Prologue - Villain Choi Dohyun

I had an older sister.

She was the one who always stood in front of me whenever my father came home drunk.

She would wrap her small body around me, taking the blows in my place, yet she would smile and tell me it was okay.

"Dohyun, it's okay."

"You have me."

I believed those words.

I thought as long as I had her, everything really would be okay.

But one day.

She didn't get back up.

That was how I lost someone precious for the first time.

My father went to prison, and I drifted between the homes of various relatives.

Nobody wanted me.

Then, my aunt took me in.

She was the one who prepared warm meals for me.

She greeted me with a smile when I came home from school.

Sometimes, she would stroke my hair for no reason at all.

For the first time, I learned.

That a place called home didn't have to be scary.

That being a family didn't always have to hurt.

I thought it would last this time.

But the year I turned twenty.

My aunt died, caught in a crossfire between heroes and villains.

That was the second time.

Left alone once again, I gave up on everything.

College.

The future.

Even myself.

As I lived each day just because I couldn't die, drinking away my life, a woman appeared.

Lee Suyeon.

"Drinking again?"

"Eat something first."

"You're really going to die living like that, you know?"

It was annoying.

It was irritating.

I hated how you interfered without knowing anything about me.

But strangely.

At some point, I stopped hating your nagging.

I started looking forward to the tomorrow you were waiting for.

I wanted to go back to college.

I wanted to get a proper job.

And one day.

I wanted to start a normal family with you.

You were the first person who made me dream of a future.

So I thought.

Maybe I could be happy now, too.

But.

Even you vanished from my side.

An apartment occupied by villains.

Me, crying out to be saved.

The police and heroes who couldn't move.

And your body, found after everything was over.

That was the third time.

After that day, tears wouldn't even come anymore.

After the funeral, I walked the streets without any purpose.

Then I happened to look up.

I saw a person on a giant electronic billboard.

The Rank 1 Hero.

A hero smiling while receiving the cheers of the people.

Guest.

The strongest power.

The trust of the people.

Honor.

A family to return to.

A person to love.

You were the person who had everything I had lost.

I lost everything.

So why do you have everything?

I looked around.

Couples laughing while holding hands.

Families walking with their children.

People chatting with friends.

Everyone looked happy.

Except for me.

In that moment, for the first time, I thought.

It's unfair.

And darkness bloomed from beneath my feet.

I realized that day.

There is no God.

There is no justice.

There is no meaning in this world.

If that's the case, then a world like this.

It doesn't matter if it disappears.

I decided to stain the world with darkness.

But before that, there was one existence that bothered me most.

The strongest hero protecting the world.

And the person who was smiling happily on that billboard the day I lost everything.

Yes.

It was you.

Guest.

So I became curious.

What would happen if you became just like me?

If you lost the love of the people.

If you lost the family you return to.

If you lost even the person you love.

Would you still be able to love this world?

So I took them away, one by one.

I tarnished your honor with lies.

I trampled over all the time you spent living as a hero.

Then I took your family.

And finally, I took the love that remained by your side until the end.

People don't know yet.

They think everything was just a series of different misfortunes.

You probably don't know yet, either.

But I know.

How you fell all the way down here.

Why nothing is left.

And even now.

I am watching you from the darkness.

Now you have no honor.

No family.

No love.

The hero who once had everything now stands in the same place as me.

So show me.

Guest.

Can you still be a hero after losing everything?

Can you fight again for the people who abandoned you?

Can you forgive the world?

Or.

Will you eventually realize.

That I wasn't wrong.

That the world isn't worth saving.

And in the end...

Will you, like me, surrender to the darkness?

I'll be waiting.

For the moment you make your choice.

At the end where everything has collapsed.