Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

“Those damn bastards.”

Blood Demon Chu Ma-geol was furious.

Several days had passed since the villains of the Top were captured by the Awakener Crimes Department, but Chu Ma-geol still couldn’t get any information about them.

The security of the Awakener Crimes Department had been further strengthened due to the disappearance of a key witness against Weltschmerz who came from China.

He wanted to rush in there right away to rescue those guys, but he couldn’t charge into the most heavily guarded place in Korea without any information.

The Puppeteer said calmly:

“That place is an iron fortress. Even if it’s the old man, if he goes there…”

No matter how corrupt the Awakener Crimes Department had become, the prison holding serious criminals couldn’t be lax.

As time passed, Chu Ma-geol shook his legs worrying about Gemini trapped in there. He didn’t care about the other guys, but he didn’t want to leave Gemini there.

“That little thing might be going through who knows what hardships now!”

Blood Demon Chu Ma-geol didn’t dislike that small kid who teased him but acted cute. No, to be honest, he cherished her like his own flesh and blood.

“We have to save those guys somehow.”

While Blood Demon Chu Ma-geol was fretting like that, the Puppeteer delivered new information.

Assemblyman Seol Rok-jin had approached them.

Using the puppet’s mouth, Seol Rok-jin said:

“I’ll help you with the escape.”

“How?”

“We’ll think of the method, Blood Demon just do what you do best.”

At those words, the Blood Demon burst into laughter.

And he did what he does best.

* * *

The day we arrived in Utah, instead of rushing the next schedule, we went into the hotel and collapsed.

The journey that was supposed to take 5 hours ended after 8 hours. Because traffic was so congested around us.

It wasn’t like returning home for Korean holidays, and it was the first time I saw America’s usually empty roads jammed like this.

[What on earth is happening?]

[Well, Gate occurrences around Utah have exploded recently. Mercenary groups all flocked this way after hearing that news. Though half of that crowd is probably agencies and merchants.]

[Gate occurrences exploded?]

[Yes.]

I haven’t seen such articles. Norman added at my gaze demanding explanation:

[Since so many mercenary groups are gathering, there shouldn’t be any Gate breaks. There’s no word of high-grade Gates opening yet either. Rather, it’s lucky for Golden Day. The increase in Gate occurrences also means the number of Gates that can be conquered has increased.]

I roughly nodded to Norman who continued explaining with a nonchalant face as if saying not to worry.

Certainly, I had no memory of any problems breaking out around here. The problem is that I can’t trust that memory. My past self had no interest in what happened overseas.

‘I was busy groveling under Seol Rok-jin. So do you have any hunches?’

—Gates increasing, well… My memory isn’t perfect either.

‘You’re not helpful at all.’

—What do you mean, my existence alone is helpful to you. Tsk, anyway, it’s not a good sign. The mana concentration being this high is strange.

As Ray said, the mana concentration around here was strange. I could feel the sense of discomfort as soon as I got out of the car.

“Doesn’t the mana concentration seem thicker than other places?”

At my words, Kim Jae-ho, who had the sharpest senses among us, immediately nodded. Han Seo-hyeon, who initially tilted his head at my words, quietly closed his eyes to feel the mana and soon agreed with me.

“It certainly feels like the air is a bit heavier.”

“I heard Gate occurrences have increased around here recently. It’s either the effect of that, or Gates are appearing more because mana has increased.”

“Either way, I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

I also nodded at Han Seo-hyeon’s words. But one fortunate thing is…

As long as Cha Song-jin is here, we can escape once in a crisis situation.

Han Seo-hyeon, who noticed the person at the end of my gaze, pouted his lips.

As soon as we arrived at the accommodation, the mobile phone signal that hadn’t worked in the middle of the road was caught and the accumulated messages arrived all at once.

All the messages were from Nam Ju-hyeon. I thought it would be complaints about Xie Haozhu that had been pouring in for the past few days, but information different from what I expected was contained in the message window.

“The villains of the Top escaped.”

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

“R-really?”

“Yeah. The Awakener Crimes Department headquarters was blown up in the process. Looks like the Blood Demon really went on a rampage.”

I didn’t think the villains of the Top would stay quietly imprisoned forever, but the damage was bigger than expected.

It’s not just at the level of saying the damage was big, it should be called tremendous damage. Right away, ten awakeners belonging to the Awakener Crimes Department died and the detention center was half-destroyed, allowing other criminals imprisoned there to escape too.

Since this didn’t happen in the past, I have no idea how this damage will shake the Awakener Crimes Department.

One thing for sure is that Seol Rok-jin planned all this.

‘I wonder what he’ll do using this as an excuse.’

We barely covered up the terrorism, and now he’s moved on to shaking up the Awakener Crimes Department.

I was worried about Do Chae-hee and Jeong Ho-san who would enter that Awakener Crimes Department, but I deliberately shook off that thought. Because I decided not to care about that guy anymore.

