Countless masses of humans are born into the world, and likewise die.
Earth, the cradle of countless Homo sapiens living out their own lives upon it.
Even now, at the end of an age when they believed they alone possessed intelligence in the universe, now that the Gates have opened.
“Damn it, you people again? My heart’s shrinking in on itself... I haven’t missed you at all. Joat.”
There was one immutable truth that everyone could wholeheartedly agree with.
“Ah, cold—!!”
As a certain great sage from a certain manga once said, “the law of cutting off 20%.”
Whenever several people gathered, there would inevitably be one bastard among them you simply couldn’t associate with. This truth applied regardless of era.
If only the odds of running into them were low, perhaps it would be bearable.
But in certain countries where life was concentrated in the capital, every time you walked down the street, some lunatic would get caught in your path. Honestly.
Even after committing the atrocity of naturally dyeing the clothes of a young man who had happily gone out in white into brown.
“...Wait, you pour iced Americano on someone’s body and then just leave without a single apology?!”
“Hey, you think I wanted this to happen?! You live your life without ever making mistakes?! Damn, you whine like hell!”
A “me-first, selfish” son of a bitch who caused trouble for others and felt not even the slightest pang of conscience.
“Excuse me, can’t you see there’s a line? Why are you cutting—”
“Hey, do you not have parents?! You’re embarrassing me in front of all these people?!”
A conscience like an icehouse, demanding more while living less, when even Joseon didn’t grant honorary posts to anyone under eighty.
“Do you know who I am?! I’m someone a thing like you would never dare lay a hand on!!”
And even an anachronistic specimen of humanity, thawed out from somewhere in the Arctic, despite the fact that the class system had supposedly died before the country was even remodeled.
People who had eaten their sense of tact with rice, people with no intention of following the rules of society...
Modern society was one where countless idiots, endlessly mocked online, were actively causing trouble in real time.
No, strictly speaking, it would be more accurate to say, “that was how it had been until recently.”
“...Huh?”
Memories of the old days, when victims avoided trouble because they were afraid that a pointless fight would send their lives spiraling into the negative?
Bzzzzzt...!!
If you still think that way, you’ll need to make a slightly more difficult choice.
After the sudden caffeine shower, to a degree impossible to believe was merely the heat a body produced to survive.
“Since you suddenly poured cold coffee on my body, shouldn’t I be entitled to receive a REWARD?”
Because it had become an age where a human steam engine and inner-thought search device, wreathed head to toe in fire and caffeine smoke, actually existed.
The people who had caused trouble elsewhere were likewise paying their respective prices to their hearts’ content.
Thwack! Thwack!
“Ugh, urgh...!! I’m sorry! I was wrong, sir...!! Please stop...”
“You know why my clothes are red?! Because they’re dyed with the blood of bastards like you! Stand up, sir, this is the Beatdown-ternational—!!”
Declaring that he would reform the mind of the shameless line-cutting class theorist nearby,
An ability user of the neural-reflex type, who was performing revolutionary facial reconstructive surgery, kept slipping past his guard and driving in punches.
“If! You! Can’t! Ingest! Age! Orally! Then! At least! Shut! Your! Mouth!”
Thwack...! Thwack...!!
Thanks to the consideration of a young ability user of the super-strength type, who was diligently massaging the old man’s intestines with his foot while saying, “Better than respecting your elders is writing your will,”
“Aigoo, I’m dying—!!”
And after watching live the final moments of an honorary-office impersonator, whether he was dying of joy or actually dying,
“...H-Hahaha... H-hey, young man? What is that hand for? You’re not really going to put that on me, are you...?”
Even if humility had never entered someone’s head for a very long time, if they valued their life, they at least had to pretend.
Adjusting naturally to the change in circumstances, hiding his grimace as best he could beneath the angle of his bent waist and lowered head,
The troublemaker, who wasn’t particularly sorry and was thinking only of bowing a few times before running away, had his nose approached.
“Did you know? My nickname is the Brand Maker. Actually, it doesn’t mean I stamp brands. It has another meaning.”
