Chapter 3
The sudden conversation with the Heavenly Demon was enough to throw my mind into complete disarray.
When I forced my drained body to move and sat on the bed to catch my breath, the dizziness that clouded my head finally began to settle.
The immediate problem I had to deal with was retrieving the Heart of the Demon.
The Heart of the Demon was a quest item that only appeared in the later stages of Become a Hero.
Since Pandemonium itself was an organization of demon worshippers, it was obvious why they were after it.
The Heart of the Demon granted tremendous power to whoever consumed it, much like the Philosopher’s Stone, and it was also used as a catalyst for crafting powerful magic or artifacts.
However, for an ordinary person, it was a relic of pure evil corrupting the user, driving them to ruin, and ultimately devouring their soul.
When I played Become a Hero, demons who consumed the Heart of the Demon were always a pain to deal with.
Thanks to their overwhelming power, erratic attack patterns, and insane regeneration that restored health through blood absorption, I had to reload my save file more times than I could count.
Was it really the right choice to retrieve such a thing for them?
Delivering the Heart of the Demon to Pandemonium was no different from strengthening their forces.
In other words, I’d be turning an already hard-mode situation into hell mode.
But refusing wasn’t an option either.
Pandemonium would never just let me go.
They had never shown mercy to failures.
Since I was meant to be the vessel for the descent of the Great Lord of the Archdemons, they wouldn’t kill me though what they’d do instead might be worse than death.
If I hadn’t inherited the memories, I might have considered resisting. But now, with the knowledge of Pandemonium’s cruelty and the atrocities they had committed engraved into my mind, I couldn’t help but hesitate.
Why on earth did those perverted game developers even include such a setting?
After much thought, I finally made a decision.
I’d hand it over.
At least for now.
The current point in time was about a week before the start of the Academy’s semester the beginning of the game’s main storyline.
That meant stealing the Heart of the Demon was part of an event that took place off-screen.
Failing the mission would be ideal...
But that would be the same as admitting to Pandemonium that I was incompetent.
Since I’d been reincarnated as one of Pandemonium’s mid-ranking officers, I planned to make full use of that advantage for the sake of achieving a happy ending.
Like sabotaging them from within, or uncovering their plots before they could act.
However, once I fell out of Pandemonium’s favor, even that sole advantage would disappear.
That couldn’t be allowed.
In summary, I had to become a key agent within Pandemonium while secretly acting as the hidden force working toward a happy ending, without letting anyone at the Academy find out.
No matter how I looked at it, it was an utterly insane level of difficulty.
But what could I do?
It had already begun.
---
The moonlight shattered and spread across the sky that night.
The winter cold hadn’t completely faded, and my breath rose in pale clouds.
Amid the forest of tightly packed buildings stood a massive structure resembling an ancient temple.
Uncharacteristic for the heart of Seoul, it looked like a Greek temple had been transplanted there.
That was the Seoul Artifact Museum, where the Heart of the Demon lay dormant.
According to the setting, the Seoul Artifact Museum was a fortress famed for its impenetrable security.
To make matters worse, the Hero Association was located nearby, making it a place no one had ever successfully infiltrated.
Entering such a place without preparation would’ve been pure madness.
Fortunately, the Seoul Artifact Museum was a familiar location to me.
After all, it was one of the special stages in Become a Hero.
It was a defense-style event, where players had to prevent a massive demon raid attempting to steal precious artifacts.
Because of that, I knew the museum’s structure like the back of my hand.
Still, that alone wasn’t enough to pull off a break-in. I had to spend the entire night planning the security layout and escape route.
Of course, if not for the inherited memories, such a thing would’ve been impossible.
I checked the time on my wrist.
2:50 a.m. the moment right before the guards changed shifts, when vigilance would be at its weakest.
I took off my coat and loosened up my body.
Even though I had inherited this body’s memories, this was my first time moving it directly, and my hands trembled slightly.
Before the possession, I was someone who’d never even stolen anything—let alone done something this physically demanding.
I focused my mind, following the guidance within the inherited memories.
Soon, the shadow beneath my feet deepened and began to ripple ominously.
Shrrrrkk!
The black shadow rose from the floor and coiled around my body.
As it covered every inch of me, it began to solidify into a distinct shape.
When the transformation ended, I turned on my phone’s front camera to check my reflection.
“This appearance...”
I was clad in pitch-black armor, like a dark knight straight out of a fantasy novel.
It was the same armor the Final Boss wore in Become a Hero.
Seeing myself in the form of the very Final Boss I had once despised gave me a strange feeling.
Hiding my body in the darkness of night, I cautiously moved toward the museum.
The security was as tight as expected, but thanks to my preplanned route and the infiltrators Pandemonium had already planted, I managed to enter the museum smoothly.
Even from afar, the museum had been an impressive sight but seeing it from the inside was breathtaking.
Towering pillars that seemed to hold up the sky, and countless artifacts on display.
Each of them was worth billions, some even hundreds of billions.
