## Chapter 26 – (10)
1 billion won.
Having been a multi-billion won stock owner in the previous quest, it wasn’t an amount I was seeing for the first time.
However, recalling the times when I was so poor in this world that I couldn’t even afford a motel, I couldn’t help but feel a renewed sense of emotion.
Now I could take Minji to a five-star hotel.
A hotel with a pool and chandeliers.
“We’ll deposit the money into your card generously, including a bonus for these gold bars. But—”
Violet waved a stack of papers.
“Can you concede this?”
Something was densely written, but it was just a paper filled with words I couldn’t understand at all.
“That’s…”
“Things like weaknesses of heroes or villains. My weakness is in there too. Though you probably already know it.”
Violet’s weakness.
If I knew anything, it was probably that she had a foot in both the hero and villain worlds.
Honestly, I wasn’t particularly curious about the weaknesses of villains and heroes.
“I’ll give it to you.”
It was unnecessary for me anyway.
And I couldn’t refuse Violet’s offer here.
Violet was someone I definitely needed to have on my side to take the hero exam.
“Good, then I’ll quietly pass you over during the hero exam.”
She smiled and promised.
I was a little uneasy, but I had no choice but to believe her.
Now the basic preparations were complete.
All that was left was to beat Kang Seok, achieve an overwhelming score on the hero exam, and be recognized as a strong man by Choi Ga-eun.
Right now, Kang Seok and I were probably being recognized as men in Choi Ga-eun’s mind.
If I beat Kang Seok, I would probably be recognized as the only strong man who could satisfy Choi Ga-eun’s fortress.
Leaving the bar, I revisited the private investigation agency I had visited once before.
This time, to investigate Kang Seok.
“Hmm…”
After pondering for a moment, the man raised five fingers to me.
“Fifty.”
It was definitely more expensive than before, but it wasn’t a big problem for me now.
In the first place, these days I was escaping my desolate and empty house to sleep in hotels.
When I handed over my card, he took out a card reader and completed the payment with practiced skill.
Before coming to this world, I had an image of villains only dealing in cash, but that wasn’t the case.
Of course, the records were well altered.
The card statement showed the payment was completed under the name of a “sensibility pub” instead of a private investigation agency.
As soon as the payment was completed, the man took out a file from a corner of the bookshelf again.
This was a bit unexpected.
I could understand it for Scorpion, who had been active for a long time, but I knew Kang Seok as a recently active hero prospect.
And even the file was reasonably thick.
The moment I received the file and opened it, I understood the reason.
In conclusion, Minji was right.
Kang Seok was a villain.
And for quite a long time.
Thinking about it that way, the thickness of the file was rather thin.
Considering how long he had been active, there wasn’t much written in it.
That was understandable.
Originally, he was a villain without powers.
Usually, people are born with abilities, but it is said that in rare cases, they awaken their abilities late.
Kang Seok was one of those cases.
As soon as Kang Seok awakened his abilities, he left the villains.
It didn’t seem to be for a righteous reason like wanting to become a hero.
It was likely for another reason.
And I read one sentence.
[Special Note: Frequently participates in battles with heroes belonging to Guardian.]
I didn’t know this, but ordinary villains often gather and operate in teams.
They post requests on places like bulletin boards, and villains express their intention to participate and solve the requests together.
Among them, Kang Seok almost always participated in requests related to Guardian, where Choi Ga-eun and Minji belonged.
It was strange.
Hero agency, Guardian.
They were outstanding in ability and appearance.
It was the agency for heroes who had as many haters as fans due to their sharp personalities.
The villains avoided the heroes as much as they could because of their outstanding abilities.
Especially if they were villains without powers.
Yet Kang Seok specifically sought out requests related to Guardian.
He even quit being a villain after gaining abilities, declared that he would become a hero, and went to find Choi Ga-eun.
Whether it was fan sentiment or ulterior motives.
I felt like I was getting a sense of it.
And I looked at Kang Seok’s abilities.
“This is…”
I blankly read the words, and after seeing Kang Seok’s abilities, I let out a hollow laugh.
“I can’t lose.”
It was a little early, but I was sure of victory.
Time passed, and the day of the hero exam approached.
***
Kang Seok woke up and checked his appearance in the mirror.
The burly body he had been cultivating since his villain days writhed.
His condition was at its peak.
