—
[To the Vice President of the Hero Association.]
(Video clip)
I clearly gave you a warning last time.
I told you to face punishment for your own crimes.
Unfortunately, you chose to ignore that warning—
Which is why I’ll be revealing a piece of information that will help bring you down.
I’ll give you three days.
Within that time, turn yourself in, reflect on your sins, and accept your punishment.
If not, I’ll make sure the contents of the documents shown in the video are seen by the entire nation.
Oh, and one more thing.
You’re missing a staff member from the Association, right?
Can’t find one of the whistleblowers?
I’ve got them.
Alive and well, in fact.
You people should know better than anyone what kind of information I can expose.
I suggest you tread carefully.
[Comments]
-: So did they just bomb the Hero Association building?
-: So in the end, it’s just a fake Villain Hunter. The real Villain Hunter wouldn’t do something this immoral.
ㄴ: Seriously, facts. Our Villain Hunter only punishes villains who do bad things. Attacking the Hero Association like this…
-: What kind of documents are those?
ㄴ: Just from the looks of it, it’s obviously a clickbait post trying to go viral.
-: What is it without proof?
ㄴ: But still, even without proof, the Hero Association really did get attacked today.
ㄴ: How is that an attack on the Hero Association? There was just an explosion nearby. The Association building’s fine.
-: Downvote.
-: This isn’t how you bait for attention. Our Villain Hunter never writes more than three lines. Take notes.
—
After returning to our hideout where Hye-won and Pyro Bomber were waiting, I checked the Villain Forum.
At some point, I had become nothing more than a cheap attention-seeker.
But—
That’s right, this is the proper response toward a villain.
I never wanted to become a hero praised by the public.
No matter what anyone said, I was determined to take revenge as a villain.
“P-Please… j-just… t-take… this one… t-trade… f-for me…”
At Hye-won’s request, I had climbed up to the surface to trade a GPS-equipped bracelet on her behalf.
Costs 200,000 won to make, selling for 4.5 million… now that’s a villain.
Usually, it was Pyro Bomber who handled the transactions for the items Hye-won created.
But today, she said she had something urgent to take care of.
So, curious about which wealthy villain would be buying this item, I decided to fill in for her and headed out to make the trade.
Locker number 17 at Exit 4 of the subway.
Check the money, then leave the item.
Since there was always a chance the buyer could be a cop trying to catch a criminal, I remained vigilant of my surroundings.
The item exchange was strictly non-face-to-face.
This is easy.
I had no intention of harming the villains who had graciously become our valuable customers.
For a moment, I sat on one of the subway benches and scanned the area to see if anyone suspicious was lurking nearby.
Fortunately or unfortunately no one seemed particularly out of place.
[I’ve redirected the buyer to Exit 2. You can check the money in about two minutes.]
Click—
Following Hye-won’s cue, I opened locker 17 and checked the contents inside.
Nice. 4.5 million won, right on the dot.
After confirming that exactly 4.5 million won was inside the locker,
I immediately placed the GPS bracelet in it and wrapped up the job.
Click-click—
[Now just bring the money back and you’re done.]
All that was left for me to do was take the bag of money and return.
Wonder who that is.
To be honest, since it was my first time involved in this kind of black-market deal, I couldn’t suppress my curiosity.
Pretending to be an ordinary subway commuter, I took a seat on a bench with a view of locker 17 and waited for a bit.
Hmm? Isn’t that Seo-yoon?
I saw Seo-yoon coming down from Exit 4 of the subway.
Where could she be going?
I didn’t know where she was headed.
But feeling glad to see her, I raised my hand, intending to say hi.
“Seo…?”
But then Seo-yoon, who had come down, walked straight toward the subway lockers.
…No way.
With a growing sense of disbelief, I held my breath and kept watching her.
As they say, “no way” always ends up being the truth.
“Wow…”
I watched Seo-yoon open locker 17, flash a meaningful smile, and take the bracelet.
…Does she have a younger sibling?
Sometimes, disobedient younger siblings had a tendency to disappear without a word.
Maybe she was buying it to prevent something like that.
Still…
To spend 4.5 million won just to track someone’s location…
…Just how much money does she have?
It was the moment I seriously started to wonder if Seo-yoon might actually be the daughter of some rich conglomerate family.
***
“…….”
Whether people liked it or not, there was one topic constantly being talked about.
A post written by a villain pretending to be a villain hunter.
“…What?”
Public opinion was clearly siding with the Association.
It was the successful result of the media manipulation team created to prepare for the villain hunter.
“The President of the Association said it himself.”
“……”
Both the President and I… we already knew too much.
The post that had gone up this time… was filled with information too dangerous to dismiss as just another conspiracy theory.
Maybe that was why.
The President, who had always managed to cover up incidents before they escalated…
“He told us to comply with the poster’s demands.”
“……”
For the first time, he used me as a discardable card.
“…Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“…Then I’ll speak to the President directly—”
“He said if you refused to follow orders, we were to make you comply by force if necessary.”
“So you’re saying you won’t even let me meet him to explain—!”
Srrng…
At the silent motion of the woman, releasing a cold, sharp aura like a drawn blade, I understood instantly.
