“Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever……”

In the quiet cathedral where the priest’s main prayer was being conducted, a blonde young man sitting in the front row cautiously shifted in his seat.

His aunt, who was praying beside him, whispered to him without turning her head.

“Ihyeon?”

In the very quiet cathedral. Not wanting to cause much commotion, the young man sheepishly whispered to his aunt.

“Um, a Hunter… urgent message popped up, Aunt.”

“I know that too. But didn’t your work hours end today? Your partner has already gone home. Are you going alone?”

“Ah, well… it’s nearby, you know.”

“It’s past 10 o’clock. It’s already Rude’s active hours, is there any particular reason for you to go?”

“I have to go. I’m a Hunter……”

Glancing sideways, the aunt looked at him for a long time, then closed her eyes again and focused on the priest’s main prayer. She whispered again.

“Just know that you won’t get overtime pay. If your grandfather finds out, you won’t hear anything good. If you don’t want to come to evening mass, just say so.”

“…It’s not like that, Aunt. I’ll be back. See you tomorrow.”

The young man smiled awkwardly, whispered, and left the cathedral with a cautious attitude. As he opened the door of the small cathedral, the night sky greeted him.

Ranked 2nd domestically, a holy knight loved by all. Kang Ihyeon took out his phone to check the map app. Fortunately, it was nearby. A golden indirect message appeared before him.

[Constellation, the Staff of Purification finally escaped and is patting you.]

‘The priest was trembling terribly.’

[Constellation, the Staff of Purification shakes its head, saying no priest can preach freely while it’s watching.]

That’s actually true. Thinking it might be a kind of consideration, Kang Ihyeon chuckled and walked while looking at the map app.

[Constellation, the Staff of Purification shrugs, saying that this time he might actually be able to meet him.]

…Right. After reading the golden indirect message, Kang Ihyeon stopped in his tracks.

‘The time is 10 o’clock, a suddenly opened 4th grade gate, and it’s right in this area…’

It was as his constellation said. It was true. If he hurried, he might be able to meet that ‘Rude’. Kang Ihyeon’s footsteps began to quicken.

* * *

“Is this really 4th grade? Well… I have to admit the system is sloppy.”

Nari… no, now Rude, slightly frowned.

In web novels, the system seems to be incredibly accurate and all-powerful. But the reality of the system wasn’t particularly like that.

Full of bugs, there are places it doesn’t affect, and rank updates are slow. Of course, Nari was able to take advantage of that sloppiness with her hidden power…

Anyway, where he was floating was a stage-type gate. The wide prairie was the starting point of the gate, Stage 1, followed by Stage 2 which was a dark forest, and Stage 3 had a black castle.

And the existence of a castle meant that the boss monster was likely an intelligent being.

From the moment an intelligent being exists within the field, the difficulty of conquest rises to at least 3rd grade. So this was expressed as 4th grade, but it seemed to be a really borderline 4th grade gate.

[The Lord of Chaos rolls up his sleeves, saying our Nari needs to put in a little more effort this time.]

“Somehow, it feels like the grades of these sudden gates are getting higher……”

[The Lord of Chaos munches on popcorn, asking if our Nari is becoming a hero now.]

‘No, absolutely not. I’m not doing that kind of thing. I only do as much as I can.’

Although by measurements, she was unrivaled at 1st place, there was still a limit to the power she could exert as an alter ego.

Moreover, due to the ‘anthropophobia’ status effect, all sorts of debuffs were strung together when not in her alter ego state.

[The Lord of Chaos shrugs, saying your status effect is due to trauma, so even healers can’t do anything about it.]

‘Well, in today’s world, what Hunter doesn’t have at least one status effect.’

The world is harsh. And most of the status effects of modern Hunters originate not from ‘others’ but from ‘oneself’.

After all, being a Hunter is a job where body and mind are quickly consumed, contrary to its glittering appearance.

Anyway, because of that status effect, acting as ‘Nari’ had big restrictions, and she didn’t want to operate under the name of Shin Binnari either.

As ‘Rude’, she could only solo clear up to 3rd grade. But Nari had absolutely no intention of teaming up with other Hunters.

So Nari decided to do only as much as she could with her alter ego.

If a gate above 2nd grade opens, immediately pack up with the store manager and flee overseas to go into hiding. That was Nari’s Rule #1. Whether Korea falls or not, it had nothing to do with her. That was her attitude.

“Anyway, it’s about time to start.”

Rude, who had been flying in the air, lowered his altitude towards the ground. His expressionless face changed to a playful smile. He landed lightly on the starting area of the gate field where survivors were gathered.

The number of survivors caught in the starting point gate was about 10. Then there must be more inside. Rude’s gaze swept over the survivors once.

“Sniff, sniff….. We’re all dead now……”

Nari’s gaze turned to a man sobbing nearby.

‘He’s quite handsome with that sorrowful look. You pass.’

Nari gently took the man’s hand.

“There, don’t cry, young master. I’ve come to save you. This kind of gate, it’ll be over in 20 minutes, so can you relax?”

“Ye, yes……? Co, could it be……”

The cheeks of the man whose hand Rude held suddenly turned red. The eyes of the people around gradually widened.

“Ru… Rude!”

“Rude is here! Rude… W, we’re all saved now, hurray!”

Voices praising Rude were heard from around. As if responding to that, Rude took out a golden half-scissors from his inventory. He swung both hands exaggeratedly.

“Now! Don’t worry. Your hero! Rude is here.”

[The Lord of Chaos laughs, saying you’re really nailing the character immersion.]

Shut up, if I’m going to operate an alter ego, shouldn’t I do it properly? Rude pushed aside the irritation inside and used his skill with playful actions.

