Ch.239239. Villain (3)

# North Gyeongju.

One year ago, this was Jo Sun-do’s territory and stronghold. After Jo Sun-do’s downfall, his remnants hid deep within North Gyeongju, and now it had become a region where numerous criminal organizations and guilds that had been stung by the Dragon Priestess had established themselves.

Naturally, it was considered the most dangerous place among the areas effectively controlled by Seorabeol. Even the citizens who had settled in North Gyeongju unanimously complained about feeling unsafe due to the thugs who had taken root there. Even after a year, North Gyeongju remained Seorabeol’s shame.

In fact, there was a sense that Seorabeol had intentionally allowed thugs and Jo Sun-do’s remnants to gather in North Gyeongju to make criminals easier to manage.

However, after a year had passed…

“How much information did you bring?”

“Well now. I came knowing everything, so let’s not be troublesome.”

“If you know everything, why are you being so petty?”

The black market… that is, the area where illegal money changed hands had transformed into an underground economic zone where the shadow economy was actively thriving.

Of course, Seorabeol couldn’t monitor them forever, and from Seorabeol’s perspective, unless they harmed civilians living in North Gyeongju or caused incidents serious enough to warrant military intervention, they had no intention of actively hunting down criminals who were otherwise keeping to themselves.

Taking advantage of this, criminals and thugs began hiding in the black market or selling weapons and supplies unknown to Seorabeol. As underground economic activities gradually increased, now even guilds affiliated with Seorabeol secretly collaborated with the black market for tax evasion purposes or openly used it. Alternatively, it had transformed into a place where villains purchased criminal tools sold by merchants from outside Seorabeol.

Today as well, numerous untracked black money and weapons were being sold or purchased, and the market was actively trading. Unfortunately, today they weren’t so lucky.

“It’s Jin A-yeon! Jin A-yeon has appeared!”

“S-shit, close the doors! If we make eye contact and get caught, we’re all dead!”

From their perspective, Jin A-yeon—a super Godzilla against whom bribes and violent resistance were completely ineffective—had unleashed her terrifying “black market crackdown” technique.

Having apparently caught a proper lead, she had deployed a police special forces team and begun indiscriminate crackdowns on all black market merchants. Unfortunately, the merchants opposing her weren’t super Godzillas themselves, nor were they the Vegetable Prince rival, nor were they of the caliber that could calmly tell the government, “If you come after me alone, I’ll destroy Seorabeol’s market!”

This is why all merchants with goods in the black market were terrified at just the name Jin A-yeon, trying to drive away customers, close their shops, and hide like mice. But their efforts were futile against Jin A-yeon who had found targets to crack down on.

“How many times have I warned you, and you’re still illegally selling weapons? You’re all dead.”

“Sister! Sister! Save us! We’re innocent! How could we disobey your words!”

They were too pathetic to be called villains who had brazenly activated a black market right next to Seorabeol’s headquarters, but they had no choice in the matter.

Of course, there had been villains who acted fearlessly with the justification that “even Seorabeol will die if they mess with me” when they had acquired many weapons and money.

However, the fact that there were no such villains here now was a reminder that such bold ones had already been arrested by Jin A-yeon and imprisoned in Pohang Correctional Facility.

After challenging and resisting many times, only to find that their resistance was ineffective against this being beyond common sense, the black market merchants had come to accept Jin A-yeon as a kind of natural disaster that passed through on certain dates.

“All of you gather under me too. If you don’t come out, I’ll search your stores and check your double bookkeeping, understand?”

“Hey now, Sister. We’re just ordinary merchants trying to make a living.”

How many times had this happened now?

While praying for this natural disaster to pass quickly, the black market was trying to appease Jin A-yeon in an incredibly obsequious manner, claiming they were just powerless merchants.

To Jin A-yeon, who knew these guys were thugs and criminals in certain areas, this was nonsense and annoying. However, knowing that if she swept them all away, idiots would rise to fill the vacuum, Jin A-yeon moderately accepted their words, scratched her head, and began questioning the black market merchants.

“Right. You sold weapons unknown to Seorabeol to those damn villains. So, who did it here?”

