The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Bang!

The Director's office door burst open, and three researchers came scrambling in.

"D-Director! What do you mean, new team members?! Are the three of us... not enough?!"

Han Soeun jumped in, indignant.

"We've been doing a great job! The kids' energy waveforms are super stable, and their growth rates are the best they've ever been!"

Kang Taemin said nothing as usual, but the tightly pressed lips and the unusual hint of dissatisfaction in his eyes spoke for him.

I sat quietly and studied the three of them in front of me.

...They've really changed.

The first time we'd met, they'd been full of wariness and distrust toward me.

They still didn't sincerely trust and follow Chae Junhyeok, of course, but the old distance wasn't there anymore.

And what really made me happy was something else.

The way they looked at the kids had changed.

At some point along the way, they'd stopped calling them "test subjects to extract data from" and started calling them "the kids" — children they had to protect and guide.

That small shift tugged at my chest.

I hid the emotion behind my mask and let out a heavy sigh, deliberately deep enough to make the floor sink.

"Haah... this is your fault, isn't it."

"...Excuse me?"

"The reason I'm recruiting new team members. It's because you three have been doing your jobs too well."

I tossed a data pad over to them.

"T-this is—!"

Han Soeun caught it, and her eyes went wide with shock.

Lee Jinwoo, too, sucked in a breath as he peered over her shoulder at the screen.

On the display, Kim Sihyeok's energy graph was spiking like a monster — impossibly high for a B-rank.

I was flustered myself the first time I saw it... how in the world did it end up like this...

My goal was to get the kids out of the institute, so up until now I'd been planning to just skate by with adequate results.

But of all things — Sihyeok, going and overperforming this hard.

Thanks to it, I'd been able to get what I wanted out of the Bureau Chief — but the problem was that way too much attention was starting to focus on us.

Haah...

A sigh escaped on its own.

"I was planning to just play house at a nice reasonable pace. And thanks to you lot, look where we are."

"B-but... Director."

At my ridiculous tantrum, Lee Jinwoo pushed back, flustered.

"Didn't you say you were going to make the children into the world's strongest? Then isn't this a good result?"

"Well of course—!"

That was just bait to get your signatures on the contract!

I barely managed to swallow the line that had shot up to my throat and forced out an excuse.

"Of course I'm going to make them that. But not this fast. My preparations aren't finished yet."

At my words, Lee Jinwoo, Han Soeun, and Kang Taemin exchanged quick looks.

"Whatever. It's too late for half-measures — the whole thing's gotten too big for that. So I'm going to blow it up even bigger on purpose."

My plan was simple.

Since it's already come to this, let's move the escape timeline way up.

The image of Park Suho, dying horribly in the pages of the original novel, flashed through my head.

I couldn't let that child die that way.

And I couldn't let any of the six of them end up like that.

Which meant making them strong the fastest way possible — and overwhelmingly so.

So that we could get them fully independent from this hell of an institute as fast as humanly possible.

The kids, too, would want to get away from this godforsaken institute and the delinquent called Chae Junhyeok as fast as they could.

"Honestly... you three are pretty overwhelmed these days, aren't you?"

At the question, the three of them quietly looked at each other's faces, as if by prior agreement.

Six children, and only three people to teach them.

Between the training and every kind of class on top of it, working late was a given and sleep was a luxury.

If this had been the real world, the schedule was murderous enough to have been reported to the labor board a long time ago.

"You lot burning out like this is going to throw a wrench in my game of house, isn't it. So from now on, I'm thinking we run this game a little more systematically."

I looked at them and declared:

"I'm bringing on more researchers. And I plan to recruit a very special teacher from outside, too."

At that, an almost moved look rose on Lee Jinwoo's face.

"...You're finally starting for real, then!"

"That's right. From here on, it starts. It's going to get busier — so pull yourselves together."

Kraaash—!

The heavy sound of a massive hardwood desk being flipped rang out.

Park Wonjin, like a beast that had lost all reason, was destroying his own office.

The stacks of documents that had been on the desk cascaded to the floor like a waterfall.

Shraaaakkk—!

As if that still didn't cool his rage, he headed for the bookshelf that covered one entire wall.

Papers and research reports he had spent decades building up.

He swept every last one of them... down onto the floor like a madman. The white pages blanketed the entire office like a blizzard.

Finally, his eyes landed... on the golden trophy on the highest shelf.

Researcher of the Year.

"Kwahhhh—!" With a beastlike roar, he snatched the trophy up and... hurled it at the hologram display in the middle of the office.

Kraaash—! With a sharp shatter, the hologram sparked — pzzzt! — and cut out.

And there was one researcher, off by the door, watching all of it and shaking.

On his face, alongside deep terror, was the profound regret of why on earth did I ever come in here.

Park Wonjin finally stopped moving. He stood in the middle of his wrecked office and glared into empty air with bloodshot eyes.

He clenched his shaking fists tight.

"How dare he!!! Hand personnel authority over to that little bastard?! After everything I've done to serve him!!!"

The video call from the Bureau Chief just a little while ago.

[From now on, all personnel authority over the researchers goes to my son. You are not to involve yourself in it in any way.]

At the one-sided announcement, Park Wonjin had cried out, panicked.

Bureau Chief! What do you mean, out of nowhere?! You promised me, right up to the end, that personnel authority at the institute would stay with me! If only for the sake of the institute's chain of command!

But the Bureau Chief had cut him off with a chillingly blank expression from the other side of the screen.

[Deputy Director.]

[Because of you, my precious son almost died. Isn't that right?]

At the smile — the smile that said he knew every last bit of it — cold sweat ran down Park Wonjin's spine.

[Out of consideration for our history, I let it end quietly with a single 'careless' researcher. Are you hoping I'll investigate the matter myself instead?]

