C8
Villain Special Task Force
—So, um… you’re not requesting that we dispatch a team? You’re saying that you personally caught the villain and are bringing him here?
Gwanghyun answered the question coming through the phone without the slightest concern.
“Yes.”
Last time, he hadn’t even known that a Villain Special Task Force existed, so he had simply taken the villain to an ordinary police station.
Back then, he had acted without much thought, figuring that ‘the nearest police station should be fine.’
But now he knew that ordinary police stations were not equipped to directly handle or detain villains.
‘Well, no matter how thoroughly a villain has been subdued, ordinary non-Awakener police officers would have a hard time dealing with an Awakener villain.’
That was why Gwanghyun had decided that from now on, he would contact the Villain Special Task Force directly and hand villains over to them.
—Um… sir, please wait just a moment!
But for some reason, it seemed that even the Villain Special Task Force couldn’t get things done immediately.
Gwanghyun found it a little strange, but he decided to wait for a moment as they had asked.
Soon, he faintly heard a series of hurried noises coming through the phone. Once things seemed to have settled down, the Villain Special Task Force spoke again.
—Sir, is the villain currently securely restrained?
At the question, Gwanghyun glanced behind him.
He had crushed the man’s legs, but he hadn’t actually equipped him with proper restraints like the Villain Special Task Force had done last time.
“No. I haven’t tied him up or anything.”
—In that case, could you tell us your current location? Since the villain may escape if he isn’t properly restrained, it would be better for you to remain at the scene after completely subduing him rather than moving around with him.
It didn’t exactly seem like the villain could escape.
Gwanghyun scratched his head and thought about it for a moment, but since the task force had said that was what they wanted him to do, he decided there was no reason to refuse.
However, he didn’t think there was any need for a large number of people to come all the way here.
“Then you don’t need to send everyone. Just send one person. That’s fine.”
The Villain Special Task Force seemed to hesitate for a moment at Gwanghyun’s words.
But perhaps because his voice sounded so relaxed, they seemed to accept his suggestion.
They told him they would send an agent who could arrive as quickly as possible, and Gwanghyun then explained his current location.
Once the agent had determined the direction and departed, they would be able to confirm the exact GPS coordinates and find him, so there was no need for Gwanghyun to provide an overly detailed description.
“Yes. Then I’ll wait here.”
After reporting the incident, Gwanghyun ended the call with a faint smile.
He couldn’t help feeling pleased that things had been wrapped up much more quickly than he had expected.
The fact that everything had gone so smoothly was partly thanks to a bit of luck.
‘He suddenly came running straight at me himself.’
After arriving at the area, Gwanghyun had been wondering how he should go about finding Jo Donghyun.
Then, out of nowhere, Jo Donghyun had charged straight at him.
He had suddenly appeared and swung a knife at Gwanghyun’s neck, which had caught him off guard for a moment.
But Gwanghyun quickly understood the situation, regained his composure, chased after Jo Donghyun when he fled, and subdued him.
‘Tsk. What a crazy bastard.’
Apparently, he had been murdering his other victims in the same way.
Thinking about all the people who had already fallen victim to that bastard, Gwanghyun’s veins bulged on his face as he turned to look toward Jo Donghyun again.
“Ugh… huff…”
But at some point, Jo Donghyun had begun carefully moving around using his arms instead of his broken legs.
His screams had gone quiet.
Was he trying to escape?
Jo Donghyun, trembling all over, slowly dragged himself along before suddenly sensing a murderous presence and raising his head.
His eyes met Gwanghyun’s cold gaze.
“P-please… spare me… just my life…”
A villain who had trampled hundreds of other people’s lives without hesitation was now desperately begging for his own life.
Seeing this only made Gwanghyun even angrier.
Hadn’t the Villain Special Task Force told him that there was a possibility of escape and that he should make absolutely certain the villain couldn’t get away?
He hadn’t paid much attention to those words earlier, but it seemed the task force had been right.
“The experts weren’t wrong after all. I need to make sure you can’t escape.”
At Gwanghyun’s chilling words, Jo Donghyun’s eyes widened in alarm.
He noticed that Gwanghyun’s gaze had shifted toward his arms.
He immediately raised both arms above his head and frantically waved them.
“I-I-I won’t run! I won’t!”
Without saying a word, Gwanghyun slowly began walking toward Jo Donghyun.
“Sir! Are you over here?”
Ryu Seyoung, the head of the Third District Villain Special Task Force, checked the GPS and looked around for the informant.
The informant’s smartphone GPS had already been visible for some time, so all he had to do was locate the person.
‘Sigh… Where is he? Surely this isn’t some prank call?’
After thinking for a moment, Ryu Seyoung shook his head.
Surely there wasn’t some lunatic who would prank-call the Villain Special Task Force in the middle of the night.
‘Still, something about this is strange. What kind of situation is this?’
Then again, someone claiming to have caught a villain in the middle of the night and saying they would bring him over personally did sound pretty crazy.
The more Ryu Seyoung thought about it, the more suspicious he became.
“Sir, are you not here?”
“Ah, I’m over here.”
Hearing a voice from one side, Ryu Seyoung reflexively drew his weapon.
It was a plasma sword designed for combat against people, not the type specifically designed for fighting monsters.
