Villain Conditioning (1)
The battle with 'Black Moon' at the amusement park was finally wrapped up when the police arrived, long after everything was already over.
You could ask just how negligent someone had to be to leave a terror attack unattended for nearly two hours — but among the artifacts Jo Jin-hyun possessed was one that kept any 'information' within a designated space from leaking outside.
It had taken a full two hours from the moment the other people, who had only barely escaped the park while we drew Black Moon's attention, reported the incident to the police arriving on scene.
And while it might seem obvious, in this world most 'police' work was handled by former hunters with awakened abilities. Since a considerable portion of villain organizations were ability users, the police needed that level of power themselves to subdue them.
"You're certain it was you kids who killed this guy? No other hunter intervened?"
"Wh-why…? Don't tell me we weren't supposed to kill him…?"
"No, of course that's not it. But he's the kind of guy even seasoned hunters struggle against. How did you…"
The police chief was visibly flustered as she stared down at Kang Kal-jin, who looked perfectly fine on the outside but was surely a pulp of blood and meat within.
No matter how she looked at it, this was not someone a mere academy student — a not-yet-enrolled freshman, no less — could possibly have taken down, so her bewilderment was only natural.
It was simply the result of Park Hana's ability being almost tailor-made as a counter to Kang Kal-jin. And Cha Eunju's dark magic had provided more than enough attack support — the same kind of support Seo Woojin had given in the original story.
"This Kang Kal-jin fellow is a wanted criminal. If it really was you who killed him, a bounty will be coming your way, so sit tight."
"R-really?! Yes!!"
"Ch-Chief! A head, presumed to belong to Bang Hwa-cheol, has been discovered in the West Area!"
"…What? That guy too? Don't tell me you killed him as well?"
"That one was probably our friend Park Cheon-ho here. According to him, Bang Hwa-cheol fled from him in Maze Park leaving nothing behind but the wrist he'd grabbed — and going by the evidence, it seems Bang Hwa-cheol's bomb caught both of them, and only this guy's body was tough enough to walk away unscathed."
"You weathered an explosion that blew the entire Maze Park area sky-high… with your body? You do realize false testimony can get you into trouble later, right?"
Even as she said this, she took the testimony of us — the near-sole witnesses of the incident — at face value.
Naturally, the undisputed heroes who resolved the amusement park attack were the Park siblings of the Combat Department. One had perfectly neutralized Kang Kal-jin as his counter, and the other had done the same to Bang Hwa-cheol.
Our side had killed one executive too, but most of our work had been cleaning up rank-and-file members, so none of us raised any objection to the bulk of the two dead men's bounties going to the siblings.
"In any case, you've been through a lot. You haven't even enrolled at the academy yet and you've already been through something like this. Must have been rough."
"Will there be any legal trouble over this? Like punishment for privately sanctioning criminals?"
"The principle with terrorists is that we never negotiate, no questions asked. If anything, you did the job we were supposed to do — why would we punish you instead of rewarding you?"
"Th-that's a relief…. I was a little worried we'd k-killed too many people…."
"Besides, you're all bound for Cheonmu Academy, aren't you? Its students are granted a degree of 'Retribution Authority,' so there's no issue with killing confirmed villains. You can rest easy."
Retribution Authority.
In Surviving the Hunter Academy, it was the authority created to legitimize academy students hunting down villains.
While private sanction would be a punishable offense in the real South Korea, in this hunter-centric world it was permitted to a degree. The government-sanctioned Retribution Authority meant that taking private action against a confirmed villain carried no legal consequences.
In a world crawling with ability-wielding villains, it was a policy meant to maintain at least a baseline of public order.
'Of course, Cheonmu Academy is the only one that grants Retribution Authority from the freshman year.'
At Myeongwol Academy it only came after the second year, at the start of the third-semester term; at every other academy, not until graduation, once you'd become a licensed hunter.
