Episode 2.
“Thank you. If it weren’t for you….”
In the past, when he first awakened his trait, he had rescued Baegun, who had been taken hostage by a villain.
‘I should have just let the bastard die back then.’
Until just moments ago, it had been a beautiful page in his memory, but now it was nothing more than an unpleasant recollection he didn’t even want to remember.
Baegun, who had expressed his gratitude while blubbering with tears and snot.
The friend who had seemed nothing but kind had died in his heart.
What remained was not a friend, but a vile and treacherous traitor who had stabbed him in the chest.
“Captain, if I’m with you, I could follow you even if that place is hell!”
“Maybe our Captain would just smash straight through hell itself?”
“Yeah. If it’s the Captain, it might be possible.”
The same went for those he had once believed were his comrades.
‘Disgusting bastards!’
Grinding his teeth, he seethed.
In the past, he had believed that villains were pests harming humanity, unworthy of life.
But he had been wrong.
The real pests were those he had considered friends and comrades.
But all of that was already in the past.
An ordinary person would be unable to do anything in this situation besides exploding with rage.
But he—Sinyul—was no ordinary person.
‘I was a fucking idiot to trust you guys, but even so, I hid this until the very end.’
The traits known to the world were five.
Regeneration, Adamantine, Indomitable, and Transcendence.
However, only four had ever been revealed, and no one knew of the final trait.
Why?
Because it manifested upon Sinyul’s death.
Oooooong—
A ringing sound drilled into his ears as he was lost in thought.
Only then did Sinyul withdraw from his thoughts and stare straight ahead.
A pure white space.
At the far end of a narrow passage barely wide enough for one person, a distorted door stood as if reflected in water.
‘I suppose I have to pass through here.’
Surprisingly, he was not yet dead.
The place where Sinyul currently stood was the border between life and death.
And now, he stood at the checkpoint for a “new life.”
“You!”
“Such resentment. How resentful!”
“Come with us.”
A being grabbed the collar of his clothes as he walked toward the door.
Faces twisted in agony, the owners of those black hands were villains.
Those who had met their deaths by Sinyul’s hand in the past.
Having caught the scent of life, they struggled desperately to drag Sinyul away with them.
“Small fries, fuck off!”
But he was not affected in the slightest by the inner demons that had suddenly appeared.
“I can’t go until I kill those damned bastards.”
If he could only have his revenge, he could sell his soul to the devil—no, to a villain.
Of course, there was no such thing as an opportunity to sell one’s soul to the devil, but it was true that he had “one” more chance.
The final fifth trait that he had not told anyone about.
It was a very special power called “Reincarnation.”
Breaking free from death just once, he would be reborn in a new body.
‘If I only pass through here.’
Standing before the door, he took a deep breath.
Creeeak—
He opened the door.
And.
Pat!
He fell.
“Uaaaaah!”
Toward the bottomless abyss that embraced only darkness.
*
Thwack!
An outstretched fist struck his face directly.
“Keuk!”
He collapsed with a short scream.
Bruises covered his entire body, purple from the beating, and his face was so swollen it was hard to make out his features.
“You bastard, what did I tell you?”
The one looking down at the fallen child.
The student wearing a black uniform with red patterns had eyes gleaming with madness.
“I told you to bring ten thousand won by today. So why, why didn’t you listen, you piece of shit!”
Thud! Thud!
Even while speaking, he didn’t stop kicking the abdomen.
But the fallen child said nothing, nor could he resist.
Because he had already lost consciousness.
“Oh? Not answering? Bastard, you’ve grown quite a bit, huh? Now you’re rebelling against your big brother.”
Murderous intent settled in those gleaming eyes.
Thwack! Thwack-thwack!
Thus, the cruel beating of the unconscious child continued.
It was not the kind of violence commonly seen.
He showed no mercy, as if dealing not with a living person but with a doll or a sandbag.
“Heh. He’s really pissed.”
“Retard! That’s why you bring the money. What are we supposed to eat?”
“If you don’t have abilities, you should at least pay your tributes properly. Just as expected from trash.”
A narrow warehouse.
Three children in the same uniform watched the scene of violence while snickering, keeping watch over the entrance like lookouts.
Even though it was clearly a dangerous situation, the children did not take any action to stop it.
How much time passed like that?
Smack!
A powerful kick struck the child’s face.
Crash-bang!
The child spun through the air from the impact and crashed into a pile of assorted tools.
“It’s not over yet!”
Whether his anger still hadn’t subsided, he walked over there.
Grab!
A rough hand grabbed the child’s hair and pulled his body upright.
“You son of a bitch, huh?”
He stopped his fist mid-strike.
“Is this bastard dead?”
Smack.
He unclenched his fist and slapped the cheek.
But the limp child showed no reaction.
Blood continuously flowed from his eyes, nose, and mouth, with only the whites of his eyes showing.
“Hey, hey, come here.”
“What? What’s going on?”
At the assailant’s signal, the watching children approached.
“This bastard isn’t regenerating?”
The Regeneration that normally healed injuries instantly was not manifesting.
“Huh? You’re right?”
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
“No way.”
One thing came to mind at that sight.
“Isn’t he dead?”
Only then did the children’s faces contort as they realized the situation.
“Ah, fuck!”
The furious student threw the body with force.
Bang!
The body bounced up once like a rubber ball before falling.
“Why do you have to die here!”
The victim was one thing, but the assailant who had led him to his death raged violently.
A student who was now only seventeen years old.
But he showed no attachment whatsoever to the act of murder.
No, it wasn’t that he had no attachment at all.
It was simply that the drawbacks he would face for the murder irritated him.
“Hey, no way. Don’t you remember? Last time we were waterboarding him, we almost killed him by mistake?”
