Chapter 86
Seong-Hwi stood under the snow before the memory palace, the Calasanz Home for Children. He summoned the Tarot Deck of Destiny as he stood across from the arched wooden door. The Tarot Deck of Destiny appeared with a golden sheen, the cards were shuffled, and four cards automatically flew out.
The first card was No.3 The Hunter. It showed a hunter drawing his bow to shoot a deer sniffing a snare trap.
The second card was No.15 The Devil. It showed the Devil with an inverted pentagram engraved on his forehead. He had a goat’s legs, a human’s torso, and a bat’s wings. A man and a woman were willingly chaining their necks before him.
The third card was the reversed Ace of Swords. It showed a white hand sprouting from a black cloud and holding a light blue sword.
The fourth card was the reversed Page of Swords. It showed a boy holding a sword in each hand on top of a cliff.
Reversed cards, or cards appearing upside down, symbolized the opposite of their upright versions.
[Activating Unique Skill: Borrowing Destiny.]
[Four-card Destiny.]
[Spread cards: No.3 The Hunter, No.15 The Devil, Ace of Swords, Page of Swords]
[Destiny reading: A hunting devil with violent tendencies due to an unfavorable upbringing.]
I’ll use even this filthy killer’s destiny if there is a use for it, Seong-Hwi said inwardly as he stared at the four cards smearing into the wooden door of the children’s home.
If his stats were not at least intermediate caliber, his psyche could be severely corrupted from borrowing five-card destinies and above. He brushed aside the lucid dream he had before as if it were nothing, but the fact that he had a lucid dream meant his psyche had already been considerably corrupted.
Rescuing the prisoners, killing Illechebra... Did I do them of my own free will?
Iljimae’s and Unabomber’s destinies might have influenced him to do so. The terrifying part of his psyche’s corruption was that he was unaware of it happening. He believed he had acted purely on his judgment, but it might not be so. As the user of Borrowing Destiny, Seong-Hwi was forced to be overly suspicious at all times. Not even of others, but himself, for the rest of his life.
It was far too risky to borrow a five-card destiny without sufficient preparations, hence he chose a four-card destiny instead.
The four cards completely smeared into the wooden door, and it opened.
[Devil of Los Angeles]
***
A man bit into an apple. It was an ordinary apple, but any apple would look like the enticing forbidden fruit if eaten next to a dying man in his eighties.
The man wore an AC/DC baseball cap, jeans, and a Members Only jacket. His teeth were brown, and he had terrible breath. Holiday and Like a Virgin by Madonna played on the radio. The victim’s muffled screams mixed with the unsettlingly unpleasant air filling the house.
The man pulled out a .22 caliber handgun, which had been stuffed into the back of his jeans, and suddenly shot the old man. The old man’s eyes widened as he writhed in excruciating pain for a while, and died. Seeing that, the man ate his apple faster as he trembled with ecstasy.
“Filthy bastard,” Seong-Hwi mumbled as his brow furrowed.
The slender man with black curly hair turned to Seong-Hwi and smiled. “Don’t be like that. We are all evil in one shape or form. Aren’t you the same?”
“You’re filthier than I expected, Richard Ramirez.”
Richard Ramirez was a serial killer who terrorized the residents of Los Angeles from 1984 to 1985, committing violence, murder, burglary, sexual assault, and the like. Confirmed counts alone, he was convicted of thirteen murders, five attempted murders, eleven sexual assaults, and fourteen burglaries. The psychopath was known as the Devil of Los Angeles, El Matador, the Night Stalker, and the like.
Richard snickered. “Kekekek! Why did you come to borrow my destiny if I disgust you so much? Don’t be such a hypocrite.”
He walked away from the old man’s corpse and toward Seong-Hwi. The stench from his breath grew stronger.
He continued, “You believe one’s destiny can be changed, but I wonder if you’ll change your mind after hearing my story.”
“What are you talking about?” Seong-Hwi asked.
“It’s a long-standing debate, isn’t it? Are criminals born or made?” Richard cackled and continued, “I believe in both. Satan birthed me, and this world raised me.”
He opened his left hand. The inverted pentagram symbolizing Satan was drawn on his palm.