“Sister, this is unfair! You’ve warned us so many times that even a thoughtless beast would know by now there’s a line you’ve drawn! We really didn’t do it! It was those fearless newbies who recently came in!”

“Really?”

Of course, they had sold illegal weapons to others at a level that wouldn’t get caught by Jin A-yeon.

However, the black market merchants were aware that when Jin A-yeon came here, they would essentially be wiped out and their business would fail. So even if they sold weapons, they wouldn’t sell them to villains who would cause trouble in Seorabeol, only to those who wouldn’t.

While they believed money was always right, what was more important than money right now was life and freedom, wasn’t it?

It was common knowledge among black market merchants that if Jin A-yeon, who had caught a proper lead, decided to act, all black market merchants present would be unable to escape and would be immediately imprisoned in Pohang Correctional Facility.

“It’s true! Would we risk our lives by lying to you, Sister?”

In response, Jin A-yeon flicked her finger instead of answering.

Metal dust in the air began to stir, and dozens of iron bars placed on top of containers converted into residences began to rise.

It was a terrifying sight that the black market merchants never wanted to see again, and they stared at Jin A-yeon with trembling eyes, wondering if their persuasion had failed.

“Tell me. Where are they?”

“Over there! They’re doing business in that spot!”

It was a pathetic sight like a childish kid tattling to an adult, but the black market merchants didn’t care.

As long as it wasn’t them, it was fine. If they could just help catch the villains Jin A-yeon wanted, they could sell out anything without hesitation—that was the pride of black market merchants.

Yes, there was also a sense of keeping in check those thoughtless newbies who had entered this place carelessly.

“W-what? What’s happening?”

“Yes, yes. Are you the merchants who sold weapons to villains?”

“S-shit, it’s the cops!”

When the newbies realized the police had arrived, they tried to flee with their goods, but unfortunately, they were in the palm of Jin A-yeon’s hand.

By placing iron bars controlled by telekinesis at each exit, she could restrict the newbies’ movement and even completely block paths.

In this situation, where the black market interior was incredibly complex due to indiscriminate modifications, it was clear that climbing onto buildings would result in being riddled with suppression rounds fired by the police.

It was essentially checkmate, so Jin A-yeon addressed the merchants who were flattering her.

“Where did those guys come from?”

“They said they came from America.”

“So they’re not our criminals but foreign villains. Hey, bring the international wanted list.”

The newbies were indeed new, but they weren’t native to the Korean peninsula—they were foreign imports.

That’s why they had broken the unwritten rules of Seorabeol’s black market and sold weapons smuggled from overseas or acquired from the black market to villains, and they had finally been caught.

Jin A-yeon, thinking something troublesome had arrived, ordered her subordinate to bring the international wanted list, but…

“Now listen carefully. If you comply with the arrest peacefully, you’ll go to jail without getting hurt. If you resist… well, you know what happens, right?”

“Don’t make me laugh!”

But as they say, even an ant will squirm when stepped on—when their escape routes disappeared, they began to rampage.

With a thud, the iron rods embedded in the ground began to be pulled upward, and the extracted rods started returning to Jin A-yeon.

Jin A-yeon, unfazed by this sight, forcibly reclaimed control of the iron rods and began raining divine punishment on the foolish villains trying to escape through the opened path.

She began subduing them by piercing their hands and feet with the rods, then turned her attention to the Awakened who had reversed her iron rod attack.

“Oh? So you’re a mage? A mage involved in crime… that’s quite unusual. Are you some kind of weirdo?”

She was surprised that there was a mage on the villain’s side.

After all, mages were internationally highly regarded Awakened, and they could receive many benefits just by being affiliated with a country.

Finding it strange that such a mage had become a villain, Jin A-yeon judged that the foreign situation must not be good.

“Your mages are the real weirdos!”

“Ah, I’ll admit that. Our Seorabeol mage society members are too embarrassing to brag about—hanbok-wearing weirdos.”

The mage couldn’t respond to Jin A-yeon’s words and began cursing that the mage blocking his escape route was more of a monster.

Not realizing that the mage the villain was referring to was Jin A-yeon herself, she seemed to think the villain was talking about the Seorabeol Mage Society, and smiled bitterly as if disgusted by the madness caused by the society.

