"Then what happened next?" Joseph asked.
The man sitting across from him didn't flinch. He answered like someone reporting the weather.
"I awakened my abilities and killed it."
Joseph raised an eyebrow. "Huh. That simple?"
"Yes. That simple."
That didn't sit right.
Joseph leaned back, arms crossed, eyes scanning the man's face. He didn't see arrogance. No smugness. Just exhaustion. A sort of detachment, like someone who had already moved past the trauma but hadn't processed it yet.
Still, Joseph couldn't let it slide. "With all due respect, Mr. Hector… the creature you're describing…one that can manipulate hundreds of people, warp reality into some dream realm? That kind of power doesn't come from your average monster. That's S Rank. At the very least."
"I didn't say it was easy," Ren replied.
Joseph stared at him for a moment longer, then leaned forward.
"Describe the fight. I want details."
Ren scratched the side of his head.
"It was bloody. It used mental attacks. A few times, I thought my brain got scrambled. Like… literally. Couldn't tell what was real or not."
That made Joseph pause. His expression shifted.
"Mental attacks?"
Ren nodded.
Joseph blinked slowly, then his voice dropped, lower than it had been all day.
"That's extremely rare. Most monsters don't touch the mind. Either they don't understand it, or they don't need to."
Something in the room shifted.
He tapped his tablet once, setting it to standby, and locked eyes with the man in front of him.
"Mr. Hector. I need to ask you something, and I want the truth."
Ren didn't move. He didn't even blink.
Joseph asked, "Is it possible… that the name Ren Hector, your memories, your entire identity are all fabricated? Created while you were inside the dream realm?"
There was no hesitation.
"I dont know"
Joseph's chest tightened. He didn't show it, but that answer confirmed what he had begun to fear.
He exhaled slowly. "Then I believe your Awakening rewrote you, Mr. Hector. Down to your DNA. It created a new person, built from fragments dreams and borrowed instincts. It gave you a life to live inside the realm, a story to keep you trapped."
Ren's face fell. He brought a hand to his forehead and whispered, "Hah… fuck."
It wasn't an act.
He looked genuinely shaken. The kind of reaction you can't fake unless you already know the truth.
Yes. He fell into the trap. Now I just have to act accordingly, Ren thought.
Then a quiet chime broke the tension.
Ding.
Joseph's tablet lit up again. The report he'd requested had just arrived.
He glanced down, scanned the incoming intel, and felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
"Actually," he said, voice steady, "the report on the creature you fought just came in."
Ren didn't look up. His eyes had gone dull. No fire. Just quiet horror behind a dead stare.
Joseph hesitated for a second before continuing.
"The monster is classified as a Dream Devourer. Calamity rank. Last appearance was during the Rederick City Gate Break, down south in the Arazeth Empire. It emerged from an S Rank Gate."
Ren twitched slightly.
"It took over the city in under twelve hours. Assimilated the minds of over five hundred people. Built a dream world inside the city limits. Reality twisted inward. By the time backup arrived, no one inside remembered who they were."
Ren didn't say anything.
Joseph checked the rest of the file. His voice dropped with each sentence.
"It took five A-Rank Hunters and one S-Rank Hunter seven days to kill it. When they finally brought it down, every single victim had to be institutionalized. No deaths. Just… mindbreak. Half of them still believe they're living inside the dream."
The room felt colder now.
Joseph looked back up. The silence was deafening.
This wasn't just a rare creature. It was a disaster tier anomaly. And the man in front of him had killed it. Alone.
Joseph finally said what had been circling in his mind since the start.
"You're at least S Rank, Mr. Hector."
And with that, the air deflated from Ren's lungs.
So the fucking monster I copied from that dumb fantasy novel I wrote in college is actually real?
And it's a Calamity-rank? What rank is that sound so high?
And I bragged about killing it like it was just another boss fight?
His hand covered his face.
I'm so cooked.
He didn't say it out loud, but the look said everything.
Joseph could read the despair on his face. The dawning realization. The mental math is spiraling into panic.
He softened his tone, just a little. "Look, I know this is a lot. If someone told me my life was a constructed lie built by a monster to keep me compliant, I'd be—"
Ren cut in with a groan. "Yeah. Thanks. Not helping."
Joseph gave a tired chuckle. "Fair enough."
There was a long pause. Neither moved.
Then Ren finally broke the silence.
"I thought it was just a Trial boss. Y'know? Some Final Exam monster, tailored to my fear of surgery or whatever."
"It was, in a way," Joseph said. "And you… well, you killed it."
"I thought I killed it," Ren muttered. "Now I'm wondering if this is just phase two."
Joseph didn't laugh this time. "Don't joke about that. Calamity rank monsters don't usually die quietly."
Ren slumped in his chair. "That's reassuring."
Joseph stood up and locked his tablet. "The higher ups are going to want to meet you. Probably assign a handler. Maybe a Guild rep. S Rank Hunters don't just drop out of the sky."
Ren blinked. "I literally dropped out of the sky. Naked."
"Exactly."
Ren sighed. "Can I at least get something to eat before the conspiracy starts?"
Joseph smirked. "I'll see what I can do."
Ren muttered something that sounded like "fuck my life," and stood to follow.
Joseph glanced back one last time before opening the door. There was still a lot to figure out.
But one thing was certain.
This wasn't just a strange man with a scary ability.
This was a full-fledged, mind-scrambled, monster-slaying S-Rank Hunter—
—and he didn't even know who he really was.