The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Training Room One, the largest one the institute had to offer.

"The Director isn't even here — what's this all-of-a-sudden mock training?"

"Isn't it to show off how much they've grown?"

"But Park Suho's forbidden from using his ability."

"Right? What's the point of the healer being in a training run if he can't even heal?"

The researchers' whispering — thick with doubt — filled the training room.

With that murmur as his background music, Hwang Dushik, up in the second-floor control room, looked down through the glass wall.

There stood Cha Yul and Park Suho, faces tight.

He thought back to what he had whispered to Suho just thirty minutes before they went in.

[Suho. Today is your perfect chance to show the Director what you can do. You know that, right?]

He had gripped the child's shoulders hard and cast his devil's spell.

[Don't hold back. Every last drop of your ability — pour it all out, don't leave a single one behind. Only then will the Director see you.]

Yes. Squeeze it out. Until every last bit of your life burns clean off.

Hwang Dushik wore a smile of victory and looked, at his leisure, around the room.

He was just about to scan the Chiefs' faces for the twisted looks he was expecting when—

...Hm?

Something was off.

Lee Jinwoo and Han Soeun, who should have been there without question, were nowhere to be seen.

Where'd they go? Don't tell me they got scared and ran for it?

Just as he was tilting his head, looking for the two of them, Kang Taemin's voice — from the center of the training room — came through the speakers.

"Starting now, we will begin the mock training session for Project R performance review."

His voice was flat, but it carried a weight that dominated the room.

"The rules are simple. Enter the virtual training space and survive for ten minutes against the A-rank monsters that get summoned."

Kang Taemin declared the last, most important rule.

"Victory goes to whichever team has the lower total cumulative damage taken — as recorded in each member's biometric data — at the ten-minute mark."

When the explanation was over, Kang Taemin asked:

"Which team wants to go first?"

"We'll go first."

It was Lee Sea-ah.

Beside her, the twin sister Hayun clenched her small fists and called out toward Cha Yul and Suho.

"Watch us, oppas! We're gonna win! We'll show you the resuwlts of our training! Hehe!"

Her little brother Hajun stood behind her, made a small fist, and struck his own fighting pose.

Lee Sea-ah let out a small sigh.

"I'm not sure why we're suddenly doing this, but we'll give it our best."

The three children exchanged a look and stepped through into the virtual reality training space.

When the children opened their eyes, they were standing in a desolate ruined city.

And in front of them, a massive virtual monster in the shape of a rhinoceros, its whole body clad in steel, stood shaking the earth.

"Begin."

The instant Kang Taemin's declaration dropped, the steel rhino kicked off the ground and charged.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Every time it planted a foot, the whole ruined city shook as if an earthquake were tearing through it.

"Guys! Wall!"

At Sea-ah's sharp order, Hayun and Hajun grabbed each other's hands without hesitation.

Wooong—

The huge chunks of concrete rubble and steel beams scattered around them defied gravity and rose into the air.

"Yaaaargh!"

With the kids' shouts, the debris flew into the path of the rhino's charge and stacked in layer after layer.

In an instant, a thick concrete wall was standing there, complete.

But the raw force of a charging A-rank monster was beyond imagining.

Kwaaang—!

Along with a huge boom, the wall the children had built shattered like paper — and the rhino's massive horn came bearing down right in front of the children's faces.

"Sea-ah unnie!"

"I've got it!"

Lee Sea-ah was already moving.

In a blink she had planted herself in front of the twins.

She crossed her arms in front of her, and out of thin air a huge barrier snapped into place.

Kreeeee—!

"Krh...!"

Steel horn and mana barrier collided head-on.

Along with an awful sound like nails on a chalkboard, sparks flew.

Lee Sea-ah's feet skidded and scraped across the ground as she was pushed back, but she didn't give an inch.

"No way... you're getting through!"

At her shout, the barrier flared, more solid than before.

Thud—!

"Now! Bind it!"

As if they'd been waiting for it, the twins pulled the rebar in with telekinesis.

Dozens of iron rods twisted like snakes and wrapped tight around the rhino's legs and torso.

"You're surrounded! Don't move a muscle, stay right there!"

"Kraaaaargh—!"

