The Reason I Must Corrupt Ha Yeeun (1)

The villain was under a complete misconception.

The hulking man who had appeared before him was Hwang Yonggyun.

But that was no real body.

It was an illusion I had created.

The moment I checked the forecast calling for rain today, I had already prepared the skill I would use against this villain.

"Yeah. Heh heh... Even if it's Hwang Yonggyun... Fuck it! Let's go one round!"

The villain who went by the name Running Pike seemed to have no idea whatsoever that the illusion was fake.

His voice was thick with fear, yet he did not run. He had already downed Chaotic.

As a B+ rank, even with the effects of the Hidden Title Unknown active, he could still be a slightly troublesome opponent in a straight fight.

Still, the illusion is far more refined and useful than I expected.

The system log of the skill I had created appeared before my eyes.

Just as the notifications stated, I had forged the current illusion skill by spending crystals.

Creating a high-level skill normally demanded a considerable investment of time. But it was also possible, as I had just done, to generate one instantly by burning system currency—jewels.

Authority: Quietly Rippling Wall of Water.

As a three-star Authority, it could hold a maximum of three skills. The empty slot had just been filled.

The Wall of Water. An advanced skill that applied that barrier to generate illusions.

If I had tried to create it the normal way, it would have taken forever.

So the 400 TC had not been wasted. On a rainy night like this, the skill was perfect.

"Come at me!"

Clang—

True to the nickname Running Claw, he kicked off the ground in a blur and slammed into the illusion.

"You piece of shit!! You're ridiculously hard! So it really is Hwang Yonggyun!!"

Of course ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the illusion was hard—because it was a barrier itself.

I used that brief opening to ready my attack.

The Holy Grail gleaming at his side. That, I absolutely had to take.

I carefully slipped on the mask. At the same time I clenched the Holy Knight's Sword in my grip.

As an ambush, one solid hit would be enough to temporarily disable him.

The Goddess's Flame Sword's attack power is reduced, but that doesn't matter.

What mattered was that the Authority Wall of Water I had just activated also carried another useful skill.

Thanks to that passive, my resistance to water-attribute mana rose. As a result, the Flame Sword's attack-power penalty was completely offset.

I swung the blazing Holy Knight's Sword from behind him without hesitation.

"Guhk?!!!"

Caught completely off-guard, he screamed.

Clang—

At the same moment the Holy Grail tumbled free.

"Wh... what the..."

The hit must have been devastating; he rolled across the ground. He twisted his head to look at me—and his body locked up even tighter.

An ambush while his eyes were fixed on the illusion of Hwang Yonggyun. On top of that, the Fear debuff from Unknown. His face went paper-white; he could not even prepare a counterattack.

Stay down right there.

In that opening I snatched up the Holy Grail.

As expected, it was Unique.

And just as its transparent, luminous exterior suggested, the Holy Grail carried a special effect.

Before Hwang Yonggyun arrives...

I hurriedly activated the Throne of the Shadow Mirror.

Wooooooong—

Two mirrors summoned from the darkness drew power from the Holy Grail and began forging a new Authority.

"Lee Junwoo! That villain is dangerous! Fall back!"

Just as the Authority finished generating, Hwang Yonggyun stepped into the alley.

"Kh... you bastard! What the hell did you do to me?!"

He finally recovered from the damage of the critical hit and staggered to his feet—only for Hwang Yonggyun to close the distance and drive a fist into him.

Mana-charged skill; the fist and knuckle glowed gold.

"KRAAAAGH—!!"

His face caved in and he dropped unconscious on the spot.

"Are you all right, Lee Junwoo?"

Hwang Yonggyun asked me. I held the Holy Grail out to him.

"I'm fine. More importantly, this sacred relic the villain stole should be returned to its place..."

He noticed the Grail a beat later and his expression shifted to open surprise.

"This is the sacred relic from Mad Knife's territory. Well done. If this had been taken, the situation would have escalated badly."

