Villain Encounter # 4
Villain Encounter # 4
"You bastard!"
The moment we got inside the building, I hurled the villain down.
"Guhk!"
I ripped off the bag covering his face right away. Showing him our faces wasn't a big deal. Once a villain is caught, he never sees the light of the outside world again.
*Tap-tap.*
Yu-ri rapped her scabbard against her hand and growled.
"You pieces of shit... Huh? Teaming up with monsterkin. Making gates. Trying to snatch a new monster species too?"
"Haah... haah..."
"What did you come here to do?"
"Aaaagh!"
*Grk.*
Her scabbard dug into the villain's side. You can tell from a finger jab to your own ribs—that hurts like a bitch.
"Tell me why you came."
"Gghk... hrk!"
Hrk?
"Heh... heh heh heh...!"
"What?"
"I thought something was up. Are you brats from the Korean academy? Every single one of you academy kids has a bounty on your—"
"This motherfucker's threatening us now! Woo Yu-ri!"
"Yeah."
*Grk.*
"Uwaaaaahhhh!"
The scabbard sank in and a scream burst out of him like a squeaky duck toy. But I can't hold back either...! He dares threaten us?
"Finger Strike!"
I immediately stabbed my finger deep into the villain's chest and delivered some punishment. When a superhuman's strength combines with a steel-hardened finger, it's basically an iron rod.
"Gyaaaaagh!"
"Heh heh heh, hey. Let's keep things easy. You already failed—why hang onto your pride? As soon as you showed up, a bazooka blew you to bits."
"How—! How do you know that!"
"No need to know. Just tell us what you came for!"
"Aaaargh!"
After we gave the uncooperative villain a modest, moderately humane treatment, the bastard finally talked.
"Th-those pure white monsters!"
"Oh-ho."
He actually talked?
Honestly, interrogation is the Namsan agents' specialty, not something students like us can do properly. Still, since we'd been beating him with nothing but good intentions, he must've figured he had to say something.
"Those bastards create gates that lead to other dimensions!"
I jotted that down right away.
The new monster species. They have to be the same ones Void Princess told me to catch. These things are pure white, have centipede-like carapace on their backs, and are characterized by multiple sharp legs.
That's a dead match.
"So you were trying to capture it and study it...!"
"I knew there was a scheme."
"Right."
Leona and Yu-ri nodded.
But something's bothering me.
Let's ask.
"Hey, wait. How did you know in advance that the weird new monster species would show up in the West Sea?"
"I don't know the details! Only that the circumstances indicated the monster was heading toward Korea..."
"What circumstances?"
Listening a little more, it seems the villains call those new monster species "Voiders." Anyway, according to him, gate occurrence rates skyrocket near the spots where Voiders appear.
These bastards.
How did they figure all that out?
"So... after seeing the gate frequency rise in the West Sea... they predicted a Voider would emerge and made landfall..."
Predicted and made landfall, huh.
That's kinda off.
"Hey. But didn't you come out and start waiting before the Voider appeared? And the margin was barely about one minute. Isn't that a little too accurate? By your own logic, it would make more sense if you'd been monitoring the area and followed right after it popped out."
These bastards came through a gate, and not even one full minute later, the Voider showed up.
Which means they're predicting the emergence time with extreme precision.
"Kim Geun-cheol? No matter how you look at it, isn't this asshole bullshitting?"
"Yeah. Let's hit him."
"Sure."
*Grk.*
"Gyaaaaagh! Prophhhhet!"
The scabbard dug in, and the bastard spat out the keyword "Prophet."
That moment.
"Grrrk?!"
Light blazed from his eyes, and suddenly pink foam—!
"Huh? Huhh?! Crazy! Why's this happening! Yu-ri!"
"I-It wasn't me!"
"It looks like he swallowed some kind of poison!"
"No! There was nothing in his mouth earlier!"
Si-hoo must have already done a poison check!
"This is an ability...! Some kind of ability is at work! Geun-cheol! Oh man! What do we do!"
An ability?
"If it's an ability, does that mean some superpower is activating inside this bastard?"
"Yeah!"
"Then guys! Quickly wrap your fists in mana and wail on him! Let's disrupt it!"
"R-Right! We'll do that!"
It's a flustering situation, but we're all superhuman cadets! We can pull through with quick thinking!
*Wham!*
*Wham!*
We immediately poured our mana to the max and beat the ability-afflicted villain like a dog on the hottest day of summer, disrupting the process.
"Prophet! That looks sketchy as hell! It's possible that Prophet guy set some kind of restriction!"
