“Damn it, what’s going on?”

“The comrade who went to pick which kid to kill hasn’t come back!”

“We can’t contact the comrades guarding the hostages either!”

“Hey, we can’t leave this room! There’s a translucent barrier blocking the door!”

Damn it, what’s happening?! The plan was flawless. We spent time infiltrating this place with comrades, thoroughly gathering intel beforehand. We even split the hostages into two groups and embedded some comrades disguised as hostages.

So why? We prepared for all sorts of contingencies, but now there’s no response from any of our comrades. There’s no way the police in this peaceful country could react this quickly. Someone must be interfering with us!

“Bind!”

“Ugh, what is this?!”

“Damn it, I can’t move!”

“What the hell, chains coming from the floor?!”

Alright, this means all the terrorists are now restrained. Phew, looks like we managed to resolve this without any casualties.

“Who the hell are you?!”

“Whoa, weird outfit! Are you with the police?”

I dispelled the barrier magic blocking the entrance and entered the room. There are five terrorists in total here. ...Honestly, I don’t care about how weird my suit looks anymore.

“All your comrades have been captured. Please stay put until the police arrive.”

“What’s with that weird voice? Let us go!”

Now it’s up to the police. Once they arrive, I can undo the binding magic, and they’ll handle restraining these guys properly.

Thud, thud, thud.

Ah, sounds like the police are finally storming in. They must’ve confirmed the safety of the hostages before entering.

“...Heh heh heh, so we couldn’t free our god and comrades after all.”

Using my eavesdropping skill, I overheard what seemed to be the leader of this terrorist group suddenly laughing.

“I don’t know what kind of god you worship, but this is the end for you lot. Pray to share a jail cell with your god or something.”

These guys are chained hand and foot and can’t do anything anymore. Still, I wouldn’t mind tracking down the cult leader who created this terror group and giving them a good punch.

“...It’s a pity we couldn’t involve the civilians, but at the very least, I’ll take you and the police who just entered this station down with us!”

Take us down with them?! Hey, wait a second, don’t tell me—!

“We are always with our god!”

“With our god!”

“Wait!!”

Click.

“...”

“...Sleep!”

“Ugh...”

“Leader?!”

“You bastard, what did you do to the leader?!”

“Why isn’t it exploding?!”

“Impossible, not a single explosion?!”

Oh, that scared the hell out of me!

I never expected he’d be able to press a detonator while bound hand and foot! You’re telling me you had a switch hidden in your molar? What era are you from?! Usually, it’d be a red button, some kind of remote control, or a smartphone!

Thankfully, those were all the bombs. Even though I was fairly certain, I was so terrified I could feel my heart about to burst. I ended up using my most powerful barrier magic to shield myself just in case!

To backtrack a bit, I actually arrived at the scene quite some time ago. Using an extreme wind magic technique that essentially propelled myself forward, I rushed to the location.

The lower floors were sealed off with shutters, making entry impossible without breaking through. So, I used stealth skills and wind magic to infiltrate from the second-floor platform.

After confirming that the hostages weren’t harmed, I used stealth skills to observe the number and movements of the terrorists. Once I had a clear picture, I was about to make my move when, through the eavesdropping skill, I overheard some disturbing conversations—things like how they were ready to die or how they were prepared to kill all the hostages.

Suspecting the worst, I used a search magic spell to scan the station for hidden bombs and found two stashed away in paper bags. Wanting to be thorough, I extended my search to the station’s surroundings as well. Unfortunately, this delayed the hostage rescue.

Honestly, during the search, I was so tense I felt like I’d get an ulcer, imagining the terrorists might point their guns at the hostages at any moment. Even though I could hear their conversations through the eavesdropping skill, these were terrorists. Who knew what might provoke them?

In total, there were two bombs in the station. Not knowing how to disarm them, I used storage magic to safely retrieve them. I was also concerned they might’ve planted explosives outside the station, so I searched as far as the range of my eavesdropping skill allowed.

When I finally reached the last area I could scan, I overheard the terrorists planning to kill a child as a warning. That’s when I rushed back using teleportation magic.

It was a huge relief that there weren’t any bombs in areas I couldn’t search and that none of the stored bombs detonated inside the storage magic.

I retrieved the detonator from the so-called leader’s mouth. It seems he had a molar removed and implanted with a switch shaped like a tooth. To think someone would go that far in their resolve to die...