The Female... No, Betrayed and Corrupted
Finally.
This was my chance to make my existence known to the world as a formal hero and Baek Seungha’s sidekick.
That opportunity was unfolding right before my eyes.
"Huu..."
"My husband, are you nervous?"
"Yeah. But it’s okay. It was a hurdle I had to overcome someday... and I feel like this is the perfect moment."
I held Ego carefully in my arms.
I kept her—my one and only weapon and companion—deep against my chest, as if entrusting her with something precious, and loosened my body.
The plan was simple: the police would create a distraction at the front, and I would slip around to the back to infiltrate through the ventilation shaft.
The map was already etched into my mind.
Since Master Baek Seungha had explained it while drawing it out herself, this operation couldn't possibly fail.
Just like that.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"...It’s starting."
The sound of gunfire rang out from the front of the bank.
Taking that opening, I ran straight toward the back entrance.
However.
"It’s the sound of fighting at the front again."
"Yeah. Makes me nervous for no reason."
"When is the helicopter coming... Please, let’s just run away quickly."
As expected, reality wasn't as easy as the movies.
Even the back entrance was thoroughly guarded.
Three women who appeared to be members of the masked gang were guarding the rear, looking every bit like they were on sentry duty.
I instantly realized the plan had gone awry and clicked my tongue quietly.
"Damn it... I didn't think they’d even guard the back. This gang is much more organized than I thought."
I leaned my body against the wall, held my breath, and glared at the masked gang.
Even with a Soul Weapon, fighting three people armed with automatic weapons with just a single dagger was literally a suicide mission.
Furthermore, the weapon in my hand right now—Ego.
She had clearly said she was the lowest grade when we first met, and she really seemed to have zero combat experience.
Besides... even if she could transform into a human form, there was no guarantee that would translate directly into combat power.
'I don't want to force her into danger for no reason.'
Of course, Ego might be stronger than I thought.
But now wasn't the time to prove that.
Whatever her power level was, as long as it remained unverified, I had to step up first.
That was the natural duty of a 'master.'
For a moment, I hid behind the corner and contemplated whether I should revise the plan.
Just as I was about to reach for the radio Master had given me to use in the worst-case scenario where she was in danger.
Shhh.
"Ego...?"
"My husband, wait a moment."
Ego, who had carefully slipped out of my arms, transformed into her human form and stared at the masked gang with her ruby-colored eyes.
"The villains over there, from what I can see, appear to be the police in disguise."
"...Huh?"
My eyes widened at the unexpected words.
"Really...? I didn't notice at all."
"You wouldn't have. But I am an Ego Weapon. I can detect even the most minute presence."
Oh, as expected of Ego.
Even if she was the lowest grade, the price of a Soul Weapon—which would be worth at least hundreds of millions—wasn't for nothing.
She had apparently already seen through what I hadn't noticed at all.
Now the situation was clear, and there was no need to hide.
I intended to step forward, reveal my identity, and convey my intention to cooperate.
However.
"My husband, I want to step up here."
"Ego...?"
"I’m a woman who has now walked the path of a hero following you, my husband. I feel like I should do at least this much."
She held my hand tightly and spoke earnestly.
At first, I thought, Do you really have to...? but soon I understood her sincerity.
That’s right.
I was like that in the past, too!
Just because I was a man, I was only ever protected, and no matter what I did, those around me blocked me.
Those days when I didn't even have a chance to step forward.
Ego must have been the same.
As a lowest-grade Soul Weapon who had always been pushed to the background—even by the master she just met—she finally had her first 'stage' where she could step forward.
'Right. She says she wants to do it. Let’s let her.'
Besides, this mission wasn't actually combat; it was simply a 'role to let them know we were on the same side.'
"Alright. Then go, Ego!"
"Ego-ego!"
I stretched out my arm as if throwing a Monster Ball and gave her the order to sortie.
🏛 Type: Infiltration Point
⚔ Status: Guarded by Elite Masked Gang
📍 Objective: Establish Contact
The trio of the masked gang currently guarding the back door of the bank.
They might have looked like three extras holding rifles, but the reality was different.
The fact that they had deployed only three people to the back entrance, where the possibility of a surprise attack was high, meant they were no ordinary personnel.
This composition usually meant they were the elite of the elite, executive-level.
The basic uniform of the masked gang was a black mask, but the fact that an exception was allowed for these three was proof of that.
Red, Blue, Green. This trio, wearing color masks that symbolized their individual personalities, had a track record of literally beating a D-rank hero and their sidekick who were in charge of this area just 30 minutes ago.
Thanks to that, they were currently enjoying the afterglow of victory, feeling cocky.
“Seriously... that hero, they were crying, right?”
“The sidekick just fainted with their eyes wide open.”
“Phew... it was thrilling for the first time in a while. I almost... peed my pants.”
As they recalled that moment, their hearts began to thump again.
It was a thrill.
It was definitely a thrilling sensation... but something was wrong.
30 minutes had already passed.
But why was cold sweat still trickling stickily down their necks?
Their armpits, the backs of their knees, their cleavage—even places where they didn't usually sweat were damp.
“...W-why are we like this...?”
“Doesn't... your body feel a bit weird?”
“What is it, did we catch a cold...? Suddenly?”
None of the three knew the reason.
But it was truly strange.
Their insides were subtly churning, their fingertips were trembling slightly, and their chests were tightening more and more.
