The Power of Belief
My misanthropy reached its peak because of five events in my life, and only one of them caused me direct financial damage.
I could have gone to university. Thanks to grinding through middle and high school and scraping together a bit of government support, I’d managed to save up about half the tuition by the end.
If I kept drawing and working part-time while studying, I could have paid off the rest. I really wanted to study biology and ecology. After all, that was why I started drawing animals and plants in the first place.
Drawing still had a close connection to biology. In a way, I was born with a talent perfectly suited for studying it.
What ruined that was something else entirely.
“What?! Hey! What the hell are you saying?! It was Hyein who took the money?!”
One of my orphanage peers had run off with the pooled security deposit money we’d saved to rent a place together after leaving the orphanage. It wasn’t some stranger pulling a lease scam—it was a friend we trusted who took everything.
Did I trust him? Of course I did. He was family, someone I’d grown up with my whole life. We even had a perfect track record of lending and repaying small amounts of money.
Looking back, though, he’d spent all those years building trust just for this one scam.
If it had been a proper lease scam, there might have been at least a sliver of legal recourse. Of course, given Korea’s situation back then, getting the money back would’ve been nearly impossible anyway.
But this was just one person walking off with the cash. If that person had no way to repay it, there was nothing to be done.
The bastard was caught quickly. The money my siblings and I had earned through blood, sweat, and tears during our middle and high school years had been blown on internet gambling in just a few days—gone for good.
The fact that I didn’t immediately strangle that son of a bitch when he whined, “I definitely won and doubled it, but the gambling site wouldn’t pay out, so I’m the real victim here. Can’t we sue them?” was only because the police happened to be standing right there.
That was when I realized it. Scammers have completely different brain circuits. They don’t understand basic social ethics or the fact that internet gambling sites aren’t honest casinos.
That day, I learned there are three kinds of scammers in the world.
First, the kind who only cares about their own gain and will screw over friends without hesitation.
Second, the kind who deliberately sets up shop to rip people off—like those internet gambling sites.
Third, the well-meaning scammers like the orphanage director who preach that hard work is always rewarded and that trust and bonds will never be betrayed.
In the end, I dropped out of university right away, started job hunting, and suffered through garbage webtoon studios and exploitative black companies. What actually made me money wasn’t effort, trust, or connections—it was cryptocurrency, that pure embodiment of human madness where fortune rises and falls on nothing but luck.
Still, I learned one lesson from all that.
“Kuhahahaha! I’ve scammed a marquis, an overlord, and even an immortal—how could I not scam the Demon King? How long do you think I’ve been setting this up?”
That deep-seated distrust of humanity, the realization that people aren’t meant to be trusted, was what saved us from ruin just now.
If I hadn’t been scammed back then, the rest of us would’ve had our souls erased along with me.
“Well, I don’t have time to waste on mockery, so I’ll be going.”
The Deceiver vanished immediately. There was no way to stop him.
Wahando ground his claws together in fury, Mihun’s eyes widened, and Sesaisa kept turning his head left and right as if he couldn’t process what had just happened…
“Perish! You accursed scammer! How dare you try to deceive us?!”
Sesaisa slammed the meeting room table hard enough to break it, roaring in rage. Wahando’s face twisted, and Mihun gritted his teeth.
“This isn’t the time for that. We need to contact the real A’kraun immediately and exchange the points properly.”
What the hell was Sesaisa talking about?
“Hey. You still don’t get it? They were working together from the start.”
“What? Since when?!”
“From the very beginning! The moment that turtle first came to sell us supplies and started expressing hatred for scammers, he and the Deceiver were already in on it together!”
“!”
“It’s the classic way to earn trust.”
Even after we cut ties with the cartel, Pantheon Co. offering to supply us if we paid higher fees had been part of the setup.
If the conditions had been too good, we would’ve gotten suspicious, right?
By offering slightly unfavorable terms, they made their actions seem reasonable. And because we were acting reasonably, we assumed they couldn’t be scammers. That’s what they wanted us to think.
My head throbbed.
“Have any of you ever traded with pirates before? I have. It was a great deal at the time.”
“I have.”
“So that was part of the setup too.”
“Damn it. Me too.”
I was the one who contacted the pirates first, but they must’ve been smiling to themselves. They never needed to approach us.
By selling us a satellite worth a hundred million points, the pirates made it look like they were friendly with the cartel.
All of it was for this one final scam.
Even now, thinking about it gave me chills. If I hadn’t stopped Wahando at the last second by kicking him, I didn’t even want to imagine what would’ve happened. I gave him a subtle look, and he replied without any hard feelings.
“Good call stopping me, Biin. I almost lost my shell in one shot. Thanks to you, I’m still alive. So what do we do now?”
Wahando swept his gaze over us. Sorry, but I had no ideas.
Mihun spread his fan and calmly assessed the situation.
“Multiple alliances, including the Mythos Union, have declared war on the Meteors Cartel. The pirates tried to scam us, and Pantheon Co. lent their name to help them.”
