Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

“Hngh.”

“Unghh.”

The sounds of people groaning in pain around me didn’t stop. But despite the agony, I couldn’t stop moving my body.

If I stopped, the men standing behind me wouldn’t leave me alone.

Han Jo-hee turned his head to the side. The man who had introduced himself as Park Ji-heon already had blue-tinged lips and fingernails – a sign that the mana had seeped into his very marrow.

At that level, no ordinary healing potion could treat the mana poisoning symptoms. He would live the rest of his life suffering from aftereffects. And that was assuming he immediately escaped this place and received treatment. If he remained exposed to this mana-dense environment…

Everyone here had effectively been given a death sentence.

For the sake of their bodies, they should all flee this place. Only then might they have a chance at survival.

No matter how important money was, it couldn’t be more important than one’s life. But the moment they had entered this place, their precious lives no longer belonged to them.

Thud.

Seeing Park Ji-heon collapse beside him, Han Jo-hee shuddered.

“Tch, another one down.”

The guard watching over them clicked his tongue briefly before approaching the corpse.

At the shuffling footsteps approaching from behind, Han Jo-hee squeezed his eyes shut.

This was a bottomless pit with no way out. The only way to escape was to die like Park Ji-heon and leave as a corpse. But even as corpses, they wouldn’t be able to return to their families’ hands.

The man picked up the body and disappeared somewhere with it.

That made three people dragged away like that within a week.

Han Jo-hee looked down at his fingertips. The bluish tinge creeping up told him he didn’t have much time left either.

No, in reality, he didn’t have much time remaining.

The piercing gaze from behind had vanished, but Han Jo-hee couldn’t move a muscle.

The sense of helplessness that had been ingrained over the past few days was tightly restraining his body.

-Don’t trust Im Hyeon-su too much.

If only he had taken that warning more to heart.

Regrets always came too late, but this regret was extremely belated.

Despite Kang Yi-sin’s warning, Han Jo-hee hadn’t been able to refuse Im Hyeon-su’s proposal. The proposal Im Hyeon-su had made to him ten days ago had seemed like a lifeline.

One million won needed to purchase practice equipment for his younger brother, Han Seo-hyeon.

To Han Jo-hee, who hadn’t been able to meet his quota for days due to poor health, it was a staggering sum that left him breathless.

But he couldn’t avoid paying it either.

Unlike himself, who had already been cast aside, his younger brother’s future was bright. If he could just endure for now, the child would eventually see the light.

So he had become greedy, and this was the result of that greed.

He had risked coming here after being told he could receive that huge sum in advance payment.

‘I didn’t know that money would be the price of my life.’

Han Jo-hee let out a wry laugh.

He would perish here.

Just like his co-worker Park Ji-heon had.

“Hey, move it.”

The man who had returned after disposing of Park Ji-heon’s body shouted at Han Jo-hee. With trembling hands, Han Jo-hee moved the pickaxe.

As he had been doing all this time.

* * *

—So you’re going to catch the bad guys?

“In turbulent times, heroes don’t actually appear except in fairy tales. In reality, the bad guys only exploit the turbulence to line their own pockets.”

Just look at Seol Rok-jin – he had simply stoked people’s anxieties to fill his own greedy maw.

There was more than one such thief in this nation of South Korea.

—So you’re going to catch those thieves yourself?

“That’s right. And incidentally, I’ll be lining my own pockets too.”

—So what’s the name of the person you’re going to deal with now?

“Im Hyeon-su.”

The name of the man who had sent my life into a downward spiral.

I had quite a personal score to settle with Im Hyeon-su. If I hadn’t met him, no, if I hadn’t fallen for his words, I wouldn’t have met Seol Rok-jin or put Jeong Ho-san through what I did.

But this time, my motivation wasn’t personal vengeance.

The illegal gate Im Hyeon-su had led me to was the source of Seol Rok-jin’s illegal funds.

Even if shutting down a few gates wouldn’t completely stop Seol Rok-jin, it would at least buy me some time.

With that in mind, I intended to completely destroy that place.

After briefly stopping by home, I took out the shabby clothes I had stashed in my closet and put them on.

—What’s with that getup?

“It’s bait to lure Im Hyeon-su, you could say.”

—You think anyone would fall for such a derelict appearance?

“He would, he goes crazy for people looking like this.”

—What a degenerate.

I didn’t care what Ray was thinking. There wasn’t a shred of untruth in what I had said.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I gave a satisfied smile.

To anyone’s eyes, I looked like a complete derelict who had lost everything – home, dignity, all of it.

There couldn’t be a better appearance to explain my absence over the past few weeks.

After finishing my preparations, I immediately headed to the employment agency.

Im Hyeon-su, coming out after a meal, immediately caught my eye.

Fortunate. Without hesitation, I approached him.

“Hyeon-su hyung, can we talk for a bit?”

“Woah, who is this?”

