I Woke Up as the Villain

It was a call from Choi In-Young.

‘Why now… What should I do?’ 

Choi Min-Seok contemplated until the cell phone stopped ringing. He only hit the answer button in surprise when the cell phone rang again.

"Noo-nim, sorry I couldn't answer the phone. I was a bit busy," Choi Min-Seok said as carefully and politely as possible.

- It's okay. So, how's the Yu-Seong thing going?

Choi Min-Seok stiffened when In-Young got to the main subject right away. Cold sweat formed on his forehead. Knowing the point of this conversation, he felt thankful to do it over a phone call.

'If I had faced her in person, I would have been caught.’ 

Choi Min-Seok had many reasons to be afraid of getting caught. If Choi In-Young started to doubt him, and if the consequence of that caused harm to Choi Yu-Seong, he would be completely doomed.

"...It's going well," said Min-Seok. It was a little late, but he pretended to be as calm as possible.

After that, there was a short silence over the phone.

- My dear Min-Seok, are you hiding anything from me?

Min-Seok trembled, but he shook his head immediately. He quickly denied it. "How could I? What do I have to gain by deceiving you?"

-Haha... But why do I feel like you are lying? You know that my intuition is pretty sharp.

"Maybe you've gotten sensitive because you've been paying attention to many things lately. I'm also pretty sensitive these days,” said Min-Seok. He wasn’t exactly lying, so he could speak more smoothly.

- Hmmm...

Nevertheless, Choi In-Young's suspicion over the phone did not go away easily.

- Does Yu-Seong have something on you?

At that moment, Choi Min-Seok almost screamed.

‘She said that she has a good intuition, but she can actually open a fortune-telling shop.’ 

Min-Seok broke into a cold sweat, his back getting wet.

- If that's the case, feel free to tell me. I’m your sister, and I can easily solve that. We are siblings, aren't we?

Choi Min-Seok's gaze shook at Choi In-Young's seductive voice.

‘Yeah, wouldn't In-Young noo-nim…be reliable?’ 

He thought that sharing the burden might be better than continuing to be dragged by Choi Yu-Seong. He agonized over it for a while.

- Min-Seok, you can be honest with me.

"That..." Choi Min-Seok's dry lips slightly moved upon hearing Choi In-Young's voice.

In-Young immediately spoke again as if she couldn’t miss the opportunity.

- Yes, go ahead.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

It was like the devil was tempting Choi Min-Seok, but he still answered, "There is no such thing.”

Choi Min-Seok had a hard time answering while hiding his nervousness. He made a clumsy smile.

- Really?

"There's no way Yu-Seong would have something on me, right? There’s no problem at all. I will contact you with good news soon, nu-nim."

- Okay then, since you’re saying that, I’ll believe you. Let's talk face-to-face when we have time.

"Of course, noo-nim. Please feel free to contact me any time," Min-Seok said. With that, he ended the call and unknowingly breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"Any time, my..."

Of course, Min-Seok certainly didn’t want to see In-Young in person. In fact, he didn’t even want to talk on the phone with her again.

Not too long ago, Choi In-Young's voice had sounded pleasing, but it had become creepy now.

‘Damn, it’s all because Choi Yu-Seong has something on me…’

Even now, Min-Seok thought about calling Choi In-Young again and honestly telling her the truth. However, he knew instinctively and logically that…

‘It's already too late.’

If he turned to her now, he would be like the dog got killed after the hunt was over. Now, he had no choice but to follow Choi Yu-Seong to the best of his abilities.

***

Yoo Chul-Min, the Cheon-Ji Group’s Chairman, opened his arms and hugged his beloved grandson. With a bright smile, he said, "My dear Bernard, you're here. I heard it's been a while since you came to Korea but only now do I get to see your face.”

"I'm sorry. I was also busy wandering around as soon as I came to Korea,” said Jae-Yeol.

