Phoenix of the Flame – Chapter 13

〈 Chapter 13 〉Part 1 Chapter 1 (12)
The protagonist of Azure Sky Desdinus is an extremely heroic figure.
A hero who returned to his homeland to save the world, despite being hurt by people and betrayed by the country. He was truly a superhuman worthy of the word “hero.”
Then, what position should I take against that hero? What should I do to survive?
The only conclusion I reached after agonizing over it without sleep for three days in the magma was:
‘Let’s become trash.’
Act like the original, but become a villain beyond the original. That thought became firm when I realized that the current point in time was a whopping five years before the original.
‘Not just a production factory for Monsters and weirdos, but leading a real evil organization.’
To recover the fragments scattered around the world, a huge force is needed. No matter how strong Phoenix is, it was impossible in terms of time to fight against the entire Earth.
‘A villain organization operating in the underworld of Korea, the main stage.’
But as I said before, five years is not a very long time.
So I decided.
To become a real ‘villain’.
To survive in this hellish world.
I wanted to save it, no matter what.
* * *
“Oh my. What are you so surprised about? Since you’re an intellectual, Attorney Kim Sang-ah, I’ll give you a one-time offer. Originally, I kill you right away if you can’t answer.”
“Don’t talk crazy!”
Sang-ah shouted, her voice cracking.
“What? Use that man as a subordinate?! Listen carefully! That’s human trash! They’re bastards who make money by drugging, raping, and selling people! If you’re not careful, you’ll be subjected to those beasts…!”
“That didn’t happen, did it? So, what can you give me? Oh, should I write a contract for you since you’re a lawyer? Would you like to sign a contract with me and become my subordinate?”
“……Shut up. You crazy bitch.”
Sang-ah cursed in a venomous voice and took out a small marble from a bundle placed in the corner and threw it at Phoenix.
Swish.
Vail, catching the marble, placed it on Phoenix’s palm as if sliding it down a slide.
“Oh. A Monster Core?”
“D-class. It’ll be worth 30 million won.”
Sang-ah pointed at Deok-bae with trembling fingers.
“That’s what you ability users like the most, right? Isn’t that worth more than that trash? So, kill that bastard with it. The most painfully in the world, as you said.”
“Hmm.”
Phoenix held out the marble to Deok-bae and asked.
“Do you think your life is worth more than 30 million won?”
“…I don’t know. Fuck. Just kill me if you’re going to.”
“See! That bastard wants you to kill him too! Kill him!”
Phoenix fiddled with the marble in his hand and leaned against the wall.
“No matter how I think about it, 30 million won for one ability user like that is a bit of a loss.”
“What?”
Sang-ah asked blankly with a lost expression. Phoenix put the marble in his school uniform pocket and moved his hands around before taking them out.
“Tada! Marble magic. One Monster Core has instantly increased to four.”
Marbles were stuck between Phoenix’s fingers. Cores of a larger and clearer color than the marble Sang-ah gave.
“Do I really need to receive the Monster Core that Attorney Kim Sang-ah has stashed away?”
“Then what do you want me to do! That’s all I have!”
Sang-ah shouted in a fit of anger. Her bloodshot eyes looked like they would shed tears of blood at any moment.
Phoenix erased his grinning smile. His eyes contained sincere pity.
“It’s a pity that you don’t realize there’s something more valuable. Then there’s nothing I can do.”
Phoenix put the Monster Core back in his pocket, approached Deok-bae, and put his hand on his shoulder.
“It’s a pity. Attorney Kim Sang-ah sold your future. For 30 million won.”
Deok-bae closed his eyes silently.
Whoosh.
When Phoenix tapped Deok-bae’s shoulder, blue flames erupted from Deok-bae’s entire body.
Fwoosh.
The flames burned Deok-bae’s entire body in an instant. Deok-bae couldn’t resist in any way and collapsed to the floor.
“Okay. Done. Then goodbye.”
Phoenix, with a lighthearted face, tried to go out the door. Sang-ah rushed out, turned Phoenix’s body around, and grabbed his shoulder.
