Join the Glorious Evolution

Super-science Dungeon, Sublevel B5. Mesarth Headquarters.

Seated in the central control room — every wall paneled floor to ceiling with monitors — I burst out laughing.

"Kishishishishishit!!"

Don't get the wrong idea.

I was absolutely not laughing because I was happy.

Fuck!

I had put up signs. Clear ones. The main entrance was the left-hand corridor!

So why the hell was everyone going everywhere except left?!

"Baekho! That path leads to the waste incinerator! Don't tell me you're volunteering to be incinerated?! Kihihihihihihihit!"

I clutched my forehead and let out a laugh steeped in madness.

I'm losing my mind!

Had they seriously not seen the signs? If I'd known it would come to this, I would have made the directions bigger. Flashier. Impossible to miss!

Beside me, Hongryeon had been watching the same monitors. She opened her mouth.

"The heroes appear quite bewildered by your magnificent design, Lord Mesarth. This maiden is truly struck with admiration."

Don't praise me!

I designed it to be simple! So simple an elementary schooler could follow it!

Center path: waste incinerator. Right path: junk storage. Left path: the main gate of the Super-science Dungeon!

Can't you people read?!

Aigoo!!

I had already taken measures on the right-hand path, deploying machines to block any advance. And they were still shoving their way forward, inch by stubborn inch.

At this point, shouldn't a normal person find the whole thing suspicious and turn around?

"Honestly! It is a tragedy that among all these heroes, not a single one is as normal as Me! Kishishit!"

Hongryeon stared at me, unblinking.

Why are you looking at me like that? I'm genuinely the most normal person in this room.

Hah... what a life. The freaks are trying to take down the one sane man.

Even so, I kept my eyes glued to the monitors. As if I was going to fall apart here!

"Hmmm..."

An oily pretty boy of aristocratic bearing slid into frame. I had seen that face somewhere before. A man resting his hand on Baekho's shoulder.

"Aha!"

I remembered. He was the villain who had mouthed off to Ultimate and gotten his cheekbone shattered for the trouble. He had been retired so early in the story that the details had gone fuzzy.

He had probably only survived this long because Ultimate was dead.

Hongryeon leaned in and whispered.

"Is something the matter, my lord?"

I settled back against the chair and steepled my fingers.

"No, no! As if Super! Genius Mesarth would ever have something so pedestrian as a Problem! Kishishit!"

I tipped my head, just slightly, and went on.

"I was merely pondering how best to dispose of an answer that has fallen outside my calculations."

Ultimate — this world's protagonist — is absent, and the flow of the story is drifting off course in subtle, ugly ways. At this rate, I can't predict what kind of butterfly effect is coming.

"This maiden's counsel is of little worth, yet it seems only proper that what is wrong should be set right."

I wagged my head from side to side in time with a little tune.

"Horolorororo!"

Mm... she's right, isn't she?

Baekho is the one filling Ultimate's vacancy. And if this man is going to become an obstacle in her path...

"Excellent advice, Hongryeon! Then I shall handle it at once!"

I flicked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my fingers.

Snap!

In that same instant, a drone concealed inside a junked car fired its coilgun without a sound. The pretty boy's right knee detonated.

Crunch!

"GAAAAAAAAAH! My leg! My leeeeg!!"

Good. Now I just need to seal off the center path as well and send Baekho back the way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she came.

But contrary to every expectation I had, Baekho's resistance was ferocious.

You've got to be kidding me...

She smashed every last coilgun-armed drone to scrap. And more than anything, that pretty boy's Gift — the one that had transformed the entire landscape into a jungle — was a genuine nuisance.

Ugh... even so, if I finish him off right in front of Baekho, she's going to hate me for it.

...Ah!

I just have to make it obvious I have no intention of killing anyone!

"Alpha! Capture those succulent test subjects! Alive, you understand me! Alive!! We must not waste resources!!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The heroes convulsed as a violent current ripped through them.

See? I have absolutely no hostile intent. Even the police fire tasers. How humanitarian can you get?

His name was... Floral Adonis, I think?

Anyway. I'll ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠transfer just that one to the biological experiment zone and dump the rest back at the three-way fork. After a beating like that, they'll take the proper route this time.

But before I could even lift a finger, Baekho vanished from the monitor.

"Hm?"

Alpha's warning tone cut through the room.

Beeeep!

What... sonic speed?

That was genuinely astonishing. She had grown this much all on her own, before I had even enhanced her!

Daddy's so proud of you, Baekho!

But still...

"Bzzzt! Bzzzzt! Unfortunately, the right-hand path is not the correct answer either! Kishishishit!"

Hah... fine. No choice, then.

