A sinister gray sky full of cracks and fissures.
It was the only 'sky' Ramu[1] had ever seen since she was born.
It was only natural that the world was like that in the first place, and it wasn't just limited to her. A considerable amount of time had passed since the world fell apart, and only the elderly remembered the original clear blue sky.
But even with such a miserable sight... Ramu loved to look at the sky. Didn't that high-up sky seem infinitely wider, vaster, and freer than the one who was only holding her brother back?
'I couldn't even look at that sky. I got scolded a lot by my brother because of it.'
It was only natural, as staring at the pitch-black darkness moving beyond the broken cracks for too long could make one get caught by the abyss and go insane. She obeyed him and didn't look at the sky. Unlike others, she instinctively felt that the abyss couldn't affect her, but she didn't want to worry her brother anymore.
'If it weren't for me, my brother could have lived anywhere and been treated well.'
Her brother, Liang, was an amazing person. Unlike her sickly body, he had great innate physical abilities and a quick judgment of situations and wit that no one could match.
The proof of that was herself.
In a difficult world where she had no one to rely on after the deaths of both her parents, it was definitely not an easy feat to endure for over a decade while protecting a newborn in a situation where it was even difficult to maintain his own health.
He was more than just a brother to Ramu, who had never even seen her parents' faces.
He was all the family she had.
And so. That was why.
She couldn't accept the fact that she was still alive as she looked up at the blue sky.
-"Ramu—!!"
Memories of her last moments flashed through her mind. The sky was collapsing with an ominous sound. Her brother, who was shocked and dazed by the terrible sight, ran toward her with all his might and hugged her tightly.
-"Ramu, just remember this one thing."
She just listened to him, quietly held in his warm embrace.
she had no strength left to even open her mouth from an unknown sense of loss.
-"No matter what anyone says, you are my little sister."
She couldn't ask. What did that mean?
Immediately after, Liang took off the necklace he was wearing around his neck and put it on Ramu. It was a keepsake of one of their parents that the two had shared. The other half of the heart-shaped ornament was divided into two.
-"I love you, my sister."
In that sturdy embrace, the sky she loved eventually collapsed.
Groan—
A loud noise echoed throughout the room.
"Ah."
Ramu, who had been blankly looking up at the blue sky beyond the window, finally came to her senses and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. Then, she held her stomach and let out a small sigh. Even though it had only been a few hours since she ate, she was starting to get so hungry again.
'It wasn't like this before.'
It was all because the food in this world was too delicious. She had been living on rough grass roots, tree bark, and other things as her main food, but now that she was putting soft, nutritious food into her body, her whole body was eagerly craving new nutrients whenever it had the chance.
'This is the first time I've ever had such a luxurious feast. The rat meat we only ate on special occasions can't even compare....'
She swallowed the saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth and shook her head. No matter how delicious the food, she couldn't just trust a person carelessly. That was the first rule of survival.
'He doesn't seem like a bad person, but...'
She knew she was in a predicament after getting everything, but she couldn't help the values she had lived with her entire life. Because of that, she always secretly ate her meals and stayed cooped up in her room like a stray cat. Even now, a few days after she had arrived here.
Click—
Ramu cautiously opened the door and poked her head out. After looking around, she quietly went down to the kitchen on the first floor without making a sound.
'Delicious smell.'
The man who introduced himself as Hun always prepared meals for her, and he seemed to intentionally leave the spot, as if to say, "Eat comfortably without being conscious of others."
Even though she felt grateful and sorry for him, she couldn't muster the courage to approach him. In a way, it was natural.
Although she hadn't been able to show it to the fullest, she had just lost her only family, her brother. Whether it was because of the environment she grew up in or her innate disposition, the sadness wasn't so great that she couldn't go about her daily life, but she couldn't help but feel a sense of emptiness in her heart.
'...Hoo, but I can't stay like this. Let's talk properly today.'
To move forward, she had to take a step forward somehow. Her brother, who had worried about her until the very end, would have liked that better, too. She entered the kitchen carefully, with a firm resolve.
"Huh?"
And there, she made eye contact with a being she could never have imagined.
[Kyu?]
