“…What is this?”
“What is it?”
“They’re saying Villain Hunter posted something…?”
“What???”
At Hye-yeon’s words, Pyro Bomber immediately got up and turned toward the monitor.
“Where?? Where is it??”
“Isn’t this… the note the villain hunter wanted to leave behind when he stole the augmentation alloy?”
“He’s alive!”
Certain now that the post had been written by Villain Hunter,
The two confirmed that Villain Hunter was alive from a message that had just been posted five minutes ago.
—
[All set.]
(Video)
To the Vice President of the Hero Association.
I’m giving you a chance.
Accept punishment for your own sins.
That is the only way you’ll be able to stop me.
[Comments]
– : Whoa, no way. Did he really take care of all eight of them??
– : You’re saying this isn’t AI-generated?? This isn’t a fake video??
– : Villain Hunter, is he a god? Villain Hunter, is he a god? Villain Hunter, is he a god? Villain Hunter, is he a god? Villain Hunter, is he a god? Villain Hunter, is he a god? Villain Hunter, is he a god?
– : Bro!! I believed in you!! I really did!!!
– : I reported it to the cops. Good luck. Your IP’s gonna get traced and you’ll be arrested~ See you in the news, Villain Hunter~
ㄴ : Mods!! Can’t you ban this bastard right now?!!
– : Why the Vice President of the Hero Association though? Also, who even is the VP?
ㄴ : The person right below the President of the Association.
ㄴ : Dude, I obviously knew that. That’s not what I was asking.
– : The fact that Villain Hunter is stronger than Sahur has been known since the Goguryeo Watermelon Sword scroll.
ㄴ : For real. Even if Tralalero Tralala raids Korea, Villain Hunter would handle it all.
ㄴ : What the heck kind of meme is this…? I don’t get memes these days…
– : Everyone’s going wild about this Villain Hunter stuff in the middle of the night, so I got curious and joined in. What the hell is happening??
– : Bro, at this point, aren’t you basically a hero? Taking out villains even heroes couldn’t, and recovering the stolen augmented alloy.
ㄴ (OP) : I’m gonna use the augmented alloy though?
ㄴ : Kyahaha! Of course, it’s all yours, bro! Augmented alloy? It’s yours, bro, take it all!
ㄴ : No joke, I heard the Hero Association brought it in specifically for Villain Hunter to use.
ㄴ : Wait, is that comment legit??
ㄴ : Do you seriously think it is? lololol
– : Villain Hunter, reply to my comment too. If you do, I swear I’ll live a good life forever.
ㄴ : Sorry, you’re a villain. No chance~
ㄴ : You’re screwed now. Villain Hunter’s coming for you because you’ve been a jerk your whole life.
.
.
.
—
“Play the video.”
“Okay!”
Soon after, the video began to play.
It showed the face of the villain who had attempted to carry out the port terror attack that day, and the trembling voice of a woman came through.
– H-Hello everyone… I… I’m Dream Caster, the villain who carried out the port attack today in an attempt to obtain the augmented alloy…
– Today, we were… completely wiped out by Villain Hunter… and, um… h-heek! P-Please spare—
“Of course!! That’s exactly what Villain Hunter would do!!!”
As soon as they confirmed that he was alive, the two immediately grabbed the communication device that had lost connection and waited for a response.
“Pick up… pick up… come on, pick up…!”
After about ten minutes had passed—
[Ah, can you hear me?]
They finally heard the voice of the man they had been desperately waiting for.
“We got his location, unnie!”
“I’ll come pick you up right now!”
***
I re-equipped each piece of my lost gear one by one while keeping a safe distance from Dream Caster, who was now tightly bound.
At the same time, I packed the stolen 26kg augmented alloy into a bag.
Now that I had everything I needed, I was about to kill the woman who had seen my real face before making my escape.
“Wait…!! Y-You said… you’d let me live…!”
What a naïve villain.
Did she really think I’d let her live just because I said I would?
Get real. This world is way too harsh for that kind of thinking.
“You actually believed that?”
Of course, by the time she came to her senses, she would be in another world.
He decided to pray that it would be a better place than Earth, and just as he was about to bring down a nearby rock onto the woman’s head—
“I’ll do anything….! Anything at all!! P-Please, if you just spare me, I really can do anything…!”
“I don’t need anything from you.”
“Laundry, cooking, cleaning, even taking care of your urges—anything, I can do it all…!”
I hesitated slightly, tempted by her claim that she could do absolutely anything.
“Hey.”
“Y-Yes?”
“You really said you’d do anything?”
“Yes…! I swear, I can do absolutely anything…!”
I decided to assign Dream Caster to the talkative Pyro Bomber.
“I’ve never done it before…! But I’ll do whatever you tell me to…! I’ll suck if you tell me to suck…! I’ll lick if you tell me to lick…!”
