The Thug Hides the Villainess

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046 – The Great Showman #1

“9 PM.”

It was time to meet Yu Yeoreum.

Standing under a streetlight in the park near my house, I was having a tough time with the palm-sized moths that kept diving at me.

“Moths, you crazy little bastards!”

It was a full-on war between moths and humans.

While the battle for survival raged on, I felt a wave of heat wash over me, as if the air itself was heating up, and I was suddenly grazed by a searing light.

Ziiing—. Puff-puff—.

The moths flying near me instantly turned to ash, and an oddly bizarre burnt smell hit my nose, making my head spin.

“Hey! What the hell? You can’t just shoot lasers like that! What if you hit me?”

As I turned my head, I spotted a girl approaching from the darkness, her eyes shining. She was dressed in an all-white ensemble: a white dress, white socks, and white sneakers.

“How do I look? Does it suit me?”

“It looks good. It gives off the vibe that an athletic girl is beginning to develop feelings for her childhood friend but ends up getting entangled with a creepy gym teacher.”

“What kind of review is that? But Jina, you came in a tracksuit. Isn’t this a date?”

Yu Yeoreum slightly chided me for my appearance.

She had dressed up nicely for the occasion, but my outfit was too shabby.

“It’s okay; I wore cool underwear, so it might as well be a chance to show it off today.”

“Pfft, you’re always great at jokes.”

“I’m not joking; I’m serious.”

“Things like that should only happen when both can take responsibility.”

Yu Yeoreum, not as easygoing as I presumed.

No need to worry about the creepy gym teacher after all.

I should actually be worried about her direction.

She’s the one who shoots lasers from her eyes.

“Is it okay to just shoot lasers at some moths?”

“It’s fine. I soaked up a lot of sunlight today. My energy’s high.”

“Really? How many percent does that translate to in cellphone terms?”

“75 percent. By the way, I lose 5 percent each time I shoot a laser.”

So, it meant Yu Yeoreum could still shoot lasers 15 more times from now.

Keeping that fact in mind, I walked along with Yu Yeoreum.

# # #

In our neighborhood, there were many vacant houses. Imagine if a guy about to turn 20 and a high school girl strolled around such places.

When the most physically appealing male and female, filled with youthful vigor, walk down a secluded, dark road together, something is bound to happen.

“Jina, do you want to play tin can knockdown?”

Yes, it was tin can knockdown!

Yu Yeoreum set up some empty cans and used her eye lasers to knock them all down.

Three shots.

That left Yu Yeoreum with 12 shots remaining.

“Back in the day, we used to throw stones at cans. Why did we stop doing that?”

Yu Yeoreum, despite her cool facade, was full of childlike wonder and loved to play.

She often startled me by suddenly screaming while rummaging through an abandoned house or walking on tiptoes along the white paint on the road.

We felt as if we were old childhood friends. I even had the delusion that I had been playing with Yu Yeoreum in this neighborhood for ages.

If there hadn’t been a steadfast rose named Seoga-eul in my heart, it wouldn’t have been strange if I developed feelings for Yu Yeoreum.

The sight of her large breasts under that dress or her smooth armpits was toxic to me.

Yu Yeoreum seemed completely unaware of how her actions or gestures affected boys. Or perhaps she did it intentionally?

While lost in those thoughts, we arrived at the original goal of today: the “SProut Foster Home.”

“This place….”

Yu Yeoreum’s attitude, which had been gleeful just moments ago, abruptly shifted as if coated in grease. I spoke frankly to her.

“This is where the remnants of the ‘Billunners’ were spotted. It seems quite a number of unregistered awakening individuals from this foster home are involved. I thought it best to tell you.”

Creak—. Yu Yeoreum touched the horrendously old swing in the foster home’s playground.

Things like seesaws and spinning rides reflected in her eyes, fleetingly.

“That’s impossible. They can’t possibly be involved in anything bad.”

“Meet them and see for yourself.”

I had contacted the short-haired girl, Kim Mari, earlier about meeting today.

The ‘Billunners’ were likely eyeing Yu Yeoreum like a thorn in their side, so they probably set up ambushes around here.

Then, a pointless localized battle would definitely ensue.

Yu Yeoreum’s laser energy would dwindle too.

If that happened, I would effectively be the one to—

Perfect strategy.

This plan meant I wouldn’t even have to sacrifice the life of “No Leftover Day.”

“Kim Mari!”

I yelled loudly enough to echo around the foster home to set the plan in motion.

But the figure that emerged from inside the foster home wasn’t the short-haired girl, nor the girl in school uniform, nor even a chubby kid; it was a guy with curly hair.

What was his name again?

“Are you the 3rd class wanted person ‘Piccolo’?”

“It’s ‘Pinocchio.’”

Right, that was the guy.

Looks like the Billunners ambushed at a location where Yu Yeoreum would meet old friends.

Just as I thought this, Pinocchio spoke.

“You came here to meet Mari and the others, right? But you won’t be able to see them. I don’t know who shook your heart, but they’re trying to quit the organization. That can’t happen, right?”

“What have you done to my friends?”

Beeeeep—. Yu Yeoreum’s eyes shone bright.

Pinocchio stepped back, pained by her glaring light, and hid behind a column of the building.

All he did was poke his head out and shout.

“Stay safe where you are. Up until now, at least. But who knows what will happen next? A starving monster can change in an instant, right?”

“What? A monster?”

“I’m curious to see what happens when that cute little creature reveals its true nature. By the way, I’m the only one who knows where that place is. The timer for our monster’s release is just one hour.”

Pinocchio, that guy. Using his stupid head to create annoying trouble.

Non-combat type ability users are always filled with tricks and really troublesome.

Fortunately, I’d already anticipated this kind of variable.

