Chapter 185: Rescue Mission
"So," Nicholas said, his gaze remaining fixed on the giant arena screen where the Master’s calm, smiling face had just finished promising to execute every hero in the dome. "Does saving them come with a reward, or am I doing this one for free?"
The silence that followed in the high-altitude alcove lasted for exactly two seconds.
Then Selena exploded.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" She rounded on him so fast that her unlit cigarette flew right out of her hand, tumbling across the concrete floor. "The whole world is watching our people get lined up to die! Dana, Nectron, and Vixen are trapped under a doomsday dome with a lunatic, the strongest heroes on the planet just got turned into ordinary humans, and your first question—your very first thought—is whether it pays?!"
"It’s a reasonable question," Nicholas said plainly.
"IT IS NOT A REASONABLE QUESTION!"
"I just won a global tournament," Nicholas continued, entirely unbothered as he pushed himself up off the cold wall with a slight wince. "There’s a substantial cash payout attached to that title, which I have not yet received. That money does me zero good if the entire Hero Association I’m supposed to collect it from is dead under a dome." He rolled his aching shoulder, wincing at the deep bruise. "I had plans for that money. A vacation. Somewhere warm, with Marina and Katie. Katie has never seen the ocean before." He glanced at Selena flatly. "So yes. I would like to know if there’s a rescue bonus. I’ve earned the right to a beach."
Selena stared at him in utter disbelief.
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Pressed two fingers hard against her right temple, where a familiar, throbbing headache was already blooming.
"You are unbelievable," she said, shaking her head. "You are genuinely, completely unbelievable. There are people dying on live television, and you’re standing there thinking about a beach vacation."
"I can think about more than one thing at a time."
"Then think about this!" She jabbed a finger aggressively toward the giant broadcast screen. "Sorry to burst your bubble, brat, but if the people under that dome die, there is no Hero Association left to pay you! Dana runs operations! Eric sits at the very top of management! Those aren’t background extras—those are the exact people who sign your paychecks! You let them die, and your precious payout dies right along with them! Your beach dies with them! Katie’s ocean dies with them!" She folded her arms tightly across her chest. "So no, there isn’t a neat little reward waiting for you this time. If you want to get paid at all, you have to save the exact people you’re standing here haggling over!"
Nicholas considered this logistical breakdown for a quiet moment.
"...Then we don’t really have a choice, do we," he said smoothly. "We have to go save them."
"Oh, now you want to save them!"
"I need my money, Selena."
Selena wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. She wanted to grab him by his collar, shake him violently, and ask if that was truly, honestly his only motivation—if there was really nothing else inside that flat, unbothered head of his except numbers, contracts, and beaches. She wanted to ask if he genuinely did not care at all that Dana, Nectron, and every hero he had fought beside today were about to be executed on a global stream.
She almost said every word of it.
But then she looked at him closely—noticing the way his one good eye had already begun scanning the giant screen for tactical details, and the cold calculation running behind his gaze that had nothing to do with money at all. She held her tongue.
’It doesn’t matter,’ Selena decided, letting her breath out slowly. ’Whatever ridiculous excuse he tells himself, he’s going to go down there and save them. That’s the only part that counts. Let the brat keep his cover story.’
"Fine," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "For the money. Sure."
"For the money," Nicholas agreed with a nod.
"PHANTOM!"
The ear-splitting shriek came from the alcove entrance. Both of them turned to see a bright, pink-haired blur sprinting wildly across the floor toward them.
Julie skidded to a abrupt halt right in front of them, completely breathless and blazing with an intense energy that was entirely inappropriate for a global crisis. Her eyes were wide and buzzing.
"Are you going?!" she demanded instantly. "To the dome?! You’re going to the dome, aren’t you?! I can see it written all over your face—that’s your ’I’m about to do something completely insane’ face! I’ve filmed that exact expression six times today! You’re going, and I am 100% coming with you!"
"You are absolutely not," Selena said immediately.
"This is literally the biggest story in the entire HISTORY of the world!" Julie insisted, practically vibrating on the spot. "A masked villain, a doomsday dome, the total fall of humanity’s heroes, and PHANTOM—the brand-new tournament champion—riding to the rescue?! Do you have ANY idea what this footage is going to be worth?! People will be watching this broadcast a hundred years from now! I am NOT missing out on this!"
"It’s a doomsday dome that erases your abilities and kills anyone who enters," Selena said flatly. "You don’t even have a combat ability, Julie. You’ll die in four seconds."
"I’ll die FILMING!" Julie declared with the fierce, unyielding pride of a frontline war correspondent. "That’s the absolute dream!"
Selena pressed both hands over her face and dragged them down slowly, groaning into her palms.
"How," she asked the ceiling in a pained voice, "did I end up as the handler for the two most unserious people on the entire planet? What did I do in a past life to deserve this? What could I possibly have done?"
