Dear Heroes, I really am a Villain
Chapter 88: Strauss’ Stress

Chapter 88: Strauss’ Stress

’I see... Max doesn’t seem to be in conflict with his brother, but maybe... he’s just tolerating him. I wonder if I can take advantage of that. It would be ideal if I could pull this "Max" to my side and have him report Maximilian to me’ Strauss thought.

With that in mind, Strauss decided to work on that plan later. For now, it was time for him to leave—he had long overstayed his welcome.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Graham, Ms. Switch, and Mr. Navarro. Excuse me," Strauss said, giving a slight nod to Maximilian before walking toward the door of the café. He paused just before stepping out.

"Your coffee is good, Mr. Graham. I’ll visit again once the café officially opens," Strauss added, then stepped outside.

"Yeah, like that guy said, your coffee beans must’ve been kept with great care to have that kind of aroma. I’ll come back just for the coffee," Oldcowboy praised, speaking in his usual southern drawl.

After the two exited the café, Ricardo and his gang continued working, arranging and decorating the first floor, and renovating certain parts, such as installing electrical connections so guests could easily charge their devices from the comfort of their seats.

The work proceeded without a hitch, as no one came in to bother them. Of course, a few people stopped by the front door or peered through the windows from time to time, looking in curiously before moving on.

While preparing the coffee beans for tomorrow, Maximilian noticed that Switch seemed distracted. Ever since Strauss had taken her blood sample, her thoughts appeared to wander, and she let out the occasional sigh.

In the evening, after everything was set and done and Ricardo and his gang had returned home, Switch sat watching a series on a notebook, sipping the coffee Maximilian brewed for her. From time to time, she glanced outside through the glass window, lost in thought, sighing quietly.

"If there’s anything you need help with, you can tell me," Maximilian said, placing his coffee on the table and sitting opposite her.

Seeing Maximilian showing concern and sitting down in front of her stirred a warm feeling in her chest. A light blush colored her face as she became aware of her heartbeat. But instead of responding, she turned to the window, avoiding his gaze as if afraid he might see too deeply into her.

"There are two things..." she began.

"Okay... I’m listening," Maximilian nodded.

"Umm... first... I’ve visited both the Fang Trader Enclave and the Expedition Center... um... after my—no, our—team all died... no one dared to let me join their teams anymore. So now, I can’t work as a merc... and all I’ve known my whole life are skills like how to shoot people, or how to set traps in networks that fry other people’s devices... or their brains."

"And... I know how to set up traps... and minefields... also turrets and all sorts of security systems." As she spoke, Switch realized she was drifting further and further from the main point.

But when she glanced at Maximilian, she saw that he was still patiently listening to her, a faint smile on his lips. This made her face blush even deeper.

"Err... what I mean is... until I can find a job... can I stay with you? I... I’ll help out with the café. I can also work as a guard. I... I know how to shoot! I guarantee no thief would dare break in here. I’ll even make sure to block all surveillance devices from that grumpy guy’s men too!" Switch frantically pitched her qualifications to Maximilian, growing more and more nervous as she spoke.

"That’s fine, Ms. Switch. You can stay here as long as you like. This building has many vacant rooms. As for helping out, you don’t need to," Maximilian replied, the faint smile still on his face.

"No! I... I’ll help out! I’ll help! You don’t need to worry, Max!" Switch said quickly, giving him reassurance with the urgency of someone just hired for a job.

"Thank you, Ms. Switch," said Maximilian. "Then... what about the second thing?" he asked.

"The second one is... I... I lied to you." Switch lowered her head.

Hearing that she had lied to him made Maximilian frown. He still had bad memories related to being lied to. Even though he knew in his heart that whatever Switch had lied about probably wasn’t a big deal, the trauma still lingered.

Seeing the frown on Maximilian’s normally calm face, a face that usually carried a faint smile made Switch’s heart tremble with nervousness.

"Please... listen to me first. It was... it was because I’m being hunted... by an organization. That’s why I had to lie... and I’m sorry," Switch explained.

Hearing that she had a reason made Maximilian’s frown ease up a little, but still... no matter the reason was... a lie was a lie. His feelings about it didn’t change that easily.

"What exactly did you lie to me about? I still don’t know," Maximilian asked, curious.

"Err... don’t be angry at me... okay?" Switch’s nervousness was clear... She was about to tell him.

— Meanwhile — IHB Local Branch —

Within the IHB local branch, Strauss sat in his office, reviewing the information he had gathered from the café, especially the detail Maximilian shared about being a practitioner of some kind of ancient martial art.

This fact alone made Strauss, a staunch believer in science and the modern understanding of EF, highly skeptical.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Come in!" Strauss called out without looking up, continuing to review the files in front of him.

The door opened, and an agent in a white lab coat entered the room.

"Sir, the lab results are in. Please review them," the agent said, handing Strauss a clipboard filled with several sheets of lab reports.

"Let me see," Strauss said, taking the clipboard and immediately scanning through the results.

As he read the first page, his expression darkened. He looked up at the agent as if he’d just handed him a joke.

"Are you serious? This shouldn’t be possible," Strauss said, his voice thick with disbelief.

"Sir, we’ve run the test five times using every method available. All of the results were the same," the lab agent confirmed.

"How is it possible that Max Sterling Graham is a ’blank’ in this day and age!? It’s been fifty years since the war! No human on Earth should return a blank EF test result!" Strauss exclaimed.

"I must correct you there, sir. You’re not part of the medical field, so you may not be aware of this, but about one in every 100 million people is born with blank EF capabilities. However, most of them die before reaching ten years old because the blank factor makes their bodies unable to adapt to the post-alien war environment."

"Then how did Max Sterling Graham survive past twenty!?" Strauss demanded, still reeling from the shock.

"In the report, it states he trained in ancient martial arts. And from the tests, several markers indicate that his muscle density, bone strength, cellular activity, and metabolic efficiency are more robust—even stronger—than those with EF-based strength enhancements," the lab agent said, his expression growing serious.

"Moreover," he continued, "our quantum spectrometer detected movement of an unknown energy within his bloodstream. If the report is accurate, we estimate that this unknown energy is the ’Qi’ mentioned in the documentation."

Hearing this, Strauss leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling, trying to digest the information.

Qi? Some kind of unknown energy called Qi that humans can train to cultivate? And this power is so potent it could fell a Behemoth over 100 meters tall? One strike that liquefies organs and muscles, causing them to implode from the inside?

And this power cannot be disrupted by EF interference devices... nor is it affected by anti-EF bullets?

Moreover, this ability can be trained and learned. If a battalion of Qi practitioners were to emerge... how could he... No, how could the UEC respond?

"Ugh..." Strauss clutched his head as his hand began to tremble. His stress-induced symptoms were starting to act up again.

He took a deep breath, inhaling... and exhaling, before opening his drawer and taking a whiff of the stress-relief inhaler he kept inside.

"Huuuu—" Strauss let out a long breath after using the inhaler, then placed it back into the drawer.

He looked toward the researcher. "Keep this data locked under Level 9 clearance and above. I don’t want any lunatics or villains learning that there’s a form of martial arts out there that lets someone kill a Behemoth with their bare hands."

"Yes, sir..." the lab agent nodded, then asked, "What about the second one?"

"The second one?" Strauss looked down at the clipboard, flipping to the second page as his eyebrows rose.

"Interesting... so... she’s Blood Mongoose’s daughter... Hmm... how should I make use of this?" Strauss muttered with a smirk after reading the second page.