My body reacted before I even had time to think.
As soon as I came face-to-face with Mobia, I immediately threw the hostage far outside.
I had hurled him with all my strength, and in order to save the hostage flying backward, Mobia had no choice but to turn her head somehow.
“……!”
Just before Mobia, who had quickly turned her head to catch the hostage in mid-air, turned back again to look at me—
Tadadak!
I dashed up the stairs, punched in the code to Seo-yoon’s house, and rushed inside.
The moment I entered her place, I immediately opened the window opposite the building’s entrance and leaped out.
Thankfully, everyone who had been drawn by the hidden camera creep’s scream was still focused on Mobia.
While they were distracted, I ran to the other side of the building.
“……”
That was when I came across a man staring at me with a meaningful look in his eyes.
…Crap.
I could instinctively tell.
The man standing before me was a hero.
I didn’t know what connection he had with Mobia, but if I acted carelessly here, I would obviously end up getting caught by this man, struggle, and then have Mobia show up to support him.
“Are you perhaps interested?”
“…Huh?”
“You were staring at this mask. Don’t tell me you wanted one for yourself?”
“What? Oh…”
I naturally spoke as if I were just an ordinary civilian who had bought a Villain Hunter mask.
“I really searched all over, but Pie Shop had the best prices and the best quality.”
“I see?”
“Yeah, do you want me to send you the link?”
“Ah, no, that’s alright.”
Just like that, I was able to walk right past the hero.
Phew…
I admired my own quick thinking as I started to move.
Tap—
“?”
I turned my head at the sudden contact.
“Oh, there was a leaf on your bag.”
“Thank you.”
I gave a polite bow in gratitude for the man’s consideration in pointing out the leaf on my bag, and quickly began walking away to leave the area.
…
Phew… I really thought I was going to get caught.
I had lost count of how many times it had happened by now.
At this point, it felt like someone might have secretly attached a tracker to me or something.
I felt a wave of despair over my luck, which seemed to keep bringing me into contact with Hero Mobia.
“I’m back.”
“You’re back, babe?”
When I returned to the hideout where Hye-won and Pyro Bomber were waiting for me…
“Sir Villain Hunter…!”
“?”
I was greeted by Dream Caster, who looked utterly worn out.
“Um, now that I’m, you know…!”
“Yeah, babe is back, so you can rest now.”
“Thank you…!”
“??”
The woman who was trembling in her maid outfit crawled off into a corner.
Maybe they had set up a sleeping spot for her. She climbed onto a mattress arranged like a doghouse in the far corner and closed her eyes peacefully.
I looked over at Pyro Bomber, demanding an explanation with my eyes, trying to understand what on earth was going on.
“Oh, we rigged a bomb into the choker she’s wearing.”
“What?”
“We agreed that if she ever does something I don’t like, I’ll just hit the detonation button.”
“Oh…”
“Of course, Hye-won also added a bark collar function, so I can give her an electric shock whenever I want.”
“So that’s why she looks so worn out…”
I thought to myself that villains really were best suited for handling other villains.
And just as I was about to ask if they’d be willing to help out in case I ever decided to go through with a terrorist attack on the Hero Association…
“W-Wait… a moment…”
“Hmm?”
Hye-won suddenly walked over to me with firm steps.
She lifted up my duffel bag and began staring intently at something.
“Th-This… is this from Villain Hunter’s group…?”
“Which one? Huh? I’ve never taken anything like this…”
Just as she said, when I looked at the side of my bag…
I saw a circular device attached there. Something I had never seen before in my life.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The silence between me, Pyro Bomber, and Hye-won lasted for about ten seconds.
Then, once we figured out what it was, the solution we came up with was…
“I knew a day like this would come eventually.”
“I’m so sorry…! I did run into a Hero on the way here, but I had no idea they put a tracking device on me…!”
We had no choice but to abandon our hideout.
Damn it…
We immediately went up to the surface, removed the tracking device from the bag, and threw it far away.
“It’s okay. I always knew this day would come sooner or later.”
The two of them hurriedly gathered the things we needed to take, then woke Dream Caster, who had just fallen asleep.
“This is all the stuff we have. What about you?”
“I just need to grab this and the bombs, and I’m good.”
“Then let’s go.”
Just like that, we headed straight for the SUV parked nearby.
“.…..”
The SUV too had been heavily modified by Hye-won, whose ability lay in creating and customizing equipment.
From inside the vehicle, we were able to monitor the hideout through surveillance cameras.
After waiting in the car for about thirty minutes…
“Man, that was way too close.”
We saw six Hero Association vehicles carefully making their way toward the mountain where our hideout had been, moving as cautiously as undercover inspectors.
The moment we saw that scene…
Beep—Boom!
Without a hint of hesitation, Hye-won blew up the base we had originally been staying in.
“……”
At that moment, I knew for sure.
This is exactly why I can never bring myself to like the Association.
The Hero Association, which had never once been of any help in my life—
I swore to take my revenge on them, once and for all.
…
I led Hye-won, Pyro Bomber, and Dream Caster to a secret base I had built beforehand.
It was an underground facility beneath a mountain near Hero University.
To be honest, it was much larger and had better ventilation than the place where Hye-won and Pyro Bomber had been staying. It was a true secret base.
“Wow, babe, you had a place this nice and still kept it hidden from us?”
