The name Seo Kangrim that slipped from the woman’s lips felt utterly foreign to me.

Why is that woman looking for me?

For one thing, I had no memory of her whatsoever.

I activated Fate Detection toward her and checked her Fortune Window.

═══════════════

[Name] Baekyoung

[Rank] First Divine Grade

[???] This fate is protected.

[???] This fate is protected.

═══════════════

First Divine Grade?

I had never seen a rank like that before.

Even Sect Leader Shin Sooa was only Third Divine Grade.

Her special abilities were far beyond what any ordinary person could possess.

Among her numerous abilities, one stood out with striking clarity.

═══════════════

[Special Ability] Regression

[Rank] First Divine Grade

[Description] Allows the user to regress to the past while retaining memories. Cannot be used after death.

═══════════════

I couldn’t even begin to fathom why a regressor of First Divine Grade rank would be searching for me.

Meanwhile, people who had heard my name were whispering among themselves.

“Seo Kangrim? If it’s Seo Kangrim, is it *that* Seo Kangrim?”

“But did that woman take down the Bulgasari by herself? Alone?”

“Uh, where did Seo Kangrim go?”

Thanks to having moved to a corner to gather the Small Ogre’s clothing, people couldn’t find me.

Sensing something was gravely wrong, I was about to leave when thorny vines suddenly sprouted before me.

The vines grew around me, forming what appeared to be a protective barrier.

[Don’t come out. Stay there.]

Shin Sooa’s telepathic message reached me.

To pinpoint my location instantly from such a distance…

The demon realm was already overgrown with vines, so it seemed people hadn’t noticed the sudden appearance of the thorny ones around me.

…Something felt very wrong.

Why would a First Divine Grade ability user be looking for me?

I tried to break out, but the thorny vines were so dense they wouldn’t be easily destroyed.

Just then, Shin Sooa called out to Baekyoung from atop a tree.

“What is your business?”

Baekyoung strode forward with heavy steps.

The sickening squelch of footsteps in pools of blood echoed through the air.

“To kill him.”

Kill me? Why?

It made no sense.

A woman I had never even seen before had appeared and declared she would kill me.

And someone with a First Divine Grade rank, no less.

If she wanted to, she could snuff me out with barely a flick of her finger.

At that moment, I saw Shin Sooa leap down from above like she was flying.

She positioned herself in front of Baekyoung, leveling her blade at her.

“No one kills my sect members.”

Baekyoung’s expression remained utterly vacant despite those words.

Neither anger nor mockery crossed her face—just a blank, unreadable mask.

Baekyoung gazed impassively at the others around her.

“It seems certain that Seo Kangrim is among them.”

Baekyoung raised her sword and swung it with devastating force.

The moment the blue blade traced its arc, an enormous shockwave erupted—

-Chwaah!

A rain of blood fell upon the demon realm.

The heads of everyone in the front were sent flying.

Among them were sect leaders from other sects.

Baekyoung watched it all with an expressionless face.

“Kill them all, and Seo Kangrim will be among them.”

Dozens perished with a single stroke of Baekyoung’s blade.

People finally grasped the situation and began screaming.

“Aaaah! It’s a killer!”

“Everyone, run!”

As the panic-stricken crowd surged toward the exit, they slammed headfirst into thin air with dull thuds.

“Why aren’t you getting out? What are you doing?”

“A b-barrier has been cast…”

Just as he said, a bluish barrier sealed off the exit.

At that moment, the sharp ring of steel echoed through the demon realm.

-Chaeng!

Shin Sooa had already closed the distance and was slashing at Baekyoung.

Their blades collided with a sound like shattering glass.

Shin Sooa’s face was filled with fury and hatred.

Veins bulging in her neck, the glare she fixed on Baekyoung was pure killing intent.

“Hand over Seo Kangrim, and I’ll let the rest walk free.”

Shin Sooa pushed against the blade with all her might, but her arms were trembling violently.

She had to know.

That she and Baekyoung existed in entirely different leagues.

“Ms. Shin Sooa! Run!”

I screamed at the top of my lungs, but Shin Sooa never looked back.

It seemed no one could hear me—not just Shin Sooa.

Frantically checking, I found that Kang Dohyun’s barrier talisman had been affixed to the thorny vines.

Damn it. No wonder my voice couldn’t carry through.

I desperately tried to hack through the vines with my sword, but they felt like solid iron rather than wood.

-Kwang!

For a brief moment, Baekyoung’s sword seemed to falter—then she came crashing back with even greater force.

Unable to withstand the power, Shin Sooa was sent flying as if thrown like a ragdoll.

-Kung!

Embedded in the wall, Shin Sooa slid down slowly.

She tried to rise, but only blood erupted from her mouth.

As Baekyoung approached to deliver the finishing blow, something plummeted from above her.

It was Yoo Harang and Kang Dohyun.

Both charged at Baekyoung with swords drawn.

I couldn’t help but scream.

“No!”

The moment my cry died on my lips, the swords flew from Yoo Harang and Kang Dohyun’s hands.

Along with the arms that held them.

-Seogeok!

Without even a moment for them to scream, Baekyoung swept her blade across Yoo Harang’s chest and Kang Dohyun’s throat.

Crimson blood sprayed in every direction.

Yoo Harang wore an expression of incomprehension as she collapsed.

The sight of her falling was utterly surreal.

Just moments ago, she had been talking with me.

Kang Dohyun had a gaping hole in his throat.

As he choked and spat blood, Baekyoung finished him off.

The blade drove into Kang Dohyun’s heart, and his movements ceased instantly.

A scream tore from my throat, but it would never have reached them.

The sword I had been using to strike the vines shattered. I grabbed the thorns with my bare hands, and the thorns dug into my flesh, but I felt no pain.

