I Woke Up as the Villain

After Jin-Woo had joined Yu-Seong's side, In-Young remained silent for a long time with no visible action being taken. Just like that, more than a week had passed. Yu-Seong considered this to be the calm before the storm. Therefore, rather than rushing into action, he focused on honing his own skills before making a move.

While having breakfast, Yu-Seong’s eyes widened in surprise as he watched the morning news.

- Kim Do-Jin, South Korea's strongest rookie, challenges the Sword Master, setting his sight on the title of the best!

It was news that Do-Jin and Sword Master had had an unofficial match. Although the results had not been officially announced, many speculated that Sword Master had emerged victorious from this match.

‘Kim Do-Jin probably won.’

Despite being called the best player in South Korea, Sword Master was a somewhat overrated. In the original novel, Do-Jin had been aware of this fact from the very beginning and used it as an opportunity to boost his own reputation by defeating Sword Master once he regained his strength.

‘That time has come sooner than I thought.’

Although the results had not been made public, those in the know would inevitably spread the word of the match's outcome. Indeed, everything was progressing faster and faster.

With such a feeling in his heart, Yu-Seong murmured to himself, "She'll come today."

“What?” Yu-Ri, who was watching the news from beside Yu-Seong, asked in surprise. “No way… Did you use future foresight?”

It was more of intuition rather than future foresight, but Yu-Seong didn't dismiss the feeling lightly. He replied, "It’s not that… It's more of a gut feeling.”

Calm days had passed, but a storm was brewing tonight. The preparations had already been completed, but unexpected variables could still arise. Even so, there would be no more futile defeats like in the past.

As Yu-Seong steeled himself, Yu-Ri and Do-Yoon also hardened their expressions.

When afternoon finally arrived, someone rang the doorbell of Yu-Seong's house. Yu-Ri checked the visitor and turned to Yu-Seong with a surprised expression. She said, "It's Choi In-Young.”

The fact that In-Young had directly come to his house was unexpected. Yu-Seong was momentarily flustered, but he soon regained his composure and calmly nodded.

"Did she come alone?"

"Yes," Yu-Ri replied.

"Let her in," said Yu-Seong, who knew that he should not show fear when faced with a lone opponent.

***

Soon, they were in the living room.

Facing each other, In-Young smiled slyly and asked, "Wow, how did you manage to persuade even Jin-Woo oppa to your side? Do you have more charm than I do?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Did you have a conversation with Jin-Woo hyung-nim?" Yu-Seong replied with a smirk at the strange provocation.

"Don't pretend like you don’t know anything. I already figured it all out. Where's Min Young-Hoon?"

"He's dead."

"Liar."

"But it was you who sent him to die, wasn't it, noo-nim?" Yu-Seong asked.

With a fleeting glance, In-Young tried to read Yu-Seong's expression. However, she only got a strange sensation when their gazes met.

'Is he becoming more like Father?'

Aside from failing to read Yu-Seong's thoughts in his gaze, In-Young also felt the heavy weight of his stare. In other words, Yu-Seong was using his gaze to suppress her. This fact alone made In-Young feel a strange mix of discomfort and interest.

"I wonder if simply trying to take you down is really the best strategy," In-Young commented.

In fact, her approach wasn't to go all-out in a frontal assault. Rather, she preferred to lure her opponents in and then make them yield at her feet, even if it meant taking a slightly roundabout path.

"You know we can't have the kind of relationship that you want, right?" Yu-Seong asked.

"You never know. Maybe we'll surprise each other and get along better than we think possible," In-Young replied as her Charm Skill momentarily flickered.

Yu-Seong smirked and activated his Third Eye, which allowed him to withstand the Charm Skill. He did, however, have to expend some mental strength.

In-Young looked at the Third Eye appearing on Yu-Seong’s forehead in surprise. She commented, “Oh, it looks like you have an interesting skill.”

“Well, I don’t have a choice when you use such strange tactics, noo-nim,” Yu-Seong replied.

"What a shame. I'd love to capture you now that I have the chance," In-Young said, pouting and sighing deeply. “Yu-Seong, I have to admit that you are doing well. To be honest, I am quite surprised.”

“If you know that, then you should just give up. The game is almost over,” Yu-Seong said.

“That's what I want to say. You've done well so far, but there's no guarantee you'll keep doing well. Everyone has some hidden tricks up their sleeves, so don't be mistaken in thinking that you have won already. Complacency could be fatal for you,” In-Young said.

"That’s exactly what I wanted to say to you,” Yu-Seong replied.

In-Young's eyes narrowed again at Yu-Seong’s unyielding attitude.

‘Tsk, I really want him.’ 

How could she have ignored such a great younger brother until now? If she had hugged him in her arms before he was all grown up, she wouldn't have to do such useless things now.

‘It's a huge shame.’ 

They were enemies; the reality of her situation.

In-Young nodded in resignation at the irreversible reality. "So, your choice is to witness bloodshed between your own siblings."

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you won't regret your choice?”

“Of course not,” Yu-Seong replied, grinning brightly.

In-Young's calm gaze began to change sharply. She said, "I used to think you’re a cute little brother. I wanted to save you at all costs.”

"Thank you for saying so, even though you don't mean it," Yu-Seong replied sarcastically.

"I mean what I just said. If I didn't, we wouldn't be having this pointless conversation," In-Young retorted before handing over a piece of paper from her pocket.

Yu-Seong took the piece of paper, then sighed. He said, “There are many familiar names.”