"Kim Geun-cheol? Does that kind of thing exist?"
"Just a guess! Anyway!"
*Wham!*
After we beat him senseless,
"..."
the villain passed out.
Looking at him, the pink foam had stopped and the glow in his eyes had vanished. The spell formula that Prophet guy placed must've shattered. That's our strength right there.
"Oh. He's unconscious."
"Whew. Looks like we saved him for now. It was an improvised first aid, but it worked. Hey, Kim Geun-cheol? How in the world did you even think of that?"
"I figured that if some outside force was interfering with him, we could use our own power to disrupt it. Heh heh heh."
"You're so smart!"
*Pat pat.*
Leona stroked my head.
"Hey, but seriously, isn't this all suspicious as hell? Prophet this, Voider that. Feels like the real villain bastards have teamed up with monsterkin and are cooking up some insane conspiracy."
I agree.
No,
it's probably dead on.
In the lore, another Dimension War erupts the year after next. All these phenomena we're seeing now are preludes to that.
*Ding.*
[Main Quest Complete]
[Reward: 3,000 Coin]
[$%^$#^$%^$%&]
Look at that.
A completion notice popped up out of nowhere.
"..."
Is it the kind of thing that unlocks when I figure something out on my own? This damn status window is so goddamn inconvenient I can't use it.
Anyway, seeing the completion notice confirmed it. They're in the middle of trying to start the Dimension War.
"Probably. It looks like the villains are trying to pull off a massive crime, using all sorts of things too."
Si-hoo said.
"Anyway, let's hand him over quickly. This is as much as we can dig up. Professional interrogation is the Namsan heroes' job. The moment they get their hands on him, he'll spill everything. Then the government will deal with it."
"Yeah. Si-hoo's right. Let's go hand him over now."
"Let's. Haaah. We did a good thing but I'm exhausted. We came out to have fun and this is what happens."
We restrained the villain again.
But the guy beside him had already clocked out even though we didn't touch him. Lucky bastard. Anyway, we handed the limp villains over to the soldiers.
"Ah, please wait a moment. The heroes in charge said to ask you to hold tight for just a bit."
"Ah, yes."
* * *
*Whirr.*
The training room door opened, and a woman in black training gear that resembled a tracksuit walked out, a towel draped around her neck.
"Phew."
Red hair.
Instructor Lee So-ra peeled off her gloves, tossed them aside, and sat on the bench. She'd retired from active duty, but she never slacked on training. More precisely, she couldn't stop.
Because she had people to protect.
When she'd returned after losing every subordinate during an operation, she despaired and lived like a wreck, but now she was an academy instructor. In a world where gates even opened on school grounds, the strength to protect her students had to be honed constantly.
"Hm?"
She gulped some energy drink and picked up her phone—several missed calls. She checked; they were from the Special Operations Division. They never got tired of requesting her return.
No matter how many times she'd refused.
*Brring.*
The phone rang.
"These bastards..."
She answered.
"I told you, one more call and I'd smash everything. How many times do I have to say I'm not coming ba—"
"That's not it, ma'am! Just listen to me first!"
What?
"Right now, academy cadets have beaten down villains and a monsterkin unit! And they caught that new monster species, the Voider, too! The Special Operations Division guys are heading down right now to debrief them, and I'm reporting because those cadets are your kids!"
"What?"
Cadets?
"The cadets' names?"
"Uh, first Kim Geun-cheol!"
"Kim Geun-cheol?"
Instructor Lee So-ra felt her mind go blank.
What has that drama queen done now?
No, more importantly, the real problem was that those Special Operations Division bastards might try to sink their claws into the kids. They were experts at intimidating and harassing people. There was no way Kim Geun-cheol, who was secretly soft and timid, could handle them.
"Got it. I'm coming down now. Location?"
"Ah, it's the West Sea area!"
Instructor Lee So-ra rose to her feet and strode forward.
Kim Geun-cheol.
Kim Geun-cheol.
"This crazy bastard causes trouble during vacation?"
Making me go on a field trip during break—he's got some nerve.
* * *
"Are you the ones? The cadets who took those villains prisoner?"
As we waited, a guy in a sharp suit walked right up and asked. His voice was weirdly menacing. The thought crossed my mind for a second, so I looked up at his face.
"Whoa."
My breath caught.
This guy... what the hell is with that vicious face?
He looked like he belonged not as a hero but as a professional torture specialist. Actually, if someone with that face was a normal hero, that in itself would be wrong. What kind of work do you have to do to make a man's face change like that?
