Chapter 53: Drunk Driving

One hour left.

According to the document I took from V’s house, Choi Won-il and the Mimicker were scheduled to meet under that overpass in exactly one hour.

Starting today, Choi Won-il would no longer be the former Vice President of the Hero Association, but a new man with a clean slate, free to live as he pleased.

That’s not why I let you live.

I had definitely given him a chance.

A chance to serve his rightful punishment and appease my anger with honesty.

But he tried to mock me until the very end.

So, I decided I’d give Won-il the most unforgettable day of his life.

How can I make you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom?

As I recalled the plans I had prepared in advance, I stayed hidden and kept waiting for Choi Won-il to arrive.

There they are.

I saw the Mimicker walking toward the spot with an unfamiliar man who looked just like the one in the photo attached to the report.

That must be the stand-in.

It was obvious at a glance that the man walking next to the Mimicker was the stand-in set to serve time in Choi Won-il’s place.

With the villain hunter mask in hand, I put it on without hesitation and began walking toward the underpass.

“…….”

“…….”

The two men looked visibly startled as the villain hunter approached.

“You’re right about what you’re thinking, so go ahead and grab your weapons.”

There was no reason to drag things out, so I stated my purpose right away.

“I don’t know how you found out, but I’m not going down easy!”

The Mimicker raised a sharp sashimi knife from his waistband without hesitation, so I decided to give him a chance.

“I won’t take a single step from here. If you manage to stab me with that knife, I’ll let you go.”

Perhaps my words gave him a glimmer of hope.

I had barely finished speaking when the Mimicker charged at me, holding a knife.

“You messed with the wrong guy. Do you even know how good I am with a blade?!”

Bang—

“Gaaaaaah!!!”

“Oh, right. I forgot to attach the suppressor.”

I said I wouldn’t dodge, not that I wouldn’t attack. Funny how people misinterpret that.

“My leg! My leg!!!”

“Quiet. People will think a fish bit your arm off.”

I stepped behind the screaming Mimicker and clamped a hand over his mouth.

Then, pressing down on his bleeding thigh, I slipped my fingers inside my mask and stole his ability.

“Mmgh! Mmmph—!”

The Mimicker seemed desperate to say something, signaling me to let go.

But—

“If you make another sound, I’ll snap your neck on the spot.”

“…..!”

I had too much left to do.

“Just wait here. Not that you can run away anyway. Do your best to stop the bleeding with this cloth. And try not to make a mess on the floor. I’d rather not have extra cleanup.”

I removed my hand from his mouth and took off running after the stand-in, who had bolted the moment he heard the gunshot.

…

Dragging both men by the scruff of their necks, I hauled them into an abandoned house near the overpass.

“God… that bastard Choi Won-il… after all that crap about how I should never get caught by the villain hunter…”

“P-Please don’t kill me… I-I beg you…”

Inside the derelict building, I squatted in front of the trembling man.

Creak—creak—

I began attaching the silencer Hye-won had crafted for my revolver using augmented alloy.

At the same time…

“What did he promise you?”

“…Huh?”

I asked.

“In exchange for doing time in place of Choi Won-il, the former Vice President of the Hero Association.”

There were two meanings behind this question.

The first was simple curiosity about what Choi Won-il had offered in return for someone serving his sentence.

The second was to prevent the man from being unjustly killed.

You never know.

He could’ve been an innocent civilian, forced into this situation through threats or coercion.

However…

“H-He said he’d cancel my 500 million won debt…! A-And starting next year, I’d be paid 300 million won annually…!”

“Was it by force?”

“N-No…! At first it was 250 million, but I… I asked him to raise it to 300 million.”

“So you volunteered.”

“Yes…!”

As expected.

He was an “enemy”. Someone cooperating with Choi Won-il.

Click—

I raised the revolver, now perfectly fitted with the silencer, and without hesitation, put a bullet through the stand-in’s head.

Thud—

The stand-in’s body collapsed.

“……”

Now alone with the mimicker, who had just witnessed me kill a man without flinching.

“W-Wait… just a second…!”

I naturally grabbed the mimic’s fingers—

Crack—

“Aaaaaaaagh!!!”

—and bent them sharply in the opposite direction they were meant to go.

“Don’t scream. Didn’t I tell you I’d kill you if you screamed again?”

“Mmfh…! Mmmgh…!”

“Tell me how to use your mimic ability. If you tell me, I’ll spare you. If not, the torture continues.”

…

“What’s taking you so long?”

I looked down at the corpse. Its fingers and arms were broken in all directions.

I had planned to give him a clean death if he just told me how to use his ability.

But unaware that I had already stolen the power, he kept spewing lies, trying to hide the method of using it.

It ended up taking a bit longer than expected.

“Ah, I’m late.”

At least I did manage to learn how to use the Mimicker’s ability in the end.

“Man, what a pain in the ass.”

I casually took a phone from one of the dead men’s bodies.

Disguised as the mimicker, I began walking straight toward the underpass where Choi Won-il would be waiting.

…

“…Honey?”

Before she could even grasp the situation, Choi Won-il’s wife saw her husband bringing another, unconscious version of himself over to the parked car.

“…Mimicker?”

As I loaded the sleeping Choi Won-il into the back seat of the car, next to his daughter—

“Wh-What… what’s going on?”

“There was an attack by villain hunter. I disguised myself to look exactly like the Vice President and created a diversion to escape.”

“Villain hunter appeared…?”

“Yes.”

Mixing in just enough lies,

I went ahead and hijacked the car with the entire family inside.

