Part 1 Chapter 1 (12)

The protagonist of Deathdinath of the Blue Sky is an extremely heroic figure.

A hero who, despite being hurt by people and betrayed by their country, returned to their homeland to save the world. They were truly a superhuman worthy of the title ‘Hero’.

If so, what position should I take against that Hero? How should I act from now on to survive?

For three days in the magma, I didn’t sleep and agonized over it, and the conclusion was only one.

‘Let’s become trash.’

Act like the original, but become a Villain beyond the original. That thought solidified the moment I realized the current timeline was a full five years ahead of the original.

‘Instead of just being a production factory for monsters and monstrous humans, I’ll lead a truly evil organization.’

To recover the fragments scattered across the world, a massive force is needed. No matter how strong Phoenix was, it would be too time-consuming to fight against the entire Earth.

‘A Villain organization secretly operating in the Korean underworld, the main stage.’

But as I said before, five years isn’t a very long time.

So I decided.

To become a true ‘villain’.

To survive in this hellish world.

By any means necessary, I wanted to save them.

* * *

“Oh my. Why are you so surprised? Lawyer Kim Sang-a-nim, since you’re an intellectual, I’ll give you one chance. Normally, if you can’t answer, I just kill you on the spot.”

“Don’t talk crazy!”

Sang-a screamed until her voice was hoarse.

“What? You’re going to make that man your subordinate?! Listen up! That’s human trash! They’re sons of bitches who drug, rape, and sell people to make money! If you had made a mistake too, those beasts would have…!”

“That didn’t happen, did it? So, what can you give me? Ah, since you’re a lawyer-nim, should I draw up a contract? Will you sign a contract with me and become my subordinate?”

“……Shut up. You crazy bitch.”

Sang-a cursed in a venomous voice, then pulled out a small orb from a bundle in the corner and threw it at Phoenix.

Sereureuk.

Veil, who snatched the orb, placed it on Phoenix’s palm as if sliding it down a slide.

“Ohh. It’s a monster’s Core, isn’t it?”

“D-rank. It’s probably worth 30 million won.”

Sang-a pointed at Deokbae with a trembling finger.

“That’s what ability users like you like the most, right? It’s more valuable than that trash, isn’t it? So use that to kill that bastard. As you said, in the most painful way possible.”

“Hmm.”

Phoenix held the orb out to Deokbae and asked.

“Do you think your life is worth more than 30 million won?”

“…I don’t know. Fuck. If you’re gonna kill me, just kill me.”

“See! That bastard’s asking to be killed too! Kill him!”

Phoenix fiddled with the orb in their hand and leaned against the wall.

“No matter how I think about it, 30 million won for one ability user like that is a bit of a loss.”

“What?”

Sang-a asked foolishly, with a lost expression. Phoenix put the orb into their school uniform pocket, moved their hand around, then pulled it out.

“Ta-da! Orb magic. One monster’s Core instantly multiplied into four.”

Orbs were wedged between Phoenix’s finger joints. Cores, larger and more vividly colored than the one Sang-a had given.

“Do I really need to take the monster’s Core that Lawyer Kim Sang-a-nim was hoarding?”

“Then what do you want me to do?! That’s all I have!”

Sang-a screamed, consumed by rage. Her bloodshot eyes looked as if they would shed tears of blood at any moment.

Phoenix erased their playful smile. Their eyes held genuine, pitying sympathy.

“It’s a pity you have something more valuable but don’t realize it. Well, then there’s nothing for it.”

Phoenix put the monster’s Core back into their pocket, approached Deokbae, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s a pity. Lawyer Kim Sang-a-nim sold your future. For 30 million won.”

Deokbae closed his eyes without a word.

Hwareureuk.

When Phoenix lightly tapped Deokbae’s shoulder, blue flames erupted all over Deokbae’s body.

Paseuseuseu.

The flames instantly consumed Deokbae’s entire body. Deokbae couldn’t resist at all and collapsed onto the floor.

“There. Done. Well then, goodbye.”

Phoenix, with a carefree expression, tried to leave through the door. Sang-a rushed out, spun Phoenix around, and grabbed their shoulder.