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Just go to sleep.”

They were simply unlucky.

As the leader of a faction and a mage, they probably had confidence in their villain organization, which lacked nothing anywhere, feeling like a lord ruling a province by a country’s standards. However, their opponent was one of the extremely rare superhumans in the world.

Moreover, she was a fully equipped Awakened with robust support from Seorabeol, and such a fully equipped Awakened had crushed a growing newbie… If this were a game, the balance would be so broken that players would immediately protest to the administrators.

But this was reality, and the villain simply collapsed with a helpless expression that seemed to say this was absurd.

After subduing the culprits of this incident, Jin A-yeon smiled brightly and looked at the merchants.

“Raise your hand if you’ve dealt with guilds here. If you don’t, I’ll search all stores and find the double bookkeeping.”

“Here it is, Sister.”

At Jin A-yeon’s words, the black market merchants bowed their heads and voluntarily submitted the ledgers of their dealings with guilds for tax purposes.

Having secured evidence to submit to the police chief and the National Tax Service, Jin A-yeon returned to Seorabeol Police Headquarters with impressive achievements and a dignified appearance, but…

“Sigh. The guild’s legal team has come to complain again.”

“Again?”

What greeted her was Han Seong-geun’s lament.

Apparently, some complaint had come from a Seorabeol private guild, and Han Seong-geun’s expression wasn’t good, having been harassed by malicious complainants.

“Yes. They’re claiming their guild members were injured due to excessive police suppression. A-yeon, did you happen to search the black market?”

“Yes. I found international criminals supplying weapons to Seorabeol villains, so I raided the black market.”

Han Seong-geun sighed and asked about Jin A-yeon’s actions. When the word “black market” came from her mouth, his expression became more wrinkled, and he began to sigh even more deeply.

“I thought so. The legal team guys… When I asked where their guild members were injured, they couldn’t answer. Considering we’ve been caught anyway, they must have thrown the first punch.”

This was a passage showing how much public authority had fallen in the current apocalypse. Considering they were all private guilds officially affiliated with Seorabeol, it was an eye-rotting sight that naturally drew sighs.

However, it couldn’t be helped. From the perspective of guilds gradually gaining power, they needed to show the public a strong image that could even oppose the state to build their influence. The police were an easy and relatively vulnerable institution to demonstrate such strength against.

After all, the Seorabeol cabinet was backed by monstrous Dragon Gods and Dragon Priestesses, so the moment a guild touched them, they would be annihilated by a Yunadeath Beam. The administration was an extension of the cabinet, and as for the National Tax Service… they weren’t crazy and wanted to live long.

So, ironically, the institution that was gentle by apocalypse standards and could be challenged without major problems was Seorabeol’s police. The guilds were focusing on building prestige by loudly proclaiming to the Seorabeol public that their guild was an amazing organization that could stand toe-to-toe with Seorabeol police.

“Then let’s counterattack.”

“Unlike the black market, which is a collection of achievements, Seorabeol guilds are officially recognized by the Seorabeol government. We can’t rashly attack first.”

“Wow. They’re like foxes.”

Moreover, unlike with villains or the black market, the police apparently had no means to respond to malicious complaints.

They had merely filed complaints, not committed any illegal acts.

Entering the black market? There was no law in Seorabeol prohibiting Awakened from entering the black market.

It was morally and ethically out of bounds, but legally there was no problem. As long as they didn’t purchase illegal weapons there, it was perfectly OK according to Seorabeol law. They were exploiting loopholes in the law.

“It’s the destiny of interest groups to exploit legal loopholes for profit. Now only guilds remain that feel the crisis of being left behind if they don’t adapt to the apocalypse.”

The problem was that these guilds looked down on the police and chose them as WWE opponents to raise their own prestige.

From Han Seong-geun’s perspective, suffering from their malicious complaints, he wanted them to violate the law so an arrest warrant would be issued and he could go all out UFC on them, but whether their legal teams would allow that…

“Even knowing this, I really hate humans! I seriously want to punch UFC!”

Jin A-yeon understood Han Seong-geun’s feelings at this moment.