Chapter 82
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Kind Hypnosis (5)
"Good thing everything worked out well."
With the final message from Im A-young, I released all the hypnosis I'd placed on her.
"The hypnosis I cast on her from the start wasn't coercive—it was all suggestive."
If it had been coercive, the moment the hypnosis wore off, she'd have smashed everything with a "Why did I do this?" But since it was hypnosis designed to naturally guide her toward interest, even without it, she'd continue honing her martial arts based on the emotions and experiences she'd built up so far.
"I was worried it might fail."
Of course, it was just guidance in the end, so if she hated it, she could've quit right there.
If she harbored strong rejection, she could've ignored it entirely—and given the trauma from all that bullying and violence, there was a high chance she'd reject martial arts too.
"But she overcame it somehow."
Even so, the reason I'd done it this way was that nothing heals trauma better than overcoming it yourself.
Just using hypnosis to make her blissfully happy forever would've meant she'd live under my hypnosis her whole life, which wasn't benevolence—it was mental reconstruction, meddling with her brain, nothing less than evil.
From here on out, may her path be paved with flowers.
That said, if word ever reached me that she was up to no good with that insane talent...
'It'd be talent reclamation time.'
Well, with her current talent, she's bound to become a famous fighter, so I can just periodically search for Im A-young to keep tabs on her?
Worst case, I can ask Seo-yeon for a track.
"Rescue complete."
I popped open a beer can with a chuunibyou webnovel protagonist line.
I should cut back on drinking, but the rebound from not having any lately made it go down way too easy.
"Kuhuhu, dad joke..."
No one's here, so who cares.
I let out a burst of silly laughter in my head and turned on the TV.
[Johns Hopkins University has finally developed a hair loss treatment. Dr. Jonas Jaeger, developer of the Samson hair loss treatment set to launch next month, announced he is forgoing the patent because "you can't patent the sun."]
"One of webnovel's three great 'clichés so overdone they've gone from stale to childish' has been retired."
For the record, the other two are peasant drips and sweet-and-sour pork sauce-on-the-side-or-dip drips.
I don't read webnovels in this life, so who knows, but back in my past life, they popped up every other book—funny at first, but later it'd just be "Ugh, this again?"
[Diplomatic fallout from the War Against Villains is reaching critical levels. Most villains are fleeing overseas, with over half smuggling into neighboring Japan and China...]
So this is snowballing too.
The "War Against Villains" sparked by So Hee-ji, the villain who tried to turn me into a doll.
Countless villains are heading straight to prison via the government-led capture ops, yet even now they're scrambling to escape and survive.
No thoughts of repenting their crimes and turning themselves in for a shot at redemption?
"Turning yourself in would cut your sentence anyway."
Then again, if they thought normally, they wouldn't have become villains in the first place.
The next news segment was about politicians debating the War Against Villains—boring—so I searched Namuwiki for it.
"Oh, the results are solid?"
Post-War Against Villains: Villain-related crime down 93%.
Villains captured: 82,750.
85% of villains registered with the Korean Hero Association apprehended.
"No, scratch that—not 'not bad,' it's a massive win."
Why didn't they do this ages ago?
Electronics and governments only get fixed when you smash 'em.
"But it's not all good news."
I scrolled down for the downsides.
"Like the news just said, villains smuggling to neighboring countries is one issue."
Plus, not every villain left on this soil has fled.
The War Against Villains budget was massive, so it's tapering off now, and villains who sniffed that out have gone underground—plastic surgery via the underworld and all—hiding deeper.
"It ended up boosting the survival skills of the ones who got away."
Worse, lone-wolf villains have cleaned their identities, exploited legal loopholes, and formed seemingly legit organizations in the light, so catching them from here on out is gonna be tricky.
"And..."
The longest critique on the page.
"These guys still haven't been caught."
Namely, they failed to nab any of Korea's top three organizations out of the top ten.
