Chapter 64: I Was Having Character Development, Thank You Very Much!

I shook my head, feeling a sudden, overwhelming sense of loneliness. Must be nice to be the main character of a romance novel while I'm over here growing fungus on my scalp.

I glanced over at Lindis. She was curled up in a ball, hugging her massive axe like it was a giant teddy bear. A thin string of drool leaked from the corner of her mouth as she mumbled something in her sleep.

"More... more mossies... just a little... crunch..."

I stood there, baton in one hand and my bargain-bin shield in the other, staring at the three of them. I had spent the last hour panicking about being the late one, only to find that the entire party had succumbed to the call of a midday nap.

"Seriously?" I whispered to the silent trees. "I thought I was the slacker here, but you guys are practically professionals."

I was just about to continue my internal monologue regarding the sheer audacity of Zane’s sleeping habits—specifically, how both of his hands had now migrated to clamp down on Kaela’s backside with the tenacity of a drowning man clutching a life raft. Seriously, does the man’s unconscious mind not trust me? I mean, look, I'm a man of taste, and I can objectively score Kaela’s assets as a solid ten, but I’m not the kind of friend who just... reaches over during a nap. I have standards. I have dignity.

Or at least, I tried to maintain them until a neon-red warning sign flashed violently across my vision, nearly blinding me.

[System: Warning. Approximately fifty yards to your left. Ten hostiles detected. Malicious intent: 100%. Target: The two girls currently occupying your personal space.]

I stopped mid-thought, my brow furrowing. I actually felt a flicker of gratitude toward the holographic nuisance. "I'll admit, I'm actually proud of you for giving us a heads-up and being helpful for once. But '100% malicious'? Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration, System? Maybe they're just... lost hikers with bad vibes?"

The System didn't respond with text. Instead, it did something it had never done before: it patched in a live audio feed from the direction of the threat.

"Man, look at that one," a gravelly, sleazy voice whispered, making my skin crawl. "That ass is a work of art. We just gotta carve up the old guy and that little twig, then we can take our time with the pink-haired one. She looks ripe, plump... just waiting for someone to handle her."

"Forget the pink one for a second," another voice chimed in, sounding like he was practically salivating. "Just looking at the other one's bust is making me lose it. I can only imagine her naked—"

The audio cut off with a sharp, electronic snip.

[System: Do you believe me now, or do we need to listen to the 'Extended Director's Cut' of their fantasies?]

The air around me seemed to drop ten degrees. I didn't move, but my gaze shifted, locking onto the foliage where the voices had come from. The lazy, sarcastic Ethan vanished, replaced by something cold and sharp. My eyes narrowed, a flicker of genuine, malicious intensity sparking in my pupils.

I’d forgotten for a moment that we were in a lawless gate, but it was a sobering reminder: no matter how much the world changes, no matter how many S-Ranks or magical abilities people stumble into, perverts are the one constant in the universe. Some things are simply evolutionary constants.

My head flopped forward, my chin hitting my chest as I plummeted into a spiral of conflicted thought. What do I even do here? I'm not a killer. They're scumbags, yeah, but they're still human beings. Is there a way to talk them out of this? Maybe if I just tell them—

[System: Let me stop you right there. If you're planning on 'persuading' them with the power of friendship, the only thing you're going to achieve is a very fast trip to the afterlife for yourself and a very traumatic awakening for your friends.]

I sighed, my grip tightening on the handle of my budget baton.

[System: Some people don't speak the language of reason; they only understand the language of a blunt object hitting them in the face.]

It's easy for you to say that," I whispered, my voice trembling slightly. "But monsters and people are different. I can't... I can't just kill another human being. There's a line, and I can't cross it."

The System didn't offer a comforting word. It didn't offer a workaround. It simply presented a cold, logical question that felt like a slap to the face.

[System: Even if that human being is a direct threat to your 'precious friends'? Tell me, Host, do you intend to stand there and watch helplessly while they are hurt? While they are violated? Does your morality outweigh their safety?]

"Guh..."

A guttural sound escaped my throat, a mix of a choke and a sob. I squeezed my eyes shut, but the image the System had painted—the voices of those men, the vulnerability of Kaela and Lindis—burned into my retinas. I was terrified. I was sick to my stomach. But I was also paralyzed by my own weakness.

The System paused, as if calculating the exact amount of pressure needed to break my deadlock. Then, it delivered the final blow.

