The Hero in the Shadows
The night had fallen, and the house lay quiet except for me.
Yuna and Hana had fallen asleep together in Yuna's room. Beatrice slept in mine.
In this entire house, only I remained awake.
[VC PHARMACEUTICALS]
South Korea's leading company in potions and pharmaceuticals, and the nation's largest pharmaceutical firm.
All pharmaceuticals and potions in South Korea were produced here, a company that had monopolized the entire domestic market.
And tonight, in VC Pharmaceuticals, I would begin my owl hunt.
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VC Pharmaceuticals had expanded across the globe beyond Korea.
It was known as a white company, donating hundreds of billions of won every year to countries suffering from food shortages and water crises, running charitable projects.
Yet in reality, it was not just rotten—it was waste so complete that even recycling was impossible.
Of course, the newcomers or those who had only recently entered VC Pharmaceuticals likely knew nothing of this.
The high-ranking executives of VC Pharmaceuticals were all aware they were forcibly conducting human experiments on humans and heterogeneals.
They created human-monster hybrids, conducted crossbreeding between monsters, and injected monsters' blood into human bodies.
These were experiments across every conceivable field.
Of course, it was none of my business whether they experimented on humans or created chimeras and ghouls with them.
But the problem was that the subject of their experiments was me.
The very embodiment of VC Pharmaceuticals' experiments and its sole success case.
The seventh among the Seven Deadly Sins of Catholicism, which she projected herself onto.
She called herself Lust.
The Seductress Nepira.
A being who possessed the ability to seduce any living creature—regardless of species, race, or gender—and turn those who fell for her into her loyal subordinates.
On pure combat power, she was nearly Upper-rank.
But if there was no mental defense, simply looking at Nepira could turn anyone into a devoted subordinate who would die and live for her.
No matter how strong the opponent, as long as mental defense was weak, they could not resist Nepira's power.
And that was exactly why I had to eliminate her.
In my previous life, I had killed Nepira as well.
But I had underestimated her ability from the start, and the losses had been enormous.
These beings who could serve as shields even against the Celestials, I wanted to keep them alive as much as possible.
So, my first hunt would be at VC Pharmaceuticals, the place that had created Nepira.
Wearing a mask and circulating mana through my body, I headed toward the headquarters of VC Pharmaceuticals.
Whoosh—
I ran through the dark downtown, the buildings' lights tracing lines as they vanished from my field of vision.
I ran at full power without a break.
In less than ten minutes, VC Pharmaceuticals' headquarters building appeared.
I concealed myself with distortion magic inside the headquarters building, which was filled with guards on all sides, then entered.
I searched for the path leading underground and descended.
The corridor stretched long and narrow, with guards standing at regular intervals along the way.
Guarding this place meant they knew the secrets of VC Pharmaceuticals.
So, there was no reason to kill them.
I dispelled the distortion magic, created a white mask with mana, and slowly walked toward the guards.
"Hey, how did you even get here? This area is strictly off-limits to non-related personnel. Get out of here—."
I silently reached out to one of the approaching guards, grabbed his head, and squeezed it with all my strength.
Crack!
The head shattered into pieces, fragments of brain and cerebral spinal fluid mixed with blood, painting the white wall bright red.
The body without a head collapsed and rolled on the floor.
I stepped over the corpse casually and continued forward.
All the guards charged at me at once.
"Intruder! Deal with him!"
Whoosh—
The alarm blared, and distant figures came running toward the scene.
"You trash bastards."
Heavenly Demon Divine Art—Second Form: Black Night.
A pitch-black night of darkness poured down, sweeping away the guards charging at me.
The guards' bodies burst from the pressure of Black Night, soaking the ground, ceiling, and walls in red, spreading terror.
It was as if the organs inside a massive monster were bursting and sticking to the walls, decorating the corridor like the inside of a monster's body.
Stomp.
Stomp.
I trampled the blood-soaked floor and flesh fragments as I walked forward.
Each time, I stomped on the guards I saw, crushing them like bugs and killing them one by one.
As I moved deeper inside, stronger beings appeared to block me, but they died in vain without even lasting a single combined attack, turning the floor into red paint.
One.
One.
One.
As I processed the trash one by one, a fairly strong guy blocked my way.
"You know what kind of place this is, right?"
The power he possessed was Upper-rank.
The weapon he used was a chain scythe with a sickle at the end.
"You don't seem to have anything to say... Just die."
The guy who had been watching me silently swung his chain scythe, drawing a silver circle in the air, and hurled it at me.
Whoosh—
I caught the flying chain scythe with mana and deflected it.
The rebounding attack was pulled back by the chain and bounced off the wall, attacking me again.
In a space that was neither narrow nor wide, deflecting the attack caused it to bounce off the wall and come back, attacking once more.
I had never heard of a hero who used a chain scythe.
So, he was probably either a villain or a soldier raised in some other organization.
Clang—
Ding—
Clang—
The chain scythe bounced endlessly off the walls, wrapping around me like a prison of chains.
The sound of chains turning echoed from all directions.
The chain prison shrank in size, squeezing me tighter.
"Stop resisting. There is no one here who can escape this place."
The guy, gloating about his victory as he looked at me, faced me.
We were separated by only about five centimeters of space.