Of course, most of them were merely refined replicas.
Still, seeing in person what I’d only experienced through a computer monitor before...
It was thrilling.
If possible, I would’ve liked to take my time and enjoy the view.
But I wasn’t a visitor. I was an intruder.
Somewhere within this place lay the Heart of the Demon.
Since it only affected demons, its true nature wasn’t yet known to heroes or ordinary people.
Before breaking in, I had briefly investigated and learned that the museum’s current exhibit theme was dedicated to one of the world’s top heroes the Sword Emperor.
The exhibition featured his belongings and the remains of the monsters he had defeated.
The Heart of the Demon was among those remains, displayed in the main hall where the highest-grade artifacts were kept.
That was my destination.
To avoid being spotted by the guards, I cloaked myself in shadow and crept down the corridor toward the main hall only to hear voices echoing from a hallway ahead.
“What the hell are we doing in the middle of the night...?”
“Damn it, we’re guards, not laborers. Can’t believe we have to take orders from some girl who’s not even an adult yet.”
“Shut up and carry that box properly. If you drop even one of these, we’re dead men.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
I leapt up and concealed myself in the ceiling’s shadows as two men approached, grumbling under their breath.
Their heavy armament made it clear they were museum guards, but oddly enough, instead of weapons, they were each carrying a massive box.
“Can’t believe this stupid bottle of liquid’s worth more than we’ll ever make in our entire lives...”
“They’re all precious elixirs, after all.”
“Ever since those so-called heroes started meddling around here, nothing’s been the same. Can you believe they sent some teenage girl here as ‘support’? The Association must’ve finally lost its mind.”
At the continuous grumbling of one guard, the expression of the colleague walking beside him twisted in annoyance.
And I couldn’t help but frown as well.
If what they said was true, that meant an active hero had been dispatched here for support.
In that case, quietly taking the Heart of the Demon and leaving would be impossible.
Time for a plan change.
If things were going to get noisy anyway, it would be better to end this swiftly rather than waste effort trying to stay hidden.
“Ugh! I–Intruder?!”
The guards who had spotted me grabbed their radios.
But it was already too late.
With a swift swing, my blade slashed through them, and they collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.
I had dulled the blade beforehand, so their lives wouldn’t be in danger.
Even if I had inherited this body’s memories, I couldn’t bring myself to kill.
Ah, right—can’t forget this part.
I started picking up the elixirs that had fallen to the floor.
Each of these was worth anywhere from thousands to hundreds of millions.
No way I was leaving that kind of money lying around.
This was, of course, nothing more than spoils of war.
I only took out the guards to speed things up—it wasn’t because I wanted the elixirs.
Seriously.
---
The Seoul Artifact Museum.
The control room there was in complete chaos.
Red lights flashed, sirens blared, and numerous security systems connected to the museum were going down.
“We’ve lost contact with the Rapid Response Unit!”
“Connection with Sector A Team has also been severed!”
Reports of missing guards echoed one after another throughout the room.
Hearing the reports, Lee Doo-hyun, the museum’s head of security and chief administrator, slammed his desk.
“What the hell are all these guards doing?! You can’t even handle a single rat that’s snuck into the museum?!”
“S-sir, we can’t pinpoint the intruder’s location!”
Lee Doo-hyun frowned at the subordinate’s reply.
Before him floated a holographic map of the museum, projected by magic.
It was a near-perfect security system that displayed the museum’s status in real-time.
There were no blind spots under its surveillance.
Magical defense systems, protective wards for the artifacts, and even round-the-clock CCTV monitoring.
Within the hologram, a single red dot appeared. As it moved, the countless blue dots around it began to vanish one by one.
Even when guards represented by blue dots rushed to the red dot’s location, the red dot disappeared without a trace.
The intruder struck, retreated, and systematically reduced the number of guards.
At this rate, only the guards would continue dying.
After a moment of thought, Lee Doo-hyun made a decision.
“Judging by the movement, the intruder’s heading for the main hall. Gather all available forces there and stand by.”
“Sir? But then the artifacts’ security…”
The subordinate hesitated, but Lee Doo-hyun’s tone left no room for argument.
“At this rate, we’ll lose both our men and the artifacts. Better to consolidate our forces and sweep the area.”
Besides, the museum’s security wasn’t so weak that the artifacts could be stolen easily.
Soon, the blue dots scattered across the holographic map began to converge toward a single point.
As they gathered, a massive blue cluster formed.
“Continue the search for the intruder. And... contact the dispatched hero as well.”
Though Lee Doo-hyun disliked the hero sent as reinforcement, now wasn’t the time to complain.
Just then, a small red dot appeared among the dense cluster of blue.
Upon seeing it, a glimmer of hope crossed Lee Doo-hyun’s face.
Every available guard in the museum had been gathered.
No matter how skilled the intruder was, they couldn’t possibly withstand such overwhelming numbers
or so he believed.
In the next instant, the blue dots surrounding the red one vanished.
And despair spread across Lee Doo-hyun’s face.