Hans discreetly moved to the place where the commotion was happening in the shadows.
The guardians were already on the scene, sorting things out.
"Darn it, how many times has this happened already? Is there never a day that goes by smoothly?"
"...Incidents keep popping up, but we're short on manpower. I can't even remember the last time I went home."
They grumbled as they exchanged words.
Looking around, I noticed that, aside from the broken glass at my regular chicken joint, there wasn't much damage.
'Must be the aftermath of the nearby terrorist incident. If it's this much, they can probably reopen soon.'
By the way, accidents had been increasing unusually lately.
The guardians were discussing it too.
"With those guys organizing terror, law and order are in chaos, and even other troublemakers are running wild."
"It's getting dangerous if we keep going like this. It's tough to catch those guys."
After listening to their conversation for a while, I left.
'There must be a cause. Have the villains gained power?'
They had been forming criminal organizations for a while, but unlike in other countries, South Korea had been handling it well.
However, this time, it seemed they failed to control it and couldn't even catch the perpetrators.
I hid in the growing darkness and quickly scanned the city with enhanced stealth detection magic.
'I went out with a plan, and the situation ended or returned empty-handed.'
I needed to directly assess the security situation.
Anyway, Hans didn't need much sleep, and with overflowing mana, he wasn't tired from wandering around all night.
Then, I sensed a small disturbance with my heightened senses.
'Hmm... What's this?'
Pausing in place, I hesitated for a moment and then turned in that direction.
The reason for my hesitation wasn't because it was dangerous or because there was a fear of revealing my identity.
"Hey, are you talking about me? Are you?"
"N-no, it's not like that..."
"Can't you speak properly? I'll hit you, you brat!"
In a back alley, a group of boys in school uniforms gathered.
One was surrounded while another had a cigarette in his mouth.
It was a scene of school violence.
'...I came out to hunt villains, but is it right to deal with these delinquents?'
That was the biggest reason I hesitated.
If I draw a knife, I should at least cut something, but using this power to discipline kids seemed excessive.
"Hey! I got a great idea. Let's strip that punk with the buzz cut."
"Why? What's the point?"
As I observed the situation for a moment, one of the delinquents who had been smoking in the background approached a boy being harassed.
"Let's carve the Big Dipper on his chest. Wouldn't that be cool?"
"Hahaha, you crazy bastard... That's really cool, isn't it? Let's do it right now."
The delinquents grabbed the central boy and unbuttoned his shirt.
His body already had bruises and wounds all over.
"Stop...please!"
"This is hilarious. If you tell us to stop, should we stop?"
"You still haven't come to your senses? Let's mark the Orion constellation on his back."
"Oh! Do you know what the Orion constellation looks like? It's awesome, you know?"
"I don't know. Just search it on the internet. Catch that punk. He keeps resisting."
The boy resisted and the guys subdued him, hitting him while recording the scene on video.
Another guy with a cigarette approached, chuckling, capturing the moment on his smartphone.
Watching all this, I made up my mind.
Are villains just villains for no reason?
If they harm others and commit crimes, isn't that villainous?
And these guys were already excellent villains.
Once my mind was made up, the action was instantaneous.
"Huh?"
The guy with the cigarette, who was about to light it, stopped moving.
Not only him but also the resisting boy and the laughing delinquents all froze in place.
The entire alley was engulfed in a sudden stillness.
"Why...is my body suddenly...what's happening?"
"Uh, me too. Can't...move..."
Without revealing myself, I just lightly sent out a surge of energy, and everyone froze like frogs in front of a snake.
Snap!
The guy recording the video had his smartphone twisted and shattered.
There were no CCTV cameras in this alley.
Well, those delinquents probably acted freely here.
"Huh? Suddenly...feeling sleepy..."
Swoosh—
thud!
I cast a sleep spell on the victimized boy and slowly revealed myself in front of those guys.
"Ugh!"
"Oh, no..."
Trickling down— as I exposed my presence without hiding my power, one by one, their eyes, terrifyingly locking onto mine, began involuntarily watering their pants.
I approached them, creating a rhythmic tapping sound with my teeth, and a body twitching like a shivering cedar tree.
Their heads wouldn't turn, their eyes wouldn't blink; instead, they remained fixed on me, bloodshot and red.
'The effect is no joke.'
I intentionally exposed my power to scare them, but this seemed a bit too much.
Sure, they might think they're tough and fearless, but aren't they just minors who don't know how scary the world can be?
Leaving them like this could lead to psychological damage.
I adjusted my power and extended my finger towards them, casting a spell.
'I was wondering what level of punishment should be...'
Even if they're bad guys, it doesn't mean I can just kill them.
But if they were the kind to snap out of it with a good scolding, they wouldn't have gotten into this mess in the first place.
So, I chose this method.
[Seeds of evil, remember this moment. When you're completely engulfed in darkness, you will meet me again.]
It was called magic, but more accurately, it was a curse.
I etched overwhelming fear into them, planting triggers in their subconscious.
Swoosh—
thud!
