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Chapter 4: The Villain in the Novel
Chapter 2: The Red Wolf (1)
Things proceeded quickly.
Once they confirmed that the first person with an aptitude was an orphan living at the orphanage, the people involved hurried into action, completed the necessary paperwork, and even came back with his belongings.
Park Sang-woo boarded the fairly well-appointed bus and stared blankly at the scenery outside the window.
While he was away at the orphanage with the people from the government, the aptitude testing continued. When he turned his head, people were cheering again, apparently because another person had shown a positive result.
But although he could see the scene with his eyes, none of it registered in his mind.
Right now, Park Sang-woo's head was filled with a single possibility.
‘What if the protagonist, Bae Jong-hyeok, is at the elementary school I'm going to…….’
And if there wasn't another child his age named Sang-woo there.
‘Does that mean I'm the Red Wolf?’
The mid-boss-like villain from his friend's modern fantasy novel, Black Sage.
It had not been long since he remembered that his own name was the same as the name of the mid-boss-like villain.
When he first realized that the novel his friend had written had become reality, he had been obsessed with his talent for handling mana. After that, he was so obsessed with mana that he couldn't spare the time to dredge up his memories.
Because if he couldn't use mana, then no matter what dream he had, his life would be meaningless.
Only after it became certain that he could handle mana did he seriously begin recalling the memories of his previous life.
However, that attempt didn't last long either.
He had tried physical modification and experienced hell itself, and after barely surviving the orphanage he had crawled into because he wanted to live, he had nearly gone mad from his terrible resentment.
How deep must his resentment have been for him to endure such horrific physical modification?
In any case, after spending quite a long time taking out his resentment and finally regaining his sanity, Park Sang-woo once again revived the memories of his previous life.
That was when he remembered that there was a character in the novel who had the same name as him.
His friend had put quite a lot of effort into creating that character.
A character forged through hardship and adversity.
However, because he wasn't the protagonist, those hardships and adversities were nothing more than one-sided violence rather than something that strengthened him.
Destroying dreams and shattering hope.
As a result, the character was pushed to his limits and eventually broke. A man who had dreamed of becoming a hero came to hate humanity more than anyone else, became cruel, and turned against mankind.
That was the ‘Red Wolf.’
A villain who became powerful based on his unique trait, Evil Gluttony, which he discovered just before his death, and opposed the protagonist.
If this assumption was true, there was one good thing about it.
Evil Gluttony.
The only trait capable of allowing its owner to inherit the abilities of a monster simply by eating its blood and flesh.
In the novel, the Red Wolf gained the strength of a mid-boss-level character by eating nothing more than a werewolf.
But what would happen if, instead of some ordinary monster like a werewolf, he ate the blood and flesh of a monster on the level of the final boss?
He might become an overwhelmingly powerful being.
The problem was……
‘The fact that I'm a fairly important villain…….’
A bastard who hated humans more than insects and killed heroes and civilians alike without discrimination. A villain who became an enemy of the protagonist after committing a massacre and even killing someone close to the protagonist, only to be used as material for the protagonist's growth.
If an enemy playing that role didn't exist, would the protagonist really be able to grow exactly as he did in the novel?
‘Seems difficult.’
Park Sang-woo was confident that, if necessary, he could act exactly like the villain in the novel.
No, he could be even more cruel.
The Red Wolf in the novel gradually fell apart, but Park Sang-woo had already seen human nature through the deaths of his parents and maternal grandfather. On top of that, he had met the warden of that garbage orphanage, developed extreme resentment, and then released it through revenge.
That was right.
His morality was already broken.
Even the personality he had built up in his previous life wasn't particularly good. He had been an ordinary human being, the kind you could find anywhere. Someone who didn't want to suffer losses because of other people and didn't care what happened as long as he himself wasn't hurt.
Then, after his family was slaughtered, that kind of person witnessed someone he had considered a comrade and friend pursuing nothing but their own desires.
Afterward, at Blue Orphanage, he was abused by people who were almost too vile to even call human.
In this situation.
Could he become a person who valued morality.
And believed in and followed the law?
‘If someone could do that, they'd be a hero.’
Not a professional hero, but someone who truly deserved to be called a hero.
And the human being known as ‘Park Sang-woo’ had never been someone who could be called a hero in either his previous life or his current one.
He had no intention of becoming a hero, either.
‘Should I find some suitable bastard to take my place?’
Or should he ignore the protagonist and everything else and simply live his own life?
In truth, his friend's Black Sage was not a novel where the world would be destroyed if the protagonist lost.
