Chapter 90
Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 90
If civilians securing public order on their own is called vigilantism, then what should we call it when corporations secure public order?
One thing was certain: there were plenty of wealthy people willing to spend money for an even greater guarantee of safety. Even now, weren’t there countless companies whose business was protection and security?
Kang Woobin continued.
“More specifically, it works like this. If a superpowered crime occurs, a private superpower organization jointly established by the National Superpower Association and the City of Detroit steps in immediately and subdues it.”
“Detroit City, huh… Are they trying to become Metropolis or Gotham or something?”
“They probably figured it’s better than being Gotham without heroes. Honestly, the situation in Detroit is really bad.”
Once the center of the automobile industry and a driving force of the Rust Belt that had led the American economy, Detroit had still not escaped its dire economic circumstances after losing out in international competition and seeing its auto industry decline.
When the economy is bad, everything is bad. The wealth gap and racial conflict were nothing more than different expressions of economic problems.
Public safety was already so poor that police officers didn’t even want to work there, and the city’s budget was so tight that officers’ weekly pay was sometimes delayed. In times like these, when crimes using superpowers were surging, help from organizations like the National Superpower Association must have been desperately needed.
“If this goes well, a profession called ‘hero’ might actually come into existence.”
“It’s not impossible. The National Superpower Association might be aiming for exactly that. If the profession of hero is officially recognized…”
Kang Woobin trailed off, but Kyung-wan fully understood what that unfinished sentence meant.
If that happened, the power called superpowers would no longer be monopolized by the state, just as firearms were no longer monopolized by the state.
Kyung-wan thought he could see the National Superpower Association’s intentions clearly. The business they ultimately wanted was a staffing agency that dealt exclusively with superpowered individuals.
They would use every nice-sounding word imaginable, hero or whatever else, to entice superpowered people. Those with truly outstanding talent would, in reality, gain wealth and fame.
It felt as though Kyung-wan could see the future unfolding right before his eyes: a future where those who had gained the power of superpowers threw off the chains of law in the name of freedom, where management industries packaged talented superpowered individuals as heroes amid the chaos, and where staffing agencies sprang up everywhere, dispatching those who dreamed of becoming heroes as superpowered contract laborers.
Couldn’t the MOU signed between the National Superpower Association and the City of Detroit be called the starting signal for the full-scale superpower industry?
However, the country that first put the superpower business properly on track was, unexpectedly, not the United States but Korea.
[Legislative Amendment on Comprehensive Operational Agreements Concerning Private Security Companies]
When a bill with that name passed the National Assembly, the stock prices of many protection and security companies shot up. It drew attention even from people who didn’t invest in stocks.
The content allowed for the dispatch of security personnel between the police and private security companies. Put simply, if a superpowered crime occurred, the police could swiftly request the dispatch of a superpowered individual capable of subduing a superpowered criminal from a contracted superpower security company within their jurisdiction.
Because it amounted to half-privatization of public safety, members of the public who were allergic to privatization raised strong objections. However, repealing a law once it had passed was no easy task, and realistically, it wasn’t as though such a law was unnecessary.
That was because the executive branch had failed to secure enough superpowered individuals to respond to the growing number of superpowered crimes.
Perhaps because it was a country unaccustomed to police using firearms, the problem was even more serious. Telling police officers without superpowers to apprehend criminals who used superpowers was asking them to take an enormous risk.
To respond properly, they would need to be issued high-firepower weapons like rifles, but there seemed to be many obstacles in the way. In the end, the clean logic of “superpowers are countered by superpowers” prevailed.
Some people involved fumed that this had all happened because major corporations had snatched up superpowered individuals, but in reality, for an individual, it was better to live as a high-priced corporate wage slave than to be called up by the state and work cheaply as a patriotic public servant paid in hollow devotion.
They conscripted young people into the military and worked them for wages that didn’t even meet minimum standards, did they really think awakened superpowered individuals would accept the same treatment? Young people were not fools. They had clearly seen the results of that so-called patriotic devotion paid to veterans.
Meanwhile, the media’s all-out barrage emphasized a rosy future for the superpower industry.
[Major corporations line up to invest heavily in the superpower industry!]
[Will semiconductors be made with superpowers next?]
[Government and corporations announce massive investment plans in superpower research!]
These kinds of positive reports resonated with the public far more than expected.
Rather than troublesome debates like the privatization of public safety or the privatization of superpowers, arguments that brought them no direct benefit, economic hope that promised better food on the table, better clothes, and better homes naturally attracted more attention.
But the darker the darkness, the brighter the light, and the brighter the light, the sharper the shadows.
In a world that was irrational and in shambles, once those who harbored hatred gained the power of superpowers, a major incident was inevitable.
BOOOOM!
A steel mill in Gwangyang exploded. The culprit was a young man who had recently awakened superpowers.
He stated that his grandparents had died of cancer due to pollution, and that he had destroyed the factory out of resentment. In fact, in the neighborhood where he lived, ever since the steel mill began operating, hardly any elderly people had lived out their natural lifespan.
It was natural to suffer more minor illnesses with age, but wasn’t it strange that over 80% of deaths were due to cancer?
The steel mill denied responsibility, claiming the cause was unknown, but when sweeping the ground around the neighborhood with a magnet caused piles of iron powder to cling to it, saying they bore no responsibility was blatant nonsense.
Well, because the number of victims was small, they played dumb, and there was a high chance that even the courts would bang the gavel and declare no responsibility. Damage from such subtle environmental pollution was notoriously difficult to investigate epidemiologically or to prove.
