Chapter 77 – Villain Suppression (1)

-The shocking news has been confirmed as true.

-At approximately 15:30 today, the entire gang responsible for the heinous acts against children was apprehended.

-The twenty children, rescued safely, are now under the protection of the disaster agency…

-The Courier Man, Hunter Lee Hyunbin, has done it again. Thanks to his swift initial response, the entire illegal mana stone implantation gang has been arrested and is currently under investigation…

-A formal petition to increase the number of special Garders like Hunter Lee Hyunbin has already surpassed 100,000 signatures.

⨽The Courier Man has really come a long way.

⨽IKR lol

⨽Honestly, guys like him deserve to have power.

⨽But what the hell is that punk Lucky Boy, who has the same special authority, even doing?

⨽What do you think? He’s out drinking.

⨽Having flight is basically a cheat code, but he doesn’t even use it to work.

While there had been occasional news reports of child abuse by daycare teachers, a crime this horrific was unprecedented.

Every media outlet was plastered with news related to the illegal mana stones.

Just turning on the TV meant hearing about what happens when you receive an illegal mana stone implant and the consequences that follow.

A person afflicted with mana stone disease had to be hospitalized and undergo lifelong procedures to filter the mana stones.

The hospital bills, which were more expensive than chemotherapy, could easily shatter a family.

Even insurance policies refused to include mana stone disease in their coverage.

An incurable disease.

There was no way to treat the children who had undergone the illegal mana stone procedures.

The mana stone implanted in their hearts was constantly mutating, spreading throughout their entire bodies.

In short, they had been forcibly awakened.

The illegal mana stone gang was being interrogated by the disaster agency about the details of the case.

Why they did it. What their objective was.

But the gangsters and villains involved had only lent their muscle; they didn’t know the specifics.

The only one who seemed to know anything was the chairman.

However, the chairman was adamantly feigning ignorance. As a result, the agency had yet to confirm the true nature or scale of the organization.

*Tap, tap.*

A man was walking down the marble hallway.

A Garder at the entrance stopped him to verify his identity.

The man, who had a handsome, statuesque face, smiled coolly and stated his name.

“Im Jae-joon, Guild Master of Hanul Guild.”

Waiting for Im Jae-joon after he passed through security was the director’s secretary, Kim Min-jung—no, Olivier.

“Everything is ready.”

“Good.”

The reason Im Jae-joon, guided by Olivier, had stopped by the agency was because of the chairman of the Hanmaeum Foundation.

Though the chairman was held under heavy guard, no one stopped Im Jae-joon and Kim Min-jung.

“Ah, I’m telling you, I don’t know anything. You’ve got the wrong guy!”

The chairman, held in the agency’s interrogation room, was spewing protests.

“It’s not like our foundation manages only one orphanage. I’m telling you, search them all! There’s nothing, nothing. How was I supposed to know those bastards were pulling that crap in an orphanage I manage? Huh?”

His face flushed a deep crimson, the chairman was the one raising his voice.

“That courier guy, or Lee Hyunbin, or whatever. He’s the one who hit me! For no reason! Dammit, I may be a nice guy, but this is too much. I’m going to sue his ass, so call me a lawyer! Oof, my neck.”

The chairman clutched the back of his neck, feigning pain.

The investigator watching him bit his lip in disbelief and glared.

Just then, Im Jae-joon entered the interrogation room. The investigator’s face lit up as he rose from his seat.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“You’re here? You really don’t need to bother with someone like this.”

“What? What did you just say?”

Seeing the chairman’s eyes flare with anger, the investigator frowned and stood up.

“You son of a bitch, I’m suing you too. Got it? Huh?”

After making his threat, the chairman looked at Im Jae-joon and asked with a twitch of his lips.

“Uh, who might you be? Ah, Hanul. You’re with them, right?”

“Good day. I am Im Jae-joon of Hanul.”

“Your hunter brutally assaulted me. Are you aware of that? Huh? I nearly died!”

