Chapter 95
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Director
Rain continues to fall on the streets.
Water splashes up with every step he takes.
Crow shakes off the soaked hem of his pants for a moment, then ducks into the shadow of a building and changes his outfit in an instant.
Anyone who saw him would surely think he was an agent with the Association.
The well-tailored practical suit and his hurried footsteps—which don't quite match—dispel any suspicion from onlookers.
Crow, Creep, Scardi, Lily.
From the massive response, it's easy to guess just how much chaos the breakout of these four has caused for the Association.
With so many agents deployed outside, only a skeleton crew remains inside.
Crow slips through the building, carefully avoiding their eyes.
Yet his fingertips still tremble.
Crow hasn't fully shaken off the drugs,
but ironically, the pain and withdrawal symptoms sharpen his senses,
elevating his muscles and movements to a higher level.
The Crow who rises through the agony
feels stronger than before, yet also like he could drop dead at any moment—a faint, ethereal presence.
Now, he can fully wield his broken body. The drugs' limits on his body and mind... lifted.
His destination is the Director's office.
The place now used by Justice in place of the late Director,
where one piece of information Crow hasn't fully confirmed still lingers.
Screeech—
He opens the door and steps inside.
Red carpet and lighting,
a desk,
and on it, a familiar terminal.
Crow places his hand on it and immediately recalls the passcode, inputting it.
He can't access Justice's files, but the late Director's info is still open to him.
He needs to know. He has to uncover every last piece of information he doesn't yet grasp and make his decision.
Crow faces the same documents Justice had shown him months ago.
They're filled row after row with files on the REP Project, but ironically, every sentence and word acknowledges Crow's potential for criminality.
He runs a hand down his face and bites his lip. This can't be right.
Only now does Crow start to understand, bit by bit, the things Justice had shown him. The Director himself leading the frame job.
At this moment, Crow must admit that everyone around him has crossed an irreversible river for their own hidden agendas.
Why?
Just one question swirls in Crow's mind.
Why did the Director sell him out? It makes no sense.
They had been digging into the REP Project together. She had no reason to betray him.
No, even more baffling—
betraying him and then sacrificing her own life? It doesn't add up.
Crow keeps mulling it over. Why did the Director do this? But no answers come to mind.
"..."
Suppressing his boiling rage and injustice,
he reads through the Director's files once more.
"Wait..."
A strange feeling creeps in.
Something's off. Having pored over these files hundreds of times, Crow spots the subtle inconsistencies.
The way findings are described, certain phrases—no Director of hers would ever use them.
Too precise for typos, too awkward for her personal touch.
Crow quietly notes them, pondering their meaning,
then...
One by one, he rearranges the words and inputs them into the terminal. Precisely. Each attempt, he double-checks the files for any missed oddities.
First try: access denied.
Second try: access denied.
Beep—!
On the third, Crow faces entirely new files.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[Crow, if you're reading this, it means Lily's plan has failed. As a contingency, I've added explanations to my personal investigations up to now.]
Even as text on the monitor, Crow senses the Director wrote this with utmost seriousness.
There's 30 pages' worth of content.
He can't linger here too long while being hunted, so Crow connects his portable data chip to the terminal and attempts a hack.
...Of course, even as he does, his eyes scan the Director's words intently.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[Sorry to start with this, but I know the humiliation and disgrace you'll endure—there's just no better way.]
Nonsense. What the hell is she talking about?
Did you really orchestrate the conspiracy?
Then why end up dead?
After all our loyalty,
our promise to build a better world together.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[Lately, Lily's mental state has gone beyond unstable—it's reached dangerous levels.]
The moment Lily's name appears, Crow pulls his eyes from the terminal and focuses fully on the screen.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[Ever since you rejected that girl's confession, her neurosis has become noticeably worse. Of course, it's not your fault. But a pubescent girl with reality-warping powers being unstable is a global threat in itself. You know that.]
