I Woke Up as the Villain

"Don't be too burdened by this. Are you done setting up?” asked Yu-Seong.

"Of course, I came early in the morning to do everything in advance. The hypnotist will be waiting in the warehouse,” said Yu-Ri.

Choi Yu-Seong nodded before grabbing the closed car door handle. He made a suggestion. "Then, shall we go? Whether it works or not, let’s have a barbeque dinner together with all of Ye-Ryeong's younger siblings.”

Chae Ye-Ryeong had been reaching out to open her door, but she stopped to look at Yu-Seong.

"My siblings too?”

Chae Ye-Ryeong had three younger siblings, who were of elementary and middle school age. They were growing up, so they should be eating well. Therefore, Yu-Seong thought that even though Ye-Ryeong's economic situation was pretty much solved by now, she wouldn’t refuse a dinner invite. However, when he saw her surprised reaction, he asked with slight suspicion, "Are you not comfortable for dinner? Then..."

"No way!" Surprised, Ye-Ryeong shouted and quickly got out of the car. She bowed her head toward Choi Yu-Seong. "I'll definitely eat well."

"Great. Let's go then."

The three people, including the relaxed-looking Ye-Ryeong, started to walk into the wooden warehouse.

Meanwhile, on a rural road four kilometers away from where Choi Yu-Seong's car was parked, a man was checking the three people’s movements through binoculars from a van. Watching them, he hit the cell phone’s location transmission button. Then, a message arrived immediately.

- I'll be there in 20 minutes. Stand by.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

It was a message from Choi Min-Seok.

***

The inside of the wooden warehouse was as big as it appeared to be from the outside. There was nothing inside, so they quickly found the three people who had been waiting for them. The people inside had been sitting on wooden chairs right next to the black tent, which concealed from view a long rectangular frame, in the center of the warehouse.

It was the first time Choi Yu-Seong was seeing the three of them. The first person that caught his eye was a young man in his early- to mid-20s who straightened his back as soon as the group entered the warehouse. The young man quickly said, "Hello. Boss, I'm Kim Doo-Jun. To add to my introduction, I respect Yu-Ri noo-nim."

The young man was somewhat of a talkative chap. Yu-Seong could easily tell that he was a member of the Hidden Team led by Jin Yu-Ri and Jenny. It was quite curious, however, that Kim Doo-Jun looked older than the two women.

“If they pretty and strong, then I address them as noo-nim,” Doo-Jun said with a smile. It was as if he had read Yu-Seong’s questioning gaze.

Choi Yu-Seong could roughly understand the situation when he saw Jin Yu-Ri shaking her head as if she thought him pathetic.

He said with a nod, "Nice to meet you, Doo-Jun, and the rest of you are..."

"Oh, let me introduce them. First of all, this is Kim Hee-Jin. She's a D-rank hypnotist. She’s pretty, don’t you think so?” said Doo-Jun.

Kim Hee-Jin, a woman in her mid-30s, looked awkward at Kim Doo-Jun's introduction. She bowed her head slightly. "I'm Kim Hee-Jin. Nice to meet you."

A hypnotist had a very important role because she had to inflict a fairly strong mental shock to Chae Ye-Ryeong.

"Don't be too nervous, and I look forward to your kind cooperation. I’m Choi Yu-Seong," said Yu-Seong. He smiled and asked for a handshake with the hypnotist Kim Hee-Jin, who seemed to be somewhat shy. It was a kind gesture on his part to ease the tension, even just by a little bit.

"And this is Hwang Ki-Chul. He’s a B-rank hunter who has a Mana-Blocking skill. We had a bit of a struggle bringing him in. For your information, he doesn't talk much."

"...I'm Hwang Ki-Chul." Hwang Ki-Chul reached out with his hand, looking somewhat tired of Kim Doo-Jun's chatter. He was, in a sense, the most important safety guard in this Re-Awakening work.

The two requirements for the original novel’s Re-Awakening were rather intense trauma and exposure to unleashed mana. This process carried relatively high risk, as Jin Yu-Ri predicted.

'If she completes the Re-Awakening safely, she may have stronger power than ordinary players from the start. But…’

If Chae Ye-Ryeong was stimulated incorrectly during the Re-Awakening, the mana that resonated between Chae Ye-Ryeong and mana stone would be triggered to try to agglomerate. That would end in a violent collision as a result. It was very easy to explain what would happen because of this.

‘Boom and bang….’

In other words, like a mana bomb exploding in front of their eyes, it would be an explosion of mana. The predicted range could actually blow the entire wooden warehouse away. If they were caught up, everyone here would be wiped out.

Maybe Jin Yu-Ri, who was an A-rank hunter, could lead and avoid sustaining injuries for herself and Choi Yu-Seong upon seeing the signs of an explosion.

However, there was no such intention at all. If the mana explosion occurred, Ye-Ryeong would certainly die, since she would be the source of the explosion. No matter how important his life was, Yu-Seong did not want to run away and leave Ye-Ryeong alone. Even though she was aware of the danger, he was the one who had challenged her to Re-Awaken. Therefore, Yu-Seong hired Hwang Ki-Chul, who had the Mana-Blocking specialized skill, as a type of protective measure.

