Chapter 74: At the Edge of Paradise (2)

"Keuh... Kukuku..."

Torres laughed as he died. He stopped breathing.

...The fuck? Did he go crazy?

Seo Jun-ho stared at him. His eyes were still open, as if he refused to go.

"That's a good look for you. Keep it that way." Seo Jun-ho wiped the blood off Black Dragon Fang using Torres's clothes, then held out his hand to the corpse's forehead.

"Confession of the dead."

Seo Jun-ho sat down on the floor as the Memory Projection appeared before him. The Frost Queen tilted her head.

"Is this one of the 'dramas' you were referring to?"

"No... This is your first time seeing this, isn't it?" He briefly explained the skill, and she quickly became interested.

"Oh my! So this mystical skill allows you to look at the life of the target?"

"Yeah. I can get a lot of info on the fiends with this. He's not the end of the trail." Torres was likely one of the smallest fish.

I'll comb through all the memories and find something useful.

He started the playback from the very beginning—from Torres's adolescence.

So he didn't have a good childhood. As an adult, he worked as a player, but his skill had its limits. That was when his inferiority complex had begun.

"He became a fiend ten years ago and acted as a spy."

"To think that he sold out his own comrades... He is a heartless human."

After that, he became involved in big scandals on the 2nd floor.

"This bastard was involved in the Player Disappearance Case and the Phantom Village incident?"

They were some of the biggest scandals to have occurred. Torres used his skill to manipulate people's minds and caused confusion in the investigations.

"And then he received his position in Paradise as a reward." After building the trust of the Fiend Association for ten years, he had become the director of the orphanage a few months ago.

Something useful...

Seo Jun-ho's eyes shifted, taking in every little detail from the playback.

"There are eight high executives in the Fiend Association." But there's nothing about the President, and Torres didn't know anything about the members even though he was the director of Paradise. How? Just how big are they?

He started to realize just how cautious the Fiend Association was. After Specter had burned their roots, they had decided to go completely undercover. All he knew about their hierarchy was that the members received orders from the eight executives.

This isn't good. There's less info than I thought.

The useless man didn't even know where the Association was located. The only executive that he knew was 'Chef'.

"Contractor, is a 'chef' not a person who cooks?"

"Yeah, it means the same thing here... It's just a weird nickname." He changed the timestamp to the day Torres had become the director.

* * *

Knock, knock.

Torres knocked on the director's office, his face tense.

- "Come in."

Torres entered the room and bowed deeply.

"It's an honor to meet you, Roxanne-nim!"

"Just call me Chef. Are you Torres?" She was looking out the window.

"Yes, Chef! I am the new director of Paradise!"

His energetic responses were like that of a new recruit.

"What are your skills?"

"I can manipulate the mind. It's A-rank."

"Really? It sounds delicious." She turned around, but her face wasn't visible due to the harsh backlighting.

"Mmph...!" As he met Chef's eyes, Torres kneeled while dripping with cold sweat. It was something fiends did when they met another who was much stronger than them.

"No need to be so nervous. I just want a taste." She laughed, a small orb floating in front of her. She opened her mouth wide and swallowed it in one gulp. "Mm... What a peculiar taste."

She gave a satisfied nod and took out a notebook from the drawer, writing something down. "I wonder what ingredients I need to create such a taste... It may be possible with what I have now..."

She was deep in thought for a while, but she finally closed it. "I think I've found a useful recipe. Thank you for giving me such a good ingredient."

"O-of course."

"As for your compensation... Yes. Let me tell you something interesting." She leaned perched on the windowsill. "Torres. When do you think Paradise was founded?"

"As far as I know, it was created around 24 years ago."

"Precisely. And do you know why it was made?"

"Um... Wasn't it to cultivate powerful fiends?"

Chef smiled and shook her head. "To make good food, you need good ingredients. It's the same for fiends." She tapped on the window with her fingernail. "Look at the children running around. They are talented rubbish that we found on the streets. Do you think such substandard ingredients can become strong even if we feed them the best demon blood?"

"...I don't think so."

