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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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– *Crack…!*
“Aaaaagh!!”
Cheon Sang-myeong’s scream echoed through the room as his joints were twisted.
“It’s a good thing this place is soundproof. Saves me the trouble of putting up a barrier.”
“Ugh, *sob*… *groan*…”
“What are you doing? Keep going.”
He looked quite pathetic, trembling and clutching his hand, but I couldn’t go easy on him. Compared to the nail driven into Ariel’s heart by his article, this was just a scratch.
– *Crack…!*
“*Gasp*…”
Cheon Sang-myeong, his fingers completely twisted, collapsed on the floor and started trembling.
“Now, focus.”
My hypnosis would sometimes break if the subject received a strong shock.
“Wh-what do you want…?”
So, as I held my smartphone to his face to renew the hypnosis, Cheon Sang-myeong, trembling, asked me a question.
“I’m going to break the rest of your fingers.”
“N-no! Don’t!!!”
I gave him the order in a low voice and smiled quietly as he struggled and grabbed his right middle finger.
[Villainization in progress…]
[Reason: Torturing a human, not a Grotesquery!]
“Hmm?”
Just then, a notification popped up.
“What’s this?”
Slightly taken aback by the unfamiliar function, a help message appeared before me, just like a few days ago.
[Villainization progresses automatically when the System user commits evil deeds.]
[As Villainization progresses, the user’s level increases, but so does the Evil stat.]
So, it seemed like the more evil deeds I committed, the stronger I would become.
Combined with the ‘Physical Link’ and ‘Tempering’ combo I was using, it seemed I would be able to use Justitia’s maxed-out skills without any problems soon.
I’d been wondering if I should get training from Gramps to build up my body quickly, but this was a relief.
‘But I shouldn’t take the increasing Evil stat lightly.’
This must have been the reason why I’d been feeling impulsive when committing evil deeds, and why my speech and demeanor had been changing lately.
Then, by the time I could handle the maxed-out skills, would I have become a heartless human trash?
But I had no intention of becoming such a being.
At least not until Ariel grew into the greatest hero, and until I crushed all the Grotesqueries that killed Justitia.
Once those goals were achieved, I didn’t care if I died by Ariel’s or my sister’s hand.
So, until then, I had to maintain myself.
– *Crack…!*
“Save meeeee!!”
Then, how should I maintain myself?
It seemed hypnosis alone wouldn’t be enough.
‘…Wait, what if?’
As I was watching Cheon Sang-myeong writhing like a worm, a good idea came to mind. I had a suitable lab rat right in front of me, so I should test out the idea.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“*Sob*… *sob*…”
As I approached Cheon Sang-myeong, he suddenly started bowing his head, as if he’d cried his eyes out.
“I-I’m sorry. Please, please forgive me…”
“What are you sorry for?”
Hearing that, he stopped bowing and blinked.
“Don’t you know?”
“W-well…”
“How can you be sorry if you don’t know?”
“Aaaaagh!!”
I kicked his mangled hand, and he started screaming at the top of his lungs, then spoke to me in a trembling voice.
“I-I’m sorry for writing an aggressive and offensive article!!”
“If you knew it was wrong, why did you do it?”
“Huh?”
Then, he looked at me blankly.
“It’s worse if you did it knowingly.”
“Gyaaa!!”
This was the invincible infinite loop Himari used on me right before we broke up. It was so painful when I was on the receiving end, but using it on others was incredibly enjoyable.
“G-give me a chance to make amends!!”
“Hmm?”
“I’ll correct the article I wrote about Trauma right away!”
Wait, what? Did he also write an article about me?
“Hmm…”
Scratching my head at his unexpected remark, I quietly reached out to him.
“Ugh…!”
Cheon Sang-myeong froze and closed his eyes tightly.
– *Whoosh…*
“…Huh?”
However, as the pain in his hand subsided, he made a puzzled expression.
[Skill: Recovery used!]
That’s right. What I just used on him was ‘Recovery,’ the skill I plundered from Resurrection during the academy terrorist attack.
It had become a downgraded version without a level and unusable on myself due to the Plunder Penalty, but it was still quite effective in healing others’ injuries.
So, why did I use the Recovery skill on him now?
[Villainization paused…]
[Reason: Healed an injured person!]
It was because I was aiming for this.
“If I do good deeds, Villainization will automatically stop or decrease.”
This was a relief. If I could control the progress of Villainization, I could maintain myself with self-hypnosis.
By the way, to think that it paused Villainization instead of penalizing me for doing good deeds while trying to corrupt me into a villain.
It was impossible to hate.
“Th-thank you…?”
“Don’t mention it.”
As I smiled brightly, Cheon Sang-myeong thanked me with a dumbfounded look.
“I just refilled it.”
“Huh?”
“Now that your fingers are healed, I can break them again, right?”
Commit an evil deed, then immediately follow it with a good deed. And repeat until a balance is achieved.
– *Crack…!*
“*Gasp*!”
A perfect hybrid villain.
What a brilliant idea.
“Please, please spare my life… I beg you…”
As I was feeling pleased with myself, Cheon Sang-myeong started sobbing.
“I-I wrote provocative articles for money. But I had no choice, it was for my family.”
