Villain name: Minus. Real name: Lee Jae-seok.
The first supervillain New Hope faces in the novel, and the scumbag who got me dragged into this Special Investigation Team.
This guy's superpower is illusions and hypnosis. His illusion ability is powerful enough to fool not only people but also cameras.
But the most messed up thing about this guy isn't his illusion and hypnosis abilities, but the fact that even before gaining superpowers, he was suspected of at least 23 murders, 18 counts of incitement to murder, kidnapping, and more.
He's smart, while also being a chaebol's grandchild, and he's meticulous, so there's no evidence of his crimes, making the investigation drag on for a long time.
But in the middle of this year. Lee Jae-seok accidentally awakened his superpower, and while testing his ability, he made a big mistake and left evidence.
At the time, I was in charge of that case, and I was going to work with New Hope, who had been a hero for exactly one month, to arrest that bastard- Damn it, I didn't expect that New Hope would destroy the building with all the evidence, along with the evidence that this bastard was secretly butchering people.
Thinking about it again, New Hope's damned performance made all the evidence we barely found disappear. Lee Jae-seok was acquitted and released back into society.
But even so, because he was heavily criticized by the media, Lee Jae-seok, or rather Minus, was confined somewhere by his family under the pretext of self-reflection.
But that guy is here? In a police station? At this timing? This bastard came here to kill me out of resentment.
I clenched my fists so hard that blood started to flow. Pain shot from my palm to my brain, but this scene didn't change.
This guy's superpower distorts and deceives people's perceptions, but it can be easily broken with a little pain. That's why I inflicted pain on myself, but the fact that nothing changed means that this scene is all real?
No, I can't jump to conclusions. This guy studied how to use his ability well while butchering innocent people, and he learned how to use drugs and the environment.
His ability is maximized when using alcohol, sleeping pills, or antipsychotic drugs, and although it's limited to closed indoor spaces, this guy was able to stop New Hope.
So it's possible that he did something before I entered the station. So... should I just go crazy and punch him? I gripped my handcuffs like brass knuckles, put strength into my fist, and approached him.
That guy is a super, but he's not a supervillain with strong physical abilities like the ones I've met before.
You might ask how he fought New Hope if he wasn't physically strong.
The battle between this guy and New Hope, which was also shown in the novel, was described as Minus fighting New Hope by spraying chemicals in a closed room, gathering illegal explosives and booby traps, and detonating them.
The reason the building collapsed was because when New Hope who was being toyed with by Minus's ability, realized that everything she was seeing was an illusion used her strength to escape.
Minus showed the protagonist the most painful illusions. Mina was almost broken by the illusion of her family resenting her.
But she braced herself for the sake of the innocent people who were kidnapped and killed by Minus, and it was a scene where she used her full power for the first time in her life, so it's a scene that I remember quite clearly even today, even though it's been a long time since I saw it.
But reading it as a novel is one thing, and the emotions I felt when I saw that mess in reality were 'it's so absurd'.
A bastard who gathered illegal explosives to catch one person, and a kid who completely destroyed a building to catch him, aren't they both crazy?
Thanks to New Hope's 'wonderful' performance, that bastard Minus was eventually released, but that's in the past.
What's important now is that that guy is a guy who gets hurt when he's hit.
I rolled my fist and strode towards him. He slightly backed away with his characteristic smirk and said.
"Whoa. What did I do? I'm just a citizen visiting the police station. Did I kill someone? Assaulting an innocent citizen, that's not what a righteous police officer should do, is it?"
"Oh, my. Do you have a reason to come to the police station office in person at this hour? I'll give you 5 seconds to tell me. After 5 seconds, I'll crack your head open."
Just thinking about how I've been holed up in my car for three months and wandering around to catch this bastard, even a single blow is not enough. As I gritted my teeth, Minus uncharacteristically shrank back.
"...You seem very angry. Alright. Let's get straight to the point. I came to report. There's someone who's been plotting against me lately. I came to apply for protection."
Saying that, he straightened his clothes. I thought for a moment to understand the meaning of his words, then quietly raised my middle finger and said.
"Thank you very fucking much, citizen. Apply for personal protection at the courthouse over there. You don't seem to be in immediate danger, so there's nothing we police can do. Rather than that, you innocent citizen, you've done enough shit, so if you get hit by bird shit and die on the street, just accept it as your fate and die."
One hand isn't enough. Take the double fuck you.
Personal protection application? Well, that's fine. It's good to seek legal rights.
Even if this bastard is a scumbag I want to tear apart right now, there's no evidence that he's a scumbag. So, according to his words, he's a citizen protected by the law.
It sucks, but as long as I'm wearing this uniform, if this bastard gets attacked by someone, I have to protect him. But that's when it happens in front of me, why is he bothering me about what happens in his back room?
Did he think he could get everything done just because he's rich? Did he think the police were that easy? Should I hit him hard with what people call the people's cane to shut him up?
