Chapter 35

Chapter 35
## Chapter 35: The Brain-Dead Hunter

Mythic Grade.

The Brain-Dead Hunter.

This persona originated as a bit of a prank, a way to test if the creators of this dying game were still at the helm.

Despite its satirical roots, a staggering amount of detail went into the build, yet it morphed into the ultimate agent of chaos, executing every low-blow tactic imaginable across the continent.

Whether it was picking the pockets of significant NPCs, enlisting as a wartime mercenary only to pillage his own side’s logistics, or flat-out robbing the holy sisters of the Goddess Church.

‘Looking back, those stunts were almost quaint.’

Because no repercussions ever followed, the Brain-Dead Hunter grew increasingly reckless.

He once cut off a metropolis from all vital supplies, liquidated its leadership, and then sabotaged the warp gates to ensure a monster surge would finish the job.

That event was etched into the lore as the inaugural player-driven monster wave, resulting in the total annihilation of a city… yet still, the developers issued no bans.

‘At that point, I was convinced the studio had completely walked away.’

They had crafted such a masterpiece but let the marketing rot.

I spent many nights worrying over the dwindling player base.

…It occurs to me now that the decline in users likely mirrored the rate of people being abducted into this world, though I was oblivious then.

Had I known, it would have been a psychological thriller.

I was watching a population fade away in real time.

Regardless, I eventually went on a total tear, thinking, “Let’s see just how far I can push this.”

The outcome? The Brain-Dead Hunter became unplayable.

…Mainly because every kingdom on the continent had a bounty on his head, leaving him with no sanctuary.

‘It’s been roughly a year since I last piloted him.’

And yet, here was the very character I had mothballed.

Of course, half that time was dedicated solely to grinding with Wilhelm to brace for the demon territory raid, so most of my roster had been sitting idle for at least six months.

Now, these discarded avatars were roaming of their own volition.

As if they had gained sentience as NPCs.

‘So, he’s been laying low here.’

Kramdel. The city of the monstrous.

No bounty hunter in their right mind would search for a human in this den.

A remarkably clever hiding spot, all things considered.

“Caw! To stumble upon a half-dragonkin in this place—Isabella, hasn’t it been a century and a half? Caw?”

“……Indeed. It has been 150 years since I encountered another of my lineage.”

Had she endured so much absurdity lately that she was finally numb?

Isabella didn’t even flinch at the bizarre interaction.

She actually had the presence of mind to lean into my performance.

‘She’s evolving.’

The girl once stranded in the wastes was finally figuring out how the world worked.

“150 years?”

Isaac was visibly shaken.

A century and a half.

That was a lifespan no ordinary human could claim.

And right there beside her was me, the sovereign of corpse crows. A monster in my own right, validating her claim.

If Isabella was a genuine half-dragonkin, as I seemed to confirm…

Then Isaac remained nothing but a fraud wearing a scales-deep disguise.

And this was Kramdel.

The moment his true nature as a human was revealed, he was a dead man.

There was no fleeing once you were inside the stronghold of Kramdel.

I caught the flash of terror behind Isaac’s eyes.

“But it’s quite odd, caw. Haven’t there been instances of humans masquerading as half-dragonkin, caw?”

“Yes. There were those who used the relics of the exalted heavenly dragonkin to deceive us.”

“And what was their fate, caw?”

“……We slaughtered every last one of them.”

Splash!

Isaac bolted upright from the pool.

He was barely decent, clutching a small towel to his waist.

His wings remained visible, but the logic was transparent.

‘He’s utilizing an equipment transparency potion.’

Isabella was using the exact same trick, which settled it.

The ‘equipment transparency potion’ rendered gear invisible to the naked eye.

[Michella’s Helmet]

[Michella’s Sword]

[Michella’s Armor]

[Lightning Flash Boots]

[Ring of the Lightning Guide][Ring of the Storm Guide]

[Thunderbolt Goblin Charm]

Even with the cloaking, I could see every piece of gear Isaac was sporting.

‘The loadout hasn’t changed.’

It appeared the high-tier treasure-grade equipment he had equipped back in the day was still on him.

Before long, indecision started to cloud Isaac’s gaze.

‘He’s weighing his chances of a getaway.’

But this was Kramdel.

Even if Isaac was decked out in the best level 10 treasure gear, escaping on his own terms was a fantasy.

