Ch.185Chapter 7. He Thinks He’s the Protagonist of a Shonen Manga (3)

Again, I can’t help but curse the author.

‘He ruined the work by half-heartedly trying to whitewash it.’

Ermina Sternfeld.

Juliana Faygreen.

With one original heroine now becoming the demon Naberius and another becoming a villain who steals genes, I can’t help but worry about the heroines from the original work.

The Heavenly Demon Lee Ye-ryeong is the same.

That woman is a character created from the author’s anguish, concerns, and various mixed emotions.

-A Chinese heroine might be a bit much?

-But it would be nice to have at least one heroine from China.

-What about a Korean-Chinese heroine? No, that’s also problematic.

Following this line of thinking.

-Ah, let’s include a heroine who defected to China!

That’s how the former Korean S-class hero, Lee Ye-ryeong, came to be.

Well, the author tried to justify it by providing various clues.

She suffered harm from Haeguneul Group, was worked like a dog by the government, became angry when they threatened her parents, and eventually took her parents abroad where she now lives as a filial daughter in a house with a 1,000-pyeong garden.

She simply defected to China.

There are many cases of people betraying Korea and becoming S-class heroes for other countries, but Lee Ye-ryeong receives the most criticism from Koreans.

‘At least she has strong mental fortitude.’

A person hated by all 50 million people in Korea.

A character readers dislike, asking, “Why create such a character?”

Yet simultaneously, the character was well-developed, leading to complaints like, “Why give such a terrible backstory to a heroine?”

I never expected to see such a woman here.

“Hey. What are you doing?”

“I heard the traitorous Heavenly Demon showed up.”

“Ha. That ridiculous woman.”

In front of me, a Zenros agent pulling another Zenros like a prisoner on a leash openly mocked the Heavenly Demon.

“What an idiot. She went to China because Snow White was above her, and she knew she could never surpass her. Now she’s the number one female hero in China. Tsk.”

“…Wasn’t there more to it than that?”

“Yeah. She went for the money. Sigh. When you consider she gets our country’s annual defense budget as her salary, I might have done the same.”

I heard the pure defense budget, excluding ability-related expenses, is about 50 trillion won.

That means Lee Ye-ryeong’s annual salary is 50 trillion.

“Isn’t 50 trillion a significant portion of China’s defense budget? It must be about 1/7 of it.”

“50 trillion for the annual use of one S-class hero is probably considered appropriate. It’s more beneficial to have an S-class hero than to produce tanks with that money. Tanks can’t reproduce.”

“I think I’d defect for just 10 trillion.”

“What’s 10 trillion? I’d suck nipples sweetly for just 1 trillion. Sigh. It’s a sin to be born D-class.”

“……”

And that’s just her personal salary. If you include the separate pension for her parents, their living environment, and various other support, it’s probably even more.

“I heard that in China, they also exempt taxes based on performance, like an incentive system.”

“Isn’t that just giving away money?”

“Even if they’re giving away money, having one person who’s among the top S-class is worth it. Some places are desperate for S-class heroes but can’t find them even with money.”

“True.”

‘It does seem like an amount worth changing nationality for.’

In a capitalist world, pursuing money isn’t strange.

But if you get criticized for it, that’s something you have to deal with yourself.

“They’re betting everything on the national ability user competition this October. Tsk tsk.”

“……”

Come to think of it, there was such an event.

It’s a massive event hosted in Korea, where S-class users from various countries are invited to compete in a World Cup-like event to commemorate 2025.

Of course, this event is also designed to elevate the original protagonist.

There, the protagonist defeats all sorts of ability users, including the Heavenly Demon, and establishes his reputation as the true S+ class, the world’s number one.

Naturally, being like a World Cup, there were many patriotic displays.

“Sigh. Whatever she does out there, we just need to do our job. We’re here.”

As I descended the stairs with the supervising agent, I could see Ymir and the Taowu pair, along with other Zenros and agents who had already arrived.

‘This is a perfect place for an incident.’

It looked like an unused seminar room, an indoor space without any windows to the outside.

‘Ymir is doing well. So is Taowu.’

Ymir glanced at me once, then silently looked ahead, faithfully performing her duty as an agent without acknowledging me or showing relief.

“Senior, our team has arrived.”

“Oh, yes. One more team hasn’t arrived yet, so let’s move together when everyone’s here.”

While the supervising agent was talking to a higher-ranking agent, I examined the Zenros.

They all seemed to be in quite poor condition.

There was a boy who seemed to be rubbing his hands inside his restraints as if self-harming, and a woman who hung her head low, muttering to herself as if still unable to accept that she was a Zenros.

“Hehe, hehehe, hehe….”

The most concerning was a man with a maniacal laugh.

He was the demon I had captured; he hadn’t killed anyone but had come close to it.

‘It’s a sad situation.’

These are people who were forcibly injected with demon seeds by Dueoksini and became demons.

Most Zenros exploded with their ugly desires and rampaged as demons, but that man had fought against his demonic desires, rolling in the sand trying to suppress the demon he had become.

Now he’s been brought here, stripped of his abilities.

These are just people “born with abilities” – not particularly powerful parents, not wealthy, not close to those in power.

In other words.

‘People who won’t cause much trouble if used as test subjects.’

It’s obvious just by looking, and the investigated data confirms it.

