The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

The police arrived and dragged the man away. He was beaten so badly that he looked anything but okay. Not even his mother would likely be able to recognize him, let alone claim him after all his crimes.

Illyna's ruthless blow had completely dislocated his jaw, and with every tooth shattered, he was practically guaranteed to spend the rest of his life eating soft foods.

Watching the gruesome sight of him being dragged away and trailing blood, she couldn't help but wonder if perhaps she had been a little too rough on him.

“You really experience all kinds of crazy things when you live long enough...” Hyun-Ah sighed, seemingly dumbfounded that a psychopath killer had targeted her. She went on, “You think crime's finally going down, then it just spikes again. I guess that's just how it goes. Anyway, Illyna, are you hurt anywhere?”

“Don't worry,” she assured her. “I'm not the type to get hurt by something like this.”

“Still... he's a dangerous guy.”

“Most people like him who've stabbed a few victims are just amateurs. I’ve been exposed to much more brutal assailants before."

Illyna made a bitter face. Unlike on Earth, where murder was considered a heinous crime, assassination attempts happened pretty often in the royal and imperial families of Tionis.

A good example was the assassination attempt on Prince Carlus that took place a long time ago in the Rowane Kingdom.

It was unsettling to watch family members who shared the same blood scheme and try to kill one another, rather than some unrelated strangers they didn't even know.

“Well, Earth is pretty much the same,” she muttered to herself.

Hyun-Ah didn't quite hear her, calling out, “Illyna?”

“It's nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “But anyway, the guy said something weird.”

Hyun-Ah’s head tilted to the side in confusion. “Weird?”

“He said he was so angry he couldn't stand it.” Illyna looked at Hyun-Ah. It was a statement that was hard to simply dismiss. “First, they need a statement, so I'll go down to the station and tell them what happened for the record. You should wait here until I get back. Oh, and Hyun-Ah, give Davey a heads-up about what happened too.”

* * *

Davey only heard that a psychopath had targeted Illyna, then didn't wait for any other details. He rushed home immediately, ignoring any and all other tasks.

While he knew there was no way a regular human psychopath could actually do anything to her, as her husband, there was no way he could calmly stand by. Not after hearing that his wife had been targeted by a murderer.

When Illyna returned to Hyun-Ah's place after giving her statement, he was already there, immediately jumping up and approaching her.

“Any injuries?” he worriedly asked.

“You know as well as I do that I'm tough,” she answered with a laugh. “If I surround myself with mana, even a trained blade can't pierce my qi.”

“Even so, I couldn’t help but worry. You're really okay, right?”

“I'm fine,” she reassured him.

Sporting a faint smile, she showered Davey with open affection before walking over to Hyun-Ah, who sat there wearing an expression that clearly said she was sick of watching them act all lovey-dovey.

Illyna playfully said, “I hear you’re seeing someone these days, Hyun-Ah?”

“I’m just meeting that Chris guy for business contracts. Nothing else,” she replied with exasperation.

Davey cut in to add, “I will say, he seems pretty interested in you.”

“Ugh.”

It was a brother's wish for their younger sister to meet a good person and get married.

Therefore, Davey, who'd checked on the American Awakened Chris Marten multiple times, didn't react very negatively to the idea of him marrying her.

“Actually, there's something that's bothering me,” Illyna mentioned.

“Something bothering you, eh?”

“Davey, you know about the random crimes that have been happening on Earth recently, right?”

He gave a nod. “Yeah.”

“They probably all gave the same statement as that guy, about getting all worked up and struggling to resist urges.”

The man had been so angry he couldn't stand it. True to what she said, most of the perpetrators had indeed given the exact same kind of statement when interrogated. They didn't know why they did what they did; they'd just suddenly gotten so angry they couldn't stand it.

“There haven't been many actual murders, though, primarily just futile attempts. It’s actually pretty fortunate.”

The guy Illyna caught already had a history of killing people before the new developments.

Illyna went on, “That's not the important thing. That consistency in their statements hasn't been properly released to the public. Most people are just investigating each incident individually, but...”

“There’s clearly some reason they all said the same thing?” Davey finished.

“Could there be an Awakened behind all of this?” Hyun-Ah suggested with a hardened face. “I’ve been thinking it could maybe involve artificially manipulating a person's emotions. I’ve actually been looking into the recent crimes to see whether they might be connected to some Awakened individuals.”

Her suspicion was valid, but there was a key aspect she failed to consider.

“Davey,” Illyna solemnly said.

“I know,” he responded.

“W-what? What is it? Is there something I don't know about?” Hyun-Ah's eyes flashed. If they handled this well, she knew it’d greatly help the company's stock recover.

“Heyo girl,” Davey called out to her.

“What’s with that tone? Creep. Stop talking like that, you idiot.”

“Shut that little pie hole of yours,” he teased, flicking her on the forehead.

