The Accidental Villain and a World of Wonders

Su Mu stared blankly at the ceiling, a maelstrom of conflicting joy and sorrow leaving him with nothing but profound confusion and dread for the future.

“How am I number one on the villain list?”

‘It makes no sense. It’s unrealistic. This is too fake, isn’t it?’

‘Yet, it’s real.’

“But I’ve never even killed a chicken in my life. I only awakened yesterday, and… I didn’t kill anyone. If anything, I was attacked first. That counts as self-defense, right?”

“What kind of news is this? It’s completely cut and edited! This is deliberate slander!”

Su Mu seethed with indignation. While others were painted as heinous criminals, he saw himself as pitiable and innocent, wrongly accused.

His grievance felt so profound that even snow falling in June wouldn’t fully capture it.

‘Hmm…’

‘Could they come looking for me?’ Su Mu glanced at his work uniform.

He decisively stripped it off, placed it in a basin, poured in laundry detergent and water, scrubbed it for a while, then left it to soak.

‘My hair, my build, even my gender are different,’ he mused. ‘This old work uniform, bought for a dozen yuan from a street stall, and it’s even a mass-produced item. It’s unrealistic to think they could find me based on just this, right?’

Despite these thoughts, Su Mu’s sense of security did not improve.

After all, fragments of last night’s memories did surface, but how much could one expect a drunkard to recall clearly?

Everything was fragmented, piecemeal. What if he had caused a huge scene, and someone had secretly followed him home?

A sudden memory of the collision on the road earlier sent a jolt through Su Mu.

Perhaps that ‘what if’ had already become a ‘most likely scenario.’

“Ah~”

“Heaven, please just give me a break!”

Suddenly, Su Mu felt like giving up, abandoning all resistance. ‘Forget it.’

However, after an hour of mind-clearing meditation, Su Mu realized that the ‘FBI, open the door!’ scenario he had envisioned had not materialized.

His courage grew slightly.

In a fit of complete self-abandonment, he tossed the troubling thoughts aside and pulled a can of Black Island beer from the refrigerator.

Yet, after taking it out, he mumbled a few words about ‘drinking leading to trouble.’

He stared at the can for a moment, ultimately setting it aside.

‘I’ll leave it for now. I’ll drink it after I’ve handled things.’

‘Yesterday, hmm… yesterday, what did I do?’

“Transform…” Su Mu whispered, but there was no response.

He paced back and forth. ‘Perhaps I need a pose to go with it.’

Su Mu crossed his arms, striking a dramatic pose.

“Transform.”

…

Reality proved to be a terrible play, the silence in the air almost comically precise.

Nothing happened.

“Aura! Yes, my aura must be insufficient!”

“Transform!”

…

“Henshin!”

…

“Balala Energy! Shala Shala!”

…

“Su Mu, as promised…”

…

“I hereby declare!”

…

Otz!

It’s useless! Absolutely useless! What the hell is this?

‘I awakened? I awakened my ass~’

‘Mm-hmm, yes, I must have been drunk last night. I saw that big villain setting off fireworks and, in my muddled state, I mistook it for my own doing.’

“That’s right, that’s right! Oh dear~ I just wanted to be a superpower user so badly that I had a momentary delusion of grandeur!”

“So I’m innocent!”

“Exactly! That’s it!”

Su Mu nodded repeatedly.

…

Su Mu flopped onto the bed, rolled over, and stared at the ceiling.

He felt the slight warmth on his forehead with the back of his hand, a bitter smile gracing his lips.

‘What am I even thinking?’

‘I haven’t even had a drink yet. Don’t I know if it was my doing?’

‘Caused a huge ruckus, became a public enemy villain, now people could come knocking any moment, and I don’t even know how to use my abilities?’

‘Heaven, I must be truly cursed.’

Su Mu remained silent for a long time.

The surroundings were quiet, yet he felt the space pressing in on him, filled with an invisible, suffocating pressure.

‘This life truly holds no meaning at all.’

…

“Zzz…”

Sometimes, being able to sleep is a blessing.

****

With the emergence of superpower users, the world seemed to have undergone a major update.

All sorts of extraordinary monsters appeared, some individually formidable, others possessing bizarre abilities.

Their appearance heralded disaster, leading them to be collectively termed ‘Disaster Beasts.’

Superpower users, then, were the ones who stood against them.

Of course, ordinary people facing these creatures typically became nothing more than nameless grains of sand swept into the torrent of disaster, vanishing without a trace.

Perhaps later, news reports of related incidents would emerge: ‘[Superpower user X successfully resolved the disaster, they protected us],’ followed by ‘[It is with great regret that XX lives were lost in this incident.]’

They would merely be part of the numerical ‘XX’ that filled the blanks, with no specific names ever released.

For the deceased were not heroes; they were simply unfortunate ordinary people.

Ironically, in this world, ordinary people were actually a minority.

To address this, the government had even established a special ‘Ordinary Person Subsidy’ program.

Su Mu had once seen this news and been thoroughly displeased.

‘I have all my limbs, but just because I haven’t awakened superpowers, I’m considered disabled?’

While he sometimes joked about himself in a similar way, who could openly accept such a label from others without losing face?

However, since the subsidy provided five to six hundred yuan monthly—just enough for his rent—Su Mu decisively cast aside his worthless pride.

It took him a considerable amount of effort to finally get it processed.

Although the government employees maintained perfectly polite smiles throughout, their initial expressions of surprise had set the tone.

Once it was done, Su Mu fled without a moment’s delay.

He vowed never to return unless absolutely necessary.

…

The conversation had strayed a bit. Returning to the original topic:

“[Xin Yuan Residential Area: Disaster Beast alert. Energy reaction detected. Initially rated as an F-class disaster event.]”

C-class denoted a city-level event, D-class a prefecture-level one, and F-class a district or county-level incident.

“[Initiate evacuation of residents within the area. Contact available Security Guards nearby for support.]”

Security Guards were also superpower users who handled disaster events, though they were considered irregular personnel.

They were typically F-class or lower-ranked superpower users, distributed across various residential areas.

However, these Security Guards usually worked part-time, often holding their main profession concurrently.

Thus, one day, if you ordered takeout and the delivery rider arrived at your door, only for a Disaster Beast to suddenly appear, and the rider then shed their uniform, donned sunglasses, and transformed into a person in black to fight the monster, there would be no need for excessive surprise.

Just like now.

“Big bro, remember to give me a five-star review~”

“Presumptuous Disaster Beast, do not act so recklessly! Old Sun is here!”

Su Mu blinked, holding his chicken cutlet rice, watching the delivery rider shout and soar into the sky.

One word: ‘Impressive.’

‘Woke up hungry, and unexpectedly, a Disaster Beast appeared too,’ Su Mu thought.

He closed the door and returned to his room.

Worry? What was there to worry about?

As mentioned, superpower users were now the majority, awakening at any age, with none of the age restrictions seen in novels.

A single punch from any of them could probably knock out an old master, especially since this was only an F-class disaster event.

If only he had some self-preservation ability, he would have loved to be on site to watch the drama unfold.

…

Su Mu opened the plastic bag, ready to enjoy his dinner.

“Huh? Chopsticks! Little bro, you didn’t give me any chopsticks!”