The world would merely be thrown into chaos, making it impossible for civilization to be maintained.
After thinking about it, Park Sang-woo decided to postpone the decision.
He didn't even know how much stronger he could become if he wasn't the Red Wolf, so there was no point in making elaborate plans now.
Just then, another cheer erupted.
When he turned his gaze, the green light on the testing equipment was flashing again.
‘Three so far.’
Considering that there had only been two last year, that was quite a large number.
There was still a fairly long line waiting to be tested, so even more positive results might appear.
And just as expected, when seven people remained, another positive result appeared.
That made four.
The bus then picked up five more heroes and headed toward the Hero Elementary School.
While three children excitedly chatted with the heroes riding with them, Park Sang-woo closed his eyes as if asleep and became lost in thought.
‘It should be fine to leave the orphanage alone, right?’
The man who had become the current warden of the orphanage was cowardly. Those who weren't had all died. No, he had killed them all. Park Sang-woo had watched it happen right in front of him, so the man would take care of whatever he was ordered to do.
Or perhaps because he had etched the fact that he would die into his very bones.
There was even a watcher stationed there.
‘Lee Sae-bom will take good care of things.’
Now fifteen years old, she had deliberately forced herself to gain weight by bringing home leftover school meals and eating them even before her secondary sexual characteristics had begun to develop.
On top of that, she deliberately went around with an ugly expression on her face, protecting herself from the previous warden, the staff, and the other children.
Of course, in a sexual sense.
In exchange, because she looked fat and unattractive, she was exposed to physical violence more often than the other girls, but she was very satisfied with that trade-off.
Physical violence was better than sexual violence.
She had realized that although any kind of violence could destroy a person, sexual violence was worse.
In that sense, her choice to deliberately ruin her appearance from a young age to protect herself had been wise.
Thanks to that wisdom, she had now become the person monitoring the current warden.
Within the small society known as Blue Orphanage, she had become a person with a certain amount of power.
Using that power, she was preparing for the future while making excellent use of the opportunity she had been given.
For someone he had met in a garbage orphanage, her future looked surprisingly promising.
Park Sang-woo put his thoughts about Lee Sae-bom aside and recalled the Blue Orphanage, where he had spent so much time.
His brows naturally furrowed.
There was one incident he had witnessed shortly after being transferred from the infant home to the orphanage.
One of the children who went around begging had been beaten repeatedly but still failed to meet his quota. The warden became irritated and, as though it were only natural, took out his anger on him with his fists.
Then, saying that the child needed to look more pitiful if he wanted to meet his quota, the warden broke his leg.
There was no treatment, and the child was left limping.
It was truly a place like hell.
He had already settled every ‘debt’ he had received there, but merely remembering it still made him angry.
‘If it weren't for that bastard of a warden, I would've given up on physical modification.’
He had endured excruciating pain because of the desire to tear that piece of trash apart and kill him in an even more painful manner.
It was one of the rare cases where a bastard like that ended up being useful to his life.
At that moment, Park Sang-woo sensed someone's gaze, so after waiting an appropriate amount of time, he naturally let his body go slack.
He pretended to fall asleep.
Apparently, the act had worked, because the gaze disappeared.
He didn't know what kind of connection he would eventually have with the people on the bus, but for now, he simply wanted to avoid being bothered.
What mattered now was……
‘How strong can I become?’
He hoped with all his heart that he really was the Red Wolf.
Park Sang-woo sincerely prayed for it.
After traveling for quite some time, the bus stopped. One of the heroes approached and woke him, and Park Sang-woo, who had actually dozed off for a moment, rose from his seat with sleepy eyes.
Everyone else had apparently gotten off, because only the hero and himself remained on the bus.
“We've arrived.”
“Is this the elementary school?”
“Yeah. This is where you'll be living for the next four years.”
He stared blankly out the window.
There was no field. Instead, there was a track surrounding the large building and a high wall. The mountains visible beyond it made it clear that the elementary school was located at a fairly high elevation.
The building itself had been constructed quite stylishly.
The hero watched him quietly before grabbing Park Sang-woo by the shoulder and giving him a gentle shake.
“You should get off now, right? You need to get your dorm assigned, too.”
“Ah, I'm sorry.”
“You don't have to worry about me. But you should get off as quickly as possible if you want a good spot.”
“A good spot?”
“The dormitory. The elementary school uses dormitories separated by grade, and the good spots get taken quickly.”
Park Sang-woo nodded and looked up at the hero.
