Villain Eaten By The Hero - Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
“What if I throw it? It’s not my phone!”
Wonha wanted to scream and ran to pick up her phone.
Belze felt bad, but her feelings came first. Belze comforted herself, rubbing her arms and smoothing out the goosebumps that had appeared on her body.
“Romance! Romance! You lied to me!”
“Romance! The fic wants Ms. Belze to have a romantic relationship!”
“Romance?!”
“Yes, romance!”
Hearing her insist twice, Belzé’s hair stood on end.
“Oh, I see… But you’re being too open about it. I didn’t think about it that way. I haven’t even said it out loud! I haven’t!”
“If it’s information you don’t wanna know, just ignore it. Anyway, this is just an ordinary person’s imagination. Most of the time, you play the role of someone who opposes Kim Seo. It’s ethically questionable for a hero to rush towards a villain.”
“Don’t you those people are so out of touch with reality? Do they know how many people are involved with Hye-na?”
“That’s why it’s an out-of-the-norm story. Because there are a lot of hate comments and personal attacks, so it’s not for the faint of heart.”
“Ugh…. This is hilarious to say the least. I don’t even like Kim Seo. Sure, he’s good at what he does, but it’s a compliment about his skills, not a feeling.”
“That’s something I didn’t want to know either. If it’s hard to read, read something else. Do you want me to recommend you something popular?”
“I don’t want a recommendation.”
Belze said it, but her curiosity got the better of her. Since there were easily around ninety posts with the same tag, she wanted to explore other writings.
Following Wonha’s wishes, Belze obediently clicked on another post. This time, it had a lot of comments.
“Come here right now.”
Wonha approached Belze without a word. She was the Belze’s faithful tool. From the moment Belze told her she had other uses, Wonha had been in her clutches.
There had been a time when Wonha had wanted to escape. But where would she go? She couldn’t escape from her clutches, and if she ended up in the hero’s hands, she would be the plaything of the other inmates in a cold prison cell. Wonha was not that strong of a person.
A single wrong judgment had pushed Wonha into the pit, and she crouched in front of her boss’s chair, her mind blank.
She lowered her eyelids quietly. As long as she obeyed quietly, there wouldn’t be any pain. Wonha wished for this time to end quickly.
“Boss, you don’t do such things.”
Wonha muttered under her breath. Wanting to stop Belze from throwing the phone away, she wrapped her palm around the back of the phone and soothed her.
“Still, it’s an important piece of information. You’re the one who’s in the hotseat, spotted seducing Seo on the cruise.”
“Is that enough reason to portray me as the bad guy?!”
“You are a villain. They say that it’s a setup where Kim Seo was threatened by you, his adversary. A threat that he will die if he won’t spend a night with you, that’s why he took sympathy and slept with you once .”
“That’s ridiculous…”
Belze expressed her dissatisfaction with the setting, but Wonha ignored her complaints. Wonha was afraid Belze would stop reading, so she began to explain the backstory.
“Kim Seo realizes that Belze is being abused by the scars on her body and the way she sleeps. He suggests that she escape, but Belze, already bound to her boss, physically and mentally broken, doesn’t heed his advice due to her familiarity with unhappiness. She’s so used to misery that she’s given up.”
“Oh.”
“Kim Seo cares for Belze but can’t interfere more as she is a villain. However, when they have to fight for the world…”
“Oh! Oh! Stop right there! I want to read! I want to read! No spoilers!”
Since the story contained depressing elements at the beginning, Belze was curious about how it would unfold later.
Despite her bitter curiosity, she stared intently at the phone screen, feeling like her face might explode at any moment. Even if she wanted to scream, it was difficult to stop. Regardless, as the story was about her, she couldn’t help but scroll down with the determination to read it until the end.
*
5 hours later. Belze, rubbing her bloodshot eyes from staring at the small screen for a long time, got up from her seat.
“I came up with a good idea.”
“While looking at that?”
Wonha, who had been organizing the materials, looked at Belze in disbelief. Belze just shrugged off the disbelieving look.
“When I read it, I realized that the characters and settings are different from reality, especially the personalities.”
“That’s because it’s fiction.”
“Different personalities mean different things in the same situation. Even the photos that were circulating on social media have different ways of expressing them, and some even write that they have a peculiar interpretation of the characters.”
“But?”
