The Villain Alliance's hideout was located in the lower districts of Neon City, in the darkest and most dismal area of them all.
This place, remodeled from an abandoned subway station, looked like just a deserted space on the outside, but in reality, it was a massive sanctuary where hundreds of villains gathered and lived.
“You need identity verification to enter.”
A big, burly man guarding the entrance blocked my way. Half his face was covered in machinery, and his left arm was entirely a metal prosthetic.
“Identity verification?”
“Yeah. Proof that you're not a Neon City cop or a spy from another alliance.”
I hesitated for a moment. What could I possibly prove here?
“I'm from the organization that was attacked by the twin magical girls a week ago.”
The man's eyes flashed with change.
“Blood Fang organization?”
“Yeah.”
“You survived?”
“Barely.”
The man scanned me up and down and smirked.
“Who do you think you're fooling, you bastard. You survived an attack from those fucking bitches?”
The man growled and stepped closer. A motor sound came from his metal prosthetic as it began to rotate.
“The Blood Fang organization was completely wiped out. The twin magical girls personally stepped in—there's no way anyone survived. Therefore, you're a spy.”
-Whiiing!
The prosthetic flew toward my head in an instant.
For a moment, I was so startled that my body almost froze, but instinctively, it moved on its own and dodged.
-Whoosh!
“W-wait…!”
“Oh?”
The man's expression changed as if he'd found an interesting toy.
“You dodged that?”
This time, a fist came flying at an even faster speed.
“Listen to me for a second!”
“You're not human. So I don't need to listen to shit from you.”
-Boom!
I rolled on the ground and dodged to the side.
“Kid, you seem to have some skills. But…”
The man's prosthetic began to grotesquely transform. The other villains around started stepping back one by one, and a tension like something was about to explode filled the air.
Just as the man was about to charge again—
“Jack, stop it.”
A woman's voice rang out from behind. Everyone's gazes turned that way.
A woman in a black leather jacket appeared, cigarette in her mouth.
‘Wow….’
She was a beauty.
To me, who had been starving for a week crawling through piles of corpses, a woman like her felt like she belonged to a completely different world.
“Karen? Why are you stopping me?”
“That guy's the real deal.”
“Really from Blood Fang?”
The man called Jack hesitated for a moment before turning his head.
Karen exhaled cigarette smoke and looked at me with sharp eyes.
“I saw him briefly with Blood Fang before. He's definitely from there.”
Her gaze slowly scanned my body. Like appraising merchandise.
“So that's how it is…”
Jack looked down at me for a bit, then extended his hand.
“Hey, sorry about that.”
“Y-you tried to kill me and that's all…”
Before I could finish, Jack shrugged and lowered his hand.
“This place is like that. To survive, you have to suspect everyone who comes—it's basic.”
Karen smiled lightly and walked between me and Jack.
Up close, she was truly an incredible beauty.
She threw the cigarette on the ground and crushed it with her boot.
“Come in. Let's talk inside.”
***
The iron door creaked open.
As I stepped inside, my mouth dropped at the sight before me.
Tents lined along the subway tunnel, bonfires rising here and there, and people covered in wounds with mechanical parts attached all over their bodies.
But there was one thing different from what I expected.
‘There are… quite a lot of women?’
About a third of them were women.
Karen noticed my gaze and said.
“Surprised? That there are more female villains than you thought?”
“Yes.”
“In this city, most women with power go to the Magical Girl Academy. There, they live comfortably pretending to be heroes.”
Cynicism mixed into Karen's voice.
“But not everyone can enter that system. Those lacking talent, or with weak family backgrounds…”
She paused for a moment.
“People like us end up falling here.”
Karen led the way and continued explaining.
“The Magical Girl Academy shouts about justice and peace on the surface, but in reality, it's a training ground for corporate private soldiers. They brainwash talented girls from a young age and turn them into corporate dogs.”
She pointed to one corner.
There, a woman with one arm missing was assembling a mechanical arm.
“That woman was originally a preliminary student at the academy. But she failed the practical test and got dropped. After that? Her uterus was removed, and she ended up here.”
“That's horrible.”
“This is Reality.”
Karen took out a new cigarette and lit it.
“So most of the women here are academy dropouts or cases who had no magical talent from the start and fell into crime.”
“Then, can the women here use magic too?”
“Some with uteruses can. But compared to academy graduates, it's trash level. So they compensate with machines or rely on drugs.”
Karen showed me the implant on her wrist. Blue liquid flowed through the tube.
“Do you know what this is?”
“No idea.”
“Stimpack. A drug that temporarily boosts physical abilities. Side effects? Of course there are. But if you don't use it, you die—so no choice.”
