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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Unlike Fallen who mindlessly used brute force, villains below high-mid tier often used explosives.
Of course, not all Fallen were like that.
There were intelligent ones like the Fallen who had recently terrorized the Alchemy Workshop street, using explosives or implanting bombs in their bodies.
Anyway, the reason villains used explosives that didn’t cause much damage to superhumans was because they were still threatening and effective against ordinary buildings and civilians without abilities.
That was why Instructor Kang Cheol-su had designated Yu-jin as the villain for this villain response training exercise.
So to live up to the instructor’s expectations, Yu-jin had decided on a concept.
“Um, Top Student… this is just practice. Why are you taking it so seriously…?”
That concept was,
He was (pretending to be) a romantic villain who killed fake heroes and spared true heroes.
Click.
“T-Top Student, w-wait…!”
As Yu-jin aimed his gun, his classmate frantically waved their hands trying to say something, but.
In line with the beliefs of the fictional villain “Crow”,
Bang─!
He pulled the trigger without hesitation towards the one unworthy of being a hero.
Thud.
The classmate who was hit in the forehead with a rubber bullet rolled their eyes back and collapsed.
They had lost consciousness.
Though they couldn’t hear him now that they were unconscious, Yu-jin still spoke in character.
He recited the cringeworthy line.
Yu-jin let out a somewhat tired sigh and looked around.
His classmates were visible between the destroyed and collapsed buildings.
‘I must have taken down at least 30 by now.’
Adding the 10 he had knocked out as soon as the exercise started, that made 40.
‘But there are still 59 left.’
Thinking this, he rolled up his sleeve to check his smartwatch.
‘There’s still plenty of time left and the hostages are… still there.’
Yu-jin clicked his tongue and scratched his head with the edge of his gun.
How could they still not have found the hostages?
‘Did I place them somewhere too difficult?’
No… no.
Yu-jin immediately erased the thought that had popped into his head.
This was because the places where he had positioned the hostages were the tallest building, a relatively intact building, and a building with a basement.
In other words, they could be easily found if one just thought a little.
‘Of course, that’s assuming they search thoroughly.’
That was a basic premise for rescuing hostages, so he moved on.
It was quite disappointing that they hadn’t rescued even one hostage by the time he had taken down 40 people.
Especially the main and supporting characters.
‘What on earth are they doing?’
Yu-jin leapt onto a building, then he jumped between buildings searching for his classmates.
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“Where could the hostages be?”
Park Sung-woo, ranked 7th in the entrance exams and a man whose romantic illusions had been shattered by Yu-jin’s unintentional manipulation, tapped his shoulder with the back of his sword as he looked around.
“Hmm… if I were that bastard Yu-jin, where would I place the hostages?”
That tall building in the distance?
“No, that guy’s smart. He wouldn’t put them somewhere so obvious.”
Or maybe that intact building nearby?
“Probably not there either.”
Then perhaps this building that likely has a basement?
“He’d probably set traps there.”
Yeah, I’d set traps in the basement too if it were me.
…Having made these deductions(?), Park Sung-woo lowered the sword he had been tapping on his shoulder, and just as he was about to start walking again.
…please.
“Huh?”
…save me.
A voice started to be heard from somewhere.
Park Sung-woo immediately listened closely.
…please save me.
The voice he heard was not a man’s, but a woman’s.
Therefore, it wasn’t Yu-jin.
At this, Park Sung-woo slowly moved his feet towards the direction of the voice, and it was coming from the building he had been about to pass by.
Park Sung-woo entered the building.
Inside, there was a staircase leading down to a basement.
Please save me…
The voice was also coming from down the stairs.
“Hmm… there’s probably a trap.”
Yu-jin would certainly have set traps where he placed the hostages.
That guy was both bold and cunning.
“But I should go down anyway…”
However, before that.
Park Sung-woo picked up a small stone lying on the ground and tossed it down the stairs.
Clatter, clatter clatter.
The sound of the stone bouncing down the stairs could be heard.
From that sound, it seemed there were no landmines.
But you never know.
There might be no landmines, but other traps could be set.
Park Sung-woo hesitated.
Should he really go down the stairs?
But that hesitation was brief.
