I’m Not That Villain

49 – Artificial Ability Factor (3)

A master participating in a battle directly?

How foolish can one be?

I, for one, am not at all accustomed to the slaughter where lives are at stake.

I haven’t even done personal training. I have no experience either.

A fight between ability holders?

As if I would have done such a thing!

I glanced at the hitmen in front of me. Each one of them was pulling out their tools. They had the attitude of having gone through this many times.

Surprise was brief. They were already pulling out their tools.

It’s brutal. It’s brutal.

But rather, it’s good. Yeah, rather good. I whispered to Lily.

“How many can you handle?”

“…Didn’t you say you’d take care of everything by yourself?”

“Come on. How can I handle all this by myself? I’m a rookie. A rookie. Or could you buy me some time to get a feel for it?”

“A feel?”

“I think I’ll get a feel for it after some real combat. I also have specialized equipment to assist.”

“…Geniuses, I swear.”

Lily sighed and stepped forward. She blew and popped the bubble gum she was chewing and casually grabbed a knife with her small fingers.

“I can handle them all. By myself. But you want that one, right? That person over there.”

“Yes. Please.”

Wow. Look at the reliable bodyguard.

Lily stepped forward. In the instant when the hitmen’s gazes were all drawn to her

Now, visible movements.

Lily, who kicked off the ground, swiftly slashed one person’s carotid artery with a knife.

Fwoosh!!!

Echoing screams of people. The loud honking of cars.

A brutal fountain of blood erupted in the midst of it all.

“What the hell?!”

“Get him!!”

As for me.

After becoming a half-powered individual through artificial ability factors, I could see it.

Lily’s ‘competence’ had a different standard altogether. Should I just call her a natural-born monster?

She didn’t even use her abilities, yet she cut down everything with her overwhelming physical specs.

That means, Ju Hwa-rin’s SR 1000 ranking or whatever…

I thought it was actually useless.

Watching something like that, it’s only natural to think so. Of course.

But there’s no more time to waste.

Alright. First…

Let’s deal with the matter at hand.

“What are you doing?”

“…Damn it…!”

Lee Min-ho, who seemed to realize something was wrong, hurriedly looked at me. He seemed to move the club he was holding…

Bang!!!

The other side moved immediately as well.

As if to split my head open, gripping the club roughly.

In the past, I wouldn’t have been able to react. But now it’s different.

Enhanced senses. With them, I track the opponent’s movements with my eyes.

Fast and sharp. I’m tracking with my eyes, but honestly, my body reacts a step slower.

The opponent not only has abilities but is also a well-trained elite. Although I find Lee Min-ho annoying, he did work at a security company after all.

I can’t handle this alone.

But on this side…

There is a ‘competent assistant’.

Kaaang!!!

The enemy’s special equipment stops right in front of my head. It tries to crush me with overwhelming force, but instead, it bounces back.

“Ugh?!”

Lee Minho’s body slips down. I stared at it blankly.

The attack of the ability holder doesn’t work.

That means my ‘ability’ is definitely working.

Something reflected in Lee Minho’s pupils. I knew it was the translucent energy barrier blocking my front.

“What is that?!”

“If I answered just because you asked, I’d be an idiot… but I can introduce it to a corpse.”

I laughed. I tapped the ‘energy field’ with my fingertip, as if to show off.

“It’s my ability, you b*stard.”

“…Ability…? Ha, but you were definitely…!”

“I was an ordinary person back then. But not now. It was good back then, wasn’t it? You pushed my body around as you pleased, muttering with a condescending attitude. But what now? I’m an ability holder too.”

I moved my hand lightly. The sparks that burst out gathered and began to form a ‘black sphere’ on my hand.

Artificial ability factor.

That’s right. As I kept experimenting, I dreamed of something.

Exclusive equipment that only I can use. What I want to do with it.

Even as I continued developing it, I couldn’t grasp exactly what it was. Spitting fire? Or collapsing buildings? Or just… possessing an absurdly strong body?