The chain prison shrank, and the chain scythe bit into my body even though I had dodged its attacks.
The sickle cut near my eyes, neck, and heart.
The guy simply stared at me as I died.
Looking at that sight, I really—
"Pathetic."
Bang!!!
The chain links of the scythe snapped, and the sickle blade shattered into pieces, falling to the ground.
"Wh-what—!"
The startled guy tried to flee hurriedly.
I quickly approached, grabbed his face, and lifted it up.
"Mmph! Mmmph—!!"
The guy, unable to speak because his mouth was covered by my hand, let out a muffled sound, kicking his flailing legs in the air.
"Even though his power was Upper-rank, he left only this much behind?"
Crunch—!
"Ah—! Ah, ah—!!"
I tightened my grip, and the guy let out a pained groan.
No matter how hard I squeezed his face, he could not escape.
I could not help but feel disappointed.
Even though he possessed Upper-rank power, he only had the ability to fling back a chain scythe.
I had almost thought Yuhwa-young or Dang Hwa-ran would fight better.
Crack!
Even though I had been waiting for him to do nothing, I tightened my grip and, just like the previous guys, burst his head, killing him instantly.
I accelerated my movement through this utterly futile fight.
No one appeared to block me after that.
I arrived at VC Pharmaceuticals' laboratory without any hindrance.
Dozens of culture tanks lined up long and narrow.
Inside them were unknown green liquids and pairs of males and females from various races, along with monsters that looked similar to humans.
"...Those crazy bastards."
Among them were still young children, around three to five years old by human standards.
On the small culture chambers placed on the desks were various organs.
"Is this...?"
In the very center of the laboratory was a culture tank larger than five times the ones containing other heterogeneals.
Inside it was a naked woman with thick pink hair, hugging her knees, eyes closed.
Even though her appearance was slightly different from what I had seen in my previous life, the woman inside was unmistakably Nepira, the Seductress.
I slowly approached, about to smash the culture tank.
Countless footsteps sounded from all directions.
"Don't move! You're surrounded!"
It was strange that there was no one in the laboratory.
The researchers who had been working in the laboratory had all evacuated, and they had called in the combat personnel from this place.
But there was something strange.
It did not matter how much manpower came; the quality was too high.
Everyone possessed power above Mid-rank, and some among them had the power of Highest.
This kind of strategy could create a guild that would be the best in Korea or even organize a villain organization.
These were people of far too high quality to be just security for one company.
'Hm? But these guys... Ah, I see.'
Upon closer examination of the guys surrounding me, I understood why they were so high-quality under VC Pharmaceuticals.
"You guys are homunculi?"
Homunculus.
An artificial life form born from a forbidden alchemical technique that creates life.
All these beings with similar appearances and forms were homunculi.
Homunculi, who strictly followed the creator's commands, had a lifespan of less than a month.
But instead of living that long, they reached adulthood within ten minutes of birth, acquiring language and knowledge on their own.
The talent, meaning the total amount of power, was determined by the quality of the homunculus created.
However, even for these homunculi, there were other disadvantages besides their lifespan.
"...Kill that guy no matter what, even if all of you die."
One of the homunculi with Highest-rank power hardened his face and gave the order.
The Mid-rank and Upper-rank homunculi assumed their stances with resolute faces.
The first disadvantage of the homunculus.
Whoosh—
A ruby-red fire orb appeared in my hand.
Homunculi who had deviated from the laws of the world were vulnerable to magic that followed the world's principles.
The ruby-red fire orb rose into the sky, and I slowly reached out to it.
"...! Attack quickly!!"
The homunculus sensed the danger approaching and shouted to attack, charging at me.
The other homunculi followed, charging at me.
But the speed of my attack was faster than their arrival.
【Judgment·Flame】
The ruby-red fire orb floating in the sky shattered like a broken egg, and the flame of the judge who punishes enemies fell upon the homunculi.
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Awakened by the loud noise from my sleep, I looked outside.
Someone with black hair wearing a mask was fighting noisily outside the culture tank.
'Why... are you killing the people from the laboratory?'
The people who had been dissecting me and stitching me back together alongside the male who had died at his hands.
Was that man a hero? Had he come here to save me?
Had he come to save me from the pain I suffered here?
I had been watching the fight while trapped inside the culture tank, and without realizing it, I had felt a little hope that I might be able to escape from here.
Here, I had been locked away and subjected to all sorts of experiments.
Now, I did not even remember who I was, who my family was, or what my name was.
My days here were: wake up from sleep, be subjected to experiments, recover in the culture tank after the experiments ended, and fall asleep again.
I had not stopped trying to escape.
I had attempted escape many times to leave here, but each time I was caught by the people here and locked in an empty room without anything.
All the failed escapes left me trapped alone in a small room without any sound, wondering how much time had passed, and I had given up on escaping.
I had abandoned the hope of escape, but that hope was now right in front of me.
I had alone brought down the terrifyingly strong people from here.
Thud.
The last remaining person who had tormented me the most collapsed to the floor in the man's hands.
The hero who had taken out even the last person looked this way, reached out a hand toward me, and grabbed my hand.
Crack!
The wall of the prison that had been squeezing me... clanged!
It broke.
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The translation is complete.