Ninth planet.
4 minutes after Little Mortal's departure from his territory.
The capital of one of the two thousand regions.
In front of a huge mansion, a general walked in through the front gate.
The guards on both sides of the gate greeted him solemnly, and he nodded back.
The general entered and walked towards the main building, but near the entrance, he changed direction.
At this moment, without his notice, something small and dark left his 'shadow', and entered another shadow belonging to a maid who was going inside.
The same thing happened again and again, until the small object hiding and moving between shadows reached a big and empty hall and went into the shadow of a big pillar.
At the end of the big hall, a man was sitting on a throne.
He was the king, and the only level 8 participant here in this region.
Many seasons before the current one, a group of 2000 lucky participants advanced from the eighth planet with its 7 impossible stages.
All of the participants from back then were now kings and queens on this planet.
That's why every season, all of them were kings and queens from the start.
The King was now looking at his infopad in confusion.
He was reading the information about the Emperor title.
The title that was an impossible task for anyone to achieve here...
"Has someone actually finished the previous planet's solo mode?
I remember you need to fight everybody with their original power if you can finish the-"
His thoughts stopped there.
Why, you ask?
Because a small hand went from one side of his head to the other, and naturally ended his life in this season.
The hand retracted the next second.
Not long after, suddenly a second person appeared in the hall with the dead king, whose body needed a couple of minutes to resurrect and get back to the waiting room.
The second person was a newborn who looked around in confusion.
When he saw the dead 'king,' who was extremely similar to himself, he gasped in shock!
But in a brief moment, he remembered his boss's achievement on the first planet, which the other 'soldiers' told him about, and hastily took out his infopad!
If there was someone similar to him here, then for sure he needs to act in his place, right?
"First, I needed to know where I am and if our 'army commander' left an order for me."
He checked the planet he was on.
"Ninth planet? How did we end up here? What about planets 7 and 8?"
Then he checked his inbox and saw a new message.
[ Soldier, pay attention :
- Advance to level 8 immediately with the least commotion.
- Act as the King/Queen of this region while I kill the rest.
- Do not get exposed at all costs for the next 10 days!
- If you messed up, contact me immediately!
- If you could stay undercover long enough, join the siege against me.
- The arrival of my strongest army will be the sign for you to assassinate your teammates.
Best of luck - Mortal, the strongest - ]
The newborn, with his heart beating fast, first hid the 'dead king' and changed into his clothing.
He then sat down on the throne, trying to calm himself down.
He checked his infopad again to try and understand the meaning of the message.
He saw that he now held the title of king, but only for 10 days.
With this title, he could advance to level 8, and if they conquered the world, he would be permanently level 8.
So he starts advancing 'slowly', trying his best not to make a commotion.
Then he checked his equipment and saw he had nothing.
Everything was gone, even the invulnerability cards.
While he didn't know why, he didn't care, because from the system guide about this planet, which he was seeing for the first time,
Level 8 was the strongest force in each region!
So he was completely safe here as long as there was no attack from another king.
Then he thought about the part his boss asked him to 'join the siege against me'.
Only one look at the ranking list was enough for him to understand this order, too.
His boss was already registered as an Emperor in the ranking list around 4 minutes ago.
Which means after 1 hour, one of the participants would receive his coordinates because of the bounty on his head.
And just like that, the news about his arrival was going to be spread among other participants.
Even if they couldn't contact each other with their infopads, they could send an 'envoy' to the other participants and notify them.
The Fake king frowned,
"But the boss is out of his territory, and his coordinates will be somewhere outside.
So the participant who receives the coordinate can go after him immediately...
But it's a suicide if the other party does that.
Any idiot can tell they can't mess with someone who reached the ninth planet in a month, alone.
They surely invite others to cooperate and team up."
The Fake king frowned,
"However, as the strongest force in each region, kings or queens can't leave their region, or it will be an easy chance for their neighbors to come and take over.
So they probably try to make a deal with the other participants to join the hunt and issue a temporary ceasefire.
But all of them have a bunch of neighbors, and to make it possible, everyone needs to join the 'siege' if they want to feel at ease while their territory is defenseless!
That's the only way to have a successful 'siege'!
So that's what Boss means by joining them!
I am a king now, and I naturally need to act as an insider in the siege that I will be invited to in a while!"
