I Woke Up as the Villain

selected and the assistance of Support Team 8, Yu-Seong thought the challenge would be quite manageable.
In fact, if Hunting Team 8 had solely pursued growth, they would have all surpassed A-rank by now.

But for now, aside from the Jin siblings who had already reached A-rank, Yu-Seong had held back his own growth, as well as that of Chae Ye-Ryeong and Yoo Jin-Hyuk until now.
This was due to a realization that he had after thinking about the case of himself and Kim Do-Jin.

‘Just blindly raising the rank is not the answer.’

Yu-Seong had initially believed that ranking up was the only answer to becoming more powerful.
But after having experienced it for himself, he realized that he had thought wrong.

‘B-rank can also display the fighting power of S-rank.’

This meant that, if Kim Do-Jin of B-rank could achieve S-rank, he could even overpower the hunters of SS-rank easily.
The higher the rank, the slower the growth would become.
And it was a fact that some people who failed to pass the promotion test would become frustrated and give up.
However, what if the foundation of training and general enlightenment would be added through the accumulation of basic training?

‘This is the secret of the real strong people in this world.’

Yu-Seong was further convinced of this after looking at Emilia, who was non-human.
When he thought about it even further, the majority of the admirers of the Demon King, including the Master of Hexagrams and the Twelve Dark Kings, were those who had lived for a very long time and had honed their own strength in various forms.
Their powerful force easily surpassed those of the same rank.
They might have been talented, but the merit of training should never be underestimated.

In fact, there was no point in rushing the process of ranking up.
Yu-Seong himself had slowed down his growth in rank due to various crises.
That in turn had helped him stabilize his growth in rank even further through building a stronger foundation.

Although luck and knowledge of future information had possibly played a significant role, it was worth considering whether Yu-Seong could have defeated Emilia, a formidable S-rank player, as a C-rank player if he had only focused on raising his rank.

‘Come to think about it, Kim Do-Jin is already a returnee, so his foundation is already solid from the very beginning.’

That was the reason why Yu-Seong had placed some limitations on the growth rate of all four of them.

With the remaining time he had, Yu-Seong focused on training.
He hired a suitable master for each of their abilities.
After all, there was nothing to lose by trying.
Anyway, if their only intention was to increase their rank, then the only obstacle for the four of them was time.

Starting at a high rank with the already strengthened abilities that have adapted to the higher rank would be easier than having to train from the basics all over again to rebuild a stronger foundation.

The outcome was remarkable: not only did the Jin siblings who had previously hit a wall in their ranking progress, emerge victorious over their former S-rank instructor, but Chae Ye-Ryeong and Yoo Jin-Hyuk had also gone head-to-head for the first and second spots on the C-rankings board.

How about Yu-Seong himself?

‘I ’ve gone up to B-rank.’

Even though hunting was a slow and tedious process, all of the experience would accumulate.
Yu-Seong had reached C-rank before naturally achieving B-rank not too long ago.

This time, since there was no disturbance from Loki or the other gods, Yu-Seong could clear the extreme difficulty level with ease to pass the promotion exam.
In fact, the reward was still rather satisfying too.

『Special skill, Imagery Training B.

Fusion not possible.

With the activation of the skill, player Choi Yu-Seong can set a virtual opponent as his target.

Mock imagery battles are possible.

During imagery training, the flow of time was slowed down to one-third of reality.

The duration is three hours.

Cooldown Time – 24 hours.
』

Among all forms of training, real-life experience was the most effective.
However, real-life experience was not always easy to come by, especially in dangerous situations where one ’s life was at risk.
Such experiences were not necessarily ones that Yu-Seong enjoyed.

‘I’ve already gone through many such experiences.’

However, Imagery Training offered him a way to experience dangerous situations without the actual threat to his life.
Although he couldn ’t physically move his body, the mock battles that took place within his mind were surprisingly realistic, providing him with a great sense of excitement and stimulation.
The most helpful aspect of Imagery Training for Yu-Seong was the fact that the flow of time would be slowed down by three times compared to reality.

‘Since I have a lot to train, the more time that I have the better.’

Yu-Seong also needed to become familiar with handling Cu Chulainn ’s Secret Spear Skills, the gunfire technique that Jenny had started to teach him, as well as controlling the Chakra of Thunder and Wind.

No matter how much time Yu-Seong could organize and prioritize, even if he devoted all of his time, he simply could not complete all of his training due to the lack of time and physical energy.

In this situation, the Imagery Training skill was a great help.
Yu-Seong had risen to the B-rank through his training, so he had some level of confidence.

‘If it were me now, I could have competed with Kim Do-Jin back in Pyongyang.’

Yu-Seong had the potential to display the same level of skill as the original novel ’s strongest character, Kim Do-Jin.
What if the results of Deep Training were added to his ability? His potential for future growth would only increase.

Nevertheless, Yu-Seong couldn ’t shake the feeling that something was missing.
At a time when changes were already burdened by the butterfly effect, Emilia and Helen, who had a great impact in the original novel, had disappeared.
Moreover, he was hearing absolutely no news regarding Rachel.
And in such a situation, powerful demons had even appeared in Pyongyang.

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

He was not aware of when some new variable would appear, so he should keep everything in check.

Fortunately, not all the news was disturbing.
In addition to his growth alongside his colleagues, the ancient relics that he had sought to obtain by supporting additional funds for the Hidden Team he had sent to various parts of the world were steadily entering South Korea.
There were already eight of them now.

Of course, they were all his property.