That wasn't the only perk Cheonmu Academy offered over its rivals either, which was why every aspiring hunter ranked it as their first choice. It wasn't for nothing that Han Sora had shut her mouth when I said that even after nearly dying to an Owlbear, I could stomach it if it meant getting into the academy.
"But about that Retribution Authority — this one hasn't even been confirmed for Cheonmu Academy yet. Is he going to be okay?"
"…Huh? Really?"
"His practical exam looked decent enough, but the kid's a bit of an idiot and apparently botched almost his entire written test. If he doesn't get into Cheonmu Academy, doesn't his Retribution Authority go out the window?"
"…Hold on a moment. I'm going to contact my superiors."
In reality, "my superiors" would be the president of Cheonmu Academy — but then, this police chief was herself a Cheonmu Academy alumna.
And this was the moment that blockhead Park Cheon-ho's admission to Cheonmu Academy became all but certain. For a Park Cheon-ho who was originally slated for Prime or Chosu Academy, it was pure, unadulterated luck.
"That matter should work itself out somehow, so don't worry."
"Ohhh! Does that mean I'll be entering Cheonmu Academy as well?!"
"…I can't say for certain. Just know that it'll be resolved."
"What did I tell you, Park Hana!! Didn't I say that slaying terrorists would get us snapped up by Cheonmu Academy or anywhere else without fail!! My judgment never falt—!!"
-THWACK!
"He! Said! He! Doesn't! Know! Stop! Jumping! To! Conclusions!!"
"AAAGH! Ack! AAAGH!! St-stop hitting me, Park Hana!! Just how many times are you planning to beat me today before you're satisfied?!"
If I'd had any mana left, I would have buffed Park Cheon-ho with a calm-down effect. Instead, he single-handedly stirred up trouble and got duly re-sanctioned by Park Hana a second time.
Deciding that the affectionately bickering siblings could be left to their own devices, the police chief shifted her gaze to me and the others.
"So — the terrorists you killed, they're all accounted for? No one else got away?"
"Y-yes…. I don't think we saw any other terrorists…."
"…Come to think of it, someone at the park entrance mentioned a terrorist ringleader named 'Jo Jin-hyun.'"
"…Jo Jin-hyun?"
"Is he someone dangerous…?"
"*sigh*… He's a wanted man too. Known for carrying out terror attacks all across the country. To think he'd made his way up to Seoul without anyone noticing…."
With that, the police chief pulled up a photo on her smartphone and showed it to us.
It was a CCTV shot of Jo Jin-hyun's profile — a little blurry, but unmistakable.
"Did anyone happen to see this man, Jo Jin-hyun?"
"A-ah, I only heard that such a person existed; I never saw him myself. He probably slipped away in the chaos."
"I didn't see anyone like him either."
"Me neither…."
"…*sigh*… I see. Maybe it's just as well you didn't run into him. Still, among their ranks he's something close to a commander, so if you do cross paths, don't try to fight him — just run, and…."
I didn't want to worry the heroines, but this beat letting secrets pile up into misunderstandings later.
"I saw him. This man."
"………What?"
"I ran into him in the underground waterway, after I accidentally took a teleportation gate. He was a guy who summoned and commanded giant monsters in battle — was that him?"
"…You really saw him?"
The police chief looked at me with a flicker of consternation.
"Seonho…? B-but you said nothing happened in the waterway earlier…."
"Mr. Lee Seonho? Was what you just said true?"
"Hey, you kept something that important to yourself this whole time…?"
The betrayed stares from the three women in the aftermath were a cost I simply had to bear.
Jo Jin-hyun may have escaped through the teleportation gate, but the traces of battle left in the underground waterway were more than enough to corroborate my account.
The black-haired spider, reduced to a twitching torso squirming on the ground; the corpse of the three-eyed eel, blind and wandering the waterway until it presumably slammed its head into something and died.
