The Evil Scientist is Too Competent

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“Ha-ha!”

“Just smash it all!”

Upon hearing the news that the world was ending, people seemed to forget all about laws, morals, and ethics. They wrecked the city, unleashed their pent-up desires, and moved as if they were living in a world of doom.

They rampaged with their powers, acting like villains, and instead of reporting villains, they assisted them or killed them themselves—what a ridiculous era it had become.

This trend also tightly gripped E City, under the control of the Evilus Corporation and the Evil Organization.

“Loving the Evilus Corporation, huh? Those damn dictator bastards—ugh!?”

“—Making a racket in front of someone else’s house.”

As the rioters were smashing up the city, Galm appeared, yawning widely, and subdued the rioters with a single blow. An S-class villain. There was no ordinary person who could withstand a punch from Galm, an executive of the Evil Organization.

Watching a neighboring rioter get incapacitated by a single punch, the rioters swallowed hard. They had joined the riot thoughtlessly, but they were still ordinary people.

It was a common truth that untrained, unpracticed regulars couldn’t defeat a professionally trained hero or a villain seasoned by years of experience.

But now was an era of ridiculousness.

With the end lurking ahead, people fervently rebelled as if they had nothing to fear.

“You, is that really okay!? Didn’t you once say you’d serve this city…?”

“Hmm? Who are you?”

“W-What does it matter who I am—”

“Ah, forget it. I can tell without you having to say it.”

As Galm said that, he pulled out a smartphone from his pocket. The oversized figure holding such a small device looked like a grown-up with a child’s toy.

He began typing on the mini buttons with his long claws, quickly pulling up the information of the rioter in front of him.

“Emma Heinz…? A B City punk? What the hell is a scumbag like you doing here?”

“N-No, I’m not Emma!”

“Long tongue, huh. Alright then. You villain scum, I’ll only say this once since talking to you will just be a waste of breath.”

Crack—

With a snap of his fingers, Galm cast an intimidating glance at the villains before him.

“This is the land ruled by the Evil Organization. Scram, you pathetic rookies.”

In the next moment, Galm’s fist incapacitated all the rioters. He snorted dismissively, ignoring the fallen rioters, and moved on to another area.

The end was near. There were plenty of villains to catch. He had to run all over the city for that…

And that’s exactly what Galm did.

* * *

[So, it looks like… we all have to move out too…]

“Busy times, huh.”

[Yeah, yeah…]

Ayle replied in a gloomy tone. After studying her brains out for a year just to get into college, suddenly hearing the world was ending must be tough.

I’d probably despair in that situation myself. And if that despair didn’t stop, I might end up following others into a riot.

But I wasn’t doing that because I had the power to resolve this situation. Moreover, I had the strength to erase everything that happened up to this point.

“I’ve almost got it all fixed, so don’t worry—everything will normalize soon.”

[Normalize…?]

“Yeah. Normalize.”

Honestly, it was a technique I shouldn’t use casually. I smirked at the thought of the recognition-altering technology left by the Fairy Queen. The worst kind of technology that toyed with a person’s heart and memory.

But what could I do? Thinking about the side effects that would arise when the world collapsed and then returned to normal, it was better for it all to be as if it never happened. If federal investigators interrogated me later, well, this would be a mitigating circumstance.

[Alright! Then we’ll be counting on you, scientist! …F-Fight hard!]

“Thank you.”

Click—

Ending the call, I immediately dove into my research. The Re-ignition Machine was now over 90% complete. I just needed to wait for it to hit 100%.

In no time at all, I would be able to fully resolve this situation, but—unfortunately, time was not on our side.

Creeping…

“…..It’s increased again.”

“Yeah. The area it covers is getting larger and larger. According to the simulation, at this rate, it’ll cover the entire planet within a week.”

The realm of heat death where all movement had stopped. The bif universe was siphoning away the thermal motion it lacked from this Earth.

To be honest, it wasn’t a huge percentage. It was probably less than 0.000…1%.

However, if that were the case for the entirety of the universe, it would be a different story. Compared to the vast universe, a single planet was too small. Just that tiny fraction could freeze a planet in no time.

“That means we have to succeed in the experiment as soon as possible, at the latest by tomorrow…?”

“Looks that way.”

“Haah—good grief.”

Sighing, I began to think of the operational capacity of the nearly 90% completed machine in my mind. If I could patch up the missing parts with superpowers or other tools, I’d manage somehow…

Having arrived at a rough calculation that it might work, I nodded.