While I screamed, others were wailing as well.

“W-where’s Seo Kangrim?! Bring that bastard here, now!”

“Please, please spare us…!”

People were fleeing and screaming, desperately dodging Baekyoung’s blade.

Baekyoung slaughtered them without hesitation or mercy.

Then, someone stepped into Baekyoung’s path.

Baekyoung addressed those who had blocked her way.

“Are you Seo Kangrim?”

“No.”

Jang Taeheon stood before Baekyoung, leading the Flying Tiger Sect sect members.

He clenched his jaw and glared at Baekyoung.

“We are the Flying Tiger Sect.”

The instant those words left his mouth, Jang Taeheon closed the distance in a heartbeat.

It was sheer light speed.

Even Baekyoung failed to react for a split second.

Before anyone could blink, he was in front of Baekyoung, his fist flying.

His gauntleted fist connected squarely with Baekyoung’s jaw.

-Eudeudeuk!

A sickening impact. Bone had definitely fractured.

But Baekyoung was unfazed.

“……!”

Blood dripped steadily from Jang Taeheon’s fist.

Baekyoung seized his wrist with an expressionless face.

“You’re in the way.”

And in an instant, Jang Taeheon’s body was cleaved in two.

Strangely, I thought I could hear his voice shouting, insisting everyone come to the team dinner after this was over.

The remaining sect members charged at Baekyoung with battle cries, but they too met their end.

Every time Baekyoung swung her sword, the blade pressure tore through everything in its path.

That razor-sharp wind sliced through the thorny vines that had been blocking my way.

Only then could I finally step out—but it was already too late.

They were dead.

Yoo Harang, Kang Dohyun, Jang Taeheon, and countless others.

That voice from my childhood, like a curse, echoed in my mind—everyone connected to me meets misfortune.

As I stumbled forward, someone’s sharp voice cut through the air.

“Found him! Seo Kangrim is here!”

I turned to find a member of another sect glaring at me with a blood-soaked face.

In an instant, hundreds of eyes turned toward me.

Members of other sects rushed at me like madmen, grabbing and clawing at me.

“You bastard, were you hiding to save your own skin?”

“If only you had died sooner…!”

They dragged me as if they intended to tear me apart alive.

Judging by the look in their eyes, they wanted to stab me to death right then and there.

I was dragged through the crowd and thrown onto a floor slick with blood and viscera.

“Kill this bastard and let us out!”

I raised my head to see Baekyoung approaching.

The people surrounding me fixed me with stares brimming with hatred and resentment.

Every single one of them was demanding with their eyes that I die—that I drop dead this instant.

Looking at those gazes, I felt neither despair nor betrayal.

There was never any chance that anyone here would be on my side to begin with.

The people who had at least kept me close were all dead.

I had no allies here now.

Everyone wanted me dead.

“…Stop.”

At that moment, a voice rang out from behind Baekyoung.

“Do not touch my sect members anymore.”

Shin Sooa was limping forward.

Her right arm was broken and bent at an unnatural angle, and she barely clutched her sword in her left hand.

I couldn’t understand it.

Why was she standing in Baekyoung’s way?

This was an opponent she couldn’t defeat.

Baekyoung had said she would spare everyone if she could just kill me.

Even Baekyoung seemed puzzled as she asked.

“I don’t understand. If you simply kill Seo Kangrim, everyone lives.”

She was right—this was a problem that could be solved by killing just one person.

I was nobody—a man with nothing more than a Insect Grade fate.

Yet Shin Sooa raised her sword with her left arm and pointed it at Baekyoung.

“Protecting my sect members is the duty of a sect leader.”

The instant those words ended, Baekyoung’s blade flashed.

Shin Sooa tried to block, but her left arm alone was no match.

Before even a few exchanges could pass, the ghostly white blade buried itself into Shin Sooa’s chest.

“Cough…!”

Shin Sooa dropped the sword she had been gripping.

But her eyes still burned with fierce killing intent.

She grabbed Baekyoung’s arm and sword with all her strength and shouted.

“All sect members, retreat! The barrier is broken!”

-Chwaah!

At her words, thorny vines erupted from the ground.

Baekyoung tried to dodge, but her arm was locked in Shin Sooa’s grip.

In an instant, the vines surged upward, entangling both Baekyoung and Shin Sooa together.

“The barrier is down!”

“Everyone, run!”

Confirming the barrier had fallen, people scrambled to flee in a desperate stampede.

Baekyoung tried to wrench her arm free, but Shin Sooa refused to let go.

As if declaring she would never release her, she stood there clinging to Baekyoung’s arm with everything she had.

But she was already dead.

She was holding onto Baekyoung in death.

“……”

Baekyoung stared at Shin Sooa for a moment, then withdrew her gaze.

Her ghost eyes flashed blue.

[The special ability ‘Ice Bead Summoning’ is activating!]

In an instant, countless ice projectiles materialized in the sky above.

The ice began piercing through the skulls of the people fleeing toward the exit.

“Aaaah!”

“Please, please spare us!”

I lay fallen among the corpses, watching it all unfold.

I was consumed by hatred.

More than Baekyoung, I hated myself.

My powerlessness, my pathetic Insect Grade fate.

If I stayed here like this, I would die too.

The Flying Tiger Sect members had risked their lives to save me. If I simply accepted death here, I would truly be no different from a bug.

Insignificant as I was, I still had one final weapon.

A weapon I had never been able to use due to sheer misfortune.

The freshly killed corpses I had so desperately searched for were now scattered everywhere.

[The special ability ‘Fortune Stealing’ is activating!]

[Using this ability will accumulate Karma.]

[The number of deceased within the current range is 421.]

[Whose fate would you like to steal?]

I clenched my teeth and issued the command.

[All 421. Every single one.]