Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 202 - No Tolerance For Instability

202: No Tolerance For Instability

202: No Tolerance For Instability

By the time roughly one week of living in the Sanctuary had passed, I had amassed a rather sizable collection of high-quality mana crystals in Storage.

What I had noticed was that, each day, up to two events would occur with regards to the world outside the Sanctuary―by that, I mean something like a group of people claiming to be survivors such as those men from the first day, or an alien attack.

In the case of the former, they could be either real survivors who were just trying to get by, in which case the Protagonist would accept them into the Sanctuary and have them work in one way or another, like cooking, helping to produce any items the survivors might need, helping to educate the younger ones, et cetera.

And, when it came to those who were only pretending to be struggling, well…

Let’s just say they were swiftly dealt with.

But hostiles from the outside weren’t the only things I was tasked with the disposal of.

“―Are you kidding me?!

You’re saying this guy’s more trustworthy than me?!

Look at him!

How do we even know it’s human, huh?!

It’s the same as that kid, I’d bet!

And that girl…!”

“…”

It was becoming more and more evident by the day that I was trusted by the Protagonist, and of course, at some point along the way, someone was bound to vent their dissatisfaction at that fact.

Maybe they felt their uselessness compared to someone they didn’t even know the face of, or perhaps it was a sense of unease at the fact their life was in my hands.

…Or maybe it was a scripted event, considering how he pointed out a couple of the other survivors.

Incidentally, the two he called out both seemed to carry some kind of unique affliction that deformed a section of their bodies, making small parts of their flesh appear similar to the grey rubber of the aliens, with the same sinister black veins that coursed through it.

Anyway, he probably thought I also looked like that, and that that was why I was covering myself up from head-to-toe this whole time.

Although, this guy in particular was one of the survivors we only recently let in.

In that case, the probability of it being a scripted event was near one hundred percent.

It’s not like I couldn’t understand logically why someone would freak out at the thought of living next to people who shared physical characteristics with the creatures that were responsible for destroying the world so thoroughly.

Still, that was no excuse to act out.

I already knew.

If one person thought it, what were the chances that others also did?

Of course, just because no one spoke about it didn’t mean those sorts of uncertain feelings didn’t exist, and the moment such concerns were given a voice, things would soon spiral out of control.

It was also my job to prevent that.

“I can’t take it anymore!

We were attacked today, yesterday, and the day before that!

Every day since I arrived!

That’s not normal!

You’re telling me this happens every day, just because there’s a group of us living here?!

That’s bullshit!

That never happened in the last place I was living!

It has to be because of them!

They can smell them, that’s why they’re attacking us, I know i–”

Bonk-!

Without warning, I whacked the crazy guy in the head from behind, lowering the metal pipe in my hand.

Silence immediately encompassed the area, with the couple dozen survivors all staring at me, wide-eyed.

Not sparing most of them a glance, I crouched down and picked up the man’s body, which had turned into a corpse before anyone could have realised it, slinging it over my shoulder as I straightened my back.

Turning halfway, I briefly addressed the survivors observing me.

“Making excuses for why humans aren’t humans is just as bad as what’s outside.”

Thereafter, I carried the body to where every other body had previously been taken, feeling their many gazes lingering on my back for a while.

‘Hopefully that dissuades anyone else from trying something…’

Instability was the one thing you couldn’t afford to have in a functioning collective.

No matter what, if there was someone trying to rile up the others and cause unrest, whether they intended for it to be malicious or not, that object of chaos had to be removed.

Else, if the raw feelings that were dangerous to the collective weren’t curbed or otherwise contained, it wouldn’t take long for the sentiment to spread like an infection and destabilise the entire group.

That was how uprisings and rebellions occurred, after all, so even if we were handing this a bit like a dictatorship, we had no choice but to be firm if we wanted stability, and the survivors had to understand that.

Before I came, the group of survivors already living here was pretty small, so it was easier to deal with those kinds of matters through talking and mutual understanding.

You simply couldn’t do that when the group became too big, or when it became more about the strength of the collective bond than that between each of the individuals.

In those cases, rather than talking it out, I think you just needed to send a simple, firm message, and the best way to do that was by making an example out of someone.

Well, in any case, for someone like that guy, they would have caused an issue sooner or later no matter what, so it was best to deal with them and uproot it before it grew into anything serious.

‘Although, if any of them realised what their leader was really doing, I’m sure that would cause some real big problems.’

Carrying the body round the back of a certain tent, I used the shovel planted nearby to dig a hole in the dirt and immediately cover it back up, grabbing one of the many nearby pieces of rebar from the collection and planting that on top.

Then, putting the shovel back where I found it, I picked up the body and took it through the tent’s hidden back entrance, arriving in a small partitioned area at the back of the tent the Protagonist used as his sleeping quarters.

Simply put, this was his alchemy lab.

Laying the body on an empty metal table you might find in a science lab, I glanced around, not finding much of interest.

Though I called it a lab, it’s not like he actually did alchemy here, and I knew that because he just used his #System to do alchemy instead.

This was just the place he stored his gathered alchemical ingredients…

excluding mana crystals.

I didn’t know where he was hiding those, but maybe he had a specific place for them.

Anyway, I was about to leave right away when I heard shuffling near the front of the tent, and in the next moment, watched someone enter through the lab’s partition.

“Enki.

I just heard about what you did.

Good work.”

“I just did my job.”

He glanced at the body as if nothing was out of place, rather approaching it calmly.

“No, I’m actually quite relieved.

I had my eye on that guy for a while.

He seemed a bit struck when we took him in, so the chances of something happening were high from the beginning.

It was a good opportunity to show that we aren’t messing around.”

Casually saying that, I watched with folded arms as he raised his hand to the man’s corpse atop the table.

“―Extract.”

Following his simple order, a blue haze enveloped the body.