Chapter 1: I Possessed the Mastermind

Meeting someone for the first time while knowing absolutely everything about them was, without a doubt, a strange and novel experience.

How they had lived, what they pitied, what they feared. Their weaknesses, how they overcame them. Even the life they were going to live from now on.

Of course, I wasn’t a close acquaintance of his, nor did I have some fortune teller’s ability to see the future. I’d simply read the novel he appeared in.

It wasn’t even a novel I wanted to read, but now that things had turned out like this, I found it unexpectedly amusing.

“...Seo Jehyun.”

A voice heavy with suppressed anger. I knew exactly how to respond here.

“Who are you?”

At my question, he strode up and easily grabbed me by the collar. His grip was so strong it felt like my neck was being crushed. All the effort I’d put into raising my rank felt meaningless—the difference in power had transformed into sheer killing intent, pressing down on me without mercy.

I met his eyes calmly and asked again.

“Who are you to know me?”

“Are you even human?”

“Probably...”

I shot back as a joke, but it didn’t seem to go over well. I considered walking it back, but decided to just watch his reaction instead. He stared at me with eyes that looked ready to kill before abruptly releasing my collar. I’d assumed his emotions were nothing but anger toward me, but up close they seemed a little more complicated.

There was a smear of black soot on the shirt he’d grabbed.

“...I’m warning you. If we meet again, I won’t bother asking why—I’ll just kill you.”

“Even if it’s by chance?”

“Chance?”

He gave a short, incredulous laugh and glared. His eyes could cut glass.

“You call that a joke?”

“Well, I’m not the kind of person to crack jokes with someone I’ve just met... but you did say you’d kill me, so I got scared.”

“That’s the attitude of someone who’s scared?”

“When you’re truly scared, people freeze up, don’t they?”

For a moment, I considered provoking him just a bit more, but dropped the idea. Even I didn’t want to bring my death date forward to today. Instead, I lowered my voice as if being timid.

“No matter how fearless I might be, having an S-rank hunter show up out of nowhere like this is a little scary, you know. You probably don’t know this, but I’m a B-rank hunter.”

“...Ha! B-rank? Yeah, right.”

He could think what he liked—I really was B-rank. For now, anyway.

He looked at me for a long moment before finally walking away. Watching him disappear into the distance, I narrowed my eyes.

S-rank flame-user, Kwon Taehan.

On top of being good-looking, he was famous as an S-rank fire-type hunter, and in a few years, he would become South Korea’s number one ranked hunter and save the world. No—calling it “a few years” wasn’t quite right. There was an enormous wall of time between now and then.

This life would be his fifth, and he’d go on to repeat his life a total of 994 times, breaking apart each time in horrific ways. But in the end, he would save the world.

From whom?

From “me.”

I was the person Kwon Taehan hated most, a kind of calamity who would lead the world to destruction again and again.

***

September 27, 20XX.

The barbecue restaurant was full of boisterous noise. I frowned and scanned the place.

“Seo Jehyun!”

I turned toward the familiar voice and saw a group of people loudly chatting at a few long tables pushed together. I walked over and casually sat in an empty seat.

“Damn, Jehyun, still good-looking after all this time. Bet you’ve been scoring with tons of women in college, huh?”

“Pfft, as if Seo Jehyun would get a girlfriend. Didn’t care back in high school either.”

“High school and college are different, idiot. Plus, he’s done his military service now. Even Jungmin over there’s got a girlfriend.”

“Gwak Jungmin? Bullshit. I don’t have one—how the hell would he?”

“Did you just talk about me?”

The voices hammered at my ears without pause. I listened with one ear and let it out the other, just smiling faintly. I hadn’t even wanted to come to this high school reunion. I’d thought hardly anyone would show up, considering these reunions had mostly died out, but I’d been wrong.

Military service, sports, women, games, jobs... the conversation bounced endlessly between the few topics they had.

“Hey, why didn’t Sungyeon come?”

“Lim Sungyeon?”

I repeated, taking a sip of water. Most of these guys’ names didn’t even match to faces in my head anymore, but a few still stuck. Lim Sungyeon was one of them.

