You Must Atone

No wonder the old magician he had killed at dusk had a wanted notice issued that very night...

So the criminal on that wanted notice wasn't him at all!

Watching the middle-aged man in the distance, who clearly seemed mentally unstable, Ron crept beneath a shack to the side and used a rusty sheet of iron to conceal himself.

With this guy blocking the way, it looked like there was no chance of getting home safely today.

Ron didn't think saying "Please move aside" would solve anything... What murderer wouldn't silence a witness?

He had really run into quite a bit of trouble...

Judging by how the man used his ability, his control over those drifting sparks alone proved that his processing power was impressive.

After all, an ordinary Lv.1 Superpowered couldn't wield a fire ability so skillfully. Most Lv.1s didn't even have enough processing power to figure out where their ability would activate...

With an ability like fire, which could easily harm its user, they were not much less likely to burn themselves to death than to burn someone else.

So... Lv.2?

Ron could not help sighing.

Normally, if he wanted to avoid this trouble, he should have stayed hidden here obediently, or wriggled through the darkness like a maggot and slipped away unnoticed.

After this man finished his "hunt," burned that innocent, pitiful old sanitation worker to ashes, and left satisfied, Ron could go home as though nothing had happened...

But unfortunately, the man's method of committing crimes was rather interesting. Ron did not particularly want to let him leave so easily.

After all, a wanted criminal who reduced his victims to ashes and wandered around District D—

Why couldn't he become Ron's scapegoat?

Ron knew that, to the Patrol Bureau, the old magician's death might not be considered this man's crime—

After all, according to C01, the Discipline Patrol had discovered an unidentified superpower at the crime scene. The ability of the man before him was clearly nothing more than the common Fire Control, so the two naturally would not be linked.

But... Ron knew that the supposedly unidentified superpower was merely the Necromancy cast by the magician.

If Ron lit a wisp of Necromantic Fire and mixed it into the victim's ashes, then this victim, who appeared to have been killed solely by Fire Control,

would clearly register in the Patrol Bureau's examination as having died under the influence of an unidentified ability.

Of course, that was only the reason he had arrived at through a rational weighing of pros and cons.

There was another reason Ron remained here instead of leaving—

Emotionally, he did not like what this guy had said.

What did he mean... no value?

And what did he mean by combustible trash?

Watching the man's bloated back and listening to his unrestrained, manic laughter echo in his ears, Ron's gaze turned cold.

To be honest, Ron did not think he was a good person.

After transmigrating to Ideal City all those years ago, Ron had struggled at the bottom of society for so long that Ideal City, that harsh father, had long since beaten him into a thorough egoist with reality's whip.

Theft, fraud... When Ron had still been too young to reach Ideal City's legal working age, what bad things had he not done just to survive?

In his previous life, he would have been sent to juvenile detention long ago and made to undergo reform properly.

But even so, he knew what true "sin" was.

Some forms of "evil" could be atoned for and forgiven... Some could not.

Like what this man was doing right now.

He had turned an innocent old sanitation worker into a tool for venting his frustrations, humiliated his dignity, denied his worth, and taken his life—

Who exactly did he think he was?

God Almighty, free to judge others as he pleased?

Even in a place like Ideal City, where demons ran rampant, a lawless person like this counted among those most deserving of death.

Of course, Ron was not law enforcement, nor did he have the right to judge this man's sins.

But... if it was merely an act of righteous intervention,

there should not be any problem, right?

With that thought, he quietly stepped out of the shack's shadow and politely knocked on the steel plate beside him—

Knock, knock, knock.

"Who?!"

The middle-aged man, who had been engrossed in beating his human punching bag, immediately turned around. Obvious fear flashed through his eyes, and he instinctively hid the corpse behind himself...

But when he saw that the source of the noise was merely a somewhat thin-looking high school student smiling at him, he immediately relaxed.

So it wasn't the Patrol Bureau...

A savage grin appeared on his fat face once more.

"I didn't expect that besides this old man, I'd get an extra meal today too..."

