I opened a community forum for the first time in a while.

–What’s this place for?

“It’s like a chatroom of sorts.”
“People who want to talk about similar topics gather, post, and discuss.”

–Like a public square on the internet?

“Something like that.”

Nothing beats community forums for getting a raw sense of public opinion.

News and newspapers have long been puppets dancing to money and power.
Proper information vanished from broadcasts ages ago.

The language can be rough, and you have to watch out for disturbing images, but they’re useful enough.

So, to know what people think of me, it’s well worth checking out.

–Looks like a place called Yaggal is pretty popular.

“Ignore it. It’s a dead-end forum full of weird spam posts.”

Let’s see which forums are trending.
Skip the gaming ones, skip the political ones… what’s this?

[Drunk Driver Gallery]
[A place to discuss the recently infamous drunk driver killer.]

Looks like they repurposed an existing forum to talk about me.
Curious, I clicked in.

–[Killer’s freaking awesome, hit like lol]
–[Roads are super clean lately]
–[Passed by bars, saw way more designated drivers]
–[But who’s the killer, seriously??]

Title: Honestly, I don’t care who they are

I’m just so damn grateful for this killer lol

Back in the day, roads at night were like Mad Max with all the lunatics.
Now they’re gone, everyone’s driving safely, following traffic laws—it’s never been this easy to drive.

ㄴ[Agreed]
ㄴ[“No”? Reported.]
ㄴ[I do designated driving as a side gig, and business has been booming lately.]
ㄴ[Still, some idiots haven’t learned their lesson.]

Title: But do they have to only kill drunk drivers?

Can’t they take out reckless truck drivers too?

Those jerks don’t secure their flatbed springs, and so many people have died because of it.

ㄴ[Killer’s got it covered, probably.]
ㄴ[Why not ask the killer directly lol]
ㄴ[Yeah, if we knew who they were, we could!]

“I’ll get to it later.”

I made a mental promise.
I’m focused on drunk driving for now, but I plan to tackle other crimes too.

When truck drivers carelessly secure flatbed springs, they’re bound to come loose eventually.
The damage falls on the vehicles behind them.

A piece of metal flying at hundreds of kilometers per hour can shatter windshields, even threaten lives.
It’s practically murder.

It’s an issue that absolutely needs to be eradicated.
Though it’s tricky to address right now with so many factors involved.

“Still, there are some negative opinions. Even if they’re getting drowned out.”

–Really? You only targeted the worst scum, didn’t you?

“People’s perspectives differ, after all.”

Most praised me for doing a good job, even if my methods were extreme, but there were occasional dissenting voices.

Some said my approach was too much, or that no one should judge sinners arbitrarily.
Fairly reasonable arguments.

The people I killed were still someone’s family, parents, children, or friends.
It’s only natural some would react this way.

Title: Isn’t this going too far?

People are dying.
Not just one or two—in Korea alone, thousands are dead.

Even if they were drunk drivers, is it okay to kill them so indiscriminately?
Isn’t this basically a massacre?

Why are you all defending the killer?

ㄴ[Your mom.]
ㄴ[OP’s a killer stan, pathetic.]
ㄴ[Yeah, your mom.]
ㄴ[Then make a world where drunk drivers get proper punishment!]
ㄴ[This killer exists because drunk driving penalties are a joke, right?]
ㄴ[Fr lol]

Sure, they usually got buried under a barrage of attacks.
Drunk driving’s harm isn’t new, so people must have a lot of pent-up anger.

Life’s tough enough, and when something this satisfying happens, the backlash against critics might be even fiercer.

“I might end up with a fanbase at this rate.”

–Looks like you’ve already got a few in that forum.

“They’ll probably show up in real life eventually.”

All I did was use murder as a means for an ideal, and now people believe in and follow me.

It didn’t feel great. I could tell they were just chasing dopamine by praising me.

Still, I understood why, so I didn’t feel like condemning them.

‘That’s enough forum browsing.’

I closed the community and opened global news sites.
Then I flipped open my hit list.

To keep cutting down filthy drunks today, I’d need to diligently track down sinners.

Ten days since the drunk driver killer appeared.

