A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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02.

The world I originally inhabited was chaos incarnate.
The Gate.
A colossal circular rift between dimensions.
One day, without warning or fanfare, it manifested across the globe, accompanied by a dark, suffocating black fog that unleashed untold calamities.
Earthquakes, sinkholes, tsunamis, and landslides became commonplace disasters.
Those exposed to the black fog suffered inexplicable agony and descended into madness.
Eventually, their bodies rotted from within, and they perished.
As if that weren’t enough, grotesque monsters poured forth from within the Gate after a certain duration had elapsed.
Humanity fell helplessly before the enigmatic Gate.
Every media outlet competed daily to announce that extinction had arrived on Earth.
Yet there is a saying: even if the heavens collapse, there remains a hole through which salvation may emerge.
Humans began to appear who survived exposure to the black fog.
After enduring prolonged fever and awakening, they manifested extraordinary abilities.
They commanded water and flame, sprinted faster than missiles, wielded superhuman strength….
They proved capable of confronting the grotesque monsters that spilled from the Gate.
The surviving ordinary humans revered them as “Awakened Ones.”
Human society rapidly bifurcated into two distinct classes.
Naturally, the Awakened Ones became the privileged and ruling class.
The subjugated ordinary citizens, in turn, lived in gratitude toward the Awakened Ones who protected them.
Unfortunately, I belonged to neither the protecting nor the protected—an ambiguous existence, like a duck egg in the Nakdong River.
The only daughter of a general, cast out early for failing to awaken and left to fend for herself.
My father, meanwhile, had adopted orphaned Awakened children and earned the people’s trust in return….
In a chaotic world plagued by constant catastrophes, no one particularly cared how that neglected daughter survived.
‘Me? I managed well enough.’
I resented my deceased mother for why I alone failed to awaken.
I begged my father to pay me some attention.
When those so-called brothers—with not a drop of shared blood—beat me, I sometimes wished for death.
Yet compared to orphans who lost their parents in an instant because of the Gate, I lived relatively well.
I studied diligently, escaped that chaotic household, and succeeded in severing ties with those people.
I acquired an impressive education, secured a respectable position….
And I gained a card to throw in my wretched biological father’s face.
It wasn’t perfect, but those days were satisfying in their own way.

