I Only Came to Secure the Truth
This world would come to an end someday, and that day was not far off.
No matter how generous the estimate, this world would be destroyed within fifteen years.
If people around the world heard a claim like that, they would laugh it off as some absurd doomsday conspiracy. But it was the truth. And So Gang-seok, an SSS-class villain, had arrived at a fact that no one else had ever reached.
"This world is going to be destroyed! Haha! Well now! Looks like I've stumbled onto one hell of a secret."
When So Gang-seok — a hedonist through and through — first learned this truth, he intended to use it purely for his own amusement. If the world was going to end anyway, why not enjoy himself to the fullest in the meantime?
For starters, leaking the truth of the coming destruction bit by bit across the world and watching the chaos unfold would be entertaining enough. Plenty of people wouldn't believe it, but even if just a handful did and started acting out, that would generate more than enough thoroughly amusing incidents.
That was what So Gang-seok thought. But that resolve did not last long.
"Kyaaahahahaha~ Don't you want to try something even more fun than that?"
A woman's voice, thick with mischief, began to slip into his mind.
"Who are you?"
"Who do you think? The one who's going to show you something far more entertaining! My name is Hui-a. Let's play a game on a much bigger scale!"
Hearing that voice, So Gang-seok's first impulse was to push back. What entertaining thing could she possibly show him? He was about to demand she prove she even had the power to deliver.
"Kh?!"
He only had a moment to think it. A sensation like white fog flooding his skull washed over him, and his sense of self began to fade.
"A ritual... I have to perform a ritual..."
Watching So Gang-seok mutter blankly into the air, the being who called herself Hui-a spoke through a burst of laughter.
"That's it! That's the one! Kyaaahahahaha! A ritual! Go on and perform the ritual~ I'll show you a very entertaining result!"
And so So Gang-seok led the entirety of his forces to Somalia. A Monster Field stretched across the land — a place the vast majority of people would not even approach, let alone take an interest in. And it was precisely here that every material needed for the ritual had already been prepared.
If this plan succeeded — a plan that would harness the mana of the rampaging Gates saturating the land — humanity would be plunged into extreme chaos and terror. And for Hui-a, simply watching that fear and anxiety unfold would be nothing short of delightful.
This is going to be a headache.
Baek Seo-jun rested a hand against his head as he looked toward the place where So Gang-seok was. For a villain living in hiding, the building was ostentatiously grand — something like a temple — and it overflowed with ominous mana.
"Seo-jun. If you do not stop the ritual being conducted with the mana of The Fox That Devours the World, her descent may come even sooner."
"I know. That's why I'm here to stop it."
What The Fox That Devours the World could do to interfere with this world amounted to little more than using villains. The sins they committed accumulated as karmic debt, and she could indirectly control them in proportion to that karma. But even that method could not be used frequently. And if she had expended enough power to dominate the mind of an SSS-class villain like So Gang-seok, she would no longer be able to control any other villains at all. In short, she had gathered every last scrap of authority she possessed to seize So Gang-seok's consciousness and prepare a ritual that would trigger a catastrophe.
"Looks like she's going all-in on one big play. If I stop this, her capacity to intervene should drop, right?"
"It would. But even so, it would only delay her intervention."
And even if she could no longer control anyone directly, whispering them into action would still be well within her means. Seo-jun had no illusion that she would be incapable of slyly murmuring into someone's mind and steering them toward her own ends.
Still, it might be better than the original story.
By forcing her to play this massive card early, she would not be able to puppet villains into causing havoc the way Lamia had in the original. The problem of her talking people into things, though — that much was unavoidable.
"The ritual site is in the center. And the medium for the ritual is... So Gang-seok himself?"
What made this ritual truly vicious was that So Gang-seok would die whether it succeeded or failed. Completing it would consume every last drop of his life force. Conversely, the cleanest way to stop it was to kill him. Either way, So Gang-seok had to die.
I can kill the body. But I won't let the soul rest easy.
And letting So Gang-seok die comfortably was the last thing I wanted. If I did something like that, the rage would boil over until I could not stand it.
I still remembered it vividly. That moment of writhing in agony, screaming myself hoarse. Through every second I spent suffering every kind of human experiment purely for the researchers' amusement, So Gang-seok — the one who had handed me over to them as a test subject — had stood there watching his subordinates' atrocities, laughing as if it were the most entertaining thing in the world.
"No need to overthink this."
In a situation where the answer was this obvious, there was no need to hedge or test the waters. My first objective was the evidence from that day.
Those materials are probably wherever So Gang-seok keeps his personal belongings.
Even so, they would not be sitting in some special vault. It was not gold or jewels — why would he store them that way? They were probably kept in some kind of spatial storage item.
"I'll swipe the items first and sort them out later."
As long as nothing was damaged, I could grab them first and sort through them afterward. And besides, once I captured So Gang-seok's soul, finding out exactly where those items were through him would be easy.
No need to go to the scene in person.
I quietly spread my energy in secret. Maintaining a stealth so complete that it would not register on So Gang-seok's senses, I swept my power through every place his belongings were likely to be — and found a collection of spatial storage rings that appeared to have been left untouched for a long time, holding what looked like his personal effects.
Found them.
I slipped my energy into the rings and examined the interiors of the spatial storages. Spatial rings typically worked by holding the ring in your hand, opening the space, and then inserting your hand — at which point a complete list of everything inside would automatically appear in your mind. But I could inspect the contents with my energy alone.
That said, actually playing back any stored footage... that would require the Authority of Reality Manipulation.
I could do it. But using the Authority of Reality Manipulation here would get me caught by So Gang-seok instantly. No — if I used that authority, The Fox That Devours the World would notice before So Gang-seok even had the chance.
What I need to capture is the soul anyway. If I can't torment the body at my leisure, then I'll make this quick and decisive.
With that thought, I concealed myself and prepared to hunt So Gang-seok. But first, I poured as much power as I could into altering my appearance — enough that Hui-a would not be able to identify me, at least not unless she manifested in this world herself.
"It won't be long now."
Ten days. Only ten days left. In ten days, something truly entertaining would unfold in this world. Well over a hundred and twenty million people from the populations of Ethiopia and Kenya would be swept up in the explosion and killed, and Gates across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East would go berserk. And in a world eroded by the mana of those Gates, it would become far easier for Hui-a — the master who dominated his consciousness — to descend upon this world.
"Kyaaahaha~ Only ten days left. And nobody's even come to stop us this whole time~ This world really is sloppy!"
Hui-a burst into peal after peal of delighted laughter. It was a voice that only he could hear in this world. And at the voice of the master who was carrying out a plan that would bring him such joy, So Gang-seok nodded.
"Yes. Soon. Soon, Lady Hui-a's wishes will be fulfilled."
His mind dominated by Hui-a, So Gang-seok was loyal to her.
"Mm, good. Keep up the work. You'll die when the time comes, but I'll convert your soul into an energy source for you."
"Yes, Lady Hui-a. It would be an honor."
"Huhuhuhu! I'm so glad Terenity died~ Ah, back then I had such a headache trying to dodge that damn lizard bitch's gaze~ Thanks to that, things have gotten so much more fun!"
So Gang-seok had no idea who the Terenity Hui-a mentioned was. But unlike the man he used to be, the version of him whose mind had been seized did not even ask. He would simply do as Hui-a commanded, then die and cease to exist. That was all.
The SSS-class villain So Gang-seok had already been reduced to a puppet.
Shunk—
Something razor-sharp punched through his chest — once, twice, again and again.
"Oh?"
Even Hui-a, who had been dominating So Gang-seok's consciousness, noticed that someone had attacked him.