“What are you doing! You said you’d kill him! The most painfully in the world!”
“That’s true, but I’m also a high-quality workforce. I burned him as much as I received. 100 million per second? I burned him for 30 million won.”
“Don’t talk nonsense!!!”
“Ah, really.”
Phoenix pushed Sang-ah’s arm aside and put his hand on Sang-ah’s shoulder.
“H-Hik?!”
Having seen with her own eyes how Deok-bae had died right in front of her, Sang-ah trembled all over and was terrified.
“Why are you bothering me so much, Kim Sang-ah? …Making me want to get rid of you.”
” ”
Sang-ah’s face turned pale. Phoenix tapped his fingers on Sang-ah’s shoulder as if playing a piano, then smiled again.
“Just kidding. I never kill anyone ‘unnecessarily’. So smile. Smile! Why are you acting like someone’s going to kill you?”
Sang-ah trembled her lips and raised the corners of her mouth.
“It’s not like I’m a crazy person who can’t kill someone. It’s the same now, right? They’re trash who are involved in human trafficking in the 21st century. They deserve to die, right? Right? Ah, please answer since I’m asking.”
“Y-Yes! Yes!”
Sang-ah nodded her head so that her chin touched her collarbone. Phoenix straightened the clothes that had slipped off Sang-ah’s shoulder and smiled.
“Right? They were trash who weren’t even human. I cleaned them up. For the beautiful and peaceful world that will unfold in the future. Love and peace!”
Phoenix took out one of the marbles in his pocket and held it tightly in Sang-ah’s hand. It was the D-class Monster Core that Sang-ah had paid as the price for Deok-bae’s life.
“So, I won’t take this. I don’t give money for cleaning up trash lying on the street. Right? In a world where people live.”
Sang-ah smiled, following Phoenix. It felt like something terrible would happen if she didn’t smile.
“Yes, yes!”
“But you know.”
Phoenix held Sang-ah’s hands tightly.
“If you hid this Monster Core in your bundle and got on the bus, what would have happened next~?”
“……Gasp?!”
Sang-ah struggled to pull her hands out. But her hands, held by Phoenix, didn’t budge as if caught in a snare.
“Monster Cores are delicious prey for other Monsters. If they consume the Core, they absorb its power as it is. Hiding it is useless. Even the weakest Monster has an amazing sense of smell for Cores that aren’t covered with a barrier that blocks Mana. How much they rushed at me while crossing the airport.”
Phoenix let go of her hands. Sang-ah, hitting the wall from the recoil, rolled on the floor and ran towards the door leading outside, grabbing her bundle.
Thump! Thump thump!
The door wouldn’t open. A barrier of blue flames was spread outside the door.
“You said it was a D-class Monster Core, right? Wow, if you had taken this on the bus, something fun would have happened while going down the highway. Right? You surrounded it so much because you were afraid the smell would leak out if you hid it on your body. Even if a hero was on board, it’s useless if a swarm of Monsters comes.”
“Aaaah! Aaaah!”
Step, step. Phoenix walked past Deok-bae’s corpse and approached Sang-ah.
“So here’s a question. Compared to the trash who tried to sell people, is the person who almost made all the passengers on the bus food for Monsters also trash who deserves to die?”
“Shut up! That kind of thing will never happen!”
“Oh dear. There’s no ‘never’ in the world.”
Phoenix stood right behind Sang-ah. Sang-ah gave up opening the doorknob and crawled on the floor, fleeing to the center of the room.
“Please answer me. I’m very seriously curious right now.”
“Stop talking nonsense! You’re not even human!”
“…Heh.”
What was so funny about that? Phoenix suddenly started laughing like a madman.
“AHAHAHA! HAHAHA! Cough, not even human, she says! AHAHAHA!”
The way he trembled, clutching his stomach, was like that of a madman seen in a musical.
An actor immersed in his role, expressing excessive emotions and laughing wildly.