The second Medusa’s vision locked onto him, he’d be a statue.

Medusa’s surveillance swept every inch of Kramdel around the clock, every single day.

Warping was disabled within the city, and teleportation scrolls were useless.

Breaking out was a pipe dream.

Isaac had to be aware of the stakes.

“Haha! A half-dragonkin of my standing, simply overwhelmed by the shock of seeing family after an age. Isabella, was it? I am Isaac.”

Giving up on the idea of running, Isaac forced a boisterous laugh and offered his hand.

Isabella only gave him a blank, hollow look.

“That’s peculiar, caw. Handshakes aren’t the traditional greeting of the half-dragonkin, are they? Caw?”

“No. That is a practice of the humans.”

Isabella’s bluntness sent a ripple of tension through the crowd.

“What? A human?”

“He’s been a human in a suit this whole time?”

The snow women who had been fawning over Isaac were the most vocal.

With their pale, icy skin and twin horns, snow women were among the species that held the deepest hatred for humanity. If Isaac’s cover was blown, they would shred him into a thousand pieces.

As the hostile stares intensified, Isaac’s grin began to falter.

“Haha…… I apologize. I lost my kin when I was quite young, so I never mastered the formal greetings of our people. If you show me now, I’ll do my best to learn.”

He was a silver-tongued devil, just as I remembered.

The Brain-Dead Con Artist.

He even managed to inject a note of genuine heartbreak when mentioning his parents.

The pained look, the self-effacing shrug—it was all pitch-perfect.

It was a persona I had crafted, and those behavioral loops were still functioning perfectly.

But once you knew the script, he was the most predictable man alive.

“Just a prank, caw.”

“……”

“Go ahead and take his hand, caw.”

“……”

Isabella finally took Isaac’s hand.

Isaac stared at me, looking completely bewildered.

I didn’t care.

I lowered myself slowly into the steaming water.

To be honest, I was curious.

Why were these high-tier monsters so obsessed with the springs of Kramdel?

‘Ah.’

The answer became clear the moment I was submerged.

[The low-grade ‘Goddess’s Tear’ effect provides total physical relaxation and mental stability.]

…It was an incredible sense of equilibrium.

I felt like I could soak here for an eternity.

Unstable, evolved monsters could likely find their center just by spending time in these waters.

That was the moment things went south.

[The ‘Hand of the Blind Goddess’ has initiated a search for your location.]

Rumble! Rumbllle!

“Caw?”

KABOOOM!

Fwooooosh!

……The spring hit its breaking point and detonated.

—

The sudden eruption at the bathhouse forced the ‘Pure Hot Spring’ to shut its doors for the remainder of the day.

Isaac tried to vanish into the panic of the crowd, but I wasn’t letting him go.

“Isaac the Brain-Dead, caw.”

“……How do you know that name?”

Tucked away in a quiet alley corner, Isaac went rigid.

He clearly never expected to hear that alias in a place like this.

I just gave a casual shrug.

“Don’t bother trying to flee, caw. The moment you kick off with ‘Lightning Flash,’ I’m alerting the warden, caw.”

“……!”

The warden, Medusa.

There was no dodging her.

Trying to leave Kramdel under her watch was a suicide mission.

The people hunting him wouldn’t show him any mercy.

“You targeted me from the start. So, both of you are humans?”

“I am a Star Awakener, caw.”

“Star Awakener? Like a Star Herald?”

I gave a nod.

Isaac hadn’t just arrived in this city yesterday.

Given his nature, he must have been deeply plugged into the local grapevine.

“Have you heard the talk about the 33rd star that manifested here, caw?”

“……I’ve heard things, but.”

Right then.

[Medusa’s gaze is currently scanning this sector.]

Medusa was looking right at us.

Was it because of the explosion at the springs?

‘It seems I’m the only one who can sense it.’

Neither Isaac nor Isabella showed any sign of noticing, so I was likely the only one detecting the weight of her eyes.

One slip-up, and we’d be cursed on the spot.

She was especially vigilant about certain forbidden topics.

We had to move.

A clueless Isaac started to speak.

“That star is actually……”

“Caw! Why is everyone so loud, caw! Let’s find a different spring, caw!”

“……?”

Isaac blinked, totally lost.

I took off, hauling him along with me.

“W-What do you think you’re doing?”

