Chapter 23 – I Became the Villain’s Emergency Food

With the chains undone from my legs, I came out of the dark room and walked toward the Black Dawn’s dwelling.

…Like I thought, this space was built for confinement.

It wasn’t a basement, but the room I was in had a very long corridor where no noise from the outside could be heard. It was like a secret space.

The long dark corridor was a dreary space with dim lighting. There was dust scattering down. The ambience was also low, so I felt uneasy for some reason.

Han Yoowol started speaking to me who had been silently following her.

“What do you reckon this space is?”

“…A prison?”

It was a room built deep within where not a single noise could be heard.

The room must’ve been built for confinement.

Yoowol chuckled. 

The other Black Dawn members had left, so it was just her who was guiding me.

“It can be used to confine someone, but it has a different purpose? That room is the ‘Education Room’.”

“Education…”

Maybe it was because Yoowol said it, but “education” had an ominous ring to it.

Education meant the teaching of knowledge or skills. 

But the word that Yoowol was talking about might be teachings which changed someone’s individuality.

“From now on, if someone tries to drag you to that room, scream out loud. It’ll be better for you that way.”

“…For starters, thank you.”

To me, Han Yoowol was at least the better one among the Black Dawn members

It was obligatory to show a tad of appreciation to her. But that didn’t mean I dropped my animosity toward her. No way.

After following that long corridor, a door caught my eye.

It was big enough for a 2 meter tall Hwang Pildu to barely pass through.

When Yoowol turned the doorknob, an unexpected space unfolded before me.

Woah…

A sound resembling utter awe escaped my lips.

I was momentarily enraptured by the magnificent scenery of Seoul coming into view. 

“This place is the Black Dawn’s base where we live. What do you think? Don’t you want to stay here forever?”

Yoowol whispered to my ear from behind me.

Grabbing me by the shoulder, she started explaining things one by one.

“Over here is the living room where we come out to when we’re bored. Seeing the entirety of Seoul in a single view is an attraction in itself.”

The Black Dawn’s base had never been revealed in V. AGE either, so it had even been a buzz topic amongst the players.

I was greatly shocked that their hideout was at the highest floor of a building where you could see the Hero Academy directly below it.

Where did they get the money…?

“You have the face of someone who can’t understand how criminals like us could afford to live here.”

She wasn’t wrong.

Most criminals lived in the depths of the dark underground.

They built their nests in places no one knew while undertaking covert work.

But it almost seemed like the Black Dawn were being too obvious about it as if they were goading and saying, “I wonder why they’re not catching us?”

As I was staring at the night view outside the window, Yoowol wrapped her arm around my neck.

“This is the view we always see. Gazing down at the people as we reign from above. If you get stronger, Sijoon, you may be able to join us.”

“Don’t say pointless things.”

Tap.

I brushed off Yoowol’s arm from my neck.

No matter how much money, influence, and power the Black Dawn organization possessed, if I stood on their side whilst knowing about what’s to come, the world would plunge into chaos. There’s no way I would fall for something that sounded as sweet as candy.

After she gave me a stare of disappointment, we headed to the next place.

“This corridor is where our rooms are in order. My room is on the far end to the right. Come find me if you can’t fall asleep. Since I can put you to sleep.”

The room to the far right end.

I will never enter it.

There were a total of seven rooms in the long corridor. Because their distinct characteristics showed on the doors, distinguishing them seemed easy enough.

“This is the kitchen. We take turns cooking every day, but everyone has a lot of complaints due to differing tastes.”  

Han Yoowol wore a troubled expression.

It made sense considering she served others beef dripping with blood.

“We have breakfast and lunch separately, but we always eat dinner together, so as a prospective member, you must be present there too, Sijoon.”

Eating with just Yoowol alone sounded uncomfortable enough, but I had to eat in between the seven of them?

I was worried that I might get a stomachache from the mood, but seeing as how I lost my sense of taste, it didn’t seem that it’d likely happen.

I was fortunate in a way to have chosen to give away my taste buds.

“Hmm…that should roughly sum it up? I’ll show you the lower levels floor by floor later. We have a lot of time after all.”

Yoowol smiled indicating that introductions were over now.

I always felt terrified when the end of her lips curled up.

She looked at my anxious face and asked a question.

“Do you like being in the spotlight or hate it, Sijoon?

“I hate it. A lot.”

“For some reason, I could tell.”

Why is she asking such a question?

I was unable to understand in that moment, but I was soon able to find out the answer from the actions she took next.

“It won’t be long until it’s dinner time. You wouldn’t want others to see me have you as my meal, do you?”

“Wait a minute. Now isn’t a good time…”

I slowly walked backwards to get past this situation.

I couldn’t have my blood taken away helplessly. 

My body had to produce the blood that was stolen, and the Golem’s core won’t be able to recover.

Yoowol gradually closed in on me.

I tried my best to escape, but it was none other than the wall that stopped me.

Clang.

What’s this?

The slam on the wall sounded like metal.

It wasn’t a regular wall.

“Looks like I didn’t explain one thing. We also have an elevator here that goes down. You’re free to use it.”

