Han Tae-oh returned to the Black Blade Guild premises, his clothes smelling faintly of ozone and his heart still racing from the near-death experience. He ignored the flood of congratulatory messages on his phone from other guild members.
I survived another fixed fate, he thought grimly. But now I have the Sword of Righteousness singing my praises.
The moment he stepped into the main courtyard, the digital chimes exploded in his head.
[Quest Alert: Public Display of Righteousness Completed!]
[Virtue Rank Evaluation: Flawless Execution of Life-Saving Technique.]
[Virtue Rank Up! Current Rank: D+ (Aspiring Hero).]
[Reward: 50 VP, Unlocked Feature: Virtue Shop Tier 2.]
Tae-oh staggered slightly, gripping a nearby wall. D+ Rank? He was moving up the heroic ladder without intending to climb a single step. He checked his total VP.
[Host Status: Virtue Points (VP): 100]
One hundred VP. I can buy a minor offensive skill now. Maybe a shield spell that actually works.
He was so focused on his status window that he didn't notice the absolute stillness of the courtyard. When he finally looked up, his blood ran cold.
Lee Ji-hoon was standing twenty feet away, perfectly framed beneath the guild's main entrance arch. The Regressor wore a dark, form-fitting training uniform, and his eyes, usually cold, now burned with a terrifying, frustrated clarity.
He hadn't been an eyewitness to the pillar incident, but he didn't need to be. He was a Regressor. He knew the plot. The old Han Tae-oh would be practicing his failed F-Rank skills right now, not saving the Hunters' Association HQ.
"D+ Rank," Ji-hoon stated, his voice a low, gravelly whisper that nevertheless felt like a shout in the empty courtyard. "That's a fast climb for F-Rank trash. Are you trying to prove a point, Han Tae-oh?"
Tae-oh adopted his usual mask of bored arrogance. "I'm just optimizing my time, C-Rank. Unlike you, I understand that sometimes the most efficient path is the one that minimizes collateral damage."
Ji-hoon smiled—a truly chilling, utterly humorless expression.
"The ultimate betrayal in my past life wasn't a sword in the back, Young Master," Ji-hoon said, taking one slow, deliberate step forward. "It was watching you methodically dismantle our defenses from the inside, piece by piece, while everyone thought you were a bumbling idiot."
He took another step, the air around him crackling with suppressed mana.
"But you're not an idiot anymore. You're an S-Rank tactician hiding under an F-Rank facade. I saw your audit report. I saw your perfect, selfless structural rescue. Every good deed you perform is just a new, thicker layer of armor for the beast underneath."
Ji-hoon stopped, only five feet separating them. He didn't draw a weapon. He didn't need one. His presence alone was an execution order.
"I won't let you reach S-Rank," Ji-hoon vowed. "Not in virtue, and certainly not in destruction."
He slowly raised his hand, not to strike, but to point at the main gate.
"The original plot point is tomorrow," he said, referring to the death flag. "I was going to wait for your betrayal and kill you then, in public. But you've forced my hand."
Ji-hoon unleashed a faint, controlled burst of his immense C-Rank mana—mana that felt like an S-Rank tidal wave. It slammed into the ground at Tae-oh's feet, cracking the paving stone and leaving a tiny, smoking fissure.
A perfect, non-lethal warning shot.
"Don't move from the Guild property tonight," Ji-hoon commanded, his voice shaking with restrained fury. "Tomorrow, you will join my patrol group entering the Forsaken Mines Gate. You will follow my orders. If you stray, if you give me even a hint of the monster I remember... I will not need a formal execution. I will ensure you die in that dungeon, and the world will only remember the brave Regressor who saved his team from the treacherous Young Master."
He gave a final, dangerous look. "Survival is no longer a choice you make alone, Han Tae-oh. You're coming with me."
With that, the Regressor turned and stalked away, leaving Han Tae-oh standing over the cracked stone, his heart pounding a frantic rhythm against the chilling reality.
The death flag didn't disappear. It just changed hands. I'm now forced to spend my last few hours with the one man who is 100% certain I'm the literal final boss!
This sets up the perfect, high-stakes confrontation for the final chapter of the launch sequence.