The Wolf Wakes
I somehow managed to stitch up Bianca’s wounds. After rummaging through every drawer in the house, I used the powdered hemostatic agent I found and the oddly specific set of tools that had been prepared. Following the detailed instructions that kept popping into my head, I eventually heard Bianca let out a faint, peaceful breath.
“Keep searching!”
“Not over here?”
From the alley came the sounds of Bulph members harassing innocent slum dwellers. They were clearly looking for her, but it would take them quite a while to reach this place. My hiding spot was a pitch-black space surrounded by buildings that never saw sunlight. It was as gloomy as could be, but perfect for concealment. The curtains were obviously there to block any view from outside in.
“Mmm…”
Just a few hours ago she had been deathly pale and gasping for air. Now she was sprawled out comfortably, even talking in her sleep. I’d worried she might need a transfusion after losing so much blood, but a powered individual was still a powered individual. The gashes I’d treated were already clotting and beginning to heal.
“Does this count as catching a breather?”
Normally, saying something like that would trigger a quest complete notification or open a branching point—something that should pop up in front of my eyes or inside my head. …Nothing. The only thing that had activated was the tutorial for treating gunshot wounds. Still, the ‘ability’ or perk seemed far better than I’d expected. Who would have thought I could handle emergency trauma care this smoothly on my first try? I didn’t even need to read the medicine labels; the dosage and effects came to me instantly.
With that thought, I washed my hands and naturally headed for the refrigerator. The instructions at the end had stressed that the ‘patient’ needed a meal to restore her strength.
About an hour after I’d followed those mental commands, I heard the door open.
…She recovered that fast? I wasn’t fully prepared to greet her yet. Was I wearing the mask? Yes, I was. Stay calm. Remembering how I’d barely been able to breathe properly back at the factory and how awkward I’d acted—
“Hey.”
Ugh. Injured or not, she was still the second-in-command of a criminal syndicate. The aura she radiated was heavy. However…
“You woke up pretty quickly. I was worried because your injuries looked serious.”
I spoke casually while flipping the pan once. I wasn’t exactly relaxed, but I didn’t let it show. Since I had a reason for saving her, I wanted to keep the upper hand.
“…Wor…ried?”
“You lost a lot of blood. Didn’t you feel dizzy or anything?”
“Shut the hell up.”
When I was a kid, I once heard a wild beast growling at the zoo. That was when I finally understood what it meant for your legs to go weak. This was the first time I’d ever felt that from a person.
“If you’ve done anything funny to my body—”
One step. Another step. With every stride she took, it felt like a living wolf was standing right in front of me—fur bristling, eyes locked on mine, ready to lunge and tear out my throat.
“M—urk…”
…Still, injured was injured. She must have overexerted herself; I could see blood seeping through the bandages wrapped around her stomach.
“Stop thrashing around. I went through the trouble of bringing you to my hideout. I don’t want to watch one wolf turn the whole place into a bloody mess.”
“Treating me like a mutt, huh…”
She was putting on quite the act, but with a face that pale? Please.
“Lie back down on the bed. I’ll bring you something to eat soon.”
I couldn’t let the precious fuse for my plan die so pointlessly. She needed to grow strong and completely derail the story, right?
“Don’t call me a dog. I can at least… eat by myself…”
Her words trailed off as Bianca tried to push away the arm I’d offered to support her. But her exhausted body was already slowly giving up its resistance, gently leaning its weight onto me. Was she just bad at being honest, or did she still want to show some wariness no matter what?
“Y-you’re the one supporting me. I didn’t ask for it. Everything you did today… it’s not like I begged for any of it.”
“Yeah, yeah. So just lean on me more comfortably. Stop struggling. I’m not going to do anything weird.”
“I don’t owe you anything! Not a single thing…!”
“I’m not going to harvest your organs just because you owe me.”
…Hey, why are you looking at me with such startled eyes? Don’t tell me Bulph actually deals in organ trafficking.
“You’re not dumb enough to miss a joke, are you?”
“J-joke? Oh, r-right. It was a joke. Ha… haha. Hahaha…”
The awkward atmosphere lingered until I left the room. Yeah, a villain’s a villain, after all.
Some time after I’d brought in the meal, the surroundings grew completely quiet. I laid out various items on the table.
Improvised Explosive Device
I removed a few items just to test it, then arranged different ones.
