Mental Pollution?
Was it mental contamination? After dealing with Midas Girl blocking my path, I leaped between buildings and made a quick retreat. The heroes and police gave chase, but not as aggressively as they had at Starfield.
'No real motivation, I guess.'
If people had actually died or been injured in the terrorist attack, they'd have gritted their teeth and pursued me relentlessly. But that wasn't the case here. I'd handled the Venom Breath who was trying to terrorize the hotel. And not a single person had died or gotten hurt. I'd quietly taken care of Venom Breath and then just slipped away. If they chased the villain Blank too hard and someone on their side got injured or killed, it'd just pile up more crap for their reports. Everyone at the Association knew that the easiest way was to put on a half-hearted show of pursuit and then write up a report saying, "Regrettably, we lost Blank. No other casualties." That was the public servant way of doing things.
Once I reached the slums, the pursuit cut off completely. Another clean job done for the day. The fact that I'd pulled it off without Snake's help—without owing anyone anything—carried real weight.
'Seo Hayun isn't chasing me, huh.'
The only one who'd ignore Association politics and come after me was Seo Hayun, but there was no sign of her. She'd been caught off guard and inhaled the gas, so that made sense.
'She's not at mid-to-late story levels yet.'
Seo Hayun's power was at the original story's early stages. Same with Ida-in. To survive in this harsh world crawling with villains, both would need to get stronger than they were now.
'Is there a way I can train them?'
I'd have to give some thought to that too.
Gulp. Gulp.
Seo Hayun downed the antidote Blank had given her. She wasn't sure if chugging a drink from a villain without a second thought was proper hero conduct, but she had this strange conviction. She was certain that the villain Blank wouldn't pull any dirty tricks on her.
That conviction proved right about ten seconds later. Ten seconds after drinking the antidote, her body returned to normal. The tingling numbness vanished completely. What Blank had given her was the real deal.
"Flash, sir. Are you alright?"
"Ah. Yeah, I'm fine."
Brushing off the concerned cops, Seo Hayun scanned the scene.
'Couldn't stop Blank again...'
A hero's job was to capture villains and let the law judge them fairly, but she'd failed at that duty. The villain Venom Breath had been beaten into pulp and died. You couldn't arrest a corpse.
Later, she got a rundown of the chase via the police drone footage. It showed Midas Girl butting in sleazily while Seo Hayun was down, trying to snag Blank.
"Blank! Catching you is my job, Midas Girl's! Ohoho!"
Hearing the audio from the drone feed made something dark and turbid stir inside Seo Hayun—something she wasn't even aware of.
'Midas Girl, you sow...'
If you're a hero, focus on your damn job instead of posing for fashion shoots—that alone pissed her off. Midas Girl wasn't chasing Blank out of any real understanding of the villain; it was just for the fame. No doubt about it.
"Pew. Pew pew."
Seo Hayun stared blankly at the drone screen, murmuring that weird sound with dead eyes. She was imagining skewering Midas Girl with a light beam—a seriously vicious fantasy.
"...!"
The cops shivered under her sharp gaze, sensing some inexplicable terror.
'Stupid sow. You can't catch Blank with that sloppy stance. Learn to walk on two legs first, at least?'
As her thoughts veered darker, Seo Hayun snapped out of it.
'What am I even thinking...'
She was flustered at how villainous her own mind had turned. Being around Blank did this to her.
'Does Blank have another power?'
Maybe he had some kind of mental contamination ability. She'd have to watch out for that...
'No. People only get one superpower.'
It was genetically impossible to have more than one.
"Eek!"
Then the drone feed showed Midas Girl dramatically flipping her skirt as she faceplanted. Blank had subdued her and sauntered off.
'Heh. Blank isn't someone just anyone can catch.'
Feeling an odd satisfaction at Midas Girl's humiliating tumble, Seo Hayun smirked and stepped back. It would've been heartwarming—if she hadn't caught Blank's gaze lingering on Midas Girl's exposed thighs under the skirt for a split 0.3 seconds.
'Rotten villain...'
A surge of intense hatred hit her. Next time she saw Blank, she'd catch him for sure. That was her resolve.
The incident wrapped up quickly. The hotel blockade lifted soon after, and Venom Breath's hacker accomplice was nabbed just as fast. His confession revealed the full plan: Once inside, the hacker would seal the hotel while Venom Breath gassed everyone to death, then they'd clean up the bodies. If it had gone off without a hitch, dozens—maybe over a hundred—could've died.
'If Blank hadn't intervened...'
Seo Hayun shuddered at the thought.
'Did he use the villains' intel network to protect people on purpose...?'
She realized her conviction about him wasn't wrong.
'Still, that method isn't right.'
Seeing Venom Breath's minced-meat corpse—a victim of vigilante justice—rekindled her heroic sense of duty. She'd capture Blank herself and ensure he faced proper legal judgment. Pure resolve filled her.
After wrapping up the day's work, I checked the darknet out of habit.
The darknet folks were spouting their usual nonsense.
'...I didn't get help from Snake.'
I'd staked out for three days straight to uncover that intel myself. What the hell was this baseless speculation? Seeing them spin their wild theories bruised my ego a bit.
"Bad comments... Pew. Pew pew..."
Ah. What was I saying? Seo Hayun's weird tic had rubbed off on me. Oops.
Hmm. Gotta save this pic. Great angle. Yeah, post stuff like this instead of shitting out dumb speculation about me. Oh yeah, Midas Girl did a bikini shoot? Time to snag a copy for "world-building research."
After wasting brain cells on darknet drivel, I mapped out some constructive plans. Next target: another villain in Venom Breath's league. Someone who wouldn't power up Ida-in but would just traumatize her. First up: track down and crush him.
His name: Lizardman. A C-rank villain who could mutate his body into a bipedal Komodo dragon.
'And... Fox. What to do about him.'
Fox, the senior hero assigned as Ida-in's mentor. He was the root of her misery, mocking her dreams and constantly grinding her down. Dealing with him was tricky. As a shadow-dwelling villain, even approaching Fox was a challenge. Scouring New Seoul streets for him would get me arrested in no time.
Assuming I could eliminate those two somehow, I had another task.
'Gotta make Ida-in grow fast.'
Mid-to-late Volume 2. Ida-in hits an unavoidable trauma event. She fails a mission against the powerful villain Blade due to lack of strength. Classic growth-pain trope in heroic tales. Witnessing civilian deaths in her defeat steels her resolve to get stronger.
That'd be a hot-blooded arc on paper. But this story's darker than it seems. Guilt over her weakness letting people die haunts Ida-in throughout—she's on psych meds the whole time, plagued by nightmares every night, trembling in fear. Way too harsh for "growth pains."
She needs motivation to grow. But the cost is excessive. My plan: give her that drive with less brutality.
'So much to do.'
I'd always figured webnovel possessors were living the dream, sucking honey. But doing it myself? Not easy.
'Can't go lone wolf, huh.'
Might need allies for the plan. From the original story, who could I recruit in my current situation?
'Hey... what about me? Aren't I a teammate?'
My inner Yongpal gave me abandoned-puppy eyes, but he was out. Resourceful enough, but too vanilla an info broker.
'Don't wanna tangle with Yeomra where Snake is...'
Needed free agents. What options were there?
As I pondered, someone pounded on my rundown one-room apartment door.
"Excuse me? Anyone home? New neighbor from next door."
A prim female voice came through the door.
"Ah. Yeah, coming."
Who the hell was moving in? It'd been vacant for months. True to slum rules, I grabbed a weapon and headed to the entrance. Was this really just a normal neighbor? I had my doubts.