The Thug Hides the Villainess

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047 – The Great Showman #2

Everyone has something they’re afraid of.

Even for a man like me, Hanam-jin, who fears nothing, there were a few things that made me tremble.

The “Permian Extinction,” known as the third mass extinction, is one of those things.

During this period, over 96% of marine life and more than 80% of land vertebrates went extinct! There was a close call where Earth could have ended up like Venus or Mercury, lifeless!

I didn’t show my fear to uphold my manly image, but let’s face it, the “Permian Extinction” scared me.

Secondly, I found the “fifth mass extinction,” which wiped out all the dinosaurs, frightening too.

However, when comparing it with the previously mentioned Permian extinction, the fifth mass extinction felt less terrifying.

And this is the point.

When two scary things fight, one typically becomes less scary.

Maybe both could end up being not scary at all.

Movies like “Alien vs. Predator” or “Freddy vs. Jason” prove this.

“Fight fire with fire! Face fear with fear!”

I played explicit scenes to Yu Yeoreum, who was panicking because of the monsters, in order to overcome her fear with another fear.

You could call it a counter-offensive strategy.

Whether my tactic was working or not, Yu Yeoreum’s eyes, which had turned bright red like a mad bull, were sparkling with a rainbow prism light.

“Ugh…”

Yu Yeoreum held her head and sank to her knees.

Soon, intense heat beams erupted from her eyes, melting the monsters away.

Ziiiing-!

That’s right.

When she got excited, Yu Yeoreum shot beams from her eyes. The recent heat rays could be interpreted as overcoming her fear of death through sexual excitement.

“Jina, what did you just show me? I’m so shocked, my mind is clearer now.”

Yu Yeoreum covered her face with her palm.

The colorful light seeping through her fingers shone like stage lights.

Just as Yu Yeoreum became the center of attention, Pinocchio shouted from inside the foster home.

“Porn? You controlled Yu Yeoreum by playing porn? What the hell— I never heard of that! But whatever, I still have plenty of tricks up my sleeve.”

That was the end of his statement.

He would probably start a full-on protest inside the foster home.

Throbbing—

I endured the throbbing pain in my arm that had blocked Yu Yeoreum’s punch and surveyed the corpses of the fallen monsters nearby.

By analyzing them emotionally, I recognized this one as a “Rock” monster, this one as a “Leaf” dog, and this one as a “Sand” cat.

Thanks to that, I acquired concept stones for rock, leaf, and sand!

Not a bad haul.

Now, all that’s left is to go into the foster home and give “Pinocchio” a good thrashing, then obtain the rest of the addresses to rescue the shortcut girl Kim Mari and her friends.

Thinking that, I limped toward the foster home, and Yu Yeoreum grabbed my shoulder.

“Jina, you’re hurt.”

“I know. But I can endure it.”

“Why are you doing this? You’re putting yourself in danger. Aren’t you afraid of anything?”

“I’m like a steamy locomotive.”

“…A locomotive?”

“If someone puts coal in, it just runs spouting steam. It’s just about running until the hot steam cools down.”

“Is that really how it is? I think I get what you mean. I’m just like you. I’m a hot train too.”

Yu Yeoreum understood my words and nodded as if she got it, but honestly, I didn’t know what I was saying.

I just felt it was the right moment to say something cool, and it ended up being a meaningless conversation.

“Jina, I’ll take the lead. I still have enough energy for two more beams.”

Yu Yeoreum had two remaining shots.

That should be enough.

# # #

The inside of the foster home was particularly dark.

It was a world of stars devoid of light.

“Yeoreum, stop.”

I carefully removed the tripwires installed at ankle height.

Click-!

“This brat! Making such a nuisance.”

Seeing the improvised explosives (IEDs) placed around reminded me of the doomsday gang’s base I visited months ago.

This place was incredibly dangerous.

It seemed Pinocchio had learned how to make explosives from the instructors as a Yeongsa High School graduate.

Why on earth did they teach minors such things?

Were they planning to create a special forces unit and sneak them into North Korea?

“Jina, who taught you this?”

Yu Yeoreum was left in awe watching me disable the traps one by one with the phone light.

The pink hue in her eyes suggested she was impressed with me.

Who taught me, you ask?

“Hunger.”

