Chapter 1

The Heroic life of the greatest villain 

Chapter 1

Academy of Heroes.

In a society where 80 percent of the population were Awakened, it stood as one of the most renowned educational institutions of all.

Countless would-be heroes admired it, they quite frankly yearned for it.

Yet the cold reality was that the majority of applicants were crushed by its brutally difficult entrance examinations.

And among those trials, the very last test was now being conducted inside the academy itself.

Within a vast arena, a single holographic monster loomed into existence.

On the opposite side, inside an iron-barred cage, the examinees taking the test waited alongside their supervisors.

Then, from the waiting area, loud snickers rang out.

“Hey, look at that guy. He’s totally frozen.”

“Ah, he’ll probably just waste time again and give up.”

The target of that ridicule Ha Jin seok stood perfectly still, as though his feet had been nailed to the floor.

It wasn’t because of the mockery from the other academy applicants around him.

‘Damn it…’

They say that when a person is faced with a situation that’s too overwhelming, they become incapable of taking any action at all.

For the past several hours, Ha Jin seok was  exactly tha wayt.

Swooosh

A cool gust of wind slipped through the iron bars of the cage and brushed against his cheek.

Judging by the vivid sensation of the air against his skin, the situation appeared to be unmistakably real.

And yet, despite that, Jin seok felt as though everything before him was utterly unreal.

Because he was certain of one thing.

‘…I died.’

Ha Jin seok branded as the Greatest villain in history had been hunted by the entire world and met his end in death.

But when he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a situation so absurd it defied laughter.

He had become a candidate taking the entrance exam for the Academy of Heroes.

Worse still, he had become someone who stood at the exact opposite extreme of who he once was

Kim Chang-sik, the strongest hero.

A deep sigh slipped from Jin seok’s lips.

“…First, I need to deal with this situation.”

Once again, the low murmur of the other candidates reached his ears.

“Kim Chang-sik that bastard’s frozen again. What kind of moronic stunt is he going to pull this time?”

“How many times has this been now? If he’s going to act like that, why the hell did he even apply for the academy?”

“Hey! Just give up and come out already.”

The supervisor standing nearby nodded as well, trying to dissuade him.

“Candidate Kim Chang-sik. If you’re scared, it’s fine to forfeit here.”

At those words, Kim Chang-sik no, Ha Jin seok let out a low, crooked laugh.

‘So this is how the man who’ll be called the strongest hero was treated at the start?’

“…Interesting.”

Seeing his reaction, the supervisor tilted his head in confusion.

The final test was the one that demanded the highest level of difficulty.

‘A holographic monster combat test that replicated over 80% of the real monster’s abilities…’

Candidates with no real combat experience usually cowered before the murderous intent radiating from the hologram monsters, giving up before the fight even began.

But that timid coward everyone talked about, Kim Chang-sik?

The supervisor glanced past the cage at the monster prepared on the field.

“Grrr…”

As if that weren’t enough, this holographic opponent was an upper-tier difficulty Velociraptor.

A predator so fearsome that most examinees were afraid just to face it.

Letting out a heavy sigh, the supervisor raised his hand to stop Jin seok.

“I’m telling you again? Huh?”

Before he could finish, however, Jin seok drew the practice sword and stepped out of the cage.

Clack!

At his movement, the fellow candidates who had been watching began to murmur in agitation.

“What the hell? He’s really going out there? Is he trying to kill himself or something?”

“Shouldn’t someone stop him? Even if it’s a hologram, the shock is still real!”

“H–Hey! That bastard has  lost his damn mind?! He’s charging at the raptor first?!”

All eyes snapped toward him at once.

And at the same time, Jin seok’s practice sword swung through the air.

Fwoosh!

A motion of immaculate precision.

A single strike, so refined it radiated elegance.

With a single blow, the raptor infamous for its ferocity was cleaved apart.

Casually resting the sword against his shoulder, he lifted his head and looked toward his stunned peers, their faces frozen in disbelief.

“What are you staring at?”

Thus, the man once feared as the greatest villain stepped into the Academy of Heroes.

* * *

After the entrance exam ended, Jin seok received a few instructions from the Supervisor.

It sounded like they were saying something important, but he merely nodded absentmindedly before heading to the dormitory he’d been assigned.

A quiet room, meant for a single occupant.

A compact desk and neatly arranged furniture.

From atop the desk, through the window, the sound of birds chirping drifted in.

Drawn by the sound, Jin seok opened the window.

Clack!

A cool breeze brushed against his face.

That fresh air filled his lungs completely.

Thump, thump, thump, His heart hammered in his chest.

“…I’m alive.”

In the distance, a single massive tree came into view.

Shifting his gaze just a little farther, he could see the grand front gate of the academy.

“But…”

Once more, he looked at his own reflection in the window beside him.

