Chapter 172: Chapter 172 - Poison Lord
Theo had simply been eating his dinner, having just said goodbye to his friends after an amazing win streak.
That’s when his television suddenly flickered to a live report.
The cheerful drama series playing moments ago had completely vanished.
A serious-looking news anchor appeared instead.
Theo paused halfway through lifting his fork.
’’Huh?’’
The expression on the anchor’s face immediately told him this wasn’t normal news.
Behind the woman, a large red banner appeared.
[BREAKING NEWS!]
Theo slowly lowered his fork.
’’Good evening,’’ the anchor said, her voice noticeably tense. "We interrupt all scheduled programming with a major international announcement."
The screen flickered for a moment.
Then—
A photograph of a middle-aged man appeared on the screen.
He had black hair and wore glasses, with cold eyes underneath them.
Theo’s expression changed.
’What?’ he thought. ’Why are they showing this now?’
Even from the picture, he knew exactly who it was.
In fact, nearly every person on the planet would know.
That’s when another photograph popped up beside the image, this time showing a mangled corpse barely recognizable as human.
’’...?’’
Theo froze, his eyes locked on the screen.
’’After a successful collaboration between the American and Indian Hunters Associations, the official death of the Third Calamity has been confirmed.’’
Silence.
Theo just stared at the screen.
For a moment, he thought he’d misheard it.
Then another image replaced the ones on screen.
This time, it showed dozens of heavily armed hunters standing around a devastated battlefield.
Massive craters were everywhere, alongside strange flowers and clearly molten spots from poison.
’’The operation was carried out earlier today following a decade-long international manhunt,’’ the anchor continued. ’’Many heroic hunters suffered in this battle—’’
The rest of the broadcast slowly faded as Theo’s eyes widened.
’They killed him...?’
’Is this real?’
His mind flickered back to the mangled corpse.
Showing something like that on live television was pretty unusual.
But it made it very clear that the Hunters Association wanted to eliminate any doubt.
’So... they actually killed one of them?’
Theo’s gaze remained on the television as his mind spun.
The Poison Lord.
From what he’d heard, he’d been a biomana scientist for the Indian government until one random night.
After completely destroying the military laboratories, the middle-aged man had vanished from sight.
Only a few days later... reports of mass poisonings began emerging all along the Ganga River.
And by the time authorities understood what was happening, the disaster had already spread beyond control.
Well over a million people died.
And even now, more than five million people were still suffering from its aftermath.
Disfigurement, lifelong impairments, and the poisoning of a river considered holy by hundreds of millions were only some of the consequences.
Theo exhaled slowly.
He gripped his head as he leaned back slightly.
’’This... is massive.’’
Though the Poison Lord wasn’t the most dangerous, chaotic, or anything of such sorts, it didn’t make it any less of an achievement.
To this date, not a single Calamity had been caught or killed.
Not one.
For years, governments all over the world had poured trillions into tracking them down.
Countless hunters had died, many of whom were true elites in their countries.
And finally, it had accomplished something.
’’Great,’’ he said, smiling. ’’This is great!’’
The broadcast continued for several more minutes, though it mainly repeated the same points.
It didn’t take long for footage to spread all across social media.
Countless people cheered, their spirits high for the first time in weeks.
Even those protesting on the streets couldn’t help but look incredulous. For the first time in weeks, the anger and uncertainty seemed to lessen.
But that was just in the United States.
All over the world, fireworks were being lit.
Even some governments themselves were celebrating.
But who could blame them?
During the decade-long chase, the Poison Lord had bothered many countries, though nothing on such a large scale as the Ganga River.
Buzz.
Theo glanced down.
Several messages had already appeared on his phone.
More continued arriving every few seconds.
Apparently, he wasn’t the only one glued to the news.
A small smile appeared on his face.
’Perfect time for a celebration,’ he thought, summoning all kinds of cakes.
It didn’t take long before his friends arrived.
Heck, even Owen and Jim were there.
Time passed by very quickly. By the time everyone went back, it was already very late in the night.
Then, before he knew it, morning arrived.
’Ugh,’ he thought, rubbing his head. ’Definitely stayed up too late...’
Within minutes, he got dressed, ate his breakfast, and was fully ready.
’Let’s see,’ he thought, putting on his shoes. ’The arena opens at 11 AM, so I have three hours remaining.’
After the continuous challenges yesterday, he’d shot up all the way to rank 39.
’I’ll just need to challenge four more people,’ he thought, smiling. ’Then I’ll be number one.’
Tomorrow would be the last day of the tournament too, making everything fall perfectly into place.
’Though I wonder how strong those top 10 students are... surely there’s some SSS-ranks amongst them.’
After a moment of thought, Theo simply shrugged.
’I’ll just have to beat them up.’
With that, he took in a breath and opened his door.
As he stepped outside, he immediately noticed the difference.
The students were talking excitedly about last night.
Clearly, the news had shifted the atmosphere completely.
’Can’t hear those protest screams either,’ he thought, humming softly.
Theo only had one word to describe all of this.
’Perfect.’
With the death of the Poison Lord, everyone’s spirits were lifted. Even ordinary civilians finally felt protected again.
’The Fifth Calamity’s plan has finally come to an end.’
He took out his phone and couldn’t help but smile as he saw the incoming news reports.
The riots had largely stopped.
Though tension still lingered between civilians, hunters, and the government, repair crews were no doubt cleaning up the mess left behind.
Like that, life would slowly begin to move forward again.
Naturally, not everyone could.
Some wounds wouldn’t heal.
Some families would never recover from the accidents that happened.
But the world itself continued moving.
And for better or worse, most people were eager to leave the nightmare behind them.
