Chapter 7: Reverse Villain

I should at least grab the money here before I leave.

Hero? Yeah, right.

I wasn’t here to do charity work.

Taking advantage of the fact that these people had no phones and couldn’t even make a call for help, I decided I’d take all their valuables with me on my way out.

Gold necklaces, gold rings. I’ll take it all.

Just earlier, I had spent all my money getting a new villain outfit made.

I’d ask Hye-won to reshape the valuables I took from these people, then head straight to a jewelry store and sell them. That way, it would be a perfect crime with no trace left behind.

“Nice to meet you.”

“?”

With that in mind, I headed straight toward the group of tied-up people without even bothering to hide my identity, wanting to quickly take care of the villains.

Since I didn’t know the layout of this place, trying to circle around to attack from behind would only risk losing track of the villains’ location in the meantime.

Recalling the villain’s abilities that the hidden man had told me about, I walked confidently in that direction.

“It would be best to stop right there.”

Just as the startled villain turned to flee—

I quickly spun around and threw a punch into the empty space behind me.

Bam!!

“……!!”

As expected, where I had sensed movement behind me—

I could see the outline of a villain, embedded in the wall while cloaked in invisibility.

“You should’ve at least tried not to make any noise when walking.”

Squeeze…

There didn’t appear to be any liquid around.

Determined not to lose the villain again, I pressed down hard on my hand with a fingernail until it bled.

“Stay still. If you move, I won’t bother controlling my strength on the next hit.”

I smeared the blood all over the invisible villain’s body, which was embedded in the wall.

Squish…

“…Ah, you were a woman. Ahem… My apologies. I didn’t mean to touch you inappropriately, really.”

Setting aside the new bit of information that she had to be completely naked to use her invisibility power—

I spread the blood around to reveal the curves of her body more clearly.

Rip—

I tore off the upper part of my shirt and roughly wrapped it around my hand to stop the bleeding.

Thankfully, the villain stood there blankly and waited until I finished all of this.

I looked back at her.

“See? This is why villains are better than heroes. We even wait for our enemies to finish transforming. That’s one of our charming traits.”

“…You… you’re a villain?”

“Yes.”

“…Then why are you interfering with us?”

“Call it a cheap sense of justice or something.”

Maybe she couldn’t bring herself to move.

Because she just stood there silently, frozen in place.

Just when I was about to tell them that I wouldn’t attack if they quietly surrendered and allowed themselves to be restrained—

“……!”

—I saw too late that the bastard who had lured me into letting my guard down had thrown a dagger at me.

In the end…

Thud—

“…Ha.”

The dagger he threw had ended up embedded in my lower abdomen.

“Next time, maybe you shouldn’t hold back?”

Mocking me by repeating the very words I had said to the woman earlier.

I assumed a psychic would only use psychic powers.

I thought too simply.

Just because someone was a psychic didn’t mean they only fought with their powers.

“It’s best if you stay still. Once we’re done here, we’ll be leaving too.”

I couldn’t just pull the dagger out from my stomach.

I knew well enough that doing so would cause bleeding I couldn’t control.

“You…. son of a… bitch…”

I could hear the invisible villain slowly walking toward me.

“Oppa… this bastard… I-I’ll kill him myself, I swear—!”

And then, just as I heard the woman’s voice from directly behind me—

I reached my hand back, grabbed whatever part of her I could get a hold of, and clenched tightly.

“I told you I wasn’t going to hold back.”

Then I hurled her with all my strength straight at the man.

As a result—

Crash!!!

She collided with the other villain. The two of them smashed through the factory wall and flew out of sight.

I let my guard down for no good reason.

When I caught the invisible villain, it had felt like I was gripping her neck.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I had clenched down with all my strength and crushed the bone. So nine times out of ten, the woman had likely flown off either as a corpse or a vegetable.

If that were the case, then the only one left would have been the male villain who could summon whatever object he wanted into his hands.

That’s dangerous.

But it was the moment blood had started dripping steadily from my lower abdomen, making it impossible for me to go finish them off.

“Take care of the rest yourself.”

“Th-Thank you s-so much… Hero…!”

“Hey, wait about ten minutes before you report this to the Hero Association.”

“I’ll call 119 right now…!”

“Don’t worry about me. Just remember to report it in ten minutes, okay?”

“Y-Yes…! But still…! H-Hero, you’re…!”

I waved my hand dismissively at the man who looked horrified at the sight of me, as if telling him not to worry.

Then I tore my clothes, pressed the fabric tightly against the area around the knife wound in my abdomen,

And hurriedly began making my way to the secret base where Hye-won and Pyro Bomber would be.

Calling 119 is out of the question. If I go there like this, I’ll be arrested on the spot.

It was the unavoidable fate of a villain.

No matter how badly one was injured, the moment they tried to receive proper medical treatment, they were arrested on the spot.