Julie had already whipped out her smartphone, flipping the camera angle and going live. The little red recording light blinked on instantly.
"HELLO EVERYONE! PEACH FAIRY HERE WITH BREAKING NEWS!" she announced at full volume, spinning on her heel to catch Nicholas in the frame behind her. "You saw the broadcast! You saw the dome! You saw that creepy smiling man threaten all our heroes! WELL, I have an EXCLUSIVE update for you! The champion himself—the man who beat a literal GOD three hours ago, PHANTOM—is about to head straight for the dome to save them! You heard it here FIRST!"
The stream chat, already frantic worldwide, instantly detonated with millions of messages.
[AuraNova: WAIT PHANTOM’S GOING?? he JUST fought a god he can barely STAND]
[Nyr01: this man does not know the word rest. legend behavior.]
[Will_1631: JULIE PLEASE be careful that dome eats people]
[Tyler_Man: forget the dome, is nobody gonna mention he asked if it PAYS first 💀💀]
[Harry_Hart_3085: "does saving them come with a reward" is the most Phantom thing he has ever said]
[Zerox4575: he beat the monkey king and his first thought was INVOICE. I love this man]
[Thegreatestscape67: peach fairy about to walk into a death dome for the CONTENT. respect the grind]
[DaoistLIMIL1o: not julie announcing his rescue plan on livestream to the entire world INCLUDING the villain probably 😭]
[Wrathsflame: "I’ll die filming, that’s the dream" GET THIS WOMAN A RAISE]
"Turn that off," Selena ordered, her voice dangerously sharp.
"Can’t! We’re at four million live viewers and climbing by the second!"
"We are trying to plan a covert rescue operation," Selena snapped. "COVERT. As in, the enemy is not supposed to know we are coming!"
Julie paused. She blinked twice. She looked down at her phone, which was currently broadcasting her exact physical location, plans, and intentions to four million people—an unknowable number of whom might be watching on the villain’s behalf.
"...Ah," Julie said softly, her pink hair drooping slightly. "That’s... actually a really good point."
"TURN IT OFF NOW."
"Okay, okay!" Julie hastily killed the livestream with a pout, tucking her phone away. "You’re no fun at all. Peach Fairy’s whole brand is built on transparency."
"Peach Fairy’s whole brand is going to get us all killed."
Nicholas, meanwhile, had gone completely quiet.
The chaotic banter washed past his ears entirely unheard. He was still staring up at the frozen frame on the giant arena screen—at the translucent dome, at the six villains standing calm on a street full of powerless heroes, and at the small girl seated with a manuscript open in her lap. His one good eye moved slowly across every pixel of the image. The physical exhaustion on his face was quietly replaced by something far colder, sharper, and much more dangerous.
"Nicholas?" Selena’s tone shifted instantly, the annoyance draining out of her voice as she noticed his sudden change in posture. "What is it? What do you see?"
"Something’s wrong," he said quietly.
"...Obviously something’s wrong," Selena replied, brow furrowing. "There’s a lunatic holding our people hostage under a massive ability-negating dome..."
"No." Nicholas shook his head slightly, his gaze locked onto the image. "I mean his tactics don’t add up. Look at him. Look at how relaxed he is standing there. He has the strongest heroes in the world cornered, disarmed, and completely helpless. He could have killed them the very instant that dome went up—quietly, cleanly, and efficiently. Instead, he stopped everything, connected to the entire planet’s media network, and made an elaborate speech. He explicitly invited every hero left alive on Earth to come to his location."
Nicholas’s bloodied fingers curled slowly into a tight fist at his side.
"You don’t do that if your objective is simply to kill a few heroes," Nicholas explained, his voice low and devoid of emotion. "You do that if the killing was never the primary goal, and the gathering is."
Selena went dead silent, the weight of his realization sinking in.
"He wants everyone to come to him," Nicholas continued, his mind rapidly mapping out the enemy’s logic. "The dome, the global broadcast, the public challenge—all of it is a giant net, and it’s still wide open. Which means whatever he’s actually trying to accomplish tonight, it hasn’t happened yet. It’s still coming."
He finally turned his head to look directly at Selena. There was no longer any trace of the tired gladiator or the man haggling over a beach vacation behind his eye. The cold, ruthless hitman was fully back in control.
"So we don’t just charge in blindly," Nicholas said flatly. "If we walk into a trap this carefully constructed, we die exactly the way he wants us to die. And then I don’t get paid at all."
He straightened his posture, rolling his shoulders and ignoring the sharp pain in his cracked ribs.
"We plan first," Nicholas stated, his voice hard as iron. "We account for every single variable and piece of this situation before we move an inch."
Even Julie stood frozen and silent, sensing the sudden shift in the air.
Selena looked at Nicholas for a long, heavy moment. Then, she let out a slow, steady breath and gave him a single, resolute nod.
"...Alright," she said softly. "Then let’s make a plan."