NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 1: The Villain’s Perspective (1)
December 2024, somewhere in Gyeonggi Province.
Late at night.
There was an alleyway lit only by primary-colored fluorescent lights and no neon sign in sight.
“Huff, huff…!”
A young man was running down the alley, gasping for breath.
Under a plain outfit of a t-shirt and jeans was a peculiarity. His body was full of wounds, as if it had been cut by a sharp sword.
And those wounds were increasing as he ran.
Poof!
“Ah…!!”
The young man fell to the ground.
He reached out to his earlobe as he felt a stinging sensation and a hot liquid smeared his hand.
“Uh, ugh…!”
It was cut off.
The burning pain was stronger than any pain he had ever experienced in his life.
But he couldn’t just stay still in this pile of trash.
“So, someone, save me!!”
Rip!
No sooner had he cried out for help did the trash bag next to him split in half.
The flowing pile of trash inside looked like brain matter, and the young man swallowed hard, as if it was a glimpse of his own impending doom.
“Uh, ugh…!”
He knew he shouldn’t scream.
But the scream just had to escape.
There.
“Where do you think you’re running off to~”
A woman in black full-body tights approached while humming a tune.
Her face was covered with a mask, sunglasses over her eyes, and even her hair was covered with latex tights.
“If you get caught now, I’ll cut you off neatly in one go. Huh? Do you want to be sliced little by little?”
The moment he heard her chilling voice, the man remembered a news report he had seen.
[… The villain [Pepper Cutter] with superpowers targets only males in their twenties….]
Pepper Cutter.
Also known as the Eunuch Maker.
She played with her powers like a toy and swung her whip. In the end she was a villain who cuts off something precious to men, equivalent to life itself.
If he got caught here, he would surely die.
He would be found somewhere, dead and bled out, with fresh blood still on his lower half.
“I don’t want to!!! I don’t want to die!!”
The man was desperate.
“Hero! Please, someone help me!! Please!!”
“Nothing like that here.”
Shwack.
The whip flew towards the man’s neck.
It wasn’t an ordinary black whip, but one that resembled the stem of a rose with thorns.
This whip was the superpower of that ability user, Pepper Cutter.
Based on her ability to use the stem of a plant as a whip, she would have been given a nickname like ‘Rose Whip’, but the evil acts she committed as a villain changed her alias to a horrifying name.
“There’s no one to help you. Even if someone noticed the commotion, no one would come to help. Everyone’s holding their breath.”
“Ch, choke…!”
“The moment you report to a hero, an alarm will go off, and I’m going to attack the one who triggers that alarm. Is there anyone listening nearby? Just try to report. I’ll take care of everyone, whether male or female.”
Pepper Cutter threatened the surroundings with utter confidence.
It was a small alleyway, someone might have noticed the commotion and woken up to report it, but unfortunately, not just anyone could report it.
As soon as someone reported this, a loud warning alarm would ring out.
Pepper Cutter was a villain who could easily find the reporter inside the building walls and kill them.
“Ohoho, shall I start harvesting then? Don’t worry. I’ll cut you off so quickly you won’t feel any pain.”
“S-stop it…! Why are you doing this!!”
“Why? Do you need a reason? Haha, there’s no reason.”
Pepper Cutter licked the handle of the whip in her hand.
“I have the power to kill people, and no one can stop me using the law. Even if I kill people with this ability, there’s no problem in my ‘current life’. Do you understand?”
“You, don’t tell me…!”
“That’s right. I’m unregistered. I’m still a normal person who hasn’t been registered as a superhuman. I might be among the people you’ve met since this morning, or I might be living in the same city, the same country as you. Either way….”
Shwack.
“You’re going to die here.”
“Ch, choke…!”
“And it’s not just dying. You’re going to feel the pain until you die. Oh, why am I killing you like this?”
Pepper Cutter came close to the young man’s face, removed her mask so only he could see, and gave him a big smile.
“Just because. Just because I want to. I want to cut off and chop up that part from men. Why? Is it strange? Just think about it casually. A psychopath became a villain after awakening superhuman abilities.”
“Uh, ka, heuk, heuk…!”
“Oh my, what’s wrong with the man? Look at his wet pants. Why are you shivering so much?”
Pepper Cutter stomped on the young man’s groin with the heel of her shoe.
“Disgusting. Ah, guys like you-”
Beep beep beep.
The alarm sound began to echo from behind.
[Villain appearance! Villain appearance! Hero appearance is urgently required!!]
Hearing the loud alarm, Pepper Cutter turned her head, full of irritation.
