The Thug Hides the Villainess

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032 – The 3rd Grade Ability User of Disaster #2

Yeom Hoon found himself in a tight spot.

He, who had easily evaded the state’s pursuers, was now being toyed with by students whose ID cards hadn’t even dried from the ink.

His pride couldn’t accept it, but unfortunately, he found himself without a ‘cigarette’ and ‘time’ to spare.

“…….”

In front of Yeom Hoon, a female student was awkwardly dancing.

It was truly a clumsy dance.

Watching such gracelessness, Yeom Hoon felt a flicker of empathy.

“Hey, were you bullied too?”

He asked this, but the meaning didn’t get through.

The sound was cut off.

Quickly deducing that the girl’s ability probably affected sound or hearing, an uneasy feeling enveloped Yeom Hoon’s body.

‘How am I supposed to know if the police sirens are going off or not?’

Feeling anxious, Yeom Hoon couldn’t help but smile.

It was his long-standing habit to laugh when tense or flustered.

‘I need to get out of here fast.’

However, the male student wouldn’t let him be.

“Hehe, you can’t go!”

Thud—.

The boy lunged at him low to the ground. Thinking he was aiming for his family jewels, Yeom Hoon tried to kick him away, but the boy pushed right through and grabbed Yeom Hoon’s leg, bringing him down.

“Nam-jin tackle!”

It was a textbook tackle.

Having undergone vigorous training to escape this position under the harsh guidance of an instructor until his ribs nearly broke, Yeom Hoon thought it would be no problem—

“Now! Now!”

The boy reached out, targeting Yeom Hoon’s gas mask.

He was trying to take it off.

Yeom Hoon was taken aback.

And suddenly, a pink-haired girl appeared from nowhere, starting to whack Yeom Hoon’s torso with a frying pan.

“Die! Die! Die! Die!”

“Ah! Hey! Ah! I’m getting hit too! Aah! I’ll take off the gas mask! Chang-sik! Now! Now! Chang-sik aah!”

Ultimately, when Yeom Hoon’s gas mask was finally removed, a previously hidden male student approached him holding a bunch of cash.

‘Cash? What the hell are these brats trying to do?’

There was no sign of any ‘rules’ in these students’ actions.

An inconsistency that was the essence of uncertainty itself.

And that’s why Yeom Hoon felt fear.

─These punks are crazy.

“I’ve never swapped cash for chocolate before! Just wait a moment! Wait! The cash my dad gave me for dinner! Cash! Aah! Change! Hoo-!”

The boy called Chang-sik blew air onto the bills, which then transformed into tiny piles of coin chocolates.

A transformation-type ability user? But what does that chocolate even mean—

“Fat ass! Now’s the time! Cook the chocolate with fire! With fire! You can’t cook for beans! If it’s you, it’ll definitely produce toxic gas! You can do it!”

“Ta-hai-yaa!!!”

The girl, screaming like a pterodactyl spotting prey, piled the chocolate onto the frying pan. Then she held it near a nearby burning house and began to heat it rapidly.

Is chocolate supposed to burn that quickly?

That wasn’t the problem.

“Acrolein, benzene, formaldehyde. Toxic substances that can be released when chocolate burns! Those were also what came out when you cooked tteokbokki at our house. If you project that directly into the respiratory system—.”

“You bastards! You little cafeteria rats! Stop it! Let go of me aah!”

Only then did Yeom Hoon finally grasp what these audacious students were trying to do.

Desperately struggling, tragically, the horrifically burnt chocolate rained down onto Yeom Hoon’s face, nose, and screaming throat.

“Gaaaah—!”

# # #

“Ugh, ugh!”

Attacked by boiling carcinogens, Yeom Hoon massaged his neck and nose in agony.

Thanks to that, did his superhuman strength manifest? He and the others who were gripping him flew off.

But that was no concern.

His respiratory system was already in tatters due to the many flames, so he wouldn’t be able to endure the ‘cursed chocolate of misfortune and evil’ from the fat ass.

Peep-peep—.

Weeeeng—.

From afar, sirens were also heard.

This was it.

Just when he thought that—

“You bastards—.”