The investigation finally expanded beyond Korea to an international level.

Given the global scale of the incidents, it was decided that inter-country cooperation was necessary.

“Hello, I’m Kang Hyunsik from Seoul Police Station.”

“Sato, from Tokyo Metropolitan Police.”

“Wang Wei, from Beijing Public Security Bureau.”

“Reyes, from Manila Police Department.”

As a result, not only did higher-ups communicate, but a platform was set up for field agents too.
Like this very moment.

A video conference with detectives from sixteen countries, including neighboring ones.

“I’m sure you’ve all been briefed, but we’re here to discuss investigation strategies and share information.”
“Please feel free to share any opinions.”

Feeling a kinship with the tired, stressed faces, Kang Hyunsik opened the discussion.

Sato from Tokyo’s police took the lead.
He spoke in Japanese, but there was no issue understanding, thanks to AI auto-translation.

“For starters, we believe the drunk driver killer is acting alone.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s too widespread for multiple culprits.”

It sounded contradictory. Wouldn’t more people make larger-scale crimes possible?

Seeing puzzled looks, Sato continued.

“I’m sure you all know, but the victims all committed suicide.”

“Correct.”

Every country had reached that conclusion.
It was clearly orchestrated, yet there were no traces of intervention, so mental manipulation seemed likely.

“We called in top Hunters to check. There were signs of interference in the victims’ brains.”

“And how does that point to a single culprit?”

“Think about it. The victims are worldwide—Americas, Australia, Europe, everywhere.”
“Would people capable of this be common?”

Even a famous S-rank Hunter from America, with mental abilities, can only handle a few dozen people at once.

And that’s just issuing commands or guiding actions, not forcing suicide.
Overriding human survival instincts is apparently quite difficult.

“Let alone multiple people coordinating such a widespread attack… that’s extremely unlikely.”
“It’s easy for plans to fall apart or for betrayals to occur.”

“And there’s no sign of that here, right?”

“Exactly. If it’s one person planning and executing, those issues vanish.”

Yet the killer handled thousands at once.
If multiple culprits, each would handle roughly a few hundred.

Could several Awakened, surpassing S-rank Hunters, band together, align perfectly, and attack the world?

Isn’t it more rational to assume a single Awakened with transcendent power did it?

The latter’s closer to fantasy, but it’s more plausible and likely than the former.

“And… this is our hypothesis, but the culprit’s probably young. Mid-30s at most.”

Reyes from Manila Police spoke next.

“Why so?”

“Even with the internet, gathering info on drunk drivers worldwide isn’t easy. It takes time.”

Searching in various languages to find thousands of targets isn’t simple.
It’d take at least six or seven hours daily.

“To have that much free time daily, they’re likely unemployed or a student. And tech-savvy.”

In short, unless they’re a young Bill Gates, the culprit’s actions don’t add up.

Older generations often aren’t as comfortable with electronics.

“Too many potential suspects.”

“It’s not meaningless, but the scope’s too broad…”

It was a decent guess, but sadly not very useful.
The world’s become a modern fantasy, and populations have shrunk.

When Gates open and monsters and Hunters run wild, who suffers first?
The elderly and weak, those without the strength to flee or fight.

So modern nations are mostly young and middle-aged.

Reyes’ theory was like saying 80-90% of the world’s population are suspects.

“We might have to meet their demands.”

“Change the law because of a killer? That’s admitting defeat!”

Sato’s cautious suggestion drew a sharp response from Kang Hyunsik.
Wang Wei frowned.

“Honestly, he’s not wrong. Korea’s drunk driving penalties are too light. That’s why so many victims are from here.”

“Our laws allow up to life imprisonment—”

“What good are laws if they’re not enforced? Life imprisonment on paper, but most get probation.”

It was true. Laws allowed harsh sentences, but actual penalties were a slap on the wrist.

Over half of cases ended in probation.

“The culprit’s demands are clear. Cooperating might be the best way to reduce harm.”
“We can’t just let citizens keep dying, can we?”

“Japan’s government is already discussing similar measures. I’m sure your higher-ups are too.”

“…”

Kang Hyunsik couldn’t respond.

His mind was too tangled with complexity.