Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

‘How did things end up like this?’

As he was dragged along by Weltschmerz, Cha Song-jin looked back on his life.

Come to think of it, wasn’t Cha Song-jin’s life stuck in the mud from the moment he was abandoned at the orphanage?

When Gates appeared, orphanages that could take in and raise children sprang up all over the country. It was a time when the number of children who lost their parents for various reasons increased explosively. Among the orphanages that increased like that, there were quite a few so-called illegal orphanages operating without government approval.

There were several reasons for operating orphanages illegally, but most were for labor exploitation.

With the appearance of Gates, the demand for jobs exploded, but not many people wanted to handle unverified dangerous materials.

The place where Cha Song-jin grew up was also connected to such illegal activities.

From a childhood he couldn’t even remember, Cha Song-jin lived moving from factory to factory. Watching friends die off one by one, thinking he too would end up like that someday.

But Cha Song-jin’s lifeline was long, and he survived until 24. In the factory, Cha Song-jin was now called a veteran among veterans.

And at that age of 24. Cha Song-jin had an awakening he never even dreamed of. Seeing the system window that appeared before his eyes, Cha Song-jin thought he had gone crazy.

But it was real.

Unlike ordinary awakeners who complete their awakening by their mid to late teens at the latest, Cha Song-jin awakened at the age of 24. It was an age that could be said to be too late to enter the academy or train his talent.

But whatever it was, it was an ‘awakening’. That day, Cha Song-jin was as happy as if he had everything in the world.

However, the name of his talent that appeared on the status window was terrible, and it actually was. Return, at best a useful ability only for sneaking back into the company dormitory to avoid an angry factory manager.

But with that ability, Cha Song-jin succeeded in escaping from the factory and reached the awakener testing center.

And through that test he took without much expectation, he was able to meet none other than the vice guild master of Sirius.

She told Cha Song-jin. That you will be our hidden card.

Until then, Cha Song-jin thought only shining success remained in his life.

But I guess a loser will always be a loser.

First he was caught by the villains of the Top in his first outing, and next it’s Weltschmerz.

Until the first note came, his spirits had been high, but they plummeted instantly.

My savior who came to ruin me. No, in this case it’s not even a savior! It’s just kidnapping! And for a second exploitation at that!

I guess that’s how it is. There’s no way light would enter his life.

-It’s only natural for your life to be ruined.

The thorny words he heard once stabbed him again. Cha Song-jin bit his lip hard.

The masked man moved his steps well avoiding the crowds.

Though there were many people around, Cha Song-jin who had already given up on everything didn’t ask any of them for help. Whether due to learned fear, or resignation that nothing would change, he just couldn’t open his mouth.

Swept along by the man like that and walking absent-mindedly, before he knew it they were in a secluded alley. Despite it being broad daylight, darkness had settled in that alley end, and Cha Song-jin shuddered.

‘Surely he’s not planning to do me in here?’

As they reached the end of the alley, black sand came down riding the shadows. It was the same sand that appeared inside the department store.

‘So that attack was your doing after all!’

Remembering Weltschmerz who had brazenly denied it, Cha Song-jin was dumbfounded.

Someone revealed themselves between the sand. A face still too immature to be called an adult, with a gloomy impression as if shadows had settled on it. A chilling gaze.

It was Han Seo-hyeon, the necromancer who had already been publicly wanted once as a member of Weltschmerz.

‘Until I saw that guy’s wanted poster, I thought that young punk’s life had really gone to shit.’

But actually standing in front, his aura was no joke, to the point he couldn’t think of him as just a kid several years younger than himself.

The dark pupils as if carved from shadows swept over Cha Song-jin. But that gloomy gaze was only for a moment. With a flash, as if sun entered the shadows, light entered his eyes as he shifted his gaze to the man beside him.

“Boss!”

“Oh, you came.”

“What’s with that guy?”

There was much displeasure in the gaze of the guy pointing at him as he asked that.

“I told you, I’d bring out an escape ability user. Let’s quickly go home, I’m tired.”

“You’re not really thinking of taking him home too?”

“Yeah.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, and what do you mean ‘him’. He’s several years older than you.”

“How would I know. My goodness, to think you’d bring such a guy…”

There was clear disbelief in the guy’s voice as he said that. At the glaring gaze directed at him, Cha Song-jin suddenly felt wronged.