“Miss Yeoreum, we actually want to get along with you. We don’t want to turn a massive power against you, like you. So if you could just do me one simple favor, I’d tell you where your friends are.”

“Favor?”

“We’re in quite the predicament. We can’t afford to become the citizens’ terror, all thanks to just one high school student, right? So we have to get our revenge. Therefore, I need you to take down that boy next to you. You don’t have to kill him; just make him unable to walk would be enough. If you take one leg from him, it’d be like saving one life. How about it?”

Make Yu Yeoreum shatter my leg?

My lovely leg?

You want me to go back to the days of limping? Living in a shanty? Setting that aside, there’s a contradiction in his words.

“Hey, Pinocchio, isn’t there a total of three people you’ve captured? I only have two legs, and if both of my legs get destroyed, one person is still bound to die, right?”

“Why are you being like this, friend? A man has three legs, right?”

“That’s true.”

He was more rational than I expected.

As I pondered this, Pinocchio, hidden in the darkness, spoke.

“Three lives for one leg. Which is more precious? You guys talk about these dilemmas often at Yeongsa High School, right? What to do when you can save multiple lives by sacrificing one?”

“……”

Yu Yeoreum’s expression grew serious.

I could almost feel her calculating various factors in her head.

“Negotiating with a terrorist is out of the question. Even if I were to break your leg, who knows what other demands you’d come up with after that? Jina, what will you do?”

That made sense.

I didn’t need to blindly trust Pinocchio’s words.

Sensing her growing impatience, Pinocchio added from the shadows.

“How about this? Every time you break a leg, I’ll tell you a little more about the location? I’m Pinocchio, but I won’t lie. I only tell the untrustworthy truths.”

I had the talent for ‘emotion.’

Listening carefully, I didn’t feel like Pinocchio was lying to me now.

So I focused on my left leg and slammed it hard against the solid asphalt ground.

“Tell me the address.”

Crack—! Snap—!

The sound of my shinbone breaking echoed painfully.

It hurt immensely, but I clenched my teeth and endured, refusing to scream.

“Jina!”

“Ow, jeez, I didn’t expect to break my own leg. But well, a promise is a promise. Your friends are between 1 and 50 in Streamdong.”

How many houses are there between 1 and 50 in Streamdong? I couldn’t focus well due to the pain in my left leg, but luckily, I had friends who were recently enjoying the ‘search mission.’

—Hanam-jjin! We’ll find it! Guys! It’s somewhere between 1 and 50!

—If we narrow down the places where someone might be trapped with a monster, it should be easier!

A reassuring voice came through my smartwatch.

Currently, I didn’t just have two legs.

When combining all of ours, there were well over ten.

“Pinocchio, let me tell you an untrustworthy truth too. If you get caught by me, you won’t die peacefully.”

All I had to do was locate where the short-haired girl and my friends were held within an hour.

In that time, Yu Yeoreum and I just needed to apprehend and deal with Pinocchio. We could ask Tae-seong to switch our statuses after I broke my leg.

Just as I leaned against the nearby wall, Yu Yeoreum spoke.

“You rest here. I’ll take him down.”

“No, don’t go. This whole place is a trap. That Pinocchio guy knew you would come, so he must have prepared thoroughly for you inside that foster home, with your weaknesses—.”

“My weaknesses? I don’t have any.”

Just then, as Yu Yeoreum shook her head, a sound like mechanical mechanisms activating filled the air.

That lasted for a moment—

Grrrr—

Beasts with glowing red eyes poured out from inside the foster home.

Raccoons, cats, dogs—ordinary animals you’d see everywhere, but all their eyes appeared distorted.

Upon closer inspection, many of their features differed drastically from typical animals.

“Ugh, ha, ugh—.”

Yu Yeoreum’s breathing began to grow erratic.

Her eyes shone like car headlights, becoming blood-red.

“M-Monsters….”

Yu Yeoreum’s reaction upon seeing the monsters was exceptionally strange.

At this point, even an idiot would realize it.

Yu Yeoreum’s weakness was ‘monsters.’ That was why she was sent into practical combat against illegal awakeners instead of against the “Great Labyrinth.”

Because the Great Labyrinth was swarming with monsters.

In other words, Yu Yeoreum had some sort of madness that overwhelmed her when meeting ‘monsters’ in ‘dark places.’ Perhaps it could be dubbed ‘monster phobia encountered in the dark’?

The exact symptoms were probably—

“Name: Yu Yeoreum

Ability: Expand to view details ☜

Condition: 《Rampage》 – Lost her sense due to an old trauma. Cannot identify friends or foes. Also, she’s hungry.”

The rampage of no longer being able to identify friend from foe.

The moment I first met Ying-ing in the sewer came to mind.

Of course, the current situation was much worse than back then.

“I have to kill the monsters!”

A fist like a steel pipe lunged at me.

It appeared that to Yu Yeoreum, whose eyes had turned blood-red, I resembled a monster.

Bang—!

I quickly raised my arms to guard, but her punch was so hard that I felt my bones ache.

One of my legs was already in bad shape too.

With things like this, there was only one method left.

I pulled out my phone and played a video I had saved.

“Mon….”

Was it the effect of turning the volume all the way up on my smartphone?

Yu Yeoreum’s red-glowing eyes shone in a prism of colors.

—Aaaah! Yaaaaaaah!

Soon enough, the sounds of skin hitting skin and the passionate exchanges were reflected within Yu Yeoreum’s kaleidoscopic eyes.

To put it bluntly, it was a porn video.

Turning her trauma against monsters into a ‘revulsion towards porn!’ Originally, I hadn’t intended to save it for this, but—

“Yu Yeoreum, darkness and monsters are no longer objects of your fear! What you really fear isn’t monsters, but it’s porn!”

“Hey….”