The same room.
The same giant screen.
Inside, the Sludge Villain—currently occupying Tsuki Sen'gen's body—carefully observed the live surveillance feed sent over by his insider.
His eyes swept across the busy police officers and Pro Heroes on the screen.
From time to time, he even lowered his head to jot notes into a notebook.
"I seriously don't get you…"
Watching him act so cautiously, Muscular let out a long yawn.
"Why are you being this careful?"
"Don't tell me you actually think they still have a chance to turn things around?"
Honestly, Muscular couldn't understand the Sludge Villain's behavior at all.
They already knew the heroes' entire plan.
They even had an insider planted among the heroes' side.
Under those circumstances, the Pro Heroes had no chance of escaping the trap prepared for them.
All they could do now was wait for the final act to begin.
And yet, despite setting such a massive trap, the Sludge Villain still refused to relax.
He remained cautious to an almost ridiculous degree.
Muscular genuinely couldn't understand it.
After all, from his perspective, if someone was an enemy, then you simply crushed them.
Why bother with all these complicated schemes?
The Sludge Villain was overthinking things.
"Better safe than sorry."
Hearing Muscular's complaint, the Sludge Villain continued watching the screen while replying casually.
"There's no such thing as an absolutely perfect plan."
"Nothing in this world is certain."
"Take Officer Tsukauchi's strategy, for example."
"Wasn't it well designed?"
"And yet…"
"Didn't we still exploit it?"
"So being cautious is never a mistake."
Then his voice lowered slightly.
"Besides…"
"This is the first mission I've carried out since becoming Lord Shigaraki's subordinate."
"No matter what…"
"…I absolutely cannot fail."
Yes.
Failure was unacceptable.
If he failed, then sooner or later he would be labeled useless.
He might even be pushed out of the organization entirely.
And he absolutely refused to return to the miserable days before Lord Shigaraki gave him a new life.
Those lonely days when nobody cared about him.
When nobody even acknowledged his existence.
"Shigaraki?"
Hearing the name, Muscular raised a brow.
"That's your boss?"
"Why does that sound familiar?"
As he spoke, Muscular narrowed his eye thoughtfully.
Soon, realization appeared on his face.
"Wait."
"I remember now."
"Shigaraki…"
"Isn't that the brat who called himself the Savior of Villains on the news recently?"
"Tch."
Muscular curled his lip in disdain.
"So you actually bowed your head to some brat?"
"Looks like I overestimated you."
The atmosphere in the room instantly turned cold.
The Sludge Villain's gaze sharpened.
"You dare insult Lord Shigaraki?"
His voice became icy.
"Muscular…"
"Do you want to die?"
"Don't think your Quirk makes you invincible."
"Lord Shigaraki is not someone you're qualified to mock."
"With Lord Shigaraki's strength, dealing with someone like you wouldn't even take a few minutes."
His tone grew colder with every word.
"In fact…"
"Lord Shigaraki wouldn't even need to move personally."
"There are plenty of people under him capable of killing you."
"Even a minor subordinate like me has ways to defeat you…"
"…or make sure you never stand up again."
The Sludge Villain let out a cold snort.
"For example…"
"I could simply take control of your body and make you jump off a dozen floors."
"I'd love to see whether you could survive that without injury."
"How loyal."
Hearing the warning hidden inside those words, Muscular surprisingly didn't get angry.
After all, he had only said those things to test how important this so-called Lord Shigaraki really was to the Sludge Villain.
And now, not only had he gotten his answer—
he had also learned something unexpected.
Apparently, Shigaraki's organization contained at least two people strong enough to defeat him.
That excited him far more than it irritated him.
Because he had spent a very long time searching for opponents strong enough to challenge him.
Or even kill him.
In fact, the reason he ended up imprisoned in the first place was because he had been severely injured while challenging a powerful opponent.
Of course, his opponent hadn't escaped unharmed either.
That man had been left gravely wounded, already hanging at death's door.
And just as Muscular was about to finish him off—
a pair of passing Pro Heroes happened to intervene and took advantage of his weakened state to capture him.
Naturally, Muscular hadn't let them off easily.
Even heavily injured, he was still stronger than ordinary heroes.
So before being subdued, he kindly helped Death collect the lives of that heroic couple.
Which was exactly why, after learning that the Sludge Villain's organization had several potential opponents capable of challenging him, Muscular felt more excited than threatened.
Of course—
there was another reason he didn't get angry.
He didn't want to become enemies with the Sludge Villain.
On one hand, the Sludge Villain had rescued him from prison.
That was a genuine life-saving favor.
Muscular might be a villain, but he still understood the concept of repaying debts.
So he had no real desire to turn hostile.
And on the other hand…
if he truly became enemies with the Sludge Villain, he might actually die.
After all, that Quirk was absurdly unreasonable.
It could seize control of him without warning.
No negotiation.
No resistance.
If the Sludge Villain really forced him to jump from a dozen floors up, Muscular might genuinely die before understanding what happened.
And that was the other reason he kept his temper under control.
He didn't want to die in such a pathetic way.
If he was going to die, he would rather die in a proper battle.
Not by being controlled into committing suicide like some idiot.
Thinking about the Sludge Villain's Quirk, Muscular couldn't help recalling what happened several days ago.
Back then, he was still imprisoned.
He had been tightly restrained inside a high-security prison.
Every single day, the guards injected him with enough muscle relaxant to collapse an elephant.
There was no helping it.
Once his Quirk activated, ordinary restraints meant nothing to him.
So the only way to keep him contained was to constantly suppress his body chemically.
At the time, Muscular had thought that boring, meaningless existence would continue until the day he died.
But then—
a few days ago—
the Sludge Villain arrived.
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