Chapter 132: The Well of Chaos (4)
Chapter 132: The Well of Chaos (4)
“…Is this the place?”
A wooden door came into view.
It was a narrow section made of wood, situated for some reason between the upper levels and the residential district.
According to Elder Li, it had originally been the headquarters of some organization, but Kim Tae-jun’s gang had seized it by force.
The appearance of the area around the door and its location matched the information I’d squeezed out of Elder Li, but just to be sure, I tossed a question to my other informant.
“This is your base, right?”
“…Yes…”
A voice like a dying man’s drifted back from my hand.
To be precise, it was the voice of an A-Rank Villain who was being gripped by me, unable to walk properly, and dragged across the ground for a long distance.
The villain’s legs had been ground down by the concrete, the skin peeled away, leaving a long trail of blood to decorate the path we had traveled.
The guys from earlier were the same, and so was this one.
It wasn't that their lives were in danger.
Right now, this guy looked like he was dying of blood loss, but in reality, his body was already regenerating blood through his own power.
In other words, it was like this:
When dealing with an A-Rank Villain, you had to wreck their body to this extent just to make them lose their combat capability. It would be annoying if they woke up from a faint and started interfering again, wouldn't it?
Even so, killing them would be a problem. Since these guys were fundamentally Heroes once, they had their own "Stories," and killing them would trigger a Public Enemy Designation.
So, "half-dead" was the perfect compromise—just enough to hand them over to the Management Bureau later.
At any rate, since I’d ground down half of his lower body, he fit the definition of "half-dead" well enough. It was time to let him go.
But before that, one last question.
“So, I’ll ask again.”
“…Yes…”
His voice came back with an active sense of desperation, as if he were begging me to just knock him out already.
Here is the question.
“Why do you follow Kim Tae-jun?”
It was a question I’d asked several times on the way here.
“…….”
The villain, who seemed ready to say anything just a moment ago, shut his mouth tight.
Was this guy a dead end too?
Well, I hadn't expected much to begin with.
“Well then, thanks for everything.”
I swung the hand holding his head in a wide arc.
“See you in prison.”
I opened my hand and released the villain. Right toward the wooden door that served as the entrance to his group's headquarters.
CRASH!
“Strike.”
Having been given plenty of spin, the villain sprayed blood into the air before slamming into the wooden door, dutifully fulfilling his role by smashing it to pieces.
Seeing as he hit head-first, he probably fainted in peace.
I slowly moved my legs toward the door.
This was The Enemy’s base.
Not knowing what kind of traps might be set, I decided to stall for time to draw them out.
I walked with my usual swaggering gait, the heavy thud of my boots echoing, my hammer dragging behind me with an unpleasant scraping sound.
All of this was to announce my presence.
Even using the villain as a shuriken a moment ago had been intended to lure the enemies out of their base, but…
…What was this?
Until the moment I reached the door with my swaggering steps, there was no reaction.
The hallway was strangely quiet.
A deathly silence where not a single sign of a human presence could be picked up by my senses.
Hmm. Did they set a trap?
Seeing as not a single person came out despite all this noise, were they determined to face me inside the base no matter what?
Nothing for it, then.
I guess I’ll play along.
I looked past the wide-open door.
Thanks to the villain who had charged ahead and opened it for me, I could clearly see the interior from where I stood.
It was an office furnished with high-end sofas, tables, and expensive-looking rugs.
I couldn't sense anyone hiding in there, but…
That didn't mean they weren't hiding.
This was a villain’s base, after all.
Presence concealment, or even an illusion that made the room look empty from the outside, were all possibilities.
Of course, this entrance was also highly likely to be a trap.
The moment I stepped in, a Magic Circle might activate, an explosion might go off, or a plasma disruptor might fly at me.
Therefore, the correct answer was…
To execute the correct answer, I slowly stepped to the side.
There was a thick wall between the room and the hallway.
It was a cold wall made of nothing but gray concrete, without even a window, but…
BOOM!
With one casual swing of my hammer, it turned into a new entrance.
“The Hero is here, villains.”
Amidst the thick stone dust created by The Wall flying apart, I entered the base and made my proclamation.
I infused my voice with as much mockery as possible to provoke them.
I knew this was tactically a mess, but it was the best way to get the enemies to lung at me.
I didn't have much time, so let’s just gather up and get this over with.
“A guest is here, and you won't even offer a drink? This is why villains these days are…”
By the time the dust settled, I had reached the center of the room with my arms spread wide, but…
“…Is nobody here?”
The Enemy base remained as silent as ever.
The only sign of life was the villain I’d used as a shuriken earlier, who lay unconscious, groaning softly.
What the hell is going on?
I barged into The Enemy base all excited, and there’s no one here?
Was all that fuss I made thinking it was a trap just a waste of time?
That couldn't be right. There had to be something.
I immediately sprinted deeper into the base.
I didn't even have time to open the sliding doors, so I just smashed right through them.
What I found were living quarters filled with bunk beds.
Clothes were scattered everywhere, and the smell of human sweat clung to the beds. It was clear that villains had been staying here, but…
No one here either.
They had all vanished, leaving behind only the traces of their daily lives.
I looked around the room for any clues.
However, the room was so disorganized that it looked like it would take hours just to sort through the junk.
Next.
CRASH!
I broke through The Wall into the next room, which looked a bit more upscale.
It had wooden beds and was neatly organized.
