Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

Kim Du-sik, a diligent employee at Push N Cash, went outside for his lunch break. He had asked his prickly boss if he wanted to join, but was rejected with the reason, ‘Your face ruins my appetite.’

His face wasn’t that bad. His mother had said he was handsome.

With a dejected look, Kim Du-sik planted his bottom on a chair at a soup restaurant.

He had considered getting fast food, but figured it was better to have a hearty meal of soup instead.

Six months into working under that foul-tempered boss, life had been harsh. But as he sipped the first spoonful of the steaming beef soup, the white radish broth mixed with the red seasoning paste, he felt relieved.

The news was reporting a public wanted notice for some kind of shockingly brutal serial killer.

“Tsk tsk, what era is this for someone to commit such heinous crimes?”

Couldn’t they just work diligently at a company and earn money like he did? These awakeners were really unlikable.

For such filthy beings to intrude into the righteous world of fists.

But for some reason, the person shown in that news report didn’t seem entirely unfamiliar.

‘I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before.’

It truly was a face he felt he had seen before.

While his head might be lacking, as part of his job, Kim Du-sik rarely forgot a face once he had seen it. He wracked his brain desperately.

Where had he seen that guy before?

And when that face surfaced in his memories, Kim Du-sik couldn’t help but abruptly rise from his half-finished bowl of soup.

“That’s him! 130 million won!”

He then rushed to the Push N Cash office.

“B-Boss, did you see this?”

Trembling, he approached the sweating Choi In-hyeok, who was watching the news with a pale face.

This was bad.

Kim Du-sik tightly shut his eyes.

* * *

The floor of the cave was thickly covered in bat droppings. The moment I set foot inside, the bugs trapped in the droppings scattered with a swishing sound.

—Kkiyaaahk!

“What was that unrefined shriek?”

—I, I just really hate bugs in this world! You can’t possibly be thinking of staying in this filthy, gloomy place, can you?

Who knew you were such a pampered young master?

“Once human presence is continuously felt here, the bats will leave. Without the bats, no more droppings will accumulate, and the bugs will disappear too.”

Bats are sensitive creatures. While monsters might be different, ordinary wild bats wouldn’t be able to withstand human presence and would soon abandon this place…

At that moment, I felt something warm land on my head.

“Ughh! What is this!”

Bat droppings. The bats clinging to the ceiling didn’t even flinch, as if mocking me.

“You bastards, get out!”

Whether I yelled or waved my arms, it made no difference.

I hadn’t intended to resort to this, but they left me no choice.

I fired mana-formed fireballs in all directions. As the blazing fireballs rained down on them, the bat swarm finally began to fly out of the cave.

Perhaps they disliked this unjust intruder invading their home. Before departing, the creatures didn’t forget to leave me a parting gift.

“Those damn bastards!”

Now completely covered in droppings, I could barely hold back my curses.

—Haha! Look at your state! You’re completely covered in crap! Even those beasts know who’s trying to take their den.

I brushed off Ray’s words.

While I had succeeded in driving out the bats, dealing with the droppings they left behind would be another task entirely.

“In times like these, water cleaning is best.”

I expelled water from my hands.

Pooshooshook.

Seeing the stream of water pooling at my feet, I fell silent.

“Damn it.”

—Phuhaha! At this rate, it would take you 10 years to clean this place with your abilities.

As irritating as it was, Ray was right. I had considered fetching water from a nearby stream, but upon seeing the sheer size of the cave, I shook my head.

“Hmm, that’s too much trouble.”

I cleanly abandoned the plan of fetching water.

Later on, after installing proper plumbing, I could just use an artifact that would spew water endlessly as long as mana stones were supplied. No need for such manual labor.

The list of items I needed to request from Professor Geum had grown. Sitting on the floor, I started listing out the necessary things one by one.

“First, I need to set up the basic facilities.”

At the very least, I would need proper electricity and plumbing installed. Deciding on the necessary rooms was simple – a place to sleep, eat, and relieve oneself. A bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom were essential.

While the cave was large enough to accommodate all those facilities, I first needed to thoroughly clean the inside before installing anything.

Seeing the droppings covering every inch of the cave floor, I let out a sigh.

The sheer amount of work seemed so daunting that a sigh was all I could muster.

For now, I set up a tent outside the cave. It was the same type used during gate conquests, equipped with artifacts that made it suitable for temporary living quarters.

It even had a water purification system that could produce up to 15L of water per day. In an emergency, I could even recycle the water expelled from my own body, although the idea felt rather unsavory.

Seeing my tent, Ray exclaimed in admiration.

—It might look shabby on the outside, but the facilities are quite decent.

“The world has progressed that much.”

—How many people are you planning to bring to this base?

At Ray’s words, I slowly rolled my eyes, recalling the potential candidates in my mind before speaking.

“Hmm, maybe five to seven people? If things go well, that is.”

There was no way I could recruit monsters like my fellow Babel Academy alumni and S-rank hunters Yoo Seon-je and Bing Mari, who had been nominated by Sirius upon graduation. But there were also plenty of discarded individuals with nowhere to go, so recruiting them could form a decent force.

“For now, I plan to quickly bring in at least one laborer to assist me here.”

It wasn’t a joke – trying to handle this place alone would likely grind my bones to dust.

—But securing people might not be so easy.

“With enough money, anything is possible.”

* * *

“Refunds are only possible within three days. After three days, we can only purchase. And in the case of a purchase, we cannot offer the full price.”

Being a place frequented by quite eccentric individuals, the shopkeeper didn’t seem too bothered by me having my face concealed with a black mask.

