It shot out from the sewer, but clear water, as if it were purely water, enters the burning house like a waterfall turned sideways.
As if gravity were directed sideways, the stream of water spurts from the ground and flows sideways, soaking the entire building.
Not long after, the fire in that house subsides, and a group of people, along with Victoria, hurriedly run out of the building.
Before Morris could approach her who came out like that, a man who jumped out from the side ran to Victoria, knelt down, and pointed to the next building, saying that his child was up there and he couldn't do anything because of the fire.
Victoria immediately heads in that direction.
Beatrice is busy evacuating company people and survivors to a distant place, and only Morris stands still, watching Victoria.
What is he doing standing in the middle of the road?
I leave him and look at the world through the eyes of the harvesters.
The five people working far away also noticed the strangeness of Bern City. To be precise, almost everyone around them is looking at Bern City.
The entire Bern City is burning.
Black smoke is rising from all over Bern City. Just a little while ago, white smoke was rising, but not anymore.
There are stories that can be heard even from the perspective of the five in the suburbs.
For example, fire trucks entering have the same sudden acceleration accidents, or they suddenly spread on the roadside.
There are also stories of magicians who went out to extinguish the fire just stamping their feet because there's not enough magic power in the air.
Civilization has been paralyzed in an instant.
And in such a situation, there are people who go inside, saying let's try to save people first.
Among them are the five harvesters. It's not strange.
People who commit light evil deeds lightly move as others do. In other words, at least this country is a society where it's natural to move to help people in such a way.
At least for now.
Buried in the group, they move to save someone.
But if they get hurt doing so, it's their loss. No one compensates them, and although they're treated as heroes at the time, they're soon forgotten.
In other words, it's a foolish action for individuals.
The right action for an individual at this time is to abandon it, thinking from afar that something unfortunate has happened and hoping someone comes to solve it.
The problem is that this world doesn't run on such cold, fake rationality.
Social and mental gains sometimes drive actions that exceed physical and tangible losses. Like creatures climbing mountains because they're there, there are also those who give themselves over to impulse.
Just like the carcass of a seal found halfway up a rocky mountain in Antarctica, having died of starvation while climbing for no reason.
Incomprehensible impulses always exist.
In short.
Strong people, regardless of gender, approach the burning Bern City.
They guide fleeing people to safe places, try to extinguish fires where they break out, piece together horrifically mangled body parts from traffic accidents, and maintain the lives of the injured.
Meanwhile, Victoria seems to have gotten used to it, as the speed at which she extinguishes fires on buildings using water is getting faster and faster.
The number of people saved by people increases.
Of course, it's not that there aren't people behaving strangely among those who have been saved.
There are people who have panic attacks. There are also people who say not to save others but only save them, or to take out belongings.
It's not because these people are evil.
When reason is paralyzed, they just scream wanting to live while clinging to what they were thinking about most.
The real ones are in the midst of such confusion.
People who enter buildings and sneak out expensive items. There are actually such people among those going in and out of the now wet buildings.
They know that acting selfishly is helpful in this situation.
Even if someone speaks to them, who would say anything if they just say they brought necessary items from their own home?
Of course, such people are extremely few, but they certainly exist.
Conversely, there are also those who move to help strangers, not just waiting for Victoria, but holding tools in their hands.
While some people rush into burning buildings after dousing themselves with water from toilets to bring people out, there are also groups who fetch water from unburned buildings and pass water buckets in relay to extinguish fires.
It's a chaotic situation.
Depending on which side you focus on, you can see people differently.
I quietly observe this.
It's not yet time for me to move.
I wait for the right moment on the road filled with the echoes of screams, shouts, cries, weeping, explosions, and various sounds.
If I make too few harvesters from the start, there will be far too few harvesters.
But if I make them indiscriminately, the world will collapse.
So I need to move carefully.
In fact, there's a key that can somehow handle this situation even without me right beside us.
None other than Morris.
Although it seems like a useless invention, Morris's machine doesn't leave residual magic power. Of course, the output is several times lower.
If it consumes human life force instead of atmospheric magic power, the insufficient output can be solved too. The fatal drawback is that lifespan drastically decreases every time it's used?
