The circuits were vibrating—both the one on my wrist and the one beneath the floor.
James sighed, placing a hand on his forehead.
“We might not have enough time for that,” he said.
“And there’s no guarantee the police will listen. They might even try to send a specialist in here.”
“Is there a way to control the circuit from outside?” Iris asked, offering another perspective.
Everyone’s gaze shifted to her.
“In other words, if we announce that there’s a bomb and they, for whatever reason, send someone in to investigate… Could we detonate it then?”
“That’s…” James trailed off.
“As far as we’ve seen, there’s no visible communication equipment,” Cherry said.
“But we haven’t inspected the entire structure, so we can’t be certain.”
Another grim possibility made my head spin.
The vibrations in the circuits intensified.
“W-wait, calm down…!” Cherry panicked, probably because she knew about my emotional instability.
“…Let’s tackle this step by step,” Hayoon said, bringing us back to focus. “First, we’ll talk to them.”
“Should I go?” I asked hesitantly.
“…No, sorry,” Hayoon shook her head.
“It has to be Iris or me. Your emotions are too unstable right now.”
She wasn’t wrong.
If I got worked up while negotiating with the police, the bomb could detonate before we had a chance to act.
At least when it was buried, I didn’t have to look at it, so the danger felt less immediate.
Now, with the circuits reacting so sensitively to my emotions, it was different.
Even removing the circuit from my wrist could trigger an explosion.
I tried not to think about the chairman’s face.
I didn’t know exactly when despair would overwhelm me, but I understood well enough that the more negative my thoughts, the greater the risk.
Reluctantly, I nodded at Hayoon.
To summarize the outcome: it worked.
Of course, it wasn’t a great situation for me.
Even if Hayoon and Iris explained that I hadn’t planted the bomb, the police wouldn’t believe them.
There were likely similar incidents in the past.
At least the civilians had fled in droves.
Wealthy people were good at looking out for themselves, after all.
Meanwhile, I tried to suppress my emotions as much as possible.
Although the bomb was slightly stabilized and wouldn’t immediately explode upon forming a black hole, I couldn’t afford to take chances.
I considered the idea of staying behind while the others escaped, but Hayoon and Iris weren’t keen on leaving me.
“If something goes wrong and you get injured or collapse, we’ll need to carry you,” they said.
We didn’t even know where the three others from our group were.
All we had to rely on were my vague instincts.
For now, I needed to hold myself together to keep things moving.
From outside, we saw the police retreating.
Hayoon returned, reporting, “They’ve backed off for now. They mentioned a 50-meter radius, but in practice, they’ll likely stay farther away. Still, it didn’t take them long to evacuate.”
She frowned slightly.
“It’s a bit unsettling. Normally, they’d search every house to ensure no one was left behind. Just because this is a wealthy neighborhood doesn’t mean there aren’t people with limited mobility or elderly residents confined to their homes. It’d take time to check everything thoroughly.”
“And we don’t know how many escaped while we were causing a commotion,” she added.
For a moment, it seemed Hayoon shared my thoughts.
“Can we move the circuit?” she asked.
James and Cherry turned to her simultaneously.
“It might be possible,” James replied, “but…”
“Considering Iris’s suggestion, it’s an incredibly risky choice,” he added.
Fortunately, the circuit didn’t seem to have any cameras.
Buried beneath the floor, it was designed to detonate once we left, so additional surveillance wasn’t necessary.
But, there’s always the possibility of a remote detonator.
That means even attempting to move the circuit could be dangerous.
Iris’s warp ability isn’t perfect either.
It’s not a fully developed technology.
At most, she can transport objects to random coordinates that are not too far and don’t overlap with other objects.
Moving individuals one by one is manageable.
But accurately transporting someone to a fixed coordinate? That’s much harder.
In space, moving a spaceship is relatively straightforward; the coordinates are static.
But on Earth, which rotates and orbits the sun, warp points on the surface must remain stable and synchronized with that motion.
Creating a massive warp point using immense energy would make it possible, but it would require substantial resources, manpower, and advanced equipment.
