Inside the Villain Hunter Task Force.
The hero “V” who led the team began a briefing on the recent terror incidents connected to the Villain Hunter.
“Lately, there’s been a sharp rise in terrorist attacks by villains aimed at the Villain Hunter.”
“After each attack ends, they leave the Villain Hunter’s mask at the scene, like some sort of symbol…”
The content of the briefing could be summarized as follows:
– Recently, villains had begun leaving items symbolizing the Villain Hunter, or messages aimed at him, at the scenes of their terrorist acts.
– Two days ago, the Hero Association succeeded in capturing one such villain who had done this.
– According to the information obtained from that villain, a seller on Telegraph going by the name “MBYHW” who supplied terror-related items had been inciting other villains to defame the Villain Hunter in an effort to deliberately damage his reputation.
– Though the reason MBYHW was defaming the Villain Hunter remained unknown, they planned to approach him under the pretense of purchasing goods and extract additional information about the Villain Hunter.
“I’ll be the one leading this operation…”
No one objected to V’s decision.
The Association desperately wanted more information about the Villain Hunter.
They probably wanted to use this incident as an opportunity to find out Min-hyuk oppa’s weaknesses one by one.
I wonder what kind of guy he is.
I too was personally curious.
It was such an unpleasant situation. Someone was brazenly slandering Min-hyuk.
I simply wanted to use this opportunity to catch the guy and find out what kind of bad history MBYHW had with my oppa…
“.…..”
The day of the operation…
The man we captured at the Busan subway station… was Min-hyuk Oppa.
…What?
I was stunned.
Not once had I imagined that Oppa was the one sabotaging his own reputation.
***
Leaving behind Mobia, whose face was filled with confusion, I looked down at the pads attached to me one by one.
…Do they really not know?
If they truly knew that I was Villain Hunter, there’s no way they would have chosen such a peaceful method to restrain me.
Taking into account that I possessed supernatural strength, they would’ve either made Mobia keep using her telekinesis to restrain me at all times, or at the very least, threatened to execute me the moment I so much as twitched while holding a weapon.
If that was the case…
There’s still a chance.
There was definitely still an opportunity to escape, as long as I exploited the fact that they were letting their guard down around me. Of course…
…First, I need to figure out their abilities.
I had to learn the powers of every hero present here before doing anything.
“Is the lie detector ready?”
“Still booting up.”
Four heroes in total.
There were four heroes inside this large cargo truck. The fact that each of them was wearing a hero suit confirmed it.
Mobia was using telekinesis, and one of the others clearly had extremely sharp sensory abilities.
If not, there’s no way they would have noticed me pressing the button earlier.
“It’s all set.”
“Alright, time for questions.”
One of the heroes, apparently now ready with the lie detector, began to question me.
“Are you MBYHW?”
“…No, I’m not.”
I planned to hide the lie within the truth and to cover my identity by blending honesty and deception—
“It’s saying it’s a lie.”
“?”
Smack–
“……”
The moment the machine declared it a lie, a harsh blow landed on my cheek.
“Hey.”
“…Yes.”
“Do we look like we’re playing games here?”
“……”
“I don’t care what kind of grudge you’ve got with the Villain Hunter. That crap doesn’t matter to us one damn bit.”
What kind of unfair situation was this?
I had told the truth, and yet the machine claimed it was a lie?
…Even machines are biased against me now.
Thanks to these guys who couldn’t trust the truth even when it was given to them, I made up my mind to start lying on purpose.
I began answering the following questions as if I were Hye-won.
“Did you make the bombs up until now?”
“Yes…”
“It says that’s the truth.”
“How did you make the bombs? Are you a production-type ability user?”
“…Yes.”
“That one’s the truth, too.”
I had no idea what was going on,
But since I managed to disguise my real ability with something else, I found the situation fairly satisfactory.
And so…
“Tell us everything you know about the Villain Hunter.”
“If you talk too long, the machine won’t register properly. Just answer yes or no, V.”
“What kind of machine is that annoying?”
“We just do what the higher-ups tell us to do.”
“Haah… Guess there’s no helping it. You, do you not get along with the Villain Hunter?”
“…Yes.”
I began giving completely false answers to every question V asked me.
…
After the long string of questions ended,
V, believing he had extracted all the useful information he could from me, left to write up a report.
At the same time…
It’s moving.
The vehicle I was in began to move.
There are three villains here.
Before this cargo truck arrived at the Hero Association, a race against time had begun. I had to find some way to escape.
At that moment.
“Hey.”
“…Yes?”
“Pretty flashy for a villain to be wearing something like that.”