Yeom Hoon shouted, his vocal cords burning. The boy took something that looked like a small stone out of his pocket and put it in his mouth; Yeom Hoon realized it was a ‘concept stone.’

Gulp—.

Yeom Hoon swallowed the concept stone.

His face flushed red, and his eyes suddenly became bloodshot.

He recognized that symptom.

It was the result of consuming a ‘concept stone’ that hadn’t been purified.

“The concept of ‘cloud’ that I took from you will reside within my body. Cloud—. Hooaaa—.”

Yeom Hoon expelled hot gas from his mouth like a cloud.

Fwoosh, fwoosh—swirling—

It was obviously extraordinary smoke. It spread like a cloud both on the ground and in the air, melting the road and power poles it came into contact with.

“Uh, it evolved! The concept evolved! He’s starting to breathe out mist! If you touch that fog, it won’t end with just burns!”

“Power is overflowing! I should’ve done this sooner! Sooner! Am I now a multi-ability user? Me aaaa! As for running errands for cigarettes, you do it!”

Those who consumed the unpurified ‘concept stone’ gained power completely, but their sanity went out the window. Did they call such people ‘Lost Ones’?

Fighting against a crazed ‘Lost One’ was sheer nonsense.

As this thought crossed his mind—

Zzzzing—.

“Grrrrah!”

Suddenly, a searing heat shot toward Yeom Hoon, piercing his torso. It could be said he was accurately fried in the abdomen.

It happened in an instant, and no one could react.

“Hanam-jin, I had a bad feeling, and look what happened.”

“You guys, you were having your own practical training before me.”

Turning his head, he saw Kim Jang-dong from the Superhuman Management Office and Yu Yeoreum from Class F walking through the flames from afar.

Their faces were a welcome sight.

Chang-sik must’ve contacted Section Chief Kim Jang-dong well with the business card I had given him.

But I didn’t expect Yu Yeoreum to come, so I felt a bit dazed.

At the same time, I was on the verge of going mad.

You mean they wiped out Yeom Hoon, who became a ‘Lost One’, with just a laser from their eyes? How was one supposed to abduct someone like that?

“Ugh…”

The arsonist Yeom Hoon was lying on the ground, writhing in pain, spitting the concept stone like a phlegm.

It was an anticipated outcome.

“You can’t expect to eat something with toxins in it and not suffer a consequence. It’s the same as swallowing poison. You’re just hanging in there because you’re an awakened one. Your time is running out.”

The end of being a ‘Lost One’ is death.

How much time was left for Yeom Hoon? A few months if short, a few years at most?

“…Cough, cough, isn’t this what you wanted? You want me dead, don’t you? In that case, why not blow my head off yourself instead of waiting for me to die? You want to do that, don’t you? I know. You and I are kindred spirits.”

“Me?”

“You’ve shown no hesitation in violence. Most who cross the line with me and stupid villains are like that. Like brakes have failed. So just how many people have you killed?”

Yeom Hoon shouted miserably, a silly smile creeping onto his face. Seeing the corners of his mouth tremble in fear, it was clear he wasn’t truly laughing.

「Name: Yeom Hoon

Status: 《Despair and Fear》 – Overwhelmed by extreme fear in the face of death.」

So he was the type to laugh when tense or flustered.

That day, I finally understood what the laughter in the flaming department store was about. He had merely been tense and flustered back then.

“Dude, the only reason I’m not killing you right now is that I prefer smashing you to bits over outright killing you! Just take one hit! No, two! No, three!”

“Aah! Guaah! Just kill me! Aah! Aah!”

Yeom Hoon was even more of an idiot than I had thought.

How could such a petty and cowardly guy have had the guts to set a department store on fire?

Watching Yeom Hoon, who had been hit in the family jewels and was frothing at the mouth as he fainted, didn’t sit right with me.

“Samajun. What on earth are you doing hanging around with such people? Just what kind of guy are you?”

Samajun, Wang Ja-hyeon’s lackey.

I have no idea why he’s here.

To my question, Samajun barely regained his composure and chuckled.

“…Do you think you’d understand if I told you? Can you handle it? If you find out who our backing is….”

A minor, discussing support? What a crazy world this is.

Could it be that a coward like Yeom Hoon set the department store on fire because of that backing?