“What are you doing?! You said you’d kill him! In the most painful way possible!”

“That’s true, but I’m also high-class talent, you see. I burned him for exactly what I received. 100 million won per second? I burned him for 30 million won’s worth.”

“Don’t talk bullshit!!!”

“Ah, seriously.”

Phoenix pushed Sang-a’s arm aside and placed a hand on Sang-a’s shoulder.

“H-Hieek?!”

Because she had clearly seen with her own eyes how Deokbae had died right in front of her, Sang-a trembled all over, terrified.

“Why do you keep bothering me so much, Kim Sang-a-ssi? …It makes me want to get rid of you.”

Sang-a’s face turned pale. Phoenix tapped their fingers on Sang-a’s shoulder as if playing piano keys, then smiled again.

“It’s a joke. I never kill anyone ‘needlessly,’ you see. So smile. Smile! Why are you acting like someone’s about to kill you?”

Sang-a’s lips trembled as she forced a smile.

“Well, it’s not like I’m a madman who can’t kill people. It’s still true, isn’t it? They’re trash who engage in human trafficking in 21st-century modern society. They deserve to die, don’t they? Right? Ah, since I’m asking, please answer.”

“Ugh, yes! Yes!”

Sang-a nodded her head until her chin touched her collarbone. Phoenix chuckled, adjusting the clothes that had slipped off Sang-a’s shoulder.

“Right? They were human-like trash. I just cleaned them up. For the beautiful and peaceful world that will unfold in the future. Love and Peace!”

Phoenix took out one of the orbs from their pocket and firmly placed it in Sang-a’s hand. It was the D-rank monster’s Core that Sang-a had offered as Deokbae’s life price.

“So, I won’t take this. You don’t get paid for cleaning up trash lying on the street, do you? Right? In a world where people live.”

Sang-a laughed along with Phoenix. It felt as if something terrible would happen if she didn’t laugh.

“Yes, yes!”

“But you know what?”

Phoenix firmly grasped Sang-a’s two hands.

“If you had hidden this monster’s Core in your bundle and gotten on the bus, what do you think would have happened next~?”

“……Hup?!”

Sang-a struggled desperately to pull her hands away. But her hands, caught by Phoenix, didn’t budge as if caught in a snare.

“A monster’s Core is a delicious meal for other monsters. Because if they consume the Core, they absorb its power directly. Hiding it is useless. Even the weakest monsters can smell a Core that doesn’t have a mana-blocking membrane around it incredibly well. You wouldn’t believe how many rushed me when I was coming over from the airport.”

Phoenix let go of her hands. Sang-a, hitting the wall from the recoil, rolled on the floor, then grabbed her bundle and ran towards the door leading outside.

Kung! Kungkung!

The door didn’t open. Outside the door, a barrier of blue flames was spread.

“You said it was a D-rank monster’s Core, right? Wow, if you had taken this on the bus, something interesting would’ve happened down that highway. Right? You wrapped it up so much, afraid the smell would leak out if you hid it on your body. Even if a Hero was accompanying you, it would be useless if monsters swarmed in hordes.”

“Aaaah! Aaah!”

Stomp, stomp. Phoenix stepped over Deokbae’s corpse and approached Sang-a.

“So, here’s a question. Compared to the trash who tried to sell people, would a person who almost turned all the bus passengers into monster food also be trash deserving of death?”

“Shut up! That would never happen!”

“Oh dear. There’s no such thing as ‘never’ in this world.”

Phoenix stood right behind Sang-a. Sang-a gave up on opening the doorknob and crawled across the floor, escaping to the center of the room.

“Please answer me. I’m very seriously curious right now.”

“Cut the bullshit! You’re not even human, you bitch!”

“…Heh.”

What was so funny about that remark? Phoenix suddenly began to burst into insane laughter.

“Ahahahah! Hahahah! Khuh, not even, human, they say! Ahahahah!”

Their trembling form, clutching their stomach, was like that of a madman seen only in musicals.

An actor consumed by their role, laughing maniacally with exaggerated emotion.

