Villain wants to live as a commoner chapter 119

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Naru continued running, swiftly passing through the urban scenery.

After a while, a sharp, prickling sensation spread across my skin, as if something were piercing me.

The surrounding mana had grown tense and heightened.

Black mist began to gather, and the flow of mana seemed to converge in one place.

Naru stopped, and I climbed down.

The black mist swirled like smoke, and at its center stood Kim Kyungmin.

Or rather, could that even be called Kim Kyungmin?

His body was melting, dripping down like wax.

Starting from his hands, his arms and torso had already lost their shape, and the lower half of his face was disintegrating.

Even in that state, Kim Kyungmin held a massive mana stone, as large as a child’s head.

Intricate carvings covered the stone, exuding a malevolent energy. It was undeniably dangerous.

“You’ve found me quickly,” he said leisurely, as if it were too late already.

I used a skill aimed at Kim Kyungmin, but it dissipated before reaching him.

Some peculiar force surrounded him, neutralizing my attack.

I considered using a large-scale force to crush everything in the area, but the risk was too high.

Destroying both Kim Kyungmin and the mana stone could have unpredictable consequences.

As much as I despised him, killing him wasn’t the primary issue—it was the unknown catastrophe the stone could unleash.

I glanced at Baek Gunho.

Instead of reckless power, his [Intervention] skill seemed a better option for this situation.

Even before I turned, Baek Gunho was already activating his skill. It didn’t seem to be working immediately, though.

“You seem… relatively unharmed,” Kim Kyungmin remarked, scanning me from head to toe.

I considered ignoring him but decided to respond, figuring it might buy some time.

“Is that a problem?”

He smiled thinly, though his expression remained full of resentment.

“You’re supposed to be our god, yet you wish for my death.”

“A god that doesn’t grant wishes isn’t a god at all, is it? Humans create gods through their desires.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not a god—I’m human.”

“Is that so.”

Kim Kyungmin muttered under his breath, then suddenly collapsed forward.

His legs had melted entirely, leaving him unable to stand.

Lying flat on his back, he still clung to the mana stone.

“Do you know how I gained this power?”

“How did you get it?” I asked, staring at the ominous glow of the mana stone.

“My wife and daughter were killed by a drunk driver. The perpetrator was from a wealthy family, and the punishment was absurdly light…”

“…….”

This was why I didn’t want to hear the sob stories of villains.

Even knowing they were unforgivable, their stories still managed to stir fleeting sympathy.

But not everyone in the same situation made the same choices as Kim Kyungmin.

My sympathy lasted only a moment—the real victims were those harmed by him.

“I was consumed by despair and hatred for the world. I wanted to kill everyone responsible and then die myself. That’s when he spoke to me through the system, offering to grant my wish.”

It had to be the same entity that dragged me into this cursed nightmare.

“He said the world was rotten, and a god of destruction would rise to cleanse it. But until then, I was to assist him—or, if necessary, take his place…”

Kim Kyungmin’s voice grew fainter, his life slipping away.

“Delusional,” I muttered.

This world wasn’t rotten, and even if it were, destruction wasn’t the answer.

“It’s done,” Baek Gunho murmured beside me.

At that moment, the barrier separating us from Kim Kyungmin vanished. We rushed toward him.

“It’s too late…” Kim Kyungmin whispered.

Ignoring him, I snatched the mana stone from his hands.

An item description window popped up.

Gatekeeper’s Rift Stone (S): A mana stone capable of opening and closing rifts to ■■■. It holds immense power.

“It can open and close rifts,” I summarized, handing the stone to Baek Gunho.

After glancing at its description, he returned it to me and looked down at Kim Kyungmin.

Despite losing the critical item, Kim Kyungmin seemed oddly calm.

“It’s a shame I can’t see the end…”

Baek Gunho crushed Kim Kyungmin’s head under his boot.

His melted remains spread across the ground, and I averted my eyes from the grotesque sight, focusing back on the mana stone.

If closing the rift was this straightforward, Kim Kyungmin wouldn’t have been so nonchalant.

What else was he planning?

My thoughts were interrupted by a thunderous screech above.

Instinctively, I looked up, and my jaw dropped.

“…What the hell is that?”

The sky was cracking.

Most rifts began this way, so it wasn’t unfamiliar.

But the scale was overwhelming.

The crack extended endlessly, its magnitude incomprehensible.

My breath caught as I stared at the impossible sight.

“What… is this?”

Muttering in despair, I stared at the magic stone in my hand.

