Two weeks had passed since I endured Investigator Ha Yu’s relentless investigation.
I realized things couldn’t go on like this. So I made up my mind.
"Author-nim."
[Yes?]
"Let’s just do it."
[…Are you sure? You said it was dangerous.]
Yeah. It was dangerous.
The investigation was still ongoing. And it wasn’t just suspicion—it was so persistent that it bordered on certainty. So yeah, it was pretty damn dangerous.
But I didn’t have any other options.
Killing them was out of the question—Author-nim was against it. I’d even slaughtered three more villains just to establish an alibi, but it hadn’t made a dent.
And yet, doing nothing was even more absurd.
"We need to take them out while we still have the chance. Those villains."
[…Ugh.]
Author-nim let out a groan, unable to come up with a proper rebuttal.
Well, it *was* her fault.
She’d tried to maintain plausibility, but 2,400 villains was just… way too many, no matter how you sliced it.
We had to cut the number down.
"And besides, at this point, we don’t have a choice."
[No choice…?]
"I think I overused Laila. There are side effects."
I scrolled through the online posts.
Under the news articles, flooded with aggressive comments, were a flood of messages cheering on Arachne.
I’d used Laila to make people think, *How could you still suspect me after this?* But had that backfired?
I’d slaughtered villains in other regions. I’d slaughtered them during class. I’d even taken out villains inside a prison. And yet, the suspicion hadn’t faded.
*Why?* Why wouldn’t they stop suspecting me? …That’s what I’d been thinking.
Then, by chance, I found the answer in the comments of a news article.
"I never expected people to start thinking there’s a secret organization involved."
[…Well, it’s not that strange. They’ve been popping up everywhere.]
"Yeah, I guess that’s true…"
Maybe it was because I’d killed villains all over the place to avoid suspicion.
At some point, people had started wondering if Arachne wasn’t a single person, but an entire organization.
"No wonder the suspicion won’t go away. They think it’s not *me* doing it, but the organization I’m part of."
[But isn’t that cool? A secret organization.]
"Haa…"
I could sense Author-nim panicking at my sigh.
Had she really thought I’d be happy about this?
…Okay, fine. Honestly? I *was* thrilled. A secret organization? That *was* cool.
But why had I sighed?
Because I realized I’d sunk to Author-nim’s level. How could I *not* sigh at that?
"So, you’ve set everything up properly, right?"
[Y-Yes! The three Zodiacs and 600 villains! It’s solid!]
"Good. Then let’s go."
Luckily, that pesky investigator wasn’t around right now.
We needed to get rid of them fast.
The goal was to bring the number down to four.
But if we took them out one by one, who knew when we’d finish?
So we’d take out three at once. That’d be more efficient.
As for the villain count…
Four executives and around 800 underlings should be enough, right? That was still a *lot*.
Now I understood why the Four Heavenly Kings were such a common trope in novels.
Four executives seemed like the perfect number…
[B-But what if we get caught?]
"Caught doing what?"
[An investigator? Should I kill them? ···Hiiing. But it’d be such a waste…]
"So that’s what you were thinking."
What if Investigator Iha-Yul finds out?
Well, that’s easy.
"Just crush the Association."
[Huh?]
"A secret organization deeply embedded within the Association. Sounds cool, right?"
[···! Yes! So cool!]
If getting caught doesn’t matter, then why not?
Since they’re already treating me like a secret organization, I might as well make one for real.
I don’t care anymore.
Let them try to catch me. Do whatever they want.
If the higher-ups start pressuring me, I’ll just stop on my own.
At this point, even if they find evidence, it won’t mean anything.
I hesitated a little at the thought that this might cause problems, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
If I just leave things be, it’ll only get more annoying later.
···Ah, but a secret organization with just me and Laira feels a little awkward, doesn’t it?
It’d be nice if some interesting guy popped up somewhere.
"Hngh… ···This is annoying. Why are they on such high alert?"
"You know why. Lately, it’s been chaos with the Arachne and all that."
"Oh, that? Wasn’t it Morumo-nim who died?"
In the dark of night, inside an abandoned factory where no one passed through.
Armed villains laughed and chatted.
"Yeah. After something like that, we can’t be careless. Well, things’ll go back to normal soon. Honestly, he wasn’t that strong."
"···True. Compared to the other executives, he was on the weaker side."
"So let’s just stand guard properly. We’ve got three times as many people here as there. No way they can get in."
