—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Ominous.
He was a man with an aura so alien that it was an understatement to simply call him ominous.
Although his gender was unclear because of the mask, judging by the tailcoat he was wearing and his height, he was probably a man.
Everything about him was incomprehensible.
The fact that he had arrived before them despite them taking the shortest route, and his remarks that suggested he knew their identities.
“There seems to be some misunderstanding here. We’re A-rank heroes registered with the association.”
So Callea tried to deny it first.
She didn’t want to waste time fighting when her goal might be right in front of her.
“In this sudden situation, while searching for an exit, we arrived here faster than anyone…”
However…
[Callea. Disguised as the boss of the villain alliance Arcadia, you have three identities. Seo Ha-neul, an A-rank hero of the national heroes association, Yoo Ha-ri, an S-rank hunter of the Hunter’s Guild, and one as a non-awakened ordinary person that I won’t reveal for privacy reasons. You hide your face while operating because you’re a striking beauty, right?]
Her calm expression disappeared.
She was flustered.
“…Who are you?”
[Me?]
The man in the oni mask straightened his posture.
[I am the one who has come to test you. Prove to me that you are worthy.]
The pressure was extraordinary.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
What makes a compelling villain?
I believed that it came down to three elements.
It was best to have all three, but even one was enough to be considered a candidate.
An unwavering conviction, the self-awareness of being a villain, and lastly, coolness.
These were the necessary elements for a villain to become a compelling character that people were drawn to despite knowing they were evil.
In that sense, the villain alliance Arcadia wasn’t bad.
They had unwavering goals and convictions, and they were self-aware of being villains.
Above all, killing was a means to an end for them, and the fact that none of them were thrill killers was also something I liked. They were still relatively early in their villainous careers, so the people they had killed so far were mostly enemy villains.
That was why I was thinking of testing whether I could use them.
“Hey, you skinny little thing, where do you think you’re showing off? You looking to die? You seem to want to act tough, but I can see right through you.”
…He had bulked up a bit, hadn’t he?
[Hoh… How do I look in your eyes, then?]
“You have no talent for martial arts. I don’t sense even a shred of strength in you. So that ominous aura is all for show, right? No matter how powerful a weapon a weakling wields, it’s just a pearl necklace on a pig.”
Oh, that was a pretty accurate assessment.
The giant man approached me while exuding a fierce aura.
I knew him.
He was a man who enjoyed duels, defeating countless strong opponents in the original story. He chose the path of a villain rather than a hero because he enjoyed fighting itself.
Seo Tae-ho. He, too, was a genius with a powerful talent, but he didn’t use his talent.
How far could a human body go?
Could human will and effort truly overcome innate talent?
He was a man who harbored such questions, and he eventually obtained a remarkable trait through training, comparable to innate talent.
“You’ve come to the wrong place to show off. I don’t know how you got here before us, but move aside.”
Well, you took the fastest of the standard routes while I came here through a loophole that existed in the settings.
[Not bad. Good loyalty. You moved before receiving orders because you lack patience, but I’ll give you a passing grade.]
I looked at him while trying not to show my thoughts outwardly.
[But you’re arrogant.]
He was strong.
“Huh, you little…”
He had trained his body to the limit, imbuing his muscles with mana, and he was a strong opponent, rarely matched in physical combat.
“Boss! Stop him! We’re not here to fight!”
The small woman tried to stop him, but he had already shot out like an arrow.
-Don’t worry, his aura is impressive, but there’s no killing intent.
I used Ruyi to reinforce my trembling body as much as possible.
It was the same story as before.
Mere physical force couldn’t even scratch the tailcoat I was wearing.
A roaring sound echoed, and the surroundings shook, but this time it didn’t hurt as much as I thought.
-I diverted the impact.
‘If you could do that, why didn’t you do it last time…?’
-I did it then too. I just made a mistake back then because it’s been a while.
So there was a reason it didn’t hurt as much as I had expected.
As expected of a near-mythical grade relic. Reliable performance.
[So, is that all? It’s unpleasant to be hit without resistance even if it doesn’t hurt. It was my way of showing goodwill, so I hope you liked it.]
Most small fries would be trembling in despair at the fact that their attacks weren’t working, but the man in front of me wasn’t like that.
A series of blows. The tailcoat, which I had made as heavy as possible to withstand the attacks, couldn’t hold on, and my body was gradually pushed back.
Thanks to Sun Wukong diverting the impact amidst the barrage of blows, I was able to respond comfortably.
[…Impressive. Are your fists alright?]
“No, it’s like hitting a mountain.”
The way he looked at me had changed.
“I don’t know if it’s a relic, special armor, or if you’re a strong person whose level I can’t read.”
[Hmm?]
“Still. You’re better than I thought.”
“Boss! Stop him! We’re not here to fight!”
“…Wait a minute. I have something to confirm. Hold on.”
“…What!?”
I thought she would stop him by now, but it seemed like she wanted to confirm something from me.
Then I should make her want to stop him.
“I’m quite lucky today.”
Oh, it was something protagonists who received fortuitous encounters in novels often said.
[How so?]
“How often do you get the chance to hit a mountain in human form…! You bastard…! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to break a mountain!”
Mana gathered in his fist as he concentrated everything at a single point.
It was clearly an extraordinary blow.
[No.]
It seemed like it would be a big problem if I took that head-on.
[I’ve shown enough goodwill.]
As I stretched out my hand, Black Shadow, which had absorbed the power of my Enhancement, temporarily revealed its true form, devouring all light.
Paradoxically, the brilliant darkness that swallowed all existing light created a clear form.
It was Black Shadow’s awakened form, its original form before being downgraded to a relic. The Dragon’s Shadow.