“My brothers and sisters were born with breathing issues, bony deformities, epilepsy, and other genetic defects. Our mother was poor and worked at a boots factory filled with toxic fumes while she was pregnant. My prefrontal cortex was probably fucked up from infancy.”
Richard continued his story, seemingly in a good mood.
“My father was the worst. He was a railway laborer and always beat my mother. I thought that was normal. One night, he even tied me to a crucifix at a cemetery. Like I said, I thought that was normal.”
Although the story was not entertaining or interesting, Richard told it excitedly as if reading a fairy tale book.
“My cousin was even worse. He served as a soldier in the Vietnam War, and he boasted of his war crimes of slaughtering regular people. You should’ve seen the countless Polaroid photos he showed me!”
Seong-Hwi said, “I know your entire story, so shut up already.”
“No, you will hear me out. My cousin got me into marijuana. Ultimately, he shot his wife in front of me and ended up in a psych ward.”
Richard shook his head at the frowning Seong-Hwi and continued, “After that, I moved in with my older sister, but you wanna know the funniest thing about it? Her husband was an obsessive Peeping Tom! I learned how to spy on my neighbors from him. Do you understand what I’m getting at?”
Richard had said that Satan had birthed him, and the world had raised him.
“I got in touch with my true nature, which is... evil. I can be nothing but evil. Hail Satan!” Richard showered the inverted pentagram on his left palm with kisses. “Humans desire to be evil! My arrest only affirmed that fact. I was given countless letters and love confessions from my fans! I even got married in prison.”
“Don’t talk as if a portion represents the whole. You’re nothing but a filthy serial killer,” Seong-Hwi remarked.
“What about you? Are you saying you’re not a serial killer?” Richard asked, his eyes smiling as if he knew what kind of person Seong-Hwi was and what he had done.
Seong-Hwi smiled in response. His mind was already severely worn down in his past life while acquiring the trait, Thousand-Man Killer. Such cheap taunts could not shake him in the slightest.
“Of course not. I’m a serial killer, too. If I were to point out the main difference between you and me, it would be that you only kill for pleasure, and I’m a skilled professional killer. And what was that about Satan? Hah!”
Seong-Hwi laughed at Richard mockingly and continued, “That’s the go-to reasoning of a petty criminal. All you pathological liars say shit like I had no choice, I couldn’t help myself, or Society and the environment turned me into this. And in the end, you all say the same thing as if you had come up with it together. It was Satan! The Devil made me do it! How pathetic.”
Richard’s expression slowly crumpled as Seong-Hwi mocked him.
Seeing that, Seong-Hwi smiled and pointed at Richard, saying, “You’re just a coward who blames everything on Satan in your imagination. Every piece of trash I’ve disposed of has been of my free will. Stop making excuses and tell me how you truly feel.”
Seong-Hwi did not feel guilt in taking out the trash from the moment he killed Kang Hyun-Tae, who raped and murdered Shin So-Eun. He was full-on crazy. He was a sociopathic killer who never made excuses for his actions. He had never once denied those facts. He was far too broken to save anyone.
The madness Seong-Hwi had been suppressing exuded unwaveringly from his eyes.
Seeing those eyes, Richard laughed uncontrollably, “Kekekek! Gyahahahahahahaha!”
However, he had laughed deliberately so he wouldn’t lose to Seong-Hwi’s madness. The two killers entered a war of nerves.
“How I truly feel, huh? I love killing! I love the feeling of being in complete control! I get turned on by their terrified expressions and fearful attitude! Ahhh!” Richard shouted as he trembled, his eyes rolling backward.
Such a sight would have intimidated any normal human, but Seong-Hwi stared at Richard expressionlessly.
Seong-Hwi said, “I know people like you very well. You exert force because you’re afraid of inferiority and refusal. You’re cowards. Morons. Losers.”
Richard frowned intensely as he glared at Seong-Hwi. “You’ve been talking a lot of shit on your high horse! You know nothing about me!”
“What? Did I say anything wrong, Coward of Los Angeles?”
Richard grabbed Seong-Hwi’s collar and shouted, “Would you be able to say the same thing if you lived my destiny? Huh? Did you want me to become a dentist or something as I faced that motherfucking destiny?”