With that he carefully inclined his head toward me.

"It would have been a major problem for our organization as well. I look forward to working with you going forward."

His words caught me off guard for a moment.

Hwang Yonggyun seems to think well of me.

Officially, Choi Hana and Blood Jaguar had only the barest acquaintance. The fact that she was the boss was a secret. Because of that, Hwang Yonggyun looked a little awkward as he spoke again.

"Hana's parents are distant relatives of mine. She's practically a niece to me. That's what I meant."

He turned and left.

When I stepped back out of the alley, the commotion of the Pure White Festival was already winding down. I checked the status of the newly acquired Authority while watching the soft green light spreading from the center of the venue.

Before long it was the end of March.

That meant midterms were only two weeks away. Given the Academy's heavy emphasis on practical training, the cadets were already burying themselves in preparation for the theoretical exams.

So for a while I found myself visiting the library far more often than the training grounds.

The Free Major Department's library. I was checking my phone for a moment in the lounge there.

A DM from Ha Yeeun.

She had clearly reached her limit.

The golden connection she once had with the Moongseokkyu Crew. But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ha Yeeun had personally kicked that stroke of luck away with both feet.

No. She still could have done fine after that.

The Northern War World tournament she had entered with those crew members. She had barely filled any of the voice-chat audio, yet someone had carried her, so her results themselves had not been terrible.

The reason Saintess TV's viewership had collapsed to its current state was entirely because, after that tournament, Ha Yeeun had run her streams into the ground.

I checked the view counts on Saintess TV's YouTube channel with my phone.

Average views that once cleared a hundred thousand had plummeted to barely scraping past ten thousand.

Couldn't even find a decent editor, huh.

Mass-produced thumbnails I had zero desire to tap. Even the newest video was five days old. She was taking more days off than she was streaming.

Meanwhile Choi Hana—or rather, Naharing—and Underdolls were climbing higher by the day.

Whenever Ha Yeeun's toxic fans stirred up trouble on the streaming forums, Underdolls was always mentioned right alongside them. "Saintess Land is getting crushed even in character merch now," they jeered. Mocking Ha Yeeun's freefall had become a full-blown meme across the community.

And right now she doesn't even have a manager to keep her in check.

She had almost certainly been reading those hate posts and shattering her own mental state further. None of that was my problem.

But because of the Holy Grail I had obtained during the last Pure White Festival, I had started paying attention to Ha Yeeun again.

During that festival I had taken down the villain Running Claw and temporarily seized the Holy Grail. I pulled up the system log from that moment.

I had been forced to return the Grail, so I could not keep it. But the temporary ownership had been enough to generate an Authority from it.

Unique+ grade, no less.

The quest difficulty had been high, so the sacred relic's grade had risen accordingly. That had even added the special Celestial attribute.

Considering that the Holy Grail was originally a reward players could never take, simply being able to extract the benefit of that Unique+ special grade through Authority creation was already an enormous gain.

For the first time I had generated a four-star Authority.

And that high-tier Authority could be used in a very special way: by converting a sacred Authority into the profane Authority of a Fallen Angel.

For that conversion, I need Ha Yeeun.

Perform enough good deeds to fill the Angel's Holy Grail with holy water. The face reflected on that water would be Ha Yeeun's. Then, by gradually corrupting her, the four-star Authority would transform into the Fallen Angel's Authority.

The Fallen Angel's Authority was the ability I needed most for my future activities as Unknown.

With that Authority I can create a perfect stealth skill.

So my goal from here on was crystal clear.

Give Ha Yeeun hope—then send her straight into the perfect abyss.

The very moment I sent that message, someone entered the lounge.

"...Here..."

A familiar face.

Choi Hana.

I had been listening to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠music through my earphones, so her voice barely reached me. I pulled the wireless buds from my ears.

Huh?

And right then, the song I had been streaming on YouTube started playing out loud.

The moment Choi Hana heard that song, her face went deathly pale.