Surviving as a Brainwashing Villain in a Hero World

The shocking conversation I heard beside Youngchae’s cold, blood-drenched body.

“How did it go? Has there been any progress with the experiment?”

“Ah! The hero has arrived. Unfortunately… there has been no progress.”

The identity of the person who appeared, dressed differently from the researchers, was none other than a hero.

The ‘hero’ Youngchae had mentioned to me.

“That’s unfortunate. I understand that the research isn’t yielding proper results…

but the higher-ups are continuously demanding immediate combat-ready assets.”

“Abilities are quite difficult to research at the level of human knowledge… haha.”

Bam!!

“Didn’t you hear what I just said? Immediate combat-ready assets, huh?”

When the researcher laughed and brushed off the hero’s demand for immediate combat-ready assets,

The hero smashed the wall beside the researcher with his fist, his tone changing and his voice rising in a threatening manner.

“S-sorry…! We’ll try our hardest… to produce results as quickly as possible!”

The researcher trembled and bowed at a 90-degree angle.

“Sigh… Do you know how much money is being poured into you people?

Make sure I don’t have to use my fists again. Not ‘try hard,’ but do it well.”

“Y-yes…!”

The hero kicked the researcher, who had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion,

then glanced at me with a menacing expression.

“Tch.”

He then stared intently at Youngchae’s body,

fiddling with the research uniform she was wearing.

“Poor thing. To think she died just to raise a little brat like that.

Such a waste of a body….”

“Take… take your hands off her!!!”

“What?”

The hero, who didn’t hesitate to insult Youngchae while groping her body.

Unable to bear it, I let out a voice filled with rage toward the hero.

“Haven’t you trained your test subjects properly? Quite the attitude.

And to someone who might become your senior in the future, no less. Right?”

Crash— Shatter!

The hero smashed the glass wall separating me and Youngchae with a single punch,

then approached me with veins bulging on his forehead and a menacing expression.

“H-hero! You mustn’t touch the test subject!”

Even after hearing the researcher’s warning not to touch me,

the hero merely gestured for them to step aside, his eyes never leaving me.

“Ha… A little brat like you, acting all high and mighty.

Hey, do you think you’re something special just because these idiots here take care of you?”

The hero took on a menacing stance and expression, as if he would kill me at any moment.

But perhaps because of the overwhelming grief and anger, I didn’t back down, even in the face of his attitude.

“Someone like you, a hero…? I won’t forgive you… I won’t forgive you!!!”

“Won’t forgive me? And what are you going to do if you don’t forgive me? What can you do, huh!?”

Thud—!! Thud! Thwack!!!

When his threats didn’t work, the hero raised his fists and began to use violence.

“You! Damn! Bitch! Answer! Me! Huh!?”

A superhuman strength far beyond that of an average adult man.

Attacks so powerful that even a light punch could crack a wall rained down on me.

“Stop it, hero ‘Great Guy.’

Are you going to take responsibility if the test subject dies from this?”

Then, someone’s hand grabbed the hero’s shoulder from behind,

stopping his fists mid-swing.

“What? Who is it…? Oh, isn’t this ‘Blade Master’!”

The hero ‘Great Guy’ stopped his punches, turned his head,

and warmly greeted the other hero, ‘Blade Master,’ who had stopped him.

Unlike Great Guy, who had a menacing appearance covered in muscles,

The hero called ‘Blade Master’ had a relatively sharp and refined look.

“Phew… I got a bit heated, you know. These idiot researchers really pissed me off.

So I roughed them up a bit.”

“You’ll just get another disciplinary action from the higher-ups. Let’s stop here.”

He patted Great Guy’s shoulder and back, dissuading him from further attacking me.

“Behave properly from now on, got it? Hmph.”

After Youngchae left my side for such an incomprehensible reason,

I was left alone in the laboratory’s solitary cell, refusing food and drink, waiting for death.

But the researchers forcibly administered nutrients to me to continue the experiments,

and now they even began injecting unknown drugs or substances into my body.

