Lee Seong-won.
He was 32 years old.
The reason he had decided to become a whistleblower against the Hero Association was because…
“……”
“I wanted to follow the example of the Villain Hunter and blow the whistle together with Jung-ho hyung…”
It was because of me, he said.
While Villain Hunter was trying to make the world just,
He felt that the Hero Association, to which he belonged, was committing evil instead.
So he had become a whistleblower, determined to realize true justice.
But…
“…I just didn’t expect the Association to try to use heroes to execute us, like the Villain Hunter executed other villains…”
He simply hadn’t expected the Hero Association would try to silence them by killing them.
“…Since when did the Association become like this?”
Justice without power was not justice.
Peace could only be maintained through overwhelming force.
And those without any supernatural abilities had no choice but to be helpless against the Association’s attacks.
“…The Villain Hunter… knew all this when he attacked the Association, didn’t he…”
“?”
But what kind of nonsense was he talking about?
“To think that the Villain Hunter knew the Association was just another kind of villain all along…”
“??”
All I was doing was smashing through the obstacles blocking my path to achieve my own personal revenge…
“I’ll be of help! I happen to know a few things about the internal structure and weaknesses of the Association.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll cooperate for the sake of the justice the Villain Hunter is trying to create!”
“…….”
I had no idea what misunderstanding he was under.
But since if I explained things wrong, he might change his mind and refuse to help me in the name of fighting for justice again,
I decided to just leave him with his misunderstanding for now.
“What should I do? Should I sneak back into the Association and act as a spy?”
“Just sit still for now.”
“Yes! I’ll do my best to stay perfectly still!”
“…Right. Good luck.”
…
“Here’s a present!”
“Wow…!”
“Hehe…”
“…It looks really expensive.”
“It’s not much at all!”
To say something costing 4.5 million won wasn’t expensive…
“You have to wear it all the time!”
To think she wanted me to always wear a GPS on my wrist…
“…This?”
“Yes!”
In a situation where Seo-yoon was giving me, as a gift, the same bracelet with a tracker that I had sold the day before…
All I could do, without revealing that I knew what the device really was, was…
“…Thank you, Seo-yoon. I’ll use it well.”
…say thank you and put on the bracelet.
“Wow… it’s really nice.”
“Right?”
…No matter how often I disappeared without contacting anyone,
to go so far as to pull a stunt like this just to keep track of my location…
What am I supposed to do with this…
I couldn’t exactly bring a phone to a terror site just to reassure one person.
It wasn’t like I could make a call while bombs were going off all around me, either.
If I accidentally dropped my phone during villain activity,
My personal information would go straight to the Hero Association…
Hmm…
There were two days left until the next terror attack.
In a situation where I had to somehow come up with a way to trick this bracelet within that time…
…If I mess up, they could even find out where I live, couldn’t they?
Thinking about it, I realized that this bracelet could end up revealing the hideout where Pyro Bomber and Hye-won were hiding…
Think, think…! I have to come up with something…!
I began imagining ways I could lose the bracelet as naturally as possible.
…If a terror attack happens while I’m on the way, I’ll just rush over there and say it got broken in the process.
Today was a day when I really wanted to run into a villain somehow.
“Oppa, is there anything you want to do?”
“Should we go out for a walk? I feel bad just staying at your place all the time.”
“I want to visit your house, Oppa!”
“My place? Ah~ let’s… save that for another time. For now, how about just taking a walk? I feel like walking.”
“Okay!”
Ah…
One more problem had been added to my list.
…At this point, maybe it would be easier on my mind to just get arrested by Mobia.
How am I even supposed to get my own place…?
“Oh, right. This is another gift for you, Min-hyuk Oppa!”
“…I’m starting to feel a bit overwhelmed.”
“It’s nothing compared to the surgery costs you returned to me, Oppa.”
This bracelet alone is worth more than my surgery expenses…
After also receiving a locket necklace from Seo-yoon, one that could hold a photo inside…
The only thought running through my mind was that I needed to somehow save up money too and buy her a reasonable, yet quite expensive, gift.
***
Everything was perfect.
The perfect time when no one was around.
The perfect place with no one in sight.
And on the way here, a perfect blind spot without a single CCTV in existence.
It was, quite literally, a situation plastered with conditions that could allow for the perfect crime.
“How much did you say?”
A large-scale drug deal was currently taking place here.
“Two to three billion won is nothing. At Osong Club, they even mix this stuff into the drinks and sell it, and when they do, their profits go up five to six times higher.”
Even though it was called large-scale, the actual amount being traded here was just 11 kilograms of drugs.
Of course, 11 kilograms of drugs was enough for about 400,000 to 500,000 people to use at once.
Now, all that was left was to hand over a massive amount of cash…
“Huff… Huff… I finally found you…!”
Of all places, a person who might end up as a witness appeared exactly where there shouldn’t have been any evidence left.
When I tried to send the man away quietly, without causing any problems…
“Do you have any business with us?”
“Just a little.”
From the man’s words,
I could infer that he was a police officer here to arrest us.
“…After all the trust we built doing business, you stab me in the back like this?”
“You’ve got some nerve saying that.”
“?”
The bastard who had been dealing drugs with us for five years…
Ended up selling me out to the police…
That fucking son of a bit*h…
***
I ran through every nook and cranny of town, searching for a villain.
Tonight, before falling asleep, my bracelet had to be broken by some unforeseen accident.
I searched desperately all around, trying somehow to get caught up in a villain’s terror attack…
They’re always easy to find when I don’t need them!
