Academy’s Villain Professor-Chapter 150 : Chapter 150

Chapter 150 : The Bank Robber
In fact, in modern society, banks were not as safe a place as one might think.
Did there not exist awakened beings who could tear steel with their bare hands, leap through space, or control people at will?
A mere security guard armed with a gas gun was no match for them.
And to hire an awakened one as a security guard, looking at the monthly salary, one wouldn't know who the real robber was.
The rare metals that blocked Traits had a price that was beyond imagination.
Some banks had made their VIP vaults with them, only for robbers to frequently steal the vaults instead of the money.
In the end, these days, banks were in a position where they just handed over all the money and waited for a hero or the police to catch the culprits later.
And since the punishment was incomparable to that for simple robbery or theft, villains didn't bother to insist on the high-risk act of robbing a bank.
They would rather rob an armored car.
In that sense, the bank robbers in front of them were out of their minds.
“Everyone, get off the chairs!”
Screams erupted from all over as the robber turned his gun on the bank customers.
In the midst of it all, Ho-cheol had already folded his ticket into the shape of a hook.
This should be enough for a bullet or a person's wrist.
Of course, he didn't act immediately and just did as he was told for now.
As the robber ordered, the customers gathered in a corner of the bank.
Ho-cheol took a spot on the very outside.
After waiting for a moment.
Drrreureuk koong—
Outside the bank, the shutters came down, sealing it completely.
Of course, it was not the will of the bank employees.
“I’ve closed the door.”
Another bank robber, also wearing a mask, appeared.
“I caused a few traffic accidents nearby with a self-driving car, so it’ll take at least 10 minutes for the police to arrive.”
“Did the go through? If we had blocked that in the first place, we wouldn't be in such a rush.”
“That’s a mechanical hotline, so I have no way of interfering with it.”
One robber to watch the hostages who had first been shot at, one robber in charge of external security and the system, and in addition.
“Hurry up and put the money in here!”
“Ah, okay!”
One robber to threaten the bank employees and extort money.
The terrified bank employee opened the bag the robber had thrown and began to stack bundles of money inside.
The bag seemed to have a Trait, as money kept going in endlessly.
Ho-cheol watched their robbery with a blank expression.
And he quickly came to a conclusion.
Rookies.
No, the expression ‘rookie’ was too good for them.
They were complete amateurs.
Their voices were unnecessarily loud, and their movements were full of unnecessary actions.
It wasn't that they didn't know what to do, as if they had run countless simulations in their heads, but they couldn't hide the characteristic clumsiness of a first-time field operation in their minor actions.
At first glance, it looked like just three bank robbers, but in reality, it wasn't so.
In fact, there were only three with guns on the front line.
There were a total of four bank robbers.
And one of them.
Was currently hiding among the hostages.
A role to detect any suspicious movements or unrest among the hostages.
In addition, a hostage position that would play a major role in escaping from heroes or the police at a crucial moment by acting like a civilian.
Ho-cheol glanced at the woman behind him.
She was acting quite convincingly, looking terrified like the other hostages.
But that could only fool a mediocre hero.
To Ho-cheol, it was nothing more than an obvious trick.
He had even found the possible accomplice.
Ho-cheol's hand, holding the ticket, twitched.
There was nothing more to wait for.
It would take less than 5 seconds to subdue the robber among the hostages and deal with the ones nearby one by one.
Just as he was about to stand up.
For a moment, Ho-cheol's body leaned forward.
He barely stopped himself from standing up and opened his eyes in a narrow slit.
The robber watching the hostages had briefly turned his head to the side to check how much money had been collected.
At that moment, Ho-cheol could clearly see.
Behind his ear, there was a very small but distinct scale.
The texture was characteristic of a reptile.
The robber's Trait surely wasn't his skin turning into a reptile's.
A photo flashed in his mind.
The fusion of a monster and a human.
The scales on the body of the one who had rampaged in the city were very similar.
This situation is taking a strange turn.
Ho-cheol hid the ticket in his hand again and waited for a moment.
It wouldn't be too late to move after his suspicion became a certainty.
Or it would be good to have some solid physical evidence.