– Please save me…
The voice was heard again.
At this, Park Sung-woo made up his mind.
To go down the stairs.
“Phew…”
Park Sung-woo took a deep breath to calm his rising tension.
Then, swallowing hard, he slowly began to descend the stairs.
Still, just in case, he held his sword out in front of him.
Step.
Silence fell as the voice stopped.
Step.
The sound of his own footsteps echoed in his ears.
Step.
The stairway grew darker and darker.
As the light faded, the tension he had calmed began to rise again.
“Hah, hah…”
Park Sung-woo descended the stairs slowly but steadily, breathing shakily, and when he had gone down some distance.
…thunk.
He felt something catch on the sword he was holding out in front.
Park Sung-woo stepped back for a moment, feeling a chill wrap around his body.
Then he raised his sword and infused it with a bit of magic power.
Whoosh…
The blue magic power enveloping the blade slightly illuminated the dark stairway.
Park Sung-woo immediately lowered his sword to check what had caught on it.
“This is… a wire?”
It was indeed a wire and it was connected to a grenade on the wall.
“…As expected, there was a trap.”
Park Sung-woo let out a deep sigh of relief as he cut the wire.
Then he began to descend the stairs again.
After cutting several more wires, Park Sung-woo finally reached the basement door.
He took a deep breath and grasped the doorknob.
As he did so, he enveloped his body with magic power to prepare for any possible traps.
Creeeeak…
The door opened with a chilling sound that suggested it was rusty.
Thud.
The door opened fully.
Park Sung-woo slowly entered.
“Please save me.”
A voice came from the darkness.
At that voice, Park Sung-woo increased the magic power in his sword to drive away the surrounding darkness.
“Please save me.”
Now he could see a shape, Park Sung-woo cautiously approached the figure.
“Found it, the hostage.”
It was a human-shaped doll tied to a chair, and Park Sung-woo realized this doll was the hostage.
“Please save me.”
“Alright, I’ll save you. Just wait a moment.”
Though he wanted to rescue it right away, Park Sung-woo decided to look around first.
Given there were traps on the stairs, there would surely be traps in the room as well.
Thinking this, he checked around the hostage.
“As expected… I knew it.”
He could see grenades attached to both walls at regular intervals, and wires connected to the pins of the grenades were all linked to the hostage.
“Yu-jin, you heartless bastard…”
Even if he was playing the villain role, this was too much.
Connecting bombs to the hostage’s body?
Park Sung-woo shook his head with a disgusted face as he cut the wires connected to the hostage’s body, and the moment he detached the hostage from the chair.
Click.
Park Sung-woo heard the sound of a button being pressed near his ear.
“Ah.”
BOOM─!
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Yu-jin suddenly stopped in his tracks at the explosion that rang in his ears.
He turned his head towards where the explosion sound had come from.
Did that mean they had found the hostage?
As soon as he thought this, Yu-jin raised his smartwatch to check the hero team’s practice objective.
[Hostages 1/3]
Confirming that the hero team’s practice objective had been updated, Yu-jin let out a sigh of relief.
He had thought the others were just foolishly searching for him.
After all, 30 minutes had passed and they hadn’t rescued a single hostage, but it seemed that was just needless worry.
Given that they had found a hostage like this.
As the explosion just now showed, the places where the hostages were hidden were full of traps.
Moreover, they were set up in double and triple layers, so one couldn’t let their guard down even after overcoming one trap.
Right up until the moment of rescuing the hostage.
‘Now there are two hostages left.’
Since the hostage in the basement had been rescued (exploded).
The remaining places were the tallest building and the relatively intact building.
At this, Yu-jin stopped searching for his classmates and headed towards the nearest tallest building.
As he was jumping between buildings towards his destination.
Zing─.
A red line appeared in his field of vision.
His talent ‘Sniper’s Sharp Sense (A+)’ had activated.
Yu-jin immediately checked where the ‘enemy’ was, and he could see Lee Seo-yeon aiming a pistol at him.
As soon as he confirmed this, Yu-jin activated ‘Live Focus’ without hesitation.
At the same time, sparks flew from Seo-yeon’s gun.
