Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: How to Track a Villain's Footsteps (2)
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "I thought you were a pretty decent fighter of a woman...
But in the end, you're no different from the rest—just another one of the Union's hunting dogs."
Executor left those words laced with disappointment and turned his back to the wall.
"Park Gyu-han. Why did you have to become a villain?"
But Lumi didn't give up. She kept pressing him, calling him by his real name instead of his villain alias, sticking to him like glue with her questions.
"Could it be... because of your little sister?"
At the mention of his sister, Executor flinched for a moment.
Then he approached the transparent wall, pressed his face against it, and spoke with a serious expression.
"How do you know about my sister's existence?"
"It's been over ten years, but the records still exist somewhere.
Including what happened in that Union experiment your sister participated in."
The Hero Union was still secretly conducting 'Hero training through supernatural ability manifestation experiments' even now.
Back then, they'd gotten medical certification claiming it was completely safe, and it wasn't uncommon for them to pay ordinary citizens without abilities to participate.
But since there hadn't been much progress in the experiments for several years,
they started covertly pushing more dangerous procedures to boost the success rate.
The subjects remained the same: everyday people tempted by the promise of easy money for a simple test,
or those who desperately wanted supernatural abilities of their own.
Even when some raised alarms about conducting such risky experiments on civilians,
the Hero Union brushed it off, saying it was all 'to cultivate heroes who protect the world.'
With villains popping up everywhere back then and society in chaos,
the Union's claims were accepted as a matter of course.
Then, eleven years ago, while he was quietly running a gym in B City,
the incident happened when his little sister joined an experiment to earn money for a trip abroad.
The twenty-five participants, including his sister.
All of them died from side effects of the drugs administered during the test.
But as always, the Hero Union buried the incident without informing the public,
and the families were left clueless as to why their children never came home.
"She'll come back someday. I'll find her no matter what."
Back then, Park Gyu-han spent two years traveling the country, digging into his sister's disappearance,
and by chance encountered a retired researcher from that very experiment, who revealed the truth.
"Why... why did you do something so dangerous?
If it was that risky, couldn't you have stopped it?!?!"
Park Gyu-han grabbed the old researcher by the collar, shaking him violently as he vented his rage.
"I'm sorry... Back then... we had no choice..."
Not only had he learned why his sister vanished so suddenly,
but facing someone directly responsible for her death ignited his fury to new heights.
"I'll avenge my little sister... no matter what."
The old researcher lost his life to Park Gyu-han's enraged supernatural ability that day,
and from then on, driven completely mad, he set foot on the path of a villain.
To destroy the Hero Union and heroes themselves—the ones who let his sister die.
"The past is the past... it's over and done with.
Don't dredge her up and torment me further."
"If Park Gyu-han shares something useful...
we might even get the Union to apologize to you."
"Now you want to pretend you'll apologize if I spill something?!?"
His face twisted in even greater fury than when she'd first pounded on the transparent wall.
She'd poked at his wounds, forcing him to relive his dead sister's memory,
and now had the gall to act like they'd make amends if he talked.
But he had no right to that anger.
His sister's sacrifice in the Union's experiment was undeniably their ugly sin,
yet he'd used it as an excuse to rampage as a villain, creating countless victims of his own.
Facing the Union's dark underbelly had turned him into an ugly villain too.
"...Yeah. In the end, I'm no different from them."
Park Gyu-han slumped down, burying his face in his hands as self-loathing consumed him.
His veins bulged menacingly on his hands as he pressed them hard against his face, as if to crush it,
but soon enough, he rolled back over, staring at the wall again.
"It's too late for regrets about what I've done.
Even if I tell you something, nothing will change."
-Kiiiiieeeeek—
Just then, as he lay fully turned away, murmuring to himself,
exactly thirty minutes later, a guard arrived and unlocked the solitary cell's iron door.
"Hero!"
"Just a moment... please wait."
Lumi stopped the guard who had opened the door to escort her out.
"B City's airport. Someone will be lurking there."
"B City's airport...?"
"That's all I can tell you."
Those were his final words to Lumi, who had listened to the end—the only testimony he offered.
After that, he never moved a single step in his cell,
nor uttered another word.
"...Understood."
Lumi emerged from the detention facility with the guard, her face a mask of complicated emotions after hearing his last testimony.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Ughhh..."
Ha Si-yoon lay sprawled on the bed, buried under the covers, trying to nap in broad daylight.
His face looked utterly exhausted, eyes half-closed.
"I can't even remember the last time I got some rest..."
While hunting for Leader Kaiser and the Dark Knights executives, he'd repelled Executor,
but after that, he couldn't even catch a glimpse of the others' trails.
Then he met Lumi and gradually tamed her into a proper bitch,
leading up to the wild sex party disguised as his birthday bash with all the girls.
"Lumi's back to work anyway... maybe I can take a few days off?"
Not content with scouring the entire capital region nearly every day without rest to track the leader and executives,
he was also pounding away at intense sex four or more times a day.
Even for someone as overflowing with strength and stamina as him,
it was a grueling schedule that would wear down any mere human.
"Master! Master!"
Chae-ryeong climbed onto his bed, leaning against him and wagging her tail excitedly,
just as he was about to surrender to fatigue for a nap.
"I've got good news for you, Master!"
"Huh...? What news...?"
Normally, she'd chatter about something trivial, like bragging about the tasty food Yeon Ji-woo made practicing her cooking.
Si-yoon half-assumed it was more of the same,
barely listening with his eyes still half-shut.
"We found Firecracker... where he is!"
"Wha—what?! You serious?!"
At the name 'Firecracker,' Si-yoon jolted upright, flinging off the covers.
Chae-ryeong yelped in surprise too, leaping off the bed and landing on all fours, tail straight up.
"Ah... sorry, you scared me. So... where's Firecracker?"
"At the airport in B City!"
"I remember checking there after beating Executor... no one was around."
The airport had been one of the many spots he'd searched thoroughly afterward.
But after combing the area all day, he'd found nothing.
"When we checked the airport... I left a clone there just in case.
It's where the executives from outside would gather for summons, especially often."
B City's airport was one of the spots where out-of-town executives would convene.
Given how frequent it was, she'd left a clone to monitor, playing it safe.
"He's sitting alone quietly in a cafe inside the airport right now."
She even had a precise report on his exact location and activity.
"Nyaaaaah?! ♥ Masteeer ♥"
Si-yoon sprang up from the bed in delight,
hugging Chae-ryeong tight and stroking her ears and hair.
"Good girl... you did amazing!"
"Nyaaaa... ♥ I'm happy if you're happy, Master... ♥"
Then he threw open the door and urgently called out to Yeon Ji-woo, who was cleaning the hideout's living room.
"Ji-woo! Ji-woo!"
"Yes? What's got you in such a rush...?"
"To the airport. Firecracker's there now.
Chae-ryeong left a clone watching him."
Ji-woo jumped in surprise at the news of Firecracker's location.
"Do-hwa unnie's out on a summons call right now.
I'll let her know to head straight to the airport when she's done!"
"Good. Let's move out fast. We'll capture him alive before he slips away."