The shopkeeper’s concern lay elsewhere.

“Are you really planning to buy that thing?”

“Yes. So please hurry up and give him to me.”

I quickly presented my tokens to the shopkeeper’s hand.

It was a cool deal. I had brought 500 million won, but somehow it had dropped to 350 million in the meantime. Thanks to that, I had saved some money.

Hmm, putting it that way really made me sound like a human trafficker.

—It doesn’t just sound like it, that’s exactly what it is.

‘Well, I suppose you’re right.’

After checking my tokens, the shopkeeper said he would fetch the ‘item’ and disappeared into the back.

While inhumane acts unfolded here without a second thought, every visit made me feel like my own humanity was being tested.

I desperately averted my gaze from the ‘items’ displayed in the well-polished cages.

“Here it is.”

The shopkeeper dragged a massive cage towards me.

—But are you really going to buy that man? Its condition doesn’t seem too good.

Ray’s words weren’t unreasonable. The state of Kim Jae-ho, trapped inside the iron bars, appeared far worse than before.

His entire body was covered in wounds, a muzzle clamped over his mouth dripping with saliva.

Yet amid such conditions, his eyes still burned with undiminished defiance, truly terrifying to behold.

Despite being so emaciated that his ribs protruded, as if he hadn’t eaten properly, that rebellious spirit still lingered within him.

‘But we used to get along quite well in the past.’

Even after Seol Rok-jin had scrambled his mind, reducing him to an imbecile, Kim Jae-ho had still retained his humanity to some extent. And I had been the one he had listened to the most. Well, I was the only one who had treated him like a human being.

Thanks to that, I had become Kim Jae-ho’s handler. At the time, I had felt fortunate to be his handler, at least until the ‘suicide mission’ he could never escape from.

Back then, I had hated how he would obey any order I gave. No matter how many times I had inwardly begged him to run away instead, he had stubbornly followed my commands to the bitter end.

Even though he must have known he would die, he had still obeyed my orders.

And he never returned.

‘Thinking back, Seol Rok-jin really was a bastard.’

Recalling those memories, I let out a bitter laugh.

Seeing Kim Jae-ho growling through the iron bars, Ray spoke.

—That thing, that thing! It looks like it’ll immediately maul you if you release it. Are you sure about this?

‘Well, if I slowly earn his trust, it should be fine?’

But as Ray said, the atmosphere did seem rather hostile.

“Greurr.”

Baaaang!

Seeing him look like he might break through the iron bars at any moment, I quickly asked the shopkeeper:

“Ah, you mentioned the electric shock collar would be included as a service?”

* * *

I received a generous supply of tranquilizers that could calm Kim Jae-ho down. Looking at the syringes thick enough to pierce elephant hide, I gulped audibly.

Observing my expression, the shopkeeper continued emphasizing that refunds were not possible.

For a fleeting moment, I wondered if I should have bought him when his energy had been completely drained instead.

Purchasing him was one thing, but transporting him all the way to the cave was another issue altogether.

The shopkeeper had offered delivery to my desired location, but requesting a delivery to the mountaintop location I had chosen for my secret base seemed like a laughable idea.

Fortunately, I had a reliable sucker – no, supporter – to rely on.

[You want him delivered to the mountaintop, is that it?]

At Professor Geum’s incredulous words, I quickly added:

“And there are some other things I need.”

Listening to the list I provided, Professor Geum let out an exasperated groan.

[I told you to let me know if you needed anything, but you really are planning to thoroughly milk me dry. Are you building some kind of shelter?]

“Well, I can’t exactly go out and about for the time being, can I?”

Fortunately, Professor Geum seemed to think I was acquiring these items due to the wanted notice.

[Well, I suppose you’ll need to lay low for a while. Setting up a bunker and staying put, an excellent choice! I would have just hired a company to handle it, but whatever.]

Yeah, I probably should have just hired a company to build a bunker instead. A belated regret crossed my mind.

But then again, there was a certain romance to constructing a base with my own hands.

Professor Geum sent the deliveries as quickly as possible. The next day, I was able to meet the delivery personnel he had arranged.

And I proceeded to ‘lie’ to those people.

Not that I didn’t trust Professor Geum, but I didn’t fully trust him either.

“It must have been quite difficult to transport the cargo all the way to the cliff’s edge. Thank you for your hard work.”

There were no cliffs to be found in this area, but the men who had fallen for my lie just nodded along.

Seeing me deceive the laborers, Ray commented.

—It seems you don’t think much of your own talent, but this does appear to be quite a handy ability.

“It’s only useful in situations like this, not offering any help in combat.”

I heard Ray mumbling something in response, but I didn’t catch it.

I slowly approached the crate. Inside that massive wooden crate was the iron cage holding Kim Jae-ho, a space just shy of 2 square meters.

I forcefully pried open the wooden crate as if breaking it apart.

Through the shattered crate, sunlight poured in.

At first, Kim Jae-ho recoiled like a beast avoiding the light, retreating to the corner. But eventually, all obstructions were removed, and the shadows concealing the iron bars dissipated. Kim Jae-ho seemed unaccustomed to the sunlight pouring onto him, standing still as his eyes blinked rapidly in confusion.

Just as I considered draping a cloth over him to block the sunlight he seemed to dislike, Kim Jae-ho’s gaze slowly lifted towards the sky.

The clear, azure sky.

The man who had once thrashed in hatred of everything stood there motionlessly for a long while, simply gazing at the blue expanse above.

The warm sunlight and cool breeze washed over us.

—Well, at least he seems to appreciate the sunlight.

At Ray’s words, I just shrugged my shoulders.