The Fake king sighed in relief and continued advancing.
Their boss seems unpredictable, but you could see a reason behind each of his actions.
You just need to use your brain and understand it.
The fake newborn king knew if what he thought was correct, then he had enough time to advance,
And it wasn't that hard to 'buy 10 days' time for his boss.
Gathering all of the 2000 participants for a joint siege, especially when they were being 'replaced', wasn't that easy.
Depending on how many participants his boss could replace, the siege might take more or less time to begin.
.......
Another region.
7 minutes after Little Mortal's departure.
Inside a beautiful garden, two women were strolling.
The 'season' here seems to be in the middle of spring, with all the flowers and various trees around.
At this moment, one of the two ladies felt someone had tripped her, and she was going to fall face-first to the ground.
From her luxury robe and her position in front, while walking, and the other lady in a simple robe behind her,
It was obvious that she was the boss, or the Queen of the region, to be exact.
Seeing herself falling, the Queen was amused at first and thought to herself,
'Which of the 4 idiots left their territory to come here and assassinate me?'
She had 4 neighbors, and as the only level 8 in this region, she didn't doubt even for a moment that the one trying to kill her at this moment was another level 8,
Or it was impossible not to feel the presence of the other party.
The next moment, she became excited,
'If I can kill the assassin, can't I just go and conquer the territory of the other party?'
Here, all of the Kings and Queens had a couple of Invulnerability cards, so killing each other partly depended on who ran out of Invulnerability cards first.
But while falling, she saw three things that made her heart jump in her throat out of fear.
The first thing was her newborn maid, now changed back to card, meaning the use of her card —or worse, any other card —was 'canceled'!
The second thing was a small fist emerging from her shadow, punching her face.
And feeling the power behind the impact, she tried to offset the force by spinning around.
And the third thing, and the scariest one, was another small hand, which came out of the same shadow like a claw, sank into her neck, and directly grabbed her by the spine!
Why was this one the scariest?
Because first, it proved her Invulnerability-cards aren't working, and it was 'canceled' like her newborn,
And second, her upper body couldn't spin anymore with her head to offset the force from the punch!
So she was naturally decapitated in this manner.
The last thing she heard was,
"That's two, I can do this!"
And the last thing she saw was a confused woman, extremely similar to her, who appeared out of nowhere and immediately took out her infopad when she saw her headless body.
........
1 hour after Little Mortal's departure from his region.
The first participants received a coordinate, became excited for a moment, then were stunned by the fact that someone with a bounty from the first planet was on their planet.
and then became scared when realizing that the other party was actually this so-called 'Emperor'!
It was clear that hunting this 'criminal' wasn't just a solo job; even a whole team might not be enough for it!
Especially now that the current coordinate of the other party wasn't even in his own region, even though he had 10 days of protection!
He was somewhere far away from his territory!
That only meant one thing,
'I am not scared of anybody here! Come and hunt me if you have the courage to do so!'
So while a certain little Emperor was done replacing more than 15 participants already,
The first person who received the coordinates for the bounty began communicating with the neighboring territories to determine their next steps.
.......
1 day after Little Mortal's departure.
More than 300 participants were replaced by Little Mortal's newborn army.
Even in the ranking, nobody knew the kings and queens were killed because they were replaced, and for the next 10 days, if not exposed, they could stay unnoticed with the system's cover-up.
Meanwhile, The Crystal was telling Little Mortal where the closest region to go was, or where it was best to go.
With the news of him being the same criminal from the first planet spreading, he could try to intercept the news between regions.
He only needed to replace the King/Queen with his own people in the regions close to the participant who receives his 'coordinate'.
And Lilith was responsible for finding the King or Queen if they weren't in Crystal's 'line of sight', so Little Mortal can pretend to find them using his blood-magic.
After the assassinations,
Lilith and The Crystal, who already knew all of the newborns, would tell him who was the best choice to replace the other party with.
He had more than 55 million newborns in his storage card, so there was always someone at least similar to the King or Queen.
........
Ninth planet - Day 42.
Day 5 after Little Mortal's departure from his region.
The news of the Emperor's real identity was already spread everywhere.
The participants, along with the more than 1,400 replaced Kings and Queens, were now in the middle of negotiations to choose a day and make their move.
If it weren't for a certain group of replaced kings and queens making excuses, they would already have gathered in one place to start the siege.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
........