“I don’t give a fuck. It looks like the glorification from fellow morons is getting to your head and firing you up with enthusiasm, but... in the Mirror World, filthy murderers like you are as common as pebbles in a river. There’s nothing special about you.”
Seong-Hwi was not lying. Any Dark Human in South Earth would be more wicked than Richard.
“I’m... not special? Satan chose me! That can’t be!”
The enraged Richard shot the .22 caliber handgun at Seong-Hwi. Seong-Hwi grabbed the bullet in midair with his right hand and crushed it. Richard stared at the crushed bullet that fell on the ground in disbelief.
“Like I said, you’re not special. People in the Mirror World have long since been desensitized to murder. If you want to taste the pleasure of breaking a taboo... You should at least kill a superior race.”
“A superior race?” Richard asked.
“Oh. I’ve killed one before, but I guess you haven’t.”
Seong-Hwi stared at Richard as if looking down at someone inferior. As someone who had only been given stares of fear from those begging for mercy, Richard felt intense humiliation from Seong-Hwi’s gaze.
As Richard gritted his teeth, Seong-Hwi taunted him further, “Now that I think about it, I guess I don’t need your destiny. Why would I need anything from an ordinary, filthy serial killer?”
“Ehehehe! Kekekekek! Me?! Ordinary?! That’s impossible!” Richard, unable to bear the contempt, scratched his face so hard that his cheeks bled. “I want to kill those superior races, too! I want to see them fearing me! I’m sick of wallowing in my past murder memories! I want new stimulation!”
He had fallen for Seong-Hwi’s provocation.
Richard shouted, “Let’s make a deal! You may borrow my destiny if you show me the moment of a superior race’s death!”
[Pleasure of Killing (Black Quest)
Rank: —
Description: In exchange for Richard Ramirez letting you borrow his destiny, allow him to taste the pleasure of killing a superior race.
Reward: Borrowing Richard Ramirez’s destiny.
Penalty: Severe corruption of Cheon Seong-Hwi’s psyche once the condition is fulfilled.]
A black quest appeared. Unlike when Seong-Hwi borrowed Iljimae’s and Unabomber’s destinies, the deal included a detailed condition.
Not bad, Seong-Hwi thought.
The part about his psyche’s corruption deepening worried him, but he would one day have the opportunity to kill another superior race. Although Richard Ramirez was a filthy murderer, Seong-Hwi needed his destiny at the moment.
Seong-Hwi nodded.
***
The Devil holds the strings which move us!
In repugnant things we discover charms;
Every day we descend a step further toward Hell,
Without horror, through gloom that stinks.
Charles Pierre Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil — To the Reader
***
The sounds of hammering metal echoed from a nameless smithy beside Naviglio Grande, located in East Earth. The sweat-covered Muka excitedly hammered a heated piece of metal that he placed on an anvil with pincers. Several rusted lumps of metal were sprawled behind him.
He grunted and dunked the red-hot metal into a bucket filled with an unknown liquid. Steam and flames lingered on the liquid surface. He pulled out the metal, which now had a faint purple shine.
[43rd Steel produced.]
[43rd Steel is acknowledged as a material item by the Akasha.]
“Huuu, I did it,” Muka remarked.
[43rd Steel (Material Item)
Rank: F(0)
Description: A steel developed by Muka, a blacksmith of the Red Hammer tribe. It contains qualities highly resistant to rust.]
Muka momentarily stared at the metal he smelted and shouted toward the ceiling, “Seong-Hwi! Get down here!”
Seong-Hwi appeared at the smithy moments later, yawning.
“Did you call me?”
“Yeah. I’m positive this one will last a little longer,” Muka said as he placed the 43rd Steel on the anvil.
Seong-Hwi grabbed the metal as if he were used to it and asked, “Can I begin?”
“Yeah. Use the same amount of mana as last time,” Muka replied as he pulled out a pocket watch from his pocket.
Seeing that, Seong-Hwi activated his skill.
[Activating Skill: Rust of Ruin.]
The surface of the 43rd Steel instantly rusted. Muka stared fixedly at the metal, forgetting to breathe. The steel stopped screaming once Rust of Ruin rusted its deepest layer.
