The remaining workers froze in place. Their faces were pale; not a single drop of blood remained on their terrified faces.
Their legs trembled so violently that one of them fell backward onto the cracked asphalt.
"Wh-who are you really...?! M-monster!"
shouted one of the workers holding a crowbar. He tried to swing it with trembling hands at Steve as a last line of defense.
Steve only snorted softly.
WHOOSH!
With a speed that could not be caught by the eye, he moved.
CLANG!
The crowbar in the worker's hand was split in two, falling with a clatter to the ground with a very clean cut. The tip of Steve's legendary sword now stopped exactly one centimeter in front of the man's neck. A pitch-black aura crept from the sword's blade, as if choking the air around them.
"Monster?" Steve tilted his head, his gaze as cold as ice. "You who laugh happily over the suffering of starving people... you call me a monster?"
"M-mercy! Please don't kill us!" wailed another worker, bowing on the ground until his forehead touched the dust. "We are just laborers taking orders! We were paid by Boss Mushchat to monopolize this area!"
"Mushchat..." Steve muttered.
His memory returned to the desperate-faced little children in Sentosa Village who were forced to eat rotten food from the trash pile.
The veins on Steve's forehead bulged. His anger peaked again. That corrupt official had truly sacrificed the lives of the people suffering post-disaster just to fatten his own pockets.
Steve lowered his sword, but his Pure Darkness aura actually grew thicker, making it even harder for the workers to breathe.
"Take me to Mushchat," Steve ordered in a low tone that accepted no refusal whatsoever. "Now."
"B-but Boss Mushchat is in his luxurious headquarters... in the city center zone, exactly at the National DPR Building! It is heavily guarded there by high-class mercenary Hunters!" the worker answered with a trembling voice and tears of fear.
Steve smiled faintly. A deadly smile that he never showed when he was still the weakest human in the world.
"You think I care? Quickly take me there!!"
The worker trembled violently, to the point that his pants were wet from extreme fear.
Without daring to look into Steve's eyes again, he nodded quickly. "A-alright! We will take you, S-sir! Please don't kill us!"
They immediately took Steve using one of the construction trucks that was still intact.
"How could it become like this? Did the citizens here not hold massive protests?!" Steve said.
"They have, and it happens very often, but the government here is very hard to penetrate. The rich and the government are united; many lives from the lower class have been sacrificed but... it didn't work," he replied gloomily...
Along the journey to the city center, the atmosphere changed drastically. From the ruined area and slum huts of Sentosa Village full of suffering, the scenery changed to smooth asphalt roads and sparkling luxurious buildings.
In the midst of that luxury stood the National DPR Building a giant monument now transformed and heavily guarded like a private military fortress. Becoming a hiding place for rats who love to steal.
The truck stopped quite a distance from the main gate. The worker pointed with a violently trembling hand. "Th-that's the place... Boss Mushchat is in the VIP room on the top floor. B-but look at the guards, they are all high-level Hunters!"
In front of that steel-plated gate, dozens of heavily armed and fierce-looking mercenary Hunters were standing guard. Some of them even brought tamed pet monsters that growled fiercely.
Steve got off the truck. Instead of finding a secret path or sneaking through the shadows, he casually walked right in the middle of the main road, straight toward the giant gate.
He let his legendary sword drag on the asphalt, producing a cringe-inducing screeech sound and sparking small embers, blending with the increasingly dense and suffocating Pure Darkness aura.
"Hey, kid! Stop right there!" shouted one of the guard Hunters, raising his magic cannon and aiming it right at Steve. "This is private government property! Dare to take another step, and your head will have a hole in it!"
Steve didn't slow his pace at all. His eyes stared straight at the top of the skyscraper, as if able to pierce through the top-floor glass where those tie-wearing rats were hiding.
"Move aside," Steve said coldly.
"Arrogant brat! Kill him!" ordered the guard captain.
Dozens of magic bullets, energy arrows, and wind slashes launched simultaneously, forming a storm of deadly attacks toward Steve.
However, before the barrage of attacks could even touch a single strand of his hair, Steve disappeared from their sight.
WHOOSH!
BOOOOOOM!!!
The half-meter-thick giant steel gate exploded into pieces, thrown into the air like paper blown by a storm. The guard Hunters were violently thrown back by an absurd shockwave, spewing blood before their bodies slammed into the surrounding concrete walls until they cracked.
Some immediately fainted unconscious.
In the midst of the smoke and dust of the destroyed gate's debris, Steve's silhouette stepped in without a single scratch. His sword was now engulfed in a black aura burning like hellfire.
"Pest rats..." Steve's voice echoed in the lobby of the luxurious building; his voice was soft but successfully made the remaining guards freeze in absolute terror. "Time to pay your bills."