Booby Trap Construction
What on earth was this house prepared for? What kind of person was the original ‘me’? Even the computer—which for some reason had no password—had countless dark web sites bookmarked. The various accounts under different names all held considerable sums of money.
“It’s telling me to try everything, huh…”
In a way, seeing how meticulously everything had been prepared made me feel embarrassed for all the times I’d cursed at the system. I slowly organized the items I’d taken out and set a password on the computer. Just then, I heard the door open again. She was clearly trying to muffle her footsteps.
“Stay put. If you fight in that condition, your wounds will reopen.”
I put the mask back on, stood up, and faced her. The bowl I’d left on the floor… it was sparkling clean.
“It wasn’t… inedible. I’ll admit that much.”
Would anyone find that convincing when she said it while swallowing nervously? She must have realized how obvious she was, because she quickly looked away.
“Glad to hear it. Then why don’t you stop heading for the front door?”
She was already wearing her coat and had put on those bloodstained boots again. What was making her so desperate to leave?
“…What does it matter to you? We’re strangers anyway.”
“Even strangers tend to worry when they see someone bleeding that heavily from the stomach.”
Her pale turquoise eyes wavered at my words. …I guessed she’d lived a life far removed from kindness until now.
“I—”
“I get that you’ve clawed your way here through rough times, but seizing an opportunity is also part of your ability. Keep that in mind.”
I saw her fist clench tightly. …But I couldn’t just let her walk out like this.
“If you go out now, the Bulph guys will see you as easy prey and tear you apart, won’t they?”
“I have no intention of losing to those pathetic, unqualified weaklings.”
“You’ll lose to bullets, though.”
“That was—”
“You let your guard down. If you know that, you can avoid it next time. I’m Bulph’s Beta. Who are you to judge me like that?”
By striking first, I caught her visibly off guard. She was surprisingly simple. Her reactions were honest too. That might make things easier.
“You… you’re some kind of… mental manipulation type, aren’t you—”
I’m actually powerless, though. Still, getting such a high evaluation feels pretty good.
“Unfortunately, wrong. And so is your thinking. It’s not bad, though. Truth is, if you really wanted to, you could throw someone like me aside and rampage outside right now. However.”
Unlike her, who stood there uncomfortably, I sat down in the corner of the sofa in the narrow living room and patted the spot beside me. I even deliberately crossed one leg.
“If you’re going to go wild anyway, wouldn’t it be better to go all out? Instead of getting toyed with by a pack of cowards who only know how to gang up on you.”
At my suggestion, she staggered noticeably. Her expression twisted in clear discomfort, but her body had already turned completely away from the front door.
“…What do you want?”
“Hm?”
“You dragged me out of there because you want something. That’s why you’re bandaging me and feeding me. So what is it? The location of Bulph’s smuggling warehouse? A secret vault?”
I wanted something far bigger than that. But I couldn’t say it outright.
“Stop smirking behind that mask and just spit it out.”
“I do have something in mind, but it’s not the kind you’re imagining. And definitely not the kind that would make you uncomfortable.”
“Then stop beating around the bush and say it already.”
“Why don’t you sit down first? Stop swaying like that?”
When I gently offered my hand, she slapped it away hard. The stinging pain… damn. Was that going to bruise?
“Don’t reach out without permission. I only used half of half my strength.”
“…If you say so.”
Thinking back to what had happened in that warehouse where I rescued her, this was definitely an act of mercy. Especially considering that I, who wasn’t superhuman, had only suffered this much.
“Don’t make me repeat myself three times. Speak.”
My throbbing wrist was annoying, but I had no choice. I rubbed it gently and let out a dry laugh.
“To put it bluntly, I want you to take over Bulph.”
“…What?”
“You said you were Bulph’s Beta, right? You were dragged down before you could become Alpha.”
If I wanted the plot to fall apart, nothing would be more effective than a dead character coming back to life and causing chaos. Besides, seeing how those Delta bastards were ready to stab her in the back at any moment, it seemed things would go smoothly as long as she had the power.
“I’ll help you. In every way possible.”
“Are you… an idiot? Can’t you understand Korean? I told you to say what you want, not… what you can do for me.”
She probably couldn’t believe it. Honestly, I still couldn’t believe I’d entered this world either. But what could I do?
“I also hate repeating the same thing twice.”
The die had been cast. The words had to come out.
“…Let me ask one question.”