But the steel mill had bad luck. Of all things, the victim’s family member awakened superpowers.
Having lost the grandparents who raised him like parents after being abandoned by his own parents, the young man’s anger was immense.
Perhaps because that anger was directed at the steel mill, he awakened the ability to control magnetism. When he made physical contact with an object capable of magnetization, that object became a powerful magnet.
That ability was unleashed in a factory filled with steel structures. The intense repulsive and attractive forces generated by the strong magnetic fields acted between the steel frameworks, destroying the factory’s structural stability. The damage eventually spread to the blast furnace, causing an explosion.
Fortunately, thanks to CCTV installed to manage the site, the young man was identified as the suspect and ultimately arrested.
The young man who had wrecked an entire steel mill and caused many people to lose their jobs admitted to what he had done and quietly entered prison.
Kim Hancheol.
That was the name of the young man who had taken revenge for his grandparents, who died of illness because of a polluting corporation.
“He seems docile.”
Seeing Kim Hancheol calmly go through the intake procedures despite having committed a major crime that shocked the public, Nam Donggeon shared his first impression with Kyung-wan.
At the sight of the innocent-looking young man, Kyung-wan nodded. He felt resentment and a desire for revenge, but he hadn’t harmed people, he had only destroyed the factory that was the cause. That alone suggested he wasn’t someone who would run wild drunk on power.
If it had been Kyung-wan, he would have gone straight for the top executives and held them thoroughly accountable. But whether Kim Hancheol was simply innocent, a pushover, or fully aware of his own limits, he hadn’t done anything to hurt people. From that alone, one could judge that he wasn’t someone who would abuse power recklessly.
Kyung-wan and Nam Donggeon took their eyes off the young man and watched the other incoming superpowered inmates. They were doing this at the request, couched as permission, from Warden Hong.
Kyung-wan was more concerned about the men coming in after Kim Hancheol, who had been widely publicized, than Kim Hancheol himself.
“See those guys?”
“Yes.”
“Be careful. Those bastards don’t look ordinary.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re trained.”
With Kyung-wan’s sharp eye, he noticed not only the scars and calluses on their hands, but also the small, sharp scars scattered across their ears, faces, and necks.
They were marks one would never acquire without experiencing brutal fights, and their eyes were calm and composed, unlike typical inmates.
They had the look of people who believed in something. Could that something be their own skill?
At Kyung-wan’s words, Nam Donggeon’s expression hardened, but when the people Kyung-wan pointed out lined up with the general population rather than the superpowered inmates, he visibly relaxed.
“Come on. Even the boss, getting worked up over ordinary people who haven’t even awakened.”
“I’m an ordinary person too.”
“···.”
It was advice not to let one’s guard down, since even superpowered individuals could get beaten by ordinary people if they were careless, but Nam Donggeon shot him a look that clearly said, ‘Who are you kidding?!’
That was as far as it went. Perhaps because he still remembered getting beaten by Kyung-wan until he cried, he didn’t dare argue further.
After intake procedures were complete, the young man Kim Hancheol headed for the superpowered detention facility. From Kyung-wan’s perspective, it looked like he would be entering the recently completed annex, the superpower research facility.
About three days later, late at night.
WEEEEEE-OOO~!
A siren blared. It wasn’t that North Korea had failed to abandon its ambition of forced unification and invaded the South. It was simply that an incident had occurred at the prison.
Kyung-wan, who had been sleeping soundly, woke up, but kept his eyes closed as his mind stirred.
Again, huh.
Was this already the third time something serious enough to trigger the prison siren had happened? Warden Hong really had a knack for this. He should have been disciplined and transferred somewhere else long ago,
[Kyung-wan! What are you doing?! Get out here, now!]
Speak of the devil. Just as Kyung-wan was thinking about Warden Hong, his voice came through the speaker mounted in the solitary cell.
[Hey! Didn’t his door open?!]
A faint “I’ll check right away!” mixed in with the next voice, and with a clank, the lock on Kyung-wan’s cell disengaged.
But Kyung-wan remained lying down without moving. At that, Warden Hong spoke in an urgent voice.
[Kyung-wan! It’s an attack, an attack! Superpowered bastards broke into the research facility!]
Ah, I see.
Thinking that, Kyung-wan raised his fingers. There was no microphone in the cell anyway, so speaking would have been pointless.
His left hand spread wide, his right hand forming a V for victory.
Recalling a past interview in which he had asked Kyung-wan how far he could go and whether he was willing to cooperate if a riot broke out in the prison, Warden Hong understood the meaning.
The meaning of the fingers was this:
‘One week of domestic leave.’
[Hey! What kind of leave lasts a whole week?! Just go for two days!]
One finger on Kyung-wan’s hand folded down. Frustrated that they were negotiating at a time like this, Warden Hong stamped his foot and cursed.
[Three days! This isn’t the time for this, you bastard!]
But Kyung-wan stubbornly kept his left hand open and lowered his right hand. Freeing one hand from the negotiation, he propped his head up and even turned onto his side, making a full-body display of how relaxed he was.
[Four days! That’s the limit!]
Is that it?
Catching the bottom line in Warden Hong’s voice, Kyung-wan nodded, got up, and stepped out of the open cell door.
As he exited, the corridor bars ahead opened one by one, as if indicating the direction he needed to go, and Kyung-wan moved at a brisk pace along that path.
At a bend in the corridor, a correctional officer was waiting.