A Devilish Debut
Paat—!
Dohyun's figure vanished from the screen.
He had unfurled a stealth skill, erasing every trace of his presence.
"We lost him."
"······Even with your abilities, Psychic Engineer? You can detect not only direct line of sight, but astral energy as well, can't you?"
"He concealed all of it, perfectly. That guy isn't some ordinary Lv. 7."
"Don't tell me··· he's actually Lv. 8, Nova-Class······?"
In the grading system, the S in S-rank stood for Special.
But people rarely called it that. More often, they used a different word — the Star shining in the heavens above.
Considering the prestige an S-rank commanded, it wasn't an inaccurate expression.
However, America was where the world's S-ranks all gathered, and so even the stars came to be sorted into tiers of their own.
Lv. 7 was called an ordinary Star. Above that, Lv. 8 was called a Nova-Star — meaning an even more brilliantly shining star.
There had been some debate over whether "Nova-Star" was the academically correct term, but since it had never been an official designation to begin with — it had started as internet slang — nobody made much of a fuss about it.
"······He's not Lv. 8 Nova-Class. I saw no sign of him wielding psychic power or Willpower··· in other words, no Soul Force."
"You're telling me a mere Lv. 7 can pull off something like this?"
"He did unlock his Soul Limit. Even so, he's not Lv. 7 Upper. From what the cameras showed us, his movements were Middle-tier at most."
Lv. 7 S-ranks were divided into three categories: Low, Middle, and Upper.
The criterion was whether one's Soul Limit had been released.
Before the limit was released — Low. Once released — Middle. And upon meeting the additional benchmarks the AAA system established after release — Upper.
"Whether he's Upper or Middle, it's impossible for him to perform like that."
"I agree that his skill defies calculation."
"Then stop chatting so leisurely about it!!"
KWAANG!!!
The Black female villain, Red Scarlet, slammed her fist into the floor.
"Nothing in the contract said we'd be fighting something this terrifying — not those Lazy Pigs, but a monster like that. I'm out. Right here, right now."
"Wait. According to my analysis, if we combine our strength, taking him down isn't impossible."
"Hah, combine our strength? And what exactly am I supposed to trust you for? Have you forgotten that one of us is a traitor?"
"······I think the same as Scarlet. Fighting a monster like that when we don't know who the traitor is would be suicide."
Three S-ranks fighting in concert could win, whether their opponent was Lv. 7 Upper or not.
The problem was that the three of them trusted each other not at all.
Suspicious of betrayal, they had even strapped bomb collars around one another's necks — a classic tactic among villains who couldn't trust their own allies.
In a situation like this, what cooperation? What trust?
The moment the two of them tore off in opposite directions, each making for the laboratory's secret emergency passage—
"I told you plainly. We combine our strength."
Click—
The bomb collars fastened around Red Scarlet's and Bloody Gentleman's necks emitted a warning tone.
"Fuck — don't tell me—"
"That's right. Control of your collars passed to me long ago. Don't misunderstand — I only went to the trouble because I knew you'd try something like this, and I wanted your cooperation."
"······I'll kill you, you motherfucker."
"If you've got the energy for that, aim it at Zenosider instead."
Creeeak—
The door on the stairway leading down into their underground chamber swung open.
Dohyun — a devil soaked in blood — appeared, gazed down at the three of them, and flashed a wide grin.
Scarlet and Gentleman swallowed hard, while the Psychic Engineer, Cheng, spoke with eyes gone low and dark.
"······No matter how I look at it, he's not going to be easy."
Dohyun gave a low whistle as he looked the three villains over.
'Those guys look downright delicious··· wait, no, that's not right.'
It was a drawback of the <Predator of Evil Annihilation> class. Whenever he hunted villains, he became so attuned to Myeolak that he felt an appetite, as if he were gazing at a genuinely mouthwatering dish.
'Guys at that level might be tastier than A5 wagyu ribeye or fresh pork belly······? Whoops, focus, Dohyun.'
Using the Shadow Knights' razor-sharp senses, he swiftly broke down the three men's combat capabilities.
'All three are Lv. 7 Low. Not that Low or Upper matters much within the Lv. 7 bracket.'
