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Chapter 6: Reason check

Here is one man.
The world revolves around him, and no one defies him.
All beings call him by many names: warrior, enemy, dreamer, worst enemy, savior of the world, end-of-story, and more.
An Epsilon (ε)-class hero, the highest rank, a hero of a different order.
Shin Ha-jun.

“Lee Joo-hee.”
“…”
“Lee Joo-hee. Can’t you hear me?”
“…”

There are many ways to awaken new powers, but he gained his in his sleep.
A once-in-a-lifetime awakening.
Many claim ultimate power should go to a proven hero, but Shin Ha-jun scoffed at that notion.

“How strange. This is the first time something’s escaped my control like this.”

He sat on the bed, watching the woman fiddling with her phone, his expression brimming with interest.

[BlackHound / Live – 45 viewers]
— —Kwaaagagagaga_

Lee Joo-hee was typing furiously, as if possessed.
Her fingers moved faster than usual, switching screens, reading something, and transcribing it into the chat.

Shin Ha-jun quickly recognized it as part of a novel.
He’d read it before and remembered enjoying it.
In this era, great literary works were rare.
And it was no wonder, given the state of the world.

Nemesis and villains could invade cities at any moment, threatening lives.
People clung to heroes for survival, but ordinary citizens’ lives had changed drastically.
Everyone lived in fear, and a hero’s word was absolute.

For Shin Ha-jun, this world was perfect.
No matter what he did, as long as he defeated Nemesis and villains, the world adored him.
He commanded countless women with ease.

His unique ability, granted by an ancient god: Hero’s Decree.
His other abilities were mediocre, but this one was enough.
Overwhelming range, ultimate versatility, and absolute power that ignored resistance.
It was as if a god had bestowed it to make him an absolute ruler.

No one could escape his control.
Until tonight, when he encountered the streamer BlackHound.

Text hypnosis didn’t work… and she even stole someone under my mental domination.

He’d never met a woman this intriguing.
Even now, cigarette in mouth, she laughed mockingly while reading the transcribed novel in the chat.
Her carefree appearance? Irrelevant.
Shin Ha-jun wanted to see her essence.
She’d easily broken his text hypnosis, but could she resist Hero’s Decree?

“Hahaha…! My stomach… I’m dying… Fck…”

To find out, he needed to meet this laughing madwoman on the screen.
With a loyal subordinate who could uncover anything, Shin Ha-jun sent a message without hesitation.

“BlackHound!!”

At that moment, a young man in a baseball jacket appeared on the screen, rushing to embrace BlackHound.
But his attempt failed.
He was struck by her fist and collapsed instantly.
It happened in a flash.

“What the… Hehe. This idiot… Heh, it was getting good.”

BlackHound let out a strange laugh before vanishing off-screen.

When she returned, she wordlessly ended the stream and didn’t come back, even after dozens of minutes.

A reply to his message arrived.
But Shin Ha-jun didn’t read it, immediately dialing someone.

“Nadis.”
“Uhh… It’s Nadis…”

A sleepy, slurred voice answered, as if just woken from deep slumber.

“Investigate the streamer BlackHound and report back immediately.”
“Huh? Now? I just woke—”
“Unless you want your head blown up in a nuclear sub like your sister, do it now.”
“Aaah! Yes, sir!”

His brash, inconsiderate words didn’t matter.
No one dared oppose Shin Ha-jun.

Hero’s Decree was that absolute.

The door opened.
Father said I could never leave.

Why?

“…Can I go out?”

I bolted through the door.
Inside the dark castle of black bricks, faint mint-colored auras glowed, the only source of light.
It was silent, desolate, like the hollow emptiness in Lathy Teparon’s heart after smoking.

Glancing around the empty castle, I rushed back into the room.

I could leave.
It was allowed.

I needed Father’s final confirmation, but an open door surely meant permission.

I shut off the stream and powered down the computer.
Facing the air, I asked,

“Father, can I leave now?”

A frenzied drumbeat and lofty flute echoed in my mind.

— Go. You may. ■■■■■.
— Be careful. You’re still. Weak.
— Grow stronger. Increase worshippers.

Permission granted.
The sudden surge of power likely came from the man who burst in.

“Thank you.”

As I thanked Father and prepared to leave, a stiff, mechanical voice rang out.

— Yo, Bing-sht!
— You dead?
— Why’s the screen all dark?
— Why’s the chat so dead? Where’d everyone go?

It was TTS from Kim Bingkwon’s phone in his pocket.
I rummaged through his jacket’s right pocket and pulled out the source.

[IcePunch / Live – 10,427 viewers]
— Answer, Bing-sht!
— You bastard!

A familiar name.
The lunatic who said he’d save me yesterday.

“He really did it.”

— Sounds like BlackHound’s voice.
— Yeah.
— BlackHound! What happened?!
— Hound-nuna!

But the stream showed nothing.
Just a gray screen, like it was pointed at the floor.
I realized it was the camera on Kim Bingkwon’s bag.

Holding it up to show myself, the viewers spoke in unison.

— Nuna!
— What happened to Bing-sht?

Ten thousand viewers, but only a hundredth were chatting.
I understood immediately.
The sane ones were ability users; the rest had turned into fools.

