Ch.113Chapter 5. You’re Not Ready Yet. (3)

Villains don’t care about a hero’s circumstances.

Whether a hero is eating, using the bathroom, lying sick in bed, having a wedding ceremony, or even taking their college entrance exam, villains will cause trouble and wreak havoc.

In one notorious case, a particularly vicious villain provoked and continued destructive acts even when a hero was in mourning for a family member.

In the end, the enraged hero beat the villain to death, but since the villain’s goal was to make the hero kill someone—be it a villain or anyone else—the villain died with a smile on their face.

-No matter what, isn’t it going too far to target someone who just lost family?

-Would someone who cares about such things become a villain in the first place?

While some villains have their own philosophies, the world is full of those who abandon all human decency and act however they please.

Like villains who take innocent people hostage to uncover a hero’s secret identity.

Or those who, after discovering a hero’s identity, approach their inner circle to bring ruin to the hero’s loved ones, isolating them mentally.

Such scum naturally deserve execution, and as the Goblin, I’ve encountered countless such individuals.

And I killed them all.

I dismembered a villain who took hostages to discover my identity and then killed them all when I didn’t appear.

When I found someone who visited the home of a person I had saved and fired a shotgun, claiming it was “a gift from the Goblin,” I riddled his entire body with holes.

Through such incidents, the current Goblin came to be.

Now everyone in the underworld knows.

That the Goblin is not a hero.

That the moment you foolishly provoke the Goblin, you will face suffering worse than death.

Over the past half year, I’ve proven myself as the Goblin.

But Ymir is different.

[Let’s take a break here.]

“This is… that place, isn’t it?”

Platinum Sun dismounted from the bike and removed her mask and hood as she stood before the cliff.

[So eager to show your face?]

“No one’s watching us here. Why don’t you show your face too?”

[I’m sorry, but the Goblin only removes his mask…]

“In front of someone he loves. Right?”

[You know well.]

Ymir stuck her tongue out at me, and I tapped my club to create a bench.

“With that power to create anything with your club, did you bring that bike too?”

[It’s common sense for a rider to suddenly appear with a bike. Nothing strange about it.]

It’s only possible because it’s a specially made Yimemangryang bike.

[There are those who can create mana ropes out of thin air, so a bike is nothing special.]

“It amazes me every time I ride it. How you can create such intricate machinery.”

[If you join the Syndicate, they’ll provide not just bikes but vehicles and housing too.]

“Wow, look at you recruiting right away. Are you an insurance agent?”

[For the hero Platinum Sun’s life, there’s no better insurance than the Syndicate and Yimemangryang. Especially when a hero is no longer a hero.]

Insurance is something you don’t appreciate until you need it.

Only after experiencing a situation do you praise your past self for getting insurance, but when you’re paying for it, it just feels like wasting money.

[Today you purified the Frog Demon. You took its ability.]

“Yes, this.”

Ymir floated the sphere she had been clutching tightly in her hand—specifically, a sphere wrapped in golden magical energy.

“Body transformation. It seems specialized in elongating the body.”

[You can analyze that too?]

“I haven’t used it, but I understand the principles as soon as I take it. If I accepted this into my body, I could use it as skillfully as the demon did, but…”

Ymir shook her head in obvious disgust.

“I don’t really want to use it. Having my tongue extend that far. I’m already tall enough, and I’m quite satisfied with my body. What about you… Goblin?”

[I’m quite satisfied too. I have a body that doesn’t need to envy others.]

“As an ability user?”

[Even if I weren’t an ability user.]

I am satisfied with the Goblin’s—Do Ji-hwan’s—body.

Over the past half year—now a bit more than that—I’ve developed this body, and I take considerable pride in it.

[It’s good that you’re satisfied with your body. Dissatisfaction with one’s physical appearance is one of the easiest triggers for ability users to go berserk.]

This isn’t a joke.

Even the owner of that golden-sealed ability that Ymir captured transformed into a demon due to self-loathing that started with an “ugly face.”

An ability is just an ability; having one doesn’t guarantee that men will be over 180cm tall or women will be beautiful.

Rather, it sometimes seems like when God creates a child with an ability, it’s as if saying, “You’ll need at least this ability to survive in life.”

[It’s hard for ability users to get plastic surgery too. You need either a scalpel infused with magical energy or a specialist ability user surgeon, which isn’t easy to find. You just have to live with what you have.]

“Wasn’t there one ability user who specialized in plastic surgery?”

[A villain. He changed people however he wanted, claiming to seek the ultimate beauty.]