It was a plain threat.

That single phone call had ended everything.

His power inside the institute crumbled like a sandcastle.

The researchers who had followed him now openly ignored him or fell in line behind the new authority — the Director.

Just today was proof.

"I called for them hours ago — how are they still not showing their damn faces?!"

The researcher curled up on the floor answered, shaking.

"I-I sent out every message, sir. But they're all saying they're too busy with the projects they've been assigned—"

"Ha! Busy?"

A sneer twisted at the corner of Park Wonjin's mouth.

He grabbed the expensive bottle of whiskey on the desk and hurled it at the wall by the researcher's head.

Krrraash—!!!

Along with a sharp burst, glass shards and the sharp reek of liquor sprayed in every direction.

"Eek!"

The researcher swallowed a scream and collapsed on the spot.

"Busy? Busy? Ha ha."

Until just a little while ago, the moment he'd called, these were the kinds of people who'd come running with their tails between their legs.

And now they were flat-out ignoring him?

Trying to switch sides already. Traitorous little bastards.

Unable to hold back the fury boiling up inside him, he swept the last remaining stack of documents off his desk to the floor.

Fwahh—!

White pages fluttered like snow across the wrecked office floor.

Breathing hard, Park Wonjin looked down at the ruinous scene he'd made with his own bloodshot eyes.

That was the exact moment.

Among the countless scattered papers, a single notice caught his eye more sharply than any of the rest.

[Open Recruitment for New 'Project R' Team Members]

The instant he saw the words, every one of his movements stopped dead.

He didn't so much as twitch — just stared down at that single sheet of paper for a very, very long time.

The researcher slumped on the floor watched him and swallowed hard.

...He's finally lost it.

Compared to the sight of him tearing everything apart in a rage a moment ago, the sight of him standing silently in the middle of the wreckage now was several times more chilling.

A short while later.

"Hey, Senior Researcher Hwang."

At the ominous voice, Senior Researcher Hwang jerked his head up.

"Y-yes! Deputy Director!"

"How long has it been since you made 'Senior Researcher'?"

At the question, the years scrolled through Senior Researcher Hwang's mind like a slideshow.

Senior Researcher.

The rank he'd finally scraped together, staying up every night for eight years.

And above it stood two enormous walls he could barely make out from where he was — Lead Researcher and Chief Researcher.

Senior Researcher Hwang answered in a trembling voice.

"Th-this year makes three years, sir."

"Three years, huh."

Park Wonjin murmured, as if intrigued.

"You wouldn't happen to want... to make it up to Lead Researcher, would you?"

At those words, Senior Researcher Hwang's eyes went wide with stunned shock.

Lead... Researcher? A position it'd take at least another seven years of grinding to reach...!

And if he could just get to that position...

A single sweet fantasy spread through Senior Researcher Hwang's head like a virulent poison.

Han Soeun — his very junior, but young and pretty enough that he'd always singled her out for special favor.

But ever since she'd gone to work under the Director, the ingrate had been openly ignoring him.

She'd let his messages sit unread, and even when they passed in the corridor, she barely bothered with a proper greeting.

...The cheeky little brat.

But what if he became a Lead Researcher?

The scene played out in Senior Researcher Hwang's head.

Her hearing the news of his sensational promotion, regretting the way she'd ignored him, wagging her tail to get on his good side.

Her face clinging to him with, "Senior Researcher Hwang... no, Lead Researcher Hwang. I'm so sorry about before."

The fantasy alone sent a thrilling shiver through his whole body.^※TL Bruh

The look on Senior Researcher Hwang's face — the beast-in-the-crosshairs terror from a moment ago — very slowly shifted, into a sticky greed.

He swallowed hard.

"What... would I have to do."

At the reaction, the twisted smile at the corner of Park Wonjin's mouth deepened.

"Good. I've always thought highly of ambitious researchers like you."

He picked the notice up off the floor and pressed it directly into Senior Researcher Hwang's hand.

"How would you feel about moving to a new team?"

Beyond Park Wonjin's glasses, a gaze cold and cunning as a snake's flashed.

A week later.

On the enormous table in the Director's office, résumés from researchers wanting to join Project R were piled up in a mountain.

Eighty-three people in total had submitted résumés.

At an institute with just over a hundred researchers, that was an application rate of over eighty percent.

"Wow... this senior applied too? The guy who laughed at me when I said I was coming to this team... his research record isn't even that great, is it? Yeah, no — you're rejected!"

"Whoa! This — this guy is! He was being talked about as the next team leader! One of the top elite! I can't believe he applied!"

"...!"

Lee Jinwoo, Han Soeun, and Kang Taemin flipped through the résumés one at a time, unable to hide their shock, excitement, and confusion.

I picked one up out of the mountain.

The credentials listed on it were dazzling.

[Energy Engineering Team, Lead Researcher Kim Jinhyeok]

Head of Data Analysis, A-rank Gate Second Exploration.

Three patents relating to "17% Improvement in Mana Conversion Efficiency," plus published papers on the subject.

Résumés with contents this serious weren't just this one.

The Monster Analysis team's ace, who had been the first to identify an unclassified subspecies of A-rank monster.

The Artifact Analysis team's genius, who had, last year, been the first to activate an S-rank defensive artifact no one else had been able to get working.

Every last résumé in that mountain was on that level.

Is it really okay for these people to leave their teams?

Anyone could see they were the core personnel carrying the present and future of their respective teams.

After leafing through the résumés with a disbelieving expression for a long while, Lee Jinwoo suddenly looked up and turned to me.

"Director, was it really necessary to hold an open recruitment like this? You've been given full personnel authority anyway — wouldn't it have been more efficient to just name a few core people from each team and pull them over directly?"

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!