The Crazy Villain Regains His Sanity - Chapter 69

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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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Episode 69

In this life, Jung Da-hyun occupies a rather special place for me.
Compared to my past life, it’s like heaven and earth.
To be honest about Jung Da-hyun, when I first returned to the past and met her, I didn’t think much of it.
Thinking back on it now, meeting her was fortunate. She pulled me strongly toward something other than becoming a Government Hunter without much thought, and she was a great help in keeping my mind from wandering elsewhere.
In my past life, when I died by her hand, Jung Da-hyun never bent her unwavering convictions.
Even though it was a place for me to die, that was the moment I first witnessed an unbreakable justice that would burn itself for what’s right.
So in this life, I wanted to see the justice she pursued expand outward.
The reason I went out of my way to guide her to Level 7 was out of that curiosity. I gained the epithet of Rakshasi in the process, but that’s all right.
But the expression on the creature facing me was strange.

“You deceived me.”
“Deceive you how?”

If I win, you’ll let me live? That’s still a valid offer.
I’ve never lied, and yet it was ranting and raving all on its own.

“Don’t think I’ll die without a fight.”
“Good resolve. Do your best.”
“Grraaah!”

Determined, the creature tore up a boulder right in front of it and hurled it at me.
It must have weighed several tons, yet the way it threw it like tossing a ball — the epithet “Hundred-Man Slayer” suited it well.

Crash!

Shattered rock fragments scattered in a shower with a terrifying roar.
In that gap, the creature’s fist, laden with brute force, came at my face.

Whoosh!

The air seemed to tear apart.
Such tremendous power usually overwhelms the body, yet my thoroughly trained flesh endured it.
An Awakened One who’d honed both Force and body to their limits — a perfect teaching tool for revealing the truth to Jung Da-hyun.
I deflected its hand to the side.

“Usually you prepare for the next attack, but it’s better to account for the variables that can arise from doing so.”

My counterattack came, but Arai dodged it without difficulty. Then it launched a sharp counterattack in return, but I lightly caught its arm and flicked it away. Normally it would have been pulverized by a Mine.
But right now, we’re in the middle of a lesson.

“At Level 7, you can dodge and counterattack. But you barely evaded and threw such an obvious attack. It’s important to maintain a pace where you can launch your own offense at any moment.”

Then I extended my hand straight forward, twisting its trajectory, adjusting its speed.
Arai’s limbs, which had deflected my strikes easily at first, began to falter.

“Kgh!”
“I’m not fooled while this one is — because I can control not just the form of my attack, but also my intent behind it. When you mix intent into an attack, even small movements become sharp, and instinct naturally takes a defensive stance. Since it got fooled, I went one step ahead and seized the advantage. From here, you need to layer deception on top of deception.”

Jung Da-hyun, with her gift of intuition, can anticipate, predict, and perceive enemy attacks in many different ways.
In that sense, this Hundred-Man Slayer creature was perfect for demonstration — a fully mature Level 7 with solid fundamentals and abundant practical experience. Since it followed wherever I led, it was useful for giving Jung Da-hyun advice too.
Though the one actually taking the blows seemed not to mind.

“Stop toying and kill me!”
“Ah, sorry. Just a bit more. But you’re Korean, aren’t you? You speak Korean well. But why didn’t I know your name?”
“…….”

Arai’s mouth closes.
But the apology had been sincere. I’m not really the type to toy with someone before killing them. If they’re a Villain, I’d normally kill them as quickly as possible without wasting time, but I’ve been dragging this out because I need to teach Jung Da-hyun something.

“In exchange, I’ll kill you without pain.”
“Shut up!”

He’s actually trying to refuse a kindness I’m offering.
After his all-out attacks got blocked a few times, he completely lost his fighting spirit. After that, he started looking for any opportunity to escape from my grip.
I can’t let go of such a valuable teaching tool. To drain Arai’s stamina, I picked up my attack speed, and eventually the exhausted man’s movements began to slow.
So this is about all he’s got.
Looks like using brute strength comes at the cost of endurance.
I’ve squeezed out everything there is to squeeze.

Crack!

“Ahhhhh!”

Arai screamed as his arm shattered. Even so, the power behind his fist remained intact.
I’m not particularly interested in Gifts related to brute strength. If your Force control is high enough, depending on your physical training level, you can exert strength equivalent to a brute strength Gift without one.
I lightly batted away his fist and systematically crushed his forearm and shoulder.
I even broke his legs to keep him from running away.
Jung Da-hyun was handling the process of neutralizing this Villain well enough that there was no need to explain it to her.

“Ahhh!”

The man crawling across the floor, his voice hoarse with agony, looked exactly how a Villain’s end should look.
Right, this is how Villains should look. When other would-be Villains see this, they get frightened and more careful.
It’s not strictly necessary, but I could squeeze out some information about the League too.
Jung Da-hyun, who’d been watching from the side, spoke.

