I Became an Illegal Cheat User

59 – Villain Response Training (3)

Unlike lower-tier villains who recklessly rely on brute force, mid-tier villains often use explosives.

Of course, not all corruptors do this.

There are intelligent individuals, like the corruptor who terrorized the Pension Workshop Street, using explosives or implanting bombs in their bodies.

Anyway, the reason villains use explosives that don’t pose much threat to superhumans is that they remain a significant and effective threat to ordinary buildings and unpowered civilians.

That’s why Gangcheol decided to assign me the role of a villain in this training exercise.

So, to meet the instructor’s expectations, I settled on a concept.

“Um, um, Chief…, this is just a training exercise. Why are you taking it so seriously…?”

The concept was simple.

『I am not the Chief you know.』

『What is here now is Crow.』

“You’re a villain who hunts those who aren’t heroes like you.”

A romantic villain (virtual) who kills fake heroes and saves real ones.

“And it seems you don’t know that practice is just like the real thing.”

“What a pathetic guy.”

Click.

“Wait, wait, hold on…!”

As I aimed my gun, my colleague waved his hands in a panic, trying to say something.

“You are disqualified.”

“As a hero.”

“And as a student.”

I aligned with the beliefs of the virtual villain known as ‘Crow.’

“So die.”

Bang─!

Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger at someone who wasn’t a hero.

Thud.

My colleague, hit in the forehead by a rubber bullet, rolled his eyes and collapsed.

He had fainted.

To him, who wouldn’t hear it in his unconscious state, I recited in line with the concept.

“Reflect deeply in your sinking consciousness.”

I muttered the cringeworthy line.

“Ugh….”

I let out a somewhat exhausted breath and looked around.

Colleagues visible among the broken and crumbling buildings.

‘Even if I didn’t try hard, I’ve taken down at least thirty.’

With the ten I took down right as the practice began, that makes forty.

‘Still, there are 59 left.’

Thinking this, I rolled up my sleeves and checked my smartwatch.

‘There’s still plenty of time, and the hostages are… still there.’

I scratched my head with the edge of the gun and clicked my tongue.

How could I still not have found the hostages?

‘Did I place them in too difficult a spot?’

No… no.

I erased the thought that had suddenly popped into my head.

After all, the places where I had positioned the hostages were.

The tallest building, a relatively intact building, and a building with a basement.

In other words, if one could think just a little, they could find them easily.

‘Of course, that’s assuming a thorough search is a given.’

That’s basic when it comes to rescuing hostages, so let’s move on.

It’s quite disappointing that I couldn’t rescue a single hostage until I took down forty of them.

Especially for those who are more like supporting characters.

‘What on earth are they doing?’

I kicked off the ground and climbed onto one of the buildings.

Then I jumped between the buildings, searching for my comrades.

&

“Where could the hostages be?”

Ranked seventh in the entrance exam, and a man whose lofty romantic ideals were shattered by Lee Yoo-jin’s teasing.

Park Sung-woo looked around, tapping his shoulder with his sword.

“Hmm… if I were that top student, where would I place the hostages?”

That tall building in the distance?

“No, he’s smart, so he wouldn’t put them there.”

Or maybe that intact building nearby?

“Same goes for that one.”

Then how about this building that seems to have a basement?

“They must have set a trap here.”

Yeah, even I would have set a trap in the basement.

…so thought Park Sung-woo, lowering the sword he had been tapping on his shoulder.

And just as he was about to move his halted steps again.

…Please.

“Huh?”

…Please.

A voice began to echo from somewhere.

Park Seong-woo immediately perked up his ears.

…Please, help me.

The voice that reached his ears was not that of a man, but a woman.

So it wasn’t Lee Yoo-jin.

With that thought, Park Seong-woo slowly moved his steps toward the source of the voice.

And there it was—the building he had almost passed by.

Park Seong-woo stepped inside.

Inside the building, there was a staircase leading down to the basement.

Please, help me….

The voice was also coming from below the stairs.

“Hmm…, it feels like there’s a trap.”

If it were Lee Yoo-jin, she would have surely set a trap where the hostage was placed.

She was bold yet cunning.

“Still, I have to go down….”

But before that.

Park Seong-woo picked up a stone lying on the floor and tossed it down the stairs.

Thud, thud.

The sound of the stone bouncing off the steps echoed back.