“…Why Kim Chang-sik?”

He ran a hand over his face, inspecting his body.

No matter how he looked this way or that it was unmistakably the appearance of the hero he knew Kim Chang-sik.

He couldn’t make sense of the situation at all.

Lowering his head, he slowly brushed his hand across his abdomen.

Hadn’t he been stabbed in the stomach by Jang Docheol that bastard and died?

“And now, all of a sudden, I’m Kim Chang-sik…”

.

.

.

For two full days, he shut himself inside the room, devoting himself to understanding what had happened.

And after long deliberation, the conclusion he reached was simple.

“I’ve come back to life and I’ve become Kim Chang-sik.”

The window relected  gentle eyes and pale skin.

The universally acknowledged strongest hero on earth.

It was, without a doubt, the exact image of the  Hero Kim Chang-sik.

And most importantly…

“…I’ve returned to the past.”

It  wasn’t a theory based merely on the fact that he looked younger.

For one thing, it was right after the Academy entrance exam.

If this was Kim Chang-sik’s trainee days, before he came to be known as the strongest, then this placed him roughly four to five years in the past.

In truth, setting all of that aside…

“Just looking at the calendar in this room tells me it’s from five years ago.”

Jin-seok gathered every scrap of information and weighed it as a whole.

He had regressed into the past and on top of that, he had possessed Kim Chang-sik, the man later hailed as the strongest hero…

He understood the situation.

But still…

“Does something like this even make sense?”

After staring off into space for a long while, he finally flopped down onto the bed.

Flump

A gray concrete ceiling filled his vision.

Even if he accepted his current reality, he had no idea what he was supposed to do next.

‘Should I go look for… myself?’

As he tried to recall where he had been living around five years ago, a sigh escaped him.

“And if I find him? Then what?”

If he were actually able to meet another “Ha Jin seok,” could he really tell him the truth?

Shaking his head from side to side, he dismissed the thought.

“I’d be lucky if he didn’t just think I was insane and beat the hell out of me.”

With his thoughts in turmoil, he finally closed his eyes.

“Phew… for now, I’ll just rest.”

After months of relentless pursuit, such moment felt unbearably peaceful to Jin-seok.

As his body relaxed, memories of the past began to surface.

The absolute power he had once possessed.

Because his power so closely resembled that of a villain, countless people had misunderstood him.

Of course, his reckless personality had played a part in it as well.

‘…Still, wasn’t it a bit too much to label someone a villain just because of their ability?’

A self-mocking smile crept across his face.

Tricked by the schemes of Jang Docheol, the boss of a so-called organization ‘Vaylun’, Jin seok had been framed as the Greatest villain of all.

Naturally, once he sensed something was wrong, he had stepped before the public to try and clear up the misunderstanding.

But his hotheaded nature, his fierce appearance, and that dark, villain-like ability of his…

‘…If anything, that only branded me more firmly as the worst villain.’

After that, he had been hunted by the entire world.

In the end, his body battered and bloodied, he finally closed his eyes.

Clench!

Without realizing it, Jin seok tightly grabbed his abdomen the very spot where Jang Docheol had struck him in his final moments.

‘Ghk… you bastard!’

The flames of vengeance against Jang Docheol reignited within him.

Revenge.

He sprang to his feet.

“Yes.”

Could this really be a second chance for him?

‘I’m someone who once stood toe-to-toe with the massive organization that formed one of the world’s central pillars the Villains.’

And now, he even had the enormous backing of the Heroes Association.

His heart began to pound violently in his chest.

“…There’s a chance.”

No…if he was being honest, it was more than enough.

Of course, for now, he was nothing more than an academy student.

This guy would later cement himself as the strongest hero, a truly extraordinary talent.

Even Jin-seok had to admit that ‘Kim Chang-sik’ was 0.8 of Ha Jin-seok when it came to skill.

“Well, the remaining 0.2? That’s what I’ll take care of.”

But above all, the most promising advantage in his current situation was clear.

‘ I can monopolize Information.’

He alone knew what would happen in the future.

With that thought, he opened a notebook on his desk and began scribbling furiously.

‘On this year alone, the Hero Association has been bested by villains more than once or twice.’

Thanks to living largely alone and keeping himself entertained by reading newspapers, he could quickly piece together the major incidents and crises.

Even better, the thought of  possibly intercepting the artifact that Jang Docheol would later  acquire brought smile to his lips.

“Hah! Revenge might not even take that long.”

On top of that, he had knowledge of the weaknesses of the Vaylun organization’s executives, learned over the past few months of fighting.

‘And the artifacts… lying dormant deep within the Academy because no one knows their purpose…’

But then, his relentless scribbling came to an abrupt halt.

“…Huh?”

His eyes widened in sudden confusion.