“Aha, hahahah. Haa….”

Phoenix continued to laugh for several seconds, then gasped for breath. Straightening their posture by grabbing the sofa, Phoenix snapped their fingers at Sang-a.

“Who are you calling not human?”

Ttak.

Sang-a was engulfed in blue flames. She flailed her arms in the air, trying desperately to put out the fire, but it was no use.

“Aaaah….”

Just as Deokbae and the others had disappeared, Sang-a also collapsed to the floor, making a gurgling sound. The time it took for the flames to flare up and die down was exactly the same amount of time it took for Deokbae to burn.

“Alright, then….”

Phoenix picked up the smartphone that had fallen on the floor. Even with the edge of its case slightly scorched, the smartphone was still recording a video in shooting mode.

“Even recording? You’ve done all sorts of things.”

When the video recording was stopped, the recorded video was saved to the gallery. The album was full of countless photos and videos, not just the one of Sang-a that had just been taken.

“Ugh.”

Phoenix frowned deeply and closed the gallery.

‘Later, if I have time, I should format it and delete everything.’

Although they couldn’t be misunderstood as someone who carried illegal videos on their phone, they had to use it temporarily until they could get a proper one activated in Seoul.

Ppippippippi.

“Oh?”

Checking the warning sound from the smartphone, it indicated that the battery was depleted.

“Damn.”

The battery showed a red light. Phoenix hastily rummaged near the drawer, found a charger, and connected it to the smartphone.

“One hour for fast charging?”

Phoenix checked the clock that appeared with it. 4:12 PM. Time kept dragging on when they should be rushing to Seoul.

‘This is why I should have just left without messing around….’

Phoenix twirled Veil with their finger.

Should I just leave this place, or wait an hour and take the smartphone with me?

‘…It’s better to stay since I’m bored.’

Brainwashing themselves that it was a good opportunity to use data and search for information about this world while on the way, Phoenix placed the smartphone on the table and stretched.

“So, what should I do for an hour….”

Phoenix, who had been twirling the Veil wrapped around their neck, scanned the room and their gaze fell upon Deokbae’s corpse.

A person who possessed a simple ability called Body Reinforcement but seemed to have high potential. A local Villain who never once appeared in the original story.

What if I turned him into a monstrous human?

“…….”

Phoenix quietly took out a monster’s Core.

* * *

Jo Deokbae.

His name, which sounded somewhat old-fashioned, was one his parents had given him carelessly.

The result of a one-night stand between a day laborer and a woman who worked in the entertainment business.

Deokbae’s life, which began with his first memory as a child being slapped by the orphanage director, was truly a dead-end life.

But didn’t they say that every dog has its day?

On the day Deokbae reached the age where he could no longer stay in the orphanage, he left the orphanage and wandered the streets, then was taken in by a man named Park Hocheol while homeless at a train station.

Hocheol, seeing his physique and intending to put him in charge of managing his business, began to treat Deokbae like a subordinate, and Deokbae simply lived a life of obeying his commands.

A turning point approached in Deokbae’s life.

The awakening of an ability.

The ability of

that awakened while he was running across Yeongjong Bridge to escape from the monsters attacking Yeongjongdo was originally supposed to be a blessing, but for Deokbae, it became a new shackle.

‘Hey. You want to be a Hero? Don’t talk nonsense. If a guy who was good at being a thug in the entertainment business becomes a hero of humanity, this country is finished, finished. Give up on your pipe dreams and go collect money. You said you want to find your parents, right? Then you need to earn a lot of money, don’t you?’

Hocheol, who had also awakened his own ability at that time, began to expand his business using Deokbae’s power. They, who were merely local thugs, settled in the ownerless back alleys of Incheon and solidified their power.

Gather as much money as possible before Incheon collapses and move to New Seoul.

And offer the collected money as tribute to join ‘Villain Alliance’, New Seoul’s largest organization.

Deokbae was thus a loyal dog following Hocheol’s goals. Although he wasn’t greedy for girls and didn’t covet them, he earned notoriety in the Incheon underworld, being called ‘Skinhead’.

