Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

After that, there were quite a number of awakeners collapsed. The condition of the people beaten by Nikki was very bad.

Rather than being hit by a person, they looked like they had been struck by something huge. Following the broken debris, we were able to find one room.

It was a room with one chair, a huge artifact, and cabinets containing various drugs around it.

Kim Jae-ho’s shoulders trembled finely at the visual reminiscent of a laboratory.

On the chair was a complex-looking huge artifact.

Nikki seemed to have been tied to this chair and escaped. How did I know? The restraints attached to the chair were torn off. I pushed away the restraints fallen on the floor with my toe and examined the people scattered around the chair.

A total of six people were collapsed unconscious in this room.

Among them were August and Moziano.

‘What on earth did they do here?’

To get the answer to that question, we had to wake them up first.

Fortunately, the injuries of the two weren’t too severe. I gathered electricity at my fingertips and applied an electric shock to August’s body.

[Aaaagh!]

August who screamed as if in pain opened his eyes wide.

[Huff, huff…]

[Hello.]

I slapped August’s cheek as he couldn’t easily come to his senses.

[You, you are…]

Perplexity rose in August’s eyes as he recognized me. However, that perplexity turned to shock by Nikki who peeked her head out from behind me.

[What were you trying to do here?]

August bit his lip at my question. Hope disappeared from August’s eyes as he looked around.

[We were trying to implant a suggestion in that woman’s mind. But we failed.]

[Aha.]

Despite hearing the horrific story that they tried to implant a suggestion in her mind, Nikki seemed calm.

[You son of a bitch…!]

No, she seemed that way.

[Hey, hold on! Hold on!]

[How can I hold on after hearing something like that?]

[If you kill that man here now, we won’t be able to find out what happened.]

I barely managed to stop Nikki. August laughed hollowly.

[Haha, what’s the use of getting out of here alive. You’re going to kill me anyway, right?]

[Yes, and before that, I could give you pain you can’t even imagine.]

The blood drained from August’s face at my words. August who swallowed hard told me what had happened here.

August said he tried to implant a suggestion in Nikki here on the boss’s orders. Of course, it was impossible with just his ability.

But with that artifact, even his shoddy ability could implant a perfect suggestion.

The problem was that Nikki had to be awakened for the suggestion.

[My suggestion doesn’t work unless the mind is awake.]

It’s the same principle as not being able to lie to an unconscious person.

[We anticipated that woman would be strong. So we used a drug that paralyzes the entire body’s nerves. But even so, that woman…]

What they didn’t anticipate was that Nikki was too strong.

To shatter restraints at once that even most physical enhancement types couldn’t tear off while soaked in drugs. I turned my gaze to Nikki.

What on earth is that person’s identity…

Nikki cleared her throat while listening to August’s words.

After hearing all of August’s words, I looked at the artifact installed on the ceiling.

The artifact shaped like a huge eye in the middle of several tentacles that looked like human ribs certainly looked extraordinary.

I infused magic power into my eyes and examined the artifact.

=====

Eye of Enceladus / B-grade

—–

Installation type / Auxiliary

A replica of a legendary artifact

A blessed craftsman recreated the function of the original artifact with delicate skill

Amplifies and strengthens the talent of the connected person

The downside is that the durability is weak as it’s a replica

=====

No way, a replica of a legendary artifact.

I had occasionally heard that existing artifacts could be replicated, but it was almost an urban legend level story. Why? Because it means they accurately read the mana circuit of an already made artifact and somehow caught up with degraded materials.

The first condition alone doesn’t make sense. The higher grade the artifact, the more the mana circuits engraved in it are mostly unreadable by human ability.

The example is that I couldn’t even read the mana circuit of the demon sword Park Sang-cheol used and ended up discarding it.

The guy who made this artifact accomplished what I, a high-performance artifact myself, failed to do even with Ray’s help.

And the one who made this artifact…

—This was made by that guy too. The guy you’re looking for.

‘I definitely need to find and bring him, right?’

Barely suppressing my excitement, I took out the artifact from my pocket and showed it to August.

[Do you know who made this?]

[I don’t know. But our boss would know.]

[The boss, you mean Diana?]

[She’s here, so why don’t you ask her directly?]

There was no need to ask August who Diana was.

There was only one woman here.

‘I thought she’d be middle-aged…’

I thought she’d be quite old since she kept John Smith as a lover, but the woman called Diana looked at most in her late twenties. Even an unusually youthful appearance would be explainable for an awakener, but she didn’t seem to be an awakener as there was no magic power felt from her body at all. The problem is…

—She doesn’t look good.

A huge metal fragment was stuck in Diana’s stomach. Blood that flowed from the wound had soaked the floor wet. I put my finger to Diana’s nose.

A faint breath was felt. The problem is…

‘Even if I use a potion, I won’t be able to save this woman.’

But if I leave her in this state, she’ll lose her life as is.

Either way, she’ll die. But to get the answer I want…

“Seo-hyeon, give me a potion.”