“But you said you’d send him off without pain…….”
“Ah, right. I did say I’d send him off without pain.”

I’d forgotten about that.
Really had.

“My Gift is the type that causes some pain naturally. Sorry.”

I simply swung my hand in a blade strike and severed Arai’s neck.
With the corpse falling lifelessly behind me, I turned my attention to Jung Da-hyun. She should have learned something from witnessing this.

“Did anything strike you?”
“…Yes.”
“Can you be more specific about it?”
“No. I apologize.”

Jung Da-hyun, her brow furrowed in thought, offered an apology. I understood. True insight is always difficult to articulate at first. It needs to be crystallized and take on your own clear form before it’s truly complete.

“It’s hard to grasp everything at once. What matters is taking that and making it your own.”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s move.”
“Yes?”
“You’re aware Busan is crawling with people who need killing, right? I’ll explain as we go through it, so keep your eyes open.”

There’s also the option of having her face opponents directly, but the odds of winning are nearly zero.
Come to think of it, why did that dead man think he’d be matched against Jung Da-hyun?
Anyone could see she was the weaker one.
Did he somehow know I was the type to push people into confrontations with stronger opponents and expect them to achieve enlightenment through desperate situations?
I must have watched too many superhero comics.
The surest way to advance to the next stage is only after I’ve secured ‘safety’ first. What good does it do to die and rise to the next level?
I summoned Berserker to secure safety, then had him spar with me—all part of the same logic.

“Let’s go.”

Jung Da-hyun and I moved to find another target.

* * *

Busan was a place where Yu Seong-su had sunk deep roots over the past ten years.
Though people were deceived all that time, Yu Seong-su’s hand touched every corner of Busan’s interests, and villains disguised as Hunters lurked on all sides.
When the news broke that Busan City Hall had fallen, some villain organizations fled to Japan or went into hiding, but the surviving forces that couldn’t escape were far more numerous.

“Sweep them all away.”

Under Jung Ju-ho of the National Guard’s meticulous command, Yu Seong-su’s forces were swiftly annihilated.
This was possible thanks to Brainwashing. Yu Seong-su, true embodiment of greed, proved resilient under the technique, holding out for quite some time.
And when all his surviving subordinates had their information extracted through Brainwashing, Yu Seong-su’s forces unraveled like a string of linked knots.
The largest purge in history. When tens of trillions of won were recovered, the media erupted in shock, running the story daily.

<Just Busan alone recovers 50 trillion won!>
<Is history’s biggest Yu Seong-su scandal about to break? The opposition isn’t unrelated either!>
<Yu Seong-su caused division, but Busan was actually a safe zone from Monsters!>
<Opposition: “Unrelated to the Yu Seong-su scandal.” Dismisses claims!>
<Broad-daylight massacre—is this really acceptable?>
<A Hunter more cruel than Villains walking free—is this okay?>

As the incident dubbed the Yu Seong-su scandal ran nightly on television, the opposition’s approval ratings plummeted.
The opposition, which had protested about political purges, found itself under crossfire from public opinion and could only apologize repeatedly.
And there seemed to be some strange news mixed in with all of this.

“It’s all thanks to our Choi Jun-ho, the Awakened One.”

The President’s face broke into a broad smile as his approval ratings climbed from the backlash effect. It seemed true that he lost his mind whenever the numbers came in.

“I only did what needed to be done.”
“Such humility too. How could anyone not like you for it?”

They didn’t really need to like me for it.
He must have read my thoughts—he laughed sheepishly and changed the subject.

“Oh, and Japan sent over their thanks too. They said they’re grateful for Choi Jun-ho’s generosity.”
“I’m glad if it helped improve relations between our countries.”
“And their proposal to clean up the League in Japan was rejected.”
“I see.”
“For them, it’s not an easy decision to have a foreign Awakened One cross over to conduct operations. You understand, I hope.”
“Yes, it’s no trouble at all.”

I can just dispose of them wherever they appear.
But I could sense the President carefully gauging my reaction.

“Is there something you’d like to say?”
“May I ask you something?”
“Please, speak freely.”
“It might be a difficult question.”
“If it’s truly difficult, I simply won’t answer.”
“Then I can ask freely. So, um.”

This seems like it really is difficult for him. Now I’m the one who’s curious. What’s he trying to ask? Is he asking if I’m a Villain?
I could say with confidence that wasn’t the case.
But the words that came from the President’s mouth were entirely different from what I’d anticipated.

“Is it possible you have multiple Gifts?”

What else could I say?
Was this really a question worth such deliberation?
Since there was no need to hide it, I answered readily.

“Yes.”
“…Truly?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”

The President who had posed the question and Cheon Myeong-guk, who had been visibly tense, both wore expressions of deflation.

“Usually, they say that if you have multiple Gifts, you can’t manifest them properly…….”
“I’m different.”