Since the voice had come from the darkness, he had to remain on guard for the time being.
“Oh, I’m the informant. You can check.”
At the calm voice, Ryu Seyoung cautiously pointed the plasma sword forward.
When the light it emitted illuminated the person standing before him, Ryu Seyoung couldn’t help being slightly surprised.
“You’re…?”
“Oh? We meet again.”
They knew each other.
It was Choi Gwanghyun, the same man who had brought in a wanted villain just a few days ago.
Only then did Ryu Seyoung relax his guard and put his weapon away.
After all, Gwanghyun had already brought in a villain a few days ago, so he was someone Ryu Seyoung could trust.
“Were you the one who reported this?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“You’ve run into two villains in a row… Anyway, thank you.”
The situation was somewhat puzzling, but Ryu Seyoung decided to think about that later.
For now, he would first check the villain Gwanghyun had reported.
“First, I’ll check the villain. As I mentioned, we need to put proper restraints on him before we can transport him safely. That also completely eliminates any possibility of escape.”
“Ah, he’s over there.”
“Yes, then…”
Ryu Seyoung looked toward the place Gwanghyun was pointing and prepared the restraints.
But then he froze.
The villain’s limbs were twisted so badly at the joints that it was almost unbelievable he was still alive.
In his current condition, putting restraints on him might actually interfere with transporting him.
“T-This is…”
“Ah! Just as the Villain Special Task Force told me, it turns out you were right. I had restrained him initially, but he tried to escape, so I subdued him a second time to make sure he couldn’t get away.”
For a moment, Ryu Seyoung thought that perhaps Gwanghyun had gone a little too far.
But he quickly pushed the thought aside.
After all, villains often became even more dangerous if they managed to escape even once.
Compared to that, making absolutely certain that the villain couldn’t get away was probably the better choice.
“Um… you’re certain this person really is a villain, right?”
“Check for yourself. His name is Jo Donghyun.”
“Jo Donghyun… Jo Donghyun… Just a moment.”
Ryu Seyoung took out the specialized equipment used by the Villain Special Task Force and scanned the fallen man’s face.
The result confirmed that he was indeed Jo Donghyun, the Level 2 villain.
Ryu Seyoung stood there thinking for a moment before suddenly stiffening.
‘Wait. This villain…?’
He was the villain the Villain Special Task Force had attempted to arrest several times.
Every time, he had vanished in the blink of an eye, making him nearly impossible to track.
That was why his arrest had continually been postponed.
The so-called ‘Cockroach Villain,’ Jo Donghyun.
“This… How did you… That’s truly impressive.”
“It’s nothing. I just got a little lucky.”
Ryu Seyoung looked down at Jo Donghyun sprawled on the ground and thought for a moment.
Then he put the restraints back inside his suit.
Instead of restraining Jo Donghyun, he simply hoisted the villain over his shoulder.
“Anyway, thank you so much for reporting this. Your name was… Choi Gwanghyun, right?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Yes, Gwanghyun. If you don’t mind, could you accompany me to the station?”
“The police station?”
Technically, it wasn’t an ordinary police station.
It was a separate building designed for the special department.
But to ordinary people, it looked just like a police station, so Ryu Seyoung decided to omit the explanation and simply nodded.
“Last time, we handled everything for you, but according to standard procedure, the informant is supposed to accompany us as well.”
“Oh, really?”
“Actually, the main reason is that I’d like to talk with you for a bit. But if you’re busy, we can handle everything the same way we did last time.”
“Hmm.”
Gwanghyun was actually curious about where the Villain Special Task Force operated and where they were stationed.
He also thought that getting acquainted with Ryu Seyoung, the head of the Villain Special Task Force, wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Besides, he had caught Jo Donghyun much faster than expected, so there was no reason for him to refuse.
“No, I’m not busy. Sure, let’s go.”
The Villain Special Task Force headquarters seemed to be smaller than Gwanghyun had expected.
The place was rather quiet, and after glancing around, Gwanghyun asked Ryu Seyoung:
“There aren’t many people here.”
“Ah, it’s nighttime, after all. It’s just the people on night duty.”
That made sense.
Even Awakeners were ultimately human, after all.
It was only natural for them to work rotating shifts.
A little while later, Ryu Seyoung finished filing the arrest report and completed the procedures for Jo Donghyun’s temporary detention.
Then he turned to Gwanghyun and thanked him once again.
“Gwanghyun, thank you so much. Our response was a little inadequate when you first called earlier… I hope you’ll understand. We really don’t get situations like this very often.”
“Not very often?”
Gwanghyun looked puzzled by Ryu Seyoung’s words.
Hearing that reports of criminals weren’t very common at a police agency naturally struck him as strange.
“Haha. Does that sound strange?”
“Yes. A little.”
“Hmm… Gwanghyun, how often do you think ordinary Hunters catch villains and bring them to our team?”
Ryu Seyoung suddenly asked the question.
Gwanghyun thought about it for a moment before shrugging.
“I have no idea.”
“At least since I started working here, it’s only happened twice.”
“Twice? That’s all?”
Gwanghyun’s expression became increasingly bewildered.
Surely there had to be more than that.
“Those two times were both you, Gwanghyun.”
“…What?”