The steel rhino thrashed at the unexpected restraint in a fury, but the twins' telekinesis clamped down and locked it in place, unable to budge.

Watching that overwhelming combo play, the researchers up in the control room found themselves murmuring, as if under a spell.

"...Incredible."

The twins' outrageous telekinesis was staggering on its own, but the way Sea-ah directed it — timing each release perfectly so none of that power got wasted — and her ironclad defense that never gave the enemy an opening, that was the astonishing part.

That was the exact moment.

[Ten minutes elapsed. Team B demonstration complete.]

Kang Taemin's voice rang out, and at the same moment the steel rhino's shape dissolved and vanished.

The final result flashed up on the main screen.

[Team B cumulative damage: 1.8%]

Not a single direct clean hit had landed.

Just a few scrapes from little chunks of debris kicked up by the shock of the rhino's charge.

"We did it!"

Sea-ah cried out.

Slap! Slap! The three children exchanged excited high-fives.

"Unnie! We're the best! We did soooo good!"

Hajun stood beside his sister, his little fist clenched too.

Sea-ah looked at the two of them like they were the cutest things in the world, and pulled them into a tight hug.

Meanwhile, in stark contrast, between Cha Yul and Park Suho there was only an ice-cold silence.

"Team A. Enter."

Kang Taemin's blunt instruction came down.

Cha Yul and Park Suho, the two of them, walked into the gate with tight faces and no answer.

Wooong—

The space shifted, and the same desolate ruined city Team B had faced opened up in front of them.

Kuuung—!

Along with a tremor that shook the ground, a huge shadow appeared from off in the distance.

The same monster Team B had faced.

But the two of them moved in a way completely unlike Team B.

Cha Yul didn't dodge. If anything, he stretched his hand out, calmly, toward the house-sized steel rhino.

Kwang!

At the moment of impact, the rhino's monstrous charging energy hit Cha Yul's palm and swirled there.

Red mana drank that force down like a starving beast.

The absorption took only an instant. With bloodshot eyes, Cha Yul drove that condensed energy straight down into the ground.

Kwaaaaang—!

It wasn't a simple explosion.

The whole floor of the training space screamed and turned itself over as if an earthquake had ripped through it.

In an instant, a thick cloud of dust bloomed like a storm and swallowed the training space whole.

"Wh — what! What's wrong with the feed?!"

Hwang Dushik, watching the monitor in the control room, cried out in a panic.

"Adjust the sensors! Get eyes on the inside — now!"

But it was no use.

Inside the choking dust cloud, the sounds of a violent fight kept coming.

Kroooooo!

The steel rhino's furious roar, and heavy hoofbeats shaking the ground.

The screech of something being horribly smashed, and the sharp sound of something being cleanly pierced.

As if someone in there were deliberately, over and over, plowing the ground up, the dust cloud showed no sign of clearing.

In the meantime, the ten minutes ran out uselessly.

[Ten minutes elapsed. Team A demonstration complete.]

Along with Kang Taemin's end-of-run declaration, the dense dust cloud began, slowly, to clear.

And at the sight it revealed, every researcher in the room — Hwang Dushik included — had their jaws drop.

The steel rhino lay in a horrific state, hacked to ribbons across every inch of its body.

But that wasn't the problem.

Beside the monster's corpse... Park Suho... was face-down on the ground, not moving.

"Huh?"

"S-Suho?"

The researchers' murmuring turned, in an instant, into horror.

Beeeeeep—!

The main screen in the control room flashed red and let out a warning tone.

[Warning: Park Suho biometric energy depleted]

[Current reading: 0%]

"His biometric data... zero?"

"What is this...!"

"Suho used his ability? Even if he did, how is he already at zero?!"

While the researchers fell into a panicked murmur, Hwang Dushik shot up from his seat and bolted down toward the training space.

"Suho! Suho! No!"

Like a man gone mad, he came running and moved to gather the fallen Suho up.

He had to take the pulse himself, to be sure — cleanly, definitively — that the breathing had stopped.

But—

"Step back."

The moment he was about to lay a hand on Suho, Kang Taemin stood in his way like a mountain.

"Chief Kang! I'm the dedicated researcher! Let me check his—"

"He's going to the medical bay first. Step back."

