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“The detector will activate now.”

*Beep— Beep—*

A strange sound echoed through the control room, and something began to pop up one by one on the monitor displaying the map.

If you clicked on the precisely marked points on the map, it showed the level of magic power being emitted.

“…Is this for real?”

Are they just detecting anything and calling it magic power? I’ve been handling Association work for a while now.

I don’t think it’s going to work perfectly.

But after several tests, it became clear that the Association’s magic detector was functioning properly.

I don’t know the principle, but seeing that it even detected my hidden magic power, it seems capable of locating all magic users in Korea.

“…Why is it working so well?”

“That sounds a bit off. It’s like you’re saying you can’t do anything properly.”

“Well, that’s true…”

“…What?”

“No, let’s just hurry up and catch some villains!”

In a moment of slipping out my true feelings, I quickly changed the subject.

It seemed like they heard something strange, as their eyes were on me.

But Jeong Ho-min also understood the seriousness of the situation.

So, it passed without incident.

As the dots on the map began to increase, Jeong Ho-min clapped his hands to gather attention.

“Chronos, Jeong Gyeoul. Lee Cheol-jin, Jeong Ha-yul. As for the notable villains like the 12 Apostles or Fox Mask, our S-Class heroes will spread out and handle them. The lower ranks will be divided among the Association heroes and guild heroes.”

He went on and on about how he wouldn’t be doing anything himself.

Of course, as the person in charge of command and supervision, if someone like the Association head were to go out into the field, it would cause as much chaos as a DEFCON 2 alert.

‘Still, it’s annoying.’

They can’t manage things properly, and the person in charge just sits comfortably in the control room giving orders left and right.

Even if Jeong Ho-min were to go crazy and start eating popcorn while watching, we on the field wouldn’t know.

It was an absurdly unfair division of roles.

‘…Should I challenge the Association head?’

I’m confident I’d get the support of all the current S-Class heroes.

If I declared that everyone supports me, I could push Jeong Ho-min aside and take the Association head position.

If I were the Association head, I could sit comfortably and eat popcorn on days like this.

But even then, I’d probably just be working non-stop.

I know it’s a position of responsibility without pleasure.

So, I won’t run for it.

As the villains’ locations were marked on the monitor.

The situation seemed to be getting easier.

The MZ operator, who had been grumbling with me during the Chronos interception operation, and many other operators were shining in the control room.

“C-Class villain in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon. Requesting support from the B-Class hero in Namdong-gu.”

“D-Class villain in Oryu-dong, Daejeon. No heroes nearby, requesting cooperation from the Jaun Base. Just in case, sending two D-Class heroes to Daejeon.”

“C-Class villain spotted in Jeju. Overseas heroes on vacation in Jeju have expressed their willingness to step in. Handing it over to them. Upgrading to a joint operation.”

For some reason, lower-grade magic power can already be measured as far as Jeju, but higher-grade magic power takes a bit longer to detect over a wider range.

No one knew where the S-Class and above villains were hiding.

In the end, the heroes had no choice but to divide the regions and move in advance.

Of course, I’m in Seoul.

The capital of South Korea.

The city where the Korean president resides and where the head of the Korean Hero Association resides.

If it falls, it would be the most devastating.

If I don’t protect this place, who will?

It’s not that I’m too lazy to move and decided to stay here.

Really.

“Gyeoul stays in Seoul… Ha-yul should go to Daejeon. It’s easier to spread out from there.”

“Got it.”

Kim Yu-shin to Gyeongju, the base of the Hwarang.

Park Seol-hwa to Jeonnam, Lee Ha-yoon to Gyeongbuk.

Originally, I would have sent Jang Gil-yong to Jeju.

But as the MZ operator mentioned earlier, some heroes on vacation in Jeju volunteered to handle it.

Considering the villains’ tendency to isolate themselves, I decided to send Jo Se-hee to Jeju instead.

And so, we spread out across the country.

***

The detector’s performance was so high that it could even detect the hidden magic power of a transcendent-level hero.

But while the performance was excellent, the speed was incredibly slow.

Jeong Gyeoul was detected immediately because she was openly emitting magic power toward the control room’s detector.

But theoretically, it would take about a week to detect the hidden magic power of a transcendent-level hero somewhere in the country.

Even for S-Class, it would take three to four days.

And we couldn’t just leave it on all the time.