But with freedom came an obligation.

With no place to run anymore, Yoowol approached me who was trapped by the wall.

A sharp nose and fair skin. 

An attractive beauty mark next to her red eyes.

She was beautiful, but a dangerous being.

Smelling like wine, she placed her lips on the back of my neck again.

“Sigh… Before… Suck… There were a lot of people so… Suck… I was getting impatient…”

She roughly fixed my body to place and sucked my blood.

Damn it… My strength…

If a person did not have enough blood in their system, they would experience dizziness. Your body would lose strength, falling into a state of helplessness.

Yoowol was aware of that basic knowledge, but she showed no signs of stopping what she was doing.

“Isn’t that…more than enough?”

I tried calling out to her due to the unpleasant feeling of losing blood, but her pupils were dilated. It seemed that savoring the taste had seized her full attention. 

I couldn’t budge against her strength that had me fixed in an upright position whilst in her embrace.

At this rate, I’m going to pass out.

”S…top…!”

The same time I yelped as I pushed Yoowol away, the elevator door behind me opened.

Slide.

There was an empty space.

I could only fall since I had been leaning against the door of the elevator.

Bang!

“Ahh…”

Because Yoowol’s weight was on my body, the impact on my back was greater than I thought.

Of all things, why did the door have to open now?

I said to Yoowol, who was just lying on my chest.

“Let’s stop here now… I’m in so much pain…”

When she heard that, she didn’t say a word as she got up from the spot.

Her eyes looked as though it had gone somewhere else, making me get scared a little.

“I think I know now why your blood is tasty, Sijoon. The innate magic that a person possesses… Because yours is empty, it tastes even better…”

…I don’t really want to know the secret of my blood.

Since those words came from Yoowol, who was a master of blood, it seemed very likely that my blood had a special flavor as opposed to others.

Following her, I also stood up in the elevator.

But who was taking the elevator at this time?

I noticed a small pink lady behind the satisfied Yoowol.

She looked at us and wore an expression full of curiosity.

“Yoowol! And the pet!”

“…I’m a human too, you know.”

I don’t know what was amusing, but she kept on giggling.

Her name was Ban Hana.

In terms of her appearance, she looked to be the same age as me. But her mental age almost made me wonder if she was younger than that.

A girl with a cute impression with slight curly pink hair and mesmerizing pink eyes, she was a villain who always carried a rabbit doll with her in her hand.

Yoowol raised a question to her.

“And where have you gone to Lady Hana that you’ve come back and interrupted our pleasant moment?”

It looked like she had been ticked off that we were interrupted.

Hana replied to her with her characteristic bubbly energy.

“Hana went to the rooftop and came back! I planted seeds! Wanna see?”

“No, thank you. Please watch over them by yourself, Lady Hana. I’m sure if you try hard, they’ll be able to grow even without soil.”

Her tone was very flat unlike before.

She sarcastically spoke as if to imply there was no soil on the rooftop.

How’s a flower supposed to bloom without soil…

I was roughly able to grasp Hana’s level of education from that interaction.

One of the things they wanted me to do was handle Hana’s education.

I didn’t know how to even begin to teach her.

Hana spoke to Yoowol with a slightly gloomy expression.

“Okay… Come see it when the flowers bloom later! What were you doing, Yoowol Unni? It looked like you two were clinging to each other?”

“Yes, I wonder. What were we up to clinging to each other?”

What were we up to?

Hana fell into contemplation after receiving the question.

In the meantime, Yoowol motioned to me. We left the brooding Hana, and got out of there.

“Hana is a sweet child but… She’s a sweet child.” 

Grin.

Yoowol smiled upon calling her sweet.

Seeing as how she quickly left, it didn’t seem like she preferred a long conversation with Hana.

Without a doubt, having a long conversation with her felt like my lifespan was being drastically cut short.

After that, Yoowol led me to where my room was.

A spare room.

It was two times wider than the Hero Academy’s dorm room with everything provided there. 

The latest model of TV. Refrigerator. Air conditioner. Desk. Sofa.

It was very good treatment for someone who had been kidnapped.

I couldn’t help but think how considerate they were to me.

“I’ll be able to go back soon, right…?”

They said they would take me somewhere.

I didn’t know when that would be, but Shin Haeil had said it would be very soon, so it was only a matter of time.

Then, where?

I thought about places where they would bring someone with no magic like me, but I’ve never played with zero magic in the game before, so no “place” particularly came to mind.

What can I do in the middle of these terrifying villains?

I laid in bed and began to mull it over.

Wait for heroes to come to my rescue?

No, heroes aren’t foolish enough to challenge The Black Dawn.

They know how precious their lives were more than anyone else.

In that case, wait for Hayeon to come to my rescue?

It didn’t matter how fast she grew, I would’ve been drained and mummified by then.

There was no answer by any means.

Losing hope by the fact that I had to be with the villains, I closed my eyes since I was tired, and gradually fell asleep.

Ban Hana.

A plan involving her formed in my mind as I closed my eyes in an unfamiliar place with villains.