It’s not uncommon in films and dramas for people to have different interpretations of a character and be portrayed as different people accordingly. It’s not for nothing that people say that a certain actor was better in a certain role.
It was entirely logical that different personalities led to different actions. But just because she understood this now, what could she do about it?
Belze, who had been waiting for this question, pointed at Seo’s picture on the wall, her finger tapping against it.
“Let’s change Seo’s personality.”
“Change his personality?”
“Personality is determined by the experiences you’ve had, the electrical activity in your brain, and the amount of neurotransmitters you release. If you apply electrical stimulation to the brain and modulate neurotransmitters, you can change it.”
“I’m not well-versed in such scientific views, but even if we change the personality, what’s the benefit?”
“Half of what makes Seo terrifying is his personality, right? If he becomes docile, he’ll be easier to control.”
“I feel like these things have never certain outcomes… Is it really possible to make him docile? What if he ends up with an even stranger personality?”
“You’re right, I don’t think there’s any guarantee that electro-stimulation will make him the way we want him to be, but could he be more violent than he is now?”
“….”
“Can we even still call him human?”
“…You’re right.”
Wonha nodded.
While it couldn’t be guaranteed what the results would be with electrical stimulation, Seo was already ruthless and ferocious.
As far as ferocity goes, he’s in the top one per cent, so he’s more likely to become more subdued than more ferocious.
Certainly, unquestionably, a person more ruthless than him would be hard to classify as part of the human race who lives in society. If that were the case, he wouldn’t be seen as a hero but rather as a serious criminal that should be rotting away in prison.
In that sense, it was worth a try. Nonchalantly, Belze took out the application form from the shelf and placed it on her desk.
“I’ll report back to you when I’m done.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll just look at this.”
But Belze had no intention of putting down Wonha’s phone. Even as she glanced at the application form, her eyes kept darting sideways, engrossed in the novel on her screen. Occasionally, she even scribbled something on a piece of blank paper.
“Ms. Belze, I hesitate to ask, but do you actually like the fanfic?”
Watching her like this, Wonha cautiously inquired, causing Belze’s face to instantly turn red.
“No, no way! Why would I? I’m just curious, that’s all! Besides, it’s about me. If they tarnish my reputation too much, I’ll track down their address and make them disappear, you know!”
“Yeah, yeah. But is it at least worth reading?”
“The writing is explicit, but Seo is less so. He’s more tenacious and persistent, but people write him as too polite and refined… that’s not it! It’s not like that!”
“Oh, I see… let’s go with that.”
“It’s not like that…”
“You know, I almost wish you hadn’t told me that.”
“I told you it’s not!”
Immediately after, Belze threw Wonha’s phone away, regretting her words. In any case, correcting an annoying boss is hard work, even for a villain.
*
With the help of the chemistry research department, the personality changer device was painstakingly created. It’s a device that sends an electric current through electrodes on your head to trigger neurotransmitters, and it looks more like a medical device than a mad scientist’s crazy invention.
Right now, it’s focused on personality alteration, and it couldn’t be used by just anyone, but with refinements, it could be used to treat PTSD and other mental issues. Belze proudly displayed her invention, not hiding her sense of accomplishment.
“This could turn even the most timid of men into fighters.”
“Assuming they don’t die.”
But it’s not a finished product. As with any mad scientist’s invention, there were issues.
The problem was that due to rushing the production, adjusting the output was impossible. Ordinary people, aside from heroes, couldn’t handle such massive electrical currents. Therefore, no tests had been conducted, leading to an unresolved issue.
The device theoretically functioned correctly, but theory was just theory. Since they couldn’t conduct any test trials, declaring it ‘completed’ was solely Belze’s subjective judgment.
And there was another problem.
“How on earth are we going to use this?”
The device had become the size of a wardrobe due to the massive power it required, with a huge generator attached to it.
In other words, it was not portable. It was impossible to move it efficiently due to the generator.
The completed device required the subject’s full cooperation, much like an MRI machine, making it incredibly inconvenient to use.
…In this state, it was utterly unusable. Were they supposed to bring Seo to the lair and calmly put him into the device? It would be much easier for a mouse to put a bell around a cat’s neck.
In the end, Belze let out a sigh.
“Ugh, this is why you shouldn’t listen to others.”
“Who asked you to make this?”
“The fanfics. They’re so blind they can’t even come up with an idea. Forget it, let’s move on to the next agenda.”