And then there was Jo Jin-hyun's right wrist, which I'd left behind after stripping it of its artifacts. A DNA test would confirm it was his, so there could be no better evidence than this.
"You— you could have died! Wh-what if something had gone wrong fighting that ringleader?! Yo-you should have just stayed hidden like a good little…!!"
"That was far too reckless, Mr. Lee Seonho. Do you even understand that no one — not even I — can bring the dead back? If you'd been seriously injured, what exactly was your plan for getting out of there?"
"Do you have no concept of fear? Attempting to assassinate their commander, of all people — that's reckless beyond belief. You're lucky this was outside a dungeon and your bullets actually worked on the monsters. *Haah*, honestly, Lee Seonho, you…."
…In the process, I took an earful from each of the three women and sweated buckets trying to explain myself.
Even after repeating, again and again, that the fight hadn't been the least bit dangerous and that I had won, it took each of them delivering her own variation of "never do that again" before they finally calmed down.
'Come to think of it, it's a miracle it ended at that level anyway.'
I'd piled up plenty of karma, so having it come back to me as the heroines' earnest, heartfelt worry was only natural.
After that came a police interrogation that stretched late into the night, and only then could I finally drag myself home.
For an outing meant to soothe pre-enrollment jitters and shake off exam-season fatigue, I'd somehow accumulated nothing but more exhaustion — but then, I'd gained a great deal in return.
…And so one night passed, and the next morning came.
The moment my mana had recovered to a reasonable level, I decided to test-drive the Ring of Reincarnation — and instantly, a single long greatsword took shape above my right hand.
-Whish! Whish!
"Convenient. No doubt about it."
Since the weapon formed already gripped in your hand the instant it materialized, there'd be no fumbling for it or dropping it mid-battle.
In the original story, Seo Woojin had made great use of this artifact — summoning a weapon out of thin air when the sword he carried was gone, or turning the tables on an opponent who'd let their guard down after knocking his weapon away.
I could certainly use it the same way, but with my abilities, trying to fight like Seo Woojin would never yield Seo Woojin-level efficiency.
I wasn't a physical enhancement type like him. Unless absolutely necessary, I should avoid close combat as much as possible and leave it to Choi Mari and the Park siblings.
The functions I'd rely on would probably be things like a ladder or rope for reaching specific places, and the 'barrier' that could save my life in a pinch.
The only thing to watch out for was that once its durability was fully depleted, it needed thirty minutes to regenerate. It was no coincidence that Jo Jin-hyun had lost this artifact so pathetically last night — his barrier's durability running dry was the whole cause.
…Beyond those uses, though, it could no doubt also serve 'this kind of purpose.'
-Clack.
"……"
The sword in my hand seemed to ripple with light once more — and this time it reformed into a 'collar,' settling into my palm.
A brutally tough collar that, once fastened, would never snap under anything less than a devastating blow. Even a physical enhancement type would find it nearly impossible to tear one of these off their own neck bare-handed.
Naturally, I had no intention of putting this collar on Cha Eunju or any of my girls. If it were an SM toy with the neck part lined in soft fur, maybe — but something this crude and raw didn't suit them.
'There are other bitches it does suit, though.'
Disobedient ones. Fierce resisters. The kind I could handle however I liked without a single pang of conscience.
Min Ye-won, who'd taken dirty money during the entrance exam and betrayed Kim Isabel. Yoon Selena, who'd reported Kim Isabel's movements to Jo Jin-hyun during this amusement park attack.
And going forward, I planned to put it to regular use 'conditioning' the various pretty-faced villain bitches of 'Black Moon' who would keep appearing.
'Let's start with that Min Ye-won, shall I.'
She was an early-game villain, so relatively easy prey — and compared to the others she was a little dim, which made her look simple to handle with Suggestion.
She was the one who'd put our Kim Isabel in danger during the entrance exam, after all. I intended to collect every last bit of the price for that — down to the very final coin.