“I’m losing my mind…”

“…Just don’t actually lose it.”

“Hmm? What’s that about?”

“What do you mean, I’m saying—”

While Swallon was trying to continue his words, he suddenly shut his mouth and just shook his head side to side.

Not understanding why he was acting like that, I kept tilting my head, and the time had come.

It was time to re-ignite the bif universe.

* * *

[System all green. No problems.]

[Drive unit 18. Heat has been siphoned. Restarting… Success.]

[Confirming machine’s thermal network. Estimated time 36 seconds. It will automatically reboot every—]

The massive machine started moving along the tracks. With each advance, it approached the realm of heat death created by the bif universe.

Once it reached the area where all movement had stopped, the machine and railroad halted, but the AI attached outside quickly recognized the halt and resolved the issue.

One of the researchers, upon seeing this, gave a hollow laugh of disbelief.

“Brilliant… AI. Doesn’t that mean we have nothing left to do?”

“Dr. Eight told me. They don’t plan to develop that AI any further.”

“Hmm? Doesn’t that mean…?”

The researcher seemed to have realized it himself, and he let out a sound of awe. After all, the Evilus Agent was an AI with performance levels that far surpassed all existing artificial intelligences. Even more, it was free.

Even if someone tried to develop an AI to surpass the Evilus Agent now—could that company possibly lure away users of a free-operating Evilus Agent?

And—what proof was there that the Evilus Corporation, which created the Evilus Agent a while ago, didn’t possess an even better AI? If they were to distribute a superior AI for free again, it would render all their research futile.

That was the reason no companies were investing in AI research. Even those secretly doing research were just trying to hack the Evilus Agent to jailbreak it.

“More importantly, let’s focus on what’s in front of us. Today might just be historic….”

Dr. Kuroid said that while watching the enormous Re-ignition Machine made by Eight moving into the bif universe. There was an indescribable grandeur in that huge machine moving, more so than an average building.

It looked like it could move on its own at any moment… and then, the machine slipped into the bif universe.

And at that moment—every motion stopped.

[Re-ignition device! Insertion complete!]

[5 seconds to operation! 4, 3, 2……]

The bif universe foolishly swallowed the re-ignition device through the rapidly expanding gates. The swallowed re-ignition device came to a complete stop. It was the characteristic of a bif universe where all movement was halted.

However, just because the movement stopped didn’t mean that external interference was completely shut out—intervening from outside could surely move that machine.

The Meister did just that.

“Go. Meister.”

“Yes, Professor.”

If I resolve this, my days of slavery will be over…!

Thinking like that, Meister used his powers to operate the re-ignition device that had crossed beyond the bif universe.

As soon as he activated the re-ignition device, the energy connecting the bif universe snapped! The connection with the bif universe was temporarily severed as the re-ignition device activated.

What happened next—was something the researchers couldn’t witness. But one thing they could find out was—

Five minutes later. They were greeted by a vividly red universe.

“This is….”

“The Big Bang… right after the creation of the universe…”

Scientists and researchers all gaped, jaws dropped, staring at the sight.

For the very first time in human history.

They had witnessed the moment of the universe’s creation with their own eyes.

Due to the chills and cold sweat running down their spines—they could only stand there with mouths agape.

* * *

After all experiments were successfully concluded.

Meister ran to find Eight and shouted.

“Professor! I mean, you bastard professor! I’m graduating now!”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“You’re not going to say that’s a lie now, right?”

“No, no, there’s no way. I told you I’d graduate once you submitted your assignment.”

“Then—!”

As Meister was about to jump for joy, Eight lightly extended his hand. Looking down at his empty palm, Meister stared at Eight, wondering what was going on.

“Your assignment. Hand it over. Then, you can graduate.”

“…But the assignment just got—”

“Right, it just became stardust.”

Upon hearing that, Meister realized that Eight had no intention of keeping his promise and exploded with anger.

“Ah, aaah—nooo! You! You knew this would happen from the start!”

“Who knows? More importantly, it’s not you, it’s the professor here, right?”

As Eight gazed at his furious assistant—or rather, his slave—with sparkling eyes, he thought that if he could recreate the Re-ignition Device he had made earlier, he might grant him freedom from being a slave.

If he could recreate it.

Naturally, such a thing was impossible, which meant…

“Now, let’s go back to the laboratory. Assistant.”

“AAAAHHHHH—!”

This meant that he would not be escaping from Eight’s slavery anytime soon.