“Aha, hahaha. Haa….”
Phoenix laughed like that for several seconds before panting. Phoenix, grabbing the sofa and straightening his posture, flicked his finger at Sang-ah.
“Who are you calling not even human?”
Snap.
Sang-ah was engulfed in blue flames. She flailed her arms in the air, trying to put out the fire somehow, but it was useless.
“Aaaah….”
Just like everyone else, including Deok-bae, had disappeared, Sang-ah also made a rattling sound and collapsed to the floor. The time it took for the flames to rise and subside was exactly the same as when Deok-bae had burned.
“Okay, then….”
Phoenix picked up the smartphone that had fallen on the floor. Even with the end of the case slightly scorched, the smartphone was still recording a video in shooting mode.
“Even filming? You’ve done everything.”
When he stopped the video recording, the filmed video was saved in the gallery. The album was full of numerous photos and videos, excluding Sang-ah, who had just been filmed.
“Ugh.”
Phoenix frowned and closed the gallery.
‘I’ll format it and delete it later when I have time.’
He couldn’t be misunderstood as someone who carries illegal videos on his phone, but he had to use it temporarily until he got a proper one in Seoul.
Beep beep beep.
“Huh?”
When he checked the warning sound from the smartphone, it indicated that the battery was depleted.
“Oh dear.”
The battery showing a red light. Phoenix hurriedly searched near the drawer, found a charger, and connected it to the smartphone.
“Fast charging in 1 hour?”
Phoenix checked the clock that came to mind. 4:12 PM. Time was constantly being delayed when he should be going up to Seoul as soon as possible.
‘I should have just left without doing anything else….’
Phoenix twisted Vail with his fingers.
Should he just leave this place, or wait an hour and take the smartphone?
‘…It’s better to have it, since I’m bored.’
Brainwashing himself that it was a good opportunity to explore information about this world while using data on the way, Phoenix placed the smartphone on the table and stretched.
“Then what should I do for an hour….”
Phoenix, who was twisting the Vail around his neck, scanned the room and his gaze reached Deok-bae’s corpse.
A man with a simple ability called physical enhancement, but with high potential. A neighborhood villain who never appeared even once in the original.
What would happen if I made this into a Monster?
“……..”
Phoenix quietly took out the Monster Core.
* * *
Jo Deok-bae.
The name, which seemed somewhat old-fashioned, was a name his parents had given him carelessly.
The result of a one-night stand between a day laborer and a woman who worked in the water business.
Deok-bae’s life, whose first memory from childhood started with being slapped by the director at the orphanage, was truly a disastrous life.
But didn’t they say that even a rat hole has its day in the sun?
On the day Deok-bae reached the age where he could no longer stay in the orphanage, he left the orphanage and wandered the streets. He was sleeping rough in the history when he was taken in by a man named Park Ho-cheol.
Seeing his physique, Ho-cheol, who was trying to entrust him with the management of his business, began to treat Deok-bae like a subordinate, and Deok-bae simply lived a life of following his orders.
A turning point came in Deok-bae’s life.
The awakening of ability.
The ability of <Physical Enhancement>, which awakened while running across the Yeongjong Bridge to escape from the Monsters that attacked Yeongjong Island, should have been a blessing, but it became a new shackle for Deok-bae.
‘Hey. You’re going to be a hero? Don’t be ridiculous. If a guy who used to be a water business shoulder becomes a hero of mankind, this country is over, over. Give up on your pipe dreams and go collect money. You want to find your parents, right? Then you have to make a lot of money?’
Ho-cheol, who had also awakened his own ability, began to expand his business more and more using Deok-bae’s power. They, who were just neighborhood shoulders, took root in the no man’s land of Incheon’s back area and solidified their power.
Gather as much money as possible before Incheon explodes.
And pay the collected money as tribute to join the ‘Villain Union’, the largest organization in New Seoul.

Duckbae was a loyal dog who followed Hocheol’s orders. Although he wasn’t greedy for women, he had earned a notorious reputation in the Incheon underworld as a ‘Skinhead.’