“Ah, I see. That means you learned from experience, hunger and pain.”

No, the real person’s name was ‘Hunger.’

He was an old man I met while scavenging.

But that wasn’t important right now.

“Yeoreum, from my experience, brats like Pinocchio try to confuse us with twisted words. So we need to take him down before he talks.”

“Got it.”

After a while of moving forward, we arrived at the basement.

The basement had no prominent traps.

Instead, there were several documents that could be called profiles stuck to the walls.

What could this be?

Flap-.

“Name: Kim Nuri”
“Age: 8 years”
“Remarks – Signs of awakening are slowly appearing. Need to increase the intensity of deficiency.”

“Name: Lee Ha-on”
“Age: 9 years”
“Remarks – Early stages of awakening. Shows emotional instability, so care and attention are needed.”

It was information about children.

Just when I was puzzled about what this was, someone emerged from the darkness.

The “Pinocchio” with woolly hair appeared.

“Familiar faces, right? Do you know who these faces belong to─?”

“Yeoreum, now!”

Ziiiing-!

Yu Yeoreum immediately fired lasers at my command.

The heat ray shot straight toward the woolly-haired guy, likely turning him into a donut!

We won! Episode end!

However, instead of turning Pinocchio into a donut, the heat ray merely grazed my side.

“Huh?”

Sizzle-.

I felt puzzled as I looked at my scorched side, and there was Pinocchio holding a circular hand mirror and laughing sinisterly.

The hot smoke wafted from the mirror in his hand.

“A mirror reflects light.”

“No, what─.”

Did Yu Yeoreum’s heat ray have such a weakness? It sounded so obvious yet absurd, which made me slightly angry.

Did Yu Yeoreum know about this fact?

When I looked at Yu Yeoreum, she said,

“…I don’t need to blurt out the defense against my ability. It could lead to trouble if the enemies find out.”

But that ‘enemy’ already knew.

Anyway, what mattered was that Pinocchio was defending against Yu Yeoreum’s laser with a mirror.

And one of my legs was blown to pieces, making it difficult to ‘leap.’

Still, we had Yu Yeoreum with us.

She was like a tank in the guise of a high school girl.

To destroy a state-of-the-art tank, three high school girls would typically be needed, but Yu Yeoreum was a super high school girl, so one was enough.

“Go! Yu Yeoreum!”

I decided to launch Yu Yeoreum into action.

However, Pinocchio tore a nearby piece of paper and handed it to Yu Yeoreum.

“Wait, wait, wait! Take a good look at the faces in this document. Don’t they look familiar? These are friends who disappeared from that night. They’re the missing children. Aren’t you curious about what happened to them?”

“What did you do to my friends!”

“I didn’t do anything. What happened was exactly what you did. Friends missing from the orphanage that night. Did they really go missing? Or did someone who was scared of the monsters punch them to death?”

“What?”

Did Yu Yeoreum kill her orphanage friends?

That was news to me too.

It was time to discern whether what he said was true or false through “emotion.”

“Yeoreum, no, Yeoreum, you’re a murderer. Just like us. Do you really think you can become a hero of justice just because you wear a fancy cape and shoot beams from your eyes? Is that really acceptable?”

“I… with these hands….”

Yu Yeoreum’s breathing began to quicken.

Indeed, it seemed Pinocchio specialized in mesmerizing people with his silver tongue.

What a cowardly thing.

A man should show his worth through action, not words!

“Why can’t I?”

I retorted instead.

“Who made those rules? Are you the president?”

“Are you serious?”

“Name: Noh Gi-ho
Ability: Show more ☜
《Persuasion Lv.3》 – Possesses speech as persuasive as a religious leader. Anyone can become a prisoner of his charming speech.
Status: 《Dumbfounded》 – Stunned by his strange logic.”

We could continue this debate, but I was a man of action who proved himself through deeds.

Huff.

I took a light breath and leaped quickly!

Bam-!

My broken leg felt like it was about to snap, but I didn’t care.

“Han-jin, kiiiiiiick!!!!”

I clenched my fist and ruthlessly punched Pinocchio in the face.

As Pinocchio flew from the blow and rolled on the ground, the mirror he was holding shattered with a loud crash.

Now that was a satisfying view.

