ABFR 16

Chapter 16

3. No Matter How Much I Think About It, There Is No Way My Character Would Fall in Love

It was late that evening when the situation finally began to calm down.

It had already been quite some time since Dr. Jeong Sihoon could no longer activate his ability, no matter how hard he tried to squeeze it out, and the various problems in different places were slowly being dealt with, at least roughly, by people who had awakened new abilities in each area. In fact, one could say that the reason the entire situation had been more or less settled within half a day might have been largely thanks to one butler from another world.

Anyway, as the urgent disaster situation began to settle down, attempts to organize the current situation under the name of breaking news started pouring out from everywhere.

I actually got to see with my own eyes the internet being filled with articles from major media companies with titles like, ‘Real Superpowers?!’, as if they were gossip news.

I looked down at the screen, which had only partially recovered its communication network, with an awkward expression. Then I let out a deep sigh and searched for something that looked more like actual current affairs news.

Only a few hours had passed, yet some people were already trying to analyze the situation.

Some pointed out that this strange event had happened only in Korea, and more specifically in Seoul, among the entire world. They speculated that perhaps some kind of experiment conducted in Seoul had caused a negative effect.

However, because Seoul’s environmental characteristics made it difficult for such a huge research facility to be secretly built without attracting other people’s attention, another theory was also cautiously emerging.

Perhaps this was only the first sign of a worldwide disaster.

The conspiracy theory in my head would be nothing more than excessive self-consciousness until it was proven, so I quietly searched through those articles.

But emotionally, I could not help feeling uneasy and guilty, and I simply kept my mouth shut while those feelings continued to grow.

At the very beginning, when the gates first appeared, five locations had been mentioned.

However, after everything was over and the gate information was collected again, it seemed that the places where gates had actually opened could be grouped into three regions.

The first was Seodaemun-gu.

This was where I was right now.

Gates had appeared throughout Seodaemun-gu, forming an arc that stretched across southern Eunpyeong-gu, northern Mapo-gu, and western Jongno-gu.

The second region formed a long arc stretching from Guro-gu to Yeongdeungpo-gu.

It seemed that the southern part of Yangcheon-gu had also been damaged, and they were still investigating whether there were additional damages in Gyeonggi-do that had not yet been identified.

The third was an arc running across Gangnam and Songpa.

As for Gangnam, real-time footage had already been broadcast online, but it seemed that Songpa had also suffered additional disasters caused by people who awakened abilities.

Because of that, the news from that area had not yet been properly organized.

Anyway, all three areas formed arcs.

When the locations of the gates were connected together, their shape looked almost like a crescent moon.

On top of that, the arcs curved like the claw marks of some beast, and the creatures that had appeared also had destructive claws on their hands.

Because of those connections, all sorts of baseless and worried theories about the pattern of the gate appearances were beginning to appear.

No, I had not even worked out the setting that deeply yet.

So even if this really was an incident directly related to my setting, I had absolutely no idea what was going on at this point.

I had to admit that the power of collective intelligence and the ability of experts to come up with theories were impressive.

So, in case they could help me understand the situation later, I recorded as many of those theories as I could.

Meanwhile, the people of the world began to focus less on the disaster that was gradually being brought under control and more on the ‘superpowered?’ people who had appeared at this very moment.

As I had feared, the male student with ice abilities, Park Heegyeom, was already being brutally attacked online.

Because he was being attacked so noticeably, it made things seem relatively less serious, but the girl with fire abilities, Lee Jeongah, was also having her identity exposed and was receiving an equal mixture of insults and praise.

It was truly a moment that made me lose faith in humanity.

By the time it began to get dark, news about Dr. Jeong Sihoon had also started spreading here and there.

I had no idea how they had managed it when communications were still barely working, but articles about him were slowly beginning to appear as well.

Fortunately—or unfortunately—because there were already records of ‘genius boy Jeong Sihoon,’ Dr. Jeong was relatively famous compared to the others.

His appearance caused the discussion about the two students to lose some momentum for a while.

There were still people who clung to those two and tried to tear them apart, but Dr. Jeong seemed to have much more material for people to talk about.

His excessively dramatic life story, along with the ruthless biography I had already searched for once, had been completely exposed on the internet.

Articles quickly began flooding the internet, filled with strange comments going back and forth between things like ‘Annoying privileged scum’ and ‘A handsome man who even saved people’s lives and has such a good personality.’

I felt sorry for Dr. Jeong, but I could not help thinking that maybe it was better for the teacher to get beaten up than kids who had just turned twenty…

No, if he really was ‘White,’ he must also have some private tragedy that he would not want to be revealed.

So I was still worried about him.

But compared to the indiscriminate witch hunt against children…

No, but Dr. Jeong Sihoon was someone I personally knew, so I kept taking his side.

Those were several hours during which even I could not understand my own feelings.

And just as I was thinking that far, fortunately, Dr. Jeong Sihoon was also pushed out of the center of public attention.

Two more ability users had appeared who were sure to attract everyone’s attention.