Ninth planet - Day 45.
Day 8 after Little Mortal's departure.
Except for one participant who wasn't killed by their boss to be replaced for some reason,
The rest were replaced, gathered, and ready to start the siege.
In a vast flowery plane, Little Mortal, in his Emperor robe, with a random oversized crown that he found on the head of a random victim,
was now looking at the 'Fake sun' with his hand behind his back.
Not long after, 2000 kings and Queens, showing off their level 8 aura, arrived.
Flying was disabled here, so for them, the fastest way of travel was on foot.
50 meters away from him, the group stopped.
No one spoke, no one moved, and no one took action, as if they were all waiting for something.
Only one of them was slightly puzzled as to what they were waiting for.
He was the only non-replaced participant.
Around 10 minutes later, the Emperor, who seemed to enjoy the scenery and the sun enough, slowly turned around.
The moment he faced the crowd, everyone cupped their fist, bowed slightly, and shouted together,
"Greetings, your majesty, Mortal, the strongest!"
The voice of the 1999 level 8 kings and Queens was so loud that the whole planet heard their greetings!
And then, they split into two groups, one side the kings, and the other side the Queens, in an orderly manner.
Only a dumbfounded king, who didn't greet the Emperor with the rest, was standing in the middle with a blank look on his face and a dropped jaw.
Little Mortal greeted the crowd,
"Greetings, everyone, and good job."
Then his gaze moved to the only king left.
"We meet again."
*Ding*
Just one sentence, and Little Mortal received a system message!
The crowd, who saw the only real king 'die' from fear, were speechless...
Little Mortal was even more speechless.
The one that he kept for the end was the same goblin who sold him his handgun.
He was going to have a chat with him and even thank him for the handgun, but...
"Why did you die, man? I was going to... Ahhh, never mind."
Little Mortal shook his head.
Seeing everybody changed to cards, he knew that was the end of the event here.
A smile appeared on Little Mortal's lips at this moment.
Then he starts chuckling as he says in a mocking tone,
"I told you, stupid system, didn't I!?
I didn't get a random ability at the start of the season, so I didn't let anyone enjoy their abilities either!
Now look at you, silly system!
45 days later, and before you know what happened, they are all dead without having the time to use their abilities!"
Lilith and The Crystal, who remembered his promise at the start of the season,
didn't know if he really acted so fast all the way because he was really angry at not getting an ability. Or he was just acting?
The notebook recorded this historical moment.
Little Mortal took out his infopad, transferred all of the citizens to his storage card, turned it invisible, and shrank it before giving it to Lilith.
2000 regions filled with villages, cities, and capitals give this planet the most 'citizens' while having the fewest participants.
Lilith, as always, sent the citizens to planet Lubo and took care of the Newborns' citizenship.
While Little Mortal was reading the system message that congratulated him for his win due to the death of all the other participants,
A wormhole opened, and the former Queen of his own region walked out.
She was naturally here for the rest of the cards that he was supposed to give to her.
Especially the sun-cards.
The system, after tracking his infopad, already knew he was going to kill everybody using his invisible presence, the cancel card, and the privilege he had.
In its calculations, the system knew he would easily succeed.
Little Mortal, seeing the cyborg Queen coming out and smiling at him, threw the infopad at her.
"Here, little system, take your stuff back.
You can even take the things I won on this planet."
But,
There was a problem with his throwing.
He threw it with too much force that, for a level 7 cyborg, it was impossible to catch it.
So the infopad naturally went through her hand, made a square hole in her head, and disappeared into the horizon.
The system,
[ !? ]
The two birth treasures who didn't like this system from the start,
<-_->
Lilith, who just came out with the registered newborns,
"O_o"
And Little Mortal, who snorted and said,
"You dare to come 2 days earlier?
Come back when the 10-day deal is over, you stupid system."
Only now did the system understand why its cyborg was destroyed.
He promised to give everything after 10 days, and it was day 8 now.
Little Mortal summoned the elderly group next.
When they came out and saw their boss in an Emperor's robe, while not knowing what was going on, they greeted him.
"Hello, boss."
"Good to see you again, boss."
Little Mortal smiled,
"What's up, boys and girls?"
The crowd felt slightly embarrassed, but they knew he was some ancient minion from the underworld, so they were like little boys and girls in his eyes.
