Chapter 120: Investigation (2)

Ho cheol slowly advanced through the corridor.

The hand that had been brushing his lips extended to the side.

The steel walls surrounding him blocked his fingertips.

But his fingers didn’t stop, piercing through the wall.

Kwaddeudeuk—

He effortlessly tore through the thick metal plate, leaving a long gash.

The destructive impulse boiling within him due to the inversion field had been suppressed with superhuman patience to avoid harming innocent people around him.

Then, by sheer luck, he encountered an ‘enemy harboring murderous intent toward him.’

No one here could possibly fathom how delighted Ho cheol was at their appearance.

Against an enemy, there was no need or reason to hold back.

The man standing at the opposite end of the corridor saw Ho cheol’s face and spread his arms wide.

“Well, who do we have here!”

His excited voice carried an awkwardness, like a stage actor making their debut yesterday.

“In an utterly unexpected place, an utterly unexpected figure appears!”

He acted as if they were old acquaintances, but Ho cheol paid no mind and approached.

As he’d said, introductions could wait until after tearing off an arm or leg.

Closing the distance, he swung his hand.

Or rather, tried to.

Just as his hand was about to strike the man’s shoulder, mere millimeters away, it stopped.

“What the hell? You?”

The emotions emanating from the enemy were even clearer now.

But there was no life force.

Not faint—completely absent.

A puppet.

No, closer to a corpse.

Ho cheol lowered his hand, his excitement deflating.

The boiling emotions cooled instantly.

“Tch. No manners. Greeting a guest with a puppet?”

The hostility was so strong he hadn’t noticed.

The figure before him was just a moving corpse.

What Ho cheol wanted was screams of pain, not the mere dismantling of a puppet.

A manipulation-type trait.

The enemy before him had a body and mind entirely separated.

Was it a case of implanting a mind into a corpse?

If they could transfer consciousness like that, it was closer to emission than manipulation.

Maybe both.

Since the real body was elsewhere, tearing off limbs or even the head would be pointless.

The man, who hadn’t dodged or countered, cackled.

“Sorry, but my real body’s a bit busy!”

With his rationality returning, Ho cheol coldly analyzed the situation and the man’s words.

One thing was clear.

“You’re not with this place.”

Not a remnant of the ‘organization.’

This guy came here with a different purpose after the place was abandoned.

If he were part of the organization, he’d be more focused on the two digging through classified data behind Ho cheol.

“What’s your goal?”

“Would you tell me if you were in my shoes?”

“Fair enough.”

Ho cheol reached out and placed his hand on the man’s shoulder.

With a light squeeze, the arm came off with a swoosh.

Even aside from Ho cheol not holding back, the body’s durability was remarkably low.

“See.”

Unlike his usual self, Ho cheol sighed with a blank expression.

“If this were the old me outside, I’d be shocked. I’m scarily numb right now. A bit crazy, so I can’t let this slide like usual.”

A mental state akin to his villain days—definitely in the realm of insanity.

“Surrender now while I’m still being nice. Otherwise.”

He lightly shook the detached arm up and down.

“You’ll really die.”

No blood dripped from the separated shoulder and arm.

No pain either.

But the man erased his laughing expression and stepped closer, narrowing the gap.

“…Still strong, huh.”

The veins beneath his skin bulged, turning pitch black.

“Not as much as before.”

Black spots appeared on his skin as the body swelled.

By the time Ho cheol realized it was about to explode, it was too late.

The corridor was enclosed by steel walls.

If it were a simple bomb, Ho cheol could’ve erased it with force, but the fact it was a corpse made him hesitate for a split second.

Just before the corpse exploded.

“Step aside.”

Se-ah’s low voice came from behind, and without a moment’s hesitation, Ho cheol twisted his body, pressing his back against the corridor wall.

The instant his body moved out of the line between Se-ah and the corpse—

Ziiing—

A massive beam of light grazed past his nose.

Ho cheol muttered uneasily.

“A laser?”

The laser, obliterating everything in its path, vaporized the corpse without leaving a single nail or

hair.

Naturally, there was no explosion.

As the laser faded, Ho cheol tilted his head to check the system room.

The weapon case, still firmly closed moments ago, was now open.

A gun—no, a cannon—stood atop it.

Faint smoke rose from the barrel, indicating where the laser had come from.

Se-ah, perched on the barrel, grumbled.

“Tch. I brought it just in case, but I hoped I wouldn’t have to use it.”

Ho cheol walked back and stood beside her.

“Thanks. You saved me. That’s a weird-looking gun.”

Too big to be a gun, too small to be a cannon.

And it had three barrels.

“It’s custom-made. By the way.”

She scanned Ho cheol up and down.

“Good job.”

Surprised by the unexpected praise, Ho cheol blinked.

“For what?”

“You hesitated against that corpse.”

She’d been watching him with bated breath.

Was he completely unhinged by the inversion field?

Or was that his true nature?

But his hesitation to act against the corpse showed a softness, a trace of humanity.

It was his true character, built over time.

Seeing that, she couldn’t help but feel relieved.

She smiled faintly.

“I think that’s really a good thing.”

“I’m actually sorry for making you do something dirty because I hesitated.”

Because of his pause, Se-ah had to deal harshly with the corpse.

That weighed on him.

“It’s fine. I’ve done worse as a hunter.”

“No idea what, but good to know.”

Ho cheol crouched to inspect her weapon curiously.

This was no joke.

“Even regular guns get flak these days for being bad for education if heroes carry them. Let alone something like this.”