Very gradually,
very slowly,
an outline begins to form in Crow's mind.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[You're the only one she opens up to. After you rejected her, she started using her powers more frequently. Your restraining influence was weakening.]
But the more he digs into the truth,
the darker his expression grows.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[I'm the mastermind behind REP. I dragged you into it with Lily.]
A few matter-of-fact sentences
drive a wedge into Crow's chest.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[I figured a half-baked plan would tip you off right away, so I prepared everything properly. I even roped in the malcontents who were already dissatisfied with the Association. Once it's all over, Lily will silence them. That'll make the Association even safer internally.]
What was she thinking?
Crow's hands tremble as he reads the record of the one man he'd pitied,
now silenced forever.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[That should have been the end of it. But if you've escaped prison or shaken off Lily and reached this, from here on, do as you will.]
Do as I will?
Crow has nothing left.
Shattered relationships,
a dying shell of a body,
torment that won't even let him sleep.
The Director surely knew that too. If everything went haywire, if Lily's plan failed and Crow stubbornly survived to see the light of day...
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[Lily will watch your every move even more closely than before. Hell, she might spend the rest of your life groveling to win you back. As long as you keep it in check.]
And yet, she'd written only cold, calculated sentences.
The Director had made a bet she couldn't lose.
If Crow gave up everything and came to depend on Lily, she'd drop all other interests and live quietly.
If Crow endured every trial and survived, Lily would spend her days trying to win him back, ever watchful.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[That's the whole plan.]
If she and Crow were the only sacrifices,
they could surely stop that woman's rampage.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[That's why I'm dying. Sorry. Take care of Lily for me.]
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"...Sorry, lady, but I've got nothing to do with those people?"
The Director brushes off the brain matter and flesh chunks from her body with effort, forcing a smile. Before her squats a rather gaunt girl.
"Let's calm down first. Hungry, aren't you...? Everyone says they get hungry after using their powers."
About six years before Crow's escape,
April 2029.
With powers first manifesting in 2025,
by 2029, the Association had already established itself.
Laws for managing the powered were in place,
but people were still chaotic,
and
"..."
in those gaps,
groups obsessed with exploring powers overflowed.
It was a kind of religious cult.
A gathering of fairly notorious con artists.
Rumored to have hundreds of thousands of followers.
They claimed powers were gifts from God, blessings that would save us all, and believed it fervently.
That alone would have been fine.
But they'd dragged in some nameless girl from who-knows-where and made her their goddess.
"..."
"Y-Yeah. How about this? Super sweet and tangy, right? Wanna try one? Here, watch—I'll eat one first?"
The title fit her perfectly.
It was a power of wondrous, unprecedented scale.
"Mmm~ Delicious. You put it in your mouth and let it melt slowly. Mmm~~ So good!"
The girl defied the laws of the universe without restraint.
"Here, have one?"
"..."
A flick of her finger, and bodies twisted at her whim, spilling blood, muscle, and organs.
Point at someone, and holes erupted everywhere, blood gushing as they convulsed and died.
"Incredible, right? Baby, wouldn't it be better to hang with me, eat some treats, instead of playing in a dump like this?"
Did she understand words?
Did she even speak?
But the girl clutched a fairy tale book with pictures of princesses and princes.
"Let's go for now. This place is a mess. Where does our princess stay?"
The Director had a duty to soothe and calm this girl amid the strewn corpses.
Having rushed here on a report of a massive power user ripe for Hero recruitment,
but that day,
the cult was annihilated.
Right before her eyes.
"..."
One stroke of luck: the girl had no intention of killing the Director. Her outfit was different from the cultists'.
The girl had simply unleashed all her pent-up rage on the humans in pristine white clothes.
That was it.
The two crossed the blood-soaked hallway to the showers.
The Director sucking on a lemon candy,
Lily on an apple one.
Heading to the showers,
drenched in blood.