TRPM 64

chapter 64

Traveling across Sydney and subduing the terrorists who were trying to kidnap people from the shelters, I shook my hands and expanded my awareness.

“Alright… that takes care of all the guys attacking the shelters…”

Judging by the fact that the Awakened were checking the shelters, it seemed they had also figured out the real purpose of the terrorists.

Of course, the terrorists’ kidnapping attempts had failed because of me, but the Awakened, unaware of that, were still moving busily.

“Sorry for making everyone work for nothing, but at least now the only threat left is the doppelgängers.”

Doppelgängers were strong enough that anyone who wasn’t at Yeon Mirae’s level would struggle to handle them alone. However, even they wouldn’t be a major problem if fully prepared Awakened worked together to hunt them down.

That left only the masterminds behind the terror…

“Unbelievable…”

After scanning the memories of all the terrorists, I realized that none of the terrorists who came to Sydney actually knew much.

[The Oracle said it. Our Sydney terror will fail halfway. And the reason, even the Oracle cannot observe.]

Suddenly, I recalled what one of the guys who had come to my shelter had said.

Of course, if a prophet named Oracle predicted a halfway failure, they wouldn’t send any key personnel or main forces who knew the confidential details of the terrorist organization. They might have thought to send the main forces to change the prophecy, but clearly, they concluded that even the main forces wouldn’t succeed.

In other words, the Oracle knew that the terrorists participating in this attack would either die or be captured.

“…Why?”

Was the Oracle trying to test just how much power I could wield without being observed?

With that thought, I moved to a specific location.

The target was the place where the terrorists had planned to bring the kidnapped people.

There should be some clue left behind there. Perhaps… other terrorists transferring the kidnapped people elsewhere.

“……”

But the Oracle and his followers were not to be underestimated.

“Are these guys seriously insane…?”

Boom…!

When I reached the terrorists’ rendezvous point, what greeted me was not the terrorists but a massive explosion.

… There wasn’t a bomb planted there beforehand.

If there had been, I would have noticed before entering.

A missile had suddenly flown toward the spot just as I arrived.

“……”

The explosion’s immense heat evaporated the area I was standing in.

It seemed the missile’s warhead wasn’t just filled with gunpowder.

“Is… that radiation?”

This was beyond simply trying to kill me; it was essentially an attempt to turn the area into a land of death.

I managed to survive by quickly forming a protective aura (Hoshin Gangqi)… but if anyone else had been there, survival would have been nearly impossible.

“…Purification.”

I used my word magic to cleanse as much of the radiation as I could.

I also incinerated the missile remnants, which presumably contained radioactive materials, using Samadhi Evolution.

“Purify, purify, purify.”

Even my purification magic, which could turn rivers of blood into clean water with a single use, didn’t guarantee it could fully remove radioactive contamination.

So I repeated the purification multiple times.

And I thought about the terrorists who had done this—especially the Oracle.

“…This guy’s no ordinary madman.”

The terrorists had clearly said:

[We have waited a long time. For someone who could overturn Oracle’s prophecy. Even Oracle himself.]

In other words, I was the one the Oracle had been waiting for. And yet, he fired a missile intending to kill me.

According to the memories I read, the terrorists were supposed to arrive at this location and wait for their next orders.

So if any of them had survived, they could have escaped to this place—but the Oracle had intended to kill them all.

“…Or perhaps the Oracle predicted that all the terrorists carrying out this attack would die and only I would arrive here.”

Either way, it made him a madman.

Furthermore, the organizational skills of the terrorists following him were exceptional.

“Doppelgängers, missiles with radioactive materials, and sensors detecting non-physical entities…”

It was hard to even estimate his technological and financial resources.

The full scale of his power was unknown, but what I had observed so far suggested that his organization might be strong enough to wage war against entire nations—or even the world.

“…Interesting.”

A chill ran through me.

How had I never noticed such a powerful organization before? Surely it existed even before my regression.

…But that didn’t matter.

“…I guess I’m not exactly normal myself.”

I realized I felt a sense of rivalry toward the Oracle.

Of course, he was just the leader of the terrorists; personally, he might be weak.

But I wanted to fight him. I wanted to disrupt his plans. I wanted to crush his organization head-on.