The magic stones stockpiled by the Association were visibly decreasing in real-time.

The fuel consumption was enormous.

It was on par with Jeong Gyeoul.

So, unless it was Black Code level, we only used the regular detection system.

We couldn’t use it at this level all the time.

“There’s a good side to this.”

“A good side?”

Jeong Gyeoul, who had been staring at the monitor, suddenly spoke up.

“We can find all the villains who’ve been hiding until now.”

“…That’s true. But we don’t have the manpower to catch them all.”

“Why not? Can’t we just send heroes to the marked spots and bring them all in?”

“Do you know how many people supported the birth of heroes? Even if we include unregistered Awakened Ones and those who registered but live normal lives, we’d need as many heroes as America to check them all one by one.”

It would be great if that were possible.

But realistically, it’s impossible.

It’s not that we’re not catching them, it’s that we can’t.

Even for crimes like theft or assault, with CCTV, black boxes, and scientific investigation, there’s almost no crime that can’t be solved after a few days.

But we don’t have the manpower for that.

“Didn’t almost all unregistered Awakened Ones register this time? Couldn’t we have given them something to avoid the detector when they registered?”

“What if they become villains? It would be harder to catch them if they used it to evade us.”

“…That makes sense. It’s a headache either way.”

“Yeah… as much of a headache as you are.”

“…?”

Sitting in the control room chair, legs crossed on the desk.

In one hand, popcorn, and in the other, a cola—where did he even get that?

The popcorn was being brought to his mouth via telekinesis.

‘I can’t even kick him out…’

Jeong Ho-min was looking at Jeong Gyeoul with a headache.

Meanwhile, the sweet smell of caramel popcorn kept tickling his nose.

“Please understand, this is just fuel replenishment.”

“I heard, you can’t eat as much as before. So, shouldn’t your fuel consumption have decreased?”

“…There’s a rat in our house.”

“Just one rat?”

“Wow, it’s a rat’s nest.”

Jeong Ha-yul, a hero close to the Association.

She’s been working with Jeong Ho-min since he was a rookie.

Because of that, she often clashed with Baek Kang-woo and Yoo Eun-chae.

Baek Kang-woo and Jeong Ho-min already call each other brothers in private.

It didn’t take more than a day for Jeong Gyeoul’s stories to reach Jeong Ho-min.

Of course, she kept her mouth shut about sensitive family matters.

But the fact that Jeong Gyeoul couldn’t eat as much as before wasn’t such a big secret.

It was such a shocking and amusing incident that Baek Kang-woo’s mouth itched to talk about it.

But it wasn’t just Baek Kang-woo who spread the story.

Jeong Ha-yul told Jo Se-hee, who called out of boredom.

Yoo Eun-chae told Lee Ha-yoon while picking out clothes for her.

Jo Se-hee has no friends, so that’s understandable.

Lee Ha-yoon, who received the call, told her sister Lee Ha-yun.

And Lee Ha-yun mentioned it during a guild meeting as an interesting story.

Jeong Gyeoul’s “small appetite” story spread throughout the hero industry in less than a week.

“You guys are really something…”

“Only you?”

They looked at each other, shaking their heads.

Then Jeong Gyeoul suddenly dumped the popcorn.

“I won’t say anything, so eat slowly. You get indigestion, right? Life is full of surprises.”

“No, it’s not like that…”

“…?”

“It’s time to work now. I just caught Fox Mask with my magic power.”

“…Huh?”

Clearly, it was said that no notable villains were detected by Jeong Gyeoul’s detection.

So how did she suddenly catch one?

Moreover, the detector was only picking up lower-grade villains so far.

There was no news.

“How did you know?”

“I was focusing on the Hanam Starfield area.”

“…Why there?”

“Criminals always return to the scene of the crime. If you want, I can even stake my grandfather’s honor on it.”

Jeong Gyeoul shrugged, looking smug.

Never mind why she’s staking her non-existent grandfather’s honor.

‘…Would she really want to go back to the scene where she got caught years ago?’

Anyway, since she detected it, there was nothing more to say.

“Goodbye, everyone! I’m leaving the boredom of this control room to go find villains! Be happy—!”

She acted like she was about to fly through the roof, so I grabbed her arm.

“Hey! Not now, the roof is expensive. No!”

“…Cheapskate, even after catching Fox Mask, all you care about is money. No wonder the Association isn’t progressing.”

 

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