Chapter 193 – Boring Days (2)

Olivier opened her eyes in bed.

Her fingertips—no, her entire body was trembling.

She wished the experience she had just endured was merely a nightmare.

But the feeling was vivid throughout her body.

Murdered by a mysterious assailant who appeared out of nowhere, engulfed in a vicious malice for no reason at all.

“Ugh…!”

Olivier hugged the trash can and threw up.

“Huu, haa.”

With tears streaming down her face, Olivier collected herself.

The horrific death she’d just experienced had completely shattered her composure.

But it also brought her to her senses.

‘An Awakened.’

Definitely a Hunter. A high-ranking one, at that.

‘Why did he kill me?’

She couldn’t understand.

She had never made an enemy of anyone.

No, if someone held a grudge, they would have likely toyed with her before killing her. But this person had killed her mercilessly, as if squashing an ant.

-Strange.

What was strange?

-You’re strange too, aren’t you?

All she could see amidst that bizarre, grating voice was the perpetrator’s cold eyes.

In her shock, she hadn’t gotten a clear look at his face.

Olivier bit her lip hard.

Anger surged within her. She was furious not only because she didn’t know why she had to be killed, but also because she had died without being able to do a thing.

‘My things…’

Olivier thought of the items she’d bought while shopping.

The new bag and clothes from the department store. And a gift for the Hero.

The thought crossed her mind, but Olivier couldn’t bring herself to go retrieve them.

It was near her house, so she could get them back quickly. But perhaps her murderer was still nearby.

What if it hadn’t been her clone that was killed, but her real body?

A shiver of fear ran down her spine at the thought.

‘No, he won’t recognize me anyway.’

Olivier’s real body had a plain, makeup-free face.

She dressed her clones in pretty clothes, put makeup on them, and styled their hair. In contrast, her real self was wearing a baggy t-shirt and shorts.

“That bastard…!”

Her anger toward the murderer boiled over.

Olivier rummaged through her closet for a change of clothes.

All she could see were outfits fit for a career woman like Kim Min-jung or Kim Min-ah.

The original Olivier preferred inconspicuous, plain hoodies.

She changed her clothes, pulled her hood down low, and peered out the window.

It was quiet outside.

As if no one knew a murder had just occurred.

It was only eight in the evening.

Even though the nights were longer in winter, the culprit was unbelievably bold.

‘Going out in my real body would be foolish.’

Olivier bit her lip.

Suppressing her anger, she calmly created another clone.

This time, it was a clone in the form of a young child.

With this appearance, so completely different, he wouldn’t be able to recognize her.

Olivier went outside.

She was ready to press speed dial 0, the Hero’s number, just in case.

“Ah, I’m stuffed.”

“Wanna go to karaoke?”

“Dude. We gotta hit the PC bang.”

The chatter of students passing by on the street. A delivery truck driving past.

A shop owner telling a customer the price of fruit.

“…?”

Nothing around her had changed.

Olivier looked at the spot where she had been killed.

Her body was gone.

There were only bloodstains and a blood-soaked shopping bag.

A chill ran down her entire spine.

This was abnormal.

Even for a Villain, even for an Awakened.

‘No, how could I have not detected him in the first place?’

Olivier specialized in search and detection-type abilities.

Even if she had been distracted, she wasn’t so incompetent as to be unaware of an opponent with killing intent right behind her.

She looked around.

There was no killing intent to be detected nearby. The alley and shopping street, once filled with the ordinary scenes she saw every day on her way home,

now felt alien.

Thump, thump.

For some reason, her heart was pounding.

A chilling sensation crept over her, like something cold and serpentine slithering up from her toes to her neck.

This wasn’t some random killing spree.

The culprit had targeted her specifically, dealt with her in an instant where no one would notice, and disposed of the body.

Olivier bit her lip in frustration. She picked up the shopping bag that had fallen to the ground, the one containing the gift for the Hero.

‘Thankfully, the gift isn’t soaked.’

There was just a little blood on the wrapping paper.

Suddenly, Olivier felt a chill run down her spine.

“Strange.”

“…!”

Olivier’s pupils dilated.

The man was holding a short sword.

She glanced around. People had seen what was happening.

She saw startled merchants and bystanders, frozen by the unreal scene.

“Help…!”

Olivier couldn’t finish her sentence.

A cold sensation brushed past her neck, followed by a searing pain that felt like a blazing fire.

“So you have a main body somewhere else, huh?”

Through her fading consciousness, Olivier heard the man’s unpleasant voice.

It was a voice she had heard before.

In her blurry, dying vision, Olivier could see people trying to flee.

But the man mercilessly slaughtered the fleeing people.

“Huuph…!”

The moment the connection to her clone was severed, Olivier gasped for air.

A terrible sense of loss was accompanied by a wave of nausea.

Olivier barely managed to push the unpleasant feeling aside.

This was no time for that.

“Hero, can you come here now?”

Olivier immediately contacted the Hero.

***

The Hero arrived at the scene shortly after.

Olivier couldn’t go alone; she only moved after the Hero had arrived.

An opponent who could approach her, a detection expert, without her noticing.

He was, for all intents and purposes, Olivier’s natural enemy.

“Huu.”

The Hero let out a low sigh.

Olivier’s second clone was nowhere to be seen.

She wasn’t the only victim.

Dried bloodstains on the apples displayed at a fruit stand spoke of what had happened.

Similarly, not a single body remained.

“Are you an idiot?”

Behind the Hero, a forensics team could be seen controlling the crowd and investigating the scene.

“You should have called me right away.”

“That’s…”

“What were you thinking, going alone when you have no combat abilities?”