Yet, contrary to what the researchers wanted,

my abilities still didn’t manifest.

As I lived day after day, no better than a dead corpse or livestock,

a major turning point in my life came.

“Attack!!! The villains have stormed the research facility!!!”

It was an attack on the research facility by a villain organization.

At that time, villains were focused on weakening the heroes’ forces,

attacking supply production factories or related research facilities.

It didn’t take long for that wave to reach

the laboratory where I was being held.

They crushed the security forces and B-rank heroes guarding the facility in just a few hours,

and abducted the test subjects held inside, taking them away.

“I like this one. There’s something special in her eyes.

It feels like there’s something incredible hidden within, you know.”

‘What…? Someone like that is a villain…?’

The one who took me was a villain with a fresh appearance, whose name I didn’t know.

Her face was too pure, like delicate flower petals, to be a villain,

but there was an oddly captivating aura of charisma emanating from her.

At the time, she held a high-ranking position in a major villain organization.

But instead of resting on her laurels, she planned to lead her followers and establish a new organization.

After completing the raid on the research facility,

She was the first to meet me alone, out of all the test subjects she had abducted.

“Your eyes look really scary, huh?”

“What… Do you plan to do with me…?”

She examined my face closely, her expression kind and gentle.

When I responded in a weak voice, she gave me a look of pity.

“Oh! Don’t worry. I’m not planning to do anything weird to you, okay?”

“Then… please just kill me.”

“Kill you? No way! After all the effort I put into bringing you here!

Besides… it looks like there’s something you want to do, isn’t there?”

As if she somehow knew what had happened to me,

she asked if there was something I wanted to do.

“I’ll make sure you achieve everything you desire.

Money… power… and even the revenge you want most.”

She gently stroked my dry, pale skin,

saying that if I worked for her, she would give me everything.

I remembered.

The researchers who had taken my precious past from me.

The face of the researcher who shot and killed Youngchae, who had done nothing wrong.

And that hero who mocked her body while hurling violence and insults at me.

‘Finally, my chance has come.

Those damned researchers… and the heroes.’

Revenge.

The desire to take revenge on the heroes who had stolen everything precious from me.

As if a god had recognized my firm resolve for vengeance,

From a certain day onward, the ability called ‘Doppelganger’ manifested within me.

Something the researchers couldn’t achieve, no matter how many experiments and abuses they inflicted over months.

Of course, the triggers for awakening abilities vary greatly from person to person,

but the timing was too perfect to be dismissed as mere coincidence.

Accepting the unknown villain’s recruitment offer and awakening my ability,

I became her loyal subordinate, following her every command.

Not long after I became her subordinate, the Dark Knights were established,

and I assisted her, the leader who called herself ‘Kaiser,’ in managing all the organization’s affairs.

From gathering information on heroes and the Hero Alliance’s movements,

to understanding how other villain organizations operated and expanded,

and figuring out how to secure funds to run the organization.

Fueled solely by my desire for revenge against heroes,

I flawlessly accomplished tasks with my ability that would have been impossible alone.

Thanks to my efforts, the Dark Knights grew into a significant organization over the years,

building enough strength to potentially take over a small city.

The leader, Kaiser, praised my efforts, granting me the position of the organization’s top executive,

and worked with me to help me achieve the revenge I sought.

But as time passed,

The power of the heroes, backed by the support of the government and citizens, grew overwhelmingly strong.

Within just a few years, dozens of organizations suspected of being villain groups in S City were forcibly dismantled,

and the Dark Knights couldn’t escape this fate either.

We suffered repeated major defeats in battles against heroes or were forced to retreat,

and even lost several high-ranking villains, causing the organization to falter significantly.

Even in those dire circumstances, I managed to recruit powerful villains into the Dark Knights,

barely sustaining the organization while serving Kaiser.

And after those new high-ranking villains settled into the organization,

exactly 100 days later,

It finally happened.