A History-Making Commercial Shoot (3)
A History-Making Commercial Shoot (3)
Yujin's moves were almost provocatively bold.
The public showered him with praise, but...
Yet some people found him unbearably revolting.
Irregulars were rare among awakeners.
They were pure evil, finding murder as intoxicating as a drug.
Villains.
To villains, Yujin was a thorn in their side.
Wasn't it already hard enough for villains to survive in Korea?
CCTV cameras covered every corner, and their abilities were inferior to those of awakeners who had formally graduated from an academy.
What happened if they committed even one murder in that environment?
The police and the Awakener Association worked together to track them down and arrest them.
From a villain's perspective, Korea was a damn tough place to scrape by.
And now a new S-rank was about to emerge in Korea?
Worse, everything he did made them sick. He was their complete opposite.
"Winterer~ Can't we go kill that brat Yujin? I heard he's shooting a commercial. It's the perfect opportunity."
Naturally, the villains began discussing a plan to kill Yujin.
But their leader, Winterer, did not permit it.
"I told you, Seol Hayeon comes first. You can kill him later."
"Don't be like that. If we kill him, it'll feel so damn good. Killing a handsome guy is especially satisfying... Want to join us, Winterer?"
"Hah."
—Whoosh.
"If you don't want me to kill you, stay in line. Once we finish installing all this, we're going to kill that bitch Seol Hayeon. You can't wait even that long? Are you in heat?"
"Don't be like that. You're an adult now too, Winterer, so let me teach you what feels good..."
"There are only a few days left. Hold it in, you stupid bitch in heat."
Murderous intent gleamed in the pleasure killers' eyes.
Even so, Winterer shut them down at once with her characteristic, madness-tinged charisma.
And so the Yujin murder plot seemed to have come to nothing.
-Whisper, whisper.
"Want to come kill that rookie with me? I'll arrange our escape route."
"Without obeying that little freeze-tag brat?"
"I haven't tasted blood in a whole year. I'm going crazy from frustration."
...The plan to kill Yujin was revived within three minutes.
Betraying Winterer the moment her back was turned was villainy through and through.
"More importantly, just thinking about killing that handsome bastard is making me hot. I need it."
"You damn pervert. You really were in heat."
"You in or not?"
"Of course. It's been a while for me too, so if I'm going to kill someone, I'd rather make it a handsome guy."
"Yujin is mine."
"Just one leg."
"Deal, I say."
Even the villains were obsessed with Yujin's looks.
It didn't take long for them to form a villain strike team that planned to chop Yujin up like fried chicken.
Their ambush preparations were flawless.
"What about that bastard's hypnosis? They say there's a hundred-a-week limit, but still...."
"We'll grab civilians as human shields and charge so he can't see us."
"Let's block our ears too, just in case. His hypnosis might be voice-activated."
"Okay."
Securing the ambush and escape routes was standard.
They'd even thoroughly analyzed the footage and devised countermeasures against his hypnosis.
This laid bare exactly why awakeners had to keep their abilities secret.
Anyway. Time passed, and Thursday arrived.
The day they would put the plan to kill Yujin into action.
'Just a little longer. I'll pose as a staff member, get as close as I can, and then...'
—Shing!!
"Hold on!! Everyone, run!!!"
Yujin suddenly drew his sword in the middle of the shoot.
He had only sensed the distinctive mana wave that preceded an A-rank Gate, but...
There was no way such low-level villains could have realized that.
The five villains, guilty consciences pricked, sprang to their feet.
"We've been spotted!!"
—Flash.
"...Kyaaaah!!!!?"
"Now, we're going, I say!!!"
They hoisted innocent civilians into the air, slung them over their shoulders like shields, and charged.
Their target, Yujin, was farther away than expected.
Of course, the B-rank awakener Cheonhwa had dispatched as a bodyguard tried to intervene, but...
'Villains!? I had to subdue them at once...'
"Haha! Get lost, you flavorless bitch!!"
—Swoosh! Shwoooop.
