Just a short while ago, Ryu Min had been at a PC bang.
He'd gone there for one reason: to sign up for the Plseba café.
'Not under my own name, of course, but under Hwang Yong-min's.'
The café didn't require real-name verification, so it was easy to steal someone's identity.
'Now that a new person is posing as Black Scythe, the Plseba executives won't be able to just sit on their asses.'
Ryu Min planned to use Hwang Yong-min as bait to draw the Plseba executives out.
That was why he'd written the nickname Black Scythe.
'They're probably already on edge after some executives died last Round. If someone applies with the nickname Black Scythe, there's no way it'll go unnoticed.'
And they wouldn't just notice it.
They'd use the interview as an excuse to verify once more whether he was really Black Scythe.
'They'll most likely try to visit his house first.'
That was why, when he signed up, he'd also entered Hwang Yong-min's home address.
He'd carefully filled in the villa's lot number and unit number so they'd find it without fail.
'Though I didn't expect Hwang Yong-min to move, just like I did.'
The villa where Hwang Yong-min lived now wasn't the same place as before.
Ryu Min knew that well, since he'd been dragged to the guy's old front door when he was being bullied.
'Looks like he got this place recently so he could move out from his family.'
Knowing all too well where that money must have come from, Ryu Min clicked his tongue.
'No matter where you run, you're still in the palm of my hand.'
With Tracking, he could find anyone's location.
In that sense, being a Player was incredibly convenient.
It was almost understandable that the Plseba executives went around with a superiority complex.
'But the way they do things is wrong.'
Forcing murder as a condition of joining, shunning ordinary people, treating them like slaves…
The atrocities they would commit to make themselves masters of society would be countless.
'Moves like that polarize the relationship between ordinary people and Players—and in the end, that leads to ruin.'
He couldn't just sit back and watch.
He had to kill the executives, the root of Plseba, and break their power.
'No, rather than destroying them, it'd be better to use them. Plseba's power is too valuable to waste.'
Right now, they were still small, but in time Plseba would grow into a massive faction.
To the point that over thirty percent of the Players in Korea would join Plseba.
'They're basically no different from terrorists, but among Player organizations, they're by far the strongest.'
It was better to find a way to use such a group than to dismantle it.
Of course, Ryu Min already had a method in mind.
'And a very easy one, at that.'
Simply taking over the leadership position that was already built.
'In other words, I'll be the one to sit in the Chairman's seat.'
No matter how strong he was, brute force alone wasn't enough to control countless Players.
He needed a structured organization capable of gathering and managing Players.
But at this point, he didn't have time to build such an organization from scratch.
'But if I could just take over a position that already exists?'
He'd save time and gain an easy way to control a mass of Players.
The Chairman's seat at Plseba was exactly that kind of position.
'The "Chairman" himself is nothing special. It's the seat he carved out that matters.'
That was why Ryu Min had approached Plseba.
To drag down the executives sitting on top and seize the absolute authority of the Chairman's seat.
In that process, Hwang Yong-min was nothing more than bait to lure them out.
'It's about time I send him off.'
With a wide grin, Ryu Min started walking.
He headed in the direction of Hwang Yong-min's villa.
After the hell that was Round 4,
many Players had awakened to killing.
They no longer hesitated to kill ordinary people, and Players ran rampant more than ever.
In a way, it was the natural course of things.
The first time was hard; after that, anything became routine.
Hwang Yong-min was no exception.
He was getting used to the train-wreck of a life he was living.
Ding-ling—
The bell chimed as Hwang Yong-min stepped into the lottery shop and walked up to the counter.
The owner, who'd been reading a newspaper, looked up at the sound of someone coming in.
"Looking for something in particular…?"
The moment he saw his customer, the owner trailed off.
The man was wearing a ski mask like a bank robber.
Thud—
Tossing a bag onto the counter without warning, Hwang Yong-min lowered his voice.
"Fill this with every last bit of cash you've got. If you don't wanna die."
