Chapter 42: Villains Have No Rights (1)
Chapter 42: Villains Have No Rights (1)
Chapter 42: Villains Have No Rights (1)
I was flabbergasted.
I didn’t do anything wrong, but I had this feeling as if I made a mistake.
‘What the hell is this?’
As I followed Yoon Iseon, I blamed myself for my actions.
‘I should’ve never transformed to go with the flow!’
By unnecessarily doing a secondary transformation, I ended up creating a strange atmosphere among the people.
[Currently, we live in the era of the great riders.]
‘Don’t do that!’
The mentality of the students I understood through Yoon Iseon, who was all obsessed with characters from past tokusatsu films.
The most obsessive ones were…
Beep, beep!
A horn sounded from behind us.
“What’s that noise?”
“Teacher! It’s dangerous!”
As I turned my head back, Yoon Iseon grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards her.
Vroom!
The something that passed by with a gust of wind was undoubtedly a motorcycle.
Not a bicycle, nor a scooter, but a motorcycle spewing exhaust fumes.
“Sorry! In a hurry!”
And on that motorcycle was a Dodjirider with something fluttering behind them like a cape.
“Is that… an insect?”
“It’s a stag beetle, to be precise.”
The Dodjirider, who seemed to have an insect motif, continued to ride his motorcycle while donning a steel suit.
It was absurd to see him rushing forward after just leaving a word of apology, and it was even more absurd because this was supposed to bring down the runaway, rampant superpowered humans.
‘There’s a reason why heroes are condemned in Western media.’
Among the heroes, there was one who could run extremely fast.
For some reason, he sprinted at an incredibly high speed, and due to the aftermath of that speed and impact, pedestrians on the street vanished without leaving a trace, not even dust.
They ended up dying, crushed into a pulp, worse than being hit by a train.
A similar situation almost happened just now.
“Were you very scared? Are you okay?”
“Ah, yes.”
“I’m sorry. Because of me…”
“No, no, it’s not. You saved me. Plus, evacuating civilians is part of a staff member’s job.”
The staff members of Sejong Academy had a duty to do their utmost in protecting and safeguarding the vulnerable when a villain appeared, or students ran amok.
“I’ll make sure to impose disciplinary action on that student through the student council later.”
“That would… I would appreciate that.”
Vroom.
As I composed myself and tried to move forward again, the sound of a motorcycle echoed from behind.
“Woah!”
This time, a young man on a bicycle, wearing a motorcycle helmet, pedaled hard and passed by.
His speed wasn’t that fast, but it certainly felt faster than a car driving in the city.
“He doesn’t have a bike license, so he’s using a bicycle…?”
“It doesn’t seem to be just that.”
As Yoon Iseon pointed behind us, there were five ability users dressed in matching colors coming in a row.
“What are you guys doing now?”
“We!”
“Are here to!”
“Protect the country!”
“Protect!”
“Patriots of!”
“”““ “The O-Ban Special Squad!!” “”““
These individuals, each dressed in red, blue, yellow, white, and black, wore helmets similar to mine and sprinted forward in body-tight tights.
“Could it be that this is also influenced by the Goblin?”
“Yes. Everyone was influenced after seeing the Goblin.”
“Goodness.”
I didn’t expect my actions to lead to such a result.
‘I apologize, world. I have unleashed poison upon this nation.’
I casually suggested to Yumir to transform her armor into a new form, and this incident happened.
‘Horrible.’
Beyond feeling a chill running down my spine, I felt like I should apologize to the nation as the cause of this incident.
“Student Iseon. Are you also going to transform like that? Huh?”
“How can I transform straight away? I don’t have a suit.”
“Well, of course…”
Whoops.
For a moment, I almost revealed the Goblin’s top secret, ‘the mana suit’.
“… Don’t heroes always wear suits underneath their clothes?”
“Some people do, but I don’t. Unfortunately.”
“Then….”
“I’m going to check out the scene. It’s not a job for the student council but as a hero.”
What a beautiful mindset.
It was not for nothing that she had been leading students as the student council president at Sejong Island for years. She already had sufficient qualities as a hero.
Of course, aside from possessing the posture of a hero, I didn’t think she should become the hot pink Dodjirider.
“President!!”
A running male student with glasses appeared from the opposite side of the alley.
“Are you okay?!”
“I’m fine. What brought you here?”
“You said you were going to eat nearby, so I rushed over! …And who is this next to you?”
“This is Teacher Do. They’re a librarian working at the library.”
“I haven’t seen them before….”
“They’re in Basement Level 2.”
“Ah.”
This cheeky fellow gave me a ‘well then’ look.
“President, I have already contacted the police. You don’t need to step in.”
The vice president, who could be described as your average glasses-wearing guy that one might find in every class, blocked our path.
“The police will handle such Goblin imitations. You don’t need to step in, President. For now-”
“Are you an idiot?”
Yoon Iseon pushed the vice president aside.
“You’re saying we just wait for the public authority to solve the situation when a monster threatening public safety appears, and that monster is a student of the academy? That’s not possible.”
