I Shall Do Nothing
A place of scarcely seven hundred square feet, with no one in it but me.
I sat in that living room and flipped through the channels.
Ads and news I had never once seen in my old life. S-Rank heroes. A-Rank villains.
"It seems... this really is real."
Heroes and villains divided into ranks like that — and both the Ice Empress and Sky Walker had been fairly important heroes in the webtoon. Was Sky Walker the tsundere? The Ice Empress had simply been a cool beauty. Her temperament had been brisk, too.
"Haah... how did something like this even happen."
And what was this strange politeness? The words leaving my mouth had changed, and the feeling of it was deeply unpleasant. Is my way of speaking like this because of some setting written into this body? In the story, Lee Yuhwa used formal speech almost all the time. Whoever she faced, friend or foe, she was always polite. Of course, when the mood took her she dropped into casual speech, and formal never meant that what she said was actually courteous.
Anyway... why did I possess her? There was no reason I should have. I hadn't been living in any particular despair, and this hadn't been the only webtoon I read. I'd binge-read it exactly once. I'd liked it well enough, and that was the whole of it.
"In something like a novel, someone usually drags you in, I believe..."
The original creator hauling you off with a please finish the story, or a please save the world. Nothing of the sort had happened to me. I had simply gone to sleep and woken up like this.
Wait. If this is a possession... If it followed the developments I so often saw in novels, then even setting the possession itself aside, shouldn't the one who possessed her receive some kind of perk? A cheat ability. The sort of thing that lets only me grow.
"Hmm... then perhaps this exists. ...Status window!"
The status window — the cliché that appeared most often in possession novels. Some unknown being that would guide me, telling me what I ought to do here and how I might get out. ...Doesn't seem to exist. Lucky the house was empty. If anyone else had heard that, they would have laughed. Damn it. I'm embarrassed for nothing.
"...Just why did I come here."
I couldn't know the reason. I didn't know the purpose, either. Black Magician only just getting caught means the webtoon hasn't even started. The one thing I could be sure of was that the original story had not yet begun.
"The webtoon began with Black Magician's escape, after all..."
I didn't know when he would break out. But if he had only just been caught, then there was still time before the original started. ...Then again, what difference does it make. I don't know how to fight. Aside from the scuffles among kids at the orphanage when I was little, I had never so much as swung an open palm at anyone, let alone a fist. Drop someone like me into a plot that consisted mostly of people beating one another bloody, and there would be nothing I could do.
"It isn't as though I mean to become a hero, or to live as a villain..."
In this world, the power held by villains and the power held by heroes were the same kind. Those who awakened while carrying the seed scattered by the mastermind, however, had their hearts corrupted and became villains. That was the setting. They said you know the moment you gain an ability. The instant an ability user awakened, they understood what it was and how it worked, as if they had always known.
"...Even when I follow the training scenes, I don't feel a thing."
Sit in lotus position. Close your eyes and resonate with the ability within. The explanations had been elaborate enough, but actually doing them produced nothing I could feel. Have I not awakened as a villain yet? Then was this childish appearance Lee Yuhwa's true form?
"Hmm... it does seem... to be so."
The final boss of Part Two, the one who had shown that overwhelming presence and seemed to be the mastermind behind everything — this had been her real face? This look hadn't been a disguise? ...Well. Maybe that's for the best. Looking like that would have meant she was already a villain. Better, by far, to be as I was now.
Right. I wasn't going to do a thing. I never had. There had been no particular reason to live, but I hadn't wanted to die. Whether I've ended up in a girl's body, or I find my way back to Earth... It made no difference. All I had ever wanted was to stay alive. A world-ending story never even showed up, anyway... and the protagonist will handle most of it. So I would flee the main story completely and live at my ease. Do nothing. Simply live, and keep still.
The moment I settled on a course for myself in this world, my stomach let out a low, sudden growl.
"...Well then. Shall I eat something, for now."
I dug through the refrigerator to see if there was anything, but there was little worth eating. Nothing inside but side dishes that had spoiled, and the freezer held nothing except frozen water.
"What sort of life was even being lived here..."
The body I had seen in the mirror had soft, cute cheeks, and when I touched my stomach now it didn't feel malnourished. So something had been eaten. And yet— The side dishes smell...
"Uegh..."
Spinach, kimchi, seasoned deodeok root. The few containers there were had filled with mold. If they had gotten this bad inside a refrigerator, how long had they been sitting in there? I ought to throw them out. I had just decided that, and was about to tip what remained into a plastic bag, when—
"Eh...? Why am I..."
I put the containers back into the refrigerator. ...Right. Those shouldn't be thrown away. That's right. In their own way, they were precious to me. I didn't know why they were precious. I had only just possessed this body, so of course there were things I couldn't know. It isn't as if I can eat them.
"Shall I go and buy something to eat..."