“Shouldn’t kin spend some quality time together? Caw! You’re coming with us, caw!”

—

I needed the full story on that star.

The ‘Hand of the Blind Goddess’ hunting for me.

The waters infused with Goddess’s Tears.

Everything seemed to point toward the 33rd star.

“Where…… have you brought me?”

Having been dragged along, Isaac scanned the area.

It was just a dusty, neglected underground cellar.

But in a place like Kramdel, it was the ultimate safe house.

“Medusa was watching the baths, caw.”

“……!”

Isaac’s eye gave a nervous twitch.

If we had stayed there talking, we would have faced a fate worse than death.

“How were you able to detect Medusa’s vision?”

As far as he knew, no living soul could feel her gaze.

At least, not among the monsters.

“A Star Awakener can see many things, caw.”

“……That’s insane. Is this place truly secure?”

“It’s a blind spot for Medusa, caw.”

“There is a place in this city that Medusa cannot see?”

Isaac asked, his voice thick with genuine amazement.

It wasn’t just this room—there were several gaps in her surveillance.

I saw no reason to reveal the others, though.

“Tell me what you know about the star, caw.”

“And why would I do that?”

Having found his footing, Isaac became defensive.

But he was like a flea trapped in a jar.

“I know the location of the ‘appearance alteration potion,’ caw.”

“……You think that’s what I’m after?”

“Don’t you want to walk the world without looking over your shoulder, caw?”

Much like Isabella, Isaac had a core longing.

She wanted to break the queen’s hex and leave the sands.

Similarly, Isaac hungered for true autonomy.

The irony was that both of their lives were constrained by the way I had played the game.

Predictably, a subtle shift occurred in Isaac’s expression.

“…It would have to be the highest-grade version.”

The highest-grade appearance alteration potion.

It didn’t just mask your face; it rewrote the very name carved into your soul.

A simple disguise wouldn’t stop the trackers.

Between high-level observation skills and the way names and forms were linked in Pangeniar, there were too many ways to be found.

Only the mythic-grade potion could offer a clean slate.

Using it was the equivalent of reincarnation.

But it was legendary for being impossible to obtain.

The recipe was a nightmare.

‘Wish Pearl, Valhalla’s Scale, Giant’s Finger……’

Items that were basically designed to stay out of player hands.

But I knew exactly where the only pre-made one in Pangeniar was hidden.

“Naturally. Do we have an agreement, caw?”

“How can I trust a word you say? You could be spinning a web of lies.”

“That’s a risk you have to take, caw.”

“…It’s been a pleasure. Let’s make sure we never meet again.”

He rejected me instantly. Isaac turned his back to leave.

I spoke in a measured tone.

“The ‘mining city’ was a place that deserved to fall, caw.”

“……!!!”

Isaac stopped dead in his tracks.

He spun around, shock written all over his face. He never could have guessed I knew about that.

“Letting it stand would have only led to more abductions and more broken lives in those pits, caw.”

“Don’t act like you understand. I don’t know who told you that story.”

“Crooked priests of the Goddess Church, governors starting pointless skirmishes for a paycheck…… They all had it coming, didn’t they? Caw.”

“……”

Isaac’s resolve was crumbling.

The Brain-Dead Hunter had been a sort of dark vigilante, in the beginning.

He did terrible things, but he had a twisted code of honor.

I saw no point in bringing up the senseless mayhem that came later.

“Work for me for one year, caw. After that, I will give you the keys to your freedom, caw.”

“Work for you? Ha, I don’t lift a finger for free.”

“Consider this your signing bonus, caw.”

I pulled an item from my bag.

The moment he saw it, Isaac’s entire frame began to shiver.

“……A Talisman of Cataclysm?”

“If fortune smiles on you, you might just roll ‘complete transformation,’ caw.”

A Talisman of Cataclysm!

I had picked it up from the Golden Rule shop.

It could randomize every stat and trait on an item or person, with a microscopic chance of a total structural shift.

They were incredibly rare, but I could always buy another one later.

The priority was getting Isaac on the team.

He looked at the charm with deep suspicion, wondering why I would hand over such a treasure without a second thought.

“Why would you trust me with something this valuable?”

“I know everything there is to know about you, caw.”

It would be impossible not to, considering I was his creator.

Isaac peered deep into my eyes.

