A girl in a black dress spoke in a flustered voice.
[Haha… What the heck are you? Are you an administrator dispatched from the Tree? Maybe a Beta-grade administrator? You wiped out the corpses I crafted with such care way too easily…]
Lee Taeseong looked down at the girl.
She didn’t appear to be even 160 cm tall. She wore a black dress and white gloves on her hands.
Her face looked like that of a teenage girl, but it was covered in what seemed to be unidentifiable surgical scars.
“What’s your grade?”
[Grade?]
“I asked what grade the Tree assigned to you.”
[G-Gamma grade.]
She wasn’t lying. Her grade was indeed Gamma—but only when specific conditions weren’t met.
If those conditions were satisfied, she could be evaluated as Beta++++ grade.
The girl was experiencing a strange mix of curiosity, fear, and an intense desire to possess the man before her.
If she could turn such a powerful administrator into one of her corpses? Then she’d have power beyond anything she’d ever had before. No more tiptoeing around other entities. No more worrying about the Tree’s pursuit.
“You’re an escaped entity too, aren’t you? Which floor were you originally on? Explain in detail how you managed to escape.”
His cold tone made it clear that he was ready to tear her limbs off at any moment.
The girl in the black dress shivered from head to toe at the sound of it.
[A-alright. I’ll tell you everything honestly, so… can you please just back up a little? You standing so close is seriously scary…]
At her words, Lee Taeseong gave a thin, cold smile.
“You were just controlling a corpse army to kill me, and now you want me to back off? Even for an entity, you’re unbelievably shameless.”
As he slowly reached out his hand, the girl in the black dress spoke quickly and desperately.
[…I didn’t want to do it either! I had no choice if I wanted to survive! I was forced into it—I was threatened!]
“Threatened?”
[Yeah. The entity on Basement Level 4—]
At that moment—
Black flames erupted from Lee Taeseong’s entire body.
Fwoooosh!
[Kya-hahahahaha! That’s what you get! Serves you right. Who told you to let your guard down? No matter how strong you are, if you let your guard down, you’re dead meat! It’s a shame that pretty face is gonna burn up too, but hey, I can always patch it back on later, so for now—]
The girl in the black dress chattered on excitedly, then suddenly fell silent. Her wide eyes stared at the man before her, and she murmured in disbelief.
[…W-what? Why are you… completely fine?]
The black flames that had wrapped around Lee Taeseong were sucked into his mouth with a single breath. Now that he had fully mastered the authority of Ignost, the next Spirit King, flames of this level couldn’t even scratch him.
“Is that all?”
The girl in the black dress backed away in fear, her face frozen with panic.
[…I-it’s not like I did it on purpose or anything…]
“I warned you, didn’t I? I’d rip your limbs off.”
[I-I’m sorry! Please forgive me! Just once, just forgive me this once and I swear I’ll—]
Crunch.
Crackkk!
With a chilling sound, her right arm was torn off at the joint.
[Kyaaaaaagh!]
“……”
With a blank expression, Lee Taeseong did the same to her other arm.
But something felt off.
There was a sense of wrongness.
That agonized scream—did it sound like real pain? Or was it just an act?
[P-please stop! Stop it! I was wrong, I was wrong! I’ll do whatever you say! I’ll tell you everything I know, so please—]
In that instant, Lee Taeseong moved like a flash and sliced through the back of her neck.
Thump. Roll, roll, roll.
The girl’s head tumbled across the floor.
“You don’t feel pain, do you.”
[…]
A voice came from the severed head lying on the ground.
[Ah, crap. You figured it out.]
“There’s a faint stench of rotting corpses.”
[…Calling a girl’s scent that of rotten corpses—you know that’s incredibly rude, right?]
“So you were that confident because you knew you were undead.”
[And if I was?]
Lee Taeseong picked up the fallen head and raised it to his eye level.
“If it’s me, I can put you to eternal rest.”
[Don’t make me laugh! You think some mere human can destroy the blessing bestowed upon me by my mother with two heads?]
“…See for yourself.”
Lee Taeseong pulled out the black crystal embedded in her forehead and brought it to his mouth.
Crunch. Crackle.
Gulp.
One winter day, when the spirit of the North Wind ruled.
There was a girl.
Her name was Anna.
Wearing rags, Anna was out on the streets selling matches to passersby.
“Matches for sale. Matches for sale.”
But the people walked past as if she didn’t exist. Some even mocked her or tried to make unwanted contact.
“You got money? If not, piss off. You perverted bastards. Ugh, blech. Shit. Just my damn luck.”
