Like a cornered rat biting a cat.
Thinking there was no retreat left, I resolved to die and attacked the Hero Association’s Vice President.
But it seemed he had anticipated I would attempt a mutual kill. He had already made preparations against me.
“Hah, so powers like this really exist in the world…”
My fist had definitely swung toward the Vice President.
But the end of that punch only met empty air. Nothing but a void.
Whoosh…
The Vice President’s figure disappeared like smoke.
And at the same time—
Bang—
A gun aimed at my head went off, the sound drilling into my ears.
So this is death.
Maybe it was because the bullet had pierced straight through my brain.
Besides my ears ringing from the close-range gunshot, I didn’t feel any of the pain from having my head pierced.
“Aaaagh!!”
A woman’s scream rang out beside me, as if to confirm that the place I’d arrived in was truly hell… huh?
“?”
I turned my head toward the woman screaming beside me.
“Khugh…! Huuugh…!”
And the moment I did—
What I saw was a gruesome scene. Her arm was torn in a straight line from hand to shoulder.
…The reflection ability is still active?
Just as I raised one arm to strike the Vice President’s illusion, it seemed the remaining reflection ability activated.
And—
A simple pistol shot shouldn’t do that to an arm…
—The reflection ability had clearly been amplified.
I need to get out of here.
Whatever the case, as long as I had at least one ability left, it was obvious I had to escape this place immediately.
Picking up the pistol dropped by the woman who was screaming and clutching her torn arm—
“Aaaargh!”
—I grabbed her and took her hostage—
Crack—
But when I tried to lift her by the neck to use her as a hostage… I saw her neck bones shatter.
So I still have super strength too?
Which meant, I still retained my supernatural strength.
“Summon.”
Wanting to check whether I had any other abilities left, I tried summoning the communicator I had left in the car with Hye-won…
Turns out I still have everything.
Realizing the summoning ability was also intact, I concluded that I hadn’t lost any powers.
Won-il… you crossed the line without even realizing I was the one keeping you alive.
I decided to end this twisted connection once and for all with the Vice President, who had come here himself just to toy with me in my final moments.
“Can you hear me, Hye-won?”
[Mhmm, I hear you loud and clear.]
“Call Pyro Bomber right now, and tell her to meet up with me along with Mobia.”
[Got it. …Wait, what? Mobia?]
“I’ll explain everything when I get back. For now, tell them to come immediately to the spot where I did the ability trade. This deal was a trap set by the Hero Association.”
[A trap? But we checked so carefully… I’m sorry. I must’ve missed something. I’ll tell her to meet you right away.]
***
Bang—
A gunshot rang out through the radio.
The moment I heard that sound, I knew instantly—
The villain hunter I had longed to eliminate was finally gone.
“Finally!!”
I slammed my fist down on the radio sitting on the desk and sprang to my feet.
How could I even begin to describe this feeling?
“We got him!! I said we got him!!”
“Congratulations.”
“I’m the one who killed that bastard!”
“Yes.”
Even so, I turned to share the news with the Sword of the Association, who stood there watching me with that same indifferent expression.
As expected, she simply looked up at me without a hint of emotion.
“……”
Facing those cold eyes made the ghost pain in my severed left arm flare up again.
“…What does the President say about all this?”
Trying to change the subject, I brought up the only person the Sword of the Association seemed to care about.
“He said today would be the last.”
“Did he now? So the President also knew today would be the villain hunter’s last day!”
Just as I thought.
Even the President had predicted the success of this mission.
“Whew… Feels like a tumor’s been cut out.”
How much effort had I poured into making today happen?
I had emptied the last of my funds to buy three ability-user treatment serums just in case things went wrong.
And even enlisted the help of two Japanese ability users who were carefully selected for having no prior contact with the villain hunter, to avoid any risk of leaks.
“Ah, that otsukaresama deshita, right?”
Turning my head, I gave a word of thanks in Japanese to the two ability users who hadn’t understood a word of our conversation.
“Tell them they’ll be flown back to Japan tomorrow on a private jet.”
I gestured for them to divide the rest with the Sword of the Association and saw the three of them out.
Finally caught you, you little rat.
I couldn’t hide the smile creeping onto my lips.
I was so overjoyed that I accidentally broke the radio.
Not that it mattered. Our staff would transport the villain hunter’s corpse without issue anyway.
I should take a look at your face, see who you really are.
Wondering what kind of rat he was to harbor such hostility toward me.
“Hmm~”
I began to hum a tune without realizing it, naturally letting the melody flow as I waited for my staff to return.
Screeeech—
How much time had passed?
The office door suddenly began to open without a knock.
I figured it must be our assassination specialist returning from the secret mission.
“You’re back!”
But the CCTV monitor at the door showed no one standing there.
“Ah… must’ve been the wind.”
Turned out the Sword of the Association hadn’t fully closed the door on her way out.
Tsk tsk… why does the President favor a girl like that…?
They say you can tell everything from just one thing.
How could the President be so fond of someone who can’t even manage such a basic task properly?
Screeeech… Thud.
As I thought that someday the President would realize the Sword of the Association was useless and cast her aside,
I stood up to close the door myself and turned back toward my seat—
“…Hmm?”
I saw a man I’d never seen before sitting in the chair where I had just been.
“…Did you sneak in here knowing what this place is?”
A villain brazen enough to infiltrate the Hero Association itself?
How stupid could someone be to pull a stunt like this?
Beep—
I immediately pressed the emergency call button hidden in the inner pocket of my jacket and turned to open the door and get out of the Vice President’s office—
“What, in any case, I just want to give it my all…”
The man in the chair raised a familiar handgun.
“That gun… villain hunter…?”
The one who should have been dead was now sitting before me, alive.