From that sound, it seemed there were no landmines.

But then again, one could never be too sure.

There might be other traps set, even if there were no landmines.

Park Seong-woo pondered.

Should he really go down the stairs?

But that thought was fleeting.

– Please, help me….

The voice called out again.

With that, Park Seong-woo made up his mind.

He would go down the stairs.

“Phew….”

Park Seong-woo took a deep breath, trying to quell the rising tension within him.

He swallowed hard, slowly beginning to descend the stairs.

Just in case, he extended his sword forward.

Thud.

The silence arrived, cutting through his voice.

Thud.

The sound of his own footsteps echoed in his ears.

Thud.

The darkness thickened on the staircase.

As the light faded, the tension he had managed to suppress surged back.

“Hu, hu….”

Park Seong-woo exhaled a trembling breath, continuing to descend the stairs slowly yet steadily.

And when he had descended a fair distance,

…thud.

He felt something snag on the sword he was holding out in front of him.

In an instant, a chill wrapped around him, prompting him to step back a pace.

He raised his sword, infusing it with a hint of magic.

Whoosh….

The blue aura enveloping the blade illuminated the dark staircase slightly.

Park Seong-woo quickly lowered the sword, confirming what it had touched.

“This is… a wire?”

Indeed, it was a wire.

Connected to a grenade on the wall.

“…As expected, there was a trap.”

With a sigh of relief, Park Seong-woo cut the wire.

Then he resumed his descent down the stairs.

After cutting several wires, he finally arrived at the basement door.

Taking a deep breath, Park Seong-woo grasped the doorknob.

Wrapping himself in magic, he braced for any potential traps.

Creeeak….

The creaking sound, like rusty gates, echoed through the air as the door opened.

Thud.

The door fully opened, and

Park Seong-woo slowly stepped inside.

“Save me, please.”

Then, a voice whispered from the darkness.

At that voice, Park Seong-woo infused his sword with magic and dispelled the surrounding darkness.

“Save me, please.”

Only then did a figure come into view.

Park Seong-woo cautiously approached the figure.

“Found you, hostage.”

A human figure, bound to a chair, like a doll.

Park Seong-woo realized that this doll was the hostage.

“Save me, please.”

“Yes, I’ll save you. Just wait a bit.”

He wanted to rescue the hostage right away, but Park Seong-woo decided to survey the surroundings first.

Since there were traps on the stairs, there would likely be traps in the room as well.

Thinking so, he checked around the hostage.

“As expected… I knew it.”

He found explosives attached to the walls at regular intervals.

And the wires connected to the explosives were all linked to the hostage.

“You, Yi U-jin, you b*stard…”.

Even if he played the villain, this was too much.

Attaching bombs to the hostage’s body?

Park Seong-woo cut the wires connected to the hostage’s body with a disgusted expression.

And the moment he freed the hostage from the chair…

Click.

A sound like a button being pressed echoed in Park Seong-woo’s ear.

“Ah.”

Kwaaang!

&

&

&

KWA-BOOM─!

『Huh?』

An explosion?

I suddenly froze in place at the sound of the blast ringing in my ears.

Then I turned my head toward the source of the noise.

『That’s… the basement where I hid the hostages.』

Does that mean they found the hostages?

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I raised my smartwatch to check the hero team’s mission objectives.

[Hostage 1/3]

『Oh, finally found one.』

Seeing that the hero team’s mission objectives had been updated, I let out a sigh of relief.

『Thank goodness they managed to find a hostage.』

I had thought the kids were just mindlessly searching for me.

It was understandable, considering thirty minutes had passed without a single hostage being rescued.

But perhaps that was just my overthinking.

Seeing as they found a hostage like this.

『…But it seems they didn’t fully grasp the traps.』

The place where the explosion just occurred is filled with traps.

And since they’re set up in layers, I can’t let my guard down just because one trap has been bypassed.

Not even until the moment the hostage is rescued.

‘So now there are two hostages left.’

With the basement hostage rescued (exploded),

the remaining locations are the tallest building and a somewhat intact structure.

With that in mind, I stopped searching for the kids and headed toward the tallest building closest to me.

Just as I was leaping between the buildings on my way to my destination,

Zing─.

A red line appeared in my field of vision.

The “Sniper’s Sharp Sense (A+)” had been activated.

I immediately checked the location of the ‘enemy.’