Whenever that happened, Anna would curse them out without hesitation. She was well known in the neighborhood for her filthy mouth and fierce attitude.
“It’s cold as hell.”
Thanks to that brash personality, she constantly found herself tangled in trouble. Just today, she got into a scuffle with some local thugs and even lost her shoes.
Now she was walking barefoot on the frozen street.
To escape the cold, the girl wandered into a deserted alley and lit a match, mumbling softly to herself.
“Haa… damn it. How did my life end up like this? What a cursed fate. Ain’t that right, God?”
Her whole body ached. Some of it was from being beaten by those thugs earlier, but more than that, it was a deep, chronic pain she had long grown used to.
“That son of a bitch… I oughta kill him… Why doesn’t someone lock him up already?”
Anna lived with her father and maternal grandmother. The “son of a bitch” she spoke of was her stepfather—not her biological father.
After her real father passed away when she was little, her mother remarried. The man was German, her father’s old friend.
At first, German had seemed gentle and kind. But he had one fatal flaw: whenever he drank, he turned into a beast. While warm and mild when sober, alcohol unleashed his suppressed emotions and desires.
His drinking worsened over time. After Anna’s mother died, he couldn’t live a single day without booze.
German became a full-blown alcoholic and, of course, had no means to earn money. And with no money, there was no alcohol. So, he forced Anna out to beg and sell matches on the street.
Anna had initially refused, but he threatened her by using her only living relative—her grandmother—against her. With no other choice, she began selling matches.
Her grandmother had dementia, but to Anna, she was her only family. The one person she loved more than anything.
From that point on, German hit her daily. It was how he relieved his inferiority and stress. The less money Anna brought home, the more brutal the beatings became.
In the beginning, Anna had fought back, but all that did was make the beatings last longer. Eventually, she just stopped resisting—laying still like a corpse.
“All he does is drink… Running around like a dog in heat, it makes me sick. Makes me wanna gouge out his eyes and watch him die. Goddammit. Didn’t even sell one match today… If I go back like this, I’ll get beaten half to death.”
She hated everything about him—but what she hated most were his eyes. That disgusting, revolting gaze that made her want to throw up whenever it landed on her.
“Poor Grandma… No, wait. The one who’s really pitiful is me, isn’t it? Dammit. Why did Mom have to marry that bastard? If she was gonna do that, she should’ve just lived longer instead of dying on us.”
Anna lit another match. Her hands and feet were numb. But whenever she struck a match, even for a moment, she felt warmth spread through her body.
Warmth.
How long had it been since she’d felt something like that?
Staring into the flame, Anna thought—
If only she could throw herself into that fire… maybe this wretched cold would vanish too.
Life was meaningless anyway…
“No. No, I can’t. I still have to be there for Grandma. After Mom died, she’s the one who took care of me. Now it’s my turn to care for her. Yeah. Dammit. I just gotta hang in there somehow.”
She gathered her resolve and tried to stand. But her body didn’t respond.
“…Huh? What’s happening?”
She grabbed the wall and barely pulled herself up, only to stagger again with her first step.
Her balance was gone.
Her body didn’t feel like her own anymore.
Thud.
“Damn it…”
Her head felt hot.
Her feet were so frozen, she couldn’t feel anything from them. She’d lost control of her limbs.
“I… I need to go. Grandma must be waiting for me…”
Her lips wouldn’t move anymore.
Is this how I die? Is this really the end?
Sensing her own death, Anna used her last ounce of strength to light every match she had left.
Fwoooosh!
Staring blankly into the blaze, she heard her late mother’s voice by her ear. Her mother’s image appeared in the flickering flame.
“Anna…”
“Mom…?”
“I’m… sorry. I’m so sorry…”
And with those final words, her mother vanished.
Then came her grandmother’s image.
“My sweet child. It’s not time for you to come here yet. Not yet.”
“What… What do you mean, Grandma?”
“Not yet… Not yet. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for making you suffer until my dying breath…”
With that, even her grandmother’s vision disappeared.
Her consciousness was fading.
The last flame burned out… and Anna’s vision was swallowed by darkness.
Damn it. See? I told you. There’s no god in this world. If there was, Charles, would he just sit there and let so many people suffer? What? Maybe there’s a god who wants to see suffering? Crazy bastard. Still… maybe you’re right. If such a god exists… I wish they’d talk to me. I could show them even more pain than they ever imagined.
That was Anna’s final will.
With that thought, Anna died.
That’s how it should’ve ended…
But then—
[Child. How much pain do you think you can show me?]
A god answered.
And not just any god—
The god of suffering.
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