The man was eating a human corpse.

That had likely been his sustenance for the past several years.

His only sustenance, at that.

“Ah, ahh….”

The old man—no, the man—approached them, emitting grotesque sounds.

Dried blood was caked black around his mouth.

As he drew closer, they could also see that the whites of his eyes had darkened to black.

Kang Dohyun kept a wary eye on the man’s movements and spoke.

“Either way, he’s still human, right? If we just subdue him….”

“Aaaaaah!”

The man let out a beastly roar and instantly appeared right before Kang Dohyun’s eyes.

As if he had suddenly teleported.

His movements were so impossibly fast that they created that illusion.

“Ugh…!”

Kang Dohyun tried to slap a talisman onto the man, but the man was faster.

Dodging the talisman, the man’s jaws snapped wide open.

Teeth sank into Kang Dohyun’s arm.

-Eujijik!

“Death Messenger Kang Dohyun!”

Ahn Nabi swung her staff and sent the man flying.

Even after taking the blow, the man didn’t fall. Instead, he bounded backward with animal-like agility.

Kang Dohyun clutched his bleeding arm and spoke.

“You didn’t have to help me.”

“This is hardly the time for that.”

The man was watching Seo Kangrim’s party with eyes full of wariness and greed.

His beard was stained with drool dripping from his mouth.

It was unmistakably the gaze of a predator eyeing its prey.

“Has he gone mad from being here too long?”

“Even the person who was a statue couldn’t speak properly.”

“Should we subdue him too? It’d be easier to just kill him.”

With their current numbers, killing the man was feasible, but subduing him would be considerably more difficult.

Just then, the man launched himself from his position once more.

-Kwang!

It was astonishing where such strength could be hidden in that withered body.

The scent of blood seemed to excite the man even further.

The man bounded across the floor, walls, and ceiling without distinction, howling as he went.

“Aaaah!”

An unidentifiable gwi-gi overflowed from the man’s body.

Merely approaching him was enough to be pushed back by the pressure.

Just as the man seemed to vanish from sight once again, Seo Kangrim instinctively swung his sword behind him.

-Swaek!

The Seven-Blade Sword sliced through empty air instead of the man.

Yet the man shrieked as if he had been cut and scrambled away.

“Aaah…!”

Painful screams were escaping from the man’s mouth.

He glared at the Seven-Blade Sword as if looking at something repulsive.

Like a beast that had never seen light, suddenly exposed to the sun.

[A powerful yang energy radiates from the ‘Seven-Blade Sword’!]

[It exerts a greater effect on targets with strong yin energy!]

In ancient yin-yang theory, seven was known as the number possessing the greatest yang energy.

Therefore, the Seven-Blade Sword, bearing seven branches, contained powerful yang energy.

In its unrefined state, the effect had not properly manifested, but once repairs were completed, it began to exert its true power.

“Ung, ung-ung!”

At that moment, Rini bounced up and down beside him, grabbing the hem of Seo Kangrim’s clothing in its mouth and trying to drag him toward the stairs.

Ahn Nabi also hurriedly pulled Seo Kangrim back.

“Mr. Seo, are you all right? Let’s fall back to the lower floor for now.”

Ahn Nabi spoke in a worried voice.

Small wonder—Seo Kangrim’s shoulder was soaked with blood.

He had managed to counterattack the man in haste, but he hadn’t been able to dodge the attack.

“Yes, I think it would be best to fall back and establish countermeasures.”

Kang Dohyun didn’t respond to Seo Kangrim’s words, but he obediently retreated to the lower floor.

Perhaps due to the Seven-Blade Sword’s influence, the man did not pursue them.

While chewing medicine pills to treat his wounds, Kang Dohyun spoke up.

“That sword you were using earlier. That’s the Seven-Blade Sword, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It must be a sword with strong yang energy… If he ran at the sight of it, does that mean he’s a demon beast too?”

At that, Ahn Nabi spoke with a puzzled expression.

“But he clearly looked human on the outside. Could he be under a curse as well, Mr. Seo?”

“It’s a bit different from a curse.”

“A bit different, you say…?”

“Rini told me—he’s grown too close to the Boundary.”

When they had entered the top floor and encountered the man.

Seo Kangrim had been reading the man’s Fortune Window.

His Fortune Window was thoroughly distorted.

═══════════════

[Name] Yi■#

[Rank] §■ grade (@■■)

[Five Elements] ■(%)

[Deity Name] ^$*■? ■■

═══════════════

His fate was so excessively damaged that almost nothing could be read properly.

At the mention of the Boundary, Ahn Nabi’s expression stiffened slightly.

“If you say the Boundary… does that mean he accumulated karma to end up like that?”

“Yes.”

Karma could accumulate as a penalty from special abilities, but it more often built up through human misdeeds.

Theft, assault, torture, murder—things like those.

The more severe the crime, the greater the karma that accumulated.

A human consuming another human would surely rank among the most depraved of sins.

Ahn Nabi fell silent at those words.

She appeared to be deep in thought, her mind clearly occupied with something.

Just then, Kang Dohyun spoke up abruptly.

“By the way, are you all right? You look pale.”

“I’m fine for now.”

His condition had been poor enough moments ago that he couldn’t dodge the man’s attack, but he had regained some stability now.

Still, Seo Kangrim could feel the traces of phantoms flickering before his eyes.

‘When I read his Fortune Window, I saw the man’s past.’

Skilled shaman read the past, present, and future.

Among these, the future was the most difficult to read, while the past was relatively easy.