“…Why is that villain hunter so obsessed with making our lives miserable?”

“People with no money and nothing to lose tend to be the most vicious.”

While I was driving them to a secluded place,

Choi Won-il’s wife and his daughter who looked like she was in elementary school

began openly badmouthing the villain hunter.

“Everything’s just so annoying these days, even at school.”

“Just hang in there for two more days, Hyeon-ji. After that, we’ll go abroad together, okay? You can handle that, right?”

I thought rich people were supposed to have better manners.

In TV dramas and webtoons, the rich were often portrayed as ruthless villains.

It was an easy way to highlight that the powerful and wealthy were the real enemies.

However, in reality, there were relatively few truly vicious people among the wealthy.

I mean, if your bank account is full, there’s no reason to be petty, right?

But still…

“When is that villain hunter going to be arrested?”

“Soon. Dad already contacted all his friends, so the moment someone spots Go Min-hyeok, they’re going straight in to arrest him.”

“Tell them to kill him by ‘accident’ during the arrest or something. He’s so annoying, seriously.”

“Well, they’re calling it an arrest, but it’ll probably end up being something similar.”

Is it because they were born low?

Maybe it was because Choi Won-il and his wife weren’t born rich.

You could even see their child, just like them, showing the exact same attitude.

I’m really glad I didn’t pull the trigger back then.

If I had pulled the trigger on these two that day,

I might’ve been burdened with the guilt of killing innocent people.

But now,

after realizing they were just the same as Choi Won-il…

“So, where are we going, Mimicker?”

“……”

At this point, I felt like I could send these two women straight to their deaths without hesitation.

“Mimicker?”

“Oh, I didn’t answer because I’m not actually Mimicker. Anyway, we’re pretty much here.”

“…What are you talking about?”

I had parked the car in a place I’d scoped out beforehand. It was remote and isolated.

With Choi Won-il, still unconscious, sitting in the driver’s seat with the engine running…

“Let’s not unbuckle our seatbelts. Not if you want to stay alive.”

“…Why are you doing this to us? Is it because you need money?”

I got into the back seat and released the mimic transformation that had made me look like Choi Won-il.

“What…?”

…

“AAAAAHHHHHH!!”

The sight of the man clutching his daughter’s lifeless body and screaming made me let out a small laugh.

Who said showing them you’re doing well is revenge?

There’s a saying—

That the best revenge is living well.

That the real revenge is showing the person who tormented you that you’ve risen above it all.

But…

This is real revenge.

Today, I was absolutely convinced:

Giving back exactly what they did to you is actually a pretty satisfying kind of revenge.

“You… you fucking bastard!!”

I picked up the revolver the guy had dropped.

Unable to control his anger, he started swinging his fists, attacking me wildly.

“Summon.”

Watching him like that, I summoned the soju bottle I had prepared in advance for my final plan.

“Uaargh!! Uaaaargh!!!”

I shoved the soju bottle into his mouth.

I forced Choi Won-il to ingest alcohol.

And with that—

“Won-il, I’ve been driving around disguised as you this whole time. That’s how I’ll appear on the surrounding CCTV footage.”

“Mmgh!! Mmmrrgh!!”

“This car doesn’t have a black box either, so no one will even know a Villain Hunter was ever here.”

I gave the man his final confession.

Before the police could arrive at the crash site, I decided to leave quickly.

“Alright then. Time to take care of the last remaining witness. Won-il.”

“You… you son of a bit*h…! I swear, I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you myself…!”

“Shut that mouth and strangle the only witness to this case. Your wife sitting right next to you.”

—

[Creepy and mentally ill former Vice President of the Hero Association]

(Photo)

(Photo)

This is a photo from the crash scene.

(Photo)

Damn… he slammed full throttle straight into a utility pole.

Both his wife and daughter died in the crash.

The truly chilling part? The daughter died because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

But the wife. It turns out Choi Won-il mistook her for a Villain Hunter and strangled her to death.

(Photo)

When the police arrested him, he reeked of alcohol, so they did a sobriety test. And yep, he was driving drunk.

Even while being taken away, he kept screaming that it was all the Villain Hunter’s plan.

That the Villain Hunter was the one who killed them all.

But according to the police investigation, evidence showed that Choi Won-il had driven himself all the way to that isolated location.

(Photo)

This is footage from a traffic CCTV camera, and you can clearly see our former Vice President of the Hero Association himself in the driver’s seat.

Wow~

Honestly, this feels like divine punishment to me.

The guy who killed the Villain Hunter’s little sister in a drunk driving accident ended up killing his own family the exact same way.

[Comments]

-: I heard the police investigation was a total joke. He kept yelling that the Villain Hunter did everything, but all the evidence pointed to Choi Won-il.

ㄴ : He’s obviously trying to claim mental illness to get a reduced sentence. It’s all an act.

ㄴ : Even while pretending to be mentally ill, he’s still blaming the Villain Hunter. What a fuc*ing joke lol

-: The Villain Hunter once saved his family, and now look—he ended up killing them himself lolololol

-: Karma.

-: What an idiot lololololol

ㄴ : lolol Big thumbs up lololololol

-: He’s pulling every trick in the book to avoid prison time.

ㄴ (OP): But even if he’s mentally ill, shouldn’t he still go to jail?

ㄴ : As far as I know, if you’re diagnosed with a mental illness, you don’t go to prison right away. They send you to a psychiatric hospital for treatment first, and then maybe prison. But I’m not totally sure.

—