“She’s not an awakener though.”

“Yeah.”

The potion will probably act like poison to this person. But I had to hear an answer from this woman.

“Jae-ho and Seo-hyeon, take this guy out for a moment.”

I said pointing at August with my eyes.

“What are you planning to do here?”

“A simple interrogation?”

And torture? If Diana answers my questions willingly, that’s fine, but if she keeps her mouth shut, I’ll have no choice but to use rough methods.

At my question, Han Seo-hyeon made a face like he had a lot to say, but I ignored Han Seo-hyeon this time too.

—If you keep accumulating karma stats like this, it feels like it will really go bang and explode later…

‘This isn’t the time for that.’

—Urgh, it’s your choice. I warned you.

Even after hearing Ray’s warning, my choice was the same.

[Please take the people here outside.]

[What about you?]

[I need to have a talk with the person who’s the boss here.]

At my words, Nikki wriggled what was presumed to be her shoulder.

[What are you trying to dig up?]

[I’ll tell you everything later, could you go outside with my friends for now?]

At my earnest request, Nikki eventually nodded. After confirming that the three people carrying August and the others left the basement, I turned my gaze to Diana.

I had no choice but to remove the three people. What was about to follow was going to be very messy.

I pulled out the metal fragment piercing Diana’s stomach and sprayed potion. Diana regained consciousness, rolling her eyes at the tremendous pain of her internal organs being torn and burned.

[Aaaagh!]

In pain, Diana clawed at my arm. My forearm was instantly covered in wounds, but I didn’t mind.

[Damn it…]

Diana glared at me while spitting blood.

[Hello.]

[Who are you?]

[That’s not what’s important right now.]

Diana’s face hardened coldly as she looked around. Despair settled on her face as she realized her wound was critical.

[This came out of your casino’s slot machines.]

I showed Diana the artifact I took out of my pocket.

[This is an item that came from somewhere.]

[Ugh, kuk, you’re curious about that in this situation? Son of a…]

Diana spewed out coarse curses. I shrugged my shoulders and immediately stuck my finger into Diana’s wound.

[Aaaagh!]

[You don’t want to suffer in pain until you die, right?]

Diana spat in my face. I smiled while wiping the sticky red liquid falling with the back of my hand.

[If you want, I can make it so you don’t feel any pain at all.]

I raised my finger towards Diana’s stomach again.

[I’ll ask once more. Where did you get this artifact?]

Diana looked at me and squeezed her eyes shut. Diana who realized she couldn’t escape from me no matter what slowly opened her mouth.

[That, I received it from an organization in China.]

[What’s the name of that organization?]

[We called those people the Sea Star Society.]

Diana said their name was ‘Sea Star Society’. They were the ones who provided funding here and supported the technology, she said. I engraved each piece of information Diana spat out in my mind.

[I only listened to what those people said.]

Diana told me that while spitting blood.

[That’s not an excuse for what you did.]

[I didn’t force those guys to sit at the gambling table! They would have fallen into hell anyway even if it wasn’t me, ugh…]

Diana spat blood. The potion only temporarily attached her breath, Diana’s life was now almost at its end.

I got up from my seat after obtaining all the necessary information. Diana followed me with her eyes and asked:

[Now, where are you going?]

I didn’t give any answer to that question. I hoped Diana would die here regretting her life bitterly. Very lonely and desolate.

At that moment, Diana opened her mouth.

[My mansion? There’s nothing there, everything of mine is here.]

At those words, I turned my head. Because I remembered one person in Diana’s mansion.

Diana had no reason to worry about the mansion at all. What would she be worried about in a situation where her own life was already dying?

[You probably won’t believe me even if I say this… There’s really nothing there…]

Diana who coughed up blood slumped her body. That was the end of Diana’s breath.

It was an ending so shabby it was hard to believe it was the end of a person who led a gang and ran a splendid hotel and casino.

I who had been looking at Diana moved my steps.

‘I guess I need to stop by China once.’

—Is that all you have to say now?

‘Then what should I say? Suddenly mourn that woman’s death?’

Should I say maybe she cared for John Smith a little? If it weren’t for that woman, John wouldn’t have fallen into the abyss where I was. Threatening John with his brother’s debt, and dragging him into her darkness, were all things that woman did.

‘So I will absolutely not feel sorry for that woman.’

And I’m serious about needing to go to China. I need to go rescue the craftsman, and China reaching out its hand all the way here somehow doesn’t feel right.

‘I thought it was enough just getting rid of Red Society.’

Well, according to the original timeline, the gangs in mainland China would have been busy dealing with Red Society around this time.

‘Did they expand their business outwards as they got room to breathe?’

I barely saved them, and they pull this cute stunt.

Anyway, I need to go to China when I get a chance soon. As I was thinking that and came outside, I was greeted by Han Seo-hyeon and Kim Jae-ho standing crookedly with very displeased expressions.

And Nikki who had returned to the appearance I knew.