“Guardian—”
He muttered the name of a hero agency.
They were heroes who had been catching his eye since a long time ago.
They had overwhelming power, and their appearance was so beautiful that it was on a different level from other heroes.
The sharp personality that people pointed out as a flaw also felt like an advantage to him.
So, ironically, he chose to become a villain.
Because he wanted to see them from a closer place, to touch them, and to satisfy his ulterior motives.
An ordinary person without abilities could not become a hero.
Passing the hero exam, which boasted a high competition rate, was always only for those with abilities, so he couldn’t even dare to think about it.
In comparison, anyone could become a villain.
Anyone could, just by putting aside their morality for a moment.
After becoming a villain, he only accepted requests related to the Guardian agency.
With fan sentiment and ulterior motives, he fought them.
Even if he was beaten or cursed at, this feeling did not weaken.
Rather, it gradually grew.
And the opportunity came.
He had gained abilities. Quite powerful abilities, too.
Now he could stand shoulder to shoulder with them as a hero.
With boiling emotions, he quit being a villain and went straight to Guardian.
The cafe on the lower floor of Guardian.
In fact, Choi Ga-eun and Minji were leisurely enjoying coffee in the only cafe they could freely come and go from.
The moment he excitedly ran towards them.
He was kicked by Choi Ga-eun.
If he hadn’t used his ability in advance to create armor, he would have been in the emergency room.
It was an unbelievable power that came from a small body.
“…You endured?”
That was the first thing Choi Ga-eun said to him after seeing him.
A psychopath.
But that was better.
Thinking about the moment when she would whine under him later, he could forgive her arrogance now.
“Endured” was the wrong word.
All he could do was barely not fall down and breathe.
“…Who are you?”
That wasn’t the question to ask after kicking him.
And the question was shocking.
‘She doesn’t remember me?’
He had faced her several times, no, several dozen times.
Of course, he had been subdued in an instant each time, but he didn’t think she wouldn’t remember him.
He had expected her to recognize him and was going to say that he had quit being a villain, but there was no need.
Choi Ga-eun, including all the heroes belonging to Guardian, did not remember him.
“A hero prospect? Is that so?”
There wasn’t even a small doubt.
However, her two eyes seemed to have become interested.
After enduring the attack, Choi Ga-eun didn’t show much resistance to his active advances.
Unlike Minji and the other heroes, she even accepted him a little.
She even offered to have a meal with him if he got good grades on the hero exam.
Even if it was someone else, the fact that those words came out of Choi Ga-eun’s mouth was really significant.
It was going quite smoothly.
Until that guy appeared.
It was when he was passing in front of Guardian.
He was going to stop by the cafe and talk to Choi Ga-eun as usual, but there was already a guest.
He knew Choi Ga-eun and Minji, and the fellow hero, because they were familiar faces, but he saw a man approaching them.
Seeing that, he chuckled.
He later learned that Choi Ga-eun was extremely wary of someone unknown approaching her when she was in the cafe because there were villains who would occasionally ambush her.
That man was bound to get kicked like him.
“…Huh?”
But that didn’t happen.
None other than Minji was giving the man a faint smile.
“…”
It was a subtle change in expression that he could recognize because he was a longtime fan.
So the shock was even greater.
That Minji gave him a smile?
And the shock didn’t stop there.
“…Wh, what!”
The two were kissing.
Even though Choi Ga-eun and the fellow hero were watching, they didn’t care about the attention and kissed.
It was a sticky kiss that stirred each other’s mouths.
“…”
He waited.
He waited for Minji to push the man away and use her telekinesis to restrain him.
He waited desperately.
But that didn’t happen.
Rather, she gently turned her head and kissed him even deeper.
Far from pushing him away, she put her small, white hand on the man’s back and pulled him towards her.
It was a painful sight.
But he couldn’t take his eyes off it.
That man’s appearance was the one he had so imagined and wanted to be.
Now that he had abilities, he believed he had a chance—
When the man’s gaze turned to Choi Ga-eun after their long kiss, a chill ran down his spine.
It was a gaze that was somehow intense and sticky.
At least, that’s how it looked to him.
“I can’t let Choi Ga-eun be taken away too…”
He headed to the training ground with trembling legs.
To become even a little stronger.
And the moment when that effort would shine was approaching.
“I won’t forgive him.”
Thinking of the man, he clenched his fist tightly.
