Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

I stuffed the artifacts pulled from the slot machines into my pocket.

“What are you going to use those for?”

“I want to try finding the person who made these.”

“The person who made them?”

“Though their purpose is quite dubious, the quality is amazing when you look at it. To upgrade performance by combining ordinary objects with artifacts. To be able to maintain confusion magic constantly with such a small size, only half a palm… They even used an extremely tiny mana stone? It’s designed to last for years with this small thing.”

Moreover, what’s surprising is that all these numerous artifacts were made by just one person.

—That’s right, at least all the ones visible here were made by one person.

It’s certain since Ray, the artifact appraiser, confirmed it.

To be able to mass-produce artifacts of this quality…

“With skills like this…”

I stroked my chin.

“They’re definitely worth kidnap- no, recruiting…”

Though I said recruiting, there’s no need to necessarily bring them to Weltschmerz. It’s enough if they just accept our requests. Just establishing a connection would be sufficient.

Just looking at how they churn out artifacts like this like a factory shows how incredibly capable they are. To think such a person is just making slot machines…

‘Who knows? The craftsman who made this might be being exploited somewhere? Maybe they’re desperately waiting for someone to rescue them?’

—You still haven’t given up that hope?

‘Isn’t this quite a plausible guess this time?’

If there are artifacts installed in hundreds of slot machines, including just the visible ones here and all those installed in the casino?

‘Besides, we don’t know how many casinos like this there are.’

I don’t know how long it takes to make these, but even if there are just two more casinos like this, that person must be being squeezed to the bone.

To use someone with such talent for things like this. It’s maddening how wasteful it is! If it were me, I’d shower them with the highest grade materials and put them to work!

—What, isn’t putting them to work the same?

‘How is it the same? My side would be much more rewarding work. And I’d compensate them well too. So I have no choice but to rescue them…’

—Good grief!

Though Professor Geum is acting as my reliable financial backer and providing various items, I desperately need the help of a craftsman who can make artifacts.

Even Jae-ho’s dagger had the fatal flaw of not being able to use other artifacts while using it, and Seo-hyeon’s staff is only amazing because of the fraudulent mana stone inserted, but the one I made is actually quite shoddy.

We also need mental defense artifacts for emergencies, and ah, it would be good to prepare armor for Cha Song-jin too…

—For now, finding this person is important.

‘Do you know where they live?’

—Well, the person running the casino should know, right?

They must be receiving supplies from them, so if we ask there, we should get an answer.

After gathering all the items we needed to take, I headed towards the stairs. Now it’s time to set the fire.

“First, let’s evacuate all the people.”

I want to burn the drugs, not increase innocent victims.

“Are you really going to set it on fire? It seems like it will cause a huge problem, like toxic gases coming out.”

“Right, that’s why we need to evacuate everyone. I want to completely destroy this place. So they can never do this kind of thing again.”

—So your plan is to completely blow up the basement?

‘And erase evidence along the way.’

Later, if they dig up and investigate this place, everything I did will come out, but at least I can buy some time.

‘I want to return to Korea safely, you know.’

Besides, there’s no method more certain than fire to destroy their foundation.

Smashing everything so they can never think of doing such things in here again.

‘I’ve seen too many times where even if you take down the leader, the guys under them just repeat the same things.’

So, I’ll burn it all. Not even ashes will remain. At least for this basement, that was my plan.

I shot a flame at the fire detection device.

After a time long enough to blink a few times, soon fire alarms started going off throughout the building.

Sprinklers started spinning and spitting out water.

“Ugh!”

Kim Jae-ho immediately hid in my shadow to avoid the water. However, one person who wasn’t agile enough got drenched by that water.

Han Seo-hyeon brushed up his wet bangs with a fierce expression.

“…Water is coming out?”

“Well, that’s the role of sprinklers?”

Han Seo-hyeon’s eyes turned to my bone-dry face without a single drop of water.

“You could have told me in advance too.”

“I’m sorry…”

I apologized quickly. I quickly used my ability to dry the water on Han Seo-hyeon’s body, but Han Seo-hyeon’s mood didn’t easily improve after getting suddenly drenched.

“Tell me when everyone has evacuated.”

“Yes.”

How long did we wait like that?

“Is it still far off?”

Even though enough time had passed for people to all evacuate and more, Han Seo-hyeon was silent. Han Seo-hyeon who frowned at my question said:

“Boss, the people at the slot machines aren’t budging at all.”

“Even with all this commotion?”

“Yes. There are even people who put their shirts on top of the slot machines and are continuing to play.”

“What are the employees doing?”

“They were punched by people after trying to pull them away.”

“…Damn it.”

This is why gambling is dangerous, no, in this case it’s probably also because of that damn perception reduction device installed in the slot machines.

“What should we do?”

“What can we do? If we set fire here now, the people upstairs will be in danger.”

Until just a few days ago, I didn’t care at all about the lives of people gambling, but if they’re victims of artifacts, that’s a different story.

‘They may not be completely innocent, but they haven’t done anything wrong enough to die from toxic gas.’

But we can’t drag people clinging to slot machines away in front of everyone either…

‘I guess we have to scrap the plan to set fire. I have no choice but to leave a surprise gift for the next people who come to this basement…’

—Piled up corpses would be quite the surprise gift!

‘At least the surprise part is right, isn’t it?’

Just as I was talking with Ray like that.

“Then I’ll take care of that.”

Han Seo-hyeon cut in from the side. To me who was about to ask what he suddenly meant by taking care of it, Han Seo-hyeon blurted out:

“The things inside there. That’s what you were worried about and trying to burn everything for, right?”

“…How did you know?”

“How could I not know?”

“That’s right, there’s been a strong smell of blood for a while.”

