That’s How They Became Villains

#23. Become a Colleague

Recently, Agio had a worry.

It wasn’t the kind of worry that could be passed off as a memory like a teenage love concern.

It was a serious worry that could possibly be connected to life.

It was that their personal information had been leaked on the internet. *

The three major corporations of Minos, called Cheongang, Unhwa, and Nago Group, didn’t get along with each other.

She built the foundation of the current Minos by competing with each other and comparing performance every year.

Sometimes she would play tricks to undermine the other company’s performance.

So the one who made the video that caused a stir in Cheongang for a while was.

“Ho-how…how did it leak out…?”

The fact that she was a Vitaloid made by Unhwa was an issue that many media outlets couldn’t help but take sensitively.

After leaving the office next to Royal Road where she had stayed for a long time, Agio went out to a deserted street.

She was currently blocking all external contact while changing their appearance with a visual tracker.

Without doing so, she couldn’t walk around due to anxiety. This was also why she couldn’t receive Cha Yu-ha’s contact.

Sniff. Agio, who swallowed their nose in the increasingly chilly weather these days, took out their phone.

‘Huh, did you think you wouldn’t be caught if you covered your face with a visual tracker and uploaded a video? Everything comes out if you investigate.’

She had been exposed like this before.

It was when she was waiting in front of the Cheongang Supreme Court to secretly film Cha Yu-ha.

“Since I got caught once, I could get caught twice, right? Ugh… I’m an idiot…”

Agio was fiddling with their phone as if she had some lingering attachment. She hadn’t been able to check Cha Yu-ha’s Instagram for 3 days already.

For Agio, who would get a disease where coolant gets stuck in their thought circuit if she couldn’t see Cha Yu-ha’s smiling face even for a day, it was too harsh a time. But you need to be alive to view Instagram, right? Agio boldly threw their phone into the trash can.

-Clatter! Thud!

The sound was louder than expected.

“Over there! Go catch them!”

“Eek…!! So-sorry…!!”

Agio crouched down in surprise.

However, the owner of the voice seemed to be chasing someone else, as she ran away to a distant place.

“Phew…”

Agio sighed in relief and hurried their steps. She continued to move to a place where there were fewer people and less light.

Looking at that scene from a distance, it appeared very precarious and unstable.

Among the Origins, there is a saying.

Hide a tree in the forest.

Agio assumed that the reason their personal information was leaked was because of the visual tracker. It meant that roaming the streets while wearing a visual tracker was never safe.

However, it was impossible to go around in their original appearance because their identity had been revealed.

So Agio had to hide not in a deserted place, but rather in a busy area with many people.

In busy areas, people who lack confidence in their appearance often wear trackers.

Even professionals can’t suspect everyone wearing a tracker.

But what would happen if you pop out into the crowded streets with that flashy, glowing tracker wrapped around your entire body?

“Found them.”

It was no different than advertising, “I’m suspicious, so please catch and investigate me.”

“Huff huff… If I can just get to the city outskirts, I’ll be okay…!!”

Passing through the forest of buildings, she reached the riverside along the road.

At the end of the artificially created river, a filter was installed to automatically filter out everything except water.

Therefore, people would casually throw various domestic wastewater or garbage into the river while passing by.

And that “garbage” included various illegal drugs and,

-Bang.

Even human corpses.

“Uh…”

A beam-shaped flash struck down from a distant building.

Agio, whose core was precisely pierced by that flash, fell helplessly into the river with a splash.

-Crackle…

Agio’s true appearance appears through the interior of the tracker, which can no longer maintain its form.

The sniper on the building who confirmed this appearance spoke into the receiver.

“Kill confirmed.”

-Crackle…

“Are you sure?”

“The visual tracker broke and the inside could be seen. It was definitely her.”

“Good work. Return now.”

-Crackle…

The sniper watched the fragments of the small Vitaloid being washed down under the river.

Electricity crackling from the module, and a definite machine that spilled oil instead of blood into the river.

However, that appearance, which was pitifully struggling as if not yet accepting its own death, was that of a living being.

“…It wasn’t personal.”

With those final words, the sniper disappeared into the darkness of the city, pulling down their black hat.

“Heave-ho.”

Before Agio’s body was completely washed away under the river.

Four enhanced humans who had turned invisible with ‘Nazha’s Special Visual Tracker Ver. Optical Camouflage’ appeared by the riverside.

She lifted Agio, who had a hole around her chest like an Apple logo, and brought her to land.

“Whew, she’s completely smashed.”

“Seolhwa, can you fix her?”

“I-I’ll try! I’m not very confident though…”

Then she attempted to restore Agio’s body using the enhanced humans’ special abilities.

A blue-green light flashed brightly.

All the companions who were touched by that light felt a heat that made them sweat.

“Haa…”

Agio began to breathe again while still unconscious.

The hole that had cleanly pierced the core was perfectly filled, as if time had been rewound.

“Nice, as expected of our Seolhwa.”

“Hehe, did I do well?”

“No time for chatting. Let’s go quickly.”

So the mysterious enhanced humans took Agio and disappeared into the darkness.

By coincidence, all the nearby CCTV cameras were broken, so no one witnessed the scene.

Do you know about Schrödinger’s cat?