Just as its name suggested, the Mana-Blocking skill was the ability to seal mana released to the outside. In a way, it was an ability that could be considered a well-matched skill for the Psychic type hunters, but the mana blockade itself required such high concentration that the player could not move a single step during the skill exercise. Needless to say, the skill was not that useful in practice.

‘In the beginning, it was said that it could be good to take on one of those attackers with such skills when fighting the dungeon’s boss monster, but…’

Those who could not move a single step, in exchange for tying up the mana released externally, were likely to die an instant death from the boss monster’s attack. Above all, the boss monster did not weaken just because its externally released mana was bound.

‘If one skill is blocked, it could use another.’

Thus, it was a somewhat neglected ability. When controlling situations such as mana explosions, no one would be as safe and well-prepared as players with the Mana-Blocking skill. Therefore, Hwang Ki-Chul's presence was, above all, a reliable and safe insurance.

"I'm Choi Yu-Seong. Even if I don't say anything, don’t hesitate to block the mana once you judge the situation to be bad,” said Yu-Seong.

"Yes, sir," said Hwang Ki-Chu.

Ki-Chul would also die if there was a mana explosion. Therefore, Yu-Seong believed that he would take the initiative to do his best even without his reminder.

After introducing himself to Kim Doo-Jun from the Hidden Team and the two Re-Awakening assistants, Yu-Seong then looked at the two women behind him. He then introduced them, saying, "This is Jin Yu-Ri, who will prevent any possible threats, and this is Chae Ye-Ryeong, the person for this Re-Awakening. I look forward to your kind cooperation, everyone."

"I'm Jin Yu-Ri."

"I look forward to your kind cooperation. I’m Chae Ye-Ryeong."

"You are much smaller than I thought… and you look young. May I ask how old you are?” Kim Hee-Jin asked with a surprised look after seeing Ye-Ryeong.

The person she had to carry out some shocking hypnosis on was a girl who appeared to be very young.

"I'm 20 years old now. But sometimes, people judge me to be younger,” answered Ye-Ryeong. In fact, she was treated younger than her age by almost everyone, but she usually showed it off as a good thing in such situations.

"I’m not sure if you will be able to endure..." Kim Hee-Jin, on the other hand, looked worried for Ye-Ryeong. It was an understandable feeling.

"Small doesn't necessarily mean weak," said Ye-Ryeong. She ignored the concern and looked at the rectangular frame covered up in the black tent. She then said, "That's it, right, boss?"

"That's right. Chae Ye-Ryeong, you’ll go in there."

"Let’s get the tent off right away. For your information, it's quite beautiful," said Kim Doo-Jun. He quickly ran to lift the tent, as if he had been waiting for those very words.

At first glance, it was like a small room made of glass filled with rather colorful light. The only unique thing was that the center of the room had a chair. However, slightly looking up at the ceiling, one would change their mind. Despite the absence of any lighting, the orange and yellow source filling the glass room was pouring down like an aurora, emitting a mysterious light.

"Wow..." Kim Hee-Jin unconsciously expressed a gasp of admiration.

"Hmm..." Even Hwang Ki-Chul, who was mostly speechless, sighed in response.

The two of them had followed Kim Doo-Jun even after knowing what they would be doing, but they had never actually seen the glass room without the tent.

"That's all mana stone, right?” asked Chae Ye-Ryeong.

"Yes," answered Yu-Seong.

"And I have to go in there and sit in that chair."

"That's right." Choi Yu-Seong nodded.

As mentioned, the two requirements of Re-Awakening were the intense trauma and mana exposure. The reason why fifty-five mana stones filled the glass room, which was a pretty narrow space, was to make sure that the mana exposure was clearly pushed to the maximum.

“If I fail, will all those mana stones be wasted?”

"Yes. To be exact, whether you succeed or fail, that will soon become just an ordinary rock." Choi Yu-Seong nodded and answered Ye-Ryeong’s question honestly without hesitation.

Ye-Ryeong turned somewhat pale after roughly calculating the price of the mana stones in her head.

In fact, Choi Yu-Seong thought that if she succeeded in Re-Awakening, the mana stones worth almost 20 billion won would not be a waste at all. This was because, considering the best possible result, Chae Ye-Ryeong's body would accept most of the mana as she finished Re-Awakening. In such a case, the money spent would not be a waste at all.

Secondly, Yu-Seong also thought about the what could happen if they were unlucky. In the process of resonating with each other's mana, the mana stone’s energy may be scattered into nature without being absorbed. In this case, the Re-Awakening failed.

Either way, mana would disappear, so the mana stones would be no different from an ordinary stone.

'But it's okay up until this point.’

Choi Yu-Seong could simply get new mana stones when he needed them. Rather, the problem was the mental trauma that Chae Ye-Ryeong could receive due to hypnosis. But, this could be clearly alleviated through treatment.

The worst-case scenario came down to one thing—mana explosion caused by a variable. Of course, there was Hwang Ki-Chul here, so even that was not a big problem after all. There was no need to doubt the fact that the B-rank’s Mana-Blocking skill would completely prevent mana explosion to a certain extent.

‘Since the ability itself is quite strong, the penalty is proportionately big.’

No wonder it could even stop the boss monster’s powerful skill. However, Yu-Seong was worried that Ye-Ryeong could be injured, since she would become the source of the mana explosion in this case. Even if he prevented a mana explosion, it would still be the worst case for her to suffer from hypnosis or have physical damage from being the source.