Dear Heroes, I really am a Villain-Chapter 96: Destroying the Statue 02

— MAIN QUEST: SCULPTURE DOMINATION! —

Description:

Every great villain must demonstrate their dominance to the world! Even when lacking the strength to guarantee survival, you must still assert your supremacy over your greatest enemy. Display your dominance today, become the greatest villain tomorrow!

Time Limit: None

Primary Objective: Destroy the ’Atlas’ statue in the city center

Bonus Objective: Defeat all who attempt to stop you

Reward: Upgrade Temporary Ability Sharing to Permanent Ability Sharing

Bonus Reward: A System Feature Upgrade of your choice

—

One of the reasons he had postponed this quest for so long was because of the description.

It indicated that someone with great strength might come to stop him. So he needed to be strong enough to survive, just in case something went wrong.

To be honest, if he hadn’t acquired both the Bajiquan Supreme Master package and the Supreme Sword Master (Katana) package, he might have delayed this quest even longer.

While Maximilian was lost in thought, he continued to rain down spears of various sizes on the statue—ranging from small, standard spear-sized projectiles to massive ones the size of park light poles.

By now, people were screaming and pointing at him as he stood atop the high-rise building. Police quickly arrived at the scene and began evacuating civilians.

On his visor, a live feed from a hacked security camera in the building showed several heroes rushing toward the location to intercept him. They were among the strongest heroes in this city-state.

But... Oldcowboy wasn’t among them.

He was the one Maximilian was most cautious of. Oldcowboy was a veteran of the alien war at the dawn of this new era, having fought countless villains and mutants during his prime.

Oldcowboy’s experience and skill were top-notch. Even though he was old now, Maximilian knew the man was only aged on the outside—his strength and reaction speed were another story.

Thanks to the current era’s advanced technology, which allowed fighters to maintain peak combat effectiveness for over 50 years, Maximilian was certain that Oldcowboy’s prowess far outmatched any of the heroes currently on their way.

Noticing that the heroes were just a door away from entering the rooftop, Maximilian let out a smirk inside his helmet.

He conjured another five large shadow spears, hovering near him as if he were about to fire them at the statue.

"Stop!" a voice shouted from behind him.

{Okay, here they come.} Maximilian thought gleefully, his eyes focusing on the Villain Points counter that was popping up like crazy.

Villain Points gained: +2000

Villain Points gained: +1500

Villain Points gained: +1800

It seemed that causing terror was a great source of income—especially in front of heroes.

Maximilian launched one of the shadow spears toward the statue, but a speedster in power armor quickly intercepted it.

"Oooohhhh!" the hero roared, boosting both his morale and his energy shield as he crashed into the shadow spear, trying to divert its trajectory.

Boom!

The shadow spear hit the ground near the statue, successfully diverted by the speedster hero.

"You can block one, but what about three others?" Maximilian muttered, sending the remaining shadow spears hovering behind him, hurtling toward the statue.

Three more heroes stepped forward. They stood at ground level. One of them had a large double cannon mounted on his back, clad in massive power armor that looked like a small mech.

Boom! Boom!

The cannons roared, and two energy beams fired from them, smashing into two of the spears. The third spear shot toward the statue, but a female hero blocked it, generating a large energy bubble that absorbed the impact.

All four spears were successfully intercepted by the heroes, which caused the nearby onlookers to cheer loudly.

"Yeah! Hahaha!"

"How’s that, villain!"

"Now you’re out of juice; what are you going to do now? HAHA!"

The cheers echoed through the city center, making Maximilian frown beneath his helmet. Out of juice? What were these idiots blabbering on about? He could keep going all night!

Maximilian wondered about it himself, but what he didn’t know was that most villains in this city were significantly weaker than the heroes; otherwise, how would they maintain public order?

The people and heroes saw that Maximilian had already launched multiple massive dark spears, even using an extra-large one to damage the statue. Now that he had suddenly stopped without summoning more, they assumed he had run out of energy.

Even when the heroes encountered strong villains, those villains were usually still within the standard power range, not significantly stronger than the heroes themselves.