It’s roughly about an experiment where you put a cat in a box filled with poison gas and after an hour, you check if it’s alive or dead.

The result of this experiment cannot be known until the box is opened.

Therefore, the cat in the box exists in a superposition of two states, life and death, until it is observed.

I once thought it was nonsense, but today I proved it.

Society declared that Agio was dead and the cause was suicide. Even a ten-year-old wouldn’t believe that story.

But Agio is alive. She was about to be washed away as scrap metal, but we picked her up and saved her.

That is, currently Agio exists in a superposition of two states: dead in society, but alive in reality!

Nazha would like this story. “Ugh…”

After a long wait, the controversial Vitaloid Agio opened her eyes.

“Are you conscious?”

“Wh-where am I…?”

Agio began to look around with a frightened expression.

“Where do you think you are?”

“Co-come to think of it, why am I alive…? I, I definitely died from being shot… Not from internet criticism but from an actual sniper rifle…”

“Ah, about that.”

I clapped my hands as if calling someone.

Then Seolhwa proudly walked out from the edge of the room, from the dark part.

“This person here treated you.”

“Th-thank you…”

“Don’t mention it! We should help each other when in difficulty!”

Seolhwa was overflowing with confidence since becoming an enhanced human.

“But… who are you all…? Why did you save me…?”

“Who am I? That’s disappointing. We’ve talked on the phone quite a lot, haven’t we?”

“Ye-yes…? But I talk to so many people for work, I can’t quite place you…”

“How about this, then?”

With a clear, melodious ding~ sound, the visual tracker’s appearance was replaced.

Only then did Agio widen her eyes as if recognizing who it was.

“Aah…!! You’re the person who sold me the memory chip at the court…!!”

“Yes, that’s right. I contacted you because I wanted to work together on something again, but for some reason, you weren’t answering your phone.”

“Th-that’s… If you check my channel, you’d know…My identity as a Vitaloid was exposed, so I was on the run.”

“That seemed to be the case. So I used something like this.”

I showed Agio a dating app-like thing installed on my phone.

Agio stared at it blankly and then jumped in surprise, covering the electronic terminal exposed on the back of their neck.

“Wh-when did you…!! Was there a virus embedded in the chip you gave me!?”

“Is that so important? You’re alive thanks to that.”

“Surely you weren’t the one who exposed me as a Vitaloid…!!”

Agio got up from the bed and quickly backed away from me, making a rustling sound.

That appearance made me feel a bit uncomfortable, as if I was bullying a frightened small animal.

“Let’s stop joking around. Agio, would you like to work with me on something?”

“Wh-what kind of work…!! I’m just an empty can now with no capital or anything…!!”

“Hmm? What do you mean? Did you die just because one channel went under? You have the know-how to grow an empty channel to three million subscribers, just with Lexer content.”

“Is… is that even considered a skill…?”

“In the first place, why was a Vitaloid made by Unhwa doing Lexer Archer content in Cheongang? Is there a separate reason?”

“Th-that… It’s too personal a reason to tell you…”

I took a step closer to the hesitant Agio. However, Agio was startled and moved away from me by the same distance.

“Sigh, is it something you can’t even tell the person who saved your life?”

“Th-that’s… not true. Yes.”

“Then you can tell me, right?”

After hesitating for a while, Agio finally began to tell her past.

To summarize the story:

She was originally a 5th generation household Vitaloid, but was thrown away as unnecessary and released into society.

Because Vitaloids cannot move to another city of their own volition, she lived stuck in Cheongang.

Due to discrimination against non-Origins, she became sorrowful and tried to change public opinion on the internet by uploading videos to Arc.

“…What kind of videos were you trying to change public opinion with that made you a Lexer?”

“Ah, that’s… hehe. I thought that if I exposed high-ranking Origins’ lobbying, the public opinion toward non-Origins on the opposite side would naturally improve… yeah.”

…This one would have died sooner or later if it weren’t for me.

“So Agio wanted to make this city a better place to live?”

“Yes, yes…? Ah, yes… Th-that’s right.”

“What a coincidence. We want that too.”

This time, I reached out my hand to Agio as if telling her to grab it.

“What do you think about working with me? This seems to be the third time I’m asking, but it would be safer than wandering outside, at least.”

“Do I… not have the right to refuse…?”

“I’d rather Agio join us because you want to, not because you feel forced to.”

“Umm…that’s…”

At that moment, Nazha, who was behind and found this situation quite frustrating, came striding over and grabbed my waist.

“Damn, this is frustrating as hell. Sis, bow your head for a sec.”

“Huh? Why so suddenly?”

I asked that but obediently bowed my head.

Then Nazha pointed at Agio and.

“Hey, you.”

“M-me?”

“Watch carefully.”

She pulled out the ‘Nazha’s Special Visual Tracker Ver. Optical Camouflage’ that was stuck in my neck.

“No, sis…wait…!!”

I hurriedly covered my neck in panic. But the chip had already been pulled out, and my fake appearance, which had been made to look like a villain, began to collapse with crackling electronic sounds.

I hurriedly looked for something to cover at least my face.

Agio, looking straight at me.

“I’ll do it. Let me do it! Ask me to do anything! I’ll work hard!”

Shouted with a much more elevated voice than before….Huh?