But what made them wonder was why there weren't any chairs or snacks for them to eat this time?
Weren't they supposed to start the 'meeting' and plan for this planet?
From the looks of it, they were here for a meeting, right?
Little Mortal chuckled,
"I already donated all of my wealth to charity, don't look for your chair and snacks."
The crowd was speechless.
No wonder they were back in their old clothes...
The elderly number 1 asked in confusion,
"What do you want us to do now, boss?"
They had a bad feeling.
The atmosphere was like the 'ending' of something.
Little Mortal threw the newborn card at the old lady and said,
"All of you are allowed to advance now.
We are on the Ninth planet."
The group of elderly checked their infopads, and sure enough, they were on the Ninth planet!
"Can I ask how we ended up here?"
Little Mortal smiled mysteriously,
"How did we end up here, you ask?
Let me tell you!
The other day, after my funeral, I felt life was meaningless!
What's the point of playing around on one planet after another?
So I said, 'Little system! You have two choices!
1. Bring every sinner here, so I can clean them up!
2. I force you to do it!
And guess what the system chose?"
The crowd said together,
"First option?"
Little Mortal nodded,
"I thought so too!
But the system suddenly sent me to a planet that was completely covered in water!
It turns out that this silly system was actually trying to fool me!
It sent me to a planet where I wasn't supposed to make a sound!
Can you believe it!?
Do I look like a pushover?
Do I look like someone who stays quiet because I was told to?
Do I look like someone who gets bullied just like that?
Hmmm?"
The crowd shook their heads,
"N-not at all!"
What idiot would bully the 'ultimate bully'?
Little Mortal nodded again and continued excitedly,
"Exactly!
So I said, 'Little system, you want to play like this?
Then I'll play with you!
The moment I spoke, a huge monster suddenly came out of the water!"
*Gasp*!
The crowd gasped,
"Boss, don't tell me you were on the 'Loneliness' planet?"
Little Mortal nodded excitedly,
"Yes! Yes!"
And they gasped again.
Who would be so crazy to make a sound there?
They had already heard many stories about the ending of those who pushed their luck!
Little Mortal continued,
"But guess what I did when the monster came out to eat me?"
"W-what?"
"I slapped its face and sent it flying to the horizon!"
*Gasp!*
"But let me tell you!
The sound of the slap was so loud that it woke up everyone and everything on the planet!
It didn't take long before monster after monster came after me, and I slapped monster's face after monster's face to...?"
He paused so they could finish his sentence.
The crowd,
"The Horizon!"
"Exactly!
At some point, participants started showing up too!
But their fate was the same!
When the system saw it couldn't stop my slapping frenzy, guess what it did?"
"What?"
"It opened a passage to other planets and dropped all of the things that could move from there to the planet I was on to stop me!"
*Gasp!*
"But so what?
I just slapped them one by one!
When my right hand was tired, I slapped with my left hand!
When both of my hands were tired!?
I kicked them away!
Until at some point, I couldn't anymore!
Do you know why?"
An old man tried to guess,
"Y-you got tired?"
Little Mortal rolled his eyes at him,
"No, you silly old man!
Do I ever get tired?
I couldn't because I ran out of horizon!
At some point, the horizon itself was filled with corpses of slapped creatures!
Can you believe it?"
The crowd gasped again!
They couldn't believe the 'Horizon' could fill up!
"So I started slapping them to the 'environment around'!
Old, young, men, women, child, baby, kittens, puppies!
It didn't matter what!
Everything and anything received a slap!
This continued until the system ran out of monsters, participants, and citizens, and then it started begging!
Saying, 'For the sake of those you love, stop this madness!'
But who do I love?"
The crowd asked doubtfully,
"N-nobody?"
"Exactly!
Even myself died previously at that funeral!
Who else is left for me to love?
So I said, 'I don't want to! Send me to the last planet so my soldiers can advance, or you know what!'
And here we are now.
You can tell what the system's decision was, right?"
The crowd took a deep breath and nodded.
The system naturally listened obediently this time.
"Now, as you can see, there is an empty horizon here and an empty environment.
So, like that silly system, I give you guys 2 choices.
1. Advance to level 8 right here and right now, so we can go and conquer the underworld.
2. I slap you all one by one until the horizon and the environment around is filled with your corpses!
The choice is yours!
