councilor piled on.
"Top-secret classified information has leaked to a villain. This would not be an unreasonable situation in which to declare a national state of emergency."
"If that happens, the resulting social chaos will be impossible to contain."
"Which is why we are issuing an extermination order. Eliminate Kid G no matter what it takes. Under no circumstances is he to be left alive. Once you have killed him, bring back the proof. Not some nonsense like 'an attack of that magnitude means he couldn't possibly have survived' — you will secure his corpse with absolute certainty."
"We cannot commit the Union's full strength. There have been reports of an attack near Sejong City that appears to be the work of Oblivion, so it is impossible for us to ignore that front."
"Deploy the highest level of force available within what is feasible."
"Understood."
"Regarding the prototype JD Eve that Kid G stole, we will transmit our research records and data to your side for reference. In all likelihood he is using her as a subordinate, so if you find her, eliminate her on the spot as well."
"Half-measures will not be tolerated. Now that he has secured Eve, it would not be strange for him to crawl into any one of the three: KU Bio, Yuseong Pharmaceuticals, or Korea Union Severance Hospital. Our side will dispatch special agents to permanently reinforce security at those locations, so the Union will also send heroes to bolster security at all three. If even one of them is breached, I trust I do not need to explain what happens next."
"...Understood."
Meanwhile, Dimension Walker — who had skipped the Hero Union's highest-level meeting — was drowning his foul mood in alcohol and drugs at his usual villa, seething with rage.
Crash—!
Even that proved useless.
No matter how much he drank, how many drugs he injected, or how many women he summoned, Dimension Walker's filthy temper showed no sign of improving.
It was a first. He had never let anyone slip through his fingers before.
Even granting that he had been thoroughly wasted on alcohol and drugs the night before and was nowhere near a hundred percent, he had not been so far gone that he would lose to some ridiculous B-class villain.
In fact, the S-class villain Black Rose and the seven A-class villains under her command had been utterly demolished by an enraged Dimension Walker afterward without even managing to put up a fight, left half-crippled and all thrown into custody.
The fact that someone with that level of destructive combat power had lost a mere B-class villain was something he simply could not accept.
"Kid G... You dare humiliate me like this. It's been a long time since I've felt this way. Truly unpleasant... so fucking infuriating I can barely stand it."
It wasn't simply that he had let the target escape. He had been completely taken in by a decoy and, with his eyes wide open, had let the real body he had already captured so easily slip away. That rage only kept multiplying.
When he received the meeting results on his phone from headquarters after the session ended, he ground his teeth and hurled the device onto the bed.
"An extermination order? Those government fossils — at least they're decisive about something. If they'd ordered a capture, I would have been genuinely disappointed. Next time we meet, I'll kill you properly, so look forward to it. Consider it an honor that a B-class villain is getting this much of my attention, Kid G."
Around the same time, elsewhere...
"Ugghhh... Eve, grab me the medicine from the shelf..."
"Confirmation complete. The distance from the bed on which Master is lying to the shelf where the medication is stored is approximately 3.71 meters. I request a rational explanation as to why Master will not move personally across a distance that would require less than ten seconds round-trip, and instead requires me to perform the task in his place."
"Can't you see I'm injured?!"
"I have confirmed that Master is putting on an exaggerated performance over a single knife wound, making a grand show of it in order to work me like a servant. For a master who is weak, incompetent, lazy, and utterly useless in every respect, I shall make a special exception this once and bring the medicine. Be grateful at all times."
Kid G was dealing with an unexpected and thoroughly bizarre problem.