And here the shotgun came in handy. I instantly drew my weapon from behind my back, aimed "from the hip," and fired. The buckshot tore through the Armsmaster's heart on exit, and he crashed to the floor without taking more than a couple of steps. An ordinary person would have died from such a shot, but his suit had life support systems that could save even the most heartless patients. The panacea must be in the city, so there is a real chance that the Gunsmith will survive.

“That's it, see you later.” - I bid farewell to the audience.

A rope fell on me from above. I grabbed onto it, and it immediately pulled me up. The evacuation of my "clone" was also carried out by replicators, which had constructed something like a quadcopter capable of carrying quite heavy loads.

And fifteen minutes later, the edited video of the "charity banquet" was already available to the entire internet. The death of a hero at the hands of... well, let's say, another hero, stirred up the internet. After all, Velocity was quite a well-known hero with a lot of fans. And now all these people were in mourning, cursing the "damn crocodile."

But there were those who tried to defend me, citing my successes in eliminating gangs. However, half of these do-gooders were members of my "troll factory." Replicators with their computational resources had long since hacked "the entire internet," and now they were using their influence to shape the public opinion I needed. Live with wolves, howl like a wolf. It's worth using this weapon against the authorities so that they understand what it's like to be a victim of public opinion manipulation.

I understood that such a presentation would not be without consequences, so I gave the replicators the command to move on to the next step of my plan.

At night, when decent people were already preparing to go to sleep, replicators, playing the role of dockers in costumes, began to conduct a "cleanup" of the city. They broke into apartments and various dens, grabbing all the "guilty" and taking them away in an unknown direction. At the same time, I cut off cellular communication, the internet, and street lighting throughout the city.

The arrests conducted were not random. Over the past few weeks, replicators had been observing all the events in the city, meticulously documenting all the crimes committed. And now it was time for reckoning. I did not take into account crimes committed before surveillance began, even if I had indirect evidence of their commission. In other words, my justice was absolutely one hundred percent fair.

All the criminals were taken to the docks, where their lifeless bodies were disposed of, leaving no evidence of their existence. Today's purge could be called the "Night of Long Knives." Now I was cleaning up the remnants of ABB, Merchants, and other disorganized rabble. The forces of Empire 88 avoided replicators. Since the operation was conducted at night and all communication was cut off, the news of what was happening in the city simply did not reach the Empire's capes. Several people tried to reach them personally, but my forces intercepted and disposed of such "messengers."

By morning, Brockton Bay woke up to discover that at least ten percent of the population had disappeared without a trace. The people immediately panicked. No one understood how it was possible to arrest and take away so many people, and most importantly, where to look for them now. The only thing known for certain was that behind all these events was the Black Cloak.

Of course, the official authorities could not ignore this matter. If the spectacular murder of one cape could still be "put on the brakes" the murder of thousands of people could not. The entire police force was put on high alert. Before this, three hundred infantrymen had been stationed in the city to reinforce law enforcement services. But by noon, five thousand soldiers accompanied by heavy armored vehicles arrived in the city.

The police tried to find out who was behind this attack, but they couldn't find anything coherent. A whole crowd of local riot police stormed the Dockers' Association territory, where they began searches and arrests. The police were looking for any clues, but they only discovered that people were doing honest work there, earning a living.

I deliberately appeared at the Association as Danny Hebert, arguing vehemently that we had done nothing wrong and were just trying to survive. But despite the lack of any evidence, I and a bunch of people were still arrested and "dragged" to prison.

By evening, the whole city was on edge, and people didn't know what to fear more—unknown people in black or the army and police. Heroes also flocked to the city like flies to dung, now patrolling the... streets in the center, not daring to venture into the Docks or Empire territory.

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Kaiser and his army also switched to military alert and even had several shootouts with police forces. For them, such a turn of events was a complete shock. First, Coil died, then the Travelers team refused to intervene in any way in the conflict, and now the Black Cloak had practically cleared the entire city of all "criminal elements." It was quite obvious that the criminal elements belonging to Empire 88 felt extremely uncomfortable because of this. Many of them simply ran away, deciding that it was better to be alive somewhere uncertain than to die in their hometown.