We’d been in the same class all three years of high school. He was small for his age and quiet, and at the start of the year he’d been an easy target. The guys who thought they were hot shit would tap him on the head or toss out crude jokes just to watch his reaction and snicker.

I wasn’t interested in ganging up on someone, so I didn’t care what they did to Lim Sungyeon—until the day he asked me for help.

“Seo Jehyun.”

Usually his voice was so quiet it dragged along the floor, but that day it was unusually clear. I just tilted my chin at him, and he hesitated before saying:

“Help me out.”

“Why should I?”

It wasn’t meant as a refusal. I genuinely wanted to know why. It wasn’t like I had any reason to help him. And out of all the people he could’ve asked, why me?

But instead of giving me a long explanation or begging, he looked me straight in the eye and said:

“It’ll definitely help you later.”

“What are you talking about?”

I’d been baffled. Was it a ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) promise or a prophecy? I’d mulled over those few words for quite a while, annoyed by how that single “definitely” stuck in my head.

From the next day on, he stopped being a target. The reason was simple—our high school, Hanjeong High, was an all-boys’ school, and the guys there were obsessed with hierarchy. They didn’t pick fights with someone they knew they’d lose to. Good call—if they’d tried to mess with me because I’d helped Sungyeon, I’d have beaten them down without hesitation and taken the punishment.

But even after that, Sungyeon never actually helped me with anything. Academics? No one beat me there anyway. Filling out extracurriculars? He didn’t offer, not that I’d have counted it as help. Money? Forget it. I’d waited three years, and he’d never proven himself useful.

I’d thought about giving him a few punches just to settle the score, but I couldn’t be bothered. He skipped graduation, and since we went to different universities, I never heard from him again. Not that I cared—the memory had been buried in the back of my mind.

While I was lost in thought, the restaurant door opened again with a cheerful chime. If Sungyeon had one talent, it was timing—and sure enough, there he was. Still small, still looking at the floor as he shuffled inside.

“Sungyeon’s here?”

“Hey.”

After the bullying stopped, he’d managed to blend into the class, if a little awkwardly. Everyone gave him a casual greeting before going back to their uninteresting topics.

Just when the cheap meat smell and alcohol stink were starting to get to me, Sungyeon leaned in and quietly spoke.

“Seo Jehyun.”

It felt just like that time. I had a sense of déjà vu as I answered.

“Yeah.”

“I’m here to keep my promise.”

“What?”

There was only one promise between us.

“I said I’d help you someday.”

He was bringing that up now? I looked at him with vague curiosity. If this “help” was something like setting me up with a woman or spouting stock tips, I might... actually be disappointed.

But he went quiet again after that. I waited for him to say more, but he just looked away, pretending to listen to the conversation. He clearly wanted to talk alone.

I could’ve gotten up, but I didn’t. No real reason—just that the way he kept glancing at me like he was waiting for me to move first was annoying.

“So, we hitting a second round?”

One of the drunker guys, red-faced and loud all night, suggested moving on. I shoved my hands in my pockets, thought for a second, then stood.

“Leaving already, Jehyun?”

“Yeah. I just stopped by for a bit. I’m heading out.”

Since I was already up, I went ahead and paid before stepping outside. I didn’t have to wait long—Sungyeon came shuffling up.

“Seo Jehyun.”

“How big of a help do you plan on being, to get my hopes up like this?”

I let my words trail downward, not really interested. He was an odd one. Physically weak enough to go down with one hit, yet he never looked away from me.

Since the restaurant’s front wall was glass, talking here would draw attention, so I led him toward my car.

“Why’d you drive? That’s drunk driving.”

“I don’t drink.”

It was true. I hadn’t touched a drop since turning twenty, and I had no plans to.

My answer seemed to throw him off, and he didn’t speak for a while. When the silence started to drag, I smacked the dashboard in front of him.

He flinched, then quickly pulled out his phone and typed something. A moment later, he spoke.

“Check your messages.”

I took out my phone and saw a link. Without much thought, I tapped it—a web novel page came up.

“What is this?”

“A web novel.”

“I can see that. I’m asking what it is.”

“...I wrote it.”

What, was I supposed to compliment him?

I raised an eyebrow and waited. His voice was oddly excited when he spoke next.

“I knew this day would come.”

Had he succeeded at something?