Morning arrived, and Leo was sitting at a table filled with diverse delicacies, with the Elixir in the middle of it. Kabuka, the old black man with short curly hair and gold-rimmed glasses, sat across from him.

“You look tired, Le-Yeyo. Have you been up all night?” Kabuka asked.

“Yes,” Leo answered.

“I would imagine it was hard to sleep. Okay, is your resolution to sacrifice your life for me unchanged?”

“Yes.”

Kabuka stared at Leo with a smile, concealing his desire for an extended life from him with all his might.

He remarked, “If you don’t want this, now is the time to change your mind. The Elixir won’t take effect if your feelings aren’t genuine.”

“No, I genuinely want this. You are my people’s benefactor. My life is but a pittance in comparison,” Leo replied, his expression frozen.

He believed lying was more humiliating than death, but he laid down all of his pride just for today. His desire for revenge was much bigger than his meager pride.

All you wanted was a loyal dog, not Le-Yeyo, who inherited the courage of a lion, Leo said inwardly.

Kabuka noticed Leo’s frozen expression and tried to lift his mood. “I will never forget your sacrifice, Le-Yeyo. Don’t worry about the Maasai village. I promise their tomorrow will be even more abundant than the day before.”

His compassionate voice was the complete opposite compared to the cold and wicked voice Leo had heard through the drone speaker last night.

Until now, I had faith in Kabuka... in humanity. I believed in altruistic goodwill and love. I believed in humanity.

However, seeing the man with a compassionate appearance but a pitch-black heart cracked his unwavering belief in humanity.

Are humans truly altruistic?

“Go on and eat without regrets. If there is something you’d like, just say the word, and I will get it for you,” Kabuka said as he gestured toward the delicacies on the table as if it were the Last Supper.

Leo locked eyes with Kabuka and said, “There is only one thing I would like to have.”

“Oh! What is it? I will get it for you right away.”

“A glass of milk mixed with the blood of Rhodes, the courageous lion whom I fought against for half a day during my coming-of-age ceremony.”

“Hm?”

Kabuka couldn’t answer. It was only natural since there was no way he could obtain such a thing.

“The Maasai are acknowledged as true adults once we defeat a lion one-on-one,” Leo continued.

He chose his opponent once he came of age: Rhodes, the strongest alpha lion in the nearby plain.

“Rhodes was the king of a pack of six lionesses and twenty-four cubs. No warrior dared to face him.”

Leo recalled the king of kings who ruled the plain, never a moment without a full stomach. Rhodes was a nuisance to the village because his territory overlapped with the Maasai people.

Once Leo came of age, he challenged Rhodes to a battle with only one dagger. The battle was not settled in only half a day. The sun set, and Leo was left with about a dozen fractures and even more scratches. Rhodes did not come out unscathed either. He suffered a long and deep cut on his right eye. They glared at each other as the sun set and slowly retreated from one another.

“The battle was left undecided, but the others acknowledged my courage, and I was allowed to become an adult,” Leo said.

He returned to the village and drank milk mixed with Rhodes’s blood on his dagger. He still remembered the moment that felt like the lion king’s power and courage seeped into him.

“I... can’t get you that,” Kabuka said.

“Yes, I figured.” Leo stared at Kabuka’s hardened expression and continued, “After that day, Rhodes and I recognized each other in the plains. We stood guard against each other, threatened each other, and exchanged bloodlust.”

Many days passed, and Rhodes stopped baring his teeth or growling at him one day. They simply stared at each other calmly. They slowly went from enemies to friends who could tell what the other was thinking.

“But one day, Rhodes died. Can you guess how?” Leo asked.

“I... don’t know. Did another warrior kill him?” Kabuka answered.

He did not pay much attention to what Leo was saying. His gaze was fully on the Elixir in the middle of the table. However, Leo continued as if the story were more important than anything.

“He was shot. There was a bullet hole through his forehead, and his neck was sliced. I could tell from the cut that it was done by a complete amateur.”

Leo still remembered the day he witnessed the king of the plains covered in flies when he went out into the plains. He got closer to see that someone had pulled out all his teeth and claws and severed his tail.

“It was... cowardly. They cheated. The scumbag trampled on Rhodes’s courage. I would have been satisfied with the result if he were killed by another warrior one-on-one.”

Later, a missionary who visited the village told Leo about the culprit. It was an American dentist. He cried when the missionary showed him the picture the dentist posted on social media—a fat white man posing next to the dead Rhodes with a smile.

“The greatest lion of Africa was killed shamefully by a coward with a gun who didn’t even know how to prove his courage,” Leo mumbled as he got out of the chair and grabbed the Elixir on the table.

Rhodes, you may curse at me for being a coward. I’m no different from the dentist who killed you, he said inwardly.

He would happily bear the shame as long as it resulted in the death of the man who deceived and used him. He clenched the Elixir bottle with both hands and instantly switched it with the Dragonblood Poison he already had in one hand. It happened so quickly that it was unnoticeable.

“Wow! It turned red! You’ve made up your mind, Le-Yeyo!” Kabuka shouted now that the moment he had been waiting for had arrived.