The Korean Hero Association ranks villains by bounty size.
Places 1 through 3 are all bosses of specific villain organizations, with such underworld clout they're called Korea's Three Great Villain Organizations.
Namuwiki-style, "Korea's Three Great Villain Organizations" was hyperlinked. Click it, new page opens with the details.
"Number 3: Blood Bamboo Grove."
Even heaven kills.
Bounty: 4.5 billion won. Blood Bamboo Grove (血竹林), led by 『Heavenly Death Guest』 Cheon So-young, mainly does hitman contracts.
But they don't take jobs for money or fame—only ones they want—and the boss herself has only moved twice personally, so intel is scarce.
Even their members are pegged at under ten, so elite few means even less info, letting them slip the War Against Villains net.
"Number 2: Heavenly Gold Star."
True to the name, they're all about money crimes: corporate blackmail, financial scams, stock manipulation.
You might go "That's it?" but three years ago, they bankrupted a mid-tier company, triggering a domino of small firm collapses and mass unemployment.
"So that's what those guys did."
I vaguely remembered hearing about it.
Not just brute force—these guys have society-shaking influence.
Financial nukes, basically, so their bounty dwarfs number 3's.
"Bounty 10 billion won, alias 『Thousand-Mile Eye』."
Real name unknown. Despite the Hero Association's endless efforts to catch Heavenly Gold Star, they slip away like they're watching from afar—so the alias stuck from rumors they have Thousand-Mile Eye powers or something.
"And finally..."
Korea's number one villain organization.
Holder of a 20 billion won bounty—the world bounty ranking number one too, making them the global top villain org in a word.
"Trillion?"
Intriguing bunch, but zilch is known.
Officially: boss's bounty, Korean base, red-rated by the World Hero Association—kill-on-sight priority. That's it.
"What the hell do these guys even do?"
No crimes listed, no boss name, not even an alias.
At best, underworld villains fear the name Trillion—but that's unofficial, probably the writer's speculation.
"Curious."
Seo-yeon probably couldn't dig this up either.
She's a hacking genius, but not world number one, and even the International Hero Association's stumped.
"Eh, they'll handle it."
Blame the buzz from the booze?
A thought hit me outta nowhere.
What if I could wipe out all this world's villains by secretly pulling strings from the shadows?
"No need for me to step up."
But I nixed it quick.
Why do I avoid using skills in daily life?
To not get drunk on power.
This power's too strong—once the reins slip, I might lean on skills more and more, changing who I am.
"Like the heroes of history."
Heroes who rose with grand goals of saving the masses.
They got hooked on power and turned tyrant—the same could happen to me.
Difference? My power's godlike: blooming talents, puppeteering minds, like what the Nevollia-praising Heavenly Flower Church wanted.
"Only for good deeds, but if my 'good' becomes purging all villains..."
Under the banner of greater good, I might ignore every other evil.
I nearly got high on my power just saving Im A-young.
"So I'm staying out."
My life's goal is a peaceful existence.
Don't forget that—live ordinarily.
"Of course, helping folks around me a bit is fine."
I didn't just test my upgraded hypnosis on Im A-young.
Like, I learned the "rescue me" heart-voice range caps at 1km radius, and now I ignore it if the desperation's too low.
Unless it's like Im A-young's raw plea, I can tune it out now—and no one's hit that level since, so how often will it happen in life?
"So live normally, but save the desperately pleading ones."
And lastly...
"Jun-hyuk, I'm home!"
"Welcome back? You haven't eaten, right?"
"Of course not! Nothing beats the meals my Jun-hyuk makes!"
I'm praying for the day my powers level up enough to hypnotize Yu-ra noona too.
No, I have no idea how buffed my body's gotten—can't solve noona's issue with my current abilities.
'This is all my fault.'
I aimed to make her happy, which should've voided hypnosis limits as a good deed, but I still can't cast it.
I made noona too strong.