Iris could do it—if she had the time and access to cutting-edge magical tools.
Here, neither is an option.
“So, attempting it is meaningless, isn’t it?” I said.
“You know as well as I do that if they had the resources to build such a device, they could also make it explode the moment it’s moved.”
“In short, we can’t move it,”
James said, his voice agitated.
“If there’s even the slightest chance of a remote detonator, moving it is out of the question!”
The Dilemma
Do we risk leaving someone behind to handle this, knowing civilians might still be nearby?
Or do we leave and watch the explosion from a safe distance?
“I’ll do it.”
“What?” Hayoon looked at me, startled.
“Why? Were you planning to do it?” I replied dryly.
“This isn’t something that can be handled in the middle of a city. Maybe if there was a large empty field nearby, but here?”
I glanced around the group. No one spoke.
“I don’t need a black hole for this. I can fly too,” I added.
My strength was enough to swing around that massive hammer without a second thought.
This had to be my responsibility.
“But—”
“Forget about justice or heroics; this thing is near me. That makes it my problem.”
The truth was, this possibility had been in my mind all along.
I’d just delayed and delayed making the choice until the last moment.
Now, with no alternatives left, I walked over and picked up the circuit.
“Wait, Jieun!” Hayoon called out.
Why? You said yourself we couldn’t leave this to explode here.
“If the blast radius is 50 meters, I just need to fly higher than that, right?”
“Wait!” Iris shouted.
But I didn’t listen.
I might have been a petty person, jealous enough to take a job at a corrupt company just to spite Hayoon, but I didn’t want to be a murderer.
I’d had enough of being treated like one already.
The first explosion had been out of my control—I hadn’t even known there was a bomb.
This time, it was different.
I knew the bomb was here.
I knew it could kill people if it exploded.
Pretending I didn’t know would be the same as murder.
I might be a petty villain, but I wasn’t about to become the ultimate antagonist.
All I’d ever wanted was to be the protagonist.
If giving up had led to this situation, then acting now was the only way to change it.
“How long after creating the black hole will it explode?”
“Maybe three seconds,” James replied.
“There’s a brief overload period.”
“Three seconds of grace, huh?” I murmured.
“But if it absorbs too much magic before that, all bets are off,” James added grimly.
The circuit in my hands vibrated, heating up rapidly.
It felt like it could explode at any moment.
Unlike the protagonists, I wasn’t feeling courage right now—only fear, helplessness, and despair.
But I wasn’t planning to die.
If I died, it would be with a proper counterattack.
“What about throwing it into a black hole?”
“It would explode the moment it enters,” James said.
“Your black holes are pure magic, a compressed bundle of space. It would be impossible to contain or reduce the explosion. And no, it wouldn’t prevent the blast from reaching the outside.”
“Jieun!” Hayoon ran toward me, but I held the circuit tightly against my chest.
“I’m going.”
“Wait, there’s got to be another way!” Iris cried.
“There’s no time,” I said, glancing at the vibrating circuit.
“It won’t hold against my emotions for much longer.”
Hayoon met my gaze, and for a brief moment, our eyes locked.
Then, without hesitation, I turned and bolted, leaping through the broken window.
I hit the ground running, then launched myself skyward.
The circuit, reacting to my magic, trembled violently and grew hotter as I ascended.
How high had I gone? How much longer could the circuit last?
When the air grew bitterly cold, I hurled the circuit upward with all my strength.
Then, I cut off my magic.
I felt the sensation of freefall, like being on an amusement park ride.
The circuit soared higher as I plummeted downward.
Even though the distance between us was significant, I knew I couldn’t escape the blast.
The circuit glowed brightly—a light far too cheerful for something tied to despair.
And then I felt someone pull me downward.
My vision flipped, and there was Hayoon.
“Hayoon?”
“You’re fine,” she said, smiling.
“Wait—!”
Before I could protest, she hugged me tightly and spun, positioning her body to shield me from the explosion.
The blast enveloped us both.