The Novel’s Villain

to a scale strange enough for him to find it necessary to ask his subordinates.

The moment he learned it wasn’t the God of Evil’s fault, he immediately contacted him.

Jin-woo looked at the documents.

“Well…”

 

There were quite a few missing persons who disappeared without a trace in a single night, and the victims didn’t seem to have been selected at random.
They were all smart people in their teens and 20s, bearing great physical condition and academic performance.

That made the entire incident unlikely to be a terrorist attack or simple mass kidnapping.
After all, some parts of it were physically impossible to do.

“Under the previous president’s directions, we established a research institution in Area 51.
That’s where we’ve been keeping all the evidence we found at the site.”

The civilians were bound to learn about the truth due to the scale of this incident.
In fact, various conspiracy theories had already emerged, ranging from UFO abductions to government-conducted human experiments.

“Can I see them?”

“Of course.
Please let me guide you.”

They’d have to pass several procedures, but Richard could solve them all.

‘Area 51… Are there really UFOs in there?’ Jin-woo thought, a smile spreading across his lips.

They headed to their destination, with the US President guaranteeing the safety of his identity.
Because of the many leading entrepreneurs and politicians under his influence, he easily accomplished such a feat.

Area 51 was located in the state of Nevada.
Civilians could never enter this place, which only made them all the more skeptical and curious.
That gave birth to multiple conspiracy theories revolving around numerous topics, including UFOs and the creation of superpowers.

Jin-woo and Richard entered the underground laboratory underneath this highly confidential facility.

The researchers busily moved back and forth, conducting several studies and experiments.
Soldiers viciously guarded their surroundings, saluting Richard as he passed by.

The head researcher came rushing at them.

He was also one of the talents that Richard recruited.
Knowing Jin-woo’s true identity, he was moved to tears as soon as he saw him.
After all, he, too, was the God of Evil’s fan.

“Come on, let me guide you.”

“Alright.”

He led them to where they had been keeping the evidence, a room with immense security measures installed.
They immediately saw white feathers and pieces of metal upon entering it.

“There’s not a lot of them, but that’s all we could find in the field.
They’re not substances that are native to Earth, considering we couldn’t even analyze them.”

The energy they emitted felt familiar.
It was similar to the one in the World of Gods and even contained the deities’ power.

Jin-woo used the Evil Eye of Information on the feathers.

[C] Valkyrie’s Feather

A feather that fell off the wings of a Valkyrie, the beings that lead dead warriors to Valhalla under Odin’s commands.

‘Valkyrie?’

They found the feathers six years ago and the metal fragments twelve.
All available evidence pointed to the disappearances of people on Another Earth to be closely related to the World of Gods.

The Earth belonged to Jin-woo.

That wasn’t the case 12 years ago, but it was now.
He was the only one who could manage it properly, after all.
That was why it offended him even more that he wasn’t aware of this until now.

He looked at Richard.

“Can I take them?”

“Of course.”

He deposited them into his subspace, then patted the US President’s shoulder.
He wouldn’t have noticed it had it not been for his help.

“Great job.
On another note, are there any UFOs in Area 51?”

“There isn’t.”

“I see.” Jin-woo nodded then opened up his subspace once more, hoping to give him a present for his neverending efforts.
He took out a spherical spaceship of the Lainez Kingdom and set it down on the floor.
Rather than a mana engine, it was powered by old technology.

Yet it still astonished Richard and made the head researcher’s eyes pop out.

“That’s…”

“I’m giving this to you to match Area 51’s reputation.”

There should at least be one UFO in this place.

Richard could only nod blankly as the head researcher flopped down on the ground.
Jin-woo opened a portal and went through it soon after, thoroughly investigating what had happened.

* * *

Jin-woo went to the underworld, met Faro, and checked the list of deceased together, but they couldn’t find any of those who had gone missing.
That meant that even if they died, they couldn’t go to the underworld he ruled.

Faro tracked them down, discovering that their affiliations seemed to have been transferred to the Northern World.
If they died there, they would go to the underworld the Norse deities ran independently.