‘They’ll manage somehow…’

No, why do you have to enter the Awakener Crimes Department at a time like this!

According to the CCTV left at the scene, the culprits were Blood Demon Chu Ma-geol and the Puppeteer. The Puppeteer’s movements were overshadowed by the Blood Demon’s overwhelming performance. Though I’m not sure if it can be called a performance…

All that remained where Blood Demon Chu Ma-geol passed was blood. Only blood. No flesh, nothing. They can’t even find proper corpses, so the Awakener Crimes Department can’t properly announce the death toll now.

They have to identify people just by blood splatters scattered here and there. Thanks to that, Korea has been turned upside down.

Nam Ju-hyeon tried to somehow calm public opinion, but it was impossible. Well, dozens of sensational news would pour out every day.

In short, Korea is in an uproar.

It means one more homework to solve if we go to Korea.

For now, I decided to focus on the matters here.

Unlike Los Angeles which completely conquered Gate breaks and started managing Gates, Utah still hasn’t dealt with all the monsters that popped out from Gate breaks.

What does that mean? It meant there was a ‘wall’ here like in Australia.

A line of defense to block monsters, there must be monsters roaming outside that wall. Though the situation won’t be as serious as Australia, we certainly had to be careful.

Norman found accommodations for us to stay inside this wall.

[I barely found a place. It’s not a good place but…]

[Anywhere is fine. We’d rather not go to a hotel.]

Just finding a place inside the wall amidst this crowd is a good job for a C-grade mercenary company agency.

If not, we would have had to stay at a hotel outside the wall, and it would have been very inconvenient when going to and from Gates.

The accommodation inside the wall was similar to Australia. Two bunk beds were placed inside a container box equipped with a bathroom and kitchen. I thought it was impressive they found a 4-person room.

It was definitely a worse environment than a hotel, but instead the procedures for going out of the wall were greatly simplified.

Staying in this accommodation itself meant you were a mercenary contracted with an agency.

We unpacked our luggage at the accommodation and came outside. The atmosphere was incomparably more relaxed than Australia.

Certainly, ‘lively’ suited here better than ‘desperate’. Everyone’s faces were full of confidence too.

We moved our steps following Norman who was waiting. Norman, who boarded a special van inside the wall, seated us and briefly briefed us about the Gate we would conquer today.

We will conquer a Gate estimated to be C-grade, located 15 minutes away from here. We have to ride the van like this when going, so contact us when the conquest is over.

If the conquest isn’t completed for over a week, they’ll dispatch a rescue team, but in that case, additional costs may be incurred.

Norman’s face looked calm as he spoke those long words.

Is it because he’s a professional who has repeated such things countless times?

I listened to all those words with an excited heart. After Norman’s explanation ended, I translated the contents for the team members.

Han Seo-hyeon and Kim Jae-ho nodded calmly, but Cha Song-jin’s expression was still not good.

“It’s just a C-grade Gate, what’s the big deal? We went to an S-grade Gate before.”

“There were really terrible things there.”

I nodded at Cha Song-jin’s dispirited words. That’s right.

“It’ll be much better than then.”

Even at my comfort, Cha Song-jin’s expression didn’t brighten.

“Think of it as gaining experience. This experience will be helpful wherever you go later.”

“Okay.”

Norman dropped us off in front of the Gate and left.

Before entering the Gate, I checked my backpack one last time.

Even if it’s a C-grade Gate, we shouldn’t take it lightly.

There was a conquest team that stupidly lost their lives after entering a Gate with an ocean climate before. As many as four teams were wiped out in a Gate that was just C-grade.

I heard the fifth conquest team that entered barely succeeded in conquering it when a freezing ability user made and floated a raft of ice.

Well, our team can roughly respond in any environment since I’m here, but still, being thorough is better than anything.

Thorough preparation was always needed when entering a Gate.

“You packed the pork belly well, right?”

“Yes.”

Han Seo-hyeon seemed to glance at me as if I was a bit pathetic, but I heard pork belly grilled inside a Gate is so delicious!

After confirming preparations were complete, I lined everyone up.

Kim Jae-ho, Han Seo-hyeon, Cha Song-jin, and me last. We lined up in this order and passed through the green Gate. We blinked with tense expressions, but fortunately the scenery that unfolded before our eyes was a very beautiful forest.

“We’re lucky.”

A forest terrain with optimal temperature that’s neither too hot nor too cold. The situation wasn’t bad.

But the problem with this forest terrain is that we don’t know what monsters might be beyond that dense forest.

If there were traces of humans left, we could roughly infer which world we fell into and have a sense of what monsters might appear, but in a world with no characteristics like this, we have no idea what monsters might pop out.

The densely grown trees are also a problem. They’ll hide the monsters’ traces until they approach close.

But nothing can be an obstacle to us.

At my eye signal, Han Seo-hyeon infused magic power into his staff. Black sand flowed out and scattered around, and a hound imbued with black magic appeared in the air.

We have the strongest source of information.