The Hero was right. She had nothing to say.

“Your clone died, and innocent people died too.”

She knew that. But that wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

She had wanted him to ask if she was okay, if she was hurt. But all she got from the Hero was criticism.

“So what.”

“What?”

“He was an opponent who gave off no killing intent at all. I couldn’t have predicted this either!”

Already upset, Olivier’s eyes reddened.

She had died, and everyone else had been wiped out.

The only small mercy was that there were two survivors.

One was a pregnant woman, and the other was a male student who had been talking with a friend.

Both were in deep shock and had been rushed to a nearby hospital.

“Just go home for now.”

“…”

“This is why you should have raised your synchronization rate sooner. Even without combat abilities, you could have at least used your bewitchment skill.”

In fact, her synchronization rate had risen quite a bit recently. Thanks to a certain someone.

Some of her abilities had even been unlocked.

But against an opponent who approached without a sound, an HP shield was meaningless.

But something else struck her as odd.

Why did he leave two survivors?

It couldn’t have been for a lack of time. With his Awakened physical abilities, ordinary people wouldn’t have been able to escape.

“Fine, I’ll find him myself.”

Olivier insisted stubbornly.

“I heard his voice and saw what he was wearing.”

She hadn’t seen his face clearly, but the voice was familiar.

“What?”

Just then, a Gader supervisor took a call, his face twisting into a scowl.

“At the station market? Wait, don’t hang up!”

The Gader supervisor approached Hyunbin while still on the phone.

From his expression, it was clear the situation was serious.

“Hunter Lee Hyunbin. There’s been a report of a random killing spree at the station market.”

“At the station?”

It wasn’t far from here.

“He killed three Gaders who were investigating the scene and is now fleeing deeper into the station area…!”

“Understood.”

Gaders were police officers trained to deal with ability users—that is, the Awakened. If even they were killed without putting up a proper fight, the situation was even more dangerous.

“I’m heading there now.”

He had thought they’d already wiped out all the Villains.

Since the emergence of the Awakened, all sorts of crimes had occurred.

Ordinary people who gained power.

In other words, the crimes committed by Villains were both secretive and bold.

Imagine a bullied outcast who suddenly gained the power to kill people.

That outcast would have hated the bullies enough to want them dead.

Most chose revenge.

Villainy was tantamount to handing a sword and gun to the socially weak.

As long as they were careful, they could commit murder without getting caught.

There were still no proper research methods to identify what abilities existed or how to analyze them.

“Hmm-hmm~”

The Villain walked through the marketplace, humming a tune.

The merchants watched the humming Villain pass, their mouths shut in fear.

The Villain glanced around.

Seeing the frightened merchants staring at him filled him with a strange sense of glee.

He took off his jacket, which was dripping with blood.

He had already killed a number of people nearing the double digits.

“Mister.”

“Y-Yes…!”

A man who hadn’t managed to escape looked at the Villain, his face tense with fear.

It was only natural; the sharp-featured Villain was covered in blood.

Moreover, the Gaders who had tried to subdue him had become corpses in an instant.

“How much is that shirt?”

“Th-This shirt…?”

Instead of fleeing, the murderer was leisurely asking for the price of clothes.

A few trembling merchants were already secretly sending text messages to report him. And yet, the Villain didn’t seem to be in any hurry.

“J-Just take it.”

“You shouldn’t just give away something you’re selling.”

The clothing store owner trembled in fear, thinking he had displeased the Villain.

A child hiding behind the owner was also shaking, unable to even breathe properly.

The man reached into the jacket he had taken off. Seeing this, the store owner felt a dizzying sense of dread.

Even trained Gaders were no match for him; what could he possibly do?

None of the other merchants nearby would help.

At that moment, what emerged from the Villain’s hand was not a weapon, but a ten-thousand-won bill.

“Three for ten thousand won, right? Yep.”

The Villain took out a ten-thousand-won bill and held it out between his fingers.

The clothing store owner, witnessing the incongruous sight, was speechless.

The Villain grinned, baring his teeth, then took off his blood-soaked dress shirt right there and changed into a character t-shirt.

“Please throw this away for me.”

“Y-Yes. O-Okay, I will!”

Without causing any further harm, the Villain walked out of the store.

At that moment, a flash of light shot toward the Villain’s head.

Pssh!

The spear failed to kill the Villain in one blow. It merely grazed his face.

The Villain, having dodged the surprise attack, looked at the newcomer.

“See? Fuck. I told you he went this way.”

“You were right.”

The spear-wielding man was smiling leisurely, even as he faced the serial killer.

Beside him stood a woman with a bow and a man with a sword.

“Look at this bastard. He’s wearing a cartoon character t-shirt. Is he some kind of otaku who’s gone to the dark side?”

Kimchi-guk, the B-rank spearman from the Tushin Guild, sneered.

“Sunbae, there’s something strange about him.”

“He looks strange, alright. Let’s take this bastard down and restore our guild’s tarnished honor.”

“That’s not what I mean…!”

The female supporter with the bow.

Go Ha-sol, a versatile supporter gaining recognition while the Tushin Guild was falling apart under intense investigation, felt a sense of foreboding.

“Sunbae, wait. We can’t handle him!”

She couldn’t feel any killing intent from the man. No, it was as if he wasn’t even there.

She had never faced an opponent like this. Most importantly, he showed no signs of tension, even with three Hunters appearing before him.

“Hunters. People who hunt.”

The Villain smiled.

“It’s time you experienced being the one who’s hunted.”

He was overjoyed at the thought of acquiring new heads for his collection.