[Avatar-exclusive trait :: Fragment of the Primordial Dream] [Using the authority of Constellation ◼◼◼◼.] [Borrowing the skill of the Father King.] [Borrowing the skill of the Herald.] [Father King ◼◼◼◼ exclusive skill :: I exist everywhere. I exist here.] [Herald ◼◼◼◼ exclusive skill :: Chaos always arises from the human unconscious.]

As he applied mental control, the hearts of the people who had been trembling in fear quickly stabilized. Their expressions became as if they were walking through a lovely forest rather than being in a life-threatening gate.

Clang clang clang, after confirming that everyone was under mental control, Rude lowered a grid-patterned prison from the air, separating the survivors from the field. The place where the survivors were instantly changed into a shelter.

It wasn’t an illusion, but reality manipulation. Now the survivors will be temporarily separated from the field and won’t be recognized by monsters.

Most Hunters thought all of Rude’s skills were illusions, but in reality, he was using a mix of various techniques.

“Ru, Rude-nim……! Thank you. Thank you……”

“It’s nothing, let’s forget the horrible scenes you saw today while having some sweet fantasies. Everything will be alright now.”

[The Lord of Chaos laughs, saying they’d like it even more if you threw in a wink.]

Rude didn’t feel too bad as the survivors squealed with delight. After confirming that the people were safe, Rude soon walked expressionlessly into the field.

A vast black forest stretched out.

He had to pass through this forest to get to the castle, and there would probably be a boss monster in the castle…

‘This is annoying….. Should I just overturn everything?’

[The Lord of Chaos looks at you, asking what about the survivors inside?]

‘Hah….. Damn, rescue operations are really annoying….. Wouldn’t it be fine if they all just fell to the starting point together?’

The constellation Nari contracted with was the purest evil in the world. That’s why ordinary people who directly witnessed Nari’s skill use usually suffer much more mental and physical damage than from ordinary evil tendencies.

There was a reason why Rude always bothered to put people under psychological control. Because that was the least damaging.

Of course, monsters would be swarming inside the forest. And survivors would be swarming too. How should he handle this…..

‘Do I really have to do this grunt work? Or should I just ignore people’s minds and overturn everything? But then my conscience would….’

After pondering for a while with his arms folded, Rude opened his eyes.

“I’ve decided.”

[Oh, what are you going to do? The Lord of Chaos blinks.]

“Whether I work hard to get them out quickly or they stay there longer and have mental breakdowns, it’ll be similar anyway, so I’ll just overturn everything.”

It was a very clear choice. If both methods would cause mental damage anyway, it was better to at least preserve their bodies intact.

And behind that, behind the black forest, it was obvious that intelligent monsters would be swarming in that blatantly existing dark Cinderella castle. It was dangerous if not cleared quickly.

For an ordinary guild, it would take a week just to clear the forest, and 3-5 days for an elite team from the top 4 guilds, but fortunately, the Hunter who had entered this gate currently was Rude.

Rude raised his golden half-scissors. Black mist erupted from Rude’s body. It was the mental power of a first-class illusionist. The mist seeped into the black forest according to Rude’s will.

Every illusionist performs a certain action when using skills. This is called a ‘signal’.

The first step in learning illusion is to decide on a signal, because illusion is the act of overlaying one’s thoughts onto reality using one’s mental power as a medium, so this signal was absolutely necessary.

Especially for illusionists with strong mental power, conveying their thoughts through illusion was more natural than conveying them through words.

That’s why if they didn’t set the constraint of a signal, at some point they would unknowingly and endlessly distort their surroundings according to their subconscious desires, without realizing how far the illusion had progressed. The stronger the mental power, the more this happened.

The stronger the illusionist, the more essential it was to set a signal. In Rude’s case, swinging the half-scissors was that signal.

Rude swung the half-scissors downward.

[Trait :: ‘Natural Lucid Dreamer’ is activated!]

Rude’s alias, ‘Black Fantasy’. It was the skill that greatly contributed to him gaining that alias.

Black mental power filled the forest. Rude relaxed his body for a moment. To enter the dream, he had to relax.

[Entering the transition phase soon. Please relax your body.]

Rat-tat-tat-tat! As he reached the dream transition, black camera lenses filled the sky densely. Rude, who had been keeping his eyes closed, took a deep breath. He went a little deeper into the layers.

[Exiting the transition phase. Entering the dream.]

Soon Rude opened his eyes and looked at his own hand. Seeing his clean wrist, he clenched his fist once.

“Reality check, complete.”

From now on, this space was inside his dream and under his control. He swung the golden half-scissors again.

Kwa-gwang-gwang-gwang-gwang−! Like a wave of grass, the black forest rose once and then sank. The screams of monsters could be heard endlessly.

At the same time, survivors rose above the forest and floated up into the sky. They were all in an unconscious state due to Rude’s skill.

[The Lord of Chaos repeatedly hits ‘Like’, saying it was a refreshing one-shot.]

‘You shouldn’t hit it repeatedly.’

[The Lord of Chaos grumbles, saying it’s okay because he hit it an odd number of times.]

Rude flicked his finger. The monsters’ items were directly stored in Rude’s inventory. It was a convenient skill that automatically looted items from lower-grade monsters.

“Now only that dark Cinderella castle is left.”

[The Lord of Chaos crosses his legs, saying there will probably be survivors there too.]

“I know. But it can’t be helped. Let’s put in a little more effort and clock out soon.”

And then let’s go home and eat boxed lunch with beer! Having made up his mind, Rude raised his hand to gather mental power. Mental power gathered in the half-scissors. As he called upon his signal, black mental power spread through the air.