Deception and Bluff
Deception and Bluff
They say when a person experiences something utterly shocking, their mind seizes up in an instant.
That was exactly what had happened to the A-rank villain Monkey Spanner.
With all his years in the game, he'd fought countless Awakened.
He'd never once run into an S-rank hero, but he'd clashed with A-ranks plenty of times.
And escaping from them had always been manageable enough.
No matter how strong the opponent, Monkey Spanner always moved with a crowd, so even a hero couldn't just wipe them all out in one go.
Especially because, barring a few exceptions, heroes subdued villains instead of killing them. That made escaping even easier.
In other words, Monkey Spanner might have tasted defeat.
But he had never experienced anything like this.
Never.
His subordinates.
They had crossed hostile ground together and shared countless hardships. They were practically his comrades.
When he'd said they should go to Mexico, hadn't they all followed him?
Sure, he'd lost quite a few members there, but that just meant the ones left were the elite.
Those men.
Now, in a single moment.
Monkey Spanner looked around.
The hostages had definitely been sitting down, his men standing and aiming their guns.
No one was left standing.
What the hell had happened?
He'd lunged to crush that masked bastard.
The instant he moved, the bastard vanished.
And then, somehow, the bastard was sitting in the chair Monkey Spanner himself had occupied.
As if bored, he snapped his fingers.
In an instant.
The guns his men were holding flew into the air.
Before anyone could react.
At the same time.
Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang.
Dozens of guns opened fire.
and amid the hostages' screams,
blood sprayed throughout the lobby.
Those who had been standing were no longer...
There was no one left. Not one.
The hostages panicked at the sudden gunfire and the terrorists collapsing among them.
Monkey Spanner stared blankly at the scene that had unfolded in an instant.
Then he fell into a panic as well.
All those men.
So senselessly.
Every last one of them... dead?
Was this... really happening?
"Aaaah!"
Only the hostages' frantic screams from every direction reminded him that this was reality.
With vacant eyes, he stared at his subordinates' bodies as if refusing to accept the truth.
His stiff neck cracked as he turned to look behind him.
The bastard was sitting on top of a mountain of chairs.
Although the mask hid the bastard's expression, Monkey Spanner could still sense something from him.
The man who'd eliminated his comrades of many years with a single gesture was now picking his ear with that same hand.
As if he'd merely swatted away some annoying flies.
It was the attitude of someone who had expended no effort at all and found the whole thing merely annoying.
Seeing that, Monkey Spanner finally realized.
Ah. That bastard wasn't a hero.
Killing people in an instant as if crushing bugs.
The bastard was a villain. Just like him.
And even with his mind frozen in shock, he managed to piece something together.
The ability that had moved him behind Monkey Spanner in an instant was teleportation.
The ability that had manipulated his men's guns and massacred them was telekinesis.
There was only one villain in South Korea who possessed both teleportation and telekinesis.
The Watchlist Villain who had committed three large-scale terrorist attacks.
Egostic. Right. That was his name.
To be honest, Monkey Spanner hadn't cared much about Egostic.
He'd merely resented how a man with a ridiculous name kept staging incidents right when Monkey Spanner planned his own attacks and stealing the public's attention.
He had shown a little interest upon learning that Egostic was one of those rare dual-ability users.
But after the Hero Association issued a press release saying that his telekinesis and teleportation were both extremely weak, Monkey Spanner lost interest again.
He'd heard rumors the bastard had killed three villains, but so what? That wasn't his problem. It wasn't like a weakling like that could ever kill him.
And now, that had very much become his problem.
He felt himself trembling.
Damn that Association. Getting fried in a vat of shit would be too good for them.
How could anyone call that weak telekinesis?
Accurately controlling that many objects at once was supposed to be weak?
And why the hell was this guy even in Busan?
Then an idea crossed his mind.
This bastard had been killing other villains. Hunting them.
Without any reason.
What if he was the target now?
What if the bastard had been after him from the very beginning?
What if he had known Monkey Spanner would stage an attack today?
A chill ran down his spine.
The bastard was hiding his true power.
He didn't know why he was wearing that ridiculous yellow mask instead of his usual one.
He was dangerous.
There was no telling what else he was hiding.
Monkey Spanner knew it instinctively.
Perhaps this was the greatest crisis of his entire life.
He could always make more subordinates as long as he survived.
First, he had to crush that bastard and survive.
While his thoughts raced,
Egostic's disappointed voice drifted down over his gleaming bald head.
"Is this... all there is?"
It was the arrogant tone of someone who found the whole affair unbearably dull.
Hearing that, Monkey Spanner felt a single bead of sweat trickle down the back of his neck.
Egostic.
What in the world was that bastard thinking behind his mask?
***
Hmm.
I surveyed the carnage I'd caused.
The armed robbers who had been standing throughout the lobby now lay in bloody heaps. The hostages screamed around them.
