[Villain merch is coming out… The world’s really going downhill…]
(photo)
– F***k!! I said don’t buy it!
– I want it too, that mask!!
– I may be 34 this year, but I still want that villain hunter’s mask!!!
– Don’t buy it!!!!!
– It’s always sold out because of you guys!!!
[Comments]
-: This kind of awesome item existed? Thanks. Lately, my daughter’s been begging me nonstop for villain hunter toys; I guess I’ll have to get her this.
ㄴ : How did your daughter end up supporting villains though?
ㄴ : Villain hunter’s not a villain, okay!!? He’s a hero. Say it louder for the people in the back.
ㄴ (OP): Be honest, your daughter’s just an excuse. You wanna wear it yourself, right?
-: Wow, the mask looks exactly the same. Don’t tell me that villain hunter himself made it and is selling it?
ㄴ : Since villains can’t register copyrights, everyone and their mom is selling it lol
-: The Association’s apparently recommending taking all this stuff down. They’re saying it counts as supporting terrorism or something; you might wanna be careful.
ㄴ (OP): I’m saying I wanna wear the mask myself. How the hell is that supporting terrorism? That’s such BS.
ㄴ : Honestly, I kinda agree with you lol
—
“……?”
Lately, because I blew all my money at Hero University,
I’d been wandering the streets, looking around to see if there was any good spot to get my hands on some quick cash.
“???”
That’s when I spotted a high school girl… with the mask I used to wear for villain activities hanging off the back of her school bag like a decoration.
Panicked, I hurriedly opened the newly bought duffel bag—
…It’s still there?
Contrary to my fear that I might have dropped it somewhere,
I found my mask sitting neatly inside the duffel bag. That’s when I realized—
…She made that herself?
That wasn’t a mask I had made; it was one that person had crafted herself.
I found myself inwardly impressed by the quality of the copy, so good that even I, the original creator, was almost fooled.
Tsk… that could be dangerous.
Realizing that openly walking around with a Villain Hunter mask like that could lead to conflict with people from the Hero Association…
“Hey, student?”
“Yes?”
I tried to feign interest in the mask, hoping to retrieve it somehow.
“This is a Villain Hunter mask, right?”
“It is.”
“Do you mind telling me where you bought it?”
“Oh, I got it at Pie Shop.”
“Ah… Thanks for letting me know.”
I had intended to casually start a conversation about where she bought it, and then naturally retrieve the mask—
But when I realized that the high school girl had actually bought the mask from some place called “Pie Shop”, a name I’d never seen or heard before…
I could sense that this situation was getting more serious than I’d thought.
Pie Shop?? Where even is that..? Pie Shop? Pie… shop? …Pyro Bomber shop? …No way. No way that’s it… right?
…
A ship carrying augmented alloy was scheduled to arrive here in thirty minutes.
[Shall we get started, babe? By the way, you get 20% of the mask profits, okay? Stop sulking.]
“Enough with the nonsense. Beginning bomb transport now.”
I reported the current situation through the long-distance communicator in my ear.
I disguised myself as an employee here and began to transport the bomb to the target location.
[Anyone in our way?]
“None.”
[Wow, for once you’re not calling me the one in the way?]
“Be careful. The security is a lot more intense than usual.”
Pyro Bomber, who was used to large-scale terrorism like this, seemed unfazed…
But to be honest, I was incredibly nervous.
One wrong move and my cover could be blown….and considering the kind of cargo arriving in Korea today…
The security at the port was tighter than ever.
[Didn’t expect the extra security, but hey, I’m the one drawing all the aggro anyway, babe~. Just make sure you sneak it out clean.]
“I’ll do my best.”
Amidst all that tension, I managed to reach the target point while still disguised as an employee.
“I’ve arrived. Beginning the install—”
Just as I was about to attach the bomb to the cargo container…
“What… did you just say?”
“This is all for the good of the country. No need to feel guilty.”
Suddenly, I heard voices approaching from nearby.
I instinctively slipped between the containers and hid myself…
“Ah, come on, why are you like this…”
“It’s called sincerity, sincerity. Just take it.”
“Seriously… I don’t even know why this pocket is open.”
“The envelope is just finding its rightful owner~.”