Leo couldn’t be happier that Kabuka was misunderstanding. He poured the Dragonblood Poison into a wine glass on the table. Blinded by his desire for an extended life, Kabuka chugged the contents without even a toast. One sip was all that was needed.

“Ahhh! At last! I am now—” His ecstatic shout as he felt the unfamiliar feeling of mana surging throughout his body was interrupted by an Akasha Message.

[You are exposed to the Dragonblood Poison.]

[Canceling Item Skill: Song of Purification.]

[Canceling Item Skill: Thousand Resistances.]

[Canceling Item Skill: Perfect Body.]

...

[Coiling mana patterns.]

[Commencing mana discharge.]

“Kurgh! Cough! Gurgh—! What... in the...” Kabuka coughed up a fountain of blood.

What the hell is Dragonblood Poison? How did it cancel all the skills built into my items?! he shouted inwardly.

He was sure about one thing. He glared at Leo with bloodshot eyes.

“YOU BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME?!”

Just then, explosions sounded from outside, accompanied by shouts, growing closer with each moment.

“Ahhh!”

“W-what the hell is that?!”

“Stop him!”

The source of the sound revealed itself to be a man on a scrawny horse, wearing old armor. He charged through the mansion in a straight line toward Kabuka.

“Charge, Rocinante!” Seong-Hwi shouted as a white aura spun threateningly around the end of his lance.

“Urgh! Cough!”

Kabuka tried to force his mana to move to activate a defensive skill, but he coughed up blood again due to his coiled mana pattern. Seong-Hwi’s Windmill Charge struck Kabuka directly. The mansion exploded, becoming a wasteland.

***

Seong-Hwi canceled the Knight-errant’s Armaments and Rocinante symbols and looked around the half-destroyed mansion.

“You did it, Leo,” he said.

Leo remained silent.

“There is nothing to feel guilty about. I’m the one who told you about this plan. I’m sure you know this, but I do whatever it takes to claim victory.”

Seong-Hwi knew Leo’s personality very well. Leo was not used to underhanded tricks like using poison.

However, Leo shook his head and answered, “That may be the case, but I’m the one who acted on it. Well, I don’t regret it.”

He summoned his D Weapon, the male lion Rhodes, and turned him into a shield through Armification.

Roar!

“Kurgh! H-how dare you?!” the bloody Kabuka shouted from the pit formed from the attack, glaring at Seong-Hwi.

The right side of his body was mangled. His right arm and leg were a bloody pulp, and the skin of the entire right side of his face was ripped off.

“I’m impressed you’re still alive after taking a head-on attack that penetrated a cliff. I suppose that’s a High Ranker for you. Your basic stats are high,” Seong-Hwi taunted.

Kabuka screamed in rage, “GAAAHHH! COUGH! I’LL KILL YOU!”

However, he had suffered a critical injury. There was no chance for him to recover naturally.

Seong-Hwi had charged into the mansion at the perfect time thanks to Enrique. He had been on standby outside, and Enrique let him know when to charge by observing the situation inside through his stealth drone. Kabuka had run out of luck, allowing Seong-Hwi to attack him in his most defenseless state.

Just then, thousands of Black Market clansmen who had been assigned throughout the mansion showed themselves.

“Sir Kabuka!”

“Protect him at all costs!”

“Eliminate the intruder!”

They quickly charged once they noticed their clan leader was in danger, but they failed to accomplish their goal. White mannequins appeared from out of nowhere, creating clacking sounds, to surround Seong-Hwi and Kabuka in a circle.

[Activating Unique Skill: Mannequin Control.]

[Mannequin - Vilis Daudzins]

[Mannequin - Sam Louwyck]

[Mannequin - Michael Carter]

[Mannequin - Eiza Gonzales]

[Mannequin - Lou Yixiao]

...

They were part of Onie Yuki’s D Weapon, Mannequin Army. Yuki landed next to Seong-Hwi as her short hair fluttered.

“How did it go?” Seong-Hwi asked.

“Very well, thanks to Sonya’s help,” Yuki replied as she looked beside her at a white female mannequin that looked the same as the others.

She then activated a skill, changing the mannequin’s appearance.

[Activating Unique Skill: Mimic Mannequin.]

It began to take the form of a human, becoming a petite Asian woman with faint wrinkles, black hair that reached her shoulders, and black eyes. She resembled what Yuki would look like when she grew up, but her facial features were much softer.

[Mannequin - Onie Rikako]

“Mom,” Yuki mumbled.

The mannequin, Onie Rikako, approached Yuki as her joints clacked and hugged her. Yuki was simply being hugged by an emotionless mannequin that she moved herself, but her smile couldn’t be brighter.

“Gurgh... This... This cannot be happening!” Kabuka mumbled as he stared at the mannequins, preventing his subordinates from approaching. He screamed frustratedly, “I-I... refuse to die like this! Cough!”

However, his body was a mess. He had no idea what poison he had ingested, but it had completely broken him. His mana patterns were coiled, preventing him from using skills, and the uncontrollably discharging mana ripped him apart from the inside. It would take far too long to recover from, if he could at all.