【How to Save an Abandoned World】

If only it hadn’t been that novel.
My encounter with the book was purely by chance.
“How to Save an Abandoned World? The title is certainly… something.”
After completing the purification process, I examined the now-pristine cover and clicked my tongue in disapproval.
They said it was the first documented artifact discovered inside a Gate.
‘It reads like some light novel title.’
Normally, artifacts discovered inside Gates are classified military materials and extremely difficult to remove.
The reason this book ended up in my hands was because it had been contaminated by the black miasma, rendering its contents unreadable.
Consequently, the Special Task Force—composed of Awakened individuals—entrusted the book’s purification to our Research Institute.
It was clearly an opportunity to test cure-1, the black miasma purification substance I was developing.
“I really wish the title were accurate and it actually contained a method to save the world…”
I flexed my hands, still tingling from the prolonged purification work, and opened the book.
There was no real need for me to read it myself, but I opened it anyway—just in case.
Cure-1, still in clinical trials, was far from perfect.
But if this book contained something useful, that would be the jackpot, wouldn’t it?
However.
“Are you serious?!”
Before I’d even reached the halfway point, I realized it was a waste of effort.
Given the title and the fact that it was supposedly discovered inside a Gate, I’d expected some groundbreaking solution…
But it was just a romance fantasy novel!
“What kind of lunatic brings a novel on a Gate expedition?”
Someone must have dropped it and been too embarrassed to claim it.
Either that, or the content itself was somehow deemed unacceptable for discovery inside a Gate.
“How to Save an Abandoned World” was an epic tale of the heroine Ruellin, separated from her family in childhood due to an accident, who overcomes trials, awakens, and saves the world.
Perhaps because the world had fallen into such a state, everyone was captivated by powerful and charismatic Awakened individuals.
Novels like fanfiction centered on them began pouring out in abundance, and at some point, they became established as a form of popular culture.
“Seriously. Now even medieval fantasy is trending?”
Regardless, aside from the Western setting, “How to Save an Abandoned World” followed the same formula.
Gates appear, and magnificent protagonists emerge to save a world on the brink of destruction.
Moreover, this book featured a diverse cast of male characters.
A dazzling lineup of male leads, each possessing different abilities and impressive specs!
‘What do they call it these days—a reverse harem?’
The only somewhat unique aspect was the heroine’s ability.
“A Purifier…”
By the time I realized there were four male lead candidates, I should have thrown the book away long ago—yet I’d somehow trudged through half of it.
It was because of the heroine’s ability to purify the black miasma, expressed in the book as “magi.”
Among all the numerous abilities possessed by Awakened individuals discovered so far, there was no concept of “purification.”
Even Awakened individuals known to be less affected by the black miasma eventually go mad and die if exposed for prolonged periods.
This phenomenon, known as Awakened Runaway, causes damage comparable to a typical Gate manifestation.
That’s why nations worldwide were desperately searching for methods to eliminate the black miasma.
I was the architect of meaningful achievements within that fierce competition.
Yet among countless abilities, why did the heroine have to possess purification of all things?
“Something about this smells off.”
Currently, I’m under considerable surveillance and threats from multiple factions.
There were countless instances of infiltration attempts to steal samples or people tailing me to dig into my background.
I’ve even received threats from strange charlatans demanding I cease my research immediately.
Particularly when an article surfaced claiming cure-1 was entirely fabricated and that I was a con artist after investment funds—that caused me considerable distress.
“Well, if what you’re claiming is merely a sort of provocation, like saying everything you do is nothing but fiction… wouldn’t that be paranoia on my part?”
Ah. It was sent by the military, so surely not.
I regarded the book with an uneasy gaze, but finished reading it regardless.
In any case, the heroine awakens as a Purifier, cleanses the regions where Gates manifest, and saves the world.
Moreover, she eliminates the demonic energy that has infested the male leads’ bodies, romance blossoms, and all.
As a bonus, she becomes the Emperor’s adopted daughter and achieves a rise in status.
“…How predictable.”
As a reader, the protagonist’s unbroken string of victories is something to celebrate.
Yet somehow, I felt displeasure before joy.
Beneath the heroine’s success and love lay the death of the villain.
The Duke’s daughter, Edith Blake, was a trite and archetypal villain.
Born as the sole daughter of the Duke’s household, which had produced Awakeners for generations, yet she alone failed to awaken and was abandoned.
Starved for affection, she could not bear to see attention drawn to Ruellin, who appeared like a comet.
She tormented the heroine through various means and committed atrocities, only to meet a miserable death, shunned by all.
The male leads, who had been acquainted with the Duke’s daughter since childhood, felt a measure of shock and guilt at her death.
The heroine comforts these weary male leads in body and spirit, becoming the catalyst for their deepening bond.
Certainly, the villain’s death was just retribution.
Yet I felt no sense of catharsis.
“Clearly, someone’s been scheming behind the scenes. Where? Myungha Pharmaceuticals? Donggang Research Institute? Those bastards, digging into my past?”
No matter how I thought about it, this wasn’t paranoia.
The villain’s background was far too similar to mine!
I glared at the book and narrowed down the organizations capable of orchestrating such a thing.
They must have deliberately uncovered my past—that I’m the daughter of the Commander and that I was cast out for failing to awaken—and used it for this.
If their intent was to sow distrust of me within the government and military, it was an extraordinarily cunning and vicious method.
“This is too much. Is lacking an ability really a sin? Why would they kill someone off so spitefully?”
To brand a child starved for attention as a villainess for acting out, and then kill her off.
Furthermore, because she lacked an ability, the Duke casts his daughter out from succession and adopts the son of a deceased retainer as his heir.
That man is also one of the male lead candidates.
“This is too similar, it’s infuriating. Who’s the author? How careless, not even writing their name. Rot in hell.”
In an instant, I found myself identifying with Edith’s position and felt a deep sense of injustice.
‘Why do they only emphasize the villain from the heroine’s perspective? Write the villain from the villain’s perspective too…!’
If Edith is the villain to the heroine, then isn’t the Duke and those male lead bastards the villains to Edith?
Similarly, my villains are my biological father and the bastards he registered in the family register.
Who was it that not only scattered all manner of filth across my quiet life, but had the audacity to contact me the moment I produced some research results, spouting nonsense about ‘family’?
Perhaps if Edith Blake, like me, had severed ties early and lived well, only to accumulate some reputation, she too would have grown sick of that unwanted attention.
In that sense, she who begged for affection until her dying breath was truly foolish and pathetic beyond measure.
‘What good is such an ability anyway?’
What did it matter what a family that didn’t love me thought? What did it matter what those around me said?
Without such things, with a status like the Duke’s, couldn’t one thrive splendidly on their own?
If I were in her position, I thought, I would have spat in the faces of those who abandoned ordinary people in emergencies.
Then suddenly, I came to my senses.
“I’ve lost it. It’s already four in the morning!”
No matter how much they call me the Research Institute’s resident ghost, I’m still human enough to sleep comfortably in bed when I’m not busy.
After checking the time, I closed the book and hurriedly gathered my things.
The moment I arrived at the Dormitory, I rushed to wash up and collapsed into bed.
‘I’m exhausted….’
Perhaps it was because that absurd novel had unexpectedly triggered some dormant trauma.
Or perhaps it was because I’d spent so long pretending to be ordinary to escape my biological father’s gaze that I hadn’t fully internalized the connection.
Drifting mindlessly into sleep, I overlooked the single most crucial detail among all the novel’s unsettling points.
The Purifier.
The card I’d hidden all this time to spite my father.
The fact that my ability, which awakened right after leaving that household, was identical to the heroine’s.
Unaware of what calamity this would bring upon me.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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