Chapter 652 Superiority Complexes are the New Chuunibyo  

A few months after the Three Percenters had graduated from the awakeners’ school and hero academies, reality had finally sunk in for them. The power they held in their hands made them walking weapons, and they could massacre entire towns of normal people, should they wish to do so. And human nature being what it is, most of them began feeling at least a little bit superior to “normies”.

If their superiority complexes had stopped there, it wouldn’t be a big issue. A little arrogance was fine, and could even be a good thing if it was properly restrained and channeled. After all, even Aron had to admit that he was more of a benevolent dictator that had been moving farther and farther away from human norms since he’d received the system. But with the age range of the first human awakeners being what it was, a good bit of them had taken their superiority complex way beyond what could be even remotely considered healthy.

Basically, hormonal teenagers are hard enough to deal with (just ask any parent who’s ever had a teenage child). But when you gave those same hormonal teenagers Ultimate Cosmic POWAH, it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone with two brain cells rattling around in their heads that they would take things to the extreme.

Thus, a cancer began spreading through the awakeners as they came to believe that they should not only accept, but expect to be treated as superior beings in every aspect of their lives. As a result, there was a growing sense of discontent from normal people, who were feeling the brunt of the awakened extremists. Awakened crime began skyrocketing, keeping the imperial blessings agency constantly overworked but well compensated, understaffed, and overwhelmed. The official policy was to brutally, and publicly, stamp out any extremism that began to show itself in the awakeners. And that had given rise to even more resentment on the part of the awakeners, which meant less people joining the imperial blessings agency, emergency services, and other government agencies and ministries.

Even some of the “normies” were against it, as every awakener caught in performing any crimes, whether it be murder, arson, or other crimes of similar weight, were headbagged and thrown in the pit to join the growing ARES penal legions. And to normies, that reeked of humanity’s shameful past of slavery and segregation. There again, human nature raised its ugly head and humanity began showing signs of splintering, this time over the treatment of awakened criminals.

Some normies were perfectly fine with the status quo and honestly believed that awakeners were inherently superior beings. Others still espoused equality above all, and still others actually benefited from the situation, usually friends and loved ones of the awakener supremacists.

And what Aron was facing now was obviously an awakened supremacist.

“Are you an AS?” he asked.

“Haha! You’re quite the smart one—you caught on quite quickly!” the rogue awakener said, spittle flying from his lips as he began gearing up to deliver his perfect manifesto that would definitely cause the emperor to withdraw his neutral stance in awakeners’ affairs and take the side of the supremacists.

Hell, he was even half convinced that Aron was actually an awakener in disguise, so he should obviously agree with the supremacists! The sneer on Aron’s face disappeared, replaced by a blank, apathetic mask. “Since that’s the case, I really have nothing to talk to you about,” he said, then turned to walk away.

“So that’s it!?” the AS rogue said, contempt writ large across his features. “You just... run away!?”

He capered up behind Aron, who was walking away, and tried evoking a reaction out of the impassive emperor. He turned to the audience—especially the reporters studded here and there within—and mocked, “This is all the so-called ‘great’ Terran Empire has! Hahaha!”

Aron stopped in his tracks and slowly turned back around, coming face to face with the AS rogue. Not a hint of fear could be seen in him. “Okay, so let’s hear your well-thought-out manifesto. I’m sure you have one, right?” He smirked and folded his arms across his chest again, a light smile playing across his face, though it was less playful and more... murderous.

The man obviously failed to read the room and scoffed with a scornful smile on his face. He felt his power was being appreciated, and that his beliefs had made even the emperor of all humanity stop and listen to him in fear, despite all the security surrounding him.

“First,” he said with a mocking courtly bow, “allow me to introduce myself. I am Alejandro Garcia, and I have awoken the superior power of lightning. That makes me superior to unblessed scum like you normies, because I hold absolute power over your pathetically weak selves....”

He went on raving like that for a solid ten minutes, getting so involved in his lunatic ranting that arcs of electricity began crawling all over his body.

“There’s no need to explain further, as I have the power to enforce awakened superiority over any unblessed scum I happen to feel deserves a reminder of their place beneath us. But me, and others like me, have been facing a single hindrance: you. You’ve been blocking our ascent to our rightful place, so I’m here to deal with you and kick off our glorious movement!” He struck a power pose, with one hand on his hip and the other pointing directly at Aron’s face. He was looking forward to seeing the fear on the face of his target as he began the process of once again attacking the emperor, who was standing in front of him.

However, he’d obviously forgotten what had happened the first time he’d attempted a full-speed, full-power attack on Aron, who had changed his position. He was now standing there, leaning forward and sticking out his chin with his hands clasped behind his back. It was as if his whole body was screaming “HIT ME! GO AHEAD AND FUCKING HIT ME ALREADY!”

Alejandro Garcia, late of the former nation of Spain, was about to have a really, really bad day.