-CLANG!
"···? Did you hear something weird just now?"
"I didn’t hear anything. Maybe you imagined it?"
"No, I definitely heard it. Somewhere around here… Cough—?!"
"Kuhk—?! C-Can’t… breathe…!"
It happened in an instant.
One villain, who had heard a strange noise, approached the ventilation shaft to investigate. The other, suspicious, followed him.
And the moment they got close—*whoosh*—
Two threads instantly coiled around both of their necks.
"K-Kuhk…! S-Save… me…"
"···"
After a brief struggle, the two limp villains were pulled into the ventilation shaft by the threads around their necks, their bodies hidden away.
···This is harder than I thought.
Moving through ventilation shafts like in movies or games is way easier to get caught than I expected.
[How does it feel to do your favorite stealth mission in person, Reader-nim?]
"How does it feel? What’s the point in asking?"
Of course it’s the best.
It was so much fun.
Sneaking into the darkness and taking out enemies—stuff like that.
Everyone’s thought about it at least once, right?
Actually doing something you’d only ever imagined felt amazing.
I thought I’d only get to try it if some hyper-realistic VR game came out right before I died.
It was harder to avoid detection than I expected, but it had that hands-on learning vibe.
"600 people might’ve been too many."
[But Reader-nim said 600 was doable!]
"No, it’s just… I didn’t expect the security to be this tight… So, sorry."
One thing I misjudged.
···I thought I’d have time to change clothes.
After seeing how lax their security was last time.
Slice through about a hundred, change clothes, slice through another hundred, change clothes again.
I thought repeating that would work.
But it didn’t.
Maybe because one of their executives died, and hundreds of villains dropped dead all at once?
Or maybe because the news reported that the culprit was still out there, slaughtering villains?
Their guard was up. At this rate, fighting would be tough.
If I barged in and fought openly, I’d have to take on 600 of them back-to-back.
I never once thought I’d lose, but the problem was the lack of clothes.
Even when I took down 200, I had to change once. Against 600, I couldn’t avoid changing.
If I kept fighting, I’d end up captured, stark naked like some slut.
So I came up with a plan: infiltration.
First, I’d take out the leadership. Then, while they were in chaos, I could pick them off one by one.
Without anyone to strategize, their morale would drop, and their judgment would falter.
They wouldn’t realize I was running out of stamina.
I’d use that opening to change clothes and wipe out the rest. Done.
Easy, right?
"Hey, why aren’t any of you—*hngh?!"
"W-what the hell?! Enemy—*mmpf! Mmph! Nnngh—!"
…If there was one problem, it was that the plan had already failed.
The ventilation shaft was louder than I expected.
No, in movies, people crawl through them just fine, so I thought I could too.
I was army-crawling when my chest got in the way, so I adjusted my posture—and the damn thing rattled. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
-*crackle* …Answer.
"Hm?"
-Respond. Now. …What’s going on? If there’s no answer in one minute, I’m sounding the alarm. Respond!
[Ah, I think we’re busted.]
"Yeah, looks like it. Haha, what a joke."
Unfortunately, this little infiltration game was over.
I never once thought I’d die.
After all, the Author can’t do without me. They’ll find *some* way to keep me alive.
But would I, who’d slaughtered members of the Webermensch, really walk away unscathed?
I couldn’t fully trust the Author.
They might suddenly go, “Broken heroines are all the rage these days!” and chop off my hand just like that.
…Prosthetics *do* look cool, but I’d rather keep my original limbs.
Shooting energy beams from my hand sounds tempting, but I prefer having all four limbs intact.
All I had was the guarantee that I wouldn’t die. No guarantee my limbs would stay in one piece.
So I decided to scrap the infiltration.
If I hid and got caught, that’d be the end of me.
So what now?
Simple.
"Well, since we’re already in the middle of the factory…"
[All three executives are in the control room!]
"Perfect."
I tightened my half-gloves, which were practically unused and still in great condition.
…I’d always wanted to try this.
Huh. Not as thrilling as I thought.
"Alright, then. Since infiltration brought us this far, let’s move to the next phase."
Enemies surrounded me on all sides. Hiding was no longer an option.
So I’d just have to fight my way through.
"Ready for a speedrun?"
Was that a trend in some famous stealth action game?
If you kill everyone without leaving a single witness, it’s called an assassination.
Today, I’d test whether that was true.