abcnovels
Chapter 235: The Burning Human Farm (2)
Chapter 235: The Burning Human Farm (2)
Chapter 235: The Burning Human Farm (2)
Who was the worst villain in history?
Opinions varied, but considering that even Duoexini didn’t make the top ten, the criteria for being the worst villain were stricter than one might think.
This varied by the affected country or race, so people had different views, and thus, the criteria changed.
What about limiting it to villains who were currently alive and had been active within the last three years?
Excluding officially declared dead villains like Duoexini, who were the top ten worst villains currently posing a threat to the world?
Surprisingly, all top ten were executives of the ‘Secret Society’.
More than half, actually six, were definitely included.
The Chief of the Secret Society consistently ranked first, followed by Chaos, Dochul, Gunggi, and Doul in order.
Even Goblin, added at the end of last year, was notorious as part of the worst villain organization.
If just one of them appeared in a region, it was not only that area that goes on high alert, but the surrounding cities, the entire nation, and even neighboring countries.But what if two appeared?
And in the rumored ‘Resting Place of the Gods’?
“HEROOOOOOO!!”
Regardless of why the two villains appeared, those threatened by their actions of bridge destruction began seeking heroes.
“Save, save the people!!”
A car was stranded between the severed ends of a bridge.
Inside were two doctors in white coats, who tried to get out but hurriedly escaped to the roof of the car through the sunroof as the side collapsed.
“Please, save us!”
Though it might seem unlikely for people in coats to enter the island, outwardly they just looked like ordinary researchers.
They were civilians.
In a situation where lives were threatened by villainous tyranny, it’s only right to seek help from heroes.
The car jolted sideways.
The concrete below crumbled into the sea, and now the car itself was about to fall.
“Aaaah!!”
“Stay still!”
A shadow appeared and swiftly lifted the car.
The midsize sedan was lifted as easily as a bag of rice by a young man in the uniform of the Hero Alliance.
“You are…?”
“Nguyen?!”
“This place will collapse soon! Swim or wait for the coast guard’s rescue!”
“Wait, huh, hurk!”
Nguyen then hurled the car towards the main island of Phuket.
Following a gentle arc, the car fell towards the sea, and the two researchers landed even farther from where the car had landed.
They didn’t die.
They merely splashed around momentarily in the vast sea.
Soon, a boat carrying the coast guard approached, and marines leaped out to rescue the two in the water.
“…Phew.”
Some might later criticize this as a radical act of rescue.
But there was no time to debate radicalness.
“Hah!”
Nguyen took a great leap forward.
He covered a distance of about 50 meters in a single stride, and the bridge he had jumped from instantly crumbled.
“Heroes should prioritize rescue operations first! I’m heading towards the tollgate!!”
“It’s dangerous, Nguyen! There’s gunfire inside!”
“I can handle being shot!”
Nguyen sprinted towards the tollgate.
He had set his ThaiWatch to live cam mode ‘as prepared’ and soon spotted people collapsed at the tollgate checkpoint.
“A child…?”
Nguyen felt a chill down his spine.
He had heard it was possible, but seeing it with his own eyes made his heart sink.
Had they all fainted?
No.
The ground was littered with bullet marks.
The faint magic power emanating from the collapsed children.
And faces not officially registered with the Association.
Even if their identities were checked, would they come back ‘alive’?
-Do your best as a hero.
Someone’s voice echoed in his head.
It was ironic that the very person who had created this situation was the one who had said that, but Nguyen decided to follow his heart as Goblin and Gunggi had suggested.
“Unregistered ability users, many of them minors, found! Heroes capable of rescue, enter the tollgate immediately!”
After giving instructions to his ThaiWatch, Nguyen approached the collapsed child in front of him.
“Are you okay?!”
Their wrists and ankles were emaciated.
It seemed they had not eaten properly, leading to malnutrition, and all were small in stature.
However, they were all dressed in military uniforms, and some of the children had guns in their hands-
“Uh….”
“Are you conscious? Are you alr-”
“Die——!”
Bang——!
The boy, having regained consciousness, picked up the gun that had fallen next to him and fired it.
“…….”
Nguyen was startled.
Not only had he precisely aimed, but the boy’s actions following Nguyen catching the bullet in his hand were remarkable.
“Die, die!!”
Bang, bang-bang, bang-bang.
The boy continued to shoot at Nguyen, trying to kill him.
Confused by the boy’s actions, Nguyen just continued to catch the bullets with his hand.
“……I’ll inform the other heroes.”
Whoosh.
No more bullets came out.
Only the hollow sound of the gun clicking echoed, and the bullets, crushed by the strength of his grip, dropped emptily to the ground.
“There are many unidentified children inside the tollgate… They have live ammunition, so be careful when entering. And.”
Bang!
Nguyen struck a punch next to the boy’s head.