He seemed like a pretty nice person.
“But what exactly makes a good spot in the dormitory?”
“Why don't you get off first?”
“Ah, okay.”
The hero got off the bus and walked toward the large building as he spoke.
“Actually, what counts as a good spot is up to you. If you like being high up, you'll want a higher floor. If you like training or eating, you'd be better off choosing a lower floor.”
“Um, will the noise between floors be bad?”
“Probably not. The dormitory building itself is pretty well constructed. Of course, once you learn qi cultivation later and your internal energy starts accumulating, your senses, including your hearing, will become enhanced. Then it can't really be helped.”
The hero stopped in front of the building and pointed inside, indicating that he should enter.
“You'll hear the details inside. Go on, get in.”
“Thank you for showing me the way.”
“It's nothing. Just try to become a good hero.”
Park Sang-woo smiled brightly and lied.
“I'll work hard and definitely become a good hero.”
“Yeah. Good luck.”
The hero lightly waved his hand and returned to where the bus was parked.
Park Sang-woo quietly watched him before bowing deeply at the waist. Then he slowly straightened, hesitated for a moment, and entered the building.
It wasn't out of courtesy.
He simply thought that someone might be watching from somewhere and that even the way he appeared on CCTV needed to be managed.
It was a form of image-making.
‘An introverted but fairly polite little kid.’
And the thought worked.
The sharp senses he had carefully honed by building up his internal energy clearly captured the image of a child who bowed at the waist before cautiously turning away.
Intermediate-level hero Hwang Seong-jae stopped for a moment and looked back.
The child had already entered the building, so he couldn't see him anymore, but his senses detected him walking straight ahead along the corridor.
For a moment, he considered following him and explaining how he should train from now on, but soon gave up and turned around.
“He's an orphan, so he'll work hard.”
It might sound like there was some prejudice in that statement, but among the orphans who came to the elementary school, there wasn't a single one who didn't work hard.
After all, it was a harsh world, and welfare for orphans without families could not be very good.
Having personally experienced that bottomless pit, they were afraid of returning to it, and that fear naturally led to effort.
Perhaps because of that, it was extremely rare for an orphan to be held back a year.
Because many children had already received advanced education through money and connections, becoming the very best was almost impossible. However, quite a few managed to rank near the top through talent and hard work.
Hwang Seong-jae hoped that the polite child would be like that as well, then boarded the bus and closed his eyes.
Park Sang-woo had no idea that a hero had taken notice of him. He simply walked slowly while looking around.
The hallway was large and spacious.
It was wide enough for more than a dozen people to walk shoulder to shoulder, and at the end was a large auditorium.
The auditorium was noisy.
Hundreds of children gathered from nearby areas were clustered together, showing their anticipation and excitement. It was certainly a situation in which it was difficult for children to remain quiet.
Park Sang-woo surveyed the inside of the auditorium before moving forward.
No one stopped him.
No, they weren't even interested in him. Everyone was too excited and busy talking.
They didn't have the slightest thought about how high the dropout rates were at this elementary school and the military academy they would eventually attend.
Thanks to that, Park Sang-woo took a place at the very front.
A little while later, the principal appeared, arranged the children, and began speaking.
“It's nice to meet you. I am Kwon Seung-tae, the principal of Seoul Western Hero Elementary School. First, I would like to congratulate all of you gathered here after showing a positive result on the mana aptitude test.”
The principal looked around at the excited children and continued.
“You will achieve results in proportion to the effort you put in. Therefore, if you wish to become outstanding heroes, you must spare no effort. I sincerely hope that every one of you graduates.”
After saying that much, the principal thought for a moment before adding, “The entrance ceremony is next Monday, so relax and enjoy yourselves until then.”
He bowed his head, then stepped away.
Afterward, the teachers appeared and assigned dormitories to the children according to the order in which they were standing.
Because Park Sang-woo had been standing at the front, he obtained the very last room on the first floor.
Having accomplished his objective with ease, he unpacked his belongings in the room while recalling the instructions the staff had given him.
It was a twelve-pyeong room with a bathroom, and it was a private room.
“Nice.”
In his previous life, living in a studio apartment like this would have cost a fortune, not only in the deposit but also in the monthly rent.
Seeing such a nice room suddenly reminded Park Sang-woo of the living space from his previous life. He gave a bitter smile and headed toward the basement of the same building.
The basement was spacious and tall.
There were large display shelves like the ones he had only seen in warehouse-style supermarkets, packed so tightly with all kinds of goods that there wasn't a gap to be seen.