He could see the names of several executives and directors who had supported Ji-Ho and Jin-Woo. Most of them had signed an agreement to switch their allegiance to In-Young's side.

"Like you, I can do it too. With only a little encouragement, they’ve signed the contract without hesitation. You see, that's the thing. If you get careless and think you've won, you might end up choking yourself."

"But why did you bother coming all the way here to tell me this? Couldn’t this have been resolved as an internal power struggle within the company?" Yu-Seong asked.

"I’ve come since you might have prepared something too?" In-Young replied.

“...Oh well, you caught me,” Yu-Seong admitted without bothering to hide the truth.

Knowing that In-Young had the Charm Skill, it would be foolish not to predict that some would be swayed by her powers and betray him.

"Who is it? Did Yeo-Reum also betray me? Or maybe even Eun-Yul?” asked In-Young.

As she also called out the name of the youngest member of the Choi family, Eun-Yul, who wasn’t even involved in the succession fight, Yu-Seong shrugged his shoulders and said nothing.

"Well, alright, I didn't think you would tell me. And even if we take over the organization by division vote, they won't accept it modestly," In-Young said with a slight smile as she pulled out her phone to make a call.

Nobody answered even as she waited for a while. After five rings, she hung up the phone as if the call didn’t matter.

"What have you done?" Yu-Seong asked.

"Well? What do you think?” In-Young threw a question back.

That brief exchange left Yu-Seong feeling uneasy and a strange sensation coursed through his entire body. He had never felt such a sensation before, but he was well aware of it.

"It's a barrier," he said.

"Correct," In-Young replied with a smirk.

As she stood up, the vibration of the barrier caused the house and walls to crumble. She then said, "I've already surrounded your house with my troops. No one can help you now. You’ve missed your chance.”

Without warning, two dark figures appeared beside In-Young with red eyes and a strong odor of blood.

Yu-Seong easily recognized them and said, “Vampires.”

The two men grinned. Then, one of the vampires said, "Hehe... In-Young, your little brother is quite perceptive.”

"Did you get caught?" the other asked.

"Perhaps he already knew," In-Young smirked, shrugging her shoulders.

Yu-Seong could sense that the vampires were of S-rank level, but the problem was that they were not the only ones. He could tell that more than ten vampires, with a strong odor of blood, had revealed themselves beyond the entrance of the barrier.

Silently observing the situation, Yu-Seong said calmly, "Now I understand. Vampires weaken during the day, but that doesn't matter inside this barrier. That's why you’ve trapped me here and called these people over.”

In-Young tilted her head and replied, "You're mostly right. But the most important thing is that no one will know what we do inside the barrier.”

"It must have been difficult to find a barrier master of this level. Your family must have put in quite an effort," Yu-Seong noted.

"If you know that so well, why don’t you start getting scared? I don’t want to get bored while watching you.” In-Young chuckled and shrugged.

"You said it, In-Young," Yu-Seong said with a cold smile. "Just when you think you've won, the crisis will strangle you.”

"What?" In-Young asked, startled.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. You're not the only one who can hire a barrier master," Yu-Seong said.

As the barrier began to crack like shattering glass, In-Young and the vampires looked around in surprise.

"I have someone who will soon become the world's best barrier master," Yu-Seong declared.

In fact, this was the moment why Yu-Seong had never publicly announced that Jin-Hyuk had the ability of barrier master.

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‘Of course, Jin-Hyuk would not be able to break through this large barrier alone.’

Thus, he had put his best soldier on standby by Jin-Hyuk’s side.

‘Loki.’

At Yu-Seong's request, the mischievous purple dragon consumed a large amount of his mana and moved toward Jin-Hyuk to help break the barrier.

As a result, the space that had been traversed using the barrier’s power was starting to reveal the original layout of Yu-Seong's house. The vampires, who had used the power of the barrier to cross the space, began to disappear one by one.

In-Young looked bewildered, having not expected this situation at all. In fact, her reaction was only natural. Typically, it took at least an hour on average for the barrier to be broken, so it was natural for her to show such an expression.

"Well, it's always carelessness that ruins everything," Yu-Seong said with a teasing smile.

Annoyed by Yu-Seong’s tone, In-Young shouted, "Capture Choi Yu-Seong!"

After all, in chess or shogi, the game was over once the king was captured. Around them, there were still over ten S-rank vampires.

Although In-Young admitted that her maternal family had provided her as much support as possible, it had actually caused more problems.

Just when the vampires were about to attack Yu-Seong, Do-Yoon and Yu-Ri tried to block their attacks.

Bang-!

Suddenly, a man broke through the almost destroyed barrier with his strength. Revealing his huge build with a fierce and beast-like momentum, he greeted, "Hello, vampire friends. Nice to meet you.”

“Jackson…?”

The SS-rank hunter and Hexagram master of the Demon King Worshipers, Beast King Jackson, had appeared. In fact, his appearance had been intended by Yu-Seong.

'Because at this moment, the Godfather is attempting to subjugate the vampires.’

Yu-Seong felt relieved to see that the incident was unfolding as planned, despite his initial worries about the passage of time. After all, there was no reason not to use the information he had gained from reading the original novel.

‘It's a bit uncomfortable that he's from the Demon King Worshipers.’

However, there was no better way to deal with this situation. As the saying went, 'play somebody off against somebody', this was the way to suppress the enemy with another enemy.

Of course, this plan came with a problem that Yu-Seong had to face.

"So, you were the one who provided this valuable information? How interesting," Jackson said.

The problem arose when Jackson, who had been looking down at the terrified vampires and In-Young, turned his gaze to Yu-Seong.