“Hmm…”

Im Jae-joon sat down across from the chairman, laced his fingers together, and watched him.

“If that friend of mine had been brutal, you wouldn’t be in this good of a shape.”

“What? Did you just say, ‘this good of a shape’? This Guild Master has no basic decency! I see your guild’s image has improved lately, so you think you can just act however you want. Let’s see about that. Let’s see what happens when we both get dragged through the mud.”

As the chairman began his threats again, the corners of Im Jae-joon’s mouth lifted.

“You’re laughing?”

Seeing Im Jae-joon smile, the chairman’s eyebrows trembled.

Im Jae-joon covered his microphone with his hand. Then he leaned forward, bringing his face close to the chairman’s.

“I didn’t come here today to negotiate or persuade.”

“Then get lost.”

“Even thuggery has its limits.”

Im Jae-joon’s smile grew wider.

“It’s one thing for someone prepared to fight to die. But using children who don’t want to fight—no, who can’t even make that choice—that has definitely crossed a line.”

“Is this bastard crazy?”

“You’re the one who’s crazy.”

Im Jae-joon had once been the Demon King who plunged a continent into terror.

The reason he had led his forces to war against the Seven Kingdoms was simple.

It was to save the oppressed and abused demons.

“If you’re going to commit evil, you should at least have the resolve to get your own hands dirty.”

Im Jae-joon had thrown himself onto the front lines.

He became the protector of the demons, their savior.

He went on to declare himself king, gathered the unjustly persecuted humans and other races, and created a land where they could live.

“A guy like you, who doesn’t even dirty his own hands and just commits evil from the sidelines like a bystander, isn’t a villain. You’re just scum.”

“Wh-what is this bastard saying? Hey, you disaster agency punks! What are you doing?”

“It’s useless.”

Im Jae-joon muttered coldly.

“Your voice won’t reach them.”

“What?”

In that instant, the chairman felt a bone-chilling cold.

Something was wrong.

The chairman couldn’t believe his eyes.

Im Jae-joon’s eyes had changed, his pupils turning into vertical slits like a snake’s.

Like a frog before a predator, the chairman’s lips began to tremble uncontrollably.

“You said you were innocent, didn’t you? Let’s see if that’s really true.”

Im Jae-joon snapped his fingers.

“From now on, you will learn the meaning of responsibility and duty.”

“…!”

The chairman looked around.

Something black and murky began to slither up from the floor.

No, from the walls and the ceiling, too.

Small, sticky hands brushed against the chairman’s cheek and grabbed his leg.

It was a horrifying sensation.

“The ones you killed will now be with you always.”

Im Jae-joon smiled softly.

“For the rest of your life.”

“Ah, ahhhck!”

A torrent of ghastly children swarmed him like a pack of zombies and began to devour him.

They tore off his fingers and shared them, ripped his lips and mashed them into the floor.

“I-I’ll talk!”

The chairman screamed.

“I-I’ll tell you everything! P-please…!”

He didn’t know what this was. But they were truly tearing at his flesh. Their whispers scraped at his ears.

Even when he covered his ears and closed his eyes, their whispers were endless.

“B-Bukhansan Mountain. Th-there! No, I’ll tell you everything. The locations of the headquarters and the branches!”

Hearing his words, Im Jae-joon tilted his head.

“No, it’s fine.”

As if his business was already concluded, Im Jae-joon rose from his seat.

“I’ve already heard it.”

“What? Huh?”

The chairman mumbled, confused.

Im Jae-joon walked out of the waiting room, showing no further interest. Soon, the lights in the interrogation room went out, and the shadowy corpses began to tear at the chairman with ravenous greed.

“Aaaaaaaahck!”

The chairman screamed, but Im Jae-joon didn’t look back.

“Are you finished already?”

“Yes. It seems we’ve reached a mutual agreement.”

Im Jae-joon gave the investigator a gentle smile.

The investigator saw the chairman, now alone in the interrogation room, sitting blankly and drooling.