On the dining table, which was covered in a variety of foods, was an unknown creature with a body of glittering sparkles, coiled up and tilting its small head. Ramu's wide eyes and the spirit's bright eyes met in the air.
Hun also served as an external auditor for his affiliated companies, including Howard Industries and Lunatic Entertainment.
'Success.'
He opened the front door and entered the hideout, having briefly left the room to do some work, and nodded with satisfaction.
"It's warm... it's soft...."
[Kyu-ruru—!]
"Hehe, that tickles!"
The bright laughter of a child was echoing inside the house. As he had asked Hwiryeong to do it separately, it seemed to have worked out as he had intended.
'As expected, Hwiryeong's cuteness is the best in the world. With one blow, even a cautious child like a cat can be won over.'
It had been a few days since he brought her from the Cosiyas dimension, but because she had lived in such an extreme environment, it wasn't easy to break Ramu's cautiousness. He was able to get a few clear statements, but that was all he had achieved.
From the perspective of someone who wanted to have a more in-depth conversation and cooperation, it was very frustrating.
'I can fully understand that feeling, though.'
From her perspective, it would have been strange for her not to be cautious when the world she lived in had suddenly turned upside down. But even if he understood that he couldn't just waste time like this, he had to do something. So he had tried to get closer to the child by consulting parenting communities and video sites, but it didn't seem to be very helpful.
'That's because Ramu's situation is different from that of a normal child.'
The only survivor of a destroyed dimension. She was not just special, but a unique variable.
It was only natural for the solutions that work for a normal child to not work on such a child.
That's when the orders from the Golden Dragon came to mind. The correlation between animals and a child's emotions was already a well-known fact. Whether the Golden Dragon should be considered an animal was a ambiguous question, but that wasn't important now. Having already experienced Hwiryeong's loveliness firsthand, he started the plan without hesitation.
"You're so cute~... Ah! Where are you going?"
[Kyaan!]
He was now experiencing a result that exceeded his expectations. The spirit, which had been wrapped around his neck, flew across the living room and poked his head with its shoulder.
Ramu, who had been following it and discovered that he had returned late, looked at him hesitantly.
'If this were before, she would have run away right away. The effect is certain.'
He smiled as he stroked its head with one hand, which had blunt horns like protrusions.
[Kya-ah!]
Its small body moved up and down as if it knew it was being praised. And it didn't take long for the spirit's help to bear fruit.
Hun's 'Mental Sensitivity' was a very useful ability. Starting with transmitting thoughts to others through what is called telepathy, it could be extended to psychometry, which reads thoughts left on objects, or mind-reading and brainwashing. It could even be used to instill common sense in people who have no knowledge of this world.
'The amount of information I can transmit without side effects is still lacking due to a lack of skill, but... even this is good enough.'
Teaching her how to use shower shampoo, and so on, was also my job. Until now, she had been keeping herself clean by using a magical tool with cleaning abilities, but she couldn't rely on it forever.
'For languages with a lot of information, I can use the interpreter magical tool that I also gave to Andrew.'
And one more thing. Another great advantage of using 'Mental Sensitivity' was that he could share the scenes the other person was thinking of in real time. Information was bound to be distorted in the process of being transmitted to others by its very nature.
Hans's black magic, which had severe side effects with forced brain-reading, was no use here.
Beep— Beep—
"It's 257,000 won."
"Here you go."
Hun, who had finished shopping at a large supermarket near the hideout, came out onto the street and bent his neck from side to side. He had prepared a few things before moving in, but when he started living with a child, there were more than one or two things he needed.
'It's fine for now, but... it might be difficult to take care of her alone in the future.'
Besides, since she was a girl, there would be some things that would require special care. But it was unlikely that he, who had never even had a proper relationship, let alone raised a child, would be able to handle such things delicately.
'I'll think about that later, then.'
Hun fell into thought, recalling the story he had heard from Ramu before he went shopping. The reason he went out to shop now was to let her and the mental manager Hwiryeong get together so she wouldn't feel depressed thinking about the past.
'The last moments of the Cosiyas dimension.'
Thanks to using 'Mental Sensation' with the other party's consent, he was able to get even more vivid information. What events had happened in the past, what form did the end of the world take, and what was her life like?