I was hungry, and there was nothing in the house I could eat right away, so I meant to step outside. I was about to leave without thinking when the full-length mirror on the shoe cabinet caught my reflection. Oh. Right. I'm in pajamas. It might not have been my original body, but it was mine now. Going out in sleepwear was a line I would not cross.
"Hmm... where might the clothes be..."
I wandered the house. There were two rooms and a living room. One room was bleak, holding nothing but a bed, a vanity, and a chair. The other was mine — the room where I had first opened my eyes. I went in, opened the wardrobe, and took out the clothes inside.
...A little girl's naked body. Am I even allowed to look? Strictly speaking it wasn't entirely naked, but I was originally a grown man. Was this really all right? Guilt and a sense of wrongdoing circled in my head. Right. I already looked my fill, and touched her, earlier. What does it matter now. There was no helping it. I didn't know how long I would be living in this body, but if I was going to live in it, then something like this had to stop feeling like a great matter. I would have to shower, too. If I couldn't even manage changing clothes, that would be the end of me.
"...Hup!"
Along with a cute little sound I hadn't meant to make, I took the clothes off.
The bell chimed.
"Welcome."
The moment I opened the convenience-store door, the part-timer offered a greeting without a scrap of feeling in it. Part-time work looked every bit as miserable here as it had on Earth. ...I wore a hat, just in case. What I had on was a black oversized hoodie, a black cap, short shorts, and sneakers. An adult dressed like this would have looked suspicious, but in the shape of a young girl I wouldn't look suspicious at all. Luckily, nothing happened on the way.
The world was identical to Earth, and yet this one overflowed with danger. A world where a villain appeared at the drop of a hat and a hero came to stop them. That was this world. In short, a world where one wrong step gets you killed. I had no thought of stepping forward to prevent events that were meant to happen. Now that I had become Lee Yuhwa, the villain Lee Yuhwa would no longer exist.
"...What shall I eat."
Goods lined the shelves. If not for lines like the one printed across them, I could have believed the products were exactly the same as Earth's.
Money, at least, I had. Inside the wallet laid neatly on the desk there had been bills amounting to about twenty-eight thousand won. There was a card as well, but I didn't know whether it held any balance, or whose money it was, so I decided not to use it for the time being. ...I should be careful with it. I don't even know how much I have. I bought the green drink that was on a buy-one-get-one, and two triangle kimbap printed with a hero's face — the ones called Spicy Pork Belly.
"Here. Please ring these up."
The counter was higher than I had expected. Once, a counter like this had sat about at my waist. Now it rose higher than my chest.
"That's 4,900 won. Do you need a bag?"
"Ah, yes."
"That's 100 won."
"One moment... the ten-thousand-won bill..."
I drew a rather cute little wallet from my pocket and held out a ten-thousand-won note. The clerk stared straight at me, and still counted the change into my hand. ...Do I look suspicious? From the way the corner of their mouth kept twitching, it didn't seem so. Surely they weren't staring because I was cute?
"Thank you."
Leaving that faintly unpleasant feeling behind me, I offered a simple goodbye and stepped out of the store. I wonder if the triangle kimbap tastes different here. Thinking that, I walked on. Home was very close. A little farther and I would be there.
"I'm hungry..."
I quickened my steps. Perhaps because it was broad daylight, the park was empty. Once I was past this park I would be home, so if I just hurried—
With a deafening crash, something dropped out of the air in front of me.
"Haa... fuck, of all people to get caught by, that crazy bitch...!"
A red mohawk, a cigar clenched in his mouth, clothes like a biker gang's. I knew the man in front of me. An executive of the Villain Alliance, the one who shows up around the middle...! In the comments he was mocked as Lord Chicken Comb, but the names attached to him were vicious things. Red Executioner. The Frenzied Butcher. Titles given because he slaughtered people without caring whether they were adults or children. His features were distinctive, so I recognized him. He was a villain with a fair amount of weight in the story, so I knew him — and so I knew exactly how dangerous he was.
"Huh? The hell is this little brat?"
He looked at me. I had to run. My whole body rang the alarm.
"Keh heh... perfect. Kill this brat and that crazy bitch won't be able to chase me anymore, yeah?"
His skin-crawling smile turned on me. Run. I have to run... now! I spun around at once. Turned my back, and ran. I hadn't even been here a day, and I was going to die? That was absurd. I didn't want to die.
"...Tch. I don't have time for this, you little shit!!"
The ability he possessed, Flame Weapon, filled his hand. Gripping a blade made of fire, he came charging after me.
"Hah— hah—!"
I ran. With everything I had. Desperately. Tears risen out of terror blurred what was in front of me, but anywhere would do, so I ran. A child's body was never going to shake an adult man.
The blade went in with a wet, punching sound.
"Eh...?"
"Little brat. Being a pain."
In the end he caught me, and the blade of fire pierced straight through my chest.