“What the, what’s wrong with that guy now?”

Leaving the muttering investigator behind, Im Jae-joon and Olivier departed.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you use that power.”

At Olivier’s words, Im Jae-joon gave a self-deprecating laugh.

“Contact the Hero. Tell him we’ve secured the locations.”

* * *

“Wahahat, Teddy Bear is so bad at this.”

“We bears only have two fingers, so we’re not good at this stuff, you know?”

“I can do it just fine with only two fingers.”

The teddy bear and the children were playing, putting together a puzzle.

“Aww, Teddy Bear is weally bad at this.”

“Teddy Bear is better at other things than this.”

“Wike what?”

“Well, that would be…”

The teddy bear’s eyes glinted.

“Eating you up!”

“Wahahak! Run awayyy!”

The young children, chased by the bear, tumbled and rolled on the thick mat.

The children who had received the mana stone implants were in the agency’s playroom.

Some children played with dolls, while others shrieked with laughter as they went down the slide.

For the first time in their lives, they saw so many dolls and toys, and watched cartoons playing just for them.

From meals to bedtime, specialized teachers were looking after them with utmost care.

“Everyone, it’s time to eat!”

“Food! Yaaay!”

At the word “food,” the children rushed toward the teachers bringing the trays, looking ready to pounce.

The clatter of utensils on trays filled the air as the children ate.

“I’m dying…”

“I told you to build up your stamina.”

“I did build it up…”

“The stamina you build comes from eating.”

Katrinne pouted at the teddy bear’s teasing.

Seeing the exhausted Katrinne, the teddy bear asked.

“How is it?”

“…”

Katrinne shook her head at his words.

“It’s too late. Their kidneys are already failing. If we remove the mana stones, they’ll probably…”

Die.

Katrinne couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

“I see. Are there any other options?”

At the teddy bear’s question, Katrinne once again shook her head.

There was nothing they could do.

The children here were experiencing freedom for the first time, eating their fill and playing to their hearts’ content.

They had no idea that this freedom was so short-lived.

“Right. Sorry for asking you to do this.”

The teddy bear stroked Katrinne’s head.

He didn’t feel good about it himself, and he knew it must be even harder for the young Katrinne.

“If you’re sorry, then load up my debit card with some serious cash. I ran out of money and couldn’t order chicken last night.”

“I think if you had ordered one chicken instead of five, you would have had more than enough.”

Katrinne pressed her head against the teddy bear’s chest and shook it like a drill.

“Hmph, Ajeossi. Don’t you know you have to order at least one seasoned and one fried when you get chicken? And when you’re eating those, you start craving soy garlic. Oh, and after that, you want something spicy.”

“There’s no gluttony without an excuse. You’re really something.”

The teddy bear muttered before promising to top up her card later.

Hearing that, Katrinne’s mood instantly brightened as she grinned, “Hehe.”

The villain gang had implanted mana stones in these children and conducted special experiments.

The villains’ objective.

It was to carry out a terrorist attack against the agency that was pressuring them.

By injecting a certain amount of mana into the stones, they could be detonated remotely.

In other words, they were very convenient time bombs.

Of course, there was no grand cause like fighting for the villains’ human rights or freedom.

‘Purely for profit.’

Their first target was the agency. But their subsequent targets were all banks.

In short, their plan was to paralyze the agency that would get in their way, then rob banks to their hearts’ content.

They were completely and utterly insane.

The teddy bear, no, Lee Hyunbin, thought of his enemy from the other world.

The Demon King.

That being was undoubtedly ‘evil’ to him. But the Demon King had at least taken up his sword to protect his own.

These bastards, however, had taken innocent lives hostage purely for their own convenience and profit.

He could never forgive people like this.

*Click.*

Lee Hyunbin answered his phone.

-We’ve secured all the villain gang’s hideouts.

“Good.”

There was trash in every world. And it was the duty of those with power to clean it up.

“Tell everyone to assemble.”

This was war against the villains.