When I spoke without hiding my emotions, he distorted his face as if he was a little embarrassed, then made an awkward forced smile and said.
"Well, you've become a bit more- straightforward than when I last saw you? It's different from what I heard, and different from the reaction I expected..."
"Fuck off."
Certainly, when I was chasing this bastard, I was still mindful of my surroundings and tried to be careful. That's what social life is like, and that's what being a public servant is like.
But these days, when a fucking devil is laughing and causing trouble next to me, how can I be mindful of anything? Fuck the chaebol's 3rd generation.
When I brazenly glared at him, Minus took down the smiling face he had been awkwardly maintaining. Then he looked at me without saying anything and said in a serious tone.
"Detective. I acknowledge your ability. I mean it. Most of the police and psychologists I've met didn't even know what I was thinking, and couldn't chase me to the end, but you came all the way. It's really amazing. So that's why I'm saying this. Are you really not going to help me? For the sake of this society?"
It's too much bullshit. I thought it was no longer worth listening to and was about to hit him. But suddenly, I felt a slight sense of incongruity in his words and glared at him.
Let's think about who this guy is.
Minus. He was the first villain the protagonist faced in the main story, but he was released due to lack of evidence, and he was forgotten as if he was half-abandoned in the novel, and then he was found dead when Sai revealed his identity.
But that's in the novel, and this is reality. There's a reason why that serial killer couldn't cause more murders and didn't show himself.
Think. Minus is the child of a chaebol family, but after being suspected of a serial murder case, he was confined and couldn't take a single step out of his building.
But this guy is walking around outside and is here in front of me.
No, in the first place, this guy appears at this timing when I found out that my fellow detective was trying to screw me over by doing some dirty work behind my back? It's too suspicious.
I looked behind me. Cha Jin-woo, who had been knocked out with just one hit from me, showed no signs of getting up. But the word 'Bukma' that that guy mentioned still remained in my head.
It's not impossible that he tried to put drugs in my place at the behest of the higher-ups.
But the idiot detective who blurted out 'Bukma' and the gang itself, who I don't know where they got their funds from, but they're definitely growing their power. And Minus appeared in front of me.
All the evidence in front of me is saying that Minus planned something behind the scenes, it went wrong, and now he's showing himself in front of me. I thought his purpose was revenge against me.
My rusty head tells me that it's not just for revenge that he's showing himself. If he wanted revenge, he wouldn't have to show his face like this.
That bastard is cautious, to put it nicely, and a coward among cowards, to put it badly. He wants to kill people, but he's a weirdo who doesn't like to reveal himself and stand out.
Before being suspected of the serial murder case, Minus was so quiet and meticulous that there was nothing known about him, even though he was a chaebol, he didn't even abuse his power.
If it's that kind of guy, if he fails to get revenge on me, he'll try something else, not show his face like this.
And that face.
I didn't look properly because of his unpleasant smiling face, but when I look closely, there's a faint but definite sign of fear on his face.
"...Did you really come here to ask me to save you?"
"...No. It's about working together on something. Would you believe me if I said there's a greater evil behind this country?"
Oh my, this bastard. It's real. The corner of his mouth, which had been raised, slowly goes down. This bastard messed with something bad. Definitely.
And if you ask me to guess who could make a bastard like that so scared that he would run to the police station to ask for help, I can only think of one person.
Did he try to do something using the Bukma gang and got Sai's attention?
I don't know, but this bastard seems to be in a situation where his feet are on fire.
Then what should I do? Should I help him just to save him, like I did with the Goblin recently? If you ask me that, I would obviously deny it.
Why would I care about a bastard like that? The Goblin is a criminal too, but he keeps the line, but this bastard is just a pleasure killer.
I want to kill him right now, but there's no evidence that he did anything, so I can't, damn it.
"Oh, never mind. If you want help, formally apply for a protection program, or admit what you did wrong, confess, and go to the police station."
"Didn't you hear me? In this country, I'm nothing. I know. You can't even imagine it, right? Would you understand if I said it's the guy who made the famous super awakening drug these days, Detective?"
Minus started saying words that seemed desperate as if he was trying to persuade me. His narrow eyes were slightly open, saying, 'Isn't this tempting enough for you?'.
I wasn't very impressed because I already knew that Sai was behind it. Rather, his words made me intuitively feel that this wasn't Sai's doing.
If it were Sai, she wouldn't have handled things so clumsily, she wouldn't have used those messy things like Bukma, and she wouldn't have dealt with a guy who was so scared and didn't know what to do with words.
This guy is really just unlucky to have noticed Sai's existence and is doing this because he's afraid of dying. Serves him right. Scumbag. But I'm also being chased by Sai, what did I do wrong?
Suddenly, despair about life started to rise, so I shut my mouth, and he seemed to think I was flustered, so he smiled and started talking.