Just moments ago, it had seemed so incredibly powerful, but now it felt pitifully inadequate.

Even though it could open and close rifts… it was just one.

Resolving such a massive rift with a single stone seemed utterly impossible.

The only solace was that the rift was expanding very slowly.

Of course, it would eventually spread completely, so there was no room for complacency.

Still, it meant we had time to struggle.

In past cycles, even the Black Sea Guild and Seo Heewon had researched methods to open rifts, but they always fell just short of success.

The fact that it succeeded in this cycle might be thanks to Im Nayoung, who had witnessed countless cycles through her foresight.

Or perhaps it was due to that entity accessing the system.

Maybe it was both.

Regardless, their great achievement had complicated things on our end.

“We can’t handle this on our own.”

Baek Gunho quickly raised the white flag.

I agreed with his assessment.

However, while we couldn’t do it alone, perhaps we could succeed by borrowing the strength of others.

---

It didn’t take long before Baek Gunho made a few calls, and soon, our destination was the Hunter Administration Bureau.

Given that we were currently being pursued, I wondered if I should really be heading there.

But somehow, my steps naturally carried me past the bureau’s threshold.

The hastily assembled operations room housed the bureau’s executives and a few hunters.

As soon as we entered, Baek Gunho spoke up.

“Where’s Lee Shinhae?”

“They’re almost here.”

“And the magic stone?”

“That too.”

Listening to Kim Jinhyung’s report, I turned my attention to the massive map projected in the center of the room.

Red lines marked the rift’s path, cutting across Seoul.

Along those lines were scattered black dots.

“What about the magic stone?”

“Here.”

Baek Gunho placed the stone he had brought on the table.

One of the bureau executives inspected it and sighed.

“An S-grade… It’s clear that this alone won’t be enough.”

Even with an EX-grade item, it wasn’t certain we could block it all at once.

“You were right about the rift.”

“It was Heewon’s idea,” Baek Gunho corrected.

“Right. Anyway… can this really close the rift?”

“It should.”

“…”

“Isn’t it worth a try?”

As we decided to enlist the help of others, a simple solution began to form in our minds: mass-producing the magic stones.

One stone wouldn’t be enough to resolve the situation, but then again, the enormous rift hadn’t been created by just one stone.

On the map, the red line marking the rift was dotted with black points—the sites where the Baekmyeon Sect had initiated rift-related terror attacks.

Presumably, the cult had planned for this scenario, selecting locations for their attacks to gradually create the current rift, like poking holes into something solid until it finally gave way.

If they had used multiple stones to open such a massive rift, perhaps we could close it by using multiple stones as well.

However, there was a problem:

Everyone who had used this magic stone before had melted away.

Unless we solved that issue, the stones were unusable.

We couldn’t afford to sacrifice anyone to make them work.

Could it really be resolved so easily?

Well… at least we had one cheat key on our side.

If all else failed, we’d have no choice but to let the rift open and tackle the dungeon directly.

Before long, there was a knock at the door.

The person who entered was Kwon Sahyeok, carrying a box.

Baek Gunho clicked his tongue in obvious irritation, though the gravity of the situation kept him from saying much.

“Hello, everyone. Not the best morning, huh?”

With a light greeting, Kwon Sahyeok set the box on the table.

“These are magic stones we confiscated while raiding a Baekmyeon Sect branch.”

He added an explanation, apparently still busy raiding cult branches.

Baek Gunho clicked his tongue again, glaring at him as if ready to kill him on the spot.

I couldn’t understand why he bore such a grudge alone.

Ignoring his animosity, I approached the magic stones and picked one up.

[Unfinished Magic Stone (A): A stone imbued with powerful energy. Depending on how it’s utilized, it could yield immense strength.]

Though it was graded A, the rank of an item could fluctuate during its creation process, so that wasn’t a concern.

What bothered me more was…

“There aren’t enough of them. And they’re smaller than the original.”

There were only about twenty stones, each the size of a fist.

While the reduced size might mean fewer side effects due to lower output, it still wasn’t enough.

“These are just the ones I brought personally. The rest are being stored elsewhere.”

Since they were seized from the cult, weren’t they technically evidence?

Glancing at the bureau executive for confirmation, I noticed he looked uncomfortable but simply cleared his throat.

“The stored stones should arrive shortly. There’s quite a lot of them.”

Instead of rebuking him, the executive added an explanation.

While waiting for the stones to arrive, we monitored the rift.

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