The man I had tried to kill… was right here, very much alive.
“This can’t… be real.”
This had to be a dream.
No—a hallucination.
It didn’t make sense.
It couldn’t possibly make sense.
How could a normal human being with no special abilities have escaped that situation?
How could someone who likely had no powers left—just an ordinary person—manage to sneak in here?
“Liar… Don’t lie to me!!”
A foreign fear, something I’d never felt before, crept up my spine.
Even as I desperately tried to convince myself that the man before me wasn’t real—
I already knew the truth.
What I was seeing wasn’t an illusion.
The villain hunter… had survived.
Even in that situation, he hadn’t died.
“Vice President!!”
“Step aside! The Vice President is in danger!”
“Sword of the Association… please move, now…!”
“The President of the Association has ordered that no one be allowed to enter the Vice President’s office.”
“…What?”
“The President… said that?”
From the woman’s voice beyond the door, I realized it immediately.
“So… today being the last…”
The “last” that the Sword of the Association had spoken of—
It wasn’t the villain hunter’s end, but mine.
I’ve been abandoned.
***
Thanks to Seo-yoon, I was able to sneak into the Hero Association.
And thanks to Seo-yoon again, I managed to sneak out of the Hero Association.
Even like this…
“Please… spare me… I want to live…”
While clutching the hair of a man whose prosthetic arm had been ripped off his left side.
Why?
Unlike what I had expected, the heroes weren’t chasing us.
They weren’t even making an effort to find the Vice President.
Drip… drag… drip…
But this wasn’t the time to think about such things.
Still gripping the Vice President’s head, I continued heading toward the place I had targeted.
And finally—
“Open the door.”
“Wh-What…?”
“I said open it.”
I had arrived at the place where the things he treasured most were kept.
“H-Here… this is…”
“Yes. It’s your home.”
“Ah…! N-No… no..! V-Villain hunter… please… please…!”
When we arrived in front of his mansion, I could finally see the man beginning to beg on his knees, pleading for mercy.
“Hurry up. Open it.”
“Just once…! Please…! Pleaase…! Y-You… you’re not the kind of person who does things like this…! Y-You’re supposed to be righteous…!”
Watching him desperately press his hands together in a begging gesture, I felt a thrill I had never experienced before rising from deep within my chest.
“Not opening it?”
“I’m begging you…! Y-You’re not like this…! You’re only supposed to kill… b-bad guys like me…! That’s what you should do…!”
As the situation dragged on needlessly—
Crash—
I tore off the mansion’s front gate, grabbed the bastard by the hair once more, and forced my way inside.
“…Honey?”
“Dad…?”
I saw the Vice President’s young daughter and wife standing at the entrance, their faces frozen in shock.
“So even a guy like you had a family.”
“Don’t do this!! Please!! Pleaase!! Let it end with me…! I’m begging you!!”
I know.
I know that what I’m doing right now is wrong.
More than anyone, I know.
That what I’m doing now is just mimicking the very kind of person I hate the most in this world.
But still—
“Won-il.”
“Y-Yes…! S-Say it…! No—please, speak, Villain Hunter…! A-Anything… I’ll do anything you say…!”
“Do you remember my face?”
“…Huh?”
“Look closely. Look at my face. Doesn’t it remind you of anything?”
“I-It’s… I mean… it’s… it’s…”
The fact that he couldn’t even remember the family of the woman he personally killed with his own hands… I could no longer hold back the emotions boiling inside me.
“Don’t worry. I’ll forget everything one day too.”
“Please…! Pleaaase…! I was wrong…! Just kill me, only me…! I’ll give you money…! As much as you want, whatever you ask for, just pleaaase!!”
I raised my hand and aimed directly at the two women standing at the entrance.
“Remember this for the rest of your life. I’m a villain.”
“J-Just this once… please spare me…! I beg you…! Please!! I’ll do anything…! Villain—Villain Hunter…! Please… I’m begging you, please…!!!”
.
.
.
.
.
—
[Summary of Former Hero Association Vice President Choi Won-il’s “Confession”]
1. Confessed to using part of the Hero Association’s subscription funds for personal expenses.
2. Confessed to ordering the deaths of innocent civilians to more easily subdue villains at terrorist sites.
3. Confessed to brainwashing capable high-ranking heroes to keep them from leaving the Association.
4. Confessed to ordering the murder of an internal whistleblower within the Hero Association.
5. Confessed that a past incident blamed on a sudden acceleration was actually a murder caused by his own drunk driving.
There were many more confessions, but he declared that he would face a fair trial and accept punishment for everything.
But number 5 was the most shocking.
The reason? The person he killed in that drunk driving incident… was the Villain Hunter’s family.
[Comments]
-: What kind of absolute piece of shit is this guy?
ㄴ (OP) : Whoa, careful, you might get sued.
ㄴ : Pfft, let him sue. What’s the point of having curse words if we can’t use them on scum like this?
ㄴ : I’m really starting to believe we need an “upvote” feature just for replies like this.
ㄴ : +++++++++++
-: This guy committed both incitement to murder and actual murder, and yet he was the Vice President of the so-called righteous Hero Association?
ㄴ : Why is this real??
-: I finally understood why the Villain Hunter was so obsessed with the VP after reading the last line.
ㄴ : If it were me, I probably would’ve become a villain too.
-: [This comment has been deleted by the moderator.]
ㄴ : [This comment has been deleted by the moderator.]
: Aren’t the comments getting a bit too brutal..? Killing his family in return… If it were me, I would’ve just tortured the VP.
ㄴ : What’s the point of killing and then torturing? You torture first, then kill.
ㄴ (OP) : Haha, can’t resist some good ol’ tea-bagging.
[Further comments on this post have been disabled by the moderator.]
—
Leave a Reply