The underworld of all dimensions belonged to Jin-woo, but that didn’t apply to the World of Gods.

‘Helheim, right?’

That was their afterlife’s name, as far as he recalled.

He shook his head in disappointment.

‘Why do they keep kidnapping others?’

 

The scale of their operation was far different from when Poseidon abducted Bread Jam.
They had taken 50,000 people in the United States alone.

If they made the range global, that number would probably be a lot higher.
Unfortunately, Earth’s lack of talented individuals made it difficult to respond and defend against external forces.
As a result, it became a helpless victim.

At sunset, Jin-woo returned to Another Earth.

He took out the feathers from his subspace and tracked the energy within them.
Upon identifying its owner’s location, he swiftly used Triana to move to it.

Within an instant, he had transported himself to the roof of a building in New York.

‘I’m here.’

He looked down at the city, then turned his head sideways.

Sensing the Valkyrie’s energy, he moved to where it was coming from.

Woosh!

Flames burst out of the gym building in front of him.
Firefighters tried to put them out, but they proved strangely inextinguishable, even by water.
On the contrary, their attempts only seemingly made them even stronger.

They were certainly beyond ordinary.
Considering the fires had traces of the Valkyrie’s energy, they were most likely the ones that caused them in the first place.

Jin-woo stashed Triana in his subspace and entered the building, moving fast enough to prevent the firefighters from noticing him.

An interior in perfectly great condition dawned upon his eyes the moment he went through the fire.
People were lying all over it, from the hallways to the changing rooms and stairs.

‘This place has an unusual scent.’

It smelled of incense and insanity.

Jin-woo walked down the hallway, closing in on the location where he could feel the Valkyrie’s presence from.
Soon enough, he entered a gym full of exercise equipment.

A woman with white wings stood amid it.

She was armored and carried a shield and a sword, but the barbaric aura she exuded made her seem different from angels.
Rather, she simply looked like a winged female warrior.

The Valkyrie looked at the people who had fallen on the floor using what looked like a magnifying glass.

“Their quality is great,” She mumbled, most likely sorting and selecting people.

Tuk Tuk Tuk!

Jin-woo approached her, startling her enough to make her turn around.

“A human?”

She couldn’t even sense the divine power he possessed, which was probably caused by her half-human genes and her low rank.

He tried to establish a proper conversation first.

“Let’s talk about this.”

“I see you’ve woken up.
Unfortunately for you, I’ll have to put you back to sleep!”

She raised her sword, her eyes fixating on him.
Her wings then spread open, allowing her to close the distance between them with enough speed to leave behind afterimages in her path.

Whik!

The Valkyrie swung her blade at him.
Luckily for her, she attacked him with no intention of killing him.

Whoosh!

Jin-woo leisurely stretched out his arm and grabbed her weapon.

“W-what?!”

Applying a bit of strength to his grip, he shattered her weapon with ease, enveloping her with enough shock to make her lower her guard.
Taking advantage of the opening she showed, he balled his hand into a fist and gently punched her in the face.

Bam!

His attack made the Valkyrie’s neck bend awkwardly and sent her flying to the side, breaking multiple concrete walls before she skidded to a stop on the floor.
Her wings had been broken, and blood now covered her face.

Jin-woo walked ever so slowly towards her.

“Ughhh…”

Trembling, she tried to step away from him, but her ruined limbs prevented her from even moving an inch.

“O-oh…”

Even her jaw seemed to have been shattered.

If she swung her sword against him with murderous intent, she would have suffered an even worse fate.

He stopped in front of her.

“I want to talk to you.
Do you mind?”

The Valkyrie could only shake her head violently in reply.

“You’d better answer my questions properly.”

 

“A-ah…”

“I don’t like cracking people’s heads open, either.
I don’t find it pleasing at all.” He said, pointing to her head.
That only made her tremble even stronger.

Jin-woo had grown quite curious about what they were doing with the people they took from Earth.