Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

Though the world changed rapidly after Gates opened, the country still holding global hegemony was America.

It was common knowledge that conventional weapons didn’t work on monsters that popped out of Gates, but weapons made by processing monsters did work.

And the country that produced and possessed the most of those weapons was America.

Moreover, America possessed the world’s top hunter guild, was one of the countries with the most awakeners, and was the country of Taika Cooper, the world’s top awakener.

Just saying this, it seems like there’s no place for outsiders like us, but…

As I said yesterday, America’s territory is very vast. And Gates appear as if scattered across that vast territory.

“That’s why America is called the land of opportunity.”

Since America consists of many states, the situation varied greatly by state.

The eastern side where New York and Washington are located had relatively few Gate appearances to begin with and the situation calmed down quickly due to high population concentration, but the situation in the central and western regions was different.

Western cities including San Francisco and Los Angeles facing the North Pacific were ruined by attacks from sea monsters and tsunamis, and the central region where the most Gates opened became a land of monsters like Australia due to consecutive Break phenomena.

But the response afterwards was different.

Unlike Australia with many desertified lands that could be called the Outback, America’s central region was originally so fertile that it was worth reclaiming.

America started to reclaim the central region by investing enormous sums.

America’s immigration procedures were quite strict, but you could easily enter the country using the special selection open only to mercenary companies.

The lands America hasn’t reclaimed yet are Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.

“Our destination is Utah among those.”

I felt a hot gaze while explaining. I asked Cha Song-jin who was glancing at me:

“Why?”

“Are you planning to ab-abandon me there?”

“Abandon you?”

Though I don’t not have that thought…

“I told you. I won’t send you carelessly until I find a decent place. Besides, I need to send you after you know how to do something. You still can’t even do a 1-minute plank, right?”

At my words, Cha Song-jin silently closed his mouth. Ray cut in as if finding it ridiculous:

—First of all, isn’t that body 3 years older than you?

‘My mental age is much older. And look at how he acts. I absolutely don’t want to acknowledge him as older.’

Anyway, I returned to the main point.

“We’ll face monsters and clear a few Gates before coming back.”

“How many?”

“I’m planning to enter low-grade ones.”

I’m not trying to handle any amazing Gates this time. To begin with, we can’t enter high-grade Gates with the fake hunter IDs we made up, and the purpose this time was to roughly gain experience.

And the point of this job isn’t conquering Gates.

“I’m thinking of stopping by Las Vegas after finishing work early.”

“Las Vegas? Are you planning to gamble?”

“Well, something similar.”

I smiled brightly.

* * *

The four of us all wore masks and used forged IDs to board the plane. Cha Song-jin shook his legs nervously, but us three were very calm.

Kim Jae-ho who wore a mask for the first time squirmed as if very uncomfortable, but fortunately he stayed still.

We sat in our seats in order. Since we bought economy class seats to save money, it felt cramped. Ray said why are we saving money like cheapskates when we earned a lot, but that’s because he doesn’t know the price of this economy class seat.

‘Even this cramped seat costs 30 million won per person!’

Why? Unlike before, escorts were essential.

Two fighter jets flew beside the passenger plane. Those two fighter jets were loaded with hundreds of millions of won worth of anti-monster missiles. The fighter jets modified to fly for long periods looked much more bulky than the ones we used to see.

Cha Song-jin carefully asked me:

“But can those really block flying monsters if they appear?”

“Well, maybe? Actually the success rate isn’t very high. The missiles can only scare them away.”

“W-what? Then it’s a big problem!”

“That’s why I brought you along.”

Cha Song-jin’s face turned pale.

“I’ve never used my ability at such a high altitude.”

“Ah, I should have made you train in advance.”

To be able to use your ability anytime, anywhere, in any situation. Cha Song-jin who heard my words shuddered.

“Don’t worry. The probability of flying monsters appearing is very low.”

“B-but it’s not zero.”

“Wake me up when the in-flight meal comes.”

Han Seo-hyeon said that and put earplugs in his ears. He even put on an eye mask snugly. Cha Song-jin lost his words seeing that nonchalant appearance.

“You should rest comfortably too.”

“H-how can I sleep when monsters might appear!”

“Well, you’ll know even if you’re sleeping if monsters appear?”

“That’s not comforting at all!”

I shrugged my shoulders and closed my eyes. I heard Cha Song-jin grumbling something, but I didn’t pay attention.

There were still over 10 hours left until we arrived in America, and this was the only time we could rest.

* * *

Our destination was Utah, but where we arrived was Los Angeles Airport. There are only two airports regular passenger planes can go to – Los Angeles and New York.

Today we’ll roughly stay in Las Vegas and tomorrow we plan to find transportation to go to Utah.

Everyone got off the plane with tired faces and went down to find their luggage.

Cha Song-jin didn’t sleep at all in the end.

“Urgh, I feel like I’m dying.”