Lv. 7 Lows did sometimes beat Uppers, so it carried little weight — especially since, at this point in time, even Lv. 7 Uppers hadn't yet learned to properly wield their power. In any case, the strongest of the three was the Chinese villain, the Psychic Engineer.
'Even at the same Lv. 7 Low, he's an entirely different species from the other two.'
Dohyun had never once crossed paths with Red Scarlet or Bloody Gentleman in his previous regressions. Before ever reaching him, they vanished somewhere, dying in ways he never learned.
The Psychic Engineer Cheng, however, was different.
Dohyun always ended up meeting him, and fighting him.
'This is the first time I've fought him while he's still such a small fry, though.'
By Phases 2 and 3, Cheng was a genuinely troublesome opponent. Now? Not particularly.
Cheng's strength lay in the <Hidden Boss> standing behind him — and at this stage of the timeline, that was nothing to fear.
'To think I'd get the chance to acquire the Psychic Hacking skill this early.'
<Psychic Hacking> was even more useful to Dohyun's future plans than the <Mind Control> he had devoured from Little Joker.
"Hey, bros. Been waiting long?"
Dohyun swaggered forward, deliberately talking like a street thug.
Objectively speaking, Dohyun's current abilities were not up to handling all three of them at once.
Objectively, that is.
But real combat doesn't always follow the objective data.
Dohyun was a man who had long since mastered the art of forcing battles to end on his own terms.
First, he shook their psychology.
"What's with those adorable little collars? Cheng, you really didn't have to go this far."
"!!"
Scarlet and Gentleman whipped around to glare at Cheng, and Cheng's face twisted.
"······Cheap trick. Don't be swayed."
"Oops, I wasn't supposed to reveal that, was I? Duìbuqǐ, dàguǐ, zhè yīnggāi bú shì nín xiǎng yào de shì. (My apologies — I've failed to carry out the Great Demon's wishes.)"
"!!"
The moment Dohyun spoke in Chinese, all three of their faces froze.
The two of them froze at the suspicion that Dohyun and Cheng were in league together; Cheng froze at the word Dohyun had spoken — 'Great Demon'.
Because the Great Demon was a true mastermind that only Cheng knew of.
"Nǐ zěnme huì rènshi dàguǐ? (How do you know about the Great Demon?)"
"Yǔ Guīgǔ Hēixīng zhī xì, qǐ dú rǔ yī rén hū? (You're not the only one with ties to the <Black Sheep> of Silicon Valley.)"
When Dohyun pinned down the Great Demon's exact identity, Cheng's complexion hardened further and further. Meanwhile, the other two — unable to follow the conversation — let their suspicion of Cheng swell all the more.
"······What are you doing? Attack him. Now."
At Cheng's command, the two had no choice but to grit their teeth and charge Dohyun.
CHWAAAAAK!!
Bloody Gentleman's class, true to his alias, was <Blood Magician> — a unique class that manipulated blood, known in Asia as the Blood Sorcerer.
The blood of the researchers strewn around the silo flew at Dohyun like spears.
Red Scarlet was a knight class — a Berserker, at that. The whites of her eyes flooded crimson, and her whole body heated up like a maddened bull.
'Weak.'
Even had the two of them committed their full strength, taking Dohyun down would not have been easy. And right now, consumed by suspicion of Cheng, they were holding back. Even fighting for their lives would have been hard to manage; with their bodies rationed out, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
Sreureuk—
Dohyun's body vanished from their field of vision.
He had fully unleashed the concealment skill of an S-rank Shadow Knight.
"Scarlet, your side!!"
"!!"
No matter how formidable an S-rank Shadow Knight's stealth was, an opponent watching one's immediate surroundings closely could still detect it. But Scarlet was in mid-berserk right now — and worse, in that ambiguous state of a berserk she hadn't even fully committed to. Her senses dulled, and she lost track of Dohyun's movement entirely.
Swish—!
A villain has been devoured!
Select an ability to digest:
'Hoh. An S-rank indeed.'
Dohyun chose on the spot, without hesitation.
Berserker was a relatively common class, and he'd made similar picks many times before — there was nothing to deliberate.
Bomb Attack
It was a skill that delivered bomb-grade destructive power to the opponent upon a successful strike — precisely the kind of skill Dohyun, whose raw frontal offensive was still lacking, could put to good use.