Recently, his power had grown too strong, and his subordinates followed him, which estranged him from Hocheol, but regardless, Deokbae was able to accumulate a lot of money.

‘It was all for nothing.’

All of it was burned away by a crazy murderer he unluckily encountered. Deokbae’s life was sold for the cheap price of merely 30 million won.

‘It’s a relief it was even 30 million won. My life.’

The value of a human life cannot be measured in money, but Deokbae found himself laughing as he empathized with the idea that his life was worth exactly that much. Because the life of human trash couldn’t be said to be worth more than that.

‘If I’m reborn, I hope for a more valuable life.’

Even if I’m not born with a silver spoon, I want to live happily with both parents in a harmonious family. And I wish I had a pain-in-the-ass younger sister too.

‘But didn’t I die?’

Blue flames obscured his vision, and he lost consciousness with a pain he had never experienced before. That was probably Deokbae’s 30 million won death.

‘Is this the afterlife, then?’

“Jo Deokbae. Jo Deokbae.”

Now, if his name was called three times, would he be dragged to the underworld? Deokbae answered the beautiful voice that called his name, self-mockingly.

“Which hell am I trapped in?”

“It’s reality, Deokbae.”

The blue-haired girl was smiling brightly. Deokbae, shocked as if his heart had stopped, lost consciousness again.

* * *

“…What the hell. Why’s this bastard passed out again?”

I lightly tapped the unconscious Deokbae’s cheek. His skin, which had turned rock-like, was clearly alien for a human’s.

‘So he was a rock monster.’

I examined the monster’s Core embedded in Deokbae’s heart-the one Sang-a had left behind. The dull gray glowing monster’s Core had dyed Deokbae’s entire body rock-like.

‘Should I have just embedded one of the ones I picked up at Incheon Airport instead?’

Monster Cores placed in every nook and cranny of my body. The spoils I had obtained by hunting down monsters at Incheon Airport were all at least C-rank or higher.

‘It was actually harder to find D-rank ones.’

Because I only emitted the scent and mana of about a B-rank, A-rank monsters would attack thinking I was weaker than them, B-rank monsters would attack thinking they were equal, and C-rank monsters would attack thinking they had a chance.

D-rank and below, however, seemed to be scared and hid themselves. Thanks to that, I couldn’t be bothered to search for each one, so I just passed them by and walked all the way to the terminal.

‘This damn curiosity again.’

They say curiosity killed the cat. I scratched my cheek at this second monstrous human I had created unplanned, unlike Seohae Arms.

‘How do I dispose of this?’

Even in the original story, there were no executives who turned ‘Heroes’ into monstrous humans. It was supposed to be impossible from the start. But just in case, I tried embedding a Core into the corpse, and this happened.

‘I really didn’t expect him to come back to life as a monstrous human.’

So, should I consider this a monstrous human? Or a human? Since he died and came back to life, a zombie? A Hero-monstrous human? A monstrous human Villain?

‘I don’t know. Just lump him in as a monstrous human.’

It’s a waste of mental energy to come up with a new classification when it’s already bothersome to differentiate between monstrous humans and Villains. I decided to leave the definition of terms for ‘human, monsterification of Heroes’ to academia someday and shook Deokbae’s face back and forth again.

“Jo Deokbae. Jo Deokbae. Jo Deokbae-ssi?”

There’s no sign of him waking up. No choice then. I’ll just have to wait until the smartphone is fully charged.

If he still doesn’t wake up by then, I’ll just have to kill him again and leave.

“99%….”

“It’s an unfamiliar ceiling.”

Deokbae regained consciousness. I was amazed at the timing, which felt like a trick of fate.

“If it had been just 1% later, you would have died again.”

“???”

Deokbae’s expression was full of bewilderment. I cleared my throat with a cough, then spread my arms and gave a kind smile.

“Welcome back to this world, my second servant.”

“…What’s with this sudden, unfitting way of speaking? Did you drink too much? You burned a person to death for 30 million won, and now you’ve followed me all the way to the afterlife. You fucking bitch.”

Should I kill him? I smacked the back of my insolent subordinate’s head.