Steve kept walking toward the top floor... He immediately struck down everyone he met, floor after floor passed, and finally, Steve suddenly arrived at the top floor.
Steve stabbed his sword into the door. He entered slowly, radiating an overflowing aura of darkness. "Oi, you disgusting bastard creatures! You no longer have the right to live!"
Inside the gold-plated VIP room, Mushchat and dozens of other corrupt officials were partying merrily. Their round table was full of high-quality monster meat and expensive wine, a stark contrast to the village children eating garbage.
Hearing the door being forced open, their laughter stopped instantly.
"Wh-who are you?! How dare you enter my private room! Where are the guards?!" shouted Mushchat with a face flushed with anger, slowly backing away from the table.
Steve threw one of the elite guard captain's severely dented chest protectors onto their table. CRASH! The expensive plates scattered.
"Your guards are taking a permanent nap downstairs," Steve answered coldly.
Steve walked forward, his legendary sword scratching the thick red carpet. "I give you one choice. Open the emergency broadcast system to the entirety of Nusantara right now. Confess all your sins, the starvation you created, and the corruption you committed. Or..."
"HAH! Don't joke around, you beggar!" cut in one of the plump officials sitting next to Mushchat. He stood up arrogantly, feeling his power was absolute. "Who do you think you are daring to threaten us?! We are the law in this country! We will never bow to-"
CRASH!
Before the fat man could finish his sentence, a slash shot out as fast as lightning. In the blink of an eye, the arrogant official's body was reduced to black dust, leaving nothing behind except his luxurious chair which was also split in two.
Absolute silence immediately enveloped the room.
The remaining officials there, including Mushchat, trembled so violently that their teeth chattered. Their faces were as pale as corpses. Some of them were instantly soaked from peeing their pants. They realized the cold-eyed young man in front of them was not negotiating.
"Or, you will share the same fate as that fat pig," Steve continued flatly, lowering his sword which was still emitting black smoke. "Now, who else wants to protest?"
"W-we will do it! P-please don't kill us!" screamed Mushchat while prostrating himself begging for mercy, followed by the other officials like pets scared half to death.
Steve brought them down out of their cage; one of them was forced by Steve to turn on a hologram that could be seen across all parts of the world.
They disclosed all their deeds that had been unknown to the people so far. However, Steve realized something wasn't right. They were saying those things not out of guilt, but because they wanted to survive and do the same things again. One of them even smiled as if wanting to laugh.
Steve, unable to hold back anymore, slashed all their heads off until they died. With heavy breaths and a sword still dripping with blood, Steve stared straight into the still-active hologram camera. "I will not let anything smelling of oppression like this happen again. Let me be the only one who has ever felt it!"
Steve turned off the broadcast, leaving the whole world frozen in shock.
He glanced at the lifeless bodies of those tie-wearing rats who would soon respawn.
Steve's hand reached into the torn pocket of Mushchat's suit, taking a main vault access card for the building, and then pulled out his communication device. He immediately called Kregk.
After briefly explaining the situation, a soft yet fully satisfied laugh was heard from the other end of the phone. "Steve... you really are different... Heh," Kregk said proudly, not expecting his new member to have this level of courage and decisiveness.
The next morning, the sky of Nusantara felt much brighter.
The roaring sound of air transport engines was heard above the skies of remote villages in Nusantara. Dozens of trucks and transport ships belonging to The Great Hunter guild descended, carrying tons of basic necessities, high-quality monster meat, healing potions, and warm clothes confiscated from the corrupt officials' vault last night.
Kregk came down to directly lead the distribution. Fortis, with his muscles bulging enthusiastically, carried dozens of giant grocery boxes alone while laughing out loud, distributing them to the citizens.
The children who were eating garbage yesterday were now crying tears of emotion while biting into warm bread and delicious roasted meat. The citizens prostrated in gratitude, tears of happiness wetting their cheeks.
In a slightly quiet corner, Steve stood leaning against a tree, smiling faintly at the laughter of those children. This sight was worth all the blood he spilled last night.
Without Steve realizing it, from a distance, a pair of eyes was watching him.
Pulchra, who was distributing warm blankets, had been stealing glances at Steve all along. The white-haired woman's cheeks flushed red, smiling to herself looking at Steve.
Feeling watched, Steve turned toward her. Their gazes met.
Pulchra's eyes instantly widened in shock. Her face immediately turned as red as a boiled tomato. Because she was acting awkwardly and felt very embarrassed, she hurriedly covered her face with both hands, pretending to be busy arranging a pile of blankets while turning her back to Steve.
Seeing his senior's suddenly panicked behavior, Steve could only chuckle softly. In the end, Nusantara could finally breathe a sigh of relief.!