On top of that, the attack he unluckily took head-on from Seong-Hwi was so critical that he would undoubtedly die at this rate.

Die? Me? The High Ranker Filipe Kabuka, sixth in the human ranking?

Kabuka couldn’t believe that he, who longed for life more than anyone, was about to die so pathetically.

I don’t want to die! I-I will live! I will survive!

His eyes, gleaming with madness, could only see the Elixir bottle in the hand of Le-Yeyo, his betrayer.

I just need to get my hands on that!

Kabuka discovered the single path to survival in the worst-case scenario. He searched his right hand, which had become a bloody pulp, with his left hand. He found a ring made of rock after digging through his flesh, which had the texture of tomato paste.

[Black Contract Ring (Item)

Rank: A(99)

Description: A ring containing a contract signed with a demon. The contracted demon appears to grant one wish through a promise of ten thousand sacrifices.]

He couldn’t activate his skills due to his coiled mana patterns, but had enough mana to activate a skill built into an item.

I promise ten thousand sacrifices! he shouted inwardly as he infused the Black Contract Ring with mana.

Unsettling Demon Force enveloped the Black Contract Ring.

— Seong-Hwi, the Union has made its move. They’ll arrive in ten minutes, Enrique said through his drone.

“Okay. Run away first with Frank and Yuri, who are keeping a check on the surroundings. We’ll be right behind you once we’re done here.” Seong-Hwi ordered Enrique, but suddenly felt a peculiar aura from the half-dead Kabuka. “Hm? Demon Force?”

“Gehehe! Cough! You shouldn’t have let your guard down until the end!”

A dark light surged from the Black Contract Ring, giving Kabnuka certainty that his gamble had paid off. The air spontaneously combusted, and black flames devoured the surroundings.

“Ahhh!”

“Help!”

The endlessly blazing flames devoured the inferior-caliber humans. Wings made of black flames sprouted from the pillar of dark light, and a suffocating amount of Demon Force pressured the entire space.

“Kikik! Who the hell called me? I’m still not fully recovered yet,” said a large man over two meters tall, with cracked, pitch-black skin that looked as if magma was flowing through the cracks.

“Cough! O Sovereign of Hellfire! I will offer you ten thousand sacrifices if you kill the enemies before me and bring me the bottle that man is holding!” Kabuka shouted, certain of his victory. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

He had formed a contract with the demon Taizet, eighteenth in the demon ranking.

He is a Spare Ranker! No one but Lee Kang-San could stop him!

Kabuka was sure that Taizet would accept his request.

“Kikikik! Ten thousand sacrifices? That will be very helpful for my recovery.”

Taizet had been recovering from his injuries after the battle against the World Ranker Remus, but answered the summons after noticing a signal from one of the Black Contract Rings he had spread throughout the Mirror World a while back.

He recalled his battle against Remus in the third zone. He made a silent agreement with Pippin, another Spare Ranker, to join forces against Remus, but neither side managed to emerge victorious.

I’ll win next time if I recover quickly and challenge him again! Taizet said inwardly as he looked around.

He was in the Capital, a human city in the first zone. He could easily destroy such a city with just one breath. He couldn’t engage in mass slaughter because the Sēmen’s eyes were still on him, but he could easily fulfill his contractor’s wish. Just then, he noticed one of the humans.

“Kikik! H-huh?!”

A man with black hair and eyes was staring at him. Taizet screamed bizarrely, unbefitting of a demon sovereign, once they locked eyes.

“The Supreme One’s precious toy?”

Taizet gasped, his smile vanishing. He quickly looked around. It might have been his imagination, but he felt like someone was watching him.

“O Sovereign of Hellfire! I beg of you! Fulfill the conditions of the contract—Cough!” Kabuka urged as his vision blurred.

However, he received an answer that trampled on his hopes.

“Silence! You’ve dragged me to my deathbed! Forget the contract! It’s void! Goddammit!” Taizet shouted.

The Black Contract Ring shattered.

“Huh?” Kabuka stared dumbfoundedly at the broken ring.

Taizet vanished as he engulfed himself in hellfire. All that remained was the destroyed mansion and the Black Market clansmen burned to death.

“Cough! This... cannot be!” Kabuka mumbled as his final ray of hope disappeared.

Just then, an iridescent light flashed behind him.

[Operating Wings of Evolution.]

[Six Wings.]

[Activating Unique Skill: Borrowing Destiny.]

[Chok Chun-Gyong the Unfortunate Martial God]

[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]

[Sword of Koksan.]

[Activating Exclusive Skill: Chok’s National Sword Technique.]

Seong-Hwi instantly traveled behind Kabuka with the Wings of Evolution and severed his head with the Sword of Koksan.

[You hunted an individual with countless Murderer Karma.]

[9,555,908 Karma obtained.]

[Heightening the caliber of Destiny Force.]

...

[Hidden Quest: Tutsi’s Grudge, complete.]

[8,876,527 Karma obtained.]

...

[Trait Quest: Ignoble Strike, complete.]

[Unlocking Trait: Foul Play.]

...

Seong-Hwi stared at the plethora of Akasha Messages and shouted, “Retreat! The Union will be here soon!”