A Softened Atmosphere?
A softened atmosphere?
The next day, news headlines of every kind flooded the airwaves and the internet.
First among them: A-class villain Cybers had been defeated and captured by B-class hero Valkyrie.
"Valkyrie caught Cybers!"
"That crazy attention whore? Even so, he's A-class—how the hell did she take him down? I heard he's so strong he even escaped from S-class heroes before."
"Beating someone ranked that high is insane... Is Valkyrie actually that strong?"
"I knew she'd make it big! Just watch—she'll climb to S-class any day now."
"If I ever run into her, maybe I should get an autograph in advance? I heard she's super nice and signs for people no problem."
It was genuinely rare for a lower-ranked hero or villain to defeat a higher-ranked one, so the feat alone became massive news.
Broadcast crews from every network couldn't cross the police line and had to film from several kilometers away from the mansion, so none of the conversations inside ever made it on air. Still, they had clearly captured the moment Valkyrie landed the decisive blow on Cybers.
The Hero Union itself even released an official statement confirming that Valkyrie had apprehended Cybers.
From the start, Valkyrie had been known as a highly competent hero who—aside from always missing me—rounded up every other villain she encountered without fail. Landing an A-class catch like this only amplified the public reaction.
Second: the mansion of SCP Group CEO Kim Kwanmo had been completely demolished, everything inside reduced to powder as the entire structure collapsed.
"That bastard worse than a dog—serves him right!"
"He should've been crushed under that mansion and died with it!"
The bereaved families who had lost loved ones at the SCP Group factories still seethed that Kim Kwanmo himself deserved the same fate, yet it seemed a small measure of their grudge had been eased.
SCP Group's reputation as pure garbage was so notorious that mockery flooded every internet article and comment section.
Third: articles warning about the danger I posed—Kid G—had multiplied even further than before.
With the government's schemes already all but confirming me as the mastermind behind the Myeongdong terror attack, and Kim Kwanmo's mansion now reduced to rubble, the administration could hardly have asked for a better media opportunity.
To the public, Kid G had fully become a radical extremist, a heinous villain who had gone completely off the deep end.
Not a single person had died that night, yet baseless rumors that I had killed dozens yesterday were already spreading like wildfire across the internet, where gossip thrived.
"Did you hear? All the people working at Kim Kwanmo's mansion got crushed to death."
"Is that true?"
"Come on, that doesn't make sense. If people died, the news would've announced the body count right away."
"Has Kid G ever actually killed anyone during a heist? No way he'd do that."
"Why are you defending a villain like it's natural? You're gonna get yourself in trouble."
"I'm siding with Kid G. My aunt was one of the victims at Cheonok Logistics, and the money he gave her back then is the only reason she survived."
Debates about me raged everywhere, opinions splitting almost evenly down the middle. The government had probably hoped for a 9-to-1 or even 10-to-0 ratio—too bad for them.
And finally, there was one thing the public never managed to uncover: the identity of the fourth person who had been raising hell with us yesterday.
It had been a dark night, so her face never came through clearly. She never became much of a topic, and since she wasn't particularly important, people forgot about her almost immediately.
And that forgotten person did not show up at school today.
"Hey."
Before morning classes, Eun Seol called out to me with her usual single short word.
As always, she looked perfectly fine. I, on the other hand, was a wreck—my clone had taken the first bomb trap head-on, and my body was paying for it.
Every joint ached. I had been sprawled face-down on my desk like a corpse, and I only turned my head sideways to glance at Eun Seol standing beside me.
"Ugh... What is it? I'm in a lot of pain right now. Can we do this later?"
"...... Fine, then."
Normally she would have dragged me off to say whatever she wanted regardless of how I felt. This time, the moment I said I was hurting, she dropped it.
That was new in its own way.
After that I tried to sit through morning classes, but the bone-deep pain finally won. Mid-lesson I raised my hand, explained my condition, and left for the hospital, where I got an IV drip and collapsed into bed.
I skipped lunch and slept straight through on the hospital bed.
Bzzzt—
The vibration woke me. I fumbled for my phone and answered.
"Mmm... Hello?"
— Hey. Where are you.
That blunt, chilly voice on the other end was still somehow welcome.
I checked the time—right after morning classes, just when people would be heading to lunch.
"I'm at the hospital."
— Which hospital.
"Why do you need to know?"
— Just tell me.
"XX Orthopedic Clinic, third-floor ward."
Click—
The call ended the second she had the address.
Yeah, expecting any warmth from her was a lost cause.
I lay there groaning for a few more minutes.
Then the door to the shared ward opened, followed by the sharp click of heels.
Whoever it was must have gotten directions at the front desk, because she came straight to my bed and yanked the curtain aside.
Long black hair, passionate red eyes, a figure that looked ready to burst out of her clothes—an extremely beautiful girl was looking down at me with a complicated expression.
"Oh? Coming to visit the sick? Were you worried about me?"
"......"
Eun Seol set the bag she was holding on the floor, fiddled briefly with the watch-like device on her wrist, then pressed the side of it.
Nothing visible changed, but she dragged a chair over beside me, sat down, and jumped straight to the point.
"...Why do you keep doing this to me."
"Doing what?"
"Cheonok Logistics. Myeongdong. The more I think about it, the more it looks like you keep pretending otherwise while secretly working to boost my name. I felt it for sure yesterday when you let me catch Cybers. You can't deny it, can you?"
"Uh, there are other patients in this ward. You can't just talk about that here."
