episode_0081

“Welcome? You call *this* a welcome?”

I’ll kill him for good.

Check bared his teeth, looking ferocious, as he spoke.

As if hearing his every word, Number 13, on the other end of the speaker, quickly made an excuse.

[…Just kidding, kidding. As expected, Hero-nim is amazing. I didn’t think you’d handle all of that in less than ten minutes.]

[I wanted to test how useful my comrade’s abilities would be against Hero-nims. I needed a testbed.]

Is he calling that an excuse?

Check’s eyes widened even more menacingly.

[…Please, cut me some slack. I never thought that level of ability could do anything to the Vice-Captain of Squad 7. Please take it as a gesture of goodwill.]

“I’m going to come find you now and snap your neck. I hope you’ll take that as a gesture of goodwill too, huh?”

[I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.]

Number 13’s sigh-laden voice came from the speaker.

[Anyway, Check, you came to pick up Club, right? I genuinely, truly don’t have anything else prepared, so just take that woman and leave quickly. It doesn’t seem like a good atmosphere for conversation.]

“If you truly wanted to talk, you shouldn’t have pulled such idiotic stunts.”

[Well, no matter what I did, I don’t think a conversation would have been possible from the start. Isn’t that right, Check?]

“…You know me well.”

He never intended to have a sincere conversation with a villain anyway.

He only ever thought of snapping their necks the moment he saw them.

[I’ll tell you the location. I’ll only say it once, so listen carefully.]

Number 13 then told him the location where Club was being held.

It seemed Club was imprisoned on an upper floor, not the first floor of this place. At the same time, Number 13 didn’t seem to be here.

“He’s giving it up quite easily, isn’t he? I thought he’d put up more of a fight.”

[The Vice-Captain of Squad 7 is scary, but I’d rather not get on Captain Rahye’s bad side. So I won’t interfere with you guys anymore, just take her away quickly.]

With those last words, the speaker went silent with a static crackle.

Check didn’t hesitate, proceeding as guided through the speaker.

Number 13 watched Check, monitoring him using several hidden cameras installed throughout the building.

However, he utterly failed to notice that Check was subtly manipulating his communication device, avoiding the cameras.

Thud… Thud…

Check advanced further into the factory once more. He ascended the stairs unhesitantly, striding confidently through the crumbling corridors.

It was a reckless march, beyond courageous, unlike Coco who moved cautiously, wary of cameras and traps.

His footsteps exuded confidence, as if no matter what traps were prepared, or even if a passageway exploded on his path, it wouldn’t be an issue.

Did Number 13 realize that any further tricks would be meaningless after seeing Check’s demeanor? Or was it truly as he said, that no other significant traps were prepared beyond this point?

At least three times, Check passed locations and moments where some trickery could have been sprung, but nothing happened.

Though his steps seemed reckless, Check, with a veteran’s intuition and experience, was fully aware of and prepared for such dangerous points.

But with nothing happening, he felt rather deflated.

Well, indeed, most tricks wouldn’t work against the Vice-Captain of Squad 7. If he’d realized that even now, did that mean the villain wasn’t completely brain-dead?

-Go up to the third floor, take the right corridor, and it’s the room at the end of that corridor.

‘Third floor. Room at the very end on the right.’

He arrived at the room Number 13 mentioned and opened the door.

Beyond the door was a rather small, desolate room. Broken glass shards and wood fragments were strewn everywhere.

Club was not in sight. Instead, an unexpected person stood there.

“Mr. Check?”

“Spade?”

Standing in the center of that chaotic room was…

Spade, another junior from Squad 7, besides the kidnapped Club.

***

First, to confirm they weren’t fakes, Check and Spade exchanged passphrases.

In addition, they displayed the color of their mana to double-check.

Like heroes, villains also used various abilities, and among them were abilities specialized in disguise or transformation.

However, the Spade before his eyes didn’t seem to be a disguised villain.

She answered the passphrase correctly, and the color of her mana was confirmed to be Spade’s distinctive red.

Spade also confirmed that the Check before her was not a fake.

“Spade, weren’t you supposed to be on patrol duty? Weren’t you excluded from this operation from the start?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Spade explained the situation in an unsure voice.

While on patrol, an anonymous message had arrived for her. The message contained a terror threat and stated that hostages were being held, summoning Spade to a certain location.

“So you came here without reporting it?”

“…It said if I contacted the base, the hostages’ lives would be forfeit. Just in case.”

“You idiot.”

Didn’t it look suspicious at a glance?

Moreover, to fearlessly enter a building like this without knowing the identity of the opponent or if there were actually hostages.

By that logic, Check, who had also recklessly stepped into an uninvestigated location, could be criticized. However, Check had entered with contingency plans and consequences in mind.

He was different from Spade, who had come here thoughtlessly after receiving a message during patrol.

“It looks like that man… Number 13’s doing at a glance. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

“Um, then, is Club here too?”

“If he plans to bury all of Squad 7 here, then maybe.”