"But you should have run to see me, your grandfather, first!" Yoo Chul-Min spoke harshly but still with a smile on his face. He held the hands of Jae-Yeol—Bernard Yoo—and led him to the sofa in the living room. Then, he asked, "Ah Jae-Yeol, my dear grandson. I've kept up with the news. Wasn't it hard to live abroad?"

"There's nothing hard about it. I just had to do everything according to plan, just like you’ve prepared, grandfather,” Bernard Yoo said with a shrug.

Bernard Yoo had short hair and strong facial features. His pale skin, gentle eyes, and soft smile gave an impression of a beautifully grown greenhouse flower. However, in terms of his true nature, he was quite the fighter. He hated to lose and was a very possessive person.

To some extent, he delayed visiting Chairman Yoo at the house after returning to Korea because he had gone to trace Kim Do-Jin’s footsteps. He had wanted to visit, experience, and evaluate his opponent's skills in person, not just watch videos or hear rumors. Even his cautious personality was very much favored by Chairman Yoo.

They inquired about each other's health as they talked about what each had been up to. To Chairman Yoo, Bernard Yoo was just a cute grandson who always listened to him well and achieved everything he wanted. There was no reason to nag him. Naturally, the conversation continued in a friendly way.

"Oh, and you're well prepared for next week's race, right?” asked Chairman Yoo.

"You mean the Orc Village, right? I've sent a couple of people to take a quick look at it...but can I be honest with you?” said Bernard Yoo.

"Tell me."

Bernard Yoo shrugged his shoulders with a slightly bitter smile. "Other monsters are not a problem. But the Boss Monster might be a little difficult to defeat alone.”

"Ah, I see… you said that you're at level 80 of D-rank?" asked Chairman Yoo.

"I'll be at level 90 soon."

"You are fast."

Nevertheless, it was difficult to hunt Raid Boss alone in the Orc Village.

Chairman Yoo was not just a proud man. It had not yet been revealed to Bernard Yoo, but Chairman Yoo had made all sorts of preparations. Only when he began talking was the secret revealed.

"It's hard, but I think I can handle it. I just felt slightly unsure... Kim Do-Jin, that friend, he’s such a monster," said Bernard Yoo.

"So you think you can handle it?" asked Chairman Yoo. What caught his attention was Bernard Yoo’s earlier words.

"It's going to take a while. Also, it'll be dangerous...but I still want to give it a shot. After looking around, I want to break Kim Do-Jin’s record in this dungeon once. It's my first time being a challenger since I started hunting, so I'm even more excited," said Bernard Yoo.

Chairman Yoo smiled. He was proud of every word Bernard Yoo had uttered so far. Then, a question arose in his mind for a moment. He asked, "Do you want to break his record?"

"Yes, I heard that Choi Yu-Seong, my opponent, has already broken Kim Do-Jin's record once."

"Ah… That..." Chairman Yoo nodded as he recalled the news that riled up Korea not long ago. He added, "It was a bit of luck to find a secret passage, but the result was pretty good."

"Grandpa. Luck is a skill to have in the dungeon," said Bernard Yoo.

Chairman Yoo eyes widened at those unexpected words. In fact, it wasn’t a particularly bad feeling. Rather, it made him curious.

"When I looked into Choi Yu-Seong, he didn't have a great reputation. There were still quite a few people who ignored him. I might lose if I get fooled by this reputation of his,” said Bernard Yoo.

"You mean that Choi Yu-Seong has pretty useful skills, too.”

"No, Grandpa." Bernard Yoo shook his head firmly. "It's not just useful, it's excellent."

"Hahaha-!" Chairman Yoo couldn’t help laughing. He then asked, "But you're going to win, right?”

"Because I don't intend to lose," said Bernard Yoo.

"Okay, then let this old man help you," said Chairman Yoo.

"What?"

Bernard Yoo’s eyes were full of questions at his grandfather’s unexpected words. Chairman Yoo took out a jewelry box from a drawer next to the sofa and pushed it toward Bernard Yoo. He urged, "Open it."