‘It’s not like I’m here because I want to be!’

He wanted to say that much at the stinging gaze being poured on him.

‘If I could, I would have run away right away!’

He wanted to say something like that. But how could he say such things.

A huge figure appeared from the shadows.

‘Eek.’

The man with a body full of scars stood next to Han Seo-hyeon while scratching his head.

Deep features and dark skin color, plus bestial eyes visible between the messy bangs hanging down.

Everything was scary.

The moment he met that guy’s eyes, tears flowed without him even realizing.

“An ability that can escape from Gates is quite something. I’d say a person with such a talent probably won’t appear again for another 10 years.”

At the masked man’s words, Cha Song-jin shuddered. So he was brought here because of his ability after all.

…It would be useless to say he doesn’t want to, right.

While moving on a bird made of sand, Cha Song-jin endlessly cursed his fate inside.

He wanted to run away, but even if he used his ability, the place Cha Song-jin would return to is the ‘Top’.

Whether the villains of the Top are better, or Weltschmerz is better. He couldn’t know, but one thing for certain was that going back to the Top after backstabbing them like this probably wouldn’t be good.

Like that, the place Cha Song-jin arrived at with Weltschmerz was in front of a cliff halfway up a mountain.

“Alright, let’s go in.”

“What?”

What happened next was like a scene from HarryXotter he saw when he was young. The train station Harry went to for school admission. Platform 9 and 3/4. Just like how the cart slid into the wall that was blocked, people started disappearing one by one into the completely blocked cliff.

“Uh, uhh.”

“What are you doing, let’s go in.”

The masked man pushed Cha Song-jin’s back. Cha Song-jin closed his eyes tightly. He thought he would smash his face into the hard wall, but Cha Song-jin’s body safely passed through the cliff.

And at the same time, a terrible vision covered his sight.

“Aaaagh!!”

“Ah, right. I forgot to register you on our team.”

With the man’s words, the vision disappeared instantly, but his startled heart couldn’t calm down easily.

“Huff, huff, I, I feel like I saw something terribly horrific.”

The man smacked the back of floundering Cha Song-jin.

“Ack!”

Startled Cha Song-jin looked forward following the man’s gesture.

“Ta-da, welcome to our base.”

Weltschmerz’s base. The first impression was very…

‘Wh-what is this.’

The man in front had a very proud expression, but what Cha Song-jin saw was a graveyard of bricks. Yes, a graveyard of bricks. The building that just looked like bricks haphazardly piled up had an awful appearance like it was built by six-year-olds.

“Isn’t it cool?”

‘Are you serious.’

Cha Song-jin thought it was a joke, but the masked man’s voice was full of sincerity. He really thought this was cool.

Perhaps feeling Cha Song-jin’s gaze, the man cleared his throat and guided Cha Song-jin inside by opening the door.

“Ahem, shall we go inside.”

He hoped maybe the inside of the building would be okay, but the inside was even more awful.

‘It’s dark! Too dark!’

It was excessively dark even with lights installed all around.

‘The walls are all black!’

No wonder it’s so dark when the wallpaper is all black.

The already gloomy-looking Han Seo-hyeon and the big guy entering made the suffocating atmosphere complete.

Still, the furniture in the living room was fairly decent.

‘It’s just like a model house.’

The composition looked like it was taken straight out of a furniture catalog.

“You must have had a hard time until now, sit comfortably and rest.”

Saying that, the man took off his mask. Cha Song-jin unconsciously turned his gaze there.

‘He’s unexpectedly good-looking.’

Was it because of the prejudice of Weltschmerz? He thought there would be a terribly ugly man inside, but what was under the mask was a fairly neat and handsome face.

Except for the excessively suspicious-looking eyes, he might even be counted as quite handsome. Well, he does look too crafty but…

‘No, wait. Why am I evaluating that person’s face?’

While Cha Song-jin was startled and muttering like that inside, the man opened his mouth.

“Then, now that we’re home, shall we do self-introductions?”

“S-self-introductions?”

Self-introductions so nonchalantly. In this situation?

“Well, information imbalance harms mutual trust. Besides, we should at least know each other’s names to be comfortable with each other, right?”

He was momentarily flustered by the common sense statement coming from the mouth of someone who seemed far from common sense to anyone.