“Yeom Hoon was just a simple ‘match’ after all.”

I had a thought that someone might have lit that ‘match’ and thrown it.

The stench of conspiracy filled the air. Perhaps it was related to the ‘traitor’ Seoga-eul had mentioned.

Meow meow—.

The loud wailing of police and fire trucks soon reached the scene.

Only then did everyone’s expressions become a mixture of relief and excitement.

“Guys! We did it! I told you I would carry! I did it! I did it! I’m Baek-Yeoul! These punks are nothing!”

Thud-thud-thud—.

Baek-Yeoul, excited, started smacking Yeom Hoon and Samajun on the head with the frying pan. Though the police and firefighters rushed in, they couldn’t stop the awakened Baek-Yeoul.

“It was the first time I changed cash into chocolate! I have no idea how vast my change ability will become!”

“Two tickets….”

Everyone was in a celebratory mood for the victory.

However, I couldn’t be entirely happy about it.

“Hey, see you later! I’m outta here!”

It was already close to midnight!

I had left Seoga-eul alone for too long!

This is bad!

Hurriedly, I ran back home.

What if Seoga-eul managed to extend the chain to escape?!

When I returned to the basement, Seoga-eul was sitting there, arms crossed, with an indifferent expression.

“Hey, pervert. Why are you so late? Do you really intend to train me?”

“I thought you’d managed to escape by extending the chain length.”

“Ying-ing is keeping watch, so how could I escape?”

━Gwi-ing.

Whatever it was, it seemed she hadn’t escaped.

My legs felt drained.

“Gyeoul, I’ve had a recurring dream.”

“Dream? What do you mean? You brought back food for me, right?”

“I don’t think I’ll have that dream anymore.”

Swish—. I glanced at the ‘cloud’ concept stone I had secretly pocketed earlier.

「Leap」 and 「Cloud」.

At a glance, it was clear, right?

So I was going to feed this to Ying-ing to purify the toxins and absorb it myself, but something went wrong.

━Gwi-ing.

Ying-ing, who ate my 「cloud」 concept stone, strangely didn’t spit it out!

Even more bizarre, her body started to tremble and jiggle—

“What’s that? Hey! Pervert! What did you do to Ying-ing? What did you feed her?”

“Ying-ing! Spit it out! I didn’t give it to you to eat! Absorb just the toxin and spit it out! Hey!”

Fluff-fluff—.

Ying-ing transformed into a super fluffy cotton candy cloud! She had completely absorbed the concept of 「cloud」 as her own!

━Gwi-ing.

From a raindrop-shaped slime to a bizarre monster in the shape of a cotton candy cloud!

Puff—!

She even shot out lightning like real storm clouds, knocking flies out of the air!

“Oh? Looks like Ying-ing has more talent than the pervert.”

━Gwi-ing.

I was feeling dizzy due to the joy of having absorbed the concept of 「cloud」. In the end, Ying-ing came out on top.

But… wait a minute, doesn’t this mean that even if the world ends, I can utilize appliances through Ying-ing?

The air conditioner that I had neglected due to power shortages! The fluorescent lights! The refrigerator! The washing machine! Even the Triceratops plushie! Everything should be operable if I use Ying-ing like a generator!

I truly was the luckiest man alive!

With that feeling, the weekend swiftly passed, and Monday arrived!

Had I exhausted too much energy in taking down Yeom Hoon? I knocked out all of Sunday without realizing it, and I felt extremely wronged.

Seoga-eul was on a rampage while pressing the calling bell.

Still, if there was a good part about Monday coming quickly—

“Hanam-jin. Choi Chang-sik. Baek-Yeoul. Oh Deok-hee. You are receiving police commendations. A special individual from the police department will personally present the commendation to you, so please be courteous—.”

“Captain! Can we use the treasure dungeon too? Is there a chance for a promotion to Night Brooch?”

“Hanam-jin! Be polite! You all students have combined your strengths to take down a special wanted criminal; everyone is very interested in this miraculous affair. It’s something extremely unprecedented, thus—.”

To put it simply, the treasure dungeon was opened!

It meant I could get the tools needed to abduct Yu Yeoreum!

Alright, what treasures await me?