About 5 more minutes passed.
The bag they had brought was now bulging with money.
“We’re done. Let’s go back. Just grab one hostage.”
The heroes and police had already arrived and were surrounding the bank.
Nevertheless, the robbers were calm, as if they had something to rely on.
The robber, with a money bag on his back and waist, asked as if puzzled.
“The heroes are late.”
He took out a phone connected to the external CCTV and checked the situation outside.
Only a few police officers were surrounding the bank.
“Setting aside the heroes, shouldn't a negotiation expert have come by now to negotiate?”
“Maybe they failed their salary negotiations. Let’s see. Who should we take as a hostage.”
The robber watching the hostages answered curtly, tilting his gun up and down.
Of course, Ho-cheol knew that the hostage they would choose was the woman who was their accomplice.
All the hostages desperately avoided his eyes, praying it wasn't them.
In the middle of selecting a hostage, the robber squeezed his eyes shut.
“Ah, the drug’s wearing off.”
Muttering, he stuck his remaining hand into the inner pocket of his jacket.
In his hand when he pulled it out was a small vial.
A special type of syringe without a needle.
The corners of the robber's mouth twisted bizarrely at the sight of the syringe.
“Hey, I told you you’d get side effects if you take the booster so soon.”
“One is fine.”
He brought the syringe to his neck.
Just before injecting.
Ho-cheol stood up first.
“Now. That’s enough.”
An unexpected action that surpassed everyone's expectations.
The gazes of both the robbers and the hostages turned to him.
Yet Ho-cheol, who was receiving the gazes, was calm.
He raised his index finger and pointed at the robber, or more precisely, at the syringe he was holding.
“Bring that here.”
It was the solid physical evidence Ho-cheol had been waiting for.
The robber lowered the hand holding the syringe and instead raised his gun to aim at Ho-cheol.
“Hey, who are you? A hero or something?”
“No. Just.”
The moment the gun followed Ho-cheol, his body disappeared.
To be precise, it was a speed that even eyes enhanced through a stimulant could not capture.
Ho-cheol, who had closed the distance of several meters in an instant, grabbed the wrist holding the gun with one hand, and placed his remaining hand under the elbow that was stretched out to aim the gun.
He held the wrist firmly and lifted the elbow upwards.
Kkudeudeuk—
The unpleasant sound of a joint bending backwards and a bone being crushed.
But the robber couldn't even open his mouth to scream.
Ho-cheol twisted his body and embedded the tip of his foot into his temple.
Bbeo-eok—
The robber, who had spun several times, foamed at the mouth and fainted.
I put some strength into it, thinking he would be tougher since he had more monster parts.
Was it too much?
He forced open the fallen robber's hand and didn't forget to take the syringe.
Two left.
Ho-cheol turned his body.
The remaining two bank robbers, though flustered by the unexpected situation, aimed their guns at Ho-cheol.
But Ho-cheol moved first.
Two guns.
He grabbed the fainted bank robber by the scruff of his neck and threw him at one of the robbers.
Thus blocking one of them from firing, and to the remaining robber, he threw the folded ticket.
Kwaduk—
The ticket Ho-cheol had thrown got stuck in the gun barrel.
At least this one was quick to judge the situation; he threw away his gun and instead threw a more reliable weapon, his own fist.
Of course, his faith was not to be rewarded.
Ho-cheol twisted his head to dodge the fist, grabbed the outstretched arm, and threw him over.
Kwaang—
A large crater was formed on the marble floor.
Ho-cheol turned to the side to subdue the last robber.
But the robber had already grabbed a hostage and was aiming a gun at their head.
“You’d better stay still if you don’t want to see a hole in this person’s head.”
“H-help me!”
The hostage cried out.
Ho-cheol's eyes darted left and right for a moment.
Even he couldn't move faster than a bullet fired from point-blank range without causing any harm to the surroundings.
He eventually raised his hands to his ears.
Perhaps realizing he was in a more advantageous situation, the robber let out a small sigh of relief.
But his expression hardened again.
Even though he had raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, Ho-cheol suddenly started walking towards the robber.
“Wh-what. Stop right there!”
