Chapter 32 - Rising Airplane
"All right, time's up for question two! The hottest fruit in the world is... the Cheon Peach! A thousand-degree peach—literally the hottest, right? Hahahaha!"
"And here's question three: when a vassal leaves his king, what three-syllable phrase does he say?"
"The answer... Viking! Bye, King! Hahahahaha!"
"Question four! Name a five-letter country that has no beef."
"The answer: Beef-less Country! A land without beef—get it? Hahahaha!"
With every new riddle, the passengers' faces grew darker. Even those who'd started strong began to slip, one by one. And in this game, one wrong answer meant instant elimination. By the halfway mark, only a handful remained.
Truthfully, that was already more survivors than Egostic had expected—he'd figured no one would make it past question eight. Yet three were still in their seats.
A little boy who'd devoured joke books since toddlerhood, nailing every punch line.
A high-school girl chewing bubble-gum like she was on a Sunday stroll.
A balding middle-aged man who looked as if he'd spent office dinners bombarding interns with dad jokes.
Every desperate gaze in the cabin locked onto the three who still clutched their phones. They were the last hope, and the longing in the air was suffocating. Beads of cold sweat rolled off the balding man's temples as he glanced around. The kid, too young to grasp the stakes, waited cheerfully for the next question—probably thought this was an actual game—while his mother watched with haunted eyes.
The girl in the red baseball jacket cracked her gum, chin in hand, staring at the screen as if she were alone in her bedroom instead of thirty thousand feet up. Why she was in uniform on this flight, no one knew.
At the same moment, someone on the ground stared up at the patch of sky that held the plane.
[...Stardus, are you in position?]
"Yes, sir. I'm here."
Deep in the basement of the Jeju branch of the Hero Association, Stardus answered the call.
"Ugh—urk—bleeegh."
"...Kim Ja-hyeon, are you okay?"
"Do I look okay? Urk—"
The one retching beside her was Kim Ja-hyeon, hero name: Shadow Walker. One of Korea's three A-Rank heroes—and, under specific conditions, the strongest of them all.
Conditions being the key word.
Shadow Walker: a hero whose power is pure night. After sunset he can melt into any shadow and reappear from another, effortless over any distance. Egostic might die of heart failure if he teleports a hundred kilometres; the Teleporter had once whimpered after a single bullet wound, limping a hundred metres at a time. But as long as both departure and arrival points are dark enough, Shadow Walker can theoretically reach the other side of the planet—though day-time there would ruin the trick.
Most important: at night, half his body is literally shadow—effectively invincible. Physical attacks, biochemical weapons—nothing touches him. He can even drag criminals into his shadow and dump them straight into prison. The underworld calls it "Shadow Abduction." Report a crime and, seconds later, the perpetrator is behind bars. After dusk he ranks among the world's top heroes; he'd once been Korea's closest candidate for S-Rank.
His weakness? Daylight. The moment the sun rises, his supernatural agility vanishes. Worse, he can barely stay awake. Teleportation, invulnerability—useless unless there's sufficient darkness, and even then the backlash is brutal.
Which is why the Association built sub-basements beneath the Seoul, Busan, and Jeju branches—artificial night so he can shadow-jump other heroes in an emergency. Thus Shadow Walker had been roused in broad daylight, dragged Stardus from Seoul to Jeju, then collapsed.
"Ugh... hey, was this really necessary? I feel like I'm dying..."
"It was. I'm sorry—rest now."
"Ha... I'm dead..."
Stardus sprinted off the instant they arrived, leaving Shadow Walker gasping while staff hurried down to help.
"Please, you bastard villains... just stick to nighttime crime..."
His whisper sank into the gloom of the basement—because nowadays villains worked exclusively by day.
***
[...The answer to question nine: Deoksu Palace!]
"Ah, damn it."
[Oops! Did someone just swear? Snip—there goes one wire! Aigo, only two left!]
The girl's muttered curse cost them a line: three wires down to two. Passengers glared; she only shrugged and murmured under her breath, '...Shouldn't have trusted the kid.'
Luckily no one heard—not even Egostic. Both the girl and the boy had missed; the mother hugged her tearful child.
Only one contender remained: the balding man, rivers of sweat pouring off him.
From the speakers came Egostic's gleeful laugh.
[Well, well! Our final player—the fabled Last One Standing. Let's see... Mr. Kim Deok-bae! Yes, Mr. Kim Deok-bae—the only one to answer all nine questions correctly so far.]
...
The middle-aged man flinched at the mention of his name.
[And so! You are the only one who can attempt the tenth question. When I think that the lives of all eighty people currently aboard this airplane rest on Mr. Kim Deok-bae's fingertips, well—that must weigh heavily on your shoulders. Mr. Kim Deok-bae, how are you feeling right now? Why don't you share a few words?]
Asking someone already tense enough to die to speak on top of it all—poor middle-aged Kim Deok-bae looked ready to faint.
His face flushed crimson as every eye in the cabin bore into him. Stammering, Kim Deok-bae opened his mouth.
"Ah, well. T-truly, the r-res-responsibility is immense—"
[Oh my! Didn't I clearly say earlier that if anyone made a sound, I'd cut a wire? So why are you opening your mouth? I'm cutting another wire.]
And just like that, a wire attached somewhere on the airplane was severed with a snip.
The passengers watched it happen in real time on the screens in front of their seats.
"!!!.....!"
Momentarily stunned, they wanted to explode with rage.
But now, with truly only one wire remaining, they couldn't even open their mouths—forced to express their fury through expressions alone.
[Wow, shivering. He's a real demon]
[This is totally like 'Move and I'll shoot! Hands up!' and then going 'Oh, why'd you move your hand?' and shooting anyway LOL]
[Is this... Egostic? Where's the Mangostick I used to know?]
[???: Are you finally coming to your senses?]
Even the chat window, usually favorable toward Egostic, clicked their tongues at his viciousness.
Only Egostic raised his voice as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
[Why use words to say something? You could use body language. Sign language, for instance. Honestly, no sense at all.]
At Egostic's words—spoken as if he were the exasperated one—people's blood boiled, then suddenly cooled.
Everyone burst with indignation before finally realizing it.
That having one wire left to prevent the bomb's detonation was meaningless.
That if the final quiz was answered incorrectly, the bomb would detonate regardless.
In this place filled with suffocating coldness.
Only the voice from the speakers cheerfully delivered the final question.
[Now! At last, the tenth and final question! Answer this correctly and you'll all simply disembark safely from the airplane. Get it wrong and... well, you know, right? Here comes the question. What kind of oil do children love most? Countdown begins!]
[3:00]
[2:59]
[2:58]
...
And so the final question was thrown out.
All eyes focused on the sweating middle-aged man.
Those who couldn't deduce the answer at all.
Those who had some idea of the answer.
Those certain of the answer—none could say a word.
They could only watch that middle-aged man, desperately. More desperately than ever before.
"...."
The red-faced man deliberated for a long while.
[0:03]
[0:02]
[0:01]
At the final moment, he wrote his answer.
[Three, two, one. Ding! Now, let's check the answer. Let's see... you wrote 'IU.' Alright, let's look. Yes! The correct answer is...]
Breathless tension.
The passengers aboard the airplane.
The people watching the broadcast on the ground.
Everyone swallowed and waited, and finally, the answer was announced.
[The oil children love most is... May Oil! IU was not... the correct answer!!! How unfortunate. Well then, hmm.]
Egostic paused to think, then continued.
[That's it. Farewell!]
Bang.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
And so, with the sound of something exploding.
The airplane began to plummet.