“W-well, that’s true, but…”

“Okay, shall I start first. My name is Kang Yi-sin. I’m 22 years old this year. I’m in charge of leading Weltschmerz. You can call me Shen.”

“22?”

He thought he looked young, but it was a much younger age than expected. To think the leader of that Weltschmerz is only 22 this year. Seeing Cha Song-jin’s gaze, Kang Yi-sin grinned and added:

“My mental age tends to be higher than I look.”

Seeing him say that, he really is 22. Young punks always say they’re more mature than their age. The next to introduce themselves was Han Seo-hyeon, who was still glaring at him with displeased eyes.

“Han Seo-hyeon.”

At the bluntly thrown words, Kang Yi-sin said as if admonishing:

“Seo-hyeon, you should introduce yourself properly.”

“What’s there to introduce properly. He probably knows everything about me anyway.”

“Ordinary people don’t look at wanted posters that closely.”

Kang Yi-sin, who said that, shrugged his shoulders and added:

“See, he didn’t recognize me either.”

What’s with those words? Does that mean Kang Yi-sin is on wanted posters too? At that moment, news Cha Song-jin saw vaguely a few months ago flashed through his mind.

‘Th-th-that murderer!’

There was so much fuss in the news about a Babel Academy graduate becoming a murderer that it was impossible to miss.

“K-Kang Yi-sin!”

“Oh, looks like you remember now.”

That’s absolutely not something to say so cheerfully! To reveal so nonchalantly that he’s a murder suspect.

As expected, though they looked normal, these people were villains. He shouldn’t be deceived by appearances.

How did he end up entangled with such guys…

“Han Seo-hyeon. I go by the name Tod in Weltschmerz, no, but does that have any meaning? No one calls me Tod anyway…”

“It’s good to mention the codename you decided on.”

“Anyway, I’m a necromancer. That’s all.”

“Age?”

“Eighteen.”

The back-and-forth like twenty questions with Kang Yi-sin ended. Next, the two people’s gazes turned to Cha Song-jin.

‘Do I really have to do this? I guess I should? Would something bad happen if I say I don’t want to?’

Cha Song-jin swallowed the tears that were about to well up and opened his mouth.

“Ch-Cha Song-jin, and I’m twenty-five, five this year…”

“Oh, you’re older than me. Should I call you hyung?”

At Kang Yi-sin’s words, Cha Song-jin hurriedly shook his head.

“N-no. It’s, it’s fine.”

“Okay, I didn’t want to call you hyung either.”

Then why did you ask! Cha Song-jin barely suppressed the words that almost popped out and slowly opened his mouth.

“My talent is ‘Return to Safe Zone’.”

“Return? Not escape?”

“Yes, it’s just that escape sounds a bit more dramatic so it’s called that, but what the system window said was return.”

“Conditions?”

To Kang Yi-sin who asked that with sharp eyes, Cha Song-jin had no choice but to spill all his secrets.

“Literally, if I use my ability I can move to a place I’ve set as a safe zone in advance. To set a safe zone, I need to stay there for at least 3 days. And after using the ability once, I need to rest for at least 3 days.”

The cooldown is too long. But the advantage of being able to use the talent in any situation outweighs all those disadvantages. Whether inside a Gate or anywhere. Cha Song-jin could return to the place he set as a ‘safe zone’.

There was no more reliable insurance for a Gate conquest team. It’s no wonder Sirius kept Cha Song-jin so tightly hidden. Because anyone who found out about Cha Song-jin’s ability would try to steal him.

So these villain bastards captured him too.

‘I’d rather conquer Gates, if they’re planning to take me around to escape from crime scenes.’

As Cha Song-jin was lost in thought, someone’s voice fell on his head.

“Kim Jae-ho.”

Just three syllables of a name. At the introduction that was short to the point of being excessive, Cha Song-jin asked without realizing:

“That’s it?”

Kang Yi-sin nodded on Kim Jae-ho’s behalf. Han Seo-hyeon, not Cha Song-jin, was the one who got upset at that nonchalant response.

“You told me to introduce myself properly!”

“Do you think that’s possible for Jae-ho?”

“Well, I guess not.”

What on earth is that person’s identity? Kim Jae-ho sitting on the sofa with his arms crossed still looked nonchalant even as disparaging remarks about him were exchanged.

Kang Yi-sin, who looked around at the three people, stretched and said:

“Ah, I’m hungry. Shall we eat dinner first and then talk?”