"…"
When the owner froze in apparent shock, Hwang Yong-min slammed his fist down on the counter.
Bang!
It was just a punch, yet a crack split across the surface as if it had been struck with a hammer.
"Fuck, what are you dawdling for? Do I look like I'm joking?"
'A P-Player?'
Only then did the owner realize the man was a Player.
No ordinary human body could produce that kind of monstrous strength.
Only a Player could.
A newspaper article he'd just been reading flashed through his mind.
[Convenience store owner resists Player to keep the safe, beaten with blunt weapon and killed.]
Resisting a Player was foolish.
Especially in Korea, where firearms were illegal.
"What are you doing? Not filling it? You really wanna die?"
"I-I'll fill it right now!"
The owner hastily scooped the cash from the register into the bag and held it out.
"Here…"
"This all you've got?"
"L-lottery sales have been suspended, so business hasn't been good. As you can see, we sell odds and ends like a convenience store, but our sales…"
"Who asked for your life story? I know you've got a safe in the back. Go empty it. Not going? Not going?"
"I-I'm going!"
When he raised his fist in threat, the owner bolted and quickly brought the money from the safe.
A rough count said he'd gotten about ten million won.
"This should be enough."
Satisfied, Hwang Yong-min turned to leave—then snapped his head back around.
"Fuck, if you even think about calling the cops, I'll bust out of the holding cell and come kill you myself."
"…"
Any thought of calling the police vanished, and the owner only swallowed hard.
He didn't even know the robber's face because of the mask.
Once outside, Hwang Yong-min hurried into a side alley so no one would see him.
"Puhah."
He pulled off the mask and checked inside the bag.
A grin spread across his face on its own.
"Hehe, nice haul today. This'll easily get me through a month."
He could survive in reality, sure—but what about the Otherworld?
Could he even survive the very next Round?
The thought cast a shadow over his face.
'Fuck… if it weren't for this damned penalty…'
Because of the permanent stat-reduction penalty, not just his growth rate but even his motivation had plummeted.
'I somehow managed to kill those three hundred orcs this time, but will I really be able to survive the next Round…?'
The more he thought about it, the more he sighed.
"Fuck, this is all because of that bastard Black Scythe."
Because of Black Scythe, he'd lost a friend.
Because of Black Scythe, his stats had dropped.
Because of Black Scythe, he was reduced to making a living as a robber.
"It's all that son of a bitch's fault!"
He yelled it out in the alley, then ran off in case anyone heard.
He'd put on a tough act for the lottery shop owner about busting out of the holding cell, but actually getting caught by the cops would be a massive hassle.
'Black Scythe, you bastard. If I ever meet you in real life, I'll split you clean in half.'
Cursing the one who'd ruined his life, he headed back home.
Beep— click!
He opened the shabby front door to reveal a cramped one-room apartment.
Astonishingly, this was the place that sucked fifty a month out of him in rent.
"Still, it's nice living on my own. No more nagging from my boomer parents."
His parents had cut him off the moment Round 4 ended.
As for money, he'd been getting it the way he just had—through robberies.
Originally, he'd dreamed of joining a gang and living in their communal housing…
'But with the world in this state, who gives a shit about gangs.'
Everything had become such a bother that he'd given up on gangs and everything else, and just rented this one-room place.
'Money's no problem as long as I keep robbing places like this.'
It wasn't a rich life, but it wasn't exactly lacking either.
Thud—
He tossed the bag of cash aside and went to wash up.
He should have felt refreshed, but Hwang Yong-min's expression was anything but.
"Hoo… how long do I have to keep living this fucked-up life?"
A lot had happened over the past four months.
He'd fought for his life against countless monsters—goblins, gnolls, orcs, and more—and survived.
He'd even had his limbs severed by the monster known as Black Scythe.
He'd smashed in the skull of his role model, Jo Joong-sik, and killed him.
He'd killed the delinquent friends he'd been close to with his own hands.
He'd started committing robberies that even gangsters wouldn't stoop to, just to make money.