“President!”
“I am going. Not as a member of the student council, but as an aspiring hero.”
Yoon Iseon firmly rejected the vice president’s attempts to stop her.
“Teacher, let’s go!”
“…Okay.”
“Hold on, why are you…?!”
“You?”
As I was about to rush forward, I pointed at his Taegeuk Watch and laughed at the vice president.
[Emergency. All school staff should do their utmost for student evacuation. Prompt support, according to the manual, is required.]
“The deployment of school staff to the scene of an accident is the duty of the staff, the ‘adults’. Kid.”
“Kuh…?!”
After telling the vice president about the duty of an adult, I immediately ran after Yoon Iseon.
“Adult…it has a nice ring to it.”
“Isn’t Iseon, as a university student, an adult too?”
“From the outside, college students are considered adults. However, the world doesn’t yet see ability users that way.”
Just as Yoon Iseon said, the world still saw ability users not quite as children but as wandering adolescents.
That made sense. Even if the oldest was born in 2000, if you thought about it as just 25 years, they would be just out of college, doing the role of the youngest in society.
“Still, when I see them like that, I feel they are quite young.”
Now becoming adults, or even adults themselves, they were captivated by that indescribable special effects spectacle-
Krrraaaaaaaang!
A loud noise echoed from behind.
Wondering what the noise was, I turned my head back, and there-
“Excuse me! Please move!!”
A heap of scrap metal measuring up to 2.5 meters in length was walking.
It was not just any scrap metal; it was the Mechateranodon running on two feet from the movie I saw not too long ago.
And there was definitely a person inside the Mechateranodon.
“What the heck is that…?”
“That’s a masterpiece created by the Engineering Club students. They burn through a lot of student council funds, but they produce results like this.”
Thud, thud, thud!
The Mechateranodon was running ahead of us.
Although its speed couldn’t match a bike or a running person, the sight of Mechateranodon running forward without destroying the road was certainly something to be-.
“…It feels like I know what it is.”
I think I somewhat understood why they were fascinated by the Goblin.
To me, their appearance was a form of madness, but to put that madness in other words-
“That’s a form of romance to the students.”
“Romance, huh.”
Literally, romance.
Becoming the hero of the content I was impressed with when I was young or that I watched most passionately.
That was indeed the secret for ability users to truly become strong, and pursuing romance can be said to be an inspiration to be a hero.
“We thought again after seeing the appearance of the Goblin. Who is the real devil? Who is the villain? Just because the outward appearance is that of a villain, can we call it a villain just because it takes on that appearance?”
“Of course not.”
While running again with Yoon Iseon, I understood their feelings.
Yeah.
That was how it would feel.
When a science teacher appeared in a pro-level game and performed a pentakill, I also wanted to try being a science teacher once. That kind of feeling.
‘Let’s think positively.’
After all, I just mixed the designs from the original world freely to create mine.
‘When they start wearing suits, they’ll all be safe, so let’s think positively.’
The national fever, no, the current ‘Dodji fever’ rampant in Sejong Island, was just a temporary phenomenon.
Everyone just got temporarily immersed after seeing the appearance of the Dodjirider, and they would take on a different appearance when some other S-grade hero or villain appeared.
Just like when Dalgona coffee became a trend, and Dalgona lattes started spreading in cafes nationwide, it was just a temporary trend.
Then…
“Student Iseon, are you going to transform…following the romance?”
“Depending on the situation.”
We arrived at the scene.
Several transformed heroes were already confronting the rampaging villain, and to be honest, Yoon Iseon stepping in could be seen as overkill.
“What’s the villain’s goal…?”
“Muahahaha! Now, this form is mine!!”
The monster, who looked like a palette-swapped (red) version of Dodjirider that was similar to my transformed form, shouted with madness.
“Now, no one can copy this form! Why?! Because…!”
That monster.
“I am the copyright holder and the patent holder of this design!”
“……Insane.”
Such a dreadful villain.
“From now on, this design is not the Dodjirider that everyone talks about! It belongs to me, Yook Gibong!”
“…….”
Wait a minute.
No way.
“From now on, everyone will call this design ‘Gibong Rider’! Anyone who wants to have this design’s costume should pay the copyright fee to me, Yook Gibong! Anyone who doesn’t…is plagiarizing!”
“Stop talking nonsense! That’s Dodjirider! It’s the Goblin’s!”
“Goblin? Ahh, that guy?”
Yuk Gibong spread his arms in the form of the Dodjirider.
“Do villains have human rights? If they don’t have human rights, naturally, they don’t have any other rights either. Let me ask you. Do villains…have copyrights?”
Flutter.
“I’ve already completed the copyright registration! Faster than anyone! I’ve even completed reporting to the Patent Office; only the patent review is left! Today, five minutes from now! The moment the patent review is completed! You guys won’t be Dodjiriders…!”
Yook Gibong, with mana even fluttering his cloak, took a convincing stance.
“You’ll become ‘Gibong Riders’! Muahahaha!!”
Ah.
I wanted to transform.