Chapter 83: How To Capture A Hero (4)
There were good and bad aspects of the world, but this world had a lot more downsides than the one I used to live in.
An era where special abilities were prioritized.
An era where money could not solve everything.
If your body was not in good shape, you could make it through exercise and medicine. If you didn’t have a good-looking face, you could live with a handsome and beautiful body even through plastic surgery.
But this era was different.
No matter how much money you had, there was no way to become a gifted individual.
There were even efforts to use that money to research how to become gifted.
And here was reality’s cold, dirty, rational, and garbage-like aspect.
[Do you know how many children are born in a year?]
I left the temple and rode my bike again, using the burner phone I received from Monk Samuel to play a video on a streaming site.
[Yes, you’re correct. We were worried about the low birthrate and aging society since 2000, but fortunately, the birthrate didn’t decrease. After 2000, everyone started having children.]
Newborns inevitably turned out to be gifted.
People wanted to pass on gifted abilities to their children, so they started having children everywhere.
[Would the newly growing gifted individuals have any reason? There are parents killed by gifted children, and there are many people killed by the gifted. Even in the north, they tried to turn a gifted child into a nuclear weapon, but the child blew their heads off. So many people died like that.]
Many died.
[Even in Seoul. After 2000, where was the highest concentration of maternity clinics? Obviously, it was Seoul. Everyone was having children, and then the gifted would go berserk there. People died in the basement, and only the baby was left when you looked. It was truly horrifying.]
There were corpses everywhere, and there was indeed a lot of death on this land.
[Did you know that the number of deaths after 2000 was much higher compared to before? Cancer, suicide, and traffic accidents were the leading causes of death in this country. Now, ‘death by gifted ability’ has also been included. Yes, being killed by a gifted individual.]
Whether it was due to incorrect use by a child unable to control their ability…
Or as a result of being engrossed in one’s power, ignoring those around, and using their abilities recklessly.
[Even before a young child who could barely speak had uttered ‘papa,’ they were labeled as murderers. Our society was far from mature enough to accept them, and many died as a result.]
The changes in society were abrupt.
[But believe it or not, the population of this country has reached a whopping 60 million.]
Despite the increasing death rate, the population grew.
[This is because new lives were born at a higher rate than deaths. For every 10 deaths, 100 new lives were born in the neighborhood next door. I will make my child, my offspring, an ability user.]
A Baby Boom generation usually occurred during economic golden ages.
[After the turn of the millennium in Korea, the children of people living near where the meteorite fell started to produce ability users at a meaningful rate. As this became public knowledge, everyone started to have children. This marked the beginning of the Millennium Baby Boom.]
That wasn’t the case here.
It wasn’t economic prosperity that increased the population. It was abilities.
[And do you think this only happened within Korea? Nowadays, have you heard about the ‘French Town’ in Gangneung? The number of foreigners who have moved here is enough to fill a city, and there are also many who have come down from the north as the land there completely perished. If we also include the people north of the truce line, we may even reach 100 million. Hahaha.]
It was a joke but a terrifying number to contemplate.
Just in the south of the military demarcation line alone, a whopping 60 million.
Not only was the number of newborns in the Korean Peninsula significant, but the population also increased due to an influx from abroad.
[Why would they come all the way to Korea to give birth? Why are they trying so hard to get into Ulleung Island? To increase the chances of having a ‘pumpkin baby,’ in other words, an ability user.]
There was one single reason for the population increase.
To birth an ability user.
[But is it easy? Have any of you ever bought a lottery ticket and even won fifth place? How about fourth place? Or third place?]
Then what would people do when they realized that their 10-month lottery ticket aimed at producing an ability user turned out to be a ‘miss’?
[Of course, nobody views having a child as buying a lottery ticket. Well, most people don’t.]
Most people raised them.
Most people didn’t have children to give birth to ability users, but instead, they had children and sincerely hoped they would become ability users.
[But what about the case where you’re pregnant to give birth to ‘an ability user,’ not ‘my child, my offspring?’ Not because I want to have a child with this man, this woman out of love, but because I want to become a ‘leech parent’, living off the back of my child, the ability user. What happens if that child isn’t an ability user?]