Ba a a a ang…
The gunshot echoed slowly in the slowed world.
Yu-jin watched the bullet flying towards him as he heard that gunshot.
Then he pulled the trigger of the gun in his hand while ending ‘Live Focus’.
Bang─!
Bang─, clang─!
As the sound of bullets colliding rang out, Yu-jin rushed towards Seo-yeon.
Seo-yeon, who was trying to shoot him before he could reach her,
Bang, bang bang!
Kept pulling the trigger, but since he could visually perceive the direction of the attacks,
Whoosh, whoosh whoosh.
Yu-jin avoided the flying bullets by slightly twisting his body.
Swish!
Finally, Seo-yeon lowered her gun hand and drew the sword at her waist, then she began running towards Yu-jin.
Yu-jin fired his gun at Seo-yeon as she did so.
Bang!
Clang!
As expected, Seo-yeon, whose sword was stronger than a gun, easily deflected the bullet I fired.
But I didn’t stop and kept firing my gun.
Bang, bang bang!
Clang, clang clang!
And when she had become somewhat accustomed to deflecting the bullets.
‘Transfer.’
I switched the bullets in the gun’s chamber with ‘special bullets’ from my inventory.
Bang─!
A bullet was fired from the muzzle.
This time too, Seo-yeon swung her sword at the bullet flying towards her and the moment her sword deflected the bullet.
Clang─, BOOM!
“…Hah!”
A shockwave burst out as if a grenade had exploded, throwing the charging Seo-yeon backwards.
Not missing this opportunity, I transferred ‘sticky glue’ to where she was falling, just like during the entrance exam.
But perhaps because she had fallen for it once before.
Whoosh.
Seo-yeon did a backflip in mid-air to regain her balance, then swung her sword towards where I had transferred the ‘sticky glue’, and she did so with her sword fully charged with energy.
SLASH─!
The sword swung at an incredibly fast speed.
As it did, the sticky glue set on the ground was cut away along with the floor.
Thud.
Seo-yeon landed on the wrecked floor.
I raised my gun towards Seo-yeon, and just as I was about to pull the trigger.
Whoosh─!
I felt a stinging sensation in my head along with the sound of something flying from above.
When I looked up to check, a sword was flying towards me at very high speed.
As soon as I saw it, I knew it was Arthur’s skill ‘Meteor Fall’.
‘Should I use a shock bullet?’
No, no.
If I used a shock bullet at this distance, I’d be caught in it too.
Then… there’s no other choice but this method.
As soon as I finished that thought, I transferred a shock grenade about 5m away.
And the moment the grenade was transferred, I fired my gun while jumping in place and curling my body.
BOOM─!
The shockwave from the exploding shock grenade enveloped my body.
With a disorienting impact, my body was thrown backwards.
But thanks to that, Arthur’s Meteor Fall struck the innocent ground instead of me.
CRASH─!
The ground exploded.
Seeing that sight, cold sweat ran down my back.
‘Are you trying to kill me, Arthur?’
Thinking that, I immediately looked around for Arthur as I landed on the ground.
No, before I could even look around, Arthur appeared in my field of vision.
“Found you, Yu-jin… no, villain.”
It seemed he had jumped down along with his skill ‘Meteor Fall’.
Arthur landed where her sword was embedded.
Grip!
Arthur grabbed the sword stuck in the ground.
Then pointing it at me, she said,
“Surrender quietly, villain. If you do, I’ll capture you without hurting you.”
I answered Arthur by aiming my gun at her.
“You won’t surrender, is that it? Then I have no choice but to use force.”
Just as Arthur said that and began to raise her golden magic power.
“I found Top Student… no, the villain!”
A wild Asuka appeared!
I let out a hollow laugh as I looked around.
Asuka on the left.
Arthur in the center.
Seo-yeon on the right.
The main characters, except for Noah, had me surrounded.
It was literally a situation of being besieged on all sides.
But ‘Crow’ wouldn’t be intimidated by this, I smirked as I gripped a gun in each hand.
Then I shouted at the ‘heroes’.
Show me your justice!
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[I like this version of yu jin but that final tripwire was funny af poor Park Sung-woo]
Stain rip-off
Stain?
Stain that you?