“Ah, damn it. I said if someone reported this, I would kill-”
Beyond the alleyway.
There stood a man wearing a black suit holding a smartphone. The display showed a warning screen that warned of a villain’s appearance.
Even his tie was black.
The only color he had was the ‘Goblin Mask’ that emitted a golden glow.
“W-what…? D-don’t tell me?!”
Pepper Cutter’s voice suddenly hardened.
“H-how can you?! No, why are you?!”
“Did you not learn in elementary school moral classes to report criminals to the police and villains to heroes if you happen to encounter them?”
“I-I…!!”
Shwack.
Pepper Cutter harshly retrieved her whip from the young man.
“You’re a villain too! Moreover, from a secret society…!”
“That’s why I’m doing this as part of a secret society. I cannot simply pass by someone who freely kills others. Especially if that villain belongs to our ‘society’.”
Clank.
“I have no choice but to pass judgment.”
The man in the mask, Goblin, tucked his smartphone into the inside pocket of his suit and brought forward what he had been holding behind his back.
“Pepper Cutter. You have tarnished the name of the Society. As a judge of the Society, I will now execute you.”
It was a baseball bat.
“The Society does not kill people randomly. That young man, too, will someday become a servant in the world the Society will conquer.”
The bat was too refined to be made of aluminum, with a color as black as ebony, and was densely studded with sharp golden spikes.
“All of mankind will become ‘Chiefs’ ‘Taxpayers’ and ‘Slaves’. You indiscriminately killed those who would become slaves to the Chief, your sin is grave.”
“You, you this…! What are you planning to do to me!”
“Execution as a villain. Execution as a member of society. It’s simple.”
Goblin pointed his bat at Pepper Cutter, holding it with one hand.
“I have reported you, and I will now hand you over to the heroes.”
“You crazy bastard! Don’t villains, especially members of the same society, have to acknowledge each other?!”
“I am a completely different person from the villain you’re thinking of. And do not place a villain like you and me on the same level.”
With those words, the figure of the Goblin disappeared.
“I am an ‘executive’ of the Society.”
Thwack!
Like an illusion, the Goblin disappeared and suddenly appeared next to Pepper Cutter, swinging his bat with full force at her side.
“Cough!!”
Pepper Cutter was quickly slammed against the wall.
The impact was so intense that a person-shaped crack formed on the concrete wall, and from the hole in Pepper Cutter’s latex-covered waist that had been pierced by the spikes, red blood began to flow out.
“I don’t distinguish between men and women for execution. The only one who can avoid this bat is a child.”
“You, you…!”
“Don’t pretend to be in pain. The victims who were sliced and diced by you would have suffered more.”
Thud.
Goblin swung his bat down again.
This time he hit Pepper Cutter’s leg with a part of the bat without spikes, but the impact was so powerful that the concrete floor below cracked.
“You will go to the special ability prison. The Society doesn’t need to rehabilitate someone like you.”
“Ah…!!”
Goblin took Pepper Cutter’s sharp whip and wrapped it around her body.
The whip that had cut and pierced many men so far became a rope tightly wrapped around Pepper Cutter’s whole body, and Goblin raised his bat high towards Pepper Cutter, who had fallen to the floor.
“I’ve heard about your ability to shape-shift.”
“Stop!!”
Along with a sharp voice heard from a distance, something quickly whizzed past the Goblin’s mask.
“If there’s a next time, it will be shot in the back of your head! It won’t end with just a warning!!”
It was a bullet.
The white bead embedded in the wall was a bullet manifested by a special ability, and outside the alley was a woman in a white uniform.
“A hero.”
“Yes! I am-”
“I still have things to do…well, fine. Now that a hero is here, the passing villain should retreat.”
The Goblin placed his bat to his waist and firmly pressed his mask with his hand.
“Farewell.”
Flash!
A golden powder shimmered around the Goblin, and in a blink, he disappeared from the spot as if he had teleported.
“Ah!”
The woman in white bit her lower lip and gritted her teeth as she rushed forward with her magic rifle towards where the Goblin had disappeared.
“…This is ‘Snow White’. Reporting. Situation…controlled.”
-What happened?!
“…The [Villain Executioner], Goblin, has ‘executed’ Pepper Cutter.”
Snow White, looking at the bound Pepper Cutter, gritted her teeth.
“Someday, I’ll definitely catch you… Goblin…!”
In an alley nearby.
“Tsk, I got caught up in unnecessary trouble while passing by.”
The young man in the Goblin mask, wearing a black suit, took off his mask.
Soon his entire body sparkled gold, and the young man-
“Transformation release.”
Became bare.
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