But what about the others?
[The number of orphans abandoned in a single year amounts to an astounding ten thousand. Ten thousand. Can you believe it? From those who aren’t gifted alone, you can form a city. Naturally, the orphans are sent to childcare centers, and when those centers cannot cope, they are sent for adoption.]
The temple I once visited served as a refuge, caring for and raising those children society couldn’t handle.
Most of the child monks there were children discarded for not being gifted.
[And most of those children are from abroad…no, I won’t elaborate more. I fear attracting comments from far-off translators, so I’ll stop here.]
Regardless of being Korean in this world, public opinion was terrifying.
Unless you were like me, who didn’t care at all, or you just lived with the ‘because I’m a villain’ mindset.
[So, what’s the solution to this problem? I suggest constructing a social safety net through considerable capital and strong leadership…]
Click.
I stopped the video.
My bike had already reached the sea, and I had heard enough to gather my thoughts during the journey.
‘Transform.’
I morphed back into my Goblin form.
The transformation once again tore and destroyed my overcoat, and I adjusted the mask on my face before hopping onto the bike.
It was late at night.
A full moon hung solemnly in the sky, and there wasn’t a soul in sight on the beach.
[No CCTV, no signs of people… perfect.]
I checked once again for any potential trackers and if there were any people nearby.
I had already checked before transforming into the Goblin, but it was always necessary to double-check after the transformation.
[Hmm.]
Feeling the gradual depletion of my Mana, I fetched an item I had stored on the bike earlier.
A five-colored jelly bean packed in a plastic bag.
She referred to it as ‘Yeouiju’, and I popped the jelly bean into my mouth.
Ah.
A refreshing sensation washed over me.
As if vitality was spreading throughout my body, I felt my dwindling Mana rapidly replenishing from within.
Methods to restore Mana in this world were extremely rare.
Mana powder enhanced Mana, but this fundamentally differed from mana powder.
It was derived from a human body but was an item without any ethical issues.
To be precise, it’s candy made from purifying what came from the leader.
Leader, I pledge my loyalty.
Expressing sincere gratitude to the leader, I lifted the Goblin Bat based on the mana sensation within my body.
Vroom.
As soon as I placed the Goblin Bat on the bike, the exterior of the bike started to shine.
What was just an ordinary bike began to transform into a new shape in an instant, taking on a grand form like black scales adorned with golden patterns.
[This is the new bike…]
I may not be able to ride it back to Seoul from Sejong Island, but it was cool, so it’s okay.
And it was not just any bike. It was a bike where desperate science and magic technologies were concentrated.
Vroom.
I immediately grabbed the handle.
The direction the bike was facing was Sejong Island.
I firmly pressed down on my helmet and then stepped on the bike pedal.
Vrooom!
The wheels of the bike rolled quickly, even on the sandy beach, and I slowly moved forward.
And then I moved slowly along the bottom, underwater.
I…
[Mana into breath.]
[Physical form into spiritual form.]
[Fantasy into reality.]
[The lack of Mana, with the leader’s love and grace.]
From now on.
[Goblin’s Rush.]
I became the Goblin Rider, unnoticed by anyone.
Full moon.
Tonight, Yumir couldn’t sleep.
Normally, she had a good sleep schedule, but she didn’t feel like sleeping tonight for some reason.
“Come to think of it, I didn’t set a date for the full moon.”
Since her roommate was not around, Yumir muttered to herself and chided herself for her own question and answer.
“Well, there’s no reason for them to just show up. It’s the first full moon since the incident.”
The Goblin was someone shrouded in mystery.
Such a person wasn’t going to just appear because she hoped to meet him-
“…?”
Outside the window.
On the fence of the dormitory, something strange was flickering.
A man in a suit perched on a bike atop the fence as if to show off some trick…?
Thump.
Yumir opened the window and looked up.
[It’s been a while.]
With the full moon at his back, the Goblin was standing there holding a helmet in his hand.
[I’ll drive. Will you get on the back?]
“…….”
Yumir threw off her Taeguk Watch and launched herself out of the window.
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