‘Who is this creature?’

He couldn’t wrap his head around me.

It felt as though I was reading his very soul.

But a lowly corpse crow king—even one with Star Awakener status—knowing all this? It defied logic.

‘The odds are astronomical, nearly impossible, but……’

Isaac looked down at the talisman in his palm.

It was a slim chance, but it was a chance.

The very hope he had been chasing fruitlessly.

“……Fine. You’re an absolute mystery. I’m in. I’ll help you while I’m still in Kramdel.”

That was more than enough for now.

He didn’t even care about the specifics. He was committed.

Isaac: level 10, equipped with a full set of treasure-grade gear. He was a walking disaster.

With him on my side, my timeline was going to move much faster—this was a brilliant investment.

—

The whispers about the 33rd star had begun when the ‘Star Guardians’ arrived in Kramdel.

Apparently, over ten of them had already congregated here, poking around the hot springs.

It was likely connected to Dramat’s sudden arrival as well.

‘I need to secure the mystic first.’

Priorities.

Mystics were the most pressing matter, regardless of my other interests.

《You have fulfilled the requirements to enter the ‘Pavilion of Mysteries.’》

《Inside the ‘Pavilion of Mysteries,’ you can obtain unique mystics.》

《Main Quest 5: ‘Acquire a Mystic’ has been initiated.》

《This quest will conclude once you secure your first mystic.》

《Reward: Determined by the quality of the mystic obtained.》

《HINT: Mystics can also be bought from local mysticists within the city.》

The Pavilion of Mysteries.

It was the name of the colossal spire that dominated Kramdel.

Living up to its name, there was zero information about it in the player guides.

‘The Pavilion of Mysteries only grants access to non-human entities.’

Naturally, humans were barred at the door.

Kramdel was a zone that had never been touched by human players. It was a legend even among the top tier.

It was no wonder no one knew anything about the tower.

‘Only this Pavilion houses the most potent mystics.’

I was the only person who knew that the pinnacle of mystics could only be found here.

It couldn’t be helped.

Even Michella, who had been built to pass as a half-dragonkin, could barely make the cut.

Getting Michella’s Sword was a suicide mission in itself.

To then gamble your life entering Kramdel? No sane human would try.

Only someone at Wilhelm’s level would even consider it.

‘When I was playing Wilhelm, I didn’t realize you were limited to a single mystic.’

Even a player of his caliber missed out on the supreme one.

It was a hidden, unfair mechanic.

You only get one shot at a mystic per visit to the Pavilion.

If I had known that back then, I would have held out for something better.

The lack of info led to a beginner’s blunder.

I just took the first one I was offered.

‘I spent months regretting that decision.’

I tried climbing the tower over and over, but a second mystic never dropped.

It was like having a bowl of premium seolleongtang right in front of you that you weren’t allowed to eat.

Just thinking about it still makes my blood boil.

‘Not this time.’

One failure was enough.

I promised myself I wouldn’t repeat that history.

With a grim determination, I walked toward the entrance of the Pavilion of Mysteries.

《Entering the ‘Pavilion of Mysteries.’》

《Hidden Hint: The state of the Pavilion shifts based on your racial values. Humans are excluded.》

《Confirmed racial profile: Void(10), Giant(10), Druid(10), Heavenly Being(20), Corpse Crow(5).》

《Total racial value: 55 points. The hidden ultimate condition of the spire has been met.》

《A ‘Hidden Quest’ from the Pavilion’s master has been issued.》

《Hidden Quest: Complete the ‘Mythic Pavilion of Mysteries’》

《Do you accept the challenge?》

《If you decline, this quest will be lost, and you will enter the standard Pavilion.》

‘A hidden quest?’

I stood there, frozen.

There was a mechanic like this?

The races listed were familiar to me.

It seemed all my hidden traits were being factored in.

“Mythic, indeed.’

But which one to choose? The one with “Mythic” in the name, obviously.

Every myth-tier quest was known for having impossible difficulty.

They were challenges for names far greater than mine.

……But there was no reason to pull back now.

《Entering the ‘Mythic Pavilion of Mysteries.’》

This journey was the light of my life, the fire in my blood, the very essence of my soul!

《Achievement Unlocked: ‘Adventurer Who Challenges Myth.’》

《Every entity in the ‘Constellation War’ is now observing you.》