"I don't know the name. But there's a guy who's called 'that person' in the underworld. Detective. Let's join hands and deal with that person. Let's catch the bigger evil."
If you and I could do that, would I be like this? I scratched my head and said.
"No, so. If you want to do that, go to the police and report it. Or go to the court and apply for a personal protection program, why are you bothering me?"
Ah, this is the police station. I took a printed report from my seat and asked him if he was going to use it. Minus said, his lips twitching.
"I see. I thought you were a wise person."
He slowly raised his hand. And I clenched my fist, thinking that we were going to have a proper fight now. I don't know about other supers, but I can catch that bastard. No, I want to catch him.
I took a breath, ignored my five senses, and trusted only one. I trusted my intuition and swung my fist-
Stab!
"Ugh! Hng! Y-you, if it wasn't for you... I too! I!"
A burning pain in my back. The terrible pain of burning flesh made me grit my teeth and look back, and Cha Jin-woo, who had been unconscious until a moment ago, had somehow woken up and stabbed me in the back with a knife.
The pain of tearing flesh and flowing blood. One or two drops of the foul-smelling liquid fall to the floor. I was going to lose consciousness from that terrible pain...
....
...
.
Instead I grabbed that bastard Cha Jin-woo's head and slammed his head on the desk. The desk broke, and with a bang! sound, the bastard fell to the floor with his eyes rolled back.
Fortunately, he missed my organs. Then there's no problem. I swung my fist at Minus with the handcuff knuckles in my hand, and he quickly dodged my fist and said.
"Crazy?! You got stabbed, how are you okay?!"
"Bastard. If you live as a detective, you get stabbed more often than you get acupuncture at an oriental clinic. After a while, it hurts less than a shot."
As long as it's not a dangerous area, it's fine, you bastard. Honestly, it hurts like hell, but I didn't want to look weak in front of none other than Minus.
If I want to protect my pride, I have to grit my teeth and fight. I didn't pull out the knife to stop the bleeding, and I strode towards him, and Minus turned pale at my appearance, flailed his arms, and fell.
Yeah, you showed yourself confidently in front of me, and it turned out you came here trusting the bastard you bought. Then die now. I gritted my teeth and- wait a minute. Why can't I move my body?
"If I hadn't put medicine on the knife just in case, it would have been really dangerous. If you're this strong, my ability wouldn't have worked well when you were in a healthy state."
Minus mumbled, wiping the cold sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief while lying on the ground.
My body doesn't move a finger. Damn, did I get hit by his ability? When? It must have been because I spent too much time listening to him.
But how can he use hypnosis and illusions to make my body not move at all? I want to grit my teeth, but my tongue, let alone my teeth, doesn't move.
Minus slowly approached me from behind and put his hand on the knife stuck in my back. And he slowly put strength on the handle, widening the wound, and said.
"Originally, I was going to approach you by having that person put you in danger and then I would help you- but they say you never know what's going to happen in life, right?"
"It's really a shame. If someone like you cooperated, things would have been solved easily, but if you don't cooperate, I don't know how you'll be used, so it's better to deal with you. But don't worry. Things will be handled cleanly."
Crack, the wound widens. The pain makes me want to scream, but ironically, it seems like even the sound coming out of my mouth has stopped, so my body doesn't move.
Even though I feel pain, the fact that neither hypnosis nor illusion is broken means that this guy has learned how to use his ability again or he learned how to use some drugs to make it stronger.
He's a bastard who puts a lot of effort into killing people, the fucker.
"Let's see, if someone comes back here, they'll find you dead with a knife with that detective's fingerprints on it. The police will naturally check the CCTV- and the CCTV will only show that man stabbing you, Detective."
"The police will investigate- and they'll eventually find out. That man was getting bribes from Bukma, but because of your performance, they were being chased extensively, so he was in danger. And as revenge and a feeling of 'whatever happens, happens', he attacked you and killed you. Then he escaped and committed suicide at his home. That's how this case will end."
Minus said that and grinned. Considering his ability, even what he's doing now won't be recorded. Other people around me are still not visible.
Damn it. I grit my teeth and try to move my body somehow, but it doesn't move. The way the blade stuck in my back rotates according to Minus's hand is felt so vividly that it's creepy.
His ability deceives even cameras, so if I die here, the CCTV will show exactly what he said, and Minus will escape.
This bastard was a supervillain after all. A bastard who transcends humans. Am I going to die like this? I just came to get my card to eat chicken...
The foul smell in my mouth and the feeling of death pressing down on my whole body, I slowly closed my eyes-
"Police! Stop right there!"
"Tch."
Someone bursts into the station. Minus clicked his tongue just before he was about to finish me off and ran away.
In my blurred consciousness, I saw Sai approaching me.
She was in her original female form, not the male form I often saw, and at the same time, she had a face I had never seen before.