The robber pressed the gun firmly against the hostage's temple.
He tilted his head.
At that reaction, the robber and the hostage were even more surprised.
“What?”
“I’m not a hero anyway. One person can die in an unfortunate accident.”
Of course, it was a taunt made with the knowledge that he wouldn't be able to pull the trigger.
In the first place, the person the robber had taken hostage was the one Ho-cheol had marked as an accomplice earlier.
It was much more stable to take a gang member who could be coordinated with, as long as their acting skills were good, as a hostage, rather than another hostage who might resist or cause other variables.
In fact, their acting skills were not bad either.
Of course, it was a tactic limited to when the opponent was a hero.
A hero would not be able to move carelessly even if the acting was clumsy, due to the 1% possibility of an innocent civilian.
But Ho-cheol was different.
Not a hero.
Not a good person.
The robber's mistake was to mistake Ho-cheol for a hero, that was all.
But in a way, it was also lucky.
If he had taken a truly innocent civilian hostage, Ho-cheol would have had no choice but to cut off the robber's arm.
In any case, since they were on the same side, the robber couldn't pull the trigger, and before long, Ho-cheol had come right in front of the robber and stood facing him.
“If I were you, I’d recommend shooting your own arms and legs with that gun right now. Then maybe I’ll feel sorry for you and not hit you?”
The eyes visible beyond the mask trembled pitifully.
Ho-cheol raised his fist.
“If you don’t want to, then don’t.”
Bbeo-eok—
Bbak—
He gave both the hostage and the robber a hard knuckle sandwich on the head.
He gathered the fainted robbers in one place and searched their pockets.
He didn't forget to snatch a syringe similar to the one he had taken earlier.
Parts of all their bodies were beginning to show traces of a monster.
Should this be called a mutation?
Or fusion?
Or evolution?
As he was thinking for a moment.
Wajangchang—
Perhaps finally starting their operation, a hero jumped into the bank, smashing the shutters and doors.
Ppogreureureu—
At the same time, transparent soap bubbles poured out from his entire body, enveloping the people inside the bank.
Not just the hostages, but also all the robbers.
It seemed to just envelop anything of human size.
Ho-cheol pressed the soap bubble that had enveloped him with his fingertip.
For a soap bubble, it was quite elastic and sturdy.
Enough to easily withstand a few shots from a popgun.
In a situation like this, it was a very good trait.
It was effective not just for protection, but also for suppression.
The hero who had made a rather grand entrance shouted.
“I'm here, so don't worry!”
Of course, it was too late.
Heroes are still the same with their late arrivals.
For a while, Ho-cheol's situation had become quite difficult due to the testimony that he had subdued a robber without a hero license and had even attacked an innocent hostage.
But the Association soon sent someone and he was finally able to be released.
To be precise, the Legal Department's connections had reached the police high-ups and an order had come down from there.
He had been so flustered when he was about to be handcuffed out of the blue.
And he was quite dissatisfied that he couldn't even unfreeze his bank account, which was his original goal.
In any case, staying at the bank any longer would just get him called in for questioning, so he followed the agent who had taken his statement and went straight to the Legal Department.
The head of the Legal Department's private office.
He had met the head several times, but this was his first time here.
It was also proof of how important this matter was.
Before the head could say anything, Ho-cheol placed the syringe on the desk.
“This is?”
“The drug the robbers were taking. It's probably the ingredient that acts as a stimulant and causes the monster mutation. They called it a booster.”
Drugs that enhanced Traits had been circulating on the market for a long time, but in reality, they were closer to scams, just selling simple stimulants under a different name, rather than actually enhancing Trait output or duration.
But this was different.
“I'll have to investigate this too.”
Muttering, the head pulled out a thick bundle of paper from under the desk.
Tung—
A bundle of paper, easily hundreds of pages long.
Looking at it, Ho-cheol tensed and swallowed.
“……Is this, by any chance?”
“That’s right.”
The head nodded his head, confirming his ominous premonition.
“It's the information that was in the USB you gave me.”
“……I want to scream.”
When am I going to read all this?
“By any chance.”
Ho-cheol asked with a hollow laugh.
“Is there a three-line summary?”