“...What? What does that—”
“It’s short for Octopus-Human Maker, you damn son of a bitch! Go start looking for a wig to wear from now on!”
Bzzzzzzzt...!!
Before long, smoke from the white and black protein atop his own head seeped into the air.
***
The era when it was fine to inconvenience others, because no matter how rude you were, there was no danger of getting your skull cracked, was over.
They had merely been specimens of people who could act that way in a safe world, picking fights only when they thought they could get away with it.
“Excuse me, how can you fry someone’s head like that! You’re someone who should know better...”
“Ah! You can just come out for weekend service as a forced Gate gatekeeper! Damn, you talk too much!”
In an age of mutually assured destruction of skulls, where the times had tilted somewhat away from civilization and toward barbarism, that wouldn’t fly.
“Aigoo, welcome! We’ll assign you to a Gate near your home!”
After getting beaten to their hearts’ content, they would merely become material for a plea bargain to replace the other party’s red notice.
Well, during that service period, various monster byproducts that came out of the Gates would be sold off as national assets,
and they said a certain percentage of it would be used to support the medical expenses of the fools who had risked their lives picking fights...
“Hey, what am I supposed to do about my ability being strong? I’m telling you, a core resource just accidentally went up in flames.”
“...Why is it that everything burns down only on weekends, during your service period, while on other weekdays you catch them in perfect condition for processing... Never mind.”
But would there truly be no one petty enough to cause “minor screw-ups” because they didn’t even want to give that much?
The surprising part was that the ending where the victim waited and eventually paid for treatment out of pocket was actually a rather mild form of “pettiness.”
When problems or conflicts occurred at the level of individual versus individual, they could at least be somehow bound by law and settled.
Kwaaaang—!!
But a lunatic whose eyes had completely rolled back, who ignored his own losses and swore he would absolutely wreck your species?
A madman who, with nothing but the mindset of revenge, felt full to the brim and bounced around as though he had become rich?
Just by looking at the history books of the neighboring country that had turned to dust, there were countless examples: metal spines hidden in fish, hurling a metal geomungo during a live performance, hammer throwing, and more.
Weeeeeeeoooooo.....
— Citizens remaining on this planet, as a precaution, please proceed immediately to the nearest Gate or follow emergency evacuation protocol...
“I finally found you. Hey, knife-ear. Do you know why I came?”
“You, you crazy bastard! If you touch that, you won’t make it out of here in one piece either...!!”
Inside one building in the middle of a forest of high-rises, where no trace of human presence remained.
Even after collapsing with severe injuries all over his body, he flailed with the only arm that still had strength,
as though desperate to end the ordeal of the chief executive crawling toward him.
“Come on, why are you worrying about me at this point? You should be worrying about yourself.”
Crunch!
A young man bestowed treatment befitting that noble finger which had issued all the orders.
If one could not bear the weight of a crown, shouldn’t one at least support the weight of a commoner’s foot to qualify as a leader?
“Gyaaaaaah....!! Aaaagh! You damned bastard...”
Who was it that said the most frightening person in the world was someone with nothing to lose?
“You probably weren’t the one who gave the order, but... well, if you keep one bad subordinate around, responsibility falls on the higher-up.”
— In your next life, make sure you order them to confirm the kill properly, got it?
Crunch!
Not long after one special-grade gu creature, forged by Earth’s environment, completed his revenge,
Flash—!!
In space, where not even sound could be heard,
a star gave off light and completed the final motion of its lifespan.
And at the end of suffering far too great to be called the price of carelessly provoking one lunatic,
“...Captain William. What am I looking at right now?”
“...Oh, God fucking damn it.”
One Gate that had been open on Earth completely ceased operation.
It was a miracle created by a single human being equipped with a mindset capable of enduring his own discomfort, the pain of life, and rewards that did not match the work he had done.
A human who could be satisfied so long as someone else’s life became even a little more painful.
It was the first incident since five years and one month had passed after the Gates opened.