"Kyaaaaaaah!!!"
"......You insane bitches!!"
The villains began firing civilians at her indiscriminately like human cannonballs.
The civilians who'd been watching were hurled wildly in her direction.
At a speed that would never leave them unscathed if left alone.
At speeds that would have left them badly injured if she did nothing.
Flustered, she caught them, using everything she had as an awakener to keep them from getting hurt.
That gave the villains enough time to close in on Yujin.
-Rapid footsteps.
'Just as planned! Now all we have to do is tear that bastard apart...'
Thanks to the surrounding civilians fleeing in utter panic, the distance to Yujin was a mere thirty meters.
It was obvious that tearing Yujin apart would take them less than three seconds.
And so, they...
———They set down the hostages they'd been using as shields.
'We were done using them, so it was time to put them down.'
'If I wanted to tear him apart with my own hands, I had to put mine down. Obviously.'
'It felt like a waste to let her go. I could kill her... No. The tastiest prey was right in front of me. I shouldn't fill up on some worthless bitch.'
—Plop.
"Kyaaa... huh?"
Civilians who'd been screaming their heads off, suddenly bewildered once freed.
The villains, unbothered, threw themselves at Yujin.
In an orderly fashion. Single file.
They never noticed that their plan had already gone off the rails.
* * *
A Gate was about to open, and villains had attacked on top of that!
They had even plugged their ears with earbuds and held civilian hostages in front of them.
It was the kind of predicament that would make any awakener clutch their head.
In this situation, I, the Second-Round Hypnosis Breeding Guy...
'What were they doing? Were they trying to block my hypnosis like that?'
The absurdity drew a hollow laugh from me.
They had clearly put some thought into it, but did they really think that would work? My hypnosis was EX-rank.
As long as they were within reach of my mana, one mental click was enough to put them under.
Of course, even after all my training with the Divine Dragon's Blood,
My mana stat was still in the mid-4 range.
An ordinary freshman's effective range would have been about one meter, but...
『Advanced Mana Manipulation Lv.Max』
'I happened to be pretty good at it. Too bad for them.'
I was a former S-rank No. 1.
Thirty meters was well within my range.
I cast hypnosis immediately.
'Your target is me, right? Then you should put the hostages down.'
[Mental Barrier check partially successful. The targets are placed under 'weak' hypnosis... ]
'Tearing someone apart with your bare hands feels best, doesn't it? And for that, you need your hands free.'
[Confirmed: the suggestion aligns with the targets' intent. The targets fall under 'strong' hypnosis!]
First, I made them put down the hostages.
'Now take turns savoring me one at a time. If you all rush me together, it'll be over too quickly. And you know not to use your abilities, right?'
—Patapat.
"Hrryaaaaah!!!"
They lined up neatly, making them easy to deal with.
The sight of them charging in, oblivious to the fact that the light had left their eyes, was rather comical.
Subduing them didn't take even ten seconds.
"You're dead!!!"
"In your dreams."
—Thwack!!
"......Guh, hk."
I swung the sheathed katana full force into each exposed neck.
I repeated it five times.
Five people collapsed with concussions.
They lay sprawled with their legs splayed and their underwear on full display. Pathetic.
—Thud.
'I was in a desperate hurry, and these small fry had to start causing trouble.'
The sudden villain attack was tidily wrapped up with that.
The people who'd stopped mid-flight to watch finally burst into applause and cheers.
They reacted like children who'd just watched a live hero show.
Normally, I might've waved back or something, but...
Now was not the time for that.
"Yujin, that was incredible! It's so amazing you could just edit this into a commercial...."
"———That's not what matters, get out of here, now!!"
"...What?"
"A Gate is about to open here—and it's A-rank!!"
Those villains were no more than mosquitoes. The Gate was the real problem.
Did these people want to get caught up in a Gate?
Grab your equipment and run. Now.
'Well, they wouldn't get hurt even if they were caught up in it.'
Despite how serious I made it sound, the situation wasn't actually that dangerous.