They were the two people who had played the biggest roles in dealing with the gates stretching from Guro to Yeongdeungpo.

Apparently, a current idol who had been performing a concert at a dome arena and an actor who had been filming a drama in Yeongdeungpo had awakened their abilities and played a major role in dealing with the incident.

Just like Park Heegyeom, both of them seemed to have struggled quite a bit during the first moment their abilities appeared.

Still, somehow, they managed to do it.

Ceres, a member of Roman, whose songs I had actually listened to before, seemed to have awakened an ability that was not particularly wide-ranging to begin with.

Apparently, while lifting rubble to rescue people, the only accident he caused was turning a few pieces of rubble into powder.

As for the actor Yoon Kang, his exact ability had not yet been identified.

Considering that all the civilians around him except for one person initially collapsed, he probably had also failed to control his ability at some point.

However, by the time the nearby gates were being dealt with, all of those people had apparently regained consciousness without any further problems and opened their eyes perfectly fine.

Since they had been filming at the time, there was video footage.

But even after watching the footage, no one could figure out what kind of power he had.

He was apparently already being bombarded with interviews, so sooner or later, there would probably be a way to learn what had happened.

Anyway, with things like this, sadly, the public’s anger began to pour toward Park Heegyeom.

I heard through the internet that he had also been brought to Seran University Hospital after Railey knocked him unconscious and brought him here.

Fortunately, the reporters who had gathered at this hospital were all focusing on Dr. Jeong Sihoon first, so at least Park Heegyeom seemed to be receiving some protection.

No, I wished Dr. Jeong would receive some protection too…

Argh.

My feelings were so contradictory.

I did not even know Park Heegyeom, and he was young.

And the person who had brutally knocked him unconscious was none other than that bastard Railey, so naturally I felt concerned.

But Dr. Jeong was also a personal acquaintance of mine.

It was only natural that I wanted both sides to suffer as little damage and pain as possible.

If someone asked whether I was worried about Railey, however, I would have nothing to say.

Was there really any reason to worry about Railey…?

Of course, at first, I had been worried about him.

I had not wanted to send him somewhere dangerous.

I gazed wistfully at the video from Sinchon, which had already reached one million views, with my eyes awkwardly shaking.

Unlike the others, the man in the black suit had displayed overwhelming power from the very first moment he appeared, using a well-controlled ability as if he had already mastered it.

And, suspiciously, he was wearing a completely black helmet—which, sadly, had been stolen—that did not match his formal suit or neat long coat at all.

He also seemed to be hiding his voice, responding to people casually with only gestures.

He had knocked people unconscious without a moment of hesitation.

He had brutally crushed creatures that might have been living beings without the slightest hesitation.

He had dealt with Park Heegyeom in Sinchon, then somehow run all over Seodaemun-gu.

Not long after that, he appeared in Yeongdeungpo and even assisted Yoon Kang, who had just awakened his ability and was unable to figure out what to do because everyone around him had collapsed unconscious.

After Yoon Kang gained control over his ability and began dealing with the nearby gates while heading toward Guro, the man left Guro to him and quickly moved toward Gangnam.

There, he rescued Lee Jeongah, who had exhausted her ability while prioritizing the evacuation of people and was about to be brutally attacked by several creatures.

Then he simply threw her into a hospital.

After that, he went all the way to Songpa alone and dealt with all kinds of gates there by himself, moving around like some kind of problem-solving hero.

Fuck, it would be strange if this did not become a huge topic.

Because of his clothes, people were guessing that he might be an office worker who escaped his workplace during the chaos, or perhaps someone working in finance.

But thanks to the helmet, his identity had not been revealed.

Because of that, another theory had appeared saying that he must work in a profession where he needed to show his face and build public trust.

Yes.

I hoped they would keep looking in completely the wrong direction.

It was true that Railey had recently started working in the financial industry as a means of increasing his assets.

But even that was still a personal matter.

He was not working with other people, and there were very few people involved.

So fortunately, there was probably little chance of his identity being discovered anytime soon.

That was my only comfort.

Railey was already being praised by people all over the world as ‘This is what a true Black is.’

Because of the lukewarm belief that, in every superhero story, Black was supposed to be insanely strong and work alone, he was the first person to be called Black.

Because of that, the others also received color-based nicknames as if they were part of a set.

Lee Jeongah was Red.

Park Heegyeom was Blue.

Actor Yoon Kang was Purple.

Idol Ceres was Pink.

Dr. Jeong Sihoon was White.

And, fuck, Railey Kraha was Black.

Fuck, you were Black?

He was uncooperative, had no idea about common sense, had a slightly strange personality, was somewhat antisocial, was fucking strong, and even worked alone.

When I thought about it that way, he really did fit Black.

He really did.

But you were Black?

And on top of that, fuck, out of everyone, you were the one who had to tie the first knot of the Super Sentai-style genre from my own writing.

Was this really okay?

After calming myself down a little and taking a deeper look at the current situation, I finally covered my forehead and shed endless tears inside.