I didn’t know what it was all for, but…
On one side, a man handed over a bribe, while on the other, someone pretended not to care as they accepted it.
…What kind of bribe is that?
I knew this was just how the world worked.
Wasn’t it often easier to get what you wanted through backdoor deals than by winning fair and square?
Just move along already…
However—
Whatever kind of deal the two were making, it had nothing to do with me.
So I stayed in place, keeping silent.
“Here it is.”
I saw the man who had received the money pull out a mysterious key from inside his coat and hand it over.
Looks like it really was a backdoor deal.
The two of them, believing their exchange had gone smoothly, quickly left the area.
“People sure are working hard to get by.”
[What was that?]
“I’ll begin installing the bombs now.”
I started attaching the adhesive bombs to the cargo container.
Thunk… thunk… thunk…
After attaching all fifteen bombs—
[The ship arrives in ten minutes. Everyone, get to your positions.]
[To positions~]
“Moving out now.”
Following Hye-won’s instructions, we began moving to our designated locations.
[Everyone remembers the plan, right?]
[Please, with my acting experience? This’ll be a breeze.]
“I’m ready.”
When we arrived at the prearranged operation point,
We could see a massive cargo ship loaded with augmented alloy approaching from a distance.
Soon after, just before the ship entered the port—
Hmm?
A man handed what looked like a bribe to someone who appeared to be a worker, then received a key from him… and began opening a cargo container near where the ship was coming in.
“…….”
From an uninformed perspective, that man might have seemed like just another employee doing his job.
But from my point of view where I knew he had just made a shady deal—
What he was doing was clearly far from normal.
“…We’re changing the operation.”
[What? Why, villain hunter?]
[Babe, are you finally ready to hunt us too?]
“There’s going to be a terrorist attack. Not by us…but by other villains.”
[…What are you talking about?]
[Are you sure?]
“It’s a gut feeling. But I think you can trust it.”
The moment I said we were changing the plan, I instinctively took off running in the opposite direction from the dock where the cargo ship was pulling in.
“Where are you off to, friend with good instincts?”
“……!”
A woman appeared out of nowhere and placed her hand on my head…
Thud…
That became my last memory.
…
Ugh… my head hurts…
When I opened my eyes, feeling a throbbing pain in my head…
I found myself tightly bound with rope in an unfamiliar place.
…What were they thinking, restraining me with just rope…?
Still, with just a bit of strength, I could easily tear through restraints like this.
So, I could only assume that the villains who had tied me up this way had some kind of ulterior motive behind such a careless bind.
For now, I shouldn’t break free.
And so, while I was holding off on freeing myself, planning to escape this place when the time was right—
“Are you awake now?”
The voice of the woman I’d heard just before passing out came from behind me.
“…Who are you?”
“I’m the one asking questions.”
At that moment…
I felt something sharp press against my neck, and decided, for now, to quietly follow her instructions.
“I already know a good bit, but I need to cross-check a few things.”
“….…”
“By the way, we know you have the ability of physical regeneration. A body that can’t die even if it wants to… makes you perfect for torture, don’t you think?”
“…I’ll cooperate.”
“Good, that’s more like it~.”
Apparently…
The woman seemed to think my ability was limited to just physical regeneration.
Well, it wasn’t a strange assumption. If anything, it was the obvious one.
People who possessed more than one ability were extremely rare, so the woman must not have known that I had two abilities, which was why she had used such a sloppy method of restraint.
If I just wait for the right opportunity, I should be able to get out of this.
If that was the case, then as long as I got through this round of questioning smoothly, I figured I could escape from this place without much trouble.
So, for now, I decided to go along with the demands of the villains who had kidnapped me.
“There was a woman in the in-ear earphones you were using who kept calling you ‘babe’. Is she your girlfriend?”
“No, she isn’t.”
Thud—
“Ghk…”
“This is what happens when you lie. Got it?”
It was unfair.
Damn it… I usually don’t curse much.
But lately, it really felt like no one believed a word I said, and that alone was just so frustrating.
“…Yes, she is.”
“There we go. So you were committing a terrorist act with your girlfriend, right?”
“Yes…”
Even though I answered with a lie, she didn’t hurt me.