On top of that, he was built like a mountain, and I could feel he carried overwhelming strength. A hero like him charging in with a Dimension Alloy shield—even a high-rank monster wouldn't come out unscathed.
This is what a hero who specializes in villains looks like.
I'd heard these guys were basically like military intelligence or National Intelligence Service agents, handling extremely critical work.
"Ah, yes. That's us."
Leona smiled and answered.
"You're... from the Kainus Family?"
Oh.
He recognizes Leona?
"That's right."
"The young lady should come this way, please."
"Ah? Yes? Okay."
A female hero immediately glided over like a shadow and took Leona away.
"Ah, is it because she's a foreigner? They're going to debrief her separately?"
"Could be."
Yu-ri answered flatly. At any rate, that left just me, Yu-ri, and Si-hoo.
"Let's move."
Just as I was about to say something, the hero said it bluntly, turned around, and strode off.
Man. His voice is way too threatening.
"Damn... Yu-ri, that guy is scary as hell."
"He's probably strong as shit, though."
"You think he's going to beat us up because we learned some classified info or something?"
"There he goes running his mouth again, this bastard."
"No, Geun-cheol. No matter what, would they really do that to cadets?"
"Heh heh heh, you think?"
He just works in that kind of field, that's all—there's no way he's a bad guy. From my experience, all heroes are good people.
"Follow me."
"Yes, sir! Coming!"
And so we followed the hero,
"Huh?"
and ended up boarding a helicopter and flying somewhere.
*Whup-whup-whup.*
We actually got on a helicopter.
"Wow. Seriously. Riding a helicopter and everything?"
I felt kind of dazed. So I kept my arms crossed and asked the hero, who was staring wordlessly at the ground below.
"Um, sir. Are we headed somewhere in particular right n—"
"Quiet."
"..."
Ah, this bastard's so damn uptight.
"Hey. Isn't this a bit much?"
That's when Yu-ri spoke.
"Right now, we beat down and finished off villains, smashed monsterkin, and you just shove us into a helicopter and drag us off without a word—"
"Quiet. I'll explain everything later."
What.
Yu-ri's pull doesn't work on him?
"Tch."
Yu-ri bit her lip and leaned back in her seat.
"Yu-ri. We're being kidnapped right now."
"Don't talk crap."
"Geun-cheol, shush. Something's off."
"It sure looks like it."
Something's definitely weird, but... what's the worst that could happen? There's no way active-duty heroes are going to do anything shady to superhuman cadets who just worked their asses off.
With that vibe, anyway,
we touched down on the rooftop of some building in a quiet area.
"Follow me."
And this thug says it bluntly again.
This bastard was getting more and more irritating. I understood that the job demanded security, but if he kept this up, it was bound to make anyone feel like crap. But what could I do? He looked tough as nails. Better answer properly.
*Creak.*
Anyway, without getting to voice a single complaint, we entered the building through a door on the rooftop.
We went down the stairs and came out into a hallway. The hall was lined with glass walls so you could see inside each room, and each glass wall had a single door fitted into it.
It felt like one of those interrogation rooms from a crime investigation movie.
The moment I thought that, the hero opened one of the doors in front of him and—
*Grab.*
—clamped a hand the size of a pot lid onto my shoulder and said,
"Go in."
A bear-like voice.
"Huh? Just me?"
"Go in."
"Ah... yes."
He doesn't explain a thing.
I went inside, and he followed and shut the door.
"Sit."
"Yes. But, look, right now it's a bit scary—"
"Quiet."
Ah.
"Fuck."
This bastard's a real piece of shit.
"...Fuck?"
"Huh? No, sir. That's not it. Is it really okay to do this with zero explanation?"
"Keep quiet."
"No, from a moment ago you've been—"
"Shut it."
"Excuse me?"
"Didn't you hear me say shut it?"
What, this bastard?
"Yes... I'll be quiet, but can you at least explain what's going on h—"
"SHUT IT!!!"
*KA-BANG!*
"Uwaaaaahhhh!"
He suddenly slammed his fist down on the table!
No, fuck, I'm not some kind of criminal—what the hell is this!
"From now on, I will not tolerate any lies. You will write down in detail what you heard from him, and what you saw, and submit it."
While I was shoving my fist into my mouth and crying, the guy pushed a paper and pen at me.
Help...!
"Do I look like I'm joking? Fist out of your mouth. Take it out right now."
"Then, do you think I'm crying for fun?! What's your problem!"
"Shut the hell up!"
Crazy motherfucker!