The guys, frozen like ice, simultaneously rolled their eyes and collapsed.
One of them foamed at the mouth and fainted.
'Hmm, should I leave them like this?'
I smoothly extracted a smartphone from the pocket of one of the delinquents.
After calling 911, I tossed it back onto his body.
This should be enough.
'Now, don't do anything bad and live a good life. Well, that might be impossible.'
Feeling proud of the good deed, I hid my body back into the darkness.
The night was still long, and there was plenty of time.
***
"Ugh... my head hurts."
Choi Hosik struggled to open his eyes.
His head was pounding, and he couldn't think straight.
"Hey! Hosik, are you awake? Over here, here! Hurry up and come see! Our kid woke up!"
The loud voice right next to him made his headache even worse.
Though he wanted to tell them to be quiet, his throat was so dry that no sound came out.
"Patient, are you awake?"
While the nurse approached to check on him, Choi Hosik, having moistened his throat with water, finally looked around.
"Where... a hospital? Why am I here?"
His mind was in disarray, making it challenging to understand the situation.
"Oh, Hosik! We were suddenly contacted, and you must have been so surprised, right? What happened? Who did this to our precious child!"
Choi Hosik frowned at his mother's fussing beside him.
Still, thanks to her, he could grasp the situation.
A call to 911, emergency responders dispatched through GPS due to an unresponsive report, students gathered in an alleyway collapsed, and then being transported to the hospital unconscious.
"...So, you got hospitalized because of that, and I rushed here after hearing the news. But what the heck happened? What are the police doing? They collect taxes diligently, but when it comes to..."
As his mother continued to complain, Choi Hosik covered his head in his hands, trying to recall the returning memories.
"Right, I was smoking in the back alley and was about to help that nerd... "
The moment the accident unfolded.
He stopped breathing, frozen in place.
Fluttering black robes.
Glowing blue eyes in the twisted gaze.
Approaching black hands. And...
[Seeds of evil, remember this moment. When you're completely engulfed in darkness, you will meet me again.]
"Ahhhh!"
"Gah! Hosik! Hosik! Why are you doing that!"
"Patient? Come to your senses, patient!"
Overwhelming fear etched into his soul.
The medical staff rushed over, restraining his convulsing body and administering a sedative.
"Ah... ah..."
In the gradually fading consciousness, Choi Hosik wished he could have just kept sleeping.
***
Punishment, essentially, was planted as a curse, manifesting as trauma.
The effect was simple—replaying the fear when faced with me.
The trigger was harboring malicious thoughts.
What made it sinister was that it activated even if kept internal, bypassing attempts at self-hypnosis.
To counter those with twisted perspectives, I infused my own values into the curse.
Even if they didn't see their actions as evil, the curse would still trigger based on my standards.
'Still, when only thinking about it, I made it manifest as a warning.'
They'll naturally eliminate bad thoughts through survival instincts.
A properly activated curse could even lead to the collapse of one's psyche.
Leaving that aside...
'Hmm, this is too inefficient.'
Having slept deeply and woken up, I assessed the situation and murmured softly.
Of course, it was about Hans, who had roamed the city all night.
'No matter how fast the movement speed and wide the detection range, aimlessly wandering like this isn't efficient.'
It was true that I had resolved many issues last night, starting with the school bullies, thieves, and gangsters, up to the rapist.
I played an active role, using curses to drain the vitality of gangsters and strengthening the resistance of the rapist. However...
'There's too much time being wasted unnecessarily.'
Though I was volunteering for garbage separation, no one could deny that Hans was top-tier talent.
'But I can't just release undead in the city.'
While gazing blankly out the window and contemplating, a flock of birds flying across the sky caught my eye.
'Hold on. I don't necessarily need to turn them into undead.'
There was no need to resort to undead for creating minions. I could make familiars or spirits.
Moreover, I knew that magic through "Forbidden Knowledge."
I began focusing on Hans as my main subject, intending to turn every pigeon and street cat into a familiar.
'I can't make all of them my minions. I need to modify the magic a bit.'
Casually wandering around as usual, but with the ability to transmit information under specific conditions.
'Simplify the spell, taking only the necessary parts. Optimize it to minimize the activation magna.'
In addition, secrecy is crucial to avoid detection by other summoners.
'Secrecy means curses are the best. Let's base it on that. It'll be even better if we reduce the activation magic power.'
Since it's impractical to individually cast spells, it would be good if the effect could spread to different animals upon contact.
'Mixing a plague spell with the curse might work.'
Hans combined the synergy of "Forbidden Knowledge" and "Vile Wisdom" to create a new spell.
I summoned my avatar, now able to summon one more with the acquisition of "Persona," and concentrated all resources on Hans.
[If only I were in Outerica, I could use the resource of time more efficiently... What a pity.]
But the regret was short-lived.
In a few hours, I would be able to use the interdimensional transfer array again.
'Heinz is smoothly traveling, and this time, I'll use the transfer for Hans's magical research.'
And when the cooldown of the transfer was over, Hans moved to Outerica.