And among them, there was one topic that particularly caught his attention.
'It's my parents' keepsake.'
What she had treasured until the very end, what her brother had given her, was about her parents. A pretty necklace that was divided into two in the middle and formed a perfect heart shape when combined.
On the back of the combined part, a phrase was engraved.
Ramu and Liang said they couldn't read the writing.
"They said it was a language they used in their hometown, but it's completely different from what my brother taught me... It's definitely a foreign language, but I don't know exactly what country it's from...."
Surprisingly, Ramu was an intellectual who had learned the letters even in that hell. Her body was too weak to do anything else, but that was a huge deal in a world that was moving toward destruction.
Hun asked for her permission and checked the phrase on the keepsake himself. To someone who possessed 'Xenoglossy,' there was no language they couldn't read.
And he was able to read the sentence engraved on the necklace, as expected.
'But the problem is...'
It was a character he already knew, one he could read without 'Xenoglossy.'
-May our love last forever.
'English.'
The meaning was "May our love last forever." It was a phrase that perfectly matched the heart-shaped necklace.
'They were from Earth?'
From what he heard, it seemed both of them were Awakened from Earth who had completely settled down in this world. Was this truly a coincidence?
'...I'll have to hear the details when I get back.'
In the moment he continued to think and move forward, his senses felt a small commotion, one that was far beyond what normal people could sense. In a desolate alleyway a little away from the street he was on, a sex crime against a woman was taking place.
'They have no fear. How dare they do such a thing in Seoul?'
Hun, who was frowning, lightly swept his gaze over him. It wasn't that he would just get away with it because he wasn't caught. The vigilantes who protected the darkness of Korea would chase him down to the end and punish him without missing a single clue.
'Is it at an extreme level? It seems I haven't properly grasped the situation since I just returned...'
But the power he had, was never to be underestimated. Having jumped in a big pool, his vision had become infinitely high, and he was in a position where he could proudly spread his shoulders wherever he went. He was in a state where he could replace his name and color with a sword master's profound realm.
'I wanted to test something out anyway, so this is perfect.'
Of course, power was always relative.
Hun's eyes flashed, and he extended his 'Mental Sensitivity' toward him. Because the opponent was at a high level, a strong mental barrier blocked his way, but thanks to the help of mental skills like 'Great Mind,' he was able to somehow make contact with the opponent's thoughts.
["Who dares!"]
Through that connection, the opponent's thoughts were transmitted. It was as if he had sensed that someone was trying to intrude on his mind, which was filled with unpleasantness and murderous intent. He was able to make contact with the opponent's mind, but there wasn't much he could do at such a shallow depth. At most, could he just read a very small part of the temporary surface consciousness?
As the opponent, who was still on guard, began to raise his energy, the connection gradually began to fade. If it went on like this, the connection would be completely cut off, or the villain who had traced our location would attack us in an instant.
'That much time is enough.'
But Hun just chuckled. Once the contact was made, it was over. He immediately opened his mind wide and backflowed what was inside.
["Ouch! What is this...?!"]
As long as the thoughts were connected to him, the level of the mental barrier was meaningless. Just as a giant road roller tramples a toy castle, the opponent's mental world was instantly laid to waste.
"...Are you okay?"
Hun let out a small whistle, and his eyes glistened. He had found their location, and after seeing the person who had been attacking so fiercely fall to the ground with his eyes wide open and drooling, he cut off the connection.
'Hmm, I didn't have high expectations in terms of combat power from this avatar.'
Even though it was newly created, it could already neutralize a high-level opponent. Also, unlike other avatars whose maintenance burden increases as their level gets higher, Hun could use his immense burden as a weapon. Just like pouring all the nuclear waste from the nuclear power process into the enemy's territory.
'This will be a stronger weapon than I thought. If the 'Mental Sensitivity' ability, which can stably connect even with much stronger opponents, develops further...'
Hun nodded with a meaningful smile and walked away slowly. The best way to develop an ability since ancient times was to use it a lot.
It was the moment when an unknown nightmare called—
The'Mind Breaker'
was born in Seoul,
a place where it was difficult for villains to act.
[1] Lamu in previous chapter