Kim Jae-ho chimed in too. Urgh, I was trying to take care of it secretly, but when your subordinates are too good, this kind of problem arises.

“Right, I’m counting on you.”

As they say a sparrow doesn’t just pass by a mill, I guess it would be strange for a necromancer to just ignore a situation like this.

—Right, it was a needless worry. In the first place, that kid would just be happy to get materials, wouldn’t he?

‘Our Seo-hyeon’s humanity isn’t that withered…’

—Think about what’s happened so far.

At Ray’s words, images of Han Seo-hyeon saying things like ‘Can I take that corpse?’ with a shy expression, ‘I tried making bombs with people’s bones’, and ‘I found out I can torture souls too’ flashed through my mind.

That’s right. Who on earth was I worried about?

“You could have just asked me from the start, suddenly saying you’ll set fire…”

Han Seo-hyeon who held his staff in his hand pouted as he said that. You can’t hide corpses from a necromancer. Yeah, that’s right. That would be strange, after all.

After Han Seo-hyeon finished taking care of the corpses, I destroyed the stairs.

“For now, let’s block this side so other guys can’t come.”

It would be troublesome if they moved the drugs while we were gone.

Anyway, with this, the aftermath became someone else’s job.

‘They won’t be able to clear away the debris and deal with the drugs.’

I guess I have to use America’s strongest connections after all. Though I wonder if I should entrust this kind of thing to him when he must be so busy. If I say it’s for America’s sake, maybe he’ll help out roughly.

We slipped out of the casino taking advantage of the confusion and headed straight for the address the model student criminal guy gave us.

“It’s not too far from here.”

The bird carrying us soon reached our destination.

It was a desolate village that seemed abandoned after the Gate incident. In the middle of the abandoned village where there were almost no intact buildings as if it had been abandoned for several years, there was a particularly eye-catching building.

Well, not because it was an amazingly cool building, but because there were lots of cars parked in front of it. Because it was a place with traces of living people in a place with no signs of living people at all.

We landed at a distance from that building. The sand bird that had carried us scattered in the air and entered that building.

The particles that entered riding the wind read the information of the people inside the building, and that information soon came to us through Han Seo-hyeon’s mouth.

“There are roughly forty people in there. I can see an entrance leading underground, but it’s blocked by artifacts so I can’t check the details.”

“Underground again?”

These guys really like basements. To think they built something underground again. Like how they built a drug manufacturing facility in the casino basement, I had a strong feeling there would be some fishy facility in the basement here too.

“Nikki?”

“She’s not visible in the building for now.”

“She’s either underground or…”

“Or that person gave us wrong information.”

“Let’s hope she’s underground.”

Saying that, I roughly came up with a plan in my head while looking at the building.

Unlike the casino basement where the doors were closed and there were many covers to hide behind, this place was wide open.

Even the wooden fence we were leaning against now only barely blocked the line of sight, without functioning as proper cover.

‘It means we have to push through with firepower.’

Everyone is in combat mode, and since it’s an exposed space, it’s not good for taking them out one by one either.

But well…

‘After going through Seo-hyeon, I don’t feel tense no matter what situation.’

No matter how strong you are, you can’t be stronger than A-rank grand sorcerer Han Seo-hyeon.

—Well, that’s true.

Why would someone that strong be doing gang activities in a place like this?

Now the question is how to attack that place.

The point is we need to do as much as possible in as short a time as possible.

“Seo-hyeon, you support for now…”

“Support?”

It’s a face that seems to be asking if I’m serious.

“Wouldn’t it be best if I handle it?”

As he says, Han Seo-hyeon is the one who can most effectively deal with the enemies right now. In fact, if we had to pick the strongest person among us, it would be Han Seo-hyeon…

If Han Seo-hyeon takes the lead, we can resolve the situation without even needing to go inside.

It’s different from earlier. The enemies were already heavily armed and there were many of them. If we try to subdue or knock them out clumsily, we might get beaten up by their counterattack.

I always put Han Seo-hyeon in a support role. Until now, I could persuade Han Seo-hyeon with words like ‘You’re not used to handling your ability yet’, but haven’t I realized it now?

That Han Seo-hyeon has really become strong.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you…”

“Then why won’t you let me do it?”

‘If I say it’s because I can’t face his brother, he’ll try to kill me, right?’

—Yeah, probably.

Urgh. I know best how much stronger Han Seo-hyeon has become, having clashed with him directly. I know he’s become strong enough to be deployed in combat immediately without problems, no, actually strong enough to be quite helpful.

But since we’re dealing with people, I hesitate. Even if they’re bad guys. When you think about it, we don’t have any personal grudges, and in some ways there might be room for reform…

—You killed such guys just fine earlier.

‘Well, I’m quite used to that kind of thing. But Seo-hyeon isn’t. He’s not even an adult yet…’

As I was about to say that, Kim Jae-ho caught my eye. Come to think of it, Kim Jae-ho was young too…

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Time is passing while we’re doing this.”

“I’m not mentally prepared yet…”

“No, I said I’m ready! Me!”

Han Seo-hyeon beat his chest as if frustrated by my words. But you see. This boss isn’t ready yet!

Kim Jae-ho who was watching us talk spoke up:

“How long are you going to argue?”

“Wait a bit. We’re still, uh, having an important conversation…”

“No, there.”

Kim Jae-ho poked my side.

“I said wait a bit!”

Kim Jae-ho quietly pointed his finger somewhere.

“I might wait, but he won’t?”

I saw a guy gesturing and saying something while pointing at us from beyond the window.

Ah.

“Did we get caught?”

“Yeah.”

“This isn’t the time to say ‘yeah’!”

I immediately drew up magic power in my body.

A hail of bullets soon poured towards us.