They kept glancing around as if they were self-conscious for no reason.
And their mouths, which had been chatting away normally until just a moment ago, strangely wouldn't open well.
That wasn't because someone had threatened them, but because, needless to say, they just... felt that it was dangerous.
A feeling of chills running up their spines.
Rubbing the back of her neck, the Red Mask muttered.
And then.
Click, clack.
The sound of impossible heels pierced through the tension of the broad daylight.
From the front, someone was walking out in the open.
Without a thought to run away or hide, mocking the sunlight, fluttering a black dress, with skin as pale as white wallpaper and hair as dazzling as salt.
Blood-red eyes were piercing the three of them in a straight line.
Even from afar, they knew. That wasn't some 'princess.'
To use a metaphor, a queen who had come to rule.
The brains of the three masked gang members shouted simultaneously.
'If you move... you die.'
That wasn't a metaphor or an exaggeration.
Because the woman in front of them wasn't just a person.
She was, what should I call it... a predator wearing a human mask? Or someone who had survived by sucking the smell of blood on the front lines? She felt like the real deal.
As her gaze brushed past them, the three's breathing automatically became shallow, and their hearts, conversely, began to pound on their own.
A pressure that made beasts instinctively shrink back.
And the distance was getting closer, but their bodies wouldn't budge.
That was when it happened.
"From now on."
Her voice was calm, but it was a 'command' that allowed no resistance.
"Your names... are Chun-sik."
"...Excuse me?"
"And you are the police."
"......Excuse me?"
Their fear was short-lived.
That absurd declaration was too sudden for reason to handle.
"M-my name is Park So-mi..."
The protest of the Red Mask, who had opened her mouth, was silenced by just two words.
"Shut up."
"Yes."
Without even being able to finish her sentence, the masked trio reflexively stood at attention.
Ego smiled leisurely and gently stroked her cheek with the back of her hand.
Her eyes held a sneer.
"Soon, our husband will be here."
"Yes...?"
"Husband...?"
"Hus...band...? He, hehehe... Hehehehehehehehe!!"
The laughter that suddenly leaked out was bizarre and long.
As if the madness they had suppressed had burst out.
Then... snap.
The laughter cut off in an instant, as if sliced by a knife.
Ego’s blood-red eyes looked down at them again.
"When he arrives, you will become 'our' colleagues."
Words that were beyond understanding, to the point where their sense of reality was fading.
"...Are you serious?"
The three muttered that, trying to hold onto the last remaining thread of their sanity, but the next words snapped that thread.
"I am the mother of all Soul Weapons."
Ego slowly opened her palm.
Shhh.
Flowing beneath it was 'pure gold powder' that sparkled like sand.
The texture, weight, luster—it was real gold powder that no one could doubt was fake.
"When metal gestates, I am the one who refines its flow. Gold, silver, iron, orichalcum... all the ores in this world were completed through me. And pure gold is nothing but dregs flowing from my fingertips."
Just by a rough estimate, 1kg.
An amount that would take months of robbing banks as a masked gang to earn, just poured out of her hand.
To just give it away, calling it 'pocket money' for their trouble.
"Oh, oh oh...!"
"Is this... for real...?"
"Thank you... No, hic!"
The Blue and Green masks knelt down as they were and clasped their hands together in front of them.
However.
The Red Mask, Park So-mi.
She was the only one who held out until the end.
Because the reason she held a gun wasn't just for a simple livelihood.
She just wanted to shout "No" to this society even once.
She wanted to rebel head-on against a world that only forced submission.
She couldn't let that... be broken by a handful of gold.
If that broke, it felt like all the days she had lived would... become a lie, so she bit her lip.
She forcibly straightened her trembling knees.
At that moment.
"Ego, are you finished talking?"
Thump, thump.
A man walked out from somewhere.
Thump. Thump.
Every time the sweat droplets that had flowed down my pants ran down my thighs, a glistening sheen shimmered over my firmly risen muscles.
My gaping chest was revealed every time I inhaled.
My shirt had long since lost its purpose, and the shape was revealed as it was under that thin fabric.
Thump, thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump-thump...!
My biceps were thick enough to make someone want to be eaten, and sweat droplets slowly flowed down my neckline below my sharp, chiseled jawline.
Above all, the pelvic line that had risen up.
In the center of it, that thing that was clearly bulging even though it was covered, was positioned with a 'pressure' that you couldn't avoid even if you tried, as if showing off its very existence.
Just looking at it made their breath catch, and their legs went numb.
'...This is crazy.'
Their heads shouted that they had to resist, but their bodies were already hot.
Just like that.
"Greetings! I am Inspector Park Chun-sik, who was disguised as the masked gang!"
"I am Ha Chun-sik! Loyalty!"
"I am Kim Chun-sik! It is an honor!"
Conviction? Justice? Goals?
Screw that, do those things make my lower abdomen hot?
When they came to their senses, the trio of colored masks, including Park So-mi, had been... not female, but 'betrayed and corrupted.'
Now they were the proud 'colleagues' of the man.
“We are the police. We are the police...!”
“We were actually... on an undercover investigation... The bank, the guns... everything was a disguise...!”
“We are... part of a secret organization that was planning all of this... That’s right! We are the police!”
'Th-these guys...! They lived in hiding in the shadows, but as soon as they saw my husband, their very identities collapsed?!'