Recently, his power had grown so strong that his subordinates followed him, distancing him from Hocheol, but in any case, Duckbae had managed to amass a lot of money.
‘It was all for nothing.’
All of it was burned away by a crazy serial killer he had the misfortune of running into. Duckbae’s life was sold for a mere thirty million won.
‘Good thing it was thirty million won. My life, that is.’
You can’t put a price on a human life, but Duckbae couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that he agreed his life was worth just that much. A piece of human garbage’s life couldn’t be worth any more than that.
‘If I’m reborn, I want a more valuable life.’
I don’t need to be born into a wealthy family, but I want to live happily with both parents in a harmonious home. And I’d like to have an annoying little sister, too.
‘But am I not dead?’
Blue flames obscured his vision, and he lost consciousness with pain he had never experienced before. That was probably Duckbae’s thirty-million-won death.
‘Is this the afterlife, then?’
“Jo Duckbae. Jo Duckbae.”
Is my name going to be called three times before I’m dragged to the underworld? Duckbae chuckled to himself and answered the sweet voice that called his name.
“Which hell am I going to be trapped in?”
“It’s reality, Duckbae.”
A girl with blue hair was smiling brightly. Duckbae was so shocked that his heart seemed to stop, and he lost consciousness again.
* * *
“…What is it? Why is this bastard passed out again?”
I tapped Duckbae’s cheek, who had lost consciousness. His skin, which had turned to stone, was clearly alien, not human.
‘He was a Rock Monster.’
I examined the Monster Core—a remnant left by Sang-a—embedded in Duckbae’s heart. The Monster Core, shining with a murky gray light, had dyed Duckbae’s entire body like stone.
‘Should I have just used the one I picked up at Incheon Airport?’
Monster Cores placed all over his body. The spoils I had obtained by catching and beating up Monsters at Incheon Airport were all at least C-rank or higher.
‘It was actually harder to find D-ranks.’
Because they only reeked of B-rank smell and Mana, the A-ranks thought they were weaker than them and attacked, the B-ranks thought they were equal and attacked, and the C-ranks thought they had a chance and attacked.
The D-ranks and below must have been scared, because they hid on their own. Thanks to that, I was too lazy to find them all, so I just walked past them and came to the terminal.
‘This curiosity of mine, again.’
Curiosity killed the cat, they say. Unlike the Seohae Weapon, I scratched my cheek at the second Monster I had created without a plan.
‘What do I do with this?’
In the original story, there were no executives who turned ‘Heroes’ into Monsters. It was impossible in the first place. But just in case, I tried embedding a Core into the corpse, and this happened.
‘I didn’t really think he would come back to life as a Monster.’
So should I see this as a Monster? Or should I see it as a human? He died and came back to life, so a zombie? A Hero Monster? A Monster Villain?
‘I don’t know. Let’s just lump it together as a Monster.’
I’m too lazy to divide Monsters and Villains, and creating a new classification is a waste of mental energy. I decided to leave the definition of the term ‘Monsterization of Humans, Heroes’ to the academic world someday, and shook Duckbae’s face back and forth again.
“Jo Duckbae. Jo Duckbae. Mr. Jo Duckbae?”
He doesn’t seem to be waking up at all. I can’t help it. I’ll just have to wait until my smartphone is fully charged.
If he doesn’t wake up by then, I’ll have to kill him again and leave.
“99%….”
“Unfamiliar ceiling.”
Duckbae regained consciousness. I was almost impressed by the timing, which felt like a trick of fate.
“If it was even 1% later, I would have killed you again.”
“???”
Duckbae’s expression is full of bewilderment. I cleared my throat and composed myself, then spread my arms wide and gave a kind smile.
“Welcome back to this world. My second minion.”
“…Why are you suddenly talking in such an awkward tone? Are you drunk? You burned me to death for thirty million won and followed me to the afterlife. You bitch.”
Should I kill him? I smacked the back of my impudent subordinate’s head.