Beyond that, he reinforced his stats. The boost from devouring Scarlet alone dwarfed everything he'd gained from swallowing all those A-rank and B-rank small-fry villains earlier.
And that wasn't all.
"Is this the button for that adorable little collar? Care to bark for me? Woof, woof?"
Each of them carried their own detonator for the bomb collars. Dohyun swiftly fished the key from Scarlet's pocket and held it up toward Gentleman.
"No bark? One, two······."
"W-woof! Woof!"
"Haha. Sorry — pressing it anyway. Click! KABOOOOM!!"
"GYAAAAAAAHHH—!!"
Bloody Gentleman screamed in raw terror.
But nothing happened. Dohyun had only faked the press.
'Killing him this way would cut into my predation efficiency.'
"H-how dare you mock me······!"
But this was no time to be seething. While he'd been lost in panic, Dohyun had vanished again — and this time, Gentleman had lost him completely!
'W-where is he?'
Bloody Gentleman swallowed hard.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
Dohyun did not appear, and with every passing heartbeat Gentleman's heart hammered like a runaway drum.
"Psychic Engineer, what the hell are you doing?! Are you actually in league with him?!"
"Wait. I'm accelerating."
"What?"
"It's nearly done, so shut up and hold on a little longer."
Thud. Thud.
As the seconds stretched on, Gentleman lost his composure to fear, and the blood-controlling magic — the blood sorcery — flowing through him fell into disarray.
And then.
Swish!
Dohyun severed Bloody Gentleman's head.
A villain has been devoured!
Select an ability to digest:
This time, he put off the choice. Blood Magician was a fairly rare class, so it seemed worth taking his time to consider which skill would serve him best.
"······Why did you buy me time?"
Cheng asked with razor-sharp eyes.
WEEEEEEEEEEENG—!!
A maddened alarm shrieked through the silo.
What Cheng had been doing wasn't countering Dohyun — it was accelerating the silo's runaway meltdown. If Dohyun had ignored Scarlet and Gentleman and gone for Cheng first, he would not have made it in time.
"Ending it like this would be an anticlimax, don't you think?"
"What······?"
"This is my American debut stage, after all. The more spectacular, the better — wouldn't you agree?"
Cheng searched Dohyun's face, wondering if he was joking — but Dohyun's expression was perfectly calm.
Because everything unfolding right now was proceeding exactly as Dohyun had designed it.
The villains who had died ahead of him, Cheng, and even the secret <Hidden Boss>.
Without ever realizing it, every one of them was playing a role on the stage Dohyun had scripted.
······Offering up their very lives in the process.
"I don't know what manner of creature you are··· but if you know of the Great Demon, then you must know what I am."
"Saying that makes it pretty clear you're scared of me, doesn't it?"
"!!"
"You already know you'll die by my hand today. So take your time — I'll wait. Call your master out. Who knows? Maybe your master will show up hoping to save your skin?"
The moment Cheng clenched his teeth, an aberration occurred in the laptop he'd been typing on.
CHWAAAAAAAAK!
A hideous black miasma began to bloom, seeping into Cheng through his eyes, his ears, his nose.
"N-no!! GYAAAAAAAAAH—!!"
Cheng's piercing screams rang out again and again.
And shortly after, Cheng's entire atmosphere changed.
A vile presence so repugnant that its mere echo, carried from far away, made one want to retch.
One of this world's great cancers alongside the Outer Lands — a Demon — had descended upon Cheng!
Which meant Cheng's true identity was no ordinary villain at all. He was a demon worshipper!
'For an impactful debut, taking down a demon or two is the bare minimum.'
The instant Dohyun laid eyes on the demon, Myeolak spiraled into an absurd, ravenous appetite, and Dohyun — attuned to it — swallowed his drool and opened his mouth.
"What should I call you? Son of a bitch of the Black Sheep? Or perhaps Da-Gui — the true identity of the AI developed by Mephistech, Silicon Valley's Chinese big-tech giant? Ah, wait, you're just a small-fry demon, so I suppose I could call you whatever I like. Mind telling me how you'd prefer to die? If possible, I'll respect your taste."