“I told you to rest.”

How foolish. I shook my head looking at Cha Song-jin’s face.

I’m not sure if he’ll pass immigration properly.

While going to find our luggage, I briefly explained our mercenary group’s information again.

“Our mercenary group’s name is Golden Day.”

“Are you serious?”

“I made it roughly with the wish to earn a lot of money.”

At my words, Han Seo-hyeon immediately muttered:

“It’s lame.”

“We’re only going to use it once anyway, so there’s no use coming up with a cool name.”

Actually, I wanted to use the name ‘Ark’ that we used last time in Australia, but we’re already wanted so I had no choice.

Urgh, it’s maddening how much I regret that name. It was a really cool name with the hope of becoming an ark that saves people of the world.

Then I realized. Our mercenary group doesn’t need a cool name! Why? Because we don’t know when and where our identity will be exposed!

This time too, I registered our mercenary group’s average grade as 5-star.

It was a grade that could apply for C-grade Gates like last time, or B-grade if we’re lucky.

We’d have to cooperate with other mercenary groups to enter B-grade Gates, so I’m thinking of just handling C-grade Gates if possible.

Fortunately, immigration was finished simply.

Because this is the first screening. Even mercenary groups had to go through an agency to be active in America.

In fact, agencies were in charge of monitoring hunters active in America.

It means they trust the eyes of agencies who can observe hunters up close and confirm their skills more than immigration that has to judge people with just a few documents.

We who came without contracting with an agency in Korea in advance had to contract with an agency designated by the country at the airport.

[I’m Norman Byron from Salt Bread Agency.]

The person who introduced himself as Norman was a man in his 30s with bright blonde hair and a tall height of about 180cm.

Judging by his fairly good physique for an office worker, it seemed he also did field work.

“Who is that person?”

“The agency. Be nice to him. If that person says we should be kicked out, we’ll have to pack our bags and go back anytime.”

“Okay.”

By the way, the agency name being Salt Bread, it’s lame.

—Is that something you can say after making a mercenary group named Golden Day because you want to earn money?

‘Ahem.’

Anyway, judging by the ordinary name, it didn’t seem to be a high-level agency.

Norman’s suit in front of us was neat, but the cuffs were worn and the watch on his wrist was also an outdated design.

Well, it would be strange for a good agency to be attached to us who are just a C-grade mercenary group.

Norman calmly stated the contract terms.

The agency will take care of all the miscellaneous matters while staying here. Miscellaneous matters refer to all the chores from finding accommodation, meals, transportation, etc. They’ll provide a kind of management so we can focus only on conquering Gates.

In return, what we have to do is conquer the Gates proposed by the agency. Since it’s difficult to even enter Gates without going through an agency in the first place, it wasn’t particularly unfair terms.

And letting the agency handle the by-products from those Gates. For reference, the fee for all this management was 40% of all profits.

If you calculate the normal fee with lots of skimming in the middle, it would be about 60%. It was profiteering, but understandable if they handle all the annoying tasks.

However, there was one contract item that needed to be modified.

[We’d like to keep some of the monster corpses.]

Since monsters account for most of the profits from Gates, it was customary to hand over all monster corpses to the agency.

But we needed the corpses.

[Hmm, then we’ll have to adjust the fee a bit.]

[Well, do as you please.]

Because money isn’t a problem. Whew, to think such words would come out of my mouth. I think I didn’t even have 300,000 won in my bank account until a year ago, it’s emotional.

‘As expected, you need to bite a sucker well…’

Thank you Professor Geum! I sent words of thanks to our helper who wasn’t here.

After finishing the agency contract, Norman stood up and asked me:

[If you’re planning to stay here today, I’ll guide you to accommodations. Or will you depart for Utah right away?]

[Let’s rest well today and depart tomorrow.]

[Yes, then I’ll inform you of some simple precautions on the way to the accommodations.]

The precautions Norman mentioned were literally simple.

To sum it up in one sentence, report all our actions. Wherever we go, wherever we stay, everything.

We had to accompany Norman continuously outside of Gates. It was also essential to contact immediately after conquering a Gate.

I nodded while listening to those few precautions.

The rules are simple, but the price for breaking them is harsh.

America is famous for ruthlessly punishing awakeners who commit crimes.

[I understand. We’ll keep it in mind.]

“Y-you speak English well.”

At Cha Song-jin’s words, I shrugged my shoulders.

“If you’re locked in a room with a foreigner for about a month, it improves extremely quickly.”

“I-I don’t want to do that.”

“Experience is most important to improve a foreign language. There are locals here too, so why don’t you practice simple conversation?”

At my words, Cha Song-jin’s shoulders trembled.

“I-I absolutely won’t talk to them!”

Do you think opportunities like this with native speakers walking around are common?

“Don’t if you don’t want to.”

It’s a shame. Confidence is key for foreign languages.