The result of continuous research amidst countless questions. Ironically, I saw what form the artificial ability factor combined with my genes took.

If I had the ability factor from the beginning…

The ability I might have handled.

“Moreover, since it was created from the beginning, the ability manifested in this way. Look. Isn’t it pretty?”

I grabbed the black energy moving with sparks and burst it. The energy that scattered in all directions in an instant grazed the ground.

–Pajijik!

The swept ground was shallowly dug. The wall it hit partially collapsed, creating an indelible mark on the building’s wall.

Oops.

Is this vandalism? I should restrain myself.

“…What?”

“New energy. You could call it that. I can extract energy like this in exchange for the calories in my body. What can I do with it? I can’t do anything by myself. I’m just an energy power plant. I can only explode it or shoot it out like I just did…”

It’s a waste to discard such a versatile ability like that.

“It’s not efficient at all, is it? By myself, it’s a half-baked ability that can’t do anything. I can only extract energy. But it’s different when there are two of us. Isn’t that right, Scarlett?”

“Synchronization initiated.”

The orb-shaped device floating above my shoulder.

My personal equipment and AI, ‘Scarlett’, starts to move.

The orb-shaped device absorbs the energy. Then it instantly changes its form and reconstructs it into the shape I desire.

The ‘protective shield’ just now was also created that way. Capturing the situation with camera sensors far beyond human capabilities and producing various responses according to the state…

As long as I have enough calories, I can emit energy close to ‘infinite’.

It’s a joint work of me, who can emit energy, and the personal equipment ‘Scarlett’, which can shape it into the desired form.

“What, what are you saying…”

“Hey. You idiot. Whether your unrequited love failed or whatever, let’s drop everything now and focus on one thing. Okay?”

In the sensation of rapidly growing hunger, I floated the energy I had gathered onto my hand.

A dark purple sphere.

The condensed energy starts to spark and surround me. There are six in total.

This is the limit of the energy I can extract without harming my body. If I use only this much, I’ll just get a little hungry later, that’s the kind of energy it is.

Thud. Thud.

Scarlett devours one of the dark purple spheres. And in return, it perfectly controls the direction of my ability and releases it.

Of course, due to the need for many improvements in the prototype, I can only create two forms right now.

But that was enough.

Boom!!!

The road cracks under the pressure of the simple recreation. The ground splits, and the fragments of the hardened road fly up, literally starting to ‘destroy’ the surroundings.

The earth shakes with the impact of the massive energy. Lee Minho’s face is filled with despair.

Along with him, I slowly moved my hand. The energy source, newly readjusted and shaped into a ‘sword’ by Scarlett…

I grasped it firmly.

Crackle! Crackle!

Ability.

The ultimate in new energy manipulation, the sword made from the ‘Sea of Void’…

The tip of the sword touched the ground with a thud.

As the surrounding space distorted, the ground at the tip of the sword caved in.

“…Phew.”

The resonance phenomenon that occurs. The halo that crowns my head. Along with the side effects that make my whole body tingle, a headache also begins to set in.

But despite that, overwhelming power was hanging at my fingertips.

Controlling the immense energy completely and releasing it in the desired form.

That absurd ability was controlled by me, a human, and Scarlett, a machine, within a precarious range.

“Don’t die easily. Please.”

To be honest…

I don’t really like fighting.

Overpowering with strength? What meaning does that have? Liking to overpower with strength is something that belongs to the exact opposite direction of the artist I want to be.

It’s something a beast would do, not a human.

I’m on the side of making weapons, not using them. I want to see what happens with the weapons I make, not directly breaking and smashing things myself.

But does that mean I should back off even when I have to fight?

That’s…

No!

If someone picks a fight, the answer is to fight back!

Besides, I’m already a criminal, aren’t I? Why should I hold back?!

If I have the power!

If I have the power to fight against the shitty things that come my way!

“Let me tell you in advance, don’t beg for your life.”

It’s okay to kill the b*stard who came to kill me!

“Because it would leave a bad taste.”