But soon another opinion came out.
“Ah! That time?”
“Yeah. He came back to life like a zombie after a while. Don’t you think it’ll be the same this time?”
“True, this bastard is a total zombie. If we just leave him like this, he’ll probably come back to life on his own?”
“Probably?”
Did the children’s words give him strength?
Only then did the assailant’s expression relax as he stared at the fallen child.
“And so what if he dies? No one would care if a piece of trash like that died anyway. Well, it’ll probably be overlooked.”
“Kekekek. That’s true. Trash doesn’t care if trash dies.”
“Agh, fuck. I tried to relieve some stress after a long time and it just ruined my mood. *Hawk*, *ptui*!”
After spitting once, he turned around without hesitation.
“I had a proper workout after ages, so I’m hungry. Let’s hit the school store.”
“Oh, great!”
Creak—Slam!
Thus the children disappeared, and silence enveloped the warehouse.
But even after a long time, the fallen child did not move.
He couldn’t help it.
His broken ribs had pierced his lungs, and the continuous beating had only deepened his wounds.
No matter how much he had the trait of “Regeneration,” it could not heal such fatal injuries.
And so, the child had met a futile death at the young age of seventeen.
“Hup!”
That is, until just a short while ago.
“Where… am I?”
Coming to his senses, he quickly turned his head left and right.
However.
“Ugh….”
He groaned at the pain that washed over him.
“What the hell, kuh….”
It hadn’t hurt this much even when a third of his body was torn away.
Because the Indomitable trait had an analgesic effect, there had rarely been a time he felt any notable pain.
But what mattered now was not the pain.
“I’ve really come back.”
The child—no, Sinyul—could instinctively feel that he had crossed the river of death and been reincarnated.
And one more thing.
Ziiing—
Along with a sudden ringing in his ears, specific memories were injected as if data were being input.
“Was this guy also named Sinyul?”
The protagonist of the memories was a student named Sinyul—the same name as his reincarnated self.
Through the injected memories, he realized many things.
“Ten years have already passed?”
The process of reincarnation had been but a moment, but ten years had passed since the “Final War” fought against the Seven Evils.
But what was most shocking.
“I’m… I’m a villain!”
The place he was currently in was the warehouse of the villain training school “Wonjo (Original Sin).”
Ridiculously, the great hero who had once stood at the pinnacle of heroes had been reborn as a student of a school that raised villains—villains he had loathed more than cockroaches.
*
“Villain.”
He murmured the word as if in a daze.
But only for a moment.
“Damn it!”
Self-loathing surfaced and he trembled.
It couldn’t be helped—he was a villain.
They were the ones he had loathed more than cockroaches.
He would rather have been reincarnated as an animal; why did it have to be a villain?
‘No, wait?!’
Something flashed through his mind at that moment.
‘Isn’t this not necessarily a bad thing?’
He had been betrayed by comrades he trusted.
Who were they?
They were the ones leading Terra, the world’s greatest hero organization.
The Sinyul of the past wouldn’t have cared about Terra or whatever, but revenge was a distant prospect with his current weak body.
Therefore, what he needed was “assistance.”
In a way, wasn’t this a blessing in disguise?
If he had been reincarnated as another hero, he wouldn’t have even dreamed of assistance.
After all, not a single hero would touch Terra, who had driven out the villains and achieved peace, or their order.
But if he was a villain?
If they ground their teeth at Terra, they would surely not hesitate to kill his enemies, including Baegun.
‘Moreover, if the villains they hate the most shatter the peace they achieved with such difficulty, that would be the most exhilarating revenge.’
Of course, there were mountains of problems to solve to achieve that desire.
Among them, what he had to think about first was.
“Hm.”
Sinyul, who had been feeling over his body, swallowed a groan.
He didn’t desire an ultimate body like in the past.
If only he had even the smallest talent, or if only he were just average.
The state of the body he examined was weakness itself.
‘I can’t complain. It’s a miracle enough that I’ve been given another chance.’
Through the miracle of Reincarnation, he had gained another opportunity.
He was grateful for just that, so he couldn’t complain forever.
Moreover.
‘A trait remains!’
He could feel the power of Hyper-Regeneration dwelling in his body.
Although he hadn’t obtained all his absolute traits from the past, it was only a matter of time anyway.
Since he had walked the path once before, reaching the end of that path again wouldn’t be difficult.
‘Slowly, starting with what I can do.’
Then what was the first thing he needed to do?
It was to manifest Hyper-Regeneration and return his ruined body to normal.
“Keuh.”
Normally, Hyper-Regeneration would have reacted and healed his wounds with just a touch of his will, but it wasn’t easy.
Not only was the trait weak, but the Force—the catalyst needed to manifest it—was too lacking.
He had every reason to despair at the energy that barely moved, but he didn’t give up.
Focus.
He introspected his inner self and drew out the handful of Force dwelling within his body.
Szzzzz—
Before long, a minute amount of Force reacted, and along with a sensation like insects crawling, it began to heal his body.
Of course, since it was an extremely minute amount of Force, it was not complete healing, but merely enough to ease the pain.
“Hm?!”
In the next moment, Sinyul encountered an unexpected phenomenon.
The Reincarnated Hero Became a Villain
Author: Ppappi
Publisher: Son Byeongtae
Published by: RS Media Co., Ltd.
Address: 201-503, Chunui Technopark 2nd, 18, Bucheon-ro 198beon-gil, Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do
Phone: 032-651-8576
E-mail: [email protected]
ISBN: 979-11-6949-170-9
All editorial rights to the contents of this book belong to RS Media Co., Ltd. by contract with the author; therefore, unauthorized reproduction, modification, and distribution are prohibited.