“Hm?”
She lifted her exhausted body and tilted her head toward me. Now that I looked closely, despite her monstrous strength, her face was—pretty. Not in a delicate way, but in a wild, fierce kind of beauty.
“…”
Her exotic-colored eyes sank deeply, as if she were thinking hard. Her hair was even a mix of black and white. Wasn’t it a waste for a character like this to be an extra?
After waiting for quite a while, she took a deep breath and looked at me again. I shrugged my shoulders in anticipation of what question she might ask.
“You’re crazy.”
…Well, a villain who immediately insults her savior is still a villain, I suppose.
“Let’s say I become the boss. What’s in it for you?”
“Let’s just say I want to have one favor owed to me by the future boss of an organization that’s pretty well-known in Korea’s underworld… something like that.”
Of course, I had no intention of stopping there. I’d grab her weakness and use her thoroughly. All to ruin the original plot, of course.
“What if I take all that help and then stab you in the back? You saw the Deltas. Those bastards who used me as a meat shield every day immediately stuck a knife in my back the moment the Alpha died. The same could happen to you.”
Her knuckles cracked as she clenched her fist, and my body instinctively shrank back. The hand gripping so tightly was covered in scars and bulging veins. As her body loomed closer, as if ready to strike me at any moment, I slowly leaned backward.
“Or I could just kill you right here, loot all your stuff, and ransack the house.”
A terrifying threat. Her gaze remained eerily calm, unlike before. But I could tell. This wasn’t sincere.
“…But you’re different from those filthy dogs, aren’t you?”
The way she had trembled with rage at being betrayed. The pride with which she had clearly drawn a line, calling them beneath her. Would this villain truly stoop to such pettiness?
“You’re meant to become Bulph’s rightful alpha wolf.”
Low-tier villains might call it clinging to hope or whatever, but from what I’d seen so far, Bianca had far too much potential to remain a mere supporting character. That’s why I was betting on her. I suppressed my fear and leaned back comfortably on the sofa.
“…I don’t know where the hell you crawled out from.”
Her fist finally dropped. She leaned back against the sofa as if exhausted and slowly blinked at me once.
“I’ll play along. With your plan.”
…Honestly, my heart had been racing a little—no, a lot—but it seemed she at least had enough common sense to listen. Or maybe she was desperate. Either way, it was fine with me.
“So where do we start?”
“Is there any special way to become the boss? Just bite to death the ones who won’t listen and swallow up the packs that followed them. That’s all, right?”
At least, that was how Bulph had operated in the original story. They’d named themselves after beasts, so the hierarchy decided by strength was absolute. However, in the original plot, schemes and conspiracies had run rampant, rotting the organization from within. The group left with only weaklings was easily crushed by the early Justice heroes, accelerating its downfall.
“Didn’t you see how tightly the kids are united? It’s not as easy as you make it sound—”
“If they’re united, just break them apart. Sow discord.”
Of course, I’d be the one using those schemes and tricks this time. Not to devour everything alone, but to feed it all to Bianca.
“How many times do I have to repeat the same thing? I keep telling you it’s not that simple.”
“Well, with your strength, I don’t think there’s anything you can’t do.”
At the single compliment, her body flinched visibly. Her face turned slightly red. So she was weak to praise?
“Don’t overthink it. I’ll handle the dirty work, and you just swoop in and take everything that’s left.”
“Honestly, I still can’t quite believe it, but…”
“So—first favor I’m asking.”
I remembered a movie where an organization fell into chaos after one dog died, and another story where an entire syndicate was destroyed after provoking the temper of a ‘former’ secret agent. The common point between the two was that both had burned all their money and valuables.
“Tell me where your organization’s vault is.”
If trash villains had created a trash hero, then I just needed to bring in villains who matched my level. With gunpowder, explosives, and gasoline.
…Or so some clown once said.
It was exactly one week after Bianca had disappeared from the warehouse with the man in the gray mask.
One of the warehouses in the abandoned factory complex erupted in a massive explosion and was engulfed in flames. Bundles of money flew into the sky along with it.
“Th-this… this…”
Countless bills turning to ash and disappearing. The organization’s wealth carried away on the hot wind.
“Who the hell did this!!!”
Watching the anguished scream from afar, the man in the gray mask quietly smiled.
“If you think this is the end, I’d be very disappointed.”
With a bag full of detonators slung over his shoulder.