Gotta get out before Mobia shows up.

So, the only place I could go—

It was the secret base, hoping Hye-won or Pyro Bomber had some knowledge of first aid.

…

…

“Just my damn luck…”

“Th-This… this really isn’t… the time… for that kind of talk…!”

I entered the hideout where Hye-won and Pyro Bomber stayed with a dagger still lodged in my abdomen.

Unfortunately, neither of them had any knowledge of medical treatment.

“Haah…”

Was a villain stabbed by a knife just supposed to die like this?

To die helplessly without achieving anything… I still had dreams I needed to fulfill.

“Might as well try breaking out of prison.”

I decided that, once I was captured, I’d find some way to escape from the villain prison.

And just as I was about to quietly call 119 for now—

“……”

Pyro Bomber who had remained silent the whole time while looking at my wound,

“There’s a way. Can you walk?”

“I can.”

“Then follow me.”

Saying there was a way so suddenly, Pyro Bomber picked up a bomb and headed outside, and I followed.

After walking for about three minutes from the secret base, we arrived at a spot.

Beep—

“…What are you doing?”

“It’ll explode in five seconds.”

Without warning, Pyro Bomber activated the bomb… and tossed it onto the road nearby.

Boom!!

With a massive explosion, a section of the road was blown away.

“Say a villain carried out a bomb terror attack and stabbed someone. From now on, you’re just a regular person. Got it?”

“…Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

After making an emergency call on my phone for me, she left the scene with Hye-won just like that.

An ambulance was expected to arrive here soon if I just waited a little longer.

Hang in there.

It was a situation where all I had to do was endure the pain and wait.

…No, wait a second.

If I were a normal person, shouldn’t I be freaking out right now?

Getting stabbed in the stomach and staying quiet would definitely look strange to others.

So I started to act like I was in pain…. just a little.

“Ugh… Ughhhh… Ugh…”

Ah… I shouldn’t have started acting.

“Ugh… Aagh… Ah… I can actually bear this? No, wait, that’s not right. Aaagh…”

At this level of pain, I was having the ridiculous thought that I could probably handle getting stabbed in the lower abdomen up to four times.

Before I knew it, the ambulance—wait, what is that thing flying over here?

“???”

Thud—

Technology’s really advanced these days, huh…?

And I wasn’t speaking metaphorically. The ambulance literally flew through the sky and landed on the half-destroyed road in front of me.

So there’s a special ability that lets you fly a car now…?

I had thought this world was full of all kinds of supernatural powers.

But now I realized there were abilities out there that I had truly never seen or even heard of.

Of course.

This is perfect, seriously.

If the ambulance driver really had this kind of ability, then it felt like the perfect fit.

“There’s an injured person! He’s been stabbed in the abdomen!”

“Get the stretcher! Now!”

Anyway.

Right now, I had to act like an ordinary civilian who’d been attacked by a villain.

“Ugh… Aagh…”

“Hang in there. We’ll get you to the hospital right away.”

“Thank you… Ugh…”

Groaning in pain again, I kept up the act.

I was finally put on the stretcher by the paramedics and taken to hospital.

…

—

[What Happens When Another Villain Shows Up at a Villain Terror Site]

(Video)

– Watch it before it gets taken down.

– It’s the original clip, and wow… holy crap, this one villain totally dominated a 1v2. lol

– He got stabbed in the front at one point, but look at him. He didn’t even care.

– I never thought watching villains go all out against each other would be this entertaining, lol.

– I was so used to clips of villains always running away from heroes, but now they’re throwing hands and risking their lives. It’s freaking gold, lol.

– But the real kicker here?

– Wanna know what it is?

(Video)

– This dude beat two villains and then just walked off like nothing happened, LOLOLOLOLOLOL

(Photo)

“What? That person was a villain?”

– The factory staff thought he was a hero because he saved them and then left the factory without saying much, all cool and composed, LOL.

– During the interview, the look on their faces when they finally realized he was a villain lol man, he was such a damn bizarre villain, seriously.

[Comments]

-: Villain?

ㄴ : Haha, they call him a “reverse villain” lol

– : Huh? Isn’t that the guy? The villain who rescued people during the suicide bombing bus incident two days ago.

ㄴ (OP): Huh, that happened too?

ㄴ : Check the post from two days ago on the forum. A villain stopped a suicide bombing, and it was that dude.

-: What’s his deal? Why’s he so righteous? Is he really a villain?

ㄴ : The Hero Association got flooded with questions about him, so they released an official statement. Said the masked guy isn’t a hero.

ㄴ : So he really is a villain, huh…

-: What’s his villain name? I can’t find anything no matter how much I search.

ㄴ : Just search “crazy-ass villain” and he pops up.

ㄴ : That’s not what they were asking, lol

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