The Dragon’s Shadow greedily devoured the surrounding mana, and for the first time, a look of bewilderment appeared on Seo Tae-ho’s face as he prepared his desperate blow.
[Are you confused? Yes, how does it feel to temporarily lose your mana?]
Yes, before the shadow of a dragon, the most blessed creature in this world, humans were not allowed to wield mana.
In the novel, the beings most familiar with mana were neither demons nor humans.
It was dragons.
Seo Tae-ho, momentarily bewildered, tried to charge at me with his weakened body while looking genuinely thrilled, but finally, the intervention I had been waiting for arrived.
“Stop it.”
Callea.
The model-like woman with sky-blue hair, the Omnipotent Alchemist, had intervened.
“Boss.”
“The compatibility is too bad. Physical attacks won’t work, and if you try to resist with a moderate amount of mana, that shadow will just absorb it all. I don’t want to lose a competent subordinate just yet.”
“Ugh…”
Finally, heeding her words, he took a step back.
“Since you haven’t attacked, can we assume that you’re still favorably disposed towards us?”
No, it was just that it was obvious my attacks wouldn’t even scratch you.
[Of course, I still have a favorable attitude towards you. The Great One as well.]
“Good. I don’t want to fight to the death with you either. What do you want?”
[I’d like to ask you to join us, but you’ll refuse, right? So, are you interested in collaborating with us?]
“…Collaborating?”
[Yes, collaborating.]
“How can we collaborate when we don’t even know who you are, or what kind of organization you belong to? How about revealing your identity first?”
[You’ll find out who we are soon enough. He will appear soon. Time is running out.]
“Okay. If you’re not delusional, you’re saying there’s an existence you follow, and since their goal seems to overlap with ours, you want to collaborate?”
Shit, I almost panicked.
No, I wasn’t delusional. I was really going to bring him here soon.
[You understand quickly.]
“Hah, do you even know our goal? No, perhaps you do know. Then you also know that I won’t make any more concessions, right?”
[There’s nothing you want behind this door. There might be treasures made by a man who dedicated his entire life to alchemy, but they’re not what you truly desire.]
“…You don’t mean…”
[I’ll need an answer when we meet again next time. Whether you’ll join us or oppose us.]
As I approached the reward room, the plants tried to approach me, but they quickly withered as their mana was drained by the shadows.
…Their rustling was kind of cute.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“…You’re just going to leave it like this?”
“Then? Should we fight again?”
She said to the dissatisfied man, unusually dropping her formal speech.
“I can win if we fight again.”
“No, I don’t think we need to fight. Whether he was bluffing or not, which one was his true self, we’ll know since we’ll meet again anyway.”
“…What do you mean?”
No one else would have seen it, but she, who possessed the same thing, saw something similar in him.
An immature fragment of Omnipotence, not yet awakened.
And that fragment was identical in form to the one she had seen in the boy that afternoon.
“Whether that was his true form or not, this is going to be interesting.”
“That’s right. You really should listen to the boss. If he had been serious, you would be dead.”
“Ah, I could have won! If the boss hadn’t stopped me, my fist would have smashed that guy’s face!”
“Sure~”
“…This person…”
“Everyone, stop. No, please stop. We’ll escape once the dungeon is cleared.”
“Ah, boss! What if he was lying and what you were looking for is in there?”
“What do you mean? We can just take it back, then.”
“Aha.”
“…Are you really an idiot?”
“Or we can leave it with them as a token of our alliance.”
She said so while looking in the direction of the boss room where he had disappeared.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Well, shit.”
I managed to bluff my way past our prospective partners, but I had used Enhancement too recklessly.
I enhanced Ruyi to its limit to withstand Seo Tae-ho’s punches, and I also used Enhancement to awaken Black Shadow to preemptively stop his finishing move.
The pseudo-awakening of Black Shadow, in particular, consumed more innate qi than I expected, and now I only had a little less than a single person’s worth of innate qi remaining in my body. This wasn’t enough to clear the boss room alone, no matter how I thought about it.
“…Should I wait for the others?”
-You’re either incredibly reckless or incredibly bold, I can’t tell which.
As always, a pathetic voice came from Ruyi.
“You’re right. I was a bit careless this time. Even I think so.”
-Why don’t you just ask me for help? Why do you always try to do things yourself when you have no talent?
“…What? Help? What are you talking about?”
-Since you passed the trial properly, I can help you if you wish. Ruyi’s not a cursed weapon, so why do you think there’s a spirit attached to it? I’m there to help its owner.
…You can do that?
There was no such thing in the original story. There wasn’t anything like that in the settings book either.
The only suspicious thing was that the original owner of Ruyi had forcibly activated it.
“But why didn’t you tell me that until now…?”
-Because you never asked.
“Then why are you telling me this now?”
-Because it’s frustrating to watch you just take hits all the time?
“…What can you do?”
-Hmm, that depends on how much you can endure.
Ruyi was a sufficiently powerful relic even without this in the original story.
But perhaps I had underestimated its near-mythical grade ranking.
-In your current state, you can’t do anything too impressive. Nothing too difficult.
Ruyi changed its shape and pointed to the boss room in front of me.
-But I can at least make you strong enough to defeat the monster behind this door on your own.
Sun Wukong’s voice was filled with playfulness.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
T/N – Yes! Chuni MC is just so good. Though I wonder if Callea was able to connect the dots between the MC and his villain persona?
I also want to know about the unawakened power within the MC. From what Callea said, it’s similar to her Omnipotence talent, though we don’t know how her talent works just yet.
Lastly, Sun Wukong will finally do something useful. While his commentary has been pretty funny, his overall presence in the story has been lackluster so far. I’m excited to see what the Victorious Fighting Buddha can do. Even if he’s not the real Sun Wukong, he shouldn’t be too bad, right?
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