“Sixty-three point eight seconds! Alright! It’s nice to see it getting longer since I can test it out every day.” Muka nodded and rummaged through the heap of various steels in a corner of the smithy. “I should switch up the ratio this time. White iron is better than I’d expected.”
Seong-Hwi said, “Why don’t you take a break, Muka?”
“Hammering metal is as calming as breathing to me. Oh, but I haven’t used even an ounce of the janateel you left with me, so don’t worry.”
Seong-Hwi had entrusted the janateel he had obtained after killing Tutobure to Muka, who had become more certain that his kind had been the ones who cooperated with Clan Trophy after seeing the janateel. However, Muka failed to find out anything more.
Since Muka had agreed to make Seong-Hwi something with the janateel, Seong-Hwi had accomplished his first objective of bringing Muka to the Capital.
To be honest, I have no interest in his goal of making a steel that can endure Rust of Ruin, Seong-Hwi said inwardly.
Rather, it would be bad for Seong-Hwi if such a steel were created. However, Seong-Hwi helped Muka anyway because not only was such metal difficult to create, but he also needed Muka’s help.
To be more specific, I need his relationship with the Steel King.
Seong-Hwi had a reason for wanting to meet the World Ranker, Steel King Bafor. Shocking news would shake the Mirror World three months from now. The dwarf society Faber, which had been maintaining neutrality until now, would make an official statement that they would support the angels.
Angels were among the top of the superior races, and the ruling race of the birdfolk. They began to surpass demons and dragons in power through the dwarves’ support. Angels began to act high-handedly, using the dwarves’ item production skills, abusing the monopoly. Biphatogenes and Gula had to declare a ceasefire to keep the angels in check.
In Seong-Hwi’s past life, this incident was known as the item wave. Dwarves became the target of hatred by all races except for the angels, being killed or treated like slaves by the enraged. However, this only started a vicious cycle. As the population of dwarves decreased, so did the number of items on the market.
The humans’ survival rate also drastically decreased as a result, Seong-Hwi remembered.
It was only natural since dwarves, the crucial pillar of the Mirror World that provided high-quality items, went extinct. Seong-Hwi’s goal was to stop the item wave, meaning he had to prevent Faber’s official statement to support the angels in three months. As for why Faber decided to support the angels while being criticized by the other races, Seong-Hwi learned the truth from his Calasanz comrade, Leo, five years after the fact.
“I told you I used to be a member of Black Market, right? Back then, I treated the Black Merchant Kabuka like a father. I learned the truth about the item wave from him,” Leo said.
“The truth about the item wave? Did Steel King Bafor get dementia or something?” Seong-Hwi asked.
“Nothing of the sort. Bafor’s only child was stricken with an incurable curse. There was only one way to cure them.”
“An incurable curse? Then...” Seong-Hwi trailed off.
“That’s right. They needed an Elixir. Bafor sold his kind in exchange for getting an Elixir from the angels.”
“Is that true? How do you know all this?”
“Because Kabuka also needed an Elixir. He gathered the best there was to carry out an operation to seize an Elixir. Well, the operation failed in the end.”
Black Merchant Kabuka was sixth in the human ranking. He was a Dark Human and the leader of Clan Black Market—emphasis on was, since he died a year after the item wave.
An Elixir, huh? Seong-Hwi thought.
It was an S-rank consumable item that could cure any disease, extend one’s lifespan, and regenerate one’s body to its prime condition.
If I can participate in Kabuka’s operation and steal the Elixir from him... Not only can I obtain an extra life, but I could even make a deal with Bafor personally!
Bafor wanted an Elixir to the point that he was willing to drive the future of dwarves off a cliff. If Seong-Hwi played his cards right, he could even exchange the Elixir for a few S-rank items Bafor possessed.
As Seong-Hwi was deep in thought, Muka approached him with a heap of metal pieces and said, “Besides, I should be the one telling you to take a break. Where the hell have you been going every night?”
Seong-Hwi smiled and answered, “Just... a night stroll.”
He turned to look out the window. The day was slowly getting darker. Darkness, night, and silence stimulated the evil inside every human. Seong-Hwi’s eyes gleamed red, and it seemed like the corners of his mouth were slowly curling upward.
He resembled the Devil of Los Angeles.