And at night, when darkness descended on the city again, the slaughter continued. At that time, I was sitting in prison with a couple of dockers, managing an army of replicators through the neural network, pretending to be humans. This time, the population purge was already quite superficial, because I had already destroyed most of the criminals. But now the targets were the military and police who had committed more crimes in one day than in the entire previous year.

This time, my replicators did not try to dispose of absolutely all the bodies, but focused primarily on carrying out sentences. The "men in black" broke into houses, police stations, and military camps, destroying all those who dared to stand in their way with overwhelming firepower. Tank armor and concrete walls provided no better protection against bullets than cardboard, so there was no way to escape. And replicators, on the contrary, could boast of impenetrable armor. And even if the armor was pierced, it did not harm the replicators themselves.

The capes had a special story. Empire 88, the Faultline team, and the Travelers sat in their lairs, bristling with weapons and abilities. No one bothered them, which suited them just fine. But various heroes who decided to establish their own "law and order" in the city unexpectedly faced circumstances that made them think twice. In other words, replicators simply shot all those who decided to "play hero."

The local people were used to seeing capes against capes. But this time, snipers with inhuman accuracy and unearthly weapons came out against them. And it turned out that only about ten percent of the heroes could survive a bullet to the temple, while the rest were essentially just meat.

The main weapon of the replicators was their knowledge. The city was filled with surveillance equipment, so the "collective mind" of my robots knew perfectly well what was happening where. Therefore, replicators appeared where no one expected them and fled from where the capes were, which they could not destroy. Thanks to their ability to change shape, replicators could hide in the sewer system or climb onto the roof of a building, pretend to be an ordinary frightened citizen, or blend in completely with the surrounding landscape.

Due to the darkness and lack of lighting, it was extremely difficult to understand the reason for the "elusiveness" of my minions. And those who had a chance to guess something were immediately distracted by a bullet to the temple. Even the most invulnerable heroes tried to get away from such a gift as far as possible.

Closer to dawn, my comrades and I were freed by replicators who cleared the prison of guards, as well as criminal elements who had foolishly hidden there, naively thinking that no one would reach them in prison.

At dawn, the entire army of the Black Cloak disappeared, dissolving with the night darkness. Ordinary citizens, who had not slept at night due to constant gunfire and cries of agony around, gradually began to emerge from their apartments and were surprised to discover that none of their neighbors had been harmed. And by noon, it turned out that even acquaintances of acquaintances remained alive, and acquaintances of acquaintances of acquaintances. In general, normal people who were not involved in any lawlessness did not suffer at all. After this, people began to hope that perhaps law and justice would indeed prevail in Brockton Bay.

But the angels, also known as heroes, suddenly found that their attempt to take the city by storm had cost them dearly. Fifty-three heroes died in one night. Moreover, a dozen of them were peacefully sleeping in their beds at that moment, and they were shot right through the wall of the house. Such losses were comparable to those from the onslaught of the Endbringer. At the same time, the angels did not manage to kill a single cape.

Usually, if some villain caused chaos, heroes would rally, gather in a crowd, introduce an army into the city, and trample the enemy with all their might. But this time such a strategy "did not work." Heroes were almost completely cut down, only about a third of the army remained overnight, and the remaining third had no desire to search for the guilty, but only dreamed of staying alive and avoiding a tribunal for disobedience to orders.

At this time, my propaganda was broadcast on all channels—television, radio, and the internet—showing how I dealt with the villains attacking the city. As evidence, I presented video recordings of interrogations and torture sessions where people were pressured to reveal information about the Black Cloak or confess to collaborating with him.

In general, the heroes took a pause to consider their next actions, while I decided that now was the most appropriate time to visit Kaiser and the members of Empire 88. They were supposed to be on my side now, and criminal activities shouldn't make sense for demons. They needed to think about how to win the game rather than how to earn dollars for another copy of Earth. However, I decided not to personally go to the enemy's lair and sent another replicator who convincingly portrayed me instead.