Dear Heroes, I really am a Villain-Chapter 57: Switch

Upon seeing her, Ben’s expression turned lecherous. His eyes roamed over her chest, waist, and thighs with a disturbing hunger.

"Ooohh, you want to join us, baby? That’s great. Just wait a bit, and we’ll come to you," he said with a twisted smile, as the rest of the thugs mirrored his lustful expression and began to surround the woman.

"Hmph!" the woman snorted before slamming her metal arm into a nearby thug and sweeping her long left prosthetic leg across the group, sending them flying.

The force of the kick sent the thugs tumbling, each clutching their ribs, arms, or wherever they had been struck. All of them were stunned by the woman’s ferocity—except for Ben, who stood beside Maximilian with a twisted smile.

"Fierce, huh? I like it. The fiercer, the better," Ben said as he pulled a handgun from behind his back and pointed it at the woman.

"Hah! Don’t you dare move, or else—" he began, grinning smugly.

Bang!

SPLASHHH!

"ARRRRRGGHHHHH!" the man screamed in agony as his entire right arm, the one holding the gun, was blasted off from the elbow down.

Maximilian turned to see the woman now holding a smoking, large-caliber handgun. The bullet had obliterated the thug’s elbow joint, severing his forearm completely.

The other thugs were horrified by the bloody scene. Even Ben, despite his bravado, was now terrified. They panicked, unsure whether to apologize, run, or beg for mercy.

"Take out your wallets," the woman commanded.

[Oooh~ She seems to have the same habit of making pocket money as you, Max! (°▽°)] Aetherna commented playfully.

Frightened and trembling, the thugs quickly obeyed the fierce woman before them, handing over all their wallets.

"Get lost!" the woman snapped, waving her gun as a signal for them to leave. But the thugs still stood frozen, too scared to turn their backs on her.

"No! You... you’ll shoot us the moment we turn around!" one of them cried, pointing at the gun still in her hand.

The woman’s face twisted in annoyance. She aimed low at the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"EEEEEHHHH AARRGRGHHHH! HELP!" the thugs screamed and bolted from the alley in terror, leaving only Maximilian and the woman behind.

She pulled the cash from the wallets with a smirk, but her expression turned sour when she saw the amount.

"Tch! Just a little over 600 bucks. Pathetic thugs," she muttered in disgust.

After pocketing the money, she tossed the empty wallets to the ground and turned to leave the alley, ignoring Maximilian.

"Err..." Maximilian raised his hand slightly, unsure if he should stop her.

The woman paused and turned her head toward him.

"Thank you," he said, offering his appreciation. Even though he didn’t need her help, good manners still called for gratitude.

"There’s no need. I just wanted to make some pocket change," she replied dismissively before turning away and walking off.

Maximilian didn’t try to stop her again, but something caught his attention. On her back, where her shoulder blades should be, he noticed a pair of strange heat sinks—bionic-looking components exposed through her tank top.

It dawned on him that her revealing outfit wasn’t just a because of fashin or she like it. It was necessary. The tank top allowed the heat sinks to vent properly.

He had been in this world for over a week now, and he’d learned that prosthetics and bionic augmentations were indeed a thing here. But they were usually reserved for scouts, soldiers, and mercenaries who ventured into the Wildlands or served in military roles.

As for normal citizens, such advanced augmentations were far too expensive and were designed strictly for military or field use. Civilian prosthetics were limited to medical needs—like synthetic lungs, hearts, or kidneys for patients with organ failure.

In truth, bionics were still in their early stages of development. There weren’t any overpowered enhancements that could let someone move faster than a bullet. At most, there were reinforced steel limbs, like the one the woman used.

[Look, look! Did you see that? A real-life tsundere! (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ] Aetherna said with glee, referring to the woman’s cold demeanor despite helping.

{How do you know she’s a tsundere and not a kuudere type?} Maximilian replied skeptically.

[Because when you said "thanks," she felt good. Her heart rate and body language said so! (◕ヮ◕)]

[Now we just need her to say the legendary line: "Hmph! I’m not here for you," or "Don’t get the wrong idea! I only came because I had no choice!" (๑>ᴗ<๑)] Aetherna continued, mimicking a typical anime tsundere voice.

