542 Helping Each Other ?

The members of the Special Higher Police raised their handguns, pointing them in the direction of Zhao Yao and the four rogue apostles behind him.

There might be an unbelievable myriad of superpowers in the world, but most of them were still no match for the steely destruction of bullets. This was why the gun was the preferred weapon for the organization.

Zhao Yao knew he had to act quickly to disarm them.

His first response was to shout, "Stop."

His command of the Korean language was essentially non-existent, so he spoke to them in English instead.

"I am your friend," he continued firmly, "I am Captain Korea."

He knew that these words alone would not make them drop their weapons. This was why he activated Fish Ball while he was speaking. In an instant, glaring light poured from every pore of the cat's body, painfully blinding the men on the scene.

Amid cries of agony, Zhao Yao walked calmly towards one of the rogue apostles. He patted the man on the shoulder and said in English, "Hello, may I help you?"

The apostle was named Shuichi Kotori. He was surprised that Zhao Yao had approached him.

Zhao Yao repeated again.

Shuichi Kotori: "⊙ω⊙"

This time, Shuichi understood him perfectly. His eyes widened in surprise as he started rambling in Japanese-accented English. Unfortunately, Zhao Yao could not understand his heavy accent at all.

He looked up longingly at the golden exclamation mark above Shuichi's head and sighed in exasperation.

"I can't believe language will stand in the way of what could be a great relationship between two countries."

This thought had barely crossed his mind when his eyes lit up.

He had an idea.

Without hesitation, he opened his mouth and spat out Old Cat.

"Can you speak Japanese?" he asked the cat.

"Yes."

"Good. I need you to be my translator," Zhao Yao said, "This time, I'll allow you to say a maximum of three words at one go. This means you can translate three words into Japanese at any one time."

In the next moment, a nervous-looking Shuichi heard a voice speaking to him in fluent Japanese.

"Do you need..."

Shuichi waited with bated breath for the voice to complete the sentence. The wait took terribly long, but it came to an end eventually. "...help?"

Shuichi nodded violently. He began rambling rapidly in Japanese, "I am Shuichi Kotori from the Pine Needle Group. The Special Higher Police had gone back on their word and is now trying to capture us. Please help us! We will be eternally grateful!"

Old Cat looked at Zhao Yao, "Please save them."

"Okay," Zhao Yao responded.

Sidequest: Save the Pine Needle Group

Objective: Save the four apostles from the Pine Needle Group and take them somewhere safe

Reward: 100 experience points

Mission Penalty: None

He let out a jovial laugh when he read the details of the mission. He extended the deflective field to cover Shuichi and his buddies, then grabbed them and darted far away.

The blinding light was finally gone following his departure. The men of the Special Higher Police began to regain their sight gradually.

Kappei Hattori was livid when he realized that their mysterious guests had all but disappeared. He slammed his hands on the table and shouted, "What happened? The apostles have been rescued? Do you know what the hell you are doing?"

"I'm sorry, sir. The opponent had some kind of superpower that generated blinding light. We couldn't open our eyes at all."

"Then get your hands on a pair of sunglasses and go after them!" Kappei shouted.

He was beginning to grow nervous. He thought, "I can't let those Pine Needle guys get away. If word gets out about us breaking the pact, it'll be a lot of trouble."

Unfortunately, his plan was not going to work. This had been a night mission, so none of his men had thought to bring along a pair of sunglasses.

Just as the men's eyes were getting used to the surroundings, a shadow bolted past them. All they could make out was Kim Jong-Un's smiling face before another beam of bright light pierced through the darkness. It was as if the sun had risen directly before them.

"Oh."

The men reached up to shield their eyes from the cutting glare, crying in pain. In the midst of it all, Zhao Yao skipped happily to one of the officers and patted him on the shoulders.

Then, Old Cat spoke, "Do you need..."

The officer was about to die from the suspense of the incomplete sentence when Old Cat continued with, "...help?"

Sidequest: Help me out

Objective: Help the police officer to get back on his feet

Reward: 10 experience points

Mission Penalty: None

Fish Ball had made sure that Zhao Yao was never facing the light, so he could still see while everyone else was incapacitated.

Zhao Yao raised his eyebrows at this new objective.

"Huh, something like this can be considered a mission?" he wondered.

It was done in no time at all. Zhao Yao even had time to help a few other people up and clear more of such missions.

Kappei Hattori's voice could be heard yelling through the mic, "What the heck is going on down there? Is the opponent still around? Are you under siege?"

"I don't know. Someone helped me up. Was that you, Yoji?"

"Not me. I was helped by someone too."

"Ah, someone pushed me. Ah, he's helped me up again."

"Do not let him help you up. The person helping you is the enemy!"

The men of the Special Higher Police wore the same, sullen expression. They were used to dealing with the garden-variety flash grenades in battle, but this was really something else. For starters, the light literally blinded. It did not flash or flicker, but was sustained for a substantial amount of time. The weirdest part was that the opponent was helping those who were disabled by the light.

The commotion exchanged by his men was infuriating Kappei Hattori.

"Can someone tell me what on earth is going on?"

Back on the scene, Zhao Yao had come to find that he could no longer milk the members of the Special Higher Police for experience points. He quickly knocked them out and grabbed one of the mics.

This was why a stranger's voice was heard through Kappei's earpiece after a pregnant pause.

"Hello. Do you..."

"Huh?" Kappei Hattori wondered aloud.

He waited for the stranger to continue speaking, but quickly grew impatient and asked, "Hello? Who's this? What's going on? What's happened?"

"...need any help?"

Kappei was momentarily stumped by the offer. He waited again for the voice to continue, but could not take the suspense.

"Help? With what?" he blurted, "What do I need help with?"

"...Well, I am..."

He quickly realized that the person was only just attempting to answer his very first question. He was exasperated by how odd and slow this whole conversation was, but he bit his tongue to keep from talking.

"...Captain South Korea."

By now, Kappei had concluded that the voice could only speak in short snippets at any one time. He used every last ounce of willpower to stop himself from interrupting and asking more questions. He was afraid that if he did that, the mysterious person was going to answer unimportant questions and waste hours before he got to the important information.

"Do you need..."

Kappei paced the room so that he could use all that nervous, pent-up energy. He had to be patient.

"...my help?"

Even though the voice had finally finished what he wanted to say, Kappei Hattori still did not speak. He was trying to make sense of what was happening. It did not take long for him to deduce that the person he was talking to was probably the apostle who had attacked his men. He wanted to figure out what exactly this weirdo wanted.

He was untimely ripped from his thoughts when the commander vehicle he was began to shake violently. In the next moment, the roof of the vehicle was torn and tossed away like a mere candy wrapper. He gaped as a man wearing a mask popped into view.

Then, a Samsung phone descended into the vehicle and hovered before him at eye level. A message written in Japanese flashed on the screen. The text-to-speech function was activated.

It seemed that Zhao Yao had had enough of how slowly Old Cat's conversations went. He decided that communicating with his phone would be a lot faster and a lot less painful.

The robotic voice from the phone recited, "I am Captain South Korea. I am here because of the friendship between Japan and South Korea. The person who had rescued the men from Pine Needle Group was Captain North Korea. Do you want me to get them back?

If you refuse, I will beat you to death."

Bang!

At once, the entire vehicle was crushed into smithereens. Only the areas that people stood on were left untouched.

Kappei Hattori gulped nervously.

Then, he bowed deeply and said, "Please bring the four apostles from Pine Needle Group back to us. Please."