When accidents happen to family members or acquaintances of important people, they get resolved with a phone call or two from the golf course, but accidents involving these people won’t attract anyone’s attention.

Boom.

The ship shakes violently.

On the monitor, Susanoo and Thunder Empress, Heavenly Demon and Battle God were fighting each other with full force.

“Whew. Watching these nuclear bombs fighting each other is really scary.”

The person who appeared to be in charge shuddered.

“Oh, you’re finally here. Hurry up. You’re late.”

“I’m sorry. It took some time to bring them.”

An agent was dragging a leash connected to handcuffs.

Behind it, a person was being pulled like luggage, and at that sight, one of the Zenros’ eyes widened.

“H-how can you treat a person like that!”

“Ah. Shut up. Demons have no human rights.”

“We’re not demons! We’re-“

“Hey. Hit him.”

WHACK!

The agent in charge of the Zenros struck the back of his neck.

Hitting the nape with the side of your hand doesn’t normally cause unconsciousness, but it’s different when “an ability user hits a normal person.”

“Kuhak.”

The Zenros collapsed with a mild concussion.

At this sudden violence, the Zenros’ expressions hardened, and the supervising agent stretched and tapped his Taeguk Watch.

“Ah. Communication security. Communication security.”

Crackle!

Something spread from the Taeguk Watch, and soon the lights in the seminar room where we had gathered suddenly disappeared.

“Operation start.”

As soon as the supervisor spoke, the agents began attacking the Zenros simultaneously.

“Wha-kuhak…!”

They all struck the napes, apparently aiming to knock them unconscious, and I raised my hand toward Qiongqi.

WHACK!

With the sound of magical power colliding, Qiongqi closed his eyes and collapsed sideways.

I didn’t actually hit him but just made the sound; Qiongqi pretended to lose consciousness and fell face down.

‘Damn.’

Both Qiongqi and I acted instinctively.

As for Ymir’s side-

“Kuhak!”

“……”

It was a punch to the stomach.

Ymir tried to hit Taowu’s nape once and failed, and as soon as Taowu turned around in resistance, she immediately punched him in the stomach, neutralizing his resistance.

“Hey, hey. Don’t hurt them too badly. Why go that far?”

“I’m sorry. The resistance was strong.”

“Tsk. Well, being B-class, it’s natural to resist. Consciousness?”

“Gone. He’s unconscious.”

“That’s fine then.”

Of course, the attacks weren’t actually carried out; only the sound of magical power exploding was heard.

“Hey, come out now.”

“……”

Beyond the lounge, a door that looked like a storage room opened, and a group of people emerged.

They all had white hair and wore the same clothes as the Zenros, with somewhat blank expressions.

“Remove the handcuffs immediately and switch them.”

As expected.

Ymir glanced at me slightly as if asking what to do, and I nodded lightly to her as I reached for the handcuffs.

Click.

Since both Ymir and I had already confirmed what we needed to, removing the handcuffs wasn’t a problem.

After all, we had checked the handcuffs while switching Qiongqi and Taowu.

“Agents, after switching the Zenros, move them to the container.”

‘So far, according to plan.’

I can’t immediately confirm where Qiongqi and Taowu are going, or where they’re being transported to, but having confirmed that something suspicious is happening with the Zenros, we have our answer.

The place where Qiongqi and Taowu are being sent must be heading to the demon research facility.

Now, if there are no other variables—

Creak.

Suddenly, the door to the seminar room opened.

Everyone inside turned their heads toward the door.

“…Huh?”

Click.

A man in the same agent uniform as ours appeared with a Zenros behind him.

Judging by the cigarette pack and two cigarettes he took out, he probably brought the Zenros here at his own discretion because they wanted to smoke.

“Are you all planning to smoke together…?”

Step, step.

The supervising agent immediately approached the entrance.

His movement was that of a professional, and I immediately turned my gaze to Ymir.

What are you going to do?

I know what’s about to happen.

The supervisor has a knife, and he’s clearly going to stab the uninvited guest.

If only the Goblin were here.

If only the Syndicate were here, I would have let it pass.

Even if an innocent person was stabbed to death, I would have stayed still to extract definite information.

But.

Ymir closed her eyes slightly as if apologizing.

She made a slight thrusting gesture with her hand, then pointed to her heart area with her thumb and clenched her fist.

-I won’t make a fuss.

-But I’ll move if someone gets stabbed.

-I can’t let someone die.

I saw firm resolve in her eyes, and I gave her a thumbs up where others couldn’t see.

“It’s unfortunate. If you hadn’t come to smoke, you could have lived quietly.”

“Um, senior? Why are you suddenly so scary-“

STAB!

“Sen…ior…?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll send you to the ‘cocoon’ too.”

The moment the supervising agent stabbed the uninvited guest’s heart.

The moment Ymir saw the blood splatter on the floor.

From the moment I brought someone who couldn’t ignore a person dying, my plan was already derailed.

“Tsk.”

Tri-colored magical power enveloped the inside of the lounge.

‘I’ve confirmed that Wijungcheoksa is involved, so I’ve achieved something.’

The Goblin’s plan from the Syndicate will fail, but right now, I’m not the Goblin.

‘Let’s play the fake hero for a while.’

Now.

It’s time to cause a scene.