Choose wisely!"
The crowd,
"2!"
Little Mortal,
"O_o"
He was speechless.
"Why?"
Even though, as the members of the winner's team, they could advance straight to level 8 with their Boss's permission, they didn't feel excited at all.
The old lady gritted her teeth and said,
"W-we can't do that..."
She knew this underworld minion didn't like to hear 'no' as an answer, and he might even start killing them until they agreed,
But they couldn't do that even if he killed everybody.
Little Mortal pretended not to know and frowned,
"And why is that?"
Even though he knew very well that, when newborns, if all the choices in front of them lead to a disaster, they are forced to choose the lesser evil.
He was an example of that.
Many times, he couldn't stop the killing of the Higher beings on planet Earth because that would lead to Lubo's complete awakening.
That would be a danger to the whole zone and all the universes in it, not only a planet.
So he could only beg the to show mercy, which they never granted.
The old lady was slightly surprised,
"Boss, don't you know why we can't?
If we help you to start a chaos in the underworld and harm the Queen of Hell, that can destroy the seal.
And if the seal is destroyed, the world faces a disaster!"
Little Mortal's frown deepened,
"What are you talking about? What seal?"
The elderly group was even more surprised now.
"Boss, don't you know about the purpose of the underworld?"
Little Mortal shook his head,
"Nope.
From the first day that I joined the underworld to 'play',
I was kept in the deepest part of the underworld in the most secure dungeon of the seven-layer prison.
The Dictator Queen said I am too violent for the 'surface', so she kept me there from the start."
The crowd gulped nervously, hearing where he had lived all these years.
No wonder he just killed everybody on his way.
The Queen was right!
But what did he mean by 'from the first day I joined the underworld'?
Lilith rolled her eyes at him.
The old lady said,
"Boss, aren't you a minion from the underworld?
I thought minions were born there, not 'join' the underworld..."
Little Mortal raised an eyebrow,
"What in the world are you talking about?
Do I look like those red scary minions to you?"
The crowd shook their heads.
Little Mortal snorted,
"Because I'm not a minion!
I just woke up a while ago and saw there is a new place called the underworld.
So I went there to 'play'.
Anyway, get back to the topic."
The newborns, and even the system and Hypermind, were stunned!
He woke up and saw there was a 'new place'?
Is the Underworld a new place to him?
How old is he if he went to sleep before the creation of the underworld and woke up after that?
Is he bluffing?
The old lady tried to calm herself down and said,
"S-should I tell you about it, Boss? It might take some time..."
Little Mortal nodded,
"Sure, we have time."
The old lady took a deep breath and started,
"From what the ancient ones told us,
At the beginning, there wasn't any underworld.
But one day, an enemy, too strong for our world law to handle, appeared, and the existence of all living creatures was threatened by it.
Even the ancient ones couldn't do anything about it!"
Little Mortal asked with interest,
"What existence? Where can I find one? Are they strong?"
The old lady, who saw him getting excited, coughed and said,
"Boss, we never saw one, and we don't even know what they are."
Little Mortal was disappointed,
"Alright, continue with your story..."
The old lady continued,
"From what the ancient ones told us, to stop this unstoppable enemy, the world law split itself into two parts.
One is the world above, which we are currently in, and the other is the underworld, the Queen of Hell's territory.
These two parts are responsible for keeping the 'enemy' sealed between them."
Little Mortal raised his eyebrows in surprise,
"So the 'enemy' is sealed between the two parts, and you think if I mess with the Dictator Queen, we might end up with a broken seal that releases the enemy?"
The elderly group nodded,
"Yes, and it can clearly put the world in danger.
So we can't accompany you to conquer the underworld.
If you take us there with you, not only won't we help you, we will even try to stop you."
Little Mortal, after a brief silence, asked,
"And what's the point of these silly season games that the level 3 civilization and ancient ones are sponsoring?"
The old lady answered,
"The underworld needs law from the world above to support the seal below.
When participants advance here, the planets attract world law from outside for their advancement.
The Divine race uses this opportunity to take part of the law and send it to the underworld.
It's like when the ancient ones deliver the law with sinners to the underworld directly, but on a bigger scale."
Little Mortal raised an eyebrow,
"Excuse me, what is this Divine race?"