He casually tossed the old sanitation worker's body aside. The flames around him surged and swelled before immediately descending upon the corpse.

Watching the body burn fiercely, shrink beneath the heat, and gradually turn black, Ron confirmed his judgment.

Although this man possessed a Lv.2 ability level and a Personal Reality stronger than Ron's,

the flames that had burned a person into charcoal were proof of his ability's power.

But...

Ron did not retreat. Instead, he walked toward the middle-aged man without a care and snapped his fingers as he said calmly,

"You should respect the dead... Someone has to collect his remains. It would be better to burn him completely into ashes and give them to his family."

A ghostly green flame ignited at Ron's fingertips. He then blew on it, and it drifted unsteadily onto the old sanitation worker's corpse.

In an instant, the flames were stained with a ghostly green glow. The charred body seemed to undergo accelerated decay, gradually whitening amid the flames...

Before long, it would probably collapse completely into ashes.

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"

But the middle-aged man sneered at Ron's actions.

"A lower life-form like this, one that can't even get through the doors of a megacorporation, has no value in existing at all... Why should I respect something no different from a stray cat or dog?"

He narrowed his eyes and sneered.

"And... don't think putting on that act will scare me.

I don't know what your ability is, but judging only by its output, it's far inferior to mine..."

He carefully looked over Ron's clothes. After confirming that the cheap street-vendor outfit on him did not even cost a hundred Credit Points, he lifted his head even more arrogantly.

"You're just a poor bastard like that old man. You probably only awakened your ability through dumb luck, right? Who are you trying to fool with this mysterious act?"

But in the face of the middle-aged man's insults, Ron merely took out his phone and replied casually,

"So what? What can you do about it? Kill me?"

"What can I do? Hahaha! Once my fist lands on you, you worthless trash will find out exactly what I can do!"

The middle-aged man laughed angrily and strode toward Ron. Flames coiled around his fist; clearly, he no longer wanted to waste time with Ron—

But Ron still paid him no mind.

"Hold on. It's not time for you to die yet."

He spoke casually as he opened C01's chat window.

[Ron: I found the murderer you were looking for. Get here quickly.]

Only then did Ron put his phone back into his pocket.

"Mm, all right. Now it's time to deal with you."

He spoke softly as the Ability Limiter around his neck emitted a rapid series of beeps.

"You must atone."

Xia Zhi was exhausted.

It was not from work pressure, nor was it from life pressure. It came from only one thing—

A Superpowered murder case in Ideal City's District D.

An unidentified Ideal City citizen had died in Heavenly Listening 271st Block in District D. The killer had used an unidentified superpower to murder him, then hidden somewhere in the block.

Xia Zhi had handled many cases like this before.

Every time, the Patrol Bureau had been extremely generous with its support.

The use of [Artemis], military equipment, even temporary Authority that could raise her to Lv.4...

So long as Xia Zhi led Team C-112 to solve those cases, the Patrol Bureau had never been stingy with such support.

But this time... their attitude had inexplicably changed.

As the first discoverers of the case, her team should have been at its core. Yet after the preliminary case information had been uploaded to headquarters, a mysterious team had been parachuted in to replace them.

It was hard to imagine that Xia Zhi, a prominent figure at Heavenly Listening University, a patrol officer exceptionally promoted by the Patrol Bureau during her internship, and a Lv.3 [Spatial Leap] user—

would be directly kicked out of the investigation team for this case!

The arrogant people, wrapped tightly from head to toe and acting all mysterious, had seized their authority to handle the mission the moment they arrived in District D, directly stripping them of their right to act...

Even the case itself had been tightly sealed away, becoming something beyond Xia Zhi's current Authority to access.

She wanted to know why, and had sought out the director of the Patrol Bureau's District D branch several times, but she could never get an answer.

Every time, he told her that the case involved important secrets and that, as a Discipline Patrol officer, she was not qualified to know...

Fine, if she was not qualified, then she was not qualified. As an Ideal City citizen, Xia Zhi knew perfectly well that plenty of secrets were hidden within this Cosmic City.