[System: Imagine it's not them. Imagine it's Mia. Imagine she's the one lying in the grass, and you're the only one standing between her and those animals.]

I froze. The air left my lungs in one sharp gasp.

[System: I apologize. It was not my intention to bring your sister into this. However, if weaponizing your trauma is the only way to help you grow a spine, then I will do it—even if it means my own host grows to despise me for it.]

I ground my teeth together so hard I thought they might shatter. My jaw was locked, my muscles coiled like rusted springs. I didn't want to be this person. I didn't want to be the kind of man who could take a life. But as the thought of Mia's terror flickered in my mind, the fear that had been holding me back was incinerated by a sudden, white-hot surge of rage.

"I understand," I said. My voice wasn't trembling anymore. It was flat. Dead. "I'll do it."

I stood up slowly, the movement mechanical and precise. I didn't look back at my sleeping friends. I didn't check my gear again. I simply began walking toward the thicket where the scent of greed and malice lingered.

As I stepped forward, the light in my eyes seemed to dim, replaced by a void of cold, focused hatred. The hesitation was gone. The morality was gone. There was only the target.

"I will..." I whispered, my voice echoing with a chilling certainty, "...kill them."

I had always been a believer in the myth of "normalcy." For as long as I could remember, I’d clung to the idea that if I just worked hard enough and kept my head down, things would eventually return to the way they were supposed to be. That was why I never bothered to climb the ranks. I stayed tucked away in the safety of E-Rank, earning just enough to survive, content to be a mediocre hunter and a normal brother. I wanted a life without stakes.

But as I walked toward those men, a cold realization settled in my gut: that kind of life doesn't exist anymore.

The past is a ghost, and the present is a battlefield. If the future is just a series of tragedies waiting to happen, then the only way to ensure the people I love don't become casualties is to stop being the victim.

I tried to tell myself there were others. The police, the high-ranking hunters, people like Seo-Yeon. There were plenty of powerhouses who could handle the scum of the earth. But then a colder, more honest question struck me: what if I'm the only one there when it happens? What if, in that one critical second, the only person capable of saving the most important person in my life is... me?

What would I do then? What could I possibly do if I stayed this weak?

"You seem dreadfully lost in thought, Heavenly Demon."

The voice was smooth, polished, and carried a tone of inherent superiority that made my skin prickle. I stopped in my tracks. Standing beside me was a man dressed in a pristine light-blue jacket and matching pants, looking more like he was headed to a high-end garden party than a D-Rank gate.

Heavenly... what?

"Pardon?" I stammered, glancing at him with a mixture of confusion and suspicion.

The man, Hifumi, looked me up and down, his nose wrinkling as if he had just caught a whiff of something rotting. "Please, do not attempt to hide it from me. Though, I must say, you are far more pathetic in person than in the photograph my sister showed me. You're practically radiating desperation. It's quite pitiful."

Before I could even process the insult, Hifumi leaned in close, his voice dropping to a sharp whisper right against my ear.

"You're in a pinch, aren't you? I won't say more, but I'll offer my assistance. In exchange, I want to see it—that power you unleashed in the C-Rank gate."

I recoiled, my heart hammering against my ribs. How the hell does he know about that? Who is this guy? Is he connected to Germaine?

"Darn it," a second voice suddenly boomed from behind me. "I told myself I'd just watch from the sidelines, but listening to those douchebags talk about women like they're pieces of meat... that's just not my style. I can't just let that slide."

I spun around to see the woman with the violet-magenta ponytail. She had stepped out from the shadows, her outfit revealing a set of rock-hard, sculpted abs that looked like they were carved from granite. Ran looked at the thicket with a look of pure disgust.

"I'll offer my help too. We'll have this wrapped up in no time," Ran said, glancing at me with an intense curiosity. "But I've got a condition too. Show me that potential you're hiding. Show me the kind of power that makes my sister so desperate to recruit you."

I stood there, sandwiched between a noble snob and a muscle-bound tomboy, my mind spinning.

"Huh... what?"

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Since my reader count is currently fighting for its life, I've decided to post chapters consistently for the next four days. 💀

No readers? No problem. Ethan can suffer through his character development while I suffer through writing it.

Jokes aside, I genuinely want to finish this story, so I'll keep going until we reach the very end. Hopefully, some of you will join me along the way!

See you in the next chapter!