Even if civilians were caught up in it, there was no risk of death.
It was a dungeon-type Gate, so anyone who stayed at the entrance instead of going inside only had to wait.
As long as they did nothing foolish and waited for rescue, they couldn't get hurt.
That was also why I'd chosen a location where a Gate would open for the shoot.
-Quick steps.
"Yujin, is that really true!?"
"Yeah. I felt the precursor. It looked like the Gate would open in about five minutes."
On top of everything else, I had noticed the warning signs immediately.
That gave us at least five minutes before the Gate opened.
Even an A-rank Gate would only cover a radius of about five hundred meters.
Anyone could run at least a hundred meters a minute, so there was plenty of time to escape.
"So, everyone...."
"H-hold on. Yujin!"
When I explained that, an awakener came running over, out of breath.
She was the B-rank awakener Cheonhwa had assigned as my bodyguard.
"No one in Korea except Seol Hayeon can detect the warning signs of a Gate opening, so how did you...?"
"I'm EX-rank, remember? That's my innate rank."
"Ah."
"Anyway, please hand these villains over to the Association. They'll be up again in five minutes, so restrain them too so they can't run wild."
The timing was perfect, so I left dealing with those scrubs to her.
The bodyguard understood her role and hurried off without complaint.
She stacked the villains in her arms and carried them off in a hurry.
"I've got restraints in my car, so I'll tie them up and be right back. Please evacuate yourself in the meantime, Yujin!"
—Zoom.
'Did she decide it would be even more dangerous if they woke up and ran wild in the middle of this chaos? Good judgment. As expected of someone from Cheonhwa.'
Her figure rapidly receded into the distance.
Thanks to that, the only awakeners left here were me and Alice.
But that was fine. There was still time to evacuate.
I quickly shouted for the crowd to evacuate.
"Everyone!! Get out of Seoul Park!! This is real..."
"———Kyaah!!!!"
"That's hypnosis, isn't it? You knocked them out with hypnosis, right!?"
"Is this part of the shoot, too?"
"Seo Yujin is truly the king of Koreaaaa!!!!!"
"......."
Instead of evacuating, they'd quietly pushed their way all the way onto the set.
Well. It wasn't like I couldn't understand.
The warning sign of a Gate opening was a particular mana wave that no one in Korea except the Chairwoman and me could distinguish.
Even most awakeners were like this, so ordinary people truly would have felt nothing at all.
So they must have rushed over without knowing a Gate was about to burst.
They had probably come to see the great awakener himself up close and maybe shake his hand.
Complacency about safety.
The complacency of the world's strongest awakener nation made me sigh.
'Another forty seconds or so had passed while this was happening... Should I use a little force, even if it was a bit much?'
I slowly drew up my mana.
I released mana to intimidate the civilians.
I meant to force them to evacuate.
Using my power on civilians would hurt my reputation, but...
that was better than letting them get caught up in the Gate for no reason.
"This is not a joke. Evacuate right this instant...."
———However.
—Ding!
[An A-rank Gate reacts to the subject's '???'!]
[The Gate expands to swallow the '???'.]
"......Huh?"
The Notification Window that appeared before my eyes left me momentarily speechless.
—Whoooosh!!
'Wh-what was this...?'
In that instant, black darkness spread in the blink of an eye.
A translucent, blood-red curtain slammed down as if separating the entire area from reality.
And finally...
The chill-laden mana unique to a Gate interior spread as though swallowing everything in the area.
'Not even in the game, not once in the First Round, had anything like this ever....'
—Ding!
[The Gate's estimated danger rating evolves from A-rank to A+-rank!]
[Monsters inside are strengthened.]
"......!!!! Alice, stick close to me!!!"
—Squeeze.
"H-hyup!?"
I instinctively pulled Alice against me.
The situation looked bad. If anything happened, I would protect Alice first.
Even if it cost me everything.
And.
[The A+-rank Gate swallows everything within its domain.]
[Transitioning.]
—Flash.
My vision flickered briefly.
We were inside the Gate.