He understood why Se-ah only carried her custom weapon during her hunter days.

“It doesn’t exactly paint a pretty picture for a hero.”

“Exactly.”

Se-ah propped her chin and let out a long sigh.

“You wouldn’t believe how much crap I got for carrying a weapon like this as a hero.”

Of course, its power—vaporizing a villain without a trace—was its own kind of problem.

“People kept picking fights, so I switched to a bear doll out of spite.”

Her outfit and bear doll aesthetic were, in a way, born from her hero days.

The conversation cut off abruptly.

Ho cheol, crouching, stared at her weapon.

Or rather, his gaze was directed at it, but he wasn’t really looking.

Sensing he was lost in thought, Se-ah asked.

“What’s up all of a sudden?”

“Nothing, just…”

He scratched his cheek.

“That guy said something at the end. That I’m not as strong as before.”

He couldn’t even remember if he’d fought the guy, and the encounter barely qualified as a fight.

But the oddly confident statement stuck in his ears, lingering.

Clenching and unclenching his fist, he muttered.

“Am I really weaker?”

Ho cheol never considered himself the strongest.

From the day he became a villain to the day he quit, he never once called himself the strongest.

The idea of being the strongest among Awakened, or even among villains, was a pride he consciously avoided.

But the best at killing?

That he acknowledged.

It didn’t matter if the enemy was stronger.

Fight, get battered, take any beating—in the end, he’d be the one standing, and the enemy would be dead.

If he’d weakened, it wasn’t in physical specs or trait power.

It was the ‘killing strength.’

It wasn’t something visible or measurable.

Judgment in every situation, baseless instincts, sharpness—had they dulled compared to his villain days?

“Nah, you’re plenty strong!”

Se-ah patted his shoulder reassuringly, but Ho cheol remained serious.

“Strong, sure. But not enough.”

Once, he thought this level was enough.

Unlike his villain days, he was now part of society’s system, protected adequately.

But now he was certain.

That wouldn’t do.

Not just to build and run a new system.

A peaceful life requires truly overwhelming ‘strength.’

During his villain days, he’d amassed much, but it was worthless.

Things he could take back or rebuild if lost.

What he’d built now might not compare in scale to his villain days.

But they were precious.

And those small joys were fragile, easily lost to the slightest trigger.

The strength to protect them demanded more than his prime.

Resolving himself, Ho cheol stood.

“Whether this mindset is from the inversion field or my true feelings, I’ll figure it out once we’re out.”

That was important, but work came first.

He turned to the green-clad hero, still working on the computers.

“She’s still saving data?”

“Yeah, there’s a lot. We’re trying to recover what we can, but it’s not easy.”

Thirty percent of the data was gone before they arrived.

Probably the critical stuff.

The loss was unavoidable.

Ho cheol thought for a moment and asked.

“It’s an inversion field. Can’t you reverse the deleted data to recover it?”

He’d said it half-jokingly, thinking it was absurd.

“Huh?”

Se-ah’s reaction was intense.

Inversion fields were so rare, and recovering data in one was unheard of, so no one had considered it.

It interfered with physical laws and even minds.

A bit of data should be nothing.

“You’re right, it’s worth a shot. Nothing to lose.”

Se-ah rushed to the green-clad hero, gesturing animatedly as she explained.

Watching them, Ho cheol said.

“I’ll go look for that guy or any others. Join me when you’re done.”

They turned to look at him.

“…Are you okay alone? Not gonna get eaten?”

“I’m fine now. Cooling off cleared my head.”

Se-ah shouted at his back, concerned.

“Call me on the communicator if anything happens! And answer my calls!”

Ho cheol waved casually and left the system room.

* * *

Tracking the villain, Ho cheol swept through the floors one by one, in reverse.

He’d covered many floors, but no sign of the villain.

A parasite in a corpse could hide well, even from Ho cheol, if determined.

But judging by the guy’s earlier behavior, he had some pride and wouldn’t hide so blatantly.

Opening every door he saw, Ho cheol kept thinking.

A lone actor?

Unlikely.

Even with their well-supported investigation team, they’d struggled.

A guy with manipulation or emission traits wouldn’t find this place easy to handle alone.

There was a good chance a group had come.

Another villain group tied to the ‘organization.’

Did they come knowing it was destroyed, or find it that way?

That added exponentially more variables and information to uncover.

“This kind of brainwork is the worst.”

In his villain days, he’d left this to the smart ones.

Lately, he felt stuck with it.

Grumbling, he opened another door.

Looking inside, he clicked his tongue.

“Another dud.”

The dense inversion field made even Hocheol cautious, slowing his movements.

Chijijik—

Suddenly, loud static blared from the communicator at his waist.

It wasn’t just a malfunction—this was top-of-the-line equipment.

An external factor was likely interfering.

The cause became clear soon enough.

“This is…”

Ho cheol wiped sweat from his forehead.

The indoor temperature felt at least 10 degrees hotter than before.

It wasn’t the building’s temperature rising.

He approached a wall where heat was emanating and looked out the window.

“Huh.”

Ho cheol let out a dumbfounded sound.

This was inside a gate, a different environment from Earth.

No sun or moon should exist here.

They couldn’t.

But beyond the window was unmistakably a sun.

Its appearance resolved all his earlier questions in an instant.

“Why the hell is that guy here?”

Ho cheol muttered irritably.

And that blazing sun wasn’t just floating—it was clearly speeding toward the building.

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