“You’re talking about doing the dishes, right?”
“T-Taking care of you at night…!”
“Yeah, let’s start with the dishes. And from now on, keep your mouth shut.”
“Mmph…!”
“Get in the trunk.”
With that, I threw her into the car’s trunk.
Before starting the engine, I turned on the communications device that had been off until now.
“Ah, can you hear me?”
Just in case Pyro Bomber and Hye-won had abandoned me, I briefly considered heading to my secret base before doing anything else.
[We got his location, unnie!]
[I’m coming to pick you up right now!]
So they were just waiting for me to turn the device back on.
With just a short exchange, I realized that the two of them had been waiting for me.
[Do you have any idea how much trouble we had because the communicator’s GPS couldn’t be tracked??]
“Given that I was the one being kidnapped, I’d appreciate a little understanding.”
[Of course we understand!! You did great! Pyro unnie is on her way right now, so just get out of there for now.]
“I’m planning to escape by car right away.”
…
“Babe!!”
At first, I thought about pushing away Pyro Bomber as she threw her arms around me.
But the deep dark circles under her eyes showed just how desperately she’d been searching for me.
“I missed you.”
This time, I decided not to push her away. Gently, I wrapped my arms around her.
And at that moment…
“Who are you?”
With a sharp blade drawn from her wrist, Pyro Bomber threatened my lower half.
“…May I ask why you’re doing this?”
“My babe doesn’t hug me so sweetly like that.”
The accuracy of her self-awareness was honestly astonishing.
“Then maybe try acting right from now on.”
“Ughhh—”
After lightly pushing her head away, I turned to load the motorcycle she had ridden on into the back seat of the car.
“I’m throwing that away.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. The Hero Association saw our bike. We’ll need a new one now.”
“Ah…”
This was why villains needed so much money.
Just like how you had to get a new car the moment your license plate got exposed.
Since the motorcycle had once been used to rescue me at Hero University, even Pyro Bomber must have realized it was time to let it go.
So, we simply tossed the motorcycle into a nearby forest.
After seating Pyro Bomber in the passenger seat, we began making our way back to our hideout.
“I’ve retrieved the augmented alloy those guys had stolen and stored it in the trunk.”
“I knew I could count on you! I’m seriously going to kiss you all night!”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Quiet. A real villain hunter accepts this kind of thing.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“I can’t believe you’re not falling for this.”
“Why would I?”
On the way, I gave her the update that we’d recovered the augmented alloy.
“In addition to the alloy, I also loaded one of the villains who interfered with our port operation.”
When I told her we had one of the villains in the trunk—
“Oh… really?”
“?”
—for the first time, I saw a serious look in Pyro Bomber’s eyes.
“Do you have a specific use for them?”
“Not exactly, but if you need anything from them, feel free to extract whatever information you want.”
“Thanks, babe. Since they messed with our operation today, I was thinking of getting a little payback.”
…
As soon as we arrived at our hideout, we securely tied up Dream Caster and left her stashed in a corner.
“Hye-won. Here, I brought the augmented alloy.”
When I informed Hye-won that we had brought back the alloy—
Squeeze…
“…..?”
Seeing her, someone usually so shy and reserved, hug me tightly like that… I realized something.
Ah… I’ve come too far to end it now.
At some point,
I had become part of their team.
It seemed that, after this job, parting ways with them would be impossible… We had given each other too much affection.
“I’m back.”
She had just become a high schooler and I wondered how much she must’ve been worrying about me—
“Th-That… that person… wh-who… is she?”
Ah.
So it wasn’t because she missed me that she hugged me.
She had just seen a stranger and used me as a shield to hide behind, huh?
Well… even so, I decided to take it as something meaningful. That she, who had never approached me before, was now willing to make contact.
“She’s Dream Caster. She has an ability that can put people to sleep through contact, so it’s best if you avoid touching her.”
With that, I gently patted Hye-won’s head a couple of times as she clung to the hem of my clothes while still hiding.
Then, I put up a makeshift partition to block Dream Caster’s line of sight so she couldn’t see Hye-won, and at that moment… I saw it.
“…What is this supposed to be?”
“A… a vi-villain… hunter… p-partition…”
Hye-yeon, who handled sales at our pie shop and had been diligently producing and selling villain hunter masks…
Had now even created a makeshift partition completely covered in villain hunter masks.
She has a crafting-type ability, and she’s using it to make merchandise…
At this point, even I wasn’t sure anymore whether this place was truly a villain’s hideout.
***
“Cover it up.”
“What?”
“Send out a rebuttal article immediately and announce that Villain Hunter is dead.”
“Isn’t that information… not supposed to be disclosed to the general public?”
“Just do as I say. There’s a reason behind it.”
“…Understood.”
“And when you announce that Villain Hunter is dead, make it seem like that online post was just clickbait nonsense.”
“Yes.”
Leave a Reply