It seemed the female villain who had knocked me out didn’t have the power to read minds but simply had the ability to put people to sleep through physical contact.
Judging by how she had deliberately touched my head when she first knocked me out,
And by how she said right before starting the interrogation, “I already know a good bit, but I need to cross-check a few things,”
It looked like she had made me mistakenly believe her ability involved reading memories.
So I decided to play along and pretend I had fallen for the act.
“What were you after?”
“We were after the augmented alloy…”
“What kind of villain is your girlfriend?”
“She’s just a civilian… She was just helping me out.”
“And what did a mere regeneration-type think he could do, acting all tough?”
“…We were relying on the bombs…”
“Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. This is your first time doing villain work, isn’t it? I’ve never seen a villain who looks like you, no matter how much I search the internet.”
“Yes…”
“Dream big, huh~.”
As I answered the woman’s questions, mixing just enough truth and lies,
“Haah… That’s enough. There’s nothing more to get out of someone like you.”
“…Are you going to let me live?”
“Of course I have to kill you.”
“……”
“Still, I’ll let you talk to your girlfriend before you die. You’re a regeneration-type anyway, so it’s not like you’ll die unless you starve, right?”
“…Couldn’t you please let me live?”
“You think that’s possible?”
The villain, having decided there was nothing more to gain from me, began to disappear somewhere, leaving me all alone in this place.
There’s so little information.
Since the woman interrogating me had stayed in my blind spot, the information I could gather was limited.
1. The female villain possesses a supernatural ability that allows her to put someone to sleep through physical contact.
2. There is a male villain working alongside the female villain.
3. It’s unclear whether there are other villains besides those two. However, judging by the footsteps I heard earlier, it seems certain that there are at least four of them.
4. Judging by how they seem to believe most of what I say, it appears that Hye-won and Pyro Bomber didn’t give them much information.
…Did they abandon me?
Especially with the fourth point, I couldn’t help but wonder if Pyro Bomber and Hye-won had left me behind…
Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it.
First of all, I had to survive this place. Only then could I think about revenge or venting my anger.
Even villains have to sleep.
Roughly deciding to wait quietly until they fell asleep, I stayed still.
“Where do you think that villain hunter is, anyway?”
“Right? I’d love to meet them in person.”
“Trying to see who’s stronger?”
“Of course. Though obviously, I’d be the stronger one.”
I can hear everything, you idiots.
…
Khrrr… Kuuu… Khrrr… Kuuu…
The ridiculously loud snoring confirmed they had fallen asleep.
Rip… Crackle…
I tore apart the ropes that had been binding me with sheer strength and slowly rose to my feet. At the same time—
Creak…
I quietly opened the door to check outside.
Khrrr… Kuuu…
One of them, apparently kicked out because of his deafening snoring, was fast asleep. He was laid out on a mattress in the middle of the hallway floor.
Crunch—
Without hesitation, I twisted the sleeping man’s neck a full 180 degrees.
After killing him, I picked up his phone and turned it on…
—
[Today’s Port Terror Was Insane.]
1. No less than eight villains teamed up. (First time in the world that eight villains have formed an alliance.)
2. Judging by how skilled they were at hunting heroes, these bastards might be the ones responsible for the recent disappearances.
3. A huge shipment of augmented alloy imported from Japan was stolen.
4. Doesn’t matter. The Villain Hunter will take care of everything anyway.
[Comments]
-: I hit like just for that last line.
-: Everyone’s out here saying this terror attack is insanely dangerous, and this guy’s all cheerful lol
ㄴ (OP) : Don’t worry. Our bro, the Villain Hunter, will handle it soon and even post proof.
ㄴ : Lololololol why would the Villain Hunter post proof though lololololol
-: Isn’t the Villain Hunter in bad shape right now? He got all beat up rescuing those Hero University kids recently…
ㄴ : He probably couldn’t even go to a hospital ‘cause he’s a villain. This is heartbreaking, fr..
ㄴ : Why are y’all worried about a villain though…
—
So he was looking up his own exploits.
Guess this guy was the type who searched his own name online.
Click—
Tap tap… tap… tap…
—
[One Down for Now]
(Photo)
—
Well, considering they just gave me the valuable info that there were eight of them in total,
This was simply a token of appreciation.
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