“……”
“I see. So the strongest factions in the game have all turned their backs on us. They must’ve reached a consensus to take us out first. And right after the next collision is the dropout period. We’ve been declared war on, so we can’t even threaten anyone. That means we can’t extort resources from smaller or lower factions either.”
In other words, we had no way to convert our points into resources, and no way to acquire resources from outside either.
We didn’t even have time as a resource. With what we had, we had to face the Mythos Union—one of the strongest factions in the game, and one we’d declared war on first—within the next ten years of absolute game time.
“……”
“……”
“……”
All four of us bosses fell silent. In the other meeting rooms, the cartel members were being told that Sesaisa and Wahando had narrowly avoided being scammed and were getting their points back, but even they realized there was no way to increase their power level anymore and were screaming in despair.
Everyone seemed ready to just endure it without any real plan.
But I couldn’t give up here.
I knew it. If I died, I died. That was as far as my skills and strategies could take me…
But my goal wasn’t simple suicide. I was going to do everything I could, and only then would I die.
“But there’s still a way.”
“Be amazed, Biin! Is that true?”
“I’d like to hear it. What is it?”
“Spit it out already.”
I calmly explained the best option available to us.
“……Trade. Even if everyone else refuses to deal with us, internal trade within the cartel isn’t blocked. We’ll resume consulting. Not for points—just pure material exchanges. In the end, those with surplus resources can give, and those in need can receive. Even if the total amount stays the same, efficiency goes up, and so does our overall power level.”
“That makes sense.”
The moment I finished, Mihun and Wahando used their executive and member avatars to review the pre-submitted order forms and declared they would exchange knowledge and materials with each other. It wasn’t as good as receiving materials for points, but it was a solid proposal that would definitely raise their power level, so circulation began among the members.
“Then what about me? I have nothing to give!”
And here was Marquis Sesaisa, whose civilization was about 90% extinct. He had plenty of points but almost nothing to offer.
According to my proposal, he had nothing to give, so he was as good as dead.
But I had no intention of letting Sesaisa die. If this top expert got erased, who was going to do my spiritual realm consulting afterward?
“No, you do have something.”
“You want me to share all my knowledge?!”
“What are you talking about? You have land.”
Sesaisa stared at me in utter bewilderment.
I knew it. Selling the land itself was forbidden. Because if you did, the collision opponent might win and still take the sacred land.
“Here’s my proposal…… Listen carefully. First, we’ll draft a contract where Sesaisa transfers all his remaining race to Wahando’s world.”
“To my world?”
“Yeah. You have Time Manipulation Right, don’t you? We only have ten years of absolute time left, but if you run your divinity at full power, you can stretch that out several times over. You can finish educating the Kogogi there, increase their numbers, and restore the population.”
Wahando asked flatly.
“And what do I get out of it?”
“Simple. Sesaisa’s land. Not ownership—just usage rights. You’re always short on resources because you keep developing your world too much. In other words, turn Sesaisa’s land into a colony. It stays under Sesaisa’s ownership, but you take all the output.”
“W-wait……!”
Sesaisa tried to protest in outrage, but I shut him down with one sentence.
“Do you have anything else to offer in exchange for those land usage rights, Sesaisa? I assume you’re not going to say points. That resource becomes meaningless once you lose.”
“……Ugh. I don’t.”
“It’s not a bad deal for you either. Under these terms, Wahando has every reason to help you survive as long as possible.”
“Then this immortal shall also support Marquis Sesaisa and take what I desire from his land’s output. I can compensate by raising the terrain quality.”
“I’ll be getting spiritual realm consulting from you while I do your ecosystem consulting. Sorry to Wahando and Mihun, but if you take raw materials, repay in kind instead of points. Figure out what kind of goods you’ll provide.”
That was it. Trade was established. We were essentially dividing Sesaisa’s empty land as our colony, and in return, both Sesaisa and the rest of us would gain even more.
Sesaisa might end up losing half to three-quarters of his world’s land to others’ usage rights, but when you’re powerless, that’s what happens to allies and colonies alike.
We weren’t about to give anything away for free either. That’s just how these relationships worked.
“Understood. Then let’s draft the contract right away.”
Sesaisa had his meeting room avatar talk with Mihun, his manifested form negotiate with Wahando, and his main player body meet with my clone to sign the contract.
“Alright, Sesaisa. As you can see, my ecosystem’s spiritual realm is just roughly connected. Rearrange it as efficiently as possible. If you need World Shaping, call me anytime. In exchange, I’ll restore your devastated ecosystem into something renewable that can produce useful resources.”
“Of course. I’ll begin work immediately.”
Sesaisa showed no resistance to the proposal. After checking the contract for any toxic clauses and confirming there were none, he started working right away.
I was also in the middle of overhauling Sesaisa’s world when he suddenly sent me a message.
The Dessert Legion was an absolute secret. If word got out, we’d be in trouble.
But Sesaisa didn’t back down. He continued with an even more desperate tone.