I started moving the violet sword. I took a stance to swing it with all my might and took a deep breath.

The direction of the energy felt at my fingertips. The sensation itself was as light as if I were holding a feather.

But the result was not light at all.

Crack.

Just by holding it, the surrounding terrain distorted and everything visible crumbled. Just by taking a stance to swing it, the air trembled and started making strange noises.

The overflowing energy lifted the surrounding materials into the air. The wind that started to blow decorated the epic of my war.

“…Phew.”

As befitting the name prototype, the only ways I can currently emit this energy are ‘sword’ and ‘shield’.

But even though I reduced the power to the minimum output, I clearly saw it.

This time, I’m not just smashing a can, but facing a person with abilities, so there are no restrictions on the output.

With all my might. As if to vomit all the condensed energy at once.

Sea of Void

Absolute.

Hiding is now…

No longer necessary.

. . .

Lily neatly slit the last assassin’s throat.

Her upper body was covered in blood. After wiping off as much as she could, she stood up.

They were a bunch of nobodies. Believing in nothing but their possession of supernatural abilities, without proper training.

They were arrogant, making them easy to handle, and she didn’t give them a chance to manifest their abilities, so she could eliminate them all in an instant.

She was accustomed to killing, so her mental state was unshaken. But if there was something that gave her a headache…

It was ‘that’.

Crack.

The cracked road split in half with a crack.

Boom!!!

The air burst belatedly, pushing everything around. Lily quickly brushed away the incoming wind with her hand and looked at the unfolding disaster.

The road was completely split in both directions. The long, continuous disaster seemed to have eaten deeper into the ground than it appeared.

An unbelievably large slash. Not only did it split the ground in one go, but it also completely swallowed the surrounding terrain.

As if there was any last bit of conscience, the damage subtly veered away from the direction of people…

Even considering only the material damage, the loss seemed indescribable.

Minho Lee’s pants, which were just a hair’s breadth away from the trajectory, were stained black. The arrogant expression he had before was nowhere to be seen, and he was just staring blankly at the split ground beside him.

…Understanding.

It’s not that he couldn’t understand.

Lily looked at the strange man surrounded by black spheres.

Seo-jun Lee.

A dedicated equipment maker.

…At first, she thought he was just like any other craftsman. But living together, she noticed something was off.

The depth of his talent was extraordinary. As if he had been living with ‘forced limitations on his own talent’ until now…

He began to move as if he had just realized what his wings truly were.

He made dedicated equipment for others. Items that fully helped control their abilities.

He created specialized equipment for others. Beyond enhancing abilities, he almost created a new supernatural power with his own hands.

He made his own specialized equipment, not for others. And the result…

Was right in front of him now.

“…….”

The ground shook, and the building creaked as if it might collapse at any moment.

An abnormal destructive force that could blow away a road in an instant was right in front of him.

And the man who did it was controlling it as if it was nothing.

Of course, it was clumsy for now. As if he had caused unintended damage, water spouted from a burst fire hydrant.

The gazes directed at Lee Minho were filled with awkwardness. As if he had missed his target, his eyes, which were avoiding their gaze, were full of a sense of mistake.

But you know what?

Even with a mistake, ‘this much’ power.

A destructive force that twists common sense. Even though it wasn’t delicate, it was a controlled supernatural power.

Even after firing something like this once…

He could still launch more than five additional attacks.

“…….”

A monster.

He’s a monster.

Could anyone withstand that output head-on? To face it without dodging, you’d need someone at least on Cha Seo-yoon’s level.

He was the same. If he fully unleashed his supernatural power, he might be able to face it head-on…

But honestly, he wasn’t confident.

He wasn’t confident he could withstand that output head-on.

Even he, Arcana, who was chosen as the sharpest sword in the mercenary company Bakery.

“…Black Mirror Lee Seo-jun…”

Lily sighed with her arms crossed.

“Doesn’t this make the bodyguard meaningless?”

Yeah.

That’s exactly how I feel.