And the old lady pointed at her infopad,
"The race that built the level 3 civilization's mainland, the cards, and the devices here.
They are sending the law through the central mainland's core directly to the underworld,
And the participants need to contribute by participating in the seasonal games.
The only problem is that recently the 10 planets have not been the same as in the past.
Back then, the planets would represent different feelings every season.
Guilt, Shame, Pride, Envy, Jealousy, Compassion, Contentment, Anticipation, Gratitude, Frustration, whatever you name it.
There were opportunities everywhere for higher beings to grow and advance.
But now everything is locked on the current events, and nobody seems to care."
Lilith on Little Mortal's shoulder, said,
"So, Hypermind had its own goal all these years using these 10 planets,
While Xyron was 'feeding' the Core of his secret project under the cover of helping the underworld.
Looks like my old comrades were being fooled by both of them for many, many years...
Even the 'sinners' race' now is the 'Divine race'!"
Lilith could only sigh.
This information law was so overpowered that it probably fooled the ancient ones into thinking the underworld condition is good enough that it doesn't matter if they don't pay attention to the 10 planets anymore.
Little Mortal nodded and took out his storage card,
"I understand your concerns now.
Let's do it this way instead.
Do you see this storage card?"
The crowd of elderly nodded.
Little Mortal chuckled,
"Inside this storage card are all of the citizens I gathered on the way here from every single planet.
And for your information, we had 2000 regions here, with 2000 capitals, each with at least 10 million people.
That is 20 billion people from this one planet alone."
The crowd of elderly people started sweating profusely when they guessed what he was trying to do.
Little Mortal smiled like a real devil,
"So, listen to me carefully, my adorable soldiers.
You either advance to level 8, all at once,
Or I will send you to the afterlife with these citizens.
And to make it clear for you, yes, this is a hostage situation!"
The elderly group felt like crying.
Lilith closed her eyes so as not to see their faces.
Her partner was indeed good at playing with the emotions of these old newborns.
And he didn't say anything about conquering the underworld this time.
He only threatened them with the lives of 'hostages' so they advanced to level 8.
This way, they didn't have any excuses to deny his order, because there was no harm to anybody in it.
But Lilith knew her partner was forced to act as a villain.
If he did something that exposed his identity as a newborn,
For an AI that could analyze everything related to him in a moment, it was easy to see through him.
...
2 hours later, close to 60 million newborns, all with a solemn look, were ready to advance.
The elderly group had already told everyone about the 'hostage situation' and the billions of lives that depend on their advancement!
Little Mortal looked at the sea of newborns with satisfaction.
Then he ran to the jungles far away before coming back a while later.
He went after his infopad, which he smashed into the Queen's face.
Then he wrote a message and sent it to everyone.
[Sent to All:
When you start advancing, it doesn't matter what happens,
Even if your life is on the line, even if you are going to die, I don't care!
You will not STOP advancing!
For each of you who hesitates, even for a moment, I kill a million citizens!
And believe me, I have enough of them to kill even if all of you stop!
I repeat,
DO NOT STOP ADVANCING AT ALL COSTS!
DO YOU... UNDERSTAND?
YES / NO]
The crowd gulped nervously and pressed yes.
The wise-looking old man raised his hand.
"What is it, wise elderly number 2?"
The old man wiped the sweat off his forehead and said,
"Boss, there are 60 million of us.
Except for the 1999 group, which has already advanced, if the rest of us advance together, it might cause some unpredictable outcomes...
How about we do it in a group of 1000 to be safe?"
Little Mortal took out his storage card and said,
"How about I kill a million citizens so you don't waste my time? Hmmm?"
The wise elderly number 2 waved his hand hurriedly,
"Please forget what I said!
We can begin at any time."
They knew the path in front of them was one-way.
The end could be death, though...
So many level 8 newborns couldn't be tolerated anywhere outside of this planet.
Only this unknown awakened villain coming from the underworld was crazy enough to force so many of them to advance together.
Little Mortal sent another message to them and threw his infopad away.
[We start in 2 minutes.
Throw your infopad to where I throw mine before you start.]
The crowd started throwing away their infopads.
One minute later, a small mountain was formed from the infopads.
Little Mortal nodded in approval and watched the crowd coldly while holding the storage card containing the nonexistent citizens.
The message was clear,
'I am ready to start killing them.
Their lives are in your hands!'