If this was the Oracle’s intention, it didn’t bother me.

So I decided to start by fixing the imbalance.

“…First, let’s cover his eyes.”

I couldn’t see him, but he could sense me—even if not directly observing me, he could detect my presence.

If so, let’s level the field. I have no way to see him… so he won’t see me either.

At that moment, in a room filled with computers and monitors, someone was reporting to a superior.

“(…No signal. It seems he’s dead.)”
“(Impressive. He took a direct hit from that missile, was exposed to radiation, and still survived that long.)”

They were observing the site where the missile had struck via satellite.

Not just with visible light, but with cameras detecting magic power and countless other surveillance tools.

Yet, somehow, among all the cameras, only one had been capturing Han Gun-woo.

He had tricked all the visible light cameras and magic detection cameras… but not the one detecting Karma.

“(No one can deceive a camera that senses Karma.)”
“(Karma is what a person accumulates over their life. Unless they discard life… in other words, unless they die, it cannot vanish.)”

The sorcerers present said this.

“(…Then he’s definitely dead.)”

The woman at the top, known as the Oracle, spoke.

She was disappointed.

She had assumed that only someone like her—someone who could also see the future—could disrupt her prophecy.

“(…I was looking forward to seeing a perfectly executed terror turn into a halfway failure…)”

It seemed Han Gun-woo had prepared somewhat, but ultimately, he had entered a fatal situation.

“(…Still, the most powerful one remains.)”
“(…True.)”

It’s okay. The Awakened discovered in Sydney was just a coincidence.

The Oracle and her followers had been watching another entity all along.

“(…The Artist…)”

Years ago, in Korea, an Awakened had stopped the hostage situation planned by the Oracle, preventing the creation of the so-called Villain Union.

He had raided a lab trading with the Oracle, rescued mutants and chimera-like beings, and revealed their existence to the world.

“(…Originally, we were going to disguise the chimera as a monster to make our terror seem like a disaster caused by black fog…)”

But thanks to the Artist, the plan fell apart before it could begin.

Even the powerful in Korea fled abroad, fearing the Artist and the Iron-Blood Guild, and the Oracle lost influence in Korea.

“(…)”
“(…What’s this?)”
“(…We intercepted radio communications from the Awakened in Sydney…)”

The Oracle nodded, gesturing to speak.

“(…It’s strange.)”
“(Strange? What do you mean?)”
“(…Though they say everyone at the shelter was incapacitated by sleep gas, strangely, only one person was kidnapped.)”

The Oracle narrowed her eyes.

It made sense now. The missile strike that killed one person… had been a deliberate act.

He knew he would die if he went to the terrorists’ rendezvous, but he went anyway.

“(…He sacrificed himself, thinking we might even bomb Sydney with missiles to kill him, or perhaps he really saw that future.)”

The only known kidnapped individual…

“(…He took care of all our men and quietly disappeared on his own.)”

He carried everything alone and died. How noble.

“…Foolish…”

The Oracle both criticized and lamented the hero’s death.

Someone who might see further into the future than herself died so tragically.

A little more selfishness could have saved him.

“Phew…”

Back in Sydney, I thought: It would be nice if I could fool the Oracle like this.

I noticed the closing rift behind me… a rift I had previously forced open during an Academy infiltration.

I had escaped through it back to Sydney.

“…My head hurts a bit…”

Trying to comprehend what I had seen in the rift caused some pain.

Still, I didn’t bleed like before. Perhaps because I had seen and understood it once already.

I expanded my awareness.

…Hmm.

Ahead, Laura, our guide in Sydney, spotted me and ran over.

What a coincidence.

“(…No…!)”

She shouted upon seeing me.

Of course.

“Kyaaa…!”

A doppelgänger that the Awakened hadn’t caught was targeting me, swinging its arms.

To her, it must have looked like I was seconds from death.

But the doppelgänger’s arms didn’t reach me.

Smack…!

Instead, it was punched by someone who intervened.

Sydney’s local spectacle—the boxing kangaroo—hit the doppelgänger squarely in the face, sending it flying.

“…As expected, this kangaroo isn’t just a tourist attraction.”

It was stronger than most Awakened.