Eun Seol held up the device on her wrist.
"This is a Sound Barrier Device. Ignore them and just answer my questions."
Every hero affiliated with the Union supposedly carried one. Activate it and a sound-wave barrier formed around a set range so nothing said inside leaked out.
I'd never seen one in person before. Handy little tool.
For a second I'd thought Eun Seol had lost her mind and was about to spill top-secret information in a public ward. I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"If you have something like that, warn me first. I almost had a heart attack."
"You can actually get surprised? First time I've seen it."
"What do you take me for? Anyway, what was the question again?"
"I asked why you keep pulling strings to make me look good."
"Hmm, that might just be your own inflated self-image—"
Thud—!
The moment I tried to dodge the question, Valkyrie punched the pillow right beside my head.
She had held back so much that it felt no stronger than an ordinary person hitting something, but it was also a silent warning that if she ever got serious she could fold me in half along with the entire bed.
"According to that brilliant analysis you gave during the last assignment, I have zero intention of going easy on villains. Every last one of them tramples other people without a second thought just to get what they want. Whether it's money, power, women, or just pure destruction, they all live only for their own goals."
"That's why they're called villains, right?"
"Exactly. That's what makes them villains. So what the hell are you? Back at the Cheonok Logistics protest, when you pretended those bags were bombs and scattered cash instead. One thousand seven hundred fifty man-won each to two hundred ninety-one people. I checked—it wasn't counterfeit. That adds up to nearly five point one billion won. I don't know for sure, but that had to be almost everything you'd stolen and sold up to that point, dumped on those irregular workers. Looking at that, money clearly isn't your goal."
"Go on."
"You only hit pro-government companies and openly pick fights with the administration, so it doesn't look like you want power either. And you're definitely not after women. Every time we clash in the field, you somehow create an opening that makes me look good without me even noticing, then you vanish.
Why did you help me catch Cybers so easily? Why help me in Myeongdong? Why pull that prank during the bomb-terror incident? I can't figure out your goal at all. What are you? Why do you keep doing this to me? What do you even want? Why do all this and make people wonder whether you're a real villain or not?!"
Questions and frustration had piled up for so long that Eun Seol finally couldn't take it anymore and had come to confront me directly.
Fair enough. We'd run into each other dozens of times, I always slipped away, and instead of damaging her reputation I somehow kept raising her name value in every direction. And yesterday, even though I clearly knew exactly how to handle Cybers, I still handed her the chance to take him down herself... With her personality, it would have been stranger if she hadn't gone crazy from the frustration.
I forced my upper body up on the bed and grinned at her.
"Valkyrie, the one with the rock-solid values, is actually confused about whether Kid G is a villain or not?"
"Just answer."
"Well, what I want... If I had to pick one thing..."
That you never suffer the horrific betrayal and deception from the original story, never fall into despair and become a murderous monster.
That you never lose everything that makes you you, never die hating the world, and instead find a happy future.
I couldn't say any of that out loud, so...
"That you keep shining the way you do right now?"
"...... What?"
"That you keep receiving the people's cheers, enforcing justice as a hero, failing sometimes, and just living as yourself the way you are now. Even if it doesn't look like it, I'm actually a huge fan of Valkyrie."
"What kind of nonsense... If that's really what you want, then confess right here that you're Kid G and let me arrest you. That should make you happy."
"Ah, no can do. What good is a hunter without prey? Besides, compared to other villains I'm pretty mild-mannered and I make a decent sparring partner for you. Isn't dealing with me better than those other guys?"
"...You bastard. The second I get solid evidence, you're the first one I'm locking up."
"You say that, yet you don't even hide a recorder and ambush me with questions anymore."
"I just decided to catch you in a fair fight, that's all."
With that, Eun Seol dug through her bag and pulled out a spray can she had brought.
"Where does it hurt."
"Everywhere."
The second she heard that, she started blasting the spray all over my body like she was exterminating a giant pest.
"Ow, that stings!!!"
"Deal with it. It's the rapid-healing spray they use at headquarters."
Being a Union HQ product, it really was different—the pain began fading at high speed the moment the mist hit my skin.
I grinned at her while she sprayed me down.
"Is a hero really allowed to smuggle headquarters products and use them this freely on a villain?"
"...It's just repayment for helping me catch Cybers. I don't want to live owing a debt to a villain."
After finishing with the spray, Eun Seol pulled something else from another bag and set it in front of me.
"It's porridge. Looks like you skipped lunch, so eat it or don't..."
"Oh, I was starving. How'd you know? Thanks, I'll dig in."
When I opened the lid, hot steam rose from the porridge and the savory scent of tuna porridge tickled my nose.
I picked up the disposable spoon she handed me and just stared at her.
Eun Seol stared back.
"?"
"?"
"Aren't you going to feed me? Say 'aah~'?"
"You wanna die?"
"Tch. My arms are so busted I can barely move."
"That's what you get for crawling into a room full of bombs."
"You're the one who planted them. Who plants bombs inside someone else's house?"
"The client requested it first. Should I have just let you walk in with your eyes open?"
We bickered lightly while I fed myself the porridge. Eun Seol sat quietly beside me the entire time until I finished.
"By the way, why didn't Sejin come to school today?"
"She got caught by the Union President for that mess yesterday and put on disciplinary leave. She won't be back for about a week."
"She really does charge in without thinking."
"Tell me about it."
Anyone looking at us would never have guessed we were the bitter rivals the world knew as Valkyrie and Kid G.