“…”
“I can enter this island because it’s my workplace, but my family in Korea still can’t…”
He looked quite desperate.
“I had no choice… to buy entrance tickets for my children…”
“Hmm.”
“And I always sent compensation diligently whenever there were unexpected victims… I’m relatively conscientious…”
“You have a point.”
I nodded as if I agreed, then kindly bent his arm at a 90-degree angle.
“…*Gasp*! Ugh…”
Cheon Sang-myeong, unable to even scream properly, collapsed on the floor and started convulsing. I approached him, smiled gently, and whispered.
– *Whoosh…*
“Now that I’ve healed you, I’m a conscientious villain, right?”
“Fuck…”
To think he would swear after I followed his own logic.
Unfortunately, words didn’t work on people like this. If someone didn’t know they were a villain to others, you just had to tell them the truth. However, if someone believed they had a valid reason, they had already justified their actions in their mind.
“Mr. Cheon Sang-myeong, everyone has a story.”
So, I always said this to such people.
“Your hero can be someone else’s villain, and vice versa.”
“What…”
“You may be a hero to your family, but you’re a villain to your victims.”
No one had ever been able to refute that.
“It’s the same.”
“…”
“I’m just… a villain to you.”
Justification with justification. Sophistry with sophistry. Because I was simply returning what they did.
“Ugh…”
Perhaps realizing that, Cheon Sang-myeong started looking at me with fear-filled eyes. Yes, this was it. This broken, defeated gaze, devoid of any will to resist. This was the gaze I wanted.
“Mr. Cheon Sang-myeong.”
Because it was the perfect state for my ultimate move, ‘Common Sense Alteration.’
“Let’s do an interview.”
There was a saying that people couldn’t change, but I disagreed.
“And include the data you ‘intentionally’ omitted.”
“Ah… ugh…”
…because they could be recycled so wonderfully.
“This time, write something positive, not negative. Understand?”
By the way, now that I had Cheon Sang-myeong, an influential journalist, in my hands, it seemed like I could finally start. My last top priority. Revenge on Lumia and her gang.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
A few hours later, at Ariel’s house.
“Ugh…”
Ariel, tossing and turning in bed, woke up in a cold sweat and grabbed her smartphone.
“3 AM…”
The image of her sister, covered in blood, crawling towards her, was vivid in her mind. It was the nightmare she’d been having lately.
“…Ha.”
After staring blankly at the time for a moment, she figured she was done sleeping and started scrolling through her smartphone. As always, she browsed through online communities and searched for her name. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there were no new posts. Only the posts she had already read, marked in blue, appeared. Ariel quickly backed out. Then, forcing a smile, she searched for her name on the Hero Network. It was a meaningless act. With the online communities silent, there was no way an article related to her would be published at this late hour. She was just trying to distract herself before the posts she had read came back to haunt her.
“…Huh?”
But then, her eyes widened as she scrolled.
[Interview with survivors of the District 17 incident… What Justitia left behind]
A moment later, with a trembling heart, she clicked on the article uploaded an hour ago.
“…”
Then, a long silence fell.
“There were… survivors… because of me.”
The article was simple. An interview with a survivor who said they were being controlled by Trauma while fully conscious, but managed to survive thanks to the intervention of a girl. And below it was a photo of her, standing with her back to the street, confronting Trauma.
[It is said that a supervillain always has a matching archenemy.]
She stared at the photo with trembling eyes, scrolled down, and the last sentence of the article caught her eye.
[If that’s true, we might be witnessing the birth of a new hero, a match for a supervillain.]
Ariel stared at the last sentence for a long time, a genuine smile slowly spreading across her lips.
“…Hehe.”
She giggled and rolled around for a moment, then quietly took a screenshot of the article. Even the dozens of comments already posted.
[Gseok089: She’s cute, just like Justitia.]
[Pdra: Fr lol]
‘Sister, I’ll do my best.’
After reading the article repeatedly with a silly smile, she closed her eyes with a relaxed expression and muttered inwardly.
‘I’ll definitely become the greatest hero.’
Then, her expression turned serious.
‘And I’ll definitely avenge you…’
After gritting her teeth for a moment, thinking about Trauma, she finally fell asleep.
“Hmm…”
Fortunately, the last things on her mind were the survivor interview, saved thanks to her, and the comments on the article.
“Hehe…”
That day, Ariel slept soundly for the first time in a while.
“…”
And Kang Haneul, secretly watching her through Pandora’s drone from a distant rooftop,
“Pandora, thank you for today.”
> I almost died manipulating the article. You owe me.
…finally smiled and quietly left.
> As promised, up to episode 4.
“Ah.”
> I’m not letting you sleep until tomorrow night.
…as he realized the time had come to fulfill his contract with Pandora, and shuddered quietly.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Meanwhile, at that time.
“What’s going on…?”
Lee Se-ah, racking her brains in her office late into the night.
“…I’ve never seen a future where Lumia is a woman.”
Then, her eyes gleaming, she stood up.
“Could it be… that the future has changed?”
She walked to the center of the room.
“…No, that can’t be.”
The true Child of Prophecy, who had briefly lent her name to Lumia. Her eyes glowed with a deep blue light.
“…”
And a few minutes later,
“…Huh?”
…beads of sweat started forming on Lee Se-ah’s forehead.
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