And I could see it.

Lee Seoyeon was aiming a pistol at me.

As soon as I confirmed this, I activated ‘Live Focus’ without hesitation.

At the same moment, a spark erupted from Seoyeon’s gun.

Bang…

The sound of the gunshot echoed slowly, in tune with the world that had slowed down.

I listened to the gunfire while keeping my eyes on the bullet flying toward me.

And as I pulled the trigger of the gun in my hand, I ended ‘Live Focus.’

Bang─!

Clang─, chime─!

The sound of bullets colliding reached my ears, and I dashed toward Seoyeon.

It seemed that Seoyeon was intent on shooting me before I could reach her.

Bang, bang bang!

She kept pulling the trigger.

But since I could visually track the direction of her attacks,

I twisted my body slightly, dodging the incoming bullets.

Swish!

Eventually, Seoyeon lowered her gun and drew the sword from her waist.

Then she began to charge toward me.

In response, I fired my gun.

Bang!

Clang!

As expected, Seoyeon, stronger with her sword than with a gun, easily deflected the bullet I shot.

But I didn’t stop; I continued to fire.

Bang, bang bang!

Clang, clang clang!

And when she had become somewhat accustomed to deflecting the bullets…

‘Transmission.’

I swapped the bullet in the chamber of my pistol for the ‘special round’ in my inventory.

Bang─!

The bullet was fired from the muzzle.

Once again, Lee Seoyeon swung her sword at the bullet flying toward her.

And the moment her sword deflected the bullet—

Clang─, Boom!

“…Ugh!”

A shockwave erupted like a grenade, sending Lee Seoyeon tumbling backward.

I didn’t miss the opportunity; just like during the entrance exam, I transmitted ‘sticky glue’ toward where she would land.

But perhaps because I had experienced it once before—

Whoosh.

Lee Seoyeon performed a mid-air somersault, regaining her balance, and swung her sword toward the spot where I had sent the ‘sticky glue.’

With all her might behind the strike.

Kwahahahaha─!

The sword swung at an incredibly fast speed.

As a result, the sticky glue spread across the floor was torn away along with the ground.

Thud.

Lee Seoyeon landed on the now chaotic floor.

I raised my gun toward her.

And just as I was about to pull the trigger—

Swoosh─!

A sharp sensation pricked my head, accompanied by the sound of something flying toward me from above.

I looked up to check.

A sword was hurtling toward me at an alarming speed.

The moment I saw it, I recognized it as Arthur’s skill, ‘Meteor Fall.’

‘Should I use a shock round?’

No, that won’t do.

Using a shock round at this distance would put me in danger as well.

Then… there’s no choice but to resort to this method.

As soon as I finished my thought, I sent a shock grenade about 5 meters away.

And the moment the grenade was deployed, I fired my gun and jumped, curling my body.

KWAANG─!

The shockwave from the grenade hit me like a tidal wave.

『…Kuh!』

With the jarring impact, my body was flung backward.

But thanks to that, Arthur’s Meteor Fall struck the unfortunate ground instead of me.

KWAANG─!

The ground erupted.

I broke into a cold sweat at the sight.

‘Are you trying to kill me, Arthur?’

As that thought crossed my mind, I landed and immediately scanned the area for Arthur.

No, even before I could look around, Arthur appeared in my line of sight first.

“I found you, Lee Yu-jin… no, Villain.”

Had he jumped alongside me while using the skill ‘Meteor Fall’?

Arthur descended where the sword was embedded.

Thud!

Arthur pulled the sword from the ground.

Then, aiming it at me, he said,

“Surrender willingly, Villain. I promise to capture you without causing pain.”

I responded by aiming my gun at him.

“Is that a no to surrendering? Then I have no choice but to show force.”

The moment Arthur spoke, summoning golden magical energy.

“Found you, Chief… no, Villain!”

The wild Asuka appeared!

『…Ha.』

I let out a hollow laugh as I looked around.

Asuka on the left.

Arthur in the center.

Lee Seo-yeon on the right.

The main characters, excluding Noah, had me surrounded.

It was, quite literally, a situation of being besieged on all sides.

But I am not the kind of ‘Crow’ to be intimidated by this.

I let out a faint chuckle, gripping a pistol in each hand.

And then I shouted towards the ‘heroes.’

“Come forth! O heroes!”

Show me your justice!