Are you aspiring vigilantes?"
Ren and Kai made eye contact for a quick second. Then Ren looked back at the girl.
"Yes yes, we are."
Back in the day, heroes were all vigilantes—working outside the law to protect people. But not all heroes back then were completely cut off from the government. Some of them had contact with the government, some worked for it in certain ways, and some slowly developed ties with it—like Blue Light.
When Blue Light wanted to start Star Island, as we already know, it was meant to be a place where superpowered individuals and normal people could coexist. And for the first few years, that was the case. Until a huge surge of vigilantes appeared.
Apparently, a lot of them were actually from Star Island—former students who used their classes to control their powers, then pushed themselves to become stronger and fulfill their goals of becoming heroes.
That caused massive backlash.
From civilians to government members, many claimed that the island was brainwashing students into becoming heroes, that it was too dangerous, and that it would only cause chaos. The controversy lasted for a while, until Blue Light made a controversial decision.
He created the Hero Course.
It was a shocking move.
Even though there were already a lot of accusations about brainwashing and turning students into vigilantes, Blue Light responded with something like this:
"We are not brainwashing them. We only give them opportunities to become whatever they want. But until now, I have ignored their desire to become heroes. We only taught them how to control their powers—not how to use them. And that made things even riskier. Teaching them control without teaching them how to act In dangerous situations puts them in more danger."
His words gained a lot of support.
They also gained a lot of criticism.
Eventually, the government made its own controversial decision.
They introduced the Hero System—where people could become so-called real heroes, officially approved by the government.
That decision came with backlash from every side.
Civilians and vigilantes thought that government supported heroes is a bad idea where they are vulnerable for corruption like the cops and they will basically be the cops but with superpowers
Some civilians believed government-employed heroes were a good thing. Some heroes thought turning it into a job would help, especially since many struggled with secret identities and work-life balance.
But the biggest problem this decision caused was this:
It nearly led to a civil war between heroes.
Those who agreed with the government—and those who believed in vigilantism.
And it didn't help that governments from all over the world made the decision to make vigilantism illegal more than it already was, and to have system heroes arrest vigilantes. A war nearly happened if Blue Light didn't step in himself and stop everything. He didn't completely disagree with system heroes or vigilantes—both their points were correct, and both were wrong—so he used some of his influence in the government and his overwhelming influence in the hero community to stop all of this fighting.
He made a balance between vigilantes and system heroes. Instead of only one existing, both types were allowed to exist. Even though the government, for a long time, still demanded for vigilantes to be arrested on the spot, Blue Light's influence among heroes still persisted as strong—if not stronger—than the influence the government had on them. So after a few years, the government's relentless effort to get rid of vigilantes slowly died down, and there is currently a near-perfect balance between these types.
Even Star Island didn't discriminate between them. In fact, there are a lot of things on Star Island that exist on purpose to train or help vigilantes become stronger when they come here as students. That was another aspect of the freedom the students have on the island. Students and people outside started calling these vigilantes that come here for training—even though it's not through the official means of the island—inspiring vigilantes.
Nearly all heroes fall into a category—except for a few. The main exception is Blue Light. He never registered as a system hero and continued to operate as a vigilante, yet everyone still recognized him as a true hero. Even when his identity was somehow leaked, no one bothered him or tried to interfere with his work as a hero. He was in a completely different league—one that not even the government could restrict.
Kai looked down at the unconscious bastard and snorted in disgust, calling himself a good big brother.
"This fucking asshole."
He clenched his fists. "I can't believe there is someone who would force his own little sister into dancing."
The girl from the side quickly spoke. "Actually, I'm the one who was going to the arena."
The boy—the boyfriend—spoke up as well. "I'm the one who was going to the dance club area."
That surprised Ren and Kai.
"Really?"
"Yes. I actually have a power, but I don't really know how to control it, and that makes it dangerous. I could kill someone, and I didn't want to kill anyone—even this bastard." She looked at her brother with disgust and spat at his unconscious body.
Ren noted that and nodded in understanding, then decided to ask them some questions.
"So… did this bastard happen to mention anything about this nightclub?"
The boy and girl looked at each other, then told them everything they knew.
"Okay, that's great. Now you two should run," Ren told them, explaining exactly where to go so they could escape the same way they entered the nightclub.
As soon as the two of them got far enough away, Ren turned around and looked at Kai. Kai just looked back at him and smiled.
"Look at you," Kai said. "A moment ago, you didn't even want to help anyone here, and now you do this."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ren replied, waving it off. "Anyways… I guess we have to take down the manager."
What the two students told them wasn't much. Basically, the manager of the club told everyone who worked here what to do. There weren't really people with specific positions—if you couldn't do something, you were forced to do something else. And he was usually in the backstage area, basically the same hallway they were currently in.
"Wait, wait," Kai interrupted. "Look, I know I was angry when you stopped me from helping the people in the strip club, but you were right. We can't just take down this whole place by ourselves. I know that."
He paused, then continued.
"But like I said before, we can take down the manager—and the manager alone. We can ignore everyone else. We just need to take him down so the cops can find him when they arrive."
Kai looked at Ren with a raised eyebrow, silently asking why?
Ren answered immediately.
"We already suspected that the people working here are embezzling money, and that's why the security is so bad. But I'm a hundred percent sure they wouldn't do the same when it comes to their own safety."
He clenched his fist.
"There's probably a secret exit for the manager and his closest employees. We need to take him down."
We can't let that bastard escape
(authors note by the way, if you think the location is messy, it's because I honestly don't have a mental map of the nightclub so if you get confused, I'm sorry but that will happen a lot I don't have maps of every major location