“Ghuhuhuhuh. You call that a kick, punching my face? Ghuhuhuh…”

Might’ve been my powerful strike, as Pinocchio lay on the floor laughing.

Has he lost his marbles?

Swish, swish—.

At that moment, a strange wind began to circulate in this windowless basement.

Pinocchio’s body started to float into the air.

“Levitation?”

What the heck was going on?

Just when I felt puzzled, I lifted my gaze to see Pinocchio with bloodshot eyes.

That’s a symptom of consuming unpurified concept stones like “Yeomra.”

“Indeed, you two need to exit here. I now know what it feels like to overflow with power. With this power, I won’t have to bother with persuasion or deceit anymore!”

Has Pinocchio turned into a monster?

Is he ready to face death?

At this point, I was even more curious.

“Hey, why are you going to such lengths? Aren’t you afraid of death?”

“We─.”

At that moment, Pinocchio was about to say something.

Ziiiing-!

Suddenly, a heat ray erupted from next to me, accurately piercing through Pinocchio’s lower abdomen.

Sizzle-!

“Ah….”

Pinocchio, who had been rising into the air, fell to the ground like the moths I fought, collapsing helplessly. Could he be dead? I still needed to get the coordinates.

When I turned my head, I found Yu Yeoreum, whose eyes had lost all light, collapsing with a thud.

“Before you talk… I told you to finish them off. I’m drained… no more… even I…”

Yu Yeoreum began to whimper like a smartphone on its last battery.

Soon, someone shouted from my smartwatch.

━Hanam-jjin! We saved the kids! I did it! Murung-hu─!
━I never knew Yeoreum had such talents!
━Being unlucky instead paved the way for success….

It seemed they had just managed to rescue the hostages Pinocchio had held.

I was fortunate in many ways.

# # #

I took Yu Yeoreum and came up to ground level.

“Jina….”

Yu Yeoreum was slumped over, not at all fitting her codename “Invincible.”

Yet she seemed to have much she wanted to say, as her lips trembled.

“Was what Pinocchio said true? Those kids who went missing from the orphanage….”

“That’s a lie. It’s that jerk ‘Pinocchio,’ right? A liar. I’ve got “emotion,” so I can see through such lies.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah, I swear on my cool underwear that it’s true.”

Yu Yeoreum’s expression, full of concerns, lightened up considerably.

Limping, limping—

I helped Yu Yeoreum out of the orphanage.

“Yeoreum, my leg hurts; can’t you walk on your own?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this completely drained…. I’ll feel better once I’m in the sunlight. Sorry. I can’t even lift a finger.”

It was now 11 p.m.

Regrettably, we had a long wait before the sunlight would arrive.

I led Yu Yeoreum into a dark alley.

“Jina, I’m glad you transferred here. If I were alone, I would have definitely messed it all up. I tend to break things easily. And back then… If I hadn’t suggested getting a cat….”

With a crumpled face, Yu Yeoreum began to shed tears.

Isn’t a beauty even more beautiful while crying?

“…How wonderful it would have been if you had been beside me back then?”

“Yeoreum, we can always be together from now on.”

“Are you confessing to me or something?”

“No, I’m sorry; my heart belongs to Seoga-eul.”

Pffft-. Finally, unable to hold back, Yu Yeoreum laughed.

After much laughter, Yu Yeoreum said in a somewhat sad voice.

“…I envy Gaeul.”

“You have nothing to be envious of. You’ll be together with Gaeul going forward too.”

“Hmm? What did you just say?”

Clunk, creak-.

I opened the basement door and shoved Yu Yeoreum inside.

Seoga-eul, bound with chains, opened her mouth wide in surprise upon seeing Yu Yeoreum.

“Oh.”

“…Huh?”

Yu Yeoreum blinked her eyes as if she didn’t understand the situation.

To Yu Yeoreum, Seoga-eul said,

“Yu Yeoreum, I don’t think you understand the situation, so I’ll be honest. Hanam-jin is the criminal who kidnapped me and kept me locked up here. He’s a psycho! A total pervert!”

“Wh….”

Yu Yeoreum’s gaze turned towards me.

Those eyes, which not long ago held warmth, now sparkled with confusion, betrayal, and a mix of emotions.

They were literally prism-like eyes.

In this situation, perhaps this is the right thing to say?

“The criminal is the limping one!”