Still questioning, Bernard Yoo opened the jewelry box, which had a gold ring inside. At first glance, the ring looked normal. However, it was not difficult to figure out that the ring was not an ordinary object. It had a unique form of text written on its sides.

"It's an ancient relic," said Bernard Yoo.

"It's a hard-earned item for this match. It's called ‘Orc Hunt’."

"Uh... Then its ability is…?"

"You are right. Wearing this ring can make you infinitely powerful against the Orc species. If the target is an Orc, even a small injury could fatally poison it with this ancient artifact’s ability."

"How did you get this quickly?”

"What do you mean quickly?" Chairman Yoo snorted. "I’ve been looking for this for two months. I began looking the moment you came from the U.S. and said you wanted to try to break Kim Do-Jin’s record. I spent a lot of money trying to get this, so use it well and make sure you win this game and achieve the record you want."

"Wait, Grandpa. You mean that next week's game is...."

"Right. I chose the Orc Village so that you can use this.”

"Grandpa, I don't want to win the game like this."

When Bernard carefully rejected it, Chairman Yoo looked at Bernard Yoo's surprised face indifferently. Bernard Yoo looked stubborn and full of pride. Although Chairman Yoo felt proud as Bernard Yoo looked exactly like him in his early days, he did not reveal his inner feelings and continued to talk with a hard expression.

"All right, let's say you don't use it. Can you confidently say that you can beat Choi Yu-Seong?”

"It's... it's not something I can be sure of..." answered Bernard Yoo after some thought.

Choi Yu-Seong's videos already showed how extraordinary he was, and Bernard Yoo was not very generous with praise. There was a reason he valued Yu-Seong’s ability as excellent.

‘Right, until recently, Kim Do-Jin was the only hunter in Korea who he praised.’ 

In addition, Bernard Yoo also praised Choi Yu-Seong as excellent.

From the first time Chairman Yoo had heard Bernard Yoo praising Choi Yu-Seong, he had already expected this conversation to happen.

“As you said, luck is also a valued skill in dungeons. And that guy in the Comet Group has been pretty lucky lately. You could lose. But what if you use this ring?” asked Chairman Yoo.

"...I'm sure I can win," said Bernard Yoo. His confident words made Chairman Yoo smile gently.

"Bernard, no, Jae-Yeol. From now on, keep in mind what I tell you."

"Yes, Grandpa."

“It's not a bad idea to win a fair game. Though for people like us, I’m talking about Chairman Choi, Chairman Kim, myself, and perhaps even the future you, we need to put aside the idea of fairness.”

"But Grandpa, I..."

"Tsk…! Listen to me.” Chairman Yoo raised his voice and looked at Bernard Yoo with a hardened face. "If what we do is a game, we definitely need to be fair. That's justice. But Jae-Yeol. It's not a game we're playing. It's a war. If you lose, Comet Group will go into the guild business and take away our jobs, and a considerable number of employees will have to leave their jobs behind and be kicked out of the company. When one person is kicked out, the whole family stumbles. If ten people are kicked out, ten families are in danger at once. Jae-Yeol."

"Yes… Grandpa."

"This is the responsibility of the monarch, which you should know. The position where I am now, everything you enjoy is made up of the blood and sweat of the employers—who is our nation. What you have to do is to protect your position and take away your opponent's. That is why it's a war. We have to win by any means. Only then would it benefit everyone. Do you understand?"

"...Yes."

Chairman Yoo looked kind once again. Looking at his grandson, he laughed heartily.

Bernard Yoo dropped his head somewhat weakly.

"Hahaha… You don't have to accept everything right away. But, Jae-Yeol, keep this in mind. The word cowardice does not exist in a war. Now, put on your ring. I have to see how well it suits you," said Chairman Yoo.

In the end, Bernard Yoo could not refuse the ancient relics offered by Chairman Yoo. He wore them on his right index finger.

"It suits you very well. Haha...!" Chairman Yoo's big laugh seemed to shake the entire house.