If this case truly involved something confidential, she was naturally willing to hand authority over to another action team, so long as they could apprehend the criminal.

...But here was the problem.

Those mysterious people wrapped up so tightly were not investigating the case at all!

Xia Zhi had secretly observed them many times and found that, no matter when she looked, she could see them in a secluded conference room.

All of them stayed in that conference room every day. They never went out to investigate and did not care about the case in the slightest.

Today, Xia Zhi had finally become too curious about what they were doing, so she peered through a crack in the door...

Only to discover that those mysterious people were devoutly muttering before a small idol, seemingly praying.

To be honest, faith was not unfamiliar to the people of Ideal City.

Although science had long proven that gods had vanished during the Great Cataclysm, there was nothing much to criticize about imagining a god as a source of spiritual comfort.

But the problem was that Xia Zhi had watched them for a long time and found that they had been praying to that idol the entire time, without moving even once all afternoon!

...Had the city government hired you to investigate cases or to pray?

Weren't they just fanatics?

Thinking of that made Xia Zhi somewhat irritated.

As a genius with a rare ability, outstanding grades, and excellent qualities, she actually had many paths available to her.

Whether she became a senior executive at a megacorporation or entered the city government and pursued an official career, her future would clearly have been far brighter than doing grassroots work at the Patrol Bureau.

But because of the simple sense of justice in her heart, because she wanted to fight criminals and protect the people, Xia Zhi had resolutely joined the Patrol Bureau and become a patrol officer.

So she could not possibly let a murderer roam free without bringing him to justice...

Who knew how many more sins that man would commit, or how many innocent people he would kill!

Damn it... Why had those useless parasites gotten involved with the Patrol Bureau?

Irritated, she ran her fingers through her hair, her smooth strands slipping through them.

If it came down to it, she could only risk dismissal and violating the confidentiality agreement to secretly capture the criminal herself...

Just as Xia Zhi was thinking that, her phone suddenly began to beep.

Someone was looking for me?

She picked up her phone in confusion. When she saw Ron's message, her expression instantly became serious.

Ron... Was he the person marked by Artemis, the possible witness?

He found the murderer from that case?!

No... He must be in danger!

"Hurry! Help me locate this person's coordinates!"

She immediately snapped her fingers and teleported directly to the Patrol Bureau's communications department.

The supervisor was completely confused about why Xia Zhi was in such a rush, but he dutifully completed the task and quickly found Ron's coordinates.

"Still in Heavenly Listening 271st Block, just as expected... Forget it, there's no time to apply for equipment. I'm going in directly."

She took several arcade tokens from her pocket and placed them at the four corners of a floor tile, outlining a square.

"Coordinates established. Confirming the destination is unaffected by spatial interference abilities..."

She muttered to herself. The next moment, the four arcade tokens twisted as though swallowed by space, then vanished.

At the same time, Xia Zhi disappeared—

In the next instant, she appeared in a dark alley.

She looked up and saw a middle-aged man in a Noah Pharmaceuticals uniform in the distance, swinging his fists and controlling balls of flame as he lunged at a somewhat thin-looking high school student nearby.

That thin high school student was standing there as if frozen with fear, not moving at all...

Oh no!

Xia Zhi rushed over without hesitation and shouted a warning.

"This is Team C-112. I am Executive Officer C01!

You have violated the Ideal City Public Security Penalties Law. Immediately cease your ongoing illegal actions and surrender without resistance!

I repeat, immediately—"

But her words obviously could not stop the flames that were already nearly upon Ron.

She could only watch helplessly as the middle-aged man threw a punch at Ron, blazing fire sweeping forward... Hm?

Why... had his fist stopped?

She saw Ron extend a finger and press it against the middle-aged man's fist, leaving him unable to move as if he had struck a concrete wall...

The surging flames also inexplicably changed direction. Just before they touched Ron, they were all blown away as though by the wind, rushing in the opposite direction.

Then Xia Zhi saw Ron softly mouth a single word...

"Boom."

In an instant, the middle-aged man's face turned the purplish-red color of raw liver—

Blood burst from his seven orifices like an explosion!