“I-I… uh… I wanna use that… that computer…”
Pyro Bomber seemed to like the place, probably because the facilities were far more comfortable than before.
As for Hye-won, she only seemed to care about having a computer to use, so I told her she could use the one I had set up however she wanted…
She’s already at it.
Without hesitation, Hye-won rushed over to the computer with a bunch of devices in her arms and immediately began combining them with the computer and other equipment.
She was probably remodeling it to suit her preferences.
And finally…
“Ooh…”
Dream Caster, with a look in her eyes like she’d just discovered a spot way cleaner and comfier than her previous corner, plopped herself down right there—
And was about to stretch out like a dog claiming its territory.
“Here.”
“Huh?”
I tossed her a mattress too.
“It’s brand new, so use it comfortably.”
“Thank you!”
I felt quietly grateful that all three of them seemed genuinely satisfied in their own way.
Seeing that Hye-won didn’t blame me, and that Pyro Bomber wanted to help however she could, made me want to support them both in any way possible.
“But hey, we didn’t really bring any money when we left. Should we steal some?”
“So, working honestly isn’t even on the table, huh?”
“Well, it’s not like we need to hand over any personal info.”
Just this once, I decided to say something sensible and went along with Pyro’s suggestion.
“We’re going to get revenge.”
“Revenge? What kind of revenge?”
“Sure, what happened today started because of my mistake… but the fact remains that the Hero Association targeted us.”
This time, I made up my mind for real. I was going to try launching a proper terrorist attack on the Hero Association.
…
[Can you hear me? If you can, press the button once.]
Click
[Got it.]
Wearing the glasses equipped with recording capability, I glanced quickly around the inside of the Hero Association.
Before launching the attack, I needed to gather intel on the location—
And I had to check the security level in advance.
[If you need help, just tap the button three times, okay? I’m standing by nearby, so I’ll come to help right away.]
Click
Holding the hastily filled-out Hero application documents, I kept glancing around.
[Wow… I’ve been watching from a distance, but the Association building really is massive.]
The Hero Association, being a place where numerous superhuman individuals gathered, was a pentagon-like structure sitting alone in the middle of a vast plain.
The President of the Association had determined that some abilities could potentially damage surrounding buildings, so he had the Hero Association built on a plain where nothing else was nearby…
Where would be the best place to blow up…?
Now that I was actually planning a terrorist attack on such a massive place, I had no idea where or how to even begin.
I should at least check out the bathroom.
Hoping to find a good spot inside the Association to sneak into later, I went a bit deeper into the building and managed to locate the staff bathroom.
[Is that a personal bathroom?]
Click
[Isn’t that a bit too obvious, babe? There is a minor here, you know~.]
[Uh, Unnie…!]
Click–click–click–click–click–click–
[Are you jerking off in there?]
“Haah…”
I let out an unintentional sigh and stepped into a stall to see if there was a place I could climb to.
Rattle… rattle–
Must’ve been really urgent.
I heard someone rush into the stall right next to mine as if they were in desperate need of a toilet.
And then…
Knock knock–
A sudden knock from the next stall caught me off guard and left me slightly flustered.
Knock knock… …knock
Wondering if this was really happening, I halfheartedly knocked back in response…
Fwoosh–
“?”
Through the small gap at the bottom of the stall…
I could see a few sheets of paper being pushed through.
“??????????”
Right after that, the unidentified person opened the stall door and walked out…and disappeared.
…What is this?
Curious, I picked up the documents and began to read.
…Huh?
The documents contained…
Information about innocent victims who had been harmed over the past year during villain suppression operations.
Of course.
Why would they give this to me? To a villain like me??
They must’ve been in quite a hurry.
To hand this over to me without even properly checking who was in the next stall…
“…What am I supposed to do?”
Now, I had no idea what to do.
For the moment, I slipped the documents into my file folder… then stepped out of the bathroom and began recording the surroundings again.
…
I successfully filmed the Hero Association building.
Of course, I didn’t capture the entire interior,
But I had gathered enough data, like which pillars if destroyed, would cause the building to collapse most efficiently.
At this point, all I had to do was naturally make my way out of the Association…
“…It wasn’t you?”
“Didn’t we agree on the bathroom on the second floor?”
“I thought… it was the one on the first floor…”
“What about the signal?”
“Two knocks… pause, then one knock…”
“…It seems our information has been leaked somehow.”
Ah, it’s from those guys.
At a glance, I could see the duo who had mistakenly handed me the documents standing in the corner over there.
Of course.
I’ll make good use of this.
I was planning to use this as a tool to bring down the Hero Association.
Just as I was about to slip out of the Association…
Thud… thud…
Suddenly, the two men began collapsing right where they stood.
“Oh dear, are you alright?”
“Let’s get you treated right away.”
Almost as if they had been waiting for this moment…
Two staff members from the Hero Association appeared and began taking the collapsed men somewhere.
Hmm…
Normally, I wouldn’t have cared what happened to those two…
But I recalled that the documents they were trying to pass off contained information for whistleblowers within the Association.
It occurred to me that I might be able to gain a villain ally who knows the inner workings of the Association.
I’d better follow them.
Activating the augmented alloy villain suit that Hye-won had just finished crafting for me, I started walking in the direction the collapsed men had been taken.
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