Im Hyeon-su feigned a surprised expression upon seeing me. He acted aghast at my appearance, but I didn’t miss the glint in his eyes.

“What happened to you?”

“Circumstances.”

Speaking in a drained voice, Im Hyeon-su patted my shoulder.

Even though my current state would make any sane person recoil, Im Hyeon-su maintained a friendly expression without the slightest discomfort.

He was impressively composed, to an almost admirable degree.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“Not here. Is there somewhere quieter we could go?”

To the hesitating Im Hyeon-su, I spoke in a trembling voice.

“Yeah, it’s not something I can discuss with everyone around.”

Throwing out a line to the still-hesitating Im Hyeon-su.

“You’ve been good to me all this time, hyung…”

Without a trace of the confident attitude from before, just a drained appearance. He might have been suspicious, but to Im Hyeon-su, who knew me, this was probably closer to my true self.

Im Hyeon-su gave me an affectionate smile and said, “Well, I was wondering where you’d disappeared to. You had me worried, vanishing without a word like that.”

Lowering his voice, Im Hyeon-su whispered, “People were worried you might have gone to some illegal gate.”

How rich, the man who lured people into illegal gates himself was saying such blatant lies. Fully aware of the state the people he had lured met their demise, he could still casually say such things to test me.

I lowered my gaze to the ground. If I looked at Im Hyeon-su now, I felt like he might see right through me.

“Alright, let’s go talk.”

Fortunately, Im Hyeon-su took the bait.

Right now, Im Hyeon-su probably thought he had baited me. Well, we’ll see about that.

“I’ll be back after talking to him for a bit.”

Leaving witnesses behind might not be good, but oh well. I planned to discard this identity anyway.

“Why are you dressed so warmly in the summer?”

Well, it was to conceal my missing identification tag. I gave an awkward laugh.

“It’s, uh, not something I can show people.”

Putting on a sad smile, Im Hyeon-su immediately understood.

Even though I had given him a bit of trouble over Han Jo-hee last time, to Im Hyeon-su’s eyes, I was just an easily deceived loser. With no wariness towards me, there was no need to use my ability.

“I racked up a lot of debt. They said they’d kill me if I didn’t pay it back right away.”

“…A lot of debt?”

“Yes, more than I could ever pay back just working here.”

At those words, the corners of Im Hyeon-su’s mouth curled upwards. His expression revealed he was in quite a good mood. Well, from Im Hyeon-su’s perspective, it must have felt like a pumpkin had fallen right into his lap. An unexpected me had landed in his grasp.

“Hmm, to be honest, I wouldn’t normally recommend this unless the money situation was really dire. But if those are your circumstances, I suppose there’s no other way?”

As expected, Im Hyeon-su started talking about the illegal gate, just as I had anticipated. Already fully aware of the situation, he was still trying to act like a decent guy in front of me, which made me want to burst out laughing at the absurdity.

“Where do I need to go?”

“Chilseong County.”

Chilseong County. The place I had gone in my previous life. My previous visit to that gate had been six months from now. Though by the time I arrived, the mining there had already been well underway.

Of all places, it had to be there.

My hatred for Im Hyeon-su flared up again. This bastard really did intend to dispose of me, huh?

“Under your circumstances, you’ll have to work for a week before receiving the advance payment.”

A lie. Within that week, I would become a corpse. Of course, there would be no advance payment either.

‘Well, it’s a relief you’re the same piece of trash I remember.’

—Why don’t you just get rid of that trash now?

Ray posed that question in response to my thoughts.

Over the past few days in that cave with Ray, I had learned that it could partially read my consciousness. While it couldn’t delve into my deeper psyche, it could read the thoughts I consciously surfaced.

Thanks to that, I could converse with Ray like this even with another person present.

‘He might be unaware, but a curse has been inscribed within that guy. It transmits his location and condition in real-time. If I deal with him here…’

“The enemies would immediately become aware of the situation.”

That was why.

It wasn’t because I had a soft spot for Im Hyeon-su, but I decided to postpone dealing with him for now. Instead, I tried to extract information from Im Hyeon-su.

No matter how dismissive Im Hyeon-su was of me, he wasn’t an idiot, so there were limits to the information I could glean.

But I did manage to confirm how to access the illegal gate.

These people were operating a sort of shuttle taxi service. They used ordinary passenger vehicles, making it nearly impossible to find this ‘taxi’ unless you had received prior contact.

If I went to the Bupyeong Station at the appointed time, a car would come to pick me up.

Just like in my previous life.

“I really wouldn’t normally refer this kind of thing, but your situation seems really dire, so I’m telling you. It’s an illegal operation, so big trouble if you go blabbing about it elsewhere, you know?”

“Thank you, hyung.”

Suppressing my true feelings, I deeply bowed my head to express my gratitude.

“I hope you can pay off your debts for sure.”

“Yes, I have to pay them back.”

I planned to pay back the debt that had ruined my life in the previous world, with interest compounded heavily on top.