I'm Not a Villain, Though (1)
Life is a series of regrets. Who said that again? Some famous person, I suppose. Anyway, the important thing is that the saying isn't wrong in the slightest.
I shouldn't have casually agreed when my friend suggested we enlist together. I should've jumped on the bandwagon when everyone else was making a fuss about stocks. I should've bought that one when the price was still low.
A never-ending chain of regrets. In the crashing waves of life, I always regretted my choices. And just like always...
Regret always comes just a little too late.
*
An ordinary young man in his twenties living in South Korea. For someone like me, who was always found barely breathing in bed, hobbies weren't exactly plentiful. Once a week. Dropping by the comic book cafe right in front of my house and losing myself in comics all day was my only joy in life.
With prices going completely insane these days, there wasn't a better hobby than this. A full day of entertainment for just eighteen thousand won.
"Hello, boss."
"Oh, you're here? Gonna get the all-day pass again?"
"Of course."
After coming here consistently for over a year, I was treated like a semi-regular. We were close enough that if I skipped a day, he'd immediately text to check on me.
"We've got a ton of new releases in. Want to check them out?"
As soon as I finished paying, the suggestion came as if he'd been waiting. It wasn't the look of a shopkeeper talking to a customer, but the welcoming eyes of a fellow comrade.
"Sure. Now that you mention it, a lot of series have been wrapping up lately, huh?"
Comics have generations too. Usually, works that were popular around the same time get lumped together and treated similarly. Like One Piece or Noblesse. People will argue endlessly about it, but there's one undeniable fact: they were massively popular with the public. And that applied meaningfully to otakus like me too.
"Stories always have to end eventually. Some of the endings weren't exactly satisfying, though. But then again, what would complaining from ordinary readers like us do? The author isn't going to change it."
If there's a beginning, there's an end. Eventually, one generation fades and a new one rises.
"They're all the way in the back, right?"
"Want me to pull some out for you?"
"No need. I'm planning to read nothing but new releases all day today."
"Alright. If you find anything good, let me know too."
With the boss's half-hearted encouragement, I headed deeper inside. The closer you got to the entrance, the more famous titles filled the shelves. Most had been adapted into anime. Some had even become dramas or movies. Naturally, that wasn't my destination.
"Found it."
The deepest corner of the comic book cafe. In a spot that only maniacs like me would even glance at, the shelves were packed with brand-new releases that had just hit the market. Thrillers, horror, romance, mystery, and more. Shelves filled with comics of every genre imaginable. But among them, one in particular caught my eye.
"Eden's Horizon…?"
The bold, inky art style jumped out first. The genre was a standard modern fantasy with all kinds of heroes and villains in an ability-user battle story. Aside from the main setting having a slightly cyberpunk vibe, it was packed with all the classic tropes.
Just from the cover, I could tell. It was easy to guess this was a textbook shonen comic where the protagonist and his friends fought against villains. The main plot was probably about growing up while dealing with various incidents in a city full of crime.
Without a second thought, I reached for the book. The exact moment I opened the first page—
Flash!
A blinding light suddenly burst from the paper pages, strong enough to burn my eyes.
"Ugh…!"
At the same time, a dizzying vertigo swept over me. Sensing something was wrong, I quickly tried to throw the book away, but my body had already been swallowed by the light. Feeling myself being dragged deeper and deeper, I soon lost consciousness and collapsed.
*
"Another failure, huh."
My deeply submerged consciousness slowly rose to the surface. The sound of people talking. And the noisy mechanical beeps. Beeeeeeeeep— The hospital-like noise naturally woke me up.
My vision blurred between heavy eyelids. Under the cold LED lights on the ceiling, masked men were looking down at me.
"We've conducted up to the fourth experiment, but there's still no wave detected from subject RX-007."
"Tsk. Completely useless. Dispose of it."
Subject? Dispose of it? I didn't even have time to wonder who they were talking about. My head kept ringing like it was about to split open. The humming machinery and the men's cold voices intensified the pain.
…So loud.
The unpleasant sensation of my brain feeling ready to explode made me instinctively mutter a complaint.
"Shut up."
It was just a short remark born from the dizziness in my head. But the situation took a completely unexpected turn.
"Mmph…! Mmph…!!"
The men's mouths froze as if sewn shut by invisible thread. One man clawed desperately at his lips in agony, while another convulsed and stumbled backward. It was like their mouths had been glued shut. They stared at me with terrified eyes, unable to speak.
As I watched them in a daze, the back of my eyeballs suddenly burned hot.
"Ugh…!"
The unbearable stimulation made me blink hard once, and like magic, the power binding them was released.
"Haa, haa…! What the hell?! Did he just awaken all of a sudden…?!"
The moment the ability was lifted, wary glares returned. The enraged man pulled a pistol from his waistband. Watching him approach with murderous intent, I desperately racked my brain.
'That thing just now… I did that, right?'
It was entirely possible. The two men whose mouths had sealed shut after my single command. From years of reading countless comics, I instantly pieced the situation together.
Maybe something straight out of those comics had happened to me. I needed confirmation. Staring directly into the eyes of the tense man approaching me, I spoke more clearly this time.
"Stop."
In that instant, the world froze. No—more precisely, the movements of everyone except me stopped. The man's muscles, aimed at me with the gun, contracted unnaturally and locked in place. His finger on the trigger. Even the terrifying glare he was shooting at me. Everything.
'This actually works…?'
Some kind of mental manipulation? Maybe a hypnosis-type ability. Either way, it didn't matter. What was certain was that this was the only way to get out of this situation.
I slowly sat up from what looked like an operating table, careful not to close my eyes. Forcing down the burning pain in my eyes, I stepped onto the floor.
Tap.
The moment my toes touched the ground, an icy chill shot through my entire body.
"Ah…"
My muscles screamed from disuse. My legs nearly gave out and I almost collapsed, but I barely managed to grab the operating table and steady myself. Staggering like a newborn animal, I took unsteady steps.
Every time the cold tile's texture reached me through my bare feet, the reality of the situation became clearer. This wasn't a dream.
Finally, I reached the two men. Their eyes, frozen like statues, were filled with unfamiliar emotions. Shock and terror. With trembling hands, I gently placed my palm on the head of the man who had tried to kill me.
"…Sleep."
A single short word. A burning heat flowed from my palm into their minds.
Thud. Thud—!
Like puppets with their strings cut, both men collapsed to the floor. Only after confirming they had fallen into a deep sleep—where even their ragged breathing had vanished—did my taut nerves finally begin to relax.
"Haa… Haa…"
Harsh breaths escaped me. Cold sweat trickled down my cheeks. Where the hell was I, and what had happened to me? The last thing I remembered was opening a comic book I'd never seen before.
I was trying to retrace my memories and make sense of the situation when—
Wiiiiiiing—! Wiiiiiiiing—!
A piercing siren suddenly filled the laboratory. Red warning lights spun wildly, dyeing the white walls blood-red.
Warning: Abnormal wave detected within the test subject isolation zone. Security team, respond immediately.
The mechanical female voice from the speaker made my eyes shake violently. I hadn't even properly grasped the situation yet, but the next ordeal was already crashing down without giving me a moment's rest.
'Damn it. I can barely even stand.'
I narrowed my eyes and glared at the closed steel door. There was no longer any choice. I had to escape from here.