Just when I was feeling nothing but frustration at the fact that the villains, who usually showed up so easily, were now nowhere to be seen—
Is that a villain?
In a very secluded corner,
at a place where hardly any people ever set foot,
I spotted two people engaged in what was clearly a suspicious transaction.
Feeling both the joy of finally finding villains after three hours,
and breathing heavily,
I put on my villain hunter mask and made my way toward them.
And then—
“Huff… Huff… I finally found you…!”
Keeping a reasonable distance from the two men,
“Do you have any business with us?”
“Just a little.”
Now, it was time to naturally get attacked and have my bracelet broken in an unforeseen accident…
“…After all the trust we built doing business, you stab me in the back like this?”
“You’ve got some nerve saying that.”
“?”
What the hell?
Weren’t they on the same team?
Weren’t they supposed to team up and terrorize this place??
…Did I just walk into a random street argument?
I really thought I had finally found some villains…
Since they were covering their faces just enough, I assumed they were trying to conceal their identities…
…Well, now that it’s come to this.
But still, I couldn’t afford to waste any more time here.
Since Seo-yoon was likely tracking my movements through GPS and finding it suspicious that I had been wandering around town for three hours,
I had to somehow break this bracelet here.
“Fuck!! I can’t die alone!”
At that moment,
The man holding the briefcase suddenly lifted it as if aiming at the other man.
“W-Wait a second…!”
“You think I couldn’t smuggle in a weapon when I was already importing drugs?”
To think I’d get to see a real gun in Korea, outside of the military…
The Hero Association would often send ability users with non-combat powers to public workplaces.
The most common example was the airport support team tasked with searching for smuggled goods…
And he managed to smuggle a gun past them? Not just that….he was even dealing drugs here before??
It was a series of astonishing situations.
In other words, that man wasn’t even a villain with abilities, yet he had deceived heroes and successfully smuggled contraband.
The more talented allies you have, the better.
Even among villains, connections were everything.
Just look at Pyro Bomber.
Villains who were close to her could easily get whatever goods they wanted through Hye-won.
And just like how she’d gone out the day before to support another group of terrorists in need,
villains could also help those outside their own teams. So in the villain world, personal connections had their own kind of importance.
I’m standing in front of a guy with a gun, and here I am daydreaming.
It seemed like that man would create great synergy if he teamed up with Hye-won, given how good he was at smuggling.
But judging from his behavior, it was clear he was the type to betray his comrades and abandon them at the slightest inconvenience.
I decided it was best to kill who needed killing, break what needed breaking, and get back to my own path as soon as possible.
“Hey, you bastard!”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you! Who else is there besides you?”
“The guy standing in front of you?”
“…Shut up!!”
“???”
He called me, I answered, he asked questions, I replied…and now he was telling me to shut up?
What kind of absurd conversation structure was this?
“I’m killing this bastard today, even if I get caught. Got it!?”
“…Is that so?”
I had no idea why he was telling me that, but
I quickly raised my right hand high, eager to get my own business done.
“Have you served in the military?”
“Shit! Even if I deal drugs, I still served.”
“Then you can do it. See my wrist here? Just aim carefully and pull the trigger. Understood?”
“…What?”
“Come on! You can do it!”
Since I had the ability to regenerate my body, I figured a few bullets wouldn’t be a big deal.
So I waited for the man to hurry up and pull the trigger.
“……?”
“Just shoot already!”
“???”
“If you’re worried about limited bullets, should I get a little closer?”
“?????”
“Alright, I’m coming.”
“Don’t come any closer!! You wanna see this bastard die!?”
“Then let’s hurry up and shoot. I’m busy; I’ve got places to be.”
“…What the hell is wrong with this lunatic… You told me to shoot, right?”
“Yes! So hurry up—”
Bang!
Before he could even finish speaking, I heard the gunshot ring out in my ears.
However…
“…You said you served in the military. Why can’t you hit your target?”
“…I did! I aimed for your body on purpose!”
“You’re a terrible shot.”
“I told you, I did it on purpose!!”
The man’s bullet didn’t even come close to my arm. It hit me square in the chest instead.
However, thanks to that, I discovered something surprising:
The new villain suit I was wearing under my clothes, made from augmented alloy, had absorbed most of the impact.
This thing’s the real deal.
It was moments like this that showed why augmented alloy was called the “metal of the gods”.
In the end…
“Ugh, forget it. I’ll just shoot myself.”
Step, step—
Bang— Bang— Bang—
Even after three more gunshots rang out, none of them hit my wrist.
I snatched the pistol from the man’s hand and pressed the barrel directly against the bracelet on my wrist, then pulled the trigger.
Bang—
Finally, I saw the bracelet on my wrist shatter into pieces on the spot.
“Alright, let’s pick up where we left off. I’ll be taking this; it’s too good to pass up. Oh, and by the way, do you have any extra bullets?”
“…….”
I got greedy for the revolver and decided to take it with me just as it was…
“…Ha, you called a hero?”
The man suddenly let out a hollow laugh.
He immediately drew a knife from his waist and tried to stab me in the face.
Bang—
“Isn’t it pretty stupid to charge at someone holding a gun?”
I returned the favor by leaving a bullet mark right in the center of his forehead.
“Oh, there’s quite a few bullets left. I might as well just take the whole bag.”
I could see a few revolver bullets spilling out from the man’s bag.
Grabbing his briefcase as it was, I quickly started heading toward Seo-yoon’s house.
“Hey, drugs are bad for you. Let’s try living a healthy life.”
“Yes! Please get home safely!”
It was a strange feeling to get a full ninety-degree bow from someone I’d never met before.
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