“And the Goblin smashed his head in, right?”

[I received a request to kill him, so I flew all the way to the middle of the Atlantic. Then I nicely minced him with my Goblin Club.]

Unlike ordinary people, ability users often can’t change their faces.

Some accept what they’re given, but others resent their genes.

[Fundamental dissatisfaction with oneself can easily become the first step toward corruption. Ability users are troublesome beings. Even slight dissatisfaction can lead to going berserk.]

And even if someone is considered relatively good-looking, that standard is always relative.

[Be careful, Platinum Sun. You might not have complaints about yourself, but others might have complaints about you.]

“Jealousy.”

[Yes. The emotion that ability users must be most careful of, must stay furthest away from.]

That’s what we’re taught from childhood.

Not just jealousy but other negative emotions too, though ability users must be especially careful.

[Those stronger than me. Those more handsome or beautiful than me. Those who have what I don’t. Those more famous than me. When you start feeling jealousy and envy toward such people, demons begin to whisper.]

“Then… isn’t it dangerous?”

Ymir pointed her finger at me.

“If I start wanting what the Goblin has, aren’t you essentially turning me into a demon?”

[I have no intention of corrupting you to the level of a demon.]

“Then you intend to corrupt me into a villain?”

[I want a white canvas painted black, not paper soaked in black water until it’s bloated and ruined.]

“And you can control that?”

[If I wasn’t confident in controlling it, I wouldn’t have made the offer in the first place.]

“You’re amazing.”

Ymir turned her back to me with a bright smile.

“Goblin. Did you think I would kill a villain who doesn’t care about my circumstances?”

[Whatever the trigger, I thought there would come a time when you couldn’t hold back and would lose your grip on reason.]

That makes sense, considering she’s the one who dropped a meteor on Earth in the end.

Someone who chose stress-induced self-destruction along with humanity’s extinction could very well kill a villain out of anger.

[Weren’t you angry? It seemed like you were having a good time.]

“Honestly, when the villain alert sounded, I was really angry. I thought, ‘Do I really have to go? Should I just ignore the alert and continue? Couldn’t someone else handle this?’ Those kinds of thoughts.”

[Everyone has those thoughts.]

“But when I arrived, it was a situation where I had to step in. So I did. Though I didn’t kill the villain who had become a demon.”

[You didn’t want to kill them?]

“I seriously considered it. Like with Ermina, I thought maybe it would be better to kill them since they wouldn’t know how to live after losing their ability.”

Ymir clenched and unclenched her fist as she reached toward the sphere.

“But every choice I’ve made so far has been the right one. Not killing people. And if possible, returning those who have become demons back to being human.”

[So that’s why you first revealed yourself against the restaurant attacker.]

“That’s right. Even at the risk of exposing my abilities to people, I intended to return someone becoming—or who had become—a demon back from demonhood. While keeping my identity secret.”

Poof.

The seal on the sphere was released.

“I might get angry momentarily, but I’m fine now. Instead of my time being stolen, I was able to protect others’ futures. I saved two people, right? Hehe.”

Platinum Sun saved two people.

A-rank hero Fire Knuckle and his girlfriend.

“If I can change someone’s life by taking a little time, I’ll gladly step up… Of course, only when possible.”

[There’s one more.]

“What?”

[The kid who shot the arrow.]

The child who shot an arrow to save a comrade, but almost ended up killing a hostage—which she prevented.

[If it weren’t for you, that child would have lived with the trauma of having killed an innocent civilian. You clearly made the right choice, and I respect you for that. So.]

I stood beside Ymir with my Goblin Club and aimed it at the ability extracted from the demon.

[Let me show you something interesting. While you are the one who takes.]

The ultimate technique using the Goblin Club.

[I am the one who executes.]

KAAAAANG!

[Abilities are no exception.]

Body manipulation type, ability to extend and contract body length.

[Abilities extracted from demons are merely byproducts of demons.]

The ability taken from the demon disperses into particles of light.

[Platinum Sun. Do you know? The ugliness of jealousy from those who cannot have?]

Now, no one possesses this ability.

And no one will awaken this ability extracted from a demon.

At least not this particular ability.

[In this world, there are those who research demons. Whether by forcibly turning villains into demons or by capturing and restraining demons. They extract the seeds of demons. And…]

Now.

The whole world will start looking for Ymir.

[The power to grant demonic abilities to non-ability users—”The Demon’s Heart.”]

Because using Ymir’s power, even ordinary people can become ability users.

[The whole world will start looking for you.]

Because even those not born as ability users want abilities.