But conversely, it means that machine can also suck the life of others and inject it into oneself.
Of course, the efficiency is low, and it's not simply additive.
If hundreds of people could be ground up to extend one's lifespan by a year, anyone would do it.
Because humans are cheap.
However, morality breaks down with that. Humans become simple commodities and human rights lose value. The logic of thorough capitalism will trample on morality and stand on top of it.
It means the society that appears when you say cyberpunk in faded man's memories will emerge.
Or before it gets that far, being treated as enemies globally.
But once something is created, it doesn't easily disappear.
The world will be divided into before and after the event where humans became fuel.
As I'm looking forward to Morris's choice, I approached and stood next to him. Then he seemed to notice me and spoke.
"It was Belle, right?"
"Yes."
"Can you solve this situation?"
I think I said it earlier, but since he seems flustered, I say it once more.
"I'm not a god."
It's not that I can't do it, but wouldn't this world break because of that?
I can't.
"You said you gave Tori her ability. Then give that superpower to other people."
"It's random. I don't know what superpower will emerge, and I can't even be certain who will get a superpower."
Although I have guesses.
At my words, Morris looks at Victoria who is now flying in the sky. Water beads are attached to the soles of her feet. Knowing that water can float in the air, she's applying it.
"But, if things go on like this, Tori will..."
In this situation, there's one person who stands out.
It's perfect for pushing someone into being a hero.
In other words, it's also called the public's toy. Unless heroes become a group, if an individual becomes one, they end up torn to pieces on top of interests and left as a corpse, or their honor is stripped away, trampled on, and discarded on the ground.
Or they fall to become an evil creature by grasping and using that honor.
Victoria found a child whose half body was burned and stuck in a building a little distance away and hugged them.
They have severe burns on the left half of their body and will die without treatment.
After Victoria came out hugging the child who was about to die, instead of going down to the ground, she suddenly stopped moving. Then she looks around, moving her gaze here and there.
Is she looking for something?
At that moment, Victoria's gaze fixed on me.
And Victoria flew to me.
Splash.
Victoria, standing on the ground, hugged the child and bowed her head in front of me.
"Belle. Miss Belle. I have a request. Please save this child."
Formal speech, huh.
Hehe.
She made the worst choice among the available options. She offered to the monster a child who could have just been left as a corpse.
It was truly an excellent choice.
As a final kindness, I said just one thing.
"You will regret this."
But Victoria looks at me with unwavering eyes. It means words are unnecessary. I nodded and approached the child. Their breathing was labored, and they were out of their mind with burning pain, one of the stronger types of pain.
But that's not a reason why they can't make a contract.
"I'll give myself to you. In return, I'll take everything you have when you finish everything later. How about it?"
I asked the child.
The child answered that they wanted to live.
The contract was established.
In an instant, the child's skin swelled up, and then, like breaking pottery, a boy with blue skin popped out from inside.
"The skin is blue. Is something... wrong?"
Victoria looks at me with a bewildered face. So I shook my head.
"For some reason I don't know, those who have received fatal wounds turn blue when they contract."
And while at it, looking around, I said this:
"If you want to heal your wounds no matter what happens, I'll make a contract."
I seized the opportunity that came. Among those who saw this sight, the first to rush over are parents with children.
They offered their children to me, and I contracted with the children.
Half of them turned white, and half turned blue. But whether they were burned, had limbs cut off, or had their eyeballs crushed.
As long as they're alive, they return to their original form.
It was instantaneous for children to turn into harvesters. And it was easy for the injured to decide to contract with me.
In an instant, people gathered around me, and it became a mix of screams for help and cries of gratitude.
In the confusion, there were those who pushed away more seriously injured people for themselves or their children to survive, ultimately causing deaths.
But I like such people, so I immediately made them into harvesters.
The sun set, the night passed, and until the sun rose again, I made harvesters in that place.
After a day passed, it seemed to have stabilized somewhat, as firefighters and soldiers entered the city with huge equipment and cleaned up the inside.
With that, this incident was settled for now.
And I gained exactly 9,190 harvesters.