His fist sank into the concrete below, and the boy finally stopped resisting.
“Arrest them all, for now.”
[Understood! Everyone, aaaah!!]
“!!”
Nguyen’s heart sank again at the scream of an agent outside.
“What’s going on?!”
[The, the island!!]
“What about the island?!”
[The island is burning!! There’s a crimson barrier on the island!!]
“…….”
Perhaps.
It must be a signal.
A barrier not only prevented those outside from entering but also trapped those inside.
“…First!!”
Nguyen shouted into his ThaiWatch.
“Let’s deal with the children here first!!”
One of the hero’s rules.
Deal with the immediate dangers first.
Nguyen, as a hero, simply followed his mission and beliefs.
Phuket was an island.
It was a fairly large island, connected to the mainland by a long bridge, much like Ganghwado, effectively making it part of the mainland.
As was often the case with islands, several smaller ones were scattered around it.
General Jeokrang and Laplace, those who swallowed the darkness of this country, constructed a horrifying facility on Phuket, accessible via the bridge they built.
A human farm.
Obedient children were turned into soldiers, and disobedient ones into mana powder.
That was the fate reserved only for children born as ‘ability users’.
What about the civilians brought to this island, and those born on the island?
[How terrible.]
After Gunggi spread a fire barrier across the entire island, all sorts of people began to emerge from inside.
Like spraying insect repellent in an abandoned house overseas causes all sorts of bugs to scatter, shadows of all sorts of beasts emerged.
They were not human.
Because they could not live as humans, most could not be considered human.
“Aaaah!”
“What’s happening?!”
“The fire, the fire?! Impossible! Where would such flames come from…!”
Those in orange clothes burst out all at once.
They wore clothes like those of prisoners in American prisons.
The most peculiar thing was that none of the emerged individuals had heads.
Someone had said.
If you want to cause the greatest shame to a modern person, the easiest way is to shave their head.
Just shaving off all the hair on their head could cause immense shame.
[This is chilling.]
And I almost unwittingly unleashed magic at the characters engraved on their heads.
It wasn’t just shaved heads; symbols and numbers like AF-139 or UC-230 were attached above their heads.
Even livestock on a farm have names, but to have their names removed and replaced with symbols, not even on a tag but laser-engraved on their heads as if they were property.
[This is serious.]
They shouldn’t have come out.
Thump, thump.
It seemed that I was not the only one angry.
The Gunggi within me was also erupting in rage.
I was in the middle of casting a large-scale ability, so there’s no way to scream in the meantime.
“First, get out! Kids, hurry!!”
Just as I was about to incinerate the entire island with magic, men with symbols on their heads gestured towards the inside.
Soon, ‘children’ in identical orange clothes came out, their faces stricken with fear as they scanned their surroundings.
“How did this happen?! We shouldn’t be coming out like this!”
“Stay put and you’ll die inside! Damn, I don’t even know how- huh?!”
Those trapped inside looked up.
I was quite high up, wings spread as I looked down, but it seemed they could somewhat see me too.
“It’s the Goblin!!”
“Wings of flame…? That’s the Goblin?”
“They’ve come to kill us bastards! Here! Goblin! Here, it’s full of bad guys!!”
The slaves with symbols shook their hands wildly at me in the sky.
With faces as if they had been freed from slavery, they smiled brightly.
And then.
Boom——!
Suddenly, there was an explosion.
An unanticipated small explosion occurred, and people turned their heads towards the direction of the explosion.
“Uh….”
The first slave to come out.
His head was gone.
“…….”
Laplace, the man with lavender hair, pressed on the tablet with mechanical movements.
“……Tsk.”
Frowning, Laplace pressed individually on the red flashing status windows.
“I should have made a batch delete function too. Damn, damn.”
Click, click, press.
The sound effect was just the pressing of buttons, but each time a pop-up button was pressed, one or two status windows disappeared.
Those denoted with symbols instead of names, also had a cancellation line drawn next to them with the phrase [Delete].
“Ah shit. Those who came out… huh, why isn’t it working? Why isn’t the signal showing up?”
“Sir Laplace!!”
“Uh, Hyangdan. Why isn’t this working?”
“Sir Laplace’s island!!”
“……?”
On TV.
On the island known as the Resting Place of the Gods, a dome of crimson flame had spread.
It appeared as a barrier designed to prevent any entity from escaping.
“…What exactly is that? Am I seeing this wrong?”
Laplace violently shook his head back and forth, his gaze alternating between the frozen tablet screen and the dome of flames on the TV.
“Could it be… right now… they’ve erected a barrier with some ability on the island?”
And then.
“Ah, no! Contact General Jeokrang right away, stop the bombing——”
Boom——!
An object flying in a parabolic trajectory made contact with the fiery barrier, triggering a massive explosion.