After three years, inside the Guild of Stars, everyone was chatting among themselves.
One of them said, "Have you heard about Black Crow's fight? They say he disappeared and appeared behind a rank C monster that attacked merchants traveling to the Dwarf Town and cut the monster in half."
A girl who was listening to Black Crow being mentioned said excitedly,
"I heard that once, during a mission to eliminate monsters that attacked a village, his hood fell off, revealing unnaturally attractive and cold features, green eyes, and white hair as he killed the monsters like a killing angel."
Another girl said, "Impossible! His hair is black and his eyes are yellow; I saw him once." A small argument over his hair and eye color began.
The chatter continued, unaware that this "killing angel" was only 10 years old.
While they were gossiping, the guild door opened, and a figure 185 cm tall, covered with a hood with a black crow insignia on his back, entered. Silence fell over the guild. Black Crow approached the merchant.
The merchant greeted him enthusiastically, "Hello, Black Crow! What will you sell today?"
Black Crow took out a set of rank C mana stones and handed them to the merchant. After evaluating the stones, the merchant paid Black Crow their worth, and he left the guild.
'Why does everything go silent every time I enter the guild?' he thought.
'It doesn't matter… I need to think about the bandits who attacked Kai's village.'
'I'm not sure about the exact timing of the day; I only remember when Kai was 10.'
'I have to go to the village and kill the bandit leader who contracted with the demons.'
'But how do I make Kai join the mercenaries?'
Stephen pondered for half a minute, then pushed all other thoughts aside.
'It doesn't matter. He won't be able to defeat the Demon King anyway unless he trains hard to reach rank SSS+.'
Stephen went to the house he and Mark had bought. The house looked very different from when he first bought it. He found Mark in his room, which was in chaos with computer equipment and wires. Mark was rapidly pressing the keyboard because he had developed the Hacker skill to intermediate level 5, with 5 more levels to reach expert rank.
Mark noticed Stephen's arrival and said, "Brother, come and see what I found!"
He looked at the screen angrily.
Stephen, who had removed his cloak and returned to his 10-year-old form, approached.
On the screen, he saw information about the laboratory they had been in three years ago.
Mark said angrily, "They're still continuing their corrupt experiments."
Stephen calmly asked, "What do you want to do about them?"
Mark, furious, replied, "Kill them all and destroy all their experiment papers so no one can continue these experiments after them."
Stephen said, "Do as you wish. I will be away for a few days, maybe up to a month."
Mark asked curiously, "Where are you going, brother?"
Stephen said, "To eliminate some bandits."
Mark said sadly, "Then who will cook for me?"
Stephen patted his head, "I'll leave you 10,000 rubles; you can buy anything and even order food to the house."
Mark said, "But what should I do with such a huge amount? I like the food you cook more."
Stephen replied, "Don't complain. It's only a few days or a month. What will you do if I go to the academy for a whole year? A few days are nothing—you can still see me."
Mark hesitated, "B-but…"
Stephen ignored him, "I will train with the sword in the basement. Tomorrow I'll leave. As for the laboratory matter, you take care of it."
Mark frowned, "Okay… my brother doesn't like me anymore."
Stephen said coldly, "No drama now."
He left Mark's room. As he closed the door, a trace of warmth appeared on his expression, and the corner of his mouth formed a small curve.
He went to the basement, which he had turned into a training area with equipment to increase strength. In one corner, there was a large capsule-like device that could fit an adult, used for virtual reality training. Stephen occasionally used it to gain combat experience against humans of similar rank.
Inside the game, Stephen covered his face with a mask and increased the height of his character to look like an adult in his twenties because he didn't want anyone to know his original appearance.
He wanted to live as the 8-year-old Stephen at the academy—a moderately powerful person who wouldn't attract attention, someone unaware of his beautiful appearance that would draw attention.
He hated people and didn't want them forming attachments to him. Only Mark was his exception, whom he considered family because Mark had given him the warmth of family he never experienced in his past life. Even the body he had taken didn't feel that warmth, but at least he had someone beside him.
Stephen wore weights and swung his sword skillfully until the sun set. He finally stopped and said, "Status window."
**Name:** Stephen
**Age:** 10
**Race:** Human
**State:** Awake
**Talent:** SS
**Magic:** A+
**Mana:** C+
**Strength:** C+
**Intelligence:** S
**Skills:**
* **Sword Art (Intermediate Level 6)** Rank: S — Allows understanding of sword art fundamentals
* **The Author** Rank: S — Allows seeing the status of main characters mentioned in *The Search for Hope* novel
* **Memory:** (Locked) Rank: ??? — Unlocks upon meeting certain conditions
* **Time:** Level 9 Rank: ??? — Allows stopping time for 10 seconds; skill evolves as level increases
* **Disguise:** Can increase height, change hair and eye color depending on mana used
* **Shadow Sword (Intermediate Level 8)** Rank: E — Allows user and sword to merge with shadows
'Does magic increase as I age? Sigh… I don't want that. It will only bring me problems.'
'And the Memory skill… I still can't unlock it.'
'At this rate, I'll reach A+ rank when I enter the academy.'
Stephen left the training room, went upstairs to shower and prepare food for himself and Mark, and went to sleep.
The next morning, Stephen packed his essentials into a storage ring that could hold 900 meters, purchased for 10,000 rubles. He placed his sword and cloak inside the ring, looked at the map on his watch, and checked the location of the village, which was 100 kilometers from Oro city—reachable by train in one hour.
He left and took the train, arriving at the station after one hour. Upon reaching the village, he took out his cloak, wore it, and increased his height. He entered the village and rented a room to stay in.
He trained in the room for 10 days, occasionally leaving to kill monsters out of boredom. Finally, he heard a commotion outside the village.
'Finally, they arrived… I thought I'd die waiting,' he thought.
Stephen went out, wearing his cloak and carrying his sword, and saw a group of strong, muscular people laughing and chasing villagers to kill them. It seemed they wanted to toy with them before killing them.
Stephen went toward them and killed them one by one. From a distance, he noticed a 10-year-old boy running with a bandit behind him. The boy had fiery red hair down to his shoulders and bright red eyes—yes, it was Kai.
Stephen went to them and killed the attacker easily. Kai was shocked by Stephen's strength, but his shock quickly turned into a pleading expression.
Kai said to Stephen, begging, "Please, sir, save my family! They're in that house, and there's another bandit!"
Stephen didn't speak and went to the house Kai indicated, killing the attacker quickly since he was weaker than him.
Kai's parents saw him and thanked Stephen for saving them. They saw their son behind Stephen and ran to him, hugging and checking him for injuries.
Stephen looked at them silently.
'I saved your family, and they love you, so cherish them,' he thought. Then he mocked himself, 'Even though his family died in the story, at least they cherish and love him. Was I envious when I let his family die? Ha, pathetic.'
He tried to leave but was stopped by Kai's voice, "Thank you… but may I ask you something?"
Stephen nodded.
Kai asked, "How can I become strong like you?"
Stephen was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth and said, "Train hard, fight monsters, and enter the Academy of Hope."
Kai nodded quickly, then noticed Stephen was about to leave and asked urgently, "What's your name?"
Stephen said calmly, "Black Crow."
Then he left.
Kai memorized the name Black Crow and kept repeating it with shining eyes.
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