It was the very definition of a life gone to hell.
"Black Scythe… if I'd just never met that bastard…"
If he hadn't gotten that penalty, his situation wouldn't have been this utterly hopeless.
At the very least, he'd have a will to live.
"Ha…"
He felt empty.
Self-loathing came rushing in.
The fact that all he could do in this tiny room was wait for the next Round.
The fact that he had to tremble in anxiety, unsure whether he would survive.
"Ah."
All of a sudden, the time he was spacing out like this felt like a waste.
'Fuck, this isn't the time for this.'
He could die in the very next Round.
He couldn't afford to squander the precious time he had left.
'I've got to make the most of the time I have left. Do everything I ever wanted to do.'
He'd already killed people in the Otherworld, already committed robberies. There was nothing left to be afraid of.
'What should I try? Maybe rape some woman who happens to be passing by?'
His life was already ruined anyway.
The world itself showed signs of collapse.
There was no need to think about the aftermath.
'Ah! Come to think of it, everyone my age is probably a Player, right?'
He couldn't underestimate them just because they were women.
Gender meant nothing in the face of stats.
On top of that, every human still alive had survived the hell of Rounds 4 and 5 as Players.
There was no way they'd be easy targets.
'Can't be helped. I'll just have to go after older women.'
If he lowered the bar to thirty and older, he could overpower them easily.
The problem was that it had become hard to find ordinary people out on the streets these days.
'Still, I've gotta try. It's been my dream to do it with a pretty girl, hasn't it?'
For all he knew, an ordinary woman who looked like Seo Arin might be walking around somewhere.
Humming a little tune, he put on his coat and got ready to go out.
If he ended up empty-handed, he planned to hit a room salon instead.
He wanted to sit with a woman on each side, just like in the movies, and throw money around for show.
'If I run short, I'll just rob another shop.'
With those thoughts in mind, he yanked the front door open.
Hwang Yong-min flinched in surprise.
There was a stranger standing right outside his door.
"Ah, shit, you scared me. Who the hell are you?"
"Are you Mr. Hwang Yong-min?"
"…"
Hwang Yong-min glared at him warily.
At that, the man with tanned skin smiled.
"Judging by your reaction, I've got the right person."
"Who the hell are you…? Cops?"
"Police? Hahaha! You done something wrong? Why don't we talk inside first?"
When he tried to slip past, Hwang Yong-min shoved his body in the way.
"The fuck do you think you're doing, trying to walk in here? I asked who you are."
"Ah, apologies for the late introduction. I'm Lostyak, Plseba's interview officer. You applied to join this morning, didn't you?"
"Did this bastard come to sell me some snake oil? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Aren't you Black Scythe-nim?"
"Black Scythe? Me?"
At his baffled reaction, Lostyak realized something was wrong.
"Let me ask again. You're not Black Scythe-nim?"
"You're saying I'm Black Scythe? Are you kidding me?"
"Did you not apply to join Plseba?"
"What the hell is Plseba?"
"Ah."
Realizing he'd come for nothing, Lostyak let out a sigh.
"My apologies. I'll be going, then."
"What is this about? At least tell me what's going on before you fuck off."
"It seems someone's been playing around with your personal information. Your name and address matched, after all."
"So you're saying someone stole my personal info? What kind of bastard—"
"Me."
At the sudden third voice, both men turned their heads at once.
Standing at the end of the hallway was a figure wearing gear and a white mask.
"Hwang Yong-min. I'm the one who used your name."
"What the hell? Who's this psycho?"
It was only natural for Hwang Yong-min to react in disbelief.
Some masked lunatic had just shown up and openly confessed to identity theft.
"You sold my personal information? Fuck, do you even know me?"
"I do."
"Who the hell are you?"
"You're asking who I am?"
Instead of answering, Ryu Min pulled Death's Side from his inventory.
At the sight of the massive scythe, both Lostyak and Hwang Yong-min stared, mouths half open.
"Does this answer your question?"