This meant that, with their numerical advantage, the heroes could eventually wear the villain down and arrest them.

This fact was especially true for the average heroes ranked below the top twenty.

After all, villains who could generate dark energy like that and continue fighting for extended periods were extremely rare.

And Maximilian hadn’t lived in this world long enough to be familiar with this "common sense."

Villain Points gained: +12

Villain Points gained: +15

Villain Points gained: +8

Seeing that the Villain Points gain had slowed, Maximilian felt slightly irritated. It seemed the Villain Points were somehow tied to public morale.

"Hahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!"

A single mocking laugh rang out, and both the heroes and the onlookers quickly fell silent.

Why is this villain still laughing?

"Why are you laughing, villain!?"

"You’re defending those stupid sculpted rocks like your life depends on it. How could I not laugh?" Maximilian said through his voice modulator in the helmet.

"A villain like you would never understand! This isn’t just a statue, this is the Atlas Statue! The pillar of humanity! He’s the one who protected all of humanity, even you! Villain!" The Speedster said with self-righteousness.

Yes... Maximilian had read the files and knew that Atlas was the strongest hero—the protector of humanity.

He even read in the secret files he obtained from the local IHB branch that, at the start of this new era, Atlas was the one who single-handedly maintained order, policing both villains and heroes who stepped out of line.

To be honest, he respected the man... but since he was a villain now, it was only fitting to spit on the guy’s name a little.

But then, a thought entered his mind.

If... the Villain Points he earned were tied to public morale, what would happen if he shook that morale?

Let’s test it out.

"Protect humanity? Ufu huhu heh heh... protect me? Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Aaaaaahhhh! HAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Maximilian fully unleashed the acting skill he had just acquired, laughing like a madman.

It was as if he’d just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.

"What are you laughing at?!" the speedster growled through gritted teeth. This villain was too much. Atlas’s heroic deeds were known to all—he had never met a villain who dared disrespect Atlas to this degree!

"Ahhh... I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time," Maximilian said as he finally stopped laughing.

"Is he really protecting humanity? Do you honestly believe that?" He paused, letting the question hang in the air.

"Let me ask you this, hero."

Maximilian slowly descended from the high-rise using his Umbra Sovereign ability, allowing shadows to take the shape of wings—crafted deliberately to resemble demonic ones.

"What is most afraid of the truth?" he asked solemnly.

"Heh! What is most afraid of the truth? Isn’t it villains like you!? All the crimes you commit, all the innocent lives lost, all the dirty deeds you’ve done!" The female hero who wielded the bubble shield snapped back, pointing at Maximilian with righteous fury.

"Me? Hahahaha!" Maximilian was about to burst out laughing again but caught himself, suppressing it with effort.

"Please, girl. If your goal is to kill me by making me laugh to death, then you’re doing a great job." He paused, his tone shifting to something more solemn.

"No... girl. It’s not me who’s afraid of the truth... It’s society’s order itself. That’s what fears the truth the most," Maximilian said with a grim expression.

"You’re lying!" the same female hero shouted, her voice full of defiance.

"See?" Maximilian opened his arms and slowly spun in place, as if putting his words on display.

"You, representatives of society’s order, can’t accept the truth!"

He turned to the group of heroes.

"I’ll tell you something, girl. No one fears the truth more than the people who depend on society’s structure to thrive." Maximilian said it like he was revealing a universal law.

"Shut up, villain!" shouted one of the heroes—the one with the cannon on his back—as he initiated a charge.

Seeing this, Maximilian waved his hand.

And the darkness responded.

Like a rising tsunami, shadows surged from every corner of the city center, twisting and forming into countless spears—thousands upon thousands of them, all hovering in the air, each one pointed directly at the heroes.

"I hate it when someone interrupts me," Maximilian said in a cold, domineering voice before lowering his hand—signaling the release.

Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Fwip!

A storm of dark spears rained down like a typhoon from the sky. The female hero with the bubble shield rushed forward and quickly activated her power to protect her comrades.

The energy bubble expanded, enveloping the group of heroes, but with every spear it blocked, the shield visibly shrank.

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