People react in all sorts of ways to something they can't believe.
Some are shocked speechless, some just look dazed.
Some freeze up, their faces turning to stone.
Hwang Yong-min was the last type.
'Ryu… Min? Black Scythe… was Ryu Min?'
Two scenes overlapped in his head.
One was Ryu Min, hunched like a turtle, taking a beating from him.
The other was Black Scythe, whose overwhelming charisma had sliced off his limbs and reduced him to terror.
Two totally incompatible images, both pointing to the same person standing before him now.
'T-the same person…? No way. That loser Ryu Min is Black Scythe…?'
Hwang Yong-min raised his head again.
No matter how many times he blinked and rubbed his eyes, the man behind the removed mask was definitely Ryu Min.
"Looks like you're having trouble believing I'm Black Scythe."
"…"
"Well, I get it. Up until last year, I was the one getting beaten up by you."
"What… are you? Have you been playing with me all this time? Why did you pretend to be such a loser?"
"What are you talking about? When did I ever pretend to be a loser? Anyway…"
Ryu Min spun his scythe once, and Hwang Yong-min's arm flew off.
"Hearing trash like you call me a loser is a bit offensive."
"G-gggyaaaah…"
"Quiet. Unless you want your tongue cut out too."
"Uh, ugh…"
With tears in his eyes, Hwang Yong-min gritted his teeth and endured the pain.
Blood poured from the severed stump.
"Don't worry. I'll give you some first aid."
Raising his hand, Ryu Min used First Aid.
The bleeding stopped, and the severed surface knitted over as if it had been a lie.
However—
"Huh. Looks like you're one-armed now."
"…"
He hadn't reattached the arm.
"So what? You can still live with one arm, can't you?"
Maybe he'd meant for him to feel humiliation, but Hwang Yong-min felt nothing at all.
He was too stunned and shocked to pull himself together.
"Are you really… the same Ryu Min I knew?"
"No."
Ryu Min shook his head lightly.
"The Ryu Min you knew is gone."
Then he slowly lifted the scythe.
Like an executioner about to behead a prisoner.
"Farewell."
"W-wait! Wait, Min!"
Hwang Yong-min shouted desperately.
"Please, don't kill me! I-I bullied you a lot, yeah? I-I'm sorry, okay? I'm really reflecting on what I did!"
The moving scythe hesitated in midair.
"Are you really?"
When Ryu Min gave him that opening, Hwang Yong-min saw hope.
I-I might actually live!
If he said the right things, he might be able to save his skin.
With that thought, he chose his words more carefully than he ever had in his life.
"K-killing me doesn't benefit you at all. Why not use me instead?"
"Use you? How, exactly?"
"Uh, well… you could… Right! I'll be your personal errand boy! If you say 'crawl,' I'll crawl, if you say 'run,' I'll run. Whether it's chores or being bait during hunts, I'll do anything you tell me to!"
"Hmmm…"
When Ryu Min stroked his chin as if thinking it over, hope lit up in Hwang Yong-min's eyes.
But only for a moment.
"No, that won't work."
"Eh? W-why not?"
"Because you're still planning to stab me in the back."
"W-what? When did I ever—"
"You were going to bide your time and look for a chance to kill me."
"M-me? Ha."
Hwang Yong-min forced out a scoff like it was ridiculous, but inside he was shaking.
What the hell is this guy? Is he a ghost or something? How does he know? Is he just guessing?
It never even occurred to him that someone might actually have the ability to read thoughts.
"I can't keep a mutt who might bite his master at my side."
When Ryu Min raised his scythe again, panic flooded Hwang Yong-min's face.
"W-wait!"
"Your usefulness ends here."
"Wait, give me one mor—"
Slice—
Hwang Yong-min's head flew.
It was a shabby, pathetic, meaningless end.
"I've already given you more chances than I can count. In previous regressions."
Back when he didn't have the Rune of Inner Thoughts, he'd been fooled by Yong-min's slick tongue and let him live.
The result, of course, had been a knife in the back.
I really was a sucker back then.
Only after dying had he realized he'd been a chump for letting him go.
That was back when his level and experience had been far lower than they were now.
"See you in hell, you bastard."
Their long, twisted relationship ended there.
Knowing this would be the last time he ever saw that unlucky face, he felt strangely lighter than before.
First, I should clean up the scene.
Using Trace Erasure, he made all four corpses disappear.
Presence Detection showed no one else in range. No witnesses.
Nice and clean.
Stowing the scythe, Ryu Min put his mask back on.
With this, he'd achieved his goal of taking out Hwang Yong-min and the Plseba executives.
He'd taken one step closer to the Chairman's seat of Plseba.
No—more like dozens of steps.
Time to go visit his place.
Ryu Min vanished swiftly into the darkness.
Avatars popped into Plseba's video-chat room.
It wasn't Sunday, but they were holding an unscheduled meeting.
Good to see you, Chairmaaaan!
Welcome, Yamtti-nim.
Smiling, Yamtti peered around the chat window.
But I don't see the other executives?
That's exactly why I had to call an emergency meeting.
Did something happen~?
Before answering, the Chairman let out a sigh.
Something had happened.
Something serious enough to shake the café to its core.
The executives are dead.
Huh?! Dead?
Startled, Yamtti looked at the screen again.
There were a lot of empty spots.
The executives who were never late were all missing today.
What happened? Did you call them?
We tried to, to confirm, but…
He didn't have to finish the sentence.
The Chairman's gloomy expression said the rest.