‘…Wait a minute. So I actually have to go through Academy life from here on out?’

For someone who had never even participated in a single group activity let alone attended an academy it was nothing short of a death sentence.

He pressed his lips together tightly.

“Of course, graduating from the Academy is the natural step if I want the Heroes Association at my back…but…”

As a throbbing headache made his brow involuntarily crease,

Ding!

Suddenly, a holographic window appeared out of thin air before him.

Since ancient times, a person with enough influence to lead the masses and change the world has been called a “hero.”

Countless people may call themselves heroes, but the one truly recognized by the world is only one.

That is Kim Chang-sik. Only you were born with that destiny.

“…What is this?”

Jin seok couldn’t close his mouth in disbelief at the absurd hologram before him.

But the system gave him no time to process it.

Ding!

Check your status window and identify your awakened traits and abilities.

Under normal circumstances, he would never have believed such a thing.

But considering everything that had already happened to him, it was almost cute by comparison.

‘Hero? Reward? Is this… like some kind of quest?’

As he began to process the situation, the look of shock on his face gradually twisted into a scowl.

“So this asshole’s been getting by without effort”

Come to think of it, Kim Chang-sik only began making a name for himself after entering the Academy.

That was the destiny the world had set for him.

“Damn it, this feels wrong. While I was struggling and scraping by, this guy was cruising down a perfectly paved road laid out by… ‘the world.’ ”

Of course, from now on, he would be the one running on that perfectly paved road…

…but with a supercharged engine called information monopoly.

He exhaled deeply and checked the status window.

Ding!

———————————

———————————

———————————————

The status window flashed that he had received a reward the moment he checked his status but he didn’t even have time to acknowledge it.

“…This isn’t the same as before.”

Because the awakened traits he now possessed were significantly different from those of the hero he knew as Kim Chang-sik.

A thought crossed his mind had the future changed slightly the moment he became Kim Chang-sik?

‘It’s not certain yet, but this world might unfold a little differently than what I know…’

He looked at the notebook where he had carefully written down events of the future, a slightly troubled expression on his face.

And then, at that exact moment…

[ Ah, Candidate Kim Chang-sik. Candidate Kim Chang-sik, please report immediately to Candidate Class A. ]

The loud, continuous broadcast made his brow furrow deeply.

“…I guess I’ll have to go for now.”

* * *

Chang-sik stepped out of the dormitory building and slowly walked through the Academy’s vast, nearly deserted campus.

“Are the regular students on vacation?”

The training of candidates was scheduled to coincide with the vacation period of the full-fledged students.

As a result, the Academy’s sprawling grounds were almost completely empty.

“Where is Candidate Class A?”

As he peered into multiple buildings in search of the candidate dormitory, his gaze landed on a woman.

“Hm?”

In the dim, shadowy atmosphere, she was crouched down, playing cheerfully with a lively little squirrel.

With no one else to ask, Chang-sik approached her directly.

“Hey.”

“......”

Perhaps she hadn’t heard him; she continued playing with the squirrel, seemingly oblivious.

Chang-sik stepped a little closer.

“Can I ask you for directions?”

Finally, she slowly raised her head.

When her eyes met his, her expression was tinged with curiosity.

At the same time, Chang-sik’s expression twisted.

“Hey, I’m talking to you, can't you hear me?”

The girl, eyes wide in shock at his direct gaze, looked around frantically.

Then, with a long, slender finger, she pointed at herself.

“?? Me?”

At her absurd reaction, Chang-sik clicked his tongue shortly.

“Yes, who else would it be?”

“…Huh? You… can see me??”

Chang-sik’s brow furrowed instinctively.

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“No, it’s not that…”

“Forget it. Do you know where Candidate Class A is?”

“Candidate… class? Uh… that building, fourth floor.”

Still dazed, she pointed toward a building.

Chang-sik, remembering the building she indicated, simply nodded in acknowledgment.

“Alright, thanks.”

With that, Chang-sik immediately began to walk away.

But the girl hurriedly grabbed his arm.

“Wait! You’re a candidate?”

“Hm? Yeah, that’s right.”

“Then… what’s your name…?”

Her hesitant question made her face flush bright red, like a ripe tomato.

Chang-sik looked at her strangely and answered plainly.

“Kim Chang-sik.”

Just that one simple name and he turned and continued on his way.

She stared quietly at his departing figure.

“…What a strange kid.”

Her gaze drifted down to the lively little squirrel that had been scurrying around her.

“Isn’t that right?”

At that moment, the squirrel collapsed onto the grass with a soft thump.

The vibrant energy it had radiated moments ago was gone, replaced by a pungent stench of decay.

The squirrel had long since been dead.

“Candidate Kim Chang-sik, huh…”

A sharp, almost teasing smile spread across her lips.

The Heroic life of the greatest villain