“…What do you mean?”
The male hero sitting at the lie detector and checking the machine said,
“You know you’ll get all this stuff confiscated once you’re in villain-only prison, right? I’ll put it to good use.”
He reached out, trying to take the bar-shaped necklace around my neck.
“……”
“What, you think staring at me like that’s gonna do anything?”
“……”
That necklace was the last remaining memory I had of Seo-yoon.
Even after finding out I was the Villain Hunter… she had given me that precious gift and never reported me to the Association.
“Damn, it really is pretty.”
“…Take your hand off.”
“Oooh~ should I be scared just because you’re trying to act all serious?”
“……”
“Must be really important to you, huh? You really don’t want to let it go?”
“…Yes.”
There was no way I was going to let some lowly hero take it from me.
“Important, huh? Don’t worry, I’ll treasure it even more~.”
“……”
Tap…
Just as the necklace, once connected between us, was about to fall to the floor with a soft tap—
Whoosh—
“?”
“?”
“……”
I tore off the steel restraints binding me with brute strength and made sure that the gift Seo-yoon had given me didn’t fall to the ground.
Tap—
Without hesitation, I yanked the man’s neck forcefully, pulling him in front of Mobia so we were facing each other.
“If you don’t want to see your comrade die, don’t move.”
It was the same method I always used.
I tried to keep the hero from acting properly by using a live hostage.
Thud—
“……”
But the female hero, with her heightened sense for energy, stabbed a sharp awl into my neck without a moment’s hesitation.
“Ggh… hhhk…”
The searing pain of burning flesh spread through my neck—
Crunch—
“?”
“……”
“I told you… not to move.”
I immediately crushed the hero’s neck that I had in my grasp, then grabbed the female hero who had tried to inject me with the syringe strapped to her lower back in return.
Just like that…
Thud—
“Khht…!”
I snatched the syringe from her hand and drove it into her shoulder.
Just before injecting the liquid inside, I looked up and met Hero Mobia’s gaze.
…What the hell are you thinking?
“Ugh… damn, that hurts.”
I didn’t know why she hadn’t used telekinesis to subdue me.
As I yanked the awl from my neck and was about to continue my threat to inject the liquid into the woman’s neck—
“Hurry…! Hurry…!! Grab… her…!”
Crunch—
“?”
All of a sudden, the neck of the woman I was holding as a hostage twisted 360 degrees.
“…What the hell?”
It happened in an instant.
Hero Mobia… had twisted her comrade’s neck, killing her.
“……!”
I couldn’t begin to understand what was happening in this situation…
Swish—
I immediately used the woman’s corpse as a shield to block Mobia’s line of sight.
“Hhngh…”
Without hesitation, I moved behind her and positioned myself to choke Mobia from behind.
“…I don’t know what you were thinking, but… thanks. Really.”
As I slowly tightened my grip around her neck,
“Since you’ve seen my face, I should at least see yours.”
When I removed the recognition-disrupting mask from Mobia’s face…
I saw it.
“…Seo-yoon?”
Hero Mobia’s true identity… was Seo-yoon.
“Hhngh…”
As I applied more pressure with my arm, Seo-yoon let out a pained groan.
And the moment I heard that sound…
“……”
I couldn’t help but let the strength drain from my arms.
“……”
“……”
How much time passed as we stayed like that?
Neither of us could move or speak; we could only remain frozen in the moment.
“……”
“……”
Then, as the long silence dragged on—
“…Oppa.”
“…Huh?”
Seo-yoon was the one who broke the silence first…
“Oppa… you should knock me out and run away from this place.”
“…Seo-yoon?”
She started begging me to escape this place.
“Please run… If you stay here, you’ll really… die. The Association gave orders… if the villain hunter is found, he’d to be killed on sight.”
“No, wait. Seo-yoon, so you’re saying…”
“Please, Oppa. I’m begging you… please… I’ll explain everything later… before this cargo truck reaches the Association… please escape quickly…”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Finish it… please.”
In the end…
Crack—
I tightened my arm around her neck again,
Thud—
And when I confirmed that Mobia—no, Seo-yoon—had gone limp, unconscious…
Crash—
I punched a small hole in the wall of the cargo hold to assess the situation outside.
And then…
It’s a cliff.
I timed it with the moment the truck passed by the cliff.
Riiip— Crack—
Tearing open the hole I had made,
I threw myself straight down toward the bottom of the cliff.
Of course—
Augmented alloy, don’t fail me…!
I prayed hard, trusting that the augmented alloy villain suit I was wearing would absorb all the impact.
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