Kang Taemin ignored Hwang Dushik's words, scooped the limp Suho up, and carried him out of the training space.

"H-hey...!"

Hwang Dushik stood there staring blankly after him, like a dog left watching the chicken it had been chasing get away.

Not being able to check for himself stung, but he quickly turned and looked to the main screen.

[Biometric energy: 0%]

The data doesn't lie. A perfect zero.

Now certain, Hwang Dushik dropped to the floor and launched into the performance he'd prepared.

"Uh-huh-huk... Suho... you idiot..."

He pounded the floor with his fist and wailed.

"I told you... I begged you not to use your ability... but you wanted so badly to show the Director... uhk... I'm the worthless one... I should have stopped you harder...!"

At that shameless act of grief, the other researchers — none the wiser — murmured with looks of pity on their faces.

"Oh no... Senior Hwang cared for him so much..."

"My god, how did this happen..."

Hwang Dushik was ducking his head low, working to hide the slick smile spreading at the corners of his mouth, when—

Bzzt—

The terminal tucked against his chest gave a short buzz.

[Come to Training Room 3. Immediately.]

So he saw all of it...!

It was over now. All that was left was a perfect finish.

Hwang Dushik pushed his way out through the grieving researchers and, in a voice all mourning, kept up the performance.

"I-I need... I need to step out and pull myself together for a minute... uh-huh-huk..."

Pretending to stagger, he made it out of the training space.

And the second he stepped into the empty corridor, he straightened his back and walked briskly toward Training Room 3.

Clunk.

The door opened, and the dim interior of the training room came into view.

A familiar silhouette, faintly visible in the low light.

Park Wonjin, standing with his back turned.

"Deputy Director!"

Delighted, Hwang Dushik hurried over to him.

"..."

But Park Wonjin, back still turned, said nothing.

Hwang Dushik took that silence as tacit approval.

He let the elation he'd been holding in burst out and, into that turned back, poured out his report at machine-gun speed.

"Did you see just now?! Park Suho! That little kid's biometric data — cleanly hit zero!"

He was practically giddy, chattering on.

"Project R is going to be in an uproar now! A key test subject dying — they'll be tearing themselves apart trying to figure out where the blame lands. And every last bit of that blame..."

He gave a nasty little chuckle.

"...will land on the Director, Chae Junhyeok — busy playing house instead of managing his test subjects! He's finished, I'm telling you!"

Hwang Dushik — face flushed with excitement, throat working — waited for the response. He fully expected a "well done," or, at the very least, a shared burst of laughter over how satisfying this all was.

But—

"..."

"..."

"..."

What came back was only a heavy silence, pressing down on the space.

The silhouette, sunk in shadow, was so utterly still that not even the sound of breath came from it.

"...Deputy Director?"

Only then did a chill run down his spine, and his voice trailed off.

"Is there... something not to your liking...?"

Wary now, he was about to step forward to check on the other man when—

Bzzt—

A mechanical noise came from Park Wonjin's body.

"What the—?"

The instant Hwang Dushik rubbed his eyes in confusion, the Park Wonjin standing in front of him crumbled and warped like a sandcastle.

Tak!

At the same moment, every light in the darkened training room came on, so bright it hurt his eyes.

[Just good at rendering it, huh.]

Through the ceiling speakers, a woman's voice — coated in mockery — rang out through the training room.

[Can't even tell fake from real.]

"W-what is this?!"

Hwang Dushik backpedaled in terror.

Park Wonjin was already nowhere to be seen — only empty air where he had been.

Virtual... data?

Him — the specialist in virtual data rendering — fooled by virtual data?

As if under a spell, he lifted his head and looked up at the glass of the second-floor control room.

There stood Han Soeun, mic in hand, smirking down at him, and Lee Jinwoo, arms folded, looking down at him too.

And beside them...

"...!"

Kang Taemin, who had left earlier.

And Park Suho — the child he'd thought was dead — standing there with a perfectly healthy face, looking down at him.

But it was when Hwang Dushik's eyes landed on the last figure standing behind them that they truly went wide with shock.

"D — Director?"

Chae Junhyeok, who was not supposed to be there at all, was looking down at him with cold eyes.

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