Merciful as I was, I would simply have to guide them myself.

"Me—chaman!!"

On the upper monitor, Mechaman's array eyes flared.

"Yes. Master."

"Kishishit! These are group guests who have gone to the trouble of paying us a visit! That calls for a special event, does it not?!"

I swiped through a few holograms and tapped the weapon I wanted. It had never been unveiled to the world before, but how was I supposed to resist showing off a little in front of heroes?

Heh heh heh.

"Let us make everyone's hearts go bounce, bounce! Hiyohohohohohhohohot!!"

I was already swaying my shoulders, giddy at the thought of the heroes' reactions, when Alpha zoomed in on Floral Adonis and split the remaining display across seventeen heroes.

Huh? What was that supposed to mean?

"Alpha! Pull up the detailed data."

A plant-type parasite? Inside the female heroes?

Good heavens...

Thanks to Alpha canceling out the frequency, the heroes' expressions eased considerably.

These were heroes who suffered for the sake of world peace. I couldn't just sit here and watch.

Well then... time to do a little volunteer work?

"Kishishit! A plant that parasitizes human beings! I have never encountered a case like this in my life! Oh! My organs are vibrating! So interesting!"

I surged to my feet, white lab coat flaring behind me.

"Alpha! Transfer the heroes to the B2 operating theater immediately! Quickly! Quickly now! Can't you see my hands are itching to get to work?!"

"Good. Good! Gooood!!"

I tugged a pair of latex gloves on with a smooth snap.

"Just a little longer! Your doctor! Mesarth will be with you shortly!"

By the time the surgeries were finished, Baekho would have reached B1, wouldn't she?

Heh heh heh!

When I saw her later, I would have to brag about saving the heroes!

"Hiyohohohohohhohohohot!!"

I really was looking forward to the moment I met Baekho.

Baek Seoha tore down the right-hand path.

BOOM!

At sonic speed, the world around her stretched into nothing but smeared afterimages.

My ears are going to burst.

The wind knifed past her ears like a blade.

Shhhhhhrrrr—

Just as she had expected, the right-hand path — packed with shipping containers — was under assault from robots as well. Dozens of mechs had the heroes surrounded.

Twin Blades charged a tank-type robot, both swords flashing.

"Oi! You lookin' down on us 'cause we're A-Class?! Huh?!"

The insane cutting power in the edge of his hand sheared through a steel leg in a single stroke.

Clank—

"Try blockin' this one too! Macho Tornado!!"

He spun his body into a blur and ground the tank-type robot down like a blender.

KRAGA-GA-GA-GA-BOOM!

Metal fragments sprayed in every direction.

What Twin Blades did not know was that a drone had already taken up a sniper's nest in the air above him.

Power flooded the coilgun, and a bolt of blue light flared. The targeting reticle locked onto Twin Blades' back.

Ziiiiiing—

A hair's breadth from disaster.

"Hyaaah!!"

CRASH!

Baek Seoha launched herself at sonic speed and kicked the drone out of the air.

WHAM!

Fragments rained down in a glittering shower of scrap. Baekho landed as lightly as a cat.

Thud—

"Huh? Weren't you followin' that flower-head? What're you doin' here?"

Baek Seoha was panting hard.

"Hah... hah... Team Full Bloom was attacked... they need support."

Shadow Assassin rose from the shadow beneath the tank-type robot and drove a dagger into the gap of a joint.

Krrrk-krrrk-krrk!

Its circuits severed, the robot listed and went down.

WHUUM!

"I knew it the moment you started showing off. In the end, you called for backup."

Baek Seoha swept a look around them. Wreckage from destroyed robots lay scattered in every direction. The two A-Class heroes had spent the whole approach bickering — and that wreckage was proof that, in a real fight, their coordination was better than anyone's.

So this is an A-Class hero... They haven't even broken a sweat.

She pointed back the way she had come.

"I think the center path is the right one! Unless those forces are there to protect Mesarth, their numbers don't make any sense!"

The assassin smoothed a hand over his mask.

"Baekho may be right. I scouted this area. Nothing but containers full of scrap metal. In other words — the right-hand path is a bust."

Twin Blades raised his voice to a roar.

"Y'all hear that?! The hell you standin' around for? Move it!"

The heroes had just started toward the center path when a shadow dropped out of the sky.

SHREEEEEEE—

KRA-KOOM!

A storm of dust erupted. The shockwave of something human-shaped hitting the ground set the whole area trembling. Inside the haze, a pair of red optical lights flickered, sweeping left and right.

Wiiiiiiirrr—

"Scanning for targets."

A masculine mechanical voice rolled through the dust. The cloud slowly settled, and the cyborg Mechaman extended one hand.