Before meeting Seo Hwakyung, Seo Kangrim had been able to read others’ fates only in fragments.

It was an ability that had been weakened when he received the Suppression Ritual, yet this time, the man’s past appeared with startling clarity.

‘Why is this happening? Is it because of the Boundary?’

His head throbbed and his stomach churned.

Small wonder—the man’s memories were thoroughly contaminated.

It was like dreaming while awake—the man’s past unfolded before him.

[Come on, let’s become the first clearers of this Demon Realm!]

A party was entering the Demon Realm.

The man had been part of the first clearing team for this Demon Realm.

Having already cleared Demon Realms of similar difficulty, everyone was brimming with confidence.

That is, until time began to pass.

[Phew, how many days have passed already?]

A week slipped by while they fought off the demon beasts appearing in the village and searched the statues.

After finding the mansion, it took another week to unlock its mechanisms.

Each floor was protected by a magical barrier, and it took ten days to destroy the statues and secure the second floor.

[Do we have any food left?]

[Nothing at all anymore. What do we do?]

Thus, time passed as they battled countless demon beasts, and their food supplies dwindled away.

Then, a lavish feast appeared before their eyes.

At first, they too were suspicious.

[Food just appearing out of nowhere…? Isn’t this too suspicious?]

[What if it’s poisoned?]

[I’ll try it first. I’ve built up plenty of Poison Resistance.]

[I’ve got antidotes and special abilities too. It’ll be fine.]

After one person cautiously ate the food and declared it free of poison, everyone’s faces lit up.

People began devouring the food ravenously.

If they hadn’t eaten it, this Demon Realm would have ended at Human Grade difficulty.

Once they finished the food, people began transforming into statues one by one.

Those who hadn’t eaten the food tried to fight back, but they were too few.

Through the fighting, all but one of the survivors perished.

That sole survivor was the man.

The man fled from what had been his comrades, but he couldn’t clear this Demon Realm alone.

He waited for rescue, but no one came.

One day passed, then another.

No one came, and the man, left all alone, was being consumed by fear and hunger.

Then, something caught the man’s eye.

The corpse of a comrade.

There was nothing to eat.

But eating the food inside would turn him into a demon beast.

The man didn’t want to starve to death, nor did he want to become a demon beast.

And so, the man made his choice.

While waiting for reinforcements, he endured by swallowing karma.

After enduring for a year, the second party arrived.

However, they were too weak and perished before they could even attempt the clear.

If there was any consolation for the man, it was that they died as humans rather than becoming statues.

The man wanted to return to being human.

He made his choice again.

And so, over a dozen years passed.

“Hey, Seo Kangrim!”

Seo Kangrim abruptly raised his head at the strong force shaking his shoulder.

Kang Dohyun was staring at him with a stern face.

“Snap out of it. How can you be spacing out in a situation like this?”

“…I’m fine now. I’ve snapped out of it.”

In truth, his condition was still far from good.

The fear, despair, and madness the man had experienced made his stomach turn.

Kang Dohyun looked at Seo Kangrim with suspicion, then turned to Ahn Nabi.

“I’ve seen humans who grew close to the Boundary, but never to that extent. Have you, Death Messenger Ahn?”

“No, I haven’t. And it’s not just the Boundary—he’s been isolated for so long that his mind seems to have collapsed entirely.”

The threshold for approaching the Boundary varied from person to person.

Some people could kill a hundred without their ego collapsing, while others would approach the Boundary after killing just one.

Generally, the more unstable a person’s mental state, the faster the process accelerated.

She said with a grave expression.

“Still, since he hasn’t become a demon beast, there might be a possibility of him returning to normal.”

Ahn Nabi trailed off, then spoke with a hint of difficulty.

“However, I’m not sure if capturing him alive is feasible. He’s grown close to the Boundary, so he may be stronger than we expect.”

Those who approach the Boundary drift ever further from humanity.

They lose their ego and reason, but at the same time, they could gain tremendous power.

Because of this, some people deliberately accumulated karma.

Their ends were all miserable, though.

“Can’t be helped. Let’s try to capture him alive for now. The problem is how to catch him without killing him….”

Their opponent was, at this moment, like a maddened beast.

Capturing him alive would be far more difficult than killing him.

While Kang Dohyun and Ahn Nabi were pondering their approach, Seo Kangrim spoke up.

“How about we do this?”

* * *

The scent of blood drifted heavily through the darkness.

Seo Kangrim’s party had returned to the fifth floor and was preparing to capture the man alive.

Following Seo Kangrim’s plan, Kang Dohyun was pulling talismans from his coat and setting traps.

‘I only agreed because there was no better plan than Seo Kangrim’s, but….’

Seo Kangrim had proposed a method to capture the man by utilizing Kang Dohyun’s abilities and the terrain.

The fifth floor had a long, wide main corridor with small rooms lining both sides.

Seo Kangrim’s plan was to install capture talismans in the small rooms, then lure the man inside and trap him.

‘To think I’d end up following Seo Kangrim’s orders. I don’t like this.’

Somehow, it was a blow to his pride.

From the past to the present, it felt like he was always being led around by Seo Kangrim.

Even though he had become a Death Messenger of the Fate Protection Bureau.

Stung by that realization, he grumbled at Seo Kangrim.

“You think this will be enough? What if my talismans aren’t powerful enough to catch him?”

“It won’t fail. Because you wrote them.”

At those words, Kang Dohyun’s hand flinched for a moment.

Seo Kangrim’s voice carried deep trust.

“I trust your skill.”