Thanks to this guy delivering worshippers, things were easier.
Just to be sure, I tested them.

“Wanna know what happened to the guy who came here?”

— Wanna know.
— Wanna know.
— Tell us.
— Wanna know.
— Please tell us.
— Curious.
— Wanna know.
— Tell us.
— Wanna know.
— Please tell us.
…
— Wtf?
— ???

The flood of ten thousand chats briefly crashed the server.
The chaos felt exhilarating.

With a faint smile, I turned the camera to show Kim Bingkwon on the floor.
Crouching, I checked under his nose—he was breathing.

“He’s just passed out, this guy.”

— Phew, good…
— Wait, what was that chat spam?
— Thought the server crashed.

Still crouching, I stared at Kim Bingkwon and spoke to the viewers.

“Wait there. I’ll have him restart the stream once I’m ready to leave.”

— Ok.
— Bing-sht’s alive, good enough.
— Yo, doesn’t this mean the safe assets are screwed?
— Tomorrow, Han River’s gonna be busy, lol.

“And call me hyung or oppa. Anyone calling me nuna, watch out at night.”

— Is this a reward?
— Outta nowhere?
— Oppa.
— [King I.Y.] Aing, scary nuna~

The last guy.
I memorized his ID. I’ll kill him later.

With a scoff, I ended the stream.

“Now…”

What next?
Wait for this moth, drawn to the flame, to wake up.

Kim Bingkwon was just below Epsilon, the strongest rank.
Delta rank was given only to those who’d defeated Delta-class villains, their skill undeniable regardless of ability type.

Staying near him would bring information about L’el’s enemies, unasked.
It would clearly shorten my path to revenge.

“Ugh…”

But without smoking, most thoughts were blocked by boredom.
If this persisted outside, it’d be trouble.
I decided to ask Father for what I needed.

“Father… I need a bag… and lots, lots of cigarettes.”

Without these mysterious black packs, my mind wouldn’t function.
Unsure if Father could provide them endlessly outside, I’d stock up now.

As black cigarette packs poured onto the desk, I glanced around restlessly.
Spotting the stick camera on Kim Bingkwon’s bag, my eccentric instincts suddenly stirred.

If darkness has an end, this must be it.
Kim Bingkwon was trapped in the heart of a black hole.

No bodily sensation.
Cognition barely functioning.
A strange feeling, like his mind was floating.

His last memory: a message about SP decreasing.
Then, a warning of panic from excessive SP loss.

Panic.
Extreme anxiety and fear.
A seizure with abnormal physical symptoms.
So this was the feeling.

The surreal sensation was already overwhelming.
If this continued, Kim Bingkwon might wake up with lifelong mental scars.

— …el.
— …el.
— …L’el.

Thoughts began to echo.
Thoughts.
Why could he hear thoughts?

Then, Kim Bingkwon snapped his eyes open.
His body was still invisible, but something appeared in his once-dark vision.

Something writhing in the distance, slowly approaching.

A person?
No, it walked on four legs.

A beast?
No, looking closer, it wasn’t four legs… He couldn’t count them.

A monster?
No, now it looked human…

No. It kept changing.
The approaching entity’s form shifted constantly.

A giant pudding with long tentacles.
A human with hooves.
A human in a pharaoh-like headdress.
Swollen flesh ready to burst.
An elongated fiend.
A shapeless form.
A three-legged giant with tentacles for a face…?

What the hell was it?

— L’el.
— L’el.

Why did it keep repeating that word?
L’el—who was that?

As the shapeless entity drew closer, the thoughts grew stronger.

It was no longer just a word.

— …MustKillTheTribeToProtectL’elBoredomKilledMovingD’㎼■■■≡ToL’elMustKillTheTribeToProtectL’elBoredomKilledMovingD’㎼■■■≡ToL’elMustKillTheTribeToProtectL’elBoredomKilledMovingD’㎼■■■≡ToL’el…

An endless sentence, a jumble of incomprehensible and recognizable languages.

Kim Bingkwon could only retain one thing:
L’el.
A proper noun, its meaning unknown.

The shapeless entity stopped before him, now a sleek, black mask.
Its mouth split open, revealing a single number.
And a black, orb-like die.

[31]

No one told him to, and the mask didn’t speak.
Yet Kim Bingkwon reached for the die, spinning it with his fingertip.

The die slowed, then stopped.

[1]

Cursing inwardly, Kim Bingkwon knew:
In all dice games, bigger is better.
Except in games like MoX’s Marble V, where rolling 1-1 stops you one space from Seoul, turning players into idiots.
Common sense.

— L’el…

With that final thought, Kim Bingkwon was ripped from the space, as if kicked by a giant foot.

“Ugh, fck!”

He coughed violently, gasping for air.
His body woke, but his limbs trembled, and cold sweat poured down.
He was back in the room where BlackHound had been locked.
Looking around, she was gone.

“BlackHound!!”

He leapt up, shouting her name, running around the room.
“Call out once, you brat!”

He met BlackHound walking in, poised and focused, cigarette in her mouth, glaring irritably.
She nodded outside and said,

“What are you doing? I gotta go do a broadcast.”