If I made even a single wrong move this time…
“…Fine. I’ll hold a press conference right away, so put that away.”
I realized then… the President was ready to replace me in this Vice President position I had fought tooth and nail to reach.
…
– Four years ago, I violated traffic laws on three occasions and, due to unavoidable circumstances, was released through bribery.
– I sincerely apologize to the public for only now coming forward with this truth.
– I will accept proper punishment, and I only hope that the villain hunter stops hurting innocent civilians.
On the news, footage aired of me sincerely confessing my crimes and apologizing to the public.
—
[Let me interpret what the Vice President said today.]
Four years ago, I violated traffic laws on three occasions and, due to unavoidable circumstances, was released through bribery.
→ Four years ago, I did a bunch of stuff, including speeding and drunk driving. But if my license got suspended, I wouldn’t have been able to get to work, so I bribed my way out.
I get that it came from a desire to prevent further harm from the villain pretending to be the villain hunter.
Still, it feels a bit brazen.
But if he gets properly punished, I’d be willing to forgive.
Pay about 3 billion won in fines.
[Comments]
-: But if you’re a Vice President, even if your license gets suspended and you’re fined, wouldn’t you just have a chauffeur?
ㄴ (OP) : Lolol now that you mention it, that’s true.
-: Lololololol 3 billion, fair enough hahaha
ㄴ : Let’s gooo 3 billion~
ㄴ : Lol but shouldn’t the cop who took the bribe be in serious trouble too?
—
Through media manipulation, they were shaping the narrative to make my crimes seem not all that serious.
Public opinion had begun to form around the idea that if I just paid a ridiculously large fine, they could forgive me.
At that point, I was actually planning to come out of police questioning tomorrow morning and donate 3 billion won.
“If that happens, it’s over.”
If I just did that, I would’ve become a new MZ figure. Someone who paid close attention to online sentiment and knew how to reflect and apologize overnight. (TN: MZ stands for Millennials and Generation Z )
“Why does some attention-seeker keep trying to get in the way of my future?”
For now, I decided to let this incident blow over like this.
And I planned to track down the guy pretending to be the villain hunter and bothering me as soon as possible, no matter what.
“Secretary Yoon.”
“Yes, Vice President.”
“Tell all the heroes tomorrow morning. From now on, anyone who catches a villain wearing the villain hunter mask will get a reward. Even if it turns out not to be the impersonator.”
“Understood.”
“And make it clear. There’s no need to bring them in alive.”
“Yes.”
***
“?”
Watching the Vice President of the Hero Association apologizing on the news, all I could feel was confusion.
I mean…
“…How many crimes did he even commit?”
What I had in mind was the drunk driving accident that killed my younger sister.
But seeing him confess to a bunch of unrelated crimes I didn’t care about left me totally dumbfounded.
Slurp…
“Mmm… It’s warm.”
Still, he had two more days left to confess his actual crime.
If the Vice President admitted to it before then, I wouldn’t release the classified document in my hands.
Of course, just because I didn’t release it myself didn’t mean some major news platform wouldn’t somehow get their hands on it and report it….that had nothing to do with me.
And so…
“Phew, looks good, doesn’t it?”
“…What are you doing?”
“Torture.”
“…What kind of villain thinks serving tasty food counts as torture? That’s such a childish idea.”
“Want me to pull out your fingernails and toenails instead?”
“…Let’s eat.”
Once again, I continued the not-quite-torture of the whistleblower I had saved.
“I’ll give it to you, so just don’t spit it out.”
“…You’re giving it to me right away?”
“Let’s just have a taste first, and then take our time thinking things over. I have no intention of hurting you.”
I had begun to carry out a plan to fully bring him over to the villains’ side.
“It’s not like I want you to team up with me and fight or anything. I just need a bit of help with some whistleblowing.”
Then—
“Sir Villain Hunter.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“You’ve got a call.”
Dream Caster handed me a phone, showing that the call was from Seo-yoon.
“Thanks.”
Deciding to take the call later, I stuffed the phone carelessly into my pocket…
“…Would it be alright if I asked you something I’m curious about?”
“Go ahead.”
“Why are you impersonating the Villain Hunter?”
To the whistleblower who asked me such an odd question, I could confidently answer.
“I don’t understand why people keep calling me an imposter. I’ve been alive from beginning to end.”
I wasn’t impersonating the Villain Hunter.
It was just that…
“The Association has already officially declared the Villain Hunter dead. Don’t try to deceive me with such a pathetic lie.”
The whistleblower genuinely seemed to believe that I wasn’t the real Villain Hunter.
“What ability do you people believe the Villain Hunter has?”
“Super strength.”
Creeaak—
I casually picked up a coin, gently folded it in half, and tossed it in front of the man.
“…Villain Hunter?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly, the whistleblower’s eyes lit up brightly…
“Uh, um..!”
“Go ahead.”
“I’ll cooperate!”
“?”
He declared his willingness to cooperate with me.
“I-I’ll cooperate…! Would it be possible to get… just one autograph?”
“…Weren’t you just saying you wouldn’t cooperate with a villain?”
“The Villain Hunter isn’t a villain!”
…If I’m not a villain, then what am I…?
That firm resolve not to cooperate with villains…
…Where did that go?
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