Curses, screams, and laughter mixed and echoed everywhere.
On one side, two men were fistfighting, and on another, a woman was repairing a drone.
“This is survival of the fittest. Doesn't matter if you're a man or woman. The strong survive, the weak die or become slaves.”
When I tensed at those words, she added with a smile.
“But don't worry, our alliance has its own rules.”
I nodded at Karen's words.
“By the way… where are you taking me?”
Karen smirked and looked back at me.
Her orange eyes reflected the neon lights and shone seductively.
“You're hungry, right?”
-Growl
Perfect timing—my stomach growled.
“Follow me. I'll give you something to eat.”
She turned and started walking. Her ass, wrapped tightly in pants, caught my eye.
‘That ass is fucking firm.’
I wanted to slap it with my palm.
***
I followed Karen deep into the tunnel. Inside a small tent, military ration boxes were stacked.
“Sit here.”
Karen opened one box and tossed me a can and a nutrition bar.
“Eat.”
I didn't hesitate and started tearing into the can. The taste was awful, but right now, I didn't have the luxury to care.
“Eat slowly. You'll throw up.”
Despite Karen's advice, I kept shoving it in my mouth. My stomach, which hadn't eaten properly for a week, craved food.
Karen smoked her cigarette and stared at me silently.
“What's your name?”
“Jin Seoyoon.”
“Jin Seoyoon… Korean descent?”
“Yes.”
“I'm Karen. I'm in charge of information here.”
She slowly exhaled cigarette smoke.
“What did you do in Blood Fang?”
“Odd jobs.”
“Specifically?”
“Moving stuff, running errands… things like that.”
Karen narrowed her eyes.
“Combat?”
“Hardly any.”
“Then how did you survive?”
“Luck, I guess. I was hiding in a pile of corpses.”
Karen stared at me intently for a moment, then nodded.
“Yeah. Luck is a skill too.”
She put out her cigarette and took out a new one.
“Do you know what happened to the stuff Blood Fang was transporting?”
“The stuff they were transporting…?”
Karen quickly put out her cigarette and stared at my face.
“Yeah. Didn't you move something last before the magical girls smashed everything?”
I blankly stared at Karen for a moment. My mind was a mess, so words didn't come easily.
Seeing me frown and try to recall, Karen spoke in a softer voice.
“Take your time remembering. It's okay. Trying to think hurriedly will just block it more.”
With Karen's quiet encouragement, I took a deep breath.
At that moment, the smell of a dark, damp alley, chilly night air, and the sound of heavy raindrops wrapped around my mind.
‘…Definitely, it was a transport job where a few executives and the boss personally stepped in.’
Fragments of memory slowly surfaced like pieces of a puzzle.
In the middle of the alley, rainwater had pooled on the ground, and a huge metal tube stood among the executives.
The boss loading that tube onto the truck himself with a meaningful expression. And the organization members around, tense-faced and on high alert.
Someone muttering lowly, “This absolutely has to reach the destination safely”—that memory faintly brushed by.
I carefully explained the scene as if pulling it out.
“…There was one incredibly large and heavy metal tube that the executives and boss were transporting.”
Karen sighed.
“As expected, that's it.”
“What is it…?”
“I'm not sure exactly. But in our organization, there was something we only called ‘Protocol-Z’. Something the corporations developed and hid, originally directly related to the magical girl project.”
She glanced around. Outside the tent, people's shouts and mechanical noises still mixed and echoed.
“Hardly anyone knows the exact details. But I heard that if that tube is properly released in this city, whether it's the Magical Girl Academy or the megacorporations, everything will be turned upside down.”
When Karen finished, a strange question crept up in one corner of my mind.
‘Something that dangerous—how did a low-level organization like Blood Fang get their hands on it? Was it deliberately passed to them…?’
While lost in thought, Karen tapped my shoulder.
“Thanks to this memory, you'll be safe here for a while. I'll vouch for you as the information handler.”
She pressed her last cigarette hard into the ground to extinguish it and said in a calm voice.
“But remember. In this city, no matter how important the information you hold, if you're weak, you'll be eliminated quickly. Keep proving you're useful like now. That's the only way you'll survive.”
I nodded.
“Yes. Thank you.”
Karen smiled briefly and stood up.
“I'll come back tomorrow morning. Don't wander around too much at night.”
She lightly shook off her leather jacket and opened the tent flap to leave.
I lay down in the sleeping bag.
As the tension released, my whole body felt languid instead.
Closing my eyes for a moment, Karen's firm ass suddenly flashed in my mind.
‘I wanna die buried in that ass…’
More than the fact that this world was far more fucked up and hopeless than I thought, what filled my mind right now was nothing but a woman's ass.