After all, I’d stolen Gifts that other people had completed.
But was there reason to be so cautious about it?

“I, I see.”
“You can speak more freely, sir.”
“I’d like to, but I’m just not mentally prepared at the moment. Heh, asking someone if they have multiple Gifts isn’t exactly a minor breach of courtesy.”
“Understood.”
“But don’t reveal to anyone else that you have multiple Gifts. It’s sensitive information.”
“Yes.”

In any case, very few people knew I had multiple Gifts.
There used to be quite a few, but they’re all dead now.

* * *

“Phew! He’s difficult to deal with, that’s for sure.”

After Choi Jun-ho left, the President let out a sigh.
Though he was old enough to be Choi Jun-ho’s great-uncle, dealing with him was far harder than persuading the opposition leader.
Just today, asking about his Gifts had left his palms slick with sweat.

“But I did gain useful information.”

Dealing with Nuri, and now Yu Seong-su.
He could take pride in the contract with Choi Jun-ho as his greatest achievement yet.
That Choi Jun-ho wielded multiple Gifts—discovering even this much about the source of his strength was enough. He decided to content himself with that.

“And.”

The President smiled at Cheon Myeong-guk.

“Has this experience changed your thinking somewhat?”
“Quite significantly, sir.”
“As it should.”

The President was an Unawakened One and Cheon Myeong-guk was an Awakened One, yet their views had been opposite.
This operation to capture Yu Seong-su had proceeded according to Cheon Myeong-guk’s argument, and the result had been suppression through conflict.

“In the end, upholding justice comes down to power.”
“It’s a feeling I’d forgotten during my long absence from the field. Witnessing that superhuman, Choi Jun-ho, I came to understand it.”
“What was it like observing from beside him?”
“Terrifying.”

Even now, recalling the moment Choi Jun-ho materialized through the portal sent a chill down his spine.
The way he annihilated enemies before him without a shred of hesitation. On the surface it might seem exhilarating, but what if that target were himself? What if it were South Korea? The thought made his vision darken.
As if sensing his misgivings, the South Korean President spoke.

“That’s precisely why I said we should make him ours.”
“I fear we may not be able to control that power until the very end.”
“Then we need to stay sharp.”

Was such a thing even possible? What if a single accident unraveled everything?
Cheon Myeong-guk exhaled and laid bare his true thoughts.

“Your words are wise, sir, but the world won’t accept them at face value.”
“Such opinions are already surfacing.”
“The urgent matter now is public opinion regarding Choi Jun-ho. Both domestically and globally.”
“It’s not easy.”
“There are forces stirring things up from behind the scenes.”
“We can’t pin them all on the League.”

Choi Jun-ho’s enemies were scattered everywhere. There were journalists who saw his actions as tyranny, guilds that chafed at his power. Government Hunters consumed with envy at his meteoric rise, corporations that had taken massive losses from the Big Bang series.

“And mixed in among them are those who support the League’s ideology.”

It was, in every sense, a murky stew of conflicting interests.
But their objective was singular.
To imprint Choi Jun-ho in the public mind not as a ‘hero’ but as a ‘villain’.
The Busan City Council incident was perfect material for a preliminary strike.
Even if he’d earned credit for capturing the city mayor and councilmen who’d attempted to incite civil war, the fact remained that he’d carried out justice on his own terms.
Attempts were already underway to exploit this recklessness and shift public sentiment against Awakened Ones.
And it wasn’t confined to the domestic sphere—it was happening abroad as well.

“Especially at conferences. That’s where headaches will really begin.”
“If anyone provokes him, he won’t hold back.”
“At the International Superhuman Union, there’ll definitely be an incident. You said he’s been invited?”
“He’s the most talked-about superhuman of late.”

Choi Jun-ho’s name had spread not just across South Korea but throughout the world.
His epithet had grown particularly celebrated after he’d hunted Nuri alone.
Despite having briefed multiple nations including the United States on the hunting process, many Hunters still couldn’t believe he’d done it solo.

“We plan to inform Choi Jun-ho of this shortly.”
“There’s no grounds to stop him.”
“No, sir.”
……

Silence hung between them for a moment.
Given that there were those who viewed Choi Jun-ho’s actions unfavorably, the likelihood of confrontation there was considerable.
How could he prevent it?
Cheon Myeong-guk felt a headache coming on.

“What if we simply pass the burden along?”
“Sir?”
“Worrying about it ourselves won’t help. We send Choi Jun-ho to the International Superhuman Union and let ourselves enjoy a bit of rest. The bigwigs there will handle it themselves. The Choi Jun-ho experience is far too exceptional for me to savor alone. What do you think of that?”
“…Wise counsel, sir.”

Simply having Choi Jun-ho away from South Korea for a time felt like a weight lifting, like vitality returning.
It was a bonus that the rest of the world would get a taste of the Choi Jun-ho phenomenon.
Both men’s expressions brightened.

—————
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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