"Exactly. They aren't players. Even if we feed them the blood, they'll only become half-rate fiends."

She opened a thick book sitting on the desk. "In the last 24 years, Paradise has successfully created 2,985 fiends. 1,898 were 3rd-grade items that couldn't even awaken their abilities. 1,082 2nd-grade items could do so. And only five 1st-grade items became notably powerful."

"Ah, and one of them was Nazad-nim's disciple, the Skeleton Mage."

"Yes. In the four years that I've been overseeing Paradise, he is the only 1st-grade item that has been created." There was a sense of pride in her voice. She closed the book. "It seems that we've strayed from our original topic."

"I'm still listening." Torres swallowed. His heart pounded at the thought of learning secrets that no other fiends would know.

"24 years ago, the fiends that were in hiding went up to the Frontier and created the Association. But they were still cautious. Even though the Five Heroes were dead, they were afraid that they could come and kill them all. That's how great Specter's effect was. Their fear could not be erased in just a year."

"As the President watched the fiends live in fear, they decided that we needed power. Undefeatable, devastating power that could fight against the Five Heroes even if they returned! They all recalled the ability of a certain enemy they had faced, someone who had such overwhelming power. The strongest elemental skill—Watchguard of Darkness."

"...W-wait. So Paradise was founded to create the second Specter?" Torres was shocked. He never even imagined that it was for such a reason.

"Pfft, is it that hard to believe? Think about it. If we managed to obtain even half... No, even a fourth of that power, what would happen?"

"...If we combined it with Demonic energy, that person would become the strongest fiend in history."

"That's it." Chef clapped. "So the fiends worked around the clock, but all their experiments failed. The chance of talentless orphans awakening such a powerful skill is close to 0%. That's why I came down to the 1st floor. I can't leave everything to chance. I came to create a Darkness skill myself.

"Ah...!" Torres exclaimed. "So you plan to use Perfect Taste (S)."

"Bingo."

Chef could materialize others' skills and try them. If they were F-rank or lower, she could even use them herself. Not only that, she could combine the skills she combined to 'cook' a new skill that was higher in rank. In theory, she could even create her own S-rank skill.

"But all food has an expiration date." She sighed. "F-rank skills only last two months." Even if she copied them, they would disappear after that time. She kidnapped children every two months because she always needed fresh ingredients.

"This place was truly paradise for me," she said, stroking the desk with her delicate fingers. "It's hard to find a place with as many fresh ingredients as we have here."

"Then... since you're returning to the 2nd floor, does that mean you've succeeded?" Torres asked carefully. She'd already been on the 1st floor for four years despite being an executive. It was impossible to guess how many skills she had cooked up during that time.

Chef shook her head. "I failed to recreate Watchguard of Darkness. The most similar one was the Shadow element."

"Ah...! I did hear that you granted the abilities of the Shadow Brothers."

"It was still a failure. Compared to Specter's skill, they're no better than trash."

She suddenly started to laugh. "Fufu, it's simple. I no longer need to waste my time here."

"Is that because Specter has returned?"

"Of course. Rather than trying to create a skill on the 1st floor, it's much easier to wait on the 2nd floor until he comes up." She expected it to be easy to recreate Watchguard of Darkness once she had a taste.

"Ahh, I wonder how it'll taste... I'm already excited."

She trembled as she licked her lips.

* * *

"...Stop skill use," Seo Jun-ho whispered. He wiped his face with his hands. His thoughts were all jumbled after hearing the truth.

This fucking place... was made because of me?

He felt like a boulder had dropped on his chest. Paradise was founded to create a copycat of him?

"They made thousands of children into fiends..."

Because of him.

"Dammit all!" He punched the wall, gritting his teeth. It didn't relieve any of his anger.

"Contractor... it is not your fault," she said gently.

"I still feel like shit."

Reality wasn't always so sweet. And this time, it made his entire mouth go dry.

"Once you become a fiend..." You couldn't go back. He'd discovered this while hunting countless fiends in the past, and Deok-gu had confirmed that it still wasn't possible.

Then, all those children who suffered because of me... The children...

He had to end it with his own hands, even if he didn't want to.