Park Sang-woo took a basket from the entrance and started walking.
The displayed items were things necessary for school life.
Starting with school uniforms, there were also tracksuits, sneakers, notebooks, writing supplies, and even weapons such as wooden swords and spears.
They were supplies that current students of the elementary school could freely take and use.
There was an enormous quantity, enough to remain even if every new student took five or six items each. If supplies became scarce, the school would replenish them every Monday, so there was no reason to be greedy.
“Awesome……”
Park Sang-woo marveled at the material abundance he was experiencing for the first time since being reborn.
Even the quality was good.
He immediately replaced his garbage shoes and gathered only the things he needed before returning to his room, but on the way, he encountered two people running toward him at high speed.
Fortunately, the space was wide enough that simply moving slightly to the side was sufficient.
The two also shifted slightly to the side and hurried down the stairs.
“Hey! Bae Jong-hyeok! What should we get first?”
“Tracksuits and sneakers first! If we're going to train hard, we need lots of sneakers!”
Park Sang-woo had been heading straight toward his room, but he immediately turned around after hearing the answer and frowned as he looked at the child.
‘That bastard is Bae Jong-hyeok? The protagonist?’
Their names being the same was the only connection for now, but it was difficult to simply deny the possibility because the boy's athletic ability was too good.
His footsteps as he ran down the stairs were light, and his movements were extremely fluid. Moreover, although two people were running down the stairs, only one set of footsteps could be heard.
It was a characteristic that couldn't be seen in the running of an ordinary human without supernatural abilities.
No matter how he looked at it, this was the reincarnated person who was the protagonist.
Just like himself.
Park Sang-woo stood at the stairs and looked down.
Naturally, Bae Jong-hyeok and the other child had already entered the basement and disappeared from sight. Meanwhile, the number of children passing through his room and heading down to the basement gradually increased.
Once it began reaching the point where it was becoming an obstruction, Park Sang-woo entered his room, put down his belongings, and lay on the bed.
It seemed he had found the protagonist.
And not just anywhere, but at the starting point of the novel, the elementary school, which only appeared briefly during the graduation ceremony in the novel.
‘If the guy I just saw really is the protagonist Bae Jong-hyeok, and there isn't another orphan named Sang-woo at this elementary school…….’
He smiled.
‘I'm the Red Wolf.’
---
The modern fantasy novel Black Sage contains several supernatural abilities.
Qi cultivation, which absorbs and refines mana into internal energy and uses it to strengthen physical abilities.
Prana, which is almost identical to qi cultivation, but was discovered in India and refines mana into chakras for use.
Magic, a mysterious discipline that refines mana into magical power and twists the flow of nature to produce power.
It was a secret that no one knew, but in truth, qi cultivation and prana were two branches that had grown from the same root. Therefore, the supernatural abilities existing in this world were actually two rather than three.
And there was one unique feature of this world.
That was traits, possessed only by certain chosen individuals.
Like Evil Gluttony, possessed by the mid-boss-level villain known as the Red Wolf.
The talent to manipulate mana was special, but traits were even more special than that talent.
Of course, not every trait was as incredible as Evil Gluttony.
In any case, the reason Park Sang-woo hoped that the villain called the Red Wolf was himself was because of that trait.
Evil Gluttony was a miraculous trait that could grant him the power to fight against the protagonist in the distant future even without learning a supernatural ability such as qi cultivation.
All he had to do was overcome the restriction that he needed to obtain the blood and flesh of monsters powerful enough to support such a power.
‘Do I have to wait until next week to be certain that I'm the Red Wolf?’
There was nothing he could do.
The mana aptitude test was conducted simultaneously throughout the country, so it wasn't something that could be completed in a single day.
The testing period set by the state was from Monday through Saturday, and Park Sang-woo had taken his test on Monday.
And today was Tuesday.
All the qualified candidates coming to this elementary school would probably not be finalized until Saturday, and since he was a student, he would have to wait until at least Monday to see the list.
Even so, he wanted to check the list of qualified candidates who had entered the school yesterday, so he did.
There was only one person named Sang-woo.
Himself.
It increased the probability, even if only slightly.
Clenching his fist tightly, Park Sang-woo shut himself inside his room and spent his time gathering pure mana.
Time passed as slowly as it did in a barracks just before discharge from the military. Still, time never stopped, and Sunday eventually arrived. He skipped breakfast and bit down tightly on his pillow.
‘Fuck…….’
The mana he had gathered since before coming to the elementary school had reached the target amount.
It was time for the modification.