We tried contacting each of them individually, but none of them answered. They must have been killed while out on an interview.
W-who could have done that? D-don't tell me…
Yamtti thought of one person.
Judging by the Chairman's nod, she'd guessed right.
Yes. Black Scythe. That man is hunting our café's members.
Strictly speaking, they were executives, not regular members, but the Chairman didn't bother with details.
What mattered was that the café he'd worked so hard to build was under attack.
By Black Scythe, the one hailed as Rank 1 in the Otherworld.
T-then Soboru… Crazy Tasty-nim and Poporing-nim… you're saying they were all killed by him?
That's right.
But why? What did those kind people ever do wrong…
Why does a murderer kill? For his own satisfaction, of course. Or maybe he didn't like how we were gathering strength.
Ah…
Hearing the Chairman's explanation, things started to make sense to her.
Wherever you went, there were always twisted people whose warped nature drove them to steal anything that looked better than what they had.
Was it jealousy? Envy? Did he just want to mess us up for the hell of it?
Yamtti completely rewrote her image of Black Scythe.
From someone they needed to recruit… to someone they needed to kill.
Oh? Then he applied to the café just to lure the executives out, didn't he?
Exactly.
Ha… I used to look forward to the day I'd meet Black Scythe, and it turns out he's a psychopath who's hostile to us… I feel so disgusting. We would've been in big trouble if we'd accepted him as an executive.
Indeed. I'd have regretted it for the rest of my life. Or worse, I might have lost my head to Black Scythe before that.
Maybe because he'd lost his executives, the Chairman's expression was dark.
Black Scythe is now our clear enemy. We must track him down and avenge the members we've lost.
Yes, absolutely. But…
At his tone—not conjecture but certainty—Yamtti asked cautiously:
Are you absolutely sure Black Scythe is the culprit?
We have a witness.
Ah!
If there was a witness, that changed things.
Lostyak-nim?
The tanned man occupying one side of the screen answered.
Yes, Chairman.
As you reported to me, explain the situation at the time to Yamtti-nim as well.
Understood.
With a gloomy expression, Lostyak recounted the confrontation with Black Scythe.
Then I'll see you at the next regular meeting.
Yes, Chairman. Take care.
Please log off safely, Chairman!
Once the Chairman left the chat room, Lostyak said his goodbyes to Yamtti too.
See you next time, Yamtti-nim.
Yes, Lostyak-nim. You must be exhausted after what happened today—go get some rest.
Yep! Thank you! Then…
Exiting the chat, Lostyak tore his gaze away from the monitor.
"Good. Looks like they didn't notice."
He opened his equipment window and hit the unequip button on his helmet.
His face rippled like water—and returned to its original form.
Not the tanned Lostyak, but Ryu Min.
"Guess acting really does suit me."
Grinning, Ryu Min looked at the unequipped item.
[Assassin's Mask]
Category: Helmet
Rank: Unique
Defense: 1
Effect: By speaking the activation word "Disguise," you can mimic the appearance of a Player you have killed. Face, skin tone, voice, and build will all change perfectly.
Durability: 3,000 / 3,000
Requirement: Expert rank or higher
Description: A thin, transparent mask once favored by an assassin with a 99.9% success rate. It is said that no one has ever seen his true face.
It was the helmet he had chosen using the Unique Item Selection Ticket from the last Time Attack reward.
For my current situation, Assassin's Mask is the best Unique item I could have picked.
It had no stats and practically no defense…
But being able to transform into the Players I've killed is a massive advantage.
Not only could he deceive enemies, he could use it to gather information, sow discord, mislead, and much more.
It was quite literally a mask optimized for assassination.
There's no assassination easier than one done under the guise of a trusted ally.
That was why he'd worn Assassin's Mask today to kill Plseba's executives.
He had to infiltrate while pretending to be one of them.
Now I can transform not just into an executive, but into Hwang Yong-min too if I have to.
The mask he'd taken off in front of Hwang Yong-min had been just an ordinary mask with no special function.
When he killed him, he'd been wearing the transparent Assassin's Mask, which was why he could mimic him now.
For the time being, he planned to focus solely on playing Lostyak.
If I hadn't peered into Lostyak's inner thoughts beforehand, I wouldn't have been able to fool the other executives.
His speech patterns, habits, relationships—all of that he'd already grasped in a previous regression using the Rune of Inner Thoughts.
That was how he could break into the guy's one-room apartment like this and use his setup for video calls.
Of course, without Assassin's Mask, none of this would have been possible.
Originally I'd planned to work my way up slowly from the bottom, but thanks to the mask, I've fast-forwarded the plan.
All that was left now was to wait for the right opportunity and seize the Chairman's seat.
Honestly, I'd love to just kill the Chairman and transform into him. Then I could control the organization with ease.
But that was impossible.
Assassin's Mask only worked on Players.
Which means… the Chairman isn't a Player.
The leader of a Player organization who wasn't a Player himself—an ironic situation.
And even setting that aside, approaching him was tricky because of a certain Player: Yamtti.
As I am now, I can't handle Yamtti's abilities.
Until he'd prepared a countermeasure, he needed to avoid direct contact with the executives.
Fortunately, once Round 7 came, he'd have a way.
Until then, I'll faithfully play Lostyak in the video chats and keep an eye on the situation.
With that, things were more or less wrapped up for now.
They probably wouldn't come looking for Lostyak again before the next meeting.
Good. That buys me some time.
And there was something he absolutely had to do with that time.
Restore his durability.
Time for an overseas trip, for the first time in a while.