To blow up the building… he wouldn’t have waited to meet Spade, he could have just collapsed it.

But what could it be? Why did that man summon Spade here? Is he even in this building? Perhaps it’s all a lie, and he’s just somewhere far away.

Either way, it was impossible to tell.

For now, Coco was investigating the basement, so perhaps he would have to wait for her report.

“…Oh, and Spade.”

Check turned to leave the room but suddenly stopped.

Spade, surprised by the sudden call, responded with a questioning look.

Check continued speaking without turning around.

“Do something about that overflowing killing intent, you fool.”

Whoosh-

Clang!

A knife, aimed at Check’s back, shot toward him.

Check, without even turning around, casually deflected it with a staff he instantly created.

“Kuk…!”

Spade clicked her tongue and backed away. The knife in her hand shattered into pieces from that single strike.

The staff in Check’s hand spun with a whoosh, drawing a circle. Despite the not-so-spacious area, the long staff moved fluidly, without getting caught on anything.

“If I ask what you’re thinking by doing this, will you answer?”

“…….”

Spade offered no reply. She simply discarded the knife, now only a handle, and pulled two short staffs from her waist, extending them towards Check, one in each hand.

She seemed intent on fighting.

There were many things he wanted to ask. Many things to confirm. Most of all, he wanted to make that damn villain confess what his relationship with Spade was.

But such useless things would be put aside for now. What needed to be done now wasn’t idle chatter. Check wasn’t the type to enjoy casual conversation in a situation like this, with weapons drawn and killing intent and fighting spirit clashing.

One battle was far more enjoyable than a hundred words.

The understanding between evil and good meant nothing to Check.

Awakened individuals chosen by constellations each possessed a unique mental disorder, a psychological impulse called ‘complex.’

In Club’s case, it was a ‘desire for recognition.’ In Spade’s case, ‘self-sacrifice.’ In such ways, Awakened individuals possessed different complexes.

Check’s complex was ‘fighting spirit (鬪爭心).’

He loved the scent of violence and desired to be involved in such situations. Even if the opponent was an ally, even if it was a junior far weaker than himself.

So, if it was fighting, he liked it. He didn’t want to think about complicated things like reasons or causes.

However, there was one thing he absolutely could not tolerate.

‘If you die a boring death, I’ll genuinely kill you.’

‘If you’re going to bare your fangs at me, do it properly.’

Check bared his teeth and smiled viciously. Unleashing a powerful fighting spirit that instantly extinguished Spade’s killing intent, Check charged directly at Spade.

Inside the cramped space of the abandoned factory, Check and Spade, two heroes, collided.

***

“It’s started.”

In a room somewhere in the basement of the same building.

In a desolate underground space, Number 13 sat on a suitable pipe chair, watching the scene on a tablet.

Beside Number 13, who was looking at the tablet, Club sat slumped on a chair, her body restrained.

The tablet displayed divided screens showing various areas of the building.

Thanks to the Dorothy-made cameras installed throughout the building, most areas could be directly observed like this.

Currently, Number 13 was focused on the scene where Check and Spade were battling.

This wasn’t the original plan.

Before they even set foot in this factory, the plan was to whisper a brainwashing keyword to them, instantly create puppets out of them on the spot… then toy with them a bit, brainwash them appropriately, and send them back with Club.

But two nights ago, Dorothy’s visit changed Number 13’s mind a little. At the time, Dorothy had grabbed Number 13 by the collar and criticized him. She broadened his narrow perspective.

Number 13 understood Dorothy’s words to mean that he shouldn’t be satisfied with just removing the immediate obstacles.

So, instead of just dealing with the present safely, it would be better to think about what would happen later.

Thus, the plan was completely revised.

If he was going to trap the heroes anyway, why not test how far he could go against powerful heroes before that?

‘Originally, the Strategist’s ability was to summon two or three puppets that could be freely controlled from the shadows.’

‘But if I enhance it, I can summon many more.’

He had done this back at the department store, allowing them to occupy the place despite insufficient numbers.

The puppets summoned then were only about twenty, but this time, he had summoned several times more to test the limit.

He confirmed that he could summon just under a hundred.

However, looking at the battle with Check just now, even if the number increased, the control became clumsy, so it didn’t seem like a very effective method against skilled heroes.

‘In the first place, the Strategist’s ability itself isn’t suited for combat. Even if I give them weapons, it’s still the Strategist controlling them.’

Thanks to that, he had obtained meaningful data. At least, using the Strategist’s ability directly in combat would not be very good.

Good, good. Then it was time to collect the next data.

The next test subject was Spade. Spade had also received maximum enhancement with Number 13’s help.

How far could the now-enhanced Spade go against a hero Vice-Captain whose level was several tiers higher?

With the cards he held, how much was truly possible?

Creak-

“……?”

A strange presence was felt. As if a door had opened.

But when Number 13 looked up, there was no change.

The door was closed, and only Number 13 and the restrained Club were in the room.

Number 13 thought it was his imagination and refocused on the tablet screen.