Haha, what a mess.
Watching the hostages panic and tremble from the sudden turn of events, I let out a weak laugh behind my mask.
Far in the distance, I spotted a head of gleaming silver hair. Probably Seo-eun. I squinted and saw her watching me beside Soo-bin, apparently not too frightened. Good. That was a relief.
Using the telekinesis I'd built up all this time, I'd wiped out all those lackeys at once.
I mean, lifting a gun and firing it once was easy enough even for a weakling like me. How heavy could a gun be?
Well... turns out, pretty damn heavy.
And how many guns had I controlled at once? Dozens? It had to be close to a hundred. Seriously, how had I done that?
It was honestly amazing, even to me. Maybe I had some hidden power I knew nothing about. Could my ability have grown like Stardus's after all?
Was I actually the protagonist too? Was a comic called [Egostiiic!] being published somewhere?
I wished I could say that, but I didn't think so.
Because... I couldn't move at all.
Everything had been great while I lounged in the chair, crossed my legs, and snapped my fingers.
I felt like a transcendent being. Was this how Thanos had felt when he collected all the Infinity Stones?
But the problem was what came after.
Lifting all those guns at once, aiming them precisely, and firing had gone well enough.
But unlike the abilities of truly powerful people, my telekinesis was garbage.
Doing just that one thing completely tapped me out.
"..."
Which meant I couldn't move even one finger now.
This was kind of a huge problem.
Honestly, I would probably regain some movement after a few dozen minutes, but this was a battlefield. Every second could decide the outcome.
What was I supposed to do if my body locked up for several minutes?
Seriously, I knew my ability was trash, but I didn't think it was this bad.
"..."
Snapping my fingers and killing the grunts had looked great, but what came afterward was the problem.
How was I supposed to kill that Monkey Dance King or whatever?
Honestly, I really had done this half on impulse.
Who stuck a gun in a sleeping man's face and expected him to stay still? I had to teach the bastard a lesson.
I needed to rough him up and make an example of him so he would not try anything like that again.
...But then it looked as though I was the one about to get roughed up.
What was I supposed to do?
Fortunately, the bastard looked completely terrified.
Right. Even I'd be scared if some masked psycho in front of me wiped out my whole crew with a single snap.
It was pretty funny that a bald, mustached middle-aged man twice my size was cowering before me.
...Wait.
Maybe I could bluff my way through this situation after all.
I was the only one who knew I'd run out of steam. He didn't know.
In other words, I might be able to ride this out with deception and bluster.
Right. I had planned this all along.
First, eliminate all the grunts who are most likely to do something reckless.
Then keep Monkey Spanner locked in a standoff and hold out. Until when? Until another hero arrived.
To be honest, I hadn't planned to get involved. What did Monkey Spanner have to do with me? He'd never tangled with Stardus. If he didn't get in Stardus's way, I didn't care.
But he had attacked me first, so I had merely taught him a lesson. I was not the kind of person who could take a hit and let it go. If someone hit me once, I hit back ten times.
In that sense, killing all his men in one blow had given him a suitably painful taste.
Now then.
I would hold out until my body recovered and a hero arrived, then bail.
It's Busan, so Northern Sea Ice Maiden should be here soon enough. It's a shame Shadow Walker isn't coming, though.
"Is this... all there is?"
I opened my mouth and said whatever came to mind. I might as well drop the formalities.
The key was bluster, seizing the initiative, and feeding the anxiety of an opponent who already suspected I had more up my sleeve.
Yes, Monkey Spanner was shaken. I knew it.
Alright. Time to unleash some fast-talking from hell.
"Monkey Spanner, was it? Let me ask you a question. Answer it, and I'll forgive you for boring me. You..."
Just as I started running my mouth,
BOOM.
An explosion suddenly sounded from the hotel's front doors.
What the hell?
"Hyaaaah!"
A woman with sky-blue hair burst in with a tremendous battle cry.
Huh? That was Northern Sea Ice Maiden. She had arrived incredibly fast. What was going on?
But at that exact moment, the lobby suddenly went dark.
Shadows blanketed the entire area, and something rose from the floor.
That ominous black hair.
...Wait, what the hell? That was Shadow Walker. Wasn't he supposed to be in a coma? Why was he here?
Then someone else suddenly flew in from somewhere.
What was this, an all-star match?
A figure flew through a blasted wall, blonde hair streaming behind her.
Stardus? Wait, why are you here?
"Monkey Spanner! Order your men to drop their weapons and surrender. You're surrounded!"
She burst onto the scene, her voice booming through the lobby.
And what she saw when she burst in was...
Monkey Spanner's men, already sprawled in bloody heaps.
Monkey Spanner, standing there in an awkward half-crouch.
And me, sitting atop a tower of chairs with my legs crossed, wearing a mask, looking down at them all.
...What the fuck was this? What a goddamn mess.