{That’s... too much anime, Athel. Please watch in moderation,} Maximilian sighed, clearly exasperated.

[Can’t help it. I’m bored. (;￣Д￣）]

After the banter with Aetherna, Maximilian noticed that the woman had already walked out of the alley.

He couldn’t help but shrug and head toward the Expedition Center. He intended to post a request for an expedition—hiring mercenaries to escort him into the Wildlands.

The center was located inside a ten-story building within the Fringe Military Zone. This was the official hub for all expedition-related activities, offering relatively secure services due to its location inside a UEC-protected military area.

Naturally, this place didn’t accept shady mission requests... things like smuggling, human trafficking, raiding caravans or outposts. Those kinds of deals were usually handled by private establishments. Being an official facility, there was a basic screening process in place to filter out such illicit contracts.

Maximilian stepped into the vast lobby, which exuded a sense of modest opulence. Numerous people were browsing through consoles provided by the center to search for missions. Of course, people could also download the official app to their devices and browse from anywhere, but public consoles remained popular among those who preferred to negotiate with mercs in person.

Dozens of private booths were available for mission negotiations, along with areas designated for reward redemption after expeditions. There were also sections for insurance companies, where wealthy merchants or caravaneers could insure their goods and caravans.

Maximilian walked to the nearest vacant console to check price ranges. Since it was his first time here, he began by studying the costs of different mission types. Each job had its own range and terms, for example, a simple "fetch" quest (like retrieving an item from a specific location) was relatively cheap, though that was within the price standard set by the Expedition Center.

More dangerous tasks, such as hunting or killing Leviathan class mutated beast, were priced higher. But even those depended on the terms, like whether the mercenaries were allowed to keep any loot they found during the mission.

Escort missions, on the other hand, were usually on the cheaper side. Still, the price varied based on the destination.

Maximilian specifically checked the escort missions and noticed that jobs heading toward Old Manhattan were far fewer than those to other regions, and all of them only covered escorting clients to the outposts. There were no missions that ventured deep into Old Manhattan itself.

And Sector A7 – Old Manhattan was located deep within the island. Maximilian had the map that led to the secret laboratory, but he didn’t know the exact route to reach it—especially in this post-apocalyptic world, where the world outside the city confine was filled with danger.

"Sigh~" Maximilian let out a long, weary breath.

He never expected that fulfilling the first wish would cause so much trouble.

Those bastards who kidnapped Rebecca Lane—if he ever got his hands on them, he’d show them why blood is so red!

This whole task was wasting too much of his time... he just hoped the reward from the EF upgrade would be worth the trouble.

Maximilian input the details of the escort mission into the console, setting the price at roughly three times the usual rate for escorting a caravan to the outpost near Manhattan. He also added a note that the price and conditions were open to negotiation.

After completing the payment to post the expedition request, he exited the Expedition Center.

In truth, he didn’t want to hire mercenaries through the official center. He knew well that those shrewd merchants often made private deals outside official channels to avoid the hefty fees.

But the problem was... he didn’t know enough people to find reliable mercenaries, nor did he have any contacts to reach out to.

So for now... it couldn’t be helped.

After everything was done, Maximilian returned to his home, hoping that his request would be noticed by someone soon.

— Meanwhile - The Rust Gate Bar —

The woman with the metallic arm who had helped Maximilian earlier was sitting on the bartender’s counter. She was swigging a glass of whiskey, gazing at the ice in the glass as if lost in a daze. freewebnøvel.com

"Hey, Switch! Zoning out like that—are you hacking my beer dispenser again? I’ll have you know, even if you do hack it to give yourself free beer, I’ll still charge you per glass," the bartender warned with annoyance. Clearly, this wasn’t the first time this ponytailed beauty had pulled something like this.

"Don’t be stingy, baldy. Too much stinginess will make you bald," the woman named Switch said with a teasing smirk.

"I’ll go bald if I can’t pay the rent! So snap out of it or I’ll throw you out of my bar!"