“Agh! You ugly octopus!!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, you walking scarecrow.”

“Hey!!” Furious, she gave Davey a hard kick free of charge. It seemed siblings were siblings no matter how old they got.

The two bickered with insults and language you’d usually find in the depths of the internet, proving their everlasting sibling bond and dynamic, even if their blood was no longer the same.

Illyna chuckled dryly at the sight, but her laughter didn't last long. “Davey, there’s actually more to the story. All of these people who tried to commit violent crimes are also virtual reality users.”

The two, who had been pulling each other's hair and cheeks, stopped instantly.

Davey asked with a start, “What did you say?”

“I know it's a stretch... but you said you missed the child back then.”

He didn’t have a response.

“Could they have been influenced by that? You know that Willow’s virtual world is—”

Davey curtly cut her off to say, “It's a stretch.”

“Nothing's confirmed yet,” Illyna offered.

“What is it,” Hyun-Ah nervously murmured to herself. “What’s actually going on here? Is it really related to the virtual reality? Tell me it's not... If another controversy breaks out here, I'm going to have a serious headache.”

“Don't worry about it,” Davey reassured her.

It was something he had to handle personally. Still, if Darian was indeed responsible... he wasn’t too sure what he would even do about it. He wasn’t sure if he could let Aeria, who had lost a child before, experience the same thing again.

Either way, there would be endless headaches to deal with.

“All of them are nothing but trouble for their parents...” Davey muttered so Hyun-Ah couldn't hear, and Illyna wore a bitter expression.

Hyun-Ah, realizing it wasn't a time for jokes, spoke in her natural tone, urging Davey, “Hey... What's going on? Tell meeee!”

“Hey, Hyun-Ah,” he responded.

“...Yeah?”

“I’ve gotta see those criminals face-to-face. I’ll need you to up a meeting for me.”

She sighed and nodded. “They’re already getting hammered in interrogations because of their involvement, so it shouldn't be hard to meet them under the pretense of an investigation.”

* * *

“Inmate 821, don't even think about trying anything funny during the visit. Your restraints will remain secured to ensure both your own safety and that of those around you. Well, I don't think you’ll try anything, but it’s still official procedure.”

As the guard spoke in a strict yet somewhat sympathetic tone, Davey looked at a man sitting in a chair across from him with a blank face.

The man looked startled for a moment when he looked up and saw who had arrived.

Although it had been a decent amount of time since Davey had last been publicly active on Earth, his face was still widely known.

“Saint... of Tionis,” the man slowly said with awe.

“Are you Park Woo-Sung?”

“...Yes.”

His appearance was much worse than what Davey had seen in the documents.

He was still a young man; a person who had never harmed anyone in his life; a person with no reason to try to kill his best friend.

Yet there he sat, locked up for violent crime.

“Park Woo-Sung,” Davey began. “Your friend said he doesn't want you to be punished.”

“I know. But... I can still clearly feel that there's something strange inside me,” he mumbled with a complicated expression. “A-and... I feel like I might end up doing it again if I get let back out into the world.”

He was intentionally staying there because he was afraid of doing something strange again.

“Nonetheless, why would the Saint of Tionis come see me?”

“Park Woo-Sung,” Davey sternly called out. “You know how abnormal your situation is, right?”

“Yes!!”

Bang!!

Woo-Sung slammed the interrogation table with a fist, and the guard flinched as he jumped up.

“I really didn't mean to, but suddenly I felt like I wasn't myself...”

“In that case, I need to check what’s going on with you. Please lend me your wrist for a moment.”

Following Davey’s suggestion, he nervously extended his cuffed hands.

They weren't just standard handcuffs used in traffic stops—they were thick restraints. The prison he’d found himself in was originally meant to confine Awakened individuals who had committed violent crimes. Park Woo-Sung wasn't an Awakened, yet because there were suspicions that an Awakened had influenced his actions, some politicians were trying to use the case against Sacred Group.

By portraying him as an Awakened criminal, they were pushing their own narrative to pressure the company. Politicians were the same everywhere; they used any means to achieve their ends.

Seemingly intending to read the man’s pulse, Davey placed his index and middle fingers on his wrist and closed his eyes.

Hyun-Ah, who was sitting next to Davey, rested her hand on the table and asked him a few questions as well while Davey did his analysis. She asked the man if he'd ever been involved with an Awakened, or if he'd experienced any problems while using the virtual reality. After all, she needed the information in order to better control the narrative and prevent such events from happening again.

Davey knew that what Park Woo-Sung held inside, the influence on his inner self, was more important. From his skin to his consciousness, Davey quickly analyzed his entire being.

Yet...

‘Nothing? That can’t be...’

It felt like there was something he must have missed. He had already met and checked all the other people who had committed related crimes before meeting Park Woo-Sung. Just like him, nothing came up from them either. Most of the people Davey examined were ordinary humans, and their minds showed no signs of corruption.

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