Four beds were placed in the corners, suggesting four people shared the room, and the space was cleanly divided into four sections, reflecting the personalities of its occupants.
Different clothes, different items, different furniture.
There were things like a guitar and a sword, so I searched the room with a bit of interest, but I couldn't find anything special there either.
“…I knew they did drugs, but.”
Tracking them with just this would be difficult unless I was a psychometry esper.
Next.
CRASH!
Once again, I broke through a wall and moved to the next room.
This place was different.
The third room.
The atmosphere here was completely different from the others.
The only piece of furniture was a single bed in the center of the room.
And surrounding it was an immense amount of abandoned trash.
Beer cans, meat bones, soju bottles, plastic pill bottles, syringes with broken needles, torn notebooks.
A chaotic variety of trash with no consistency.
To make matters worse, the walls were strangely filthy.
There were countless piles of vomit in the corners, and the walls were covered in frantic black graffiti.
Let’s see.
‘The Black Marauder is coming.’
‘Why won't they believe me?’
‘She listened to me.’
‘The pit calls me.’
‘He gave me strength.’
‘Into the abyss of consciousness.’
‘The time has come.’
‘It calls.’
‘The Black Marauder is. Coming.’
Most of it was unintelligible characters or gibberish, but there were some sentences I could understand.
The scribblings of a madman.
The graffiti radiated an excessive amount of hostility and anxiety.
However, because of the singular consistency remaining there, I was able to identify the owner of this room.
“Is it Kim Tae-jun?”
It seemed I’d finally found a clue to the guy I was looking for.
With that thought, I read the sentences once more.
He was a Hero who possessed Mental Magic, however weak it might have been. His mental barriers should have been solid. And yet, a Hero like that went mad and wrote this?
I could understand him being consumed by anxiety and brainwashing people.
But something that would cause this much mental instability…
“…Is it corruption?”
It seemed he had fallen for the temptations of the Otherworld, just like the Thunder God.
The fact was so lamentable that I let out a heavy sigh, muttering to myself.
“Haaa…”
How could a perfectly sane guy fall so easily for the Otherworld’s lures just because of a little blackmail?
And with that, the question that had been bothering me on the way here was solved.
I’d wondered why the villains seemed so strangely loyal to Kim Tae-jun.
Since I didn't sense any signs of corruption in the other villains… they must have been under Mental Domination.
Since Kim Tae-jun’s original ability was emotion manipulation, it seemed that aspect had been enhanced.
The strange thing was, had the Management Bureau’s high command been fine?
Perhaps it became an ability that worked particularly well on villains through some conditional empowerment.
Of course, even if he succeeded, the Management Bureau wasn't an organization weak enough to collapse just because a few higher-ups were mind-controlled, but there must have been some chaos.
Tsk.
Useless even after being corrupted.
If you’re going to fall, at least shake up the Bureau enough to create an opening for me. To think all he did after falling was hole up in Nanjido and scribble delusional graffiti.
Lamenting over the fallen Hero Kim Tae-jun, I scanned the room.
In any case, it seemed Kim Tae-jun had gotten scared and fled. I needed a clue to track him down…
Now that it was confirmed Kim Tae-jun was halfway corrupted, the importance of securing him had increased even further.
Thinking that a little waste of time was unavoidable, I ripped off a bed leg and began rummaging through the pile of trash.
Filthy.
As I waded through the trash pile—which was nauseating just to look at—all I found were clothes stained with vomit or blood, and rotting food scraps.
“What’s this now…?”
Just when I thought something slightly unusual had turned up, it was the carcass of a small monster with teeth marks on it.
Did he seriously chew on this raw?
Thinking that Kim Tae-jun’s mental health was even worse than I’d imagined, I lifted the carcass.
Clatter.
Along with the sound of something bumping together, I found a peculiar object.
A blue waterproof bag with its opening tied shut with a string.
When I picked up the heavy-feeling bag and shook it, a clinking sound echoed again.
Did the sound come from inside this?
It looked like a body bag, so I was worried there might be another mangled monster corpse inside, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Still, just in case, I cautiously opened the bag.
…Perfume?
An unusually large number of perfume bottles were inside.
Some were empty, some were half-full, and some were still in their packaging.
They were all different, but…
Only one thing was the same.
Ambergris Perfume… That must be quite expensive.
Kim Tae-jun used to plaster himself with expensive things back when he was a Hero, and he was still the same even after falling.
With that thought, I pulled a perfume bottle with signs of use out of the bag.
The first clue I’d found.
Seeing as there was so much of it, he must have been spraying it on himself to hide the smell of his own vomit.
The fact that it was a scent was fortunate.
I didn't particularly like sniffing around like a dog, but…
Nothing for it.
I amplified my senses to the extreme and opened the cap of the perfume.
An almost maddening fragrance flooded in.
A thick, bitter scent. An overwhelming weight that would be impossible for an ordinary person to even bear.
As if boasting its status as the base for high-end perfumes, a grand scent that wouldn't lose to any other odor flowed through my nose.
“Gah. Memorized it.”
Suppressing the reflexive urge to gag, I closed the cap.
And then, I lifted my head.
I could sense a faint fragrance.
Refusing to yield even to the stench of Nanjido, which was filled with the smell of garbage, the scent of a sperm whale drifted through the air.
It wasn't a scent that stimulated the instincts like the one from a moment ago, but it was more than enough to make me feel the thrill of the hunt.
To catch the prey.
I lowered my stance and kicked off the ground once more.